DSpace Collection:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/421532024-03-29T15:29:50Z2024-03-29T15:29:50ZThe visual transmission of European architecture by George Everard Kidder Smithhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/424982020-03-03T10:42:31Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: The visual transmission of European architecture by George Everard Kidder Smith
Abstract: George Everard Kidder Smith has taken breath-taking photographs of buildings all around
the world for nearly sixty years. He is recognized along with Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller
as one of the leading figures of the twentieth century architectural photography. During
his career, he wrote and illustrated with his images a series of books, the first of which
was Brazil Builds (1943), an examination of the South American modernism produced in
collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the early 1940’s and in the
late 1950’s his interest in European architecture became quite evident in a series of volumes
that were published in order to describe visually the architectural and historical identity
of the three countries which he surveyed: Sweden, Switzerland and Italy. In Europe he had
remarkable intuition about how to reveal newly built architecture through beautifully
composed images in black and white and subtle shades of grey. His three similar grantaided
volumes, Sweden Builds, Switzerland Builds (both 1950) and Italy Builds (1955),
represent an anomaly in architectural photography: he took pictures to illustrate his books
as well as lectures he’s given worldwide throughout his life, so he didn’t depend on architects
or magazines for commissions. Later, in the 1960s, Kidder Smith would travel through
Europe to research The New Architecture of Europe (1961) and The New Churches of Europe
(1964). He reveals another aspect of his fascination in his introduction to “New Architecture”,
describing how the advent of such technological innovations as rolled steel and reinforced
concrete changed the way people build.2016-01-01T00:00:00ZEl discurso subversivo de Bernard Rudofsky a través de la fotografía: estrategias visuales contra la Modernidadhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/424962020-03-03T10:47:23Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: El discurso subversivo de Bernard Rudofsky a través de la fotografía: estrategias visuales contra la Modernidad
Abstract: Architecture without Architects (AWA) se proyectó como una exposición menor en el MoMA (Nueva York,
1964). Ampliamente citada, AWA acuñó incluso un neologismo para designar la arquitectura tradicional.
Comisario, arquitecto, diseñador, crítico y fotógrafo, Bernard Rudofsky (1905-1988) evitó categorizaciones
históricas o geográficas construyendo una experiencia en la que lugares muy distantes quedan conectados
visualmente a través de sus paisajes vernaculares, siendo la fotografía la base principal de su mensaje.
Cuestiona la hegemonía occidental de la historiografía arquitectónica y denuncia el paralelismo entre
tradicional y subdesarrollado. Su crítica a la Modernidad provocó la reacción y censura del American
Institute of Architects, aunque no evitó su itinerancia durante 11 años a más de 80 lugares del mundo. Esta
investigación muestra las metodologías y estrategias visuales que caracterizan su discurso controvertido y
desobediente hacia la Modernidad. El viaje es un componente esencial de su trayectoria; él documentó su
experiencia peripatética especialmente con fotografías. Comenzando con un análisis de las metodologías
rudofskianas en AWA y publicaciones, la investigación revela su aproximación naturalista, sin pretensiones
antológicas, donde la imágenes no ilustran un texto sino que construyen un discurso visual paralelo. Su
mirada creativa de arquitecto presenta la arquitectura tradicional como material para la construcción
del presente. Con su vivienda en Frigiliana (Málaga, 1969-1971), el caso de Andalucía constituye objeto
de estudio destacado hasta su muerte. Usando la metodología visual del autor y centrándonos en su fase
madura, se presentan las fotografías de Rudofsky en tres escalas temáticas: la calle, la ciudad y el territorio.
La investigación reflexiona sobre la naturaleza de su producción gráfica, transita entre la fotografía de
paisaje y documental, y excepcionalmente de arquitectura. Se constata una aproximación fenomenológica,
multisensorial, que la fotografía recoge parcialmente desde su componente plástico. La experiencia
prevalece sobre el medio y la fotografía no puede ni pretende sustituirla.; Architecture without Architects (AWA) was expected to be a minor exhibition at the MoMA (New York, 1964).
