Metaphor,analogy, and the discourse of originality: five Iranian case studies

This article explores the roles metaphors and analogies play in architectural design thinking. Architects, planners, and designers use these cognitive tools extensively. While the linkages between metaphors, analogies, and design thinking are not new, how architects use them is not systematically explored. Metaphors and analogies are used idiosyncratically. What a particular metaphor or analogy signifies varies from person to person and could mean different things to different people. In this study two key findings emerge from the interviews with five prominent Iranian architects, who have used metaphors or analogies in their projects. First, this study confirms the other findings that designers use metaphors/analogies in three ways: problem solving, problem definition, and explaining a problem to others. At times architects post-rationalize metaphors or analogies, or use them after the fact instead of during the conceptual design stage; second, arguably, metaphors and analogies shed some light on broader issues of public concern, that is, the authenticity (originality) vs. imitation debate. This latter debate remains contentious within the Iranian architectural circles.     

清末罪犯习艺所建筑之探究

清末,清政府在内忧外患环境下,推行变法修律,改革司法制度,狱制改革就是其中非常重要的一项内容。作为狱制改革措施之一,在全国普遍创办罪犯习艺所。由于受清末政府的腐朽、执行缺乏力度及开办经费所限等影响,罪犯习艺所建筑仍存在着诸多的缺陷与不足,但作为传统旧式监狱建筑向新式监狱建筑转变的过渡性的历史产物,它的存在仍起到积极的作用。     

亚太地区安全结构转型与东盟的角色

冷战结束后,亚太地区的安全结构经历了巨大的变化,特别是当前中关两国在亚太地区发生"权力分享"乃至"权力转移"之际,亚太地区安全结构的调整尤为显著。一方面,以美国为枢轴的"同盟型"结构经历了由"轮辐体系"向"网络化"的转型,形成了新的同盟、准同盟和潜在同盟的层次化布局;另一方面,以中俄为代表的新兴经济体在强化原有的"协作型"安全架构的同时,又通过"一带一路""欧亚联盟"等战略性倡议重塑亚太乃至整个欧亚大陆的地缘战略态势。作为亚太地区安全结构中的"第三股力量",东盟通过对一系列多边安全机制的建设,既为两种大国主导的安全架构提供了对话平台,也已成为实现未来亚太地区整体性安全架构的可行性路径之一。与此同时,由于大国战略竞争的加剧,逐渐侵蚀了东盟聚合力、中立性乃至在整体性安全架构中的"中心地位"。未来亚太地区安全架构的解构和重构需要中关找到新的战略共识,并对东盟的中心地位进行"再确认"。     

对C／S与B／S体系结构的探讨

本文简要分析了MIS体系结构的演变,重点比较了C/S与B/S结构的特点,并阐述了实现B/S结构的关键技术,指出在实际中还可采用C/S与B/S相结合的MIS结构,并给出了实现该种结构的总体构想。     

EC Merger Control: From Separate Jurisdictional Zones to a Cooperation Based Architecture?

The EC Merger Control Regulation(MCR) established an architecture ofconcentration control based on separate,non-overlapping jurisdictional spheres forMember states and the European Commission, withthe Commission alone having jurisdiction overconcentrations with a competition concern thatpotentially have a Community interest. Therationale is that this will help guarantee thelevel playing field for business and safeguardthe Single Market. This, of course, is verymuch dependant on the architecture working inpractice. The Community Dimension (CD) testsare at the centre of the architecture ofseparate jurisdictional zones, determiningwhich concentrations have a CD and hence aCommunity interest. The paper reveals that thecurrent form-based CD tests are flawed,undermining the effective operation of thearchitecture. It explores three competingproposals put forward to remedy the above flaw:an enhanced role for Article 22 MCR, a singlefine-tuned threshold test and, thirdly, theCommission's multiple notification approach.The paper contends that these proposals aloneare not sufficient to make the architectureeffective. It argues that what is required isan improved CD test applied in conjunction witha harmonised Articles 2 and 9 MCR approach. Inline with the Commission's desire to considerthe long term shape of EC merger control, thepaper concludes by looking at a radicalalternative to the efforts to fine-tune thearchitecture of separate jurisdictionalspheres. By way of stimulating debate, itconsiders an EC merger control based on anetwork of cooperation involving Member states'regulators and the Commission, and with allapplying EC merger law.     

