Cold-War conciliation: international architectural congresses in the late 1950s and early 1960s

Following the downfall of fascism in World War II, the old alliance of modernism and socialism dispersed, as architecture was sucked into the confrontation of the Cold War. In response, a new type of international architectural organisation emerged, shaped not by utopian idealism but by cultural diplomacy and international goodwill, along with consensual policy objectives, such as advancement of the architect's professional status. The most influential international organisation of architects — the ‘United Nations’ of architecture — was the Union Internationale des Architectes/International Union of Architects (UIA/IUA), a Paris-based society headed by the Hungarian-born Pierre Vago. Although only a small organisation, like many NGOs in symbolic areas of cultural activity, the UIA exploited the polarisations of the Cold War, carving out an influential mediating niche for itself. This paper focuses on the UIA congresses during the period of greatest Cold War instability — Moscow, 1958; London, 1961; Havana/Mexico City, 1963 — showing how the first and third projected the Union into hotbeds of Cold War instability.     

UIA-霍普杯2013年国际大学生建筑设计竞赛

“2013年UIA-霍普杯国际大学生建筑设计竞赛”是自举办以来的第二届,作为中国大陆地区唯一获国际建筑师协会（UIA）支持的年度国际大学生赛事,霍普杯竞赛为世界各地的建筑院校和学生提供了一个就当前环境、场地、城市空间等与建筑相关议题进行思想交流的平台,其国际影响力与日俱增。     

Skopje Resurgent: the international confusions of post-earthquake planning, 1963–1967

In the period of the Cold War, architecture became a critical medium of knowledge transfer, facilitating the processes of modernization. The Cold War protagonists, the USSR and the USA, vied to gain the political allegiances of third world nations of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. This was done through development and aid programmes that offered to lift nations out of poverty, and thereby also deliver them into political commitment to one side or the other. The destruction of Skopje, capital of Macedonia, in 1963, along with the subsequent efforts to replan and rebuild the city, brought with it a significant disruption to the Cold War dynamic. For one thing, Skopje happened to sit within Yugoslavia, a non-aligned country. For another, the winner of the competition to rebuild Skopje was a Japanese, Kenzo Tange. Moreover, the rallying efforts of the United Nations to bring people and resources from around the world to the aid of Skopje managed to transcend much of the partisanship characteristic of international politics. This paper explores the actors, networks, and mechanisms that came together from both sides of the Cold War divide to deliver one of the most defining trans-national urban projects of the 1960s.     

雅典──马丘比丘──北京──热烈祝贺国际建协第20届大会的召开!

《世界建筑》杂志热烈欢迎国内外建筑界同行和师生光临北京,衷心祝愿国际建协第20届大会圆满成功！本世纪建筑理论与实践、技术与文化均从传统走向现代,实现了建筑学、城市规划学与景观学的综合与完善。《雅典宪章》和《马丘比丘宪章》是建筑与城市建设史的里程碑,希望第20届大会通过的《北京宪章》也成为本世纪建筑发展史中最重要的篇章之一。     

波普建筑抑或浮世蜃楼？

本文从冷战时代的文化战争和全球化时代的资本主义文化逻辑两个方面讨论了波普建筑的兴起,并借鉴《景观社会》的观点分析了波普主义建筑貌似拥抱大众、实则只是取悦眼球的虚伪与犬儒。     

Lincoln Cathedral versus the Bicycle Shed

Abstract

During the Cold War, the United States and USSR used educational exchange programs as instruments of cultural diplomacy. In 1950, East German reconstruction policy was radically transformed through a well-documented Soviet-sponsored reorientation of architects and planners from East Berlin. This article chronicles a concurrent but little-known exchange, sponsored by the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, which sent West German architects to America for professional retraining. Although the U.S. program fell far short of its intentions, it illuminates the nature of Cold War cultural strategies deploying urban planning pedagogy, which were meant to reproduce American values and systems of governance abroad.     

Design Pedagogy Enters the Cold War

During the Cold War, the United States and USSR used educational exchange programs as instruments of cultural diplomacy. In 1950, East German reconstruction policy was radically transformed through a well-documented Soviet-sponsored reorientation of architects and planners from East Berlin. This article chronicles a concurrent but little-known exchange, sponsored by the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, which sent West German architects to America for professional retraining. Although the U.S. program fell far short of its intentions, it illuminates the nature of Cold War cultural strategies deploying urban planning pedagogy, which were meant to reproduce American values and systems of governance abroad.     

