Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
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Editorial Board: 1. Noman Ahmed, Pakistan 2. Besnik Aliaj, Albania 3. Stefano Bianca, Swizerland 4. Judith Bing, USA 5. Jon Calame, USA 6. Roberto di Giulio, Italy 7. Kokan Grev, Macedonia 8. Brooke Harrington, USA 9. Aykut Karaman, Turkey 10. Hassan Uddin Khan, USA 11. Randall Mason, USA 12. Jose Luis Moro, Germany 13. Mashary A. Al Naim, KSA 14. Ibrahim Numan, Turkey 15. Amir Pai, B&H 16. Attilio Petrucioli, Italy 17. Daniele Pini, Italy 18. Murat Soygenis, Turkey 19. Tadea Zupani, Slovenia 20. Minja Yang, Belgium
AS Architecture and Science (ISSN 2303-5404) Three issues in one year Bosnia and Herzegovina Publisher: INFINITI HERITAGE, Bosnia and Herzegovina www.infinitiheritage.ba E-mail: architectureandscience@yahoo.com asj@infinitiheritage.ba
Original and broad in scope, the A&S Journal provides comprehensive coverage of the research and practice providing a link between theory and practice for researchers, scientists and practicing professionals in the different field of architecture and planning. Published three times a year, the A&S Journal has a special interest in publishing original research articles, review articles, case studies, theoretical texts, include writings about topics such are: Architectural theory, individual architects, architectural technology, environment, design methods, design theory, architectural practice, information technologies for design professionals, environmental evaluation, social-impact assessment, forecasting for the environmental professions, user participation, environmental education for the public, energy, site planning, topology, and building configuration, interior design Urban planning, social, geographic, administrative, and political studies of the factors that contribute to the shaping of neighbourhoods, cities, and urban regions Topics that relate research to public- or private-sector policy setting and administrative decision making Topics that relate research to different type of built heritage, preservation, conservation, management, implementation, maintaining, policies Topics that relate sustainability, technology and education Intersections and links with other disciplines are welcomed in order to gain a more thoughtful and broad understanding of the practice and theory of architecture. All papers and articles received would be peer reviewed to meet the best standards of academic research. Journal will be published in both electronic and hard copies. The NGO Infiniti Heritage will publish first issue of the Journal Architecture & Science in January 2014. Taking into consideration that the year 2014 will be dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Old city of Mostar rehabilitation, the journal will publish the most important contributions of the Mostar Seminars.
The seminar will be dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the rebuilding of the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar It will methodically evaluate all the rehabilitation accomplishments between 1995 and 2005 - a process what was completed with the inscription of this property on the World Heritage List of UNESCO, and all activities between 2005 and 2014. A special consideration will be on the management of the Old City of Mostar and planned but unrealized projects. The seminar will be a good opportunity to bring together the majority of actors involved in these activities. Finally, the seminar should give recommendations for future activities in Mostar and also draw the concept of the strategy of the Historic Urban Landscape of Herzegovina in which Mostar will be a key property. Topics of the Seminar o How we take lessons from the 1992-2004 Mostar Story: symbolic of the worst and best things that can happen in a beautiful historic city. o The Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar - State of Preservation o Rehabilitation of Mostar, Unrealized projects o Management of the Old City of Mostar o Old City of Mostar as a part of Historic Urban Landscape of Herzegovina o Recommendations - Mostar 2014 - 10 Years After Participants - Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina government, City of Mostar, Governments of countries who supported reconstruction, International organizations: UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, IRCICA, AKTC, WMF, Academic communities, Investors
CONTENT
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Urban Morphology as a Tool for Regenerating Pre-Modern Urban Traditions Stefano Bianca Stewardship, Change and the Built Environment: Towards a new Vernacular Hasan-Uddin Khan Fighting Informality in Albania Besnik Aliaj Reconciling construction and architectural design in the tradition Attilio Petrucioli Some aspects and problems of architectural continuities regarding style development in Macedonian architecture: Period of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century Kokan Grchev Heritage and Globalization: A Status Review and Some Options Noman Ahmed New use of 3d laser scanner technologies in the design process. The best practice case of the MUDIs project. Roberto Di Gulio, Emenuele Piaia European Cultural Route as a New Opportunity for the Modernist Cultural Heritage Tadeja Zupani The Role of the Architectural Education in the Preservation of Historic Urban Landscape Amir Pai
53 60 67 79
Abstract
This article is to provide a more generic approach to the understanding of traditional urban structures which has over the past 200 years undergone radical changes, mainly due to the impact of the Scientific Age, the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, the Modern Movement. Its rational planning schemes, based on the isolation of previously interacting social components, often destroy century-old traditions of urban integrity. Urban Morphology offers the desirable structural affinity in dealing with pre-industrial historic cities and their intricate urban fabric and also provides an appropriate instrument to intervene in the present life span of historic cities, and to ensure the transition from the past into the future in ways that avoid violent disruption. The morphological and typological approach eventually transcended the limits of urban conservation and urban rehabilitation, for it became a way of thinking that could be used in contemporary design. A morphological approach to historic urban structures includes: Topographic analysis, Historic MacroAnalysis, Architectural Micro-Analysis, Socio-Cultural Content and further ppportunities (type of building, historic age, architectural importance, physical condition, previous and current use, ownership etc.) Urban Morphology resolves the key problem of historic cities which may arise regarding the identity issue (different cultural interpretation with multi-ethnic or multi-religious background) and other key problems connected with the implementation of the Urban Morphology approach relate to manpower and institutional capacity. Urban Morphology is applicable to almost all World Heritage cities, since as a neutral and universal tool it carries no ideological bias of its own with it, nor does it impose alien structures and modes of intervention. Since Urban Morphology can be applied to urban structures of many periods and can even be projected into contemporary design, it provides a good basis for achieving consistent formal order in juxtaposed urban systems and, eventually, for establishing compatibility, if not harmony, between old and new.
Keywords: urban morphology, urban regeneration, traditional urban fabric, historic cities.
Architecture & Science Journal 1. Introduction The genesis and the historic evolution of Muslim cities in the pre-industrial age, and up to the threshold of Modernity, is a perfect paradigm of what can be seen as a typical form of traditional urban growth, i.e. culturally integrated evolution that is fundamentally different from the purely technological (functional) planning and development methods prevailing today. However, rather than dwelling here on the specific values and features of the urban heritage of the Islamic World (which I have addresses in other publications )1, this article is to provide a more generic approach to the understanding of traditional urban structures. Its aim is to focus on a methodology that can both grasp the basic qualities inherent to pre-modern urban form and define practical modes of intervention that are congenial to such structures, and hence capable of supporting and revitalising them from within. Let me start by reminding that over the past 200 years the understanding of urban systems and urban values has undergone radical changes, mainly due to the impact of the Scientific Age, the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, the Modern Movement. Wholesale demolition of pre-existing historic structures and creatio ex nihilo of complete new towns have become prevalent, due to rapid demographic growth and related new urbanisation and transportation modes. The vision of the city as a mechanical system exclusively geared to (existing or invented) material needs and corresponding industrial production processes has led to new architectural concepts and to corresponding planning techniques that are less and less rooted in overarching cultural frameworks. In the course of this historic shift, a radically new notion of development was born, as an aggressive, rationally produced and externally controlled activity. Its premises are alien to evolutionary, internally driven growth processes conditioned by local communities. Its rational planning schemes, based on the isolation of previously interacting social components, often destroy century-old traditions of urban integrity, thereby sacrificing essential environmental and cultural parameters. Large-scale segregation of formerly linked land uses calls for artificial reconnection through ever increasing vehicular traffic streams, which dissect the urban fabric, destroy the surrounding landscape, and give birth to mushrooming suburban extensions. As we experience today, the result of all this has been an increasing loss of human scale and sense of place that were natural ingredients of historic cities. Urban transformation (in both time and space) has ceased to be an incremental process, embedded as it was in meaningful cultural patterns; and the emerging modern townscape often no longer relates to given human ways of emotional and sensorial perception. Meanwhile, many pre-industrial urban structures are losing their vital qualities, and their remains are being frozen, as it were, in the straightjacket of historic cities. It is against the background of such recent urban development trends that Urban Morphology needs to be appreciated. Its approach can provide an antidote, as it were, to the shortcomings of disruptive modern planning concepts; for Urban Morphology is based on the recognition of the historic urban fabric as a complex cellular micro-system that shows strong internal coherence and that evolves in ways not dissimilar to natural (i.e., organic) growth and transformation processes. Through its particular procedures, Urban Morphology is able to unriddle the inner rationale of a given urban structure and to grasp the formative powers active within its deep tissue: It can identify the formal archetypes that have governed the constitution of the urban fabric and continued to reproduce themselves; it can read the range of variegation of such archetypes and interpret their various connective patterns; and it can detect the successive layers of urban growth that have accumulated or superseded each other throughout time. Going through such
1 See, for instance, Bianca S. Urban Form in the Arab World Past and Present [1]
Architecture & Science Journal a process of cultural anamnesis must not be seen as an obsession with the past, but as the best way to prepare the ground for the future. For it will allow to manage ongoing urban renewal in a continuous and coherent manner, and, where necessary, to repair damage inflicted upon the historic fabric. 2. Origins and implications of the term morphology Before addressing the more practical implications of Urban Morphology its analytical tools and the specific modes of intervention to be derived from it it may be useful to dwell for a moment on the signification of the actual term, which is composed of the Greek words logos and morphe. Logos is a key notion in Greek philosophy, and its content can oscillate between word (as the creative principle), discourse, reason, or meaning, while morphe stands for the visible shape (Gestalt) of individual types of living phenomena, seen as an external manifestation of their intrinsic constitution. Morphology could thus be interpreted as the knowledge of how to deal with the formal appearance of living structures. Perhaps the most representative propagator of the morphological approach was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) not only a great poet, but also a universal mind, who ventured from the arts into philosophy and the natural sciences.2 While living in the age of Enlightenment and Rationalism, he rejected contemporary attempts to look at nature as a mere mechanical system and, instead, understood creation as an ongoing transformation and adaptation process (metamorphosis) based on the continuous evolution of specific archetypes (Urphnomene) that have their roots in the spiritual world but manifest and incorporate themselves in a great variety of material forms. The underlying archetypes ensure inner unity within external variety, and their unfolding is ruled by entelechy which means that individual manifestations comply as far as possible with their inherent spiritual imprint, while their actual shape is conditioned by the environmental circumstances and constraints of the material medium, through which they come into existence and pursue their path of growth. At the end of his poem Primal Words Orphic, Goethe has summarised this view in two lines: No time, no power will decompose Minted form that through life arose.3 Morphology thus implies three basic concepts: Multiform unfolding of non-material seeds in material reality, the existence of animated formal structures, and the continued cyclical renewal of manifested phenomena. All of them are contrary to the positivist mainstream of modern thinking; for Modernity usually does away with transcendent analogies that would root mundane realities in spiritual archetypes. It has given preference to a more object-driven perspective, whereby the products of creation (whether of natural or human origin) are alienated, commodified and standardised. Meanwhile, history in its modern guise invented in the 19th century, no longer unrolls as a continuous and repeated process of manifestation, but as a series of critical revolutions, each new stage of development discrediting and obliterating the previous one.4
2 3 Goethes main morphological writings are contained in Goethes Werke[2] The original lines in Goethes German poem Urworte Orphisch read:
Und keine Zeit und keine Macht zerstckelt Geprgte Form, die lebend sich entwickelt. 4 In this regard see, for instance, Octavio Paz: The New Analogy Poetry and Technology in O.P. Convergences Essays on Art and Literature, Paz writes:Modernity is grounded in a twofold paradox. On the one hand, meaning resides neither in the past nor in eternity but in the future, so that history is called progress. On the other hand, time does not have a foundation in any divine revelation or immutable principle; we conceive of it as a process that continually negates itself and thus transforms itself. Time is grounded in the criticism of itself, its constant division and separation; its form of manifestation is not the repetition of eternal truth or of an archetype: its substance is change. Or rather, our time lacks substance; whats more, its action is the criticism of any and every substantialism. Thus Revolution takes the place of Redemption. [3]
Architecture & Science Journal 3. The scope of urban morphology Whereas the above approach to nature and its organic phenomena may not be fully applicable to the study of urban form, it provides interesting lessons for understanding the relevance of architectural archetypes and typologies in the context of any given cultural matrix. It also sheds light on the importance of internally driven cybernetic processes that have shaped the evolution of many historic cities by guiding the periodic replacement of their cellular micro-components. As a rule, such cyclical renewal did not cause major structural deviations, but resulted in continual embodiment of the systems pattern of organisation, and therefore in increased stability. If historic cities are to survive as living entities, i.e., beyond mere physical conservation of their physical shell, such self-supported internal revitalisation (that could be compared to the natural principle of auto-poiesis, i.e., self-reproduction) must be strengthened from within, rather than being undermined by contradictory external forces. In this sense, far from introducing alien tools and methodologies, Urban Morphology offers the desirable structural affinity in dealing with pre-industrial historic cities and their intricate urban fabric. What it does, is to render more explicit the implicit rules and modes of internal organic evolution.5 It proceeds by careful in-depth analysis of the cellular urban tissue, both at micro-scale, i.e., considering its smallest units and components, and at macro-scale, i.e., considering topographic constraints, historic layers, existing articulations, as well as possible disjunctions that may be due to external interventions. It attempts to detect from within the live forces and processes that have conditioned (and continue to shape) the growth of a specific urban system and are responsible for its particular spatial qualities. In doing so, it can define the rules for ongoing renewal of each historic fabric according to its own premises. It can simulate (and stimulate) traditional evolutionary processes by making use of existing genetic codes, as it were, and adapting them to contemporary circumstances and needs. For these reasons, Urban Morphology provides an appropriate instrument to intervene in the present life span of historic cities, and to ensure the transition from the past into the future in ways that avoid violent disruption. It enables planners and architects to penetrate the secret codes, i.e., the inner ordering principles of a given organisational pattern and to project them forward, thus achieving natural continuity in urban evolution. During the pre-industrial past (and until recent times in many Third World countries), the underlying formal order used to unfold in rather unconscious manner. For it was rooted in collectively applied building customs and shared archetypes that reflected implicit beliefs and social codes of conduct, instead of being subject to explicit decision-making of planners and architects. As a present-day approach, Urban Morphology takes into account that such informal traditional cultural patterns may no longer exert the same cohesive power and therefore need to be harnessed in more conscious manners without necessarily taking recourse to literal replication of historic architectural expressions. Indeed, the archetypes that provide the basic references of the typological and morphological approach represent virtual (or ideal) forms in the Platonic sense. Hence their physical manifestation is not subject to stylistic features of a specific period, but determined by timeless structural laws. Their various incarnations therefore offer an inbuilt flexibility for variation (metamorphosis), as they rely on the interplay between intangible qualitative archetypes and variable material manifestations. And even in case the social and cultural parameters should change (or new functional needs occur), inherited architectural structures may well lend themselves to adaptive re-use, thus preserving the integrity of the existing urban pattern. Examples of such creative recycling of inherited architectural containers are abundant throughout architectural
5 A groundbreaking modern contribution for understanding the morphologic structure of living (organic) beings can be found in Fritjof Capras work [4,5]
Architecture & Science Journal and urban history: One may think, for instance, of the appropriation of Greco-Roman civic spaces by the early mosques of Islam in Syria, of the re-use of former Roman amphitheatres as a basis for housing compounds in several medieval Italian cities, of the re-use of ancient palaces for modern museums, or, more recently, of the conversion of old industrial compounds into lofts, shops and public meeting spaces. As an applied theory, Urban Morphology and the related survey and intervention methods are a relatively young discovery that was first introduced and experimented with in Italy in the late 1950s in a country blessed with an extreme wealth of historic city centres, and at a time when actual or potential heritage destruction (be it by war damage or by the impact of Modern Movement ideologies) became evident. Without going into a full account of this current, suffice it to mention here a few representative professionals, such as Saverio Muratori, Carlo Aymonino and, to some extent, Aldo Rossi. [6,7,8]The new movement then spread to other European countries such as France and England,[9] and became particularly successful once combined with social rehabilitation measures capable of supporting and stabilising resident communities. Moreover, the morphological and typological approach eventually transcended the limits of urban conservation and urban rehabilitation, for it became a way of thinking that could be used in contemporary design as demonstrated, for instance, by the brothers Leon and Rob Krier, or, with a different accent, in Christopher Alexanders Timeless Way of Building and Pattern Language. [10,11] 4. Methodology and procedures In the following, I shall concentrate on the practical implications of Urban Morphology, as applied to relatively homogeneous historic districts. The premise of this approach is, again, that any intervention must be based on a thorough analysis of the urban fabric both at micro-level and at macro-level, in order to detect the rules that have governed the constitution (and the subsequent evolution) of the deep urban structure. Particular importance must be attached to grasping the interrelations that exist between single components and the overarching spatial system. There, a fractal geometry can often be observed that is inherent to many structural phenomena of nature.[12] It consists in the fact that characteristic patterns are repeated at various scales (or hierarchic levels) of the same urban substructure, so that formal affinities and similarities emerge between its parts and the larger whole. As in any organic cellular tissue, small components already contain virtual prefigurations of much larger composite units, which is the source of both structural unity and variety. Such interactive qualities are essential for producing a structure that represents more than the sum of its parts and that loses its spirit, if being arbitrarily decomposed. This argument makes it clear that the morphologic approach is not primarily driven by aesthetic or antiquarian interests: Its main focus is not on superficial stylistic features of individual buildings (although this may be a secondary aspect of it), but on the three-dimensional articulation of architectural structures and their interconnections within the overall urban context in which they are embedded. Similarly, the emphasis is not exclusively on outstanding monuments (that may have special merits and rights of their own), but on the urban fabric as a whole. This stresses the importance of the conservation and/or incremental renewal of housing units in historic districts a matter often neglected in conventional conservation schemes that consider historic landmarks as their main targets. Accepting that Urban Morphology seeks to take hold of the constitutional qualities and the vital forces that animate the urban fabric and drive its metamorphosis in time and space, it is obvious that its operational procedures must adapt to the nature of its subject. Indeed, those forces cannot be comprehended by dealing with the macro-form of historic cities only, nor by artificially dissecting their architectural micro-elements and treating them in isolation. They can
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Architecture & Science Journal only be understood and put to work by addressing the interdependencies that exist between basic cellular components and their wider urban context, i.e., the modes of articulation that govern their clustering into larger urban sub-units. Grasping these internal differentiation and integration processes (and the structural hierarchies operating within them) is an essential prerequisite for dealing with the city as an organic entity. For it is the interconnecting character of spatial components at various scales, that generates the spark of life in the urban tissue and makes it so different from mechanical urban artefacts. Here, we touch upon the fundamental difference between Urban Morphology and conventional modern planning and design methodologies. Large-scale physical planning is based on spatial division, rather than integration, and is far too abstract to come to grips with the small grain of historic urban structures. Its sectorial and functionalist approach cannot cope with the structural intricacies of organic entities, since it uses pre-conceived, alien concepts imposed from the top, rather than working from within and from the bottom upwards. Meanwhile, the conventional architectural design approach tends to focus on isolated objects and to separate single urban components from their urban matrix. Similarly, classical conservation projects usually deal with detached monuments and neglect the social and architectural context to which they belong. Urban Morphology, instead, attempts to deal precisely with the lost intermediate dimension, as constituted by the live web of the urban fabric with its internal correspondences, connections and articulations. It is these that inform and control urban growth and transformation processes, define the sense of place and infuse quality and meaning to complex physical structures. Hence the evident parallel between Urban Morphology and linguistic syntax: Single letters only acquire sense once they are combined into words, and single words acquire meaning once configured and contextualised in sentences. Urban Morphology thus works with a vocabulary of basic urban components that could be described as a family of archetypical forms that are variegated according to a given topographic, socio-cultural and functional context. Ideally, a morphological approach to historic urban structures includes the following levels of analysis: a) Topographic analysis: With rare exceptions, historic cities have emerged and developed in particularly significant strategic locations defined by hilltops, mountain ridges, harbours, river loops or important regional transportation nodes. The characteristics of such locations whether seen as constraints or opportunities tend to have a strong impact in terms of orientation, density, terracing patterns, circulation networks, etc., and become a strong component of the local sense of place or genius loci. In fact, one could say that it is the resistances inherent to natural sites that have often shaped the identity and the distinctive features of given city. b) Historic Macro-Analysis: While the topographic features in a way represent a timeless component, the history of cities through the periods of their existence brings in a time factor that becomes manifest in various phases of growth, in superimposed historic layers, and sometimes in violent disruption of the urban fabric, be it through natural catastrophes, war damage or deliberate large-scale redevelopment schemes, as they have occurred since the 17th century in Europe, but particularly in the 19th/20th century, and also (during the colonial age) in non-European regions.6 Such radical transformations have produced clearly visible fault lines in the sedimentation process of historic fabrics and often result in the co-existence, side by side, of different types of urban strucures, each one featuring its own morphology and requiring different treatment. The appropriate way to analyse corresponding historic sequences is through interpretation of cadastral
6 Here, one may think of the transformation of medieval Rome by Pope Alexander VII during the years 1655-1667, or the transformation of Paris by Baron Haussmann in the 1860s a model that was followed in many Third World cities during the period of colonialism.
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Architecture & Science Journal maps of various periods and through seeking archaeological evidence of previous urban strata. c) Architectural Micro-Analysis: Once the macro-analysis has determined more or less homogeneous sections of the urban fabric (in some fortunate cases the totality of the urban fabric may represent homogeneous features), the grain, i.e., the typological composition of such homogeneous sectors needs to be investigated. This will include plot-by-plot cadastral analysis, research on three-dimensional architectural typologies used for housing, public buildings, and industrial or commercial facilities, as well as characteristic street networks and public open spaces. It will be important to understand how the various components can vary, how they connect among themselves, how they combine or cluster into urban sub-units and what is the dialectic relationship between macro-form and micro-units. Such studies may be complemented by figure-ground or solid-void analyses that establish the qualitative rapport between built form and open space7, and by recording stylistic typologies of architectural elevations (or typical period ornamentation) applying to architectural archetypes. d) Socio-Cultural Content: To fully appreciate the formal rationale underlying the recorded architectural typologies, it is essential to understand the cultural codes and social patterns that have conditioned the archetypes of the physical shell and provide meaning and identity to corresponding physical structures. Some of these patterns are (or have been) rooted in religious or spiritual principles that have been translated into shared modes of social conduct. While the religious background may have weakened in more recent times, such patterns often endure as cultural traditions that continue providing comfort and identity. Other living patterns may be linked to more mundane contemporary trends of civilisation, but may be accommodated in the given historic structures without major conflicts except for modern modes of individual vehicular transportation that in most cases cannot be fully absorbed by the pedestrian network, if the historic fabric is to be preserved. Central location and a high-quality social and architectural environment are prime values that can compensate the deficit in immediate accessibility. e) Further Opportunities: Given the fact that morphological and typological analyses are based on plot-by-plot cadastral analysis, the resulting detailed mapping of historic cities can easily be used for complementary analytical and operational information. Eventually, such material will provide a computerised data bank that can help monitoring current trends and steering a consistent urban evolution. Information recorded and entered on plot-by-plot basis should include: Type of building Historic age Architectural importance (from major monuments to contextual value) Physical condition (from well-preserved to ruined state) Previous and current use (e.g. religious, institutional, commercial, industrial, residential functions) Ownership (including residents status) Once fully available, such detailed analytical information must be regularly updated. Properly cross-referenced, data from different categories will inform the mode of intervention best suited for each specific plot or building. Such interventions may cover a wide range of action, from scientific preservation (e.g. for important historic structures in retrievable physical condition) to typological substitution (e.g. for houses in ruined physical conditions and with contextual value only). Creative reading of the available analytical material will also enable planners to establish pro-active area conservation plans or adapted urban rehabilitation projects that preserve the continuity between old and new.
7 See also Roger Trancik, Finding Lost Space, who discusses the lost interrelation between buildings and open spaces in modern town planning. [13]
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Figure 1. Survey of the urban fabric of the historic centre of Berne (Switzerland), showing its homogeneous morphology, as grown and maintained over centuries. (Source: Paul Hofer, Berne Studio, ETH-Zrich 1974/75)
Figure 2. Detailed section through a typical residential/commercial unit of the plan shown in Picture 1. (Source: idem)
Figures 3, 3a and 3b. Typological variations of a characteristic shopping arcade relating to figures 1 & 2, the variations being due to the adaption of the basic prototype to different contextual situations and topographic levels. (Source: idem)
Figures 4 and 4a. Plan of the inner city of Vienna, showing juxtaposed urban morphologies of different scale and character, with the preserved medieval nucleus in the centre and the surrounding 19th century development of the Ringstrasse (and beyond) that was planned and built partly on the site of the former moats and fortifications. (Source: Carlo Aymonino, Lo studio dei fenomeni urbani, Roma 1977)
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Figure 5. Aerial view of the historic fabric of Aleppo (Syria) showing its organic cellular tissue that provides variety of individual architectural forms on the basis of consistent structural affinities between its components. (Source: Author)
Figure 6. Urban rehabilitation project for the Ashekan wa Arefan district in Kabul (Afghanistan), based on morphological and typological surveys and corresponding intervention criteria. (Source: AKTC)
Figures 7 and 7a. Two excerpts from a conservation and design manual for the Old Stone Town in Zanzibar, with exemplary guidelines concerning typical elevation elements. (Source: AKTC)
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Figures 8 and 8a. Negative example of a large scale planning intervention by the Uzbek government that led to the loss of substantial parts of the historic fabric in favour of anonymous and meaningless public open space. (Source: AKTC)
Figures 9 and 9a. Morphologically faithful infill and rehabilitation proposal for a partly destroyed residential area in historic Samarkand. (Source: AKTC)
The evident advantage of Urban Morphology, particularly if extended into the described operational dimension, is that it can control urban evolution from within, acting at the level of smallest individual components which are the prime generators of incremental change and organic transformation. Moreover, this approach is the only one that enables planners to transcend the limitations of the classical conservation approach: Firstly, because Urban Morphology looks not just at individual monuments, but at the historic fabric as a contextual continuum that integrates all individual components (including housing, which accounts for substantial, but often neglected parts of historic cities); and, secondly, because it acknowledges that historic cities cannot be frozen as antiquarian artefacts, but that they have to renew themselves on daily basis.8 Through providing consistent guidelines for comprehensive revitalisation (including resto8 In this context one needs to remember Friedrich Nietzsches statement at the beginning of his On the uses and disadvantages of history for life: We want to serve history only to the extent that history serves life: for it is possible to value the study of history to a degree that life becomes stunted and degenerate a phenomenon we are now forced to acknowledge in the face of certain striking symptoms of our age. [14]
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Figure 10. Urban renewal from within, based on existing environmental, architectural and community potentials: view of the historic district of Darb al-Ahmar in Cairo before and after intervention. (Source: AKTC)
Figure 11. Multifold intervention on a housing cluster in Darb al-Ahmar, combining conservation, upgrading infill and community development projects. (Source: AKTC)
ration of monuments, upgrading of housing, adaptive re-use of obsolete facilities and substitution on ruined plots), Urban Morphology resolves the key problem of historic cities: That is, staying alive under changing contemporary conditions, and yet being faithful to their identity and traditional structuring principles the very values that account for their character and their enduring attraction. Historic cities are thus enabled to escape the daunting dilemma between sterile conservation and radical redevelopment, thus ensuring their long-term viability as part and parcel of larger urban systems. Admittedly, certain problems may arise regarding the identity issue, due to the fact that historic cities today (particularly in the non-Western world) often no longer represent fully homogeneous entities in terms of built form and social content. Many of them are inhabited by hybrid communities: Hybrid in the sense of adhering to ancient beliefs and traditions as well as modern Western ways of life, or hybrid in the sense of including different ethnic and/or religious allegiances. In such cases, it will be important to find common denominators and to resist sectarian political and ideological biases that tend to corrupt the traditional sense of identity. Architectural forms are usually open to different cultural interpretation, as long as they appeal to collective human values. In the past, many cities with multi-ethnic or multi-religious background (such as Mostar or Aleppo, for instance) have succeeded in developing shared spatial identities. They have demonstrated, that Muslims and Christians not only could successfully cohabitate, but that they could use a similar architectural vocabulary, except for their distinct religious buildings.
