Docomomo International Presentation at ETSAB

Президентът на ДОКОМОМО Интернешънъл - Ана Тостоес
представя в Училището по архитектура в Барселона (ETSAB)
организацията за Документация и консервация
на сградите, паметните места и кварталите
на Модерното движение
DOCOMOMO (DOcumentation and COnservation
of buildings, sites and monuments of the MOdern MOvement)
и ще изнесе лекция на тема
"Трансконтиненталният модернизъм"
понеделник - 9 май 2011 г.



ETSAB - Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona http://www.etsab.upc.edu/web/frame.htm?i=2&m=inicio&c=inicio
Barcelona School of Architecture
http://www.upc.edu/unitat/fitxa_unitat.php?id_unitat=107&lang=ing

Central Railway Station in Stuttgart - a Modern Monument of culture at risk / Централната гара в Щутгарт - модерен паметник на културата в риск

Централната железопътна гара в Щутгарт -
творба на известния немски архитект Паул Бонац, преподавател на редица български архитекти, учили в Германия - е застрашена от разрушаване.

ДОКОМОМО Германия е предприела протестна акция чрез ДОКОМОМО Интернешънъл
в защита целостта на сградата.

Dear Docomomo friends,
We have received this information regarding the demolition of the northern wing of the Stuttgart Central Station (see the attached photos and further photos below; see also www.kopfbahnhof-21.de). We invite you to spread this information and collaborate in the best way possible. Docomomo International is actively supporting this campaign.

Kind regards,
Ivan Blasi, Secretary
Docomomo International






ДОКОМОМО Германия обяснява:
* Since Friday night the German Railway company prepares the demolition of the northern wing of the Stuttgart Central Station (advanced to August) protected by hundreds of policemen against thousands of citizens (see the attached photos and further photos below; see also www.kopfbahnhof-21.de)







Ето писмото на ДОКОМОМО Германия до отговорните институции

Dear Sir, dear Madam,
the recent happenings in the city of Stuttgart may not be interesting for you*, but if ever you don’t want to allow politicians destroying important buildings without necessity, please get active.

I accuse the responsible politicians of cultural vandalism and of deficient democratic respect. Because of a lack of time you’ll find the attachment only in the German version entitled “Stuttgart 21 – The Vandals are before the town gates”). However, in case you want this unique building entirely to be preserved please write a letter or send an e-mail (e.g. forwarding this e-mail with your comment) to the following persons to stop this vandalism:

Bundeskanzleramt
Bundeskanzlerin
Dr. Angela Merkel
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1
D-10557 Berlin
http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/De/Service/Kontakt/kontakt.html

Herrn
Dr. Rüdiger Grube
Vorsitzender des Vorstands der
Deutsche Bahn AG
Potsdamer Platz 2
D-10786 Berlin
ruediger.grube@deutschebahn.com

Herrn
OB Dr. Wolfgang Schuster
Rathaus
D-70173 Stuttgart
wolfgang.schuster@stuttgart.de

or inform your local newspaper
Sincerely,
Dr. Matthias Roser

DOCOMOMO International Conference - Tours

Kind invitation for partcipation in the postconference tours of DOCOMOMO in Mexico
by Ivan Blasi, Secretary,
Docomomo International

Modern Movement Architecture and Urban Design in Eastern Mediterranean Cities

Dear friends:
Docomomo International and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe organise a debate session within the frame of the Coup de Dés programme, that provide an opportunity to discuss Modern Movement Architecture and Urban Design in Eastern Mediterranean Cities, and to analyse contemporary interventions.

Free entrance
Limited seats

Dear Docomomo friends,
2010 is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Melnikov. The Melnikov House (1927-1929) is under threat of being taken into private hands, against the desires of the author of the house and of his son Viktor (1914-2006), well-known artist and custodian of the house for 30 years.

Please, read the Press Release document enclosed.
We will keep you updated with more information regarding the campaign to protect the building.

