Contradictions in California’s orientalist landscape: Architecture, history and Spanish-Colonial Revival

Although Spanish-Colonial Revival architecture and place-names dominates Southern California’s landscape, one also finds examples of simulated Middle Eastern bazaars, references to Ancient Egypt, and the use of iconography from non-European Old World. While the region’s landscape is arguably a product of bricolage and postmodern sensibilities, this article looks at the history of ‘Orientalism’ in Southern California’s built environment. In particular, I am looking at the precedents for this seemingly contradictory use of the ‘Oriental’ in the region. The ‘Oriental’ as a sinfully seductive means of creating spectacle in the built environment is both glorified and demonized in popular discourse. For example, the ‘Oriental’ is celebrated in shopping malls, but demonized culturally and politically. However, it is in this contradiction that we can see how history and ideology has shaped the vernacular landscape. As such, this article will look at early twentieth century examples of the ‘Oriental’ in Spanish-Colonial Revival as a foundation to understand contradictions in the built environment, culture, and racial hierarchies.     

怒江中游新地域民居建设策略——以怒族、傈僳族民居为例

怒江流域是国家级自然生态保护区、三江并流的世界自然遗产区;也是多民族混居区,国家级贫困区。怒江流域的新民居建设对于改善少数民族的生活质量意义重大。该文通过对怒江中游地区怒族、傈僳族传统民居的调研和实测,分析其建造特点及空间构成。同时,对比研究怒江流域大量新建的砖混民居,得出传统民居为低碳模式兼低的居住环境质量,而新建砖混房屋则为高碳模式兼＂高＂的居住环境质量,并指出新建民居存在的问题。在此基础上,提出新地域民居建设的指导原则以及具体实施策略。这些策略旨在形成一套新地域民居的建筑模式,积极推动新民居的建设。     

Researching the vernacular garden

The paper focuses on the concept of the vernacular garden and sets out the opportunities for research. Parallels are drawn between vernacular architecture and vernacular gardens and discussion is illustrated by survey work carried out in North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester and comparisons are made with projects in North America. The discussion is set within the context of shifting approaches to conservation and the move towards an increasing emphasis on the importance of the ‘National Estate’ which includes vernacular and locally distinctive gardens and buildings.     

Interpreting vernacular space in Ireland: a new sensibility

ABSTRACT

Performative analysis of the use of landscape strategies in pre-industrial vernacular architecture indicates that there is more design agency involved in the creation of these environments than conventional and historical interpretations would suggest. The development of this interpretation, referred to here as the Utilitarian-Landscape approach, has been described in the Irish architecture media as pioneering because it posits a counter-reading to typological classifications of vernacular architecture. Moreover, it challenges the entrenched scenic understanding of vernacular architecture’s relationship to landscape that underpins rural policymaking in Ireland. However, the limitations—indeed the dangers—of these two expressions of vernacular architecture, the typological and the scenic, have already started to be recognised in much emerging scholarship and practice. This article considers aspects of this scholarship and practice context in light of the Utilitarian-Landscape investigation, and points to a shift in approach to understanding vernacular environments and a new sensibility towards rurality in Ireland.     

乡土性建筑与乡土环境

试图在当代世界建筑思潮的各种走向中，从相关的内容和特点出发，探讨乡土性建筑的发展背景，阐述乡土性建筑与乡土环境的关联，例举当代建筑师的典型作品，说明当代乡土性建筑设计的多样性。     

Crossing Boundaries: Revisiting the Thresholds of Vernacular Architecture

Abstract

This paper discusses and questions the boundaries of vernacular architecture as conceived, interpreted and reinterpreted since the late eighteenth century. The activities and boundaries of the Vernacular Architecture Group are considered in the context of work in other fields also concerned with architecture and the vernacular. The paper argues for a broad understanding of vernacular architecture as an inclusive social study that is not necessarily restricted by boundaries of time and place.     

