1st Edition
Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Construction History (6ICCH 2018), July 9-13, 2018, Brussels, Belgium
Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories brings together the papers presented at the Sixth International Congress on Construction History (6ICCH, Brussels, Belgium, 9-13 July 2018). The contributions present the latest research in the field of construction history, covering themes such as:
- Building actors
- Building materials
- The process of building
- Structural theory and analysis
- Building services and techniques
- Socio-cultural aspects
- Knowledge transfer
- The discipline of Construction History
The papers cover various types of buildings and structures, from ancient times to the 21st century, from all over the world. In addition, thematic papers address specific themes and highlight new directions in construction history research, fostering transnational and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories is a must-have for academics, scientists, building conservators, architects, historians, engineers, designers, contractors and other professionals involved or interested in the field of construction history.
VOLUME 1
Thematic sessions
Thematic session: Building maintenance in ancient times (up to the early modern period)
Building maintenance in ancient times (up to the early modern period)
P. Bernardi, C. Davoine, H. Dessales & M. L’Héritier
Maintenance of the parietal coverings in ancient Rome: Confrontation between legal norms and archaeological evidence
P. Ducret & M. Carrive
Maintaining an atrium house during the principate in Ostia
G. Mainet
Municipal management of wooden bridges in the fifteenth century: Pont de la Daurade in Toulouse and Pont Notre-Dame in Paris
C. Sabathier & N. Moucheront
Regular building maintenance and long-term conservation in ancient times
M. L’Héritier, C. Davoine, H. Dessales & P. Bernardi
Thematic session: Experts and building assessments. An international comparison (thirteenth-twentieth century)
Experts and building assessments. An international comparison (thirteenth-twentieth century)
R. Carvais & V. Negre
Siena 1357. The failure of a great plan
K. Tragbar
The public architect’s role as surveyor of the construcion site in the nineteenth century: The example of Belgian provincial architects
J. Cornilly
The engineer as expert: Early structural forensic reports in the United States
D. Friedman
Surveyors and building appraisals. Conceptualizing a comparative project (thirteenthtwentieth centuries)
R. Carvais
Thematic session: Architects and bureaucrats: Centralised governments and the administrative pre-conditions of building before 1750
Architects and bureaucrats: Centralised governments and the administrative pre-conditions of building before 1750
M. Hurx
The impact of bureaucratic procedures on architectural planning in the Late Middle Ages in the Low Countries
M. Hurx
Building for the Crown: Contracts and administration under the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Monastery of El Escorial
P. Chías & T. Abad
Bureaucratization and dynamization of construction processes in the electorate of Bavaria
A. Gommel
The director, the first architect of the academy and the professor: The roles of these figures in the academic teaching of eighteenth-century France
H. Rousteau-Chambon
Architects and institutions in the construction of the new city of Cervia
I. Benincampi
Thematic session: Historic precast concrete
Historic precast concrete
H.A. Heinemann
Building breakwaters with precast concrete blocks (1834–67)
S.M. Holzer
Concrete matter: Building the Bruges submarine pens (1917–18)
W. Bekers & R. De Meyer
Stone and concrete: A review of the coevolution of the surface finishes of two buildings materials
H.A. Heinemann & W.J. Quist
The NEMAVO Airey system: A wealth of options
L.G.K. Spoormans, H. Zijlstra & W.J. Quist
Prefabricated elements and typification in communist Poland
P. Marciniak
‘Handmade’ pre-cast concrete: The Italian experience between structural engineering and industrial design (1950–80)
I. Giannetti
Thematic session: Early thin shells – players, impulses, and effects