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Architecture & Science Journal Other problems connected with the implementation of the Urban Morphology approach relate to manpower and institutional capacity. Due to the complexity of the methodology and to its emphasis on the urban micro-scale, the full process from starting analytical surveys to reaching operational working tools takes time. It also requires enduring commitment on the part of those carrying out the process, in order to guarantee equal and consistent criteria of evaluation both in the analytical and operational phase. Staff must be field-based, in order to monitor and supervise ongoing activities on the ground an obligation that is not always appreciated in developing countries, where white collar desk-work has a higher social status than fieldwork. Institutional continuity is equally important, since consistent monitoring is a long-term task. Ideally, a special agency dedicated to historic districts should be in place, to conduct both research and implementation, and it should have sufficient legal authority to become independent of changing political constellations. These are conditions that, unfortunately, do not always prevail in countries blessed with a rich urban heritage. Often the historic city is dealt with by the planning department of the municipality, which is submerged with large-scale urban development and infrastructure problems and does not have the time, nor the manpower, nor the know-how, nor the financial means to deal appropriately with historic districts. Here, technical support through International Organisations, bilateral donors or private funding agencies interested in urban conservation and related socio-economic development projects can help, as shown for instance by various interventions of the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme in the Islamic world. However, it is essential that such partnerships give high priority to training of local staff in the management of historic areas and revitalised historic buildings, in order to ensure future sustainability of initiated projects. Restored historic districts, improved public open spaces and re-used monuments are often capable of generating direct or indirect economic benefits. Local authorities should find ways to skim off added value through appropriate legal and financial mechanisms (rather than letting them go to private speculators) and to re-inject it into the area be it for continued maintenance of restored structures or for funding the required local management unit 6. Relevance with regard to world heritage cities The UNESCO World Heritage List covers a vast number of historic cities of different cultural origin, of different periods and of different state of physical preservation. Urban Morphology is applicable to almost all of these cases, since as a neutral and universal tool it carries no ideological bias of its own with it, nor does it impose alien structures and modes of intervention.9 Its methodology is purely empirical, geared to the prevailing local conditions, and deriving its conclusions from the specific context it analyses whether it deals with European or Asian sites, with medieval cities, or with 19th-century suburbs. Indeed, its objective is to detect, support and enhance the urban characteristics that are responsible for a citys or a districts identity, without, however, attempting to freeze the urban fabric in an arbitrary stage of its evolution. Through the ongoing regeneration of the tissue cell by cell, the underlying urban framework will be confirmed and strengthened as a whole. Some World Heritage Cities, such as Bern, Orvieto, Fez, to quote a few examples, have remained relatively homogeneous, be it because of their topographic site conditions, or be it due to the lack of extensive modern development around them. In such cases, the morphologic approach can be extended to the complete urban form. Other cities, such as Vienna, Paris or Cairo, show a composite urban pattern that features historic typologies of different ages (either side by side or interspersed) which makes them become collage cities. [15]There, morphologic approaches will have to be applied to parallel historic urban systems, each one in its own right, thus respecting the pluralism of architectural languages.
9 This neutrality seems particularly important with reference to historic cities in the developing world. Today they are subject to heavy globalisation pressures that in fact perpetuate Western colonial ideologies in new disguises.
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Architecture & Science Journal Given the fact that most historic cities today happen to be located at the centre of a growingmetropolis, they suffer from the clash with adjacent, more recent central business districts, or with modern urban extensions that mushroom on their peripheries. Since Urban Morphology can be applied to urban structures of many periods and can even be projected into contemporary design, it provides a good basis for achieving consistent formal order in juxtaposed urban systems and, eventually, for establishing compatibility, if not harmony, between old and new. A necessary precondition, however, will be that the authorities, by enforcing appropriate building regulations, are able to maintain control in areas exposed to heavy redevelopment pressures and real estate speculation. Special economic mechanisms, such as differentiated property taxes, transfers of development rights and cross-subsidising of historic areas from income raised in the Central Business District may need to be adopted in these cases, in order to ensure the balance between the various parts of the total urban system.
References
1. Bianca S. Urban Form in the Arab World Past and Present, ORL-Schriften, London, Zrich, 2000 2. Goethe J.W. Goethes Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe, Munich Vol.13, 1981, p.53-250. 3. Paz O. The New Analogy Poetry and Technology, Convergences Essays on Art and Literature, New York, 1987. pg. 121 4. Capra F. The Web of Life, London, 1997 5. Capra F. The Hidden Connections, HarperCollins, London, 2002 6. Muratori S. Studi per una operante storia urbana di Venezia, Roma, 1959 7. Aymonimo C. Lo studio dei fenomeni urbani, Roma, 1977 8. Rossi A. Larchitettura della citt, Padova 1966 9. Panerai P.et al., Elments danalyse urbaine, Bruxelles 1975 (?) 10. Christopher A. A Pattern Language, Oxford, 1977 11. Christopher A. The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford, 1979 12. Mandelbrot B. The Fractal Geometry of Nature, New York, 1983. 13. Trancik R. Finding Lost Space, New York, 1986 14. Nietzsche F. W. On the uses and disadvantages of history for life, Hackett Pub Co, 1980 15. Colin Rowe C., Koetter F. Collage City, Cambridge, Mass, 1978
Corresponding Author: Stefano Bianca Director Emeritus,Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme E-mail: stef.bianca@gmail.com
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Abstract
In correlation with the notion of stewardship of the earth, vernacular architecture has contained within it sensitivity to nature and the spirituality of place. Patterns in nature are reflected in the organic forms of buildings and in interventions such as the qanats (underground irrigation channels) of Iran, the terraced cities of Yemen or the oasis settlements of hot, arid Arabia. Past architecture exhibits knowledge about the relationship and balance between the built and natural environment, (A Place of Being) even in monumental works such as the Alhambra in Granada. The scientific revolution, the industrial revolution and specialization seemed to bring with them the separation of beauty and utility and also an aggressive attitude towards exploiting nature. In the Project of Modernity bringing progress and development deepened the rupture between the built and natural realms (A Place of Forgetting). In the past two decades environmental awareness and economic imperatives have begun to generate programs that have resulted in built works that try to heal the scars in the landscape and be more sensitive to place (A Place of Remembering). A part of this is the notion of an architectural and urban conservation. Today, n-New architectural projects, based on ethical concerns, are beginning to reconnect the contemporary architecture to the wisdom of the past to begin to produce solutions for a sustainable built environment (A New Vernacular perhaps).
1. Introduction: Beginnings Titles to me are important as clues of the gist of what is to follow. This paper focuses on vernacular architecture in conceptual and perceptual terms. Issues related to change and the vernacular raise much larger questions. Although referring to the vernacular, and possible interpretations of it, I will raise a larger question about the meaning and authentic expression of architecture, related and unrelated to culture, and our broader ethical responsibilities as stewards of the earth. The now fashionable axiom of sustainability as we know is an ancient one embedded in the vernacular architecture of place.
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Architecture & Science Journal It is worth reminding ourselves of a couple of definitions as a starting point: The term vernacular is derived from the Latin vernaculus, meaning domestic, native, indigenous. Paul Olivers mammoth undertaking, The Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World defines vernacular architecture as: ...comprising the dwellings and all other buildings of the people. Related to their environmental contexts and available resources they are customarily owner or community-built, utilizing traditional technologies. All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs, accommodating the values, economies and ways of life of the cultures that produce them.1 The term is not to be confused with so-called traditional architecture, though there are links between the two. Vernacular architecture may, through time, be adopted and refined into culturally accepted solutions, but only through repetition may it become traditional. Traditional architecture can also include temples and palaces, for example, which would not be included usually in the rubric of the vernacular. One issue that it raises is this: How does one keep tradition moving without creating a new instant architecture without meaning? It is something to bear in mind as we explore change in the vernacular built environment. In this essay I hope to provoke thought and engender some ways of regarding our built environment. Along the way we might be triggered into thinking what vernacular architecture is about today, and whether our interpretations about it remain valid. If one believes, as I do, that architecture is about cultural expression, then how it relates to us is of relevance. We know that change is inevitable and that architecture has always changed, albeit more slowly than in the last century or so. What does this rapid change mean to us and how can one grasp building within this paradigm? My point of departure is Douglas Adams BBC series of 1978 (subsequently published), The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy2, which follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien visitor from a small planet and researcher for the eponymous guidebook, escapes the demolition of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons. Displaced from what was familiar, the characters embark on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and answer to the ultimate question of the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. They leave behind the familiar, the comfortable, to discover new worlds and things about themselves. What, one might ask, has this to do with vernacular expressions or even architecture? It illustrates that great disruptions or rapid changes upset our perception of tradition and what is authentic. Can we understand what is authentic in another culture from the viewpoint of our own? Do we know how to read the architecture of a place? The universality and particularization of image and interpretation come to mind. We are confronted with the duality of universality and particularization in our life and environment. To simplify, universality can be seen through a form of internationalism, through building types such as airports, assembly-line factories and hospitals. On the other hand, particularization, which may also be termed Regionalism, is more easily illustrated through vernacular buildings that have existed in society over a period of time long enough to have established a tradition in terms of image, style, function, technology and construction buildings such as houses, community buildings and religious structures. In todays world, these two polarities exist in a dialectic within which architects have to operate. It is now impossible
1 Paul Oliver, Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World , (in 3 volumes), Cambridge: 1997. Oliver has argued that vernacular architecture, given the insights it gives into issue of environmental adaptation, will be necessary in the future to ensure sustainability in both cultural and economic terms beyond the short term. 2 The book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five in the extremely successful series, was published in paperback in 1979 by Pan Books in the UK. Subsequent editions and volumes followed over the years.
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Architecture & Science Journal not to be influenced by international developments and to base buildings on a strictly regional tradition. On the other hand, it may also be dangerous to invent the future, one of Buckminster Fullers phrases, without reference to tradition: or to use one of the architect Charles Correas favourite expressions, one has to know where one is coming from to know where one is going. So, how do we interpret different architectures? What happens to the distortions and changes we perceive over time? Do they remain authentic within a vernacular tradition? The greatest influences on us everywhere are television and the internet. If something happens on TV or discussed on the internet it validates the event. As more people turn to sites such as Wikipedia on the net, its contents are taken as fact rather than as an interpretation. The context within which architecture is formed and perceived, and the way in which we make judgments has changed. It is a cultural experience of simulation, where the products of this process of consumption are essentially indistinguishable from what we are habituated to consider to be, in the words of the Coca-Cola company, The Real Thing. One might argue that the product of this system of interpreting architecture is not only as meaningful as any other, but as meaningless as any other. The meaning of the built environment, especially the issue of authenticity, is connected to the vernacular. And vernacular architecture deals with identity the expression of a culture or a particular group. This occurs not only in the field of building but in literature and painting witness the truck paintings of Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Fig. 1) Are these interpretations of the built environment from various viewpoints authentic; are they real? Authenticity is a difficult and problem-fraught concept, and one to which we will return later.
Figure 1. Truck paintings in Pakistan: an expression of identity and place. (Photo: H.U. Khan)
In looking at the vernacular and its changes I would like to discuss it under three main temporal headings the past, the present, the future each of which deal with stewardship, spiritually and change in the balance of the vernacular and the natural environment. It also returns us to the time-honoured approach to sustainability that was a natural part of vernacular building. Our arrogance in the 20th century and belief in technology seemed to lead us to forgetting the deep values in building, and it has been only in the past decade or so that we have returned to remembering. 2. A Place of being My first idea in looking at the vernacular deals with its production related to society what I would call A Place of Being. In the past we built with and in the land. It was not only a matter of practicality but also of
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Figure 2. The earth structures of West Africa Yamma Mosque, Niger (Courtesy: Aga Khan Award for Architecture )
spiritual and ethical responsibility. One thing that the vernacular gives us is that it is integrated into our lifestyles it is holistic. Take, for example the mud structures in West Africa. (Fig. 2) They embody a cyclical and communal building process. That is not to say that they are architecture without architects (a somewhat misleading title of Rudofskys 1964 New York exhibition on the vernacular3) because within each societal group there were specialists who knew how to build, but they were aided by the community and decisions made were understood more widely. The notion of sustainability, of continuation, is illustrated by the life cycle of the inhabitants, where the earth buildings needed to be renewed, re-plastered and taken care of seasonally. This was of course possible given the agrarian life of the community and a well understood division of labour. Where this goes awry is when the economy and life patterns change unable to support the relationship to the built environment that this breaks down. Of necessity the architecture was sustainable, and closely expressive of technology. To use a well-known example, the qanats of Iran not only brought water to the fields but also developed a system of underground water storage and movement within a house to cool the structure. The desert settlements of Arabia clearly demonstrate an awareness of climate, orientation and materials related to the use of local resources, both in their layout and in the use of architectural devices such as the wind-catcher malqaf (Arabic) or badgir (Persian). (Fig. 3) There are numerous such examples which illustrate that the relationship between human beings, buildings and nature was intertwined and contained meanings that went to the core of everyday existence. Buildings also underscored our relationship to and respect of nature. A good example of this is the palace complex of Alhambra in Granada, dating from the 13th century. (Fig. 4) One would not usually classify this complex of buildings and gardens as vernacular; indeed it is often considered the epitome of high art. And yet, beyond its artistic expressions, in its approach to nature and issues of its relationship to site, to recycling water, and engineering related to materials and construction, the complex shares many of the same values of the vernacular. This raises the issue of what is it that really constitutes vernacular architecture? Or is it a little like authenticity, we know it when we see it? I believe in an inclusive definition of the vernacular, although I recognize that I may be in a minority in this, but I put this forward as we consider, tradition and the vernacular, especially in the light of contemporary architectural production.
3 In 1964 the exhibition Architecture Without Architects was put on at the Museum of Modern Art, New York by Bernard Rudofsky. Accompanied by a book of the same title, including black and white photography of vernacular buildings around the world, the exhibition was extremely popular. It was Rudofsky who seems to have first made use of the term vernacular in an architectural context, and brought the concept into the eye of the public and of mainstream architecture.
Figure 3. Mitigating climate: The windcatcher malqaf of the Sheikh Saeed House in Dubai (Photo: H.U. Khan)
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Figure 4. The gardens of the Alhambra, Granada: building with natural systems (Courtesy: Mimar)
The very act of building can also be part of community building. Take for example, the long line of people who pass materials to each other during the building process an act of togetherness reflecting the values inherent in the particular community a spiritual process. It is the act of commonality that transports building into a greater act. (John Ruskin recognized this when he differentiated between building and architecture.) In the first issue of the journal Mimar: Architecture in Development, which I founded and edited, the Egyptian architect, Abdel Wahid El-Wakil, noted: Work is a prayer. It is an act of devotion You cannot disassociate work from belief architecture is a part of mans work on earth. [2] This is also well illustrated by the Amish in the USA who build their buildings as an act of devotion and community.4 In the early 1700s, the promise of a land without religious persecution drew thousands of Amish to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they were able to farm fertile land, form communities, practice their faith, and govern themselves according to their own principles. The Amish are a society based upon tradition, religion, and family. In order to sustain their values, the Amish have determined that technological change should not be accepted without reservation. As one Amish person put it, Machinery is not wrong in itself, but if it doesnt help fellowship, you shouldnt have it. The major technologies being developed in the non-Amish world at the beginning of the 20th century like electricity, the automobile, and the airplane very quickly became symbols of the modern world. The Amish rejected many of these technologies in part to retain their identity as separate from the modern world. Each Amish district has developed its own code of conduct known as its Ordnung, an unwritten collection of rules comprised of the districts long established traditions, as well as more recently agreed upon norms. It is conveyed both by example and by instruction when someone breaks a rule or inquires about a rule. Buildings are constructed using these rules, which is instances prohibit the use of certain mechanical tools, but in all instances reveal a shared sense of values. By rejecting many of the changes in the outside world, the Amish not only retain their sense of identity but also continue their building traditions. (Fig. 5)
Figure 5. The act of building together expressing community values: the Amish in Pennsylvania (Photo: Unknown)
4 Notes on the Amish are based on research by Jameson M. Wetmore of Arizona State University and his forthcoming article: Amish Technology - Choosing Machines and Techniques that Reinforce Values and Build Community, IEEEs Technology & Society Magazine.
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Architecture & Science Journal This is not to suggest that we should, like the Amish, reject new innovations, but it illustrates the difficult situation of maintaining an existing sense of identity if we do so. The chain of tradition, if broken, leads to curious distortions and misunderstandings. Identity does not refer just to the physical expression of who one is, but perhaps more profoundly to what the anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss referred to as the deep structure of society.5 The issue of deep structures refers not only to the manifestation, the act and process of building but also to the spiritual meanings contained therein. One can refer to the systemic thinking in Feng-shui and Vstu Shastra. Todays Feng-shui6 schools teach that it is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space to achieve harmony with the environment. All capital cities of China followed rules of Feng-shui for their design and layout. Similarly, in India itself, one of the traditional canons of town planning and architecture is Vstu Shastra7, which deals with various aspects of designing and building living environments that are in harmony with physical and metaphysical forces. (Fig. 6)
Figure 6. The spiritual in architecture: rules for building set by a Feng-shui compass (Photo: Internet)
Though Vstu is conceptually similar to Feng-shui in that it also tries to harmonize the flow of energy through the house, it differs in the details, such as the exact directions in which various objects, rooms, materials, etc., are to be placed. Are expressions of the above vernacular? I believe they are, stemming from age-old traditions. They illustrate the range of ways in which the vernacular can be viewed. Tradition of course changes leading to new traditions. And if the changes are rapid or displaced in space are they still valid? I would use the work of an old teacher of mine, the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, as an example of this. Fathys work is well known to us through his elegant buildings and village designs like that of New Gourna, Fathys seminal books, Architecture for the Poor and Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture [4,5]outline his ideas about architecture, building and community design, and have had an important impact in the 1970s and 80s as an alternative to modern architecture.
5 In his 1972 book Structuralism and Ecology , Lvi-Strauss proposed that humankinds deep social structure is composed of hidden rules that govern the behaviour of its practitioners. What made cultures unique and different from one another are the hidden rules participants understood but are unable to articulate. He maintained that culture is a dialectic process: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, and proposed a methodological means of discovering these rulesthrough the identification of binary oppositions. 6 In ancient times as well as today, Feng-shui, (pronounced as fung shway), was known as Kan-Yu which means The Law of Heaven and Earth. Feng-shui literally translates as wind-water. This is a cultural shorthand taken from the following passage of the Zhangshu (Book of Burial) by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty: The qi or chi (literally air, used in Feng shui as flow of energy) that rides the wind stops at the boundary of water. These rules were codified during the Zhou era in the Kaogong ji (Manual of Crafts). Rules for builders were codified in the Lu ban jing (Carpenters Manual). 7 In Sanskrit vstu means site, building, house and shastra refers to treatise, instruction. The use of the life force (also called Life-force, and Prana), is similar to Qi/Chi in Chinese.
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Architecture & Science Journal New Gourna, near Luxor in Egypt, raises a number of important issues. It was designed in the late 1940s as a model village. Is it a masterly reconstruction of an authentic architectural experience, but was it genuinely attuned to the life pattern and mentality of the population for which it was planned? On the face of things the answer is affirmative Fathy based himself on the Nubian tradition and materials of mud-brick, on Pharaonic elements and proportions, and on an interpretation of Cairo and in building on principles of privacy common in Islamic life in the country. (Fig. 7)
Figure 7. A Place of Being: Hassan Fathys experiment with creating an instant vernacular in New Gourna, near Loxor, Upper Egypt (Photo: H. U. Khan)
However, a closer examination of this reveals a different reality. [6,7] We discover that the tradition and materials belonged to another region and building tradition in the country, the planning of the village was based on ideas Fathy had digested from some works of early 20th century fiction about Cairo and on his own journeys and perceptions into the countryside seen from his elitist viewpoint. In addition to this the architectural models that he utilized were an amalgam of ancient architecture and new ideas about building. New Gourna was designed as an idealized community rather than one embedded in sociological understanding. In spite of this, it posited an alternative model of an indigenous vernacular vision to the modern architecture prevalent at the time, and it was quite beautiful and poetic. It created, what I have termed an instant vernacular, and easily recognized as such, even though it follows no one tradition but presents us with a fusion of traditions within one image. Fathys architecture simultaneously addressed the issue of sustainability (although he did not use the term), and in this he was well ahead of the thinking of his time. So is New Gourna the real thing? Fathy has given us a new image and reality of rural life a genuine attempt at trying to produce a living architecture. Is his interpretation authentic; is it real? Does it really matter? Constructing buildings, indeed, constructing experiences, using the same materials, the vocabularies of tradition, but obviously more sophisticated and communicated in a way that historical information so absorbed assumes the aspect of reincarnation. What relationship does this architectural expression have to the real thing the vernacular evolved over many years? Or is this todays real thing? To quote from an essay by Umberto Eco: To speak of things that one wants to connote as real, these things must seem real. The completely real becomes identified with the completely fake! Absolute unreality is offered as a real presence. The aim is to supply a sign that will be forgotten as such. The philosophy is not that we are giving you the reproduction so that you will want the original, but rather that we are giving you the enhanced reproduction so that you will forget the original. [8] The reproduction has become an original, and architecture has transformed the past. It has entered a realm of Being.
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Architecture & Science Journal 3. A Place of forgetting Let us move on from A Place of Being. In the 20th century spurred on by new technologies and an emerging connected world we seemed to reach what I would call A Place of Forgetting. We felt that we could do anything anywhere energy could be harnessed cheaply, new technologies and materials opened doors, our buildings could be self-contained environments and our cities become places of convenience. The scientific revolution, the industrial revolution and specialization seemed to bring with them the separation of beauty and utility and also an aggressive attitude towards exploiting nature. The Project of Modernity, in bringing progress and development deepened the rupture between the built and natural realms. Modernism looked for new and innovative ways in which to build. Ideas about architecture reflecting the democratic egalitarian age took hold, but were never really realised. Indeed Aldous Huxleys Brave New World and Buckminster Fullers prophetic visions are only now being manifested (being far ahead of their time). And in the process we seemed to forget from where we were coming, largely seeing the past as a burden, and trying to forget it in creating our new architectures. The buildings we produced in the Oil-rich Arabian world in the 1960s tell a tale of unrestricted energy consumption, of reckless abandon of any thoughts of sustainability so well demonstrated by the vernacular. We lived for the moment. It seemed that our response to the environment was devoid of responsibility. The paradigm seemed to have shifted to a mode of consumption and development. We seemed to be so involved with rapid development that we took little time to think about where we might be going. The four or so decades this covered from the end of World War II onwards are ones that I will not dwell on here, (I have written extensively about architecture during this period), but mention them in passing, that by not respecting the vernacular and tradition we did ourselves a disservice. Luckily we now seemed to have moved onto a new period: one that I would call A Place of Remembering. 4. A Place of remembering In the past two or so decades environmental awareness and economic imperatives have begun to generate programs that have resulted in built works that try to heal the scars in the landscape and be more sensitive to place. A part of this includes the notion of an architectural and urban conservation. These new concerns emerged due to rising energy costs, the advent of new technologies, and even a rising consciousness amongst an influential minority of people. The realization that renewable resources are in fact finite and that actions taken in the past decades were leading to problems, advanced the issue of sustainability. As we are all aware, the environmental conservation movement has attained momentum in the past few years with hybrid vehicles, recycling materials, thinking about greenhouse gasses, and in architecture LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building requirements.8 Vernacular buildings were viewed as being important for historical reasons until recently when their sustainable nature and for their ecological lessons was re-examined as being relevant today. This holds true for both hot and cold climates, and for so-called advanced and lesser developed countries. The vernacular promoted self-sufficiency and locality. But, unfortunately, we have lost many buildings due to modernization, be it the addition of mechanical airconditioning, new plastic siding, or even interior lighting. Luckily there are positive actions being taken to save the vernacular heritage, ranging from government legislation to the creation of historic neighbourhoods. However, it should be noted that the vernacular continues as a
8 The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is nationally accredited in the USA as the benchmark for the design, construction and operation of so-called high-performance green buildings. Architects and clients use LEED to help transform the built environment to sustainability. LEED projects are in progress in 41 different countries, including Canada, Brazil, Mexico and India.
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Architecture & Science Journal living tradition and there are significant numbers of buildings that can be so categorized. A good example of this is Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. (Fig. 8) All this seems to suggest the vernacular exists in some kind of historic past it does not. The synthesis of the past and the present, of tradition and modernity is the concern of architects everywhere. It is my belief that architecture rooted in culture and tradition must extend itself to reflect contemporary concerns and expectations. We need to transform the models from the past to act as a catalyst for the future. Tradition and modernity are merely two Figure 8. The Taos Pueblo, New Mexico: living sides of the same coin and must be dealt with traditions of building (Photo: H. U. Khan) simultaneously. Building cannot be a rigid dogma, but a living, organic, ecological project. It is about continuity, based on memory, common sense and experience, and is the foundation of invention. As David Pearson, who has been an advocate of indigenous building noted; A reawakening of cultural identity is one of the most hopeful themes in the rebirth of natural architecture.9 In addition to the work of Hassan Fathy, more recently the works of such architects such as Francisco Bobby Manosa in the Philippines, Geoffrey Bawa in Sri Lanka, Glen Murcutt of Australia,Gaia Architects in the UK, William McDonough in the USA, and countless others, begin this synthesis I have mentioned. Manosas buildings cater to a contemporary life style, for example, the Amanpulo Resort (2005) in Palawan recreates an image of the vernacular. (The role of resort hotels in restating the vernacular has been significant.) Geoffreys Bawas buildings, including his elegant hotels and the University at Ruhunu (1985), blend into the countryside and many of them appear as if they have existed for ages in their site. Glenn Murcutts buildings bring a modern sensibility to the vernacular in houses such as the Magney (1984) and Aboriginal House (2003) (Fig. 9), and his Lerida Winery in Southern Australia. William McDonough is perhaps one of the most influential architects practising today, with his buildings, community designs, advocacy and writings about sustainable architecture. In a conversation a decade ago he said; It is not enough to be sustainable.
Figure 9. The new vernacular: Aboriginal House (2002) in New South Wales, Australia, by Glenn Murcutt, winner of the 2002 Pritzker Prize (Photo: Unknown)
9 See for example his book Earth to Spirit In Search of Natural Architecture, London: 1994, where he makes the case for natural architecture and provides a number of good examples, including the work of contemporary architects.
