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Copyright of Online Journal of Art & Design is the property of Online Journal of Art & Design and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Inconsistent temporal definitions of key events in a building's lifecycles, and especially of its "birth" date, usually impede a large-scale, high-resolution analysis of building trends and construction fluxes based on municipal building datasets. This study addresses this shortcoming by proposing a reproducible ontological dating formulation of major construction activities during a building's lifecycle using the building permit as the most common, reliable, and consistent indicator of a building's age. We tested this approach by analysing the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality's Engineering Administration Archive, which consists of around 5.3 million digitised documents spanning between 1920-2020 and arranged in more than 28,000 building files. We combined permit data with supporting taxation and construction completion documents to automatically extract the date of "birth" or major reconstruction of each of the dataset buildings. The resulting dataset enabled us to generate detailed diachronic maps of urban growth at the resolution of an individual building. Despite challenges such as data discrepancies and archival gaps, this analytical method highlights the value of working directly with raw administrative metadata to uncover valuable insights into historical transformations in the built environment. It also demonstrates the utility of building permits as critical indicators of economic and architectural activities. By applying this approach to urban-scale building datasets, it is possible to predict building ages with reasonable accuracy and, thus, to enhance the understanding of urban growth and transformation dynamics. Highlights: • Definitions of key dates in a building's lifecycle are inconsistent across public databases. • We propose an ontological formulation of a building birth date for large quantitative analysis. • Automatic processing of building permit dates and quantities can reliably extract building ages.

In the monograph Yugoslav architecture between the two world wars (1918-1941): contexts of interpretations, published at the end of 2023 and written by dr. Aleksandar Kadijević, Full Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, presents and discusses important aspects of historiographical research and interpretation of interwar Yugoslav architecture, with a special focus on the characteristics of the period and the ideological level, as well as other specifi c architectural topics related to this period - competition practice, visual culture, the infl uence of Expressionism and the architecture of emigrants from Russia. Emphasising the methodological basis of the study of interwar Yugoslav architecture, the author not only outlines the layering of research contexts, but also points out the importance of terminological characterisation.

This article reflects on the potential of an unbuilt architectural project to challenge the boundaries of a seemingly complete historiographic record. Revisiting my master's graduation project, which focused on the underexplored urban fabric built over the ruins of Frankfurt am Main's historic Jewish ghetto, I evaluate the operative nature of the work and its contribution to recovering memories of Jewish life where almost no physical trace is left. Positioning myself in the proactive framework of the »Hybrid practitioner« and the »Situated researcher«, this self-reflective piece discusses the potential of architectural interventions as catalysts for the production and design of architectural historiography, bridging academic and public discourse, and as the physical manifestation of accumulated expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These Field Notes map the impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had on research in architectural history. We asked scholars already involved with Eastern Europe and Russia how the conflict has affected their approach to the region and to their work. In five responses to this question, these authors identify the need to dismantle conceptual and geopolitical frameworks that have been inherited from the late Soviet period, critically re-read the historiography of Russian avant-garde and constructivist architecture, and confront the question of postcolonial critique in Eastern Europe from a viewpoint in the Global South. Taken together, these notes from the field offer both immediate reactions from scholars to the terrible war in Ukraine and reflections on possible paths for architectural history writing in the aftermath of this shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architectural historiography deals with understanding and explaining architectural practices (and their results and products) as they have been realized through history. To do this, the architectural historian should acquire a historical understanding of the knowledge on which the architectural practices had been based. According to a knowledge classification model proposed by Harry Collins, the sociologist of science, the concept of ‘somatic knowledge’, is a kind of tacit knowledge. This concept can be applied to architecture and regarded as a kind of knowledge upon which the architectural practice is based. In the historiography of somatic knowledge in architecture, obtaining historical evidence is the most crucial methodological obstacle; because this knowledge is inexplicable, and its evidence is not clear. Each piece of evidence can only be seen when the historian asks questions about it based on his/her preconceptions. Thus, the prior somatic knowledge acquired through practical architectural experience is highly likely to affect the discovery and interpretation of the evidence of historical somatic knowledge. The question is, therefore, about the ways in which this prior knowledge makes its marks. In this paper, an epistemological idea of the ‘Web of Belief’ is considered for answering this question. According to this idea, the architectural historian acquires new beliefs about the past agents’ somatic knowledge through three ways: recalling personal somatic memory, replicating the past somatic experiences, re-enacting them, and making inductive hypotheses based on his/her somatic expectation. When each of these newcomer beliefs enters the architectural historian’s web of belief, they may be confirmed by his/her prior somatic beliefs, may be rejected, or may turn into non-beliefs. The new belief intervenes in the historian’s understanding of historical practices if accepted in the architectural historian’s web of belief and given it a new coherence.

