CFP:The Classical Urban Plan: Monumentality, Continuity and Change

Seen on the Classicists list:

Call for papers: European Architectural History Network (EAHN) Conference
Brussels: 31 May-3 June, 2012

Conference Session:
The Classical Urban Plan: Monumentality, Continuity and Change

Greek and Roman monuments have been disappearing from the collective psyche
for millennia; as soon as a new Roman emperor assumed power, for example,
the architectural landscape was reshaped and adapted to suit the new rule.
More recently, the rapid acceleration in the loss of collective memory
through the obliteration of monuments has made clear that ancient
architecture as we have come to know it, is moving away from the physical
realm, to the imaginary psyche. One aspect of it, however, remains: the
urban grid. Even where ancient architecture has been decimated to make room
for new urban and at times, rural spaces, substantial portions of an earlier
ancient grid can be retraced and the wider plan can, to varying extents, be
recovered. This session will shed light on these ‘lost’ urban and rural plans.

We know that individual monuments as well as monumental architectural
ensembles can today be harnessed in the service of memory scripting, just as
it was – as Paul Zanker so brilliantly showed – in Roman Republican times.
Can the same approach be extended to the planning grid? Does meaning change
as the plan is altered? Does memory change? Can an ancient plan reflect a
new cultural, political or social order?

Whether intentional or not, each Classical plan has the capacity embody
specific messages linked to such notions as ‘heritage’ and ‘identity’. While
this is arguably most significant when considering the formal orthogonal
grid, the weight that this infrastructure can bear in terms of cultural
meaning has been underappreciated by current scholia. As such, this session
invites papers focussing on Greek and Roman grid traces – both literal and
figurative. Proposals are particularly welcome which consider ways through
which the collective memory of cities and smaller settlements is altered, if
at all, with the introduction of newly constructed monuments within an
ancient plan. Participants might also address the reciprocity between the
institutional and architectural order of cities; or explore how an entire
city can be monumentalised by virtue of ‘inheriting’ a Classical plan.
Overall, this session will inform theoretical frameworks, thereby broadening
as well as reassessing the existing discourse on ancient urban plans.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent directly to both the
session chairs (details below) no later than *September 30, 2011*. Abstracts
are to be headed with the applicant’s name, professional affiliation
[graduate students in brackets], and title of paper. Submit with the
abstract, a short curriculum vitae, home and work addresses, email
addresses, telephone and fax numbers.

Session co-chairs:
Dr. Daniel Millette
School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
University of British Columbia
E: millette.daniel AT yahoo.com
T: 001-604-642-2436

and

Dr. Samantha Martin-McAuliffe
School of Architecture
University College Dublin
Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14
Republic of Ireland
E: samantha.martinmcauliffe AT ucd.ie
F: +353.1.283.7778
T: +353.1.716.2757

Further information can be found at:
http://eahn2012.org/