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Architecture & Science Journal If you were to ask someone about how their relationship with their spouse was and they answered sustainable it is not very productive. We need to be more, and the same is true with our architecture we need it to give something back to the environment.10 I name only these few architects, but there are many others, some not as well known, but nevertheless just as significant. We need to search them out and publicise their work as pointing new directions for building. 5. New beginnings? We are beginning to engage in all the issues that vernacular architecture stood for over the ages. Within this new construct, what is the new vernacular? Here we return to the images presented as architectural experiences both simulated and so-called authentic. Creating an environment that feels right, from Hassan Fathys villages to the game lodges of Masai Mara in Kenya, raises the issue of simulation. The question who judges architecture is this: How do we judge a satisfying mendacity? How do we judge a lie that gives us pleasure? How do we in an increasingly global culture, in which there is no defined region, project the authenticity of place? Certainly this is one of the problems that Modernism sought to confront in its early days, in that its interest was in proposing anti-essentialism in architecture; an architecture that could be considered to have universal values. What is problematic about this is exactly what is difficult about television and the internet: much as any two images are interchangeable for their emotive content, the values projected by the images are also interchangeable. In architecture we are besotted by a series of architectural styles and debates that presuppose some sort of origin tale about architecture. What I am trying to grasp is that the by-product of this kind of debate is similar to that of the television system that forces attention to its own dubious authenticity. A new architecture is emerging; and it expresses itself in a new vocabulary. It is not the vernacular of the past but the vernacular of today. I consider it as such because it embodies the principles and ideas that I have outlined above. Not only new buildings such as the Genzyme Corporate Headquarters (2003) by Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner, in Boston Massachusetts or the bioclimatic skyscrapers designed by Ken Yeang in Southeast Asia or his Tech-Linx Technical Park outside Kuala Lumpur (Fig. 10) , or the recent spate of Eco-villages in Europe and North America. One of the important differences between the vernacular architecture of the past and that of today is technology. New mechanical and digital technologies allow us to think about sustainability somewhat differently, be it the use of photo-voltaic cells, windgenerated electricity or water recycling. The favouring of active systems over that of passive energy design continues to remain a technological hangover. However, as the new gurus of sustainability agree we must continue to employ the age old practices of good siting, orientation and judicious use of materials in our new buildings. Perhaps even more importantly, new Figure 10. A new vernacular?: Tech-linx Park, Kuala Lumpur by Hamzah & Yeang / architect ways of conceiving settlements are being articulated Ken Yeang whole areas and places related to landscape and (Courtesy: Ken Yeang) culture. Again, I would use examples by those of Ken Yeangs eco-city and Tay Kheng Soons scheme of 20 years ago for a reconsidered Tropical Sustainable City for Kampong Bugis in Singapore. (Fig 11) They are inspiring and the ideas contained within them may begin to be implemented
10 Conversation amongst a small group of people, including the author, at MIT in October 1998
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Figure 11. Towards a new paradigm for the Southeast Asian tropical sustainable city: a visionary idea for Kampong Bugis in Singapore by Akitekt Tengarra / architect Tay Kheng Soon (Courtesy: Tay Kheng Soon)
Figure 12. Hi-Tech experimental wind cooling tower in a typical courtyard of Masdar, Abu Dhabi (Photo: H. U. Khan)
before long. A project underway and partially constructed is that of Masdar, a zero-carbon, zero energy consumption city in Abu Dhabi, by Foster Associates. (Fig. 12) Here, both passive and active environmental systems have been employed. All this projects an optimistic scenario. I must however stress that all is not rosy. Even as we become consciousness of sustainable design and intelligent buildings, we continue to use technology and images of power and progress to define our built environment. The greatest example of this currently is the city state of Dubai, where new awe-inspiring buildings are being built. The heroic and evocative images of their Palm Islands, amongst others, with their hi-tech buildings continue to capture the imagination. (Fig. 13) Here we find a 7-star hotel and indoor skiing complexes in the desert. The concerns with energy are overwhelmed with notions of some futuristic future. Such developments have ruined the ecology of the desert and coastal regions of the place and in the mid and longer terms are unsustainable. The heady development is reminiscent of the American Wild West but a hundred years later when the overall global situation has changed. It is a cautionary tale, one to which we must pay attention. We are still trying to make sense of it all: to find the meaning and answers for relevance to our current architectures.
Figure 13. A Place of Forgetting: 21st century place-making without reference to site, climate or culture Palm Island in the global city of Dubai (Photo: Unknown)
I will return to where I started; to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. According to the Guide, a race of vast pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent beings constructed the then greatest
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Architecture & Science Journal computer in all of time and space named Deep Thought, to calculate The Ultimate Answer to The Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Distracted by a demarcation dispute with two philosophers, a simple answer is requested. After seven and a half million years of computing cycles, the people ask Deep Thought if it has the answer. I do, said the computer, but you arent going to like it! The people press for the answer eagerly. Finally Deep Thoughts answer is: 42. Forty two?! yells one of the philosophers, Is that all youve got to show for seven and a half million years work? I checked it very thoroughly, said the computer, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that youve never actually known what the question is. So what is the question related to the built environment? Is it to do with culture, with technology, with our aspirations, and our vision of progress? It has to do with all these, and more. I am reminded of the title of Gauguins mythic painting; Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?11 In it he was asking a cultural question related to change: it is the same question we can ask through the production of buildings and places. This returns us to the issue of architectural authenticity and change that makes it difficult to assign meaning and relevance to it. As Hassan Fathy once wryly observed; In the house of my father every step had a meaning now in our new house, every step costs a dollar. The difference in how one values something is tied to ones vision of place. Harmony and balance the archetype of the vernacular can occur in different situations. The new vernacular is not limited by either building type or confined to any one place it is timeless because it embodies principles and values that are timeless. The vernacular never lost its relevance and it continued to evolve. We just went to A Place of Forgetting and due to circumstance we are returning to A Place of Remembering. Perhaps if we take heed of this, all the white noise and distortions can be minimized, and it wont matter how we view the vernacular and architecture will regain its relevance to society. For, as I am fond of saying, in the final analysis, architecture is not about buildings, it is about people.
References
1. Oliver P. Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World , Cambridge, 1997; 2. Wahid El-Wakil A. Architecture in Development, Mimar. no. 1, Jul-Sep 1981, pp. 46-47. 3. Lvi-Strauss. Structuralism and Ecology, 1972 4. Fathy H. Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt, Chicago, 1973 5. Fathy H. Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture: Principles and Examples with Reference to Hot Arid Climates, Chicago, 1986. 6. Taragan H. Architecture in Fact and Fiction: The Case of the New Gourna Village in Upper Egypt, Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World, Vol. XVI, 1999. 7. Udin Khan H. Inventing Tradition and the Paradox of Continuity, Aramco World, July/August, 1999. 8. Umberto E. Travels in Hyper-reality, New York, 1986; 9. Pearson D. Earth to Spirit In Search of Natural Architecture, London, 1994;
Corresponding Author Hassan Uddin Khan Roger Williams University USA E-mail:hkhan@rwu.edu
11 Gauguins painting of 1897, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, is a monumental and mythic work designed to embody a total philosophy of life and civilization.
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Abstract
This paper summarizes efforts of the Government of Albania to identify forms and amount of informality in the country, as well as to address issues of informal economy, fight against corruption and organized crime, as well as formalization the informal economy and settlements. The paper describes especially basic findings of the Program for the Transition to the Rule of Law and an Inclusive Market Economy in Albania, 2005-2007 [1] [29] as an institutional reform initiative aimed at allowing all Albanians, especially the poor and vulnerable, to be able to gain easy access to the legal mechanisms and protection that the law provides in order to create wealth in a modern market economy. The author of the paper has been the political liaison and technical director of the Task Force established by the Prime Minister of Albania, assisted by UNDP Office of Albania, and ILD, Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Lima-Peru. The establishment of such program was result of the pressure at community, local and political level of the decade long experiences of the Albanian NGO, namely Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development, that started since 1995 at grassroots base initiatives in the informal neighborhoods of Tirana Albania, creating first pilot projects of informal settlement upgrading and formalization in Albania [6] [16]. This ended up in designing a program at national scale for addressing issues of informality in economy and construction that was adopted by the government and parliament in 2005 up to date [2] [29].
1. Introduction The Program of the Government of Albania, assisted by UNDP and ILD Peru: Transition to the Rule of Law and Inclusive Market Economy in Albania [29], focused on the diagnosis of the informal economy. The objective of the diagnosis in itself was to produce an accurate picture in 2007 of the hidden reality of the extralegal sector of Albania that would enable the authorities and society to generate information base about the root causes, the types, location and size of informality, as basic picture needed to design effective reforms to incorporate the informal assets into the formal market economy [3] [29]. During this stage of the program, several training and
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Architecture & Science Journal local capacity building activities have been undertaken to assure sustainability of the knowledge generated, and research activities have been carried out mainly in the Tirana metropolitan region. The research was based on analyzing the three main institutions necessary for a modern and inclusive legal and economic system: (i) property rights, (ii) business organizational forms, (iii) and mechanisms to operate in expanded markets [7] [8] [31]. The methodology [8] [9] includes three approaches to each institution: a) The legal and institutional obstacles that prevent the access to the formal market economy (top-down approach), b) The study of the extralegal practices that supports the property and the business interactions (bottom-up approach), c) As well as the cost analysis of these two systems plus the assessment of the amount of dead capital involved [9] [29]. More than 20 professionals have been organized in three multi-disciplinary teams: legal, extralegal and economic. Each team consisted of local professionals from central administration and local 3 NGO-s (including Co-PLAN), supervised and trained by UNDP/ILD experts [6] [29]. The research provided findings [7] [29] about: 1. Albanian institutional setting through a conceptual framework, and a preliminary estimate of the amount of dead capital in the extralegal sector 2. Real estate property, focusing on the important issues of restitution and compensation, formalization, and registration of real estate. 3. Business organizational forms, including the incorporation and registration of businesses, along with the licensing system that allows them to operate formally; 4. Mechanisms necessary to operate in the expanded market, including access to formal credit and the identity of individuals, businesses and assets. 5. A preliminary assessment of the opportunities in the tourism sector. 6. A detailed description of the methodology and sources, etc [9] [30]. 2. Main findings of the field research Albania suffered one of the harshest communist regimes before 90-s. During last 2 decades it enter a process of radical and often traumatic changes but since last 10 years has entered on the right track toward a 21st century market economy [5]. Nowadays the country has achieved macroeconomic stability and higher growth rates. The current government since 2005 has initiated major programs for fighting informality and corruption, land formalization and registration, improving business environment, along with tax and labor reforms that are helping to consolidate the above mentioned achievements [4]. The Albanian society and people are hardworking, improving their lives and countrys future everyday. During six months the undertaken research team talked to hundreds of people, men and women at every level of society, including: government authorities, bankers, local and community leaders, developers and builders, small business entrepreneurs; visiting them at home, following them while working, as well as talking with special focus groups. We surprised at the talents of people and entrepreneurial energy, discovering that the Albanian people hold considerable assets, mainly in the form of houses and small businesses, which in 2007 were estimated to be worth some US$ 13.4 billion, almost equal to the official GDP of Albania [7]. Therefore the research also revealed, that considerable number of Albanians operate outside the legal economy, where they are unable to leverage their assets, which thus remain as dead capital. In addition the research found out also that not less then 80% of properties and not less than 90% of business has at least some extralegal features.
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Architecture & Science Journal The big paradox of the Albanian economy is that despite the entrepreneurial energy of the people, and all this homegrown potential capital, not letting aside the governments efforts to fight informality, Albania still lags far behind the rest of European countries. This means that most of Albanian citizens cannot enjoy the benefits of economic growth. Most Albanian companies cannot compete in expanded markets; and most of the countrys entrepreneurs cannot leverage their assets. The explanation is that Albania suffers from a widespread condition common in developing and post-communist countries, known as extralegality. As a conclusion most Albanians proved also not have access to the three basic institutions for development in the market economy, as mentioned previously by Hernando De Sotto: 1. They lack formal, fungible property rights that allow ordinary people to capture the full economic value of their assets. 2. They have no access to business organizational forms that allow their enterprises to increase productivity through such legal mechanisms as an efficient division of labor, asset partitioning, limited liability, and other such crucial legal tools common throughout Europe. 3. They have the legal mechanisms to operate in the expanded market that would allow them to gain access to networks beyond the limited local circles of family and neighborhood acquaintances [9]. The barriers that prevent citizens from taking advantage of the three basic institutions are: In terms of property rights: - Albania has yet to precisely define the rights of owners of confiscated property during communist past [18] [19] [20], meanwhile the legal framework keeps changing. On top of that, the compensation and restitution agency lacks reliable official figures for the number of existing claims the total surface of claimed land, the availability of state-owned land for restitution, or an informed estimate of compensation [21] [22]. - The main barrier for the legalization process of informal settlements and building is the lack of priorities, a timeline and a business plan [23]. A comprehensive national plan requires basic information that is not available, such as who owns the land on which the buildings have been erected, existing claims for compensation or restitution, and the value of the actual land to determine compensation [24]. Legalization reform and activities require coordination among numerous state agencies. Coordination among agencies such as the one carrying out formalization, the property registry, the restitution and compensation agency and municipalities, is weak and politically frozen [26]. On the other hand, legalization is isolated from broader housing policies, thus it could become an incentive for further invasions [15] [16]. - Property and business registration imposes high costs on people and users. Tax controls for registering, notary and other specialized services, and fines for not registering within 1 month are insuperable barriers for people and owners. Registration is also plagued by redundant requirements that place unnecessary burdens on users, such as demanding maps and documents they already posses. The registered information can only be accessed by the owners or authorized agents, undermining the registrys role as an information provider. Meanwhile only few transactions are actually recorded after first registration, pushing formalized assets back into to informality [13] [14]. In terms of business organizational forms: - The local entrepreneurs wanting to start a formal business, need starting capital of more than US$1,000 in 2007, to incorporate as a limited liability partnership, or equivalent to US$21,500 if they incorporate as joint stock company [1]. As a result, local businessmen tend to choose the simplest business form, registering as physical persons. This does not allow them to separate the companys capital from their own; nor do they have limited liability. If their business grows, they are also not permitted to take on any partners, unless they incorporate as a limited liability partnership or joint stock company.
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Architecture & Science Journal - Entrepreneurs starting partnerships outside capital-city need to travel to the capital in order to register at the court and its commercial registry. There are no offices in other cities. The commercial registry does not provide easy public access to registered information on companies. Companies already registered, do not benefit from an effective and useful means of identification for their company or even of publicity that would protect their business name and investment [11]. - Once the company is incorporated, in order to start operating the business, entrepreneurs have to complete many cumbersome procedures. There is not enough information available, the procedures themselves are unclear and allow room for arbitrary decisions, which opens the gate to corruption. There are many different public agencies that duplicate controls by performing permanent inspections and demanding permit renewals [13]. In terms of mechanisms to operate in expanded markets: - Citizens and businesses do not have a proper identity system that allows them to introduce themselves before people beyond their close circle of acquaintances. This prevents them from operating in the expanded market [14]. - Not all entrepreneurs have access to the formal credit they need to develop their businesses because of the lack of a credit information system, a deficient collateral system, and the need for an efficient and reliable identity system. Without the availability of a secure and operational identity system, every time simple Albanians request credit from a financial institution, they have to provide 6 different documents for a housing loan and 9 different ones for a business loan [11]. - Even when a loan is finally approved, disbursement is delayed by the long and cumbersome procedures to register collateral, e.g. registering a pledge takes an average of 3 months. Long and unpredictable judicial procedures for collateral foreclosure also adversely affect credit costs [17]. But even with all these barriers in doing business, it have not stopped Albanians from operating in the market. In fact, people are making business and real estate deals every day: they sell, buy, rent, produce, and associate in various kinds of enterprises. The streets of Albania are full of business enterprises, as any stroller can see. Meantime most of this business is being done outside the formal market where ordinary people have created a set of extralegal practices and rules that allow them, although imperfectly, to exploit only partly the economic value of their own assets [23]. The informal practices regarding the handling of real estate property: This practices developed also after the establishment of the freedom of transit, which was banned during the communist regime, while a mass migration from the countryside happened, reshaping the face of the cities of Albania. Most of the newcomers settled on former agricultural lands around the main cities. Some of them bought the land informally from previous settlers, while others just occupied whatever land they could and built their houses, as usually public meant no mans land. That is exactly how the large informal settlements of Kamza and Kneta grew outside Tirana and Durres cities, nowadays areas of some 130,000 inhabitants each [25] [26]. Many residents extended the size of their houses without the approval of any authority, occupying a considerable number of public spaces with illegal constructions. Once solid green spaces of the Tirana landscape, they are now crowded full of buildings. In existing urban areas, other buildings are squeezed in between existing buildings. Today, despite tremendous improvements, still large areas of Tirana lack decent roads, electricity, water and other basic services. According to several estimates, around 70% of all construction built in Tirana since 1990 took place without building permission [23]. Many of the migrants who tried to play by the rules saw their efforts going waste. Those who tried to buy the land they occupied from the private owners or the state soon discovered that their country lacked the kind of property rights infrastructure
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Architecture & Science Journal that could tell them who the rightful owner of the land was, nor was there a proper mechanism for formalizing their tenure, etc. Despite government efforts for modernizing the registration agency, usually local residents who want to formalize their property continue to run up considerable barriers that impede their access to registration services. The inevitable result is that most transactions of real estate property are completed outside the legal system in the informal sector [30]. Equally concerning, the widespread perception among citizens of the inefficiencies and corruption in the registration services has motivated many to push even properties that have already been formalized at great expense at the back of public interest and outside the law [31]. Extralegal mechanisms for the formation and operation of businesses: Although Albanian law provides a series of business organizational forms, access to them is costly and complex. They do not offer all the features needed by formal entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs create businesses mainly with family members and close friends, using informal association agreements [29]. Creating formal partnerships means facing the administrative burdens of the bigger business form. Predictably, entrepreneurs prefer to avoid red tape by incorporating as physical persons, leaving their partners in the shadows, no matter how much capital they have contributed, how productive they are, or how crucial they are to managing the business. The added difficulties obtaining several necessary licenses and permits along with complying with administrative, labor and tax obligations, force entrepreneurs to find informal solutions to prosper, including various kinds of evasion, including underreporting income or the number of employees and their wages or through the informal use of licenses. For example, many cases in which businesses use expired licenses or two or more businesses share one license [28] [29]. Extralegal mechanisms to operate in the expanded market: Albanians are well aware that they are trying to do business without a proper national personal identity system. Most entrepreneurs understand that without the ability to identify themselves and their businesses to strangers, they will continue to be blocked from expanding their market. Forced by circumstances, Albanians have created their own informal identity solutions, such as the accreditation by the kryeplak, a local authority (alderman) based mainly on customary law and personal legitimacy [27]. This is the certificate that many locals commonly use to prove their personal identity in their effort to increase the security of transactions. The kryeplak also provides another certificate (vertetim) that people use to prove their address, an essential component of personal identity, facing public and private entities, such as utility companies, financial institutions, schools, etc [26]. Another important mechanism for operating in the expanded market is access to credit, which allows individuals to start businesses and increase consumption, and businesses to grow, innovate, and face emergencies. Formal credit, however, is not available to the majority of local entrepreneurs. In response, people have created informal practices that allow them to access credit when they need it [24]. The practices are especially common as a solution to finance construction and wholesale ventures. However, no matter how creative Albanians are at inventing alternative norms and standards as substitutes for the legal tools they lack, such extralegal practices are full of shortcomings that will never meet their expectations of growth [25]. 3. Conclusion As conclusion to this stage one might say: - Extralegal land tenure in Albania is insecure and prevents owners from taking full advantage of the economic potential of their assets. They are more exposed to conflicts over land. They have less access to public utilities. They are forced to keep land transactions within a restricted market. They cannot use their land as collateral to obtain loans in the formal market [17].
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Architecture & Science Journal - Extralegal businesses in Albania remain small and non-specialized. Division of labor is restricted, causing low productivity. Partners are relegated to the shadows, without legal recognition of their investment, which reduces their incentive to invest further in the business. The result for Albania is a hit & run economy, where short-term profits and low-scale investment prevail. Business association is limited to close circles of family and acquaintances [10] [11]. - Extralegal identity solutions in Albania are extremely vulnerable, relying mainly on the memory of a single individual, the local alderman. Extralegal credit is extremely expensive and risky, requiring excessive guarantees or recovery procedures that are often criminal and violent [29]. The Challenge for Albania: The experience of the field study of the informal economies worldwide proves that informality is not a cultural or social response. Indeed it is mainly an economic reaction to exclusion, which reveals the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity of simple people intent on not just surviving but succeeding, against all barriers. The majority of Albanians, too, have met the challenges of legal exclusion with their own spontaneous and ingenious extralegal practices. Such informal way of doing business are in fact the seeds of the solution for Albanias successful transition to a market economy [1]. The majority of Albanians are actively demanding the kind of predictable and stable rules that are guarantee for economic growth. The current institutional framework, however, does not ensure the legal tools society needs. More, this framework is perceived as a hostile agent imposing unnecessary burdens and costs. To most people, the image of the system is a public official corrupted by bribe [3]. Today, Albanias biggest challenge is to make the necessary legal reforms to bring the majority of the people inside the legal system. Only then will the Government be able to use Albanias full economic potential to increase productivity, fight poverty, and allow Albania to take its place among the modern market economies of Europe. Under current conditions, if Albania were to be integrated next day into the EU, most of its citizens, now working and living under informal economy, would not be able to profit from integration. The process of integration into the EU should be conceived as a way to allow all Albanians to benefit economically from being part of Europe. Otherwise, they would only be marginalized further, their exclusion intensified in the face of bigger social and economic differences between Albania and the rest of Europe. Than the risk of social turmoil would grow [30] [31]. Toward solution: Albania and its own authorities are already well aware of the need to reshape their strategy to promote growth and competitiveness by bringing the majority of its people into the market economy. This survey went beyond traditionally portrayed formalization processes, advising a journey from the extralegal economy to the stage of capital formation, preached also by Hernando De Sotto [8] [9], which requires a modern, inclusive economy as a bridge. This survey offered to the Government of Albania a wide body of information about the extent of the nations extralegal economy, how it works, where the legal bottlenecks and obstacles are in the current system, and the ongoing efforts for reform. In short, it helped in the building blocks for the kind of reforms that is putting Albania on the bridge to a better future. It also gave strong contribution to several new legislations and reforms that promoted the formalization of economy and informal settlements, including a new reform law on territorial planning and buildings formalization [7] [29]. References
1. Albanian foreign investment promotion agency. SME Significance in the Albanian Economy. 2007 2. Albania ta housing finance program. Action Plan-Pilot Regional Strategy. Tirana. 2005.
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Abstract
When a society talks to every step of tradition it means that this is bloodless, and when it always mentions sustainability it means that its individual members are careful not to put the principles into practice. After ripping with history, among the many legacies of the Modern Movement, the one that has most impoverished architectural tradition is the gap between architectural design and construction. The paper analyzes some of the objective causes and its consequences in professional practice and teaching of architecture.
1. Introduction When the word Tradition is called into play, the world is generally divided into two groups: the first distances itself in the name of progress, while the second becomes entrenched in the defence [and protection] of past values. This variance arises from a vision of History, on the part of the former, as a factor of resistance to a future which is by definition progressive; a vivid reminder of the anti-historical mysticism of the founding fathers of America, a country where progress is a religion. As J. B. Jackson has underlined in his essay The Necessity for Ruins, [4] the need to vindicate a culture of its own forced America, 100 years after the Revolution, not so much to look to its recent past as to construct a mythical and improbable past. Today the dichotomy remains unresolved: Americans are the most insouciant destroyers of their built environment, yet they are also the most fanatical preservers of all evidence of the past, without even disdaining fakes. The true significance of Tradition lies not so much in a past Golden Age as in the ability to draw the past into the future. A living Tradition sees continuity in a perpetual state of transformation. Only immature thought, such as one finds in artistic avantgardes, could envisage in the recently concluded century a clear break with History, while hypothesising a revolutionary tradition embalmed in the present. Continuity means growth, improvement, and it is thus not in conflict with progress, which comes about through the continual adaptation and perfection
Architecture & Science Journal of what already exists in order to meet the demands of society. In pre-industrial societies, where the practice of maximum efficiency reduced both consumption and waste, any variation in the patrimony of knowledge which constituted a consolidated Tradition only came into effect after experience had demonstrated that the initial impetus was completed spent. The example of urban fabrics is paradigmatic: every passage to a superior type has come into being only after the preceding inferior type has been completely assimilated and all the synchronic variants tested. If we look at the Apartment House the current type of building in which all Europeans live which has represented a revolution in Italy, in terms of style of habitation, since the 17th century, we realise that it was preceded by a long process of adaptation of the row houses, a process lasting at least 350 years. This type was in turn generated over a period of 200 years in the cities of the Roman empire by the courtyard house with a commercial front giving onto the street [12]. The end result has apparently no connection with the original basic type of the Roman domus. I am convinced that it is not globalization which has caused the crisis of tradition; globalization can revive just as well as destroy a lost tradition. Today what seems to link all cultures is what we might call presentism, the contemporary tendency to live individually in the present, without a before, without history, memory or inherited customs, like the barbarian facing a boundless horizon in Marcello Veneziani: the global idiot whose narrow mind thrives on action alone, with little or no thought [8]. The danger for tradition consists in the increasing divergence between culture and technology in our contemporary world. The unlimited means which science has at its disposal is in stark contrast with a mechanic and serialised society incapable of controlling the formers reactions, or of assimilating the ever faster and more specialised technical innovations within an organic critical vision. The extraordinary virtual means at our disposal the possibilities of software when applied to the representation of architecture and architectural projects has opened up new and indispensable perspectives, yet it has also produced a fresh mystique of architectonic creativity, which no longer favours the appreciation of a building as an organism of bricks and mortar, but as an image to be manipulated. At one time, students had to be on site for several days in order to draw a monument, whereas the contemporary software used to adjust an image now reduces computation and measurement to a few operations. The doubt remains whether those days spent in physical contact with the building were a waste of time. If the perspectives opened up by genetic research, with its potentially fluctuating ethical boundaries, are daunting, in our field we must deplore the disasters caused by the rupture with a classical vision based on the collaboration between project and construction, with the support of a living, operative History. The Enlightenment severed the unity of classical knowledge, while the Industrial Revolution subdivided roles and invented specialisations. Thus began an endless process. The division of the Vitruvian Triad has left the project architect free to emphasise one of the three components at the expense of the other two. An excessive emphasis on venustas gives rise to an over-expressive architecture aimed exclusively at an emotional and visual impact, which is presented above all as image, often degenerating into gratuitous formalism and calligraphic decoration. An excessive emphasis on utilitas favours an exaggeration of the distributive characteristics of a building, while an excessive emphasis on firmitas leads to stressing technique as an expressive means, in the illusion of giving greater value to the architectonic object. Technique assumes the status of a symbol of progress tout court and, from being a single component, seeks instead to represent the whole. In its most extreme form, the phenomenon of High Tech, technique is reduced to decoration. The avantgarde elements in the Modern Movement, as the mouthpiece of this progressive fragmentation of knowledge, centred their research on the invention of a new language in their concern to forge a new beginning, carry out a founding act. This was really the 19th century
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Architecture & Science Journal illusion of inventing a new style, an illusion which was still based on a positivist figurative culture. Yet when the artistic avantgardes begin to stress the notion of crisis and a culture begins to dismember, negate and destroy, then the architecture which follows is faced with an insuperable difficulty, since it cannot deconstruct its own language, in that such a language is, by definition, a positive, constructive act. The dichotomy between construction and project, timidly begun in the Renaissance and sealed by Napoleon with the founding of two schools, the Beaux Arts and the Ponts et Chausses, only works if architecture as a discipline is ancillary to the figurative arts [1]. In the profession today the two terms, project and construction, are no longer an indivisible unity, but rather a sequence of distinct phases: the first entrusted to the architect/ artist, whose contribution is considered a financial asset to the building, the second ostensibly entrusted to the engineer/ practitioner, but in reality to the various specialised cliques. Hence the loss of interest in construction goes hand in hand with a loss of interest in detail, lamented by Vittorio Gregotti [17] as a forfeiture of the deeper, more articulated dimension of the craft. Hence the unpleasant sense of an enlarged model and of a lack of articulation of the parts on the various scales. The request of Galfettis client is, therefore, not surprising: in commissioning the project for the multifunctional complex Ulysses in Lausanne, the architect was only given the parts above ground, while the engineers were given all the parts of the project underground. The result is two different, non-collaborating buildings, even in terms of their load bearing structures [13]. In the near future, the client will probably only entrust the commission of the buildings external facade to the architect. Construction is not the banal realisation of architecture, the material act of building as the conclusion of design activity, but an intellectual and creative aptitude, concomitant with a formal intuition which precedes the site. Construction is that complex of strategic choices which lead to a projects realisation, from the initial act of conceiving architecture in terms of stone or brick, that is, of discerning building potential in the formless material. For Mies van der Rohe [2] construction is the ability to think of real architecture through the discipline of its materials; in other words, building for living: One field concerns building simply for living, the other instead is strictly connected to specific spiritual milieux, which we perceive as specific cultures. The former are buildings which are all linked to the terrain on which they rise; and only these buildings are really genuine. They are formed from the raw materials of the land. They were not invented, but developed, in the true sense, out of the needs of their inhabitants, and they reflect the rhythms and peculiarities of the landscape of which they are a part. These characteristics are typical of all farmhouses, everywhere in the world. Mies interest in the farmhouse type has little in common with Bernard Rudofskys 1964 [3] idea of spontaneous architecture without architects, but focuses instead on the supra-historical dimension of architecture, that is, on the presence of recurrent or constant building solutions based on mans relation with the world, which remains, in some ways, immutable through time. Indeed, the idea of the instinctive nature of the constructive act is different from spontaneity and goes back to the founding theory of Viollet le Duc of a direct correspondence between architectonic form and structure. Going against Rudofkys hypothesis of a criterion for construction based on natural models, which thereby reduces, if not altogether removing, human responsibility, Mies turns to the tradition of anonymous architecture for exactly the opposite reason: architecture is a totally human activity. It is the technical-constructive aspects of a culture that represent a continuity of forms, especially in moments of crisis. They represent the deeper substratum, which is able to absorb surface modifications and return them to the source of transformational processes. In this sense, construction is one of the most stable and enduring components of architecture.
