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Air, Light and Utopia: The Modern Movement in Architecture
VHS color video.
53 minutes
Available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences at 800-257-5126 or www.films.com.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613-0362, U.S.A. E-mail: ballast@netins.net
In architectural history, the term "Modern Movement" refers chiefly to the work of European architects in the period between the world wars. Many of their projects were factories, among them Peter Behrens' work for AEG (1909), Walter Gropius' Fagus Factory (1913), his Dessau Bauhaus (1926) (a school in a factory, really), and the Van Nelle Factory by J.A. Brinkman and L.C. van der Vlugt (1931), all of which appear in this video. Using on-location visits to architectural landmarks throughout Europe, combined with clips from interviews with architects and historians, it identifies some of the reasons behind the Modernist preoccupation with factories, low cost housing, and the prudent and efficient use of new materials and technology. Its architectural examples are surprisingly rich in their breadth and number, with discussion and scenes of such pivotal works as Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower (1924), Gerrit Rietveld's Schroeder House (1924), Konstantin Melnikov's Rusakov Workers' Club (1929), and Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1931). The central focus of the film is on Europe, and, with the exception of Frank Lloyd Wright, who both influenced and was influenced by European Modernists, there is little if any discussion of the contribution to Modernism by U.S. architects.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review 16, No. 2, Winter 2000-2001.)
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