CHAPTER 2: A MODERNIST REIMAGING OF CITIES

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,

and deliver new plans for a huge scale city replanning proposal. This in its turn caused a diminution, if not absence, of communication with citizen’s needs and necessities.

We can see that there were attempts and efforts to communicate - through pamphlets and such- what they were proposing and doing to the town of the people through

Figure 10: a public rhetoric of reconstruction

large and often popular exhibitions showcasing models, plans and exaggerated visuals. However, it was still miscommunicated or rather the opinion of the people was walked over. In one of the exhibitions in London for a new City replanning proposal, the plans of the proposed city were thoughtlessly displayed on a huge panel. The plan of the exhibition, as seen in the below figure (12), was purposefully designed in a way that allows the visitors to be let in on one door, and almost guided around the exhibition hall in a specific order all the way reaching the end, and that would have been it. What is interesting is that very few of these exhibitions truly tried to interact with people, to get their views, to listen to the views, and to change the plans accordingly. Governments at the time did not seem to care whether people had an opinion or necessary view on the new proposed plan of which they will be the inhabitants of. Instead, it was mostly just a flow of information; this is what we are going to do to your town.

Figure 12: Lindy & Lewis perspective 1944 Figure 12: Holford model (showing only Churches withing a Tabula Rasa)

This mentality created irrational decisions for people and unreasonable plans for architects and planners. Although there is no denial of the existence of a genuine and evident effort to engage people in all kinds of ways. Books and pamphlets were for public sale and sometimes for free. The ministry and city planners cared about getting the message across. There was a high use of verbal content, mostly well illustrated, surprisingly, some were even printed in colour. Message was sent across through visualisations, seductive images, often produced by the best architects and illustrators at the time. However, this caused them to become occupied with reshaping the image of the city, and rapidly reconstructing affected areas, which therefore resulted in often a distant and detached ideal of a new city image. New plans and proposals were seen with no regard to existing context or ruins. In figure 12, we can observe an illustration of the New City Proposal drawn by architects Lindy & Lewis in 1944. Although well drawn, this illustration however is vague. All buildings seem to have similar heights, and most crucially, it does not deal with what was left behind. It is portrayed in a way as if everything that was existing is swept. Therefore, this later could not be communicated.

This significant visual fixation started to become an issue, as it contributed to the detachment and deterioration of the connection of the people with their surrounding environment post-war, in figure 10, we can see a model in one of the exhibitions showcasing only churches within what would be described as Tabula rasa, but what do you do with the ruins? by designing a completely new city image that cleanses out and deletes what is existing, and instead, rebuilds a new city from scratch, with zero or almost no regards to past events, expecting things will sort out the way they envision. To conclude, often comes the need of vision, of visionary architecture after an event, war, or struggle. This need for Visionary architecture/city that is often introduced after a struggle is inevitable for the people. It then becomes the way this city is seen.

Figure 15: Exhibition Plan: "Greater London ... Towards a masterplan" Figure 15: "Planning for reconstruction" pamphlet

Figure 15: Country of London Plan Presentation 1943

Replanning of cities based on a Visionary Image.

Many countries in the 20th Century were coming out of colonial situations by building a new capital. Not only after war destructions but after a period of struggle where people wanted to deconstruct anything that had to do with tradition. They desired a new visually based city that looked good. Such as the case of Brasilia in Brazil. The built-fromscratch capital designed and planned by Architect Oscar Niemeyer is a whole city not older than 60 years.

This new city was based on an idea of emerging from the defeat of colonialism through an ideal city that people imagined for themselves. Since a lot of countries and cities wanted to develop new identities, they felt building a new stronger, empowered capital with a stronger identity would represents a stronger society and community. Assuming everyone is going to live there happily and necessarily better than they used to. Oscar Niemeyer’s work had a democratic spirit. Through his various architectural works, he has rejected mediocracy and the mainstream. He believed all people alike must enjoy equal degrees and characteristics of architecture in society.

This was a Different distant approach based on the idea of modernity. As a result, however, people were not able to live there as they thought they would. The uninhabited park of Brasilia remained uninhabited and the massive voids became an obstructive factor. It did not allow for flow of experience. Architectural quality is manifested, displayed, and expressed in the fullness, richness, and undisputed flow of the experience. A complete resonance and interaction take place between the space and the experiencing person (Pallasmaa 217).

