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Volume 16, No. June 2019
Volume 16, No. 2 June 2019
Journal of Islam in Asia
EDITOR-in-CHIEF
Mohammed Farid Ali al-Fijawi
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Homam Altabaa
GUEST EDITORS
Asem Shehadeh Salih Ali (Arabic Language and Literature Department,
KIRKHS, IIUM)
S M Abdul Quddus (Department of Political Science, KIRKHS, IIUM)
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Kamel Ouinez
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
LOCAL MEMBERS
Rahmah Bt. Ahmad H. Osman (IIUM
Badri Najib bin Zubir (IIUM)
Abdel Aziz Berghout (IIUM)
Sayed Sikandar Shah (IIUM)
Thameem Ushama (IIUM)
Hassan Ibrahim Hendaoui (IIUM)
Muhammed Mumtaz Ali (IIUM)
Nadzrah Ahmad (IIUM)
Saidatolakma Mohd Yunus (IIUM)
INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS
Zafar Ishaque Ansari (Pakistan)
Abdullah Khalil Al-Juburi (UAE)
Abu Bakr Rafique (Bangladesh)
Fikret Karcic (Bosnia)
Muhammad Al-Zuhayli (UAE)
Anis Ahmad (Pakistan)
Articles submitted for publication in the Journal of Islam in Asia are subject to a
process of peer review, in accordance with the normal academic practice.
2019 by International Islamic University Malaysia
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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of the publisher.
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Journal of Islam in Asia
Vol. 16, No. 2. 2019
E-ISSN: 2289-8077
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
Dua Sisi Kemodenan dan Senibina
Spahic Omer*
Abstract
This paper discusses the two-sidedness of modernity and its architectural evo-
lution. The paper concludes that modernity was exclusively a Western concept exported
to the rest of the world. It was incubated by the weakening and marginalization of
Christianity as a worldview and way of life, the rise of capitalism, and the worship-like
attitude towards science and technology in everyday life. The world of architecture,
especially its modernist school of thought and style, clearly reverberated such develop-
ments. Since its inception, modernity recognized no spiritual power or authority. It held
inviolable only man and his capacities, plus his rapid scientific and technological pro-
gress.
Keywords: Modernity, Architecture, Man, Progress, West.
Abstrak
Makalah ini membincangkan dua aspek kemodenan dan evolusi seni bina. Ma-
kalah ini menyimpulkan bahawa kemodenan adalah pemikiran Barat yang dieksport ke
seluruh dunia. Ia dicetuskan oleh kelemahan dan perpecahan ajaran Kristian sebagai
satu mazhab dan amalan hidup, kebangkitan kapitalisme, dan ketaksuban terhadap sains
dan teknologi dalam kehidupan seharian. Dunia seni bina, terutamanya institusi pen-
didikan senibina aliran moden jelas menyokong kaedah dan gaya pemikiran tersebut.
Sejak penularannya, kemodenan tidak mengiktiraf kuasa atau kuasa rohani. Ia ber-
pegang kepada pendapat bahawa hanya kesucian terletak pada manusia dan
keupayaannya, serta kemajuan saintifik dan teknologi yang pesat.
Kata Kunci: Kemodenan, Seni bina, Manusia, Kemajuan, Barat.
Introduction
Modernity is a universal term. It is at once a historical period,
worldview and ideology. As such, it‖s got much in common with
* Associate Professor, Department of Fundamental & Inter-Disciplinary Studies,
KIRKHS, IIUM.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
modernism, which signifies the character or quality of being, thought,
beliefs and ideas associated with modernity as an ongoing chapter in his-
tory. The two concepts are often used interchangeably.
With its virtually global currency and endless ramifications, mo-
dernity was perhaps the most impactful phenomenon that has happened
to mankind. To be modern, to live a modern lifestyle, and to get modern-
ized - that is, to realize man‖s instinctive and total wellbeing here and
now - was on everyone‖s lips. Ideas and experiences materialized and
unfolded at all levels of existence: individually and collectively, unoffi-
cially and at the level of institutions.
However, as the especially 19th and early 20th century modernity
euphoria started to subside, it became increasingly clear that modernity
was not what it initially was meant and expected to be. Modernity was
envisaged to become a generator, as well as personification, of ultimate
truth and freedom, leading, in turn, to the creation of new and significant-
ly better societies. The whole world was expected to be made an excep-
tionally better and more promising place. At the core of this philosophy
stood the belief in the perfectibility of humankind adorned with truth,
equality, freedom and erudition.
The philosophical and civilizational paradigms of modernity de-
noted a synthesis of a theoretical utopianism, intellectual arrogance, and
scientific along with technological overindulgence, which were permeat-
ed and sustained with the spirit of the notions of scepticism, humanism,
nihilism and hedonism. Due to the extraordinary nature and scope of mo-
dernity, its escalating drawbacks led the world to a crossroads. The very
existence of human species and delicate earthly ecosystems appears to-
day to be at stake. If any turnaround in fortune is to be made anytime
soon, some tough ontological together with matter-of-fact questions will
need to be honestly asked and as honestly answered.
This paper discusses the two-sidedness of modernity, emphasiz-
ing the consequences of its separation from and setting itself on a colli-
sion course with the spiritual and traditional realms. The paper‖s focus is
twofold. It delves into the issues of modernity as an achievement or a mi-
rage. Then, it examines the relationship between modernity and the world
of architecture and how the former dictated the terms of the latter.
Conceptualizing Modernity
The word modernity is derived from the Late Latin adjective
“modernus”, which means “modern”. The former is further a derivation
Spahic Omer
from the Latin adverb “modo”, which means “just now, presently, at the
moment”. Modern, it follows, is what is prevailing in our time.
1
Modernity is an aggregate of particular socio-cultural beliefs,
standards, outlooks and practices that began in Western Europe in the
wake of the 16th and 17th century Renaissance and the 18th century En-
lightenment. It is a comprehensive worldview and philosophy framed by
a distinct historical epoch that witnessed a series of profound socio-
structural and intellectual transformations. As a cultural project, moderni-
ty achieved its maturity with the fruition of Enlightenment, and as a so-
cially accomplished form of life with the growth of individual (capitalist,
and later also communist) society.
2
To Hilde Heynen, modernity “constitutes that element that medi-
ates between a process of socioeconomic development known as mod-
ernization, and subjective responses to it in the form of modernist dis-
courses and movements.” That means that modernity is a phenomenon
with an objective and subjective aspect. The former is linked to socioec-
onomic processes, and the latter is connected with personal experiences,
artistic activities and theoretical reflections. Some people tend to separate
the two domains, while others keep them together.
