Riffing on some lines from the inimitable Owen Hatherley: Erase the traces. Destroy, in order to create. Build a new world on the ruins of the old. This, it is often thought, is the Modernist imperative, but what of it … Continue reading
I recently had an exchange with Øyvind Holmstad, a blogger and self-described conservative permaculturalist, on the subject of my reflections on the idea of “civilization,” which I posted not too long ago. The only edits I made are grammatical. Øyvind’s … Continue reading
Table of Contents I. Introduction: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde II. A Structural Overview of the Proceeding Work: The Sociohistoric Phenomenon of the International Avant-Garde and Soviet Urbanism as Its Decisive Moment III. The Dialectic of … Continue reading
By “totality” is understood a unified, homogeneous whole — one which is more or less global in concept. A totality is unified because it is a single whole to which all of its constituent parts belong. Phrased differently, it is … Continue reading
I would first like to express my gratitude for the confidence shown me by Adolf Arndt in his invitation to speak here today. At the same time, I must also express my serious doubts as to whether I really have … Continue reading
Introduction to Part Two of The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde The Soviet architectural avant-garde was never as unified as its counterparts in the West. Almost from the moment of its emergence in … Continue reading
By industrializing the process of building houses and other structures, the architectural avant-garde believed that it could help to solve many of the profound problems that had emerged out of industrial society. Continue reading
“Most modern machines arouse in us that feeling that Kant regards as the criterion of ‘beauty.’ A good modern machine is thus an object of the highest aesthetic value.” Kurt Ewald, 1926 Continue reading
. Read Ross Wolfe’s “The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde” Modernist Architecture — Positive Bases The theory and practice of modernist architecture were positively based on two primary phenomena that developed under capitalism: … Continue reading
INTRODUCTION Comrades! The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities. The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. The ruined cities await new builders[…] To you who accept the legacy of Russia, … Continue reading