scholarly journals Archives, Bureaucracies, Architecture: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

Dimensions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-186
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Meister
Keyword(s):  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Alternative Archives

Editorial Summary In her text, Anna-Maria Meister focuses on the production and dissemination of norms, normed objects, standards, bureaucratic measures, and administrative processes as social desires in German modern architecture. She states that we must treat them as formal and political acts of »Gestaltung« and critically probe their ideological intent and human consequence since the regulations in place, the order imagined, or the systems constructed were as formative to what we now know as Modern Architecture, as aesthetics or so-called Avant-Garde architects. As a result, rules and codes are »aesthetic tools« rather than mere »bureaucratic impediments«. She claims that it is necessary to research beyond the beaten path to include those contents that are usually left by the wayside, thus revealing and constructing alternative archives and histories. [Ferdinand Ludwig]

Stam, Mart (1899–1986)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Poppelreuter
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Technologies

Mart (Martinus Adrianus) Stam (b. in 1899 in Purmerend, Netherlands—d. in 1986 in Goldach, Switzerland) was a Dutch architect, designer, and architectural theorist, and was involved in a number of principal events and organizations during the 1920s and 1930s. Stam moved to Berlin in 1922 to work as a draftsman with Max Taut and Hans Poelzig among others. While in Berlin, Stam met El Lissitzky who introduced him to Constructivism. Inspired by the progressive and social outlook of this Russian movement Stam founded the avant-garde magazine ABC: Beiträge zum Bauen [ABC: Contributions on Building] together with Hans Schmidt, Hennes Mayer, and Emil Roth (1924–1928). The magazine focused on convincing readers about the social necessity for low-cost, well-designed, and functional houses, as well as the use of modern technologies. ABC also established connections with Asnova, the association of new architects in Moscow, and published the student work of Vkhutemas [School of Modern Architecture] in Moscow.

scholarly journals The avant-garde in the architecture and visual arts of Post-Revolutionary Mexico

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando N. Winfield
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Mexican Architecture ◽  
Direct Reflection

Commenting on an exhibition of contemporary Mexican architecture in Rome in 1957, the polemic and highly influential Italian architectural critic and historian, Bruno Zevi, ridiculed Mexican modernism for combining Pre-Columbian motifs with modern architecture. He referred to it as ‘Mexican Grotesque’. Inherent in Zevi’s comments were an attitude towards modern architecture that defined it in primarily material terms; its principle role being one of “spatial and programmatic function”. Despite the weight of this Modernist tendency in the architectural circles of Post-Revolutionary Mexico, we suggest in this paper that Mexican modernism cannot be reduced to such “material” definitions. In the highly charged political context of Mexico in the first half of the 20th Century, modern architecture was perhaps above all else, a tool for propaganda. In this political atmosphere it was undesirable, indeed it was seen as impossible, to separate art, architecture and politics in a way that would be a direct reflection of Modern architecture’s European manifestations. Form was to follow function, but that function was to be communicative as well as spatial and programmatic. One consequence of this “political communicative function” in Mexico was the combination of the “mural tradition” with contemporary architectural design; what Zevi defined as “Mexican Grotesque”. In this paper, we will examine the political context of Post-Revolutionary Mexico and discuss what may be defined as its most iconic building; the Central Library at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico . In direct counterpoint to Zevi, we will suggest that it was far from grotesque, but rather was one of the most committed political statements made by the Modern Movement throughout the Twentieth Century. It was propaganda, it was political. It was utopian.

The reciprocity between art and architecture

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-116
Author(s):  
Hakan Saglam
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Art And Architecture

The concept of ‘Art’ in the modern meaning, evaluates within the Enlightenment’s seminal World of philosophy. Before the Enlightenment architecture and craft were instinctively united fields of creating, almost impossible to detach one from the other. From the beginning of twentieth century the avant-garde of modern architecture were aware of the growing schism between art and architecture and vice versa. The pioneers were writing manifestos, stating that art and architecture should form a new unity, a holistic entity, which would include all types of creativity and put an end to the severance between “arts and crafts”, “art and architecture”.  Approaching the end, of the first decade of the twenty first century, as communicative interests in all fields are becoming very important, we should once more discuss the relation/ interaction / cross over of art and architecture; where the boundaries of the two fields become blurred since both sides, art and architecture, are intervening the gap between. The aim of this paper is to discuss the examples of both contemporary art and architecture, which challenge this “in between gap.” Key words: Architecture, art, interaction, in between.

scholarly journals The Neo-Enlightenment Aesthetics of Jürgen Habermas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otília Beatriz Fiori Arantes ◽  
Paulo Eduardo Arantes
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Action ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Cultural Critique ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Modern Project ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Aesthetic

