Development and Application of Modern Building Ceramic Materials

With the increasing demand for sustainable building design,modern building ceramic materials are one of the key factors driving innovation and development in the field of architecture,thanks to their excellent performance and environmentally friendly properties.The aim of this study is to provide an insight into the development and application of building ceramic materials in modern architecture,and to assess the contribution of material innovation to architectural design and sustainability goals by synthesising and analysing recent technological advances and case studies in this field.This study adopts a systematic literature review approach to screen and analyse a large number of academic articles and practical project reports on material innovation in building ceramics.Comparative analyses of different material properties,advances in production processes and the effects of their application in real building projects reveal the potential of building ceramic materials to improve the energy efficiency,extend the service life and enhance the aesthetic design of buildings.The findings show that the environmental and energy issues facing traditional building materials,such as improved thermal efficiency and a reduction in the overall carbon footprint of buildings,can be effectively addressed through the use of new building ceramic materials and technologies.In addition,the innovative use of architectural ceramics provides architects with more design flexibility,enabling them to create architectural works that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional.In the concluding section,the paper highlights the importance of continuing to explore technological innovations in building ceramic materials and how these innovations can contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly building industry.Future research should further explore new areas of application for ceramic materials and how interdisciplinary collaboration can accelerate the practical application of these material technologies.

Le Corbusier and a New Structural System as the Germ of the Modern Grammar

The opposition between the terms carcasse （carcass）, conceptualized by Auguste Perret, and ossature （frame）, proposed as an alternative by Le Corbusier, gives rise to the exploration of the capital contribution of the ＂Dom-ino＂ prototype as the basic and in escapable condition for an aesthetic operation. Some issues addressed are： the importance of the question of the structure--which remains implicit in Toward an Architecture--as key to a quest for the specificity of architecture; Le Corbusier＇s troublesome relationship with Perret and the debates between them, which convey two different ways of understanding the potential contributions of concrete to the redefinition of architectural vocabulary; the ＂Dom-ino＂ system considered as a new structural type in the sense ascribed to this category by Violletle Duc; the topic of the abri souverain （sovereign shelter） fit for all programs, which triggered typological invention; the ways in which Le Corbusier plays with Gottfried Semper＇s Urformen and, finally, how this new structural type anchors Le Corbusier＇s radical redefinition of the elements of the discipline, the making of a new grammar.

Construction Method of Modern Architecture under the Background of the Times

Taking the development of the times as the background,the historical evolution of modern architecture is combed from the perspective of the initial stage of industrialization to post-industrialization and then to the information age.It can be seen that there is a close connection between development and modern architecture in the context of the times.With the advancement of science and technology,the construction of buildings has undergone varying degrees of changes due to aesthetics,materials,structure,humanities,and technology.Behind these changes are the results of the progress and development of social productivity.While changing people’s social cognition,it also changes the development process of architecture.

Dilemma in the Development of Modern Timber Architecture and Its Countermeasures

Under the context that“peak carbon emissions”and“carbon neutrality”are included in the overall plan for the construction of ecological civilization in China,this paper discusses the value of modern timber architecture as a form of low-carbon and environmental protection movement in the whole life cycle of the construction field.It mainly analyzes the reasons for the limited resources,misunderstandings of inherent concepts,the high cost of comprehensive construction,and the shortage of professionals.Based on that,several countermeasures have been proposed,such as perfecting relevant norms and policies,strengthening technology research and development as well as demonstration guidance,moderately developing forest resources,applying digital construction operation and maintenance technology,as well as cultivating compound professionals,all of which provide a reference for the development of ecological benefits in China’s construction industry.

Color as Material: Ceramic Surfaces in the Work of Gio Ponti in Milan (1927-1970)

The study is based on the analysis of the design and operational path conducted by the architect Gio Ponti on ceramic materials between the late 1920s and the early 1970s,with particular attention to applications in the Milanese context.Milan represents the main laboratory for experimenting with the figurative,plastic and chromatic potential of modern ceramic surfaces.The analysis of archival documentation preserved at the CSAC Archive in Parma,the Gio Ponti Archives in Milan and the Archivio Progetti at the Iuav University of Venice allows for a deeper understanding of the design path at different scales,from the design of specific lines of ceramics for industry,to their application in buildings.The second part of the analysis is aimed at tracing the conservation problems of ceramic surfaces,with the aim of highlighting both the cultural and technical aspects that are affecting the conservation of this heritage.Connected to the latter aspect is a focus on the principal deterioration phenomena of modern ceramic surfaces related to different types of substrates,providing in-depth knowledge that opens up new strategies for their conservation.