Figure 17: Congressional Headquarters -Brasilia, Brazil Figure 17: City of Brasilia, Brazil as seen from a bird's viewpoint

Another significant example of City Planning at that time is Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants. Le Corbusier had a cartesian approach to city, city planning and urbanism. The Cartesian system by Descartes suggests in its main principle that outer reality is a separate and distinct entity that can only be understood in rational terms through cognitive processes of deduction. It theorizes that the outside world has one meaning. Meaning there is only one way to design and plan spaces within cities. Le Corbusier designed the city as seen from above, with disregard to humans. As seen in figure 20. His architectural style is suggestive of this, as all his buildings are lifted, so everyone has access to the ground floor. This different approach to planning and designing, was the response of the Modern Movement in Architecture Post world war II. He felt that cities were not dense enough and levelling them gave cities a clean slate. However, the contemporary city became the city of the eye, detached from the body by rapid motorized movement. His process of planning was based on the “cartesian eye of control and attachment” as Pallasmaa calls it. This also encouraged - in a way or another- people’s shift of focus on the exteriority of the built environment, and of the city as visualized and seen from afar, rather than how it was experienced and what historical value it carried within.

Figure 19: Sketch of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants Figure 19: physical model of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants

Existential Space and phenomenology

Perhaps what the cartesian eye and modernist architecture lack is the existential space. Existential space is a term popularized by many writers and thinkers. It is the lived space in a particular place, an exhibited and embodied space, one that is properly distinguished from physical and geometrical space. Existential space, as Pallasmaa defines it, is the meanings, intentions, and values manifested onto a space by an individual or a group of people, either wilfully or unwilfully (226).

One of the leading thinkers to point out the link between space and the human condition was Martin Heidegger. Heidegger’s Dasein ("being there" or "presence", "existence".) It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger. This expression refers to the experience of being that is peculiar or unusual to human beings. He points out the essential existential connection that is indivisible between space and the human condition, more specifically, the world and the mind. He gave emphasis to the unity between the act of building, dwelling, and thinking. These acts are not only connected but equal in importance.

The theory of Phenomenology developed by Edmund Husserl 20th Century, translates to "lived experience". It opposes the Cartesian, as it suggests that there is in fact a difference between the outer real reality, and the individual experience of reality. Phenomenology seeks to understand the outside world as it is interpreted by and through human consciousness. Meaning only exist in relationship with our senses and emotions, feelings, consciousness. Phenomenology states that our understanding and interpretation of the world is part of what it truly means. In architecture, this was a very significant understanding. It allowed us to appreciate and acknowledge that our view, our understanding of space is valuable. Part of what gives meaning to our surrounding architecture is the different entities that we as humans are. Each human being carries within them different beliefs, culture, background and understanding of space. Therefore, one will perceive and view architecture distinctively and particularly in relation to themselves.

Existential space is not specifically a physical one, but can also be a mental one, which can also be interpreted through human memory and experience, this gives it a rather unique quality. Existential space is very powerful, as it exhibits a capacity to shape not only individuals but even entire nations. The Human consciousness is an embodied collective consciousness that becomes defined by an entirety of individuals. When individuals in communities share one common existential space, they become affected by it. Certain characteristics of that space create their collective identities and therefore build their “sense of togetherness”. This happens through the experiential and lived space, not the built or geometric space. (Pallasmaa 217). Architectural common spaces should maintain these spaces and their ability to provide knowledge and awareness of oneself.

B: ADAPTATION

Communicating plans

It is later evident that city planners began to value the necessity for people to feel part of a place and connect with it. In one of many architecture Journals at the time, Architect and building news, a local Journal shared an insight stating:

“Reconstruction, on the bold, big scale we want can only succeed if it has a goodwill of the people behind it. it will only have that goodwill if the people are fully informed of the growth of our plans and made to feel that they are participating in these works and not merely having them foisted upon them.” - Architect and building news, 1941, p. 116

We see that evident in later plans of London, one of the most badly bombed cities in Britain. In one of the more developed plans of reconstruction of the central city, we see the "egg" diagram for the Country of London Plan (figure 17). The interesting thing about it is the attempt to look at communities by analysing social and functional uses. which shows the attempt to look at the city as an agglomeration or a cluster of different communities, composed of humans with strengths, weaknesses, and heritages. This diagram was remarkable, however, difficult to interpret (Larkham). In Figure 22, sketch of the centre of london as it is to be replanned, we can also notice the effect of inner ringroads around rest of London, widening and straightening roads, new networks, new connectivit. This influenced to a large extent the way of life, getting to home quicker and more effectively, as an evidence of considering all aspects of the human fluid and dynamic life.

Figure 20: the "egg" diagram for the Country of London Plan showing Figure 21: Royal Academy (1942) - London Replanned social and functional analysis

Adaptation: Post-war Playgrounds

In other parts of the world post-war, some architects like Aldo Van Eyck had a different approach to the city. Van Eyck looked at the city of Amsterdam after the war which was badly damaged and bombed during the wars. Even though it was a period of destruction and mental struggle, he fought the traditional idea of giving the city a new façade or a new image. Instead, he looked at how the city has been shaped as a result of war destructions and what it’s become.

