How does an institution as renowned as the Bauhaus become a valued heritage asset? Its reception as an object of World Heritage status has been recognised by UNESCO since its inscription in 1996, yet local coordination around its conservation dates back as far as the 1960s. Architects with a basic knowledge about the canon of architectural history could tell you why the Bauhaus reserves such a prestigious reputation today. A quick summary would tell you that it embodies the origins of the Modern Movement and revolutionised architectural thinking and practice; each protected building is inextricably tied to the special history of creative genii including Walter Gropius, and is therefore unreservedly valuable. However, a slower investigation of the Bauhaus institution and its unassuming work practices and procedures would show a different story about how the value of the Bauhaus is co-produced and relies upon a host of ongoing sociomaterial contingencies. This thesis offers a renewed historiographical account of Bauhaus heritage production by employing an actor-network theory analysis to zoom in on the day to day activities of the little known Building Research archive; an archive dedicated solely to the building materials and architectural technologies of many Bauhaus buildings. Through the ethnographic tracing of ordinary Bauhaus objects, whether breezeblocks, windows, or stairs, this inquiry will show how archivists produce value through the salvaging of lost and unwanted objects, redescribe and relocate them in the archive, and then place them on display in exhibitions. By following the trajectory of mundane building materials, this investigation shows how the valued status of objects can shift based upon their associations, their settings, and the worlds of practice in which they become implicated. It offers a lens onto some otherwise invisible value-making practices that serve to impact a larger constellation of heritage creation.
Date of Award | 31 Dec 2023 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
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Supervisor | Lea-Catherine Szacka (Supervisor) & Albena Yaneva (Supervisor) |
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- Modernist Building Conservation
- Actor-Network Theory
- Alternative Architectural Histories
- Object Redescriptions
- Ethnographies of Value-Making
- Bauhaus
- Architectural Exhibitions
- Building Material Archive
- Modern Heritage
- Building Materials and Technologies
Revisiting Bauhaus Architectural Heritage: Logics of Valuation through Collecting, Archiving, and Exhibiting
Mitchell, S. (Author). 31 Dec 2023
Student thesis: Phd