Acculturation and translation:Modern architectural heritage of Zhongshan Park in Xiamen from typological perspective

The modern architectural heritage is the core carrier of city’s historical inheritance and vitality.Its value is related to the spatial and temporal evolution of the urban landscape,along with the collective memory of society and transformation in public life.The contradiction between high-speed urban construction and architectural heritage preservation has proliferated,and the problems of loss of heritage culture and fading of relics are very significant,but there is a lack of research on modern architectural heritage.This study analysed indepth the artistic archetypes and evolutionary characteristics of the architecture of Zhongshan Park in Xiamen through field research and historical data collation,adopting the theory method of architectural typology.Afterwards,we analysed the architectural typology of Zhongshan Park in Xiamen and the process of acculturation and translation with foreign cultures,explored the motives of its formation and the cultural meanings of the public space embodied in it.Based on this,we proposed a sustainable development heritage approach for the modern architectural heritage of Zhongshan Park in Xiamen.Our results indicate that modern architectural art has inherited classical Chinese historical and cultural traditions and ideological foundations.Its unique characteristics reflect the spirit of the times and result from the gradual development of Western influence.Moreover,it embodies a strong sense of national identity.These findings enrich the academic research on the cultural interaction between Chinese and Western architecture,offering valuable insights for the conservation and living heritage of modern architectural heritage in other regions.

Some Thoughts on the Portuguese Colonial City and Architecture in Post-Colonial Times

The research on the architecture and urbanism of the former Portuguese Africa allows us to consider and to establish the real intrinsic value, typological and morphological diversity, and the lengthy duration of the legacy of this architectural/urban heritage. Portuguese colonization in Africa produced more recently, mostly in the period 1950-1975, some vast and great material values, of which seven or eight main cities, including the vast contents of their modern architecture, are striking examples. We can evaluate the most positive aspects with future impact represented by this Portuguese architects＇ practice （cultural ethics, use of modern technology, and service to society） and the architectonic work produced during that era. Although these cities and its architecture were created within a late colonial context of indisputable discrimination, they have prevailed despite wars and circumstantial abandonment. Now they represent a consistent material basis for the modernization and/or revitalization of urban life in these countries. Architects that are at present working and intervening in these countries should understand this ambivalence and complementary nature between the ex-colonial ＂concrete city＂ and the ＂informal city＂ pre- and post-colonial, so that their performance is socially and culturally informed, correct, and positive.

Defining Local Heritages in Preserving Modern Shanghai Architecture

The notion that local heritage can be defined by the‘collective memory’of a city may be considered as being simplistic nowadays.Heritage is increasingly recognised as knowledge,a cultural product or even a political resource set within specific social circumstances.The local heritage underpins various ways of relating our past with our present and future,which are often much more complicated than we can imagine.The evolution of the conser­vation of Shanghai’s modern heritage architecture shows this complexity.By tracing more than 50 years’progress in historic preservation,this paper shows how historical buildings from Shanghai’s early modern period were selected as urban heritage in the changing socio-political contexts of different time periods.Starting with how the first mod­ern buildings were listed in a new Chinese narrative in the 1950s,this paper focuses on the great ideological changes and progress Shanghai achieved after China’s reform and opening policy since the 1980s.Emphasising the great significance of the establishment of local legislation for historic preservation as an extension of the national system,examples of the great enrichment of Shanghai’s local heritage are presented through multiple narratives and inter­pretations of Shanghai’s modern history.In a deeper observation of various practices and complicated contradic­tions,the historic preservation of Shanghai’s modern heritage architecture is shown to be a process of continuing to reconstruct the relationships between city and the State,the city and the world,as well as the city's past,present and future in a pluralist society.

