"Modernism with a Soul": Designing and Building Communities for Corporate and Civic Life.

This essay explores how film, feature and documentary, can offer a new perspective on modernist architecture, industrial design, and urban planning. Through the lens of two young directors, Kogonada and Davide Maffei, it traces the histories of two twentieth-century company towns: Ivrea, Italy, headquarters of Italian business machine giant Olivetti, and Columbus, Indiana, U.S.A., home to Cummins Inc., a global leader in diesel engine design and manufacturing. Adriano Olivetti and J. Irwin Miller shared the conviction that modernist architecture and design had a decisive role to play not just in the economic health of their respective firms but in the civic health of their surrounding communities. These companies have long abandoned the corporate idealism of their founding patrons. In film, Ivrea and Columbus have become architectural time capsules that raise important questions about the transformative power of architecture and design in the face of an increasingly competitive global economy.

Origins and spread of formal ceremonial complexes in the Olmec and Maya regions revealed by airborne lidar.

City plans symbolizing cosmologies have long been recognized as a defining element of Mesoamerican civilizations. The origins of formal spatial configurations are thus the key to understanding early civilizations in the region. Assessment of this issue, however, has been hindered by the lack of systematic studies of site plans over broad areas. Here, we report the identification of 478 formal rectangular and square complexes, probably dating from 1,050 to 400 BC, through a lidar (laser imaging, detection and ranging) survey across the Olmec region and the western Maya lowlands. Our analysis of lidar data also revealed that the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo had a central rectangular space, which possibly provided the spatial template for later sites. This format was probably formalized and spread after the decline of San Lorenzo through intensive interaction across various regions. These observations highlight the legacy of San Lorenzo and the critical role of inter-regional interaction.

Production and provenance of architectural glass from the Umayyad period.

A large assemblage (n = 307) of architectural glasses (tesserae and windows) from the early 8th-century Umayyad residential site at Khirbat al-Minya was analysed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Trace element patterns are essential to establish the provenance of the base glass, while the comparative evaluation of the colouring and opacifying additives allow us to advance a production model for the manufacture of glass mosaic tesserae during the early Islamic period. The primary glass types are Levantine I and Egypt 1a, as well as a few older, reused tesserae, and Mesopotamian plant ash glass used for amber-coloured window fragments. Chemical data revealed fundamental differences in the colouring and opacification technologies between the Egyptian and Levantine tesserae. Co-variations of lead and bismuth, and copper, tin and zinc in the Egypt 1a tesserae provide first evidence for the production of different mosaic colours in a single workshop, specialising in the manufacture of tesserae of different colours. No such trend is apparent in the Levantine samples. Red, cobalt blue and gold leaf tesserae were found to be exclusively made from a Levantine base glass, indicating that the generation of some colours may have been a specialised process. The same may apply to the amber-coloured window glass fragments of Mesopotamian origin that exhibit very unusual characteristics, combining elevated copper (2% CuO) with an excess in iron oxide (5% Fe2O3). These findings have significant implications for the production model of strongly coloured glass and the exploitation of resources during the early Islamic period.

Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization.

Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000-350 BC; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism1. Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800 BC using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization.

7,200 years old constructions and mudbrick technology: The evidence from Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel.

The history of mudbrick production and construction in the southern Levant may be dated as far back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. However, at many of the sites where mudbrick remains were noted, their preservation was poor, so investigation of their production and the related construction techniques in antiquity was precluded. The 7,200 year old (cal BP) site of Tel Tsaf, located in the Jordan Valley, is distinguished by outstanding preservation of mudbrick architecture, which enables us to delve into various issues related to mudbrick technology, construction and preservation. The present paper discusses some of the mudbrick features at Tel Tsaf and their characteristics and offers a comprehensive analytical study of the mudbricks from multiple contexts and phases. These demonstrate consistency in three of the four measured variables: magnetic susceptibility, organic content and calcium carbonate equivalent. The results of our study suggest that while we can identify morphometric variability between bricks and walls, by and large, a uniform composition characterized the tested assemblages without any temporal or spatial variability. This indicates that a single locally-sourced raw material was used and that recycling of old decayed mudbricks was likely practiced. The consistency of mudbrick-production during all phases of the occupation at Tel Tsaf and the absence of multiple recipes implies that a shared production and technological know-how was maintained for at least 500 years at the site.

The (Dis)assembling of Form: Revealing the Ideas Built Into Manchester's Medical School.

