Modernism sustained: Bucharest in the 1930s and 1990s

During the 1930s the social life of Bucharest rivalled that elsewhere in Europe. Culturally and artistically Bucharest embraced dynamic, innovative and avant-garde attitudes, which were prompted by the establishment of a Greater Romania after the end of the first World War. The artists Brancusi, Janco, Mary, the composer Enescu, the philosopher Eliade, were recognised internationally. The development of Bucharest was based on progressive theoretical ideas and over a period of ten years its appearance was transformed by modernist buildings. The individual villas and apartment buildings which formed the bulk of this transformation were achieved by private enterprise and represented an innovative architecture of social equilibrium which was entirely modernist; quite unlike the modernist social housing programmes elsewhere in Europe which were the products of state intervention and industry. By contrast, state and civic building programmes in Bucharest realised an architecture which retained classical conventions to become austere, sombre and repetitive. Since 1989, Romania has had to adjust to the rigours of market economics. The intervening fifty years of totalitarianism kept the achievements of the inter-war years under wraps, but these are now being rediscovered by a generation for whom they are the nearest representation of democracy on Romanian territory. The new-found democracy of the market place brings this period of cultural achievement into sharp focus, in the hope that it may act as a catalyst for the resolution of today's extensive urban deprivations.     

20世纪30年代长春的现代主义活动

1931年“九·一八”事变后,长春成为伪满首都“新京”,在城市建设上主要采取了复古主义,与德意法西斯国家遥相呼应。但是在现代主义思潮的冲击下,由于长春本身的特点和具体的历史环境,当时最新的现代规划理念,如功能分区、邻里单元等也体现在长春的城市规划中。而在日本占领地活动的现代主义建筑师如前川国男、阪仓准三、远藤新等也都在长春留下了他们的作品,这是那个年代为数不多的现代主义的重要实践。     

Envisioning England: the visual in countryside writing in the 1930s and 1940s

The dust-jacket art, photographs and end-paper maps used in books published by B.T. Batsford Ltd in the 1930s and 1940s are examined. Drawing on work on landscape representation, publishing history and the history of geographic thought, the ways in which the visual arts associated with countryside writing constitute forms of popular geographic knowledge are explored. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to the ways in which some apparently non-academic, creative and imaginative processes of envisioning landscape inform, and are themselves informed by, an academic discourse—in this case geography—which continually asserts a claim to speak authoritatively of, and for, landscape.     

Envisioning England: the visual in countryside writing in the 1930s and 1940s

The dust-jacket art, photographs and end-paper maps used in books published by B.T. Batsford Ltd in the 1930s and 1940s are examined. Drawing on work on landscape representation, publishing history and the history of geographic thought, the ways in which the visual arts associated with countryside writing constitute forms of popular geographic knowledge are explored. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to the ways in which some apparently non-academic, creative and imaginative processes of envisioning landscape inform, and are themselves informed by, an academic discourse—in this case geography—which continually asserts a claim to speak authoritatively of, and for, landscape.     

Environmental health problems indoors: A comparison between the 1930's and 1990's

This article is inspired by Ulrich Beck's risk theory, which helps researchers raise new questions about environmental problems. The environmental problem in focus here is poor indoor air quality, particularly as found in Swedish housing. I compare this problem in its contemporary form, sick building syndrome, with indoor air problems of concern during the 1930's. The manner of causal thinking is similar in the two periods, and also the way in which publicity contributes to risk definition. However, housing standards in the 1930's were lower than those of today. The increase in standards was a manifestation of efforts to reduce illness caused by the earlier housing, and involved a re‐distribution of risk that exemplifies Beck's notions regarding the risk society.     

Spatial mismatch research in the 1990s: progress and potential

This article reviews recent research about the spatial mismatch hypothesis from a range of social science disciplines. Since 1990, researchers have tested the mismatch hypothesis in diverse metropolitan settings; devised more accurate measures of geographical access to employment; and developed models to address issues such as compensating variations, sample selection bias, and contextual effects. We argue for a broader conceptualization of spatial mismatch that considers how social and spatial relations affect employment outcomes for women, immigrants, and other ethnic minorities. This broader view will enhance the contribution of research to current theoretical and policy debates about urban poverty. The effects of metropolitan context and neighborhood-level differences in services, resources, and social networks on spatial access and, independently, on wages and employment also warrant future research attention. Received: April 14, 1998 / Accepted: April 3, 1999     

