Why would eighteenth-century architects in Eastern Europe couple high-profile baths with greenhouses, rather than domestic quarters? This tendency offers a precious insight into a profound rethinking of public and private spheres through the practices of bodily self-care. Setting in dialogue antiquarian surveys by Franciszek Smuglewicz and Vincenzo Brenna with designs by Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Charles Cameron, and Simon Gottlieb Zug, the talk explores how a network of architects and p/matrons channelled contemporaneous debates on the climate and character into polysensorial environments. Such artificial micro-climates inform the emerging notions of modern hygiene and interiority understood as means of social self-preservation and survival.
About Dr Olek Musiał
Olek Musiał is ESALA’s Teaching Fellow in Architectural History specialising in 18th-century Eastern Europe. A graduate from Warsaw, Cambridge, and Princeton, he pursued research at CASVA, BHMPI and BSR in Rome, ENS in Paris, and HAB in Wolfenbüttel. Olek’s articles appeared in the PUAM Record, and the Oxford Art Journal.
Lecture Series
Each year the History of Architecture and Built Environment (HABE) research group in ESALA welcomes guest speakers and colleagues to present an evening seminar on their research. The events are a fantastic opportunity to hear about the latest research in the field from researchers working in the UK, Europe and beyond. These events are free to attend, and attract an international online audience as well as being a way for all those in the University with an interest in the history of the built environment to come together as a community.
University students (of all levels) and staff are encouraged to attend on campus, with the seminars usually taking place in the Elliot Room at Minto House, 20 Chambers Street.
