Lessons from
Aric Chen
Building a Collection from Scratch, and another Point of View
Part of Hong Kong’s forthcoming West Kowloon Cultural District, M+ is a multi-disciplinary museum for visual culture—encompassing 20thand 21stcentury visual art, design and architecture, and moving image—with a 60,000 square-meter building scheduled for completion in 2018. An ambitious, publicly-funded project, it is a collections-based museum being built from scratch, rooted in Hong Kong, China and Asia, but global in scope. That is to say, it is a museum for visual culture as seen from the vantage point of Asia(or, more specifically, East Asia), rather than a museum for Asian visual culture; the distinction is critical. In this way, M+ is somewhat unusual for its regional situation—which is currently dominated by “national,” alongside private and quasi-private, museums—in proposing a large-scale, public,collecting institution that emphasizes its position within global landscapes and networks, while taking for granted the premise that once-peripheries are now new centers in an increasingly multi-polar world.
This presentation will provide an overview of how design and architecture are being conceptualized, historicized and collectedwithin the framework of M+.It will broadly outline the geographic, chronological, disciplinary and other parameters—as well as the permeability—of the museum’s collecting strategies in these areas, while describing the process of constructing narratives in which “alternative” histories andmodernismshaveshifted from the margins and moved to the forefront. As a result, these narrativesbecome no longer alternative, while remaining intertwined with more orthodox histories as the latter are revisited, recalibrated and expanded.
In fact, the rethinking, flattening and, sometimes, inversion of existing hierarchies—between centers and peripheries, collection and archive, art and design, high and popular culture, and so on—necessarily lies at the heart of the museum’s design and architecture efforts. On an institutional level, the presentation will describe the museum’s hybrid approach to collecting, which in the area of design and architecture draws little distinction between “collections” and “archival” material, and objects and documentation, seeing both as being integral to the preservation, understanding—and, eventually, display—of these disciplines. This tactic acknowledges not only the inherently archival nature of most architecture-related materials, but also the complexities of architecture as a collaborative enterprise shaped by motley social, cultural, political, ideological and economic forces, in addition to the architect’s authorship. Similar issues, to say nothing of process, are inextricable fromthe understanding and interpretation of the various other design disciplines.
At the same time, core to M+ is an exploration of the fluidities among not just geographies, but also disciplines—especially visual art, design and architecture, and moving image—and, within design and architecture, an embrace of the canonical and newly-canonical alongside the non-canonical, informal and “un-pedigreed.” The presentation will further touch upon some of the museological and other challenges that M+ faces; its early efforts in the digital realm; and its potential advocacy role, particularly in design and architecture, but also as a publicly-funded museum with an insistently global outlook at a time of growing nativism and nationalism in Hong Kong, the surrounding region, as well as other parts of the world.
Aric Chen is Curator of Design and Architecture at M+, the new museum for visual culture being built in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District.
Lessons from
Nadia PurwestriFebriyantiSuryaningsih
Constructing an Indonesian Architecture Documentation
PusatDokumentasiArsitektur / Center for Indonesian Architecture Documentation
Part 1 - Background
Why
The systematic documentation of cultural heritage in Indonesia has been developed after the establishment of BataviaaschGenootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (1778) and De OudheidkundigeDienst (1913) by the Netherlands Indies government. After Indonesian independent, the tasks of cultural heritage documentation take over by The Ministry of Culture (now become The Ministry of Education of Culture) with focus on the ancient and classical heritage, so called dead monument (uninhabited buildings). The needed of comprehensive documentation data especially regarding architectural heritage become significant issues since the government and private sectors pay attention to the preservation of heritage building in the urban site, so called living monument (inhabited buildings). The archives of original drawing plan many times do not fit with the existing condition, while the conservation plan demands a document such as built drawing plan to work on. The technology, methodology and system to provide such comprehensive document of heritage building and sites become important, to supports good conservation plan and afterwards will use for heritage building regular maintenance.
