Drawing the Townscape: the Centenary of Gordon Cullen

[EN] Twenty years ago the British architect and urban designer Gordon Cullen died, without Spanish journals paying any particular attention to his legacy. As 2014 sees Cullen’s centenary, this article is intended to be a small homage to his work, and in particular to the genesis of his book Townscape. Thanks to its excellent drawings, this work has over the course of time become a classic in architectural literature[ES] Hace veinte años fallecía el arquitecto y dibujante inglés Gordon Cullen, sin que las revistas españolas prestaran especial atención a su legado. Aprovechando que en 2014 se cumplió el centenario de Cullen, rendimos con este artículo un pequeño homenaje a su obra, y en especial a la génesis de su libro Townscape, que gracias a sus acertados análisis gráficos ha llegado a convertirse con el paso del tiempo en un clásico de la literatura arquitectónica.Montes Serrano, C.; Alonso Rodríguez, M. (2015). Dibujando el Townscape: en el centenario de. EGA. Revista de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 20(26):36-47. doi:10.4995/ega.2015.4039SWORD36472026– DE MARÉ, E., 1996. "Gordon Cullen: my friend and colleague", The Architectural Review. 1196, p. 81-85.– FOSTER, N., 1994. "Obituary", The Architectural Review. 1174, p. 11

English architecture in 1963: A newly rediscovered view from Germany

This 'document' provides an English translation of an unpublished German typescript found in the archive of Julius Posener in the Akademie der Kunst, Berlin.1 Posener, a professor of architectural history at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HBK), travelled with a colleague and fifteen students to England for a fortnight in March 1963. They met several prominent architects, saw a wide selection of their current and recently completed works, and attended events at the Architectural Association school. The typescript is an account of the trip that he wrote up from notes in his diary on 29 March, two days after their return

What Lies Beneath: "Windows to the Past" in Preservation Design

This thesis contributes to the understanding of the history of preservation design by examining one of its main modes of expression: the “window to the past.” Appearing in architectural publications beginning in the early 1980s and becoming emblematic of the aesthetics of preservation design by the 1990s and 2000s, this visual device represents the historic origins of the building through the peeling away of layers on a single surface to expose materiality, texture, craft, or color. The development of windows to the past was documented by examining three architectural journals from 1945 through 2013: The Architectural Review, Casabella, and Detail. Windows to the past were disseminated in architectural journals through photographic framing, creative layouts, journal editorship, and color photography and printing. Despite its ubiquity in projects that incorporated old buildings and new designs, the approach, through the framing of existing architecture and the use of contemporary architectural materials, is often opportunistic, exploiting the visual characteristics of historic architecture and diminishing the role of history as part of architectural discourse. However, when successfully employed, the technique can function as a device that moves beyond the nostalgic notion of age and into the realm of didacticism, where it can inform the audience not only of the building’s age, but also of its craft, construction techniques, and history. By evaluating one of the most significant and prevalent modes of expression in preservation design, architectural criticism and discourse can begin to better understand the relationship between the existing and the intervening

What Lies Beneath: "Windows to the Past" in Preservation Design

This thesis contributes to the understanding of the history of preservation design by examining one of its main modes of expression: the “window to the past.” Appearing in architectural publications beginning in the early 1980s and becoming emblematic of the aesthetics of preservation design by the 1990s and 2000s, this visual device represents the historic origins of the building through the peeling away of layers on a single surface to expose materiality, texture, craft, or color. The development of windows to the past was documented by examining three architectural journals from 1945 through 2013: The Architectural Review, Casabella, and Detail. Windows to the past were disseminated in architectural journals through photographic framing, creative layouts, journal editorship, and color photography and printing. Despite its ubiquity in projects that incorporated old buildings and new designs, the approach, through the framing of existing architecture and the use of contemporary architectural materials, is often opportunistic, exploiting the visual characteristics of historic architecture and diminishing the role of history as part of architectural discourse. However, when successfully employed, the technique can function as a device that moves beyond the nostalgic notion of age and into the realm of didacticism, where it can inform the audience not only of the building’s age, but also of its craft, construction techniques, and history. By evaluating one of the most significant and prevalent modes of expression in preservation design, architectural criticism and discourse can begin to better understand the relationship between the existing and the intervening

Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK: Exchanges and transcultural influences

Italy and the UK experienced a radical re-organisation of urban space following the devastation of many towns and cities in the Second World War. The need to rebuild led to an intellectual and cultural exchange between a wave of talented architects, urbanists and architectural historians in the two countries. Post-war Architecture Between Italy and the UK studies this exchange, exploring how the connections and mutual influences contributed to the formation of a distinctive stance towards Internationalism, notwithstanding the countries’ contrasting geographic and climatic conditions, levels of economic and industrial development, and social structures. Topics discussed in the volume include the influence of Italian historic town centres on British modernist and Brutalist architectural approaches to the design of housing and university campuses as public spaces; post-war planning concepts such as the precinct; the tensions between British critics and Italian architects that paved the way for British postmodernism; and the role of architectural education as a melting pot of mutual influence. It draws on a wealth of archival and original materials to present insights into the personal relationships, publications, exhibitions and events that provided the crucible for the dissemination of ideas and typologies across cultural borders. Offering new insights into the transcultural aspects of European architectural history in the post-war years, and its legacy, this volume is vital reading for architectural and urban historians, planners and students, as well as social historians of the European post-war period

Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK

Italy and the UK experienced a radical re-organisation of urban space following the devastation of many towns and cities in the Second World War. The need to rebuild led to an intellectual and cultural exchange between a wave of talented architects, urbanists and architectural historians in the two countries. Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK studies this exchange, exploring how the connections and mutual influences contributed to the formation of a distinctive stance towards Internationalism, notwithstanding the countries’ contrasting geographic and climatic conditions, levels of economic and industrial development, and social structures. Topics discussed in the volume include the influence of Italian historic town centres on British modernist and Brutalist architectural approaches to the design of housing and university campuses as public spaces; post-war planning concepts such as the precinct; the tensions between British critics and Italian architects that paved the way for British postmodernism; and the role of architectural education as a melting pot of mutual influence. It draws on a wealth of archival and original materials to present insights into the personal relationships, publications, exhibitions and events that provided the crucible for the dissemination of ideas and typologies across cultural borders. Offering new insights into the transcultural aspects of European architectural history in the post-war years, and its legacy, this volume is vital reading for architectural and urban historians, planners and students, as well as social historians of the European post-war period

Becoming Jane Jacobs First Draft 2009

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), did not like the term “urban design” and did not describe herself as an architectural critic, but contributed significantly to the development of American architectural criticism and the new field of urban design. Although relatively little is known about Jacobs’ intellectual development, her influences, and her early writing career, before Death and Life was published, Jacobs was already among the most influential critics of urban renewal in the country. The book was a culmination of many years of studying and writing about the city; of working as a journalist and critic for Architectural Forum, for which she wrote many un-bylined articles about the progress of urban redevelopment; and of involvement in the emerging academic field of urban design. Although she is generally known as an independent and leading critic of urban renewal, Jacobs initially idealized the possibilities of city planning and redevelopment. Meanwhile, both her criticism of city planning theory and practice and her ideas for alternative approaches were significantly influenced by others, including Forum’s editor Douglas Haskell, a longtime advocate of rigorous American architectural criticism, as well as Ed Bacon, Catherine Bauer, Louis Kahn, and Lewis Mumford. Jacobs’ ideas about the city and its planning were also shaped by particular interests in urban geography, the life sciences, and social institutions from early in her career, and it was in bringing these influences together that she developed an understanding of what made a good city and the possibilities and limits of its planning and design. A better understanding of her early work suggests that although Jacobs did not like the term “urban design,” and later wrote that a city cannot be a work of art, she believed in a shared practice of making cities that could serve the diverse plans and desires of their many inhabitants

Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK

Italy and the UK experienced a radical re-organisation of urban space following the devastation of many towns and cities in the Second World War. The need to rebuild led to an intellectual and cultural exchange between a wave of talented architects, urbanists and architectural historians in the two countries. Post-war Architecture between Italy and the UK studies this exchange, exploring how the connections and mutual influences contributed to the formation of a distinctive stance towards Internationalism, notwithstanding the countries’ contrasting geographic and climatic conditions, levels of economic and industrial development, and social structures. Topics discussed in the volume include the influence of Italian historic town centres on British modernist and Brutalist architectural approaches to the design of housing and university campuses as public spaces; post-war planning concepts such as the precinct; the tensions between British critics and Italian architects that paved the way for British postmodernism; and the role of architectural education as a melting pot of mutual influence. It draws on a wealth of archival and original materials to present insights into the personal relationships, publications, exhibitions and events that provided the crucible for the dissemination of ideas and typologies across cultural borders. Offering new insights into the transcultural aspects of European architectural history in the post-war years, and its legacy, this volume is vital reading for architectural and urban historians, planners and students, as well as social historians of the European post-war period

Anticipations of Utopia: discovering an architecture for post-war Britain

This thesis responds to a growing appreciation for the richness and ambiguity of mid-century architectural culture in Britain. Initially focussing on the enthusiasm for a science-based approach among architects and town planners, the thesis identifies – in the diverse debates of the Second World War and immediate post-war years – an architecture that achieves significantly more than an abstract, inhuman, or totalising utopianism. Instead, it will expose affinities between the enthusiastic pursuit of objective solutions in architecture and planning and the drastically compromised realities, both of the historic city in ruins, and of certain episodes in the history of architecture that enjoyed popularity after the war. The first chapter introduces the problem of utopianism, a concept that has often accompanied critical studies of modern architecture. An appraisal of the utopian tradition highlights the frequent vagueness and ahistoricism of the term, leaving room for an appreciation of utopian speculation as dynamically historical, with the potential to decisively enact change. The second chapter identifies these characteristics in the mid-century enthusiasm for scientific planning, an approach that used quantifiable methods of research in order to legitimise an emerging town planning profession, which had gained added impetus from the transformative social impact of the Second World War. Underpinned by the civic and regional survey, this approach advanced the potential of technocratic management to ‘solve’ the problems of social organisation and physical planning. However, an analysis of specific attempts to speculatively develop the necessary planning machinery indicates a far richer range of concerns. The third chapter shows that the experience of wartime bombing dramatically changed the aspect of Britain’s towns and cities, with the resulting ruins presenting a visceral challenge to the idealising promise of science. But this seeming conflict obscures the relationship between ruination and reconstruction. For the anxiety and exhilaration of destruction was, in fact, embedded in the practice of rebuilding, both in the memories of the builders and of the public at large. Furthermore, an examination of contemporary architectural writing on the subject of wartime ruins displays an attempt to aestheticise and appropriate the ruin’s effects, while simultaneously maintaining an outward attitude of detachment. The final chapter develops this discussion, moving from the ruins of the historic city to investigate the mid-century adoption of architectural history as a justification for design. It will show that while scientific research seemed to promise objective solutions, the study of history received a similar authority after the war. Consequently, the historian could assume a status analogous to that of the planning expert: a fact evidenced by the activities of Rudolf Wittkower and Nikolaus Pevsner. Just as the utopian potential of science was conditioned by its contingency, this chapter will demonstrate that the appeal to history would also inevitably be limited to partial solutions