Interest Groups

Architectural Histories, Environmental Theories / Architectural Theories, Environmental Histories

Coordinated by: Dalal Alsayer, Megan Eardley, Sophie Hochhäusl, Torsten Lange

The aim of this group is to examine the “environment” both as a central object of inquiry within architectural history and as a methodological framework that connects fields such as environmental and landscape history, geography, histories of science and technology, cultural studies, and anthropology. We aim to develop a series of interests, inquires, and questions that explore the relationship between architecture and environment not as primarily dialectic, but as continuous and dynamic; understanding both as densely interwoven with each other, whilst maintaining that, despite these continuities, their relationship is never even and thus remains politically charged.

Architecture, not Building: Actors at the Margins

Coordinated by: Anne Hultzsch, Catalina Mejía Moreno

What were to happen, if we wrote the histories of buildings, cities, and sites without considering how and by whom they were designed? By focusing on the visual and verbal reception and (re)appropriation of the built, this roundtable of the Building Word Image Group seeks to shed light on groups or individuals acting at and from ‘the margins’, excluded by a variety of norms from the architectural sphere. We thus propose a conceptual shift, from a disciplinary focus on the design process and on the designed object, to approaches that include explorations of word and image as a means of architectural and knowledge production.

More precisely, this roundtable invites participants to explore the ways in which practices of word and image, as opposed to practices of building, have enabled marginalised actors – defined by geography, gender, race, class, culture, society, etc. – to contribute to architectural cultures. Taking a global and cross-period stance, we ask whether one can uncover unknown protagonists (singular or collective) within architecture who – through word and image, or visual and verbal practices – have shaped spatial and built environments in equal measure to those wielding the draftsperson or the critic’s pen? How did such marginal actors and practices establish themselves as part of the architectural sphere? Did they seek acknowledgement and recognition within architecture, or not? More generally, can we expand architectural history, and the understanding of how buildings, cities, and spaces have been produced and consumed, if we place such marginal practices of word and image on a par with the design of these sites? What would be the consequences of placing the actors and their often-overlooked practices on a par with the ‘architect’ and with ‘architecture’?

We call for short provocations, stimulating the debate on how we can widen, even breach, the borders of architectural production through word and image. We invite object-based presentations of 10 minutes on actors and/or practices marginal to the architectural field, from letter writing, painting, journalism, or sculpture, to political pamphleteering, educational writing, printmaking, or household writing. Contributors will present outputs of these practices and demonstrate how these accessed, extended, or reflected on architectural production from the margins.

Experiences in Finding Funding

Coordinated by: Lucía C. Pérez Moreno

In the current European context, raising funds for research is essential to conduct high quality research. As a network, the EAHN interest group on Grant Collaborations wants to create a platform to share experiences with collaborative grants. We welcome presentations of EAHN members that have applied (and won or not) to both European and international grants and would be willing to share this experience with other colleagues. The objectives of this initiative are several:  1) to present ongoing research projects that have an interest to attract new junior researchers; 2) to explain topics of research on which a senior scholar is looking for partners in order to apply for grants; and, 3) to critically analyze the topics of the different European Programs (ERC, Horizon2020-Societal Challenges, EACEA-Europe for Citizens, Creative Europe, etc.) and the possibilities of architectural historians to conduct research through them. Proposals for 10-minute presentations are welcome. This interest group is also interested in innovative ideas for dialogues in this topic.

 

Contact : Lucía C. Pérez Moreno

Email : lcperez@unizar.es

Present Histories in/of Conflict

Coordinated by: Alona Nitzan-Shiftan, Petros Phokaides, Panayiota Pyla

Further details tba.

Housing: Keywords for an Architectural Manifesto

Coordinated by: Gaia Caramellino, Filippo De Pieri

Since the 1980s, responsibility for housing provision around the globe has largely been transferred from the state and public actors to the market and dwellers themselves. In the process, “architecture” as cultural product has become framed as distinct from “housing” as a socio-economic need, not only among the general public, but among policy makers, planners, architects, and historians. The workshop aims at recasting architecture as a crucial aspect of housing provision, investigating ways to overcome the conceptual divorce of architecture from social and economic narratives of housing. Toward this aim, workshop participants will critically analyze a set of terms used to discuss the architecture, economics, and politics of housing. The language we use—whether “model,” “unit,” or “housing” itself—embeds normative assumptions related to all three realms. Language frames not only how scholars and professionals evaluate the past and the present, but also how they envision the future. The workshop thus seeks to identify the origins, evolution, and contemporary use of key terms in order to develop a better understanding of how we might reframe the entanglements of design, politics, practices and economics in a historical perspective.

Participants are asked to select a single term through which to present their research. Terms can deal with different scales and can address typologies, policies, methods, actors, practices. In the workshop, 5-minute statements will be followed by a discussion.

Exchanges Europe-Latin America and beyond: debriefing narratives modes

Coordinated by: Ana Esteban Maluenda, Anat Falbel, Horacio Torrent, Ruth Verde Zein

Recent exhibitions, catalogs and books on Latin America modern architecture and cities have revived the region’s presence in contemporary international debates, corroborating its importance and breadth. A hybrid cultural and human landscape, Latin American art, culture and architecture have deep roots branching across the continents, certainly with Europe, and also with America, Asia, Africa and beyond. These connecting ties are being considered by scholars and researchers from all continents, establishing a dynamic corpus of academic debates. However, are these recent studies still framed in old colonial concepts, or are they actually proposing renovated attitudes? Which narratives and positions are being fostered by these works and discourses? What are the challenges that need to be addressed to surpass 20^th century’s historiographic conceptions and practices? How to arrive at more inclusive spatial history of the region – are new historiographic methods being developed? The workshop wishes to debate these issues according to three axes: exchange modes; interpretation modes; narration modes.

For Lack of a Better Word: Postmodernism across the Three Worlds

Coordinated by: Vladimir Kulić, Łukasz Stanek, Veronique Patteeuw, Léa-Catherine Szacka, Carmen Popoescu

More details tba.

The Next Ten: Mission, Visions and Goals for the Urban Representations Group

Coordinated by: Anat Falbel, Miriam Paeslack, Nancy Stieber, Jeffrey Cohen

After ten years in existence, we wish to reconsider our group’s mission and scope. We will request brief presentations on possible future orientations of the group, followed by general discussion and creation of a committee to draft a new mission statement. We warmly invite interested EAHN members to join us in re-shaping the group’s scope and direction.