论现代建筑艺术设计中的传统人性回归

在理性与科技日益撕裂与异化人类情感与天性的当今时代,对人性的回归与天禀的呼唤成为现代建筑艺术设计的一种价值与文化诉求,人性的凸现与彰显也成为现代建筑艺术设计思想的内在灵魂。     

Sites of power,instruments of public intervention: the Palace of Congress and the construction of federal power in Argentina, 1880–1916

SUMMARY

This article intends to provide an analysis of the process of building a house for the Argentine congress between 1880 and 1916. After the presidential campaign and revolution of 1880, Argentina entered a new political era that saw the definition of a political system under the hegemony of the Partido Autonomista Nacional and the consolidation of the federal state. The defeat of porteño militias in 1880 represented the end of the project of a national state controlled from Buenos Aires and the transformation of the city into the federal capital of the country. This new role meant that the city now needed buildings to accommodate new functions, a house for parliament among them. This article explores the significance of building the Palace of Congress as part of a broader plan by politicians, urban planners and bureaucrats to place symbols of republican greatness in central areas of the new capital. This study also focuses on the parliamentary debates that discussed the allocation of public funding for the construction of congress and the importance of giving the new capital examples of monumental architecture as a way to underscore its new political status. Finally, this article analyses the impact of the debates in congress and in the press about allegations of embezzlement and corruption that surrounded the building of the Palace of Congress.     

From the Achaemenids to Somoni: national identity and iconicity in the landscape of Dushanbe’s capitol complex

This article focuses on the iconicity of contemporary Dushanbe’s capitol complex, with its state-sponsored architecture and memorial culture, part of the government of Tajikistan’s national identity construction. Dushanbe’s architecture post-independence is actant, a mnemonic and iconographical bridge between the present and favoured historical periods in a quest for national origins. A bricolage of historical symbols, including those of Achaemenid Iran and the early Islamic Samanids, is displayed here in a city with Soviet foundations. Together with pan-Iranian iconography is a desire by the government of Tajikistan for monumentality for its own sake. The capitol complex evokes the natural world, connected to a Central Asian conception of sacred space, suggesting an interlacing of power and religious authority. These monumental building projects are taking place against the backdrop of the destruction of Dushanbe’s ‘authentic’ Soviet architecture and built heritage in the capitol complex, itself a container for collective memory.     

Home Is Where Mother Is: Ideals and Realities in Australian Family Houses of the 1950s

Following the austerity of war, Australians in the 1950s were keen to pursue their inter-related ambitions of building families and homes. Architectural design was heavily influenced by modernism and focused particularly on the perceived needs of mothers and children, imagined to be ever-present in the home. Architects recommended modernising and centralising the kitchen so that the mother could efficiently complete chores while supervising her children. They advised designing children’s bedrooms to provide privacy and stimulate creativity, as well as incorporating indoor and outdoor play areas. While these ideals were promoted in housing magazines, analysis of other sources reveals that the reality of 1950s housing was more complex. Many Australians lived in dwellings representing the design conventions of previous eras. For those building new houses in the 1950s, postwar shortages and personal finances often constrained aspirations. Others disliked the fact that modernism challenged traditional spatial and social precepts. Even for that minority residing in newly constructed, architecturally designed housing, families did not always inhabit domestic spaces in the manner anticipated by architects. Attention to a range of historical sources allows a fuller understanding of the broad spectrum of postwar housing and the diverse ways in which 1950s Australian families dwelt in their homes.     

Power,cultural nationalism,and postcolonial public architecture: building a parliament house in post-independence Myanmar

This article focuses on the contested, and frequently postponed, construction of a new parliament house in postcolonial Myanmar. Since the late colonial period, the country’s legislative bodies have convened in four different buildings, three located in the former capital Yangon and the latest one in Naypyitaw. Drawing on legislative proceedings and media reports, this study interrogates the relationship between decolonisation, national identity, state-building, and public architecture in post-independence Myanmar. It suggests that the commissioning and construction of a new legislative house has always served a dual objective: projecting state power and national pride in both Myanmar’s early postcolonial and later post-junta political contexts, whilst symbolising a sense of nationhood grounded on the representational ideals of the dominant and ruling ethnic Bamar elites.