Academic literature on the topic 'Modern tropical architecture'

The influence of modern architecture became more visible in Thailand after the country shifted from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 1932 and also as a result of economic circumstances and world trends. The first generation of Thai Modernist architects (or the pioneers of modern architecture in Thailand) had their education in Europe because of the necessity to modernize Thailand. The second generation were Thai architects who received their architectural education in Thailand as well as some continuing their studies in the USA. Their works reflect the International Style with a concern for a tropical architecture vocabulary and local material utilization based on economics. As the architectural profession was declared a protected profession in 1965 for Thai architects only, there was very little modern architecture in Thailand designed by foreign architects.

Casa Fullana [Fullana House], built in 1955 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an exemplary model of Henry Klumb’s (1905-1984) design principles for modern living in the tropics. German architect Henry Klumb conducted a prolific architectural practice in Puerto Rico, producing some of the most iconic examples of tropical modernism in the Caribbean. His work, most notably at the University of Puerto Rico (1946-1966) (UPR) and in landmark projects like the San Martin de Porres Church (1948) in Cataño, constituted a breakthrough in Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American architecture. Anchored in the principles of modern architecture, specifically of an organic architecture put forward by his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Klumb’s work is deeply rooted in the specificities of the landscape, topography, and climate of Puerto Rico as a tropical island.

In the interwar years European historians and critics of architecture tried to assimilate science into architecture and arts. For example Sigfried Giedion's Space, Time, and Architecture (1941) attempted to bring Einsteinian spacetime into architectural theory, while Nikolaus Pevsner's An Outline of European Architecture (c. 1943) used space as a criterion to differentiate architecture from other art forms. These brought to the idea of ‘space’ a distinctly modern meaning, making it a universal signifier; whereas in the last decade, architectural historians have argued for the historical specificity of space and a deeper examination of the social and spatial practices embedded in the making of space. This study inquires into the atemporal readings of space, using Lefebvre's theory on the production of space by ‘interested subjects’.

Getting back to the point of “Tropical architecture,” architecture in the humid tropics is collaboration with nature to establish a new order in which human beings may live in harmony with their surroundings. As publications at the time concentrated on French and British colonies, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the Modern Movement diaspora, it is essential to revisit, analyse, and document the important heritage built south of the Tropic of Cancer, where the debate took place and architectonic models were reproduced, and in many cases subjected to metamorphoses stemming from their antipodal geography. Notable for the modernity of its social, urban, and architectonic programs, and also its formally and technologically sustained research, the modern architecture of these latitudes below the tropics constitutes a distinctive heritage.

While orthodoxy was consolidating its hold on modern architecture in the 1930s, fresh new ideas from the periphery began to widen and question its limiting vocabulary. This study looks at projects emerging before the end of that decade that paralleled the much publicized work of Le Corbusier and Brazilian innovators in developing ideas for taming the sun in warm climates. The story focuses on a forgotten speech given in Rangoon which enthused about a soon to be forgotten but effective method of solar control and triggered a yearning for architecture widening its scope to engage with attributes of national identity.

… an architecture and form of urbanism will emerge closely connected with the set of ideas that have international validity but reflecting the conditions of climate, the habits of the people and the aspirations of the countries lying under the cloudy belt of the equatorial world.Max Fry and Jane Drew, architects, 1956The concept of architecture, even in its widest traditional sense, is foreign to Africa.John Lloyd, architect, 1966Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, who had been in and out of West Africa since the 1940s as planners and architects, were optimistic about the role of architecture in the tropics on the eve of independence. In the text of Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zones they championed the development in Africa of the tropical modernism they had pioneered in their own work. In sharp contrast, John Lloyd, writing from Ghana just ten years later, conveyed a sense of the discipline’s estrangement from the context.

The idea of environmental design – or loosely referred to as “tropical architecture” – is an ever-present but underlying discourse in modern Indonesian architectural history. Despite being tentative and, at times, overshadowed by other dominant issues, the quest for climate-related environmental tropical design is apparent in almost every generation of Indonesian architects.

Otto Koenigsberger is considered a pioneer in researching specific models and technical solutions for architecture and planning in the tropics. Educated within the core of the European Modern Movement, under the mentorship of Hans Poelzig, Bruno Taut and Ernst May, Koenigsberger moves away from the ideal and expressionist realm to the real and specific context whilst working in India. This non–western experience triggers an interest in developing countries, mainly tropical ones. In 1954, Koenigsberger conceives a new course on Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association in London, followed by a great number of architects, such as the Portuguese Luís Possolo, António Seabra and Schiappa de Campos, who would apply their learning in the countries of “Portuguese Africa”, as it was formerly known.

