Carter Manny Award

  • Embedded Remnants in Modern Architecture: Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the Historiography of Remains
  • GRANTEE
    Steven Lauritano
    GRANT YEAR
    2014

Karl Friedrich Schinkel with Ludwig Persius, The Gartenhof at Schloss Glienicke, 1825-27, Berlin, Germany. Photo: Steven Lauritano, 2011.

Steven Lauritano, Yale University, Department of the History of Art, is the recipient of the 2014 Carter Manny Research Award.

All architectural remains are not created equal. In fact, their mode of survival varies depending on type: "ruins" persist through the perceived-value of geographic continuity, while "spolia" survive by means of displacement, transferring value from one building to another; "trophies" persist by shedding functionality; and "remnants" endure by assuming new functional roles. Such distinctions mattered to Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who used a precise vocabulary of architectural remains like a conceptual sieve, sifting through vestiges of the past with an eye towards future utility. In particular, the "Ueberbleibsel," or "Remnant," emerges in Schinkel's writing as a conceptual tool, revealing patterns in architectural history, while shaping his vision of "enduring value" in modern design. Schinkel's work links him to later theorists of artistic survival, but his experimentation with actual remnants, re-incorporated into buildings, remains unique. Charting Schinkel's navigation of the gaps between architectural survival on paper and in the physical world, the dissertation furnishes a new method for reading nineteenth-century historicist designs.

Steven Lauritano is a visiting fellow in the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and a PhD candidate at Yale University in the Department of the History of Art. He earned his AB and MArch I degrees at Princeton University and spent time in the office of Reiser + Umemoto. His research has received support from the Kress Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Fulbright Program. In 2009 he received the Winterhouse Award for Design Writing and Criticism.