Architectural Criticism

This is a review of the monograph on the work of the Austrian architects Riegler Riewe, situating the work in the local history and architectural context. Eva Guttmann replaces the currently predominating and simplistic account, in which Riegler Riewe’s work is mainly understood in opposition to the Graz School, for a more complex view in which the work is explained as the result of differing circumstances and a variety of ideas. After the introduction by Guttmann, the book starts off with an interview by Otto Kapfinger with Riegler and Riewe. The focus is on the early influences and impressions in their work, such as the post-war modernists surrounding Ferdinand Schuster, relatively unknown local architects such as Josef Klose, and the highly tectonic work of Heinz Bienefeld.

[ ISBN: 978-84-948315-7-7  /  ISSN:  2530-9609  ]
- - - - - - - - -
Prólogo para el nº 59 de 'SINTESIS ARQUITECTURA SELECCIÓN' (diciembre 2019) dedicado a las obras:

- ESTADIO DE FÚTBOL 'WANDA METROPOLITANO' _ Madrid (Cruz + Ortiz arqs.).
- CENTRO DE ARTES ESCÉNICAS Y ESCUELA DE MÚSICA 'MUXIKEBARRI _ Getxo (Luis Mª Uriarte arq.).
- CENTRO PSICO-GERIÁTRICO _ Pamplona (Vaillo + Irigaray arqs.).
- FOUNDER'S HALL - RUNNEMEDE CAMPUS _ Madrid (Rojo + Fernández Shaw arqs.).
- RESIDENCIA DE ESTUDIANTES _ Sant Adriá del Besós (Polo + MDBA arqs.).

ترتكز بنية الكتاب على ثلاثة مكونات اساسية تمثل اجزاء الكتاب المتتابعة. وهذه المكونات هي اطار فكري تنظيمي يمثل القضية الاكبر او الاشكالية الاعم التي يندرج تحتها مجموعة من المقالات والاطروحات. ومن هذا المنطلق تتشكل بنية الكتاب من الجزء الاول، والمعنون "اشكاليات مفاهيمية" وتطرح المقالات المندرجة تحت هذا الجزء اطروحات ذات علاقة بمفاهيم الهوية واشكالياتها، وحرية العملية التعليمية ومحتواها الابداعي. كما تطرح تساؤلات عن حال العمارة المصرية المعاصرة. الجزء الثاني والمعنون "اطروحات نقدية" وتطرح المقالات المندرجة تحت هذا الجزء تحليلات نقدية لمجموعة من المشروعات المعمارية الهامة ومنها مكتبة الاسكندرية وقصة برج القاهرة وسياقها السياسي، ووصولا لمشروع مقر السفير المصري في العاصمة الالمانية برلين. اما الجزء الثالث والمعنون "قضايا عمرانية" وتطرح المقالات المندرجة تحت هذا الجزء انتقالا من المستوى المعماري الى المستوى العمراني حيث تسقط الضوء على اشكالية نهر النيل ودوره في عمران القاهرة. كما تناقش اعادة تعريف وتقييم التحرك اللارسمي في عمران مصر ومستقبل المدينة في ضوء المتغيرات التكنولوجية الفارقة. ان هذا التسلسل المقصود من المستوى المفاهيمي الى المستوى المعماري ثم الانتقال الى المستوى العمراني يؤسس للقيمة الرئيسية لهذا الكتاب وهو الاهمية القصوى لرؤية وتقييم النشاط العمراني والمعماري من خلال سياقا اكثر شمولا وادراكا للتحولات المتسارعة في مصر واقليمها ومحيطها العالمي.

Published in Art4D: Journal of Art and Design 146 (2008)

The Bishan Community Library in Singapore is a work of architecture that is equally stylish as it is educational. And, we must thank Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi for having created the design concept of this library and center of education. Apart from being a place where one can learn, this library isn't limited to just " reading " and maintaining " silence ". The Library was initiated by the National Library Board of Singapore, who expressed a need for the expansion and reduction of congestion within the community library, which proved to be unaccommodating due to the size and demand towards the end of the 90s. The area around Bishan district itself is historical and interesting.

