1.3 The Research Context
T
his section discusses the various perspectives from which the technological chal-
lenge in the inter-war years has been approached in the architectural research
of the past few decades. The material analysed has expanded the epistemic base
of this thesis, as well as helped to position its approach in relation to earlier research.
The technological challenge of the early 1900s has been understood in architectural
research as a part of larger social modernisation, in other words, social development
which was marked by technological advancement, industrialisation, urbanisation,
the growth of population, the greater importance of administration, the mass media,
democratisation and the expanding, capitalist global market.^70 In agreement with con-
cepts defined by Hilde Heynen, in this particular study Modernism in architecture was
used to refer to the manner in which architects applied their theoretical and artistic
ideas about modernisation in order to produce architecture that would help people face
up to the social changes in their living environment.^71
Many researchers hold vital the impact of rationalistic working methods, and more
specifically, that of Taylorism and Fordism, on the theory of Modernism. Europeans
admired the efficient industrial production methods of the United States, which were
based on rationalisation and the utilisation of standards and created wealth. The car
and the airplane were symbols of advanced production methods that could also lend
themselves to construction and architecture. With the rationalisation of work architects
became interested in developing industrial standards.^72
Europe witnessed a wave of industrialisation and urbanisation in the early 20th cen-
tury. The First World War was followed by a desperate housing shortage. Social housing
and public-sector building were acutely needed particular in post-World War I Germa-
n y.^73 Improving the quality of life for the masses became a central goal for architecture,
shifting the focus from the status-driven grandeur serving a much broader social class.
Ernst May (1886–1970), Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, among others, found it
necessary to make use of the rationalised industrial production methods in solving the
problem of workers’ housing. Many architects also believed that the problems created
by urbanisation could be resolved by means of architecture alone. Urban planning
became a topic du jour in the discourse space of architecture as early as the early 1900s
70 Modernisation refers to the process of social development, the main features of which are technological advanc-
es and industrialisation, urbanisation and population explosion, the rise of bureaucracy and increasingly powerful
national states, an enormous expansion of mass communication systems, democratisation, and an expanding
(capitalist) world market. Heynen 2001, p. 10.
71 Heynen’s definition of modernity, modernisation and Modernism is based on Marshall Berman’s work All That Is
Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. Heynen 2001, pp. 12–14; Berman 1988 [1982], p. 15.
72 Standard project drawings, the use of which became more common particularly in the 19th century, can also be
treated as standards for building types.
73 Miller Lane 1985 [1968], pp. 87–124; Georgiadis 1993, p. 81; Mohr 2011, pp. 51–68.