The Governor's vale levu: Architecture and Hybridity at Nasova House, Levuka, Fiji Islands

As an integral component of colonial culture, colonial architecture provides a tangible expression of western presence and domination throughout various colonial settings. In tropical colonies, such as Fiji, western architecture was not simply transplanted, but became transformed through the conscious integration of western and nonwestern architectural elements and grammars. Thus hybrid colonial architecture played a significant role within the sociopolitical strategies of both colonizer and colonized elites. Nasova House, the main government building of the autonomous Cakobau polity (1873–74) and British colonial regime (1874–82), provides a unique example of the use of colonial hybrid architecture in late nineteenth century Fiji.     

The value of empire: tenth-century Bulgaria between Magyars,Pechenegs and Byzantium

The article seeks to explain the connection between the migration of the Magyars and Pechenegs in central and south-east Europe, in the late ninth and early tenth century, and the conflict between Byzantium and Bulgaria during the same period. Through reference to anthropologists discussing the relations between nomadic and sedentary societies (Khazanov, Barfield), and historians studying medieval rituals (Buc, Althoff, Koziol), the article interprets the aggressive policy of the Bulgarian tsar Symeon as a consistent effort to displace Byzantium as major partner of the nomadic polities in the area. By subverting the principles of Byzantine diplomacy and political culture, Symeon turned his own kingdom into a society-structuring factor in the nomadic world. The article evaluates the very meaning of imperial claims not so much in legal terms, as an effort to guarantee Bulgaria’s sovereignty in a Byzantium-centred world, but in the real-time capacity of a ruler to make use of imperial symbols and act upon the dynamically changing conjuncture.     

墓与塔——宋墓中仿木建筑雕饰的来源

本文将晚唐至宋代墓葬中的仿木建筑雕饰与隋唐时期的地上建筑——仿木砖塔的装饰相联系,推断宋墓中流行的仿木建筑雕饰最早应是受到地上仿木砖塔建筑装饰的影响。     

深圳大鹏所城将军府第建筑群体特征分析

深圳大鹏所城较完整的保存了清晚期及民国时期的不同建筑群体,其中将军府第建筑具有很高的历史文化、科学艺术等多方面的价值。其建筑形制、结构、装饰装修方面颇具特点:1.平面结合紧凑,类型丰富,组合较灵活,结合了中原地区四合院落殿堂式结构的组合特色,也反映了岭南山地建筑特点;2.多采用密集、方形的平面和空间布局;3.厅堂与天井结合紧密,室内外连通,形成了外封闭、内开敞的建筑空间;4.具有多样的建筑梁架结构,集中了北方建筑的抬梁式构架、南方的穿斗式及岭南建筑常见的梁架做法,表现了南北建筑文化的大融合;5.外观朴实又有岭南地方特色的精细灵巧的内部装修。     

博物馆古建筑保护与功能提升——以南京博物院老大殿改造为例

南京博物院主体建筑老大殿,是中国近代建筑中唯一采用现代结构形式的仿辽代建筑。近年,南京博物院采用整体顶升、隔震加固等先进技术对其进行修缮保护,不仅有效增强了其抗震水平,还扩大了建筑的空间面积、提升了空间使用功能、丰富了展示内容和方式,为优秀古建筑的保护利用提供了新的技术思路,也为优秀古建筑的保护利用与博物馆馆舍建设及博物馆各项事业发展的相互促进积累了成功经验。     

Assessing Conflict and Exchange: The Defensive and Access Layout of La Alumbrera (c. AD 1000–1480, North-west Argentina)

Abstract

The Regional Development Period (c. ad 1000–1480) in north-west Argentina is characterized, among other important features, by the coexistence of two phenomena seemingly opposed: a constant situation of violent conflict between communities and the maintenance or even intensification of interregional goods exchange networks. Although recent studies recognize the simultaneity of these processes, only a few scholars asked how communities dealt with the necessity of protecting themselves as well as obtaining distant resources. In this paper we present the analysis of the defensive and access layout of La Alumbrera archeological site which has the peculiarity of condensing features that may illustrate an example of how conflict and exchange coexisted at a local scale.     

建水指林寺大殿木构件材种鉴定及配置研究

木材树种的鉴定是古木结构建筑维修和保护的基础性工作。为配合建水县指林寺大殿修缮保护的需要,为修缮树种选用提供依据,了解木文化的特点。本研究对建水指林寺大殿古建筑主要木构件进行了树种鉴定及对材种配置调查分析。采用切片、显微镜拍照、宏观和微观特征分析等方法,对700个试样进行了树种鉴定。结果表明建水指林寺大殿的木构件共有4个树种,分别是硬木松(Pinus sp.)、白青冈(Cyclobalanopsis sp.)、格木(Erythrophleum sp.)和荷木(Schima sp.)。通过材种配置分析可得指林寺大殿木构件在选材方面达到很高水平,不仅反应了建造年代,而且体现修缮的特性。     

DWELLING WITHIN: THE INHABITED RUINS OF HISTORY1

Addressing the recent call to rethink history as a form of presence, the essay works toward a recovery of a space in which such presence of history is encoded. I argue that history as a form of active perception is akin to virtual witnessing of the past in the moment of our encounter with historical artifacts, be they texts, photographs, or buildings. To this end, I engage with the conceptual and material aspects of historical perception, deriving a model of history as “inhabited ruins,” the way it emerges together with historical consciousness and finds an especially dynamic expression in Georg Simmel's philosophy of culture. Throughout, I work with the notion of distance and trans‐dimensional presence as the forces that shape and reshape historical awareness. Ruins, intimately connected to the modern historical imagination, are approached not as sites of commemoration or nostalgia, but as spaces of active exchange between presence and disappearance. As such, they are taken to be the models for the transitive character of history itself, blurring the division between perception and thought. In other words, ruins are taken as structures that evoke and summon the past to an encounter with contemporary reality—a type of co‐appearance that opens the possibility of virtually witnessing the past. I conclude that the logic of “inhabited ruins” constitutes the event‐horizon of modern identity, always placing history right at the threshold of fragmentation.     

Notes from County Correspondents.

In 1503, the canons of Ripon Minster initiated a building campaign to replace the church’s nave. Through a careful study of the documentary evidence, including sources that have not previously been considered, this article investigates how Ripon’s clergy organised and funded the project. It offers a more precise chronology of the works and an assessment of their impact on the use of the church by its parishioners. The article also considers the clergy’s motives for rebuilding, proving that the renovation was not a reaction to the old nave’s deterioration so much as an initiative to create a grander architectural setting for processions and more space for burial within the church.