It was actually a cemetery before the state government came in and allocated the land according to necessities of this area during the 80s. Today, Bishan has become a residential area on the outskirts of one of the most flourishing business districts of Singapore. However, the development scheme somehow missed out on education. The folks in Bishan had to wait up to ten years before seeing any signs of a development plan for a library, which surfaced around the 90s. At any rate, it took another ten odd years for the construction of the community library to be completed. Policies were created in 1995 and by the time the selection process from the design competitions had come to a conclusion, it was already 2002.

It took another year after that for the construction to begin, and another three years for the construction of the 4,240 square meter community library to be completed. Right next to the 1,440 square meter land where the building stands is the Bishan subway station.The construction amounted to about 10 million SGD or about 200 plus Thai baht, which is considered a fairly high amount. However, compared to other unique buildings we have seen, this isn't surprisingly high. Plus, the results surely satisfy the needs of its users. The design itself was by local architects, Look Boon Gee and Ng Sor Hiang of LOOK Architects.

“Power and Privilege,” 50th anniversary review of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 75:4 (December): 497-498.

"To the extent that we do keep rereading Complexity and Contradiction, we should situate the book within a history of privilege that skews architectural knowledge, excludes a wide range of perspectives, and alienates people who might otherwise engage with our discipline. Intersectional analysis can help us not only to better understand books like Complexity and Contradiction and buildings like Wu Hall (the kitchen and scullery as much as the en-try and dining halls) but also to challenge the reproduction of power and privilege."

Problem statement: Nasir al-Molk mosque, which is described in architectural writing resources as a distinct mosque, has become a tourism center in Shiraz for many years and seems to have lost its devotional function. This distinction from the mosques with a more historical dating in Shiraz results in the assumption that the architectural features of this mosque are the reason for this distinction. Characteristics that come with the change or emphasis of common patterns in traditional mosques, and field observations and reviewing the documents of related resources include the lack of elongation of the prayer hall perpendicular to the axis of the qibla, the aberration of the perception of the qibla, the maximum decorations in the space of worship and the likeness to non-Muslim patterns. In order to examine these characteristics that cprayer hallenge the historic originality, it is necessary to refer to non-timely religious criteria, which goes beyond this feature, to ensure the devotional function of the mosque in an optimal way.
Research objective: Hence, the main purpose of this research is to judge and critique the distinctive features of the design of the Nasir al-Molk mosque in Shiraz based on religious criteria.
Research method: In the present article, using the verses of the Qur’an and narrations, especially those who refer to the construction of Masjid al-Nabi(The prophet’s Mosque) by the prophet (pbuh), as criteria for criticism, the judgment of these four attributes in the mosque of Nasir al-Molk will be considered.
Conclusion: The findings show that the division of the prayer hall into the eastern and western parts, which contradicts the policies of the prayer hall design from the point of view of Islam, as well as the aberration from the axis of the qibla alongside the maximum decorations that damage the experience of the worshipers, and finally use the signs and patterns of imported architecture in the Qajar era prove that the effect of these features is to enhance the mosque’s exhibitive capabilities and, hence, reduce its worshipability.

The book Architecture and Structuralism — The Ordering of Space is intended as Hertzberger’s definitive text on structuralism, and is at once a synopsis of his earlier books, such as Lessons for Students in Architecture I & II, as well as an effort to enrich and bring his theoretical framework up-to-date.

This is a review of the first monograph of the Dutch architecture practice MVRDV; it is a reflection on the practice’s built work from the 1990s up to 2012. The book is edited by Ilka and Andreas Ruby, two self-confessed admirers of MVRDV, and it offers a mainly image-based tome and relaxed read. The article describes the context in which the work came about, the so-called SuperDutch era of relative economic prosperity and favorable cultural policy.

In the third stage of a two-decade vision for a sustainable mixed-use village, DFJ Architects has combined an industrial material palette, the subtropical landscape and shared facilities to create a hub with characteristics bound to Byron Bay.

