Architecture after Modernism by Diane Ghirardo

Review by: Thomas Fisher

Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 51, No. 1 (Sep., 1997), pp. 75-76
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc.
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corporealityonly the privilegedamongus maypursuewhileobliging
us to issuean architectureof placeand authenticitywhen economic
and politicalcircumstancesare, at best, determiningthe opposite.
Nor does it acknowledgethe frontiersleft to architecture-that is,
the elusiveterritoryof the electronic,or research-generating,form
outsidethe necessityof materials.On the otherhand,it provokesthe
most questionsthat advocatesof the electronicrarelyacknowledge:
Has the significanceof the body itselfbecomedecorative?
In the firstchapter,Framptonintroducesus to a distillation
of characteristicspresentin the tectonic:wordshe intendsto use in
the narrativeshe tells of unique modern architects.In the second
chapter,he turns to the eighteenth-centuryFrenchGreco-Gothic
ideal(Perrault,Cordemoy,de Fremin,Laugier,Soufflot,Labrouste)
and nineteenth-centuryrationalism(Viollet-le-Ducand Choisy).
The third chapterdevelopsthe theme of reciprocitybetween the
structuraland the visceralin the tectonic.Framptonreturnsto the
German Enlightenment and classical romanticism (Alois Hirt,
Schinkel,Goethe,and Durand),wherewe arepermittedto indulge
not only in the synthesisof a paganwith rationalculture,but also
in the reconciliationof typosand toposin Schinkel'swork.
The rest of the book is devoted to guiding us through the
unique tectonicproclivitiesof individualmodernarchitectswhose
works, collectivelyillustratea lack of unity in modern architects:
FrankLloydWright,AugustePerret,LudwigMies van der Rohe,
Louis Kahn, Jorn Utzon, and Carlo Scarpa.Although modern
architecture was eventually defined by a commitment to new
materialsand a machine aesthetic,these particulararchitectsare
united only in theirexceptionalattentionto materialand in some
casescraft,an issue that dividedthe Bauhausin its earlyyearsand
finallybecamealien to modernarchitecture.What is not obvious
is what Frampton's book, as a whole, intimates: how the
inclinationsof these architectswere influencedby the theoretical
objectives iterated in the first three chapters. Historically, and
because he has chosen exceptionalmodern architects(architects
who do not collectively represent the polemics of hardened
modernism),Framptonpresentsan exhortationof what modern
architecture includes-an extraordinary group of privileged
architectscommitted to exploringthe logosof techne,and in that
vein he teachesus aboutmodernarchitecture's discontinuities.The
book becomes an encyclopediccompanion guide to the material
worksof thesearchitects.Becauseeacharchitectrepresentsa unique
trajectory,each chapter might be a book in itself and certainly
envisionsa bounty of researchto be done.
Most important,this book is a very courageousand timely
rappelaux armes(call to action) for designersand architectural
75
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historians.It continuesFrampton'spassionatesupportof designers
who continue to build an architectureof substanceat a time that
seemsmost inauspicious.Frampton'scareeras an importantsavant
and critic of the architectureof late capitalismis sustainedin this
effortbecauseit proclaimshis interestand belief in an architecture
of physicalexperienceand materialpresencedespitecircumstances
that seem to underminethat very possibility.It challengesus, as
always,to reexamineourselvesin light of our presentcrisis.Finally,
it revealsFrampton'scriticaldesirealongwith a hypersensitivity and
resistance to economic and political circumstances that
fundamentallythreatenthe futureof architecture.
ELLENSOROKA
ArizonaStateUniversity
Note
1. RichardBolton, CultureWars:Documentsfrom the RecentControversies
in theArts (New York:New Press, 1992).
Architectureafter Modernism
Diane Ghirardo
Thamesand Hudson, 1996
240 pp., 166 illustrations(40 color)
$14.95 (paper)
In his book, Deathof theGuilds,Professions,States,and theAdvance
of Capitalism,1930 to the Present,the sociologist Elliott Krause
arguesthatthe "guildpower"of theprofessions"isdecliningasstate
powerand capitalistpowerencroachupon it." In Architecture after
Modernism,Diane Ghirardoshows how that decline has affected
not only the profession of architecture,but also the form and
substanceof architectureitself.
Architects, she suggests, have capitulated to the growing
allianceof state and capitalistpower largelyby ignoring it. "The
post-industrial,post-Fordist, global economic world . .. rarely
figure[s] in architecturaldiscussions." Instead, she argues, we
maintainthe moderniststanceof the "heroicarchitectformalizing
personalinterpretationsof social crises"while our role "hasbeen
steadilyerodedand increasinglymarginalized." At the same time,
she says,we hold to the idealof "professional
servicesfor hire in an
economy dominatedby entrepreneurial capitalism."
