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docomomo international | international register

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International register : main menu | information | introduction | guidelines

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Introduction

One of docomomo’s aims is to document significant examples of the modern movement and to share the knowledge of the working parties worldwide by creating a collective register.
The international specialist committee on registers (ISC/R) invites all working parties to contribute to docomomo international selection by means of completed fiches, according to enclosed directives.
The fiches are standardised in a ‘full’ format and in a reduced “minimum” format.
The ISC/R reviews annually all new submissions for the New International Selection (NIS). (usually).
The documetation is kept at the Netherlands Architecture institute (NAi) in Rotterdam, where it can be consulted on request.

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International registers and new international selection (NIS)

The new international selection (NIS) is meant as an extension of the already existing docomomo registers, labeled IS.
The international documentation is a work in progress. Extension of the IS by means of the NIS is required to enlarge the scope of the docomomo registers both geographically – by submissions from newly entered working parties or by submissions concerning unexplored regions – and in terms of types and periods by including post-war modern buildings and sites as well as significant examples of modern urbanism, landscapes and gardens.
The aim of the NIS is above all scientific; to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to extend modern architectural history. Working parties should continue to extend the range of their records, revising earlier fiches only where new information exists, or on the rare occasions when the ISC/R requests clarification or additional data.
Attention is also directed to a ‘miscellaneous’ category, which is meant for documenting internationally important items in those countries where a working party does not (yet) exist.

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New international selection (NIS)

criteria
The new International Selection (NIS) will represent modern architecture, urban development, gardens and landscapes in its diversity in time, space, and function.
The modern movement was essentially innovatory; socially, technically and aesthetically. In its most radical manifestations it has been seen as breaking with traditional values but in the broader perspective it is more complex, involving adaptation, continuity, modification and change.
The selection comprises individual buildings, sites, neighbourhoods, urban developments, gardens and landscapes and can include infrastructures, civil engineering works, alterations and changes to existing buildings, interiors and their furniture, and architectural industrialized elements (such as elevation panels, etc).

The buildings or sites selected should
- exemplify the international aspects of modern architecture or represent a local manifestation of modernity
- be examples of functionalist architecture (linked for example to concepts of hygiene, health, collective living, work, leisure, etc)
- be technically innovative in employment of materials or in structural design or construction methods (for example, mass production, standardisation, prefabrication).

domaine
In principle docomomo registers concern all countries and regions where modern architecture exists. In practice a thorough worldwide representation will inevitably be uneven, but with the growing number of national/regional working parties we can enlarge the current knowledge. While docomomo international encourages formation of new working parties, the ISC/R will welcome contributions to a ‘miscellaneous’ section of significant modern buildings and sites in unrepresented regions.

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New international selection: Fiches

The NIS fiche for documenting modern buildings and sites, urban developments, gardens and landscapes has two formats: “full” and “minimum”.

minimum fiche
In ensuring wider access to the Registers the minimum fiche is of primary importance.
The fiche summarises the essential data of the NIS fiche in a form suitable for publication in ‘one-page’ presentations as well as being transferable to a computerised database. While data under some heads, e.g. technical etc. evaluations, are compressed to simple A, B, C, D rankings, the several “memo” fields permit inclusion of text up to about a page in length which database users can read and print.

full fiche
The full fiche is meant for scientific research and documentation, as well as for raising awareness of the modern architecture at an international level.

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Address to send the NIS fiches

Two copies on paper of all documents, in English, and a CD-Rom should be sent to the secretary ISC/R:
Marieke Kuipers
c/o Rijksdienst vd Monumentenzorg
P.O. box 3700 BA Zeist
The Netherlands

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