C O N T E X T 1 5 0 : J U L Y 2 0 1 7 9 the Basilica of Sergiopolis, Syria, in the 5th century, via the Pallazo della Ragione, built in the 15th century, and structurally consolidated and stylistically updated by Palladio in the 16th century, through to the use of concrete on the Parthenon and other buildings of the Acropolis of Athens in the 1920s and 1930s. Quentin Collette presents the analysis of the original finishes and complexities of repairing a significant listed, reinforced-concrete house by the Belgian architect Louis De Koninck. The three-storey house, built in 1932 in Uccle, a suburb of Brussels, exhibits an avant-garde cubist geometry. The author notes that today’s heritage practitioners, faced with both practical and theoretical unknowns when renovating early reinforcedconcrete structures, may well ask themselves the following.Why was the building designed that way? How was it built and reinforced? What are the building’s weaknesses? Answering those questions requires a sufficient understanding of the historical, architectural and technological context at the time of the construction of the building. But often this information is lacking, so preliminary investigations are essential in defining the significance of the building and its components. De Koninck had a strong interest in structural design and efficiency. His design philosophy consisted of using a sophisticated building technology to create refined buildings with a high spatial quality. Most of his work featured a careful balance between architectural and structural design. He followed a technical-training course on reinforced concrete at the École Industrielle de Bruxelles to understand the structural behaviour of the new material, and used his skills to design efficient and slender load-bearing elements.With a strong interest in new standardised structural systems for buildings, De Koninck standardised load-bearing masonry walls and substituted traditional masonry with reinforced concrete before focusing on the standardisation of formwork elements. He also invented standardised, prefabricated structural systems for lightweight wood structures and metal-stud walls. Collette shows how these ideas influenced the Dortremont House and explains that, while the architectural design was well documented, little was known about the structural system. Renovation was complicated by recently identified discrepancies in the original 1932 drawings and alterations made without the architect’s approval. The house suffered from squatters between 1966 and 1975, and one rejected restoration scheme in 2006–7. The renovation that new owners began in 2011 forms the basis of the paper. In the final paper, Ann Harrer and Jeffrey Caldwell explain the concrete repairs to the Pilgrimage Theatre in Los Angles. Designed in 1931, this open-air auditorium followed the successful opening of the Hollywood Bowl in 1922. It was intended to provoke an emotional response from patrons by suggesting the gates of Jerusalem. The authors explain the background behind the rather eclectic choice of styles before defining the nature of the recent repair strategy, the nature of the repair programme and the nature of the repairs carried out since 2014. For anyone concerned with the challenges of appropriate repair to historic concrete structures, the paper will be very informative about how the matching concrete repair mixes, design and colour were achieved, and how the form and surface texture of the repairs were arrived at. The latest issue of Construction History: the International Journal of the Construction History Society (Vol 32, No 1, 2017) is wide-ranging. The first article, by Gabri van Tussenbroek, is especially interesting for the valuable but often overlooked resources it highlights. It starts by quoting LF Salzman, well known to some readers for his insightful book Building in England Down to 1540: a documentary history. Salzman wrote in 1952 on the subject of building specifications and contracts: ‘The importance of this series of documents for the study of the organisation and economics of the building industry can hardly be exaggerated’. Nevertheless, building specifications have hardly been the subject of comprehensive studies, by comparison with the design and planning process. Scholarly literature on the whole leaves out the written agreements between client and contractor, but the information on specification and contracts can be invaluable for understanding past and present heritage projects, and understanding the planning and building process. Such documents contain information about form, materials, construction details and appearance of the building.The paper investigates more than 250 building specifications and contracts from the Low Countries, dating from before 1650. They were legal references when it came to quality control or settling conflicts, and virtually all types of clients made use of written agreements. SusanThreader contributes a fascinating account of a little-known episode in the life of the civil engineer Thomas Telford, dealing with responsibilities for Rochester Bridge in succession to John Rennie after Rennie’s death.The paper provides new insights into Telford’s efficiency, his attention to engineering details and specifications, and his personal day-to-day management of construction contracts and employees. Timothy Peters and Stephen Brown explain some of the work of the significant British civil engineer George Robert Jebb (1838–1927), a distinguished, long-lived railway and canal engineer. Jebb was a polymath who fitted his interests in botany, mountaineering and astronomy around a hectic working life. Federica Scibilia provides an analysis of technical and patent literature surrounding advances made in Italy in the field of earthquakeresistant construction systems. Luciano Cardellicchio describes the construction, continued use and development of the Solimene ceramic factory (1956) on the Amalfi coast. Designed by Frank LloydWright’s apprentice Paolo Soleri, this remarkable vertical factory features tree-like columns and exterior walls composed from ceramic vases and bowls produced by the factory. It is an exemplar of organic architecture. Bob Kindred MBE
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