Docomomo Journal publishes original research on the documentation and conservation of Modern Movement buildings, sites and neighbourhoods.
Urban housing built between 1949 and the commercialization of the housing market in the 1980s in China has gained increasing attention from architectural historians and conservationists. Once colloquially dismissed as ‘old, dilapidated, and small’ during China’s rapid urban renewal, these housing projects are now being reconsidered for their heritage values amid growing criticism of large-scale demolitions. However, the preservation of these buildings faces significant challenges due to their outdated floor plans, concerns over structural stability, limited research, and the absence of a shared framework for value assessment. This paper traces the historical evolution of urban housing construction in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, drawing on a range of sources, including academic journal articles, as well as official guidelines and reports. It argues that, while early housing planning in the 1950s was heavily influenced by the Soviet system that emphasized standardized design and industrialized construction, Chinese housing practices made ongoing, incremental adaptations to address technological constraints, material shortages, and regional differences. As a result, instead of aiming for a perfect solution to modern living, designers worked with imperfect solutions using available resources during a time of scarcity. Unlike the ideology-driven, standardized mass housing often associated with Soviet-influenced countries, China’s housing projects from the 1950s to the 1980s exhibit a more localized, organic response to both social and material conditions. The paper contends that this adaptive approach to housing design during this period is essential for understanding the challenges in evaluating these housing legacies today.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yimei Zhang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper explores the architectural and social significance of the Homes of the Army in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992), a specific typology of objects, built and managed by the army, yet utilized by citizens across generations as community and cultural centers. The Homes of the Army represented the materialization of the doctrine of the Yugoslav People’s Army in strengthening the unity of the young multi-ethnic nation. In this sense, their design emphasized monumentality, while also promoting openness, following the trends of Western European modernist practice of the time. However, with the change in socio-political circumstances in the early 1990s, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the deregulation of public space in a corrupt system, in which political instruments are used to support the economic interests of private investors, the fate of these buildings—which had become focal points in the social and cultural life of cities—was, in many cases, left to the market. Preservation efforts, led by architects and cultural activists from the local communities, are focused on the potential of these buildings as spaces for culture and community interaction. The paper presents a case study of the protection of the Home of the Yugoslav People’s Army in Šabac, one of the seven most endangered heritage sites listed by Europa Nostra for 2024. By analyzing this example, the paper offers insights into current challenges as well as strategies for protecting modernist heritage across former Yugoslavia. Analyzing the pressure of the market on the one hand and the preservation of local identity on the other, this paper provides a critical analysis of the contemporary narrative on the rehabilitation and reuse of modernist structures that no longer align with contemporary economic frameworks. These insights offer lessons that can be applied to similar conservation efforts globally, making the case study relevant to the broader international context of modernist architecture conservation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marko Gavrilović https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Processes of Ruinisation and Revitalisation
The formation of Kharkiv’s image as an industrial city in the late 19th-early 20th centuries was accompanied by ups and downs, which were caused by changes in the political status of the city. The aim of this article is to trace the processes of formation, ruination, and revitalization of Kharkiv’s industrial architecture during the period of Modernism and their reflection in the authentic features of the city; to outline possible ways to rehabilitate the iconic industrial territories and structures. The method of historical and genetic analysis applied in the study showed that during the industrialization period of 1919-1934, there was a sharp change not only in the ideological program and strategy of the state, but also in the stylistics of industrial construction towards Avant-garde Constructivism, and then towards historicism, which were later replaced by the neutral features of Modernism. The analysis revealed several breakdowns in the search for authentic features of the city of Kharkiv, which are now expressed in a combination of artistic features of the Avant-garde and historical styles. With the achievement of Ukrainian independence and the restructuring of the entire industrial complex from state to private ownership in the 1990s, the process of degradation and decline of Kharkiv’s industrial infrastructure began, necessitating a reevaluation of the significance and utilization of valuable historical buildings. In addition, Russia’s military invasion in 2022-2025 makes the risk of losing modernist industrial architecture monuments in Kharkiv very real. The article discusses several strategic directions for revitalizing deteriorating industrial territories and constructions, which represent historical and cultural value and contribute to the authenticity of these districts. It develops the possibility of selecting and combining the proposed directions for revitalizing iconic industrial territories and structures.