Kind regards,

Ana Tostoes, Chair Docomomo International
Ivan Blasi, Secretary General, Docomomo International


The Melnikov House (1927-1929) is under threat of being taken into private hands, against the desires of the author of the house, Konstantin Melnikov (1890-1974) celebrated architect of the Avant-garde period, and of his son Viktor (1914-2006), well-known artist, and custodian of the house for 30 years.

It was stipulated in Viktor Melnikov’s will that the house should become a State Museum to Konstantin Melnikov and himself (father and son.) Viktor’s daughter, Yekaterina Karinskaya is the executor of the will and is currently resident in the house.

However, the owner of half of the house, former director of property developing company Rosbuilding, Senator Sergei Gordeyev, wants to gain full ownership of the house and open a privately owned museum there. Mr. Gordeyev has stated that he does not want to honour Viktor Melnikov’s wishes either that should be a museum to father and son nor that it should be State owned.

In 2007, Mr Gordeyev founded the International Melnikov House Committee (IMHC) from representatives of the Russian and international cultural and architectural communities and architectural conservation bodies. Many members of the IMHC fear that Mr Gordeyev perceives the body as having a purely decorative character: the IMHC met once but since then have only heard from Mr Gordeyev in the form of a single reply to a collective IMHC letter. (Please see MAPS website for all IMHC correspondence www.maps-moscow.com)

Members of the IMHC listed below firmly believe that the wishes of Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov must be upheld in decisions concerning the future of the house.

Over the last five years, court cases have been in process, addressing the issue of the ownership of the property and archive. Formally, the instigators of the court proceedings are the younger daughter of Viktor Melnikov, Yelena, and her cousin Alexei Ilganaev. Mr Gordeyev actively supports them and participates in these processes with the aim of acquiring the entirety of the house and three quarters of Konstantin Melnikov’s archive.

David Sarkisyan, former Director of Moscow’s Shchusev State Architecture Museum, and member of the IMHC, who died in January this year, played an important regulating role in this matter.

We members of the IMHC believe that the Melnikov House is in jeopardy. We believe that the Russian Ministry of Culture must come forward to claim and defend the portion of the house left to the Russian State and people by Viktor Melnikov. We believe that the Russian Ministry of Culture has a responsibility to negotiate with all parties interested in the future of the house.

If action is not taken now, the Russian State, is putting the Melnikov House at risk, and in doing so is denying the Russian people and the international community their legacy. 2010 is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Melnikov.
signed:
Clementine Cecil (Moscow Architecture Preservation Society)
Jean-Louis Cohen (University of Paris, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)
Nataliya Dushkina (Moscow Architecture Institute)
Yekaterina Karinskaya (granddaughter of Konstantin Melnikov)
Anke Zalivako (Technical University of Berlin)

All press enquiries should go to:
MAPS Trustee and IMHC member Clementine Cecil +44 7968 003 595
clem@maps-moscow.com
IMHC member Natalia Dushkina
IMHC member Jean-Louis Cohen
IMHC member Yekaterina Karinskaya (granddaughter of Konstantin Melnikov)
+7 499 241 1873

http://www.melnikovhouse.org/home.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Melnikov
http://translate.google.bg/translate?hl=bg&langpair=en%7Cbg&u=http://www.maps-moscow.com/%3Fchapter_id%3D139

Heritage@Risk - National Marine Headquarters, Paris, France

Say no to the demolition of this major building
by the Perret brothers!
Send your name / first name / position / city / country

Les bâtiments de la Marine nationale (1928-1956, Paris, 15e) sont menacés de destruction en raison d'un vaste projet du Ministère de la Défense. Un permis de démolir a été demandé sans qu’aucune expertise préalable n’ait été engagée.

Or il s'agit d'une oeuvre exceptionnelle, tant par la qualité de son architecture, que par la position qu’elle occupe dans la trajectoire des frères Perret. Elle représente une étape décisive dans l’élaboration d’un ordre du béton armé. Sa disparition nous priverait d’un maillon essentiel pour comprendre un héritage déjà mutilé par la démolition du garage de la rue Ponthieu (1906) et des ateliers Esders (1919). Il serait lamentable qu’un ensemble dépendant directement de l’État subisse un sort analogue à celui qui vient d’être réservé, à Amiens, à une autre œuvre des frères Perret, la place de la gare, défigurée par des transformations grossières.