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Architecture & Science Journal Despite historiography to the contrary, there is a line of research which is attentive to construction, partly in the Modern Movement itself (Giuseppe Pagano [14], Paul Bonatz [15], Mies van der Rohe), and later, Louis Sert, Dimitri Pikionis [7] and Fernand Pouillon [5,10,18] , the latter two somewhat isolated because of their choice of an architecture linked to the Mediterranean tradition of massive wall structures. And more recently Aris Kostantinidis [8,6]. The largely neglected Fernand Pouillon, in particular, merits attention for his instinctive ability to link project and construction in a building production which was both continuous, yet contradictory. This great French architect used to say I make architecture like an apple tree makes apples. In this climate, what are the solutions for a critical rediscovery of unity in architecture as a discipline, which is no longer split in terms of the non-communication between project and execution? There is no easy formula. At the moment, various itineraries are being consolidated both in architecture faculties and in the profession at large. Their aims are the recovery of a disciplinary unity and a return to the craft. These aims must be made to coincide. In the Architecture Faculty of Roma Tre, Paolo Marconi has set up a school of restoration in which the principles of a continuity of types and materials and of restoration as a craft are in direct contrast with the principles of discontinuity of the Venice Charter [9]. The Architecture Faculty of Bari Polytechnic has based its curriculum on the theme of continuity, setting up design studios around two complimentary figures, the designer and the teacher of construction. The spirit is one of teaching the student that every sign made on a piece of paper must find an immediate counterpart in a given material, and that every cardboard model must find an immediate counterpart in a building technique. In the Second Year studio, where I have taught for three years with Dino Mongelli at the end of the ninenties, the choice of an obligatory material, such as stone, and its building options, has shown students how such constraints determine a logical, consequential process from material to building type, to building aggregation and, finally, to the more complex forms of the city. Unlike Modernist teaching, where every individual fantasy (even a house with its legs in the air) can find an engineer who makes it stand up, I believe that the coherent use of a construction technique, even if restrictive in part, would allow the architect to regain control of the city. In the Third Year studio, under the direction of Marco Mannino and Carlo Moccia, the study of skeletal systems and wall systems, based on a critical reading of tectonic systems linked to exemplary historical models, has led to important prototypes applied to domestic architecture, such as the flat vault. In the Scuola della Pietra, PhD programme, Architectural Design in the Mediterranean, directed by Claudio DAmato, the use of software applied to cad-cams has led to interesting innovations in traditional techniques, both for the reproduction of whole complexes for restoration and the construction of load bearing structures in stone [11]. 2. Conclusion A revival of the leading role of construction in the design process can come about through rethinking History, not just as a repository of memory, but above all as an operative process, which contains within itself the principles of architectural know-how ; in other words, a living tradition. The complexity of the evolutionary processes of architecture, building fabric, city and territory cannot be read as the sum of individual cases, but must be seen in terms of typology as a science of types. The Modern Movement has always been averse to types as the construction of simple, repetitive, yet competing models providing design with fixed points of reference, and
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Architecture & Science Journal not as the proposition of a new language in a traditional vein. Type is really the search for meaning above and beyond the form in which a thing is contained. By definition, type the organic sum of the characteristics of a building in a limited cultural area in a given historical moment has always represented, and must continue to represent, the catalyst of the Vitruvian Triad. Nevertheless, this is not enough, since it is no longer possible to reunite these three classical components of architecture along past lines. The refined craftsmanship of Carlo Scarpa and the Nubian builders of Hassan Fathy cannot be regained. Building tradition can only be saved and revitalised by the most advanced modern technology; and this is not a paradox. Changing ones tools, however, means changing ones philosophy. Till now the computer has been used for the easy production of images, not concepts, while software has not become a vehicle of knowledge. In other words, electronic support systems have been used to transmit savoir, without transforming it into connaissance. In Antiquity, the architect himself was the guarantee of the unity of project and construction. Today, this role could be played, instead, by software capable of controlling both projection and construction at the same time. A utopia? I dont think so. References
1. Chaumont de la Millire A.L. Mmoire sur le dpartment des Ponts et Chausses, 1790 2. Mies van der Rohe. What Would Concrete, What Would Steel Be Without Mirror Glass? in F. Neumeyer (1991) The Artless World. Mies Van Der Rohe And the Building Art, Cambridge, Ma, Mit Press, 1933, p.314 3. Rudofski B. Architecture Without Architects, University of New Mexico press1964 4. Jackson Brinckerhoff J. Necessity for Ruins: And Other Topics, Amherst, University of Massachussetts press, 1980 5. Petruccioli A. Fernand Pouillon o il genio della costruzione, in Architettura nei paesi islamici, Venice, La Biennale, 1982 6. Frampton, Kennet. Studies in Tectonic Culture, Graham Foundation of Advanced Studies, 1995, p. 353 7. Ferlenga A. Pikionis, Milano, Electa, 1999. 8.Veneziani M. Di padre in figlio, Elogio della tradizione, Bari, Laterza, 2002. 9. Marconi P. Il recupero della bellezza, Bari, Laterza, 2006 10. Voldman D. Fernand Pouillon architecte, Paris, Ed. Payot et Rivages, 2006 11. DAmato Guerrieri C. Citt di pietra, Venice, La Biennale, 2006 12. Petruccioli A, After Amnesia. Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric, Bari, Icar, 2007 13. Galfetti A, Oggetti territoriali, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2008 14. Pagano Pogatschnig G, Architettura e citt durante il fascismo, Milano, Jaka Book, 2008 15. Akcan E, Architecture in Translation: Germany, Turkey and the Modern House, Duke University press, 2012 16. Lefaivre L, Tzonis A, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization, Abington, Routledge, 2012 17. Gregotti V, Il sublime al tempo del contemporaneo, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 18. Caruso A,Thomas H, eds. The Stones of Fernand Pouillon, Gra Verlag, 2014
Corresponding Author Attilio Petruccioli Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning College of Engineering Qatar University attilio.petruccioli@qu.edu.qa
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Some aspects and problems of architectural continuities regarding style development in Macedonian architecture:
Period of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
Kokan Grchev 1
1
Abstract
The development of building constructions and architecture in Macedonia was a process that has evolved throughout the general complexity of the historical events in the Ottoman Empire, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, having specific historical disengage at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. This process of development brings into sight the complex historical texture in this period as one of the most complicated eras regarding fine arts and artistic life in Macedonia. Persian-Seljuk and Byzantine influences are weaved within, and they gradually come in touch with the local masonry traditions. It is hard to neglect the variety of local traditions considering the geographical diffusion of these influences. They differ regarding geographical coordinates and culture reality. While working on public character buildings with emphasized oriental characteristics, as well as facing the Mediterranean architecture, our constructors behaved as compilation creators, sometimes combining different junctures of pseudo-historical styles in their architecture. The 19th century survey of events in Macedonia refers to complexity of the existing conditions and especially emphasizes the reality and difficulty of all transformations regarding society, culture and politics in those days, as main contributors to the development of architecture, urban planning and construction in general. The survey also gradually opens the treatment problems, development and transformations in the architectural style expression area. Alternate changing in the points of view, marked in its various forms of tight-national to the European-global and vice versa, oscillating permanently in the boundaries in which the problems of style are treated as immanent to the general conditions in art, is pointing that the appropriate treatment of this term (the style) is of the common interest of all known definitions and theoretical frames in which the style is analysed in different ways. That is the reason why we are building our interest about style with a boundaries in the wide space between the Eurocentric definitions and concepts (sometimes derived from different and not useful attitudes for us), all to the regional specifics which includes the anonymous folklore repertoire which contributes the affirmation and emphasizing the similar national identities in the light of ethnocentrically and tight national definitions. This research derives from a basic supposition having a function of relevant denominator of
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Keywords: Macedonian architecture, typology, style definition 1. Introduction: Some specifics of Macedonian architecture development Concerning Macedonian architecture development, there is a specific doubt in the matter of setting down the problem of style in a function of coordination and evaluation of values concerning different segments of culture; it means that some aspects of definitions of traditional culture, which determine theoretical discourses for defining traditions in the culture, and the culture itself as a phenomenon, as well as the relation to the conception of tradition, are pointed as essential questions on which responses we could eventually base the wanted answers and theses. From this reason, we are excepting wide researching frames with identical space for analysing European and Balkan experiences, as well as the experiences marked in our milieu so to analyse the common existence of different style and artistic features in the specific period of time. Architectural style, as phenomenon to participate in directing our interest to the problems of development and transformations in the architecture of Balkan countries and architecture of Macedonia has been analysed having in mind that the buildings with dominant European architectural-style influences (especially from the second half of 19th century and further on), will continue to develop in the period between the two World Wars (1919-1940). The previous period of the 19th century, is globally marked as a period of specific renaissance (so called Prerodba) in Macedonia, so we are able to appoint the coordinates of the renaissance style (Prerodbenski stil)1 [1,2,3] in art and architecture. The building renaissance enthusiasm in Macedonia starts its uphill development since the first decades of the nineteenth century. The enthusiasm can be perceived through the large number of eclectic buildings and through all other types of public buildings as well that involved Macedonian construction teams. This rich construction activity was not only an expression of the central Turkish authorities post-liberal regime, but also a proof of enlarged material conditions regarding the Macedonian citizens. The European influences in architecture, are taking great part of the complexity consisted by frequency and quantity in using some types, functional schemes, or decoration in most of the Macedonian cities in the mentioned periods. These elements are defining the profile of archi1 This specific style derives from 19th century development phases in Macedonian architecture, together with complex processes of cultural and national introduction so important for further valorisation.
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Architecture & Science Journal tecture, pointing to some of them as to an example for direct taking over the identified styles from Europe, presenting that way the achievements of the mentioned architectural styles and design. This is most specific at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20-th century, and the representatives of this architecture are the same creators of architecture previously mentioned in the context of developing national art and architecture, more precise, the renaissance architecture of the 19th century in Macedonia. During the second half of the 19th century a construction of specific buildings starts in Macedonia. They were built according defined examples, brought from different countries and cultural surroundings. This is the beginning of constructing two-storey and three-storey houses that had wide eaves and ceilings decorated with wood carving ornaments (certainly, under the dominant influence of the Muslim housing architecture that causes not only the functional organization but the architecture and style expression of the houses exterior as well.) Nevertheless, the expressed uniqueness of this form cannot be declared, since it is in fact created by the master teams and individual builders as representatives of the organic connection to the world, and a basic string that connects different processes of transmission. In that sense, regarding the contribution of our building tradition in creation of different (often named as national) architecture expressions on the Balkans, we can state the assumption of position transfer and change of roles while interpreting present evidence and qualifications regarding housing architecture and its complex typology. 2. The occurrence of new architectural typology During the second half of the 19th century, till 1919, there is an occurrence of a very interesting and much important segment regarding the architecture development in Macedonia represented by the appearances of an extensive group of buildings dominated by different European architectural style influences. According the general decision for precise terminology use, the term style influence is used because of its distinction from the term style tendency which means long-lasting and active presence of various schools, institutions, and their reflection on a wider area. Certain European style influences on the architecture development of Macedonian cities up till 1919 are present as long as they are determined through their frequent appearance and use of certain style forms on the profile of Macedonian architecture. Furthermore, application of smaller or larger number of elements that are taken from the general ornamental motifs are borrowed by the above mentioned architectural style formations2 and confirm this influence. The above mentioned is also valid for a large group of buildings that directly represent a certain style model popular in some European regions. The style model has been brought and incorporated in the existing city tissue at the end of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century. Concerning the architectural style, great number of buildings will develop in some kind of transitive manner (in conceptually and decorative meaning), which means balanced existence of elements from the local traditions together with transformed elements from the European style architecture. They will be used indirectly, through the process of accommodation of the previously selected forms to the possibilities offered by the present building materials and technical opportunities for their construction (which include the traditional treatment, techniques, and specific manner which is locally different). Relation to the basic shaping of the elements of facades, or creation of functional organization which is obviously transformed during the 19th century, points to the strong relations of the traditional stream of recent architectural pro2 The term style formation, is used to determine, define and restrict the use of a term style. This, because of the specific appearance of elements and values in Macedonian architecture in the process of Europeanization (or westernization), that is not enough to participate in the definition of specific style so far, but explains the methods and tools for recognizing style formations as to substitute strong rhetoric in using style as a possibility to explain certain artistic or architecture phenomenon. [4]
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Architecture & Science Journal duction of that period, with the architectural elements, style forms, decoration e. t. c., that will be brought to the Macedonian cities from different surroundings. Because of the permanent migrations, this process is not one sided only. The complex structure of the processes of inside transformation of the style and the other expressive architectural assets, is asking for appropriate treatment of the mentioned problems, so the entire system of founding the values in architecture will be done later. In the years after the Second World War, the lack of clear positions for almost one century previous existence of specific kind of Macedonian architecture (19th century), will repress the essential problems of continuity (taken generally, as well as the continuity of tracing the development of architectural style), tradition and synthesis, allowing in a meanwhile creation (hyper production) of anemic international architecture with a high level of presence in the integral urban ambience of the Macedonian cities. In this period, in the climate of massive production of architecture without any interest for the continuity of the architectural styles, some tendencies previously noticed in 19th century and from the period between the two World Wars will be interpreted as decadent, and in the same time, the present architectural production of folklore type (anonymous) will be valorised with negative mark taking this architecture without any value or aesthetical concept. Macedonian architecture and its character in this period, will stand in such shape beside other entities, taking part in some different picture and understanding of local values, regional specifics and the values of the folkloric architecture as a kind of tradition that will be very important for further researching in that field, especially in defining some style processes and definitions. In that conditions, one of the possibilities to emphasize some aspects of tradition in the Macedonian architecture for some authors, was the re-actualisation of the synthesis, taken as integrity of experiences consisted of different types of traditions, leading to interesting reading of tradition in contemporary conditions, considering art and architecture as well (including local and regional values of architecture, values of traditional architecture, folklore, traditional decoration, textile ornamentation, values of artistic handicrafts e t. c.). 3. Complexity of the phenomenon By accepting a methodology of verified, scientifically confirmed facts, we can still stand that Romanticism and historicism in European architecture were encouraged with tendentiously emphasized care for cultural history and the overall heritage becoming a frame for creation of a new universalism, in which creativity and eclecticism interlocked as parallel categories. Tackling the problems of forms of the past, i.e. historical styles points that the presence of historicism has survived and endured in different artistic programs[5]. For those reasons, establishment of a relation towards tradition in such a context also can be identified or regarded as fully related to historicism and the national, which can be a part of their contents and program. The traditional is often only a mythical or a realistic content, and the formal or style union is something that is completely independent on it and changeable according to its own rules. In theoretical sense, the modern, that is functionalism, would be set opposite to historicism and the national. Brought under such a definition and limited with notions that determine and define its specific meaning, historicism becomes an approach in which there can be both the traditional and the national, i.e. historicism becomes a method where the use of experience of the past is more important than inventing and developing new systems, new forms of ones own time (N. Pevsner). Treatment of the major historical styles in the Western European countries points to the difficulty in making even direct analogy with the processes carried out in the areas of the Balkans and Macedonia; above all, we assume this because of exact existence of a heterogeneous historical matrix and successiveness of processes, i.e. a differently shaded historical reality reflected directly on the nature of the conditions. In addition, observing the development of the Macedonian architecture at the beginning of the 19th century through a process of gradual
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Architecture & Science Journal implanting of elements from different cultural environments, we notice a specific process of gradual refinement of some types of solutions. Having in mind similar patterns that appeared in different environments and cultures in a same period, they also acquired the corresponding specifics of an autochthonous and separated category value. We determine what was the factor influencing the conditions because of the specificity of historical relations and the nature of some processes as well as the existence of essential requirements for detailed perceptions of the general architectural development and the complexity of ties, influences and results of historical movements (positive and negative) in the Ottoman Empire. Despite being brought under the structure and the inner constitution of an identical historical reality, particularity of certain conditions singled out the essence of events in the Balkan countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this sense, successiveness of some influential factors should be necessarily observed and reminded of, which would also answer to the question in what way we record the processes and what, in effect, happened to them: 1. In the newly created conditions in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th century, the complex activity for construction of new buildings based on traditions but with elements and influences of modern architectural movements from Western European countries was an objective expression of the newly created social circumstances and needs, which created new aesthetics. The intersecting process between the Eastern and Western cultures in the Balkan states, gradual crumbling of old Oriental structures, the process of Europeanization of civil engineering and manifestations of historical styles in architecture as well, which meant getting closer to Europe, would be in service of the state, the church and the enriched civil class. A specific architectural morphology in such developmental processes would be gradually created owing to the developed ties and communications with different cultural environments3; 2. Professionalization of masonry and organization of masons guilds in the changing conditions of the 19th century also created conditions for a faster development of certain endeavors in construction, which initiated development of certain branches that rapidly reached the level of a specific and recognizable art. In such conditions, we clearly record a joint existence of identical tendencies and movements (especially accentuated in the church art in the Balkan countries and Macedonia), set on different levels. They would appear as the first synthesis understood as a definition of iconological, aesthetic, and didactic tasks of the church art, which would find its place in construction of some buildings as an occurrence within the romantic historicism of Central Europe. However, the global situation in the Balkan countries at that period was much more a bastion of the old lifestyle, and thus of a corresponding relation to art with lots of inertia and traditionalism in its segments; 3. In the second half of the 19th century, the forms of the classicist discipline would be superseded by romanticist ideals. In that process, borrowed architectural forms from Western Europe will be transformed according to general national or personal attitudes, or would be completely recreated subject to specificity of the conditions and needs. Through a clear tendency
3 For example, during the 19th century, lively ties between master builders from Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were maintained. They were owed to continuing interactions within a similar historical reality under the Turkish reign[6,7]. However, comparisons with Bosnia and Herzegovina (as one of possible examples) should certainly be taken conditionally and with certain limits. Above all, that relates to different historical conditions where the development of architecture was carried out in completely different conditions and under different chronology and impacts. Actually, we follow the periods in development of architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina starting from the Turkish period (1462-1878), the Austro-Hungarian period (1876-1918), the period between the two world wars (1918-1941), and chronologically after the end of the Second World War. In Macedonia, the architectural and historical developments were based on different events and flows, which point to differences in methodological approach observing the specifics according to analogy. In this context, contacts of our builders and artists with different cultural surroundings should be considered as complex and multifaceted action without unnecessary simplifications and generalizations. The same applies for analogies with any cultural environments that caries potential for binding point for clarification or understanding of certain conditions.
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Architecture & Science Journal for application of known architectural styles and use of topics from history which the epoch of Romanticism required and offered as the program of its historicism, a specific architecture uniting elements from different environments by establishing formal style communications but not always its own identification to the extent of independent style recognition would be created, so we discuss a specific manner much more than specifics of a certain style. 4. As it was mentioned before, creation of an adequate artistic manner, which enclosed in the historical frames of the Ottoman rule has complex interpretation in many art disciplines allowing definition of the so called renaissance style (or renewal style meaning prerodbenski stil in original) as the denominator and style of the 19th century in Macedonia. Thus, indeed, it deserves its place as an integral, independent and recognizable style of the 19th century architecture and art. This allows our defining the very architecture of the 19th century in Macedonia as renewal architecture [8]. With no ambition of special observation on this specific phenomenon (which is, of course separate problem asking wide explications and special methodologies), in such a specific context, the notion of style, actually, acquires the meaning of a certain type of statistic average in using corresponding solutions, forms and materials. We do not only relate examining of the style in this architecture to the work of individual authors and inner processes rather than to the social and historical circumstances that applied a feature of usability and aesthetic reference to certain solutions. 5. The period at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which are of our special concern in the context of our research, imposes the need of determining the rules and successiveness in development. This points to the underscored specificity of phenomena, which we recognize in the Ottoman Empire during centuries, since at the time it was an attractive territory especially for the industrial developed countries striving for economic superiority. At the same time, the Ottoman areas rich in tangible resources opened great market opportunities and had strategic geopolitical characteristics. Viewed from such a perspective, the Ottoman Europeanization can be treated as an Eastern policy of the Western European capitalist countries tendentiously targeting at increasing the economic dependence of the Ottoman Empire. Researchers of the architectural development agree that the effects of Europeanization (Westernization) in the Ottoman architecture could be initially observed through changes in the applied faade decoration after 1720. Changes and transformations in the classical Ottoman architecture in the space and composition terms became evident only at the end of the 19th century whereas decorative baroque and rococo forms had already shown certain achievements in design. During the 19th century, Western European influences would bring a complete change in architectural style. Generally, the foreign architects overall work would range from classical revivalism to Gothic revivalism to Islamic or Oriental revivalism, which were essentially variations of the European eclecticism that would be the most dominating and prevalent in the works of foreign architects in Istanbul. The architectural pluralism that can be observed in the 19th century architecture (banks, administration buildings, hotels, multi-storey buildings etc.) would create opposition of Turkish intellectuals to foreign architects. Almost complete overlapping and following (by analogy) of identical processes of inner transformation of the language and expression in architecture with the rest of Europe and the world occurred at this historical point with the definitions of the phenomena gaining a recognizable silhouette and an understandable course. The events in the Balkan countries at the same period would get, in their recognizable manner, the marks of an emphasized individual development overtaken by the corresponding historical situation and placed into dependence on the totality of relations in any area of social communications. We will record the results of such situation through an insight into the main developmental courses of architecture and the general socio-cultural ambiance.