deterioration of architectural monuments
Copyright (c) 2025 Olena Remizova, Kyrylo Bozhko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Shifting Paradigms Between Modernism and Tradition
The global dissemination of modernist architecture reflects an intricate interplay between universal principles of design and regional adaptations, often shaped by sociopolitical ideologies and local traditions. Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, serves as a compelling example of this phenomenon, illustrating the fusion of global and socialist modernist ideals with Central Asian heritage. This paper explores the emergence of Tashkent’s modernist architecture, focusing on its transformation in the 20th century through three interconnected dimensions: a brief theoretical framework focusing on the global origins and regional responses of Modernism, its reinterpretation in Tashkent’s Soviet-era urban development, and the localized adaptations that integrate regional decorative and architectural elements, climate-responsive features, and cultural narratives. The study traces Modernism’s journey from its European roots to its adoption in socialist and postcolonial contexts, emphasizing how, in the second half of the 20th century, Tashkent became a laboratory for architectural innovation. Through the analysis of emblematic buildings, the paper highlights how modernist principles were reimagined to address regional conditions and to integrate Eastern ornamentation and traditional spatial practices. Despite the rich cultural synthesis achieved in Tashkent’s modernist heritage, these buildings face challenges in preservation due to post-Soviet identity shifts and rapid urban development. Thus, the paper concludes by examining emerging conservation efforts, highlighting the importance of these architectural achievements in advancing a deeper understanding of the dynamic interaction between global modernism and local influences. Tashkent’s 20th-century architectural legacy not only represents a significant chapter in the history of modernist architecture but also serves as a unique lens through which to reconsider the complexities of cultural identity, globalization, and architectural preservation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sofia Celli, Davide Del Curto, Karolina Pieniazek, Gunce Uzgoren https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This study investigates the vulnerability of modernist architectural heritage and the multifaceted challenges it faces in contemporary society. The analysis focuses on the inherent difficulties of conserving these structures, considering their cultural and historical significance alongside the need for adaptation to current social, functional, and regulatory requirements. Through the lens of a key case study, the architectural legacy of the distinguished Argentine architect Miguel Ángel Roca, the research examines how digitization can address these challenges by generating multi-scale and multi-resolution models that support detailed analysis and conservation strategies. The research stems from an interdisciplinary collaboration among the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, the University of Salerno, and Federico II University of Naples in Italy. It showcases the potential of digital tools for modernist heritage conservation, providing innovative solutions for its management, enhancing community engagement, and establishing a comprehensive digital archive. This archive ensures the long-term preservation and dissemination of Roca’s work, contributing to future research and educational initiatives. By integrating digital technologies, the study addresses the technical, social, and economic challenges associated with heritage conservation. The creation of detailed digital archives offers a sustainable framework for managing modernist architecture, ensuring its adaptability to contemporary demands while preserving its historical integrity. Furthermore, this research aligns with the objectives of the journal’s special issue, Imperfect Modernism, by exploring how changing social and political conditions across different countries shape contemporary attitudes toward modern architecture. It explores weaknesses in preservation and protection practices that can affect its legacy, and the challenges and solutions inherent in its conservation, and highlights how the interdisciplinary and digital methodologies introduced set new standards for the sustainable management of architectural heritage, promoting a balance between conservation and the need for modernization in response to evolving societal needs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Victoria Ferraris, Carla Ferreyra, Anna Sanseverino, Luisa Smeragliuolo Perrotta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In April 2023, just weeks after the armed conflict broke out in Sudan, the National Museum was damaged by fire and later broken into by the militias of the Rapid Support Forces. In the months to come, it would be reported that a part of the museum’s collection of over a hundred thousand priceless antiquities was looted. These events chronicle the most recent entanglements of the Sudan National Museum with politics and power relations in Sudan. However, examining the museum’s history unveils deeper connections to pivotal moments in the nation’s history. The museum’s colonial roots, as a building, archive, and educational institution, reveal how the British perceived it as a potential tool for establishing sovereignty over Sudan through the politicization of archaeology. As the project was given new life after Sudan’s independence, external influences continued to shape the museum when it became entangled in the geopolitics of the Nile Waters Agreement and the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, launched by UNESCO in response, was a vital moment during which the endangered Nubian antiquities were ‘displaced’ to the museum. While the museum was positioned as a repository for cultural heritage protected by conservation law, the museum building itself fell outside of this protection because it does not apply to modern heritage. Since the museum is a national project, it would come to be governed by the politics of Sudan’s successive military governments, each leaving its imprint on the project. All these political influences cannot be separated from the museum, rendering it an archive of critical moments that shaped the country. Unraveling this archive allows us to trace the interwoven threads of displacement, national identity, and representation embedded within the museum complex. It allows us to understand the museum not merely as a static collection of objects, but as a dynamic reflection of Sudan’s evolving socio-political landscape.