Tag: Architectural History

Funding | Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the History of Architecture and Architectural Drawings, Oxford

Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the History of Architecture and Architectural Drawings University of Oxford The closing date for applications is midday on 15 March 2012. The Mellon postdoctoral fellowships are funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation as part of a wider Oxford University initiative which is designed to provide an intensive and supported career development opportunity for outstanding academics at an early stage of their career; to recruit the very best of the next generation of potential academics; and to promote equality of opportunity by helping to create a more diverse pool of potential candidates for future academic posts at Oxford. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Architecture and Architectural Drawings is tenable in the History of Art Department (History Faculty) and the Ashmolean Museum. The successful applicant will pursue a research project on the history of…

Lecture | The Tower of the Winds at Athens: architecture and function – Hermann J Kienast

 The Tower of the Winds at Athens: architecture and function Hermann J. Kienast The Tower of the Winds at Athens is one of the most ingenious creations of ancient architecture. Based on an octagonal floor plan, the marble edifice is decorated immediately below the roof, with a frieze depicting eight winds as personifications. The building’s layout is highly sophisticated and accentuated by unusual technical gadgets: the eight outer wall segments exhibit sundials, while the interior accommodated a fascinating planetarium, the first monumental one we know of. The lecture explains all the architectural details and the mechanism of the Planetarium. Hermann J. Kienast, former vice-chair of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens and a trained architect, has devoted his carrier to the study of ancient Greek architecture. For twenty years (1984-2004) he was head of excavations at the sanctuary of Hera…

Call for Papers: Revisiting the Cloister

Revisiting the Cloister: Monastery and Convent Architecture in Nineteenth-Century Britain London, October 6, 2020 Deadline: Feb 29, 2021 Victorian convent and monastic buildings embodied diverse theological, social, cultural and gender discourses within nineteenth-century Britain, yet these structures have received limited academic attention. On Saturday 6 October 2020 in London, The Victorian Society will host a wide-ranging symposium to explore these multi-functional sites – spaces not only of devotion, contemplation and leisure but also of artistic production, education, industry and social care – from an ecumenical perspective. Too often, scholarship in nineteenth-century religious architecture has been divided across denominational lines. ‘Revisiting the Cloister’ seeks to engage with the productive cross fertilization of aesthetic and theological ideas arising from an interlaced rather than sectarian social milieu. This symposium invites papers that consider the patronage, design and construction of both male and female religious houses in the nineteenth century. Papers that explore themes of gender, agency, community, artistic…

Opinion: On Facadism

Opinion – David R. Marshall On Facadism The Myer’s Lonsdale Street Store is now a vast open building site, with the Lonsdale Street and Little Bourke Street facades propped up with a scaffolding of huge steel girders that occupy half of each street. Conspicuously absent is the façade of Lonsdale House, an Art Deco façade demolished in 2010, in spite of having a heritage overlay, in order to provide truck access to the site. According to a widely expressed view, facadism—the preserving of old facades while putting up a wholly new building behind them—is bad, because it is the integrity of the building as a whole that matters. This is nonsense, and the effect has been to strip away a key line of defence for buildings like Lonsdale House. This was an example of reverse facadism, when an Art Deco…

Professor Karen Franck: The Changing Design of Public Memorials

Professor Karen Franck: The Changing Design of Public Memorials Professor Karen Franck, from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Associate Professor Quentin Stevens, from RMIT’s School of Architecture and Design, are collaborating on a major research project on the design and use of public memorials. The project is unique in examining both temporary memorials erected by members of the public and official permanent memorials. It draws upon first-hand observations of both kinds of memorials at the sites of terrorist attacks in New York and London. The researchers also focus on visitor experience of recent abstract memorials, including examples stretching from Berlin to Melbourne to Washington. The collaborators are currently writing a book Spaces of Engagement: Memorial Design, Use and Meaning. They are also joining RMIT Landscape Architecture Professor SueAnne Ware on a grant proposal to study the complex procurement process for public memorials. Professor Franck will deliver the following public…

