Search Results (7)

In 1969, English researcher Gordon Pask published an article named “The Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics”, defining a theoretical framework concerning a cybernetic theory of architecture. Throughout the 1970s, the Cambridge Research Group designed the Autonomous House, a self-sufficient dwelling in terms of energy and food. Part of the Cambridge group approach relates to cybernetics. However, the group did not regard several aspects of cybernetics described in the theoretical framework of Pask. Through a literature review primarily focused on 1970s architectural magazines, this paper analyses which cybernetic aspects were not regarded in the Cambridge Autonomous House and other similar houses as case studies. Through an innovative analytical method, it demonstrates that some limitations of the house design, such as the main focus on costs and technologies, could have been reduced if aspects of cybernetics had been more incorporated. Using cybernetics as a lens represents a method which can be beneficial also in analysing today’s examples of sustainable and autonomous architecture. Full article

The housing type of apartments, spread widely across South Korea, has penetrated deep into its domestic housing culture, thanks to their advantages in terms of convenience, resulting from the mass production of industrial capitalism, which prioritizes functionality and efficiency. However, capitalist social structures have been undergoing transformation in the 21st century. Under a new paradigm emphasizing creativity over functionality and efficiency, the characteristics of everyday life are also changing. We started with the question of apartment spaces, which featured there are only basic minimum functions with simple combinations of similar rooms, without being able to capture the current changed lifestyle. Therefore, this study focuses on newly emerging lifestyles resulting from this transition of social structures and the characteristics of residential spaces at present, centering on the “function of housing”. Based on these considerations, we aimed to establish the essential function of housing that is prioritized by this era. To this end, we first looked at the changes in the functions of housing before and after modern times. We found that the functions of housing that were complex in traditional society have been differentiated and that houses have changed into a more private space along with the post-modern advent of urban public areas. However, the recent shift in social structure has led to the emergence of new lifestyles, which has also called for new functions of housing. Therefore, in this study, through the analysis of recent lifestyle magazines and architectural magazines, we compared the general public’s and architectural experts’ perspectives on the changed functions of housing and the characteristics of the required residential space. Accordingly, this research analyzed articles containing interviews with residents in lifestyle magazines and articles of architects and critics in architectural magazines. In addition to our previous literatures on changes in “characteristics of residents” and “relationship between individual and family”, this study will ignite discussions on contemporary urban housing from diverse and multi-layered levels as an attempt to achieve sustainable housing where residents’ everyday lives and their residential spaces match. Full article

The article examines a group of exhibitions that took place in the late seventies and early eighties and are useful for grasping what was at stake regarding the debates on the tensions between modernist and post-modernist architecture. Among the exhibitions that are examined are Europa-America: Architettura urbana, alternative suburbane, curated by Vittorio Gregotti for the Biennale di Venezia in 1976; La Presenza del passato, curated by Paolo Portoghesi for the Biennale di Venezia in 1980; the French version of La presenza del passato—Présence de l’histoire, l’après modernisme—held in the framework of the Festival d’Automne de Paris in 1981; Architectures en France: Modernité/post-modernité, curated by Chantal Béret and held at the Institut Français d’Architecture (18 November 1981–6 February 1982); La modernité, un projet inachevé: 40 architectures, curated by Paul Chemetov and Jean-Claude Garcias for the Festival d’Automne de Paris in 1982; La modernité ou l’esprit du temps, curated by Jean Nouvel, Patrice Goulet, and François Barré and held at the Centre Pompidou in 1982; and Nouveaux plaisirs d’architecture, curated by Jean Dethier for the Centre Pompidou in 1985, among other exhibitions. Analysing certain important texts published in the catalogues of the aforementioned exhibitions, the debates that accompanied the exhibitions and an ensemble of articles in French architectural magazines such as L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui and the Techniques & Architecture, the article aims to present the questions that were at the centre of the debates regarding the opposition or osmosis between the modernist and postmodernist ideals. Some figures, such as Jean Nouvel, were more in favour of the cross-fertilisation between modernity and postmodernity, while others, such as Paul Chemetov, believed that architects should rediscover modernity in order to enhance the civic dimension of architecture. Following Pierre Bourdieu’s approach, the article argues that the tension between the ways in which each of these exhibitions treats the role of the image within architectural design and the role of architecture for the construction of a vision regarding progress is the expression of two divergent positions in social space. Full article