3
It was arguably during and in the immediate aftermath of the
French Revolution (1789-1799) when monarchy as a system of govern-
ment and the Catholic Church were dealt a heavy blow, triggering, as a
consequence, the rapid rise of nationalism and boosting of citizens‖ fun-
damental rights that revolved around freedom, liberty and equality - that
modernity as a concept and life pattern got into full swing. Such was a
time when the modern public was brought into being; when the notion of
―man‖ as an essentialist, transcendental subject developed; and in the
wake of which Hegel, the first philosopher to experience modernity as a
problem, “evolved a comprehensive legitimizing system to reassure mo-
dernity about itself”.
4
Accordingly, in historiography the late 16th and entire 17th and
18th centuries are described as early modern, while the 19th century with
some of its prolonged periods of matchless technological advance and
1
Leszek Kolakowski, Modernity on Endless Trial, (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1990), p. 6.
2
Richard Sheppard, Modernism-Dada-Postmodernism, (Evanston: Northwestern Uni-
versity Press, 1999), p. 8.
3
Hilde Heynen, Architecture and Modernity, (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 1999), p. 10.
4
Richard Sheppard, Modernism-Dada-Postmodernism, p. 8.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
economic growth - albeit coupled with a wave of political revolutions - is
regarded as modern history proper. However, the late 19th and the first
half of the 20th century - the latter having been forever darkened by the
devastating and demoralizing World Wars - were a time when some seri-
ous doubts started to creep into the phenomenon and project of moderni-
ty.
As a result, modernity‖s faith in absolute reason began to dwin-
dle. It was maintained that below the surface of rationality lie impulses,
instincts and drives that constitute a deeper reality.
5
The beliefs in linear
progress, absolute truths, ideal social orders and the regularization and
control of epistemology were shaken to their core as well. The world was
ever more torn between the experience of modernity as progressive and
the experience of modernity as chaotic. Whereas modernity while at its
peak felt that it had the whole world at its feet, the global events of the
first half of the 20th century changed everything. The ubiquitous Western
buoyancy that modern humanity would generate a just, unprejudiced,
peaceful and thriving new age was thus unsettled forever.
6
The doubts and questionings culminated in gradual departing
from modernity and modernism and their tendencies, and embarking on
the idea, phenomenon and historical period of post-modernity and post-
modernism. The latter‖s historical framework is generally perceived as
the middle and late 20th century. It connotes the latest phase in human
intellectual and cultural evolution. By and large, post-modernism is a re-
action against the intellectual and, to a lesser extent, social and cultural
assumptions, beliefs and values of modernity. Post-modernism is charac-
terized “by broad scepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspi-
cion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in assert-
ing and maintaining political and economic power.”
7
The common thread
in both modernity and post-modernity is a bitter conflict with religion as
a rival source of epistemology and morality, accentuating the value and
agency of human beings, affirming that without religion and the interfer-
5
Marvin Perry, Joseph Peden and Theodore Von Laue, Sources of the Western
Tradition (Volume II: from the Renaissance to the Present), (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1999), p. 264.
6
Richard Sheppard, Modernism-Dada-Postmodernism, p. 8-9. Jon Newton, The Revela-
tion Worldview: Apocalyptic Thinking in a Postmodern World, (Eugene: Wipf and
Stock, 2015), p. 21.
7
Brian Duignan, Postmodernism, (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy, 2018, accessed on June, 10
2019).
Spahic Omer
ence of Heaven people are capable of leading ethical lives of personal
fulfilment, and preferring rationalism and empiricism over the revelation.
As an outgrowth from Renaissance humanism and Enlighten-
ment‖s age of reason, modernity featured dominantly in effectively all
aspects of Western culture and civilization. Its hallmarks cantered on the
questioning or the outright rejecting of traditional and religious doctrines
and values; giving precedence to individualism, liberty, freedom, equali-
ty and scepticism; replacing “the religious understanding of nature with
the new ―mechanical philosophy‖, which not only claimed to be a science
of nature but also to be the only legitimate science of the natural world”,
ensuring thereby “the triumph of a purely quantitative understating of the
order of nature over the religious and qualitative one”
8
; harbouring an
unwavering faith in ultimate social, scientific and technological progress;
the emergence of the capitalism system, the market economy, industriali-
zation, urbanization, secularization, nation-state and democracy.
9
Modernity stemmed from a rather rebellious mood that coveted to
regenerate the way people perceived and experienced life, politics, socie-
ty, science and art. The status quo dictated by religious (Christian) tradi-
tions and political authorities was deemed too lethargic, corrupt, unful-
filling and ailing to continue unopposed.
10
Religious dogmas, values and
moral principles were questioned, or rejected completely, because of
their arbitrariness, futile formalism, opacity and exertion of control over
human feelings, yet total human existence.
On account of the novel scientific and technological dynamics
and their constant advancements and discoveries, the proponents of mo-
dernity felt a sense of perennial anticipation and hope. They found it un-
wise and counterproductive to commit themselves and their potentials to
any existing system of thought and life and thereby curtail the most
prized commodities: creativity, resourcefulness and prospects. Their
flames needed to be cherished and nurtured, rather than controlled or,
worse yet, extinguished. To be modern and think as such was an exhila-
rating thing. The impending age of modernity and its modern world were
meant to be the most exciting existential contexts to live in and to partic-
ipate in whatever way in their bettering. In other words, modernity gen-
erated an aura of worldly paradise. On his path to an intellectual self-
8
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1996), pp. 137-138.
9
Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts into Air, the Experience of Modernity,
(London: Verso, 1982), pp. 90-120.
10
Hilde Heynen, Architecture and Modernity, p. 9.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
actualization and moral perfection, modern man felt invincible and un-
stoppable.
However, having successfully undermined and forever shunned
the religious dogmas and authority of the Church, modern man uncon-
sciously created a myriad of new religious cults that pertained to science
and technology. If he stopped obeying and worshipping God, he in effect
ended up deifying himself and his achievements as well as aspirations.
Furthermore, if he desacralized the world and religious institutions
through science and technology, he once more ended up creating and sa-
cralising his own artificial world. That world was constructed and sus-
tained by modern man‖s newly established systems and institutions,
which were invested with a halo of “modernist sanctity”.
The Christian religious authority, admittedly, was to be largely
blamed for the scenario. Its legitimacy and power, and the legitimacy and
power of its Bible, were shaken and compromised, firstly, by the split of
European Christianity, and secondly, by the uneasy relationship between
faith and the emerging modern empirical science. Certain religious be-
liefs were proven empirically flawed or, at best, seriously questionable.
