CONF: Re-framing Identities: Architecture's Turn to History

ETH Zurich, Switzerland, September 10 - 12, 2015

Registration deadline: Aug 31, 2015

East West Central 03: Re-framing Identities: Architecture's Turn to

History, 1970-1990

The years between 1970 and 1990 were characterized by the rise of

postmodernism in architecture in Western and Eastern Europe. During

this period, the 1980s in particular, several socialist countries also

witnessed processes of liberalization and economic reforms, and the

overthrow of state leaderships in 1989/90, which would mark the end of

Europe's political division. Architecture, in these processes, became a

means through which to reframe identities, reconsider relationships to

history, and thus call into question not only the modern project but

also its wider political promises. The aim of this two-day

international conference is to revisit this historic period, and to

analyse and compare parallel developments in architecture and urban

design on both sides of the Cold War divide against the backdrop of

unfolding geopolitical transformations.

While postmodernism’s impact could be felt across different

disciplines, its origins can be traced most strongly in architecture

and urban design. After all, the term and concept postmodernism first

emerged in these disciplines. Since the mid-1960s, an increasingly

critical attitude toward functionalist modernism developed within

architecture that led to a spread of revisionist thinking and a growing

concern for historicism, symbolism and meaning. This change was

paralleled and sustained by a proliferation of architectural theory,

influenced in particular by phenomenology and semiotics. During the

1970s and 1980s, the recognition of architecture’s capacity to reflect

and ground identity reignited the search for ways to represent local,

national and regional traditions through built form.

The conference will address, among others, questions concerning:

- the chronology of the turn to history in architecture and urban

design in different European countries.

- how terms and concepts such as modernism and postmodernism were

discussed by architects and theorists in East and West.

- the relationship between postmodern discourse and mainstream

architectural culture during the 1970s and 1980s, asking how elements

of critique and opposition manifested themselves.

- role played by questions of heritage and identity in architectural

practice, and the specific forms this took in various countries in

Europe.

- the impact of historicism and postmodernism on the development of

cities in Eastern and Western Europe.

- the mechanisms of international exchange and transfer that allowed

postmodernism to become a global phenomenon.

In recent years, postmodernism received growing attention though both

scholarship and popular exhibitions such as "Postmodernism – Style and

Subversion 1970—1990" at the V&A and the Landesmuseum Zürich (2012).

However, the focus of academic research and public shows tended to be

on Western Europe and North America, where postmodernism's conceptual

basis was developed and where, arguably, its impact could be felt most

strongly. Thus far, parallel developments and exchanges with Eastern

Europe have played a marginal role. A complex comparative analysis of

these developments that accounts for their heterogeneous nature is

missing. The question whether and to what extent the term and concept

postmodernism can be usefully applied to the Eastern European context

remains insufficiently addressed.

Our objective is to examine the historical turn in architecture in

Eastern and Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s as a common

cultural legacy, situated in relation to fundamental and far-reaching

socio-economic and political changes – the erosion of communist

regimes, their eventual disintegration and the triumph of global

neoliberal capitalism. We propose a framework that treats

contemporaneous architectural phenomena in Western and Eastern Europe

on equal terms and side by side, thus asking for mechanisms of

interconnection, mutual exchange, transfer, and translation across the

political divide.

The conference will bring together an international group of

established and younger academics and practitioners, including a number

of former protagonists. Keynote lectures by Ákos Moravánszky,

Stanislaus von Moos, Joan Ockman, and Karin Šerman.

Attendance of the conference is free of charge. We kindly ask you to

register your interest by sending an email to

professur.moravanszky@gta.arch.ethz.ch until 31 August 2015.

Chair for Theory of Architecture

Prof. Dr. Ákos Moravánszky

Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta)

ETH Zurich

Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5

8093 Zurich

Switzerland