European colonial architecture and town planning (c.1850-1970): a conference, a repository, a network, and an exhibition

摘要

Although research on colonial built heritage has been generating a growing literature since the 1980s, transnational and international aspects have tended to lag behind. Several new initiatives are helping to remedy this, notwithstanding the resource constraints in a time of austerity, which this note introduces. On 21 January 2014, the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment (Technical University of Delft, TUD) hosted a conference on the topic. During a full and well-attended day in the University's handsome Berlage meeting suite, 10 Europe-based scholars presented their papers. Mercedes Volait (INHA Paris and COST [Office for Co-operation in Scientific and Technical Research] Action chair) set the scene with her paper, 'Towards a global and connected history of modern European architecture', with a particular focus on North Africa. Two Delft contributors followed: Herman van Bergeijk (Delft) on the 1923 visit by leading Dutch architect Berlage to the Dutch Indies, and Nicholas Clarke (South African PhD student at TU Delft) on the work of Dutch architects in the Boer republic of the Transvaal over the brief period between the discovery of gold and diamonds in the 1870s and the British-imposed Union of South Africa in 1910. Two British contributions were by Robert Home (Anglia Ruskin, UK, and Planning Perspectives editorial board member) on British colonial urban planning, particularly the impact of law and regulations upon urban landscapes, and by Ola Uduku (Edinburgh) on the colonial heritage in Nigeria, encompassing mission stations, Government Reservation Areas and master plans. Two richly illustrated presentations came from Eduard Kogel (TU Berlin) on the built environment heritage of Shanghai, and the threats to it from recent development, and from Madalena Cunha Matos (Lisbon) on photographic collections about the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique in the early twentieth century. Italy's 80-year colonial occupation of Ethiopia and Eritrea was the subject of two speakers, Gabriella Restainok, who compared master plans for Asmara and Addis Ababa, and Caterina Borelli (an independent film-maker), who screened her documentary film, Asmara, Eritrea, showing the value of local interviews in histories of place and landscape.