[1]
From: Kai Gutschow <gutschowandrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Intersections: Dialogues of Architecture & History

Seeking abstracts on various intersections of historians (including art historians) and architects for a session at the Society of Architectural Historians conference in April 2016 in Pasadena. Abstracts due June 9, 2015.

Intersections: Dialogues of Architecture & History

Contemporary architects are once again looking to history. Authors in the recent “New Ancients” issue of Log assert that with the passing of theory, and efforts to move beyond the emphases on economics, technology, and ecology in recent practice, has come a renewed interest in the past. Instead of merely searching for precedents or applying history to the present, however, architects are ever more self-consciously inventing, projecting, or manipulating the relation of present and past. Historians can respond by re-reading and re-framing past interactions of architecture and history. Persistent questions about disciplinary boundaries and evolving methods make a critical, sophisticated understanding of the relation of past and present ever more important.

This session seeks papers that scrutinize situations from the past two centuries where the threads of history and practice have intersected in a critical and productive dialogue. We are interested in exploring some of the different types of connections that have existed between history, design, theory, and criticism, both before and after the modernist avant-garde. We question if warnings about operative criticism, or the modernist differentiation between the history and practice, have restricted or biased our exploration of the rich exchange that took place between them before and after that fracture. We are curious about collaborations between architects and historians, as well as architects working as historians, and vice versa. We are especially interested in cases in which architecture was created or understood as a historical statement in built form, or in which contemporary architecture pushed the historical discourse into new territories. We welcome investigations into all manner of critical exchange between the project of architecture and the project of history.

Session Chairs: Kai Gutschow, Carnegie Mellon University, gutschowandrew.cmu.edu; and Francesca Torello, Carnegie Mellon University, ftorelloandrew.cmu.edu

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[2]
From: Kivanc Kilinc <kivanckilincgmail.com>
Subject: CFP: Global Exchanges of Social Housing in the Middle-East

Global Exchanges of Social Housing in the Middle-East

Writing the global history of social housing that goes beyond the temporal, geographical and conceptual boundaries of the “West” is still an unfinished project. Equally important is the task of expanding the scope of existing scholarship on social housing experiences in the “non-West”, which has predominantly been limited to the study of direct or indirect implementations of European or American models: what types of social housing have been built in the Middle East in the 20th and 21st centuries? Where, when, and under which circumstances did these types originate? How were architectural forms, layouts, and construction technologies transformed while traveling across cities, continents, and cultures? More importantly, what is the role of local builders, tenants and homeowners in the production of the “modern vernacular”?

This session aims to bring together less well-known examples of social housing projects built in the Middle East to explore transnational connections that shaped low-cost dwelling practices. We invite scholarly works that pursue hitherto neglected histories of lower-income residents and their homes, both equally pushed to the margins of architectural history. As such, the panel seeks proposals that address social housing through chronologically diverse contexts in the Middle East (including, but not limited to, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and Persian Gulf region) through case study or comparative research. Paper proposals that focus on the multiplicity of (post)colonial, international and transnational influences on social housing in Middle-Eastern cities and their ‘localized’ interpretations are particularly welcome. Papers could also address how social housing contributed to the planning and evolution of cities in the Middle East, or how certain cases delved into contextual issues and the question of modernity in this region.

Session Chairs: Kivanc Kilinc, Yasar University, kivanckilincgmail.com and Mohammad Gharipour, Morgan State University, mohammadgatech.edu

Submission details: The deadline for submitting abstracts is June 9, 2015. SAH is using an online abstract submission process. Please note that abstracts must be under 300 words; the title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation; and abstracts must follow the Chicago Manual of Style. For more information on the submission process, please go to the following link:

http://www.sah.org/conferences-and-programs/2016-conference---pasadena-la