Early thin shells – players, impulses, and effects
R. May
The first concrete dome in Germany? A church building using modern techniques
J. Rehm
Hangars built of concrete reinforced in various ways, 1908–21: Toward a majestic nave without ribbing
B. Lampariello
Oldest surviving hangars with shallow domes (1918)
C. Czymay
Thin concrete shells by Eugene Freyssinet
B. Espion
The diffusion of the Zeiss-Dywidag system in Italy: Two cases in Rome
M. Russo & E. Curra
A great achievement of the Soviet construction technology in Siberia: The reinforced concrete cupola of the Novosibirsk Theatre
I. Nevzgodin
Wooden shells in pre-war Soviet Union (1925–39)
O. Arkhipkina
‘Laborious and difficult’: The evolution of Pier Luigi Nervi’s hangar roofs (1935–41)
T. Leslie
Contemporary light vaults in Colombia. The origin of a modern tradition
J. García, F. Magdalena & J.M. Medina
Thematic session: Modern ‘comfort’ in colonial / postcolonial settings beyond the ‘centre / periphery’ framework
Modern ‘comfort’ in colonial / postcolonial settings beyond the ‘centre / periphery’ framework
J. Lagae & J.-H. Chang
Viet-cool: Thermal comforts in Vietnam
A. Cruse
Cross-cultural thermal knowledge: The case of large-scale tobacco barns in Sumatra (Indonesia)
S. Roesler
Detropicalizing comfort research: The climate and house design program in Australia (1945–47)
D.J. Ryan
Thematic session: Transnational exchange in the construction worlds of nineteenth and twentieth century Asia: The diffusion of materials and processes in the Global South
Transnational exchange in the construction worlds of nineteenth and twentieth century Asia: The diffusion of materials and processes in the Global South
A. Srivastava & P. Scriver
“Elle pousse, la Capitale Champignon!” Questioning skill in the Belgian Congo’s building industry
R. Fivez
Construction technology transfer in Shanghai in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries
J. Ye & C. Fivet
Cement and ‘Shanghai plaster’ in British Hong Kong and Penang (1920s–1950s)
C.W.C. Lai
Learning from the ‘other’: Early modern emulation and trans-imperial exchange of ‘native’ building technologies
P. Guedes
Open sessions
Schematic reconstruction of a type of Roman scaffolding used for the Basilica of Maxentius
L. Albrecht & M. Döring-Williams
Alonso de Vandelvira’s approach to the geometrical design of templates for caissons in crossing trellis vaults
M. Aranda Alonso
Glasgow city chambers: The construction and building services history of a major municipal building from the Victorian period
N.C. Baker
Changes in the battlements and machicolations of the Late Medieval castles between the duchy of Milan and Este dominions. Just a question of style or also function?
L. Balboni
Concrete capital: John McShain’s construction of Washington, DC (1930–70)
V. Baselice
Contracting blunders and innovative regulations of US military construction 1861 to 1918
J.L. Beard
The work and professional status of John (1787–1852) and Benjamin Green (1813–58), architects and engineers
P.W.R. Bell
Gustave Andreas Royers (1848–1923), from Antwerp city engineer to Belgian politician
I. Bertels
Exploring the visual material within the building process of the Villa Savoye
V. Boone & B. Gandini
General contractors and architects in nineteenth-century America
B. Bowen
Two- and three-dimensional geometry in Tierceron vaults: A case study of Exeter cathedral
A.C. Buchanan & N.J. Webb
John A. Roebling’s Allegheny Aqueduct and Smithfield Street Bridge: Nineteenth-century innovation in multi-span suspension bridges
S.G. Buonopane & D.A. Gasparini
From invention to production: The introduction of prestressed concrete
J. Burchardt
Influences of the engineer Pier Luigi Nervi on the work of the architect Marcel Breuer
M.Á. Calvo-Salve
A dispute on Venetian techniques of foundation: Vincenzo Scamozzi in San Nicolo da Tolentino (1591–95)
M. Capponi
Wooden survey towers in Germany
P.S.C. Caston
Iron roof structures by Bosshard & Cie: Case studies in Switzerland
A.M. Chalvatzi & S.M. Holzer
Building contracts in the city of Girona from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century
M.A. Chamorro, J. Soler, R. Ripoll & E. Vilagran
