Architects Without Frontiers: War, Reconstruction and Design Responsibility

195 Pages·2006·7.4 MB·English

by  Esther Charlesworth

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ARCHITECTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS
War,Reconstruction and Design Responsibility
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ARCHITECTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS
War,Reconstruction and Design Responsibility
Esther Charlesworth
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEWYORK • OXFORD
PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY• TOKYO
Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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First published 2006
Copyright © 2006,Published by Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved
The right of Esther Charlesworth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Charlesworth,Esther Ruth
Architects without frontiers:war,reconstruction and design responsibility
1.Architecture and society 2.Architecture and society - Case studies 3. Post-war reconstruction
4. Post-war reconstruction - Case studies 5.Architecture - Psychological aspects 6.Architecture -
Psychological aspects - Case studies
I.Title
720.1’03
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN-13:978-0-75-066840-8
ISBN-10:0-75-066840-7
Typeset by Cepha Imaging Pvt.Ltd.,Bangalore,India
Printed and bound in the Italy
Index compiled by Indexing Specialists (UK) Ltd
06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of figures ix
Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1 From lines of contention to zones of connection 1
Three case studies 3
Post-war odyssey 5
The rise in civil conflict 8
The post-war city as an opportunity 9
Disintegrating cities 11
Existing research 14
Trauma-glam? 17
The professions:architecture,planning and urban design 18
Architecture 18
Urban planning 19
Urban design 21
Road map 22
2 Architects and war 25
Tabula rasaversus facsimile cities 26
Democracy versus autocracy:the role of architects after 30
the Second World War
Contemporary practice 32
Urbicide:the city as target 34
3 Archetypes 37
Architects as pathologists 38
Architects as heroes 40
Architects as historicists 41
Architects as colonialists 42
Architects as social reformers 44
Architects as educators 47
Summary 49
Contents
4 Beirut – city as heart versus city as spine 53
Urban paradox 54
The cycle of destruction and reconstruction 56
The Green Line 60
City as heart:Solidere as messiah? 62
Colonial visions 63
Post war master plans for Beirut’s reconstruction 65
Urban surgery 69
Lessons learnt 81
5 Nicosia – reconstruction as resolution 85
Background to partition 86
Drawing the Green Line 88
The Nicosia master plan 89
The bi-communal sewerage project 91
Collaboration 93
Negotiating tools 95
Pilot projects 97
6 Mostar – reconstruction as reconciliation 99
The civil war and Mostar 101
Dividing lines:the Boulevard 103
Reconstruction without reconciliation 105
Barriers to reconstruction 106
Misguided priorities? 108
Economic and social barriers 109
Reconstruction to date:an assessment 109
Lessons learnt 111
7 From zones of contention to lines of 115
connection – implications for the design profession
Redevelopment as an economic generator 117
Golden moments 119
Centre versus periphery 120
Towards an operational framework:the three ‘p’principles 121
Proactive roles for architects 127
Mobilization 131
Conclusion 132
vi
Contents
8 Architects without frontiers – implications for design education 135
Studio processes 137
Dividing Line studio I:The Boulevard studio,Mostar,1998 138
Dividing Line studio II:Demarcating Spaces,Beirut,2000 142
Dividing Line studio III:It is about time? Nicosia,2002 149
Studio outcomes 154
Guiding principles 156
In search of socially engaged architects 159
Bibliography 163
Further Reading 169
Index 171
vii