SEEING CRITICISM OF ARCHITECTURE FROM “STAIR”

In this study, one of the fundamental elements of architecture, namely stair with its associations and metaphorical usages is seen as an opportunity to reconsider and discuss criticism of architecture practice. To do so, images of stair created in different settings are examined: Hans Op de Beeck’s sculpture, The Conversation; Georges Perec’s novel, Life: A User’s Manual; Piranesi’s Carceri d’Invenzione drawings and panorama building’s typical section. Here, the main aim is to transmit and translate the implications of stair to criticism of architecture practice.

In ‘Urban Literacy’, Delft University associate professor Klaske Havik interrogates the relationship between literature and architecture, arguing
for a literary approach to architectural education, research and design
practice. The book sits firmly in the phenomenological discourse, framing itself in the context of the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger and Bachelard, yet it is mostly based on a particular reading of Henri Lefebvre. Havik takes Lefebvre’s triad of social space: the conceived’, the ‘perceived’ and the ‘lived’ to argue that architecture should appeal not just to our visual senses but to the full complexity of our multi-sensory experience of space. Architects don’t usually design with the ‘lived’ experience in mind, Havik contends, whereas literature abounds with rich descriptions of architectural space, sensory experiences, time and memory. This poetic potential, she argues, should be applied to architectural design to fill this lacuna.

Studying contemporary mosque architecture necessitates dealing concurrently with both the past and the present. Burdens of the past cause a crisis at a point when architects attempt to design prayer spaces that avoid historicist references while attending to the religion’s liturgical requirements. This crisis indicates the moment at which architects are forced to become critical of what is preceding, and thus creates a challenging situation in the evolution of mosque architecture. This article takes the Sancaklar Mosque, designed by Emre Arolat Architecture (EAA), as its main object of research in order to assess this challenge. The Sancaklar Mosque presents a significant attempt to free mosque design from the prevailing formal practices observed in the majority of current mosques, by rejecting any clear reference to the historical mosque type and the use of any conventional mosque elements. However, I argue that while Sancaklar Mosque displays a clear break with the past, it is not ahistorical. The mosque suggests both a suspension of discussions on mosque architecture reduced to formal significations and historical prototypes, but also a different way of dealing with the past, which is, in this article, conceptualized as ‘defamiliarization’. The Sancaklar Mosque provides a significant example for a project in which familiar codified formal elements are displaced as a particular response to the challenge that architects face when designing religious buildings.

Análisis de la obra del arquitecto Alberto Campo Baeza a partir de la idea arquitectónica de su "pensar con las manos" tomando como casos de estudio la Casa Gaspar y la Casa De Blas: la primera, como interpretación del tipo de "casa-patio", con la mano en posición de guillotina; y la segunda, que sigue el modelo de "pabellón" como "belvedere" apoyado sobre podium, con la mano en posición de visera. Dos posturas que son dos ideas construidas casi antitéticas en su relación con la luz y el paisaje circundante.

Análisis de la obra del arquitecto Alberto Campo Baeza a partir de la idea arquitectónica de su "pensar con las manos" tomando como casos de estudio la Casa Gaspar y la Casa De Blas: la primera, como interpretación del tipo de "casa-patio", con la mano en posición de guillotina; y la segunda, que sigue el modelo de "pabellón" como "belvedere" apoyado sobre podium, con la mano en posición de visera. Dos posturas que son dos ideas construidas casi antitéticas en su relación con la luz y el paisaje circundante.

Ethics of Subjectivity and Aesthetics of Subjectivation: Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier and Sou Fujimoto Architectures