Innovative or derivative? The design of the bridge structures on the world’s first intercity railway between Liverpool and Manchester
M. Chrimes
The graphic statics of the systems of space by Benjamin Mayor
T. Ciblac
The rise and fall of the cast iron breast panel in Britain (c.1906–60)
J. Clarke
TPI – the Italian popular theatre: An architectural, technological and building experiment of a space in motion
A. Como, L. Smeragliuolo Perrotta, S. Talenti & A. Teodosio
Inquiring into the structural identity of the Sala dei Baroni vault
M.T. Como
What hides behind the plaster? Hollow-brick and iron vaults in Europe between the eighteenth and the twentieth century
P. Condoleo
Reinforced concrete in Italy through the works of two generations of engineers: Mario and Giorgio Baroni
E. Curra & M. Russo
The construction of Ghent’s textile industry warehouses
M. De Fossé, I. Bertels, I. Wouters & L. Van Santvoort
Spatial management of contractors. An analysis of the industrial sites of the Louis De Waele enterprise in Brussels (1867–1988)
M. Degraeve, J. Dobbels, I. Bertels, H. Deneweth & S. Van de Voorde
Renovating early modern Leiden: New perspectives on the building trades
H. Deneweth
Building in (times of) war. Blaton’s construction activities in occupied Belgium
R. Devos & B. Espion
Steel heritage: Olivetti’s factories in Ivrea in the fifties and sixties
D. Di Donato, R. Morganti, A. Tosone & M. Abita
History of the Italian contractors of large reinforced concrete structures in the twentieth century
C. Di Pietro
A business-historical analysis of Entreprises générales Henri Ruttiens (1878–2000)
J. Dobbels, I. Bertels, I. Wouters & B. Espion
Sasanian construction technology in the Maiden Tower Complex as evidence of Late Antiquity building activities in Baku (Azerbaijan)
M. Döring-Williams & L. Albrecht
Doors in English published books on architecture and building construction 1550–1800
K.L. Draper & J.W.P. Campbell
Porto tower buildings in the 1960s: Challenges to architects and engineers
R. Fernandes Póvoas & C. Pimenta do Vale
Constructive culture in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Contributions of Alfredo de Andrade (1839–1915) to construction history across Italy and Portugal
T.C. Ferreira
The institutional organisation of Belgium’s cellular prison building campaign (1830-WWI)
J. Feyaerts
The caisson – review of a unique wooden construction typology in China
C. Fivet, J. Ye & P. Xu
Richard Neutra and the history of the vertical louvered solar control system
C. Fordham
From pickaxes to steam saws: The construction of the row house in Dublin (1730–1888)
S. Galavan
From master builder to subcontractor: The Guastavino Company and the role of specifications
J. Garcia Fritz
Sturdy as stone, vibrant as ceramics: Italklinker and Modern Movement architecture in Italy
E. Garda & M. Mangosio
Navier’s 1823 Mémoire: Analyses and observations on displacements and stiffness of suspension bridges
D.A. Gasparini & S.G. Buonopane
Geometry on paper and on the ground in the last third of the seventeenth century. Leclerc’s and Manesson-Mallet’s contribution and influence
J. Girón
Historic timber framed courtyard houses: Origin and development of the corralas in Madrid (1494–1908)
E. González-Redondo
Innovation of construction systems versus reproducibility of the architectural image. Multiple constructional processes in the ‘Unité d’Habitation’ (1945–67)
F. Graf
VOLUME 2
Pier Luigi Nervi and Fiat. The expansion of Officine Mirafiori in Turin
L. Greco
The vaulted roof of San Vittore in Milan: An unusual sixteenth-century construction
A. Grimoldi
The evolution of the cast node of the Pompidou Centre: From the ‘friction collar’ to the ‘gerberette’
B. Hamzeian
German stonemasons and the fort architecture of the Texas frontier
L. Hancock
The Chinese teahouse at the 1873 Vienna world exposition
A. Harrer
Documenting depression-era construction: The University of Virginia’s PWA buildings
B.J. Hays
King’s College Chapel: The geometry of the fan vault
J. Heyman
Late Antique vaults in the cisterns of Resafa with ‘bricks set in squares’
C. Hof
Evolutionary traces in European nail-making tools
C. How
