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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam

The Printed and the Built. Architecture and Public Debate in Modern Europe

Alternative title: Utgitt og oppført: arkitektur, publikasjonskultur og den nye offentligheten

Awarded: NOK 8.8 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

231405

Application Type:

Project Period:

2014 - 2020

Location:

"The Printed and the Built: Architecture and public debate in modern Europe" (P&B) has studied the relationship between the built environment and print culture in modern Europe, concentrating on the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this period, a host of new public media developed, altering the way architecture was discussed, understood, and ultimately built. Looking particularly at the new illustrated press emerging in the mid 19th century, we examined the way architecture in the modern period becomes a site for cultural negotiation through printed media. The project has been based at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), in collaboration with Institute of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, and scholars from University of Kentucky and University of California, St. Barbara. It has involved several disciplines and approaches, ranging from architectural and cultural history to literature studies and publication history. The multidisciplinary scope has thrown new light on the intricate web of spatial, material and discursive practices that shaped the modern public sphere, not least the relationship between print culture, architecture and urban planning. The project's PhD candidates have given particularly valuable contributions to this investigation through their studies of print culture and urban development in 19th century Christiania (Iver Tangen Stensrud) and the publication program of the Norwegian Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments (Sine Halkjelsvik Bjordal). The Printed & Built project has disseminated its findings through public exhibitions as well as academic publications, and has been particularly keen to integrate research and teaching. One example: The 2014 P&B master course at AHO explored the 19th-century debates over the Norwegian Parliament building through texts and models, producing an exhibition later shown in augmented form at the National Museum and the Norwegian Parliament in conjunction with the building's 150th anniversary in 2016. The anthology Debatten om Stortingsbygningen 1836-1866 (Pax 2016) edited by Hvattum, was launched as part of the anniversary. A similar collaboration took place in 2018, resulting in the exhibition "The Printed and the Built", shown at the National Museum 2018-2019. The project has produced a series of books and articles, including the edited collection The Printed and the Built. Architecture, Print Culture, and Public Debate in the Nineteenth Century which came out on Bloomsbury Academic in the spring 2018. The book investigates the relationship between architecture and the press in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe and the US. In a beautifully illustrated series of essays, 28 scholars from many fields explore the way architecture has been depicted, debated, and displayed, in words and images, in the public and professional press. Another noteworthy publication is a special P&B issue of the journal Architectural Histories, Journal of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) which appeared spring 2016, edited by Anne Hultzsch. The issue focussed on the theme "Building Word Image: Printing Architecture 1800-1950" and gathered essays by P&B scholars and international guests. Mari Lending's essay in this issue was awarded EAHN's prize for best academic essay in 2016. The backbone of the P&B project has been a monthly reading seminar where project team and invited guests gathered to discuss key texts or visit important collections and archives. The reading list for the P&B seminar is published on the project blog https://theprintedandthebuilt.wordpress.com/

P&B-prosjektet omfatter flere fagfelt, både akademiske og praksisrelaterte, og spenner fra offentlighetsteori til utstillingsdesign. Prosjektets virkningspotensial ligger i disse koblingene. Ved å undersøke sammenhengen mellom tekst og materialitet har vi beriket forståelsen av historiske prosesser, slik f.eks. PhD Stensrud viser det gjensidige forholdet mellom byutvikling og publikasjonskultur i 1800-tallets Christiania. Det trykte og det bygde står i et gjensidig avhengighetsforhold, og analysen av den gjensidigheten er prosjektets viktigste bidrag. Øvrige effekter: -P&B-tematikken ble videreutviklet til et internasjonalt HERA-prosjekt 2016-2019. -Postdoc Hultzsch viderefører tematikken i et ERC consolidator grant ved ETH Zurich. -Bidratt til internasjonal forskning gjennom akademiske publikasjoner. -Formidlet forskningsresultater til et bredt publikum gjennom offentlige utstillinger. -Gitt masterstudenter forskningserfaring og inspirasjon gjennom forskningsbasert undervisning.

The Printed and the Built studies the relationship between the built environment and print culture, concentrating on Northern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The project moves from the renaissance treatise to modern mass media, yet our focus is on the new illustrated journals of the 19th century. A marked shift in architectural publication took place in this period, in which the classical treatise was abandoned for genres capable of efficiently disseminating visual and textual information to a large audience beyond the academies. The new illustrated press played an important role in this process, promoting a debate that placed the built environment firmly at the centre of modern public culture. In the 20th century, the newspapers and journals were supplemented by a rich array of popular genres such as ladies magazines and advertisement, presenting both the private home and the public monument as matters of profound cultural importance. The project is based on a twofold hypothesis. Firstly, we believe that the new public media altered the way architecture was discussed, understood, and ultimately built. Secondly we suggest that the 19th century city accommodated public discourse in new ways, and that there are interesting and overlooked reci procities between the built environment and public discourse in this period. By studying selected architectural debates played out in the public press (e.g. the 1857 competition for a Norwegian Parliament building) we examine the way architecture in the m odern period becomes a site for cultural negotiation and exchange through printed media. A multidisciplinary project, The Printed and the Built is based at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, in collaboration with scholars from the University of Oslo, Museum of Cultural History, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, and several international institutions. The project involves two PhDs and a Post doc, as well as AHO Master students.

Publications from Cristin

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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam