Been discussing architecture with my sister when I went to visit and again over Tgiving. She's taking a class on modern arch at UCSC and I've studied it a little, my interest centering on how architecture reflects historical socio/cultural patterns as well and power dynamics. The use of architecture by the state (the original propaganda??) goes back to what Mumford calls the megamachine and its monumental products; the pyramids, ziggurats, Stonehenge, Tikal, Angkor Wat. Architecture was the symbol used to express the sacred ordination of the secular, the king/priest alliance. Flash forward to the use of romantic architecture by totalitarian/fascist/democratic movements in the 20th century.

The history of modern arch seems to begin (perhaps some overemphasis from Gideon) in Germany after WWI with the Bauhaus movement. This movement was suppressed and many of its adherents came to America where modern arch was centered after the war. An exception, Mies, submitted a design for the Reichsbank that the Nazi's approved of. Nazi's said Bauhaus was decadent, Bolshevik and cosmopolitan.

Watching doc now, Gropius builds the Bauhaus at Dessau with Ford style assemble line, very modern. Glass facade detached from load bearing pillars, transparent, no isolation, designed to encourage interaction and banish privacy. Its very industrial (radiators as ornaments), function is beauty. Influence of Cubism, interpenetration of space, all superfluous elements removed.