Architects

Professionals possess an authoritative and monopolistic position that rests on their exclusive knowledge and is reinforced by their normative ideology. However, in hegemonic processes professionals often serve also as "traditional intellectuals," or agents who preserve the interests of those in power. This article focuses on a critical moment in which a threat is posed to both the professional status of architects and the established hegemonic order. By examining the professional architects' reaction to this double threat, this article will show that the professionals attempted to protect the old social structure and hegemonic ideology, while neglecting their exclusive knowledge and tools as professionals and diminishing their professional status. This process will be examined by analyzing the conduct of discourse of Israeli architects in reaction to the partial privatization of urban planning and the freedom given to individuals to design their own homes during the 1980s.

In der Festschrift für Enxa SruoN hat WerrBn Bunrrnr sich bemüht, den Sinn einer Grabschrift für einen Architekten aus Mylasa zu erhellen.l Der festliche Anlaß hat dant geführt, daß aus dem zunächst unscheinbaren Text2 mit einem holprigen und wenig kunstvollen Grabgedicht ein wichtiges Zeugnis für die Architekturgeschichte wurde: Keinen Geringeren als einen der Architekten, die den Tempel der Venus und Roma unter Maxentius wieder aufbauten, will BunKERT in dem Grabepigramm aus Mylasa entdeckt haben. Zu dieser Metamorphose des einst unbedeutenden Textes möchte ich einige Bedenken und eine andere Interpretation vortragen.

Salama, A. M. and Courtney, L. (2013). The Impact of the Spatial Qualities of the Workplace on Architects’ Job Satisfaction, Archnet-IJAR–International Journal of Architectural Research, 7(1), pp. 52-64. ISSN # 1938 7806.

Undoubtedly Job satisfaction among architects is necessary to create a healthy work environment and in turn supports the creation of meaningful built environments. This paper examines the phenomenon of job satisfaction amongst architects and the factors that significantly influence it in the context of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. A descriptive survey in the form of a questionnaire and structured interviews was utilized to form a comprehensive methodology for investigation, which was conducted in 2009. In total, three hundred questionnaires were administered, addressing architects working in both private and public sectors, while twelve interviews were conducted, with six for each sector. Preliminary findings indicate that job satisfaction has been rated to be relatively high amongst Belfast architects. Factors identified as particularly significant include control over thermal conditions, acoustics, views, lighting, and ergonomics.

This paper, based on a fragment of my doctoral thesis, reveals the enormous number of historical documents available for the study of the Sevillian housing of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (about 2000 documents). In these lines it has been exposed and analyzed the different documentary sources—graphical and literary—that are conserved in the Sevillian historical archives. In addition, the important role of master builders (alarifes) in collecting data on buildings owned by the Cathedral and charity hospitals (Amor de Dios, Espíritu Santo, Bubas, Cinco Llagas and Cardenal), owners of about 30% of the buildings in those centuries, as well as their names and work, reflected in the form of literary surveys (16th century) and drawings or plans (17th century). In addition, it focuses on the contribution of a novel methodology in the translation of the description provided by the literary surveys to the graphic medium, resulting in plans, elevations and volumetries computer aided. Finally, data has been collected on the units of measurement used in both centuries by the alarifes in their works (surveys and plans).

Many studies confirm the role of architects have an ecological debt. Its environmental, social and economic responsibility is high because of the building design. In Argentina 40% of energy resources are used to meet the buildings demand. The study focuses on higher education understanding its great responsibility on these issues and specifically in the training of architects. Profiles and curricula declared by national public universities in degrees in architecture are discussed, and a general diagnosis is made in relation to the incorporation of sustainability in them. The conclusions state that the inclusion of the subject in the curriculum is still in its initial phase and new sustainability specific concepts are absent in the study plans.

