Academic literature on the topic '1930s architecture'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2010.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-221).<br>This dissertation is an architectural history of Russian everyday life, or byt, in the first two decades after the October Revolution. In this period, the investigation and reform of byt was a project that vastly crossed the limits of the architectural profession. I survey ways in which the quotidian environment was understood, ordered and envisioned in a variety of practices: bureaucracy, literature, theatre, film, urbanism, and design. The dissertation explores the architecture of discrete geographies, sets of tactics and strategies, employed in mapping the terrain of the quotidian. It explores how the official rhetoric of labor and productivity was translated into ethics and aesthetics of existence. The study is ordered chronologically, and according to scale. In the first chapter I explore the manipulation and invention of the everyday object. The second chapter is about the performance of the everyday in Meyerholds's biomechanical theatre, its ties with the Central Institute of Labor, and the charting of the agitated body in action onto the space of the stage. The third chapter captures a moment in the development of the Soviet bathhouse, or banya, , in which the bath, resembling a factory, was conceived of as an efficient, working building, which processed citizens' bodies in their entirety, and in some cases, presented replicas of the world at large. In the fourth chapter I read collective workers' histories to reconstruct the aesthetic of the Moscow Metro and particular modes of perception needed to capture and behold its magnificence. The final chapter is about the efforts of wife-activists, or obshchestvennitsy, to represent a society of surplus and overproduction through their management of nature's bounty.<br>by Tijana Vujosevic.<br>Ph.D.

This research explores the shopping cultures of the 1930s West End, arguing for the recognition of this as a significant moment within consumption history, hitherto overlooked in favour of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The approach is interdisciplinary, combining in a new way studies of shopping routes and networks, retail architecture, spectacle, consumer types and consumption practices. The study first establishes the importance of shopping geographies in understanding the character of the 1930s West End. It positions this shopping hub within local, national and international networks. It also examines the gender and class-differentiated shopping routes within the West End, looking at how the rise of new consumer cultures during the period reconfigured this geography. In the second section, a case study of two new Modern shops, Simpson Piccadilly and Peter Jones, provides the focus for a discussion of retail buildings. Architecture is presented as an important way in which the West End was transformed and modernity articulated. Modernism was a significant arrival in the West End's retail sector: it provided a new architectural approach with a close, if often problematic, relationship with shopping. The study thus reassesses common assumptions about the fundamental irreconcilability of modernism with consumption, femininity and spectacle. The third section makes a more detailed examination of the staging of shopping cultures within the West End street, looking at window display, the application of light and decoration to facades, and participation in pageantry. The study thus revisits retail spectacle, an important strand within histories of shopping and of the urban, looking at how established strategies were adapted and developed to stage modernity, emerging consumer cultures and the West End itself during the 1930s.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2004.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 272-281).<br>(cont.) relationship with American Scene painting. His engagement with these themes suggests that the pictorial reorganization of spatial experience that anchored his practice as a socially engaged artist is inextricably bound to the politics of place.<br>This dissertation examines Stuart Davis's paintings of the 1930s in relation to his conviction that art could transform reality by extending and reordering the spatial dimensions of common experience. While Davis's enthusiastic involvement with Marxism had a significant impact upon the development of his ideas during the thirties, his reception of liberal aesthetic theory, as exemplified in the writings of the philosopher John Dewey, played a more fundamental role in his understanding of the social function of art. By situating Davis's activities within the context of other artists and intellectuals who sought to rebuild public life through the aesthetic organization of common experience, Davis's strong political convictions are brought together with his abstract art within an integrated interpretive framework. He described cubism as an extension of the realist tradition that could express his reactions to the modem environment and in so doing offer a conceptual model to guide future action. Through a complex and not always consistent theoretical rationale, he related the formal structure of his paintings to their ability to communicate his vision of common experience to a broad audience without violating the logic of two-dimensional design. The social and political value of aesthetically reordering common experience was understood by many between the World Wars to reside in art's capacity to facilitate the formation of a shared national identity and cultural discourse. The profound geographic and spatial transformations associated with modernity played a crucial role in this conception of identity. Davis's contributions to these issues is examined in relation to his understanding of the internationalism of his modernist art and his complex<br>by John X. Christ.<br>Ph.D.

If you ask any person for his opinion about "miljonprogrammet", most would answer that it is the largest architectural failure in modern times. The housing shortage meant that numerous buildings had to be built quickly and the architecture was neglected. Today there is again a significant housing shortage, and the need to build many homes have quickly become a political priority issue. These homes should preferably be as cheap as possible. The risk is great that we in 50 years will view these buildings in a similar way that we look at the "miljonprogrammet" today. If we instead turn to the houses that were built in the 1920s these are still considered to be very beautiful and classic tastefulness. This type of house should be easy to replicate by simply building classic houses with pitched roof, simple details above windows and doors with a one-colored plaster facade. This work has been carried out in order to avoid falling into the same situation again. The aim was to prove that there is an increased willingness to pay for houses built around the 1920s. By proving that this is the case, we hope that the houses being built in the future will return to this classic tastefulness architecture which we believe will provide a more sustainable cityscape. The result has been obtained by several independent t-tests of sales in Södermalm and Östermalm, in central Stockholm, during the past five years. Interviews with architects, brokers and construction companies have also carried out to obtain a broader base and to see how professionals in the industry look at the issue. Literature has been used for further theoretical background. The conclusion has been obtained by compiling samples and interviews. The result was that there is a strong significant difference in the willingness to pay of properties built during the "miljonprogrammet" versus 1920. Where the 1920s houses sold for a much higher price.<br>Frågar man valfri person efter dennes åsikt angående miljonprogrammet skulle de flesta svara att det är det största arkitektoniska misslyckandet i modern tid. Bostadsbristen medförde att mycket skulle byggas fort och arkitekturen kom i skymundan. Idag råder det återigen stor bostadsbrist och behovet av att bygga många bostäder snabbt har blivit en politisk huvudfråga. Dessa bostäder ska helst också bli så billiga som möjligt. Risken är stor att vi om 50 år kommer se på dessa byggnader som man ser på miljonprogrammet idag. Ser man istället till husen som byggdes under 1920-talet anses dessa fortfarande vara väldigt vackra och klassiskt stilrena. Tjugotalshusen borde vara enkla att återskapa genom att bara bygga klassiska hus med sadeltak, få enkla detaljer över fönster och dörrar samt med en enfärgad putsfasad. Det här arbetet har genomförts för att undvika att hamna i samma situation en gång till. Syftet var att bevisa att det finns en ökad betalningsvilja för hus byggda kring 1920-talet. Genom att bevisa att så är fallet hoppas vi att de hus som byggs i framtiden kommer återgå mot denna klassiskt stilrena arkitektur. Detta tror vi kommer ge en mer långsiktigt hållbar stadsbild. Resultatet har fåtts genom en sticksprovsstudie av överlåtelser på Södermalm och Östermalm, i Stockholms innerstad, under de senaste fem åren. Intervjuer med arkitekter, mäklare och byggbolag har även genomförts för att få en bredare bas och för att se hur yrkesverksamma i branschen ser på frågan. Litteratur har använts för vidare teoretisk bakgrund. Slutsatsen har fåtts genom en sammanställning av stickproven och intervjuerna. Resultatet blev att det finns en stark signifikant skillnad i betalningsvilja mellan fastigheter byggda under miljonprogrammet kontra 1920-talet. Där 1920-talshusen såldes för ett betydligt högre pris.