HUNGARIAN FOLK TRADITIONS THAT DISPLACED MODERNISM: FARMHOUSE ROOFS, CHAIR BACKS, AND GRAVE MARKERS AS ‘PURE SOURCES’
Jeffrey Cook
URBANIZING FOREST AND VILLAGE TREES IN HONG KONG’S SHA TIN VALLEY, 1976-1997
Jeffrey W. Cody and James R. Richardson
POLITICAL SPACE: THE ARCHITECTURE OF SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
Bethany Opalach
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Volume 9.1
HUNGARIAN FOLK TRADITIONS THAT DISPLACED MODERNISM: FARMHOUSE ROOFS, CHAIR BACKS, AND GRAVE MARKERS AS ‘PURE SOURCES’
Jeffrey Cook
International architectural modernism has come under increasing attack because of its global anonymity. In contemporary Hungary this has taken the form of a movement its proponents call Organic, or Living Architecture. There were many influences on the development of the movement, including the freedom inspired by American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff. But, in Russian-occupied Communist Hungary, the 1973 manifesto “Only From Pure Sources” was perhaps most important in raising the issue of loss of architectural heritage and the need for “creating harmony in new works, with the old, with the region, with nature, with man, and with human settlement.” Farmhouse roofs, chair backs, and grave markers were elements of traditional Hungarian folk culture that were closely studied by the authors of this controversial manifesto. This article examines how the rediscovery of such sources strongly influenced the invention of a native architectural alternative to modernism in Hungary. Before the exit of the last Russian soldier from the country in 1991 this alternative had already led to the construction of hundreds of new, tradition-based buildings.
URBANIZING FOREST AND VILLAGE TREES IN HONG KONG’S SHA TIN VALLEY, 1976-1997
Jeffrey W. Cody and James R. Richardson
Hong Kong is searching for ways to mediate between the pull of tradition and the push of development. This article provides a perspective to understand the historic relationships between Hong Kong’s need to accommodate explosive growth, traditional villages, the colonial government’s regulatory context for village redevelopment, and recent debates about village transformation in post-colonial Hong Kong. The focus is on the architectural and planning context for Sha Tin New Town, a major development project undertaken by the Hong Kong government in the late 1970s, and on the salient policy shifts related to village conservation and redevelopment in the Sha Tin Valley in the past twenty years. The article concludes with recommendations for future village conservation, development and renewal policies and it outlines a framework within which to make policy choices.
POLITICAL SPACE: THE ARCHITECTURE OF SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
Bethany Opalach
Spontaneous urban settlements are no longer seen as separate from the workings of the city, nation or world. There is a considerable body of research on residents’ contributions to the formal sector of the economy and their demands for recognition as urban citizens. However, until very recently, the built form of these settlements has been treated in the literature as distinct and different from established scholarly categories of the built environment, and typically has not been seen as worthy of careful documentation and analysis. Building on vernacular-environment theory, researchers have recently established a multidimensional framework for analysis of spontaneous settlements that emphasizes the importance of structural constraints to the built form of the dwelling and the settlement. This article analyzes and compares the built form of three physically mature squatter settlements in São Paulo, focusing specifically on the local contexts that define and constrain the physical development of these settlements. It shows how various municipal interventions are reflected in built form, highlighting the cases where, in spite of differences in context, aspects of built form remain constant across the research sites.