Exploring Internationalism: How to work for UNESCO?

Abstract

This seminar explores the different actors working for UNESCO and the role of bureaucracy and international relations in their work. We will focus on the 1970s project on “Traditional Forms of Architecture”, the collaboration with the International Union of Architects on an international information network in architecture, and the 1983 Bangkok workshop on “Training of Barefoot Architects”.

Objective

The goal of this seminar is to develop an understanding of how international organisations such as UNESCO work internally and how they try to act in the world. In addition to academic argumentation and writing, the seminar will provide basic skills in working with archival material and analysing printed material from the 1970s and 1980s. The final assignment will be a short academic paper on one of the three case studies.

Content

This is not a seminar on how to get a job at UNESCO. Rather, we will explore who works for UNESCO, what they do in the field of architecture, and the role of bureaucracy and international relations in their work. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is an international organisation that coordinates a wide range of activities related to architecture. These include the preservation of historical monuments and the establishment of a universal cultural heritage, initiatives for school construction projects, the commissioning of manuals and the implementation of training programmes. In this seminar, we will focus on three case studies to disentangle the UNESCO apparatus. The first section will look at the UNESCO project on “Traditional Forms of Architecture” in the 1970s, led by Wolf Tochtermann, Acting Director of UNESCO’s Human Settlements and Socio-Cultural Environment Division. Through contacts with a variety of architects and academics around the world, he collected and commissioned studies on what he called “architecture without architects”, particularly in countries where development projects threatened to transform the existing built environment. We will look at published articles, audio-visual material and documents from the UNESCO archives to understand how these studies were produced (negotiations, contracts, payment) and used (publications, exhibitions, etc.) by UNESCO. The second part will focus on the cooperation between UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA), exemplified by the joint project ARKISYST, “an international information network in architecture“. Sponsored by the Spanish government and coordinated by the architect Donald Conway, the possibility of establishing a global exchange of information on architecture and urban planning was intensively studied but never implemented. This case study allows us to question notions of international standardisation, global participation and open access. The third section of the seminar will examine the UNESCO Workshop on “Training of Barefoot Architects” in Bangkok, 30 May–4 June 1983, which was organised by the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific. The aim of this analysis is to explore the different perspectives of the various actors involved in this workshop, including the architect Yona Friedman. The UNESCO archives provide a valuable source of information on the criticism of the approach and attitude of the “foreign expert” by local architects.

Resources