This paper addresses a gap in our understanding of medical history - the architecture of medical schools - and demonstrates the ways in which architectural form can be used to better understand medical epistemology and pedagogy. It examines an instructive case study - the late-nineteenth-century medical school buildings in Manchester - and examines the concepts that were drawn together and expressed in the buildings. Through its exploration, the paper argues first, that medical schools and spaces for medical education should be given greater consideration as a significant category in the history of medical buildings. Second, that buildings such as its case study are an important source of evidence and means to understand the role of medicine in society and the ideas with which its contemporary practitioners and educators were concerned. Third, the paper argues that, to make best use of buildings as sources, we should view them as agents which have assembled divergent ideas and incorporated them into the built form. In this way, such buildings have woven into them an inventory of ideas which can be untangled using designs and physical evidence.

The space of man's death. A modern age secondary burial case in northern Italy.

Much of the recent archaeological and anthropological research on Italian modern age secondary burials has focused primarily on source analysis and the funerary context descriptions. To enable a clearer understanding of these atypical burials we need more archaeological data. To comprehend the mortuary practices it is necessary to investigate the surviving funeral monuments, burials and human remains. In fact, through the correct analysis of cultural material and human remains, it is possible to highlight the taphonomic changes of the corpse experiences during the entire ritual process. This will allow us to reconstruct the modality of body treatment in the funeral ritual. Now, we know partially the diffusion of the secondary burial ritual in southern Italy, but in northern Italy, it is lesser known. In this paper, we report the results of the archaeological and anthropological investigations conducted inside the Crypt of the Franciscan Monastery of Azzio (Varese, northern Italy). In the hypogeal funerary chamber, the corpses were temporarily deposed in seat-niches. This type of burial recalls the sitting colatois (masonry seat with a hole in the center), known in Naples as "cantarelle" and largely present in southern Italy. Throughout archaeological, anthropological and historical investigations, we tried to reconstruct the ritual adopted by the Friars and to better understand the ties with other northern and southern Italian testimonies. After our investigations, we received several notices of other similar funerary monuments in northern Italy that would be worth investigating.

[Luiz Nunes and the plan for health institutions in Pernambuco]. / Luiz Nunes e o projeto de instituições de saúde em Pernambuco.

During Pernambuco governor Carlos Lima Cavalcanti's term (1930-1937), the architect Luiz Nunes and his team were able to produce a series of plans for notable public buildings in the short period of time spanning 1934 to 1937. This article analyzes plans for the School for Abnormal Children and the Military Brigade Hospital, which exemplify the close relationship between medical knowledge, modern architecture, and state government policy and have not yet been examined in detail in academic studies. The main sources were the archives of the Diário da Manhã and Diário de Pernambuco newspapers, as well as the group of architectural plans in the Jordão Emerenciano Public Archive.

Em Pernambuco, durante a gestão do governador Carlos Lima Cavalcanti (1930-1937), o arquiteto Luiz Nunes e sua equipe conseguiram realizar, em curto espaço de tempo, de 1934 a 1937, uma série de projetos de edifícios públicos notáveis. Neste artigo, são analisados os projetos da Escola para Anormais e do Hospital da Brigada Militar, que exemplificam a estreita relação entre o saber médico, a arquitetura moderna e a política do governo estadual, além de serem objetos pouco explorados em estudos acadêmicos. As fontes principais da pesquisa foram os arquivos dos jornais Diário da Manhã, Diário de Pernambuco e o conjunto de projetos de arquitetura levantado no Arquivo Público Jordão Emerenciano.

Temple occupation and the tempo of collapse at Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

The 9th-15th century Angkorian state was Southeast Asia's greatest premodern empire and Angkor Wat in the World Heritage site of Angkor is one of its largest religious monuments. Here we use excavation and chronometric data from three field seasons at Angkor Wat to understand the decline and reorganization of the Angkorian Empire, which was a more protracted and complex process than historians imagined. Excavation data and Bayesian modeling on a corpus of 16 radiocarbon dates in particular demand a revised chronology for the Angkor Wat landscape. It was initially in use from the 11th century CE with subsequent habitation until the 13th century CE. Following this period, there is a gap in our dates, which we hypothesize signifies a change in the use of the occupation mounds during this period. However, Angkor Wat was never completely abandoned, as the dates suggest that the mounds were in use again in the late 14th-early 15th centuries until the 17th or 18th centuries CE. This break in dates points toward a reorganization of Angkor Wat's enclosure space, but not during the historically recorded 15th century collapse. Our excavation data are consistent with multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the region's continued ideological importance and residential use, even after the collapse and shift southward of the polity's capital. We argue that fine-grained chronological analysis is critical to building local historical sequences and illustrate how such granularity adds nuance to how we interpret the tempo of organizational change before, during, and after the decline of Angkor.