The act of decolonizing can have quite different meanings, depending on the definition of the term colony used. In architecture, so-called decolonial studies suggest an opening towards new forms of knowledge. On the other hand, those who practice said studies often fall into different forms of determinism, which end up hindering that potential. Having identified notable contradictions in their formulation, in this article we suggest empirical, epistemological and methodological alternatives to decolonial studies, coming from two recent approaches, to architecture that could solve several problematic aspects observed in the decolonizing project.

Copyright of GRID - Architecture, Planning & Design Journal is the property of GRID - Architecture, Planning & Design Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Architectural historiography deals with understanding and explaining architectural practices (and their results and products) as they have been realized through history. To do this, the architectural historian should acquire a historical understanding of the knowledge on which the architectural practices had been based. According to a knowledge classification model proposed by Harry Collins, the sociologist of science, the concept of 'somatic knowledge', is a kind of tacit knowledge. This concept can be applied to architecture and regarded as a kind of knowledge upon which the architectural practice is based. In the historiography of somatic knowledge in architecture, obtaining historical evidence is the most crucial methodological obstacle; because this knowledge is inexplicable, and its evidence is not clear. Each piece of evidence can only be seen when the historian asks questions about it based on his/her preconceptions. Thus, the prior somatic knowledge acquired through practical architectural experience is highly likely to affect the discovery and interpretation of the evidence of historical somatic knowledge. The question is, therefore, about the ways in which this prior knowledge makes its marks. In this paper, an epistemological idea of the 'Web of Belief' is considered for answering this question. According to this idea, the architectural historian acquires new beliefs about the past agents' somatic knowledge through three ways: recalling personal somatic memory, replicating the past somatic experiences, re-enacting them, and making inductive hypotheses based on his/her somatic expectation. When each of these newcomer beliefs enters the architectural historian's web of belief, they may be confirmed by his/her prior somatic beliefs, may be rejected, or may turn into non-beliefs. The new belief intervenes in the historian's understanding of historical practices if accepted in the architectural historian's web of belief and given it a new coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dearq is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Architecture in Latin America is cyclically underpinned by the quest to represent multiple identities: international, national, (Latin) American. During the 1930s, although modernist European architects became the reference for Latin American professionals, they were nonetheless of no help in developing national expressions of modernity. Tracing back the debate to the cultural turmoil of that decade with an eye on older topoi on environmental determinism, this article delves into various texts through which the identity of Colombian architectural modernism was constructed. Firstly, it highlights the link between territory, nation, and historical heritage that underpinned the definition of a system of values seen as typically Colombian but, in fact, comparable to that of other countries. Then, it focuses on the construction of Colombian modernism's identity as opposed to different Latin American experiences, highlighting the role of local and international actors. The article also explains the centrality given to Bogotá and its architecture because of the climatic differences that made the country's cool highlands similar to Europe and the USA and, therefore, the place where civilisation, development, and modern architecture were possible for the Colombian elites. Ultimately, this text documents an exemplary case, stressing the non-exceptionalism of the different representations of Latin American national modernisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short but intense polemic that took place following Giulio Carlo Argan’s review of Albert Erich Brinckmann’s Theatrum novum Pedemontii in 1931 inaugurated international twentieth century scholarly reception of Piedmontese Baroque architecture. Today, it provides a captivating snapshot of the turbulent and complex disciplinary feuds that prevailed in architectural historiography during the interwar period, often pushing contenders into deep water when attempting to clarify their views. The twenty-three-year-old Argan – later to become one of Italy’s most celebrated academics – had just graduated from the University of Turin when he gave a bravely disapproving review of the latest book by one of Germany’s most prominent architectural historians at the time.

