Monthly Archives: June 2016

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New Books: Stefan Sebök

Dubowitz, Lilly. In Search of a Forgotten Architect: Stefan Sebök 1901-1941. With essays by Èva Forgács and Richard Anderson. London: Architectural Association, 2012.

While looking through book catalogs on recent architecture publications, I discovered this work on Stefan Sebök. Though the architect was unknown to me, I recalled that a couple of our patrons in the spring semester had interests in Hungarian architecture and El Lissitzky, respectively. His connections to László Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus, and Moscow further suggested that this work would be a welcome addition to our collections.

DubowitzLilly Dubowitz traces her journey through family memory (she is Sebök’s niece) and archives in Europe, Moscow, and the US, encountering both silences and truths. She was aided by archivists, scholars, and relatives of Sebök’s colleagues and peers. She writes of one aspect of her research, “Levente [Nagy] suggested that I should contact his cousin, Erwin Nagy, who had unearthed all the KGB files on his father’s trial and execution, which not only told him about the false charges, but also gave him information on his family about which he was completely unaware (as part of their interrogation prisoners had to give a detailed account of their whole family history). It was through this lead, and a visit to the KGB archives, that I was later able to discover not only Sebök’s eventual fate and details of his work in the Soviet Union but also many other aspects of his life.” (pg. 43) While not everyone may not be interested in the architecture of the Modernists, the book offers a narrative on discovery through archival research. The work is also heavily illustrated with the materials Dubowitz discovered – drawings, photographs, letters, and government documents.

special collections

Friday Finds: Domestic Architecture

North American Construction Company. Aladdin Homes. Bay City, Mich. : The Company, [1916].

Special Collections houses catalog no. 28 (1916) from Aladdin Homes. The catalog offered “Readi-Cut Houses” in which one would purchase the material and plan directly from the company. The company offers several arguments for purchasing an Aladdin Home.

An appeal to modernity:

“The Aladdin System of Construction is Built on This Principle”: Modern power-driven machines can do BETTER work at a lower cost than hand labor. Then every bit of work that CAN be done by machines SHOULD be so done. The steel worker with a  little hack-saw trying to cut and fit the steel girders of the modern skyscraper should be no more out of place than the modern carpenter cutting sills, joists, and rafters. The skyscraper framework is cut to fit by machines in the steel mills, marked and numbered ready for erection. The lumber in the Aladdin house is cut to fit by machines in the Aladdin mills, marked and numbered ready for erection. The steel system is twenty years old – the Aladdin system eleven years old. (pg. 3)

Man’s ability to conquer nature:

“Waste- and What It Means to You”: Our buyers go actually into the woods, confer with the owners and cutters of the timber and buy the right lengths that will come out of the woods, through the sawmills and into our own mills in the right lengths. We don’t take raw material in lengths and sizes as chances to come, but as it should come to conform to our standards. In many instances the cross-cut saw in the hands of the woodsman is directed by our needs so that no other saw is touched to the lumber at any time. (pg. 6)

An appeal to family:

The Thelma: Home! Who loves their home more than the American family? Every day, father is looking forward to the time when he can provide a home for his loved ones – a place of comfort and enjoyment, shelter and protection. Mother has it all planned, has everything arranged. Her highest ambition is a home and its comforts. And every mother should have a home. The children – the ruddy faced kiddies – are anxious too for the great day. They want a home of their own and will love it and prize it as much as mother and father.

To this type of American family is dedicated the Aladdin home. (pg. 15)

Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University maintains the company’s archive and has digitized the catalogs and additional records, if you find ours intriguing.

Enger, Kristen. Hytta Mi. Oslo: Mittet & Co., [1946].

I discovered Enger’s work near the Aladdin Homes and was intrigued by the log cabin on its cover. Google Translate informs me that Hytta Mi translates from Norwegian to My Cabin. The work is a collection of 65 cabins designed by architects for summer, weekend, hunting, or fishing cabins. Most of the designs have the rustic exterior of log construction; however, a couple appear to have the clean lines of  mid-century design.

 hytta_mi

library

New Books: Palladio

Architecture and Planning recently received two texts assocciated with recent exhibits on Andrea Palladio from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Palladio Museum, respectively.

Mortensen, Marie Bak, ed. Palladian Design: The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected. London: RIBA, 2015.

RIBAPalladioGuido Beltramini, who is one of the editors of Jefferson and Palladio (below), Pier Vittorio Aureli, and Daniel Maudlin each contribute a short essay to the catalog. Mortensen notes that each author was selected to offer a specific reading of Palladio’s work and influence. She writes, “The contributed essays are not beholden to the exhibition’s raison d’être. Rather, they are intended as fresh contributions to a continuing polemical conversation around Palladio and Palladianism, which extends beyond the curated confines of any single exhibition project.” (Mortensen, Charles Hind, and Vicky Wilson, “Introduction,” 9.) The catalog primarily focuses on the content of the exhibit itself. Accordingly, “Through three themed sections this exhibition introduces Palladio’s unique design principles and explores the very different ways in which they have been interpreted, copied and re-imagined, and how they continue to inspire architects today.” (“Palladian Design:  The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected,” 22.) The three themes include Revolution (subset themes: Andrea Palladio: Reinventing Antiquity; The Rise of Anglo-Palladianism; Spreading the Word), Evolution (subset themes: Bending the Rules; From Architectural Ideal to a Choice of Style; Statement Architecture; Pattern Book Architecture), and Eternally Contemporary (subset themes: The Comfort of the Familiar; Postmodern Palladianism; Abstract Palladianism).

Beltramini, Guido and Fulvio Lenzo, eds. Jefferson and Palladio: Constructing a New World. Vicenza: Centro internazionale di studi di architetttura Andrea Palladio; Milano: Officina Libraria, 2015.

I have not been lucky enough to see Palladio’s work in person; JeffersonPalladiorather, my engagement with his architecture has been through the lens of Thomas Jefferson. I was, thus, excited to see Jefferson and Palladio: Constructing the New World come through our new books. Beltramini and Lenzo, write, “The ‘seasons’ of the relationship between Jefferson and Palladio are revisited, focusing on the thread of affinity and a shared vision in their project to build a new world based on the example provided by the ancients.” (“Preface,” 10.) The work includes numerous articles with contributions by James S. Ackerman, Richard Guy Wilson, and Bruce Boucher. The book also includes a photo essay by Filippo Romano and documentation of the works designed by Jefferson.