Transitions - Architectural Histories of Transformation

Joseph Doyague and Olivia Bowness employ the Cuban dish "moros y cristianos" (or Moors and Christians) as a metaphor to describe the cross-cultural character of religious architecture in Spain. Their case study, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, began as an eight century Islamic structure that incorporated Christian architectural elements into its floor plan. It was later transformed into a Cathedr...

Our hosts, James Rubin and Lucy Wells, compare and contrast the political function of historical stadium culture to tease out the propagandistic roots of contemporary sports culture in the United States. While purportedly serving as a passive form of entertainment in Rome, the Colosseum operated as a political stage in miniature form. Just as Roman Emperors employed this arena for their own politi...

In this podcast, Sydney Salazar traces the long history of the Cape Cod house as a ready-made architectural precedent for 'American' life. From its trans-Atlantic migrations into the New World to its packaging as a Levittown starter home, the Cape Cod has persistently been modeled as an idealized version of Anglo-American heritage. As a precedent for American life, the Cape Cod has its lim...

Our host, Romina Daryabari walks us through the complex social, political, and cultural meaning of courtyard spaces for Iranian houses. This space is more than a material formula for promoting sustainable living or an ornamental system for preserving wood and ceramic building techniques. It is a living space that is constituted by the long history of familial traditions undertaken by its inhabitan...

In this podcast, Jack Wallace and Henry Houghton reexamine the nationalist ideologies that have influenced state histories of Texas landmarks such as the Alamo. In contrast to the heroic portrait of Davy Crockett as a martyr to American liberty, some historic documents suggest that he and other Texans stationed at the Alamo likely surrendered to and were executed by the Mexican army in 1836. Jack...

How does a building reflect the character of the populations it serves? And might a single building contain divergent meanings for two distinct civilizations that have served as its steward over time? In this podcast, Louis Prosperie narrates the cross-cultural sacralization of two religious structures of Byzantium--the Hagia Sophia and the Cappella Palatina--to demonstrate the complex ways that n...

In this episode, Ji-Yoon Ahn and Daniel Icaza-Milson will trace the construction of the Gyeongbokgung Palace from the 14th century to its modification as a colonial center by the Japanese government in the early- to mid-20th century. Our discussion begins between 1495 and 1910 centering on the Choson dynasties' palaces' construction techniques, followed by the building of the imperialist Japanese...