The era of the world wars in the early 20th century left us with destroyed cities, people crammed into camps or temporary shelters, and a vast, overwhelming need for housing. All of this shaped the goals of architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, who once again spoke of the “architect’s responsibility to society” and ventured to tackle issues related to collective housing, urban sanitation, transportation, and more.

Certainly, they were not the first architects to delve into these matters (a quick historical review makes that clear), but they were the first to leverage industrial mechanics for the benefit of the masses.

And if the house was “a machine for living in” (in Le Corbusier’s words), then the city should be an industry for coexistence.

During this period, many ideas were synthesized into buildings and projects—some successful, others failed urban plans. However, once the urgent need for collective housing after the wars was overcome, the market itself took care of shelving the modernist discourse—or, in the worst cases, using it for the benefit of a privileged few.

From Heroes to Villains
Claude Schnaidt (Swiss-French architect and founding member of the Bauhaus in Dessau) explains it this way:

“Back when the pioneers of modern architecture were young, they believed, like William Morris, that architecture should be ‘an art of the people, for the people.’ Instead of catering to the tastes of a privileged few, they wanted to meet the needs of society. They aimed to build housing adapted to human needs, to create a Cité Radieuse.

But they hadn’t accounted for the commercial instinct of the bourgeoisie, who quickly appropriated their theories and pressured them into serving their interests in the pursuit of profit. Efficiency of space soon became synonymous with profitability. Anti-academic forms became the new ornament of the ruling classes.

Rational housing turned into minimal housing; the Cité Radieuse into urban sprawl; and the austerity of lines into poverty of form. The architects who once served unions, cooperatives, and socialist municipalities were now working for liquor distilleries, detergent manufacturers, bankers, and the Vatican.

Modern architecture—which once aimed to contribute to the liberation of humanity by creating a new environment for life—turned into a massive enterprise degrading the human habitat.”¹

1. Claude Schnaidt, “Architecture and Political Commitment” (1967), cited in Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton.. ↩︎