Ethics of subjectivity can reach out for the truth when an emergent particular situation in an event and its relational network is considered. Relational aesthetics of subjects are produced in many practical expressions. Architectural ethics in interpreting events problematizes virtual of the event and conscious and unconscious expressions of architects related to the event as a routine. The related things are denominated in aesthestic relations and emerges with mental imaginary and are expressed in language. These images become the foundamental problematics of transmission. In this paper privacy and publicness of architects producing ethical knowledge and forming the aesthetic images are discussed. Subjectivation of an architect being a subject, actor or witness, emerging the “power as truth” have forms showing compatibility and incompatibility with the power being practiced. Also, in this paper interpretation that produces subjectivity/self, takes the advantage of visual and auditory arts as drama, photography and cinema producing the power of truth. Strategic visibilities and masked invisibilities of subjectivities in practice present realities in ethics and relational aesthetics of architectural and art theories. Adolf Loos (18701933), Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and Sou Fujimoto’s (1971-) production of subjectivities are interpreted in serial images in emerging realities. Architectural particularities relating modernity, modern city and the social; enonciations, works and utterances form textualities emerging a contemporary architectural image. These textualities are also singularities and read in a frame of referential concepts: Multiplicity, theatricality, event, mask, gap, margin, denomination, home, gaze, real/surreal, image, symbol etc..

In 1995 flyers carrying the strange message “Svábhegy Reformed worship! Every Sunday at the St. Ladislaus Parish Church” appeared. A Roman Catholic Church helped in establishing a Reformed Church. Following discussion of architectural style it was decided to take inspiration from Mathew 7:24-27 and to build a house upon a rock, working in brick and stone, to form an inner sanctum based around a cave-like place of worship.

Applications to the Master HTCA Histoire, Théories, Critique de l'Architecture

Deadline: May, 13 th, 2019

More information: mailto: helene.janniere@univ-rennes2.fr

Le Master Mention Histoire de l’art de l’Université Rennes 2 offre aux étudiants la possibilité d’un parcours spécialisé, en Master 2, en histoire de l’architecture, intitulé Histoire, Théories, Critique de l’Architecture (HTCA). Fondée sur la pluralité et la complémentarité des compétences et approches pédagogiques, cette formation de Master 2 associe le Département d’Histoire de l’art et Archéologie de l’Université Rennes 2 et l’ENSA Bretagne.
Le parcours Histoire, Théories, Critique de l’Architecture (HTCA) est ouvert en Master 2 :
- Aux titulaires d’un diplôme d’architecte ADE, d’un diplôme des Écoles d’art.
- Dans le cadre d’un double-cursus se déroulant à l’École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Bretagne, aux étudiants en architecture ayant validé leur 4e année d’études.
- À tout étudiant titulaire d’un Master 1 en Histoire de l’art ou d’une autre mention (Droit, Sciences politiques, Humanités, Histoire, Géographie et Aménagement, Arts plastiques), d’un diplôme de l'École du Louvre.
La formation est ouverte depuis la rentrée 2017-2018
Responsable de la formation : Hélène Jannière
 helene.janniere@univ-rennes2.fr
Scolarité Inscription Arts :  mailto:ufr-alc-inscription-arts@univ-rennes2.fr
 02 99 14 15 07
Enseignante responsable bi-cursus ENSAB : Carmen Popescu
 carmen.popescu@rennes.archi.fr

Équipes de recherche associées : EA 1279 Histoire et Critique des Arts (Rennes 2) et EA 7465 GRIEF (Ensa Bretagne).
Lieux d’enseignement : Université Rennes 2 - Campus Villejean ; École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Bretagne (Rennes), Archives de la critique d’art (Rennes).

The Future of the Skyscraper is a collection of essays, edited by SOM architects, of people outside or obliquely related to the profession of architecture to think and reflect on skyscraper design.
This approach is appealing, since the consequences of building skyscrapers with respect to their ecological, material and energy footprints are so large that the decision of their construction ought to be a larger societal question and a shared, public responsibility. In the most positive scenario this building type can help to solve problems of an increasingly urbanised and overcrowded planet: they can make cities denser, function as carbon sinks, generate energy and be used for rainwater retention and urban agriculture. If their explosive, and largely unregulated, growth is left unchecked, however, they will continue to be used to reinforce inequality and class divisions by creating privatised, heavily secured havens for the few, will continue to deplete resources, will create micro climates and heat islands, and last, but not least, will remain a massive contributor to CO2 emissions and thus speed up the process of climate change.