Architecturally, Nairobi was never a backwater. Modern architecture in Nairobi developed in the context of the tropical climate design vocabulary of Otto Königsberger (1908-1999), Maxwel Fry (1899-1987) and Jane Drew (1911-1996), within a racially segregated plan. Ideas and ideals of Modernism came with refugees, migrants and magazines from many cultures and places including South Africa, Europe, the Indian sub-continent and the Americas. Projects by internationally renowned architects and planners such as Herbert Baker (1862-1946), Ernst May (1886-1970) and Amyas Connell (1901-1980) set high standards of design. The Garden City Movement, International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS), and the work of many others was influential.

Abstract The middle Miocene onset of modern ocean circulation patterns changed the growth style of isolated tropical carbonate platforms because surface and contour currents began shaping the flanks of these edifices. Since then, ocean currents have redistributed the off-bank–transported sediment, reduced sedimentation by particle sorting or winnowing, and even eroded slopes. As a result, the flanks of isolated carbonate platforms around the world after 13–10 Ma have not only been constructed by mass gravity deposits, but equally by contourites with distinct drift and moat geometries. These produce specific stacking patterns of platform flank deposits. This flank architecture, produced by combined current and gravity processes, is typical of tropical carbonate platforms growing in the Neogene icehouse world. Comparison of this architecture with geometries in older platforms also has the potential to extract information about the rigor of ocean circulation in deep time where the deep-sea record is missing.

Genericamente, esta tese busca identificar a relação entre arquitetura e cultura de consumo, como definidora da identidade da arquitetura moderna de Miami no segundo pós-guerra. O conceito de cidade-balneário de Miami Beach foi transformado durante o decorrer da sua história. Os seus hotéis de inverno de meados da década de 1910 até 1945--destinados aos milionários associados à indústria automobilística--dão lugar a uma nova tipologia de hotel no pós-guerra, o hotelbalneário para a classe média norte-americana. Especificamente, este trabalho analisa os hotéis-balneários de Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) em Miami Beach na década de 1950, que definem a identidade da arquitetura moderna da cidade e que, por sua vez, caracterizam a sua própria imagem como cidade-balneário. A obra do setor da hospitalidade de Lapidus surge como informante de uma arquitetura com atenção máxima à escala humana do usuário. Suas lojas, construídas na época da Depressão, e seus hotéis do segundo pós-guerra, meticulosamente projetados para a classe média, surgem como veículos que contribuíram para a formação da cultura nacionalista, otimista e progressista, incentivada pelo governo federal de Franklin Roosevelt nesses períodos históricos. A histórica polêmica gerada sobre essa obra hoteleira de Lapidus, associada aos paradoxos presentes na composição arquitetônica de seus edifícios, está dividida entre a dogmática interpretação moderna do International Style e a leitura pós-moderna centrada na recuperação humanista. A narrativa da tese está fundamentada nessa polêmica cujo cerne está na questão sobre gosto e qualidade em arquitetura instigada por essa obra controversa. Este trabalho interpreta os paradoxos desses hotéis-balneários como uma metodologia de projeto de Lapidus, centrada na dialética de elementos de projeto contrastantes. Dessa dialética compositiva, nasce uma arquitetura híbrida, acessível à emergente classe-média, consumista e móvel, do pós-guerra. Esse hibridismo é estrategicamente elaborado como metodologia de projeto--uma colagem. A arquitetura como colagem nasce das escolhas de elementos extraídos de fontes diversas, que são apropriados e recriados pelo arquiteto. A diversidade de fontes de projeto advém da circulação de ideias--exposições, publicações e viagens. O apogeu da carreira de Lapidus é o hotel Fontainebleau (1954), o primeiro edifício do arquiteto de interiores que foi validado pelo seu conjunto de lojas da Main Street norte-americana. Os interiores derivam do método de projeto desenvolvido para as suas lojas, enquanto que a arquitetura do Fontainebleau descende da obra formativa de Oscar Niemeyer. A arquitetura moderna tropical do edifício contribuiu para a tipologia de hotel-balneário de Miami Beach no segundo pósguerra que, por sua vez, redefiniu o seu conceito de cidade-balneário. Após meio século, a arquitetura moderna hoteleira de Miami, originada com o Fontainebleau, está \"preservada\" sob a denominação Miami Modern-MiMo. No terceiro milênio, o MiMo, transformado em \"marca\" de consumo, é o veículo imobiliário da preservação da arquitetura moderna de Miami.
Generally, this dissertation aims at identifying the relationship between architecture and consumer culture, which defines the identity of Miami\'s modern architecture in the second post-war. The concept of Miami Beach as a seaside resort has been transformed throughout its history. Its winter hotels from the mid-1910s to 1945--intended for the auto industry millionaires--are replaced by a new typology of post-war hotel, the hotel-resort for the American middle class. Specifically, this work examines Morris Lapidus (1902-2001)\' hotel-resorts in Miami Beach in the 1950s, which define the identity of the city\'s modern architecture and which, in turn, characterizes the image of the city as a seaside resort. Lapidus\' hospitality industry work emerges as an informant of an architecture with maximum attention on the user\'s human scale. Its stores, built in the Depression era, and its post-war hotels for the middle class, both meticulously designed, have emerged as vehicles that contributed to the formation of the optimistic and progressive nationalist culture encouraged by the Franklin Roosevelt federal government in these historic periods. The historical polemic generated on such Lapidus\' hotel work, associated with the paradoxes present in the architectural design composition of its buildings, is divided between the dogmatic modern interpretation of the International Style and the postmodern review, centered on the rediscovery of humanism. The narrative of the thesis is based on this controversy, whose core is the question about taste and quality in architecture instigated by this controversial work. This work interprets the paradoxes of these hotel-resorts as a Lapidus\' design methodology, centered on the dialectic of contrasting design elements. From this compositional dialectic, a hybrid architecture is formed, accessible to the emerging middle-class, consumerist and mobile, of the second postwar. This hybridism is strategically planned as a design methodology--a collage. Architecture as collage is assembled from the choices of elements drawn from diverse sources, which are appropriated and recreated by the architect. The diversity of project sources comes from the circularity of ideas--exhibitions, publications, and travel. The heyday of Lapidus\' career as an architect is the Fontainebleau Hotel (1954), the first building by the then interior designer, who was validated by its collection of American Main Street stores designed during the Depression. The Fontainebleau Hotel interiors are derived from the design method developed for his stores, while its architecture descends from the formative work of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The tropical modern architecture of the Fontainebleau established the typology of the post-war Miami Beach hotel-resort, which in turn redefined its seaside resort concept. After half a century, Miami\'s modern hotel architecture, originated with the Fontainebleau Hotel, is \"preserved\" under the slogan Miami Modern-MiMo. In the third millennium, the MiMo, transformed into a consumer brand, is the real estate vehicle for the preservation of the modern architecture in Miami.

