researching and telling the history of the built environment

Kategorie: Events

»Das Regionale konstruieren. Formen und Funktionen von Heimatschutz-, Reform- und vernakulärer Architektur« (Vienna, November 26, 2021)

Interdisciplinary workshop by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Research Unit Art History, Technical University Vienna

In den letzten Jahren fand eine intensive Beschäftigung mit dem Phänomen des Regionalen (der Heimatschutz- bzw. Reformarchitektur, der Volkskunst, der Folklore, des Vernakulären, des „Elementaren“, des „Authentischen“ etc.) von Seiten der Kunstgeschichte und Architekturwissenschaft statt. Mittlerweile verfügen wir über eine breite Wissensbasis zu den ideologischen und historischen Kontexten dieser heterogenen, aber eng miteinander verflochtenen Strömungen, ihren Akteuren und Prozessen in der Schweiz, Deutschland, Österreich, Großbritannien und den skandinavischen Ländern. Dennoch sind weiterhin eine Reihe von offenen Fragen zu konstatieren, die insbesondere die sozio-ökonomischen, die medialen und architekturtheoretischen sowie die politisch-administrativen Facetten der regional-gebundenen Architektur um 1900 betreffen.

Der Workshop, eine Kooperation von ÖAW/IHB und dem Forschungsbereich Kunstgeschichte der TU Wien, nimmt dies zum Anlass und setzt sich anhand spezifischer Fallbeispiele mit der Bedeutung des Regional-Begriffs in der Architektur in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. und des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts auseinander: Tourismus- und Gesundheitsunternehmungen (Kurorte und Sommerfrischen), Staatsverwaltung (Arbeiter*innensiedlungen, Flüchtlingslager) und Architekturtheorie (Kleinwohnhaus). Als inhaltliche Klammern werden zum einen der Bezug auf die Region bzw. auf das regionale Bauen als auch die zugrunde liegenden, konstruierten Vorstellungen von „Land“ und „Landschaft“ dienen. Die architektonischen und städtebaulichen Überlegungen, die zur medialen Verbreitung von bestimmten Vorstellungen von Region / regionalem Bauen führten, werden ebenso eine Rolle spielen. Schließlich werden die Differenzen zwischen der erfundenen / imaginierten und der tatsächlich vernakulären Architektur thematisiert, denn der ostentative Verweis auf die „lokale Baugeschichte“ war allen genannten Bereichen immanent.

In der Zeit der Entwicklung von Nationalstaatsideen und konkurrierenden Zentralstaatsgedanken sowie der Entdeckung des „Lands“ (oder der Landschaft) im Interesse des einsetzenden Tourismus, war der Bezug auf die Region vielfältig konnotiert und die Architektur in ein dichtes semantisches Netz eingespannt. Es gilt, diese Bedeutungsebenen kritisch zu hinterfragen und die Funktion des Regionalen in den beispielhaft gewählten Kontexten zu untersuchen.

Concept: Dr. Richard Kurdiovsky (ÖAW), Dr. Oliver Sukrow (TU Wien)

Link: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/news/das-regionale-konstruieren

DAM ARCHITECTURAL BOOK AWARD 2021 – THE PRIZE WINNERS HAVE BEEN DETERMINED!

„Haus der Kultur Gera“ (Leipzig: sphere publishers, 2021) is among the winners!

As a collaborative product of research, design, photographing, and publishing, the book, edited by Claudia Tittel (Gera) celebrates the 40th anniversary of the opening of the „Haus der Kultur“ in Gera, Germany. Designed by copa ipa (Weimar/Leipzig) and published by Christoph Liepach (sphere publishers / Leipzig), the book is a manifestation of the visual, aesthetic, and historical qualities of this building in the heart of Gera.

We are happy to announce that the „Deutsches Architekturmuseum“ in Frankfurt am Main has honored the book with the „International DAM Architectural Book Award“ in 2021.

„The Frankfurt Book Fair and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) are presenting the jointly initiated International DAM Architectural Book Award for the thirteenth time. The DAM would like to thank the Society of Friends of the DAM for its generous support of the prize.

The ten prize winners this year are:

Konstruktion / Manual / Birkhäuser Verlag
Apartment Blossom/ Donghua University Press
Antarctic Resolution/ Lars Müller Publishers
Raamwerk In Practice: Lichtervelde Youth Centre / MER B&L
Avant-Garde as a Method / Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920 – 1930/ Park Books
Elemente einer baukulturellen Allgemeinbildung / Park Books
Milk.Honey / Animal Stories in Imagined Landscapes/ Park Books
Napoli Super Modern/ Park Books
HdK – Haus der Kultur Gera / sphere publishers
Anime Architecture: Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities/ Thames & Hudson

The prize, unique in its kind and now highly respected, honours the best architecture books of a year. 94 architecture and art book publishers worldwide have responded to the joint call. A specialist jury of external experts and representatives of the DAM selected the ten best architecture books of the year from 235 entries according to criteria such as design, content concept, quality of materials and workmanship, degree of innovation and topicality.

