Totalitarian architecture

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Historical photograph of the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany.
Historical photograph of Red Army Theatre in Moscow, Russia. It is designed in the shape of the communist star.

Totalitarian architecture is a type of architecture or an architectural style approved by and often preferred by dictatorships and governments of totalitarian regimes,[1] intended to strengthen and spread their ideology.[2] The style of totalitarian architecture shows a preference for "classical symbolism and monumentality",[3] drawing on simplified neo-Classicism and realism.[1][4][5]

Many aspects of the culture in totalitarian countries have been described as supporting the leaders and the ideology of the regime. In 2009, Theodore Dalrymple criticized Le Corbusier as one of creators of totalitarian architecture. He described brutalist structures as an expression of totalitarianism given that their grand, concrete-based design involves destroying gentler, more-human places such as gardens.[6] In 1949, George Orwell described the Ministry of Truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four as an "enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air." The Times columnist Ben Macintyre wrote that it was "a prescient description of the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the Communist bloc."[7] In contrast to these views, several authors have seen brutalism and socialist realism as modernist art forms which brought an ethos and sensibility in art.[8][9]

Overview[]

Terminology[]

The term "totalitarian architecture" appeared in the scientific literature in connection with the comparison of German and Italian architecture with Soviet architecture.[10] This type of architecture was described as "legacy of dictatorships",[11] and includes Stalinist architecture, Fascist architecture, and Nazi architecture.[2][12][13][14] Redevelopment of entire cities, such as Moscow, Rome, Berlin, and Bucharest, including the large-scale demolition of many individual historical buildings, was planned and accomplished to symbolize the glory and supremacy of totalitarian states and their leaders.[15] Many new buildings were constructed, and among them the House of Soviets in Saint Petersburg has been described as "the purest form of totalitarian monumentality."[16] While many examples of totalitarian architecture are European, particularly from the eras of Soviet Union and Nazi Germany,[17] it has also been discussed in the context of other parts of the worlds, such as architecture of North Korea or the architecture of Communist China.[18][1] In Japan, totalitarian architecture was presented in the form of the imperial style.[19][20] According to art historian Yu Suzuki the totalitarian style in Japan was not uniform like in Germany or Italy due to the lack of a close relationship between the government and architects.[20] Architect Nina Konovalova replied that such a relationship was not necessary because of the characteristics of the culture of that time. The unified architectural development was "unambiguously" presented through a system of competitions and through government orders.[19]

Analysis[]

According to historians of art, the totalitarian architecture of 20th century represents a variety of religious architecture, with prominent examples like Altar of the Fatherland in Rome, Russian State Library in Moscow built in 1929, or Lenin's Mausoleum similar to the Pyramid of Djoser.[21] Other tombs‘ architectural typologies, such as Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum, have been also described as examples of architecture promoting the communist political religion.[21][22][23][24] Both Nazi and Fascist architectures served to sacralize their leaders.[21][25]

The intended aim of totalitarian architecture has been described as strengthening and spreading its ideology, and they are an element of the state propaganda.[2][26][27] According to journal Esempi di Architettura, "Architecture and town planning have the potential to support and promote ideological propaganda. In many ways, totalitarian architecture represents the regime that builds it."[28] These architectures are generally described as united by using the megalomania to portray a sense of power, majesty and virility.[29] The style has been criticized for "congenital unwholesomeness" and its "desire to dominate", hiding "feelings of inferiority" and projecting a "massive ego" of totalitarian leaders.[3]

Palace of the Soviets was an unrealized project of the Soviet Union. Most of the construction projects in totalitarian architecture are unfinished.
Palace of the Soviets was an unrealized project of the Soviet Union. Most of the construction projects in totalitarian architecture are unfinished.[30]

The Times columnist Ben Macintyre wrote that "Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini and Saddam all imagined vast cities constructed in their own honour. Stalin's Palace of the Soviets was to be higher than the Empire State Building. Hitler's Reich Chancellery was a deliberately theatrical statement, with towering brass doors 17ft high and the Föhrer's 4,000 sq ft 'study.' In 1984, written in 1948, George Orwell left a prescient description of the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the Communist bloc, imposing and hideous: the Ministry of Truth, an "enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air."[7]

The totalitarian architecture was also described by the Council of Europe as a part of European cultural heritage. According to their website,[14] "[s]tudying the architecture of Europe's totalitarian regimes, both the fascist and the communist ones, is a way to enhance the European identity in its unity and diversity. The idea of Europe originated from the wounds of World War II and the fall of Fascism and Nazism. It entered a new phase after the downfall of Communism, opening the way to a broader and more comprehensive idea of a Europe based on fundamental values such as political liberty, freedom of expression and assembly, democracy and the rule of law." Many buildings from the Communist era are in the state of decay, and the European cultural organization ATRIUM collects photographs of the abandoned buildings "that still stand as monuments to another time."[31]

