Empire building: orientalism and victorian architecture.

Empire building: orientalism and victorian architecture. London and New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Routledge, 1996 Pp. xvi, 288 pages. 95 blackand white illustrations, index. $104.95 (cloth); $34.95 (paper). Crinson's study of nineteenth-century British building inthree Near Eastern cities resonates with current geopolitical ge��o��pol��i��tics?n. (used with a sing. verb)1. The study of the relationship among politics and geography, demography, and economics, especially with respect to the foreign policy of a nation.2. a. issues(the cities are Alexandria, Istanbul, and Jerusalem). Arab-Israelistruggles over Jerusalem and a Palestinian homeland This article or section has multiple issues:* Its neutrality is disputed.* Its factual accuracy is disputed.* It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by citing reliable sources. , the role of awesternizing Egypt (and its internal problems with a militant Islamicfundamentalism Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating literalistic interpretations of the texts of Islam and of Sharia law.[1] Definitions of the term vary. ), Turkey poised between east and west and now rebuffed bythe European Union; all this and more makes Empire Building immediatelyrelevant, even though engagement with these current issues is not onCrinson's agenda. That they lurk nearby is evident only from thecontinuing dialogue with Edward Said Edward Wadie Sa?d, Arabic: إدوارد وديع سعيد, that informs the argument.Said's thesis about the hegemonic nature of Orientalism and itsessentially imperialistic goals provides a running counterpoint to theurban and architectural investigation, and evidence from specificprojects corrects some of Said's more sweeping conclusions. Although complex themes overlap and interact, a clear,straight-forward structure helps us find our way. The"Introduction" introduces key themes, especially questionsraised by Said's thesis which can be tested against the specificexamples of British building in the Near East. Crinson notes thedifference between the "informal" empire developing in theNear East and true imperial rule in India and suggests the even greatercomplexity of interests and audiences to be addressed where Britishpower was not consolidated and official. Said drew on Foucault'sanalysis of power and knowledge, the two inseparable and working throughdiscursive structures. Architecture for the Victorians was just such adiscourse. Writing on eastern buildings and culture by Ruskin,Fergusson, and Owen Jones Owen Jones may refer to: Owen Jones (antiquary) (1741-1814), Welsh antiquary Humphrey Owen Jones (1878-1912), Chemist and Mountaineer Owen Jones (architect) (1809-1874), British architect, son of the antiquary provide discursive themes for analysis inCrinson's critical account Part I, "Orientalism and Architecture", sets the scenewith a review of the travel accounts, espionage reports and otherdocuments that included Islamic buildings as notable only among otherexotic sights. Through the eighteenth century increasingly accurateknowledge of the cities and buildings of Islamic regions issued fromvarious expeditions. The forms their reports revealed to the Europeanpublic provided examples for the rationalist analysis of architecturalform by theorists such as Laugier. Chief among the British architectswho studied and wrote sympathetically on the subject was Owen Jones.Jones used his knowledge of eastern building to confront the prevailingrevivalism revivalismReawakening of Christian values and commitment. The spiritual fervour of revival-style preaching, typically performed by itinerant, charismatic preachers before large gatherings, is thought to have a restorative effect on those who have been led away from the of the west and the dilemma of a style for the modern(mid-nineteenth century) age. Jones, Ruskin, the historian Edward Freeman Edward Freeman is a personal name, and may refer to (among others): Edward Augustus Freeman, 19th-century English historian Edward Monroe Freeman (born 1875), American botanist R. Edward Freeman, modern American business professor, economist and ethicist , and James Fergusson James Fergusson may refer to: James Fergusson (architect) (1808–1886), Scottish Sir James Fergusson (Governor of Gibraltar) (1787–1864), Governor of Gibraltar from 1855 to 1859 were key figures in the attempt to place Islamic building in anhistorical context, to give what we would consider a social-scientificaccount. Freeman, writing in the 1840s, was dismissive. The east wasstatic, the fruit of a "lifeless seed" compared to thearchitecture of the west. To the contrary the architectural theorist andhistorian James Fergusson, in views informed by theories of race anddevelopment drawn from geology and ethnology ethnology(ĕthnŏl`əjē), scientific study of the origin and functioning of human cultures. It is usually considered one of the major branches of cultural anthropology, the other two being anthropological archaeology and , found the work fertile andinventive, but lacking in the discipline achieved in the west. Ruskinalso drew on his knowledge of geology to argue the need for an artinformed by nature. The conventionalism and abstraction he found inIslamic design pointed both to moral and intellectual failure. WhileRuskin used examples from Islam to support his rejection of industrialsociety, Owen Jones found them to suggest ways forward, constructiveexamples of how design might meet the needs of industry. These hepromoted both at the 1851 Hyde Park exhibition, and in variouspublications, notably the monumental Grammar of Ornament of 1856.Underlying all these positions, whatever their differences, were thecommon themes of western conquest and control. Western expansion brought to the front the question of style;British building in the east raised the question of how best to addressdomestic and expatriate audiences, as well as the local, native,population and local urban contexts. Where some of the key buildingprojects were for churches, Byzantine architecture might have beenconsidered a useful bridge to the east. While the French made notablecontributions to the study of Byzantine architecture the British hungback, and it was not until Lethaby and Swainson's 1894 study ofHagia Sophia that a close, first-hand British study of a Byzantine workappeared. Complex liturgical issues, as well as the religious politicsof the Holy land and the Crimean war contributed to this ambivalence,while confirming colonialist views of the Near East. The