The Hallagerbakken housing project in Holmlia,Norway: when welfare became business

The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed one of the most influential shifts within the organisational system of production for Norwegian mass housing. Although the increased availability of resources following the Second World War and the discovery of North Sea oil put the Norwegian government in a favourable position for investing in state-sponsored housing programmes, such investments did not happen. Instead, the strong public responsibility for affordable housing as a right of all citizens was weakened, and housing evolved into a commodity to be traded primarily on the free market.

Hallagerbakken, a housing project within the Holmlia satellite town—the last large housing development in the south of Oslo—has been influenced by several of the changes that occurred in the housing sector during this period. The resulting hybrid housing typology represented an innovation in the Norwegian setting, and, as a result, the project provides a starting point for re-evaluating some of the shifts towards a more market-oriented reality within architecture and the built environment.     

The sedimentation of memory

This paper explores how architecture can embody the past. In the context of Berlin—the site of much prominent contemporary memorial architecture—it examines one project in detail: Reitermann and Sassenroth's widely overlooked Chapel of Reconciliation, completed in 2000. This building, I argue, demonstrates a distinctive and critically acute approach to memory. Unlike the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenmann, and the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, which are projects that make worlds-unto-themselves—and unlike the work of Carlo Scarpa in Verona, or Sverre Fehn at Hamar, or Peter Zumthor in Cologne, where layers of history are conspicuously displayed one-on-top-of-the-next—the Chapel displays a sedimentary approach to the past. This sedimentation is not an outright rejection of history; nor does it suggest that history proceeds as a single, linear narrative. While the Chapel's architecture may not have immediate visceral impact, its thoughtfulness and subtlety repay careful scrutiny. The chapel is read here as a cultural artefact, its organisation and details examined in relation to its specific historical, physical and intellectual contexts.     

The sedimentation of memory

This paper explores how architecture can embody the past. In the context of Berlin—the site of much prominent contemporary memorial architecture—it examines one project in detail: Reitermann and Sassenroth's widely overlooked Chapel of Reconciliation, completed in 2000. This building, I argue, demonstrates a distinctive and critically acute approach to memory. Unlike the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenmann, and the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, which are projects that make worlds-unto-themselves—and unlike the work of Carlo Scarpa in Verona, or Sverre Fehn at Hamar, or Peter Zumthor in Cologne, where layers of history are conspicuously displayed one-on-top-of-the-next—the Chapel displays a sedimentary approach to the past. This sedimentation is not an outright rejection of history; nor does it suggest that history proceeds as a single, linear narrative. While the Chapel's architecture may not have immediate visceral impact, its thoughtfulness and subtlety repay careful scrutiny. The chapel is read here as a cultural artefact, its organisation and details examined in relation to its specific historical, physical and intellectual contexts.     

Architecture for leisure in post-war Europe, 1945–1989: between experimentation,liberation and patronisation

In May, 1960, the Metabolist Group made a stunning debut at the World Design Conference held in Tokyo by presenting visionary proposals for future cities. Metabolism has long been understood within what Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co have called an ‘international concept of utopia’ of the 1960s. Metabolism's vision of the future, however, does not neatly fit into a singular category of modernist utopia. For Japanese architects who witnessed the devastation of war in their teens, it seemed nearly impossible to imagine a technology-driven future without considering the mass destruction of the urban environment, the inevitable consequence of the very embrace of technology that post-war Japan sought as a means to brighten its future. This article situates Metabolism within Japan's specific post-war condition, which was closely tied to global Cold War geopolitics. The Cold War framework allows us to examine the dual sensibility of promise and peril inherent in Metabolism's theory and design.     

全球化趋势下我国建筑师职业实践所面临的挑战——国际建协职业实践委员会发展历史沿革及建筑实践职业主义推荐国际标准

本文介绍了国际建协（UIA）职业实践委员会（UIA-PPC）的发展历史沿革，并对建筑实践的职业主义推荐国际标准的主要内容及各版本修订要点进行了比较研究。作者以国际建协职业实践委员会（UIA-PPC）联席主席的视角，介绍了委员会的工作动向，并结合目前国际建筑职业实践的发展对我国建筑职业实践的现状及全球化趋势下我国建筑师职业实践所面临挑战的关键点进行了论述。     

