EAHN Publication Award 2016
Report of the Jury
During the EAHN Business Meeting in Paris on March 5, 2016, a committee was formed to select the best paper published in the EAHN Journal Architectural Histories up till then. The committee consisted of Hilde Heynen (chair), Edoardo Piccoli, Mariann Simon and Jiat-Hwee Chang (representative from the editorial board).
The committee received a shortlist of 10 articles, which the editorial board preselected for this award.
Three articles came out as the best. All three stand out as excellent examples of what the journal aims at: to offer a podium for innovative research on different time periods, relying on a wide range of research methodologies and inspiring new research questions and approaches.
The two runners-up are:
Ziada, H. (2015). To See (Like) a Crowd. Architectural Histories, 3(1), Art. 13
This article is very rich in visual interpretation and theoretical references, combining the analysis of specific drawings with broadly cast theoretical understandings about the nature of a crowd and its representaton. Through the intensive scrutiny of graphics as primary materials and evidence, the author recognizes the importance of drawing techniques, while also contextualising this material in terms of political theory. It is a bit strange that the analysis does not rely more heavily on Russian language sources.
Grasshoff, G., & Berndt, C. (2014). Decoding the Pantheon Columns. Architectural Histories, 2(1), Art. 18
The importance of the article lies in its innovative approach of a major issue in design and construction – the entasis of a classical column (whose radius diminishes from the base to the top). Thanks to an intelligent use of digital data, the exact measurements of the Pantheon columnsarecompared with the column construction drawing recently found at Didyma,and the team was able to convincingly argue for a specific construction method. The article is based upon an earlier publication in German, which contained a less thorough analysis of the same data.
The committee awarded the prize to the article by Mari Lending:
Lending, M. (2015). Promenade Among Words and Things: The Gallery as Catalogue, the Catalogue as Gallery. Architectural Histories, 3(1), Art. 20
This is a great article, very well written, an elegant narrative interweaving primary (archival) and secondary (contemporary) sources on a surprising topic, which is not yet treated in a thorough way. The article relies on skillful and astute analysis, opens up new sources and new research questions, and is very well informed theoretically. It is of interest to a wide range of scholars, including curators and museum historiographers.
Hilde Heynen
On behalf of the jury
June 2, 2016