Christians often found themselves “on the back foot”, as they attempted
to respond to such alarming developments.
Generally, the Church was slow and reluctant to respond to the
rising modernity trends and the undercurrents they produced. One won-
ders if that was a sign of weakness or admission of irreconcilability.
Hence, left in the lurch, people were unsure as to which branch of Chris-
tianity represented orthodoxy, and which one did otherwise. Disagree-
ments, and even conflicts, were numerous, inexhaustible and, above all,
fundamental. Nobody was utterly certain whose interpretation of Scrip-
ture was most authoritative and why.
Moreover, this caused many philosophers and scientists to em-
bark on journeys of discovery of their own, in quest of new grounds for
certainty and offering the truth-seeking persons new alternatives. Perhaps
most emblematic of this ethos was Rene Descartes (d. 1650), a French
philosopher, scientist and mathematician, who set out on his mission of
radical doubt that led to his celebrated maxim, “I think, therefore I am”.
The process possibly marked the commencement of the European En-
lightenment, with its faith in individual human - rather than religious -
enquiry.
11
11
Jon Newton, The Revelation Worldview: Apocalyptic Thinking in a Postmodern
World, p. 22.
Spahic Omer
Finally, the authority of the Church and Bible was undermined
from within when Enlightenment and modernity criticism “entered the
theological academy and investigated the Bible without the presumption
that it was God‖s holy words, but rather on the basis that it was an an-
cient text (or collection of texts) like any other”.
12
All of a sudden, Chris-
tianity‖s core texts were made by historical-critical investigations to be
the object of human rather than the revealed knowledge. That lent cre-
dence to the conviction of modernists that society should be ridden of
superstition and ignorance in the name of religion, and that a rationalist
and scientific mind-set should be propagated instead for the pursuit of a
source of knowledge and morals.
According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, at the heart of the cluster of
reasons as to why religion (Christianity) lost the cosmos in the West to
modern science, and why the Christian view of the order of nature was
eclipsed by science during the Scientific Revolution, lies the following:
“the weakening of the sapiential dimension (having or providing wis-
dom), with its emphasis upon the symbolic significance of the cosmos
within Christianity; the rise of a rationalism already embedded to some
extent in the Thomistic synthesis; the dominance of nominalism in the
late Middle Ages; the eclipse and marginalization of Christian philoso-
phy during the period, which marks the incubation and formation of
modern science; and the all-important rise of humanism in the Renais-
sance”.
13
Once the corruptions of religious and political authorities were
cleansed by reason and open-minded thinking, the path to truth was
clearly shown. Facilitating the arrival at truth and teaching it was the task
of education. Education was recognised as a vehicle for nourishing and
further promoting the newly found truth and its infinite socio-cultural
manifestations and ways. It was aimed at enlightening the masses and
making them better citizens and better people. Educated enlightened
people will form the foundations of the new free and integrated society, a
society which they will create through their own efforts.
14
If God created
the universe, earth and people, He was not needed afterwards for running
and managing the human lives on earth. God could be accepted as crea-
tor, but not as a guide.
12
Richard Sullivan, Dennis Sherman and John Harrison, A Short History of Western
Civilization, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), pp. 22-23.
13
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, p. 130.
14
Christopher Witcombe, The Roots of Modernism, (Art History Resources,
http://arthistoryresources.net/modernism/roots.html, accessed on June, 11 2019).
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
Modernity as an Achievement or a Mirage
However, the worldview and ideals of modernity soon proved to
be significantly untrue and unnatural, having no basis in the reality of
human condition. Riddled with doubts concerning the continued feasibil-
ity and sustainability of material progress, human liberty, freedom and
equality, the edifice of modernity fast started to fracture. It in the end de-
generated into a corrupt and oppressive system of thought, attitudes and
practices. It at long last might have become as fraudulent and unjust as
the religious and political systems it sought to overthrow and replace.
Especially its philosophical underpinnings were perceived as a synthesis
of all heresies that threatened to destroy all religions.
15
It was as early as in the 16th century that Martin Luther, a seminal
figure in the Protestant Reformation, warned: “Reason is the greatest en-
emy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but —
more frequently than not — struggles against the Divine Word, treating
with contempt all that emanates from God.” Martin Luther also said:
“Reason is the devil‖s handmaid and does nothing but blaspheme and
dishonour all that God says or does.”
16
The modernist ideology deteriorated to the point where its fun-
damental notions of truth, freedom, liberty, education, justice and equali-
ty were transformed by many Western governments and other institutions
into self-serving excuses for invasion, subjugation, conversion and ex-
ploitation. Christopher Witcombe writes that “to the dismay of progres-
sive intellectuals, the ideology of modernism has also become the means
by which the values and worldview of the West have been promoted and
imposed around the world either through imperial colonialism and eco-
nomic globalization, or through the ―conditionalities‖ attached to loans
granted by the International Monetary Fund, and policies serving West-
ern interests that are forced on developing countries by the World Bank.
With proselytizing zeal, local cultures, customs, economies, and ways of
life in Third World and developing countries have been swept aside in
the name of ―modernization‖ the benefits of which have been measured
15
Daniel Donovan, Church and Theology in the Modernist Crisis, (San Francisco: Pro-
ceedings of the Fortieth Annual Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of
America – June 5-8, 1985, 2013), pp. 145-159. Marshall Berman, All That is Solid
Melts into Air, the Experience of Modernity, pp. 120-129.
16
Paulos Huang, Dialogue and Critique: The 16th Century Religious Reformation and
Modernity, inside: “Yearbook of Chinese Theology 2017”, edited by Paulos Huang,
(Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. vii-xxiii.
Spahic Omer
primarily in Western terms. Modernism has been the West‖s most effec-
tive and influential export and in fact has been willingly embraced by
many non–Western cultures for commercial, economic, or political rea-
sons, or as a demonstration of support of Western ideals.”
17
It is now widely held that the period defined and dictated by the
modernist philosophy and principles has ended. Now is a phase of transi-
tion into a new phase of human history called post-modernity or post-
modernism. The term generally implies a broad spectrum of anti-modern
penchants, on the one hand, and such as call for the revision of modernist
fundamental assertions and ideas, on the other. It stands to reason that
modernity failed in the sense that it has abruptly ended, and in the sense
that it achieved little of what it had intended.
Modernity was guilty of naïve realism where the truth about the
supposed objective natural reality, independent of whether anyone is
thinking about or perceiving it, has been manipulated and attempted to be
imposed on everyone globally. The pursued objective truth was regarded
as independent of human beings and all of their intellectual and socio-
cultural influences. It was also believed that the descriptive and explana-
tory statements of scientists and historians could, in principle, be objec-
tively true or false.
