architecture

a) Yanaka Cemetery. Image and original data provided by Misun Ahn: Contemporary Architecture, Japan and South Korea; b) Richard Upjohn. St. John Chrysostom Church. 1851-1856. Delafield, Wisconsin. Image: © Ralph Lieberman; c) Isfahan Jami: West Iwan. c. 771-1732. Buyid; Safavid; Seljuk. Eṣfahān, Eṣfahān (province). Image and original data provided by Alka Patel Archive. © 2011 Alka Patel; d) Restoration of the Open Chapel of Teposcolula, stone carving. 1994-1999. Mixtec, Teposcolula, Oaxaca, México. Photograph by Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla. Visual Resources Collection, University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture.

Artstor has released more than 13,000 new images in Architecture from leading scholars and institutions. This wide-ranging release includes surveys of historic and modern sites, including medieval mosques, restored church architecture in Mexico, Yanaka cemetery in Tokyo, and structures and sculptures along New York City’s High Line.

Herat Jami Masjid: West Iwan. 1200-1498. Ghurid; Timurid, Herāt, Herāt (province). Image and original data provided by Alka Patel Archive. © 2011 Alka Patel.

Alka Patel and the University of California, Irvine have contributed approximately 5,000 images of the art and architecture of historic Islamic sites in Afghanistan and Iran to the Artstor Digital Library.  

Santo Domingo de Guzmán, interior. 1572-1666 (original construction). Zapotec and Mixtec, Oaxaca de Juárez, México. Photograph by José María Bilbao Rodríguez. Visual Resources Collection, University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture

The School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection at The University of Texas has contributed more than 900 images to the Artstor Digital Library documenting two restoration projects of Mexican architectural landmarks in Oaxaca: the Templo y Exconvento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Teposcolula Open Chapel—elaborate reconstruction initiatives that both began in the mid-1990s.

Vicino Orsini, patron|Pirro Ligorio, landscape architect. Bomarzi, Italy. Hell’s Mouth. c. 1552-1580. Image: © Ralph Lieberman.

The widely published art historian and photographer Ralph Lieberman has contributed more than 2,300 additional architectural photographs to the Artstor Digital Library, bringing our total from this collection to more than 8,000.

Kisho Kurokawa. National Art Center Tokyo 国立新美術館 Kokuritsu Shin-Bijutsukan. Image and original data provided by Misun Ahn: Contemporary Architecture, Japan and South Korea.

Architect Misun Ahn has contributed approximately 800 images of Japanese and South Korean contemporary architecture to the Artstor Digital Library.

ARTstor Digital Library and ART on FILE are collaborating to release approximately 1,200 new direct-digital capture photographs of architecture, built environment projects, and landscape architecture in Mexico City. The focus will be to capture the most recent developments in the architectural evolution of the city, as well as modernist buildings, UNESCO world heritage sites, iconic murals, historic parks, monuments, and colonial edifices.

Sites and locations scheduled to be documented include the Museum of Memory and Tolerance, Arditti + RDT Architects; Vasconcelos Library, Alberto Kalach; the National Museum of Anthropology, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Jorge Campuzano and Rafael Mijares; Soumaya Museum, LAR + Fernando Romero; Juarez Complex, Legorreta + Legorreta Architects; Camino Real Hotel, Ricardo Legorreta; Casa Luis Barragán, and Museum Torri Satélite, Luis Barragan; Facultad de Arquitectura, UNAM, Jose Villagran Garcia; Museo Tamayo, Abraham Zabludovsky and Teodoro Gonzales de Leon; Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez; XXI Century National Film Archive, Rojkind Arquitectos; Xochimilco Masterplan and Aquarium, TEN Arquitectos; Xochimilco Ecological Park, Mario Schjetnan; Chapultepec Park and Palace; Arcos Bosques, Teodoro Gonzales de Leon; A47 Mobile Art Library, PRODUCTORA; Escuela Nacional de Arte Teatral; Quetzalcoatl Nest house, Javier Senosiain; the Earthscraper, BNKR Arquitectura; Spain’s Cultural Center, Javier Sanchez; 13 de Septiembre residential complex, Higuera + Sanchez; Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Taller de Arquitectura-Mauricio Rocha; Chapultepec Park, Fountain Promenade, Grupo De Diseño Urbano SC; Torre Latinoamericana, Augusto H. Álvarez; Institute of Technology and Advanced Studies, Landa García Landa Arquitectos; Museo Jumex, David Chipperfield; Museo Estudio Diego Rivera, Juan O’Gorman.

Ponte Sant’Angelo; overview of the bridge from the banks of the Tiber | 134 AD; Image 2011 | Image and original data provided by ART on FILE, artonfile.com

ARTstor Digital Library and ART on FILE partnered to release nearly 1,800 new direct capture photographs of buildings, built-environment projects, and landscape architecture in Italy. In their most recent ARTstor-sponsored campaign, photographers Colleen Chartier and Rob Wilkinson focused on architectural highlights in Rome and Venice, and captured views of the city of Florence.

