NATIONAL TRENDS IN THE NEW ARCHITECTURE
NATIONAL TRENDS IN THE NEW ARCHITECTURE
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Date
1983-06
Authors
John, Cestmir,
Slavoj
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE THESIS
ON THE "NATIONAL TRENDS IN THE NEW ARCHITECTURE"
The subject of "National Trends in the New Architecture"
has not been tackled before as a world-wide phenomenon
and has not been published in the literature, to
the knowledge of the author, either at the time of the
beginning of this Thesis or till the time of its
completion. The whole Thesis therefore is an original work.
In the frame of the Thesis still some parts of it can '
be emphasized as being the,original findings and original
contribution in their specific field or of a specific kind.
Among the most relevant, in the author's opinion, are the
following:
1) The "New Architecture" or "Modern Architecture" is
considered as being already a historically distinct
architectural style and is treated consistently as
any other historical style.
2) A comparison of the "New Architecture" with historical
styles leads to the conclusion that the "New
Architecture" has had a similar evolution to other
historical styles and explains why the "New Architecture
behaves as any other historical style".
3) In the course of this comparison stages in the evolution
of the "New Architecture" were found and fixed,
the peak period being in the first half of the
fifties of the twentieth century.
4) The present stage of the "New Architecture ", i.e. at
the beginning of the eighties emerges as being the
advanced stage of the late period (or of the "Baroque
period")of the "New Architecture" with the signs
already of the search for a new style.
5) Concerning the "National Variations" in the architectural
styles, it has been found that there are two,
qualitatively different kinds, one of them related to
the evolution of the styles, the second not related.
The first kind is the spontaneous national variations
appearing in all the historical architectural styles
as a part of their natural evolution. The second kind
is the conscious or deliberately created national
variations which set out to be the expression of the '
national character. This kind can be found only in
some styles.
6) It was realised that the spontaneous national variations
begin to be distinct in the later part of the
early stage and develop further to a still more distinct
form, sometimes having a very specific character.
Consciously created national variations can appear in
any stage.
7) Causes were found for the rise of these conscious
national variations:
- Nationalist movements in the countries, in particular
in the periods of success or glory (positive periods)
or in the periods of the oppression or danger
(negative periods) and still some time thereafter.
- Requirements of the official decisive client,
leading to "Official styles" (term used by the
author).
- Other reasons aiming to express the national identity
e.g. buildings and facilities for the tourist
trade, for cultural purposes etc.
In the case of conscious national variations there
always has to be some need for the expression of the
national character.
8) In the case of "Official styles" required by the decisive
client the basic reason was found for either the
continuation or disruption of the style, when the
official demand for it ceased to exist. The findings
were applied to national variations which are "Official
styles" and the explanation for their abrupt end was
found.
9) Ways and architectural means for the expression of the
national character in the architecture were studied
and classified. Attention was paid to the national
variations and means of expression of national identity
in the architecture of the countries South of Sahara
in particular in Nigeria, using examples from some of
these countries.
10) The reason was found why in some countries national
trends in the architecture appear strongly, in some of
them less strongly, while in some countries they do
not appear at all.
11) The reason was found why national trends in architecture
are not apparent in some countries having
similar conditions to others where these trends are
strong (as e.g. Brazil and Venezuela in comparison
with Mexico) and the "causa sine qua" was defined
Description
Department of Architecture
Faculty of Environmental Design
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Keywords
NATIONAL,, TRENDS,, NEW,, ARCHITECTURE