Conference paper, "Henry Klumb: Puerto Rico's Critical Modernist," presented at the Society of Architectural Historian's 70th Annual Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, June 2017. You may read the abstract in the file below.
"Some people are not much interested in the world around them, and place for them is mostly a lived background. But others always attend closely to the character of the places they encounter." - Ed Relph
My Research Agenda
My research is focused on applying notions of dwelling and place to both historical and contemporary contexts. Currently I am continuing to advance the historical/theoretical program that I began through my doctoral dissertation on the German-Puerto Rican architect Heinrich “Henry” Klumb (1905-1984). Klumb was a multifaceted and prolific Modern Architect whose cultural relevance and prolific oeuvre in Puerto Rico was on par with Luis Barragán in Mexico, Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil, Alvaro Siza in Portugal, and Mario Botta in Switzerland. As for my long-term research plans, I intend to transition to more contemporary applications of notions of dwelling and place. I am particularly interested in how architectural theory can help us to understand some of the most pressing problems evident in our contemporary, high-tech, fractured world.
You may download a PDF copy of my Research Agenda below.
cesar_a_cruz_research_agenda.pdf |
"The Phenomenology of a Modern Architect and his Sense of Place:
Henry Klumb's Residential Architecture in Puerto Rico, 1944-1975."
A Doctoral Dissertation by Cesar A. Cruz
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016
The principal research question of this study is: How did Henry Klumb's life experiences shape his sense of place, and consequently his houses? Heinrich "Henry" Klumb (1905-1984) was a German immigrant, a one-time associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, and for forty years a prolific and celebrated modern architect on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. In this study a sense of place is defined as the beliefs that people adopt, the actions they undertake, and the feelings they develop towards those locations that through time, experience, group norms and practices, personal investment, or immediate appreciation have become important or meaningful to them.
An underlying assumption of this study is that when we look at the many circumstances in Klumb's life that led him to value specific locations through his demonstrated beliefs, actions, and feelings, we see that these same circumstances later found direct expression in his residential practice in Puerto Rico.
You may down load a PDF copy of the full dissertation abstract below.
An underlying assumption of this study is that when we look at the many circumstances in Klumb's life that led him to value specific locations through his demonstrated beliefs, actions, and feelings, we see that these same circumstances later found direct expression in his residential practice in Puerto Rico.
You may down load a PDF copy of the full dissertation abstract below.
cesar_cruz_dissertation_title_page_and_abstract.pdf |
Quote citation:
Relph, Edward. "A Sense of Place." In Hanson, Susan. Ten Geographic Ideas that Changed the World. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997 (p. 208).
Relph, Edward. "A Sense of Place." In Hanson, Susan. Ten Geographic Ideas that Changed the World. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997 (p. 208).