Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment

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Design Approaches and Philosophies
Knox, Paul. 2012. Starchitect, starchitecture, and the symbolic capital of the world
cities. In International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, eds. Ben
Derudder, Michael Hoyler, Peter J. Taylor, and Frank Witlox, 275–83.
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
In this article, Paul Knox analyzes the social context that enabled the creation of
“starchitects.” He also analyzes the impact of “starchitecture” in urban regeneration
and city identity. Knox identifies controversy as a necessary means of
promotion in this type of architecture. (A.P.A.G.)
Larkham, Peter J. 1996. Conservation and the City. London: Routledge.
The book discusses the conflict between a city’s need to change and the need to
preserve its history. It focuses on understanding how changes occur and which
agents cause or influence the outcome. In chapter 10, “The Impact of Change on
the Conserved Townscape,” Larkham explains the rise of context and conservation-based
planning and architecture as a reaction to a design approach that
ignored built heritage and aimed at its total replacement. This approach had
been adopted in many European countries during the reconstruction following
World War II. The author classifies the different approaches to context-based
design as deliberate contrast, the use of local idiom, disguise, and the use of
historicist architectural styles. (A.P.A.G.)
Lesnikowski, Wojciech. 1986. Contextuality: Historic and modern perspectives,
Part I. Inland Architect 30 (4): 51–60.
This is the first of two articles by Lesnikowski written as a criticism of contextualist
theory and published in Inland Architect. The author begins by tracing
the historical use of context in western architecture from imperial Rome to the
present day, with an emphasis on the Italian Renaissance. He concludes that
contextual solutions usually resulted from an inability to change the context.
Lesnikowski also argues that the use of noncontextual solutions was not exclusive
to the Modernist Movement, as it often had been used as an artifice to create
monumentality throughout history. In addition, he argues that the will to
impose order on an existing chaotic context by laying an idealized plan over it
has not been an exclusive trait of modernism. He explains that the seemingly
harmonious solutions of past styles was a result of a shared guiding theory that
persisted for a long period of time. (A.P.A.G.)
[See the entries above for responses to this article: Cohen, Stuart. 1987.
Contextualism: From urbanism to a theory of appropriate form. Inland Architect
31 (3): 68–69; Hurtt, Steven W. 1987. Contextualism of paradigms, politics and
poetry: A rebuttal of Wojciech Lesnikowski's series on contextualism. Inland
Architect 31 (5): 66–75.]
Lesnikowski, Wojciech. 1986. Contextualism today, Part 2. Inland Architect 30 (6):
49–59.
This is the second of Lesnikowski’s articles criticizing contextualism, published
in Inland Architect. The author analyzes the theory developed by architects and
Contemporary Architecture in the Historic Environment: An Annotated Bibliography - Getty Conservation Institute - 2015