Raising the persistence question about architectural entities consists in asking what is necessary and sufficient for a past or future architectural entity, like a building, to exist now. In this paper I investigate how the persistence question about buildings is affected by their spatial relocation. Why do we normally doubt that Notre Dame can survive its meticulous stone-by-stone transfer to Las Vegas? I argue that, since architectural plans are not capable of specifying all the constitutive properties of a building, the source of differentiation among constitutive and non-constitutive properties for buildings lies in a property’s being eligible or not eligible to be aesthetically relevant in the aesthetic judgements about them. As a matter of fact, our aesthetic judgements about buildings often concern, and are grounded on, extrinsic contextual properties. This explains why buildings can usually not survive relocation: because normally there is no basis for ruling out any extrinsic contextual feature of the building as inessential. I also try to explain why the change from thirteenth century Paris to contemporary Paris proved not to be lethal to Notre Dame’s persistence, in spite of its being more significant than other imaginary context changes that we would easily count as fatal.

Over the years, art in its various forms has played a vital role in the lives of African people. It served as a major form of communicative expression of religious beliefs and socio-cultural norms of the people. Its form, presentation and significance however, varied from one cultural setting to another. This paper examines art in the context of domestic architecture of indigenous people of South West Nigeria and its relevance in contemporary housing as well as what it portends for architectural education in that cultural zone. The paper notes the disappearance of the rich traditional motifs and symbols from contemporary housing and their replacement with more contemporary art forms influenced by globalisation and industrial mass production. It concludes that the current trend presents an architecture that is devoid of cultural architectural uniqueness and identity. One of the implications identified is for architectural curricula to incorporate indigenous themes that will help architects produce domestic architecture that have contextual relevance. Data for the paper was collected through literature review and the qualitative research method using interviews and observations of houses in the zone. Those interviewed include architects and residents in the zone. Data was content analysed to highlight common themes.

Nowadays, the construction industry market is in rising demand for the adoption of new construction technologies. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one of the most technologies that are progressively being used for the majority of firms in GCC and worldwide. In this regard, BIM has promising applications for teamwork projects and stakeholders in the construction industry, especially architects. In addition, BIM plays an essential role in supporting them and facilitating the different procedures throughout the building life-cycle. However, our knowledge about architects' adoption of this technology is very limited. For this reason, the main aim of this paper is to identify the progress of architecture firms in BIM adoption and classify the characteristics of firms that have implemented BIM. Furthermore, the research method was mainly structured to cover several types of BIM studies and indicators about the spread of BIM applications in the local construction sector. Moreover, several questionnaires were designed to assess the level of BIM maturity in this region. The paper findings are expected to make all the project stakeholders aware of the current status and required steps towards BIM adoption at different levels in the GCC region. Additionally, the research results will pave the road to foster and enhance the BIM working field and facilitate its implementation by different disciplines within a wide range of architectural consultancy firms.

Perhaps more than other aspect of Roman culture, the study of architecture is affected by two preconceptions, the first resulting from its durability, the second from later attitudes. First, because buildings appear as a solid and visible legacy of Roman culture, it is assumed that Romans themselves clearly recognised the meaning of architecture. Yet, within a short time-span, two ancient writers, Varro and Vitruvius, presented different views. Vitruvius, the more fortunate in transmission, was ambivalent about the definition of ‘architecture’, calling it first a compound of aesthetic concepts – organisation, layout, good rhythm, symmetry, correctness, and allocation; but, a chapter later, a combination of scientific domains – building, mechanics, and orology. For Varro, architecture was one of nine ‘disciplines’; his lost treatise can hardly have contained such technicalities or defined ‘architecture’ so comfortably within the parameters of the modern academic subject. This article explores past debates on Roman architecture, including one concerning archaeology and architectural history; form and function as well as utility and ornament of Roman buildings; public architecture and private building; and centre and periphery.

