EAHN 2012
European Architectural History Network
Second International Meeting

CFP: Round table session

FUSION ARCHITECTURE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY: INCORPORATION, CONFRONTATION OR INTEGRATION?

MOST HISTORIES OF ARCHITECTURE tend to portray neatly-defined, self-contained examples of buildings from different eras. The built reality is, however, often very different. This is not only true of fittings and furnishings from later periods (i.e. a Gothic church equipped with Baroque altars) but also of the incorporation of almost whole, pre-existing buildings which are (re)framed and re-interpreted as a consequence. Renaissance Italy provides a number of examples, not least Vasari’s Uffizi in Florence which integrated both the medieval Zecca and a Romanesque church to create a new visual, spatial and architectural concept; or the Capitol in Rome which swallowed its medieval and ancient predecessors. Nonetheless, this phenomenon is not limited to any single period. Indeed, it continued well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and even continues today – one need only think of the Smithsons’ Upper Lawn Pavillion at Fonthill, UK, or Nieto Sobejano’s new art gallery in the bishop’s medieval palace at Halle, Germany. THIS ROUND TABLE SESSION addresses issues of architectural incorporation and metamorphosis from the Middle Ages to the present day. Its focus lies not on the pragmatic appropriation of pre-existing structures but on their purposeful integration as part of intentionally planned new wholes. Why embed an existing building in a new structure? What formal, visual and spatial solutions are found? Do we go too far if we think of this action as actually venerating a pre-existing building? To what extent was the previous structure preserved, controlled, or regulated? WE WELCOME CONTRIBUTIONS (of about ten minutes) that explore examples of architectural fusion and use these as keys to a broader theoretical and/or systematic perspective of the phenomenon. Our aim will also be to critically reflect upon a phenomenon which received considerable interest in postmodernist practise and discourse, but which has barely been systematically or theoretically discussed since.

For details regarding submission of abstracts, please refer to the call for papers on the conference website: www.eahn2012.org. Each speaker is expected to fund his or her own registration, travel and expenses.

Please submit your proposal (max. 300 words) plus a brief CV by 30 September 2011 to both BRIGITTE SÖLCH (soelchkhi.fi.it), Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut, Florence, Italy and ERIK WEGERHOFF (wegerhofftum.de), Lehrstuhl für Theorie und Geschichte von Architektur, Kunst und Design, TU München, Munich, Germany.