Heritage Agencies and the Conservation of Brazilian Modern Masterpieces: A Partial Report

Heritage agencies have been protecting modern architecture in Brazil since 1948,starting with Os­car Niemeyer’s Pampulha Chapel.So far 75 modern works have been listed mostly because of their artistic value.Listing prevents demolition.Unfortunately,it does not ensure proper conservation,and many interventions have disfigured works of architecture listed as modern masterpieces.Among those tolerated by the Brazilian heritage agencies,an early one is the roofing of the balconies of Oscar Niemeyer’s Ouro Preto Grand Hotel.Among those ap­proved were the construction of theatres diverging from those designed but unexecuted at the time of the listing,and renovations associated with the introduction or updating of air conditioning systems.The former included one by Niemeyer himself,at his Ibirapuera Park complex,and another at Affonso Eduardo Reidy’s Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro.The latter included the Pampulha Dance Hall,two Ibirapuera Park Pavilions,and the Planalto Palace.The paper analyses these retrofits along with the restoration project of Reidy’s Pedregulho Housing Estate,and discusses the connections of the heritage agencies’stands regarding these interventions with scientism and the traditions of the conservation field.It suggests a bias of the agencies toward affirmation of historical values and celebration of picturesque disorder,and defends the need for their reorientation towards affirmation of the modern compositional logic.

The kitchen in urban dwellings in Barcelona, 1920-1950： Out of step with modern architecture

Changes in spaces for cooking and eating are fundamental to modern architecture. Proposals and studies conducted in America from the 19th century and in Europe mainly from the 1920s have caused architectural debates on the nature of the kitchen space, i.e., to achieve either spaces that are organized and efficient or spaces for working and living. Modern architecture has transformed the kitchen and determined its appearance throughout the 20th century. The intensity of this transformation has depended on social, technical, and architectural contexts.In this study, we focus on how modern architectural approaches influenced dwellings in Barcelona, Spain between the 1920s and the 1950s. The study demonstrates that changes did not occur regularly and were limited to the incorporation of certain services or technological improvements. During this period, cooking and eating spaces were not considered in depth and were treated as areas of secondary importance within dwellings. Changes only became significant from the 1950s onward, when economic improvements, technological innovations, the housing problem, and the gradual arrival of Western cultural references changed the values of these spaces.

Conservation and modern architecture. Fortune and misfortune of the School of Mathematics at Rome University （G. Ponti, 1932-1935）

The framework of the Italian restoration doctrine is based on the reception and transmission of the memory of the past. However, interventions in modern architecture represent a radical drift in the sense that they mostly consist of reconstructions, refurbishments, and renovations. Such work disresards the sense of value acknowledgment that is implicit in architectural conservation and neglects the importance of material conservation. The uneven fortune of the School of Mathematics at Rome＇s University Campus illustrates this situation. This predicament is similar to that of many other modern buildinss that have been declared ＂monuments＂ by mouth but are actually bent to listless and insensible use, mistreated, and hardly maintained. The recent work carded out at the School of Mathematics proves that interventions on modern buildings are mostly insensitive to their true significance and are often carded out in extreme urgency for mere practical reasons, if not for political opportunities. Modern buildings can be true architectural monuments that express great esthetic potentials and retain notable historical weight in the history of architecture; therefore, they should be regarded as highly representative of our recent past and maintained as such.

Modern Built Heritage Conservation Policies: How to Keep Authenticity and Emotion in the Age of Digital Culture

The Modern Movement has demonstrated its long-term legitimacy as a lasting concept endowed with longevity.Relating technology,spatial form and social commitment to one another,through an optimistic faith in progress,modern architects sought to attain new heights of functionality and flexibility in use.The current challenge is to find ways to deal with the conservation of this recent legacy in the continuously changing context of current times,including physical,economic,functional,and fast-moving socio-cultural and political values.To address these questions,‘Modern built heritage conservation policies’explores the restoration and renovation pro­cesses undertaken in some paradigmatic case studies:the Tugendhat House(Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich,Brno,Czech Republic,1929-1930),the Crown Hall(Mies van der Rohe,Chicago,USA,1950-1956),the National Mu­seum of Western Art(Le Corbusier,Tokyo,Japan,1959)and the Gulbenkian Foundation(Alberto Pessoa,Pedro Cid e Ruy d’Athouguia,Lisbon,Portugal,1959-1969).

TOWARDS A FOURTH ECOLOGY: Social and Environmental Sustainability with Architecture and Urban Design

