JOVIS research

What makes some regional architecture more famous than others? The Making of Alpine Architecture investigates the cultural construction behind contemporary Alpine architecture, exploring the events, publications, and buildings that have shaped architectural discourse on an international scale. With a particular focus on the Austrian Vorarlberg and the Swiss Grisons, the book examines the underlying dynamics and traces how shifts in architectural criticism from the late 1980s onward have fostered a new cultural image of the Alps. By weaving together historiography and detailed case studies, it reveals how strategic cultural interventions not only shaped regional identity but also influenced the quality and reception of architecture far beyond the mountains.

• Examines Alpine architecture and its global reception
• Merges cultural theory with case studies including works by Peter Zumthor, Valerio Olgiati, Gion A. Caminada and others
• Identifies strategies to strengthen regional architectural identity and quality

All around the world, new technologies are being implemented to help meet modern challenges such as climate change, pollution, and resource scarcity in the context of the digital transformation. The use of AI, ICT, real-time information, and Big Data is significantly changing the shape of the city and, as such, making new demands on urban spaces.
This book reveals the specific and vital spatial dimension of urban digitalization processes at neighborhood level. Using three examples from German-speaking countries, Radostina Radulova-Stahmer demonstrates the necessity of orienting urban development towards the common good in in the context of the digital transformation.

New Belgrade represented a material and social experiment for a new society in post-war Yugoslavia. As the city and the country were being simultaneously built, the philosophy of praxis was developing in both the Yugoslavian and the international scene. Praxis of Collective Building deals with the interactions between this school of thought and the histories of architectural construction sites. By closely studying the microhistories of construction, the author considers the theoretical problems of collective production through different narratives: voluntary youth actions in the construction of New Belgrade through the lens of Marxian praxis, participative prefabrication as a way of addressing housing shortages in Yugoslavia, and the transfer and adaptation of the Yugoslavian prefabricated system to the Cuban context by the microbrigade movement.

Venice presents particular challenges for the construction of new residential neighborhoods. When additional living space was required between the First and Second World Wars, the needs of a modern city expansion project were confronted with the lagoon city’s unique urban landscape. To accommodate the unusual geography, small, independent neighborhoods were developed in Venice’s inner periphery, each of which had to work around local idiosyncrasies. This volume explores the creation of eight of these neighborhoods, which were established during a period in which construction was becoming increasingly industrialized. The ways in which their traditional, craft-focused design was harmonized with the requirements of modern residential building is still relevant to contemporary professional discourse within the discipline.

The structural manifestations of digital data usually remain shrouded in secrecy. Katharina J. Neubauer has visited all of Google and Facebook’s data centers in Europe, and here presents an architectural and spatial discussion of these buildings. Directly confronting the structures draws our attention to their existence, their size and—imultaneously—heir inconspicuousness. They are buildings of enormous societal importance that are not intended to be viewed or understood; yet the author has done so here, and recorded them through photographs and drawings.

Economic, ecological, and social crises not only become manifest as interruptions in societal development, but also as spatial phenomena. A key example of these are urban wastelands such as abandoned factory sites, large-scale unoccupied residential buildings, and unused spaces at street level. They are the visible results of urban change, highlighting challenges for disciplines such as architecture and urban design.
This book explores urban transformation using the concept of urban voids. Wastelands hold manifold possibilities for urban development, as it is here that the strategies of planners meet the collective and self-managed tactics employed by local residents. The author analyses case studies from Latin America in order to open up future angles for space-shaping disciplines in Europe.

Newly constructed embassies simultaneously convey prestige and establish a national identity. Their primary aim—to represent a state in a foreign country and reflect its societal self-image—turns them into political symbols. Over the past 150 years, Germany has consistently sought to express itself through the distinct architecture of its government buildings in other countries. In particular, the new diplomatic buildings constructed during the forty-year division between the GDR and FRG document the close relationship between political, cultural, and personal choices and their contexts. From their extraterritorial positions, the buildings offer an expanded view of history and self-conception. To this day, they continue to shape representative architecture abroad.

The construction of high-rise buildings is often accompanied by highly emotional debate. On the one hand, this building type is seen as a solution for the current challenges facing cities; on the other, it is viewed as aesthetically unacceptable or as an expression of undesirable gentrification. Modern designs demonstrate a typological fatigue that stands in stark contrast to the structural richness of the high-rises of past decades. Referring to a catalogue of 100 projects, Falk Schneemann provides a critical overview of the development of high-rises in West Germany between 1945 and 1980. By taking both a philosophical and developmental approach to the technology involved, he identifies breaks with tradition and moments of innovation that contribute to a foundational understanding of this type of building and enable a better assessment of current developments.

From early modernist designs like Hans Poelzig’s archetypal gas station to the Stuttgarter Schule standardized filling stations on the Reichsautobahn, and through to Lothar Götz’s modular post-war constructions—which paved the way for the standardized corporate designs that flourished later—gas stations have been a key element of our surroundings since the 1920s. While the design and construction of gas stations has since become a significant area of work for well-known architecture and engineering firms, this type of building has thus far received barely any attention in academic discourse. Franz Arlart examines and systematizes the development of gas stations in Germany with reference to the architects that designed them. Taking into account functional, technical, and symbolic considerations, this book presents the architectural development of the building type from 1920 to 2020 and outlines the trends that will shape gas station design going forward.