Alison and Peter Smithson, Robin Hood Gardens, London, 1966-72
Photograph: Sandra Lousada

Pierre Martin and Maurice Vieu, Collège Franco-Britannique at the Cité Universitaire, Paris, 1936.
Photograph: Andrew Ballantyne

SAHGB-EAHN Annual Symposium

British Architecture Seen from Abroad
London, 16 May 2009

The European Architectural History Network will join the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain in organizing the SAHGB’s 2009 annual symposium, this time with the theme British Architecture Seen from Abroad.

The symposium aims to broaden our understanding of British architecture in the wider world. The papers presented will illuminate aspects of British architecture from non-British points of view. They might include accounts of British architecture by foreigners travelling in Britain, gleaned from letters or journals, or reactions to British architects travelling abroad, whether as Grand Tourists, or carrying out work overseas. The organizers also intend to present accounts of British architecture by non-British scholars for the light they shed on what it seems important to say about British architecture, in the tradition of writers such as Hermann Muthesius and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Such approaches might be historiographic or reflect the work of scholars from various parts of the world who are currently researching British topics. There are important postcolonial perspectives to be opened up, and explorations of the assimilation of celebrated British architects into the world of globalized commodity fetishism.

The call for papers was circulated through the EAHN listserv in early October and had a deadline of 1 December 2008. A preliminary program of the papers selected will be published on the SAHGB and EAHN websites in early January; the program will be summarized in the March issue of the EAHN Newsletter.

The symposium is being organized by Andrew Ballantyne, Newcastle University, UK, and Dirk van den Heuvel, TU Delft, the Netherlands. It will be held at the Art Workers’ Guild, London. Please visit www.sahgb.org.uk and www.artworkersguild.org for more information.

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