A number of buildings and memorials created by totalitarian regimes have been demolished, especially in Poland and Ukraine, based on the legislature such as The law On the Prohibition of Propagation of Communism or Any Other Totalitarian System Through The Names of All Public Buildings, Structures and Facilities[32][33] A demolition of the Palace of Culture and Science in Poland was debated.[34]

Views by Russian historians of art on the totalitarian architecture differ. Architect and architectural historian  [Wikidata] wrote that the concept of totalitarian architecture is usually associated with Stalin's neoclassicism and that it "strives to symbolize an abstract idea by architectural means. Usually, this is the idea of the greatness of statehood and power."[35]  [ru], art historian and director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, noted that the concept of totalitarian architecture has become widespread in art criticism and journalism but "not all serious researchers perceive it as a correct concept."[36] Ivan Sablin, art historian and senior researcher at the  [Wikidata] objected to the negative connotation in the expression totalitarian architecture. He believes that the Stalinist, Nazi and Fascist architectures are nothing special, including even the use of swastika, represent a mixture of different architectural styles, such as neo-Classicism and monumentalism, and simply a legitimate part of the architectural history.[37]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Totalitarian architecture by A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, James Stevens Curl, Oxford Reference
  2. ^ a b c Antoszczyszyn, Marek (2017). "Manipulations of Totalitarian Nazi Architecture". IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 245 (5): 052062. Bibcode:2017MS&E..245e2062A. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/245/5/052062. ISSN 1757-8981. Totalitarian architecture. Generally it might be defined as architecture created in frames of totalitarian State activity & under its strict control, due to its thorough character of the policy in order to strengthen & spread its ideology.
  3. ^ a b Ward, Tony (1970-09-01). "Totalitarianism, Architecture and Conscience". Journal of Architectural Education. 24 (4): 35–49. doi:10.1080/10464883.1970.11102464. ISSN 1046-4883.
  4. ^ Doordan, Dennis P. (2002). Twentieth-century architecture. New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 106. ISBN 0810906058.
  5. ^ Adam, Peter (1992). Art of the Third Reich. New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 223. ISBN 0810919125. Adam states: "Neoclassicism [...] was by no means exclusive to Germany or to totalitarian systems"
  6. ^ Dalrymple, Theodore (Autumn 2009). "The Architect as Totalitarian.Le Corbusier's baleful influence". City Journal. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  7. ^ a b Macintyre, Ben (30 March 2007). "Look on those monuments to megalomania, and despair". The Times. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  8. ^ International Council on Monuments and Sites (2013). Socialist Realism and Socialist Modernism: World Heritage Proposals from Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: Bässler. ISBN 978-3-930-38890-5.
  9. ^ Highmore, Ben (2017). The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22274-6.
  10. ^ Mzhelsky, Viktor (2019-08-28). "К Вопросу Об Изменениях В Стилистике Советской Архитектуры 1930-Х Годов" [Changes in Soviet Architectural Styles in the 1930s]. Vestnik Tomskogo Gosudarstvennogo Arkhitekturno-stroitel'nogo Universiteta. Journal of Construction and Architecture (in Russian). 21 (4): 125–137. doi:10.31675/1607-1859-2019-21-4-125-137. ISSN 2310-0044. S2CID 203300570.
  11. ^ Urbanism, architecture, and dictatorship. Memory in transition by Harald Bodenschatz, The Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture
  12. ^ Totalitarianism, Architecture and Conscience by Tony Ward, Journal of Architectural Education
  13. ^ Totalitarian Art in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Fascist Italy and the People's Republic of China by Igor Golomstock
  14. ^ a b "ATRIUM - Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes of the 20th Century In Europe's Urban Memory". Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  15. ^ Maria de Betania Cavalcanti Totalitarian states and their influence on city-form - the case of Bucharest. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research Vol. 9, No. 4, 1992
  16. ^ Sennott, Stephen (2004). "ST. PETERSBURG (LENINGRAD), RUSSIA". Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. Taylor & Francis. p. 557. ISBN 978-1-57958-433-7.
  17. ^ Ракочий, Я. В. (2010). "Передумови стилістики тоталітаризму в творах львівської архітектурної школи початку ХХ ст". Bulletin of the National University 'Lviv Polytechnic'. Вісник Національного університету "Львівська політехніка" (in Ukrainian). 674: 184–187. Study and research of this topic is an important link in understanding of the evolution of totalitarian architecture as part of European cultural process, and its professional origin.
