Architectural History

"Hannover in Egypt: The engagement of the city in the 'German Oriental Society' (Berlin) and hanoverian field work in Egypt" - Paper about the membership of the City of Hanover in the Berlin based "Deutsche Orientgesellschaft" (DOG) starting 1903. Through this membership important Egyptian Antiquities entered the collection of the municipal Kestner-Museum (today Museum August Kestner). In 1911 finally a "Sektion Hannover" of the DOG was founded with the city's mayor as head and the famous architecture historian Uvo Hölscher (1878-1963) and the director of the Kestner-Museum as further board members. Hölscher also planed excavations in Egypt conducted by the "Sektion Hannover" which, however, were never realized. An expedition to Egypt under the auspice of the City of Hanover came finally into existence when the Egyptologist Peter Munro (1930-2009) was director of the Kestner-Museum (1970-1981) and conducted fieldwork at Saqqara starting in 1973. - (in German) - p. 55: "Über ein besonderes Engagement der Stadt Hannover für die Erforschung des Orients und ihre regen Bemühungen in Hinsicht auf eine Präsenz Hannovers bei Grabungsaktivitäten in Ägypten ist bisher kaum etwas bekannt geworden. Dieses hiermit der Stadtgeschichte Hannovers hinzuzufügende "Kapitel" wurde vor ein paar Jahren nur durch das zufällige Auffinden einer Akte ermöglicht, die 1902 von der Stadtverwaltung des Magistrats der Königlichen Haupt= und Residenzstadt Hannover mit der Bezeichnung A. (Stadtverwaltung) XV (Stadtverwaltung, Verschiedenes) G (Vereine) angelegt und "Akten betreffend die Deutsche Orient=Gesellschaft in Berlin" überschrieben wurde."

Historicism in Kars: Russian Architecture in the 19th Century South Caucasus
Neşe Gurallar
Gazi University, Turkey
Abstract
Historicism, as a style, was broadly applied to architecture in the 19th century
around the world, including in South Caucasus.
My paper argues that there were three distinct historicist architectural styles in the
Eastern Anatolian city of Kars that had been colonized by the Russian Empire for
forty years following the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877. This differentiation will
help us clarify the ambiguities related to the architectural heritage of Kars, which
became an object of resentment, particularly in nationalist Turkish historical
writing. Historians and art historians tended to underestimate the value of the
Russian construction efforts and packed different architectural styles under the
term Baltic Style . However, the term Baltic Style is quite problematic, as it cannot
explain rich architectural experiences behind it.
As coined by the title of Alan Colquhoun’s article, this paper will differentiate the
“three kinds of historicism” and define three architectural styles of Kars: 1)
Neoclassicism that came from the Russian imperial capital St. Petersburgh; 2) a
Russian style that originated in Moscow, the medieval capital of Russia; and 3)
[various] national revival architectural styles of the multi-ethnic city of Kars.
The subject of this analysis will be churches, monuments, public buildings, and
residential houses of the late 19th century Kars. This analysis of Kars’ architectural
heritage will also help reveal its connections to neighboring Armenia (particularly
to the cities of Gyumri and Yerevan), Georgia (Batum and Tiflis), and Azerbaijan
(Baku). Consequently, we will better understand the interconnected history of
South Caucasus through the connectivity in the history of architecture .
Key Words: Kars, Historicism, Revivalism, Neo-Classicism, Neo-Armenian, Neo-
Greek, Neo-Byzantine, Russian Style, Muscovite architecture, 19th Century Russian
Empire, South Caucasus, Russian Military Church Architecture.

Se si pensa al complesso delle relazioni tra pensiero tecnico e cultu- ra del progetto nella seconda metà del xx secolo, il contributo di Reyner Banham, storico e critico dell’architettura inglese, non può che essere rite- nuto pionieristico. Banham aveva profeticamente intravisto nell’universo tecnologico un territorio ampio e pieno di possibilità, un territorio che non si limitava all’applicazione di tecniche costruttive o all’uso domestico di brevetti e nuove scoperte scientifiche, ma che spaziava invece dall’infor- matica alle comunicazioni, dall’ingegneria alla difesa e che arrivava fino alle implicazioni tra tecnologia e arte, politica e mercato. Tuttavia Reyner Banham non ha mai inteso la tecnologia come un possibile strumento di potere, né come una disciplina in grado di definire apparati di controllo o politiche tecnocratiche. Lo “storico dell’età della macchina” non diede mai una lettura politica o ideologica del sapere tecnologico ma pose la tec- nologia a servizio delle attività umane, intendendola come un insieme di dispositivi o interfacce capace di creare sinergie tra l’uomo e l’ambiente che lo circonda, un ambiente che non è necessariamente fatto di muri e confini.

The 'Casa di Augusto' was intentionally filled in after 36 B.C. for the construction of a temple dedicated to Apollo Palatinus. Because of this, much of the room decoration has survived. Besides the (plundered) opus sectile floors and the wall paintings, the ceiling decorations from multiple rooms have been preserved. During past decades, some of these have been painstakingly reconstructed from thousands of fragments. Thanks to this work we are able to examine an unparalleled ceiling ensemble from a lavish Late Republican house in ancient Rome. The case study of the 'Casa di Augusto' allows us to answer some important questions about the role that Second Style ceilings played in domestic architecture. How were they used to hierarchise rooms together with wall paintings and floor decoration? Which strategies were used to suggest different levels of depth? How were different lighting methods used to stage the rooms? And, finally, how did they evoke specific atmospheres or moods?