Conference programme:
30th of May – 3rd of June 2010
IMPORTANT – please note that there are two entrances for the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine:
– the “Pavillon de Tête” entrance, Place du Trocadéro (metro: Trocadéro)
– the “Pavillon d’About” entrance, avenue Albert de Mun (metro: Trocadéro or Iéna)
language
Please note that the official ICAM language is English. Therefore all papers and lectures and guided tours will be given in English. However, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine will provide an optional translation from English to French for all sessions held in its auditorium (opening lectures, sessions 1, 3 and 4).
sunday, may 30, 2010
10h00-12h00 – Board Meeting
Salle Davioud, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine,
“Pavillon d’About” entrance, avenue Albert de Mun
12h00-19h00 – Registration / Market place
Auditorium, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
“Pavillon d’About” entrance, avenue Albert de Mun
13h00-14h00 – Lunch (not provided)
14h00 – Departure by bus from the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
(Meeting in front of the “Pavillon de Tête” entrance, Place du Trocadéro)
14h30-16h00 – Visit of the Maison La Roche (Fondation Le Corbusier)
The double house built in 1923 for Raoul La Roche and Albert Jeanneret illustrates some of the early architectural theories of Le Corbusier. Its architecture represents a break with all previous languages used to stereotype the house. Its apparent exterior irregularity is justified by the generating plan which defines the different volumes of the house. Inside, the spaces are organized around an architectural walk or “promenade” along a ramp, multiplying views on three levels. The villa offered a luminous setting for the cubist and purist works acquired by Le Corbusier and Ozenfant for Raoul La Roche. Maison La Roche has undergone a careful restoration in 2009. Neighbouring Maison Jeanneret today houses the headquarters and archives of the Fondation le Corbusier.
The visit will include an outdoor tour of a neighbouring street with another major example of French Modernist buildings, the rue Mallet-Stevens.
16h30-18h00 – Visit of the UNESCO headquarters
The Unesco Palace was built in 1952-1958 by Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss. One of the major Parisian buildings designed after the war, this palace had to signify the hope placed in an international institution representing world peace and culture. The project’s progress was followed by the greatest architects of the time: Le Corbusier, Sven Markelius, Lúcio Costa, Walter Gropius, Ernesto Rogers et Eero Saarinen. On account of its plastic expressionism and the great technical virtuosity of its architecture, the building stands as a real manifesto of modern theories. The principal building has recently been renovated.
18h00 – Departure by bus
19h30 – Conference opening and reception at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine (Museum entrance hall, “Pavillon de Tête”, Place du Trocadéro)
The opening ceremony for icam 15 will be held at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine and will be followed by a reception. This will also be an opportunity to visit the museum’s architectural library as well as its three different galleries: the cast gallery, the wall-paintings gallery and the modern and contemporary architecture gallery.
monday, may 31, 2010
8h45 – Meeting at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine.
Entrance by the “Pavillon d’About”, avenue Albert de Mun.
9h00-10h00 – Introductory lecture, by François Chaslin, France Culture, École d’architecture Paris-Malaquais
(auditorium of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine)
10h30-12h30 – Session 1: Merging Museums
(auditorium of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine)
Icam was created in 1979 as a response to the outbreak of architecture museums as autonomous institutions. In the 1980s and the 1990s several new museums or archives were created in the field of architecture. Over the past few years though, the new tendency for architecture museums has been to merge with larger cultural institutions, along with institutions devoted to visual arts or design. This session will analyse why such merging strategies occur: financial issues, search of a better visibility, meeting of distinct research fields, etc. The session will also explore the links of this recent development with the relative positions of knowledge and mass-culture as well as with event-oriented trends in our societies. Is this merging phenomenon specific to architecture museums? Is the museum’s identity lost or reinforced?
Chair: Dietmar Steiner, Director, Architekturzentrum, Vienna
Waltz Time or Dances with Wolves? The V&A and RIBA partnership
Charles Hind, H.J. Heinz Curator of Drawings, Royal Institute of British Architetcts library, and Abraham Thomas, Curator of Designs, Word and Image Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tearing down the walls: the convergence of cultural institutions at the university of Calgary
Linda Fraser, Archivist and Chief Curator, Canadian Architectural archives, University of Calgary, Canada
MAXXI Museum is architecture
Margherita Guccione, Director of the Museum of modern and contemporary architecture, MAXXI, Rome
12h30-13h30 – Lunch at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
14h00-14h45 – Lecture on the history of French architectural collections Lectures on collections, 1 – History of French architectural collections (auditorium of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine)
Corinne Bélier, Chief Curator, Musée des Monuments français, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
There are quite a lot of beautiful architectural collections in France, some of which shall be discovered throughout the next days. This paper shall give a general overview, recalling the origins of the major collections, from the Académie Royale d’Architecture to the present day. Why and by whom were they gathered? Why were they sometimes transferred from one institution to another? What is the general picture today?
15h00 – Departure by bus from the “Pavillon d’About” entrance, avenue Albert de Mun.
16h00-19h30 – Visit of the urban development in the 13th district or arrondissement of Paris, and of the 20th century architecture archive centre
The new urban development of the Massena district started in 1995 and is largely completed now. It is a part of the greater urban plan of “Seine Rive Gauche” which covers a long stretch of the city, from the Austerlitz train station to the boulevard périphérique. The master plan was designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc and lansdscape architect Thierry Huau. The project is built on a concrete slab partially covering existing railway tracks. The buildings are conceived as open blocks with interior gardens. Famous architects have given the area a strong identity, such as Rudy Ricciotti for the conversion of the Great Mills or Nicolas Michelin for the conversion of the flour warehouse.
The visit will also include a tour of the 20th century architectural archive centre (Centre d’archives d’architecture du XXe siècle), belonging to the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine but situated in the same district.
19h30 – Departure by bus to the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Palais de Chaillot.
Free evening
tuesday, june 1, 2010
9h00 – Departure by bus from the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine.
Meeting in front of the “Pavillon de Tête” entrance, Place du Trocadéro.
All-day bus excursion to the Menier chocolate factory in Noisiel (headquarters of Nestlé France) and to Le Raincy church.
10h30-12h30 – Session 2: the Icon and the Star
(session held at the Menier chocolate factory in Noisiel)
In the Middle Ages the Gothic cathedral was the proud symbol of its city. Today the Sydney Opera is the trade mark for a whole continent, in the same way as the Eiffel tower reminds us of Paris. The modern cult of the star architect has strengthened the desire for the “unique” building. Today a new museum does not only need to function perfectly but it also needs to look different from anything you have seen before.
Buildings with special qualities will always be of special interest for architectural museums, but are we not giving too much attention to the stars and the icon buildings and neglecting the general architectural fabric of our cities?
Chair: Ulf Grønvold, Chief Curator Architecture, National Art, Architecture and Design Museum, Oslo
Architecture in the service of tourism
Wim de Wit, Head of the Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
The new Acropolis Museum in Athens
Maro Kardamitsi-Adami, Director of the Neohellenic Architecture Archives, Benaki Museum, Athens
The Millau motorway viaduct and its human, economic and touristic territorial integration
Jacques Godfrain, former minister, former mayor of Millau
The after-Bilbao effect
Jordi Oliveras, Professor, Architectural Composition Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona
Interpreting urban heritage: museological perspectives
Manoela Rufinoni, Professor at the Art History Department, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
12h30-14h00 – Lunch at the Menier chocolate factory in Noisiel
14h00-14h45 – Lectures on collections, 2 – The collections of the FRAC Centre
Marie-Ange Brayer, Director of the FRAC Centre
Since 1991, the Fonds régional d’art contemporain of the Centre region has collected both contemporary art and architecture, from the 1950s to the present day. The collection is specialized in experimental architecture, innovative procedures and is centered around the notion of “project.” Today it counts some 350 works, 700 models and 10,000 architectural drawings, including emblematic projects of international contemporary architecture.
15h00-16h30 – Visit of the Menier chocolate factory, Noisiel (headquarters of Nestlé France)
The Menier chocolate factory mill was built in 1871-1872 by architect Jules Saulnier. The celebrity of the facade resides in the dialogue created between the metallic structure and the glazed brick infill which reintroduced, in the late 19th century, the taste for polychrome architecture. The rationalist facade became an architectural model and a advertising tool for the Menier factory. The mill was listed as a Historic Monument in 1992. The factory was renovated by architects Reichen and Robert in the late 1980s, following its aquisition by the Nestlé Company to become its headquarters.