Among the sites documented in Rome are the MAXXI Museum (Zaha Hadid, 2009), La chiesa di Dio Padre Misericordioso (Richard Meier, 2003), Museo dell’Ara Pacis (Richard Meier, 2006), and the Ponte della Musica (Buro Happold and Powell/Williams Architects, 2008). Highlights in Venice include: Torre Massimiliana Cultural Centre, Sant’Erasmo Island (C+S Associatti, 2004), Sculpture Garden for the 1952 Venice Biennale (Carlo Scarpa), La Giudecca (Cino Zucchi, 2002), Pinault Foundation, Punta della Dogana (Tadao Ando), Isola di San Michele (David Chipperfield), Ponte della Costituzione (Santiago Calatrava, 2010), Fondazione Querini Stampalia (Mario Botta, 2008), and the Sant’Erasmo Development (C+S Associati).

James Conlon | The Great Mosque of Djenne, South façade, exterior | image: 2008 | Djenne, Mali | for commercial use or publication, please contact: Media Center for Art History, Columbia University. Email: mediacenter at columbia dot edu

Mrs. Michelle Apotsos
Stanford University
Doctoral candidate Art History/Architectural History

As a graduate student at Tufts University, I was once given the opportunity to give a lecture to a class of architectural history students on West African architectural form for the purpose of unsettling some common notions that inform Western conceptions of the built environment. I decided to present a case study of the Djenné mosque in Mali, West Africa as an example of an architectural tradition that utilizes distinctive structures, materials, and iconographies to resonate with its cultural context. The experience itself not only revealed to me the inherent challenges of teaching architectural studies in Africa, but also the necessity of having high-quality visual tools in order to recreate a convincing three-dimensional spatial narrative. Thus began my ongoing love affair with the Artstor Digital Library.

Colette Apelian

Fine Art faculty, Berkeley City College

As the Islamic art historian in the Art Department of Berkeley City College (BCC), I explain how North African to South Asian art and architecture are relevant to design students less familiar with pre-modern and non-western material cultures. Course logistics add to the challenge. Art 48VR, Introduction to Islamic Art History, is one of the few, if not the only online survey of Islamic art presented to a community college audience. To better address student needs, I organize the class thematically rather than chronologically, and focus upon a carefully chosen combination of fine and utilitarian objects and buildings. Presentations must be compressed so that BCC’s course management system, Moodle, properly stores and displays them. An example of how I use Artstor in Art 48VR can be viewed in one image group for the lecture “Architectural Solutions to Climate Problems in the Islamic World.”

Reed building screen, detail, Morocco. Image: 1982. Image and original data provided by Walter B. Denny

Bagh-e Fin, exterior, through screen of entrance portal, toward court. Image: 1978. Image and original data provided by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom

Alhambra Palace - (Partal Gardens), Granada, Spain, Main construction 14th century. Image and original data provided by Shmuel Magal, Sites and Photos

'Alawi Abu Bakr al-Kaf, Dar al-Salam, Exterior, Image: 2005. Tarim, the Hadramaut Valley, Yemen. James Conlon: Mali and Yemen Sites and Architecture

Alhambra Palace - (Generalife Market Garden),Granada, Spain. Begun in the early 14th century, redecorated in 1313-1324. Image and original data provided by Shmuel Magal, Sites and Photos

In addition to illustrating specific motifs, pictures in the group show technology, materials, and plans that naturally temper hot and dry conditions. There are reed, mud brick, stone, and wooden screens (musharabiyya and jails, among other terms), which are used to mitigate the sun’s glare and heat in North African, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and Indian contexts. Screens also allow air to flow freely while preserving privacy and demarcating private and religious spaces from public and secular locales. There is an Iranian badgir (wind tower) at Mir Chaqmaq (1436-37 CE) that, without electricity, circulates fresh and cool air through multi-story structures. An example from the United Arab Emirates indicates how the idea spread. The image group additionally has historic to contemporary mud brick architecture from Egypt and Yemen. Mud brick insulates interiors from excessive heat and cold, uses inexpensive local resources, and can been crafted into a multitude of styles, including quasi-Rococo and neo-Classical in some Yemeni examples. Images of the Alhambra in Spain, Bagh-e Fin in Iran, and the Sahrij Madrassa in Morocco display architects’ and engineers’ use of water channels, pools, and fountains to cool and hydrate. Medieval waterwheels and a recent qanat demonstrate more methods to harness natural power and supply water. In Egypt and Morocco, central courtyard planned structures and narrow urban streets flanked by windowless buildings cool private and public spaces while providing light, seclusion, and ventilation.

Artstor has helped me create digital bridges between students, subject matter, and Moodle in other ways. I have most appreciated the ability to create presentations in OIV 3.1. After organizing and downloading an image group to my laptop, OIV allows me to create a slide show quickly complete with captions and copyright information. The opportunity to choose compression levels means few size problems when uploading to the course website. Artstor’s varied content has also helped me be more efficient. I can find most of the images I need in one location without additional searches, imports, and scans.