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The language of the Dolmabahçe Palace : communicating change in the Tanzimat-Era Ottoman Empire
Get PDFtextThe Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, stretches along the European side of the Bosphorus shore in monumental glory, opened with great fanfare in 1856. An unapologetically lavish and bold statement from an Empire that would not last another century, the palace sits at a crossroads between Ottoman and Turkish history, representing in one era optimism for the future and in another era the decaying remains of the past. Despite its construction in a time of modernization and liberalization within the Empire, current interpretations of the palace describe it as both a symptom and a cause of this decay—an exercise in international chest-thumping meant to show Ottoman strength, blind westernization, or the bankrupting capricious work of a frivolous Sultan. An understanding of the ways in which this era of Ottoman history, and thus the narrative of the palace, have been politicized reveals the bias in these perspectives and obscures the true purpose of the palace: to serve as a physical embodiment of the principles of reformation and modernization. Using the language of architecture, the palace addresses a time of great national and international change by speaking to the creation of a civic Ottoman identity, providing tangible proof of the Empire’s political commitment and drive to reform, and encouraging Ottoman citizens to take up a more modern lifestyle. The building’s eclectic and ornate style represents a synthesis of identities and outlooks that link the Tanzimat reform era and the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid to an Ottoman past, a reforming present, and an internationally-oriented future. It is the goal of this study to demonstrate how exactly the Dolmabahçe Palace communicates the architectural as political—the ways in which its forms, symbolism, and ornamental pattern language speak to an Empire and a world in the process of change.Architectur
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Leopold Eidlitz and the architecture of nineteenth century America
No full texttextThis dissertation examines for the first time the theory and practice of American architect Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1908) and his role in the creation of the American architectural profession. Though Eidlitz is now virtually forgotten, during the fifty years of his practice (1843-1897) he was both vocal and influential in his attempts to raise the standards of American architectural practice, education, and taste. Unlike his early mentor, Richard Upjohn, Eidlitz was not a historicist interested in reconstructing the architecture of the past. Instead Eidlitz (who was Jewish, born in Prague, and educated in Prague and Vienna) was a proto-functionalist who manipulated form and space in strikingly original ways. He synthesized the latest developments in England and Germany, including the theory of the Rundbogenstil and the Gothic Revival, to create an organic architecture that fused structure and ornament.
Despite and perhaps because of the originality of his endeavors, Eidlitz was misunderstood and marginalized by his peers in New York. Eidlitz was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects in 1857, but his strong opinions about the ethics and aesthetics of architecture brought frequent disagreements with the mainstream of the profession, as embodied by Richard Morris Hunt and his atelier. These conflicts centered on differing visions of style, technology, architectural education, and the social role of architecture, and they culminated in a bitter and protracted debate over Eidlitz’s designs for the New York state capitol at Albany (1875-83).
By analyzing these professional conflicts, his theory, and his remarkable Gothic- and Romanesque-inflected designs, I recast the accepted story of nineteenth century American architecture and show that the push toward an appropriately American architecture, one that was organic and functional, actually began well before the Civil War. Though by the end of the nineteenth century New York’s most powerful Beaux-Arts practitioners either ignored his accomplishments or dismissed him as an outmoded revivalist, Eidlitz was in fact a major figure in the formation of an independent American architecture that was later taken up in the 1880s by John Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, and the architects of the Chicago School.Architectur
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Livable modernism in postwar America
Get PDFIn 1946, House Beautiful's editor-in-chief Elizabeth Gordon launched the Pace Setter House Program, an annual series of exhibition houses that proposed a new modern architecture for postwar America. Set in direct opposition to Arts & Architecture's Case Study Houses, the Pace Setter houses criticized orthodox modernism, and offered a "livable" and distinctly American alternative. Organic design, particularly the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, further informed this new concept of American modernism, adding a rich layer of humanism, naturalism, and democratic idealism. Rejecting the Case Study prototype of universal solutions and prefabrication, the Pace Setter houses advocated a solution in which the craft of building guaranteed regional variation, artistic quality and individual expression. House Beautiful's Pace Setter Program, with its implicit organic roots, underscored one of the most charged architectural debates of the postwar period: the renewed tension between the specific and the general, the regional and the international, the individual and the collective. With the establishment of the Pace Setter House Program, Gordon developed a mature paradigm for the postwar house -- and simultaneously created a dynamic public forum for architectural debate. With the Pace Setters as counterpoint, she lashed out against the architectural current to attack what she viewed as the greatest threat to American design: the unlivable, autocratic, and foreign modernism of the International Style. Gordon's role in the larger architectural debate was critical, not only in her vociferous opposition to what she viewed as a blind continuation of an oppressive modernist lineage, but in her stalwart support of alternative design tropes. The Pace Setter Houses and their architects -- ranging from Cliff May to Alfred Browning Parker to Harwell Harris -- represented one battlefield in the aesthetic and philosophical struggle between the emerging modernisms of the postwar period. Accompanied by Gordon's insistent voice and publications, the Pace Setters became ammunition in an architectural revolution that, for House Beautiful, lasted nearly twenty years. The Pace Setters chronicled the emergence of a vital strand of American modernism, and provided a lens through which to view the ultimate integration and acceptance of modernism within the mainstream of middle-class America.Architectur