This essay was prepared especially for the issue 49 of Cultural Critique (2001) as an extract of the argument presented in Otília and Paulo Arantes’ book Um Ponto Cego no Projeto Moderno de Jürgen Habermas (A blind spot in Jürgen Habermas’ Modern Project, 1992) (which remain untranslated into English). While Habermas has seldom addressed the question of aesthetic directly, here the authors reconstruct why architecture becomes the aesthetic side of predilection for him. What the authors call a “neo-Enlightenment aesthetics” in Habermas involves a reconfiguration of the judgement of taste, as conceived in the Enlightenment, but now projected through the lens of communicative action where the rules of engagement have left the spectacle behind. A Kantian aesthetic with airs of Benjamin and Brecht, they contend, became the ingredients which Habermas tried to get beyond the impasse that Peter Bürger had already pointed out with regard to idealist aesthetics, namely how the process of the autonomization of art is simultaneously a process both of its consolidation and its eventual demise. How then to talk about aesthetics after Avant-Garde? For Habermas, architecture becomes a place of encounter for his own ideas about the public sphere, rational engagement, and aesthetic engagement. The Arantes, however, contest Habermas’ abstract defense of Modern Architecture by showing how, in the word and specially in Brazil, each phase of its development is intimately tied to specific moments in capitalism development. They follow in Adorno’s footsteps in arguing that the site of Modern Architecture in Brazil is a cipher of glass and concrete that evinces the silence of the spellbound rather than the emergence of a public genre with enlightenment functions. (Sílvia Lopes)   Keywords: Habermas, Modernity, Modern Design, Modern Movement, Postmodernism, Ideology, History, Benjamin, Utopia, Communicative Action, Linguistic Turn, Enlightenment, Reason, Critical Theory, Welfare, Brazil.

scholarly journals Historical heritage and contemporary architecture fusion at the example of the city center of Graz

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Biljana Arandjelovic
Keyword(s):  
Short Review ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
City Center ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Unusual Combination ◽  
Historical Center ◽  
Historical Heritage ◽  
Contemporary Architecture ◽  
The City

The research subject of the paper is the center of Graz as a fusion of historical heritage and modern architecture, with its seven landmarks of modern architecture selected here in order to make a short review of this unusual mix. Although the historical center is well known as UNESCO protected district, that may not be damaged or destroyed, the avant-garde shops and bars found their place in the ancient center, complementing it. A contrast of new and the old is also present in the likeness of a fusion of historical heritage and contemporary architecture. This unusual combination made Graz a unique city which could serve as example for the future, how to make contemporary architecture in the middle of historical environment.

INFLUENCE OF THE SOVIET VANGUARD OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Author(s):  
T. V KARAKOVA ◽  
E. V RYZhIKOVA
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Sufficient Detail ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Consciousness ◽  
History Of ◽  
Transition Stages ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

Vanguard are typical for all the transition stages in the history of art culture, certain types of art. In the 20th century. notion of the avant-garde has become the term to refer to a powerful phenomenon of artistic culture that has enveloped her significant events, which have much in common. Vanguard is the reaction of the artistic and aesthetic consciousness on a global, not yet encountered in the history of mankind change in cultural and civilizational process caused by scientific and technological progress (STP) of the last century. The nature and importance to humanity of this process in culture have not yet received adequate scientific and philosophical understanding, but with sufficient detail expressed in the artistic culture in the phenomenon of the avant-garde, modernism, postmodernism.

scholarly journals CONTRADICTION BETWEEN MODERN AND CONSERVATIVE DIRECTION OF ARCHITECTURE

2021 ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Liubov Tiutina
Keyword(s):  
Outer Wall ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structural Framework ◽  
History Of ◽  
Architecture Development

The history of the development of architecture has shown that until the middle of the XIXth century, the expression of the plastic language of buildings was restrained by both the preferences of society and the material construction base. Industrial progress has reorganized the structural framework of buildings and the outer wall has ceased to accept the load of floors. In the XXth century it provided opportunities for an expanded stylistic diversity of architecture in the spirit of modernism. However, parallel to this, the processes of returning to the plastic language of architecture of the past took place wave-like. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, there are ideological beliefs and interference of political forces in architecture. States with a totalitarian regime in the XXth century (Germany, Italy, the USSR) dictated their own conditions for proper life, rejecting the avant-garde and modernist trends. Secondly, there is a certain philosophical, intellectual attitude to reflection with the architecture of the past. The origin of this phenomenon comes from the United States, where modernism from the beginning of the XXth century to the 60s had been developing without non-stop. All of this led to some emotional fatigue and boredom, and as a result, the style of postmodernism appeared, where elements of historicism were rethought and introduced into modern architecture. The third reason for returning the vector of architecture development back to the past is lack of understanding of the trends and opportunities of modern architecture. In Ukraine, buildings are being built from reinforced concrete, with a free curtain facade, but the plastic language of architecture is expressed in an eclectic mix of different historical styles. This distortion of the essence of modern architecture can be explained by the inability of modern architects to keep up with the time. The fourth reason for the desire to return to the style of historicism is dictated by the historical environment of old cities, which, according to both society and architects, should be maintained in its context even if new buildings appear there or renovations are carried out.

