gta Archives
Research
The support of research projects at all academic levels, both internal and external to ETH, is one if the core tasks of the gta Archive. We operate on a principle of openness and public access, with visitors welcome to be assisted by our experienced scientific staff. The numerous services for research, exhibition and publication are highlighted here. Access to the archive holdings is soon to be facilitated by the gta Research Portal, which is currently undergoing development and will provide online access to our catalogue. The gta Archives also participates in the ongoing discourse by virtue of archival-sourced contributions, as well as within the wider framework of research cooperation ventures.
Our Bequests and Collections are mostly monographic. This means that our database is searchable by places and personal names and only to a limited extent thematically. In contrast, users are usually interested in broad subject areas that touch on several holdings at the same time.
We invite prospective researchers to envisage possible research projects by creating links between the individual collections and their own interests. Many of the individual collections, especially those of architects, critics and theorists who taught or corresponded widely, offer scope for research of expanded international and intra-disciplinary scope. Similarly, the expanded corpus of architectural photography offers the possibility of tracing different connections between built and printed material. Such deeper readings of the archive can help highlight the operativity of professional networks in the formation and dissemination of architectural and other types of knowledge, in a variety of times and places.
Possible research topic (ongoing list):
• CIAM and the Czech (Italian, French, Belgian…) Avant-Garde
• Architectural Exhibitions and the Formation of (Inter)national Narratives
• Tracing the lost voices of refugees through architectural education records
• Swiss architects and exchanges with Japan
• Timber architecture and the avant-garde: historicism, modernism, and today
Contact
PD Dr. Irina Davidovici
