We are pleased to announce the EAHN /FAUUSP conference, to be held between March 21th and 24th 2013 in São Paulo, at FAUUSP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, University of São Paulo). The main goal of this meeting is to bring together the Brazilian scholars and the world-wide members of the EAHN in an open dialogue, sharing subjects of common interest as well as methodological approaches. While the theme of the conference reflects this openness, it represents meanwhile a founding topic for the history of Brazil and of other Latin-American countries, also echoing similar situations in other places on the globe. Correspondences, transfers, circulation and migration - of people and ideas - have been fundamental in human culture, architecture included, and are crucial in understanding the relations between Europe and Americas, notably Brazil's intercultural context since colonial times, its modernization and urbanization process. It is important for the first conference of the EAHN outside Europe to embrace such topics which constitute practically an illustration of one of its major goals: fostering inclusive, transnational, interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches to the history of the building environment.

Call for papers

The multidisciplinary nature of architecture history as well as its connections to other disciplines has been often subject of debates, many scholars pointing out the complex dynamics of the discipline. The conference aims to explore this complexity borrowing the Weberian concept of "elective affinities", attractions, interactions and similarities between individuals or disciplines and fields of research. We propose the use of "elective affinities" as a tool for grasping the development of the architectural forms in the perspective of specific spatio-temporal structures.

The architectural electives affinities identified between individuals emerge from an intricate netting of cultural frames encompassing not only the professional realm, but also the sphere of family and friends, as well as the community of origins (in case of migrations, exiles), and may be revealed through the dialogues between architects and other creators and thinkers sharing the same Weltanschauungen. In this sense, these encounters, materialized beyond disciplinary and geographical boundaries, might disclose both points of transition and spread of architectural ideas through processes of transfer, travels, exile or migrations. While the points of transition develop new formulations and new methodological perspectives, the dialogue between architectural cultures might also be responsible for eventual conflicts and dissidences.

The elective affinities operative between architectural history and other disciplines- such as literature, history, sociology, anthropology, arts, including the photography and the cinema - have been lengthily debated in the past years. The conference intends particularly to identify these affinities, looking from inside the discipline of architecture.

Thus, more than a methodological perspective, we intend to provide an investigation of partaking and/or migration of theoretical concepts and analytical formulations.

We propose to explore the multifaceted layers implied by the architectural elective affinities through a number of topics that could form the guidance line for a series of sections within the conference, inviting papers with no restriction of chronological period and of architectural field, including the urban and landscape studies.

• Correspondences: This section intends to identify the elective affinities between individuals within the close milieu (family, friends, acquaintances) or the professional spheres, pointing out the exchange and communion of ideas. We propose to look at these affinities by studying directly all kind of written and visual material, as well as by investigating the dynamics of networking (between individuals, associations, institutions, etc.).
• Transfers: The impact of a particular content is determined by its reception/ absorption in a specific context. This section aims to explore the affinities between different architectural cultures through different ages, developed either through individuals' interactions (due to travels, migration or exiles), or on a larger scale through the circulation of models and ideas through aesthetic and ideological transfers between different geographies, different chronologies.
• Inter-/ multidisciplinarity: the session intends to explore the multidisciplinary character of architecture, as well as the crossing boundaries of interdisciplinarity by proposing two main topics for discussion: a historic perspective of the affinities between architecture and other fields and disciplines, as well as an analysis of partaking and/or migration of the theoretical concepts shared or exchanged.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be headed with: the conference title "Architectural Elective Affinities", the applicant's name, professional affiliation [graduate students in brackets], and title of paper or position. Submit with the abstract a short resume, home and work addresses, email addresses, telephone and fax numbers. Papers may not have been previously published, nor presented in public. Abstracts should be submitted in English. Only one submission per author will be accepted. Each speaker is expected to fund his or her own registration, travel and expenses to São Paulo, Brazil.

Organizing Committee - Ricardo Marques de Azevedo, Paulo Julio V Bruna, Monica Junqueira de Camargo, Anat Falbel, Ana Lucia Duarte Lanna, Hugo Segawa.
Scientific Committee - Maristella Casciato, Jorge Correia, Anat Falbel, Adrian Forty, Luciano Migliaccio, Carmen Popescu.
Venue - Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
Conference dates - 20-24 March 2013.
Official language of the conference - English.

Planning

Submission deadlines for paper proposals: 15 September 2012
Communication of acceptance: 30 October 2012
Submission of full papers: 15 January 2013

Registration rates - not available at the moment.

For further information, please contact for e-mail or look the website.