scholarly journals Arhitektura oživlja

ARCHALP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (N. 4 / 2020) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dešman ◽  
Maja Ivanič

Slovenia is an alpine country: 11 percent of its territory is above 1,600 meters above sea level. The Slovenian Alps are dotted with secluded farms and clustered hamlets, and there are larger towns on the plains of the pre-Alpine regions. In the 1990s, Slovenia, together with other Alpine countries, acceded to the International Convention on the Protection of the Alps. Due to its small size, the Slovenian Alpine space is manageable, but very fragile and sensitive to various interventions, especially architectural ones. Namely, architecture directs the mentality and consciousness of people, and thus also cultural and economic development. Today, it is difficult to talk about revitalizing the Alps without mentioning tourism, which brings money to the Alpine environment and creates jobs. Unfortunately, the Slovenian alpine space is developing without a comprehensive urban and architectural development direction. Economic and tourism strategies are also vague. Individual examples of modern quality architecture are rather happy coincidence of the architect's sensitivity, experience and mastery, and the investor's cultural breadth. That is why the examples of good architectural practice that culturally and economically revive the Slovenian Alpine region and preserve its identity stand out all the more. They are distinguished by their attitude towards the environment – understanding and respect for the natural and cultural landscape, dimensions of volumes that are carefully integrated into the scenography of mountain ambiences, modern spatial design, selection of new natural materials, interpretation of traditional architectural heritage and preservation of local traditions and knowledge of our ancestors.

ARCHALP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 NS (Issue 2 Ns, July 2019) ◽  
pp. 13-34
Author(s):  
Antonio De Rossi ◽  
Roberto Dini

The construction of a renewed habitability of the contemporary Alpine space requires a profound critical revision of the ways of looking and of the cultures concerning the theme of re-use of the built heritage. Over the last few decades, a sort of crystallization of imaginaries, operational practices and development ideas has emerged around the two terms of re-use and heritage and their ways of interaction, which today is likely to be an obstacle to the construction of new development scenarios for the Alpine region. Trying to imagine new values and meanings of the concepts of reuse and heritage, however, requires the questioning of those patrimonialization cultures that have served as the ultimate framework for the project of the Alpine space. The essay reconstructs those design processes that, starting from a renewed productive vision of the mountain, attempt today to overcome a hypostatized vision of the conventional cultural landscape produced by the patrimonialist paradigm, to embrace a transformative attitude of the heritage based on the materic character of the basic elements of the Alpine space. In particular we want to underline how the contemporary design culture in the Alps is directed to the development of synthetic languages aimed at capturing the stratified and diachronic dimension of the built landscape through metasemic cognitive and interpretative practices. It is an attitude that, against a background of the change in perspective brought about by climate change and environmental issues, allows the maximization of the opportunities and physical resources recovered in the place, perfectly in line with the aptitude for the continuous re-use of the Alpine civilizations of the past, which focuses on the awareness of participating in a constructive process of transformation of the long lasting Alpine territory.


ARCHALP ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 11-13
Author(s):  
Antonio De Rossi ◽  
Roberto Dini ◽  
Stefano Girodo

Given that this is the inaugural edition, we thought that the first issue of the international journal «ArchAlp» needed to be characterized by a wide angle view, taking shape as sort of veritable tour d’horizon of the alpine space. Thinking with the scientific committee of the journal, it seemed to us that a reflection on the characteristics of contemporary architectural production in the European Alpine area, starting from regionally-based analyses and interpretations, could be very important. A description of the state of the art, which in order to have scientific validity must be based on comparative interpretations, has the aim of restoring continuity and differences in the “building culture” among the various Alpine regions. From here the idea of building the central core around a series of local monographs.


ARCHALP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordian Blumenthal ◽  
Ramun Capaul

“In the Alps, the cultural landscape changes with the way people live and act. Social structures and economic conditions shape human needs and define the appearance of the territory and landscape, contributing to the development of specific settlement and housing models, in close relationship with the place. The local typology and construction technologies, developed throughout the history, thus embody the responses to the particular local housing needs, characterizing the places according to different cultural influences. These conditions, together with the influences of the environmental and natural context, as well as the cultural aspects linked to the traditions of the local communities, today are still distinctive elements of the characterization of the villages and mountain valleys. The essay, starting from design experiences conducted personally by the architects in their region of origin – the Grisons – explores the many suggestions that the “legacy” of the different ways of building in the mountains offered for their design work. From space planning to materials, from construction solutions to typology, the architectural projects of Capaul & Blumenthal, both in the case of the recovery of the existing heritage and in the case of new buildings, seem to move from a clever re-interpretation of the complex heritage that combines savoir faire, knowledge, inspirations and materials, to seek careful answers to the current problems of the Alpine world.”


