Making a New World

Study of the foundations and working mechanisms of modern communities

In the changing world of interwar Europe a longing for stability rose to the surface of social life. Newly developed neighbourhoods and buildings were designed to create the healing community that many people were dreaming of. Various social groups with nationalist, ideological, or religious agendas made this concept of community a cornerstone in their framework and appropriated it to prescribe the relations between architecture and modernity. Making a New World analyses the various ways in which these relations were determined.

Most activists/entities encountered the potentialities of modernity, such as technology or mass media, in an accommodating way. In a broad spectrum of actions and proposals - from art exhibitions to séances, photo reports to roof tiles, landscapes to sanitation - these reformists were hoping to create a universe in which their communal dream could become a reality. The 17 contributions to this richly illustrated volume draw the contours of this new world by analysing its foundations and working mechanisms at its heart.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"Making a New World" was edited by Rajesh Heynickx and Tom Avermaete.

Rajesh Heynickx is gewoon hoogleraar aan de Faculteit Architectuur en voorzitter van het Departement Architectuur van de KU Leuven.

Rajesh Heynickx is intellectual historian at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture.

Tom Avermaete is associate professor of architecture at Delft University with a special research interest in the post-war public realm and the architecture of the city in Western and non-Western contexts.

Yes, "Making a New World" is part of the "KADOC-Artes" series. It's book 13 in the series.

Editorial board

Elena Arigita Maza (Universidad de Granada)
Florian Bock (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
Timothy Brittain‐Catlin (University of Cambridge)
James Chappel (Duke University)
Kim Christiaens (KADOC-KU Leuven)
Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin)
​​​​James Kennedy (Utrecht University)
​​​Franziska Metzger (PH Luzern)
Patrick Pasture (MoSa‐KU Leuven) - chairman
Isabelle Saint‐Martin (EPHE Paris)
Thijl Sunier (VU Amsterdam)
Árpád von Klimó (Catholic University of America)
Veerle De Laet (Leuven University Press)
Peter Heyrman (KADOC-KU Leuven) - secretary

Proposals

Proposals and enquiries can be sent to Peter Heyrman.

Please make use of the submission form to present your manuscript or proposal to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.

Links & Resources

PROLOGUE

Rajesh Heynickx and Tom Avermaete
Community as a Prism. Re-aligning the Architectural Theory and Practice of the Interwar Period

EXEGESIS

Rajesh Heynickx
Introduction

Thomas Rohkrämer
German Cultural Criticism. The Desire for a Sense of Place and Community

David Matless
Communities of Landscape. Nation, Locality and Modernity in Interwar England

Michiel Dehaene
The (Il)legible City. Civic Survey and the Imagined Community

Hilde Heynen
Modernity and Community. A Difficult Combination

EXPERIENCE

Marieke Kuipers
Introduction

Stuart Evans
Model Homes for Working Class Urban Living

Martin Kohlrausch
'Houses of Glass'. Modern Architecture and the Idea of Community in Poland, 1925-1944

Barry Curtis
Negotiated Modernism. British Suburbia between the Wars

Kenny Cupers
Making Camp. Landscape and Community in the Interwar German Youth Movements

EXPECTATION

Elizabeth Darling
Introduction

Elizabeth Darling
Nuclei of a Genuine Urban Life. Bringing the Country to the City in 1930s London

Tom Avermaete
Building Internal Colonies. Play, Form and Youth Environments in Interwar France

Hansjakob Ziemer
Modernizing Musical Spaces. Music Halls and Utopian Communities in Frankfurt am Main, 1900-1930

Marieke Kuipers
Colonizing Fresh Air. Community and Reform in Dutch Vacation Colonies and De Vonk

IMAGINATION

Tom Avermaete & Rajesh Heynickx
Introduction

Bruno Notteboom
Images of the Countryside. Landscape, Village and Community in the Discourse of Belgian Farmers

Rajesh Heynickx
A Law of Inertia. The Tower as Site and Symbol in Interwar Flanders

Nader Vossoughian
The Sociology of the City. Otto Neurath and the Concept of Gemeinwirtschaft

Charles van den Heuvel
Envisioning Knowledge Architectures for a World Society. Paul Otlet's Architectural and Epistemic Design Strategies

Bibliography

Index of persons

Authors

Colophon