Abstract
The book chapter is published in the first co-edited book of the German research network Netzwerk Architekturwissenschaft (Architectural Humanities Network). The aim and objectives of the interdisciplinary group is to bring the discussions about architecture in the various academic disciplines and their respective research practices and methodologies on the subject into a dialogue. It has the ambition to prepare the ground for the architectural humanities, distinct from history and theory. The book contains a collection of essays on one specific building project – the Humboldt-Box – in the city centre of Berlin. It is an attempt to investigate and demonstrate how the different researchers and their respective disciplines approach, investigate, and discuss the same architectural object. It thereby attempts to demonstrate and test the variety, rigour, and originality of research in the architectural humanities. Tilo Amhoff's chapter approaches the Humboldt-Box from London through the distant view of the webcam on the roof of the Berlin cathedral. It consequently focuses on the facade and the surface of the building. With this view a particular Berlin phenomenon, that of the show and sample facade, comes into sight. The paper investigates the making of the facade as building envelope, the different companies involved and the building materials selected in the process of production. It asks how the technical knowledge of design and construction could be related to the academic knowledge of architectural history? What are we talking about when we speak of building construction? What can we think of architecture when we think about building?
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | z.B. Humboldt-Box |
Editors | Sabine Ammon, Eva Maria Froschauer, Julia Gill, Constanze A. Petrow |
Place of Publication | Bielefeld |
Publisher | Transcript Verlag |
Pages | 60-70 |
Number of pages | 11 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783837626711 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2014 |
Keywords
- Architecture
- Urbanity
- Urban Studies
- Berlin
- Urban Planning
- Sociology