de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
What were the consequences of World War 1 for the development of
modern architecture after 1918? Considering that many modern
architects were soldiers in their 20s and early 30s, formative periods
in any individual’s life, how did active service in the trenches or
behind the frontline, travel to foreign lands, and the communal
experience of danger influence their thinking about their work,
profession, and society at large?
Psychologists like Kurt Lewin published as early as 1917 seminal texts
about how the soldier’s experience of the battlefield fundamentally
changed his perception of space. In literature, reflections on the
horrors and extraordinary experiences of the Great War resulted about
ten years later in masterpieces by writers and playwrights such as
Ernst Jünger, Erich Maria Remarque, and Edmund Blunden. Yet in the
realm of architecture little seems to be known beyond anecdotal tales
that Walter Gropius had been buried underneath rubble, and that Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe’s military career was modest due the lack of a
university education. Are there issues, buildings, methodologies, and
theoretical concerns in the development of modern architecture after
1918 that can be traced back to the Great War?
The session invites papers, ideally based on archival research, that
address both individual architects who had served in any of the
opposing armies, and questions concerning historiography and
methodological approaches regarding World War 1 and the emergence of
modern architecture in Europe.
Send 250 words abstract with a brief CV (1-2 pages), institutional
affiliation (if applicable) and email address by November, 12, 2012,
to Prof. Volker M. Welter, University of California at Santa Barbara,
welter@arthistory.ucsb.edu; and Prof. Iain Boyd Whyte, University of
Edinburgh, i.b.whyte@ed.ac.uk
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