N°21 | Documenting and Conserving Postmodern Heritage
Deadline for sending papers: 12 February 2024
Plan
Haut de pageCall for papers
- 1 Mario Carpo, “The Postmodern Cult of Monuments”, Future Anterior, vol. IV, n° 2, The University of (...)
- 2 Denise Scott Brown, “Sainsbury Wing: Objection from Denise Scott Brown”, Mas Context, 2022, [on lin (...)
However, some fifty years after its appearance, postmodern architecture has today become controversial in terms of its conservation.1 In 2014, for example, Michael Graves spoke out against the potential destruction of the Portland building, a project he inaugurated in 1982 and which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. In 2017, debates erupted over Snøhetta‘s renovation project for the AT&T building in New York, designed by Philip Johnson. More recently, in 2022, Denise Scott Brown published an opinion piece opposing Annabelle Seldorf's redesign of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery.2
- 3 / These include the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing by Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, and Charle (...)
- 4 In the January 21, 2023 edition of Le Monde, the mayors of Cergy, Metz, Montpellier, Noisy-le-Grand (...)
As time progresses and these buildings come under threat, protection measures and symbols of recognition are also on the rise. In the United Kingdom, as many as 17 postmodern buildings were given Grade I listing on the National Heritage List for England in 2018, their highest ranking.3 In Italy, Paolo Portoghesi's archives were recognised as being of notable historical interest by the Superintendency of Archives of Lazio in 2006. In France, the Antigone district was awarded the title Architecture Contemporaine Remarquable in 2018. Moreover, following the death of architect Ricardo Bofill in early 2022, the French municipalities in which he designed urban neighbourhoods joined forces to pay him tribute in a full page spread in Le Monde.4
- 5 See Jean-Louis Violeau, Paris postmoderne : architectures 1973-93, Paris, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 20 (...)
As part of these heritage and restoration initiatives, research is being carried out to document this architecture and examine their preservation.5 In 2020, Bryan Clark Green organized a panel at the Society of Architectural Historians conference entitled “Preserving the Postmodern Past.” In 2022, the University of Weimar and ETH Zurich featured German postmodern architecture in the conference “Denkmal Postmoderne: Erhaltung einer ‘nicht-auszuschließenden’ Epoche.”
This issue takes a look at the current state of knowledge and preservation of postmodern heritage, whether architectural, urban or landscape. Indeed, if postmodern architecture is generally considered to be part of a period that saw a return to the city - with urban spatial design taking precedence over architectural space, as in Bofill's French projects – we also aim at questioning the heritage of important landscape projects, such as Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Portoghesi's Calcata garden, or even highway service areas like that of Bernard Lassus in Caissargues.
This call for papers invites exploration of postmodern design —whether architectural, urban or landscape— produced anywhere in the world between 1966 and 1989, and currently undergoing processes of identification, heritagization or transformation. Some questions that may be explored are methods for identifying and promoting heritage, the specific features of these projects and the (new) heritage values associated with them, as well as their material and symbolic sustainability. International comparisons or overviews of ongoing heritage projects in specific political and cultural contexts are welcomed. Contributions that consider non-European and North American contexts, such as Asia or South America, would equally be appreciated. Proposals for articles may be submitted in one of the following three themes.
Recognition, identification and visibility
- 6 See, for example, the idea of a postmodern “myth” in which the screen plays an active part. Lavin S (...)
The question of documentation as well as graphic and film media involved in recording postmodern projects could equally be addressed. For example, to what extent does the plurality and wealth of documentation used by postmodern design architects play a part in processes of recognition and dissemination when it comes to architecture that remains little-known? Does the use of certain architectural forms as backdrops (cinema, advertising, etc.) contribute to its recognition?6
What kind of heritagization?7
- 7 To define “heritagization,” we use Emmanuel Amougou's definition: a social process by which legitim (...)
- 8 Reflection on how to take into account the serial aspect of modern architecture and its current liv (...)