18
This doctrine accorded science and scientists all the
leverage they needed to ascribe a sense of functional sanctity to them-
selves and what they were doing.
The proponents of modernity and modernism were likewise way
off the mark when they affirmed that through the use of reason and logic,
and with the more specialized tools provided by science and technology,
human beings were likely to change themselves and their societies for the
better. It was reasonable to expect that future societies will be more hu-
mane, more just, more enlightened, and more prosperous than they were
before.
19
It was proven time and again – and it is still being the case –
that the misguided pursuit of scientific and technological knowledge
leads to the development of technologies for destruction, oppression,
subjugation and exploitation. It was owing to that verity that to a majori-
ty of researchers, the most advanced 20th century was at the same time
17
Christopher Witcombe, Modernism and Postmodernism, (Art History Resources,
http://arthistoryresources.net/modernism/modpostmod.html, accessed on June, 11
2019).
18
Brian Duignan, Postmodernism, (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy, 2018, accessed on June, 10
2019).
19
Ibid.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
the bloodiest in human history, as it was fraught with wars, genocides
and famines.
Another problem with modern man was that he gained a new - al-
beit faulty - conception of himself as a being endowed with reason and
technological power, totally independent of Heaven and its revealed
knowledge and guidance, “and ready to conquer Earth, both its non-
European humanity and the order of nature.”
20
Modern man further
viewed himself – again entirely predicated upon humanism, naturalism,
rationalism, individualism and scepticism as the cornerstones of the
modernist worldview - as a being whose solitary goal was bodily pleas-
ure rooted in the stimuli of greed, self-centeredness, pride and vanity.
Consequently, modern man became a prisoner of his senses and desires,
which he had to seek to constantly satiate without limit. He showed no
interest whatsoever in the potential significance of both his body and the
surrounding natural world in the religious, metaphysical and cosmologi-
cal sense.
21
Relentless scientific discoveries and technological dynamics, fed
with the unrestricted innovation and creativity spirit, created a sense of
perpetual expectation, hope and insatiability. People wanted more of eve-
rything, and that those things be always better, faster and brighter. There
was so much in life to be experimented and enjoyed by everybody. Op-
portunities were limitless and life was not to be wasted on lethargy, tradi-
tionalism and conformity. It was to be lived to the fullest. It could be as-
serted, therefore, that the pinnacle of modernity and modernism signified
the birth of popular culture as a concept and social phenomenon with
mass accessibility and appeal, personifying the most broadly shared
meanings of a social system.
22
The dire consequences of such a modernist philosophy and such a
set of modernist behavioural patterns could be anticipated. And they
were as pervasive and universal as the philosophy and lifestyles that in-
stigated them. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr puts it: “Modern man has burned
his hands in the fire which he himself kindled when he allowed himself
to forget who he is. The problem of the devastation brought upon the en-
vironment by technology, the ecological crisis and the like, all issue from
the malady of amnesia or forgetfulness from which modern as well as
20
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, p. 170.
21
Ibid., pp. 171-172.
22
Raymond Betts, A History of Popular Culture, (New York: Routledge Taylor and
Francis Group, 2004), pp. 9-11.
Spahic Omer
postmodern man suffer.”
23
Modern man has simply forgotten who he is
and how he is relatable to the spiritual realm and the realm of his Creator
and the Creator of the whole universe. Living on the periphery of his own
circle of existence, Modern man “has been able to gain a qualitatively
superficial but quantitatively staggering knowledge of the world. He has
projected the externalized and superficial image of himself upon the
world. And then, having come to know the world in such externalized
terms, he has sought to reconstruct an image of himself based upon this
external knowledge.”
24
One of the greatest crimes of modernity was the undue exaltation
of man‖s freedom. Such happened to the extent that it was held that man
was so talented and capable that he could act independently of any other
agent in the universe, while harbouring the idea of a new world and in-
definite material progress therein, which was set to be identifiable with
the attainment of man‖s inclusive welfare and happiness. It was addition-
ally believed that only free man could change and form the world. On
account of his newly acquired qualities – on top of which stood absolute
freedom – man could do so “as he willed irrespective of any cosmic laws
or even of the Divine Will.”
25
Thus, armed with his rebellious and defiant tendencies against
Heaven and the metaphysical world, selfish and avaricious personality,
disoriented mind and character that lacked any genuine moral compass,
modern man was set to cause in the long run more damage than benefit
for himself, humankind and the natural world. He proved thereby that his
modernity project was more of a mirage than an authentic and definite
achievement. The global spiritual, moral and environmental crises that
have been brought about by modern man and his science and its applica-
tions in the sphere of technology, have been unprecedented both in scope
and intensity. So critical and so omnipresent are the crises that they could
yet prove a cause of the ultimate demise of man as a species.
Having fully forgotten who he is, where he belongs and what his
life purpose and mission are, artificial modern man has created artificial
environments for himself and his operations. Concrete jungles, calling to
mind the worst and most unpleasant aspects of modern predominant ur-
ban life, have become the rule of the day for modern urbanized man.
23
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, (Cambridge: The Islamic
Texts Society, 2002), pp. 4-5.
24
Ibid., p. 5.
25
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, p. 173.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
From those artificial environments, nature, human natural disposition
and, of course, elements of spirituality, have been excluded to the great-
est possible extent. Nature has become desacralized for modern man. It
has come to be regarded as something to be used, exploited and profited
from to the fullest extent possible without any sense of obligation and
responsibility towards it.
26
All the talk nowadays about sustainable development and peace-
ful coexistence with nature is not due to modern and postmodern man‖s
sudden change in attitude towards nature, life and himself. Rather, it is
due to man‖s realization that the natural resources of the world are dwin-
dling at an alarming rate. As such, he will soon become unable to ram-
pantly use and enjoy nature for his greedy and selfish ends, as he did in
the past. As attractive as they seem, the notions of sustainability and
preservation of nature aim only to prolong man‖s raping and exploitation
of the natural world as a means as well as object of his physical pleasure-
seeking. Hence, the issue is never about nature, but about man; nor is it
about the inherent interests of nature, but about the artificial and extrava-
gant interests of man.
The harmony between man and his self, and between man and na-
ture, has been damaged by modernity beyond repair. That is a fact every-
one seems to be ready to admit. But not everyone realizes that this dise-
quilibrium, with its internal and external manifestations in man and his
existential contexts, “is due to the destruction of the harmony between
man and God.”