Ghirardotraceshow this polarityof personalformalismand
pragmatic servitude has enabled us to appear resistant to an
bookreviews
increasingly privatized and thematized built environment-even as Paradise:The Designof the
Buildingthe Workingman's
we give shape to it. Acknowledging "the primacy of consumption AmericanCompanyTown
as the only true public activity," she demonstrates in the first Margaret Crawford
chapter how the mall has become a paradigm of public space, Verso, 1996
evident not only in our shopping centers, but in our museums and $19.95 (cloth)
streets. And yet, while "the standard architectural conception of
public space" remains one "where diverse classes and individuals Towns and communities established by the U.S. government and
freely mingle, without overt restraint or control, . . . public spaces
by private interests are among the least studied areasof architectural
history. Such studies demand that historians understand not only
are increasingly left to the poor and the marginalized ... while an
the buildings, but also the cultural, social, political, and economic
elite and segregated type of public space has taken shape for other,
more privileged classes." settings in which they were created. Margaret Crawford's Building
the Workingman'sParadise analyzes company towns designed and
Our complicity in capitalism's overtaking of the public realm
is matched by our adherence to the state's narrow definition of built between 1790 and 1925 in places as diverse as Fairfield,
professional activity. In her discussion of housing in the second Alabama, and Torrance, California. Planned by single companies or
chapter, Ghirardo shows how our prescribed self-identity prevents groups of companies to provide housing for their employees, these
us from addressing broader social needs, from "the growing number towns linked employees and their families to the employer, at home
as well as at work. Crawford is the first to conceptualize company
of nontraditional families" to "pressing issues such as energy costs,
towns as such, distinguishing them from privately developed
toxic materials, and the depletion of natural resources." Cataloging
the aesthetic diversity of postmodern houses and housing, she housing connected to single industries and from communally
owned industrial or agricultural settlements.
laments that "for architects schooled as potential stars, autonomous
and prone to making bold gestures indifferent to all but the The first half of the book, covering 1790 to 1890, traces the
gradual development of company towns in the industrializing
developer's bank balance and publication possibilities, the image to
be configured takes precedence over all." United States. From the earliest mill towns in New England to
towns associated with the emerging iron and steel industries,
The book's third and final chapter looks at how the alliance
companies sought to secure a stable and compliant labor force. But
of state and capitalist power has reshaped the working districts of
our cities. Ghirardo demonstrates "the close collaboration of the among the lessons learned from the failure of George Pullman's
government with industry, in favor of wealthier groups and at the company town after the famed Pullman strike of 1894 was that
expense of the working class." She forces us to ask what we want American laborers could not tolerate the constraints of company-
architecture after modernism to be: a medium that looks after the owned towns. A large group of reformers countered with the
public interest in the face of economic and bureaucratic power or argument that planned company towns were still appropriate, but
one "that expresses that power unambiguously and usually that instead of being the work of the company owner and being
unimaginatively"? operated according to outdated paternalistic principles, they
This is a clearheaded book offering a welcome cultural should be planned by architects and planners. The period after
critique of architecture, which is too often analyzed in strictly Pullman saw the development of "new" company towns,
formal or symbolic terms. The book's one flaw is its overly long established by the company but designed and planned by
discussions of clients such as Disney or the Docklands professionals.
Development Corporation-great fodder for the cultural critic, but Crawford undertakes a close analysis of two of these new
seemingly out of proportion here. company towns designed and built after 1915: Indian Hill,
Massachusetts, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, and Tyrone, New
Mexico, by Bertram Goodhue. She also examines a series of towns
THOMASFISHER by Earle S. Draper for the textile industry in the southeast and by
UniversityofMinnesota John Nolen for industrial communities in Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Delaware, and Tennessee. Nolen also planned some of the
government-sponsored housing for the World War I labor force.

September1997 JAE51/1 76

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