The (Great) War
The history of architecture is always best understood within social/cultural contexts, which help us understand why somethings were built at certain times and to look in particular ways. This section of ARC 331 (and, really, all architecture history courses I can think of) is unique in having a very different proportion of culture-to-buildings. In short, war is always the enemy of architecture, which is an investment of peace time. For that reason, we don't spend a lot of time with wars because very little is built during them (resources of labor and money are going somewhere else).
World War 1 is important to the history of architecture not for what was built during it (typically: very little), but for the aesthetic theories that were formed during it, and that had a profound impact on architectural thinking in the following decades. Before getting to this theory-rich period, let's review what this war was all about, and how historians see its aftermath (and note: even "regular" historians take note of its affects on art and literature).
- Read: Colquhoun, chapters 3, 5 & 6
- Review: Gelernter, chap. 7 (pp. 225-29)
For a focused look at an important but under-studied aspect of construction and technology within this era, click the image below to launch a website on trench design:
Theory and Art
Dada
An art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature. Read more.
For reasons that may be clear already, Dada has very little application in architecture, or even art. But it does reveal the greatest concentrated nihilism of the era. Its great flourishing is in poetry. Hear from one of its main protagonists how to write a dada poem:
A recitation of its manifesto by Hugo Ball, 1916. (If you like, follow along with the text here.)
Futurism
An Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world. Read more.
Futurism had great appeal across Italy, where it was founded, and throughout other avant-garde centers in Europe. You can find manifestos on Futurist music, Futurist clothing, Futurist drama ... there is really no corner of cultural production that the Futurists did not want to affect. Hear a brief invitation from the central writer of Futurism, F.T. Marinetti:
Music and costumes might be open to radical change during a war, but in the 1910s Futurism had little chance to see its ideals impact actual buildings. Still, it had a main theorist, the architect Antonio Sant'Elia, who volunteered to join the Italian army in 1915. Scan this website for a good collection of the drawings from his major project, La Città Nuovo (also 1914; one typical drawing shown to the left).
- Read: Sant' Elia's “Manifesto of Futurist Architecture" (1914) in a straight version, or
- Read: Sant' Elia's "Manifesto of Futurist Architecture" (1914) in an online format paired with an appropriately Futurist soundtrack
Expressionism
Art in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas. Read more.
While proper Expressionism takes off during the 1910s, its roots can be seen in painting from the late nineteenth century: in particular, the famous The Scream (Edvard Munch, 1893). Several Expressionist architects and theorists emerged in the 1910s; their written work would be very powerful in the coming decades.
- Read: Paul Scheerbart, Glass Architecture (1914)
- Read: Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur (illustrated at left and at top of page; 1919)
Expressionist Cinema
Especially in northern Europe (primarily in Germany and, to a lesser extent Scandinavia and France), the growth of cinema in the decades under discussion is worth its own subheading here. Film was an undeniably modern vehicle for new art theories. In particular, Futurism and Expressionism influenced the aesthetic and narrative of such films as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, Robert Wiene, dir.), Nosferatu (1922, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, dir.), Der Golem (1920, C. Boese & P. Wegener, dir., also with notable sets by architect Hans Poelzig), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer, dir.), and the mother of all German Expressionist-Futurist silent films, Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang, dir.).
Russian Constructivism
A particularly austere branch of abstract art founded in Russia around 1915 in which style-free objects were products of industrial ordering. Read more.
Constructivism emphasized the "constructed" character of human-made art: compositions that were clearly the result of assembling other things--usually mass-produced and industrial things. This approach underscores the work of its central "fine" artist, Naum Gabo (see a collection of his work held by the Tate), and is probably best known in graphic arts that were used to further the political aims of the Bolsheviks, and among them, the often-reproduced poster, "Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge," (prominently featuring Lilya Brik; Aleksandr Rodchenko, 1925).
Of all the movements in this lesson, Russian Constructivism is most closely tied to a particular political moment. Learn about it here:
De Stjil
Severe Dutch development based on straight lines and geometric planes in pure hues, black, and white. Read more.
De Stjil ("the style") is the movement as well as the journal published in Leiden starting in 1917. Led by painter/theorist/architect/typeface designer Theo Van Doesburg, it aimed for the universal and abstract, scrubbing "art" (and all related productions) of references even to the materials of their own making. Van Doesburg, whose painting of 1917, Composition VII (the three graces) is shown at the left, )tried hard to get a job at the Bauhaus, but was unsuccessful. Still, his ideas would be highly influential there--eventually.
Watch this short video that explains Mondrian's contribution to the development of De Stijl within the context of Dutch art history:
Source for definitions: Tate Art Terms
Application
- How well do you know your early Modernist theory? Take this quiz to find out. Due: Monday
The (Next) War
As we will see, in the decades following this flowering of diverse Modernist theories, a more cohesive approach to rationalist design was developed; at the same time, utopian ideals vanished under pressure of growing clouds on the political horizon. The Great War would turn out to not be the last one, and architecture would have its role in one of the ugliest chapters in human history.
Click the image below to enter a website devoted to the architecture of concentration camps. As you read through its pages, think about the degree to which architecture can be weaponized: in what ways can design be made to assist genocide?