27
Lastly, as an illustration of the scale of the problems faced by
man today, according to the findings from a United Nations-backed panel
called the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), up to one million plant and animal
species face extinction, many within decades, because of human activi-
ties. Without “transformative changes” to the world‖s economic, social
and political systems to address this crisis, the IPBES panel projects that
major biodiversity losses will continue to 2050 and beyond. “We are
eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food securi-
26
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Man and Nature, the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man, (Chica-
go: ABC International Group, 1997), p. 18.
27
Ibid., p. 20.
Spahic Omer
ty, health and quality of life worldwide,” says IPBES chair Robert Wat-
son.
28
The Impact on Architecture
In the midst of all the developments associated with the emer-
gence of modernity, architecture as a system of thought and a physical
framework that outlines and frames human lives, was significantly af-
fected. That was due to a tenet according to which changes in social sys-
tems, in cultural maturity and in people‖s way of thinking and their be-
liefs, inevitably lead to changes in ways people perceive, build and expe-
rience their built environment. The former is the cause, the latter the ef-
fect. Moreover, the latter represents an embodiment and physical expres-
sion of the former. Hence, the various domains of people‖s-built envi-
ronment denote a depository of frozen ideas, initiatives and solutions, as
well as a succession of exhibition pathways where the level of people‖s
artistic and architectural consciousness and creativity has been immortal-
ized and permanently displayed. Architecture is an open book about peo-
ple, affirming their identity and their cultural together with civilizational
proclivities and achievements. Developments in architecture are symp-
tomatic of wider general trends.
Thus, as soon as the age of the Renaissance, as a prelude to mo-
dernity, came into being, the above canon was set into motion. Renais-
sance architecture, just like the rest of its fine arts, drew heavily from
Greek and Roman sources. That was the cause because the advocates of
the Renaissance rejoiced in reviving classical civilization and the cultural
products of Greece and Rome. They wished to generate new cultural and
civilizational outputs dissimilar from stale medieval Christianity-
dominated civilization. At the receiving end of their criticism were medi-
eval Scholasticism and medieval culture in general. What was intended
was integration of the best of classical civilization and the best and most
wholesome elements of Christianity and its civilization.
Renaissance architecture borrowed from the Greek sources col-
umns - though only for decorative purposes - and the idea of horizontal
lines and symmetry as a whole. Whereas from Rome arrived the concepts
of the dome, the arches and the emphasis on the mass. This was a stark
departure from the Gothic architecture of the later Middle Ages, which
28
Jeff Tollefson, Humans are Driving One Million Species to Extinction,
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4, 2019, accessed on June, 10
2019).
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
was most widely used especially for cathedrals and churches, and which
featured and gave clear emphasis to plans that resembled the ancient
Roman basilica, rib vaults, flying buttresses, increased height both abso-
lutely and in proportion to the width as an aspiration to Heaven, stained
glass windows, portals and the tympanum, towers and spires, lavish
sculpture and decoration on religious themes, and pointed arches.
Additionally, Renaissance architecture, together with especially
sculpture and painting, celebrated humanism in man and the intrinsic
natural components of life. The human being: his life and ultimate desti-
ny, emotions, capabilities, talents and terrestrial backgrounds and milieus
wherein he lived and performed, has been put on a pedestal and glorified.
The themes and styles were ever more humanized, secularized and natu-
ralized, rather than divinized and spiritualized. The spectacle and pag-
eantry of Christianity and its institutions, rites and teachings – at least as
depicted through the prism of medieval art – were losing their allure by
the day.
29
Next is the Baroque style of architecture which grew directly out
of the Late Renaissance. The Renaissance has led to an enormous loss of
power and influence by the especially Catholic Church in many fields.
Large parts of Europe had converted to Protestantism, which originated
with the 16th century Protestant or European Reformation, and the emer-
gence of modern science had proved the fallacy on which many of the
fundamentals of the Catholic faith were based. Needless to say, that the
Renaissance and its profound humanism played a notable role in the
Reformation. The Church had also lost its monopoly in education, and
the religious building had relinquished its position as the sole source of
authority in architectural development.
30
As a corollary of those earth-shattering events, the Church em-
barked on an initiative to respond to the sweeping Protestant Refor-
mation. The move is called the Counter Reformation or the Catholic
Reformation, and was a period of general Catholic revival. It was the ad-
vent of the Counter Reformation that was to exert the main formative in-
fluence on the development of Baroque architecture. “Like secular pow-
er, religious power was seen as absolute and its legitimization a matter of
29
Richard Sullivan et al., A Short History of Western Civilization, pp. 349-351. Chris-
toph Hocker, Architecture, a Concise History, (London: Laurence King, 2000), pp. 73-
89.
30
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, (Cambridge:
Goodfellow and Egan, 2005), p. 52. Richard Sullivan et al., A Short History of Western
Civilization, p. 414.
Spahic Omer
divine right. Baroque architecture set out to tackle the task of represent-
ing both authorities on a suitable scale and with due ceremony, using
similar methods in the representation of both. The idea was to dramatize
the power and to appeal to the sensuous perceptions of the observer. The
express aims of the new style were to confuse and overpower.”
31
The Baroque style was a direct outgrowth of absolutism: the two-
go hand in hand. Baroque was the symbolization of opulence, wealth and
the power of the upper classes. Its buildings and paintings were a reflec-
tion of the close interweaving of the Church and secular power, aimed to
support and sustain each other.
32
It is no accident that the main emphasis
of the style fell on the religious institutionalized buildings, such as
churches and monasteries, together with the government-related build-
ings, such as palaces and princely residences, and secular buildings de-
signed to impress the beholder. “It was, after all, the court, the aristocra-
cy and the clergy who commissioned the work.”
33
The first phase of the Counter Reformation had imposed a severe,
academic style on religious architecture, which had appealed to intellec-
tuals but not the mass of churchgoers. The Council of Trent (held be-
tween 1545 and 1563 and labelled as the quintessence of the Counter
Reformation) decided instead to appeal to a more popular audience, and
declared that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct
and emotional involvement.
34
Baroque art was essentially concerned with the dramatic and the
illusory, with vivid colours, hidden light sources, luxurious materials,
and elaborate, contrasting surface textures, used to heighten immediacy
and sensual delight. Ceilings of Baroque churches, dissolved in painted
scenes, presented vivid views of the infinite to the worshiper and directed
him through his senses toward heavenly concerns. The dome illustrated
the union between the heavens and the earth. The inside of the cupola
was lavishly decorated with paintings that depicted vivid religious
themes, giving the impression to those below of looking up at Heaven.