Arch bridge design in eighteenth-century France: The rule of Perronet
S. Huerta
‘Recommended minimum requirements for small dwelling construction’. A forgotten ancestor of the modern USA building code
N.P. Isaacs
Earthen buildings in Ireland
A. Jiménez Rios & D.W. O’Dwyer
Iron on top. The use of wrought iron armatures in the construction of late Gothic openwork spires
C. Kayser
The Munich state opera house. Constructing between tradition and progress at the beginning of the nineteenth century
C. Knobling
The roof of the Marble Palace in Saint-Petersburg: A structural iron ensemble from the 1770s
A. Kosykh, W. Lorenz & K. Frommelt
Modernity and locality in the use of brick in Spanish architecture (1870s–1930s)
R. Kumagai, Y. Ito & F. Kimura
Study of traditional gypsum in Spain: Methodology and initial results
V. La Spina
Interdisciplinary research on the heritage of housing complexes in France (1945–75)
R. Labrunye, G. Bolle, K. El Alami, I. Requena & D. Siret
Earthen mortar walls in Cremona: The complexity and logic behind a construction technique
A.G. Landi
Geometry and proportions of the medieval castles of Latvia
A. Lapins
New typology for Old & Middle Kingdom stone tools: Studies in the Hatnub quarries in Egypt
O. Lavigne
Luigi Moretti and the program of the case albergo in Milan (1947–50)
R. Lucente & L. Greco
Hydrotechnical models of the ‘Modellkammer’ (chamber of models) in Augsburg, Germany
R. Mair & C. Weber
Abandonment of sexpartite vaults: Construction difficulties and evolution
R. Maira Vidal
Late Gothic constructions in Müstair and Meran
M. Maissen, M. Gantner & S.M. Holzer
Built-in, exposed or concealed comfort services. Attempts to industrialise collective housing after 1945
G. Marino
The Portland cement industry and reinforced concrete in Portugal (1860–1945)
J. Mascarenhas-Mateus & C. Rodrigues de Castro
Origins of the modern cable-stayed bridge: The Dischinger story
R. May
Frederick Lanchester and the invention of the air-supported roof
W. McLean
Catetinho: The first presidential house in Brasília, Brazil
M.M. Mennucci & P.P. Palazzo
Some aspects of steel building construction of the industrial architecture in the United States (1890–1930)
M. Mislin
Iron bridges for Rome, the capital of the Kingdom of Italy
R. Morganti, A. Tosone, M. Abita & D. Di Donato
The hyperbolic paraboloids of the Tor di Valle racetrack in Rome
S. Mornati
The secret of zoomorphic imposts: A new reading of the Achaemenids’ roofing system
M. Motamedmanesh
The dome of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in Paris, a historical and structural analysis
L. Moubax & K. De Jonge
Braided rope with vegetable fibers for the construction of the Inca bridge of Q’eswachaka (Peru)
E. Muscio & J. Anaya Díaz
Church of Mission San José, San Antonio: Using construction history to inform preservation approaches
A. Nau & Q. Collette
Knowledge transfer in vaulting. The Assier church and Valencian stonecutting
P. Navarro-Camallonga, J. Calvo-López & M.A. Alonso-Rodríguez
Nineteenth-century stone protection: The invention and early research on fluosilicates and their dispersion into Europe
T.G. Nijland & W.J. Quist
The Boyne Viaduct: Early indeterminate lattice girder analysis and design
D.W. O’Dwyer & R. Cox
Sixteenth-century development from common rafter roofs to ridge purlins in Leiden (NL)
E. Orsel
European iron bridges in Puerto Rico: The example of the Guamaní bridge
J. Ortiz-Colom
Accouplement: Vicissitudes of an architectural motif in classical France
P.P. Palazzo
Fabrication and erection of large steel bridges in the twentieth century: From structural analysis to optimisation of fabrication
E. Pelke & K.-E. Kurrer
Production of major public works in Brazil: From the scenes in documentaries from 1950–70 to an interrogation about the contemporary specificities of state-company relations
G.M. Petrella & C.H. D’Almeida
Early Greek stone construction and the invention of the crane
A. Pierattini
Experimental school constructions by Jean Prouvé. The benefit of closed prefabrication
A.L. Pöllinger
Sheltered. Parked. Respirated. Three underground spaces by Gottfried Schindler
A.W. Putz