Tenuous boundaries: women, domesticity and nationhood in 1930s Turkey

In the 1930s modern architecture was highly popularised in Turkey mostly through the widespread promotion of the modern house. In the early stages of nation building, the modern house became one of the most potent symbols of the modern nation, which aspired to enter the European economic, cultural and political milieu as an equal partner. The image of the modern Turkish woman played a somewhat similar role, her increasing access to various aspects of the public sphere being highly publicised as the success of Turkish modernisation. Despite obvious links between women and architecture, ranging from their active promotion as suitable images for the new nation to the physical appearance of women in public spaces, issues of gender and sexuality remained conspicuously absent from the architectural historiography of modern Turkey. In this paper, I offer critical readings of contemporaneous representations that relate the modern house and modern Turkish woman to uncover the complicated and contradictory levels that constitute the seemingly coherent narrative of architectural and cultural modernisation. The analysis of the relationship between sexuality, space and architectural discourse effectively complicates the architectural historiography of modern Turkey and shows the active participation of architecture in the production of the social/cultural realm.     

Tenuous boundaries: women,domesticity and nationhood in 1930s Turkey

In the 1930s modern architecture was highly popularised in Turkey mostly through the widespread promotion of the modern house. In the early stages of nation building, the modern house became one of the most potent symbols of the modern nation, which aspired to enter the European economic, cultural and political milieu as an equal partner. The image of the modern Turkish woman played a somewhat similar role, her increasing access to various aspects of the public sphere being highly publicised as the success of Turkish modernisation. Despite obvious links between women and architecture, ranging from their active promotion as suitable images for the new nation to the physical appearance of women in public spaces, issues of gender and sexuality remained conspicuously absent from the architectural historiography of modern Turkey. In this paper, I offer critical readings of contemporaneous representations that relate the modern house and modern Turkish woman to uncover the complicated and contradictory levels that constitute the seemingly coherent narrative of architectural and cultural modernisation. The analysis of the relationship between sexuality, space and architectural discourse effectively complicates the architectural historiography of modern Turkey and shows the active participation of architecture in the production of the social/cultural realm.     

Pumping Machinery in the Mid-1990s

The paper by Towler⁽¹⁾ described the design, construction and testing of a pumping installation which incorporated a triple-expansion Cornish steam engine with an integral three-ram positive-displacement pump. This paper contrasts and discusses the developments, with pumping machinery, which have taken place during the last 100 years.     

Home ownership and early retirement: European experience in the 1990s

Throughout the 1990s the general pattern acrossthe EU member states was of expanding homeownership sectors and of falling labourparticipation rates amongst older workers,particularly men. Using macro-level data, thepaper sets out to explain national differencesin participation rates, taken as a proxymeasure of early retirement. Whereas itindicates the statistical importance of anumber of trends – specifically labour marketconditions and government social policies – thepaper particularly focuses on the possible roleof housing tenure. It presents evidenceconsistent with the proposition that, onceowned outright, home ownership may offer theability to live rent-free and to create apension and thus facilitate early retirement. In acting as a sort of individualised providentfund, it may both give some welfare states adistinctive character as well as contribute tothe early retirement of large numbers of peoplefrom the labour market. The paper explores anumber of methodological and policy issuesarising from the analysis.     

Trade Effluent Control: Prospects for the 1990s

The proposed privatization of the ten regional water authorities together with the accompanying reorganization of water pollution control responsibilities between the new National Rivers Authority and Her Majesty's Pollution Inspectorate, as well as the ever tightening environmental standards for the aquatic environment emanating from Brussels and from general environmental pressures, means that dischargers of industrial effluents can expect major changes both in the cost of disposing of their effluents and in terms of the legislative controls which will restrict their content.
The paper examines the various factors which will influence the management of trade effluents in the 1990s and endeavours to give some indication of what the future holds both in terms of disposal costs and environmental regulation from the point of view of the discharger.     

Engineers and equity: The political economy of high-speed roads in the 1960s and 1990s

This paper examines the cultural and political origins of Melbourne's Metropolitan Transportation Plan of 1969, especially its proposal to build over 600 kilometres of freeways. It gives particular attention to the influence of American paradigms of transport planning, and to the experiences of the cohort of young Australian traffic engineers who attended the Yale traffic engineering course in the 1950s and 1960s. It concludes with a comparison between the transport planning regime of the 1960s and the privatised expressways of the 1990s.     