Luiz Nunes e o projeto de instituições de saúde em Pernambuco / Luiz Nunes and the plan for health institutions in Pernambuco

Resumo Em Pernambuco, durante a gestão do governador Carlos Lima Cavalcanti (1930-1937), o arquiteto Luiz Nunes e sua equipe conseguiram realizar, em curto espaço de tempo, de 1934 a 1937, uma série de projetos de edifícios públicos notáveis. Neste artigo, são analisados os projetos da Escola para Anormais e do Hospital da Brigada Militar, que exemplificam a estreita relação entre o saber médico, a arquitetura moderna e a política do governo estadual, além de serem objetos pouco explorados em estudos acadêmicos. As fontes principais da pesquisa foram os arquivos dos jornais Diário da Manhã, Diário de Pernambuco e o conjunto de projetos de arquitetura levantado no Arquivo Público Jordão Emerenciano.

Abstract During Pernambuco governor Carlos Lima Cavalcanti's term (1930-1937), the architect Luiz Nunes and his team were able to produce a series of plans for notable public buildings in the short period of time spanning 1934 to 1937. This article analyzes plans for the School for Abnormal Children and the Military Brigade Hospital, which exemplify the close relationship between medical knowledge, modern architecture, and state government policy and have not yet been examined in detail in academic studies. The main sources were the archives of the Diário da Manhã and Diário de Pernambuco newspapers, as well as the group of architectural plans in the Jordão Emerenciano Public Archive.

The historical process of the masonry city walls construction in China during 1st to 17th centuries AD.

Masonry city walls were common defense facilities in the cities of the Eurasian before the industrial revolution. However, they were not widespread in China until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Limited in research methods, previous studies failed to make convincing arguments on this phenomenon. We collected, organized and analyzed relevant historical documents to reconstruct the spatio-temporal process of the construction of masonry walls from 1st to 17th century in China. We conducted a time series analysis primarily based on factors such as wars, garrisons, economy, and natural disasters. Analysis of the correlation among the construction of masonry walls and these factors provides insights into this process. From the 1st to 14th century, only 125 masonry city walls were built in China and the annual average number was below 0.1. While in the Ming Dynasty, a total of 1,493 masonry walls were built, with an annual average of 5.41. The construction activities in 1368-1456 spread throughout the country, but mainly appeared in the high-grade administrative cities and garrisons, as a result of the planned implementation of the central government. The construction activities in 1457-1644 had corresponding cluster areas during different periods, mainly at county-level. We found that the wall construction was stimulated by external factors such as wars and disasters. We believe that the mass construction of masonry walls in the Ming Dynasty is a phenomenon of cultural diffusion. The central government plan, the complex interactions between local governments and community, and the stimulation of external factors worked together to contribute to the diffusion of masonry city walls in the Ming Dynasty.

Large-scale micron-order 3D surface correlative chemical imaging of ancient Roman concrete.

There has been significant progress in recent years aimed at the development of new analytical techniques for investigating structure-function relationships in hierarchically ordered materials. Inspired by these technological advances and the potential for applying these approaches to the study of construction materials from antiquity, we present a new set of high throughput characterization tools for investigating ancient Roman concrete, which like many ancient construction materials, exhibits compositional heterogeneity and structural complexity across multiple length scales. The detailed characterization of ancient Roman concrete at each of these scales is important for understanding its mechanics, resilience, degradation pathways, and for making informed decisions regarding its preservation. In this multi-scale characterization investigation of ancient Roman concrete samples collected from the ancient city of Privernum (Priverno, Italy), cm-scale maps with micron-scale features were collected using multi-detector energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and confocal Raman microscopy on both polished cross-sections and topographically complex fracture surfaces to extract both bulk and surface information. Raman spectroscopy was used for chemical profiling and phase characterization, and data collected using EDS was used to construct ternary diagrams to supplement our understanding of the different phases. We also present a methodology for correlating data collected using different techniques on the same sample at different orientations, which shows remarkable potential in using complementary characterization approaches in the study of heterogeneous materials with complex surface topographies.

Gout in the Gilded Age: The Case of Richard Morris Hunt.

