PriArc examines the relationship between architecture, print culture, and uses of the past in modern Europe and beyond.

Printing the Past. Architecture, Print Culture, and Uses of the Past in Modern Europe (PriArc) is an international, multidisciplinary research project funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area Program (HERA). Looking primarily at architectural debate from the 18th to early 20th century, we study the ways in which new notions of the past were negotiated and constructed through architecture. This negotiation took place not only in stone but on paper, not least in the illustrated press emerging from the 1830s onwards, spreading architectural texts and images to new audiences in Europe, European colonies, and USA.
Montage entitled 'The Most Famous Buildings in the World', showing a variety of well-known architectural landmarks from across the globe

PriArc

Printing the Past. Architecture, Print Culture, and Uses of the Past in Modern Europe (PriArc) is an international, multidisciplinary research project funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area Program (HERA). PriArc examines the relationship between architecture, print culture, and uses of the past in modern Europe and beyond. Looking primarily at architectural debate […]
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Transference

With the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, not only the geographical but also the temporal map of Europe was redrawn. The new “historical-mindedness” of the 19th century is particularly noticeable when looking at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. With students coming from all over the world, the École’s influence spread over Europe, Eurasia and the Americas, continuing well into the 1960s. […]
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Legitimization

The new awareness of historical specificity emerging around 1800 entailed an increasing recognition of the geographical and chronological contingency of human culture and sparked new questions regarding historical development. When the past could no longer be seen as stable, uniform and universal, it seemed all the more urgent to understand the nature and causes of historical change. […]
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Preservation

Cultural heritage is a modern invention, emerging in the aftermath of the French revolution. It involved preserving actual monuments, of course, but surprisingly often, the rescue operation took place on paper, sparking questions regarding matter and discourse, durability and ephemerality, copy and original, which are still at the core of contemporary conservation and preservation efforts. […]
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Projection

The rise of popular print culture in the 19th century came during a period of massive civic upheaval, when infrastructural projects of unprecedented size and complexity were ripping through the physical and social fabric of urban metropolises. PriArc’s UCL-led initiative, Projection, seeks to understand the operation of this narrative of progress, mediated through printed visions of architecture and institutional collection strategies, in the past and in the present. […]
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Book Launch

JANUARY 16, 2018
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The book Plaster Monuments. Architecture and the Power of Reproduction, written by Mari Lending and published by Princeton University Press, was launched in the gallery overlooking the Cast Courts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on January 16. The book was presented by Antonia Boström, Keeper of the Sculpture, Ceramics, Metalwork and Glass […]
Denon Wall

The Art of Collecting Architecture

Elective, Fall 2017
Mari Lending and Tim Anstey

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, an influx of images of the landscapes, inhabitants and monuments of Egypt saturated European culture on an unprecedented scale. Soon, heavy physical parts of that landscape fabric were relocated to Western centers, while this transfer, in turn, was accompanied by a flood of weightless images: newspaper reports, letters, […]
Plaster Monuments cover.tif

Plaster Monuments. Architecture and the Power of Reproduction

Princeton University Press
Mari Lending
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11116.html

We are taught to believe in originals. In art and architecture originals vouch for authenticity, value, and truth, calling for protection and preservation. The nineteenth century, however, looked at it differently. Full-scale plaster casts of architecture from across time and place circulated throughout Europe and America and were proudly displayed in leading museums. This book, […]
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La culture de l’architecture à travers les arts visuels en France au XIXe siècle

DECEMBER 15, 2017
Musée d'Orsay
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/evenements/colloques/presentation-generale/article/larchitecture-a-travers-les-arts-visuels-47075.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=220&cHash=ad1ff1daa1

Depuis les années 1970, de nombreuses études ont éclairé d’un jour nouveau, par des approches biographiques, institutionnelles, stylistiques ou typologiques, l’architecture du XIXe siècle, restée jusqu’à alors en grande partie méconnue. Aujourd’hui la question de la culture architecturale permet à nouveau de reconsidérer l’architecture du XIXe siècle : comment la culture visuelle de l’architecte du XIXe siècle a-t- elle […]
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Sarton Chair to Adrian Forty

OCTOBER 12-13, 2017
Ghent University
http://www.sartonchair.ugent.be/nl/leerstoelhouder

Adrian Forty, PriArc scholar and professor emeritus at University College London, The Bartlett School of Architecture, was awarded the 32th Sarton Chair of Ghent University for his life-long contribution to architectural history. Ghent University alumni George Sarton (1884-1956) was a historian of science and a founder of the field. In 1984, exactly 100 years after Sarton’s […]