Les bâtiments de la Marine nationale doivent être protégés. Le dossier d’archives (l’un des plus riches du fonds Perret) témoigne de l’effervescence qui a accompagné la conception du projet. On peut, grâce à 2000 documents conservés, suivre les recherches qui ont abouti à cette œuvre savante.

Dans Le langage de l’architecture classique, John Summerson compare la Marine nationale à l’Opéra de Paris : "Le bâtiment est entièrement en béton armé et dépourvu de tout ornement. Mais il est pensé en termes d’ordres". "Il y a presque autant de relief et de variété, de rythme, dans ce bâtiment, que dans l’Opéra. Simplement, il n’y a ni moulure, ni sculpture". Peter Collins souligne la maîtrise de cet ensemble. Le soin accordé aux proportions, le jeu de l’ombre et de la lumière, la composition des bétons révèlent "quelque chose de plus profond que l’intelligente amélioration des éléments architectoniques essentiels. L’architecture industrielle est portée ici au degré le plus élevé de l’art".

Seul le bâtiment administratif est inscrit à l’inventaire. Les autres constructions vont disparaître. Démanteler un tel patrimoine pour n’en conserver que la partie administrative est inacceptable. Ce serait perdre les qualités d’harmonisation qui ont porté cette "architecture industrielle" à ce degré de dignité qu’ont su percevoir Summerson et Collins. Ce serait discréditer définitivement la politique de protection du patrimoine du XXe engagée par le Ministère de la Culture.

http://www.docomomo.com/PDF/Navy%20Headquarters%20by%20Perret,%20Paris.pdf
http://www.docomomo.com/news_heritage.htm

Heritage@Risk - Sanatorium Lemaire, Belgium

Severe Threat to Belgian Modernist Masterpiece:
Support Needed!
Sign the petition at http://www.redhetsanatorium.be/petition/index.htm

Some 19km from Brussels lays the Joseph Lemaire Sanatorium, a modernist masterpiece by the architects Maxime and Fernand Brunfaut. Both designers were closely linked with the socialist movement in the Interbellum period and played an important role in the introduction of the modernist principles in Belgian architectural culture. Before embarking on a successful personal career, Maxime Brunfaut was for a longtime Victor Horta’s principal assistant.

Just like Aalto’s famous Paimio Sanatorium and the celebrated Zonnestraal Sanatorium by Duiker and Blijvoet, the Lemaire sanatorium was conceived in a typically functionalist manner, providing a state of the art infrastructure for the cure of patients suffering from tuberculosis.

From its opening in 1937 on, the Lemaire Sanatorium attracted international attention from both the medical and architectural world who praised its functional organization, the fluid sequence of its interior spaces, the plastic articulation of the building mass and the detailing of the façades, clad with ceramic tiles. A remarkable invention is the block system.

After the building was disused in the late 1980s, it quickly fell pray to decay, vandalism and theft. Paradoxically, its listing as a historical monument in 1993 even stimulated this perishing as it led to a situation of immobility. Propositions for reuse of the structure as lofts, offices or an asylum for political refugees were aborted in an early stage. Despite its current ruinous state, the building continues to attract international attention from scholars, architects and photographers who are impressed by the strength of its forms and its interaction with the surrounding landscape.

More information on the sanatorium and petition
http://www.redhetsanatorium.be/petition/index.htm

The Factory, The Paradigm Of Modernity / Фабриката - Парадигмата на модерността

VIIth Iberian DOCOMOMO Congress / IVth DOCOMOMO ISC Registers Seminar
Gijón, Asturias, Spain - 14-17 April 2010