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships on National Churches in Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships on National Churches in Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome Roma communis patria: the National Churches in Rome from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era The Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for the History of Art have announced a one-year doctoral fellowship and a one-year postdoctoral fellowship, both starting in January 2012, both with the possibility of extension for a second year. Candidates must be in possession of an upper level university degree (in the first case, an M.A.; in the second, a Ph.D), good working knowledge of German, Italian, and English, and a research project proposal consistent with the aims and objectives of the Minerva research group. The recipients of these fellowships are also expected to participate with constancy in the activities of both the group and the Institute. About the project Capital of the Empire, residence of the Papacy, destination of pilgrims, and metropolis of art,…

CFP: SAHANZ 2012 ‘Fabulation: Myth, Nature, Heritage’

Call for Papers SAHANZ XXIX 2012 – Fabulation: Myth, Nature, Heritage 29th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, 5-8 July 2012 “Gould says of his Book of Fish, ‘what I write, & what here I paint are Experiment & Prophecy.’” Ronald Bogue writes this in Deleuzian Fabulations (2010) on Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish (2002), which is based on The Book of Fish (around 1832-33) by William Buelow Gould with paintings of flora and fauna (with narratives) of the penal colony on Sarah Island, Tasmania. In Flanagan’s historical tale, the protagonist William Gould escapes the disintegrating penal colony of Sarah Island towing voluminous registers penned by the Commissariat Officer Jorgen Jorgensen. The registers are filled with Jorgensen’s elaborate fabrications of the colony, telling of its material wealth, technological accomplishments…

Call for Papers: Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of ARchitectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand

CFP: Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand Submissions are currently sought for two issues of the journal. Issue 21:2 – Cosmopolis In 1889, following his public lecture on ‘Architecture and its Relation to History,’ the architect GHM Addison was asked, by the Bishop of Brisbane, to comment on the future style of an Australian architecture. Conceding the importance of place—observing the veranda would play a part in the future of the Queensland house—Addison also argued that the development of a local architecture would only be possible if it looked beyond its own geographical borders. ‘So long as the public of Queensland failed to recognise that there was an architecture outside of Queensland architecture, there would be no advancement of architecture here,’ Addison concluded. Linking the “advancement” of architecture to a history that was…

CFP: Between Scylla and Charybdis: European Courts and Court Residences Outside Habsburg and Valois/Bourbon Territories, 1500-1700

Between Scylla and Charybdis: European Courts and Court Residences Outside Habsburg and Valois/Bourbon Territories, 1500-1700 Deadline:  31 October 2011 Copenhagen and Hillerød, Denmark 30 April-2 May 2012 As is well known, the rivalry between Spain‐Austria and France, or, more precisely, between the Habsburg and the Valois/Bourbon monarchies, was a factor of major importance in international court life during the 16th and 17th centuries. The age‐old quarrels between the nations involved about their seniority and precedence forced each to create distinctive characteristics, including courtly etiquette, ceremonies, and the architectural setting of court life. The ‘satellite’ courts, related to these ‘superpowers’, might visually expose their loyalty to a specific faction by following the system of codes of its ‘leader’. But what were the strategies of the independent, though less dominant European courts beyond the Habsburg and Valois/Bourbon spheres? How did they respond to…

Symposium: Vienna 1900 – Dress rehearsal for modernity

Symposium: Vienna 1900 – Dress rehearsal for modernity Vienna: Art & Design Speakers William M. Johnston, academic; Prof Jennifer Shaw, Pro Vice-Cancellor & Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of New England; Assoc Prof Alison Inglis, Art History, The University of Melbourne; Dr John Carmody, School of Medical Sciences, Physiology, Convenor: ‘ Medicine and Music’, University of Sydney; Dr Edwin Harari, Assoc Prof Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne; Dr Vivien Gaston, Guest Curator, NGV & Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne; Amanda Dunsmore, Curator Arts & Antiquities, NGV; Sophie Matthiesson, Curator, International Art, NGV; Dr Matthew Martin, Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts, NGV; Elizabeth Cross, Senior Researcher, International Art, NGV This Symposium will explore the themes, developments and influences of an extraordinary period that saw the birth of the modern world, including, art, culture, design, architecture, literature, science, social…

