Podcast Summary: "Robert Jan van Pelt, 'The Barrack, 1572-1914: Chapters in the History of Emergency Architecture' (Park Books, 2024)"

New Books Network | Host: Matthew Wells | Guest: Robert Jan van Pelt | Date: October 30, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Matthew Wells speaks with Robert Jan van Pelt about his book The Barrack, 1572-1914: Chapters in the History of Emergency Architecture. The discussion explores the evolution, uses, and implications of barrack structures, spanning from their early military origins through their mass production and political significance in the modern era. Van Pelt delves into the barrack’s architecture, its role in emergencies, and how a “marginal” building type became central to the political spaces of modernity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Genesis of the Book and Research Journey

• Van Pelt’s background is primarily in the study of concentration camps, notably Auschwitz. He describes how early archives, particularly the Central Bauleitung (construction office) of Auschwitz, contained scant information on barracks since these were typically purchased as standardized structures from outside manufacturers, rather than designed in-house (02:26–09:00).
• The book’s inception traces to a 2012 research project—Terrascape—where van Pelt and colleagues visited Auschwitz for forensic landscape analysis. A discovery of an intact barrack attached to a farmhouse in Monowicze confronted van Pelt with his lack of knowledge about the structures, prompting a new deep dive into their history (09:00–13:00).
• Van Pelt’s motivation included a kind of academic challenge—a rebuttal to an architectural historian who claimed his prior work was “not architectural history,” pushing him to pursue a more traditional approach to the subject (13:00–16:28).

Notable Quote:
“I thought, I will show you. This was really kind of going back into my 16 year old self... for once before I turn 70, I will actually, I will write a traditional architectural history.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (14:58)

2. Main Actors in Barrack Development

• The barrack story is largely one of the margins of architecture, involving few renowned architects before 1914.
• The actual innovators were often physicians and local, sometimes amateur, architects, particularly during the Crimean War, Franco-Prussian War, American Civil War, and in Russia (16:41–24:00).
• Significant discussion about the Red Cross’s founding and the rise of barrack hospitals, especially those organized by women of European royal families.
• The rise of medical data and standards around things like ventilation (“miasms”) drove many design decisions; public health journals, especially German and Russian, chronicled these advancements.

Notable Quote:
“So for me it was very interesting that we get this story is really a story of non architects... They are extremely focused on ultimately outcomes, health outcomes, and they use a lot of... data about how a particular design is functioning when it is, you know, when you have 100 patients in it.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (21:00)

3. Why Begin at 1572?

• 1572 marks the siege of Haarlem (van Pelt’s hometown), which produced the earliest known visual record (a drawing) of military huts (24:23–33:00).
• The episode contextualizes the barrack’s emergence within longer military and logistical transformations—switching from temporary tents and bivouacs to semi-permanent, organized structures in response to the rise of standing armies and protracted sieges.
• The influence spanned from the Dutch War of Independence, through Roman military theory, to industrial-era advancements following the Crimean War, underpinned by the advent of mass communication (e.g., the telegraph).

Notable Quote:
“The oldest drawing of that, oldest visual record, is from Haarlem. It was a master goldsmith from Haarlem who actually left the city before the siege. And he was making drawings of the Spanish army as it settled around Haarlem.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (25:00)

4. Medical, Penal, and Social Uses of Barracks

• The barrack’s utility expanded beyond military housing:
  • Hospitals (with Florence Nightingale’s influence, Crimean War)
  • Disease epidemics (e.g., smallpox, cholera in the 19th c.)
  • Prisoner-of-war and concentration camps, especially American Civil War—where breakdowns in POW exchanges led to the creation of mass internment facilities (33:39–40:30).
• Van Pelt links the growth of the concentration camp—what Giorgio Agamben calls the “space of exception”—directly to the capabilities and portability of the barrack as an “industrial vernacular.”

Notable Quote:
“During the American civil war, the system of these exchanges of soldiers failed... So suddenly, both the union and the confederacy got these enormous amounts of POWs, and they didn't know what to do with them, so they have to create out of nothing these very large POW camps... made with prefabricated wooden barracks.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (36:30)

5. The Barrack and Colonial Expansion

• German innovations in prefabricated barracks (notably the Ducker model) allowed for multiple reuses and were exported to German colonies in Africa, China, and beyond, often as symbols of technological prowess ("soft power") as much as for utility (40:46–49:00).
• However, in most cases, local huts and cheap labor made local adaptations preferable over imported European barracks, but exceptions were made for high-profile or demonstration projects.
• The arrival of barbed wire in 1914 marked a dark turning point, transforming the barrack from a tool of efficiency to a symbol of forced enclosure (e.g., refugee and POW camps during WWI).

Notable Quote:
“If this were a children's story because in some way the plot of the story is the little engine that could, that is the barrack hut. But in 1914 the barrack hut comes in really, really bad company... and that's barbed wire.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (46:00)

6. The Story’s End Point and Modern Parallels

• Van Pelt ends his historical arc at 1914 (the onset of WWI), framing it as the beginning of mass-scale, industrialized emergency shelter and internment.
• Later 20th-century portable buildings involve different technologies (trucks, cranes, containers) and are outside his focus.
• IKEA, UNHCR modular shelters, and present-day emergency housing are recognized as spiritual descendants, but with distinctly new characteristics.

Notable Quote:
“Even when... we now have Ikea producing, you know, prefabricated huts for use in refugee camps... Now you have a truck and you have cranes. And once that infrastructure can be brought... you can have your prefab. You can have your containers. ...That really isn't part of the story. It's a different story.”
— Robert Jan van Pelt (48:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “I realized I didn’t know that much about it... I thought that I didn’t perform that well. So... I came home and... decided, okay, this was not at a level that I expect of myself.” (10:44; on being confronted with a real barrack for the first time)
• “This was really kind of going back into my 16 year old self... for once before I turn 70, I will actually... write a traditional architectural history.” (14:58)
• “This story is really a story of non architects getting involved in the production of architectural designs…” (21:00)
• “1572 marks basically... the oldest drawing of that, oldest visual record, is from Haarlem.” (25:00)
• “During the American civil war, the system of these exchanges of soldiers failed... So suddenly... they have to create out of nothing these very large POW camps... made with prefabricated wooden barracks.” (36:30)
• “In 1914 the barrack hut comes in really, really bad company... and that’s barbed wire.” (46:00)
• “Now you have a truck and you have cranes... you can have your porter cabins, you can have your prefab... That really isn’t part of the story. It’s a different story.” (48:00)

Important Timestamps

• Intro & Author’s background: 01:07–09:00
• Discovery of a real barrack & research motivation: 09:00–13:00
• Challenge to write traditional architectural history: 13:00–16:28
• Main actors in barrack history (physicians, architects): 16:41–24:00
• Why start in 1572; siege of Haarlem: 24:23–33:00
• Hospitals, epidemics, POW camps: 33:39–40:30
• Barracks in colonial and global context: 40:46–49:00
• Conclusion and book’s historical boundary: 48:00–49:31

Tone and Language

The conversation is academic yet approachable, marked by van Pelt’s humility (“an admission of my own ignorance”), humor, and an enthusiastic narrative style. He weaves personal anecdotes, scholarly insights, and sharp observations, making complex historical shifts accessible and vivid.

Final Thoughts

This episode offers a rich and engaging journey through the under-explored architectural and political history of the barrack. What emerges is a nuanced view of emergency architecture—at once peripheral and profoundly central to modern political life—shaped as much by expediency, medicine, and military necessity as by any grand designs of architects.