Who was H Courtney Archer?

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Jessica Halliday
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Architectural Discourse ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Architectural Review ◽  
The Face ◽  
Local Manifestation ◽  
The Rich

Harry Courtney Archer's (1918-2002) article on architecture in New Zealand published in The Architectural Review in 1942 is recognised as part of the rich collection of publications that shaped the discourse about Modern architecture in this country (Clark & Walker 2000). On the face of it, Archer was an unlikely contributor to the discussion on New Zealand's architecture and proselytiser for Modernism: he had lived most of his 23 years to date in small rural towns, before the war, working in his father's flour mill in Rangiora and during the war moving between pacifist rural communities in the South Island. In this paper, I consider Archer's 1942 article, his sole contribution to architectural discourse, in relation to his personal background, asking where and how Archer formed his views and how he came to expound them in the journal the New Zealand architects of his generation acknowledged as "the bible" of contemporary architectural thought. I also analyse his article beyond its brief figuration of the New Zealand timber tradition as "frank" and therefore a source for the local manifestation of Modern architecture, by reflecting on his writing in light of his personal experiences, his avant-garde friends and his commitment to socialist movements.

scholarly journals Hacia Arts & Architecture La revolución editorial de John Entenza (1938-1945)

2018 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Daniel Díez Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Intellectual Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Siglo Xx

Resumen En enero de 1945 Arts & Architecture puso en marcha el programa CaseStudy House, un experimento ideado por John Entenza que les reservaríaa él y a su revista un lugar importante en la historia de la arquitectura moderna del siglo XX. Desde que asumió la dirección de Arts & Architectureen 1940, Entenza supo rodearse de creadores y artistas como Alvin Lustig,Ray y Charles Eames, Herbert Matter o Julius Shulman, que contribuyerona elevar el estándar gráfico de su publicación y le confirieron una identidadinnovadora que respaldaba visualmente el discurso intelectual vanguardista de compromiso con la arquitectura y el diseño modernos que defendía en sus páginas. Este artículo analiza los orígenes, las estrategias de trasformación y los nombres propios que hicieron realidad una revista que, cincuenta años después de su desaparición en 1967, sigue resultando tan atractiva y radical como cuando se editaba.AbstractIn January 1945 Arts & Architecture launched the Case Study House program, an experiment devised by John Entenza that would reserve for him and his magazine an important place in the history of modern architecture of the twentieth century. From the moment he took over the direction of Arts & Architecture in 1940, Entenza knew how to seduce creators and artists such as Alvin Lustig, Ray and Charles Eames, Herbert Matter and Julius Shulman, who contributed to raise the graphic standard of his publication and gave it an innovative identity that visually supported the avant-garde intellectual discourse of commitment to modern architecture and design that it defended in its pages. This article analyzesthe origins, the strategies of transformation and the proper names that made the magazine a reality that, fifty years after its disappearance in 1967, continues to be as attractive and radical as when it was published.

‘A Very Serious Responsibility’? The MARS Group, Internationally and Relations with CIAM, 1933–39

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 249-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
International Community ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
International Forum ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Founder Member ◽  
Architectural Research

In an interview recorded shortly before his death in 1987, Maxwell Fry recalled the birth of Modern architecture in Great Britain around a half-century earlier. In the course of discussing the work of the Modern Architectural Research (MARS) Group — the society that he had helped to establish in February 1933 and of which he was then the last surviving founder-member — Fry highlighted the links between architects in Britain and their continental European counterparts. Observing that MARS was first established on the basis of an invitation that Wells Coates had received to form a British chapter of the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), he noted that the Group had immediately gained an entrée into an international forum that functioned as a unique gathering point for the architectural avant-garde. At the same time, he asserted that membership brought with it commitments that conferred ‘a very serious responsibility’.CIAM was not, of course, the only conduit for the links that MARS members had with the wider world, but in many ways it was the MARS Group’s relationship with the ‘international community of modern architects […] made visible in the foundation of CIAM’ which defined it and differentiated it from other architectural groupings of its day. Most other such bodies initially coalesced around a single manifesto or exhibition and then quickly fell apart when their members found that they had little in common apart from an enthusiasm for Modernism. By contrast, MARS retained an enduring purpose through its membership of CIAM.

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