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Architecture & Science Journal 4. Necessity or result: a quest of style definition? To determine the real inner dimension of the complex understanding of style in Macedonian architecture, we face difficulties of different nature. First decades of the 21st century, already redefines certain theories and approaches towards this problem, spreading its influences in domains that are not by definition architectural. Having that in mind, the research interest is still settled in some conservative and pre-defined standards, resulting with specific reading of the same historic material: we still face the complexity of the 19th century heritage that points to a practice of mixing elements from different historical sources whereas the historicist compilations and forms mutually render themselves void as the result of the eclectic procedure: loosely standing stylistic colonnades turn into shallow reliefs treated completely differently from their original looks and volume; arches are moved in the tympanums, and the compactness of unique architectural volumes is broken by mixing elements from stylistic tiers etc. Some discord among buildings, breakage of ties between materials, methods and programs, the emphasized and excessive freedom in interpreting the sources, stylistic transformation and eclectic perfecting would gradually start ruining the initial embedded qualities of the forms while redefining the aesthetic attitudes and contexts wherefrom those same forms were taken over. Such a relation would contribute in a specific way to emerging (or, putting into usage) of the term fashion in architecture as a paradigm for permanent shift of interests (and their mutual interactions). A certain necessity for simulating pre-designed and pre-demanded contexts would thus be created with illusion in space with style indicators defined and underscored in a pre-selected historical period of the development of architecture being sought. This was made with a view of achieving a certain visual effect and sensation that would completely correspond to the spirit of time in which it was created. During such a process of recreation of certain historically known and explicated architectural models, deflection towards the underscored national components, towards the independent individual/expressive architectural/art research of spatial rules, or towards the differently understood regional approach and selection of elements that were presented selectively as the conceptual bearers of a programmed and set architectural language occurred. Easily crossing the thin line that, in that period, divided the essential movements (founded on the acceptance of serious epistemologically differentiated architectural development) from those that only resembled or alluded to a certain simulated and guided architectural development, would put the notion of fashion and taste in service of serious markers of realistic historical conditions. Introducing the term fashion in use actually makes an attempt to determine the conceptual spreading of the notions (phenomena) of the modern taste, that is, the general denominator of fashion/taste. These notions are typically historical creations because they depend on the cultural and historical conditions. Because of the usability of conclusions derived from the researching context where their importance is determined, it may be logical that the problem we pose is set as the problem of consideration of sociology of modern taste (in line with the known methodologies of determination and analysis of the thus understood phenomenon). In this way, the starting basis for the philosophy-sociology relation [9]. becomes clearer. This seems to be a natural relation with the areas touched by this research. Within such an approach, the philosophical level of consideration of modern taste as a typical historical and artistic phenomenon results from the logical expectation that an ontological question related to the meaning of art at our and future times, that is, related to the problem of the meaning of art in general, will appear in the results of analysis of modern taste. Determining clearly the necessity for a corresponding definition of the notion of taste, in particular when it comes to domains which, in that sense, affect architecture (its synchronized historicity and development), we define the notion of taste as capacity for adequate aesthetic valuing that
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Architecture & Science Journal can be applied on different, in historical meaning, ideal periods. Such an approach also includes a determined relation to the notion of the aesthetic, which supports the necessity to be pre-determined within its normative frames and limited in relation to and depending on the social predisposition and belonging to a certain community, which influences indirectly or directly the creation of value parameters participating in the process of valorisation of the phenomenon in question. In such a way, and in correlation with the recent critical thought of a certain historically limited period, taste becomes a defining factor for a certain architectural performance, building, work of art or another essential existential occurrence. What is the role of the historical factor in that process? Is general establishment of criteria defined and how? How we define the selectivity of values, their possibility for historical duration, which in these processes has an exceptionally significant role in determining the point of the sociological research discourse? In an attempt to answer these questions, we probably establish the reasons why a cultural phenomenon is actualized or re-actualized in certain social and historical contexts and ambiances; they are most often related not only to their inner dynamism but, above all, to the economic, ideological, political, social, technical-and-technological factor, which in the context of this research we determine as corresponding intermediates, or the bearers of the notion of intermediation as the influential measure in determining qualities of modern phenomena. In accordance with such commitment to interpret the cultural and historical factor, which we determine as being present in any historical type of taste, it appears in the modern taste as an important and unique result of experiencing in general. Hence, examiners will logically ask, what are the reasons for distorting the modern receptive structure? What are the reasons for the modern approaching these phenomena in a notably concerning, engaging and pragmatic manner of experiencing art and the material world?[9]. Finally, in the relation to the spiritual material which both the presumed and confirmed intermediates bear when conveying the messages of folklore and traditions, they will agree about the undisputable fact that art (of any recorded type) cannot exist without the corresponding presence of the sensitive, in function of complete experience of that purposely communicated conceptual space. It is probably one of the reasons for simultaneous persistence of active authentic (aesthetic) communication with the works of both the modern and traditional arts, where one should certainly stress that this is about an important issue for the general positioning of art in the modern life and collective attitude of people towards it. It is in the field of collective communication that fundamental refractions (epistemological sections) occur. What do such postulates mean for different types of collectives? Can this be based on a presumption that ...in direction of flirting with tradition, the postmodern era has offered us a cheap and infantile eclecticism that hasnt even reached and deepened discourses of tradition present in the modern era but have instead only blurred them even more?[10]. Has such a view of perceiving managed to define the Modern as such that has not expelled tradition from its concept, or does it show that it has only tried ...to purify it from prejudice, academism in approach and Romanticism, that is to redefine and get to see it from the view of newly created values. Such was the case with the traditional culture as part of tradition in general, as well as part of the current value systems with special meaning and function...even within the epoch of the Modern, and in particular in the ambiances of the modern civilization matrix, traditional culture has been (ab)used for articulation of apology of some tendencies in society.[10] On the other hand, art in postmodernism, which is rather depoliticized in such activist manners we encounter with radical historical avant-gardes, would restore what is necessary and authentic for art association of different levels of artistic and other creative performances by attracting the usable and mass art in the common field of culture. [11]
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Architecture & Science Journal 5. Conclusions Trying to answer and respond to contemporary necessity for redefinition of well-known and relatively conservative theories and definitions, some aspects and problems of architectural continuities regarding style development in Macedonian architecture were covered, pointing especially at the period of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time, there are a number of different reasons for an imposed need to tackle a matter we define as exceptionally sensitive to changes deriving from utterly new existential frameworks as well as the specific historical presetting and internal regularity of newly created societies, communities and ideologies, i.e. deriving from the process of thorough redefinition of values and aspects of culture, traditions, and the phenomena originating therein. Thorough redefinition is also compliant with the historicity by accepting its definition as use of the past that can help shape the present: however, it is not dependent on complying with the past. On the contrary, historicity means use of knowledge on the past as a means for breaking with it, or at least preserving what is justifiable in a principle manner. Indeed, historicity primarily orients us to the future. [12] Having such a specific relation to the notion of historical flow developed on the basis of thorough and comparative perceptions of similar or sometimes identical phenomena, our interest is necessarily developed in the areas suggested by the very title. Historically, what can be definitely concluded, within the context of the general processes for internal transformation of the Turkish society that took place in the mentioned period, a chain of successive reactions occurred not only in the far away provinces of the Empire, but in its largest culture, art and economy centers as well. Consequently, it points that the processes of modern perfection will radically incite serious transformations in internal coherent relations of the conservative Turkish society and they will have a serious impact upon the general and complex conditions recognized as similar to the wider European movements. This perception verifies even more stressed confrontation of passive and conservative elements regarding the tendencies that unambiguously point to modern Europe in rise, and the necessity of their own productive forces transformation in order to adjust towards the capitalist relations in economy and production. All of these previously mentioned processes were additionally supported by an intensified construction of modern roads, telegraph lines and railways. These constructions represent the general characteristic of the complex transformations that took place in most European countries, and it is also an example involving completely new architecture constructions that satisfy previously unknown functions. In conclusion, we can summarize that viewed from the present-day perspective and knowing the essence of some processes of development and transformation of architecture and art in Macedonia, certain features of architecture enabled indirect reaffirmation of some presumptions in the context of accurate perception and comparison of the conditions opposed to their broad European surroundings in the same period. The complexity of the historical context thereby goes beyond one-sided historical and artistic interpretation. As the result of such processes, the expression in architecture that was formed via amalgamation of older masonry models and their adjusting and uniting with other means of expression and style, in the final instance was a reflection of a complex culturally transformation, established in radical and deep processes of inner movement. Such processes, which were almost identical according to the structure of their inner dynamism of transformation, would be the denominator determining/ signifying the architectural development in Macedonia in continuity. Through this prism, the conception of style in Macedonian architecture is traced permanently between the opposites of any kind, previously defined in accordance to the specific historical and artistic conditions. Settled between romantic historicism and early-modern (and modern) formulas, folklorism and its interpretations, as well as between the different contemporary
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Architecture & Science Journal theoretical discourses, the conception of style in architecture will exist as a kind of messenger, realizing creative relations with different periods of history and time.
References
1. Grchev K. National style in the Macedonian architecture in 19-th and 20-th Century, Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000; 2. Grchev K. Westernization of Ottoman State and Its Effects on Macedonian Architecture During the XIXth and XXth Centuries, Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences : The fourth international congress on Islamic civilization in the Balkans, Skopje, 2010; 3. Grchev K. Architectural styles in Macedonian architecture at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th Century, Skopje, 2004; Style ergonomics, Skopje, 2000 4. Grchev, K. Style ergonomics, , 2000 5. Jovanovi, M. Between Tradition and the Modern, Peristil, Zbornik radova za povijest umetnosti, Zagreb, 1988/89, broj 31-32, str. 27-30. 6. Bertram, C. Ottoman Sarajevo, The Urban History of Sarajevo in the Ottoman period and into the Period of the Dual Monarchy; 1994 7. Pasic A. Islamic architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Organization of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1994 8. Grchev K. National style in the Macedonian architecture in 19-th and 20-th Century, Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000; pg. 187-197. 9. Petrovi, S. Philosophy of Modern Taste, Filozofija umetnosti, Beograd, 1978, pg.117-122. 10. Petkovska, A. Some Sociological Aspects of Folklore, . 58/59, , 2001, pg. 245-251. 11. Erjavec, A. Ideology and Art of Modernism, Sarajevo, 1991. 12. Giddens, A. The Consequences of Modernity, Beograd, 1998, pg. 55.
Corresponding Author Kokan Grchev School of Architecture and Design, University American College Skopje Macedonia e-mail: grcev@uacs.edu.mk
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Abstract
The paper reviews the status of heritage in the wake of fast expanding globalization. Based on the observations and experiences of the author, the paper outlines the various factors of globalization that have a strong and direct bearing on preserving heritage and corresponding social and cultural value systems. Usage of heritage for raw promotion of tourism, role of international stakeholders including multi-nationals and fast mobility of people from one region to the others are some of the key variables discussed in the discourse. After analysis, the paper draws conclusions and few options for consideration.
1. Introduction: Preamble During much of the previous century heritage conservation was a relatively dry and non glamorous avenue of professional work. Cultural surveys; heritage listings; promulgation of local, national and international statutes; careful planning for creating premise for visiting tourists and admirers of heritage as well as evolution and consolidation of a fraternity of folks who would standup to safeguard heritage beyond borders were some of the common observations across the continents. Reasonable support was received from international platforms and continued till the advent of present century. The lead was taken by countries in the developed world. However the knowledge and experience were also transferred to sites and locations in developing countries with international bodies such as the UN playing the lead role. Since the United Nations declared 2002 as the Year for Cultural Heritage, many initiatives took place globally and nationally [1]. In response to this proclamation, several programmes, projects and activities have been organized by the cultural wings and organs of the UN, mainly UNESCO. Many declarations were made by prominent office bearers of the UN and related agencies, reiterating the importance of cultural heritage. New conventions and charters were prepared and debated, while fresh agendas approved and worked around. Apart from a very rich backdrop of achievements by UNESCO and other international agencies, outstanding initiatives
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Architecture & Science Journal in war affected Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina and other locations were explored for initiating unconventional approaches for heritage documentation and implementation. The devastated city of Mostar in Bosnia, which was shelled to destruction during 1992-95 war, has been impressively restored and welcomes visitors from across the lengths and breadths of the world [2]. These examples prove the fact that revival and preservation is not a pastime, it is a serious enterprise with tangible impacts on the productive performance of the society. While some critics argue that the scale of heritage in need of professional attention is far greater in the world than the tally of conservation initiatives, it can be safely concluded that a process of responding to heritage in danger has been put in place by multiple stakeholders. Academics, researchers, media personnel, administrators, consultants, technicians, contractors, civil society activists and young students formulate important categories of such stakeholders that impact the status of heritage conservation in any context. As there is no doubt that cultural heritage plays an important role in preserving and promoting a nations memory about its cultures, and that all the cultures are equally important to be preserved, there are several threats to their existence. A significant mention is the rising globalization that is moulding each and every aspect of the society according to its own agenda. It is important to address characteristics of globalization since they have cast deep influence on cultural heritage of weaker societies. For instance, the post-independence heritage in Pakistan related to arts, architecture, folk lore development, media, literature, cinema and theatre have been deeply impacted by the rising tide of global influences. Before the advent of global influences, there was a strong basis for local cultural enterprises that responded to local societal needs to a great extent. The context also possessed the capacity to absorb contributions from the broader region for a healthy cultural cross-fertilization. The Faisal Mosque is an example a high edifice in Islamabad, this mosque is undoubtedly the most powerful landmark of the city and displays a distinct aesthetic parallel with Anatolian mosque designs (Figure 1). But soon thereafter, a mad rush of wild ideas and applications, under nascent dictates of market practices, overwhelmed urban built environment in Pakistani cities. Malls, boutiques, shopping arcades, resorts and alien looking residential places sprang up at a swift pace. The interior space organization and external composition depicted a global design idiom with very feeble local relevance.
Figure 1: Faisal Mosque in Islamabad designed by well-known Turkish Architect Vedat Dalokaye a modern composition with eclectic flavor.
2. Discussion Being loaded terms, globalization and cultural heritage require working definitions for this discussion. Globalization can be termed as the process of the development and promotion of market-oriented practices across the globe, with similarity of concepts and applications that are irrespective of geographical or territorial confines. Generally, corporations, international finan cial institutions, business professionals and governments of developed countries are seen as the
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Figure 2: Frere Hall in Karachi is a fine example of British colonial architecture in Karachi. After Pakistan came into being in 1947, some interesting modifications were introduced in colonial buildings. The main town hall in Frere Hall was adorned with Quranic calligraphy by renowned Pakistani artist Sadequain. The blend of oriental artistic intervention in an apparently occidental inspired space has evolved a tasteful combination and added value to heritage.
strongest agents of globalization. Consumerism, material values, corporate lifestyles with uniformity of attire and approach, fast communications, private enterprises and total submission to market economy doctrines are a few references to globalization. Most of these factors are in direct clash with cultural heritage and its sustenance.
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Architecture & Science Journal In the same respect, cultural heritage is the combination of various behavioral norms of human life in changing perspectives of time and space, commonly shared by the society. Lifestyles, customs, folklore, arts and crafts, literature, poetry, music, religion, rituals, architecture, paintings and related aspects constitute the category. Traditionally, cultural heritage of a society develops over a period of time through the contributions of the various segments of the society. In the process, a value system evolves to which people develop and adhere practices, rituals and solutions to situations of everyday life. These values are usually influenced by the contextual conditions that bind the physical space of a place with its inhabitants (Figure 2). Thus, each culture formulates its own interpretations for the behaviors of its peoples in all aspects of daily life, and consequently assigns merits and de-merits in the process. Such value systems are largely related to the beliefs of the people, popular aspirations in life, attitudes to adapt to the internal and external changes and the organization of the society as a whole. In the event of metamorphosis, the changing cultures leave behind evidences of their respective timewise existence which provide the truthful account of their survival [3]. For instance, the calligraphy in Persian buildings is a reminder of the epoch of artistic skills acquired and practiced by people of that culture. Aqua ducts of the Romans display the scientific precision with which they developed public infrastructure. In the same respect, the exotic calligraphy by Sadequain in the main chamber of Frere Hall Karachi is an example of high artistic calibers in Pakistan (Figure 1 and 2). Certain traditions of various cultures were considered not too pleasant. The tradition of burning alive a widow with her husband in the Brahmin culture in medieval India is looked down with condemnation. The decadent traditions of punishing the female family members of any accused in tribal societies in South Asia are another case in point. In tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, if a crime is committed by a person who disappears, the aggrieved peopled are entitled to inflict punishment on the family members of the absconder. Forced marriages between the young girls from the accuseds family with any person of the aggrieved clan are a common happening. These moribund social practices greatly harm the peace and development of concerned tribes and even nearby areas. However, in the spirit of scientific exploration about cultures and subsequent protection of the surviving heritage, objective and unbiased research is the only approach that helps generate veritable knowledge and options for improvement. The West, which lately evolved high values such as freedom, democracy and equal opportunity enterprises, has, unfortunately, deviated from its universal principles now being towed by forces of globalization. Instead of searching for whole truth, it now projects its own versions of truth, especially about peoples of the world and their cultures not in conformity with its line of action. At present, the dominant media organizations are also in line with the corporate houses being owned and managed by them. Media largely shapes the images of heritage and attaches characteristics, good or bad, before they are flashed to the world. The images of certain cultures and lifestyles are cast in an overpowering fashion, out classing the local counterparts in many localities. For instance, personal attainment in life is now very narrowly defined. Professionals, crisply dressed, working for major corporations, earning a hefty salary packages, travelling in
Figure 3: Pizzas, burgers and more! The so called fast food options now formulate part of global choices in cuisine. The places connected to them shape fragments of our built environment.
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Figure 4: Fashion, cosmetics and apparel shape and attire people in similar outfits. The boutiques and showrooms display similar tendencies across the globe.
the choicest of automobiles, living in the most exotic of condominiums dotted with luxuries, subscribing to market ethics and characteristics are what the dream personalities of the upcoming generations around the globe are made up of. Such emblems that mainly originate from North America and Europe are projected as the only human models worth emulation by mankind. The yuppies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are not very different from their western counter parts! (Figure 3 and 4). Corporate culture of viewing every outcome as a product and every activity, even spiritual or cultural, as an enterprise is leading to schism of values between traditional and global. This race is obviously won by the global forces, because in these single-tracked events, the cultures of the so-called weak societies do not find enough capacity to put forward their cases. In societal terms, the media has helped create new icons now acting as role models. Consumerism, which is a key characteristic of globalization, is in stark contradiction to the spirit of preserving cultural heritage. The minimum expectation from heritage is its ability to stimulate business enterprises. Thus, the sanctity of heritage is jeopardized. It becomes a consumable commodity falling down from its timeless stature of being a social asset. Globalization and its proponents are fairly ruthless in their conduct. Any challenges that are voiced against the very raison de etre of globalization are curbed down forcefully. The rejection by TV channels in North America, in late 1990s, to telecast a paid commercial campaigning for a No buying day a month is an example. Thus, media is creating an environment of selected cultural tolerance which is likely to affect the indigenous and less Westernized communities to a great extent. It is leaving almost no room for the voices of dissent to survive and flourish against the overwhelming global order. 3. Analysis Globalization is forcefully converting built heritage and private lifestyles into commercial galleries, with tourism acting as the key premise. Even the governments are made to adopt the policies, wherein the investment into heritage is made grossly proportional to the potential of tourism it is likely to generate. Anything and everything that has the capacity of being converted into a touristic magnet instantly catches the attention of governments and market leaders. It makes an ideal setting when built heritage also creates the opportunities for development of mass tourism around themselves. According to World Tourism Organisation, France was the leader in drawing tourists from across the world obtaining a net receipt of US $53.9 billion, in 2012. United States and China followed in respect to numbers. Governments of these countries marked these statistics with great satisfaction. What was not seen was the displeasure of several indigenous communities that did not want their privacies to be continuously invaded. Buddhist monks of south Chinese temples that were averse to unveiling closely protected seals of Buddha to sheer strangers, and the priests of some Mormon churches who were not comfortable allowing visitors who did not follow the decorum of religious places are some examples. In Karachi, fishermen families have started to shift from the vicinities where foreign multinational corporations have developed their sailing
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Architecture & Science Journal facilities and private huts. They do not approve of the dress codes followed by foreign visitors, and are left with no choice but to surrender their centuries old habitat in a bid to pursue a lifestyle close to their traditional values. Mobility of people helps in the promotion of cultures. Accessibility is a key factor that determines the nature and intensity of such interaction between the various communities of the world. However, due to restraints enforced by the guardians of globalization, the physical movement of different peoples to different regions is largely unequal. The citizens of the developed world have a strategic advantage in travelling from one country to the other. For instance, the citizens of any of the European Union member state can freely move around within Europe. They also receive formidable preference and privilege to visit and stay in other developed countries, such as USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A trip to the developed world has become an uphill task for citizens of most of the developing world, particularly the Islamic countries. Thus, the possibilities of an effective two-way cultural exchange remain extremely limited. Besides, travelling has lately become an expensive affair for most citizens of the developing world, in comparison to the developed nations. For an average salaried person in USA, cost of airfare to a country, such as Pakistan, is equal to one-fourth of his monthly salary. A corresponding citizen of Pakistan will have to spend an amount equal to his salary of eight months to buy a ticket to the US. Thus, the opportunities of cultural exchange, interactive communication and learning remain extremely limited. In many cases, despite possessing high standing scholars, developing nations have to step behind in cultural discourses. Survival of cultural heritage of any region has become directly proportional to its commercial potential, not its nascent cultural importance. If, for instance, a costume, custom or building is capable of generating commercial trends-yielding profits, then it would immediately attract investments from all the quarters. Whether in the form of a festival, carnival or extravaganza, such activities instantly draw the attention of the policy makers to the most disturbing extents. The performance of whirling dervish at the tomb of Maulana Rumi in Konya, Turkey now is made to focus more on the dance rituals as a cultural symbol rather than the high spiritual order it used to reflect. Similarly, the obscure but serene Kalash community in Chitral in northern Pakistan has been overwhelmed by the endless intrusions it receives at the hand of visitors from around the globe. Whereas mundane sites of few holiday islands received hefty grants for restoration and re-construction, sites possessing a front-line qualitative status in heritage await a response for support to preserve them. Globalization has also made purely academic assignments for cultural exploration redundant. Every assignment must now have economic viability to at least sustain its basic expenditures. With the advent of globalization era, the nature of stakeholders in the context of protecting cultural heritage has changed. Previously, it was considered as a matter of local or national pride to mobilize expertise, efforts and funds to conserve any artifact, space or activity related to heritage. Local philanthropy was one way of generating the desired funds to undertake any such assignment. However, globalization has brought forward a new set of stakeholders. Investors, project managers and operators have overtaken the local authorities or professional bodies, primarily in the developing countries. They are determinants of financial success, despite their limited capacity and quality of cultural input. Thus, a necropolis may turn into a carnival site or an old church may become a shop front. Even the professional charters of conservation are often violated to make room for a cultural enterprise otherwise not admissible under technical conventions. International actors, especially multinationals, have acquired considerable influence in affecting the decisions related to cultural heritage. Operation of large hotel chains is an example. These hotels often acquire exclusive rights of cultural or natural sites for commercial exploitations. While beaches were traditionally considered as public recreational space, they can now
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Architecture & Science Journal be owned and appropriated by private entrepreneurs. Customers of such hotels thus obtain an exclusive privilege leading to unrest among the people. Many hotels in the Mediterranean coast now own vast tract of open beaches, some of them possessing precious cultural heritage. Owners of these hotels may belong to different origins, certainly not a condition imposed by the local administrations. In cases of more than one hotel competing for a location, the one offering the highest bid and range of services is obliged. In some cases, an amicable formula is sorted out to select a few instead of one monopolistic entity. 4. Conclusions and some options Several conclusions can be drawn from this state of affairs. One, globalization is forging a uniformity of outlook towards heritage not as a treasure of common communal values but as an enterprise capable of generating financial gains. This applies to all the cross-sections of heritage, whether built artifacts, popular rituals or crafts of any sort. Two, such local communities that are monetarily weak, have to surrender their rights to look after their local elements of heritage to financially stronger players. This even applies to financially less privileged countries that have to eventually accept the lucrative offers of financially sound actors interested in protecting heritage, but according to their own terms and conditions. Three, privileges and opportunities to learn about heritage are converged more and more with the developed nations that are fostering globalization. Natives of such countries are the natural visitors to the various corners of the world, either as tourists or explorers. Four, folklore, lifestyles, anecdotes and images of heritage that do not challenge the concept and value system of globalization are only favoured to flourish and survive. And five, international donor agencies that claim to support local cultural heritage only act if all, or at least most, of the above mentioned preconditions are met. If it is found that heritage value is only limited to a community or small group of people with very limited economic basis, it is made to fade out. These issues demand serious review from the local intelligentsia, which mostly adopts global practices without understanding its relevance. Before embarking upon high-sounding projects or programmer, it will be appropriate if the UN agencies initiate an open dialogue around the core issues related to heritage. Definition and overlay of heritage, viable approaches to study and interpret cultural contexts in a truthful manner, equitable cultural exchanges with a view to promote cultural understanding leading to tolerance and co-existence; and, above all, the acceptance of the fact that all cultures have a right to exist and make efforts for their respective survival and sustenance, may form few point in such an agenda list. Whether places of worship, rituals or communal spaces, it must be up to the local community to mobilize resources and generate collective action in collaboration with other groups and stakeholders. If otherwise, the globalization will eventually convert every plausible cultural element and artefact into a commercial insignia with tag values for monetary gains alone! References
1. UNESCO website www.unesco.org, accessed on 20 March 2014 2. IRCICA website www.ircica.org accessed on 20 March 2014 3. Ahmed, N. (2002) Heritage and Globalization Some Perspectives, Daily DAWN Karachi, September 01 Issue
Corresponding Author Noman Ahmed Department of Architecture and Planning City Campus, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Moulana Din Mohammad Wafai Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan. Email: nahmed@neduet.edu.pk
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Abstract
The application of the 3D laser scanner procedures as technical support for the construction design is focus of this paper. The laser scanner technology has become of fundamental importance for the cultural heritage survey sector. Accuracy and precision of the 3D Laser Scanner survey could be a decisive support for the quality of the design process. The integrated survey, promoted and performed in the MUDI (Museo degli Innocenti), could be a best practices case. In May 2008, the Istituto degli Innocenti promoted a competition concerning the preliminary design of the new Museum. In order to realize the project, the architects have faced a series of problems solved thanks to the information provided by the 3D laser scanner. The laser scanner technology has radically reduced the elaboration time of the data and in particularly has allowed the designers to use only the information strictly necessary obtained from the survey.
Key words: 3D laser scanner, design process, survey, building technology, cultural heritage
1. Introduction The preservation, the knowledge and the value of the cultural heritage requires a continuous use of innovative technologies able to guarantee the reduction of the time required for the survey activities and the possibility to enhance a low number of operations that generate a high quantity of data in order to reduce the error during the restoration. For this reason, the major surveying technological tools (3D laser scanner mostly integrated on total stations and digital cameras) are continually updated. Despite this, the degree of innovation (operating speed, high-resolution of the data, portability and lightness) that the industry offers to the professional market, is not always supported by a level of information and technical knowledge to exploit the actual potentialities. In the last years, the laser scanner technology has become of fundamental importance for the cultural heritage survey sector.
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Architecture & Science Journal The main benefits of 3D laser scanner technologies are: - more economic and rapid than the traditional survey procedures; - high precision of the information and data collected; - creation of a 3D model of the object available in CAD version; - possibility to operate in those areas where a traditional survey was very difficult (or sometimes impossible) because of the inaccessibility of some spaces. The laser scanner survey also can be useful as technical support for the construction design. The high exactnesss digital morphometric data collected by the 3D Laser Scanner survey can be crucial for choosing the technical solutions fit for the restoration of an historical building. The Museo degli Innocenti (MUDI) project is an example. In fact, all the phases of the design (preliminary, final and construction design) have been integrated with morphometric models, characterized by high-density information reached with 3D laser scanner technology.
Figure 2. Project view of the Istituto degli Innocenti porch. On the right, the new MUDI entrance.
This paper focuses on the application of the 3D laser scanner procedures as technical support for the construction design. The reuse and the valorisation of the Istituto degli Innocenti, an important historical building realized in Florence that is considered to be a first example of Renaissance architecture, is the case study of the paper. 2. The MUDI design competition The Istituto degli Innocenti is an ancient institution in Florence dedicated to the care and education of children. It has been operating for almost six centuries in a building that surely represents one of the most marvellous examples of Renaissance architecture. In 1419 the Silkmakers Guild gave Filippo Brunelleschi a contract for the construction of their head-quarters. The contract is still in the historical archives of the organization. Brunelleschi, with this building, established the rules for the new Renaissance architecture. Still today the Institute manages in this building three family homes for children and mothers in difficulty, three nursery schools and a play centre. It also runs the MUDI (Museo degli Innocenti) to display its artistic and historical heritage. The Galleria dello Spedale has about fifty works mostly paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries that are part of the artistic heritage built over the centuries by the Institute, either by commission, by inheritance, or by canonical rights. The Historical Archives include a huge amount of documentation, from the 14th to the 20th century that tells the story of the ancient Hospital starting from its construction and the stories of the numerous organizations that have collaborated during the course of the past centuries. In May 2008, the Istituto degli Innocenti promoted a competition concerning the preliminary design of the new Museum. In December of the same year, the winner of the competition
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Architecture & Science Journal (Ipostudio architetti, arch. P.C. Pellegrini, arch. E. Vassallo, arch. S. Scarponi, Favero & Milan Engineering and Consilium Ltd.) was commissioned to develop the final and construction design and to supervise the restoration works.[1] The construction site started in the summer of 2012 and it is scheduled to be completed within the summer of 2015. 3. The new MUDI project The solutions for the new museum were inspired by the need to reaffirm the ties between the history of the building and its current activities: the need to show the works and the history of the building and of the institution that has been both its creator and its user. The main objective is to uncover not only the enormous cultural, artistic, monumental and archival heritage of the Institute, but also its current activities and initiatives. So the project tried to find layout and functional solutions to allow the museum and the daily life of the Institute to share the same building. It would be difficult, and probably wrong, to imagine a museum detached from the daily life of the Institute, since the cultural, artistic and archival heritage is an integral part of the Institute. The project, therefore, simply brings to light, accentuates and shows off all that which has remained hidden from the city for centuries and remains hidden even today. The project consists of two interdependent actions: - the architectural project of the spaces and setup of the museum is tightly tied to the proposed organization by the museum and the full interconnections and implications for the entire building; - an intervention on the building, consequence of the architectural project, with a series of consequences for the functional organization of the museum.