buildings studied in the second part of Empire Building givearchitectural instances of the diverse attitudes set out inCrinson's analysis of texts. The principal subjects are JamesWild's church of St. Mark's, Alexandria, 1845-54; G. E.Street's Crimean Memorial Church, Istanbul, 1864-68; designs by anumber of architects for an unbuilt British consulate in Alexandria; andChrist Church, Jerusalem by J. W. Johns and Matthew Habershon, 1839-49.A number of other related buildings, and the work of other architectsare also illustrated and discussed, to reveal conflicting views ofappropriate design, and the other issues, including budget and site,that shaped the progress of each project. As well the buildings arelocated in their urban contexts, illustrated by contemporary city plans. The buildings discussed illustrate a range of responses. At one endwas the British embassy in Istanbul (1842-54, W. J. Smith), aRenaissance palazzo with an enclosed central court following CharlesBarry's London Reform Club (1837-41). Conventional and whollyEuropean it spoke to the expectations of a conservative British audienceas well as to the modernizing and European aspirations of the Ottomans,for whom Smith also designed a number of structures. The much moreadventurous work of James Wild engaged with local style in a number ofprojects. Wild travelled and studied the architecture of the Near East,and worked in the 1840s in Egypt. His Christ Church, Streatham (1839-41)incorporated Islamic, along with Romanesque and Early Christian themesin a London church. His unbuilt design for a consulate in Alexandria(1869) worked freely between European and Islamic sources to respondcreatively to the local climate, and urban context. Crinson describesthe effect of the building's plan: The visitor would pass through carefully staged areas from publicto notionally private domains; from the exterior Levantine Le��vant?1?The countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt.Le space of thesquare (which, as has been shown, itself signified ethnic and culturaldistinction from the "native" town) to the interior Englishspace of the square within, the enclosed courtyard with its octagonal oc��tag��o��nal?adj.Having eight sides and eight angles.oc��tago��nal��ly adv.Adj. 1. pool. The required sense of social or national distancing would thus beachieved by an ordered spatial sequence ... that marshalled and editedsequence of urban spaces that we saw manifested in contemporary maps ofthe city. (p. 193) The last project discussed, opened in Jerusalem in 1897 but notfully finished until 1900, is the "English mission hospital forJews" designed by Arthur Beresford Pite Arthur Beresford Pite (2 September 1861 - 27 November 1934) was a British architect. The early yearsArthur Beresford Pite was born on 2 September 1861 in Newington, London to Alfred and Hephzibah. for the London Society forPromoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. Pite belonged to theforward-looking circle that included W. R. Lethaby, and sought to movebeyond the prevailing architectural fashions. He looked to EarlyChristian and Byzantine precedents, as well as the cross-ventilatedNightingale ward plan, to shape a compound of free-standing verandahedblocks linked by a semicircular covered walk. The compound includedadministration and outpatients' blocks and a doctor's house,crowned with domed cupolas. The conception was remarkably inventive, andlargely free of traditional stylistic detail. Crinson's study also provokes some reflection on Canadianarchitecture and urbanism. Conditions in North America contrastedgreatly with those described for the Near East. There the British dealtwith ancient urban cultures with sophisticated traditions which alsodrew, often more directly than did the British, on the legacies ofGreece and Rome. In North America, however, colonial and imperialeconomic and political goals ruled. The architecture also pursuedEuropean ideals while constrained by the conditions of building in aremote and alien land. Canadian architecture has been through most ofits history a colonial architecture. It shared the experience ofVictorian economic growth, expansion, and urbanization and, withdifferences, its architects struggled with the appropriateness ofEuropean models to an alien setting. The twentieth century has seendominance pass from Britain to the United States, but it is not clearthat the colonial experience has changed, particularly since economicdomination has remained much the most important means of control. At several points further extensions of Crinson's argumentappear desirable if not necessary, at others openings for furtherexploration appear. When he discusses in Part I theories of the originof styles, Joseph Rykwert's On Adam's House in Paradise, andFrench and Italian views might have received some attention (Laugier andLodoli are briefly mentioned). Local views of the British intrusionsreceives little attention, as Crinson acknowledges: "Even if itwere in my competence to do so, it is notoriously difficult toreconstruct the `responses' of native informants." (p.8) Victorian science supported a good deal of the colonialistattitude, as Crinson makes clear. The same arguments from evolution torace and thence thence?adv.1. From that place; from there: flew to Helsinki and thence to Moscow.2. From that circumstance or source; therefrom.3. Archaic From that time; thenceforth. to culture led through the same period to the eugenicsmovement, whose consequences still reverberate re��ver��ber��ate?v. re��ver��ber��at��ed, re��ver��ber��at��ing, re��ver��ber��atesv.intr.1. To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho.2. in Alberta. A relatedissue, Ruskin's view of barbaric ornament expressed in The Stonesof Venice (1851-3), anticipated Adolf Loos's "Ornament andcrime Ornament and Crime is an essay written in 1908 by the influential and self-consciously "modern" Austrian architect Adolf Loos under the German title Ornament und Verbrechen. " and the ornament-free International Style. That Crinsonstimulates these and many other branching trains of thought is nocriticism of a work that reasonably concentrates on Britisharchitectural sources. In his conclusion he notes that his investigation has revealed thecomplexity of the interests and responses as the British sought toestablish themselves in the Near East. The Orientalist thesis, while astimulating point of departure, he has shown to be inadequate to dealwith what was actually achieved. Michael McMordie Faculty of Environmental Design (Architecture) University of Calgary