Architecture and Ideology

Dr RUDOLF KLEIN, Professor
Saint Stephen University, Budapest, kleinrud@gmail.com
JEWISH INFLUENCE ON IDEOLOGIES OF MODERN
ARCHITECTURE
Abstract |
This paper investigates the impact of Judaic tradition and Jewish thinking on ideologies of
modern architecture, from a wide cultural historic perspective. Traditionally architectural
theories were mainly reflective, based on good examples to be followed, ‘recipes’ like
Vitruvius’ or Alberti’s. However, as 20th century modernism refused tradition, prospective
theories, created ex nihilo, and ideologies based on new cosmology took the lead in
architecture.
I argue, that this is the moment when Judaic heritage and Jewish thinking began to influence
Western architecture: The new cosmology originating from Albert Einstein’s space‐time, theory
of relativity and quantum mechanics, all rooted partly in Judaic heritage, brought about Adolf
Loos’ Raumplan, Erich Mendelssohn’s speed end energy and Siegfried Giedion’s Raumzeit and
simultaneity that cemented together into a strong ideology in architecture, valid until the
1970s.
Later Post‐Modernism and Deconstruction brought about a series of protagonists of Jewish
origin, Robert A. Stern, Richard Meier, Leon Krier, Frank O. Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Daniel
Libeskind, etc., who implemented numerous further Judaic elements into their ideologies and
buildings – with or without reference to the Judaic tradition or their Jewish origin. This paper
analyses mechanisms and strategies through which Judaic thought, Jewish attitude found their
ways into architectural ideologies and practices in the first half of the 20th century.
Key words |
Modernism, Judaism, Einstein, space‐time, Post‐Modernism, Deconstruction
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