Abstract
Aiton Court, in Johannesburg, is a case study in how heritage and economics clash in economically constrained cities. This iconic and formally innovative Modern apartment block from 1937 is located in an area where the income levels of tenants are now very low. Although the building is protected by legislation, the viability of its restoration is being further tested by a rent boycott. The article covers the building’s history, and questions how to approach its conservation differently, given the strong demand for housing at a cost level that would be excluded by purely market–led gentrification. We propose that locating conservation strategies in relation to the building’s history and to other subsidies aimed at the public good may provide other routes to preserving Aiton Court.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Aiton Court, Angus Stewart, Bernard Cooke, Modern housing, Johannesburg modern architecture, Rehabilitation of modern architecture .

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 56-61
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.85503AAS

Abstract
Modern architecture has recently been the subject of a more systematic analysis in the formerly Portuguese African territory. These studies aim at understanding the specific circumstances from which Modern Portuguese architecture first arose. Following the international debate on housing during the 20th century, Mozambique has been the arena of a new and experimental approach to collective housing in accordance with the guidelines set out by Le Corbusier. A singular social, economic and cultural territory, it adopted a tropical variant of the gallery typology, briefly introduced in this paper by means of select case studies built in Maputo between 1950 and 1968.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Modern housing, Mozambican modern architecture.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 46-55
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.X5CBAIW3

Abstract
The Polana High School in Maputo, designed by José João Tinoco and José Forjaz around 1970, is a plain functional building both as regards to the spatial organization of its composing pavilions and as to its construction that is mostly made of exposed reinforced concrete structures and elements. After decades of heavy duty use and an almost absolute lack of maintenance, it recently went through some urgent repair operations. In this sense, it exemplifies what could be today effective conditions regarding economic possibilities and cultural problems to recover Modern heritage in Africa.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Polana High School, José João Tinoco, José Forjaz, Modern schools, Mozambican modern architecture.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 40-45
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.TAK7I27H

Abstract
The Huambo (former Nova Lisboa) Veterinary Academic Hospital, designed by Vasco Vieira da Costa in 1970, was never completed. With the independence of Angola in 1975, a civil war started and lasted 27 years, with its main battlefield in the country’s central region, where the opposition party was settled. The building has served as a military headquarters since the 80’s, becoming extremely damaged in the last three decades. Peace was restored in 2002 but 30 soldiers are still nowadays living in the ruins to defend the building from vandalism. The University is planning the renovation of the Veterinary Academic Hospital, although unawareness about the building’s heritage significance may result in the irreversible loss of an Angolan Modern monument.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Huambo Veterinary Academic Hospital, Vasco Vieira da Costa, Angolan modern architecture, Rehabilitation of modern architecture.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 34-39
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.7SGHV2ZU

Abstract
More than ever, it is urgent to expand the new emerging consciousness focused on the need to include other territories in our efforts to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the “Modern Diaspora.” Recently, the development of concepts such as ‘hybrid’ or the ‘otherness’ has been promoting a nuanced historical analysis on architecture and politics in the 20th century beyond a Eurocentric vision. The recognition that a widespread awareness of the Modern Movement architecture has always been serving colonization involves rethinking the basic principle of Modern welfare society and practiced architecture as a mission: how Modern principles have been exchanged, resulting from a Eurocentric culture with the cultures of East and Africa.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Modern diaspora, Colonialism, Udo Kultermann, Luso-african architecture, Pancho Guedes.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 30-33
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.ICZ4CDJ5

Abstract
This essay explores the various strands of the advent of Modernity in African architecture. It starts from the assumption that the history of Modernity in African architecture is a complex and rich subject that merits increased scientific attention.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Modern palaces, Beit-el-Ajaib, House of Wonders, Zanzibar modern architecture.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 20-29
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.FKXY01XV

Abstract
Post–colonial theory, following the lead of Edward Said’s Orientalism, holds that the discourse that justified colonialism was not marginal to European culture, but that it formed a core ingredient of European thinking about Modernity and Modernism. This thought–provoking argument has not yet been thoroughly processed in architectural history and theory. This article explores these issues by introducing some of Said’s thoughts and by discussing how they might be relevant for an interpretation of Modernism in architecture. It looks at primitivism in architecture as encountered in the work of Loos, Le Corbusier and Rudofsky, arguing that its colonialist bias is undeniable. The conclusion stresses how much Said’s analyses still give rise to difficult questions about our ideas and attitudes.

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Tropical architecture, Design with climate, African modern architecture, Colonialism, Orientalism, Edward Said.

Issue 48
Year 2013
Pages 10-19
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/48.A.1KTV3PAE