Outside Sweden, Jan Gezelius is perhaps best known for three museums: the little migratory birds museum at Öland, 1961; the ethnographic museum at Stockholm, 1972–78; and the archaeological museum at Eketorp, 1977–82. Here he talks about his houses and his architectural ideals. This paper is a translated and edited version of part of an interview in Jan Gezelius edited by Claes Caldenby and Åsa Walldén and published by Arkitektur Förlag/Arkus in 1989.

Schindler's Free Public Library competition project of 1920 is analysed. Archival documents are interpreted and an analytic model is constructed. Schindler's standing as a Modernist is considered and his early career is rehearsed, especially his involvement with Frank Lloyd Wright. The formal analysis focuses on the use of symmetry. An interpretation of Schindler's employment of the diagonal axis in the Library is proffered. Historical precedents for diagonal butterfly symmetry in the English free school and the Arts and Crafts movement are examined. A method of analysis using the partial ordering of subsymmetries of the square is applied to the floor plans In conclusion, the influence of the Library project on Schindler's later work is surveyed.

A two stage international landscape and urban regeneration design competition was held last year for the site of a former Brikettfabrik at Witznitz near Borna in the south Leipzig region of Germany. The design of the winning entry was based on architectural, urban and landscape design strategies developed over the past five years. This paper opens with an introduction to these ideas and related theoretical precedents. There follows a description of the project's context and of the design itself.

For Hugo Häring, the role of geometry was one of the central issues in architecture. For him, geometric ordering systems were a deadening force. He rejected Le Corbusier's view that ‘geometry is the daughter of the universe’ and doubted the aesthetic efficacy of proportional systems. He believed that there was no absolute: geometry had different meanings at different times and places and was often present for purely technical reasons. This essay on proportion was written shortly after the Nazis came to power and Häring lost all his work. It was then that he turned to writing, both as a means of legitimating his Modernism as not un-German and, as in the case of this essay, of setting out his developing theories. Peter Blundell Jones' introduction gives the background to this, the first translation of this important work to be published in English.

The Errant's Lodge forms part of the Open City (Ciudad Abierta) founded by the staff and students of the University of Valparaíso in 1970 (see the review of The Road That is Not a Road and the Open City Ritoque, Chile on p. 92 of this issue). This paper outlines the project's origins; the ‘alternative’ programme to which the design responds; the climatic and environmental considerations; the construction; and its relationship to research and teaching. The project, which is still in progress, is partly funded by a Chilean government research grant.

This paper deals with a strange and isolated series of events at New York's Museum of Modern Art between 1966 and 1977, orchestrated by the Director of the Department of Architecture, the late Arthur Drexler. The events, which consisted of a series of books, exhibitions and catalogues, were all aimed at discrediting the Museum's own International Style and replacing it with Drexler's own special brand of eclectic post-modernism.

This paper deals with issues and possibilities of cross-cultural study in architectural education, especially the teaching of architecture history and theory in schools with students of diverse cultural background. The paper argues that responding to cultural diversity involves not only a more comprehensive curriculum, but also a correlated view of curriculum content, skills, course structure and interdisciplinarity, and a sensitivity towards differences that cannot be accounted for in a universalist frame of reference. Instances of the cultural possibilities offered by the Chinese tradition to contemporary architectural education are given as examples and these are related to a geo-cultural landscape of Chinese communities in which Western schools might exercise a significant role.

This paper explores thermal comfort, following recent renewed interest in thermal comfort standards. It also reports on findings from the Thermal Comfort Task in the EU funded PASCOOL project which had an overall objective of promoting passive cooling and avoiding air conditioning. Finally, some tentative conclusions are developed together with their implications for architectural design.

This paper, which is based upon a talk given to the Martin Centre Research Society at the Department of Architecture at Cambridge in October 1994, examines the continuing relevance of the model of architectural research which was proposed at the Oxford Conference on architectural education in 1958. It suggests that the Oxford model, with its roots in the procedures of the sciences, in which ‘fundamental’ research precedes ‘development’, before leading into practical application, fails to account for the role of the designer in the evolution of the state of architecture. It also proposes that developments in architectural education, in particular the growth of the unit system of studio instruction, have added a further element to the productive and investigative potential of the schools of architecture, and that this must be accounted for in any valid model of research.

This paper investigates Gottfried Semper's use of comparative science as a basis for a theory of architecture. It traces Semper's reliance on the works of Jean-Nicholas-Louis Durand and the zoologist Georges Cuvier. Following Michel Foucault's argument that the emergence of comparative science entails a decisive transition in modern thought, the paper explores the origins and implications of Semper's comparative theory of architecture. Through this focus, the paper attempts to identify and explore an essential tension inherent in Semper's work between, on the one hand, his sensitive recognition of the symbolic significance of architecture, and on the other, the proto-positivism implied in his ‘science of invention’. This dilemma still conditions our contemporary architectural culture, making the study of Semper's complex and conflicting ideas more relevant than ever.