- Urban History, History and Memory, Architectural History, Al Andalus (Islamic History), Islamic art and architecture, Mediterranean and North Africa, and 13 moreAdaptive Reuse, Critical studies on heritage, Sustainable Urban Environments, Neoliberal City, Building Practice, Architectural Theory, Islamic' Architecture, Mediterranean Studies, Trade and travel in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, Heritage and Conflict, Historical memory, Historical Memory Spain, and Medieval Spain and North Africa(Adaptive Reuse, Critical studies on heritage, Sustainable Urban Environments, Neoliberal City, Building Practice, Architectural Theory, Islamic' Architecture, Mediterranean Studies, Trade and travel in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, Heritage and Conflict, Historical memory, Historical Memory Spain, and Medieval Spain and North Africa)edit
- Trained as an architect and historian, Michele Lamprakos's research focuses on two main themes: the lives and layers ... moreTrained as an architect and historian, Michele Lamprakos's research focuses on two main themes: the lives and layers of buildings and sites; and the entangled histories of Islam and Christianity in the Mediterranean. She began her career as a development worker in Egypt, where she managed a project to revive the cottage silk industry in the Nile Delta. Through this work she developed a deep interest in material culture and the role it can play in transforming people's lives. This led her to the study of architecture and later, architectural and urban history and heritage.
Lamprakos is author of Building a World Heritage City: Sanaa Yemen (Ashgate, 2015), the first book on urban heritage to be recognized by the Society of Architectural Historians’ Spiro Kostof Award (Honorable Mention, 2018). Her forthcoming book, Memento Mauri: the Afterlife of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (University of Texas Press, 2026), has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art; and the National Humanities Center.
Lamprakos lectures widely and has organized scholarly symposia, including “Heritage and the Arab Spring” (Freer Gallery of Art, 2014, with Nancy Um) which explored the role of cultural heritage in a new and shifting Middle East.
She teaches “Islam in Africa: architecture and culture”; a two-part course on Mediterranean cities; and two thematic, transhistorical graduate seminars: “Destruction, Memory, Renewal” and “Adaptation.” She also teaches studios and directs theses on historically layered sites in the US and abroad. Her professional work has included design and preservation for buildings that range in scale from tobacco warehouses to prewar single-family homes. Lamprakos has served as Technical Reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and as Desk Reviewer for UNESCO.(Trained as an architect and historian, Michele Lamprakos's research focuses on two main themes: the lives and layers of buildings and sites; and the entangled histories of Islam and Christianity in the Mediterranean. She began her career as a development worker in Egypt, where she managed a project to revive the cottage silk industry in the Nile Delta. Through this work she developed a deep interest in material culture and the role it can play in transforming people's lives. This led her to the study of architecture and later, architectural and urban history and heritage.<br /><br />Lamprakos is author of Building a World Heritage City: Sanaa Yemen (Ashgate, 2015), the first book on urban heritage to be recognized by the Society of Architectural Historians’ Spiro Kostof Award (Honorable Mention, 2018). Her forthcoming book, Memento Mauri: the Afterlife of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (University of Texas Press, 2026), has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art; and the National Humanities Center. <br /><br />Lamprakos lectures widely and has organized scholarly symposia, including “Heritage and the Arab Spring” (Freer Gallery of Art, 2014, with Nancy Um) which explored the role of cultural heritage in a new and shifting Middle East. <br />She teaches “Islam in Africa: architecture and culture”; a two-part course on Mediterranean cities; and two thematic, transhistorical graduate seminars: “Destruction, Memory, Renewal” and “Adaptation.” She also teaches studios and directs theses on historically layered sites in the US and abroad. Her professional work has included design and preservation for buildings that range in scale from tobacco warehouses to prewar single-family homes. Lamprakos has served as Technical Reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and as Desk Reviewer for UNESCO.)edit
Society of Architectural Historians Spiro Kostof Book Award, Honorable Mention 2018
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La Gran Mezquita de Córdoba es uno de los monumentos más importantes de la civilización islámica y un famoso sitio en la lista del Patrimonio Mundial. Sin embargo, durante casi ocho siglos ha servido como la catedral de la ciudad. En... more
La Gran Mezquita de Córdoba es uno de los monumentos más importantes de la civilización islámica y un famoso sitio en la lista del Patrimonio Mundial. Sin embargo, durante casi ocho siglos ha servido como la catedral de la ciudad. En tanto que otras mezquitas en la península Ibérica fueron finalmente demolidas y reemplazadas por iglesias y catedrales en algún momento posterior a la conquista
castellana, la Gran Mezquita de Córdoba sobrevivió. Fue modificada para el culto católico, en una adaptación que culminó con la inserción de un gran coro y un presbiterio (crucero) en el siglo XVI. Esto produjo una imagen curiosa y dual que ha confundido, perturbado y fascinado a los visitantes durante siglos: el edificio es una catedral, pero parece una mezquita. Tras la inserción del crucero, la estructura fue progresivamente “cristianizada”, aunque solo para ser “re-islamizada” en los siglos XIX al XX. El intento actual de la Iglesia por afianzar su control, y la resistencia que esto ha provocado entre los activistas ciudadanos, es solo el último episodio de una extraordinaria historia de 800 años.