Baroque architects made architecture a means of propagating faith in the
church and in the state. Baroque palaces expanded to command the infi-
31
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, p. 53.
32
Christoph Hocker, Architecture, a Concise History, p. 101. Bertrand Russel, History
of Western Philosophy, (New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2009), pp.
422-424.
33
Christoph Hocker, Architecture, a Concise History, p. 101.
34
Baroque, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque#cite_note-16, 2019, accessed on
June, 11 2019).
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
nite and to display the power and order of the state. Baroque space invit-
ed participation and provided multiple changing views. Renaissance
space was passive and invited contemplation of its precise symmetry. A
Baroque building expanded in its effect to include the square facing it,
and often the ensemble included all the buildings on the square as well as
the approaching streets and the surrounding landscape. Baroque build-
ings dominated their environment; Renaissance buildings separated
themselves from it.
35
Baroque architecture thrived in Europe from the early 17th to the
mid-18th century. It was followed by the Rococo style which, as an out-
standingly showy and grandiose style of decoration, is regularly defined
as the final example of the Baroque architecture school. At times, how-
ever, it is simply called “late Baroque”. The Rococo style was succeeded
by Neoclassical architecture styles, receiving inspiration from the classi-
cal art and culture of classical antiquity known as the Greco-Roman
world, something like what happened during the Renaissance. The main
Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Enlightenment
and its age of reason, and continued into the early 19th century.
36
Furthermore, “Romantic architecture appeared in the late 18th
century in a reaction against the rigid forms of neoclassical architecture.
It reached its peak in the mid-19th century, and continued to appear until
the end of the 19th century. It was designed to evoke an emotional reac-
tion, either respect for tradition or nostalgia for a bucolic past. It was fre-
quently inspired by the architecture of the Middle Ages, especially Goth-
ic architecture.”
37
During in particular the latter architectural movements, there was
progressively more room for borrowing and copying elements from other
architectural styles which existed beyond the European historical and ge-
ographical parameters. Jan Gympel writes that “technology and the natu-
ral sciences demolished one apparently unshakable certainty and perma-
nent boundary of knowledge after the other: why shouldn‖t the limits of
time and space also be removed from culture? Thus elements from West-
ern architectural history were enthusiastically complemented by those
35
Henry Millon, Baroque and Rococo, (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-architecture/Baroque-and-Rococo, 2019, ac-
cessed on June, 11 2019).
36
Christoph Hocker, Architecture, a Concise History, pp. 116-129. Jan Gympel, The
Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, pp. 58-69.
37
Romanticism, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism#Architecture, 2019, ac-
cessed on June, 11, 2019).
Spahic Omer
from other cultures, which the European colonial powers encountered in
the course of their conquests and were keen to copy.”
38
Even Byzantine,
Moorish and Oriental models appeared here and there throughout the
West during the period as the world was becoming “smaller” and was
brought closer together by rapid communications.
39
It was a “free style”,
so to speak, where anything was possible.
40
Throughout history, most architectural styles grew naturally and
out of expediency. Some did because of the discovery of new building
technologies, or because of the availability and use of certain building
materials; and others did because of a desire to stand still - like the pyra-
mids of Mexico and Egypt, ancient Incan temples in Peru and the Great
Wall of China - or move forward - like the architecture of the Renais-
sance which explored the past Greek and Roman legacies but reworked
them for new contemporary ends. However, it was increasingly felt that
the architecture of the 19th century was rapidly losing its innocence and
direction. Such was not a momentary loss of concentration and purpose.
Rather, the situation represented the climax of a process that started with
the regression of the Renaissance.
Encouraged by the age of Enlightenment and its championing of
human reason and its dormant ability to prevail and bring about good to
man, the current architecture was regarded as dishonest and corrupt. It
was dishonest because it squeezed its functions into buildings that were
meant to be temples and not houses, banks, town halls, or railway sta-
tions; and corrupt, because such buildings were all too often encrusted
with gratuitous and meaningless decoration.
41
Since the architecture of the 19th century was hybrid whereby al-
most anything could go, it was time to pause, think and ask some crucial
questions. What really mattered and what was needed, and really as-
pired? How should architecture best serve society and, if there was a bet-
ter society to be fashioned, what could the architect do to help jostle it
along?
42
It was during Enlightenment when the marked secularization of
society took off, that the idea of basing architecture on some rational
moral criteria was put forward. With that - it could be contended - the
38
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, p. 74.
39
Richard Sullivan et al., A Short History of Western Civilization, p. 602.
40
Jonathan Glancey, The Story of Architecture, (New York: DK Publishing, 2000), p.
152.
41
Ibid., pp. 154-155.
42
Ibid., p. 155.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
first seeds of modern architecture were sown, and its first embryonic
physical manifestations also came to pass. The new and certainly most
important age of architecture was about to arrive.
From then on, driven primarily by the power of reason, architec-
ture no longer served religion and even less so the feudal rulers. It was
believed that the built environment could be used to have a positive in-
fluence on the spirit of the people, and inspire them to behave in a man-
ner based on reason and morality. To achieve this, however, architecture
itself had to fulfil ethical-moral criteria.
43
That is, it had to be free, just as
philosophy and all sectors of life were becoming liberated and free from
the stifling shackles of religion and tradition. Architecture could be free
and true to itself only when people: its perceivers, creators and users, be-
come liberated from their “self-induced nonage”, as was the main aim of
Enlightenment according to the German philosopher Emanuel Kant (d.
1804).
Some of the theories thus evolved and articulated were to the ef-
fect that architecture should be true to its purpose and materials, and
therefore, true to itself; and that it should be “honest” in the sense that
structure and ornament would again constitute a unity. Architecture, it
follows, had to “speak” and express the ideas of the Enlightenment era
and spirit. For example, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (d. 1806), French archi-
tect and town planner, designed a house for the surveyor of the river
Loue. The structure consisted of a horizontal cylinder through which a
stream was directed, which then flew into the river as a waterfall, “sym-
bolizing the mastery of the river by rational technical means.”
44
The Birth of Modernist Architecture
Industrialization and mechanization in the latter 19th and early
20th century changed everything. It was a time when technical innova-
tions were as unsurpassable as dynamic and relentless. The wide spec-
trum of new building materials, structural forms and building techniques
were thus made possible and easily available. The period signified the
peak of modernity as a way of life. Similarly, through subsequent dec-
ades, it characterised a stage in the rapid progression of modernist archi-
tecture as a foremost philosophy and style of architecture and design of
the epoch.
43
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, pp. 62-63.
44
Ibid., p. 63.