The jury meeting took place on 1 September 2021 at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM). The winners will be announced at the hybrid award ceremony on 20 October 2021.

The external jury of experts this year included:
Stefan Weil (graphic designer), Kerstin Schultz (architect and member of the Friends of DAM e.V.), Karin Hartmann (architect and journalist) and Moritz Bernoully (architect and photographer).

The internal jurors were:
Andrea Jürges (Deputy Director of DAM), Oliver Elser (Curator DAM), Rebekka Kremershof (Head of Architecture Education DAM).

»Designing Hygiea (Benjamin Ward Richardson, 1876) – Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sanitized City in 19th-century Central Europe« (Vienna, October 1, 2020)

Interdisciplinary workshop by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, ICOMOS Austria, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport

In the course of Vienna‘s emergence as a modern metropolis in the second half of the 19th century, critical questions regarding the health and hygienic living conditions of its inhabitants became more widely known to experts as well as to a broader public. Influenced by progress in the natural sciences and medicine, and particularly by the “Viennese Medical School”, the fields of medicine, architecture and urban planning intersected at this time in Vienna. Up until now, the main focus of work in the history of science has been on the training and development of expert medical knowledge after the Josephinian reforms of the Enlightenment, and references to architecture and urban planning have been infrequent. On the other hand, work in the history of 19th century architecture only rarely addresses medical issues, or the influence of medical developments on architectural design. Nevertheless, the problem of “healthy” or “hygienic” space was linked to urban planning and architectural considerations at an early point. For example, the doctor Carl Böhm developed a remarkable ventilation system for the Court Opera, whose principle was adopted by many public buildings on the Ringstrasse. Similarly, issues of health and hygiene influenced the building regulations of 1868, as well as Eugen Faßbender‘s regulatory plan for Vienna from 1893. While in Vienna living in the suburbs or the countryside during the summer had been firmly established since the 18th century, the subsequent expansion of the city due to industrialisation and population growth led to new forms of health oriented accommodation outside the city (the “Sommerfrische” [summer resort]). Certain regions such as the Semmering or the Wienerwald were structured and architecturally designed as “health landscapes,” and consumed as such through the media. On the one hand, these places marked a move outward from the city, but on the other they were closely interwoven with it (eg., the users, architects and operators of the sanatoriums in Purkersdorf or Pernitz [Sanatorium Wienerwald]), and so also had an inward effect on Viennese discussions about health and hygiene. There was then, a reciprocal relationship between the urban representation and use of architecture, and ideas of hygiene that emerged in the countryside around Vienna. In addition, these health spots in and around Vienna utilised various architectural modes depending on their target audience, and were employed in different ways depending on the social class of their guests.

In addition to discussing concrete architectural manifestations of ideas about hygiene such as sanatoriums, hospital buildings, mental asylums, baths, etc., we will also discuss the spatial and regional context in and around Vienna in which a topography of health developed (river baths in the Danube wetlands, Kursalon on the Glacis, hospital facilities on the slopes of the Vienna Woods, etc.). Since these places have often been transformed and are no longer perceptible, the workshop will also contribute to an archaeology of ideas of health and hygiene in 19th century Vienna. The workshop will discuss both the complex relationship between the built environment and ideas of hygiene in the second half of the 19th century and its methodology. While Vienna and Austria are the focus of the workshop, they will be contextualized by international perspectives on other cities.

Concept: Dr. Richard Kurdiovsky (ÖAW), Dr. Oliver Sukrow (TU Wien)

Link: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/Institute/INZ/img/forschung/Kunstgeschichte/Designing_Hygiea_eng.pdf

»CALIFORNIA DREAMING: RICHARD NEUTRA AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CALIFORNIAN MODERNITY« (Vienna, April 1-3, 2020)

Cancelled because of the Corona-Crisis!

Movie Screening and Conference honors Viennese born Architect and Thinker

Richard Neutra, Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA, 1946 (c) Oliver Sukrow, 2019.

California’s culture and lifestyle are often thought to epitomize beauty, optimism, technological innovation, and future potentiality. In this conference, we will explore the cultural history of California, particularly its Viennese influences, through the example of the émigré architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970), who was crucial in the development of ‘Californian Modernity.’

