Architecture and Modernity : A Critique

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than they are. Correct measures are those that result in a minimum of
ostentation. Everything else is ballast. . . .
The struggle for modern architecture then is a struggle against
pretentiousness, against every excess and for a human scale. 62
Behind this approach is the notion that every object should be understood in terms
of its inmost essence. This essence conforms to its function, to what it can be used
for. Beauty exists when people succeed in giving this essence as accurate a form as
possible, without any “excess” or anything that is extraneous or superfluous. It was
this conviction that made the project of housing for the Existenzminimum more than
a purely instrumental answer to the housing situation. 63 The architects of the New
Building were not only interested in the program of housing for the underprivileged
classes for extrinsic, social reasons. They also saw it as an opportunity to realize an
ascetic ideal—housing reduced to its essence, pure, minimal, and authentic.
In the course of time, however, a slight shift of emphasis in the issues of Das
Neue Frankfurt became apparent. During the early years virtually no attempt was
made to analyze the economic and social aspects of housing policy in Frankfurt: they
were apparently regarded as self-evident aspects of the struggle to create a new culture.
Gradually, however, these themes began to be treated independently of the cultural
context, as autonomous problems. In 1928, for instance, in the special issue
about housing, the necessity of rationality and functionality in housing design was
still defended on the grounds of a general concept of dwelling culture, while in 1929
in the issue on billige Wohnungen (cheap housing), published on the occasion of the
CIAM congress in Frankfurt, much more stress was laid on hygiene and on social and
economic arguments. 64 Unquestionably, the economic crisis had forced architecture
to concentrate more on economic necessities,
and this led to a more pronounced consideration
of building costs. 65 Cover of Das Neue Frankfurt,
After 1929,
January 1928.
when the consequences of the economic
crisis clearly began to make themselves felt,
public housing was treated primarily as an
economic and financial problem, and rationality
and functionality in design was mainly
thought of in terms of cost-effectiveness.
Even so, functionalism in Das Neue
Frankfurt continued to be seen as part of
a project for emancipation. It was the aim
of May and his associates to provide the
mass of people on the housing lists with
decent accommodation that would free
them from intolerable living conditions.
These new homes would allow them to en-
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