Embora praticamente desconhecido, Manolo Potier tem um significado contributo na construção do território lisboeta nos anos 50 do seculo XX e luandense nas décadas de 60 e 70. Em Lisboa, em parceria com o José Lima Franco, constrói em dez anos cerca de 110 edifícios, sendo assim com outros contemporâneos desta altura responsável pela nova paisagem urbana que surge depois da segunda guerra mundial na capital portuguesa. A dupla imprime grande influência na organização da malha urbana, com uma arquitectura de continuidade, corrente moderna e adaptada às condições do contexto. Partindo em 1959 para Luanda, pertence à geração de arquitectos portugueses que levaram a lição da arquitectura moderna para o universo colonial português na segunda metade do século XX. Da mesma forma que as realizações de Poter "colonizaram" a paisagem africana, sobretudo luandense, com uma obra de filiação corbusiana, de certa forma "exportável" e internacional, a sua prática acabou por ser contaminada pelo contexto local. O seu legado mais marcante insere-se assim no moderno tropical que marcou a identidade da arquitectura colonial levada a cabo pelos profissionais vindos da metrópole, radicados em África em busca de trabalho e uma prática mais livre. O seu interesse reside igualmente numa arquitectura que durante décadas foi anónima e que se procura agora identicar. Por vezes de cariz mais corrente, outras vezes mais radical, nomeadamente nos projectos de carácter público nas duas capitais, podemos destacar entre a sua vasta obra (maioritariamente habitação), a Garagem Conde Barão em Lisboa, a "escola modelo" e o cinema Tivoli em Luanda.
Although almost unknown, Manolo Potier had a significant contribution inbuilding the landscape of Lisbon in the 50s, and in Luanda in the 60s and 70s. In Lisbon, in partnership with José Franco Lima, he has built over ten years about 110 buildings. Together with other contemporary architects, he is therefore responsible for the new urban landscape emerging after the Second World War in the Portuguese capital. The team had a great influence in the organization and image of the urban network, having his architecture characteristics such as continuity, current, modern and adapted to the context. Having moved to Luanda in 1959, Manolo Potier belongs to the generation of Portuguese architects who took the lesson of modern architecture into the Portuguese colonies in the second half of the twentieth century. In the same way as Manolo Potier "colonized" the African landscape, especially in Luanda, with a work of Le Corbusier affiliation, somehow “exportable” and international, his practice turned out to be contaminated by the local context. Its most striking legacy is thus part of the modern tropical which influenced the identity of colonial architecture carried out by professionals from the metropolis, rooted in Africa in search of work and a liberty. His interest also lies in an architecture which for decades was anonym, and which now is tried to be identified. Potiers' architecture is mostly common and sometimes radical, especially in public projects in both capitals. To emphasize among its vast work - mostly residential - is the Garage Conde Barão in Lisbon, the prototype of "model schools" and the Cinema Tivoli in Luanda.