This is a momentous exhibition covering 500 modern works from more than a dozen South American countries. It celebrates the 60th anniversary of Henry Russell Hitchcock’s 1955 MoMA show ‘Latin American Architecture since 1945’ and was organised over a period
of five years by curator Barry Bergdoll, head of the department of architecture and design, together with a team of experts and contributions from research teams across the South American continent. Its focus is on the post-war period until 1980, an era of  unprecedented urbanization and modernisation, and coincides with the application of development theory, or developmentalism, by most Latin American governments.

El artículo de Hélène Jannière, publicado en 2009 en Cahiers de la Recherche architecturale et urbaine (en un número especial codirigido por la misma autora, junto a Kenneth Frampton), presenta un panorama sobre las hipótesis, la literatura crítica y los corpus que han alimentado —y delimitado— los debates efectuados en torno a, y desde la crítica arquitectónica durante el último medio siglo; al analizarla como un objeto de investigación en sí, Jannière interroga desde diversas perspectivas los principales aspectos relacionados con los orígenes, las transformaciones e incluso las contradicciones que han moldeado la crítica arquitectónica y sus discursos. Apoyada en textos de autores como Venturi, Zevi, Collins, Bonta, Pawley o Montaner, entre otros, la autora plantea finalmente una serie de pistas que pueden direccionar la comprensión del rol y el significado de la crítica arquitectónica, más allá de las controversias acerca de su especificidad disciplinar, de las polémicas sobre la crisis de su autonomía, o de la volatilidad que ha caracterizado aquellas tipologías establecidas para entenderla.

The culture that we have created requires architecture in order to live and socialise, yet the architect is driven by the urge to create aesthetically pleasing buildings, an urge which habitually neglects the need for creating an essence and compromising the usability of the building. Prevalent especially in healthcare architecture, where the usability of the building by medical professionals overshadows the functional needs of the patient, requires design-based solutions which primarily focuses on the restorative essence and properties created by holistic design in order to benefit the user. The interaction between environment and recovery is heavily documented (Ulrich 1984,1992, 2002), yet perpetually falls on deaf ears in favour of the aesthetic.
It is now that returning to our vernacular roots, which supply us with the simplest, most effective form of addressing humanitarian needs, can help us combat these detrimental effects to our planet and rekindle the utilitarian connection between humanity, architecture and nature. Reciprocating our knowledge of utilising the sun and daylight into the building, passive ventilation and energy efficiency, we can strive to create a holistic approach to the intimate connection between design and nature in order to create ‘an essence in architecture: vernacular solutions to the humanitarian issues of the design for healthcare’.
Through analysis of existing scholarship on vernacular methods of sustainable design and the creation of ‘essence’ through the manipulation of space, this essay discusses the importance of creating high quality, aesthetically pleasing sustainable healthcare architecture in order to promote healing and wellbeing.

Months before its official opening, the Serpentine Pavilion 2019, designed by Junya Ishigami, incited controversy. The project’s first design renderings, portraying a pastoral composition under rainy skies, appeared amid a heated debate over unpaid internships. Upon completion, Ishigami’s Serpentine Pavilion proves to be elemental and sincere, bold and meticulously resolved.

In this keynote speech I will expound on creativity in general. However, rather than dealing with the ways and methods of fostering creative thinking in architecture or in architectural education, I will question what creativity actually is and how exactly one discriminates the creative from the non-creative in architectural works. What are its features and properties and how can they be distinguished and/or traced?

Architecture Beyond Criticism: Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation, Wolf F.E. Preiser, Aaron Davis, Ashraf M. Salama, Andrea Hardy (Editors), Routledge, 2014  Reviews and Endorsements by Philip Nobel, Kristen Richards, Roger K. Lewis, Harriet Harriss, 2014

_________________________
‘Imagine if architects were trained to respond dynamically to their critics? Imagine if architecture critics practiced with sufficient rigor to be taken seriously by architects? This book is a brave and original attempt to bring together two antagonistic cultures. It points the way to a better-performing future—for critics, for architects, and for those of us, all of us, who would benefit from a built world capable of learning from the lessons of the present.’ - Philip Nobel, Editorial Director, SHoP Architects.


