Architecture's Connection to Time and Place

by Billy del Monte

Architecture is always associated with the time and place in which it was made, and in the case of Nazi and Soviet architecture dismissed or not considered in the same light as other works of architecture that would have been produced in nation with a more agreeable ideology. In this way many important developments and unique ways of considering problems are disregarded for reasons witch are mostly unrelated to the ideas of these works. This really applies to all buildings, instead of understanding the specific considerations that apply to each project, often a more general motive and idea is assigned based on what is known of the time and era of its creation, especially when looking further into the past. This is a problem because many of the architectural ideas that are dismissed are from the largest and most controlling government systems, and while this usually did grant architects the same amount of freedom of design that could be had in other nations which are now seen in a more positive light, there where unique in the amount of investment that was put into large national projects, and the depth in which they were able to delve in to specific architectural ideas that formed the national identity of these powerful nations.

Soviet architecture is a good example of this. At the time of the communist revolution in Russia the party in power saw the need to develop a new, uniquely communist identify and began creating unique architectural theory that began move away from the ideas of the west at the time. The west also had little interest in the architectural ideas created by the Soviet Union, and as a result Soviet and Western Architecture remained largely dissimilar for most of the modern era. Seeing themselves as almost in competition with the western world, large investments were made in the field of Architecture and put towards the development of new and valuable ideas, ideas that in the eyes of the western world where spoiled by their connection with an ideology that was seen as dangerous. The most valuable architectural developments in the Soviet Union where related to urban planning, because new construction and development was being done at such a large scale they could consider plans at a large and more connected scale, as a result some of the most unique and forward thinking city plans of the time came from Russia. This is most evident in Berlin, which is a unique example of a city that developed while in the same era but with two separate architectural systems, In many ways East Berlin has a more appealing plan due to the order and organization that was able to be implemented on that side of the City, while West Berlin is made up of more individual projects without as much of a unifying system.