A case study in early urban design: Toronto, 1966–1978

ABSTRACT

This is a study in the practice of postwar urban design in Toronto, Canada, based on archival documents and interviews with participants. The narrative begins with the hiring of one British-trained architect/urban designer, Raymond Spaxman, by the City of Toronto Planning Board in 1966. Spaxman then set up a new division of staff that he filled with five or six other architect/urban designers of various national and institutional origins. The study describes the work carried out by these urban designers, identifies the principle themes apparent in it, and relates this to published literature on the founding principles of postwar urban design. In most ways, the study's findings fit the current understanding of the early discipline – concern for pedestrians, sympathy for historical preservation – but in others not – it was different from but not antagonistic towards planning. The findings are then considered as an example of the international transfer of postwar planning ideas. The process of idea transfer in this case looks to have been more chaotic, and less definable, than existing paradigms suggest, but this might have been fairly common in second-rank, immigrant-receiving cities.     

建筑教育的影响与缺失 从中国建筑师代际变化角度进行的观察

文章以1977年至今的中国建筑教育作为分析对象,以专业教育对建筑师在代际变化中的影响为切入点,重点考察了20世纪60年代末到70年代中出生的建筑师在校所受教育与从业表现之间的关系,借助关键词,分析了中国当代建筑教育的发展历程,探讨了其中的缺失与对策。     

浑成与侘寂——母亲住宅和白之家“前卫”的传统

在1960年代中期的美国与日本,文丘里与筱原一男从各自的背景出发,分别设计了母亲住宅与白之家这两座对后世影响深远的经典建筑,挑战当时业界主流的“正统现代主义”体系。本文对比分析两个住宅在设计动机、形式表达与空间营造上的异同,指出两者的共同点是从日常生活出发,将本土传统创造性地引入现代主义的建筑知识体系。然而在具体设计手法上,母亲住宅选取了“强形式”与“分层空间”的策略,将复杂矛盾的要素结合,浑然一体;而白之家选取了“弱形式”与“分割空间”的手法,将各要素消解融合,体现出侘寂的氛围。两者都是通过创造性转化本土传统元素,使其以当时最“前卫”的方式呈现出了各自文化的生命力,成就了一个时代的经典。     

Void Metabolism

Since the Second World War, the urban fabric of Tokyo has been shaped by individual landownership and the proliferation of the detached house. For most Japanese architectural offices, domestic practice provides the mainstay of their work. This focus on the single private house, though, also limits the range of possibilities for urban interventions. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow explains how through its development of ‘Void Metabolism’, the studio has been able to turn its focus on the residential into a positive, breaking down the barriers between private and shared space in the city.     

建筑比雨水更重要吗？——“建筑电讯”创作历程初探

“建筑电讯”是1960年代英国一个重要的前卫建筑团体。本文通过对“建筑电讯”建筑思想和创作历程的客观分析，指出“建筑电讯”在当代建筑发展中的历史价值和现实意义。     

The art of the autochrome

Abstract

The work of Esther Parada resonates with the Chicago tradition of experimental photography but with a decisively activist fervour born of the 1960s. Her themes impinge on the neglected confluence of public and private domains, the stories of lives omitted from official record, and the frank negotiation of personal accountability in response to political dissembling and disingenuousness. Though Chicago itself continues to be thoroughly inscribed in her life and her work, reflected in projects that tell of the crucial importance of black Americans, women, and urban landscaping in the history of the city, her perspectives are truly global in scope - as wide ranging as Nicaragua, England, and India. As an educator in photography at the School of Art and Design of the University of Illinois, Chicago, she deserves special consideration as having exemplified the visionary practice and critical teaching of the medium established in 1937 by László Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus. Indeed, she did graduate studies at the Institute of Design, where she came in contact with such innovative artists as Aaron Siskind, Arthur Siegel, and Joseph Jachna.¹ Parada, however, has broken new ground as one of the fJISt photographers to make the jump from the analogue or film-based photograph to the digital image, which she has deployed as part of an extended interventionist strategy of collage in order to pose alternative views to the limited narratives of privileged political and social institutions.