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mai Abusalih https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The article aims to analyze how the large-scale buildings designed to host entertainment activities during the 1960s and 1970s in socialist Romania transitioned from iconic experimental architecture to an obsolete problematic heritage. During those years, leisure activities became part of the propaganda while state-funded infrastructure was built around them. Organized leisure time is directed towards shaping the ‘new man’. The paper focuses on two different architectural programs that fit into the leisure section: restaurants and commercial centers within holiday resorts and multi-purpose sports halls in cities. The objects in question are defined by different types of post-war modern architecture, varying from mid-century modern up to brutalism. During the socialist period, both case studies were directly managed by the state, from financial aspects to functional ones. After the fall of the communist regime, their status changed, and they endured the transition from a closed socialist economy to a capitalist one. While the sports halls remained under public administration, the restaurants and commercial centers in the holiday resorts were privatized. Alongside a series of unfortunate events that occurred during the 1990s, the general public developed a negative perception of this kind of architecture due to its connection with the former regime. While both case studies are relevant to the entertainment of the general public before 1989, after the fall of the socialist regime, there is a difference in their management and subsequent use, resulting in their presentation in parallel in this paper. The research is centered on how the changes after 1989 led to the fragile state of this heritage today and aims to propose contemporary approaches to properly address them. The buildings suffered both reversible and irreversible transformations, lack funding, and are improperly exploited. Since the late modern socialist heritage is often disregarded in Romania, this paper aims to establish possible guidelines for preserving and adapting these buildings for the present and the future.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ruxandra Balcanu, Alexandra Ioana Radu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article presents the history of the funding, construction, and restoration of Kurnėnai School in the Alytus district—an exemplary project of interwar Lithuanian architecture. In 1934, Laurynas Radziukynas, a Lithuanian American born and raised in Kurnėnai, donated 160 thousand litas for the construction and furnishings of an elementary school in his hometown. The project for the school was drafted in the U.S. Most of the construction materials and furnishings were also bought in the U.S. and brought to Lithuania by sea. The school was equipped with highly modern plumbing for its time, including central heating, a biologically processed sewage system, and a shower. Next to the school, a wind turbine was built, with a pump that pumps water from an artesian well (97 meters deep) up into a water tower reservoir. The school tower was adorned with a ceramic Vytis (Lithuanian coat of arms) designed by Vytautas Brazdžius (1897-1969). There was also a schoolyard for physical exercise and a garden. Against the architectural backdrop of interwar period educational facilities, the school of Kurnėnai stood out as exceptionally modern. In 1990, the school’s architectural ensemble was entered into the Register of Cultural Properties of Lithuania and is considered a protected heritage piece of regional significance. The school was closed in 2008, following a demographic decline. As the building fell into disuse, its condition steadily declined, and it was restored from 2019 to 2020. This article discusses the construction, use, and restoration of the school in a chronological manner, in line with the principles of formal and historical analysis, as well as the factors enabling the preservation of this school as a time capsule with perceptible interwar optimism and maximalist pursuit of modernity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Margarita Janušonienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Interrupted Modernity in Santiago de Chile
The Ochagavía Hospital serves as a tangible reminder of Chile’s interrupted modernist aspirations and shifting political ideologies. Conceived in the late 1960s under the principles of the Welfare State, it was envisioned as the largest public healthcare facility in the country, bringing high-complexity services to Santiago’s southwestern periphery. Designed with a “tower and slab” typology and influenced by international references such as the Saint-Lô Hospital in France, the project embodied hygienic principles and the role of modern architecture in promoting social equity. However, construction was halted following the 1973 military coup, and for four decades the building remained unfinished, informally appropriated by nearby communities, artists, and activists. This article analyzes the architectural, political, and symbolic trajectory of the Ochagavía Hospital, focusing on how its form, location, and evolving uses reflect broader transformations in Chile’s political economy. Combining critical architectural analysis, historiographic research, and the study of visual and literary archives, the article examines how the hospital became both a symbol of abandoned utopia and a stage for memory and resistance. Particular attention is given to the building’s resignification during the dictatorship, including the performance “Suda-mérica” by Pedro Lemebel and interventions by Lotty Rosenfeld. In 2013, the hospital was sold and converted into a logistics and office center, erasing its original public intent and marking the final step in its privatization. As an unfinished modernist project turned commercial infrastructure, the Ochagavía Hospital exposes the effects of neoliberal reforms on public architecture, while also revealing the layered meanings that emerge from spatial abandonment and reappropriation. The building’s transformation stands as a poignant reminder of Chile’s intricate political, social, and economic history. Its unfinished state offers a critical lens through which to understand the broader urban consequences of Chile’s political transitions and the enduring legacy of neoliberalism.
