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Archiving the Archives: The Culture of Collecting In The North America

Parima Kotanut (MS Report, 2022)

Aldo Rossi, "L'architectura assassinata," lithograph, 1974 From Ghirardo, Diane, Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019, 100
Aldo Rossi, "L'architectura assassinata," lithograph, 1974 From Ghirardo, Diane, Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019, 100
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Aldo Rossi, "L'architectura assassinata," lithograph, 1974 From Ghirardo, Diane, Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019, 100
Louis I. Kahn, Pencil Sketches showing houses within nature in "The Value and Aim in Sketching". From Merrill, Michael, ed. Louis Kahn - the Importance of Drawing. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2021, 46
Aldo Rossi, "L'architectura assassinata," lithograph, 1974 From Ghirardo, Diane, Aldo Rossi and the Spirit of Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019, 100
Louis I. Kahn, Pencil Sketches showing houses within nature in "The Value and Aim in Sketching". From Merrill, Michael, ed. Louis Kahn - the Importance of Drawing. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2021, 46

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MS REPORT

Architectural archives have played a significant role in preserving materials of architects and architectural intellectuals. Through these materials, they reconstruct and represent intellectual and creative thoughts of a person. Within a lifetime of an architect, he/she produces plethora of different kind of materials. What then do the archives choose to conserve or dispose? Preferences on one medium over another raise a critical issue in the collecting practices as they define how history is written. With this question in mind, my research compares the culture of collecting materials on built environment through the lens of archivists and curators from four North American institutions: The Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania; Avery Architectural & Fines Arts Library; the Museum of Modern Art; and the Canadian Center for Architecture. Consequently, each of the archive has its own mission, philosophy and collecting practices which may or may not be suitable in the context of architectural products today. Long-established archival practices in architecture should be reappraised for the progress of culture of collecting and for the future education of our built environment.

Parima Kotanut