If we can stress the historical simultaneity of the rise of “heritagization” and of “postmodernism” as a period or style, to what extent do the specificities brought about by postmodernism influence heritagization (or not), as may be the case with modern architecture?8 For example, does the popular dimension of this architecture influence the actors mobilized in the heritagization process? How does heritagization consider the playful, ironic and symbolic dimensions of this architecture? to what extent do protective measures accommodate the gigantic scale of certain urban projects? How does use value take on a particular significance in projects founded upon popular taste and use? How is the evolving nature of certain programs (particularly housing developments) taken into account?
Case studies in which these questions are relevant to the heritagization of postmodern projects will be welcome. International comparisons of heritagization processes are encouraged.
Finally, the very definition of heritagization as applied to postmodern projects will be explored: what protective tools are needed, and what support (financial, administrative, technical, etc.) is required for restoration?
Restoration: questioning the authenticity of ideas and/or materials
Lastly, what place and role should be reserved for living architects in the restoration process?
Procedure for the Transmission of Draft Articles
Proposals for completes articles should be sent by e-mail before 12 February 2024 to the Craup’ editorial office: craup.secretariat@gmail.com
For more information, contact Aude Clavel on 06 10 55 11 36 or by email
The journal expects completed articles, not proposals, abstracts or any other form of presentation.
The articles must not exceed 50 000 characters, including spaces.
Languages accepted: French, English.
Articles must be accompanied by:
− 1 biobibliographical record between 5 to 10 lines (name and first name of the author (s), professional status and / or titles, possible institutional link, research themes, latest publications, e-mail address).
− 2 abstracts in French and English.
− 5 key words in French and English.
− The title of the article must also be translated into French or English depending on the language of the paper.
Instructions to Authors
1 / General rules
Italic: words in foreign languages in relation to the language used, therefore op. cit., Ibid., cf., a priori, a posteriori, etc.
No use of bold (with the exception of titles) nor capitals (with the exception of the beginning of proper names, institutions, capitals for titles in English, etc.).
2 / Body of the text
The text must be entered in the Word software, using Times New Roman, size 12, line spacing 1.5, without any special formatting, except titles, headings, captions and paragraph breaks.
Bibligraphic references mentioned throughout the text should appear “à la française”, i.e. in a note, with the full reference, and not in brackets in the body of the text.
3 / Quotations
Quotations of less than 3 lines will be inserted into the text and placed between quotation marks.
Quotes of more than 3 lines will be indented to the left and right, size 10, without quotation marks.
4 / References
The bibliographical references will be grouped according to author’s name alphabetical order at the end of the article in a section titled “Bibliography”, according to the following model:
For a book: First name Last name, Title, City of publishing, Publishing house (Collection), year of publication, page, [online] url, accessed on date, [online] url, accessed on date.
For a collective work: First name Last Name and First name Last name of dir./coord./eds./etc., Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, page, or First name Last name et al., Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, page, [online] url, accessed on date.
For a chapter of a collective work: First name, Last name, (dir./coord./eds./etc.), Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, page, [online] url, accessed on date.
For a journal article: First Name Last Name, “Article Title”, Journal Title, Vol./N °, Date, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of Publication, page, [online] url, accessed on date.
5 / Illustrations, charts and tables
The author must verify that the images / figures of which he is not the author are free of rights. Otherwise, he must apply to the owner of the image / figure before submitting it to the magazine.
The photographs accompanying the text should be scanned in high definition (300 dpi, 15 cm minimum) in Jpg or Tiff formats.
Text files will be distinct from graphic files.
Illustrations, charts and tables must be legendary in a specific way: The title of the illustrations should be placed above the illustration. The legend and credits (source, copyright, etc.) must be placed under the illustration on two separate lines.