To clarify, an example is the new access from the public square in front of the building. This solution is urgent for the access to the museum, but at the same time it solves a general access problem for the whole complex and for the conventions, an important activity of the Institute.[2] The Institute, by its very open and inclusive nature, actually has some accessibility problems for peoples with disabilities. It is built on a podium that with its famous staircase makes the light, elegant arcade even more fascinating the arcade that makes this public square one of the most beautiful in the
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Architecture & Science Journal world. But at the same time it constitutes an architectural barrier. To remove this problem, the project found a decisive solution: a new access for pregnant women, the elderly, parents with baby carriages, and disabled people, who can access the whole building directly from the square. Beyond this objective, the new access opens up two heretofore hidden places: a below-grade floor that today serves as a basement that could instead become a vital living space for the Museum, and the Balcony, a place that hardly anyone knows today and from which one sees one of the most spectacular views of Florence and its dome. The invention of a new access for everyone directly from the square, because of the desire to work on the weaker parts while leaving unaltered the image of the complex from the square, leads to the choice of putting the main access to the museum at the entrance that currently leads to the Cortile delle Donne (Courtyard of the Women), to the right of the staircase. The new museum entrance will be quite visible from the outside but perfectly integrated into the historical complex. Since the complex will still have diversified functions, the visitor interested in the building itself can enter either from the current entrances along the arcade or from the new common entrance. The new entrance will take advantage of the small difference between the public square and the level of the basement, a little more than a meter below street level, that is, the base of the whole structure. Going down, one arrives at the basement in a big hall where the visit to the new museum will begin. From this new lobby area, the whole building will be accessible by a new lift and a new staircase in the adjacent area, which will in turn be accessible from the outside for mothers with baby carriages. The new museum entrance will be located symmetrically with respect to the Foundling Wheel, a sort of back door, almost as a way of reminding the way abandoned children entered the building (certainly not by the main entrance). The new access, using a door that still has the ancient offering box, is a new wheel: a mechanism that appears and disappears from the day to the night and clearly identifies the new museum entrance. Brunelleschis idea of continuity between the inside and the outside will be recalled and implemented by the large moving door as it appears and disappears inside the building. The current exhibit area of the Institute offers only a glimpse of that world full of life that the complex represents, illustrating only the heritage of donations and inheritances accumulated over the years: works of high artistic value, but nothing of the most extraordinary collection, that is, its historical archives that catalogue the life of thousands of boys and girls hosted through the centuries. The new museum will make ample use of this invaluable stock of documents, to show the visitor the history and life of the Institute, putting the rich artistic collection in a larger and more complex picture, full of immense historical, anthropological and documentary values: a museum to live, not just to observe, alive today like the Institute, a museum that fuses history and actuality in a dialogue the visitor participates in.[3] This is accomplished by having the visitor follow a path beginning with the memory of abandonment of babies, recalled by the new foundling wheel, a progressive immersion in that unique intersection of the historic, artistic, architectural, and emotional memory of the Institute. This succession of themes tied to the life, the history, and the architecture, makes evident the inseparable bonds between these aspects, and how it is necessary to recover and render useful to all visitors the immense heritage of documents in the archives. The central theme of the museum project has been to make sure that the use of the spaces transmits the importance of the Institute as a unique example of an institution dedicated to children for more than five centuries.
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Architecture & Science Journal In this sense, the architectural solution favours, by reorganizing internal pathways, the objective of direct experience, which implies visiting places and being influenced by them without excluding more didactic spaces full of photographs and significant objects along with narrations of stories and events. The interdisciplinary nature of the museum, along with the intrinsic complexity of the Institute, has made it necessary to introduce the latest technology in order to recreate virtual user-navigable life scenarios using multimedia tools and to make it possible to virtually handle the archival material currently inaccessible to most visitors. The use of computer technology and digital reconstruction can be supported by real reconstructions of articles and surroundings, that is, a selection of anthropologically interesting material and documentation in a continuous dialog between the real and the virtual, between the past and present. The visitor has a direct experience of the life in the city of the children, from the ritual of abandonment to the effective cultural education, and leaves enriched by knowing what the Institute was and is: a unique historical place, a place to return to and appreciate. The project has investigated and highlighted the potential of the exhibit areas integrating them into a system that includes the three great themes: the Institute, daily life, and the building. The permanent exhibit will be on the basement, easily reachable from and in contact with the street a trip to the origins of the building and of the Institute, an anthropological, historical and artistic narrative, between reality and digital reconstruction.[2]
The Art Gallery will be improved by shedding light on the intrinsic value of the spaces, from the wooden trusses to its special place inside the complex. Each work will be connected with the history of the Institute and the daily life of the children. The fittings will speak a single language, simple and straightforward, but able to sum up and communicate the complexity of an Institute that is still living. The fittings, unitarily defined, will vary according to the characteristics of quite diverse spaces: - the permanent exhibition, the welcoming area and the bookshop will be on the basement, an area with its own charm and limited height, with cross vault ceilings illuminated by natural side lights, making it a perfect place to begin the museum visit and be immediately involved in the narration of the history and life of the Institute and the building; - on the ground floor, narration and discovery continue through the Childrens Workshop, essential element for understanding the founding values of the museum project, and through visiting the building of Brunelleschi and its courtyards;
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Architecture & Science Journal - finally, the museum takes shape in the spaces more obviously designed for exhibits: the Art Gallery, which concludes the museum narrative, even by its form. The last element, not fitted out as a museum but a space unto itself, the Verone, destined to become a covered space with a cafeteria, but also a place to hang out and discover the skyline of a significant part of the monumental Florence. 4. The use of 3D laser scanner in the design of MUDI In order to realize the project, the architects have faced a series of problems solved thanks to the information provided by the 3D laser scanner. Accuracy and precision of the 3D Laser Scanner survey has been a decisive support for the quality of the design process. The assessment of the technical solution has been based on reliable data, particularly in those areas where a traditional survey was very difficult (or sometimes impossible) because of the inaccessibility of some spaces. Overlapping the drawings of the previous survey and those ones based on the point cloud developed with the laser scanner survey, several significant differences (and mistakes in the existing drawings) has been reported. The morphometric survey disclosed and cleared up the complexity of the building due to the overlapping of extensions and restoration works made in the last five centuries. On the other hand the availability of the point cloud allows to carry on other investigations whenever new data or measures are required.
Figure 7. Methodology scheme of data processing used to define the heights of the new staircase.
Figure 8. Methodology scheme of data processing used to define the thickness of the floors.
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Architecture & Science Journal Access to these extremely precise and reliable data it was crucial in the construction stage of the restoration project and will be important in the next maintenance works. The integrated survey, promoted and performed in the MUDI, has radically reduced the elaboration time of the data and in particularly has allowed the designers to use only the information strictly necessary obtained from the survey. The most important aspect of the method adopted (direct extraction of information from the database) consist in the fact that the survey becomes a reliable and easily accessible tool that also reduces the graphic operations in comparison to traditional methods. This aspect is not secondary because it has a direct impact on the development process of a complete analysis of the building. In fact, while the ordinarily extraction CAD is linked to the knowledge of the historical building to some plans and/or sections defined; the new method allow to the planner to view and optionally extract or analyse variable plan and sections greatly reducing the time of processing and management costs.[1] 4. Conclusion The MUDI case study demonstrates how, the in-depth analysis and accuracy of the design that takes advantage of the 3D laser scanner survey is a guarantee of architecture restoration and construction process quality. Also, application of advanced technologies in the survey and monitoring of cultural heritage increases the knowledge and supports the development of sustainable maintenance, preservation and refurbishment of historic sites and monuments through the development of strategies and assessment of efficient and user-friendly systems of the identification of alternation of heritage building during its entire lifetime.
Acknowledgement The contribution of this paper in its entirely was the joint work of the authors as well as it can be identify as the paragraph 3 of the first author, Roberto Di Giulio and the paragraph 1, 2, 4 and conclusion of the second author Emanuele Piaia.
References
1. Turilazzi B., Vanucci C. (2011), Il nuovo museo degli Innocenti a Firenze. La banca dati 3D per lelaborazione, la verifica ed il controllo del processo progettuale, Convegno Bicentenario: Il disegno delle trasformazioni, Napoli 1-2 dicembre 2011. 2. Di Giulio R. (2012), The MUDI project, in Borg R.B. (a cura di) Conservation of Architectural Heritage, Gutemberg Press, Malta. 3. Terpolilli C. (2011), Oltre il restauro. La valorizzazione del patrimonio edilizio pubblico monumentale LIstituto degli Innocenti e il progetto MUDI, in Techne, 3/2012, Firenze University Press, Firenze.
Corresponding Author Roberto Di Giulio Technology of Architecture, Department of Architecture at the University of Ferrara. dgr@unife.it
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European Cultural Route as a New Opportunity for the Modernist Cultural Heritage
Tadeja Zupani1
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Abstract
The article discusses the concept of a European cultural route as one of potentials to protect and develop the modernist cultural heritage. It addresses the problem of the post-war modernist architectural heritage, facing the lack of resources for its renewal, deriving from the lack of awareness of the above-mentioned potentials. This discussion is based on the results of a recently finished European project ATRIUM Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management, which develops a new European cultural route from the abandoned and problematic places, more or less intensively associated with the diverse notions of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century in the South-Eastern Europe. It develops a reflective meta-level to the project mentioned. The first results of this reflection have just been published in the journal Architecture & Urbanism, which interprets the Slovenian post-war modernist architectural heritage as a tourist product. The second stage of the development of this meta-level is presented in this article, focusing on the specification of the concept of the European cultural route. What happens to the general concept when faced with such sensitive challenges? The general criteria to develop a cultural route are taken as starting points for their re-interpretation within the sensitive context discussed. As a result, the key starting points for the monitoring and the evaluation system of the ATRIUM cultural route are upgraded and the cultural-route context as the opportunity for modernist architecture discussed.
1. Introduction The aim of this article is to discuss the concept of the European cultural routes as a new opportunity to enhance the protection and renewal of the post-war modernist architectural heritage within the context of cultural tourism. There are three key starting points for this article to be taken into account: -the first one is the context of the cultural routes of the Council of Europe [1] -the second is represented by the results of the finished project called ATRIUM - Architec-
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Architecture & Science Journal ture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management [2], leading to one of the latest proposals of a new cultural route (project concluded in October 2013), -the last one can be found in some recent reflections about modernist architectural heritage as a tourist project, as deriving from the project outcomes, published in a scientific journal [3]. The open questions for the research presented within this article are derived from the problem that the cultural route context aims to identify not only the common grounds through diversity, but the local and regional contexts, like the one shown through the reflections on modernist heritage; a need for further critical re-contextualisation: through the idea of the route proposal itself back to the diversity of the cultural routes. 1.1. Cultural routes identifying recognizable elements of cultural diversity The concept of a European Cultural Route represents an established idea of European cultural values and their promotion, linking tourism and culture. The programme was created from 1984 to 87, and the first two routes were certified in 1987. Many are based on traditional paths and goals, where historically recognized values are promoted. The examples of the Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim routes or Via Francigena are typical examples of the pilgrimage paths. The Trans-Romanica, for example, connects goals of the Romanesque heritage - from castles to churches and monasteries, following the pilgrims footsteps. The Via Regia is aimed at the revitalisation of a historical road. On the other hand, the character of the Mediterranean context, for example, is represented through the routes of the olive tree; the concept links many local and regional paths and goals. All the route examples mentioned are based on traditional, established physical routes. Is it therefore possible to develop a cultural route from the goals where there are no established physical connections in between? Perhaps there are some local linkages, but no regional and trans-regional thematic corridors reflecting the route idea? There are some recent establishments of the cultural routes, which have been developed from both physical and virtual dimensions. The visitor develops his / her own interpretations of the route. The cultural route idea was transformed from its initial stages while recognising established traditional paths towards the identification of alternative but still potentially interesting networks locations; to develop the idea of sustainable tourism, to protect the most attractive places of the world where most of the tourists must travel. Where to search for these locations? What are the contemporary pilgrims like? What do they search for? Many answers are offered in the wide variety of the route concepts, including the industrial heritage sites, Jewish heritage sites, the places where the Northern Lights can be observed; over thirty implemented ideas up to now, ideas strong and clear enough to be recognisable easily through their simple titles. Their variety indicates the richness of the trans-regional cultural context they represent. Thus they can be seen as indicators of diversity. 1.2. A challenging proposal of a cultural route: ATRIUM One of the most recent proposals for a new European Cultural Route is developed from the project ATRIUM - Architecture of the Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management, funded by South East Europe, the Trans-national Cooperation Programme, co-funded (subsidized) by the European Union. The project acronym as a potential route title sounds welcoming, but it doesnt reflect the projects concept directly. Is this a challenge to observe and deal with carefully? The ATRIUM partner consortium is composed from: the Municipality of Forli, Italy (the Lead Partner); the Province of Forli-Cesena, Italy; the University of Ljubljana, The Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia; the Municipality of Velenje, Slovenia; The National Institute of the Immovable Cultural Heritage, Sofia, Bulgaria; the Municipality of Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria; the Szechenyi Istvan University, Gyor, Hungary; the Local Government of Gyor with the
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Architecture & Science Journal County Rank, Hungary; the Institute of Construction and Architecture of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia; the Metropolitanate of Moldavia and Bukovina Archidiocese of Iasi, Romania; the Institute for Innovation & Sustainable Development, AEIPLOUS, Patras, Greece; the Cultural & Educational Technology Institute, ATHENA the Research & Innovation Centre of Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies, Xhanti, Greece; the Town of Labin, Croatia; the Fund of Microregional Tourism Cluster Subotica-Palic, Serbia; the Municipality of Tirana, Albania; Rotor organization for the development of tourism of the Doboj region, Bosnia-Herzegovina; the Ministry of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria; and the Municipality of Rasa, Croatia. The project itself combines a wide variety of non-comparable totalitarian contexts, and includes also a wide variety of the notions of modernism. Thus this article emphasizes the problem of modernist architecture when associated with the sensitive notions of the totalitarian regimes, and the difficulties deriving from the notions mentioned. Generally speaking one of the key features of the twentieth century architectural heritage is that in most environments its preservation role is still in the process of winning recognition. Moreover, the project examines the part of the architectural heritage created in the specific circumstances of totalitarian regimes. In some cases (the initial ones are described in the ATRIUM survey [4]) architecture was the propaganda mechanism of the political system, some of them can even be identified as the totalitarian architecture, while in some other environments it resisted the political pressure, and traced its own path, which developed from the political rigidity. It can be argued that the doubts, usually related to the potential future of the modernist heritage, become stronger, when contextualized within the notions of totalitarianism. These doubts are intertwined with the understanding of the nature of totalitarianism of the 20th century diversities. One of the problems that differentiate the modernist heritage from the one of earlier periods can be searched exactly in the context of the totalitarian regimes. On the other hand, not all totalitarian regimes can be linked to the same notion of modernism. What else can be found within the totalitarian regime periods of the 20th century? How are these diversities reflected in the conceptions and misconceptions of the unique wholeness? The ideas about the protection and restoration of the modernist heritage differ not only because of the professional orientation, but also depend on the intensity of their linkage to the notion of the totalitarian regimes (direct, indirect linkages), on the nature of the regime of the related period and on the relation of the current regime to the one of the period of their construction. Not only these, but many other issues and questions can be solved and many options of this sensitive modernist heritage to survive can be opened when this heritage is treated as a tourist product. On the other hand, to promote this type of heritage as a tourist attraction, this heritage requires many challenging discussions, developing a participatory management system, and a strong idea of promotion, which respects the quality of architectural materialisations, but represents a warning against the totalitarianism itself. The ATRIUM Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, the concept developed within the project ATRIUM, represents such an idea and an opportunity to promote the modernist architectural heritage from the period of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century as a tourist product. This paper focuses on the idea of the Cultural Route as embedded in this sensitive context. The methodology of management, preservation, reuse and economic valorization of architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, within the context of the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, is developed and published within the manual of the already mentioned ATRIUM project. The Manual [5] itself opens the discussion about what to do with specific cases identified in the ATRIUM survey, and with other potential cases, still to be identified. How to deal with them? How to develop visions, concepts and systems for their management options? As the ATRIUM partnership structure is composed of a wide variety of partner types, their cultural and political concepts, their ideas about the architectural heritage dealt with, and their
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Architecture & Science Journal ideas about their potential management, the manual first addresses this variety, and second, it reflects it within the guidelines produced. If one partner is most concerned about how to sell this type of heritage, already accepted by the general and professional public, the other faces the problem of destructive forces in its context, and needs to use this Manual for educational purposes first. Addressing the diversity of needs within the partnership is one of the key goals of this Manual preparation. The Manual thus starts with the definition of the context, approaches, methods and criteria related to the topic discussed. The context is illustrated through history, interpretation issues and terminology: it describes Europe in the era of totalitarianism, questions of interpreting the heritage of totalitarian regimes and adds a glossary of key terms. The practical part of the Manual is consists of the meta-projects and feasibility studies of the partnership involved, developed from the case studies of the ATRIUM survey. Not only the best practices, but also some most challenging examples have been chosen to illustrate the potential of the variety within the ATRIUM project. The core of the Manual offers a series of guidelines. It starts with the interpretation guidelines, continues with the guidelines for preservation, renovation and re-use of the architectural heritage dealt with, and focuses on the management guidelines. It answers the question how to develop the management vision when the management topic is very sensitive or challenging,
Picture 1. The former Italian Fascist youth air force college, now: the educational building, in Forli, Italy (photo: T.Z.)
how to develop the System of Organizing Places and Paths, how to develop the concept and strategy, how to prepare its digital support system and how to arrange its structure for both monitoring and evaluation. Last but not least, the economic potentials of the architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century are exposed and some words about the future discussed. It establishes a meta-platform for education and research in the field discussed, as well as an interface for interdisciplinary discussions. The process of the cases identification to develop some initial starting points for the potential route development shows that the architecture dealt with includes both historicist interpretations, including vernacular forms, an abstract modernist design thinking, representing the vitality of a modern movement. [6] The problem of con-comparable situations when trying to unify the elements into the new recognisable wholeness of the cultural route is obvious. The historicist group is represented with examples like: the former Italian Fascist youth air force college or former Cassa del Balilla in Forli, the House of the Fascist Party picture 1 Predappio, Italy; the Labin industrial zone in Croatia; the Raba cinema in Gyor, Hungary; the House of Culture Suceava in Suceava, Romania; the Thessaloniki port administration headquarters and the House of Literature and Arts in Patras, Greece; the City center Dimitrovgrad and The Largo of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria; The National History Museum of Albania in Tirana.
Picture 2. The former Revolution Square, now: the Square of the Republic in Ljubljana, Slovenia (photo: T.Z.)
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Architecture & Science Journal The representatives of abstract modernity from the ATRIUM project selection are: the House of Culture and Titos Square in Velenje, the Square of the Republic (the former Revolution Square, established in the new city centre of the period) in Ljubljana picture 2 Slovenia; the bridge of the Slovak national uprising and the Freedom Square in Bratislava, Slovakia; the Court House, the district government building and the workers university building in Subotica, Serbia. When the issues of route management appear in the process of the new route development [7], that is when the research project transforms into a route management system (association establishment etc.), many cases drop out of the initial network. Not because of the architectural diversity itself; the participant process faces the sensitivity of the notions of totalitarianism. On the other hand, the same local context may show the critical distance and a high level of development potential to promote the modernist architectural heritage without the totalitarian label. Such an example is discussed within the first results of the post-project reflection and interprets the Slovenian post-war modernist architectural heritage as a tourist product. 1.3 The idea of modernist architecture as a tourist product The discussion derives from the rich knowledge-based case-study on modern architecture research in Slovenia, through the refreshed optics of cultural tourism [8], discovered in parallel and through the EU co-funded project ATRIUM. The potentials of modernist architectural heritage for sustainable cultural tourism are identified through the process of a cultural route development within the ATRIUM project context, from the regional and local contexts of Slovenia, with a wider focus on the Southeast Europe Network wholeness. There are many abandoned places in our vicinity, deserving to survive. The modernist architectural heritage is interesting because of the gap between the professional and general public: professionals claim it needs to survive, but they get no support from the general public, where the sources of this survival come from. It is also interesting because many architectural monuments are associated with more or less problematic notions of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century Europe. The discussions during the implementation of the ATRIUM project show that many seemingly closed questions related to the political context are still open. It is obvious that the discussions challenge fears related to all dimensions of totalitarianism, regardless of the fact whether we accept the labels from political historians or not. The architectural remains of the regimes mentioned are products of the problematic period, though they are not necessarily associated with the ideas directly. The buildings offering cultural events from the period of their construction, for example, express the spirit of the period more intensively than the apartment-building developments, which, on the other side, show the ideas of the regime indirectly. The buildings hosting the governmental institutions, the monuments of the revolution, the squares of important historic events etc. are the most powerful in this sense, the most direct representatives of the problems dealt with: in some cases they are adopted by generations following the totalitarian regimes, in other cases they are left abandoned and, last but not least, some of them are destroyed intentionally. There are two main goals of the first project reflection in the national context: to identify the potentials of the modernist architectural heritage for sustainable cultural tourism as a new resource of its re-use, re-development; and to show that the regional and trans-regional context of cultural tourism may, in specific circumstances, stimulate the development of the local actions of the modern architectural heritage promotion, independent potential political connotations. The main research question from the scientific point of view is focuses on the integration of approaches: How to link the established scientific and professional approaches towards the identification and interpretation of modern architectural heritage with the view of tourist promotion of this particular type of heritage?
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Architecture & Science Journal 1.4. Open questions from contextual diversity within the route A cultural route of the Council of Europe can be seen as: -a concept for the protection and renewal of architectural works, especially when / where labeled as the remains of the totalitarian political regimes, -a tool for multiple reflections of the modernist architectural heritage, especially when it is contextualized in sensitive socio-cultural conditions of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. The integration of both notions leads us to the idea of the cultural route as a reflective concept. On the other hand, the architectural heritage of modernism is seen as a tourist commodity. Thus, this reflective concept serves / addresses not only professional but also general public. Management of the architectural heritage becomes a participatory process, where the diversity of notions is extended to its maximum and beyond - as a potential for a wide variety of actions. The main open questions deriving from the background information described in the previous chapters and to be dealt with within this article are: -How to specify the general concept of the European cultural route when it faces sensitive social and cultural challenges, such as the diversity of notions of the totalitarian (and autocratic) regimes combined with the diversity of modernist architecture? -How to define the starting points for the monitoring and evaluation system of the ATRIUM cultural route? -How to re-contextualise the specifics of the route concept within the wider context of the network of cultural routes? 1.5 Method: from the specification of a general concept to the development of the ATRIUM monitoring and evaluation system The emphasis of this article is a methodological development and specification, using the basic descriptive method. The starting points are: -the criteria to develop a cultural route, linking culture and tourism into a sustainable wholeness of cultural tourism: theme definition, element identification, action development and visibility; -the specific cultural sensitivity of modernist architecture and the connotations deriving from the cases where they are developed in the circumstances of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. The first step is the specification of the criteria to develop a cultural route. The next one requires the identification of the mode required to develop a set of criteria adaptable to sensitive circumstances, but at the same time showing the levels of comparability and the issues of non-comparability. 2. The cultural route of the Council of Europe in relation to the modernist architectural heritage from the era of the totalitarian regimes The ATRIUM Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, the concept developed within the ATRIUM project, represents an idea and an opportunity to promote the modernist architectural heritage from the era of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century as a tourist commodity. The idea of the Cultural Route as embedded in this sensitive context seems perhaps questionable at first sight, because of the level of its sensitivity. A closer inquiry into the main steps to be checked within the development of such a route shows that it represents a wonderful opportunity to meet all the criteria [9] of the Council of Europe.
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Architecture & Science Journal 2.1. Theme definition The route should be based on a theme which represents the European values and is common to several countries in Europe. In this case the general nature of the theme is challenged with the diversity of its notions in different cultural contexts, and with the diversity of its reflections about the architectural heritage. On the other hand, the desire to respect the traces of a challenging history, taking them as warning signs, can be developed as a desire to integrate all the diversities involved. This is exactly what one of the key criteria to be fulfilled: the theme must be illustrative of the European memory, history and heritage and contribute to the interpretation of the diversity of present-day Europe. Due to its sensitivity it requires both multidisciplinary research and innovative applications, including the field of cultural tourism and sustainable cultural development. The tourist commodities which can be developed from this context can redirect at least some of the major tourist flows, from the locations where tourism represents non-sustainable exaggeration to alternative places, searching for educational and co-creational events, powerful to engage active tourist energy to protect what is recognised and deserves to be protected. 2.2. Identification of the heritage elements of the route Searching for heritage elements as potential places linked through the cultural route, requires not only the identification of their link to the main theme, but many other identification layers. From the point of view of the cultural route creators / developers the problem of identification of the elements to be included in the route doesnt end with the route certification process; it is a continuous story. From the users point of view it even multiplies. The route in this case is not a traditional path, except perhaps in some local areas; at the regional and trans-regional / transcultural scale it is a multiple communication potential where the contemporary tourist becomes the creator of its own exploratory ways and directions. Thus it is very important to emphasise the message of the newly created wholeness that is the contemporary democratic context of all the endeavours. 2.3. Development of actions along the route The criterion of cooperation in research and development is essential in this particular case. Because the endeavours to enhance the memory, history and European heritage, which is another criterion in the context of cultural routes of the Council of Europe, may lead to new destructions of communities and places. The cultural and too generally conceptualised educational exchanges for young Europeans, combined with contemporary cultural and artistic practices cannot guarantee the cultural dimension of tourism by itself; the theme is too sensitive for that. It can challenge non-controllable events. The architectural remains of the sensitive periods of our history can easily become masks of faking ignorance. However, many artists managed to fight against totalitarianism in their own way, producing high-quality architecture / art-work in spite of the atmosphere of the period, in some cases simply because of that atmosphere; some of them used the opportunity to realise their ideas through the power of the regime. This doesnt mean Picture 3. The ATRIUM logo using that good architecture proves the periods of their construction historicist-rationalist image of were good It only means that the multiple dimensions of art architecture from the context of Fascism and design works need to be uncovered and recognised care (http://www.atrium-see.eu)
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Picture 4. The ATRIUM manual (design: J. Bona); image which is close to modernist avant-garde of Slovenia, Slovakia etc.