Understanding traditional residential architecture in Anatolia

Traditional architecture and associated environments created by residential buildings provide an important focus of interest in contemporary Turkey.1 1. The main thesis of this article is based upon my paper ‘Traditional Residential Architecture in Anatolia’, presented to a seminar on Conservation and Rehabilitation of Half-Timber Structures, Ankara: METU, 1989 and the doctoral thesis submitted to METU, Faculty of Architecture, Program of Restoration in 1994. The concepts have, however, been revised according to more recent surveys. They are generally accepted as physical witnesses of the past to be preserved and studied. Continuity in the traditional characteristics of the social group living in these environments has been observed in many of the extant settlements in Turkey. The reciprocal relationship between the dwelling and its owners, or users, has led to a dual definition of the ‘traditional dwelling unit’: the social unit being the ‘family’, the architectural unit the ‘dwelling’. The existing, modest-scaled, traditional dwellings in Turkey, which constitute the subject of this study, were mostly constructed after the seventeenth century, but more recent buildings exhibiting similar characteristics are also covered by the term ‘traditional’.2 2. The concepts of ‘tradition’, ‘culture’, ‘vernacular’, ‘historical’, ‘regional’, ‘pre-industrial’, ‘popular’ and ‘folk’ fall outside the limits of this study. The term ‘traditional’ has been used throughout the text; the term ‘Ottoman’ has not been adopted due to its attribution to the 1923 constitution of the Turkish Republic — it cannot, consequently, be used as reference to the continuation of tradition, which is one of the main ‘givens’ of this study. A term referring to a geographical distribution of archetype under investigation has been sought. There is an important building stock incorporating similar architectural characteristics within contemporary political boundaries of other countries, such as Iran, Bulgaria, Greece, etc., which had once formed part of the Ottoman Empire. ‘Turkey’ has not been preferred for its reference to the political boundaries of the Republican era for the same reason. Instead, another geographical term ‘Anatolia’ is considered in a widened context throughout the text to refer to a more generic concept than it implies geographically. Anatolia is considered to be the land of origin on which many cultures have emerged, generated and spread to the affected lands throughout history. Furthermore, the concentration of this study focuses specifically on extant dwellings in Anatolia. Within the confines of the term ‘traditional residential architecture in Anatolia’, there are further limitations. The origin of traditional residential architecture in Anatolia, its typological evolution, its social, cultural and/or historical aspects are not the major concerns of this study, which focuses on existing examples. A limitation of the period covered by this study accords with the construction dates of extant buildings from the seventeenth century onwards. This is an open-ended period because of the continuity in ‘traditional’ aspects in many of the settlements. The concept of ‘privacy’ serves as the basis of evaluation in analysing the interrelation of any two units. The interface of two units can be defined as an hierarchy of privacy represented sociologically by the interrelations of person/family/neighbourhood relationships and architecturally through the interrelations of room/dwelling unit/street/neighbourhood.3 3. This dwelling unit was the subject of the studio course ARCH 405 in 1989—1990, Autumn semester. The project was supervised by the author and Res.Asst. Ertu?rul Morçöl; the students were Önder Kaya, Ufuk Serin, Murat Aya?, Deniz Kutay and Gül Vanl?. This approach will include a brief summary of some previous studies of traditional residential architecture (Fig. 1).     

陕西关中传统民居文脉语境下的建筑创作思考

关中传统民居因其特色明显无疑是西安本土地域性建筑设计的灵感源泉之一,而现代建筑创作中如何对这一语境进行传承是我们必须思考的重要课题,也正是本文的研究对象所在,本文在对关中传统民居特质概述的基础上,结合理论分析与项目的实践创作提出了相应的策略与原则。     

Architecture as the built message of power: Buenos Aires under Evita's spell

All totalitarian governments try to capitalise upon cultural production for their own benefit, as metalanguages that reaffirm their values, and this includes architecture. The best-known example of this phenomenon is that of Nazi Germany, where the architect Speer transformed German cities into suitable settings for political display.

This can be found, also, in Argentina, during the first two Juan D. Perón governments (1946–1955), under the influence of his wife Eva Duarte, known as ‘Evita’. In those days the social and political value of aesthetics was maximised, and architecture was converted into a political imagery. The aim was to create an urban stage to highlight the image of the leader.

It is interesting to notice that the stylistic options that Germany, through Speer, and other totalitarian states adopted, were among those considered. Following the connotations that architectural styles developed through history, Neo-classicism was chosen for institutional buildings, whereas the vernacular languages that appeal to some kind of ‘national identity’ were the option for domestic architecture.

So, the ‘Peronist city’ was not ‘one’, but at least ‘two’, solved by juxtaposition and assemblage. In spite of their differences, these two types of architecture defined artificial settings: on the one hand, the city of political power, on the other, the city of dwelling as space of illusion.     