BUILDER ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 293 (12) ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
Svitlana Linda

The specific conditions of architectural development in Lviv promoted the expansion of the Renaissance traditions in the architecture in the XVI century. The local traditions considerably influenced the classical forms as well as techniques suggested by the Italian architects. As a result, the architecture of Lviv had taken the peculiar features that reflected the character of an indigenous revival. A significant feature of a Renaissance townhouse in Lviv lies in its abundant decoration. as it was created according to the symbolic ideas and was filled with the philosophic content. The façade of Sholts-Volfovych apartment house situated in 23, Rynok Square in Lviv deserves special attention. The abundant exterior design includes the composition «Epiphany», located in the aedicule of the second floor. Using the principle of hermeneutics the article presents the author’s interpretation of a symbolic meaning of this sculptural composition, based on the Gospel texts and is connected with the Renaissance meditations about a human place in the world and his/her relationship with God.


Author(s):  
Funda Varnaci Uzun ◽  
Mehmet Somuncu

The “cultural landscape” has been a fundamental concept in geography and was first defined as “landscape modified by human activity” by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel in 1890. It was introduced to American geography in the 1920s by Carl O. Sauer (American geographer). Since the 1960s, the concept has been widely used in human geography, anthropology, environmental management, and other related fields. One of the major factors that contributed to the recent popularity of its use, on a global scale, was the adoption of cultural landscapes in the International Convention for the World Heritage Convention by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1992. In this chapter, the basis of this concept, its emergence, and its relationships with other scientific disciplines, particularly geography, will be discussed. Moreover, the place of cultural landscapes within protected areas and UNESCO world heritage sites will be more specifically addressed.


Author(s):  
Alessandro Casasso ◽  
Bruno Piga ◽  
Rajandrea Sethi ◽  
Joerg Prestor ◽  
Simona Pestotnik ◽  
...  

The Alpine regions are deeply involved in the challenge set by climate change, which is a threat for their environment and for important economic activities such as tourism. The heating and cooling of buildings account for a major share of the total primary energy consumption in Europe, and hence the energy policies should focus on this sector to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by international agreements. Geothermal heat pump is one of the least carbon-intensive technologies for the heating and cooling of buildings. It exploits the heat stored within the ground, a local renewable energy source which is widely available across the Alpine territory. Nevertheless, it has been little considered by European policies and cooperation projects. GRETA (near-surface Geothermal REsources in the Territory of the Alpine space) is a cooperation project funded by the EU INTERREG-Alpine Space program, aiming at demonstrating the potential of shallow geothermal energy and to foster its integration into energy planning instruments. It started in December 2015 and will last three years, involving 12 partners from Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. In this paper, the project is presented, along with the results of the first year of work.


elni Review ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Birgit Dette

The Alps are experiencing a dynamic development in different areas, such as economy, social development or cross-alpine traffic and at the same time are facing environmental changes that impair the living conditions of people as well as of its flora and fauna. It is therefore important that through the Alpine Convention an international treaty has been agreed upon for the protection of the Alps with an integrative approach, embracing ecological, economic and social aspects. This article provides an overview of the objectives and content of the Alpine Convention. It also takes a look at its genesis and implementation as well as the different stakeholders that are involved therein. The article further examines the specific characteristics of the Alpine Convention such as its mechanisms for dispute resolution and its aspects of public participation. In this context a parallel is drawn to the Aarhus Convention which is likewise an NGO-driven international Convention.


2019 ◽  
pp. 292-306
Author(s):  
Matthew Priestman RIBA

Working on many scales and types of projects in China at times of rapid change, the writer is founder of his own architectural practice Priestman Architects now based in Chongqing and is a PhD candidate at London’s University of Westminster. Environmental, socio-economic and spatial problems persist and metamorphose; the phenomenon of the burgeoning and dominant human habitat of the city is also faced with rapid change from new forms of occupation and technologies. Promoting hopeful visions of the unruly city and its interrelated fringes is a pressing need. This paper proposes an outline theoretical framework using ideas of cultural landscape in China to better frame and locate architectural work. The paper starts with Living off Landscape by Francois Jullien which discusses the potency of Chinese ideas of landscape against the limitations of European landscape thought and includes a discussion of photography as the primary media beyond painting that is extending ideas of landscape. The paper considers the use of the path in classical Chinese landscape painting as a conceptual, cultural and physical thread linking the non-urban to the urban. There, the building - heroic object or urban component - can both accommodate exterior contexts and combine resonant interiorities to constitute a fertile field where social and private domains touch.


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