Bio-inspired, Human-Built Environments
Stephen Marshall explores the architecture of life and future bio-inspiration for the Built Environment.
By Stephen Marshall 5 Jul 2016
Is Australia a Suburban Nation?
Prof DLA Gordon reflects on the 'suburban' nature of Australia in light of our recent issue of Built Environment 'Australian Cities in the 21st Centrury'.
30 Jun 2016
Greywater & the Rising Case for Re-using Water
Given the challenges of sustainable urban water, reaons to reuse and recyle our so-called 'greywater' is getting stronger says Jonathan Chenoweth, an author in our new issue on this theme.
4 Jun 2016
Peak Urban: the new city limits
Across the world massive urban expansion continues, but the limitations to developing our built environments have never been more ubiquitous. The question looms large across the built environment and other disciplines ‘is there such a thing as peak urban?’
27 May 2016
Extreme Built Environments
As NASA receives a new habitation module, Stephen Marshall explores the "frontier-pushing opportunities where engineering merges with architecture and even urbanism..."
4 May 2016
Good Morning Australian Cities!
Australian Cities in the 21st Century: Suburbs and Beyond, issue 42(1) of the Built Environment journal, is out now in print and online. As ever we welcome feedback and further commentary, including Built Environment blogs and twitter.
9 Mar 2016
Food Planning - Call for Guest Editors
Built Environment journal invites proposals for a guest editor(s) to guest edit a themed issue of the journal on a topic relating to Food Planning. Details at *http://tinyurl.com/FoodPlanningCall*
25 Feb 2016
Suburban Space, Suburban Culture, Suburban Myth?
Given that suburbs are commonly viewed as places that culture forgot, it is refreshing to see a built environment journal publication dedicated to suburban space and cultures. My own work on suburban theory points to the fact that
9 Feb 2016
suburbs, Spatial Peripheries, Peripheral Centralities
Add Peripheral Centralities: The Lost and Past Urbanity of the Suburbs
The term ‘peripheral centralities’ may seem something of an oxymoron and yet the spatial peripheries of cities have often been more central to urban development processes than is appreciated. To better understand the nature of peripheral centrality, Peripheral Centralities: The Lost and Past Urbanity of the Suburbs brings together a wide variety of examples of lost and forgotten peripheral centralities of different sizes, purpose, geographical location, and political complexion, dating from the first decades of the twentieth century to the present day. Following the introduction, two chapters provide broad overviews of peripheral centralities in international and national systems of centralities. The next four chapters look at plans from settings as different as Dublin as Shanghai that, for one reason or another, failed to materialize. The following eight chapters each describes cases where projects have been realized, ranging from peripheral townships in England to a Chinese steel city. To conclude the book, the editors highlight the themes revealed in the foregoing chapters and consider the part an appreciation of peripheral centralities might play in the development of urban theory from the outside in.
Nicholas A. Phelps is Professor and Chair of Urban Planning and Associate Dean International in the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne.
Roger Keil is Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, Toronto and Fellow of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s (CIFAR) Humanity’s Urban Future program.
Paul J. Maginn is Director of the Public Policy Institute and an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Western Australia, Perth.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Peripheral Centralities – Lost and Past Nicholas A. Phelps, Roger Keil and Paul Maginn
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Centres in the Metropolitan Periphery: A Spatial Planning History
Robert Freestone
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Soviet Sputnik Towns: The Past of a Sustainable Urban Future? Remaking Periphery through Distributing Centrality
Oleg Golubchikov and Irina Ilina
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Pipedream or Growth Area Benchmark? Berwick’s Metrotown Plan
Victoria Kolankiewicz, David Nichols and Nicholas A. Phelps
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Flying Boats, Garden Suburbs, Oil Refineries and Motorways – Exploring the Forgotten Twentieth-Century Plans for Dublin Bay
Ruth McManus
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‘Metropolitan Adelaide’s Unique Opportunity’: Charles Reade’s Plan of Adeladie and Suburbs (1917)
Christine Garnaut
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Informal Centralities against Fascism: Popular Urbanization in Madrid, 1940s–1970s
Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago and Noel A. Manzano Gómez
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The Greater Shanghai Plan (1927–1937): An Unfulfilled Urban Dream
Richard Hu
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War, Military Settlements, and Planetary (Sub)Urbanization
Gabriel Schwake and Carola Hein
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Exploring the Emergence of Peripheral Centralities in Bengaluru: The Case of Electronics City
H.S. Sudhira
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What Peripheral Centrality Does to the City: The ‘EUR neighbourhood’ in Rome, Italy
Marco Cremaschi
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‘A Bright New World of Convenience, Efficiency, and Plenty’: The Incorporation and Dissolution of Peripheral Mass Public Housing in Newcastle and Dundee, 1960s to 1990s
Andrew Hoolachan and Mark Tewdwr-Jones
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The Social Ambitions and Failures of Architecture in Oslo’s New Towns of 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
Per Gunnar Røe
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Wuhan’s Red Steel City: The Waning Centrality of an Industrial Satellite Town?