Part 2 – The Establishment and Construction
What – When – Who
PusatDokumentasiArsitektur (Center for Indonesian Architecture Documentation) - PDA is an independent organization which legally established in 2002 endorsed by IkatanArsitek Indonesia - IAI (Indonesian Institute of Architects). However our activities to documenting heritage buildings in Indonesia were started in 1994. The center was established by 9 founders, supported by 5 staffs who responsible for field survey, IT, management, library and database.
The Objectives, Focus, Activities and Products
PDA has established to meet the needs of a comprehensive data of heritage building (living monuments), to utilized as basic document for conservation planning. Not only provide document of the digital drawing such site plan, plan, elevation, section and details of architecture elements, but also document of historic research, material analysis and completed with diagnosis and mapping of building damages.
PDA’s concern was to facilitate the public from various users such students, academicians and professionals who need data and information of heritage buildings in Indonesia. PDA committed to collect, keep and manage a variety of architectural heritage records, research and documents from various heritage buildings and sites. We believe that heritage building documentation and research should be available prior to any works and interventions of building preservation.
Part 3 – Conducting the Institution
The Challenges, Management and Achievements
In the beginning of PDA’s establishment, it was not easy to convince the public about the importance of heritage building documentation. PDA’s activities were considered as useless, waste time and money. After years the public realize on our existence because PDA's focus was clear and proof a consistency, quality, usable and sustainability products especially for the preservation of heritage buildings. The consistence track records bring PDA to become a trusted institution.
Visioning the Future
PDA’s visions to enhance the reliability of institution to provide qualified documentation and facilitate data searching.
Nadia Purwestri is an architect, and cofounder and Executive Director of PusatDokumentasiArsitektur. She has experience in inventory, documentation and research of heritage buildings, exhibitions and conservation of built heritage.
FebriyantiSuryaningsihon is an architect and is active in heritage building research and documentation. She is involved in several heritage building conservation projects and is cofounder and Executive Director of PusatDokumentasiArsitektur.
Lessons from
Choi Won-Joon
Mokchon Architecture Archive: Documenting Architectural Modernity of Korea
Although Korea has its share of diverse threads and trends in the modern progress of architecture, it was only in the last years of the first decade of the twenty-first century that efforts to build an archive for Korean modern and contemporary architecture bore fruit: a preparatory research on architectural archives by AURI (Architecture and Urban Research Institute) was closely followed by the establishment of the archive section at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (architecture claiming a significant portion) and the founding of Mokchon Architecture Archive. The latter, established in 2010, is the only non-governmental institution among these early movements (AURI’s project has since been discontinued but another national institution, the Asia Culture Center of Gwangju, is preparing its own archives and collections). Supported by MokchonKimjungsik Foundation, a privately-funded, non-profit cultural institution, MAA is able to avoid long and rigid bureaucratic procedures often required for government bodies and experiment with new ways to archive architectural records of Korea from the twentieth century to today, and make them available to researchers and the general public.
The core project of MAA is the oral history recordings of important practitioners, mainly the first generation of Korean Post-War architects including Kim Jung-sik, Ahn Young-bae, Yoon Seung-joong, Won Chung-soo and Chi Soon, and most recently, Kim Tae-soo. The undertakings of fourteen contemporary architects known as the Group 4.3, collectively active in the early 1990s which marked a turning point in the way architecture is culturally produced and discussed in modern Korean society, were also documented through MAA’s oral history program, whose upcoming candidates include not only architects but also historians, educators, and preservationists of architecture, to address broader issues pertaining to the construction and administration of Korea’s built environment.
