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Architecture and Politics

Vaswar Mitra

Albert Speer was a man of 30, with a respectable architectural practice in Berlin when he

 joined the National Socialist Party- impressed by a man called Adolf Hitler. And over a periodof 20 yrs he helped define Hitler’s visions of the Reich, and he perhaps deriving a direction

from the Fuhrer.

It was this story that made me step back and with an outsider’s eyes look at architecture- to

what extent are architects really responsible for the built environment of a country. Are they

ultimately unconscious products of political and economic forces far outside their sphere of 

influence? A little scraping below the surface reveals this and more- how architecture may be a

complex blend of ideology, counter-ideologies, aesthetics and sometimes- practical needs. To

pinpoint the most expressive cases, it has been necessary to select nations and time frames

wherein the political force has had a long, unchallenged run- giving the forces that be a chance

to tinker with architectural concerns.

To take the story of Herr Speer forward, he eventually began overseeing the construction of 

buildings for the Wermacht and the Luftwaffe. Nazi architecture came to be a celebration of 

stone coupled with Nordic motifs. Their notion of individuality stemmed from the

monumentality of built form that were assumed to be the pride of the era, not unlike the “cities

of antiquity” that could boast of the Parthenon, Colosseum etc. Speer’s architecture hearkened

back to a Classicism- albeit one with an unsettling austerity and shorn of all ornamentation. A

regimental repetitive monotony, when imprinted on a gigantic scale- can be read as a reflection

of the notions of strict order in the society. Berlin became the playground of the Reich’s

architectural fantasies- a potential world capital and an “attempt of the Fuhrer to speak of the

greatness of our age to the future millennia” - in the words of Speer himself.

Speer designed the Volkshall (Hall of the People)- as the focus of new Berlin 

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 Speer and Hitler 

Speer found himself increasingly involved in the destiny of his country to the extent of holding

the post of Minister of Armaments and War in the Nazi Party and being a close confidant of 

Hitler- a career-digression that eventually met its end in the Nuremberg trials after WWII.

Most of Speer’s creations were obliterated along with the Nazi party- perhaps an

uncomfortable memory that Germany would not like to recall.

Even as Hitler chose Speer to be his architect, his nemesis Josef Stalin found ways to express

socialism through the built fabric of Russia. The socialist advocacy of state-owned enterprises

led to the outlawing of any private artists’ association. A ban had been imposed on singular

buildings(they had to be a part of an ensemble) . One cannot help but imagine an architect of 

Howard Roark’s nature in such a circumstance- where the architects were pawns in the handsof the government, where traditionalists and Constructivists were pitted together to enforce a

fusion of styles. Would he revel in the fact that he no longer designed for an elite? Would he,

like Speer, find inspiration in the political ideology, or would his creative spirit be stifled?

 Red Army Theatre in Moscow

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Socialist architecture was manifest increasingly in East Berlin after WWII- the ‘Teacher’s

House’ designed by Hermann Henselmann- where the ideology was expressed

programmatically rather than through form. Apart from functioning as a centre for furthur

education for teachers alone- it housed public cafes, restaurant and a congress hall leased for

balls or concerts- functioning, therefore, also as a public centre open to all citizens. A

combination of high-rises and low-buildings was interpreted as an attempt to reconcile ‘high

technology’ and art with humanism.

Oscar Niemeyer, a Communist- tries to reconcile his architecture with his political thought- “ I do not know why I only design large public buildings. But these buildings do not always serve

the functions of social justice. I try to make them beautiful and spectacular so that the poor can

stop to look at them and be enthused. As an architect that is all I can do .”

As we shift to the ideologies of the new world- we tread on the fountainhead of the ‘market

economy’.

Capitalism remains the world’s most employed economic template-and its values and

necessities are reflected in its architecture. Despite a variety of expressions, its most common

form remains that of a private space open to the public under determined circumstances.

Though a revival of the marketplace in high density urban fabrics- they remain a spacecontrolled by private corporations. Designing for such economic models culminate in spaces

designed with the sole intent of maximizing visibility, even to the extent of designing

exclusively in accordance with consumer surveys and market studies. In such cases it becomes

necessary to make every square inch both marketable and controllable. A space that is thus

treated as an object inherently discourages a spectrum of activities intrinsic to a multifunctional

urban setting, robbing the building of any significance to the greater urban fabric.

Plan of a modern retail space- with clearly segregated functions- all with the sole intent of 

maximizing visibility and saleable floor area- resulting in a monotony of spatial experience.

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 Plan of Isfahan Bazaar showing overlapping functions, variety of spaces. The commercial, the

religious and public amenities juxtaposed.

Dogged adherence to ideology have led to breaks from practical concerns; and its mindless

worship, irrespective of ideological breaks, have culminated in shows of strength and

omnipotence.

Even as we perceive architecture as linked with movements in art (Classicism, Modernism,

Postmodernism) – we cannot ignore it as a product of political ideology. At times the

influences are subtle, less apparent, but a hundred years from now- our habitats may reveal

more about us- not just our lifestyle, but about more intrinsic functions of our thought-our

governance, beliefs and values.