Julie T. Miao, Nicholas A. Phelps, Sainan Lin, and Zhigang Li
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Lost and Peripheral Centralities in the Post-Colony Lessons from West Africa
Laurent Fourchard
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Conclusion: Histories beyond ‘Methodological Cityism’
Keil, Paul Maginn and Nicholas Phelps
Raymond Lemaire, Built Heritage Conservation, Regeneration, Reuse of Historic Districts, Venice Charter, Great Beguinage of Louvain
The Evolution of Urban Heritage Conservation and the Role of Raymond Lemaire
The 1960s and 1970s saw a marked change in the approach to built heritage conservation. From a focus on the preservation of individual buildings, attention turned to the conservation, regeneration, and reuse of entire historic districts. A key player in this process was the Belgian art and architecture historian Raymond Lemaire (1921–1997), yet beyond those in conservation circles few people know of his work and influence or even recognize his name.
In this book, Claudine Houbart traces how the change came about and the role played by Lemaire. She describes his work and influence and in so doing provides a history of urban conservation over the last four decades of the twentieth century and beyond. The first chapter summarizes Lemaire’s background from his training during the Second World War and his work as a Monuments Man immediately after the war, to his role in the drafting of the Venice Charter and his appointment as Secretary General of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). The next chapter describes the rehabilitation of Great Beguinage in Louvain. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the project was directed by Lemaire and is a perfect example of the restoration of an entire district. The following chapter provides case studies of his work in Brussels, demonstrating his methodology in action. The final chapter discusses the transposition of the model of the historic city to urban projects and summarizes Lemaire’s influence on heritage conservation today, particularly integrated conservation. His participation in drafting key conservation documents sponsored by the Council of Europe, UNESCO and ICOMOS, and his desire to revise the Venice Charter are discussed. The book’s conclusion reflects on what has gone before, ending aptly with Lemaire’s own words ‘the past, properly understood, is one of the references for judging the value of today and tomorrow’.
Claudine Houbart, an architect and art historian, is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Liège, and heads the DIVA (Documentation, Interpretation, Valorization of Heritage) research group. She is one of the Belgian representatives on the ICOMOS Committee on Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration.
Contents
Introduction
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From Archaeology to Conservation
From Archaeology to ConservationA FAMILY LEGACYTRAINING IN THEORY AND PRACTICEUniversity EducationTraining in the Field: the CGRP and the Ministry of Public WorksBUILDING A NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKThe Recovery of Looted ArtworksHeritage Protection in WartimeFirst Contacts with ItalyA PERSONAL VISION OF CONSERVATIONRaymond M. Lemaire and the restauro criticoThe St. Lambert Chapel in HeverleeTHE VENICE CONGRESS (1964): A TURNING POINTDrafting the Venice Charter
The Founding of ICOMOS
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Constructing an Ideal Historic City: The Great Beguinage of Louvain (1962–1972)
A UNIQUE CONTEXTAn Exceptional ‘Traditional’ EnsembleA Tailor-Made ProgrammeA Flexible ScheduleA Great Freedom of ActionTHE VENICE CHARTER PUT TO THE TEST OF THE REHABILITATION OF URBAN ENSEMBLESThe Interiors: Conservation vs ComfortThe Façades: A Radical RestorationThe Additions: From Contrast to IntegrationThe Public Space: A Picturesque VisionA REFLECTIVE PROCESSLessons from Gustavo GiovannoniThe Historic Cities’ ‘Way of Being’ -
Ideal vs Reality: Brussels (1967–1990)
CONTRASTING PRECEDENTS: BRUSSELIZATION AND URBAN SCENERY (1940–1960)Towards a Functionalist CityThe ‘Sacred Blocks’: An Urban SceneryTHE INPUT OF INTERNATIONAL REFLECTIONS AND R.M. LEMAIREThe 1960s: A Gradual AwarenessThe Quartier des Arts: A CatalystA Challenging ContextNEW METHODOLOGICAL TOOLS FOR A NEW VISIONLearning from Eastern European ExperiencesRestoring the Links between People and their Built Environment‘Thinning Out’ and Opening the BlocksSelective Preservation‘Architectural Design in an Old Urban Environment’Correcting the CityscapeTo Conclude
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Towards a Holistic Approach
R.M. LEMAIRE, A ‘COMPLETE ARCHITECT’THE EMERGENCE OF INTEGRATED CONSERVATIONThe Council of Europe’s Committee on Monuments and SitesNew Doctrinal InstrumentsThe Venice Charter: A Necessary RevisionBruges: A Laboratory for ‘Integral Planning’From Rehabilitation to ‘Retrospective Utopia’Towards Post-Modernism?
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Commission royale des Monuments et des Sites. Problèmes de doctrine
Appendix 2. Charte de Venise [première version]
Appendix 3. Charte internationale sur la conservation et la restauration des monuments et des sites (Charte de Venise)
Appendix 4. Charte de Venise, texte révisé
