1,721,407 research outputs found
The future of the Baroque, c. 1980
No full textThe tercentenary commemorations in 1967 of Borromini’s death had demonstrated how an historical subject like the oeuvre of this key figure of the Roman baroque could sustain the attentions of many varied modes of historical analysis. Lectures, exhibits, books, films and many other interventions treated Borromini’s buildings (realized and otherwise), his drawings and inventories (as sources and documents alike), the Opus Architectonicum, secondary historical and biographical accounts and so forth as legitimate historical subjects. They had visited upon them the disciplinary tools of art historians from Rudolf Wittkower to Giulio Carlo Argan alongside new scholarship by those invested in Borromini’s archives, in the restoration of his buildings, in his manner of design, in his reception and in the lessons offered by his work to the present. Borromini emerged from this event as a complex and interdisciplinary historical and biographical subject that could exist in an architectural culture experiencing a watershed moment of disciplinary maturity – a form of détente between conflicting historiographical investments, with the academic and public program of the anno borrominiano demonstrating a format within which these interests could occupy the same corpus. The investment of the architect-historian in such a figure as Borromini was, at this time, as legitimate as that of the art historian specializing in architecture (or, even generally, in the art of the seventeenth century), as was that of the architect practicing (and thinking) in a manner demonstrating his or her cognizance of the present’s historicity.No Full Tex
Oxygen sensing and oxide formation: Optimisation and novel X-ray studies
No full textPlatinum remains vital for the use of electrochemical devices, therefore, understanding of the reactions which occur at the platinum-solution interface is paramount in continuing to improve gas sensors, as well as fuel cells and electrolysers. The following body of work uses a number of electrochemical techniques and X-ray spectroscopies to investigate the surface processes of platinum in acidic media.The pH range over which the electrochemical behaviour can be accurately modelled by the Nernst equation, has been extended into highly acidic solutions by employing the Hammett acidity function (H0) in place of pH when working below pH 1. Sulfuric acid and perchloric acid have been investigated. Both the hydrogen region and oxide formation region have been studied, and the comparison between these two potential regions by cyclic voltammetry has produced a method for electrolyte concentration measurements.A variety of X-ray spectroscopies have been used to provide additional understanding of the oxide formation process on platinum. Conventional X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) have presented a baseline for High Energy Resolution Fluorescence Detection (HERFD)-XANES, which offers higher spectral resolution, and Energy Dispersive EXAFS (EDE), which can measure on much smaller time scales. The surface oxidation and reduction of platinum nanoparticles will be discussed.Additionally, a statistically designed set of experiments have been presented, investigating five parameters in an industrial gas sensor electrode manufacturing process. Both sensor output measurements and lab based techniques were employed to characterise the electrodes. It was shown that the electrode loading could be reduced without affecting the sensors initial performance, so cheaper electrodes can be used
Beyond Barrie’s House: the emergence of a regional domestic architecture in Natal during the 1960s.
No full textThis paper presents a body of architecture that has been under acknowledged mostly due to its occurrence during the apartheid years in South Africa, a country that has only recently come to terms with its past, allowing opportunities to reflect on many aspects of its history. \ud
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This particular architectural account celebrates the house of a renowned academic as the catalyst of a period of innovative design in Natal.\ud
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Barrie Biermann had been recruited to the staff at the University of Natal in 1952, at the same time as Ronald Lewcock; and together they established a profound history of architecture course and collectively developed the theoretical discourse at the school, that challenged the directions of contemporary South African architecture.\ud
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The design of House Biermann (1961) synthesised the influence of the modern movement with Biermann’s own research into the vernacular architecture of the Cape and interests in colonial and indigenous architecture.\ud
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The paper will discuss how the design of House Biermann established a benchmark for a regional modernism, and describes how its example was quickly followed by a succession of Biermann’s students including Hans Hallen, Paul Mikula and others who developed a collective oeuvre of inspired buildings
Celebration : architectonic constructs of space in the 1920s
No full textThis paper will explore constructs of architectonic space through the celebration of early German cinema. It can be argued that these early constructs were crucial to the spatial development of modernity in Germany at that time. While architects were coming to terms with what German Aesthetic theory meant for architecture, the new discipline of cinema was forging ahead experimenting with the perception and illusion of space. Without knowing it at the time August Schmarsow, in theorising architectonic space, had in fact proposed the rudimentary properties of spatial perception in cinema. Carl Stumpf’s notion that the whole visual field is perceived in three-dimensions and built up out of incremental spaces to produce one continuous space led to a number of new expanded theories in cinematic space. This early period of filmmaking shared many constructs of space with architecture. In a political and cultural context like Germany or Russia, cinema was able to experiment with space where architecture could not. Architects, however, were critical to the development of cinematic space: Heinrich de Fries for Expressionism, Siegfried Kracauer for Realism, and Sergei Eisenstein for Russian Formalism. This paper will focus on two contrasting types of space that first emerged through German Aesthetic theory and later developed through German Expressionist cinema before finding form in modern architecture
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