" Modern Architecture is seen as constructing a utopian ideology… The architect is constructed as an ideologue of society, intervening personally in urban planning, playing a role of formal persuasion to the public… " - Manfredo Tafuri
A family story
There is a story I want to shared before I start my statement, about my grandpa. It sounds weird, but trust me, that’s real.
My grandpa was a chief (Architecture) engineer in an Aluminum factory run by government in 1960s, when the Culture Revolution happened in China. He drew a circle on the sketch paper before he left office home, then someone turned that circle in to a turtle with a few scribble lines and
Modern architects are undoubtedly zealot of achieving their ideologies with the help of technology
Ideology Underprint
Architecture itself is the product of ideology and also provides a space for ideology (re)production.
From Louis Althusser's perspective, ideology is considered a practice, a processing of human consciousness. The ideology (re)production process is realized through the interpellation of the subject, which most notably happened in certain spaces, like family.
Modern Architecture as that kind of ideology underprint can be found from its early days. As shown in Fig.1, utilizing spatial maneuvers to create relationships of height, distance, or occlusion, Jefferson separated some areas of black slave activity from white living quarters, which can be told from a huge scale between pillars and humans in the Elevation.
It also can be noticed through the Plan of Monticello and the family living scene in Figure 2, where not only is the kitchen area for black laborers separated from a distance (of the dining room) but also from the line of sight, where windows and walls are utilized to obscure the relationship to avoid direct contact by blacks. More importantly, during the day-to-day labor and supervision (“Edith Fossett and Frances Hern could only spend time with their families prior to bed.”), this space generates a solidified master-slave relationship to serve as the bias for Jefferson's and his ear's argument that “there is an impenetrable threshold to the reason for black people”.
Fig.2 Plan of Monticello Charlottesville, United States. 1768 & Edith Fossett and Frances Hern cooking in Monticello's Kitchen with another enslaved woman and an enslaved boy, Gail McIntosh, watercolor, 2005
“Advanced” Technology
With the help of advanced technology, now architects can fulfill their long-cherished Utopia dream, even if it usually leads to Dystopia.
About 3 years ago, I read Debord's La Société du spectacle, a very small booklet with a cover that stuck with me (Fig.3). You can see massive viewers sitting in the theater watching a 3D movie, spontaneously becoming passive recipients of the accumulation of all spectacular images (Spectacle) without any response.
Fig.3 Cover Image of the Chinese translation of La Société du spectacle - Audience members sport 3-D glasses during the first screening of “Bwana Devil,” the first full-length, color 3-D movie, November 26, 1952, at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood.
I have no clue that if Debord’s thesis inspired Charles & Ray Eames or not. However, using advanced media technology to situate people into a fairytale future with well fabricated and spectacular images in the USA&USSR cultural exchange is smart and efficiently.
It is sometimes difficult to brutally define whether an architect is actively involved in ideology or not. I would quote the distinction between communal as well as individual identity in Arendt's defense of Eichmann, which implies there is some kind of rupture and merger between the two. But, as shown in Fig.3, it's hard not to make the connection (in a bad way) between those spectacular screens and the people in Clockwork Orange who are having their eyes open to the brainwashing video continuously, nor Surveillance system in The Dark Knight. As Enclosed by Images: The Eameses' Multimedia Architecture indicates in the end “An enclosure-the kind of space we now occupy continuously without thinking.”
Fig.4 Glimpses of the USA in Moscow, 1959, Charles & Ray Eames & A Clockwork Orange 1971,Stanley Kubrick
Especially, a year after that, the Watergate scandal happened. It is undeniable that in the supposed rivalry between capitalist and socialist ideologies, both use technology for evil to a greater or lesser extent, no matter how much they argue for their greatness.
Metabolizing Exodus
In addition to the two examples mentioned above, you can find many cases in the Morden Architecture history. Starting with a certain good vision in certain ideological waves, with the help of technological innovations .... ended up with bad results. However, as Accelerationism indicates, it is “the metabolic” nature of technology itself that could be a breakthrough for a good future.
As Tafuri declares the history of modern architecture reveals the Bourgeois ideology of capitalism. The most basic metabolism of capitalism is economic growth, which relied on consumer society, and this process leads to a high rate of technological development, which constantly breaks with the social status quo and generates progress.
Just my response to my teacher’ question "As a representative of Metabolism, whether Nakagin Capsule Tower's ‘being metabolized’ was successful(completed) or unsuccessful(uncompleted) due to its ideology. "… The decision to demolish and restore the NCT (Fig.5) exemplifies how technological advances are changing the way people view architectural history. Emerging sustainable technology have made it more possible to “recycle” rather than “replace”, which is opposite it intended to be. (The ideology behind the Metabolism is the expansion of Japan's Showa era and information technology)
Fig.45 Resettled Nakagin capsule & Reproduced Nakagin capsule as a trailer capsule, Shinjiro Yamada, 2023
In a nutshell, the architect cannot escape the influence of ideology, and he/she has the choice to become a prisoner voluntarily or to Exodus. Technology, on the other hand, is precisely a double-edged sword that allows it to be resisted or reinforced.