Architecture and Modernity A Critique

by Heynen, Hilde

• ISBN13: 9780262581899
• ISBN10: 0262581892
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-28
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

In this exploration of the relationship between modernity, dwelling, and architecture, Hilde Heynen attempts to bridge the gap between the discourse of the modern movement and cultural theories of modernity. On one hand, she discusses architecture from the perspective of critical theory, and on the other, she modifies positions within critical theory by linking them with architecture. She assesses architecture as a cultural field that structures daily life and that embodies major contradictions inherent in modernity, arguing that architecture nonetheless has a certain capacity to adopt a critical stance vis-agrave;-vis modernity. Besides presenting a theoretical discussion of the relation between architecture, modernity, and dwelling, the book provides architectural students with an introduction to the discourse of critical theory. The subchapters on Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, and the Venice School (Tafuri, Dal Co, Cacciari) can be studied independently for this purpose.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. viii
Introduction	p. 2
Architecture Facing Modernity
Concepts of Modernity	p. 8
Dwelling Fades into the Distance. . .	p. 14
The Dilemmas of Architecture	p. 18
Constructing the Modern Movement
An Architectural Avant-Garde?	p. 26
Sigfried Giedion: A Programmatic View of Modernity	p. 29
Das Neue Frankfurt: The Search for a Unified Culture	p. 43
Reflections in a Mirror
The Experience Rupture	p. 72
Adolf Loos: The Broken Continuation of Tradition	p. 75
Walter Benjamin: The Dream of a Classless Society	p. 95
Building on a Hollow Space: Ernst Bloch's Criticism of Modern Architecture	p. 118
The Venice School, or the Diagnosis of Negative Thought	p. 128
Architecture as Critique of Modernity
Avant-Garde versus Modernism	p. 148
New Babylon: The Antinomies of Utopia	p. 151
No Way Out: Adorno's Aesthetic Theory	p. 174
Mimesis in Architecture	p. 192
Afterword: Dwelling, Mimesis, Culture	p. 220
Notes	p. 226
Index	p. 260
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