The architect has always been interested in the social and cultural dimensions while creating architecture for people to last,with the help of building science and technology.Science could solve some problems,but is yet to solve many of the problems of urbanization in human history.Perhaps many of the problems can only be solved with careful under­standing of human behavior,social intercourse,and economics in relation to the urban environments and organiza­tions,and the natural environment simultaneously.There seemed to be a divide between the way an engineer and an architect think and practice in making a build­ing and a piece of architecture,where the former is highly mathematical,and the latter deals with cultural poetics and a whole range of social and technical issues of which the physics of the environment is but one dimension(Bay and Ong 2006).It may appear natural in this age of environmental crisis and rapid urban development in many cities that the current Ecologically Sustainable Design(ESD)system,which is mainly based on science of the physical world,would be readily accepted by the architect in practice and education.Many of the current ESD guidelines can contribute to the avoidance of a further decay of the earth,thus pre­venting droughts and floods,etc.,and hope to maintain the status quo of the environment for all the“business as usual”social-economic activities.With more world leaders of the developed world agreeing in principle on the need to address climate change,perhaps a lot more will be done based on the engineering models for ecologi­cally friendly planning,commerce,industry,and design.There could be a cognitive bias3 of overconfidence and systemic error that the predominantly engineering focus to keep climate change at bay will solve the problem of sustainability in various parts of the world.The current limited concept of“ecological”or the“green”design does contribute to sustainability,but is quite limited and not the whole picture of sustainability.The concept of sustainability involves the dynamic and complex balance of environmental(man-made and natural),economic and social dimensions,from many earlier sources including the theory of the Third Ecology(Chermayeff and Tzonis 1971)about social ecology directly related to the man-made urban fabric,and recently,the much accepted pervasive framework of the Brundtland Commission Report 1987:Our Common Future,which included more discussions about the interrelatedness with economic equity and the natural environment.Foremost and ultimately it is about promoting and ensuring social quality of living now and sustaining that into the future,for all nations,the rich and the poor,through solving the matrix of social,economic,and environ­mental problems.From the perspective of the theory and practice of architecture,this paper discusses the following issues:1.Belief in science,disenchantment,symbol of failure of modern architecture-Pruitt Igoe;2.An anti-thesis to Pruitt Igoe-Bedok Court;3.The cultural concerns and preparametric design thinking process of the architect;4.Architecture,social science,cultural value,social capital,behavior,and ESD;5.A Fourth Ecology,multi-disciplinary research by architects,social scientists,and engineers.

Architect Robert Fan Wenzhao and the design of Chung Chi campus—A case study of the mainland migrant architects working in Hong Kong,China in the 1950s

In about 1949,there was a large-scale migration of architects from the mainland to Hong Kong,China.Among them were those important figures in the modern Chinese architectural history such as Robert Fan,Su Gin-Djih,and Chu Pin.Their arrival at this colony had changed its architectural practice substantially from professional organization to actually built environment.Their unique contributions to Hong Kong’s modern architecture have been a new research interest in recent years.This paper tells a story about Robert Fan and his design of the Chung Chi College campus in the 1950s with an intention to reveal the multiaspects of the so called“migrant architects”through a single architectural event.The author tries to capture the intertwining relationship between the migrant architects and educators through the reconstruction of the recruitment process for a campus architect by Chung Chi College and to identify Mr.Robert Fan’s concept of campus planning with reference to his early design experience in the mainland of China.

The application of building performance simulation in the writing of architectural history： Analysing climatic design in 1960s Israel

This article presents a methodology for the integration of building performance simulation （BPS） into the writing of architectural history. While BPS tools have been developed mainly for design purposes, their current maturity enables to reliably apply them in simulating the performance of past buildings, even when these buildings have been significantly modified or demolished. The possibility to virtually reconstruct the performance of past buildings can help us to overcome the existing knowledge gap in the understanding of the role played by building performance and building performance research through the history of architecture and can therefore promote the intelligent and successful application of environmental features in contemporary architecture. The potential of the proposed methodology is presented here using a historical case study from 1960s Israel （a university building in Tel Aviv）, in which climatic considerations were an explicit part of the entire design process. The original thermal performance of the building was analysed by employing the EnergyPlus simulation engine, and the simulation results were used for evaluating the climatic impact of certain design decisions, comparing them with the proclaimed design goals and the original intentions of the architects.

White,everything white?Josef Frank’s Villa Beer(1930)in Vienna,and its materiality in the context of the discourse on‘white cubes’

In 2017 a group of conservators-restorers conducted a conservation-science study of the materials used in the construction of Josef Frank’s main work,the Villa Beer(1930)in Vienna-Hietzing,and of the building’s surfaces.The study was an opportunity to find evidence indicating whether the contemporary description of the wall colour as a non-colour white corresponded to physical reality.The notion‘Weiss,alles Weiss’(‘white,everything white’),celebrated as‘an expression of values and of the times’(Hammann,1930),will be identified as a cultural construct that stands in contradiction to the actual materiality of the buildings of the period.We must rewrite the colour history of Modern Movement architecture.The‘White Cubes’were never white.