Bellflamme, Olivier; (2025) Vernacular Architecture of the Western Sierra Madre: In the Footsteps of Carl Lumholtz. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Preview

Text Bellflamme_10207639_Thesis_sig_removed.pdf Download (245MB) | Preview

Abstract

This practice-led PhD by Architectural Design examines the vernacular architecture of the Sierra Madre in northwestern Mexico by recreating the journey of the Norwegian ethnographer, Carl Lumholtz, who in 1890 was the first to photograph its building customs. Combining research methods from architectural history and anthropology, the thesis traces the recent history of Sierra Madran cultural knowledge, observing mutations and losses in traditional architectural practices in comparison to that recorded in photographs and other items held in the Lumholtz Archive at the American Museum of Natural History. Extensive fieldwork pursued across remote trails in Mexico is compiling a brand new archive that, when completed, will provide cultural testimony both for local people and architects/scholars. The context for this thesis is thus multiple, navigating from the archives of Carl Lumholtz to onsite explorations in Mexico, and from this fieldwork to the archive that I will be producing today, approximately 120 years later. The ambition of the research project is hence to participate in an ongoing history of vernacular architecture of the Western Sierra Madre by treating the idea of an archive as living, creative testimony. Once it is put beside the Lumholtz collection, this study will offer a time-based perspective stretching from his original explorations until today.

Download activity - last month

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item