Background
According to Adam (2012), the changes on the cultural and artistic fields that happened throughout the history were usually linked to the economic and political conditions of that time. In addition, architects and urban designers working for these commercial and political clients must respond to their needs, configuring a service industry more than a direct player of social and political developments.
Analysing other political and economic revolutions, its effects on architecture and urban design, both in practical and theoretical areas, can be easily noticed. For example, the end of the Second World War sealing the Modernism; the rise of baroque Modernism of high technology and the Postmodern historicism after the oil crisis in 1970s; and the back to Modernism after the recession in the early 1990s.
Empires and Birth of Faith-Based Styles
“With power and religion came culture. One expression of that culture was architecture.” Adam, 2012
The cultural exchange brought by the trading routes of ancient empires in their search for power created connections between distant societies. It can be seen as a first sign of the globalization process, with two major forces that exists until this day, the Christianity and the Islam, each of them represented by a specific architectural style: the classical and the temple for the Christianity and a Persian style for the Islam.
More recently, the European colonization of Americas expanded the connections throughout the world. A common view among the European colonists was the idea of superiority over the other nations, which made them see it like a moral duty to spread their version of progress and modernity to other nations. Consequently, the colonists replaced the local language, government, urban design and architecture. In some cases, however, hybrid styles born from the contact of colonizers’ styles with a local developed tradition.
When the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, all the existing nations noticed that the key to reach success in the international market was the garnering of capital, the development of the industry and the creation of armed forces. In addition, it was necessary a nation with large and patriotic population. This patriotism could be reached by strengthening a national identity, which included the revival of architectural styles from the past in some cases. This nationalism in addition to economic competition, militarism and industrial power resulted on the firs world war in 1914.
During the time between the first and second world wars the Modernism found its place after the exhibition of modern architecture at the MoMA in New York and was published as the International Style, even though it was a European or Western style. According to Adam (2012) “architecture in the 1920s and 1930s took different directions expressing nationalism, internationalism and more, but the distinction between styles were not always clear.”
Before the second world war, modernism was rejected by totalitarian states and became the choice for new architects. The modernists from Bauhaus established in Britain and USA after being expelled by the Nazis. “By the time the time the global social, political and economic order came to be re-written at the cessation of hostilities, these cultural shifts would transform the art and architecture of the post-war world.”
Adam, R 2012, Globalisation of Modern Architecture : The Impact of Politics, Economics and Social Change on Architecture and Urban Design since 1990, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, GBR. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [7 January 2015].
According to Adam (2012), the changes on the cultural and artistic fields that happened throughout the history were usually linked to the economic and political conditions of that time. In addition, architects and urban designers working for these commercial and political clients must respond to their needs, configuring a service industry more than a direct player of social and political developments.
Analysing other political and economic revolutions, its effects on architecture and urban design, both in practical and theoretical areas, can be easily noticed. For example, the end of the Second World War sealing the Modernism; the rise of baroque Modernism of high technology and the Postmodern historicism after the oil crisis in 1970s; and the back to Modernism after the recession in the early 1990s.
Empires and Birth of Faith-Based Styles
“With power and religion came culture. One expression of that culture was architecture.” Adam, 2012
The cultural exchange brought by the trading routes of ancient empires in their search for power created connections between distant societies. It can be seen as a first sign of the globalization process, with two major forces that exists until this day, the Christianity and the Islam, each of them represented by a specific architectural style: the classical and the temple for the Christianity and a Persian style for the Islam.
More recently, the European colonization of Americas expanded the connections throughout the world. A common view among the European colonists was the idea of superiority over the other nations, which made them see it like a moral duty to spread their version of progress and modernity to other nations. Consequently, the colonists replaced the local language, government, urban design and architecture. In some cases, however, hybrid styles born from the contact of colonizers’ styles with a local developed tradition.
When the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, all the existing nations noticed that the key to reach success in the international market was the garnering of capital, the development of the industry and the creation of armed forces. In addition, it was necessary a nation with large and patriotic population. This patriotism could be reached by strengthening a national identity, which included the revival of architectural styles from the past in some cases. This nationalism in addition to economic competition, militarism and industrial power resulted on the firs world war in 1914.
During the time between the first and second world wars the Modernism found its place after the exhibition of modern architecture at the MoMA in New York and was published as the International Style, even though it was a European or Western style. According to Adam (2012) “architecture in the 1920s and 1930s took different directions expressing nationalism, internationalism and more, but the distinction between styles were not always clear.”
Before the second world war, modernism was rejected by totalitarian states and became the choice for new architects. The modernists from Bauhaus established in Britain and USA after being expelled by the Nazis. “By the time the time the global social, political and economic order came to be re-written at the cessation of hostilities, these cultural shifts would transform the art and architecture of the post-war world.”
Adam, R 2012, Globalisation of Modern Architecture : The Impact of Politics, Economics and Social Change on Architecture and Urban Design since 1990, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, GBR. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [7 January 2015].