Picture 5. The ATRIUM seat of association proposal by ATRIUM Lead Partner: Casa Balilla in Forli (photo: T.Z.)
fully. A strong emphasis on the promotion of the European Parliament resolution on European co-existence and totalitarianism (ratified on 2nd April 2009), can re-direct even the potentially destructive energy flow to the new level of creativity, making the memories alive to respect the victims of the undemocratic European regimes, to respect the fighters against tyranny, and to develop a new harmony which contributes to new values of the Western civilization. This is to say that all the actions along the route should be put to light of this notion of co-existence, to achieve the educational goals of the cultural route itself. The actions of architectural renewal can also be observed in this context. Are they initiated through the public participatory process or not? Is this a sign of the new democratisation? How do these initiatives face the wishes to re-construct some already destroyed buildings and monuments of the totalitarian regimes? What is from the point of view of the ATRIUM consortium scientific committee in the spirit of the resolution about the European conscience and totalitarianism, respecting all the victims of the already-discussed totalitarian and undemocratic regimes unacceptable? Respecting the remains is the main goal; as a warning, the reconstruction of both physical appearance and / or contents is something totally different. 2.4. Visibility Each route needs to be expressed through its visual communication tools. The diversity of notions and elements in this case requires a high level of understanding and tolerance to diversity without the promotion of anything that has already been warned about. To meet this criterion in this particular case is an act which enhances not only the European culture but the human civilisation itself. Thus, the cultural route development offers a wonderful opportunity for the modernist architecture from the era of totalitarian regimes to survive. The development of the visual image of the route is closely related to the interpretation of symbols associated with many problematic issues of the context discussed, and is a nice indicator of the level achieved in the process of overcoming the issues of interpretation. Within the ATRIUM project context the vivid discussions lead to the acceptance of signs, symbols and graphic expressions when they achieve the level of the abstract, acceptable to all the partners involved. On the other hand, the proposal of the seat of the association, which is
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Architecture & Science Journal a concrete building, requires very carefully prepared and explained documentation, to embody the problematic words from the faade with some critical distance needed. 3. Criteria and measures for the monitoring and evaluation of the ATRIUM cultural route The monitoring and evaluation structure development guidelines can be found in the ATRIUM manual. On the other hand, nothing is said about the contents to be evaluated through this structure and about the potential measures to be used for this purpose. The main idea of the present research endeavours is to define a relative evaluation system, which is local- and regional-context dependent, to overcome the difficulties of non-comparable situations. 3.1. From theme definition to representativeness The idea of the cultural route of the Council of Europe is based on the identification and development of a strong unifying identity. Each route represents such a strong idea. Thats why each individual route needs to unify the notions of its elements into a more or less unique wholeness. On the other hand, at least two levels of diversity can be identified. The first one derives from the differentiation of the identities from the European perspective, the notion of this diversity is strengthened through the strength of each unifying identity. The second one derives from the underlying regional and local realities and remains there in spite of the unifying processes of the identification of a strong common theme. 3.2. From the Identification of the heritage elements of the route to their objective re-interpretation Attraction, infrastructure and experience are exposed as three crucial elements of cultural tourism, as presented by Irena Ograjenek, an economist [10]. At first sight they look clear and simple. Of course, they are all needed to develop a cultural tourism-related commodity. On the other hand, the questions like this appear: what type of attraction? What infrastructure? Which experience? Attraction can be either positive or negative, ambiguous in many cases. What do they attract in these cases? Who is the person, the social group attracted? What do they stimulate or may stimulate? This all relates to the questions of experience directly. The first notion of experience coming to our mind can be our own current experience as potential tourists, for example. But this experience cannot be disassociated with our past experience and that of others and from our expectations of the future. Not only does physical infrastructure become important, but also personal, economic, and other multiple layers of infrastructure. The guidelines for the identification and interpretation of potential sites are basically defined in the already mentioned ATRIUM manual. The criteria of the current social recognition (monument protection issues), the architectural characteristics, deriving both from the history of their creation and re-development and their current use and economic potential are suggested. However, the method can be used as the base to identify the already mentioned attraction, infrastructure and experience elements. The measures related to these three cannot be defined in an absolute way, but relative to other examples in comparable situations. The main questions to be answered in this process are: what is comparable, at which level, with what and where, how? The professions dealing with urban planning and architectural design cannot cope with all these issues, but their success depends on them. The interdisciplinary communication with political historians, art historians, sociologists, economists etc. is essential to look beyond the socio-cultural limitations. The following simple questions may indicate the need for a comprehensive in-depth research as the background of any evaluation: Are the places of resistance to totalitarian regimes included? Are the endeavours of artists to communicate freedom through their sophisticated means of artistic messaging identified? How so? Are the places which seem attractive, appropriate repre-
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Architecture & Science Journal sentatives of the issues involved? Are they just one of multiple examples (picture 6)? From the awareness of the issues deriving from interpretation of the delicate issues involved to the objective but sophisticated distance required to look beyond the historic trauma is a long way. It requires a very high level of individual and social sensitivity. As Sonja Ifko concludes
Picture 6. Where is the motivation to identify and reinterpret potential new sites? One of numerous potential sites housing district from Belgrade (photo: T.Z.)
the discussion about the interpretation issues, indicating the vision of this sensitivity: In addition to having the function of protecting and using heritage, the project acquires an additional dimension of the protection of more general social values, based on the European democratic tradition, which is disassociated with any political connotations of the heritage areas. [11] Is this disassociation fully achievable? To what extend is it achievable? How to deal with the non-perfect reality in this case in the current period? 3.3. From the basic development of actions along the route to their responsible planning and implementation The main maxima related to this criterion is the balance of top-down planning and the participatory initiative development from below. The measure again cannot be defined in an absolute way as the participatory traditions differ in different cultural frameworks and the ideal balance is not the same in all circumstances. From the research literature dealing with public participation and from the experience in the regional context it is clear that any exaggeration is generally counter-productive. However, the danger deriving from the delicacy of the topic involved in these endeavours requires an additional dimension to be taken into account seriously: public participation itself is not enough to ensure responsible action planning; educationally emphasised actions need to play a crucial role, to develop the sensitivity to the delicacy mentioned of all the actors involved. 3.4. From visibility to responsive and respective visibility Striving for the maximum visibility is not necessarily the way forward. It is clear that, depending on the political situations, some contexts need to pay more and others less attention to the cases involved. In some contexts higher visibility could stimulate protective participatory actions, in others destructive non-controllable events. The main question which may lead us to responsive and respective visibility is: What is the minimum / maximum visibility level appropriate / acceptable for the local / regional /trans-regional context of the case discussed? The main aim from the point of view discussed is to identify the red-line between local-regional and trans-regional minimum / maximum levels of visibility defined as most appropriate / still acceptable. 4. Discussion and conclusions The action development cultural route development criterion is intensively interlinked with all the other three: theme development, case identification and visibility: - the theme definition in a representative manner and the identification and interpretation of
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Architecture & Science Journal elements defining the theme can be seen as a vision development, which is the most important phase of action development, - the action development related to the elements defining the theme is the core of the system and can be seen as the strategic and implementation level of the system, - on the other hand, the visibility of the system represents the communication of the wholeness within itself and with other contexts. From some basic conclusions, related to the previous sub-chapters we need to return to the initial discussion questions of this article. How to specify the general concept of the European cultural route when it faces sensitive social and cultural challenges, such as the diversity of notions of totalitarian (and autocratic) regimes combined with the diversity of modernist architecture? The answer can be outlined from the specification efforts from the previous chapters: the main idea is to emphasize the multiple identity of the route discussed; as the level of diversity within the route seems much higher than in many other cultural routes and the forces of unification could cause stronger forces of reaction to the unification process than in other cases, because of this diversity and because of political connotations. How to define the starting points for the monitoring and evaluation system of the ATRIUM cultural route? The most important decision is that we take all the differentiation of the cases and their contexts into account. Not only the regime circumstances but also the modes of the same regimes of the period need to be taken into account. Not only should the dichotomy of historicist and avant-garde modernist architecture be respected, but also their variety in relation to regimes dealt with and also with other circumstances of their development. On the other hand, the architectural remains of specific periods are not simple products of those periods in the selected places; searching for multiple influences is essential to avoid, for instance, potentially misleading interpretations of innovation where some solutions were transferred perhaps from somewhere else. Both the levels (from local to regional and trans-regional contexts) and view-points of comparability (from architectural, economic etc. to socio-political view-point) need to be taken into account. The maximum from one point of view, from example, is always linked to the context discussed; another contextual discussion defines another maximum It needs to be said that the definition of an abstract numeric evaluation system doesnt help; any indicators need to be descriptive and case-related. The topic discussed is phenomenological, beyond any pure factual interpretation. What fits together and how, from the inner and inter-perspective origins? Any evaluation criterion can be only indicated generally but actually defined through the actions locally and perhaps regionally, and even more rarely, trans-regionally. Thus, it is possible to avoid any comparison of non-comparable situations. For example, even the most generally defined and agreed idea / maxima (at least at the EU level) - to make the memories alive by respecting the victims of European undemocratic regimes, respecting the fighters against tyranny, and developing a new harmony cannot be implemented without respecting the diversity of the situations involved. It can be used as a reflective level of action development. How to re-contextualise the specifics of the route concept within the wider context of the network of cultural routes? One of the options is identified in the process of seeking new cultural links in between the cultural route network. The context of cultural routes is an opportunity for the ATRIUM cultural route to succeed. The problem of memory of societal conflicts requires conscious participatory endeavours of reconciliation. How can the awareness of the cultural routes context help to achieve a better balance of these intentions? What fits together and how in(to) the wider contexts, from other focus-deriving perspectives? There are many helpful cultural route contexts relevant for the countries / areas involved. The relation with the olive tree route can build on the symbolic value of the tree, the symbol of peace. There are many modernist parks and gardens which can be part of both the ATRIUM route and the route of parks and gardens, where the idea of relaxation can
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Architecture & Science Journal contribute to the idea of reconciliation linked to the periods discussed. Thinking about the route of the Jewish heritage is an opportunity for a specific reflection on totalitarianism. The diversity of the ATRIUM cases can be identified through the diversity of intertwinement options with the ideas of other cultural routes. On the other hand, there is the specific level of sensitivity unifying many ATRIUM cases, where the mystification of our own cultural context is associated with the criticism of others, thus challenging a series of ethical issues.
Acknowledgements The reflection is based on the finalized ATRIUM project Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management, subsidised by Southeast Europe, the Trans-National Cooperation Programme, the Programme subsidised by the European Union.
References
1. Cultural routes of the council of route. European Institute of Cultural Routes institute web page http://www.culture-routes.lu/php/fo_index.php?lng=en 2. ATRIUM - Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management - research project web page - http://www.atrium-see.eu 3. ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM scientific magazine web page - https://www.sav.sk/index. php?lang=sk&charset=&doc=journal-list&journal_no=4&lang_change=en 4. Kaleva, E. (ed.), Abbott, C. W. (ed.). ATRIUM - Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th century in Urban Management - Transnational Surwey. Sofia, NIICH, Forli, Municipality, 2012. 5. Zupani-Strojan, T. (ed.)- Ifko, S. (ed.) - Fikfak, A. (ed.) - Juvani, M. (ed.) - Verovek, . (ed.). Manual of wise management, preservation, reuse and economic valorisation of architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Forli, Municipality, Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture 2013. 208 p. 6. Szalay, P., Moravikova, H., Bartoeva, N., Andrailova K., Topolanska, M. A Philosophy of Preservation of the 20th Architectury Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes. In: Zupani-Strojan T. (ed.)- Ifko, S. (ed.) - Fikfak, A. (ed.) - Juvani, M. (ed.) - Verovek, . (ed.). Manual of wise management, preservation, reuse and economic valorisation of architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Forli, Municipality, Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture 2013: 26-34. 7. ATRIUM Towards a Transnational and European Cultural Route on Architecture of Totalitarian Regime of the XXth Century. Velenje, Municipality of Velenje, 2013. 8. Ifko, S., Juvani, M., Zupani-Strojan, T. Slovenian post-war modernist architectural heritage as a tourist product = Architektonick dedistvo povojnovho modernizmu v Slovinsku ako turisticky produkt. Architektra & urbanizmus 2013, 47 (3/4): 183-199. 9. Council of Europe, Resolution (2010)52 on the rules for the award of the 'Cultural Route of the Council of Europe' certification, https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/com.instranet.InstraServlet?Index=no&command=com. instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=1734454&SecMode=1&DocId=1671428&Usage=2. Accessed 15 October 2013. The criteria are explained in detail within the ATRIUM manual by E. Berti. In this chapter they are presented within the context of the modernist architectural heritage interpretation. 10. Ograjenek, S. Economic potential. In: Zupani-Strojan, T. (ed.)- Ifko, S. (ed.) - Fikfak, A. (ed.) Juvani, M. (ed.) - Verovek, . (ed.). Manual of wise management, preservation, reuse and economic valorisation of architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Forli, Municipality, Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture 2013: 198-207. 11. Ifko, S. The Issues of Interpretation of Architectural Heritage of 20th Century European Totalitarian Regimes. In: Zupani-Strojan, T. (ed.)- Ifko, S. (ed.) - Fikfak, A. (ed.) - Juvani, M. (ed.) - Verovel, . (ed.). Manual of wise management, preservation, reuse and economic valorisation of architecture of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Forli, Municipality, Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture 2013: 20-25.
Corresponding Author Tadeja Zupani University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture Ljubljana Slovenia E-mail: tadeja.zupancic@fa.uni-lj.si
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The Role of the Architectural Education in the Preservation of Historic Urban Landscape
Amir Pai1
1
University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Architecture, Bosnia and Herzegovina Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Architecture, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract
The preservation of the outstanding universal values, defined by UNESCO conventions, should be at the center of any conservation policy and management strategy. Integrated approach should be linking contemporary architecture, sustainable urban development and landscape integrity based on existing historic patterns, building stock and context. A crisis of architecture presents itself in ongoing harmful process of general environmental crisis, despite the fact that we have today a better knowledge and highly developed technological means in most fields than ever before. It looks like we have forgotten the language of architecture. One of our aims should be to recover the language of architecture through new architectural education and to define the architects role in: appreciating the past; understanding the present; anticipating and preparing for the future, as well as be prepared to have leading role in the preservation of historic urban landscape.
1. Introduction Following the scope of UNESCOs Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1972), and UNESCO Vienna Memorandum (2005) on World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture Managing the Historic Urban Landscape1 sites are inscribed on the World Heritage List on the basis of the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value with the purpose that the preservation of this value should be at the center of any conservation policy and management strategy and integrated approach should be applied linking contemporary architecture, sustainable urban development with landscape integrity based on existing historic patterns, building stock and context.
1 Considering in particular the 1964 International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (Venice Charter), the 1968 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Preservation of Cultural Property endangered by Public or Private works, the 1976 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Safeguarding and Contemporary Role of Historic Ares, the 1982 ICOMOS-IFLA International Charter for Historic Gardens (Florence Charter), the 1987 ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas (Washington Charter), the 1994 Nara Document on Authenticity, as well as the HABITAT II Conference and Agenda 21, which was ratified by Member States in Istanbul (Turkey) in June 1996;
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Architecture & Science Journal In our present-days, it is obvious that numerous places is decaying with existence of meaningless construction and spatial setup in the built environment. Thus, we may talk about a general environmental crisis - the damage of the natural environment perpetrated by the industrial society. 2 Design is about shaping space; the establishment of order and legality, in particular, concerning the elements of composition as the basic factor, structure of architectural space defined by place, by domain and by time real structural components of the environment. The city marked the beginning of human civilization; presented the daily needs and concerns of man as builder and constructor; though it has a hidden formula: with stairs we master levels, the window splits but at the same time unites outer and inner space; windmill catches wind power to transfer it to the grindstone or to produce energy; bridge links the coasts and the people, and the conclusion is that pointless things do not exist. Despite the incredible development of the world in the last two millennia, in terms of understanding architecture and arts, differences are much smaller now. Two millennia ago, Vitruvius3 amounts to following criteria in his work: convenience purposes, appearance of buildings, economic benefits, aesthetic purpose (eurhythmy), and the relationship of parts to the whole integrity of performance. From Vitruvius to present day, very little has changed in defining the criteria.4 Accordingly to a general environmental crisis, a crisis of architects performances is presented in ongoing harmful process despite the fact that today we have a better knowledge in most fields than ever before and better technological /digital means their disposal. It looks like we have forgotten the language of architecture: to experience architecture as a meaningful expression of human life in a certain place. We have been missing a great chance to make architecture an essential part of the general discourse, a public concern like nourishment and politics, because we insist on looking at architecture schools exclusively as the training centers for young professionals. One of our aims should be to recover the language of architecture through new architectural education and to define the architects role in: appreciating the past; understanding the present; as well as anticipating and preparing for the future. In all civilization circles, human being is living essentially in similar conditions consisting of nature, towns, streets, buildings and artifacts. The place is perceived by the buildings or institutions. In the man-made environment, even an eternal fact, however, must be presented as a set of different places. Cities and buildings consist of elements which should be integrated rather than separated, and often of indeterminate extension. The metaphoric elements, such as towers, domes and stadiums, should be points of orientation within a comprehensive totality, rather than individual icons. Architecture presents us a known world, which, however, is interpreted in the light of the general concept of a timeless and universal unity, and also offers a basic input to our understanding of the language of architecture, and, consequently, to contemporary architectural education.
2 The sentiments expressed in the speech attributed to the old chieftain are consonant with those held by persons disturbed by the destruction of the Indian world with the development of the American frontier. The attitudes reflected in the letter ascribed to Seattle are in harmony with those professed by individuals upset at the damage to the natural environment perpetrated by our industrial society. The words of this Indian spokesman have been frequently quoted to a wide audience via the newspaper and television media. See:Chief Seattles 1854 Oration: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1985/ spring/chief-seattle.html 3 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio Roman architect/engineer wrote a unique depiction of the architecture and practical techniques from the time of Emperor Augustus, in his work De Architectura Libri Decemsee: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/ Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html 4 Possible groups of criteria: a. Appropriateness, feasibility and social utilitarian works; b. Functionality, rationality, logic, structural and usability of the facility; c. Completeness, integrity and unity of conception; c. Humanity, humanitarian art and psychological properties of space; d. Spontaneity, originality and authenticity of expression.
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Figure 1. Well-known silhouette of New York overlooking the Central Park (Photo: http://newyork.a-turist.com/)
Description of architecture also contains the basic components of the language of architecture: topology, morphology and typology.5 Multiplicity of facets (social, economic, cultural, political, institutional, religious, etc.) interacts to create the complex reality that we call contemporary society and constitutes the dynamic living reality of the contemporary city. Architecture is the means that the members of society employ to express that society in the physical world - it is art that is physically rooted in the geographic location of that society, and it is an integrated entity which reflects both the societys aspirations, artistic sensibility, and economic wealth; the level of advancement of its technology; and the elements of climate, topography, and the structure of its social organization. It is important to underline the collective responsibility of all involved in creating a building that deserves of recognition. Last centuries, and today still, the most of the ruling elites all over the world have gone through a process of disassociation from their cultural roots, while the image of progress in the future is borrowed from elsewhere, explicitly the West. This situation presents a major challenge to architects, and others involved in creation of a culturally authentic vision for future. Architecture is suffering to fulfill its noble mission of being the agent of progress rather than the servant of elite. However, unless architects can successfully convince the elites of their societies to replace their imported image of progress with a more coherent and effective one, there is going to be little chance to reverse that widespread degradation of the prevalent authentic urban character and architectural expression throughout the World. Today, the city is inescapably part of the global village. The interaction of developed and under-developed all around us results in dichotomy in the urban fabric, and conflict between the new (big roads, tall buildings, hi-tech manufactures and industry, mobility, cars, etc.) and the old the traditional organic urban fabric (patterns of narrow streets, small buildings, artisan workshops, pedestrian environment and, above all, its visible poverty). The form of the cities was largely defined by the middle class, Figure 2. Kowloon walled city, Hong Kong, China while the monuments were defined by the elite. (Photo: http://randomwire.com/) Planners help to shape the overall structure of
5 Topology refers to mans actions in space, that is, his orientation. Morphology refers to mans identification with certain environmental characters that are embodied by the built forms. Finally, typology refers to the constituent, recognizable parts of architecture, such as the dome, the cube, the courtyard, the column and the arch.
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Architecture & Science Journal the city - they bring all the overall concerns of topography, economic base, social structure, levels of service, financial health and viability of a municipality, to bear on the problem of the physical environment, but most of the remaining cityscape is filled in by anonymous architecture, which although individually is not distinguished with the collectivity of individuals and by some estimation telling that architects impact on a very small part of the built environment is one per cent or less of the society at large.
Among these distinctive ideas in vogue, today in some regions there is the excessive romanticism and mystification of the vernacular importance of folk architecture - architecture without architects. There is much to learn from folk architecture but acknowledging the need for important changes in architectural forms as aspects of the physical expression of the changes wrought by economic and social development. 2. Importance of heritage In the eternal nature (that we are systematically polluting and destroying) cities are amalgams of the living created by human activities, where each generation gives a very small contribution to this process by creation or destruction. Of the total built structures, only a few percent is used for the general populations needs, and even a smaller percentage has monumental or iconic characters. Considering these in terms of architectural education, a focus of the programs should be directed towards preservation and development of the vast building heritage.
Figure 5. The new Acropolis Museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi architects (Photo: http://www.e-architect.co.uk/)
The shape of our built environment is the shape of our culture, and that shape is an intricate and incremental artifact, the result of thousands of little acts contributed by many generations. It consists of forms and lives, and that is reason why we should protect our environment. History cures. Survival awards dignity. The culture itself is changing and developing all the time; its vitality is its principal drive, but design is not enough. It does not in itself hold the key to social change. However, architecture does not depend on architects alone. Members of communities themselves must know about their heritage, be proud of it, and insist on holding on to it. All wars through human history had shown enormous destructive power of aggressors, especially towards the monuments of different civilization, but after the war ordinary people had shown enormous power to rebuild these monuments.
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Architecture & Science Journal Throughout the last century, the impact of the modern movement in architectural thinking has helped to increase the trend towards globalization of the physical environment, which one would have expected from the globalization of economic and financial transactions. During the same period, architectural education in the world has increasingly aligned itself with the internationalist movements, to the extent of rejecting or marginalizing its own past. Beyond the debate on why historic preservation should be considered in this day and age, there is a generalized commitment to the notion of the need to preserve part of our heritage, without question. UNESCO World Heritage program influences very positively the recognition of the natural and cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. Today, even in the fastest growing economies (e.g. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar), over-weighed with consumerism, elites have recognized the need to maintain the most valuable part of their past heritage.
Figure 6,7. In Sharjah, UAE, the government recognized a great value of the traditional heritage and started a long-term of rehabilitation of the Historic Sharjah which will include the demolition of buildings built in the last several decades in the project area. (Photo: Amir Pai)
On a different level, the preservation of buildings in contemporary society raises serious technical as well as functional and ideological problems. Many such examples exist, generally under the heading of adaptive reuse very often the only possibility of maintaining vitality for the buildings and avoiding the museum approach to important elements of an organic living city. The sense of urban space is a fundamental one, as is the question of scale, proportions, street alignments, fenestration, articulation of volumes, proportions and the relations between solids and voids, and, most of all, activities permitted in the public space and inter-relationship between the public and private domains. This level of dealing with the historic past, the physical preservation and restoration of individual monuments and/or the conservation of historic areas and/or, more subtly, the protection of a desired urban character, underlines the types of skills that a practicing architect should acquire at a time and in a place where ferment and change are important. Also, architects must acquire a level of sophistication in the ability to read the symbolic content of this heritage in a manner that enriches their ability to produce relevant buildings for today and tomorrow. The characteristics of regional identity are as important as the overwhelming national and international exemplars in defining the scope of what has to be preserved. Many societies are struggling for decades to create a cultural environment that provides them with a viable sense of self identity and which is suited to regional and national conditions. Contemporary regionalism must express itself in new and contemporary ways. This axiom must be restated frequently
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Architecture & Science Journal in the face of a strong current that seeks refuge in perpetuating the myth that traditional vernacular architecture is enough. Only through a strengthened educational process, future architects can find a critical sense required to decode the symbolic content of the past in a realistic, as opposed to an ideologically mystifying fashion. Today, the main architectural question for all of us may well be the same: How to educate young men and women who wish to practice the venerable profession of architecture in the overwhelmingly complicated enterprise of our day. Currently, we are discussing in which fields architects should be trained, but in history we can find very old instructions, from the Queen Hatshepsuts architect Senmut6 or Vitruvius on his famous list of what an architect ought to know is fatiguing even to read. Coming to the 20th century, the Fountainhead syndrome7 is presenting one of the main utopias of architectural profession: The architect as glorious intellect, a larger-than-life figure who replenishes the repository of great monuments with visual or structural prodigies of his own. There is, of course, nothing wrong with hero architects, no reason we should do without them any more than we should do without our great poets or painters. However, the possibilities for such superstardom come rarely in any culture; and the place for transcendent monuments is extremely restricted in the general business of making cities and villages, because we need very few of these beacons of community and very many of the standard, ordinary buildings that surround them and give them their dignity, their iconic status Leaders of states of cities, anxious to secure global status for their territories, in an increasingly competitive world, have turned to these international celebrity architects to create new iconic landmarks to put their city on the map. For example, Frank Gehrys brief for the Guggenheim Museum (199397) was to do for Bilbao what the Sydney Opera House did for Sydney. [1] However, we cannot train heroes to be heroes; you can only tell them what it takes. If the final ambition of the architect is not simply to accommodate programs, but to comment upon them, then the education of the architect cannot stop at structure and form.
Figure 8. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by architect Frank Gehry, located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. (Photo: http://iartindex.files.wordpress.com/)
Going back to the architectural community we can ask ourselves: how many individuals have the innate ability to produce architecture with a capital A and how many such architects does a society need anyway? How about the thousands of architects who will simply spend their careers developing working drawings, reviewing specifications and bills of quantities and supervising construction projects? Are they also not needed by society? Do these two groups require the same amount or type of training?
6 From XVIII dynasty, c. 1550-c. 1292 BC, had boasted: I had access to all the writings of the prophets; there was nothing which I did not know of that which had happened since the beginning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senenmut 7 The Fountainhead is a 1943. novel by Ayn Rand, with a main character Howard Roark, architect.
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Architecture & Science Journal These issues should be coped with two broad-based realities: first, in most countries, the cost of university education is getting more and more expensive, and, second, taking into consideration that in practice the architect needs allied personnel who are now have undergoing basically the same certification it seems reasonable that Schools of Architecture build up new, differentiated curricula to educate allied technicians and professionals and increasingly recognize these as successful allied building professionals, rather than as failed architects. In the existing educational system based on Bologna process [14] organized in a two or three cycle structures (bachelor-master-doctorate) it is quite easy to take further restructuring of the academic curricula. How should be the architect of our futures heritage? In the preservation of historic urban landscape, the architectural education organized at faculties of architecture has the key role. At the faculty level (in first two-cycles, through 10 semesters: bachelor plus master) the team work and joint activities among faculty chairs will become the essential development: courses should be carefully integrated through the semester projects which are related to the need of communities. An essential part of the curriculum, with no compromises: The studio should be extended to the city and the city brought into the classroom. The focus on direct experience of construction and craft would lead to appreciation of the inseparability of idea and building, and a revitalization of values in architectural design. We need students not only with the ability to create the typologies, the bread and butter of existence, but also be able to create the myth; because without the myth, then there is no viability for the typologies. Therefore, in architectural education we need the typologies, and perhaps the geometry which generates them; but we also need the insight. Let us keep it in mind that we need both. According to international research and authors personal experience on architectural education, several questions raised from students during the education processes, base on their pre-knowledge: absolute beauty versus relative beauty, time versus originality, the observers visual reaction, elitism versus innateness, and beauty in art. The third cycle - doctorate program, should be a center of general humanistic education, pointed out that program courses must stress the social, cultural, technical, economic and ecological factors that give rise to specific architectural forms, rather than treating these forms as a purely plastic art, and that the evolution of institutions and their influence on the spatial organization of cities as a part of nature must be clearly understood. Architects must be masters of a wide range of skills and their deployment - a range far greater than architectural education currently prepares them for.