This paper offers a reflection on an educational experiment. In the spring of 2021, a group of nine architecture students at the Delft University of Technology participated in a research elective that invited them to narrate architectural and urban design history through a ficto-critical short story in graphic-novel format. This paper is based on a conversation between Janina Gosseye, the instructor of the elective, and Meitar Tewel, who made Neualtland as part of this course. In their conversation, Janina and Meitar consider whether the shift away from the more conventional modes of historiography, represented by the ficto-critical graphic novel short story, is merely a shift in genre and tools - from writing to drawing - or if it represents an epistemological shift that can help architecture students unlock and develop new knowledge about the history of architecture and urban design. Could it be a new »species of thesis«? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its very beginning, architectural historiography tended to ‘flatten’ historicity in favor of a ‘spatialized’ discourse. This process was triggered by gradually emphasizing space over time, as becomes clear in examining this longue durée, from the ‘barbarian’ architectures of Quatremère de Quincy and Seroux d’Agincourt to the ‘non-historical styles’ of Banister Fletcher, and from turning peripheries into productive territories of architectural resistance in the theories on critical regionalism to shaping a global history of architecture. The focus on space changed the dynamics of the narrative from a vertical construction to an increasingly horizontal perception of architectural production through the ages. During its evolution, the historiographic discourse grew complexified through a twofold understanding of space, both in terms of doctrinal conceptualization (space being presented as the very essence of architecture) and in terms of a geographical expansion. Several threads wove the historiographical narratives in the succeeding works of architectural history; unraveling these begins with an analysis of the foundations of architectural historicity, questioning the role and place of conceptual models, such as the ‘primitive hut’, and schemes like the ‘tree of architecture’, moving to a gradual dismantling of its temporality through the shaping of a modernist historiography and, eventually, through the emergence of marginal historiographic territories. An indirect goal of looking at this flattening of history from an architectural history perspective is tackling the meaning of writing history today.

From its very beginning, architectural historiography tended to 'flatten' historicity in favor of a 'spatialized' discourse. This process was triggered by gradually emphasizing space over time, as becomes clear in examining this longue durée, from the 'barbarian' architectures of Quatremère de Quincy and Seroux d'Agincourt to the 'non-historical styles' of Banister Fletcher, and from turning peripheries into productive territories of architectural resistance in the theories on critical regionalism to shaping a global history of architecture. The focus on space changed the dynamics of the narrative from a vertical construction to an increasingly horizontal perception of architectural production through the ages. During its evolution, the historiographic discourse grew complexified through a twofold understanding of space, both in terms of doctrinal conceptualization (space being presented as the very essence of architecture) and in terms of a geographical expansion. Several threads wove the historiographical narratives in the succeeding works of architectural history; unraveling these begins with an analysis of the foundations of architectural historicity, questioning the role and place of conceptual models, such as the 'primitive hut', and schemes like the 'tree of architecture', moving to a gradual dismantling of its temporality through the shaping of a modernist historiography and, eventually, through the emergence of marginal historiographic territories. An indirect goal of looking at this flattening of history from an architectural history perspective is tackling the meaning of writing history today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Megaron is the property of KARE Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The history of American architecture includes many examples of activists and reformers who sought to make the profession more inclusive, just, and socially engaged. This article provides a review of the academic literature discussing the efforts of such architects in order to identify historic trends in the study of activist architects in the United States—this paper's focus. After an initial period of growth and consolidation in the profession, contemporary forms of social engagement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequent decades have seen many of these efforts continue, or be revived, alongside increased academic interest in these same efforts. The article then reviews three areas of sociological research pertinent to the scholarship on socially engaged design. These focus on institutional change within the profession, the "logics" that guide architectural work, and the relationship between the profession and the academy. This article explores these institutional perspectives for their potential to complement frameworks for analyzing dissent in design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this article is to propose an alternative historiography to 19th century Ottoman architecture, without the Eurocentric paradigms, by including the ‘unseen’ actors of this history, namely the disregarded provincial architecture. The provincial mosques constituting the case studies of the article point to a previously neglected part of the historiography by changing the emphasis from the capital to the provinces.

This article proposes a new perspective on the contemporary standing of architectural history by examining the transition from architectural histories grounded in and upon textuality to an architectural historical approach formulated though the theoretical understanding of cultural techniques. Taking as a case study the cabin built by the philosopher Henry David Thoreau—and posing the wilfully deceptive question “Can there be an architectural history of Walden?”—the article concludes that the transformative implication is an architectural history that is not a discipline in and of itself, but that is instead the remainder of limits defined in the techniques of other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest among architectural historians in addressing environmental concerns on both historical and theoretical terms. Simultaneously, other fields have been looking to architectural scholarship to understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment. For architectural historians, and others, this has also involved correlating the shifting discourse on environment with a history of architectural transformations and disciplinary expansions. These engagements have made clear that the environmental history of architecture does not simply add more objects to the historical database, but also changes the terms of historical analysis, as new matters of concern and new conceptual frameworks come to the fore. This paper gathers together a dialogic set of projections from scholars responding to the question of how we might newly understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment, and the opportunities and challenges this new phase presents to scholars, design researchers, and architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this article is to propose an alternative historiography to 19th century Ottoman architecture, without the Eurocentric paradigms, by including the 'unseen' actors of this history, namely the disregarded provincial architecture. The provincial mosques constituting the case studies of the article point to a previously neglected part of the historiography by changing the emphasis from the capital to the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been remarked that modern architecture in Britain began late and that its emergence largely depended on the contribution of a massive influx of European exiles seeking refuge from the political and racial persecution of totalitarian regimes. In the attempt to discard the tired narrative of Britain’s insular modernism as a mere echo of continental European achievements, an alternative historiography has recently directed attention to Britain’s own distinctive and original version of modern architecture in the 1930s. Through the examination of a small group of articles, books and pamphlets on English modern architecture written by English authors and published in the mid-1930s, this paper argues that the emergence of a distinctive version of architectural modernism in Britain was paralleled by the development of an equally original brand of architectural criticism and historiography.