Richard Morris Hunt, a distinguished American architect of the late 19th century (the Gilded Age), had onset of gout at age 41 years. His attacks became more frequent and severe, eventually leading to chronic pain and disability. His medical care by highly regarded physicians resulted in very limited benefit, but through his dedication and work ethic, he remained productive until his death at age 67 years.

Entre a engenharia militar e a arquitetura médica: representações de Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira sobre a cidade de Belém no final do século XVIII / Between military engineering and medical architecture: representations by Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira about the city of Belém in the late eighteenth century

Resumo O artigo analisa as concepções de Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira sobre a urbanização de Belém, fundamentadas na história natural e na medicina social, sintetizadas na obra de Antônio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches. Primeiramente, destaca-se a influência da engenharia militar na constituição do núcleo seiscentista da cidade e na irradiação da cidade-fortaleza, ressaltando as críticas de Ferreira à centralidade geoestratégica na constituição urbana. Num segundo momento, as reformas urbanas setecentistas realizadas sob preceitos da arquitetura médica, como a construção do Hospital Real Militar e os projetos de abastecimento de água. Por fim, é pensado um conceito de cidade-civilidade, expresso nas reformas urbanas com a construção de símbolos de poder estatal e de áreas de lazer e sociabilidade, incluindo as observações sobre as moradias.

Abstract This paper discusses Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira's conceptions about the urbanization of Belém, rooted in natural history and social medicine, as expressed in the work of Antônio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches. The influence of military engineering on its constitution in the 1600s and the spread of this fortress town are investigated, emphasizing Ferreira's criticisms of the geostrategic centrality in the development of the city. The urban reforms of the 1700s under the precepts of medical architecture are then presented, such as the building of the Royal Military Hospital and the water supply system. The concept of the civil city is presented, as expressed in the urban redevelopments, with the building of symbols of state power, areas for leisure and conviviality, and housing.

Between history, art and medicine: the Dresden-Friedrichstadt hospital, its Neptune fountain and connections to Vienna.

The Dresden-Friedrichstadt hospital originated from Marcolini's summer palace. It was founded in 1845 and opened in 1849. It is a place where history and art of European importance mixes with technical and medical innovations. We reflect on the meetings of Napoleon Bonaparte and Metternich in 1812, the creation of the famous Neptune fountain by Longuelune and Matielli and two outstanding physicians of the 19th century, the surgeon Eduard Zeis, who coined the medical term "plastic surgery", and Maximilian Nitze, inventor of the first "modern" cystoscope and the father of urology.

Sharing architectural models; morphologies and surveillance from the seventeenth to the ninenteenth centuries / Compartiendo modelos arquitectónicos: morfologías y vigilancias del siglo XVII al XIX

Spatial and territorial organization is an important factor in the configuration of control and surveillance strategies at work in our society. Architecture in general and certain buildings in particular have been key devices in exercising said control and surveillance. In these pages we look at the building structures in facilities specially designed for the control and custody of their occupants. We begin with the Casas de Misericordia, which appeared in the 16th century and were designed to house marginalized people mostly from urban environments, and go over the morphologies of prisons, hospitals, and quarantine stations. We analyze the transfer of building structures from one kind of establishment to another, and discuss how their specific functions progressively fixed their morphologies. Finally, we focus on the discourse built in Spain, from its origins in the 16th century until its realizations in the first half of the 19th century, when a marked institutional specialization took place and building structures became more stable, dealing with theoretical proposals as well as what was done in the practice (AU)

La organización espacial y territorial es un factor importante en la configuración de las estrategias de control y vigilancia que funcionan en nuestra sociedad. La arquitectura en general, y determinados edificios en particular, han sido dispositivos importantes para el desempeño de tales tareas. En estas páginas se estudian las estructuras constructivas de establecimientos especialmente diseñados para el control y la custodia de sus habitantes, comenzando por las «Casas de Misericordia» diseñadas para recoger a los marginados, principalmente urbanos, desde el siglo XVI, y se rastrean las morfologías de cárceles, hospitales y lazaretos. Analizamos la transferencia de estructuras constructivas de un establecimiento a otro y cómo la reflexión sobre las funciones específicas de cada uno de ellos fue fijando sus morfologías. Finalmente, se presta atención al discurso construido en España, desde sus orígenes en el siglo XVI hasta sus concreciones en el XIX, ocupándonos tanto de las propuestas teóricas como de las realizaciones (AU)