Revitalising Heritage--Christus Triumfatorkerk: A Dutch Postwar Reclamation

National Monument Christus Triumfator church in Bezuidenhout, the Hague was designed by the team D.S.B.V. under Geert Drexhage in 1959-1962, however, among three churches under Drexhage's, only Christus Triumfator church survives in the secularization and shrinking religious community in the Netherlands. The design of Christus Triumfator church...

From "Building" to "Design": Form Becoming the Dominance

This article examines the development of Dutch modern architecture from the perspective of the changing role of form in architectural creation. The fields of ‘building’ and ‘design’ were not inherently connected. The relationship between the two was installed and intensified in the first decennia of the 20th century. But at a certain moment...

Addressing the Audience: Jaap Bakema and City Exhibitions

This paper examines the case of Jaap Bakema (1914-81) as a precursor to participation and co-creation processes in city planning. Besides his architectural practice and prolific teaching, Dutch architect and Team 10 figurehead Bakema was deeply engaged in creating exhibitions to communicate his ideas to layman audiences. He played a role in de...

Connecting the dots: A global exploration of local Docomomo inventories

The Modern Movement encompasses a diverse collection of both iconic and ordinary treasures of architecture worldwide, among which some are safeguarded with respect to their values, while others were demolished, have undergone alterations, neglect, or lack of maintenance and preservation over time. Docomomo has been playing a pivotal role in...

Collapse and Reconstitution: Autonomy and the Avant-Garde

A critical discussion of the historical avant-garde, De Stijl and the work of Theo van Doesburg and its reception and re-interpretations through the years. For the occasion of an art installation at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht by the artist Antonis Pittas.

Brutalist Trauma, Picturesque Repair

A discussion of the interrelations between post-war Brutalism and Picturesque revival in the work of Alison and Peter Smithson, in response to the conference question of urban design urgencies of today, most notably the question of city repair.

Spit out and honoured: J.J.P. Oud's Shell building design and rejection

Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud was a Dutch architect who lived from 1890 till 1963. In 1917 he and six other well-known architects, started a magazine ´De Stijl´, a manifest for Dutch Modernism in art and architecture. Five years later, in 1922, Oud withdrew himself from De Stijl, but he continued to design according to the manifest of ‘De Stijl’....

From Cybernetics to an Architecture of Ecology: Cedric Price’s Inter-Action Centre

This article discusses the impact of systems thinking and cybernetics on architectural design by examining the example of the Inter-Action Centre (1970–1977) of British architect Cedric Price. The centre reflects Price’s view of architecture as part of an extensive social and environmental system, or ecology, that influences the inhabitants’...

Habitat and Architecture: Disruption and Expansion

Introduction of the book and historical overview of the subject of Habitat in architecture, with references to contemporary practices.

Brutalism and the Welfare State: Histories of Displacement, 1952-2017

Abstract for<br/>The Brutalist Turn conference<br/>Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University, and the Azrieli Architectural Archive, Tel Aviv Museum of Art<br/>14-16 April, 2019<br/><br/><br/>My presentation will look into the intersections of New Brutalism and welfare state politics, using the case of Alison and Peter Smithson to...

The elusive bigness of Bakema

Architecture and democracy: Contestations in and of the open society

In many ways the work and ideas of Jaap Bakema epitomize the best of the architecture of the post-war Dutch welfare state: it is utterly unapologetic about its modernity as well as its drive to be universal and egalitarian. Bakema firmly<br/>positioned his office and its production at the heart of the Dutch welfare state system. Not only did he,...

White City / Green City

Sustainable renovation of modern monuments in the city of Tel Aviv. An intervention to the back gardens of the Habima dwellings complex - houses for the theatre group in the 1930's.

Alison and Peter Smithson: A Brutalist Story, Involving the House, the City and the Everyday (Plus a Couple of Other Things)

The dissertation looks into the work of the British architects Alison and Peter Smithson (1928-1993, 1923-2003). Their work is regarded as exemplary for the development of modern architecture in the second half of the twentieth century, specifically with regard to the relation between architecture, welfare state politics and the rise of a new...

Reciclagem do Grande Hotel Beira, Mozambique

Recycling of a foreign modern architecture building which is now a vertical slum towards a more permanent residence for the present community with new socioeconomic development opportunities in the Mozambican neoliberal context.