Liberated Architecture for Liberated Society

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Modern architecture is often seen as a significant liberation from the traditional ways of building. The reform ideas of modernity are an expression of the departure from the constraints of the past, from the rigid forms of the ancient times, and from the unfortunate conditions brought about by the industrial age. However, in Central Europe, these modern practices still relied heavily on the knowledge gained from the past. In our panel, we aim to discuss how shifts in architecture liberated the built environment from the established order.
Since the fin-de-siècle, architecture has played a crucial part in delivering society a critical mass of buildings that responded to new and reinvented institutions, political systems, and pressing social issues. Focusing on Central Europe, we will examine how public authorities and private investors have used traditional and modern approaches in their policies and projects to improve the built environment.
The contributors, therefore, understand liberation as an active tool in reshaping the architectural landscape. Raphaela Hemetsberger will be presenting case studies of public school buildings as the arena of stylistic and normative reforms in palaces of liberated education; Vendula Hnídková will exemplify newly introduced and permitted building types as political liberation from the contested past; and Richard Kurdiovsky will analyze the perspective of public administrations on solving pressing issues and their actions of reform to liberate society from awkward conditions. Examining liberation in modern architecture, the panel will explore the nuanced meanings stretching between reform and tradition.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Vendula Hnídková, Institute of Art History CAS (Czech Republic)

Papers

• Reforms as a Means of Liberation - Richard Kurdiovsky, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria)

• School Buildings in Austria: Education as an Arena of Stylistic and Normative Reformation - Raphaela Hemetsberger, U of Vienna (Austria)

• Modern Architecture as a Signifier of Political Liberation - Vendula Hnídková, Institute of Art History CAS (Czech Republic)

Discussant

• Julia Secklehner, Constructor U (Germany)