After the world War II, planners had to deal with the baby boom. Urban planning in the Netherlands needed to solve these problems. Van Eyck’s approach was rather interesting, he carefully studied the left over, bombed out spaces in the city of Amsterdam, and created playgrounds that were based on his study of children’s play. As he investigated the experience of the city through children’s play, perceiving how it affected the new understanding of the city as it was, this channelled space for imagination. Especially for children, who have psychological needs and longings that extend far beyond their material needs. Those need to be addressed and fulfilled, otherwise they will result in great suffering (Harari). This also helped include the youth and integrate them as members of the society. Several cultures started to show appreciation of the element of playfulness in daily life, as seen in figures.

This approach was opposite to the distant modernist era, that promoted universalization and the rise of specific design trends over others. Which led to certain trends taking over, without consciously taking in regards the localisation of a monument, or the history or culture of that region. When there was topography, architects and planners

Figure 22: Figure 22: Aldo Van Eyck - Playgrounds Figure 23: Aldo Van Eyck drawings of Playgrounds

would flatten it rather than working with the existing. No regard was given to the landscape itself. Aldo Van Eyck embraced those historical values and presented them as part of a historical continuity.

So far, architecture has developed a collective understanding that often, the need for a visionary and haptic New architecture comes after a deep struggle. However, architecture should be human-responsive and respond to people’s needs, not only in terms of practical necessities, but rather existential psychological and mental ones. It is also understood that architecture should not distinctively be about being abstract or distant, it is far from universalization and the urge to put everything in one category like the cartesian approach. This is where the concept of Critical Regionalism comes in perspective.

Not only that is to be concluded, but also the fact that sometimes expressing and exposing weaknesses is important and rather a gesture of strength rather than weakness. Notions tend to hide their losses in history, no one is ever proud of their defeat in historical famous battles. That is why we are very familiar with names of popular fighters who won famous battles which emphasizes and motivates the rise of “victory over defeat” as a power gesture, yet later we realize that in fact, expressing one’s weakness and defeat is a power by itself. Van Eyck’s approach was a successful one in these terms, as it was not as a vision detached from reality nor a new remaking, but rather including the existing situation as it is and considering the needs of children experiencing the space. This was also a sign of embracing and celebrating remnants of bombings which contributed to changing people’s perception on wars and defeat. He created spaces for playfulness, liveliness, embodiment, and therefore victory out of defeat which became the victory itself.

“… A tectonic shift has taken place in global political culture. Many elites in history … viewed war as a positive good. Others viewed it as evil, but an inevitable one, which we had better turn to our own advantage. Ours is the first time in history that the world … genuinely see[s] war as both evil and avoidable” – Yuval Noah Harari

Meeting the middle ground of Critical Regionalism

Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that that sought to arbitrate the spectrum between “universal characteristics of a civilization and the particularities of place. It is not about copying tradition or repeating what people have previously achieved in the past. Critical Regionalism bridges the gap between both approaches; first, the cartesian which is distant and detached, and second the phenomenological approach that appreciates the experience of the body in a space. Critical Regionalism concerns and encourages being aware of the past, acknowledges the modernist approach, and connecting the two in a conscious innovative approach, re-examining it within a contemporary context.

This approach to architecture is important because, plausibly, manmade structures, whether standing or as ruins, exemplify cultural hierarchies. It is vital to understand and acknowledge the continuum of tradition. Forming an awareness of our cultural past, empowers our present and provide us with hope and trust in the future (Pallasmaa, 215). Our constructed world, just like our bodies, is a product of thousands in not millions of years of evolution. Being aware of this, enables us to understand and remember who we are in the continuum of culture and history. Architecture has always reflected cultural aspirations, beliefs, and ideals; it is never purely arisen from material, climatic, and economic conditions, or pure rationality (Ibid, 217), architecture reflects cultural beliefs and principles.

Postmodernist’s preoccupation with the exterior

Moving further in time, we notice that in some postmodernist architecture, some vernacular designs were still preoccupied with the exterior. Buildings were shown and designed deliberately to act as signifiers that communicate with people their context. They were remaking some historically understandable features of a building that communicate to common people simple things like “I am a house, public building, corporation building etc. ” . Some examples are the AT& T building (1984) by Philip Johnson and Robert venturi in the hearth in the interior of the Vanna venturi (figure 24 & 25). This posed a connection to the use of historic vernacular forms with integrated modernist details. The purpose was supposedly to reengage the people, provide them with visual clues that would make it more meaningful, their understanding of buildings will become more intimate and direct by using visual clues. This shows that people in their nature have evidently shown a necessity to feel a connection with a building, and for buildings to connect themselves to the outside space.

However, this was not achieving of a wholistic experiential architecture. And resulted in mostly dysfunctional architectural monuments, such as the extreme dysfunction-

Figure 26: AT& T building (1984) by Philip Johnson Figure 26: Vanna venturi Figure 26: Portland building