Spahic Omer
The invention and wide use of structural steel, reinforced concrete
and glass revolutionized architecture. The spirit of intellectual rebellion
against the standards and values of the past dominated by religion and
other traditional systems gave architects freedom to think and experiment
like never before. Unparalleled wealth and opportunities brought about
by the ongoing revolutions in science, technology, engineering and build-
ing materials provided architects with means to execute their ideas.
45
They were able to bring those ideas from the orb of abstract concepts and
theories to the orb of palpable solutions and results.
Thus, modernist architecture as a universal style and school of
thought was born, and the sky seemed to be the limit. Architects were
finally able to make their dreams a reality by fully breaking away from
historical and traditional architectural styles, and to invent something that
was utterly new and purely functional. Architecture was to be a product
of the now and here, and to echo the ideas and achievements of moderni-
ty. The style was soon to be transformed into a global phenomenon with
an international appeal.
Perhaps the first example of modernist architecture was the Crys-
tal Palace by Joseph Paxton. It was built in 1851 in London, and was de-
stroyed by fire in 1936. The building was an example of iron and plate
glass construction. Examples of glass and metal curtain walls were to fol-
low soon. The building was also seen as a product of the industrial and
commercial boom which coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Then
came steel-framed skyscrapers. The first example was the ten-story
Home Insurance Building in Chicago. It was built in 1884 by William Le
Baron Jenney (d. 1907) and was razed in 1930. The iron frame construc-
tion of the Eiffel Tower in Paris built in 1889 captured the imagination of
millions. It was then the tallest structure in the world.
46
It became as
much the symbol of the city of Paris as of an age and its built environ-
ment ideology. A big boost to modernist architecture and its attempt to
reach at once for the sky and for people‖s hearts was further given by the
invention of the safety elevator in 1852, electric light in 1879, and the
first modern air conditioner in 1902.
The greatest pioneering masters and icons of modernist architec-
ture were: Louis Sullivan (d. 1924), an American architect famous for his
45
Brent Brolin, The Failure of Modern Architecture, (New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold Company, 1976), p. 14.
46
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, pp. 73-97.
Richard Sullivan et al., A Short History of Western Civilization, pp. 602-603.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
doctrine “Form follows function” and known as the “Father of skyscrap-
ers”; Adolf Loos (d. 1933), an Austrian and Czech architect known for
his belief that ornament was a crime as broadcasted in his essay cum
manifesto titled “Ornament and Crime”; Frank Lloyd Wright (d. 1959),
an American architect about whom some people say that he was the
greatest architect of all time; Le Corbusier (d. 1965), a Swiss-French ar-
chitect and urban planner, who made a great effort to provide better liv-
ing conditions for the residents of crowded cities, and to whom is as-
cribed the maxim “A house is a machine to live in”; Walter Gropius (d.
1969), a German architect and the founder of the seminal Bauhaus
School, who insisted that architecture should snub historical and tradi-
tional orthodoxies and espouse the innovative new ideologies of modern
industry; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (d. 1969), a German-American ar-
chitect who was a director of the Bauhaus and associated with the mod-
ernist precept “Less is more”.
The following declarations of Le Corbusier summarizes the dis-
position of modernist architecture: “A grand epoch has just begun. There
exists a new spirit. There already exist a crowd of works in the new spir-
it, they are found especially in industrial production. Architecture is suf-
focating in its current uses. ―Styles‖ are a lie. Style is a unity of principles
which animates all the work of a period and which result in a characteris-
tic spirit. Our epoch determines each day its style. Our eyes, unfortunate-
ly, don't know how to see it yet.”
47
Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, a French architect and architectural theo-
rist and historian, along the same lines in 1872 advocated a complete
break with tradition when he wrote: “Use the means and knowledge giv-
en to us by our times, without the intervening traditions which are no
longer viable today, and in that way we can inaugurate a new architec-
ture. For each function its material; for each material its form and its or-
nament.” This thought is believed to have influenced some of the leading
founding masters of modernist architecture.
48
By and large, some of the main and most easily recognizable
characteristics of modernist architecture are as follows: lack of orna-
ments and mouldings; rectangular, cylindrical and cubic shapes; large
47
Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, (London: J. Rodker, 1931),
(https://archive.org/stream/TowardsANewArchitectureCorbusierLe/Towards%20a%20
New%20Architecture%20-%20Corbusier%20Le%20_djvu.txt, accessed on June, 12
2019).
48
Modern Architecture, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture#Origins,
2019, accessed on June, 12 2019).
Spahic Omer
windows set in horizontal bands; open interior floor plans with fewer
walls; extensive use of reinforced concrete, steel and glass; lines are
straight and angled, rather than curved, gabled and carved; visual expres-
sion of the structure, rather than hiding structural elements; following the
―machine aesthetics‖ in the use of materials produced by industrial pro-
cesses; connection to outdoors; promoting the concept of truth and justice
to the materials used and not ornamenting or plastering them with some
other artificial materials (what is inside should be reflected outside); the
natural colours of building materials is the natural embellishment of
buildings; simplicity to the core whereby simple is always sophisticated
and is the greatest adornment of buildings; “Less is more” which denotes
all-round minimalism in buildings; function is a key objective and drives
the overall form of the structure, indicating that the built space is the re-
sult of the intended meaning or purpose behind it (“Form follows func-
tion”); skyscrapers are generally sheathed in glass.
Assessing the Main Dogmas of Modernist Architecture
This way, modernist architecture endorsed and celebrated the se-
cured human liberty and freedom of expression and experience. It rec-
orded its victory over all forms of tradition and institutionalized religion.
The past was left where it belongs: in the past, and the future was right
here and right now. Both tradition and religion were forever buried under
the rubble of their irreparable inadequacies and flaws, coupled with the
damages their respective questionable legacies had caused to human
mind and soul. Lest they come back, over their tarnished reputations and
also their fast-decaying material residues, soaring skyscrapers were
erected, and the continued spatial expansion of the cities and the increas-
ing density of population and their built environment – as epitomes of an
ideology and its systems of thought and values – were assertively
stretched and laid out. As if the massive and ever-expanding cities, which
functioned as the physical loci of modernization, which, in turn, served
as the root cause of rapid and frenzied urbanization, acted as the necropo-
lises of tradition and religion, and the skyscrapers as their cenotaphs and
tombstones.
