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A pioneer of French architectural research, Jean-Pierre Péneau died on April 1, 2021. His personal archives were recently transferred to the Centre d’archives d’architecture contemporaine in Paris and constitute a valuable legacy for understanding the life and work of Jean-Pierre Péneau in his time. Following the tribute paid in April 2022 by the Académie d’Architecture, this article would like to contribute to the interpretation of these archives. We propose two examinations that constitute the two parts of the article. The first, covering his entire career, exposes the great diversity of Jean-Pierre Péneau’s interests and, in so doing, highlights his successive decenterings and what can be called the paradox of his reputation. The second part of the paper deals in detail with a little-known aspect of Jean-Pierre Péneau’s scientific career, his first thesis prepared at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and never defended.

École des Beaux-Arts is considered as one of the most influential architecture schools in the world. During its relatively long life, this school admitted many students from different countries, including a number of Iranian architects and professors of architecture who were graduates of the École. The purpose of this study is to identify Iranian architecture students of the École des Beaux-Arts based on reliable documents. The main question of the research is how many Iranian students have studied at École des Beaux-Arts, and how was the quality of their education. Also, in what fields did these people work after graduation. This study tries to refer to the École’s documents to get the answers to the questions. The main sources of the research are primary. Examination of these documents shows that the number of Iranian students was 43, 29 of whom graduated. The presence of Iranians in the school is limited to the last four decades of the school’s life. The presence of Iranians in the 1960s is particularly significant. Iranian students left a relatively successful result in the École. They were able to win a number of medals and awards from the school. After graduating and returning to Iran, most of them held important positions in the field of education and architecture. Most of them became university professors and taught students in Iranian schools of architecture.

This contribution is part of a wider dynamic aimed at understanding the evolution of Architectural History as a field of teaching and research, beyond the institutional divisions that segment it and within identified regional poles. Thus, a first concrete situation, analysed during a one-day workshop held in Bordeaux in November 2018, allows a certain number of hypotheses to emerge and to feed questions around the actors, the institutions and the currents of thought that have shaped the field of Architectural History throughout the second half of the 20th century in France. The careers of historians, which bear witness to the diversity of the field and its structuring over the last fifty years, highlight both the hybridity of professional profiles and the plurality of theoretical approaches.

In the face of the changes in recent years that have characterized world architecture and its transmissibility, this paper poses certain questions to seek an answer in the analysis of some schools of architecture which have been able to defend themselves from that liquid horizon and from those changes caused primarily by the social penetration of technologies thanks to having a strong identity and a well-defined cultural project. Four schools have been compared: the Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño (PUCV) of Valparaíso; the Cooper Union of New York; the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP); the School of Civil Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Milan-Bovisa.

Diez años después de la entrada masiva del dibujo asistido por computador en la realidad profesional local, las oficinas de arquitectura -sus métodos, tamaño y dinámicas- se han ajustado irreversiblemente al estado de situación, y en esta evolución han aparecido otras interrogantes. La incorporación de técnicas es la parte visible de un fenómeno más amplio, en el que han cambiado la relación con el cliente, las maneras de comunicar, la interacción con otros especialistas y con la industria de la construcción. La proliferación de escuelas de arquitectura y la cultura imperante del posgrado abren igualmente nuevos frentes de acción profesional. Sin embargo, la arquitectura sigue siendo lo de siempre: obras construidas para un cliente, levantadas en un lugar específico, y habitadas de maneras a veces inesperadas.In the decade since computer-assisted drawing has become widespread in Chile, the methods, size and dynamic of the architect’s office have adapted and undergone permanent changes as a result, and the changes have thrown up new issues. The new techniques are the visible aspect of a broader phenomenon in which client relationships, the forms of communication, the interaction with other specialists and the construction industry have all been transformed. A plethora of architecture schools and the prevailing culture of post-graduate study also open new fronts for professional activity. But architecture is what it always has been - works built for a client, in a specific place, and used in sometimes unexpected ways.