This chapter examines the pleasures and anxieties of American colonials as they negotiated landscapes significant with hazard. It reviews the writings of Charles Ivins and others that contain vivid depictions of how schismatic notions of the tropics and their inhabitants shaped colonial rule. It also describes the social environment of Mindanao-Sulu that laid bare the tension between the integrationist claims of the tutelary colonial state and the continued operation of racially exclusionist structures. The chapter mentions Outlook magazine journalist and playwright Atherton Brownell, who fawned over Zamboanga as a model of cleanliness and tropical picturesqueness. It notes empire builders in Mindanao-Sulu that looked to preestablished discourses on tropical architecture, sanitation, and urban planning for inspiration.

Architectural historians Victor Deupi and Jean-François Lejeune assess the legacy of the “modernist generation” of Cuban architects who were active on the island between the late 1930s and 1959. Deupi and Lejeune focus on how this generation struggled “to be modern and Cuban at the same time,” and how this tension informed their residential designs. Many Cuban architects sought to adapt modern aesthetics and building techniques to a tropical climate in their blueprints for private houses, public buildings, and urban planning. Architect Eugenio Batista codified the main elements of vernacular Cuban houses as “the three ps”—persianas (louvers), patios (courtyards), and portales (arcades)—which other architects adopted. Deupi and Lejeune have followed the professional careers of numerous Cuban architects who moved abroad after the Revolution and left a “transnational and transcultural” imprint in the built environments of their host countries, particularly the United States, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.

Abstract: Le Corbusier’s work and thought are a predominant influence over the Modern Movement, and their worldwide spreading acquired a significant dimension during the Second Post-War period. Such predominance of the architectural models conveyed by Le Corbusier may have originated in the rationale enunciated in his written work, which clearly explains a set of doctrinaire parameters, or in his active determinant role in international organisations such as the CIAM, but particularly in his ability to become a global architect, which led to a large international publication of his work. This paper intends to analyse the significance of the Corbusian legacy in architectural production in Angola and Mozambique during the 1950s and 1960s. These two former Portuguese colonies, far away from the centre of power dominated by the dictatorship of the so-called Estado Novo, were tantamount to a land of freedom and were, for a significant range of young architects working and building there, a laboratory for testing new languages of the Modern Movement, particularly on the basis of the Corbusian vocabulary. Two of those young architects Vasco Vieira da Costa (1911- 1982) and Fernão Simões de Carvalho (1929-), who worked in Angola from the beginning of the 50s, were trainees in Le Corbusier’s Paris ateliers. In addition to the work developed by those two architects, the specificity of the architectural production in Angola and Mozambique, particularly private order work, is clearly referenced to the Corbusian lexicon, whether in a more orthodox or a more hybrid way. Keywords: Le Corbusier; Le Corbusier’s legacy; Architecture in Lusophone Africa; Colonial; Tropical. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.978

Puerto Rico, while a U.S. territory, lacked the education, health, and sanitation infrastructure found in the continental United States. Neutra’s task was to design facilities to improve the infrastructure. While the aesthetic of the buildings is considered Modernist architecture, Neutra was very sensitive to the structures of local communities. His school designs were didactic in the way people engaged the architecture by learning about fluid mechanics and sanitation through passive designs and planning. Gardens and agricultural practices were introduced to improve food and nutrition. Education and food reforms required local knowledge even though there is a broader scientific knowledge that understands how these conditions can thrive in a particular locality. Architecturally, Neutra adjusted the Modernist style to perform in tropical Puerto Rico. Having contributed to the development of Puerto Rico and anticipating the economic boom in the U.S., Neutra’s proposal for the American community is one that was developed from the global south meant to conserve local values, and yet it was conceived as a model plan that was independent of a particular location.