Architectural mimicry and the politics of mosque building: negotiating Islam and Nation in Turkey

This paper discusses the politics of mosque architecture in modern Turkey. The classical Ottoman mosque image has been reproduced in state-sponsored mosques throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Defining this particular design strategy as architectural mimicry, I discuss the emergence of this image through the negotiation between the nation-state and the ‘nationalist conservative’ discourse within the context of Cold War geopolitics. Comparing the Turkish case with the Islamic post-colonial world, I argue that the prevalence of architectural mimicry is related to the nostalgia it generates. Nostalgia is a discursive effect of architectural mimicry which is in tune with the nationalist conservative worldview in its relationship to the state's anti-communism. This particular image was taken up by the Islamist AKP in the 2000s, within the context of the global rise of political Islam. In this instance, the same representation took on a different meaning. It functioned as a simulacrum representing the ‘nation in Islam’ with a claim to authenticity amongst the competing Islamic representations.     

鄂西南土家族乡土景观营法探析

面对大自然塑造的不同地理空间单元,人类为获得生存的话语权,不断探索出应对自然环境的适应性生存智慧,营造出各具特色的乡土场景。从营造的角度,首先界定乡土景观营法,分析其内涵与策略,以鄂西南土家族为例,探索在万山稠叠、坡多地少的自然条件下乡民创设出的满足自身生存所需的生态、生产和生活空间的乡土景观营造方法,分述了地法、农法、水法、居法、匠法、礼法的具体措施、营建智慧和相关经验,总结其价值所在,以期让人们重新审视乡土景观营法,留住乡土景观营造之本,指导当前乡土建设,固守鄂西南土家族乡土特色。     

The blight of beautification: Bangkok and the pursuit of class-based urban purity

‘Beautification’ is often invoked as a justification for forms of urban reorganization that threaten existing ways of life and ignore the aesthetic values and social needs of poorer residents. The case of Bangkok, dramatically exemplified by the official campaign to evict the community of Pom Mahakan, shows how little attention is paid either to the social problems that such modernist uses of ‘tradition’ are likely to cause or to the vernacular architecture that is being destroyed in the name of ‘development’ and of a harshly selective conservation regime. The future of Bangkok’s vernacular past looks decidedly bleak.     

知识经济时代与迈向21世纪新住宅

迈向２１世纪的新住宅知识含量、技术含量将会大幅度增加，住宅的功能将会扩充和转化。智能化住宅将是智能建筑的主要成分，智能化住宅将是２１世纪新住宅的主要标志并将使人的工作效率和生活质量大大提高，智能化住宅将会形成巨大市场。迈向２１世纪的住宅建筑需要一种全新的设计观念和全新的设计体系。     

Ancient vernacular architecture: characteristics categorization and energy performance evaluation

Building has significant impacts on the environment and natural resources. The emerging world energy and environment challenges demand a substantial revolution of building design philosophies, strategies, technologies, and construction methods. Vernacular architectures, built by people whose design decisions are influenced by traditions in their culture, have been gleaned through a long period of trial and error and the ingenuity of local builders who possess specific knowledge about their place on the planet, and thus are valuable in promoting climate-specific passive building technologies to modern buildings. This study introduced an approach to categorizing distinct vernacular regions and evaluating energy performance of ancient vernacular homes as well as identifying optimal constructions using vernacular building techniques. The research conducted an extensive computer energy modeling for a number of representative ancient vernacular architectural characteristics observed for different climatic regions. The vernacular test subjects were compared against those established according to the International Energy Conservation Code and those generated by the optimization software. The simulation results of the energy models suggest that considering traditions seen in ancient vernacular architecture as an approach to improving building energy performance is a worthwhile endeavor and a scientific guidance can help enhance the performance. The study indicates that, although many vernacular dwells exist in the world, it is challenging (but desired) to package vernacular architecture traditions and quantitative design knowledge to modern building designers. This project is the first part of a much larger project that intends to create a knowledge base of vernacular building traditions that will include information about not only the energy performance of traditional building techniques, but also address areas of cost, material availability and cultural traditions.     

关中传统民居现代传承中的“抽象-隐喻”创作模式

关中传统民居作为民族传统建筑的瑰宝已经得到普遍的认同,对关中传统民詹进行现代传承的实践也已经成为地域性建筑创作的一个重要方向,而在这一方向的具体操作中“抽象一隐喻”创作模式是被当代建筑师所广泛采用的创作行为典型模式之一,因此,本文旨在运用理论与实践相结合的研究方法,详细阐述该模式的成因、原理、特征与局限,进而提出其相应的改进原则,为关中传统民居的现代传承实践提供方法论上的指导。     

A Primer for Germinant Practice

This paper proposes a conception of architecture as an evolving, rhizomatic practice, as seen in spaces created through a blurring of designing, making and occupying: a design approach called germinant practice. ‘Germinant’ is an adjective meaning ‘growing and sprouting,’ and the term ‘germinal’ has been associated with Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who see life in proliferating, indeterminable and yet interconnected terms. Germinant design practices help us to see architecture, its inhabitation and its production as the same thing, and therefore provisional, experimental, creative, and unpredictable. This paper focuses on the key issues, methods, sites and materials used in examples of art and building projects reflecting a germinant sensibility.     

