Let me now turn to the detail of the cathedral’s north fagade and the northern part of the cloister (Figures 4.4 and 4.8), where the frame of reference will be determined not by distant and varied secular structures but, rather, by immediate and consistent ecclesiastical institutions. In the thirteenth century, the north fagade was completely […]
Category: Architecture as Experience Radical change in spatial practice
From prison to luxury hotel: the story of an ironic conversion
Istanbul began to emerge from Ankara’s shadow as the country’s prime city in the 1950s. The urban development that accommodated the city’s phenomenal industrial and financial expansion took place mostly outside the historic peninsula, which was densely packed with old neighbourhoods and landmarks. Meanwhile, even though it was home to Turkey’s most prominent cultural heritage […]
The commodification of pilgrimage?
Traditionally, Christian pilgrims formed a communal relationship with each other and with the caretakers of the sacred sites throughout the ritual of pilgrimage. That communal relationship, which was forged through the hazards of the journey, the sharing of resources, and the entry into an alternative reality, defined the social character of the pilgrimage. In the […]
‘Making possible… reappropriation and redirection’
From beginning to end of the funeral of the American Unknown Soldier, individuals and groups intervened in its rites in deed as well as in word. The initial interventions were unwelcome and unwanted, and the later ones not only unforeseen by the army’s planners, but also very different from what they intended. These actions of […]
A modern fountain?
2.8 The Colosseum valley as it appeared from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s, with white outlines marking the locations of the demolished Meta Sudans and Colossal statue base as if Mussolini were seeking to convey not his revival of the grandeur of ancient Rome but his power to destroy that which is old, unsightly or […]