Roland May - Böcker

In the first decades of the 20th century, civil engineers were widely seen as a role model for future architects. Their role within the contemporary architecture movements, however, was hardly discussed. To this day, even fundamental questions about collaborations, rivalries, or conflicts between the two sister disciplines still await answers. This volume brings together contributions by international scholars on the cooperation between architects and civil engineers in various countries in the interwar period. By offering both insights into national peculiarities and new reflections on the general nature, character, and significance of such joint efforts, it opens exciting new perspectives on the modern building culture of Europe and beyond.

Spurred by the development of new building materials such as steel and reinforced concrete, and facilitated by ever more reliable structural engineering models, designers in the high modernity (around 1880-1970) strove as never before to increase buildings' width and height while minimising their use of materials. This exploration of structural boundaries at the limit of what was possible contrasted with an increase in confining, codified limits to what was permitted by growing systems of regulation. This volume brings together various contributions examining the practices, thought patterns and attitudes of designers and builders in the tension between these contrasting facets of high-modern construction. This novel approach to recent construction history is complemented by exploration of continuities and breaks between high-modern notions of efficiency and today's building industry.Building and construction in the high modernityA new approach to the recent history of construction with contributions by recognized expertsResults of the DFG priority program "Construction as cultural heritage"

Since the publication of the Venice Charter, authenticity has been a central guiding principle of heritage conservation. Originally referring almost exclusively to tangible substance, the concept has recently been extended to include intangible values as an expression of cultural significance. However, the term is still far from being well defined: Authenticity is a fragile construction that is constantly being renegotiated. Focusing on the High Modern period, this volume examines in particular the authenticity of a monument's technical nature. What are the specific communicators of cultural significance to be preserved in such a case, and what does this mean for the treatment of a building's structure, envelope and interior installations? And shouldn't even the typical defects of the period or an ingenious structural system be considered as expressions of their time's art of engineering, worthy of protection?

The art of making things fit for use again goes back to the beginnings of human construction. In modernism's focus on progress and new constructions, this tradition was at best only marginally considered. Since then, the guiding principles for construction have undergone another radical shift. Sustainability, preservation and upgrading have become key concepts of the construction sector's retrofit turn, and the built heritage of the high modern era itself now requires structural and energy efficiency upgrades. From a variety of perspectives, this volume explores the specific challenges this poses for conservation and explores the sophisticated strategies and methods now available for close-to-reality assessment and retrofitting measures appropriate for the built heritage from the high modern times.