The point of departure for this conference is Richard Neutra’s architectural practice, which found its ideal environment in Los Angeles. Neutra designed beautiful minimalistic houses that connected inside and outside and promoted the physical and mental health of their inhabitants. An international group of speakers will analyze the diverse and entangled sources of Neutra’s work and thought, including his interest in psychoanalysis and his concept of biorealism. We will discuss the links between the ideas of the 1920s avant-garde in Europe and the hippie avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s in California. The conference thus aims to explore the global history of what might be called Californian Modernity—which continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary culture—and to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between architecture and landscape, health and space, and of the cultural entanglements between Europe and the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. The conference is the result of a collaboration between the IFK | University of Art and Design Linz, the Wien Museum, the Research Unit Art History at the Institute of Art, Building Archaeology and Restoration at TU Wien, and the Filmarchiv Austria.

April 1, 2020: Films related to Neutra’s work will be screened at METRO Kinokulturhaus ( https://www.filmarchiv.at/en/program/special/richard-neutra/).

CONCEPT: Andreas Nierhaus (Wien Museum), Johanna Richter (IFK), Oliver Sukrow (TU Wien)

PARTICIPANTS: Klaus Benesch (Munich), Matti Bunzl (Vienna), Lyra Kilston (L.A.), Barbara Lamprecht (Pasadena), PJ Letofsky (L.A.), Joaquin Medina Warmburg (Karlsruhe), Monika Platzer (Vienna), Harriet Roth (Vienna), Elana Shapira (Vienna), Tobias Zervosen (Munich).

VENUE: METRO KINO, IFK, WIEN MUSEUM MUSA

Source: http://www.ifk.ac.at/index.php/kalender-detail/california-dreaming-richard-neutra-and-the-significance-of-californian-modernity.html

Richard Neutra: George E. Wise House, Los Angeles, 1957. Foto: Julius Shulman © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10).

Renau’s mural back at Moskauer Platz

Last public artwork of the Spanish emigré restored

Josep Renau’s (1907-82) 30 x 6 meters large mural Man in Relation to Nature and Technology (1982-84) that was originally placed on the northwestern corner of the »Kultur- und Freizeitzentrum« at the residential area »Moskauer Platz« in Erfurt/Germany, has been presented to the public again after it was restored by the Wüstenrot Stiftung and the City of Erfurt between 2014-19.

This artwork is Renau’s last public commission in the GDR and was finished after his death by his workshop. After the building was torn down in 2009, the future of the mural was uncertain. However, thanks to a group of Renau’s pupil and local residents‘ initiatives, the mural could have been restored eventually. Being involved in the project of the Wüstenrot Foundation since 2017, I did archival research in Berlin, Valencia, and Erfurt. My edited book on the history of the mural and its restoration will be published in 2020.

The project website at the Wüstenrot Foundation: https://wuestenrot-stiftung.de/mosaik-josep-renau-erfurt/

Article in The Art Newspaper by Catherine Hickey on mural and context: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/renau-mosaic-sees-light-of-day-again

A feature by Deutschlandfunk that was produced during the mural’s inauguration in December 2019: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/restauriertes-wandmosaik-in-erfurt-ein-stueck-ddr.1013.de.html?dram:article_id=464958

Presentation „Black Box Education“

Education Shock. Learning, Politics, and Architecture in the Global 1960s and 70s (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, November 30–December 01, 2019)

In preparation for the exhibition „Education Shock“ (2021), the HKW Berlin and curator Tom Holert hosted an international two-day conference on the global architectures of learning and education in the 1960s and 1970s. I contributed with a talk on the history of the „Academy of Marxist-Leninist Organizational Theory“ in East-Berlin (1969) discussing the intersections of architecture, cybernetics, and politics of education during the Cold War.

„In the 1960s and 1970s, the educational sector expanded on a global scale. Demographics played just as important a role in this process as the transition from industrial to post-industrial society and the education arms race during the Cold War. Extensive reform programs engendered new architectures and learning environments around the world. However, these often progressively conceived of spatialities were also increasingly called into question – as were the cultures and institutions of education, architecture, and science as such.
The conference will discuss the spatial and educational policies of an era that also harbors a wealth of resources to inform the necessary renewal of today’s schools and universities.“

Presentation and discussion in the panel „Cybernetics and Type Building. Socialist Educational Architectures and Their Export“ (for the videos of the presentation and discussion click on the pictures) with Tim Holert, Dina Dorothea Falbe and Elke Beyer.

Link: https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/veranstaltung/p_164339.php.

Film: David San Millán / (c) HKW Berlin