‘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.

scholarly journals Reversing the Process of Nationalization

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-387
Author(s):  
Oscar R. Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Iron And Steel ◽  
Half Century

Summary After carrying during the previous half-century a nationalization legislation, Great Britain by the recent Royal assent given to the Transport Act and the Iron and Steel Act, has brought on denationalization of these industries concerned. The Author comments briefly on this important question considering the Transport denationalization as a more difficult and hazardous measure than the Iron and Steel denationalization. In concluding, the Author hopes that both Transport and Steel Acts will at least be successful in securing the removal of their subjects from the party arena.

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.

The Caroline Divines and the Church of Rome: A Contribution to Current Ecumenical Dialogue – A Review Article

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Christopher Hill
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Founder Member ◽  
The Church

Readers of the Journal will recall the Ecclesiastical Law Society's long tradition of serious ecumenical engagement, embodied in the biennial Lyndwood Lecture with the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and recall that a number of members of the Society are regularly engaged with the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers. Moreover, ecumenical agreement and disagreement have canonical consequences, as, for example, in the debate about Anglican orders. In moral theology, particularly Roman Catholic moral theology, the relation between moral teaching, the confessional and canon law is obvious to any practitioner. My own interest in the Ecclesiastical Law Society was a direct consequence of my involvement in Anglican–Roman Catholic dialogue as successively co-secretary, member and consultant of the various embodiments of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) from 1974 onwards. An ecumenical conversation with Canon Graham Routledge, a founder member, led me to seek membership of the Society in its early days.

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.

‘That Horrid Electorate’ or ‘Ma Patrie germanique’? George III, Hanover, and the Fürstenbund of 1785

1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. W. Blanning
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Eastern Question ◽  
Founder Member ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
George Iii

The League of Princes (Fürstenbund) was founded on 23 July 1785, when the representatives of Prussia, Hanover and Saxony signed at Berlin a main treaty and several secret articles relating to the domestic affairs of the Holy Roman Empire. During the following months a number of other German princes joined the League, notably the elector of Mainz, the landgrave of Hessen-Kassel, the margrave of Baden and the dukes of Brunswick, Saxony-Gotha and Saxony-Weimar.s Its general objective was the preservation of the imperial status quo. More specifically, it was aimed at the Emperor Joseph II and the innumerable schemes of expansion popularly attributed to him, not always without justification. More specifically still, the League was designed to prevent any renewal of Joseph's most cherished ambition - the exchange of the Habsburg possessions in the Netherlands (which embraced the larger part of present-day Belgium) for the Electorate of Bavaria. From the European perspective, the League was soon overshadowed by the reopening of the Eastern Question in 1787, eclipsed by the formation of the Triple Alliance in 1788 and finally extinguished by the Austro-Prussian rapprochement in 1792, but during 1785–6 it assumed great importance. Not the least affected was Great Britain, whose king - albeit in his capacity as elector of Hanover - was a founder-member of the League and one of its most enthusiastic protagonists. Despite the official British view - repeated ad nauseam to sceptical foreign diplomats - that Georg Kurfürst von Hannover and George III King of England were two entirely separate beings and that consequently the actions of the former could have not the least effect on the latter's domains, British policy could not help but be influenced.

scholarly journals Politicking for Postwar Modernism: The Architectural Research Group of Ottawa and Montreal

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Dustin Valen
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Postwar Reconstruction ◽  
The Future ◽  
Architectural Research

The diffusion of modernist principles in Canadian building and planning occurred through many channels, but among these the Architectural Research Group of Ottawa and Montreal played a crucial role. Formed in 1938 to conduct research into postwar reconstruction, the group produced articles, radio addresses, and exhibitions in an effort to nurture modernist sentiment across the country. For these young architects, the federal government’s commitment to replanning and rebuilding postwar Canadian cities presented them with an opportunity to intervene in the future of Canadian practice. They decried the “backwardness” of conservative practitioners while promoting the ideas of a European avant-garde and orchestrating numerous transatlantic exchanges. This article discusses the group’s role in politicking for architectural and urban modernism, as well as the contributions of some of its key members. It shows that Canadian professionals were not simply passive receptors of international modernism but played an active part in shaping these ideas during the immediate postwar period, and that Canada’s federal government played a unique role in accelerating this process by allowing modernist architects and planners to operate within and through a number of government-sponsored agencies.

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.

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