The Contribution of William JR Curtis to the Historiography of Modern

An Intertwined History: The Contribution of William J.R. Curtis to the Historiography of Modern Architecture Macarena de la Vega de León Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architectural History University of Canberra November 2018 Abstract This dissertation explores the writing of history through the close reading of William J.R. Curtis’s Modern Architecture Since 1900 (1982). Curtis’s book lies in a transitional period in the history of modern architecture: between the establishment of research degrees in North American schools in the 1970s; and the consolidation of the discipline as the subject matter of historiographical research in the 1990s. These developments culminated in 1999 with a major methodological reassessment of the history of modern architecture, its education and its scholarly study in journals such as JSAH and JAE. The study of postcolonial theories in architecture, also at the turn of the century, challenged the previously accepted canon of architectural history by urging the development of a global history of architecture (which remains today undefined). Curtis worked on the first edition as a young researcher in North America in the late 1970s and on the definitive edition of the book in the early 1990s: Modern Architecture Since 1900 is exemplary of, and contemporary to, these developments. By discussing in-depth Curtis’s classificatory strategy, proposed definitions, and position on the main protagonists of modernism, this dissertation is the first-ever mapping of the historicity of the book, of its contribution, and of the experiences which lead to its publication. It proposes a comparative textual analysis of the three editions of the book and the related published research, contextualising it with other contributions at the time. The thesis also draws on direct communication with Curtis in which he shared with the candidate reflections and access to archival material. The argument focusses on two themes which were simultaneously part of architectural debate and introduced in Curtis’s text: regionalism and postmodernism. These notions were, in his narrative, two sides of the same coin. They encompass his methodological approach to the architecture of the late twentieth century, which he critiques based on a criterion of authenticity; a nebulous category which he links to immutable architectural values and on his own first-hand experience around the world. i Despite Curtis’s underrepresentation, and sometimes misrepresentation, in subsequent research on global history, this thesis positions him as a ‘pioneer’ in this developing field. He can be understood as the first ‘cartographer’ who tried to map a modern tradition, or traditions, inclusive and aware of the exchanges between the soon to be politically incorrect terms of ‘the West’ and the ‘non-West,’ ‘Third World’ and ‘developing countries.’ Curtis addressed some of the main points in the critique of postcolonial theories in architecture with the first edition of Modern Architecture Since 1900 and added a global approach to the modernist canon in the 1996 edition. His book is closer to the idea of ‘intertwined history’ than subsequent synoptic histories of modern architecture or the more recent global histories of architecture. Central to the contribution of this dissertation is to bring forth the way Curtis’s writing of history intertwines the modern and the global. ii Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... i Form B ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iii Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………..……………………………………. vii Chapter One_ Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Aim, Premises and Significance of the Study ......................................................... 2 From the Modern to the Global: A Theoretical Framework ……….…………………… 9 Positioning Modern Architecture Since 1900 in Historiography ......................... 26 Overview of the Study …………………………………………..…..…………………………………… 40 Chapter Two_ William Curtis and Modern Architecture Since 1900 ………………………..… 45 The Editorial ‘Life’ …………………………………………………………………………………………… 45 Critical Responses to the Three Editions ………………………………………………………… 50 Classificatory Strategies in the Three Editions ………………………….…………..……..… 62 The Story of the Writing ……………………………………………………..…………………………. 80 Chapter Three_ William Curtis and Regionalism ……………………………………………………… 97 Critical Responses to Curtis’s Approach to Regionalism ………………………………… 97 Turkey and Greece in Modern Architecture Since 1900 ………………………………..… 101 Australia in Modern Architecture Since 1900 ………..……………………………..………… 109 Contextualising Regionalism between the 1970s and the 1990s ……..……………… 119 Chapter Four_ William Curtis and Postmodernism ……………………………………………….… 137 Critical Responses to Curtis’s Approach to Postmodernism ……………………….… 137 Mapping Postmodernism in Modern Architecture Since 1900 ……………………..… 142 Postmodernism, Modernism and Authenticity …………………………………………..… 148 Contextualising Postmodernism between the 1970s and the 1990s …………….… 160 Chapter Five_ Rethinking William Curtis: Between the Modern and the Global in Architecture ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 177 The Task of History and the Role of the Historian ………………………………………… 178 A Modern Tradition …………………………………………………………………………………….… 193 Conclusion: An Intertwined History ..……………………………………………………………………… 207 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 223 v Acknowledgments The completion of this dissertation has only been possible with the generous guidance, mentorship, and constant support in every endeavour of my primary supervisor Professor Gevork Hartoonian. I also thank the invaluable help of my supervisory panel: Associate Professor Scott Heyes and Professor John Macarthur from the University of Queensland. I am grateful for the encouragement and the thoughtful feedback which they provided at different stages in my candidature. I also acknowledge the generous collaboration of William J.R. Curtis, who shared his archive and thoughts with me. Having moved to Australia in 2014 to commence my studies, I received enormous help and support from what today is wisely called the HDR Support team at the University of Canberra and the HDR team at the Faculty of Arts and Design; especially Anushya Kumar, Dr Joelle Vandermensbrugghe and Debra Hippisley. The thorough editing work done by Dr Anika Quayle needs also to be acknowledged. I am grateful for the generosity of the Centre for Architecture, Theory, Criticism and History at the University of Queensland in making me part of their vibrant research environment in the latest phases of my candidature in Brisbane. My research experience in Australia has been supported, firstly, by my family, and later on, by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) International Scholarship. I am extremely grateful for the full support of everyone who contributed to strengthen my scholarship application, from my supervisory panel to the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research and its director, Distinguished Professor Jen Webb. However, I have received the most important support from my family and friends. Thanks to my Spanish friends who have cheered me up in the distance, to the new and dear friends from throughout the world, from whom I learned so much, and to all #LittleHelpers on academic Twitter. Thanks to Klée, for your love and patience, especially towards the end of this experience. The most special thank you to my Abu, my sister Nuria, my brother Antonio and my parents for your love and support, and for keeping me company always during this almost four-year-long exciting journey. vii Introduction: Aim, Premises, Significance Chapter One_ Introduction It was merely coincidental, but ultimately significant, that Modern Architecture Since 1900 was the book I chose, back in 2002, for my end-of-semester history assessment at my university in Madrid, and the book which, in the end, became the subject matter of my doctoral investigation, entitled ‘An Intertwined History: The Contribution of William J.R. Curtis to the Historiography of Modern Architecture.’ Just as Curtis finalised the manuscript of the first edition of the book on the Sunshine Coast, north from Brisbane, it is also in Brisbane that I have finalised the writing of this text. This dissertation discusses the long and complex history of Modern Architecture Since 1900, which has been part of Curtis’s “life for more than a quarter of a century,” almost forty years today, and somehow, of mine for more than fifteen years – an evident and unavoidable generational gap.1 In this task, Curtis himself has played an important role: it was Jorge Sainz, translator of Curtis’s work into Spanish and my former professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, who informed Curtis of my intention to study Modern Architecture Since 1900 as part of my doctoral dissertation, and from early 2016 to mid-2017 we had a regular communication via email, in which he shared with me not only comments and insight, but also documents from his personal archive. This communication was intended to result in an interview with Curtis, scheduled to take place in Cajarc, the South of France, in July 2017, for which I was granted approval by the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Canberra, however Curtis suddenly cancelled. This dissertation is the result of three and a half years of research work, which is evident in the text’s structure and in the way the argument unfolds and, even

Load more