La confrontación sobre la fábrica e interpretación del edificio testimonia la poderosa continuidad del legado arquitectónico islámico. Pero también es un barómetro del cambio de actitudes hacia el pasado
islámico, y el significado de ese mismo pasado para la cultura y la sociedad españolas.
castellana, la Gran Mezquita de Córdoba sobrevivió. Fue modificada para el culto católico, en una adaptación que culminó con la inserción de un gran coro y un presbiterio (crucero) en el siglo XVI. Esto produjo una imagen curiosa y dual que ha confundido, perturbado y fascinado a los visitantes durante siglos: el edificio es una catedral, pero parece una mezquita. Tras la inserción del crucero, la estructura fue progresivamente “cristianizada”, aunque solo para ser “re-islamizada” en los siglos XIX al XX. El intento actual de la Iglesia por afianzar su control, y la resistencia que esto ha provocado entre los activistas ciudadanos, es solo el último episodio de una extraordinaria historia de 800 años.
La confrontación sobre la fábrica e interpretación del edificio testimonia la poderosa continuidad del legado arquitectónico islámico. Pero también es un barómetro del cambio de actitudes hacia el pasado
islámico, y el significado de ese mismo pasado para la cultura y la sociedad españolas.
Research Interests: Heritage Studies, Religion and Politics, History and Memory, Historical memory, Architectural History, and 14 moreCultural Memory, Al-Andalus, Islamic' Architecture, Religious architecture, Early modern Spain, Medieval History of Spain, Islamic art and architecture, Spanish Reconquest, Mosques, Reconquista, Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Architecture and Public Spaces, Mosques and Social Identity, and Historical Memory Spain(Cultural Memory, Al-Andalus, Islamic' Architecture, Religious architecture, Early modern Spain, Medieval History of Spain, Islamic art and architecture, Spanish Reconquest, Mosques, Reconquista, Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Architecture and Public Spaces, Mosques and Social Identity, and Historical Memory Spain)
(Cultural Memory, Al-Andalus, Islamic' Architecture, Religious architecture, Early modern Spain, Medieval History of Spain, Islamic art and architecture, Spanish Reconquest, Mosques, Reconquista, Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Architecture and Public Spaces, Mosques and Social Identity, and Historical Memory Spain)
Research Interests: Early Modern History, Urban History, Mediterranean Studies, Islamic' Architecture, Early modern Ottoman History, and 6 moreHistory of the Mediterranean, Early Modern Italy, Archaeology of Mediterranean Trade, History of Venice, Trade and travel in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, and History of Commercial Architecture
Research Interests: Middle East Studies, History and Memory, Historical memory, Religious architecture, Al Andalus (Islamic History), and 11 moreMedieval Spain, Early modern Spain, Islamic Spain, Islamic art and architecture, Critical studies on heritage, Reconquest and Crusade, Architecture and Public Spaces, Historical Memory, Islam in Spain, Historical Memory Spain, and Islamic Art in Spain
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How did the movement of people, ideas, and techniques produce new architectural syntheses in the early modern Mediterranean? How did these syntheses reflect evolving identities and imaginaries of the past? The Ottoman conquest of... more
How did the movement of people, ideas, and techniques produce new architectural syntheses in the early modern Mediterranean? How did these syntheses reflect evolving identities and imaginaries of the past?
The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the Castilian conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492 were watershed events, ushering in great religious, cultural, and political upheavals that transformed the Mediterranean – creating new cultural geographies, architectures, and settlement patterns. Aftershocks were long-lasting and compounded as waves of refugees, along with expulsions, forced conversions, transfers, and displacements, established far-flung diaspora communities with complex and layered identities. Despite Ottoman-Hapsburg rivalry and warfare, cultural exchange between the empires and with Italian states continued throughout the long 16th century and beyond, as political interests and perceptions of the religious “other” evolved. Imperial styles were increasingly codified but remained fluid, as architects, engineers, and artisans moved across these large territorial expanses.
What is the architecture of such movements, contacts, and exchanges? We seek papers that explore connections within and across the Mediterranean under the aegis of empire and in its margins, from the mid-15th century through the early 18th century. Themes and sites may include contacts between pan-Mediterranean powers like the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs, and smaller polities like Saadian Morocco and Venice; the architecture of expulsions, population transfers, and diasporas; the movement of architectural practitioners, ideas, and techniques; the recuperation and reinvention of antique heritage in and across Islamic and Christian realms. We are especially interested in north-south and east-west exchanges involving Africa, southern Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia and the Levant.
The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the Castilian conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492 were watershed events, ushering in great religious, cultural, and political upheavals that transformed the Mediterranean – creating new cultural geographies, architectures, and settlement patterns. Aftershocks were long-lasting and compounded as waves of refugees, along with expulsions, forced conversions, transfers, and displacements, established far-flung diaspora communities with complex and layered identities. Despite Ottoman-Hapsburg rivalry and warfare, cultural exchange between the empires and with Italian states continued throughout the long 16th century and beyond, as political interests and perceptions of the religious “other” evolved. Imperial styles were increasingly codified but remained fluid, as architects, engineers, and artisans moved across these large territorial expanses.
What is the architecture of such movements, contacts, and exchanges? We seek papers that explore connections within and across the Mediterranean under the aegis of empire and in its margins, from the mid-15th century through the early 18th century. Themes and sites may include contacts between pan-Mediterranean powers like the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs, and smaller polities like Saadian Morocco and Venice; the architecture of expulsions, population transfers, and diasporas; the movement of architectural practitioners, ideas, and techniques; the recuperation and reinvention of antique heritage in and across Islamic and Christian realms. We are especially interested in north-south and east-west exchanges involving Africa, southern Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia and the Levant.
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Interview by Aristóteles Moreno (part 2), 16 July, 2023
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Interview by Aristóteles Moreno, 5 July 2023