Modernist architecture also fostered modern man‖s naturalistic
tendencies. Man was perceived as part of nature, albeit in the sense that
his own natural bodily pleasures were most important. Even though ar-
chitecture promoted close interaction with outdoors and doing justice to
the natural building materials by not ornamenting them with some artifi-
cial ones, modern man thus wanted to parade his subjugation of and mas-
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
tery over nature and its forces. As central to the modernist creed, it was
held that an artificially created world with the built environment as its
framework, which is completely planned and designed by man, had to be
better than any natural one created by random natural forces. Buildings
were “machines for living”. The natural world should always be in ser-
vice of man‖s created and mechanized world. Man‖s physical progress
and corporeal contentment were life‖s raison d‖etre. Man, with his sci-
ence and technology was its only deity, so to speak.
Modernist buildings were consistently regular and well propor-
tioned, featuring almost exclusively straight lines and right angles. They
were wide and bright with the elevations glazed from top to bottom. The
only decoration both inside and outside was the pure effect of the materi-
als used.
49
Symmetry was their distinctiveness. That was so because na-
ture, too, displays a strong penchant for symmetry and repetitive pattern-
ing. Such is evident in animate and inanimate beings as well as struc-
tures.
Straight lines communicate messages and generate experiences. If
they are horizontal, they convey the meanings of stability, confidence
and peace. Since they cannot fall over, horizontal lines draw attention to
width, firmness, constancy and security. By their association with hori-
zon, they likewise evoke the notions of clarity and authority of vision,
purpose and objective. They suggest the infinity of inspiration, opportu-
nities and vitality. Vertical lines, on the other hand, are strong and rigid,
implying determination, ability and potential energy. In their own way,
they accentuate stability and combine it with perpetual dynamism. They
stretch from the earth to the heavens and so, are connected with ontologi-
cal dimensions and feelings. Their tallness and formality give the impres-
sion of dignity, prominence and victory.
Modernist architecture was projecting itself as self-righteous. It
exuded a sense of superiority that was reminiscent of Western colonial-
ism.
50
It possessed a missionary or proselytizing attitude, and its archi-
tects‖ personal visions were infused with a sense of moral superiority.
They believed that the architect‖s mission was to redesign the world in
his own image, and his values applied to all. Less “civilized” people
could only profit from adopting architects‖ way of life. So important
were the precepts and mottos of modernist architecture that they were
49
Jan Gympel, The Story of Architecture, from Antiquity to the Present, pp. 96-99.
50
Brent Brolin, The Failure of Modern Architecture, p. 45.
Spahic Omer
regarded as articles of faith. They were “rhetorical statements whose
moral overtones made them as unquestionable as Divine Law.”
51
Nevertheless, since the form of architecture is the language of an
architectural will and movement, the modernist doctrines of simplicity,
minimalism and visual transparency reveal the absence of a meaningful
and profound worldview in modern man, apart from his rugged individu-
alism, relativism, nihilism and scepticism. Buildings planned and built in
such a fashion simply put across that modern man and his architecture
have nothing, or extremely little, consequential to tell the audience.
Buildings persuasively speak that modern man is unsure of his inherited
value, is sceptical of his self and any system, and is reluctant to identify
with any vision. He is one-dimensional, minimalist and superficial, and
so is his architecture.
Modernist architecture is self-assertive and presumptuous. It
carves out the space needed for its buildings with might. It strengthens
and solidifies the outside edges, right angles, its frontiers and the land-
scaping of space, in order to make sure that the piece it has cut off does
not re-join the rest of space. Buildings stand alone and autonomously,
testifying defiantly to the presence and might of man and his victorious
interference with nature and space. Thus, modernist architecture gives
evidence of the assertion of man and human power in space, of the power
of that power to act in space, to contend in the physical theatre of God,
defying and challenging Him at the same time.
52
Finally, having cut out and appropriated a portion of space, mod-
ernist architecture now seeks to express man‖s will, to enable man to live
his victory, to enjoy his property as he enters and remains in the building.
The idea which serves this purpose best is “enclosure”. Space must be
enclosed, trapped, if it is to be had, owned and enjoyed.
53
In point of fact,
each building for modern man is his haven, yet his temple, as it were, for
it is in them that he goes about demonstrating who he is and what his life
purpose is. It is in them furthermore that he becomes the prisoner of his
nihilistic and hedonistic inclinations, which he had to seek to relentlessly
quench without limit.
At long last, as a reaction to modernist architecture and the dog-
mas connected with it, postmodernism and postmodernist architecture as
51
Ibid., p. 45.
52
Isma’il Ragi al-Faruqi, Islam and Architecture, inside: “Fine Arts in Islamic Civiliza-
tion”, edited by Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg, (Kuala Lumpur: The University of Ma-
laya Press, 1981), pp. 99-117.
53
Ibid., pp. 99-117.
Two Sides of Modernity and Its Architecture
a style, or styles, of architecture and the decorative arts appeared in the
late 20th century. The new style rejected the perceived austerity, formali-
ty, exclusivity and lack of variety associated with modernist architecture.
It signified a victory over and escape from the nihilistic, anti-traditional
and misanthropic concept of the modern architectural style(s) to an archi-
tectural style of “old” values.
54
Some of the chief characteristics of post-
modernist architecture are as follows: structural variety, asymmetric and
oblique forms, bright colours, variety of materials and shapes, literary
allusions, classical motifs, historical references, rich ornamentation,
complexity and contradiction.
Postmodernist architecture was a clever combination of “old” and
“new”. It often blended astonishing new forms and features with seem-
ingly contradictory elements of classicism. The process has been de-
scribed as a synergy between “representation and abstraction, monumen-
tal and informal, traditional and high-tech.”
55
Conclusion
Modernity is an exclusively Western concept that has no equiva-
lent in other cultures and civilizations. The same holds true as regards its
principal offshoots, including architecture. Its main doctrine is the rejec-
tion of tradition and all forms of religion, effectively declaring a war
against Heaven, refuting the ideas of God and any spirituality, and de-
sacralizing nature. The only thing that is deified is man and his scientific
and technological progress. The planes and faces of modernist architec-
ture, as somewhat the peak of modernity and its architectural progres-
sion, unmistakably testify to those realities.
However, due to its missionary and proselytizing penchant, which
concurred with and grew out of European colonialism, modernity and
everything that went with it was attempted to be conceived and presented
as a globalized phenomenon. It was regarded as an epitome of truth, as
well as the key to human wellbeing and happiness. And that is where the
biggest problem lay. When people started to become disillusioned with
modernity and its increasingly unbecoming legacy, it was discovered that
the predicaments were so global and all-embracing that they touched the
core of existence. Thus, the whole of mankind - yet the whole earth -
stands today at a crossroads with its sheer existence at stake.
54
Christoph Hocker, Architecture, a Concise History, p. 125.
55
Postmodern Architecture, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_architecture,
2019, accessed on June, 13 2019).
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