Dutch natural stone: Interpretation of a vernacular building material in modern architecture
W.J. Quist
Late Gothic system in the church of Saint-Séverin (Paris)
E. Rabasa-Díaz
Recent geopolitics of construction – origins and consequences
A. Rabeneck
Pier Luigi Nervi’s idea of “vertita delle strutture”
P. Radelet-de Grave
‘Theory’ and systematic testings – Emil Mörsch, Carl bach and the culture of experimentation into reinforced concrete construction at the turn of the twentieth century
C. Rauhut & T. Meyer
A timber bridge constructed in seventeenth-century Japan: Study of innovation in the construction of Kintai Bridge and its maintenance techniques
C. Ren
François Coignet (1814–88) and the industrial development of the first modern concretes in France
G. Richaud
Assessing geometrically the structural safety of masonry arches
J.-F. Rondeaux, A. Deschuyteneer & D. Zastavni
A masterpiece in the use of light, Johnson Wax headquarters. Racine, Wisconsin, USA
G. Sampaoli
The Church of Peace in Jawor: A few remarks on the organization of its construction in the years 1654–56 in the light of written and iconographic sources
U. Schaaf
Nubia vernacular: The villages of Bigge
B. Schäfer
Beyond Grubenmann: Swiss carpentry (1750–1850)
J. Schäfer & S.M. Holzer
Transfer of knowledge through books and prints: Jesuit design for the Western buildings and fountains in the Yuanmingyuan in Beijing
H. Schlimme
Earthquake-resistant foundations systems in Italy in the first decade of the twentieth century
F. Scibilia
Specifications and the standardisation of Ireland’s local harbours
E. Shotton
Fire brick in China: From mining to architecture
C.-X. Shu & Y.-B. Fang
New experiences with reinforced tile for Eladio Dieste when building the Cristo Obrero Church
M. Silva-Contreras
Competing visions of community, commerce and construction in the first Ohio River railroad bridge
D.A. Simmons
Knowledge transfer in the early medieval art of vaulting in Dalmatia
M. Šimunić Buršić
Onsite precast concrete: A critical approach to concrete at the Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkha University, Thailand
P. Sirikiatikul
Adobe constructions in Yún-lín county, Taiwan
P. Smars
The vaulted system of the Basilica of S. Ambrogio in Milan: A cross-feature in the Basilica’s life. Restoration and interpretation
C. Stanga & C. Spinelli
At the intersection of foreign building know-how: Plovdiv in the early twentieth century
I. Stoyanova
The influence of Howe’s structural typology on Galician wooden bridges
C. Tardini
The mushroom column: Origins, concepts and differences
A. Thuy & M. Rinke
The thirties summer holiday camps in the Abruzzo region: From design to building
A. Tosone, R. Morganti & A. Bellicoso
The first Luanda’s skyscraper: Comfort through natural and artificial control methods
A. Tostoes & M. Quinta
Victor Horta and building site photography
D. Van de Vijver
Business-card buildings: Corporate architecture and promotional strategies in buildings and projects for Eternit in Belgium (1955–75)
S. Van de Voorde & R. Devos
The foundations of the Nieuwe Kerk Tower in Amsterdam (1645–52)
G. van Tussenbroek
Joining techniques in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Belgian timber roofs
L. Vandenabeele, I. Bertels & I. Wouters
Education on the production chain: Lelé’s transitory schools in Brazil
A. Vilela
Innovations in the structural systems in tall buildings in Bogotá in the 1960s. Case study: Bavaria building
C. Villate Matiz
William Arrol and Peter Lind: Demolition, construction and workmanship on London’s Waterloo Bridges (1934–46)
C. Wall
Reverse engineering marvelous machines: The design of Late Gothic vaults from concept to stone planning and the prehistory of stereotomy
D. Wendland & M.J. Ventas Sierra
Emergence of heavy contracting in the United States in the nineteenth century
S.E. Wermiel
Hidden modernity: Reinforced concrete trusses in Brussels parish churches (1935–40)
R. Wibaut, T. Coomans & I. Wouters
Built to stock. Versatility of Hennebique’s urban warehouses in Belgium (1892–1914)
I. Wouters, S. Van de Voorde, M. De Fossé & I. Bertels
Biography
Ine Wouters, Stephanie Voorde, Inge Bertels, Bernard Espion, Krista Jonge, Denis Zastavni