CHAPTER II: A MODERNIST REIMAGING OF CITIES: 20th CENTURY Moving on from the era of perspective innovation and movement representation to a much tougher and challenging period. An era that not only shook nations on a deep destructive level, but also had its toll on many aspects of the life of citizens. Mid-20th Century was a period that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era. Especially during and after the second world war, which certainly left a significant impact on many cities, regions, and societies. This resulted in not only physical and material destructions and damages, but also emotional and mental defeat that affected whole nations on a deep mental level. This challenged architects, designers, and urban planners, as people found themselves in critical positions and sought various ways of dealing with the situation. Some desired completely new identities for their cities and countries that reflect a strong and powerful identity, which was possibly a reason for even more emphasis on the image of buildings. While other nations dealt with existing remnants of war within a new, strong, and powerful concept.
A: THE NEW IDENTITY AND THE NEW IMAGE
Post-war Dilemma and Mental Defeat: Effect on Perception of Cities During post-war crisis, and after World War II, whole nations were left with not only massive destructions and physical damages, but people abruptly found themselves in a period of mental struggle and emotional defeat. Citizens of destructed, badly damaged cities desired a new life in all aspects. They sought new houses, new cities, new cars, and even new identities. Architects and planners carried the responsibility of responding to these losses. Winston Churchill expresses ideally the belief that reflects people’s mentality at that time, he said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us”- Churchill Winston He believed, concerning the rapid rebuilding of European cities, that in order for nations to have new necessarily stronger and empowered identities, there was a need for a “reshaping” of existing buildings. This belief stemmed from a place of defeat, and both the desire, and vision of a completely new identity, that is stronger, wiser, and more powerful. After major bombings and damages caused by the second world war, and as mentioned earlier, architects and planners felt a rapid and sudden urge to almost immediately rebuild a huge part of their cities like London and Berlin. This placed a huge burden on architects, planners and even city councils to rapidly propose, organize, direct, 12 | P a g e