'This is a provocative and fascinating examination of the dissolving boundaries between architectural criticism and building performance evaluation, from the historic roots of each to their evolving, sometimes contentious, relationship today. The international roster of contributing architects, planners, critics, and academics offer compelling arguments and case studies that should be fodder for debate in many spheres for many years to come.' - Kristen Richards, Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA, Founder and Editor, ArchNewsNow.com, and Editor, Oculus magazine.


‘Powerful building design tools and methodologies, coupled with advanced construction technologies, have enabled architects to create buildings increasingly complex in form and function. Yet assessment of architecture, especially in public media, remains highly subjective and qualitative, focused mostly on visual, contextual and historical attributes. Evidence-based evaluation and objective measurement of building performance - functional, technical, environmental, sociological, economic, and political - are rare in critical discourse. The diverse contributors to Architecture Beyond Criticism rigorously address these contrasting assessment paradigms and, often using place and project case studies, show why architectural criticism must become more comprehensive. Any professional who judges architecture - media critics, historians, design professors, practicing architects, and building engineers - should read this insightful, well researched book.’ - Roger K. Lewis, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is a practicing architect and urban planner; a Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Maryland College Park; and an author and journalist.


'Critique has long been considered a vital force in driving architectural excellence. Yet few educators understand the differences between good, actionable critical feedback and creatively limiting, negative feedback. This book invites both established educators and practitioner critics to consider some of the tacit agendas that influence design critique, and the role it has to play in shaping both the values and practices of tomorrows profession.' - Dr Harriet Harriss, Principal Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University

It was a pleasant evening in early November; it was not raining as forecasted and the temperature was just right. The city of Tokyo was remarkably powerful as always with its metropolitan charisma: the alluring uniqueness created by an overwhelming building scale in a hybridized cultural urban context. I took a train from Shinjuku, arguably the world’s busiest train station, to Kengo Kuma and Associates, a design studio in Gaienmae which was a few stations down on the Ginza line. I was anxious to meet Kengo Kuma not only because he is a renowned architect, but also because he was known as an important producer of ideas – ideas that mediate theoretical and practical aspects vis-à-vis the presence of architecture.

A number of essays and interviews published between 1997 and 2008, revised for this edition, which V2_Publishing kindly made available as a complete pdf. The book contains a memorable introduction by the late Detlef Mertins, a number of early essays that were strongly influenced by Paul Virilio, and many discussions of architectural and art works combined with theoretical analyses.

Parametric Design is nothing new to the architects and refers to algorithmic thinking to solve design problems based on translating the relationships between internal and external variables affecting the design elements into parameters. In recent decades it has been confused with Computational Parametricism which is a self-referential framework with interlinked elements linked by abstract mathematical equations with only a little, if any, influence from the real-world variables. This phenomenon, in theory, is the result of our obsession with mathematical certainty that deprived modern architecture of poetic meanings and its direct connections with nature, yet desperately searching for a pseudo-poetic meaning in its self-referential mathematical equations. This way of thinking has reduced architecture to formal games defining aesthetics in formal extravagance made possible by computer algorithms. In this paper, after looking at the historical background of parametric thinking used in the design process, the author addresses the common misunderstandings about the term Parametric Design in architecture and suggests a broader realm for this subject where the designers can employ the emerging technology to face the real-world challenges using computer algorithms and parametric thinking.

How does the design process matter to the resulting building? Ever since American architect and educator, Peter Eisenman, whose work and research (spanning more than 50 years) emphasized design as a series of sequential steps or ‘traces’, architectural students nowadays commonly justify their work according to the history of the making of the design. The product matters, but more importantly is one’s process towards it. This distinction between process and result, or between the object and its making, is particularly ambiguous in the Guardiola House, 1988, in Cadiz, Spain, which is an overlooked unbuilt project by Eisenman. The question is: what bearing does the Guardiola House have on the discipline of architecture? And how does it challenge traditional design in terms of methodology and conventionality? What this research does is expose the Eisenman-process as not just one design towards a single house, but in fact an interweaving and inter-narrative between two simultaneous processes.