"Never so serious" : Venturi's Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery, London
No full textThis fascinating book is the first critical examination of the East Building, I. M. Pei's celebrated addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Distinguished contributors consider this iconic building from various historical vantage points, from the evolution of its design to its place in 20th-century museum architecture
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Fay Jones and his residential clients : communicating through the details
Get PDFtextThe residential designs of Fay Jones embody the ideals of organic architecture in the highest degree. Working in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, Jones produced a wide range of houses that represent an intensely personal endeavor. Although the chapels and public pavilions designed by Jones are his most famous works, the meticulous construction detailing and elaborate material joints in Jones' houses reward long-term residents, who discover new details and new compositions of light and shadow for years after moving into their homes. The careful working and reworking of details contribute to a unifying generative idea that enforces the part-to-whole relationship of organic building, but it is also an outpouring of Jones' belief that caring is an “imperative moral issue.” It is difficult to occupy a Jones building or study the work without getting swept up in Jones' notion that “[one] must idealize, even romanticize, what [one] is doing.” Through a consideration of clients' relationships with Fay Jones and the spaces they occupy, this study reflects on Jones' hope that “perhaps the inhabitants can be more comfortably and more meaningfully integrated into the natural forces of life.” Jones' thoughts about architecture, recorded in his journals and lecture notes, reinforce the accounts of key, residential clients who benefited from Jones' earnestness about building and living. The carefully arranged joint details of Jones' designs form a physical representation of the close relationships of Jones, his clients, and the craftsmen who built the work.Architectur
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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Meeting in St. Louis : American encounters with nascent European modernisms at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Get PDFtextThe German exhibit of interiors in the Palace of Varied Industries and the Austrian Pavilion at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis included striking examples of Jugendstil and Secessionstil design. These modernist interiors were shocking in contrast to the historicist aesthetic that pervaded the rest of the exposition. In many cases, the exposition exposed American designers and consumers to examples of European modernism for the first time, although in other cases it allowed them to personally experience design trends that they had been following in publications. The exhibits met with mixed reviews in America, with the popular press expressing either skepticism about the "new art" that they presented, or cautious admiration of their integrated design. In the design world, the handcrafted interiors of the German Pavilion met with approval from the Arts and Crafts community, which was already well established in the United States. By contrast, discussions of the Austrian Pavilion, which primarily displayed simplified, geometrical designs from the members of the Secession and their students, varied widely, ranging from commentary on the novelty of the designs to discussions about what Americans could learn from the Austrian system of design education. These differing approaches toward discussing the designs displayed in the German and Austrian exhibits in 1904 reveal a variety of emerging attitudes toward modernism in American design. Both their contents and their reception make the German and Austrian exhibits at the St. Louis World's Fair important to the history of European and American modernism. For historians of European modernism, the designs provide a panoramic view of the various approaches that important German and Austrian modernists were exploring at a time when their search for an appropriate style included the broadest range of options. For historians of American modernism, the response to the exhibits offers insight into the values of American designers and consumers at the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as clues about why modernist efforts in the United States declined sharply in the decade prior to World War I.Architectur
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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Writing about Wright : Edgar Kaufmann jr.'s analyses on Frank Lloyd Wright
Get PDFtextFor many years authors have repeated stories and myths about Frank Lloyd Wright, overstating purported influences and unjustly degrading periods of Wright’s work. Discrepancies in Wright’s own discourses have not made the task of characterizing him any easier. To better understand Wright’s works and influences, the focus must shift to those who have authored the narratives about Wright. Among the most important of these was Edgar Kaufmann jr. [sic].
Other early Wright commentators, such as Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Grant Carpenter Manson, and Bruno Zevi are usually mentioned before Kaufmann, but Kaufmann published more about Wright than any one else, until his death in 1989. Hitchcock worked on twenty-two books and articles about Wright, Manson on nine, and Zevi on seventeen. Kaufmann authored thirty works about Wright, more than Zevi and Manson combined. Kaufmann is generally referred to as the son of Fallingwater, but his Wrightian scholarship and design theory extended far beyond his role in bequeathing his family’s famous retreat. Kaufmann’s writing career spanned over three decades and included more than forty works, with topics about Wright, “Good Design,” skyscrapers, and the museum industry. His writings reveal a complex scholar who at times was led by the trends of his time, and who was not afraid to reevaluate and redefine his past work.
From Kaufmann’s first article about Wright in Art News, to his work establishing Fallingwater’s tour program, he communicated Wright’s methods and analyzed his rhetoric. During Wright’s lifetime, Kaufmann followed his wishes for interpreting his work. But after Wright’s death, Kaufmann was swayed by a number of contemporary ideas, such as indeterminacy and systems. Most of Kaufmann’s writings focused on Wright’s later architecture, clarifying his rhetoric, discussing his influences and space, and telling the history of Fallingwater. Kaufmann is a key figure in the narrative about Wright because of his unique perspective as a student, a client, and a friend that no other historian can claim. Deciphering Kaufmann’s writings allows for an examination of one of the major voices behind Wright’s story.Architectur
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