Circular form is a form-term that can be used as a metaphor for the "model-copy-model" cycle in terms of cultural-architectonic interaction process and interaction direction. The conceptual production of this model-copy cycle is the main argument of the article. The Bassae Apollo temple is a replica of the Archaic phase of the Apollon temple of Delphoi in prominent parameters for the mass, such as the architectural layout, plan typology, proportion system, short and long outer column numbers and proportions system. In terms of architectural interaction, there is no special case in terms of model-copy relationship up to this point. Architectural continuity and interaction concepts are natural elements of architectural history. However, a very special architectural phenomenon has emerged in the architectural relationship between the Delphoi-Bassae cultural spaces. After the Archaic phase of the Delphoi temple was destroyed, the second phase of the temple was built in the 4th century BC. During this construction, the Classical Period Bassae Apollo temple, which was built by Ictinos based on the Archaic phase of the Delphoi temple, this time became a "model" for the Late Classical phase of the Delphoi temple. Both architectonic spaces have become both models and copies with different sequences and chronologies. The model-copy-model-copy cyclic relationship has been built between the constructions of the two spaces. In the ancient Greek religious architecture, such a phenomenon has not been encountered once again in relation to two different structures.

Esta comunicación, basada en un fragmento de una tesis doctoral, pone de manifiesto la ingente cantidad de documentos históricos existentes para el estudio del caserío sevillano de los siglos XVI y XVII (cerca de 2000 documentos). En estas líneas se ha pretendido exponer y analizar las diferentes fuentes documentales – gráficas y literarias – que albergan los archivos históricos. Además, se ha estudiado el papel importante que asumieron los maestros alarifes para la recogida de datos relativos a los inmuebles propiedad de la Catedral y de los hospitales de caridad (Amor de Dios, Espíritu Santo, Bubas, Cinco Llagas y Cardenal), dueños de cerca del 30% del caserío en aquellos siglos, así como sus nombres y su trabajo, reflejado en forma de apeos literarios (siglo XVI) y apeos gráficos o planos (siglo XVII). Además, se incide en la aportación de una metodología novedosa en la traducción de la descripción literaria aportada por los apeos literarios, al medio gráfico, dando como resultado, planos, alzados y volumetrías realizadas con ordenador. Por último, se han recogido datos relativos a las unidades de medida que se usaban en ambos siglos por los alarifes en sus trabajos (apeos y planos).

Lisa Landrum's paper "Modus Operandi of an Architectus Doli: Architectural Cunning in the Comic Plays of Plautus"  appears as Chapter 15.  Also in the book are essays by Karsten Harries, Marco Frascari, David Leatherbarrow, Kenneth Frampton, Juhani Pallasmaa, Steven Holl, and other colleages and former students of Alberto Perez-Gomez including: Ricardo L. Castro, Tracey Eve Winton, Robert Kirkbride, Paul Emmons, Indra Kagis McEwen, Santiago de Orduña, Caroline Dionne, Lily Chi, Louise Pelletier, Lawrence Bird, Lian Chikako Chang, Natalija Subotincic, Stephen Parcell, Graham Livesey, Juan Manuel Heredia, Anne Bordeleau, Peter Olshavsky, and David Theodore.

Paper summary/excerpts: "At least five of Plautus’ twenty extant comedies involve what classicists call an architectus doli, an “architect of trickery.” … Plautus’ elaboration of the cunning slave character has long been considered one of his most original contributions to Latin drama; but the “architect” terms associated with these slaves (and with Jupiter) were likely transposed from the now largely lost Greek comedies that Plautus adapted and translated into Latin. These five imported “architects” were generally ignored in early studies of Plautine inventiveness. They eventually gained attention, however, in an important 1952 study on The Nature of Roman Comedy. Since then, Plautus’ architectus figure has been interpreted in a variety of ways within classical scholarship: as a euphemism for the play’s lowly agent of intrigue; as a proxy for the scheming playwright; and as a media-reflexive figure associated with other craft imagery used throughout Plautus’ plays to qualify and vivify not only acts of scheming and plot construction, but also moral edification. Yet, there are further interpretations to be made and important questions to be asked…This essay cannot answer these questions in full, but it will initiate an interpretation of Plautus’ architectus doli with such questions in mind. By lifting this Roman dramatist up out of the footnotes of architectural scholarship (where he is sometimes merely credited with providing the earliest extant use of the Latin term architectus), the following study prepares the grounds for discovering how the cunning agents and agencies of Plautus’ comedies meaningfully illuminate the modus operandi of architects..."