Netherlands housing in the 1990s: A civilized matter?

Conclusion The viewpoint of the cities is very different from that of the Secretary of State for Housing. This can be clearly seen in how these two parties develop a housing policy. And their differences translate into highly divergent consequences for the level of rent. Clearly, it will prove no easy matter to marry these opposing parties. The suggestions put forward by the Secretary of State have also been criticized by other voices, and alternative proposals have been made. Various Dutch political parties have presented their ideas on the question of housing, and bodies such as the Dutch Trades Unions, the Association of Dutch Local Councils, housing associations and tenants' associations have written recommendations and held public enquiries on the topic. Let us hope that despite the enormous differences in attitude, there will be a gradual drawing together. The housing branch covers a large areait needs to increase by at least one million dwellings, and to improve existing dwellings by the expenditure of at least 30 thousand million and at most 60 billion guilders. A joint effort from the bodies involved in housing is now urgently needed. The cities have made their ideas abundantly clear and the research carried out by the University of Delft, has shown that these plans are financially viable.     

BEYOND GOVERNING COALITIONS: Analyzing Urban Regimes in the 1990s

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that economic restructuring is best analyzed as potentially a two-way relationship between global forces and local actors. The research and concepts in the literature on growth machines, governing coalitions, and urban regimes are central to that two-way relationship, but the focus on political coalitions must be broadened. Two changes are proposed: (1) the focus on coalitions must be accompanied by analysis of the mobility of local capital and the degree to which governments can influence that mobility and (2) analysis of coalitions must include investigating the ability of coalitions to implement the policies they enact.     

Interpreting Southern Antebellum Architecture in the 1990s

Architecture firms face an increasingly uncertain marketplace. Firm principals and leaders need to increasingly cultivate and develop the talents of firm members if the organization itself is to adapt to changes in building technologies, the activity of other design professions, and changing client tastes and capacities. Divided into five sections, the following article presents a framework for examining this challenge. The first section examines the broader marketplace context that firms face, and the second presents a framework for linking skills to human resource development tools. Arguing that development tools will fail if the firm's culture cannot support them, the third section examines how the ethic of collegiality and an artistic sensibility shape the firm's cultural infrastructure and make it difficult to implement a formal human resource development program. The fourth section presents a model of the firm that can overcome these obstacles, and the fifth summarizes the overall argument.     

US public housing in the 1930s: The first projects in Atlanta,Georgia

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, European philanthropists, industrialists, and governments built homes and communities aimed at improving the health and welfare of low and middle income workers. By 1930, the United States remained the only developed country in the Western world without a national legislative and financial commitment to housing. This paper explores the attitudes and circumstances affecting the creation of American public housing in the 1930s and examines the federal government's first attempts at replacing slums with subsidized apartments in the Techwood and University Homes projects in Atlanta, Georgia.     

Gentrification and Displacement New York City in the 1990s

Gentrification has been viewed by some as a solution to many of the problems facing older central cities. At the same time, many are wary of the potential for gentrification to displace disadvantaged residents. To date, however, surprisingly little reliable evidence has been produced about the magnitude of this problem that could guide planners, policymakers, or community-based organizations. The study described in this article attempts to fill this void by examining residential mobility among disadvantaged households in New York City during the 1990s. We found that rather than rapid displacement, gentrification was associated with slower residential turnover among these households. In New York City, during the 1990s at least, normal succession appears to be responsible for changes in gentrifying neighborhoods. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for planning.     

Housing Policy Changes in Ghana in the 1990s

The housing sector in Ghana has undergone fundamental changes since the 1990s. Policy focus has shifted away from direct state provision and has moved strongly towards active private sector participation in housing production, financing and production of building materials. In part, this is due to the failure of public housing programmes, dwindling state resources, unimpressive performance of state-owned enterprises, and recognition that the government alone is unable to solve the housing problem. On a broader scale, the changes are rooted in liberalization ideologies that have swept through most economies in the 1980s and 1990s, which have had varying effects on people's housing need and on the national economy. The purpose of this paper is to examine these effects, to offer some interpretations, and to outline some of the lingering challenges facing the country's housing sector.