16h30-17h00 – Visit of the workers’ housing quarters, Noisiel (by bus)
17h45-18h30 – Visit of the Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Consolation, Le Raincy
The Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Consolation in Le Raincy was built in 1922-1923 by Auguste and Gustave Perret and has become an icon in French architectural history. It is the first – and very audacious – use of reinforced concrete in a religious building in France. In accordance with the rationalist theory that form derives from structure, the different elements constituting this building are deliberately made visible. The columns, for example, soar upwards, slightly detached from the lateral walls of stained glass windows. The church was one of the first 20th century buildings to be listed as a Historic Monument by André Malraux in 1966.
18h30 – Departure by bus for Paris. Expected return time: 19h30 (depending on traffic).
Free evening
wednesday, june 2, 2010
8h15 – Meeting at the Sainte-Geneviève Library, 10 Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris. Metro: Maubert-Mutualité (line 10), or RER Luxembourg (line B).
8h30-10h00 – Visit of the Sainte-Geneviève Library, Paris
The Sainte-Geneviève Library is an outstanding 19th century building. It was built by architect Henri Labrouste between 1839 and 1875, and acquired its fame through the particular use of ironwork made by Labrouste. He chose metal for its resistance to fire but also for its new aesthetic qualities: the large barrel arches and cast columns are integral parts of the interior ornamentation. The interior offers an exciting contrast to the sober stone façade on the Place du Pantheon.
10h00 – Departure by bus to the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Palais de Chaillot.
11h00-12h30 – Session 3: Architecture Archives: building up a collection (auditorium of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine)
Architects’ archives are overabundant but never complete. Although they flood the repositories and are lengthy to process, they often do not provide important information. How can we build a documentary strategy in such a fragmentary material? The issue is all the more striking since the number of architectural practices who still possess their records is incommensurably over the number of holdings taken in charge by institutions so far. Can sampling policies be imagined? Can different holdings, if kept together, enrich one another and build up consistent series? Should architects be warned against their attempts at disposing of some of their records, for fear of their historically dubious self-appreciation principles, or should we rejoice when they take such initiative? The session will examine how archives can build up and follow clear collecting lines in spite of contingencies. Also, it will look at the representation strategies followed by some architects in dealing with their archives, donating or selling them to one or several institutions.
Chair: Sofie de Caigny, Coordinator, Centre fort Flemish Architectural Archives,
Architecture Institute Flanders, Antwerp
Pre-Custodial Intervention: Working With (Not Against) Active Architecture Firms
Laura Tatum, Architectural Records Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives Department, Yale University Library, New Haven
Responding to circumstance: challenges, opportunities and directions in architectural archives collection policy in (South) Australia.
Christine Garnaut, Director, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia
Rethinking the NAI collection: towards a new acquisition policy [an I is missing in the word Acquisition]
Suzanne Mulder, Senior Curator, and Patricia Alkhoven, Head of the Collections Department, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam
From “immortality insurance” to analysed collection strategy
Susanna Janfalk, Curator, Collections, Library and Research, Swedish Museum of Architecture, Stockholm
Architecture as archive: Architects’ records in architects’ offices
David van der Leer, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design, Guggenheim Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
“This is not an archive”
Bente Solbakken, Curator, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.
12h30-14h30 – Lunch at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
14h30-16h30 – Session 4: Do not judge a book by its cover
(auditorium of the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine)
Many icam members possess important rare book collections. This is not a surprise, since the architecture book has played such an important role in disseminating ideas and practical experiences: treatises, model and vedute books, and so on. Nowadays the book is often a part of the architectural project, and contributes through its diffusion to a project’s reputation. It can also be a project in itself, as significant by its content as by its graphic design. This session will tell the history of the main architecture book collections before examining the market today and its perspectives. Collecting and access policies will be touched upon. A last section will focus on exhibiting architecture books – what for, and how ?
Chair: Irena Murray, Sir Banister Fletcher Director, British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
Émilie d’Orgeix and Jean-Philippe Garric, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Collecting and presenting books at the Musée d’Orsay
Alice Thomine-Berrada, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
The challenges of exhibiting books and archives
Anne-Hélène Rigogne, Chief Curator of Libraries, Exhibitions Department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Creating narrative space
Joe Rohde, Senior Vice-President and Executive Designer, Creative Division, Walt Disney Imagineering
More papers to come (awaiting confirmation)
16h30-18h30 – Meeting of the icam subgroup on Education Education Group
(Session open to all members)
Chairs: Rebecca Bailey, Head of Education and Outreach, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinburgh
Anne Ruelland, Directrice des Publics, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
The icam Education Group invites all icam congress delegates to join them for a session exploring the issues and opportunities of exhibition-based educational activities and programmes. The session will include an interactive tour in a gallery (45 mins), as well as presentations on the work carried out by the CAPA and the NAI.