El presente artículo aborda las renovaciones renacentistas que transformaron los palacios reales navarros de Pamplona y Olite promovidas por los virreyes que los habitaron, especialmente Sancho Martínez de Leiva y el marqués de Almazán. En las remodelaciones arquitectónicas acometidas entre las décadas de 1570 y 1580 sobresale la supervisión y ejecución de trazas del artista genovés Juan Luis de Musante, maestro mayor de las obras reales de Navarra al servicio del monarca Felipe II.
Palabras clave: Arquitectura, Renacimiento, Siglo XVI, Palacio, Pamplona, Olite, Juan Luis de Musante, Sancho Martínez de Leyva, Marqués de Almazán.

"This study utilised a focus group technique to explore architects, engineers and energy managers’ perceptions of low temperature geothermal (LTG) and biomass energy technologies. More specifically, the emphasis was on how they made decisions about heating and cooling systems, what they saw as barriers to uptake and solutions they identified, with the goal of expanding the New Zealand market for these technologies.

Research participants overwhelmingly perceived New Zealand to be economically, geographically, socially, climatically and culturally different from the rest of the world. Consequently, they placed an emphasis on the need for new innovations to be New Zealand proven. In practice, this perception of difference coloured participant responses, and discussions were contextualised by references to a complex, socio-technical national landscape.

There were some misconceptions about the range of temperatures encompassed by the direct use of geothermal energy. Moreover, the term Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) was deemed a more accurate and marketable term than Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP). In comparison, there was more clarity about what compromised the range of biomass energy technologies/resources, their renewability and how they differed from fossil fuels. In sum, the names of new heating and cooling technologies must put out a clear, simple and comprehensible message to potential customers.

Heating and cooling professionals advocated for the installation of accessible and viewable retrofits to prove that the technology can work in the New Zealand context, even though they were accepted in Europe and North America. Alternately, the country was not seen as a suitable location for District/Aggregated Heating Systems,  although their merit could be understood in overseas contexts. However, participants recognised that an increasing number of potential customers had either migrated from overseas or were returning from living overseas, with higher comfort level expectations and a willingness to spend more money on effective heating and cooling systems.

Within the heating and cooling industry, there was a general risk aversion to new technologies and high capital costs, with the favouring of a standard cookie-cutter approach to outfitting buildings. Participants did not think that the current emphasis on a (highly competitive) free-market economy would allow for the incorporation of innovative, renewable technologies, without the deliberate subsidisation/taxation of polluting systems. More locally, the potential for new technologies during the Christchurch rebuild was sullied by the need for immediate re-investment of fixed price insurance pay outs and commercial pressure to get back to business as quickly as possible.

There was some concern over the impact on the reputation of heating and cooling technologies when client’s encounter ‘cowboy’ companies, and the role that social media and word-of-mouth played in propagating rumours. Participants outlined a number of marketing strategies that focused on the relationship between the technologies and clients. Moreover, based on these discussions, it appears that communication between different tradespeople and between engineers and energy managers needs to be purposefully fostered and encouraged, particularly in terms of follow-up and feedback on the performance of an installed system.

Education on life cycle costs was thought to be essential for both clients and financial lenders alike. Furthermore, specific training on the technologies was requested within engineering degrees, as well as separate qualifications for each technology in order to certify professionals and to disenfranchise ‘cowboys’. National seminars, led by experts, were encouraged by participants, and these should be used to present realistic case studies, alongside supporting facts and statistics on the performance of a system."