7modern architecture and its discourse provide a highly charged criticism that holds
that every attempt at synthesis, every attempt to create a unified culture, is ideolog-
ical and therefore false. They thus disclaim that architecture would be capable in one
way or another of actually contributing to a project of emancipation and social
progress. In the process they often seem to go so far as to deny any possibility of ar-
chitecture adopting a critical stance vis-à-vis societal developments.
Chapter 4 then aims at developing a position that avoids the traps of being ei-
ther simply complicit with modernity or so cynical as to foreclose any possibility for
critique. It sets out to discuss the difficulties of such an ambition by an assessment
of Constant’s New Babylon project. Connected with the last avant-garde movement,
which was the Situationist International, and thus linked with the critical theory of
Henri Lefebvre, this project elucidates the antinomies that are evoked by the striving
for a critical architecture: although it was meant in the beginning as a quasi-realistic
but critical alternative to contemporary urbanistic practices, it soon turned out to be
just an illusory image of a postrevolutionary society, relevant in a purely artistic realm
rather than in that of contemporary urban praxis.
Adorno is the subject of the second section in this chapter, because his Aes-
thetic Theoryprovides excellent tools to discuss such antinomies. Adorno’s work
contains a profound reflection on the relation between art and modernity, which re-
lies upon a specific philosophical conception of modernity as well as upon an explicit
sensibility for aesthetic problems of modernism. His assessment of art’s critical po-
tential is based on the conviction that art’s dual nature—its being socially fabricated
as well as autonomous—generates a capacity for resistance and criticism. Turning
toward Adorno provides the possibility of conceiving of a similar critical relationship
between architecture and modernity in a way that accounts for its dilemmas and
antinomies.
The concept of mimesisplays a crucial role in Adorno’s thought, as well as in
contemporary French theory, as for instance in the work of Lacoue-Labarthe or Der-
rida. Mimesis refers to certain patterns of similarity or resemblance. It has to do with
copying, but a specific form of copying that implies a critical moment. The complex
figure of thought contained in this concept offers an illuminating frame of reference
for reflecting on the potentially critical character of works of architecture. In the last
section of chapter 4 I explore how mimesis can provide a meaningful key to under-
standing architecture’s critical potential. I illustrate this by discussing two recent proj-
ects: Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin and Rem Koolhaas’s design for a
Sea Terminal in Zeebrugge.
The basic premise of this book, which is more theoretical than historical, is that
the issue of modernity is of fundamental importance for architecture. This impor-
tance goes beyond an assessment of the modern movement. It extends to consid-
erations about themes that recently have been found crucial in architectural
discourse. A broadly set-up reflection on modernity is in my opinion capable of of-
fering a productive key for the interpretation of issues such as the condition of post-6