119It is unquestionably the case that Benjamin hoped for a revolutionary “reversal” (Um-
schlag) that would transform the life of the individual and of the collective by achiev-
ing a public openness, transparency, and permeability as conditions of everyday life.
At the same time, however, as an individual subject he still clung to numerous mem-
ories of another sort of dwelling in another sort of time, the dwelling that made se-
curity and nurture possible in rooms that wrap round the individual like a shell.
The most striking feature in all this is Benjamin’s strategic attempt to under-
stand modernity and dwelling as things that are not in opposition to each other. He
developed a complex vision of modernity that cannot be seen as unambiguously pro-
grammatic or transitory, but which aims to ignite the programmatic possibilities in-
herent in the modern—the new barbarism—in its most transitory aspects—fashion,
mass culture, modern architecture—because of their transparency and instability. A
similar strategy can be seen with regard to the idea of dwelling. Benjamin refused to
embed dwelling unequivocally in tradition. Although he acknowledges that dwelling
means leaving traces behind, it is also his view that a degree of Umfunktionierungis
possible in this area: dwelling, that is, can be understood as a transitive verb, as a
question of “habituation.” This habituation, bound up as it is with a “hurried con-
temporaneity,” is much more forcefully related to the modern condition of change-
ability and transparency than the notion of dwelling as leaving traces behind one.
“Living in a glass house,” therefore, is also a revolutionary duty par excellence. It can
be seen as an instrument in the struggle for modernity, the struggle of those who
want to exploit modernity for its revolutionary potential in order to fulfill the promises
that had lain stacked up during thousands of years of suffering and oppression.Building on Hollow Space: Ernst Bloch’s Criticism
of Modern Architecture
The whole work of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), from his first publication, Geist der
Utopie(1918) to the work that he wrote at an advanced age, revolves round the
theme of utopia and hope. He approaches this theme from every angle—above all
that of philosophy. In doing so he covers so wide a field that one is impressed by his
exceptional erudition. In a language that is rich in imagery, his work throws light on
the recurring importance of the utopian moment that one finds in daydreams, fairy
tales, fantasies, works of art, and philosophical theories. Bloch considers hope to be
an essential force in everyone’s life, because being strives to fulfill itself by realizing
that which is not-yet-being.
At quite an early stage in his life Bloch embraced the ideas of Marxism, and
throughout his stormy career he never retracted. Fleeing from Nazi Germany, he ar-
rived in America after years of peregrinations; not knowing the language, he was de-
pendent on the earnings of his wife, Karola Piotrovskan, an architect. After the
Second World War he returned to Germany. Rather than accept a professorship in
Frankfurt, he took up a chair in philosophy in East Germany at the University of118