Vladimir Paperny Examines Modernism's Destructive Impulses Through Architecture and Literature
Vladimir Paperny explores the connection between modernist architecture and violence through a blend of photographic analysis and literary critique. He juxtaposes Frank Gehry's Disney Hall in Los Angeles with the ruined Twin Towers, designed by Minoru Yamasaki in New York, and the Pruitt-Igoe housing project, which was demolished in 1972. Paperny cites Ayn Rand's 1943 work 'Fountainhead,' featuring architect Howard Roark. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was torn down in 1931 to make way for the unbuilt Palace of the Soviets, linked to Joseph Stalin. Critics such as Charles Jencks and Anthony Vidler have remarked on the decline of modern architecture, while Mikhail Lifshits condemned modernism's 'cult of force.' Leslie Robertson's design for the Twin Towers may have played a role in their failure, and Gehry's use of CATIA software perpetuates the allure of modernism.
Key facts
- The article examines modernist architecture's links to destruction through photographic pairs and literary analysis.
- Minoru Yamasaki's Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis was demolished in 1972 after vandalism and failed revitalization.
- Ayn Rand's 1943 novel 'Fountainhead' features architect Howard Roark, who rejects past styles and sees destruction as preferable to aging.
- The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was demolished in 1931 to make way for the Palace of the Soviets, which was never completed.
- Soviet Marxist Mikhail Lifshits criticized modernism in a 1966 article, linking it to a 'cult of force' and 'joy of destruction'.
- Structural engineer Leslie Robertson used computer design for the Twin Towers, creating an aircraft-inspired structure.
- Frank Gehry employs CATIA software and founded Gehry Technologies, advancing digital design in architecture.
- Architectural critic Charles Jencks declared modern architecture dead with the 1972 demolition of Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis.
Entities
Artists
- Vladimir Paperny
- Frank Gehry
- Minoru Yamasaki
- Ayn Rand
- Alissa Rosenbaum
- Howard Roark
- David Burliuk
- Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Le Corbusier
- Ivan Leonidov
- Robert Venturi
- Denise Scott Brown
- Steven Izenour
- Louis Sullivan
- Vasilii Kamenskii
- Moisei Ginzburg
- Bruno Taut
- Nikolai Dokuchaev
- El Lissitzky
- Richard Meier
- Gail Wynand
- Boris Pasternak
- Vladimir Tatlin
- Kazimir Malevich
- Alexander Vitberg
- Konstantin Ton
- Balikhin
- Iofan
- Shchuko
- Gel'freikh
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Dmitrii Khmel'nitskii
- Nikolai Atarov
- Mikhail Lifshits
- Bertrand Russell
- David Shterenberg
- Pavel Florensky
- Georg Lukács
- Henri Bergson
- Mikhail Gershenzon
- Ilya Ehrenburg
- Vsevolod Meyerhold
- Paul Schultze-Naumburg
- Boris Groys
- Christian Zervos
- Peter Oborne
- Slavoj Žižek
- Daniel Libeskind
- Ernst May
- Hannes Mayer
- Tom Wolfe
- Thom Mayne
- Steven Holl
- Philip Johnson
- Mark Wigley
- Guy Tozzoli
- Karl Koch III
- Leslie Robertson
- Henry Cameron
- Guy Francon
- Dominique
- Anthony Vidler
- Charles Jencks
- Lewis Mumford
- David Rockefeller
- Austin Tobin
- Oscar Nadel
- Pete Hamill
- Evgenii Trubetskoi
- V. D. Kokorin
- D. E. Arkin
- E. Kriger
Institutions
- ARTMargins Online
- Disney Hall
- Museum of Modern Art
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Gehry Technologies
- IBM
- CIAM
- Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
- Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey
- Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association
- Empire State Building
- Bauhaus
- VKhUTEMAS
- Marx-Engels Institute
- All-Russian Central Executive Committee
- VTsIK
- Central Commission on Improving Living Conditions for Scholars
- The Spectator
- BBC
- Russian State University for the Humanities
- Stroganov Art School
- USC
- UCLA
- Bristol University
- Union of Soviet Architects
- Academy of Architecture
- Sovremennaia Arkhitektura
- Arkhitekturnaia Gazeta
- Literaturnaia Gazeta
- Cahiers d'art
- Architecture magazine
- MIT
- Cambridge University Press
- Signet
- Walker and Company
- Rizzoli
- Crown Publishers
- Verso
- Farrar Straus Giroux
- Hanser
- Harvard University Press
- Moscow University
- St. Alexius Monastery
- Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow
Locations
- Los Angeles
- United States
- New York
- St. Louis
- Missouri
- Moscow
- Russia
- St. Petersburg
- Cambridge
- Massachusetts
- Century City
- California
- Switzerland
- Dessau
- Germany
- Rome
- Italy
- Siberia
- Vorob'evy Gory
- Prechistenskaia Embankment
- Chicago
- Illinois
- Birmingham
- United Kingdom
- Santa Monica
- Lugano
- Paris
- France
- Petrograd
- New Jersey
- Statue of Liberty
- Vesey Street
- Liberty Street
- Church Street
- West Street
- Greenwich Street
- Lower Manhattan
- Ground Zero
- Ronchamp
- Barcelona
- Spain
- Taliesin West
- Arizona
- Lethe
- Auschwitz
- Poland
- München
- Tsentrosoyuz