TOWARD A MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD (Brno: Barrister & Principal – VUTIUM 2013, 448 pp., 760 ill., an extensive English summary) uses innovative methodology to look at the traditionalist attitude in architecture and in the formation of architectural environment. In the five parts, the book (I) analyzes the professional debate around the history of architecture and the diversity of aesthetic preferences within this debate, (II) clarifies a theory that uses results of
neuroscience to explain the attractiveness of traditional buildings, (III) based on this theory, sums up the history of twentieth- and twenty-first-century traditionalist architecture around the world and (IV) in the Czech Lands (the present Czech Republic), and (V) uses two specific examples to illustrate current variations in the relationship between heritage protection, musealization of art and the creation of an aesthetically valuable environment.

The scope of the publication and its comprehensiveness make this book the first of its kind in the field of architectural history. The text is in Czech, nevertheless, international readers find all captions in English and an extensive English summary.

The methodology of this book builds upon the architectural theory of the American scientist Nikos Salingaros, the impulses of world art studies, and the idea that there is a direct relationship between personal preference for a specific artistic morphology and the manner of its (art-historical) interpretation. The findings of brain science help specify the meaning of the words beauty and traditionalism. Even an untrained viewer can feel the contrast between traditional and modern architecture, while neighboring buildings in two different traditional styles (for example a baroque palace and a Gothic church) do not create the same impression of contrast or disharmony. The book explains the difference in aesthetic effect through Salingaros’s term structural order. This concept understands traditional architecture as an architecture designed according to the principles of structural order and modernist architecture as an architecture, where structural order is weak or non-existent. The concept put forward in this book is that architectural traditionalism strives to express structural order, while architectural modernism, which exists simultaneously, does not aim for this kind of order, neither consciously nor intuitively. Art-historical conceptions are also referred to as either traditionalist or modernist, according to which approach to artistic creation they prefer. The struggle toward a more beautiful world is considered a leitmotif of traditionalism – hence the title of the book.

The book’s five parts and fifty chapters address themes such as: the aesthetic theory of empathy as elaborated by Heinrich Wölfflin and Geoffrey Scott; the scientific theory of architecture according to Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros; American renaissance and the City Beautiful movement; city building according to artistic principles in the work of Camillo Sitte, Werner Hegemann and Gustavo Giovannoni; the Heimatschutz movement and Paul Schultze-Naumburg; the destruction and reconstruction of old cities and the Venice Charter; the New Tradition, New Urbanism and the vision of harmonious building according to Prince Charles.

The chapters on the Czech Lands describe architectural works by Friedrich Ohmann, Jan Vejrych, Kamil Hilbert, Ladislav Skřivánek and Dušan Jurkovič and analyze texts by Václav Wagner, Břetislav Štorm, Josef Karel Říha, Ladislav Žák and Jiří Kroha. These chapters also discuss cubism and socialist realism in Czech architecture, new development and heritage conservation during the communist era and after the regime change in 1989, and public interest in the fate of old buildings and in the appearance of towns, villages and landscapes.

In this paper we address the role of architectural criticism in the conception and practice of modernism in India – since post-independence till the present. India has witnessed a vast difference in the culture of the built environment. And as Modern Style of architecture arose from enormous transformations in the west during the late 19th, and flourished to India, Architectural Criticism says, it’s about time, that a new style of architecture, a style that describes the ‘Indianness’, originates, takes over, describes, and flourishes to bring a new face to the context of Architecture in India.

The pressing question for architects today is to understand the correct scale of values in architectural design.
Sometimes, despite an architect’s efforts to separate his own identity from a design, so that it is a good facsimile
of the culture to which the object is said to belong, it would still reflect in his designs. Even though identity is
closely linked to design, it is not a static idea. In scholastic realms, there is a need to talk about ―Indianness‖ in
architecture as a core of cultural identity underlying all Indian architecture. Historically, the first reference to this
idea is found in the 1980s, in a Festivals of India exhibition. But the notion has troubled Indian architects in the
profession and academia alike, and a detailed critique of this notion can be found in the literature. In reality, the
notion of ―Indianness‖, stems from an identity crisis that has its roots in India’s colonial past, and the post-colonial
Indian mindset. It is the feeling of self-consciousness felt by Indian architects when exposed to global trends. In
this dissertation, we have tried to use Castells’ identity theory to highlight how identities have come and gone
since independence and so will they in the future. On the basis of that, we also suggest a possible way to deal with
this insecurity and establish a more refreshing identity for the community of Indian architects. In the end, the
―Indianness‖ we talk about is just a myth, it is not that we create an identity, rather it is the identity that seizes us.

