From the Editors

Samir Younés And Selena Anders

ANTA 2 highlights the considerable realizations of traditional architecture worldwide with projects in Belgium, China, France, Guatemala, India, Italy, the Persian Gulf, Spain, the UK, and the US. This issue contains seven sections: Urban and Architectural Projects, Essays in Architectural History and Theory, Critique, Reconstruction and Restoration, Drawing, Debates and Positions, and Recent Books of Note.

The Urban and Architectural Projects demonstrate how their authors have solidly anchored their work within the regional architectural characters. Some projects provide a comprehensive urbanity with well-articulated quarters, streets, squares, and blocks, and a hierarchy of civic and vernacular buildings. These include L.Krier and J. Sepehri’s proposal for a maritime city in the Persian Gulf, Estudio Urbano’s Ciudad Cayalà in Guatemala, and J. Simp- son’s Dickens Heath and Poundbury in the UK. Other projects, such as P. C. Bontempi’s Labirinto della Masone, S. Bastidas’s Villa on Mallorca, M. Culot’s proposal to replace the Tour Blaton in Brussels, or Torti Gallas’s apartment buildings in Washington, DC, having a more modest scale, are no less anchored in the architectural characters of their regions. L-F. Gómez-Stern’s reconstruction and restoration of the Judería illustrates how one of the densest quarters in Seville can be successfully re-integrated into the city.

The Essays section addresses four general themes: architectural regionalism, the relationship between the city and nature, the difficult legacy of architecture and colonialism, and architecture and water heritage. J. Cenicacelaya and F. Bajo analyze C. Petersen’s Faaborg Museum in Denmark by placing it within the larger context and influence of Scandinavian classicism. In a blended architectural and anthropological approach N. Crowe argues that the city is natural, and suggests a number of strategies through which cities can be transformed to better fit within the natural environment and fulfill humanist priorities during the Anthropocene. V. Bharne considers present architecture and urbanism, in Goa in particular and India in general, comparing the earlier regional architectures with the vicissitudes of colonialism and its effects on postcolonial Indian architects. C. Wilson’s essay on the exemplary regional work of John Gaw Meem demonstrates how continuity and renewal within the Pueblo traditions can be realized. R. Rhodes introduces P. W. Broneer’s pen and ink drawings of the vernacular architecture of ancient Corinth as a keenly sympathetic way to understand the sense of place.

P.Sheth, T. Jain, and A. Sheth’s essay on the famed stepwells of India and their remarkable and unique architecture draws attention at once to their established ecological role, and the urgent need to restore them to operation.

The Critique section features an essay by J. Dutton on O. Wagner’s Postparkasse, which exhibits the tensions between the expressive qualities of stone and those of iron in relation to the implied tectonics in joinery and bolting.

The section on Drawing contains several broad approaches emphasizing the instrumental importance of manual drawing for forming architects as well as conceiving, expressing, and realizing architecture. L. Olin reminds architects that the act of sketching is also an act of knowing or understanding, as it trains the mind and the eye. D. Graves discusses the evocative and deeply personal artistic phenomenon known as duende and its indelible effects on the artist’s psychology.

The illustrations of S. Boni make cultural heritage sites accessible to modern visitors through the unique manner in which he combines traditional and digital drawings in the development of dynamic illustrations.

The work of K. Gruber shows how meticulous historical inquiry, served by clear graphic documentation, can be used not only to recon- struct or restore the German mediaeval city, but also its regional character. G. Chaillet’s able conjectures in reconstructing fourth-century Rome offer an especially rich exemplar for the study of urbanism. S. Anders examines the student drawings produced by the Roman architect Giuseppe Valadier, revealing how architectural design was taught in the classroom at the Accademia di San Luca in the second half of the eighteenth century.

In Debates and Positions, we republish a critique of the intentions and effects of New Urbanism by A. Krieger and a response to that critique by A. Duany.

The Recent Books of Note section includes texts that provide refreshing new perspectives and insights on historic cities such as Paris and Rome, in addition to others that explore the topic of drawing and its importance for contemporary architects.

Projects

Pier Carlo Bontempi page 12

John Simpson Architects page 22

Torti Gallas + Partners page 32

Estudio Urbano page 44

Tian Leng and Xiaoxin Zhao page 66

Breitman & Breitman page 78

Bastidas Architecture page 96

Nicolas Duru page 98

Maurice Culot page 108

Léon Krier and Jamshid Sepehri page 112