Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment

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Design Approaches and Philosophies
Goldberger, Paul. 2009. Why Architecture Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger notes in his introduction that the purpose of
his book is to explain what buildings do beyond protecting people from the elements,
when architecture “begins to say something about the world—when it
begins to take on the qualities of art” (p. ix). The seven chapters that follow
explore how people experience and see architecture, how it affects their intellectual
and emotional lives; how it can represent social, political, or cultural
ideas; and what role it plays in our memories. Chapter 7, “Buildings and Time,”
looks at the ways in which buildings change: we perceive buildings differently
as we ourselves change, buildings change through physical alteration, or their
context changes when new constructions occur in their vicinity and when cultures
change. (S.L.)
Gregotti, Vittorio. 1968. New Directions in Italian Architecture. Translated by
Giuseppina Salvadori. New Directions in Architecture. London: Studio Vista.
Part of a series on significant approaches taken by architects in different countries,
Gregotti’s book analyzes the development of Italian architecture between
1918 and 1968. In it, he highlights the key figures, exhibitions, buildings, and
political events that illustrate the Italian response to modernism. The first chapter
explains how modernism had been conceived and developed in Italy in the
post–World War I period between 1919 and 1943, focusing on the rationalist and
“900” movements and their response to Fascism. In the second chapter, which
covers the post–World War II reconstruction period between 1944 and 1950, he
focuses on two cities: Rome as the administrative city and Milan as the industrial
city. Later chapters present the period between 1951 and 1958, when architects
sought ways to design in the context of existing environment and
geomorphology, sometimes referencing historic architectural styles. Gregotti
marks 1959 as a turning point, when architects searched for a different way of
architecture, questioning the link not only with history but also as a manifestation
of their socialist political views. Throughout the book, numerous examples
of new constructions in historic towns and cities are presented, such as BBPR’s
Torre Velasca, in Milan, and Ignazio Gardella’s House of the Zattere, in Venice.
(M.D., S.L.)
Also relevant for Chapter 4: Case Studies.
Groat, Linda. 1983. Measuring the fit of new to old: A checklist resulting from a
study of contextualism. Architecture: The AIA Journal 72 (11): 58–61.
In this article, Groat presents a framework that is intended to help the architect
identify which factors will determine the building’s relationship to its context.
Eleven factors are presented and organized according to the degree of control
that the architect has over them. The author identifies both interior and exterior
building characteristics as influencing factors to be considered. Under “Given,”
Groat classifies factors that are usually determined by agents other than the
architect, such as site location, building type, and size. “Design Parameters”
classifies the factors that depend on external characteristics as well as on the
Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment: An Annotated Bibliography - Getty Conservation Institute - 2015