Post-War Modernism: Maxwell Fry's buildings at the University of Liverpool

This paper considers the architecture and design process of Liverpool University's Veterinary School and Civil Engineering building, designed by the modernist pioneer architect, Edwin Maxwell Fry (1899–1987) in the period 1955–60. The architecture of Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War marked a departure from the modernism associated with the International Style, ‘white cubes’ and ‘primitive functionalism’, and there was a move amongst architects and reports in the architectural press that sought to review architecture through the agendas of ‘expressive’, ‘formal’ and even ‘vernacular’ design. Both of Fry's buildings initially appear as subscribers to the functionalist doctrine, adopting a sombre, even aloof exterior, but a closer inspection reveals that they are not just the routine, clichéd modern buildings that became so prevalent and scorned throughout the 1950s. They demonstrate some of the wider concerns architects had at that time, namely: monumentality, the use of art and murals as a means of conveying meaning, and a concern for context within a functional-vernacular tradition. These notions were also astutely tracked through the architectural journals along with ‘formalism’ (leading to Brutalism) and perhaps most significantly through Nikolaus Pevsner's determination to bind the English picturesque tradition with the lineage of Modernism.     

A comparative study of climatically responsive house design at various periods of Northern Cyprus architecture

Architecture is considered as a mirror of a civilization that is shaped up by needs, society, technology, culture and climate. Except climate these factors are modifiable and changeable with respect to time. Climate is a fixed environmental factor affecting architecture and its built environment. Thus, different climatic conditions pertaining to the countries force them to take special architectural precautions to create more comfortable living spaces. Furthermore, these can define the architectural characteristics of various countries at different time spans. On the basis of this argument, with this paper it is intended to reveal the main approaches and criteria for climatically responsive houses and settlements in Northern Cyprus. Contribution of the article to this field is the discussion of the climatic considerations of different architectural periods in urban and rural areas. The periods such as Ottoman (1571–1878), British (1878–1960) and Modern (1960-present) are the most significant ones discussed together with the Cypriot vernacular architecture. Site planning, building design and specific building elements are the main parameters handled to analyse the climatic considerations. In addition, the impact of socio-economy, technology, culture, politics and building management strategies have also been discussed during the process of evaluation of each period and vernacular architecture.     

Continental Roofs: Some New Clues—Part I

Abstract

From the point of view of vernacular architecture France is still the terra incognita of Western Europe, and from ignorance of the French evidence several misconceived theories have developed among scholars in northern Europe. The poinçon (hung king-post) which is probably the most typical feature of French roofs is not a true post but a vertical brace in the dominant family of principal rafter roofs. The most common types of relation between posts, wall-plates and tie-beams are 'reversed assembly' and the 'anchor beam', common in most parts of France as in other Western European countries. The origins of these current vernacular patterns may be found in medieval aisled buildings (barns or market-halls) at a time when the French rafter roof was only found in buildings of high economic and artistic status. In vernacular architecture the French rafter roof has a mainly southern distribution and comprises only three basic types.

The roof of the medieval peasant house before 1400 was seemingly of ridge-post type, but in Romance countries ridge-post roofs are associated with principal rafters. Still widespread in France, they are very common in many parts of northern Spain. Except in Galicia, the vernacular names of the ridge-post (or at least of its elementary forms) come from the Latin 'furca.'     

陕南乡土建筑的类型研究

目前,我国乡土建筑的研究已进入一个新的阶段,然而就乡土建筑研究的区域来说,还缺少完整性。特别是对于缺少有显著特征的小流域文化圈的乡土建筑,研究还处于相对空白的阶段。基于此,该文以陕南的乡土建筑作为研究背景,从功能的角度系统地进行了分类,较为详尽地介绍了不同类别乡土建筑的特点。希望通过对比分类的研究方式,使人们全面了解和认识陕南乡土建筑的特征,拓展我国乡土建筑的研究范畴,为小流域的乡土建筑研究提供方法和参考。