Call for papers
The aim of the International Seminar to be held in Spain in 2010 is to reflect on the influence of technology on the emergence of modern-movement architecture and on the new view that would lead to change in the interpretations of all artistic experiences.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) initiated a line of thought which was inevitably destined to develop: that of the world of science as the object of philosophical reflection. At the same time, scientific and technical progress would consolidate, in practice, a new change in the interpretative values of Western culture.
In opposition to the world of nature that of the device would become consolidated, governed by the laws of technology, which would develop fully inside new architectural artefacts practically unknown until the nineteenth century. The factory, as a new architectural type, had come into being.
It would be in the factory, as a new expression of construction, that architecture developed one of the most specific manifestations of modernity, quickly travelling the distance that separated the steam engine from full industrialisation.
And not only architects, but also painters, sculptors, photographers and composers found in the world of technology and its container, the factory, a motive of inspiration and reflection on the scope of their respective artistic experiences. The film world, too, became trapped by its irrepressible lure, as Charles Chaplin ironically expressed in Modern Times.
In the construction of the factory new building techniques were developed as the expression of its utilitarian needs as well as of materials that had recently become available. Poets devoted many hours to its interpretation, while painters and sculptors modelled forms and used hitherto unknown expressive resources in an attempt to decipher the symbolism of technology.
The fascination that the factory generated has reached the present day. Its past splendour, now largely reduced to ruins, continues to attract our eye: having become thoroughly obsolete, factories nonetheless tell us not only of our past but also of some of the most meaningful concerns of our present. We project our gaze onto their ruins with deep nostalgia, melancholy and uncertainty, to the point where we are prepared to prolong their existence beyond their original use, now expired, to discover their new possibilities as leisure and cultural premises.
Reflect on your past reality and its potential for the future is thus the goal of the convening of this International Seminar. To order the Seminar, specifying the intent of lectures and conferences and taking into account the place of its conclusion, it is proposed to organize the whole of the work from a sectoral perspective. These take into account not only individual buildings but also its territorial integration, an issue that we consider crucial in order to assess both its architectural merits as intervention operations on them can be made. In this sense, we propose to confine the work, in addition to general reflections on, two specific productive sectors: coal-steel and Energy (thermal and hydro).

Schedule
February 22, 2010: Deadline for abstract submission (must not exceed 2100
characters)
February 26, 2010: Selection of abstracts by the scienti c committee
March 3, 2010: Notification of acceptance to the relevant authors
April 9, 2010: Deadline for submission of the final text of the papers
accepted (must not exceed 8 pages, 16800 characters, and 12 images)
April 14-17, 2010: Congress
The abstracts should be prepared according to the attached
template and will be submitted on line, by email, by registered mail
or by courier by 15:00 pm, February 22, 2010 to:

Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Plaça Nova 5, 3ª planta, 08002 Barcelona
Tel. 93 3067859 || email: fundacion@docomomoiberico.com
http://www.docomomoiberico.com/

Scientific Committee
Miguel Ángel Areces
João Viera Caldas
Celestino García Braña
Panayotis Tournikiotis

Speakers
Miguel Aguiló
Henri Bava
Jordi Borja
Sérgio Fernandez
Celestino García Braña
Piotr Gerber
Ana Tostões
Zaparij Vladimir V.
Panayotis Tournikiotis

Congress Secretariat
Algama, S.L.
Tlf. 984492462 Fax. 985171855
E-mail: docomomo7@coaa.es

Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Asturias
Marqués de Gastañaga, 3
33009 OVIEDO
Teléfono: 985 274 993 / 985 232 316
Fax: 985 273 946
Email: coaa@coaa.es
www.coaa.es

Competition for Image Models of 20th-century Architectural Heritage

The French Ministry of Culture (Direction of Architecture and Heritage – DAPA)
and the International Union of Architects
announce
an international student competition
for digital representations of landmark 20th-century buildings http://www.archi.fr/UIA/.
http://www.uia-architectes.org/texte/england/Menu-3/4-Actu.html

The panorama and 3D models designed will be based on digital photographs and developed using the Autodesk softwares ‘Autodesk ImageModeler’ and ‘Autodesk Stitcher’ (made available to the participants free of charge for three months).
The competition will be launched during the European Heritage Days
on September 19–20, 2009.
Projects submissions are planned for April 2010.

