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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Images of Egypt: Exhibition

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
Historical Museum, Oslo

In July 1798, General Bonaparte invaded Egypt with an army of soldiers, engineers and scholars. One month later, Admiral Nelson destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile. Situated between Europe and India, Egypt now became the Middle East for European empires. Since then, images of Egyptian landscapes and monuments have circulated as […]
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Images of Egypt: Book

Oslo: Pax, 2018
Mari Lending, Eirik Arff Gulseth Bøhn and Tim Anstey (eds)

Eds: Mari Lending, Eirik Arff Gulseth Bøhn and Tim Anstey Oslo: Pax, 2018                       Since Napoleon invaded Egypt with an army of soldiers and scholars in 1798, images of Egyptian landscapes and monuments have circulated as fantasy and reality in the West. Soon after the Western […]
FEATURED

PriArc workshop in Oslo

JUNE 21-22, 2018
The National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, section Architecture

The fifth project workshop of the PriArc project took place at the Architecture museum in Oslo 21-22 June 2018. The first day was dedicated to celebrating the end of The Printed and the Built – one of PriArc’s sibling projects – while the second day was a PriArc workshop with papers from junior and senior […]
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Style formation, patterns and the transfer of Antiquity

MAY 18, 2018
National Museum of Antiquities
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2018/05/style-formation-patterns-and-the-transfer-of-antiquity

The first Byvanck style symposium, held in May 2017, looked at different ways of defining styles of the past, and offered new ways of thinking about style formation; and the revival of Egyptian, Persian or Greco-Roman styles. This second instalment, organised together with the HERA project ‘Printing the Past. Architecture, Print Culture, and Uses of […]
Printed and Built FEATURED

The Printed and the Built: Book Launch

JUNE 16, 2018
EAHN Tallin
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-printed-and-the-built-9781350038417/

The edited collection The Printed and the Built, edited by Mari Hvattum and Anne Hultzsch, explores the intricate relationship between architecture and printed media in the nineteenth century. Among the authors are six PriArc scholars, making the collection a significant PriArc output. We welcome everyone to the book launch at the EAHN conference in Tallin, Saturday […]