18h30 – Departure by bus to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Meeting in front of the “Pavillon de tête” entrance, Place du Trocadéro.
19h00-20h30 – Visit of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
The École des Beaux-Arts is the owner of important works, at first inherited from the Royal academies and then regularly enlarged until 1968 to include the works of its students (namely the famous “Prix de Rome” renderings), but also enlarged with all the educational models aquired for teaching purposes as well as donations. The collection, which now counts approximately 450,000 works and books, beautifully illustrates the history of the teaching of art in France, a teaching which had a great international influence by imposing the famous “Beaux-Arts” style.
The buildings in themselves also provide a section-view through French history of art and will be visited.
A refreshment will be offered in the Cour du Mûrier.
Free evening.
thursday, june 3, 2010
8h45 – Meeting at the Musée d’Orsay, 1 rue de la Légion-d’Honneur, 75007 Paris. Métro: Assemblée Nationale / Solférino (line 12), or RER: Musée d’Orsay (line C).
9h00-11h00 – Session 5: Written texts in exhibitions
(session held in the auditorium of the Musée d’Orsay)
In our image-driven civilisation, what is the place of the written text in architecture exhibitions? The viewpoints of the curator, of the educational staff, of the graphic and the exhibition designers will be invited in the discussion. As a mediation tool, is the text a comment on the building or on the exhibited document showing the building? How many ideas can be conveyed? Are titles, interrogative statements or summons the best way to get the visitors’ attention? The setting of the texts is not less important: a typographical layout can be felt as neutral, traditional, modern, light or powerful, etc.; graphic design contributes to the overall identity of a show. Text can become essential to the general design of an exhibition, and give a specific rhythm along with other media.
Chair: Marc Treib, Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
“Take my word for it”: the curator as author
Jean-Louis Cohen, Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, Columbia University, New York
Capturing a public voice
Rebecca Bailey, Head of Education and Outreach, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)
“Défense de rire”: tactics for installation and text
Raymund Ryan, Curator, The Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
The Place of Words
Marc Treib, Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
11h-11h15 – Introduction to the collections of the Musée d’Orsay, by Caroline Mathieu, Chief Curator, Musée d’Orsay
11h30-12h30 – Visit of the architectural collections of the Musée d’Orsay
Architecture has represented an important part of the collections of the musée d’Orsay ever since its opening in 1986. The collection of architectural drawings counts among the most prestigious. Initially based on regular acquisitions from the Louvre Drawings Cabinet, it never ceased to grow and it holds today approximately 18,000 works. Amongst the most important archives are those concerning Gustave Eiffel and Hector Guimard. As with all Orsay collections, the architectural drawings collection covers the period from 1848 to 1914.
12h30-14h00 – Lunch
14h00 – Departure by bus to the French Communist Party headquarters
14h30-16h00 – Visit of Oscar Niemeyer’s building for the headquarters of the French Communist Party
Made of glass and concrete, the building of the headquarters of the French Communist party is characterized by the fluidity of its curves and the subtle games with natural light. The building, which was constructed in 1968-1980 by architects Paul Chemetov, Jean Deroche and Oscar Niemeyer, is as remarkable in its spatial treatment as in its use of a high quality concrete, on which the marks of the wooden coffering are the principal ornament. In front of the building, a half-buried cupola marks the location of the great assembly room.
16h00-18h00 – icam General Assembly
(in the great assembly room of Oscar Niemeyer’s building)
18h00 – Departure by bus
20h00 – Closing ceremony and dinner on a “bateau-mouche” on the Seine.
A boat trip on the famous “bateau-mouche” on the Seine will offer a spectacular setting for the icam closing ceremony and dinner, offering unusual and romantic views of major Parisian monuments such as Notre-Dame cathedral, the recently renovated 19th-century glass and metal structure of the Grand Palais or the new Quai Branly museum by architect Jean Nouvel.