The grand prize winners and all projects selected at the national level will be exhibited at the Venice biennial in September 2010.
The digital presentations of all selected projects will be posted online at http://www.archi.fr/UIA/.

Partners:
French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Direction of Architecture and Heritage), French National Center for Scientific Research (UMR-CNRS 694 MAP),
International Union of Architects,
Docomomo International.

Contact:
communication.dapa@culture.gouv.fr
uia@uia-architectes.org

Information forwarded by
the Docomomo International
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
Palais de Chaillot 1, place du Trocadéro, F-75016 Paris
t +33 -1 58 51 52 65
e docomomo@citechaillot.fr
w docomomo.com

This project focuses on an international student competition for digital representations of landmark 20th century buildings.
The competition will be run entirely through the Internet.An initial national competition will be carried out by the UIA Member Sections and thewinners of the national selections will be submitted to the international jury.
The panoramas and 3D models designed for this competition will be based on digitalphotographs and developed using the Autodesk software‘Autodesk® ImageModeler™’and ‘Autodesk® Stitcher™’.
This software will be made available to the participants freeof charge for a period of three months.
Created in 2002 in the framework of an agreement between the French Ministry of Cultureand Communication (direction of Architecture and Heritage),
the French National Centre for Scientific Research (UMR-CNRS 694 MAP)
and the International Union of Architects,
the site www.archi.fr/UIA/ aims to identify and promote architectural works around theworld that have left their mark on 20th century architecture.
The international committee
for Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, DoCoMoMo,
is also participating in this project.

Contact:
communication.dapa@culture.gouv.fr
uia@uia-architectes.org

Moscow Heritage at Crisis Point

SAVE, Maps and Docomomo International
present
second edition

Buildings under threat include internationally famous landmarks: the Bolshoi Theater, Mayakovskaya Metro Station, Monuments of the avant-garde, plus buildings that are an inseparable part of Moscow’s identity like Children’s World Department Store and the Central House of Artists.
This report was possible due to the late scholar of Russian architecture Catherine Cooke [see In Memoriam by Denis Sharp on http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/catherine-cooke-549533.html].
The report is a follow up to the 2007 report, a bombshell that focused national and international attention on the crisis that Moscow’s heritage is undergoing.
Despite the successes of the report, including the listing of 3 buildings, the destruction continues.
The new report details the changes of the last two years—what new losses the city has suffered, which buildings are under continuing or new threat, why this is happening, and also outlines the path for a more sustainable future for the city.
This new report from SAVE Europe’s Heritage and the Moscow Architectural Preservation Society (MAPS), with support from Docomomo International, condemns the losses while illustrating the astonishing range of historic building in Moscow, from medieval churches to elegant postwar modernism—all threatened by the furious pace of redevelopment of the city by a coterie of property developers during the tenure of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

Press conference: July 22, 5pm
Schusev State Museum of ArchitectureMoscow, 5,
VozdvizhenkaWrite to clem@maps-moscow.com
More information at http://www.maps-moscow.com/index.php?chapter_id=139

Robin Hood Gardens: Re-Visions

RIBA, London
July 4–August 26, 2009

Alongside the continuing campaign for Robin Hood Gardens, the Twentieth Century Society has organized an exhibition at the RIBA Gallery, entitled Robin Hood Gardens: Re-Visions.Featuring archive material on the estate, a series of new images from acclaimed architectural photographer Ioana Marinescu and a new documentary film on the estate by NFT student Martin Ginestie, the exhibition will also include recent projects about Robin Hood Gardens completed by diploma students at the University of Greenwich.Launch Party on Tuesday 21 July, 6:30pm.
RSVP administrator@c20society.org.uk
Gallery 2RIBA, 66 Portland
PlaceLondon W1B 1AD
The Twentieth Century Society http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/press/090630_rhg_update_&-exhibition.html

Information forwarded by the International committee for documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement
Docomomo International
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
Palais de Chaillot1, place du Trocadéro
F-75016 Paris
t +33 -1 58 51 52 65e
docomomo@citechaillot.fr
w docomomo.com