  18. ^ Prokopljević, Jelena (2019-09-30). "Hapkak and Curtain Wall: Imaginaries of Tradition and Technology in the Three Kims' North Korean Modern Architecture". S/N Korean Humanities. 5 (2): 59–86. doi:10.17783/ihu.2019.5.2.59. ISSN 2384-0668. S2CID 204714544. The socialist architecture developed in North Korea has generally been explained through two discursive frameworks: that of totalitarian architecture and that of national formalism, outdated and out-scaled
  19. ^ a b Konovalova, Nina (2020). "Японская Архитектура 1930-Х Годов: В Поисках Национальной Идентичности" [Japanese Architecture of the 1930s: Choosing National Identity]. Questions of the History of World Architecture (in Russian) (1): 269. doi:10.25995/NIITIAG.2020.50.58.013. ISSN 2500-0616. S2CID 245920517 – via eLibrary.Ru.
  20. ^ a b Suzuki, Yu (2014-02-28). "Архитектура тоталитарной эпохи 1930-1940-х годов в Японии" [Architecture of Totalitarian Epoch in 1930s - 1940s in Japan]. Observatory of Culture (in Russian) (1): 75–81. doi:10.25281/2072-3156-2014-0-1-75-81. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  21. ^ a b c Tracing Religion and Cult in the Architecture of European Totalitarian Regimes of the XX Century, by Sasha S. Lozanova and Stela B. Tasheva, Design. Art. Industry (DAI). Issue 5, link
  22. ^ The Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov as lieu de mémoire by Maria Todorova, The Journal of Modern History, Volume 78, Number 2
  23. ^ In a Russia Torn by Past, Some Come to Praise Lenin, Some to Bury Him, by Peter Ford, The Christian Science Monitor
  24. ^ Post-Communist Romania at Twenty-Five: Linking Past, Present and Future. Edited by Lavinia Stan and Diane Vancea. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015, page 48, review
  25. ^ Nanni Baltzer, "The Duce in the Street. Illumination in Fascism", in Totalitarian Communication. Hierarchies, Codes and Messages. Edited by Kirill Postoutenko, Columbia University Press, 2010, [1], online version, page 135. "In both regimes, the light contributes, as a symbol of the Divine, to the sacralization of profane events. Whereas on the Zeppelin-field the sacral architecture was constructed by light, fascism used the church facade—or so it seems—solely as a carrier for the gigantic portrait of the Duce."
  26. ^ Ua Caspary (12 January 2017). "Digital Media as Ornament in Contemporary Architectural Facades: Its Historical Dimension". In Stephen Monteiro (ed.). The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory, Practice. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-5013-1167-3. Totalitarian architecture, for instance, utilised specific propagandistic and symbolically loaded icons for its purposes"
  27. ^ Antoszczyszyn, M. (2016). "Manipulations of architecture of power; German New Reichschancellery in Berlin 1938 - 1939 by Albert Speer". Technical Issues. nr 3. ISSN 2392-3954. Totalitarian architecture was supposed to achieve political benefits thanks to some perceptional codes, consciously hidden in it.
  28. ^ Totalitarian architecture and urban planning. History and legacy, an editorial by Esempi di Architettura, ISSN (print): 2384-9576
  29. ^ Dennis P. Doordan. Twentieth-century architecture. H.N. Abrams, 2002. p. 122.
  30. ^ Dezhurko, Artem. "Кто кого тоталитарнее" [Who is more totalitarian]. Arzamas (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  31. ^ Schwab, Katharine (2016-09-09). "Hunting For The Architectural Relics Of Totalitarianism". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  32. ^ Chapple, Amos (2020-10-23). "Then And Now: Soviet Monuments Disappear Under Poland's 'Decommunization' Law". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  33. ^ "From acceptance to negation: how Soviet war memorials are treated in Europe". realnoevremya.com. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  34. ^ The Movement to Destroy Warsaw’s Tallest Building
  35. ^ Khmelnitsky, Dmitry (2007). Архитектура Сталина. Психология и стиль [Stalin's architecture. Psychology and style] (in Russian). Progress Publishers. p. 362. ISBN 978-5-89826-271-6.
  36. ^ Likhacheva, Elizaveta (2020-06-15). "Тоталитарная архитектура. Часть I" [Totalitarian architecture. Part I]. culture.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-07-21.
  37. ^ Sablin, Ivan (2014-05-23). "Тоталитарная архитектура? (1)" [Totalitarian architecture? (1)]. art1.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-07-21.

Further reading[]

  • Architecture As Propaganda in Twentieth-Century Totalitarian regimes, by Håkan Hökerberg (editor), History and Heritage, Edizioni Polistampa (November 2, 2018), ISBN 8859618355.

External links[]

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