With the increased complexity of global history in the field of architecture, significant methodological questions have been raised that seek to clarify not only the project’s parameters of success, but also its inherited modes of knowing. In the modern era, many cite James Fergusson and hisA History of Architecture in All Countries from the Earliest Times to the Present Day(1865–1867) as one of the first major exercises in the genre. This paper seeks to highlight the epistemological strategies of Fergusson’s world history, looking specifically at the impact of mid-19th century geology and ethnography to explain his modelling of the world through architectural difference. Geology afforded Fergusson the “lithic” language to frame history as an observable process that persisted from deep time to the present with understandable and uniform rules, treating architecture as a fossil to be analysed, categorised, and finally mobilised in his mission for a national style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture / Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The period between the publication of "Usul-i Mimari-i Osmani" (1873) which is the first architectural history of the Ottoman era and the formulation of the Turkish History Thesis in 1930's which indicates a radical break in historiography, constitute the early phase of the architectural history in Turkey. Considering the lack of an established tradition of architectural theory or art history, the pioneering role, in this early phase, was accomplished not by architects or art historians, but by a general cultural elite motivated mainly by the nationalist concerns. During this period, Islamism, Ottomanism and Turkism appear to be the three main nationalist/protonationalist ideologies. Among these, Islamism hardly had any interest in architecture, nor architectural history. During the Tanzimat era in which Ottomanism appeared and had a considerable effect among the intellectuals, architectural history and Ottomanism came together only in the agendas of those who were already interested in the arts, archeology or conservation matters. However Turkism who introduced a new concept of identity had to construct its cultural basement. Therefore architectural history took an important position in their agenda and became a practical tool to illustrate the nation's glorious past. This study aims to discuss the impact of Turkism oriented nationalism on the architectural history through the examination of the activities of some nationalist, antiquarian and scientific societies and the works of some authors of the era. Conferences, free courses, excursions constitute the main activity areas of the nationalist societies. Preparation of the photography and drawing collections of the main buildings of the past were also part of their program. Important figures of the architectural historiography of the era such as Celal Esad, Kemaleddin, Mehmed Ziya, Halil Edhem or Hamdulah Subhi were among the members of these societies and took part in their activities by giving lectures, preparing reports, or publishing in their journals. Even though they were not nationalist in their explicit aims Tarih-i Osmani Encümeni and Bilgi Derneği were also among the societies whose interest area covers architectural history. However their activities were restricted with the publication of journals and the organization of some discussions forums on the subject. Antiquarian societies, -among them Istanbul Muhibleri Cemiyeti is the earliest and the most known one-, were also organizing conferences, but were mainly concerned with the conservation problems. However, Istanbul Muhibleri Cemiyeti's publications on the Bereketzade Fountain and the Yali of Köprülü were important works of the era whose texts and drawings were prepared by architects and western art historians. The texts produced in this era are mainly articles published in the journals or periodicals of popular character. Books usually written in foreign languages and pamphlets are also among the publication genres even though they are not abundant in number. Inventories and texts which treat architecture as a rhetorical tool, constitute the two main group of works of the era. Among the authors, Celal Esad can be defined as the most illustrious and the most "professional" one. A part from his numerous publications, he also taught architectural history at the Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi. Ahmed Refik was a historian with a colorful style in which he uses architecture as the décor of the past events. Hamdullah Subhi was an amateur of art/architectural history and the "national orator" who worked as an activist for raising awareness on the subject. He also taught art history at Darülfünun. Mübarek Galib was the director of cultural affairs in the early republic and his publications are examples of inventorial works. The nature of nationalism is characterized by a dual action: Deconstructing every kind of attachment produced in the pre-modern societies and the building up of new loyalty mechanism. This dual attitude can also be observed in the texts dealing with architectural history of the era. Consequently while a tendency aims to homogenize and standardize the subject of study, the other appears to underline the differences in order to formulate new forms of belonging. In this paper Celal Esad, Mübarek Galib, Ahmed Refik and Hamdullah Subhi are studied as examples of these two attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]