Classicism in Architecture

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how classicism has been a powerful force in the modern era and how both Nazis and modernizing architects, like Le Corbusier, employed the style and its principles in connection with their own aims. Specifically, the paper looks at how, in both cases, the classical canon was seen as a way of expressing fundamental ideas about society and the world and how classicism, with its strict rules of composition and proportion, appeared ideally suited to a movement that craved strict order and rigid discipline at all costs, as did the Nazis. It also examines how its naturally-inspired rhythms appealed to Le Corbusier because they appeared to represent the way in which nature, and even Divinity were constructed and directed and how these transcendent qualities captured the imagination of architects.

From the Paper:

"Hitler's views on the ideal society were based on a supposedly rational construction of human history and biology. The Third Reich was intended to be an expression of "scientific" principals of eugenics and "natural law." In the Fuhrer's Germany, and society would be one. They would function together as a single, well-ordered, well-disciplined, organic machine. Those elements deemed undesirable by Adolf Hitler would be forcibly and violently purged from the body politic in order to create a new, purified, and stronger Germany. On the face of it, Classicism too presented many of these same "ideals." Classical architecture was particularly associated with the idea of the public monument, a concept that dated back to antiquity, but only became prevalent in the Western World during the Nineteenth Century. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Arnold, Dana. Reading Architectural History: An Annotated Anthology. New York: Routledge, 2002.
• Bown, Matthew Cullerne. Art under Stalin. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1991.
• Dudek, Mark. "2 The Temple or the Cathedral." Companion to Contemporary Architectural Thought. Ed. Ben Farmer and Hentie Louw. London: Routledge, 1993. 9-14.
• Frampton, Kenneth. "64 An Anthropology of Building." Companion to Contemporary Architectural Thought. Ed. Ben Farmer and Hentie Louw. London: Routledge, 1993. 396-398.
• Given, Michael. The Archaeology of the Colonized. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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