On the other hand, it is in building its contemporary collection where MAA’s various archiving experiments are most actively implemented: pilot archiving projects on selected works of young architects to optimize the structure of born-digital materials; digitalization and reorganization of archival materials from other institutions to facilitate their online distribution; archiving “on the fly”, documenting an architect’s design process in real time; archive forum programs that link fieldtrip, symposium, and archiving, such as last year’s “Sites & Systems: 12 Years of Mass Studies,” to be expanded with the forthcoming membership program; and hosting architectural events that provide rare opportunities where a broad generation of architects can gather and converse in an intimate atmosphere. Close ties with the Research Society of Contemporary Architecture, a group of historians on Korean architecture, invites further scholarship and research into the archiving activities and their results.
Although the MAA is a very young institution, its collections relatively limited and only starting to grow, it is in this realm of active experiments where its strength lies, creating new ways of gathering and disseminating architectural knowledge, responding to the dynamism and diversity of situations and circumstances that often characterize the nation and its architecture.
Choi Won-joon, assistant professor at Soongsil University, earned his master’s degree and PhD in architectural theory and history from Seoul National University. He worked for architect Seung H-sang at Iroje Architects & Planners. As a member of Mokchon Architecture Archive, he is taking part in a group effort to found the archive of Korean contemporary architecture.
Lessons from
HyungminPai
Building a Contemporary Architectural Collection in the Asia Culture Complex
The Asia Culture Complex (ACC) is a major national institution in Korea that will officially open in the fall of 2015. Developed by the Ministry of Culture and located in the provincial city of Gwangju, the ACC is a multi-functional cultural institution at the grandest of scales. Built on the historic site of the 1980 people’s uprising, the ACC seeks to enhance the status of Gwangju, well known as the host to the most important biennale in Asia, as a global hub for culture and creativity. With a total area of 140,000m2, the ACC includes 5 major sectors of activity: an institute for archives and collections (21,400 m²), a theater complex (13,000 m²), exhibition facilities (16,600 m²), a children’s center (20,500 m²), and an institute for cultural exchange (7,000 m²).
The architectural collection is part of the ACC’s archives and collections, a multi-disciplinary resource and research center for contemporary culture in both Asia and the world. The ACC archives and collections will have three primary components: the Department of Archives and Resources, whose function will collecting, archiving, storing, and conserving; the Academy, a center for training museum practitioners and archivists; and the Library Park, a public spatial and virtual interface to the archives and collections.
The architectural collection, as a central part of the ACC archives and collections, is presently being constructed, on the one hand, on the basis of the conditions and mandates of its umbrella institutions, and on the other, on a relatively independent architectural mandate. Three major directions of the collection have been set: elements and systems of architecture; Asian urbanism and architecture; and finally, regional and special themes. While “elements and systems” seeks to create a collection relatively internal to the architectural discipline, “urbanism and architecture” and “regional and special themes” will build a collection that links to the myriad of interests, programs, and activities of the ACC. During the first two years, the architectural collection will strategically focus on building a collection of full-scale pieces that will initially be part of the Library Park. Taking advantage of the ACC’s ample spaces, the collection envisions an active and growing set of 1:1 pieces that forms a platform for interlocking intellectual production.
Since the initiation of the idea of the ACC in 2004, the Ministry of Culture has actively supported the myriad of departments and institutions that are seeking to define itself and the ACC as a whole. Yet the sheer scale and complexity of its programs, spaces, and facilities have made it difficult to define the ACC in both practical and intellectual terms. Particularly difficult is the goal of being both contemporary and to have its interests centered in Asia - an issue particularly relevant to the architectural collections. The presentation outlines the political background to establishment of the ACC, the difficulties of defining and maintaining such a large and multi-disciplinary complex, and the issues and challenges of establishing an archives and collections for architecture within this institutional and political context. As the ACC architectural collection begins its work, it hopes to use this brief presentation as a channel for the advice and cooperation of the international community of architectural museums.
HyungminPai is a historian, critic and curator. He is Professor in the Department of Architecture, University of Seoul, Chair of the Mokchon Architecture Archive, and Visiting Director at the Asian Culture Complex. He is curator of the Korean Pavilion, 2014 Venice Biennale, which has been awarded the Golden Lion.