This will probably be my last post for at least a few months as I turn off all lesser priorities and focus 100+% on writing up my doctoral thesis.
There’s no individual building to single out this time, instead I thought I’d kick around some brief thoughts about the use of case studies, examples, typologies and genres in architectural and building history research.
Throughout my research I have attempted to classify information about historic buildings. This began with a simple list of potential examples to look at, which gradually expanded as I became more aware of what existed. Then, over time, my list had grown too big, so I need to cut it back to something more manageable. The whole exercise was helped by dividing my examples into changing category groups.
Currently I’m at sixteen examples sitting within five of what I call typologies or case studies. The plan is to stay within this structure as I complete my first draft of the thesis - who knows perhaps it will change in response to review comments?
The more difficult part of the project is connecting the examples/typologies to the contextual factors e.g. the technical knowledge & design skills, society, politics and economy of Belle Epoque France and Belgium.
For this I have tried to use simplified diagrams that show the important relationships between blocks of key information in the thesis. I play around with these visual aids until I feel the components make sense as a whole, much as a building designer tests out possible models for a new structure and its outside skin.
I’ve never trained as a designer, let alone an architect or structural engineer, so I’m starting to appreciate the difficulties they have faced, even more so in the past when our knowledge and the tools used to exploit it were less sophisticated than today e.g. before computer-aided design.
However, I hope I can make a small contribution to the way future buildings are constructed using novel materials-systems, by revealing more about how this was done in the past - in my case, particularly through the early use of reinforced concrete and cement more than a century ago.
Catch up at the end of the tunnel!