The perception of psychiatric illnesses and the need for better institutions has been prevalent since the dawn of the "asylum era", dating back to the 18th Century. Prior to this, treatment of the incarcerated was a barbaric and unjust exercise in human welfare. Facilities provided were often unsanitary, with dozens of people sharing dormitories; many sharing beds with up to four others, or held captive to the floor with shackles. Although the days where the common misconception was that 'a lunatic can be cured only in an institution'  have generally passed over its six hundred year history, it is still widely considered that facilities offered by psychiatric hospitals and centres are a contributing factor in the treatment of patients with mental disorders.
From the early 'lunatic asylums' of Bethlem Hospital, to the 19th century investments in construction of healthcare buildings in England, addressing the need for psychiatric facilities has been a daunting task for both clinical practitioners and architects alike. Since the advent of the NHS in 1948, there have been calls for reform in public institutions; however, it wasn't until the late 1950s that a call for a new architecture was implemented by the World Health Organisation.
Through analysis of existing scholarship on asylum design theory from the eighteenth-century to the present day, and the creation of a therapeutic environment through the manipulation of space and its location, this thesis aspires to discuss the importance and need to develop a safe and healing environment in the creation of architecture for the mentally ill.

Türkçe’deki “tamir” ve “tadil” kelimeleri etimolojik kökenleri itibarıyla çağrışımları oldukça fazla olan kelimelerdir. Mimar Turgut Cansever’in restorasyon projeleri ise bu kavramların mimarlık aracılığıyla
açıklanması için uygun araştırma malzemeleri olarak gözükmektedir. Böylelikle bugün daha çok teknik bir iş olarak algılanan “restorasyon” tartışmaya açılabilecektir. Makalede Cansever’in 1949’dan 2004
yılına kadar sırasıyla tasarladığı Sadullah Paşa Yalısı, Çürüksulu Yalısı, Ertegün Evi, Tollu Evi, Şaka Evi, Akın Yalısı, Hadi Bey Yalısı ve Recep Sefer Evi'nden orijinal görseller; Cansever’in söylemi ve uygulama ayrıntıları
irdelenmiştir.

Repair, Renovation and History:
The Content of Turgut Cansever’s
Restoration Projects

The words "tamir” and "tadil" in Turkish have very good connotations with their etymological origins. The Restoration projects of Architect Turgut Cansever seem to be suitable research materials to explain these concepts in architecture. Thus, the “restoration", which is perceived as a technical job today, can be discussed seriously. This study examines the Cansever's discourse and application details through The Original images from Sadullah Pasha Mansion, Çürüksulu Mansion, Ertegün House, Tollu House, Şaka House, Akın Mansion, Hadi Bey Mansion and Recep Sefer House which were designed by Cansever from 1949 to 2004, respectively.

The celebrated Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa was born in 1936
and came to notice as a theorist with the publication of ‘The Eyes of the Skin (1996): Architecture and the Senses’. The book is a phenomenological account that offers architecture as a multi-sensory experience as an alternative to the current emphasis on visual spectacle. In doing so Pallasmaa reminds us that one of the tasks of architecture is to address the deeper existential questions within us.
Pallasmaa’s book under review, ‘The Embodied Image – Imagination
and Imagery in Architecture’ develops this discourse. It argues that, in
our world of mass communication and consumption, the human imagination is diminished by the continuous bombardment of images. Thrown at us for commercial and ideological purposes, it dulls our senses, conditions us, and fragments our understanding of the world. The resulting alienation can be countered, according to Pallasmaa, by recuperating the image as a bearer of poetic content and meaning so it can inspire our mental imagery and imagination.
The review ends by posing the question if the embodied experience of two projects by Rem Koolhaas (OMA) and Steven Holl are, by this reading, really so qualitatively different.