Architecture: History

The ICTGuides project is now incorporated within this project (arts-humanities.net).

Two developments gave birth to the ICTGuides database: an increase in the use of ICT in arts and humanities research and an awareness that information on how ICT is used in arts-humanities research is not readily available online. The resulting disparity was largely seen to have detrimental effects on ICT-based scholarship as sharing computational expertise among scholars is a precursor to promoting innovation within the field.

Thomas Sharp (1901-1978) was a key figure in town planning in the mid-twentieth century. The concepts he developed in his writings and plans have been of enduring significance and influence on thinking about planning and design for both practitioners and academics in the UK and beyond. He was a key figure in defining thinking about the forms that town and countryside should take; in reconciling existing and valued character with modernity, and; in making these arguments accessible through a series of polemical books.

The Villa Rotonda, also known as Villa Capra or Villa Almerico-Valmarana, is one of the best known works by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80). It was built just outside Vicenza, Italy, in the countryside, as a retirement residence for the clergyman at the Vatican, Paolo Almerico. The work began in c. 1565/6. Although the villa was inhabited by 1569 it was still unfinished by the time of Almerico’s death in 1589. The next owners, the brothers Odorico and Marco Capra commissioned a student of Palladio, the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552-1616) to complete the villa.

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects is a database with biographies and full job lists for all those who practised in Scotland after 1840. This includes not only men and women who were born in Scotland but also those from elsewhere who designed buildings and entered competitions here. It is available over the internet without restriction. During the first 3-year period which was funded by the AHRC the Dictionary covered the period up to 1940; at the start of 2008, the inclusion of post-1940 architects was begun. It is anticipated that this new project will be completed in 2011.