IBA's “Models for a City”: Housing and the Image of Cold-War Berlin

The design competition mounted by the International Building Exposition promised to break new ground in the union of housing and architecture, but the city housing bureaucracy retained control over the interior layouts. The new thinking about housing suggested by the facade manipulations, then, was merely a shell over standardized apartment units. At the same time, the less-publicized urban renewal section of IBA rehabilitated thousands of nineteenth-century buildings with tenant participation, producing occasional new forms of communal dwelling that were rarely expressed on the exterior. Alongside the design of the individual buildings raged a debate about the form of the city. A return to the traditional fabric was defended by IBA leadership as a critical response to modern urban renewal, but it was criticized in turn by architects who saw in it the denial of Berlin's history of fragmentation and destruction. The IBA competition recounts the role of cultural production in Berlin's struggle for identity during the Cold War rather than the role of architecture in forging new directions for housing.     

Critical Engagement: The Role of Ada Louise Huxtable in the Evolution of 2 Columbus Circle

Ada Louise Huxtable is widely acknowledged to be among the most influential architectural critics of the last century. Her recent death was followed by numerous assessments of the many achievements of her long, pioneering career. Although Huxtable wrote about countless works of architecture, evidence of her enduring influence may be found in the circumstances surrounding the evolution of a single building—the Gallery of Modern Art in New York City—which became inextricably intertwined with Huxtable's critique of it. The story of Huxtable's engagement with this building serves as a case study of the potential impact of the cultural critic and how architectural criticism intersects with practice and politics.     

新陈代谢:立足当下畅想未来——UIA第24届世界建筑师大会未来都市展观感

作为在东京召开的国际建筑师协会(UIA)第24届世界建筑师大会开幕式的重头戏,"新陈代谢"未来都市展在东京六本木之丘的森美术馆举办。展览介绍了日本新陈代谢学派在战后日本重建及当前城市建设中的相关活动,展示其对未来都市的美好畅想,体现了日本新陈代谢学派大师对未来城市与空间设计构想的超前性和预见性。这些对未来城市规划和发展实践具有重要启示和借鉴意义。     

Absent architectures: post-war housing in British children’s picture books (1960–present)

In the decades following World War II, British cities—and, to a lesser degree, rural areas—underwent radical architectural and structural transformations. Yet, architecture associated with post-war reconstruction is significantly underrepresented in children’s picture books of the period. The home, the street, and the high-street are, more often than not, depicted in a formal language associated with Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian architectural ideals. This paper explores what kind of cultural ideologies children are integrated into when it comes to the representation of post-war architecture. Specifically, the paper focuses on domestic space and asks what ideas of the ‘home’ are promoted. Drawing on Gaston Bachelard’s exploration of the relationship between domestic architecture and emotional/psychological response in The Poetics of Space (1957), and Jean Baudrillard’s theory of communication in the age of postmodernity, this paper maps the influence of post-war architectural design on a selection of children’s picture books published during the 1960s and 1970s. The paper concludes with an examination of two popular picture books published in 1996 and 2013, which trace the legacies of post-war architecture.     

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.     

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.     

Embodying networks: bubble diagrams and the image of modern organicism

After the Second World War, cinema was fundamental in portraying the spatial form of the time, while simultaneously contributing to the creation of a visual culture at a key moment in Italy. Despite the controversy regarding the definition of post-war cinematic style, Italian film of this time is generally globally recognised as ‘neorealist’. Neorealist cinema created an environment that informed architecture, photography, painting, and other forms of art. The term neorealism has been adopted ad hoc in architecture, perhaps unconsciously, however the transfer has not been carefully studied. Placing the architecture-cinema relationship at the analytical focal point may shed light on some unaddressed questions: How did architecture get involved with cinematic discourse? What do the films and the architectural projects share? This article starts from the cultural context portrayed by films and investigates if and how — using which formal language, tools and references, and to what end — the neorealist discourse was transferred from film to architecture. Six projects are presented that help understand neorealist conditions in architecture: the Quartiere Tiburtino (Rome), La Martella village (Matera), the Towers in Viale Etiopia (Rome), the Quartiere in Cerignola (Foggia), the Quartiere San Basilio (Rome) and the Quartiere in Cesate (Milan).     

浅析城市中“模糊地段”的改造

随着城市的发展与革新,随之产生了一些新的城市现象。＂模糊地段＂是巴塞罗纳国际建协第19届大会＂现在与未来——城市中的建筑学＂主题的分主题之一。本文对＂模糊地段＂的形成背景、改造类型以及其改造特点进行了理解与思考,并例举国外成功案例,寻求适合中国的城市更新方式,创造出更高质量的生活环境。