Brokers of Modernity
East Central Europe and the Rise of Modernist Architects, 1910-1950
Martin Kohlrausch
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VIEW Monograph - free ebook - ePUB VIEW Monograph - paperbackThe story of modernist architects in East Central Europe
The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the rise of modernist architects. Brokers of Modernity reveals how East Central Europe turned into one of the pre-eminent testing grounds of the new belief system of modernism. By combining the internationalism of the CIAM organization and the modernising aspirations of the new states built after 1918, the reach of modernist architects extended far beyond their established fields. Yet, these architects paid a price when Europe’s age of extremes intensified. Mainly drawing on Polish, but also wider Central and Eastern European cases, this book delivers a pioneering study of the dynamics of modernist architects as a group, including how they became qualified, how they organized, communicated and attempted to live the modernist lifestyle themselves. In doing so, Brokers of Modernity raises questions concerning collective work in general and also invites us to examine the social role of architects today.Ebook available in Open Access.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Note on Translation
Introduction Brokers of Modernity
1. Modernity in Eastern Europe – East European Modernism?
2. Architects as Experts of the Social: A new Type entering the European Scene
3. Organising New Architectural Goals
4. Communicating Social Change through Architecture
Gallery with Plates
5. Materialising the International Agenda: Warszawa Funkcjonalna
6. Under Pressure: Modernist Architects and the Rise of Political Extremes
Epilogue
Abbreviations
Introduction Brokers of Modernity
Why Modernist Architects?
Modernist Architects and Modernity
Thematic and Temporal Structures
1. Modernity in Eastern Europe – East European Modernism?
The European East – Sketches of a Projection screen
East Central Europe – A Space of Crisis?
The Post-Monarchic State and the Legacy of the War
Eastern Modernity
Conclusion
2. Architects as Experts of the Social: A new Type entering the European Scene
New Tasks for Architects
Architects and the Rise of the Modern Expert
Training Modern Architects
The Rise of Scientific Urbanism and the Self-Empowerment of Architects
The Lure of the Machine
Themes of Change – Architecture as Technology: Rationalization, Planning, and Technocracy 89
Conclusion
3. Organising New Architectural Goals
Organising Architects in a New State
Architecture in a New Key – the CIAM
Self-empowerment – the CIAM and its Polish Group
CIAM-Universalism or Eastern Fast-track? The CIAM-Ost
Realizers – the WSM as Interface
Conclusion
4. Communicating Social Change through Architecture
The Spatial Structure of the New Discourse on Architecture
The Abstract Heritage of the First World War and the Logic of the Media
Architectural Journals and Books as Architectural Programme
Travelling, Gathering, Thinking Alike: Architects as Modern Men
Communicating Problems and Solutions via Language and Exhibitions
Conclusion
Gallery with Plates
5. Materialising the International Agenda: Warszawa Funkcjonalna
The CIAM IV Moment – Politics Coming in
Realising the Novel: The Functionalist Laboratory of Zlín
The Idea of the Functional City
Warszawa Funkcjonalna
Conclusion
6. Under Pressure: Modernist Architects and the Rise of Political Extremes
Questioned Loyalties and Strained International Exchange
Continuity and Rupture – the Onslaught on Warsaw
Personal Toll and Collaboration
Windows of Opportunity: Warsaw as a Post-catastrophic City
Old Bonds and new Attention: Warsaw as a Realized Utopia? 2
Conclusion
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
Format: Monograph - free ebook - PDF
400 pages
ISBN: 9789461662545
Publication: March 11, 2019
Languages: English
Download:: http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=1004223
Martin Kohlrausch is professor of European Political History and head of the research unit Modernity and Society at the KU Leuven.
'...insightful sociopolitical study of a generation of modernist architects in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary who came of age during the Interwar Years. [...] Kohlrausch’s thoughtful account makes a significant addition to a full understanding of urbanism. Brokers of Modernity gives new life to previously neglected but no less important contributors to the transnational flows that make cities global.'
Harold L. Platt, Journal of Urban History, October 2019
Martin Kohlrausch’s Brokers of Modernity puts forth a solid revision of this narrative and succeeds in shifting it significantly eastward. By inserting the manifold contributions by architects from East Central Europe into the larger history of European modernism, he provides an overdue account of what had been shattered when the trans-European professional networks dissolved in the wake of the Second World War. [...] Kohlrausch presents an immensely informed study, which is based on his research of the past decade. [...] Applying the more recent concept of a ‘multi-speed Europe’ to his period of analysis, the historian masterfully balances institutional history, a history of networks, and a history of modern architecture embedded in its social-historical context.
Sarah M. Schlachetzki, H-Soz-Kult
Harold L. Platt, Journal of Urban History, October 2019
Martin Kohlrausch’s Brokers of Modernity puts forth a solid revision of this narrative and succeeds in shifting it significantly eastward. By inserting the manifold contributions by architects from East Central Europe into the larger history of European modernism, he provides an overdue account of what had been shattered when the trans-European professional networks dissolved in the wake of the Second World War. [...] Kohlrausch presents an immensely informed study, which is based on his research of the past decade. [...] Applying the more recent concept of a ‘multi-speed Europe’ to his period of analysis, the historian masterfully balances institutional history, a history of networks, and a history of modern architecture embedded in its social-historical context.
Sarah M. Schlachetzki, H-Soz-Kult