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The Modernist dream is (sadly?) not a reality
A still from Play Time
1: The Writer
In Taking on the Modern Movement, part 5 of Landscape in Sight, J.B. Jackson presents his ideas about modernist architecture and the international style through a series of short essays. In, these essays, Jackson conveys his point of view that modern architecture, which is essentially an intellectual style of art, is impractical for everyday human needs. Modernists "aim not to improve the lot of Man, but desire to create pure geometrical forms ... independent of the past, independent of the earth and life." The reality is that buildings "are required to sell goods, to establish social position, to inspire confidence, to impress or elevate or escite."
Jackson called for an architecture "responsive to the needs of the present," and modernism just wasn't cutting it.
2: The Architect
Le Corbusier thought that modernism would save the world, he really did. He strongly believed that his designs, and the designs of his peers, would allow for a more at-ease, happy, relaxed, and peaceful way of life. By stripping the environment of ornament and focusing on pure forms, the inhabitants of Modern spaces could, theoretically, occupy themselves with their well-being instead of being distracted by ornament or having to worry about any non-essentials.
One could argue that Corbusier's utopian vision was never realized due to the fact that as the proper international style became more popular, it was mostly replicated with poor materials, unqualified architects, and shoddy construction. The truth is that time has shown us that the restrictions, rationalism, and hard-edgedness of modernism is not very conducive to the general activities of everyday human life.
3: The Filmmaker
Film historian Philip Kemp once said that "if [Jacques Tati's 1967 film] Play Time has a plot, it's how the curve comes to reassert itself over the straight line." This film provides an account of daily life in a Modernist Paris. By focusing on the tension and awkwardness between human activity and the built environment, Tati successfully hints at how the uniformity and supposed logic of the International style can interfere with and confuse its inhabitants.
While Corbusier may like to think that everyone who comes in contact with a Modernist structure will instantly be as happy as Jackson's "Mrs. Panther," Tati shows us that the unpredictability, whimsy, and unboundedness of human nature is perhaps better suited to slightly different surroundings.
Ooh-La-La, Tati
Thanks for adding such an interesting new perspective to "Play Time." Considering the sparseness and inherent minimalism of early modernism, it's cool that Kemp would refer to Tati's depiction of human nature functioning within a modernist sphere as "the curve." Though I suppose the linearity of all that came before stands in sharp contrast. I may have said more of a spiral though--a conceptual image that embodies the cyclical nature of "Play Time" for me, the skipping of time like a record, the quirky nonsense of the new bumping heads with routine.
Modernism gets a bad Rap
True, most modernist architecture is crap, but so is most cheap, poorly designed architecture of any style. Modernism in its original form, as espoused by Le Corbusier, was undoutedly dehumanizing and unpleasant. Yet a great deal of later Modernist buildings are highly functionable, aesthetically pleasing, and in some cases when well desinged, far more condusive to human work and living than m any older styles of buildings.
more on modernism
(Make-up post. Sorry for the awkward lateness.)
I certainly agree that cheap and poorly built spaces don't really work out even if the original intentions were theoretically sound. Though I think modernism is a special case. Modern architecture developed hand in hand with the new technological age, where the primacy of machinery and mass production were ideals from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. If these are the foundations of your architectural philosophy--rather than something designed by the owner and built by hand, to use a bad example--then perhaps you are setting yourself up for poor construction. Cheapness comes as a product of the ideology within which this particular architecture sits.