Stripped Classicism (also referred to asStarved Classicism orGrecian Moderne)[1] is primarily a 20th-centuryclassicistarchitectural style stripped of most or allornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing official buildings. It was adopted by bothtotalitarian anddemocratic regimes.[A] The style embraces a "simplified but recognizable" classicism in its overall massing and scale while eliminating traditional decorative detailing.[3][4][5][6] Theorders of architecture are only hinted at or are indirectly implicated in the form and structure.[B]
Despite its etymological similarity, Stripped Classicism is sometimes distinguished from "Starved Classicism", the latter "displaying little feeling for rules, proportions, details, and finesse, and lacking all verve and élan".[5][7] At other times the terms "stripped" and "starved" are used interchangeably.[8][9]
Stripped Classicism was a materialistic manifestation of 'political'modernism. Recent historiography has explicitly linked this architectural style – and its relationship with modernist thinking – to political projects arising in the 1920–1930s, which utilised artistic dexterity to articulate – in built form – a powerful political ethos orientated towards the future.[10]
Between the World Wars, a stripped-down classicism became thede facto standard for many monumental and institutional governmental buildings all over the world.[2] Governments used this architecturalméthode to straddlemodernism andclassicism, an ideal political response to a modernizing world.[12] In part, this movement was said to have origins in the need to save money in governmentalworks by eschewing the expense of hand-worked classical detail.[6]
In Europe, examples as early as theEmbassy of Germany, Saint Petersburg, designed byPeter Behrens and completed in 1912, "established models for the classical purity aspired to by high modernists likeMies van der Rohe but also for the oversized, Stripped Classicism of Hitler's, Stalin's andUlbricht's architects and perhaps of American, British and French official buildings in the 1930s as well".[13] The style later found adherents in theFascist regimes of Germany[14] and Italy as well as in theSoviet Union duringStalin's regime.[15]Albert Speer'sZeppelinfeld and other parts of theNazi party rally grounds complex outsideNuremberg were perhaps the most famous examples in Germany, using classical elements such as columns and altars alongside modern technology such asspotlights. TheCasa del Fascio inComo has also been aligned with the movement. In the USSR some of the proposals for the unbuiltPalace of the Soviets also had characteristics of the style.[2]
Despite its popularity withtotalitarian regimes, it has been adapted by many English-speakingdemocratic governments, including during theNew Deal in the United States.[2] In any event, presumed "fascist" underpinnings have hampered acceptance into mainstream architectural thought.[2] There is no evidence that architects who favored this style had a particularright-wing political disposition. Nevertheless, bothAdolf Hitler andBenito Mussolini were fans.[21][22] On the other hand, Stripped Classicism was favored byJoseph Stalin and various regionalCommunist regimes.[15]
The use of culture and 'myth' was a shared peculiarity of totalitarian political programmes during the 1920–30s, includingNazism in Germany andSoviet Communism in Russia. Cultural incentives launched by these states, and all their various intricacies, evoked currents of modernist thought.
Through architecture, they strove to invoke the power ofmodernity in their physical landscapes (especially in their capital cities) and, simultaneously, reinvent the past (as symbolised by Stripped Classicism's restrained classical features) by ransacking its archetypal 'healthy' elements to inaugurate a reforged, rejuvenated, futural, open-ended and monumental future.
It is this curious dichotomy between old and new, an inexorable feature of Stripped Classicism, which historianRoger Griffin has encapsulated in his conceptual framework of 'rooted modernism' (which he discusses in relation to fascist buildings).[24]
The modernism in Stripped Classical buildings can be seen through their stylistic components (mute apertures, blank walls and the absence of ornament) and through their pure functionality.Adolf Loos, an Austrian theorist of modern architecture, and his essay "Ornament and Crime" can be seen as just one of the many philosophers/theorists/architects who foreshadowed some of the stylistic elements of Stripped Classicism.
Avant-garde movements such asFuturism also foreshadowed a form of building which is as much extravagant as it is streamlined, as much multi-functional as it is fit for the multi-faceted modern future vis-a-vis high-speed travel, technologically advanced means of communication, hydraulic engineering etc... "all in time for the most mechanised war in history", as Samuel Patterson writes.[25]
The Stripped Classical style was also embraced byFranklin D. Roosevelt, who yearned for an architecture symbolising a 'new beginning' underNew Dealism (which was fighting to ameliorate the ramifications of theGreat Depression), and concomitantly, archetypal American genius. A discussion of the Roosevelt administration, its reinvention of the past (centred onJeffersonianism) and its uses of architecture in the 1930s can be found in Patterson's 'Problem-Solvers' thesis.[25]
Walter Bunning, in association with T.E. O’Mahoney
1968
"... modern derivation in the spirit of ancient Greco-Roman architecture. It is unequivocally a twentieth century building, in the architectural style that is called Late Twentieth Century Stripped Classical".[29]
^"Stripped Classicism was a widely popular, international style of architecture during theinter-war period. It is best defined as a pared down version of classicism that blended the classical vocabulary with the ever-growing desire for abstraction... Due to its strong associations with totalitarian governments, it is often excluded from the canonic historical narrative of the modern movement. Recently a growing number of scholars have begun to question the traditional definition of modern architecture. If the discussion on modernism is expanding beyond the traditional canonical definition, a greater understanding of Stripped Classicism's place amongst the modern movement can be achieved."[2]
^Thus, for example, cuts might be substituted formoldings.[5]
^Sennott, Stephen, ed. (2004).Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 269.ISBN1579582435.
^"Stripped Classical 1900-1945". Essential Architecture. Archived from the original on December 4, 2014. RetrievedDecember 5, 2014.
^abcdefghCurl, James Stevens (2000)."Stripped Classicism".A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Encyclopedia.com. RetrievedDecember 6, 2014.
^Cf,Curl, James Stevens (2000)."Starved Classicism".A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Encyclopedia.com. RetrievedDecember 6, 2014.
^"Front Matter".Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.11 (2).Oxford University Press on behalf of the Public Management Research Association: i-264. April 2001.JSTOR3525687.
^Irving, Robert; Powell, Ron; Irving, Noel (2014).Sydney's hard rock story: the cultural heritage of trachyte. Leura, N.S.W.: Heritage Publishing. p. 137.ISBN9781875891160.
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