Editorial Line
Placed in the fields of architectural, urban and landscape research, the Cahiers de la recherche architecturale initially developed from the 1970s in research labs of the French schools of architecture, before becoming the Cahiers de la recherche architecturale et urbaine in 1999. The journal initiates in 2018 a new formula online, Les Cahiers: Journal for the Study of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape, targeted towards the research communities concerned by intentional transformations of space, whatever the scales. The journal aims at meeting current interests and issues in these fields, seeking to renew them and to open new directions of research. Three main research issues are more directly questioned. One specifically concerns theoretical aspects, in order to develop exchanges and discussions between theories of design, planning, architecture and landscape. Another issue refers to the materiality of the city, the technical know-how involved in spatial transformation, but also the material dimension of of transfer and mobilization phenomena, often analyzed in other journals from a-spatial angles. Lastly, the third issue questions the project and its design, which holds a special place in the sciences and the practice of space (performative roles of projects, theories of practice). These three poles call for interdisciplinary works, dedicated to trace in-depth explanations of the transformations of the built environment at the Anthropocene Era. The expected scientific production refers to common criteria of peer reviewing processes. It could pay a particular attention to the issues of pictures and visual production in a field where images can serve as discourse.
Les Cahiers: Journal for the Study of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape online issue two or three time a year a thematic folder dedicated to a specific and problematized theme, and which consists of around ten articles in French and English. A call for papers is broadcasted for each thematic heading. Proposals may be in French or English. The evaluation is peer-rewiewed.
The online magazine has also 2 headings to accommodate miscellaneous articles, and outside thematic folders. Proposals may be in French or English. The texts are evaluated and peer-rewiewed.
Perspectives on Contemporary Research
Academic articles that present current and unpublished research, unpublished articles and essays on subjects related to the emergence of new themes and accounts of scholarly methodologies and practices development, reports of doctoral and post-doctoral theses, book reviews.
Research Materials
The republication of texts, the translation of articles previously unpublished in French, documents such as logbooks, diaries and personal journals that shed light on the activities of researchers in their contemporary contexts, interviews with scholars and practitioners involved in ongoing research.
Editorial Board
Chief Editor:
FRÉDÉRIC POUSIN
CELINE BARRERE
MANUEL BELLO MARCANO
FRANCK BESANÇON
GAUTHIER BOLLE
GAIA CARAMELLINO
ENRICO CHAPEL
BENJAMIN CHAVARDES
AUDREY COURBEBAISSE
MAXIME DECOMMER
ANAT FALBEL
YANKEL FIJALKOW
RALPH GHOCHE
XAVIER GUILLOT
CAROLINEMANIAQUE
ROBERTA MORELLI
JUILETTE POMMIER
PAOLA SAVOLDI
CORINNE TIRY-ONO
ANDREA URLBERGER
Editorial Assistant
AUDE CLAVEL
Notes
1 Mario Carpo, “The Postmodern Cult of Monuments”, Future Anterior, vol. IV, n° 2, The University of Minnesota Press, 2007, p. 50-60.
2 Denise Scott Brown, “Sainsbury Wing: Objection from Denise Scott Brown”, Mas Context, 2022, [on line] [https://mascontext.com/observations/sainsbury-wing-objection-from-denise-scott-brown].
3 / These include the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing by Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, and Charles Jencks' Cosmic House.
4 In the January 21, 2023 edition of Le Monde, the mayors of Cergy, Metz, Montpellier, Noisy-le-Grand, Paris and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines published a full-page tribute to the Catalan architect.
5 See Jean-Louis Violeau, Paris postmoderne : architectures 1973-93, Paris, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 2023.
6 See, for example, the idea of a postmodern “myth” in which the screen plays an active part. Lavin Silvia, Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernist Effects, Spector Books, 2020.
7 To define “heritagization,” we use Emmanuel Amougou's definition: a social process by which legitimate social agents intend to confer on an object or space (architectural, urban planning or landscape), or on a social practice (language, rite, myth, etc.), a set of properties or values recognized and shared first by the legitimized agents and then transmitted to all individuals through individual or collective institutionalization mechanisms necessary for their preservation, i.e. their long-term legitimization in a specific social configuration. Emmanuel Amougou, Les Grands Ensembles, un patrimoine paradoxal, Paris, L'Harmattan (Logiques sociales), 2006.
8 Reflection on how to take into account the serial aspect of modern architecture and its current living situation.
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