The creation of digital repositories for archiving and disseminating scientific resources faces many challenges. These challenges relate not only to the modelling of the processes of preparing, depositing, sharing, maintaining, and curating resources. They also face the feasibility of the adopted assumptions and final implementation. Such kind of issues become particularly important in the case of processing of resources containing multimedia. The critical factor then becomes a properly designed architecture that supports efficient data processing and universal data presentation. This article aims to answer questions that may arise when approaching various designing and implementation dilemmas, such as how to handle processes in a digital repository, how to use cloud solutions in its construction, how to work with user interfaces, and how to process collected multimedia. The presented study explores their practical context based on the experiences gained during the AZON platform’s implementation. This platform stores tens of thousands of scientific resources: books, articles, magazines, teaching materials, presentations, photos, 3D scans, audio and video files, databases, and many more. It serves as a running example for all presented proposals. Full article

The unbuilt synagogue in Buda is an almost forgotten chapter in Hungarian architectural history which drew great attention between 1911 and 1914. It was discussed extensively by the contemporary press in the early 20th century and by architects in the Hungarian capital of Austria–Hungary. Between 1912 and 1914 three tenders for the design of the synagogue of Buda were announced, with the participation of well-known (synagogue) architects of Hungary, who represented the diverse architectural styles of the period. The efforts to build the synagogue, including the three failed tenders, the 30 competition designs and the opinions of contemporaries raised, and continue to raise, many provocative questions. The present study is based on the analysis of the designs submitted and criticisms published in official architecture magazines between 1912 and 1914, but not yet studied and published elsewhere. Through these, the study showcases the controversial architectural decisions that could have changed the appearance of a neighbourhood but failed to do so. The study puts the townscape of Széll Kálmán Square in Buda in a new context, revealing another layer of architecture, urban design and architectural-sociology and perception of the capital’s synagogue on the eve of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Full article

The housing type of apartments, which has been spreading widely in South Korea, has penetrated deep into the domestic housing culture, thanks to the advantage of “convenience” resulting from the mass production of industrial capitalism that prioritizes functionality and efficiency. However, as capitalist social structures undergo transformation, in the 21st century, under a paradigm emphasizing creativity over functionality and efficiency, the characteristics of everyday life are also changing. Therefore, this study focuses on newly emerging lifestyles resulting from this transition of social structures. It analyzes the characteristics of residential space that reflect this trend, centering on “the characteristics of residents” and “the relationship between individual and family”. To this end, we compared lifestyle magazines aimed at the general public and architectural magazines aimed at architectural experts. ^{Section 3} explores the changed lifestyles of residents by analyzing the articles containing interviews with residents in lifestyle magazines, while ^{Section 4} focuses on the characteristics of residential spaces in reflecting these changes by analyzing houses and articles of architects and critics in architectural magazines. This analysis consistently brought forth the question of the limit of existing spaces of apartments and the desire to overcome them. A correspondence between residential spaces and the needs of everyday lives and lifestyles is a basic requirement for sustainable housing. Thus, the design of residential spaces will have to begin with a clear understanding of residents and their lifestyles, which can then be mapped onto the characteristics of residential spaces that can support them. Full article

In January 1943, Domus presented in its typical solutions series Carlo Mollino’s bedroom for a farmhouse in the rice fields (camera da letto per una cascina in risaia). This bedroom designed for publication in a magazine, was entirely imagined, and in part materialized, by and for its author. Published during World War II, this highly personal project, centered around the person in the bed, can be seen as an act of escapism. This paper identifies the project as a work of autobiography, and explores this notion through a close reading of its architectural representational media: text, photography and drawing. Full article