The Berlage Sessions – Spring 2024
The Berlage Sessions is a thematic seven-part seminar series focusing on scholarly research and critical approaches to the history and theory of architecture and urban design. This spring’s series, entitled In and Out of Scale, examined select ideas and projects that reconsidered the scalar relationships of the built environment, from radio transmission and television broadcasting to the model and the chair. Organized from the large to the small scale, topics included the remote transmission of information in the Cold War; televangelical spaces—worship sites, churches, hospitals, university campuses—that were either retrofitted to accommodate television or designed explicitly for its technology between the late 1950s and the early 1980s; the various interpretations and misinterpretations of “artificial land” in postwar Japan; how the construction of new garden cities not only scaled up building commissions but also created new local economies; the staging of miniature landscapes for large-scale photographs; how scale models were used as descriptive instruments in nineteenth-century London; and a consideration of how the Indian planter’s chair affirmed past influences while also sensitively conversing with the present. Speakers included Rachel Julia Engler, Jesse Honsa, Casey Mack, Sarita Sundar, Alfredo Thiermann, Matthew Wells, and Edwin Zwakman.
At the Scale of the Radio
Alfredo Thiermann
In this lecture, Alfredo Thiermann presents his book Radio-Activities, examining how Soviet actions in 1945—dismantling the Deutschlandsender III and seizing the Haus des Rundfunks—initiated a symbolic and technical radio war between East and West. Thiermann explores how architecture became entangled with political power, technology, and the remote transmission of information during the Cold War.
Alfredo Thiermann
In this lecture, Alfredo Thiermann presents his book Radio-Activities, examining how Soviet actions in 1945—dismantling the Deutschlandsender III and seizing the Haus des Rundfunks—initiated a symbolic and technical radio war between East and West. Thiermann explores how architecture became entangled with political power, technology, and the remote transmission of information during the Cold War.
At the Scale of Televangelism
Rachel Julia Engler
In this lecture, Rachel Julia Engler introduces the concept of “televangelical space,” examining how postwar religious architecture adapted to television technology amid the rise of conservative Protestantism in the U.S. She contextualizes this within Peter Berger’s idea of fragmented sacred sub-worlds and investigates how these spaces reflect tensions between the sacred and the mediated contemporary world.
Rachel Julia Engler
In this lecture, Rachel Julia Engler introduces the concept of “televangelical space,” examining how postwar religious architecture adapted to television technology amid the rise of conservative Protestantism in the U.S. She contextualizes this within Peter Berger’s idea of fragmented sacred sub-worlds and investigates how these spaces reflect tensions between the sacred and the mediated contemporary world.
At the Scale of Artificial Land
Casey Mack
In this lecture, Casey Mack discusses Digesting Metabolism, a book that revisits the overlooked idea of “artificial land” in Japanese architecture, introduced by Le Corbusier’s protégé in 1954. Mack examines how this concept shaped Metabolist visions and continues to influence Japanese housing policy, offering a platform-based, infrastructural approach to collective domestic life.
Casey Mack
In this lecture, Casey Mack discusses Digesting Metabolism, a book that revisits the overlooked idea of “artificial land” in Japanese architecture, introduced by Le Corbusier’s protégé in 1954. Mack examines how this concept shaped Metabolist visions and continues to influence Japanese housing policy, offering a platform-based, infrastructural approach to collective domestic life.
At the Scale of Housing
Jesse Honsa
In this lecture, Jesse Honsa explores how shifts in scale reshape the economy of housing, focusing on the early 20th-century British builder John Laing & Son. Through garden cities and prefabricated concrete systems, Laing transformed construction methods, labor rhythms, and housing markets, creating a self-sustaining economic logic of large-scale development.
Jesse Honsa
In this lecture, Jesse Honsa explores how shifts in scale reshape the economy of housing, focusing on the early 20th-century British builder John Laing & Son. Through garden cities and prefabricated concrete systems, Laing transformed construction methods, labor rhythms, and housing markets, creating a self-sustaining economic logic of large-scale development.
At the Scale of the Photograph
Edwin Zwakman
In this lecture, Edwin Zwakman discusses his artistic practice, where scale operates intuitively and unpredictably through models, toys, and photographic sets. Zwakman shares how shifting scales can surprise the creator and open non-linear paths of development, blurring boundaries between idea, process, and finished work.
Edwin Zwakman
In this lecture, Edwin Zwakman discusses his artistic practice, where scale operates intuitively and unpredictably through models, toys, and photographic sets. Zwakman shares how shifting scales can surprise the creator and open non-linear paths of development, blurring boundaries between idea, process, and finished work.
At the Scale of the Model
Matthew Wells
In this lecture, Matthew Wells investigates how architectural models shaped nineteenth-century London, mediating between design, politics, and public perception. Drawing from archival material and visual culture, he highlights models’ critical role in making the growing metropolis imaginable and in shaping today’s political and design discourse.
Matthew Wells
In this lecture, Matthew Wells investigates how architectural models shaped nineteenth-century London, mediating between design, politics, and public perception. Drawing from archival material and visual culture, he highlights models’ critical role in making the growing metropolis imaginable and in shaping today’s political and design discourse.
At the Scale of the Seat
Sarita Sundar
In this lecture, Sarita Sundar examines seating in India as a “social object” reflecting authority, comfort, ritual, and identity through vernacular, colonial, and modern forms. She explores how contemporary designs reinterpret traditional models to sustain cultural networks and ask whether objects can foster community and shared meaning.
Sarita Sundar
In this lecture, Sarita Sundar examines seating in India as a “social object” reflecting authority, comfort, ritual, and identity through vernacular, colonial, and modern forms. She explores how contemporary designs reinterpret traditional models to sustain cultural networks and ask whether objects can foster community and shared meaning.