The Cure for Modernism

A few points here, but mainly a reference to the irrelevance of the title. Modernism in architecture generally refers to the minimalism of decoration, clarity of forms, economy in structure and function. The conversation on modular construction began here with high hopes for low-income housing and expedient build times.

The disease of modernism came when the only words the developers heard were "cheap," "fast," and "build-to-suit."

The most elegant expressions of modernism came with Mies Van Der Rohe with his steel and glass apartment buildings, institutional halls, and houses (Chicago +/-). While these were modular with their proportions and general in their function, they were not fast and certainly not cheap.

The most devastating expressions of modernism came in the mass-housing facilities of every major urbanity, based on part of Le Corbusier's Unites d'Habitation, the part where a lot of people can fit on a small footprint of land.

While post-modernism certainly has its own crises, it offers some opportunity for the developer / planner / owner to take responsibility for his actions while coming closer than ever to his goals of cheap, fast, and modular. This is done largely through cheaper, more functional, more available, more environmentally beneficial, more easily worked materials.

So, part of the "pill" is new materials and methods. But it means that the designers have to go back to work. Innovation has to be in our vocabulary again. Where the citizen was voiceless against the modernist economy, today he can make demands on those who build his environment. He can demand beauty and functionality without expecting the inconvenience of lead-times and price increases.