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Project

The Iron Column: Understanding Architecture for its Material Manufacture.

In architecture, the material presence of buildings is often understood as the expression of other, immaterial concerns. This holds true in both architectural research and the education of architects. (Thomas 2007, Moravánszky 2017). This PhD project reverses the approach, focusing directly on the material itself and its role in architecture. In order to do so, it provides an in-depth study of the introduction of the iron column as a building element from 1840. Three historical cases demonstrate the transformations engendered by this new material and its influence on the common architectural vocabulary. As such, it combines the perspectives of practice-based building analysis to illuminate the genesis of the design, and architecture theory, discussing the meaning of a material as part of a building culture. Three well known public buildings in Europe from 1872 (Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, Henri Labrouste), 1906 (Sparkasse Vienna, Otto Wagner) and 1968 (Nationalgalerie Berlin, Mies van der Rohe) are revisited as material 'micro-histories'. All projects can be considered hinge points in their use of respectively cast iron, rolled iron, and steel. Specific drawing techniques and material biographies traced the iron through delving, production, and different design steps to the final work. In all three cases the technical evolution of iron fundamentally challenged architectural conventions, and afforded the formulation of new architectural ideas. In each case, the architects' working drawings and sketchbooks provide insight into the process of learning to read, understand and apply these material innovations. The second part of the research focused on how a material innovation becomes integrated into an existing building culture. The archeological method of 'seriations': series of iron columns drawn of buildings relevant for the cases, reveal how material concepts grow, disappear and resurface, in a continuous process of (re)charging. As a whole, the PhD defines methods and a vocabulary to address the role of materials in the design process, as a driver for the evolution of building culture and it describes the knowledge needed in architecture to work from materials. It provides a theoretical framework for understanding mechanisms of material transformation, as a process informed by both innovation and continuities. This new awareness will help to address future material practices and the integration of material innovations in building culture.
Date:15 Jul 2020 →  14 Jul 2021
Keywords:ARCHITECTURE, ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH
Disciplines:Design research, Architectural history and theory, Architectural design history and theory