Description
Docomomo Journal 65
Housing for All (132 pages)
EDITORIAL
Housing for the greatest number By ANA TOSTÕES
INTRODUCTION
The right to comfort in the century of the self By ZARA FERREIRA
ESSAYS
Modernity and housing production in France after WWII By JOSEPH ABRAM
President Alemán Urban Housing Project By LOUISE NOELLE
Housing explorations. Unidad Vecinal Portales in Santiago By UMBERTO BONOMO
Preserving a modern housing model: the restoration of Pedregulho Housing Neighborhood By FLÁVIA BRITO DO NASCIMENTO
The survival and resurrection of a “Bakema-experiment” in an Amsterdam garden city By TIM NAGTEGAAL
Conservation by consensus: heritage management in large housing estates By JOHN ALLAN
Reconstructing housing and communities: the INA-Casa Plan By ROSALIA VITTORINI
Large-scale housing projects in Lisbon: Olivais and Telheiras By ANA TOSTÕES AND ZARA FERREIRA
Avanchet-Parc in Geneva: an experimental housing scheme, an exemplary complex By FRANZ GRAF AND GIULIA MARINO
Sunny flats will replace…A congested slum block: Sydney’s post war housing improvement schemes By NONI BOYD
Preservation and public housing in the United States By THEODORE PRUDON
Kollektivhus: the Swedish model By CLAES CALDENBY
DOCUMENTATION ISSUES
Vegaviana, a colonization village: the rural “naturalness and simplicity” of modern Spanish heritage By INMACULADA BOTE ALONSO AND BEATRIZ MONTALBÁN POZAS
The Chandigarh Sector By SANGEETA BAGGA
Torres Blancas, a Vertical Garden City By ALBERTO SANZ
The young Paulo Mendes da Rocha: Jockey Club of Goiás and a modernity project By ELINE CAIXETA AND CHRISTINE MAHLER
HERITAGE IN DANGER
The real reason why Nakagin Capsule Tower was never metabolized By TATSUYUKI MAEDA AND YUKA YOSHIDA
NEWS
BOOK REVIEWS
APPENDIX
EDITORIAL
Housing for the greatest number By ANA TOSTÕES
This is the third journal dedicated to the housing question. In 2014, docomomo Journal 51 discussed modern Housing as “Patrimonio Vivo”, considering the modern home to explore topics of public and private life, intimacy, exposure, and gender. The house, whether at the level of a cell, a module, a system, or expanded across an entire city, has always been a fundamental subject for debate within the architecture of the Modern Movement addressing the “magic formula”: light, air and openness. docomomo Journal 54 “Housing Reloaded” was published, two years after, focused on the strategies used and challenges faced by those attempting to preserve post WWII collective housing in Europe.
In 2021, on the occasion of the last journal edited by me, it was decided to reaffirm docomomo’s acknowledgement of the major relevance of reflecting the housing question and explore the subject once again. I wish to thank and acknowledge the commitment of Zara Ferreira, who acted as guest editor for this docomomo Journal 65. Her work and perseverance were emulated by the authors who contributed generously with their knowledge and research.
Addressing a broader vision, entitled “Housing for All”, this issue is dedicated to the welfare era, when governments across the world established ambitious housing programs to provide housing for the greatest number and improve the citizens’ living conditions, as a symbol of a modern and democratic society. This bold course of action involved radical changes in the built environment, through new approaches to architectural design and experiments in the use of materials and techniques, the creation of space, and social transformation. Nowadays, understanding how to deal with this legacy presents a major challenge, in a continuously changing context, from the technical obsolescence of buildings that no longer meet today’s demanding standards, or fast-moving sociocultural, political and economic values. The aim of this docomomo Journal 65 is to outline how these vast cultural and political ambitions were materialized in various countries, and to analyze the contemporary challenges they face. More than five decades later, are these buildings and neighborhoods resilient or obsolete? In addition to the changes that postmodern society has
brought in ways of living, issues such as the demand for spatial and functional transformation, and the updating of regulations on fire, seismic stability, user safety and energy efficiency, are now part of the contemporary agenda. How can these sites be kept alive while satisfying sustainability and contemporary ideas of comfort?
This is the 24th docomomo Journal I have edited. It marks the end of a mandate that has lasted 12 years, serving docomomo International as Chair. Under my presidency, docomomo International was first based at the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona (2010–2013), and since 2014, at the Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon. Pursuing a program based on the concepts of “other territories”, “other times” and “other viewpoints”, and more than a decade of action, it has helped broaden perspectives and fields of study on Modern Movement architecture and landscapes. Breaking with the euro-centric and westernized globalization of knowledge, 30 new chapters have been created, with particular emphasis on Latin American, Asian, and African countries. While maintaining the values of friendliness and trustworthiness that befit a great family, as a global organization, we have welcomed hundreds of new partners and institutional members, contributing to significant growth in our international network, and providing irrefutable evidence of docomomo‘s continued vigor. In 2014, the updating of the Eindhoven-Statement (1990) with the Eindhoven-Seoul Statement marked a shift in docomomo’s mission, scope, and work, to more fully address the topics of reuse and sustainability. Among the six docomomo International Conferences held during my mandate, I would highlight the motto “adaptive reuse”, which has become a hegemonic issue for the docomomo Journal, and ultimately, formed the conceptual framework of the docomomo Award. The importance given to education has been demonstrated by the vitality of docomomo workshops and participation in various research projects worldwide. Further steps have been taken in the area of digital development, particularly evident in the docomomo virtual exhibition (MoMoVe) and the transformation of the docomomo Journal to open source, embracing open science as an important step towards the future. Next year, in 2022, docomomo International’s headquarters will be transferred to TUDelft. I am delighted to be able to hand over the reins of an organization in such robust health, and I wish continued vitality and every success to Uta Pottgiesser, the new Chair, and to Wido Quist, the Secretary-General.