Widely quoted, AWA even brought about a neologism used to refer to traditional architecture. Curator, architect,
designer, subversive critic and photographer Bernard Rudofsky (1905-1988) avoided historical or geographical
categorization, creating an experience in which very distant geographies are connected through their vernacular
architectures, with photographs as the core of his message. He challenged western hegemony in architectural
history and denounced the presumed parallelism between traditional architecture and the under-developed world.
His critique of Modern architecture provoked the reaction and censure of the American Institute of Architects,
although this did not prevent it from travelling to over 80 locations worldwide over an eleven-year period. This
research shows the characteristic visual methodologies and strategies of his controversial discourse, which rebelled
against Modernity. Travel is essential in Rudofsky’s trajectory; he documented his peripatetic experience especially
in photographs. Using an analysis of Rudofsky’s methodologies in AWA and publications as a starting point, this
research reveals his naturalist approach, with no anthological aspiration, where images build a parallel visual
discourse instead of merely illustrating a text. His creative architect’s gaze presents traditional architecture as a
material for the construction of the present. The case of Andalusia became a major object of study from the time
his residence in Frigiliana (Malaga, 1969-1971) was built, until his death. Using Rudofsky’s visual methodology
and focusing on his later period, his photographs are presented at three thematic levels: street, city and territory.
The paper reflects on the nature of his graphic production, which ranges from documentary, landscape and
exceptionally architectural photography. A phenomenological multi-sensory approach is observed, and partly
reproduced by photography through its visual aspect. The experience prevails over the medium, and photography
cannot replace it, nor does it aim to.2016-01-01T00:00:00ZVision of sustainability local and global in the Winter Olympic Games 1994https://hdl.handle.net/10171/424952020-03-04T03:09:49Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Vision of sustainability local and global in the Winter Olympic Games 1994
Abstract: Two interpretations of the concept of sustainability will be approached in this paper by
offering a reading of one key photograph produced on the occasion of the Lillehammer
Winter Olympic Games held in Norway in 1994. The image by American photographer Jim
Bengston, taken during one of the ski-jumping sessions in Lillehammer, is constituted by
an interesting combination of elements that fuel a forensic investigation into two visions
of sustainability. The Olympic event has been used as a catwalk for what was at that time
the recently adopted green agenda of the United Nations, Agenda 21, materializing the
international aspirations towards the concept of sustainable development. But the vision of
sustainability prescribed within the pages of the green agenda issued by the United Nations
opposes another interpretation of sustainability manifested at a local level, one that draws
on specific geographical, traditional and cultural constraints. Therefore, the role of the
local affiliation to Nature in the international debates around sustainable development,
theorized by Christian Norberg-Schulz and translated into architecture by the designers of
the event, will constitute the object of study of this paper. Key writings by Carlo Ginzburg and
Roland Barthes produce the means to handle the clues available in the image by Bengston.
The concepts within these texts will enable us to place them in a context that allows for a
profound understanding of the tensions that led to the configuration of this edition of the
Winter Games. Photography was not only central to representing the multiple facets of the
1994 Winter Olympic Games held in Lillehammer, but also played an important role in the
construction of the event’s legacy. Its functions both as a critical instrument and as a key
provider of historic documentation is highly visible on the occasion of this historic megaevent.
Therefore, the comprehending analysis of this photograph cannot be dissociated from
a thorough understanding of the event itself in all its complexity, an event characterized by
an interlocking of distinct tendencies.2016-01-01T00:00:00ZArchitecture as Imagehttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/424932020-03-04T03:02:22Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Architecture as Image
Abstract: Architectural photography that generally aims to be a ‘portrait’ of a building, in the way of
representing its best appearance, often it is far from offering a sense of the architectural
experience. Architectural photography can be classified into three basic types, the most
representative of the experiential aspect being partial photographs that can re-create
our movements and perception as we move in space. Furthermore, few architectural
photographs refer to the sense of the materials or how our bodies relate to the physicality
of the building. It is often disregarded that buildings like people change in time and have a
life story. If photography is usually time-specific, can it, through certain techniques, make
us understand the duration in time of an architectural object? This paper will try to affront
these aspects and problems of architectural photography.2016-01-01T00:00:00Z