Melbourne Open House 2011

Melbourne Open House Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July This weekend Melbourne’s architecture is open to the public. Residents and visitors alike are invited to see behind the façades of 75 of Melbourne’s historic and contemporary buildings. Buildings range from historic interiors such as the recently restored interior of Myer’s Mural Hall or the stately 19th century interiors of the Melbourne Town Hall to contemporary architecture such as the 60L Green building (headquarters of the Australian Conservation Foundation) and the rooftop garden of the Origen Energy building. A full list and map can be obtained from the Melbourne Open House website. Please note that tours of some buildings must be booked, and in many cases these tours are already fully booked. In addition, everyone is advised that this event is always incredibly popular and there are often queues to get into the more…

Funding: RIBA Research Trust Awards

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Trust Awards Objective The intention of the awards scheme is to support recent architecture graduates who are pursuing research in the field of Architecture. It is anticipated that award winners may in subsequent years undertake a career as skilled researchers in the architectural field. The RIBA may also award applicants who are already further into their careers. Awards may be given to teachers and practising architects with some research interest. Eligibility The awards scheme is open to applicants interested in a wide range of subject matter relevant to the advancement of architecture, and connected arts and sciences, in the United Kingdom. The RIBA Research Trust Award is for a closely defined piece of architectural research. The committee will support practice-led or academic research, but it will not support course fees and subsistence costs for PhD/MPhil or Masters programmes. Awards are given only…

Lecture: The Great Temple at Thanjavur – One Thousand Years, 1010 to 2010 Old Problems, New Thoughts

The Great Temple at Thanjavur: One Thousand Years, 1010 to 2010. Old Problems, New Thoughts. Special Public Lecture by alumnus and Professorial Associate Dr. George Michell at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning. The millennial anniversary of the great temple at Thanjavur has been the occasion for the publication of a splendid Marg volume co-authored by George Michell and Indira Viswanathan Peterson, and illustrated by photographs by Bharath Ramarutham. One of the aims of this work was to re-examine the historical context of the foundation of the temple under Rajaraja I, and its original programme of stone sculptures and bronzes, as well as its murals, which are now accessible via a splendid new set of digital images commissioned by the Archaeological Survey of India office in Chennai. While the temple is familiar to art historians, a number of difficulties in…

Call for Contributions: Research Projects and Dissertations on Early Modern Architecture

Call for Contributions Research Projects and Dissertations on Early Modern Architecture The Early Modern Architecture website is calling for contributions to two lists of work-in-progress on Early Modern architecture that they are compiling. The first is an international list of Ph.D. dissertations from any discipline that address aspects of the architecture (design, theory, and practice) of Europe and its colonies, 1400-1800.  As soon as they have assembled a number of dissertations, they will post an initial list on their site. This list will continue to be updated. If you are supervising or writing a dissertation that is in progress or was completed during the 2010-2011 school year, please email them with the author’s and supervisor’s names, the dissertation title, and the names of your department as well as institution. The second is a parallel list of research projects in progress.  As with the…

CFP: The Hapsburgs and their Courts in Europe 1400-1700

Call for Papers The Habsburgs and their Courts in Europe, 1400–1700: Between Cosmopolitism and Regionalism 7–10 December 2011, Vienna, Austria Organized by Austrian Academy of Sciences – Co-organized by Slovak Academy of Sciences A variety of visual and written sources demonstrate that the members of the House of Habsburg devoted special attention to creating a ‘dynastic identity’ (e.g. “Fürstenspiegel”, panegyric and emblematic literature). The aim of this conference is to trace a Habsburg dynastic ‘idiom’ in the sphere of archducal/kingly/imperial representation, particularly at the residence courts, and to consider its supranational features in contrast to regional ones. Court culture in Vienna, Madrid, Brussels, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest will be examined and compared in detail – with a double focus, looking for interactions both within the Habsburg network spread across Europe and with local traditions. All topics of exchange should be worked out with the help of visual media as…