The history of Post-Modern Architecture was to a large extent tied to the name of Charles Jencks,... more The history of Post-Modern Architecture was to a large extent tied to the name of Charles Jencks, who played an operative role in promoting the movement, much like his predecessor Sigfried Giedion had done for Modern Architecture in the 1930’s. Like Giedion, Jencks was a prolific writer and a protagonist of a radical change in the direction of architecture. In the thirty-five year period since the appearance of his first book in 1971, Jencks published more than twenty four works, not counting the ones he edited or co-edited. And like Giedion, Jencks also attempted to reach a synthesis of opposites, by including disparate examples within his original ‘canon’, extending it in its last revision to include works by Eisenman and Tschumi, as Giedion had done by the inclusion of Aalto and Utzon in his later editions of Space, Time and Architecture. This paper will discuss Jencks’s historiography of Post Modernism by looking at the seminal texts that he wrote from 1970 until 2007, beginning with Architecture 2000 and ending with Critical Modernism. The main focus of this article is to critically examine his major work, the Language of Post Modernism, and to trace its evolution as a means to evaluate his contribution to the development of this movement, as well as to architectural historiography.
In this paper, I will discuss the results of the international competition that was organized in ... more In this paper, I will discuss the results of the international competition that was organized in the spring of 1994, to redesign the souks of Beirut. This competition, which attracted more than 300 entries from around the world, was a unique event in the history of the reconstruction of Beirut, as it was the only open competition to be held for the reconstruction of a major urban space in this city after the war. I have chosen a selection of projects to discuss in this paper, highlighting the various approaches that architects take when faced with a problem of this scope.
This paper will examine the theoretical work of one of the major proponents of a phenomenological... more This paper will examine the theoretical work of one of the major proponents of a phenomenological approach in architecture, the historian-theoretician Christian Norberg-Schulz, examining the development of his ideas across thirty years. While Norberg-Schulz started out with Intentions in Architecture (1963), a work that was clearly influenced by structuralist studies, he soon shifted to a phenomenological approach with Existence, Space and Architecture (1971), and then with Genius Loci (1980) and The Concept of Dwelling (1985). He attempted through this trilogy to lay down the foundations of a phenomenological interpretation of architecture, with an underlying agenda that espoused certain directions in contemporary architecture. This paper will examine the major writings of Christian Norberg-Schulz, critically evaluating his interpretation of phenomenology in architecture in its ambiguous relation to the project of modernity.
The history of Post-Modern Architecture was to a large extent tied to the name of Charles Jencks,... more The history of Post-Modern Architecture was to a large extent tied to the name of Charles Jencks, who played an operative role in promoting the movement, much like his predecessor Sigfried Giedion had done for Modern Architecture in the 1930’s. Like Giedion, Jencks was a prolific writer and a protagonist of a radical change in the direction of architecture. In the thirty-five year period since the appearance of his first book in 1971, Jencks published more than twenty four works, not counting the ones he edited or co-edited. And like Giedion, Jencks also attempted to reach a synthesis of opposites, by including disparate examples within his original ‘canon’, extending it in its last revision to include works by Eisenman and Tschumi, as Giedion had done by the inclusion of Aalto and Utzon in his later editions of Space, Time and Architecture. This paper will discuss Jencks’s historiography of Post Modernism by looking at the seminal texts that he wrote from 1970 until 2007, beginning with Architecture 2000 and ending with Critical Modernism. The main focus of this article is to critically examine his major work, the Language of Post Modernism, and to trace its evolution as a means to evaluate his contribution to the development of this movement, as well as to architectural historiography.
In this paper, I will discuss the results of the international competition that was organized in ... more In this paper, I will discuss the results of the international competition that was organized in the spring of 1994, to redesign the souks of Beirut. This competition, which attracted more than 300 entries from around the world, was a unique event in the history of the reconstruction of Beirut, as it was the only open competition to be held for the reconstruction of a major urban space in this city after the war. I have chosen a selection of projects to discuss in this paper, highlighting the various approaches that architects take when faced with a problem of this scope.
This paper will examine the theoretical work of one of the major proponents of a phenomenological... more This paper will examine the theoretical work of one of the major proponents of a phenomenological approach in architecture, the historian-theoretician Christian Norberg-Schulz, examining the development of his ideas across thirty years. While Norberg-Schulz started out with Intentions in Architecture (1963), a work that was clearly influenced by structuralist studies, he soon shifted to a phenomenological approach with Existence, Space and Architecture (1971), and then with Genius Loci (1980) and The Concept of Dwelling (1985). He attempted through this trilogy to lay down the foundations of a phenomenological interpretation of architecture, with an underlying agenda that espoused certain directions in contemporary architecture. This paper will examine the major writings of Christian Norberg-Schulz, critically evaluating his interpretation of phenomenology in architecture in its ambiguous relation to the project of modernity.
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