Figure 10. Bali resort perched over the ocean (Photo: http://api.ning.com/)
First, architects must be able to decode the past so they can understand how their predecessors viewed their past, present, and future. Armed with this comparative knowledge, they must secondly attempt to read the signs and trends of the present. This is particularly tricky as, while
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Figure 13. The dome of Florence Santa Maria del Fiore church (Photo: http://thisismyhappiness./)
buildings are designed for the long-term, current trends may prove ephemeral, and become so within the space of a few years. Third, architects must not only think of their single building, but of its relationship with the wider community. Fourth, and most significantly, they must pull all of these analyses together to design and implement a product which, over its lifetime, can justly win a place in the timeless continuity of world architecture, as have the great buildings of the past at the peak of excellence. However, we should be aware that it is essential to educate the educators to be able to read the message of past achievements with contemporary eyes and to appreciate the relevance of the past to a present reality as well as to shaping a better future; broad exposure to the disciplines of sociology, economics, law and government that will enable the architect to relate better to the realities of the social problems. In achieving this, questions emerge to be directed to the responsible educators such as the balance between theory and application in the curriculum; the role of studios and problem-solving in development of talent; the amount of field-work in terms of studying existing conditions and contemporary structures as well as major historic monuments and districts, and the extent of detailed, careful study of the visual elements of architecture and the arts, as well as the well-founded technical grounding required in building construction, materials, etc. Designing a curriculum that responds to these challenges is not going to be easy, but the nurturing of talent is always more complex and demanding than the training of mediocrity to a minimum acceptable level of competence in a given discipline. Architecture is in part a science, but it is also an art with its own traditions, so that its concern with image-making is at least as important as any solution it brings to practical problems. Architecture involves engineering, institutional arrangements, laws, economics and the inertia of cultural behavior. 3. Management strategy for large historical urban areas Majority of historic sites, already inscribed or proposed for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, are varieties from larger cities that have World Heritage monuments and sites within their urban territories. The historic urban landscape8, has shaped modern society and has great value for our understanding of how we live today. Historic urban landscape [3] goes beyond traditional terms of historic centers, ensembles or surroundings, and represents human coexistence with the land and human beings in society, fixed with current and past social expressions and developments that are place-based. The historic urban landscape is composed of character-defining elements that include land uses
8 Building on the 1976 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Safeguarding and Contemporary Role of Historic Areas, refers to ensembles of any group of buildings, structures and open spaces, in their natural and ecological context, including archaeological and paleontological sites, constituting human settlements in an urban environment over a relevant period of time, the cohesion and value of which are recognized from the archaeological, architectural, prehistoric, historic, scientific, aesthetic, socio-cultural or ecological point of view. [2]
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Architecture & Science Journal and patterns, spatial organization, visual relationships, topography and soils, vegetation, and all elements of the technical infrastructure, including small scale objects and details of construction (curbs, paving, drain gutters, lights, etc.). Contemporary architecture in the given context is understood to refer to all significant planned and designed interventions in the built historic environment, including open spaces, new constructions, additions to or extensions of historic buildings and sites, and conversions. Preservation of the heritage is a permanent process that is a subject to the influences of socio-economic factors, inseparable from the overall situation of the social outbuilding. The future of our historic urban landscape calls for mutual understanding of all. Decision-making for interventions and contemporary architecture in a historic urban landscape demand: careful consideration, a culturally and historic sensitive approach, stakeholder consultations and expert know-how. Such a process allows for adequate and proper action for individual cases, examining the spatial context between old and new, while respecting the authenticity and integrity of historic fabric and building stock. Any action in the historic area should give guarantee for an environmental quality and social and cultural vitality. Through time and space, in different regions, the most significant characteristic of the historical urban settlements is continuous changes - the outstanding transformation always reflect in the adaptation of the current modern technology development in construction and means of economic development, along with the exceptional forces (wars, fire, floods,). Through time, the value of the past is being better understood all over the world, and the potential for combining old fabric and new ideas to create a resource for the future is almost infinite. The new architecture is about process rather than product. It welcomes the dynamic of the future and addresses the lessons of the past. Historic sites are never calm; they resist attempts to make tidy sense of them. The issue is no longer about new versus old, but about the nature of the vital relation between two. We must respect their rhythms and to identify that the life of city and the area should be in an equilibrium must somewhere between total control and total freedom of action. The tangible and intangible components of heritage are interacting and mutually constructing one another and they are essential in the preservation of the identity of communities that have created and transmitted spaces of cultural and historical significance. [4] Spirit of place is defined as the tangible (buildings, sites, landscapes, routes, objects) and the intangible elements (memories, narratives, written documents, rituals, festivals, traditional knowledge, values, textures, colors, odors, etc.), that are to say the physical and the spiritual elements that give meaning, value, emotion and mystery to place. The spirit of place is constructed by various social actors, its architects and managers as well as its users, who all contribute actively and concurrently to giving it meaning. A deep understanding of the history, culture and architecture of place, as opposed to object buildings only, is crucial to the development of a conservation framework and single architectural commissions should be informed by urbanism and its tools for analyses of typologies and morphologies. The question of identity is now more than ever a key issue in the world, because, according to Amos Rapoport, identity is a much more complex issue than it was in the past, mostly due to more choices and greater increase in individual identities. [5] Today we cannot talk about ethnic, national or regional identity, persevering in these simplified terms, because there are different kinds of identity that are constantly changing, thus it is wrong to favor one. Taking into account the basic definition (according to Article 7 of the Memorandum) [6], urban planning, contemporary architecture and preservation of the historic urban landscape should avoid all forms of pseudo-historical design, as they constitute a denial of both the historical and the contemporary alike. One historical view should not supplant others, as history must remain readable, while continuity of culture through quality interventions is the ultimate goal.
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Architecture & Science Journal The historic urban landscape is the structure on which the complex interactions of the architectural fabric are intertwined with human organization. The unique characteristics of any area derive from the urban process, that intriguing conflation of social political, technical, and artistic forces that generates a citys form. [7] The urban process is both proactive and reactive. Although historical moments in the life of a city can be isolated, the urban process never stops. To analyze buildings in their total context has four methods to approach the total context: to study each building in its entirely because of the oneness of architecture; to look at buildings in a broader physical context, later called setting, to understand that all buildings of the past are worthy to study because they form a community; and to recognize the nonphysical aspects that are indispensable to understand the building. In the UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention [8], the Management Plan is defined to regulate the dynamic changes and developments in historic urban landscapes. Its implementation requires the participation of an interdisciplinary team of experts and professionals, as well as timely initiation of comprehensive public consultation. Quality management of the historic urban landscape aims at permanent preservation and improvement of spatial, functional and design-related values. Economic aspects of urban development should be bound to the goals of long-term heritage preservation. All cultures are valid and can be eloquently compared through their urban development. All buildings, like all people, are worthy of interest and need to be considered historically; also every building represents a social artifact of specific impulse, energy and commitment. Historic buildings are contributing significantly to the value of the city by branding the citys character. Discussing position of the contemporary architecture in the historic urban landscape should be based on the premise that buildings from all historical periods must be evaluated and treated on the same accepted criteria. In the legislations of many countries are stated that monuments are achievements realized since given date. [9] The central challenge of the contemporary architecture is to respond to development dynamics in order to facilitate socio-economic changes and growth on the one hand, while simultaneously respecting the inherited townscape and its landscape setting on the other. Contemporary architecture can be a strong competitive tool for cities as it attracts residents, tourists, and capital. Historic and contemporary architecture constitute an asset to local communities, which should serve educational purposes, leisure, tourism, and secure market value of properties. All urban planning, infrastructure and construction in heritage zones must respect the historic fabric, building stock and context, and to diminish the negative effects of traffic, fully respecting the original building plots as the basis for planning and design. The development of contemporary architecture in historic cities is complementary to values of the historic urban landscape and remains within limits in order not to compromise the historic nature of the city. Architecture of quality in historic areas should give proper consideration to the given scales, particularly with reference to building volumes and heights. Dr. Idrizbegovi Zgoni9 in her recent work offered solid recommendations to design of new structures in the historic context. Future of architecture appears to lie largely in transforming existing buildings. Often a process will be matter of fact, a proper use of resources. The use of a building may change many times during the lifetime, but transformation does not necessarily imply a change of use. The idea of a shop, a hotel, or a residence is different today from that which prevailed even a few de9 Dr Aida Idrizbegovi Zgoni in her PhD Thesis Challenge of Set Frames (University of Trieste, 2009, Co-supervisor Professor Amir Pai) in the conclusion has elaborated following principles: The design of new building into historic context should be inevitably contemporary, it should adapt and learn from the surrounding historic buildings - Historical reminiscence must be subtle and refined, it should have sense of place, local flavor or a connection to the topography. Also it should respect urban continuity and revive the area with vibrant function(s). The trend and evolution of the design in context is clearly visible on the case studies and many examples presented in her work.
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Architecture & Science Journal cades ago. It is necessary to integrate, using means of communication based on modern digital technologies; tangible and intangible elements of heritage in order to better preserve disseminate and promote heritage, its diversity and constant development. The communities that inhabit place, especially when they are traditional societies, should be intimately associated in the safeguarding of its memory, vitality, continuity and spirituality. Since the spirit of place is a continuously reconstructed process, which responds to the needs for change and continuity of communities, we uphold that it can vary in time and from one culture to another according to their practices of memory, and that a place can have several spirits and be shared by different groups. Searching within theoretical sceneries should go through different historic sources which are discussing relationship between place or architecture and the experience of memory: how memory can be interpreted and reinterpreted by both individuals and societies for place making; and discussing comment situation when architecture came into the realm of forgetting especially through urban transformation. The need to understand manifestations of architecture as more than built form, one that encompasses various causes/effects and can be studied as reflecting current situations and dynamics within society, focusing on two processes that can be experienced: remembering and forgetting, more precise what are the characteristics of architecture that support the performance of remembering or forgetting within urban space. Combined comparative analysis of architecture-remembering-forgetting interplay realized by Dr. Sukanya Krisnamurthy10 can be a base for interdisciplinary work; theories that build on the relationships between man and the surrounding environment, help emphasize this connection and pave ways for further research. 4. Strategic management planning Architecture should be studied as manifestation of many actions what is experienced as form and space, and can be seen as a product of various interventions aiming to provide a basis for urban and social life. Architecture should be active and conscious rather than passive or even retroactive, thus deepening our knowledge on relationships between man and his surroundings. The historic urban landscape should encompass the role of the urban environment to understand place-making, identity politics, humanist geography and the process of creating meaningful spaces that connect past, present and future lives. Growing into an interdisciplinary field, the role of place/environment has moved beyond the framework of a passive background. Specific long term plans and strategies should be adapted to the pluralistic context of modern multicultural societies for their sustainable development, taking into consideration climatic change, demographic changes, multinational, multiethnic or multicultural structures of societies; mass tourism, armed conflict and urban development that lead to the transformation of societies. Following international experiences and recommendations inbuilt into international declarations, I will comment on several cases in which I was involved: in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Uzbekistan. After the brief information about different studies or projects, I will explain the case of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina in more detail. Preservation and development of heritage should be one of the key components of the multinational societies in all four countries with numerous sites of cultural coexistence: vertical and horizontal connections; caravan routes; sea routes; housing; virtual museum of the architec10 Dr Sukanya Krishnamurthy in her PhD thesis: Reading Architecture/Remembering/Forgetting Interplay: Development of a Framework to Study Urban and Object Level Cases (Bauhaus University, 2012, Co-supervisor Professor Amir Pai) analyzing various levels/ dimensions of collective memory and transformation at the urban level of the city of Bangalore, one of the fastest developments and transforming city in India base on liberation of the market through the IT boom the small town grown into metropolis. The Old Bridge, in its various forms of representation; provided the platform to discuss the role primary elements have in urban space and in the lives of the inhabitants.
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Architecture & Science Journal ture in the Balkans; program in traditional crafts; research programs and hypothetical touristic routes. In all four states are operating, more or less successful, many existing institutions dealing with preservation of the heritage. The most often several experts reports recorded following factors affecting the property: a) Lack of strategic approach to urban conservation; b) Lack of a proper Management plan; c) Detrimental impact of new roads; d) Conservation of urban fabric. I like to mention here the study works developed as a doctorate dissertations - that created the base for the solid management plan to realize preservation of the historic urban heritage landscape: in Montenegro Dr. Boris Ilijani11 studied urban genesis and re-urbanization of one historic site and its future position in the development of the larger urban area, or multi-layers studies realized by Dr. Igbala abovi Kerovi12 of key cities in the state through last two centuries. Taking into consideration several other sources it is possible to conclude that in Montenegro is possible to establish a unique urban heritage landscape project to cover a complete territory of the state. [11] In Kosovo, a study by Dr. Dervish Qeretti13 is opening possibilities for establishment of the integral heritage group from three towns with numeous monuments and monumental properties (Pe, Djakovica, Prizren). [16] A good example to follow will be studies of architectural heritage Bosnia and Herzegovina, realized by Dr. Lana Kudumovi on a group of the properties in the basin of the Bosnia River, observed as according to the common features of each site, as well as following international standards.14 In the case of Old City of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, an intensive activities, between 1995 and 2001, organized by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in the collaboration with a local government, and with very strong focus on training of local staff through graduate program at local university [10] were resulted by the inscription of the city on the World Heritage List of UNESCO as Samarkand Crossroads of Cultures. [17] In Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the 1992-1995 war, a great attention of local and international communities are given to the reconstruction, and rehabilitation of building heritage. Numerous activities are still under development. The Commission to Preserve National Monu11 Dr Boris Ilijani his PhD thesis: Urban genesis and re-urbanization of Herceg Novi - Gornji Grad, Montenegro (Original in Croatian language, University in Sarajevo, 2012, Supervisor Professor Amir Pai), claiming based on his original research of historical documents research works on the site, as the basic morphology to revitalize elected body of work from the Venetian period, until 1797. He emphasized that revitalized spaces open opportunities for meetings, contacts the outer areas, enjoying the socialization, where the urban context is of great importance, and he has the character and existing revitalized structure, its history, ecology and archeology, its location, population. Also, revitalized spaces must be flexible so that they can receive any future changes in functions, methods of use, and socio-urbane change, and this should be clearly stated, and revitalization through re-urbanization, and through planning and design. 12 Dr Igbala abovi-Kerovi in her PhD thesis Transformation of typo-morphological characteristic of settlements with Oriental origins in Montenegro (Original in Bosnia language, University in u Sarajevo 2011, Supervisor Professor Amir Pai) she provides an analysis of morphological development of the citys urban neighborhoods, and their origins, historical development and transformation, typology of settlements throughout the history of Montenegro.. Present the views and critically interpretation of plans passed first 50-s of XX century. From the standpoint of urban transformations are defined directions of development of the citys territory in relation to the legacy of urban pattern of cities and their relationship to contemporary physical and functional structure of the cities. 13 Dr Dervish Qerreti in his PhD thesis The issue of protection of historical core in Kosovo (Pe, Prizren, Djakovica), (Original in Bosnia language University of Sarajevo 2012, Supervisor Professor Amir Pai) emphasized the need to belong, and recognisibility within the existential space is recognized as a cultural identity that is the architecture have been there-through architecture, as well as through other forms of art, the cultural identity of the people, nation or ethnic group is formed, it is recognized and maintained. Also, it is important to note that the multidisciplinary approach is one of the prerequisites of a good system of management / control building heritage and the necessity of constructing the integral system of active protection, and legacy should be treated as a generator of developmental processes. 14 Dr Lana Kudumovi in her PhD thesis: Management of architectural heritage in a Basin of the Bosnia River, Case Studies: Teanj, Vranduk, Maglaj and Visoko, (Original in Bosnia language, University of Sarajevo, 2012, Supervisor Professor Amir Pai) The thesis formed a solid platform for preservation of four historic sites (Teanj, Maglaj, Visoko andVranduk), with unique natural, geographical and cultural characteristics, respecting all historical layers in their essence, according to the international rules and documents, and, what is the most important, proposing management strategy for preservation and future development of these sites as individual properties, and also as a group of properties inside unique historic urban landscape, aiming for their full economical sustainability.
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Architecture & Science Journal ments of Bosnia and Herzegovina is very successfully working on establishment of the database and legal protection, but still there are many implementation problems.15 The carrier of this post-war processes was the international program, between 1998 and 2004, of the rehabilitation of the totally destroyed Old City of Mostar the city well known as an example of the good conservation and was awarded with Aga Khan Award for architecture in 1986. As a final result of these efforts the Old City was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2005. [18] More detailed explanation of the rehabilitation of the Old City of Mostar will give a solid foundation for establishment of the large scale heritage projects. 5. Case of Mostar In Mostar, an initial practice of protection of monuments has started in 1870, when a group of citizens requested construction of a new bridge to reduce pressure on the Old Bridge. [12] Between 1949 and 1977, there were several initiatives by dignified citizens and several smaller campaigns in the Old City of Mostar. In 1977 public organization Stari Grad (Old City Agency) was established with the aim to completely preserve Mostar heritage16. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1986 was given to the Stari Grad organization for the outstanding preservation of the property.17 Mostar has shown that some of the finest restoration work can be largely self-financing and with will and proper organization, a substantial effort can be undertaken in this direction. Between 1992 and 1995, the city of Mostar had suffered severe damage. The area of the extreme destruction comprised the whole of the East Mostar. Almost all bridges and historic buildings were severely damaged. Among them the Old Bridge, one of the building miracles of 16th-century Europe, the crowning achievement of an extraordinarily creative era of Islamic culture, was gone. The Old Bridge had contained the meaning and the spirit of all Bosnia and Herzegovina: the essence of the bridge was meeting and joining together; the country, like the bridge, could be divided only by destroying it. Rehabilitation of the City started in 1995 and was intensified between 2001 and 2005, with participation of numerous international institutions and government. As a result of the 19921995 war, the city of Mostar is faced with numerous obstacles: politically the city is in many components still divided, 70-75 % of housing stock was destroyed, along with infrastructure, primary economy were destroyed, an excessive number of unemployed, great change in the composition of population, and the lack of comprehensive planning.18
15 It is necessary to mention two good registrations to the World Heritage List of UNESCO (Mostar, 2005, and the Bridge on the Drina River in Viegrad, 2007) and several properties on the preliminary list: Sarajevo (1997); Jajce (2006), Poitelj (2007); Blagaj (2007); Natural park Blidinje (2007); Stolac (2007); Cave Vjetrenica with the Zavala village (2007), and Tombstones - Steci (2011). With full respect for the results of all institutions at all levels of the state administration, a number of problems are evident in the entire work: the lack of coordination among the parties; the insufficient number of specialists in the services; the extreme slowness of the procedure; the undefined controlled of properties; inadequate promotion of cultural and historical heritage; the lack of a clear economic components heritage, particularly in relation to heritage tourism. 16 Based on Preliminary urban program of the Old City and the Decision of Spatial regulation and revitalization of a core area of the Old City, adopted by the Municipal Assembly in Mostar, 1973, was established the Organization for administration, usage, protection and maintenance of cultural-historical heritage organization Stari Grad (Old City Agency) with the aim to completely preserve Mostar heritage, the historical city core and series of complexes and individual structures for whose protection the city took responsibility. 17 the remarkably conceived and realized of conservation of the entire 16th century center of this historic town. It does not consider conservation as acts of nostalgia or sentiment.. .The need for a dynamic relationship between past and present is fulfilled in this example, which is a living storehouse of historic data, and is simultaneously a part of organic fabric of daily life of the community it serves. (An excerpt from the statement of the 1986 Aga Khan Award Master Jury on The Conservation of the Old Town in Mostar Project Chief architect Amir Pai). 18 In two groups, of three municipalities each, with national prefix, level of intervention in the space was a very different: in the group of municipality with Bosniaks majority (in the war known as the East Mostar) interventions was focus on reconstruction of infrastructure and housing stock overweight with semi-legal construction. In the group of municipality with Croatian majority (in the war known as the West Mostar), the reconstruction needs were limited, and focus was on new constructions.
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Architecture & Science Journal With the collaboration of the World Bank, UNESCO, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) and several others, a set of complementary activities was carried out for the preservation and development of the City of Mostar. Starting from 1998, the project completion was scheduled for the summer 2004. The project focused on the historic city area, which was the most ruined part of the city during the war, and on several other related areas. The rehabilitation of the Old City in Mostar can be presented through following five intermingling components: 1. Education and training; 2. Planning; 3. Rehabilitation of the Historic city core; 4. Restoration and reconstruction of priority buildings; 5. Rebuilding of the Old Bridge complex. After completion of the program and a great celebration on July 23, 2014 with the opening of the Old Bridge, one year later the Old City of Mostar was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. [19]
Figure 14,15. Mostar: The Strategic plan (left) and the Urban area plan (upper right), AKTC/WMF 2001 (Photo: Celebrating Mostar book, Pai A.) Figure 16. (left down) A map from the Master plan 2007-2017, Bimtas, Istanbul 2012
Figure 17. A view of the Old Bridge area of Mostar in 2012 (Photo: Amir Pai)
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Figure 18,19. Two restored complexes in Mostar: Muslibegovi house and Waqf palace, AKTC/WMF 2005 (Photo: Amir Pai)
The AKTC/WMF team had prepared complete planning documents in 2001: the Strategic Development Plan19, The Old City preservation and development plans (a key component of the Management plan accepted by UNESCO in the process of inscription of the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar in 2005 [20]), and plan for the rehabilitation of the historic neighborhoods. In 2012, the new Master plan for the Old City of Mostar was produced for the period 2007-2017.20
Figure 20,21. The Old Bridge in Mostar: before reconstruction started in 2001 and during the opening ceremony on July 23, 2004. (Photo: Amir Pai)
Hundred important buildings in the central urban area of Mostar, from all historic periods which represent the endangered legacy of its past, were documented. Forty of them were selected for restoration and reconstruction as priority buildings. Rebuilding of the Old Bridge complex (under the scientific patronage of UNESCO, Paris) was the key project in the city opened for public in summer of 2004 after four years of intensive research and reconstruction works. [13] The Management plan presented as a part of the UNESCO nomination dossier [21] is prepared for effective administration and solid financial resources for self-sustainable preservation and development of the Old City of Mostar. Since 2005, when the Management plan was adopted, its implementation was questionable in many aspects.21
19 Special attention should be paid to the following key sectors: (a) Transport infrastructure (b) City infrastructure; (c) Urban planning and restructuring of existing institutions, (d) Balancing of public uses; (e) Development of housing. In the plan special zones and plans were determined for the whole area of the historical city in its boundaries from 1918. Within this area, it is possible to define three separate zones. During period between 2002 and 2004, a particular attention was given to North Camp and Center One areas. 20 Bimtas Company from Istanbul, under supervision of the Ministry for Planning of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Plan was published in the Official Gazette of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 2012. 21 First, the City Council of Mostar adopted new decision on the Agency, what is in the crucial elements totally different from one in the 2005 Management Plan. Based on this, the Agency lost independence and it became fully dependent on the Mayors decisions. Following this, a required staff was never equipped in the Agency. Also, the city didnt establish a system to collect rents and taxes in the historic area, which has resulted in dilapidation of all components of communal infrastructures.
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Architecture & Science Journal 6. Conclusion The management strategy for large historic urban should provide condition for integration and development of the existing activities related to preservation and development of heritage, and economic activities related to them, fully respecting regional, functional characters of the heritage, to develop research, training and promotion, and to integrate heritage components in the existing education system from kindergarten to university, aiming to connect educational activities with real life needs.
Figure 22. Planning system -Strategic plan -Regional plan -Historic urban landscape -Plan for the urban area -Urban design of the historic context for monuments -New design in the historic context -Architectural design for preservation and development of buildings
The management strategy asks for the state or regional levels priorities in planning as well as modest and faster administrative processes defined by expert teams. With a computer technology and the geographic information system, it is quite simple to establish and run full connectivity planning at all levels. Planning should integrate all levels from the large spatial area till one individual building. Also, the education system should be compatible with planning structures. Following an excellent experience of the academic training program in the Agency Stari Grad Mostar during period of 15 years, the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) Istanbul in the collaboration with the City of Mostar and many other institutions, had run 10 years permanent Mostar 2004 Program starting in 1994 [14], of education for all participants in the reconstruction process consisted of summer workshops and studio works in architectural schools in 68 universities worldwide with 1278 participants. During ten years, through rehabilitation processes a large group of local young professionals achieved high international standards in different disciplines. The best result of this program was the establishment of the multidisciplinary local team22, engaged in the realization of all projects components. All teams members are continuing their education through graduate programs at various schools as a part of
Figure 23. A collage presenting posters of different events on Rehabilitation of Mostar (author)
22 The team of 20 students was trained through Graduate programs at architectural faculties of Sarajevo University, Yildiz Technical University and Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva, and the World Monuments Fund, New York. All students were completed their thesis on the topics related to actual needs in the rehabilitation projects.
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Architecture & Science Journal the office program: 56 master theses ware completed during five years in 14 universities. After the completion of the Program, they became carriers of learning on the protection of cultural and natural heritage into the compulsory education. By these processes the sense for the cultural heritage conservation. The first component of the Strategy is the establishment of a national or a regional center of excellence in charge for permanent strengthens knowledge of educators in three academic fields: research on history, protection of heritage and management of heritage. The center should be based on an agreement between authorities on the state level and selected universities. Modes of operations can be training of educators, international three years long PhD program, production of heritage packages for different levels from academia to kindergarten and media. The center of excellence should, through different design programs, educate educators to broaden knowledge on all levels from the university, through public to kindergarten and specially media employees. Also, through programs at the center is possible to have pilot projects for selected heritage properties and to prepare operation manual concepts for different strategic management plans including economic development component and especially the cultural tourism. The main support to activities of the center can be providing by the interdisciplinary PhD program comprising all aspect of heritage. On the faculty level, it is necessary to organize the annual national and international inter-universities training programs on heritage in different regions. At selected secondary schools, the permanent and specialized training program for traditional crafts should be organized. The architecture is inseparable from the people who use it or who talk about it. For that reason, it is the best to educate the general public and the decision makers by making alternatives visible and accessible, as well as by sharpening the visual, psychological and intellectual tools for understanding architecture. Community members should be permanently educated about the built environment from kindergarten to graduate school. Special program packages should be introduced for each level, from simple wood toys to interactive 3D computer games. Mass media, especially television and internet, have a very central role in influence on all population levels, because they are creating a public opinion about certain projects or events by promoting, or demoting them. Media is, in many cases, (mis)used by organized business or political programs. Educational institutions should protect the public from infected data by promoting maximum objectivity and science-based judgments. Integrated coordination of action in the field of preservation and development of architectural and natural heritage and introduction of the concept of protection and sustainable development is possible in the whole territory of one country with emphasis on integral parts of natural and cultural resources, and human history requires integration of basic components conservation and development: governance, education, promotion, planning and implementation of projects. I believe that through proposed programs, the young generation of intellectuals and decision-makers will be discerning and critical enough with respect to the crucial issues of cultural transformation and evolution. International tools and methods through a selective process of adaptation and gradual integration should be followed, guided by a strong awareness of existing local values and by an informed evaluation of the successes and failures of modern development trends. Preservation of historic urban landscape cannot be materialized without a collective effort which brings together institutional decision-makers, international organizations, financing agencies, architects, historians and professionals of various other disciplines, researchers, committed citizens and opinion-makers, and, lost but not least, the community concerned. Architecture is one of fundamental disciplines of human learning.
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Architecture & Science Journal 6. Conclusion Be brief and give most important conclusion from your paper. Do not use equations and figures. Acknowledgements (If any) Acknowledgements and the Reference headings are in bold, but they are not numbered. Please Use Times New Roman 11 Italic bold References 1. Sakane T, Takeno M, Suzuki N, Inaba G. Behcets disease. N Engl J Med 1999; 341: 12841291. 2. Stewart SM, Lam TH, Beston CL, et al. A Prospective Analysis of Stress and Academic Performance in the first two years of Medical School. Med Educ 1999; 33(4): 243- 50. Reference should be collected at the end of the manuscript/paper in numerical order and set in the following order: Author surname initials, title, publication, year; volume: page range. Refer to the examples included with these instructions. 1. Carr S, Francis M. Public Space, Cambridge University Press, 1992; 5(3): pp. 1113. Times New Roman 11 pt Italic font should be used. References must be in a scale in which they are really used. Quoting most recent literature is recommended. Only published articles can be used as references. References cited in tables or pictures are also numbered according to quoting order. The first citation in the text should correspond with the first name on the reference list. In the text a reference is shown in square bracket [1].
At the end of the paper, after References, Corresponding Author informations should be written as follow: Please Use Times New Roman 10 Italic
Corresponding Author Name Surname Institution, City Country E-mail:
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