Copyright (c) 2025 Claudia Oliva Saavedra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Paradoxical Modernism in Singapore’s Mosque Architecture
This paper examines the paradoxes of applying modernist architectural principles, rooted in secular, functional ideals, to mosque design during the initial phase of Singapore’s Mosque Building Fund (MBF) from 1977 to 1983. Drawing on archival plans, photographs, and newspaper articles, it explores how national objectives shaped mosque construction, resulting in what this paper terms “paradoxical” Modernism: architectural outcomes that adapt modernist ideals to meet the Malay/Muslim community’s spiritual, symbolic, and communal needs. Rather than signalling deficiency, the term highlights the negotiated tensions between state planning and religious expression in a postcolonial context. It examines the collaboration among the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), architects from the Housing Development Board (HDB), and the Mosque Building Committee (Jawatankuasa Pembinaan Masjid, JPM), focusing on how these partnerships balanced planning objectives with community feedback. The resulting mosque designs attempted to reconcile modernist forms with Malay/Muslim perceptions of appropriate mosque aesthetics and functions. The study analyses how modernist idioms, the International Style and Brutalism, were used to reinterpret Indo-Saracenic elements such as domes, minarets, and arches into simplified, geometric forms across seven MBF mosques: Muhajirin (1977), Mujahidin (1977), Assyakirin (1978), An-Nur (1980), Al-Ansar (1981), Al-Muttaqin (1980), and En-Naeem (1983). The analysis is structured around three key areas: first, a discussion of mosque designs influenced by modernist idioms; second, how Indo-Saracenic forms were adapted to fit these idioms; and third, the integration of elements such as open courtyards and balconies. Finally, the paper addresses how redevelopment pressures have led to modifications or demolition of these buildings. These changes reveal the “paradoxes” not as flaws, but as signs of how architecture responded to evolving community needs and planning priorities. Instead, these mosques should be recognised as culturally significant reflections of their time’s socio-political conditions, raising broader questions about conserving modernist religious architecture in Singapore.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hadi Osni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The idea for this special issue was born during the Imperfect Modernism conference in a discussion with the guest editors Liutauras Nekrošius and Kateryna Didenko. Held in Vilnius in May 2024 and organized by the guest editors of this special issue, the conference brought together scholars, architects, and experts in heritage preservation from Canada, Cyprus, Eritrea, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine. A wide range of issues was discussed, highlighting the uniqueness of regional adaptations in conservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement shaped by each country’s political, economic, and socio-cultural factors, while also revealing shared patterns. Turning to the discussion on the concept of Modernism, it is worth noting that different manifestations and perceptions of modernist heritage have evolved throughout the 20th and 21st centuries across diverse contexts and value systems. Scholarly debates, conservation practices, international initiatives, and local experience have shaped the concept as layered and flexible, now encompassing not only doctrinal modernist works and interpretations but a broader spectrum of modernities.
Copyright (c) 2025 Uta Pottgiesser, Wido Quist https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In this special issue of the Docomomo Journal, we introduce the concept of “Imperfect Modernism” and continue enriching the ongoing debate on Modernism, highlighting that it exists not only as an ideal but also as a fragmented, locally interpreted practice. It was shaped by geopolitical, economic, and socio-cultural constraints: shifts in power and political upheavals, resource shortages, the needs of local communities, and the integration of traditional architectural practices. Within this “imperfection” are encoded highly informative layers of heritage, which enable the reconstruction of the lived experience of 20th-century architecture, rather than merely its abstract ideals. “Imperfect Modernism” does not contradict earlier interpretations but extends an integrative logic, emphasizing that the value of modernist architecture lies not in the perfection of forms and concepts, but in the imprints of historical and political constraints and local adaptations, which render it a vibrant, vulnerable, and diverse heritage of the 20th century. In the special issue Imperfect Modernism, we aimed to highlight the geographical and civilizational diversity of modernist architecture, while also examining how it served not only as a witness to the pivotal moments of the 20th century—such as political and social utopias, technological breakthroughs, and aesthetic and social experiments—but also as a reflection of the dual forces of globalization and a unified architectural vision on one hand, and the struggle to preserve ethnic and religious identities on the other.
Copyright (c) 2025 Liutauras Nekrošius, Kateryna Didenko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In 1952, both the French magazine L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui and the Italian magazine Domus published a small house built by an American architect on the outskirts of Paris for his personal use. The outsider they highlighted to was Peter G. Harnden, the architect who directed the American propaganda campaigns in Europe in the postwar period. This was not a new project but a renovation. A single house with the characteristics of the traditional houses was not sufficient for the model of domesticity practiced by the architect. Moreover, Harnden needed the house as soon as possible. Therefore, the operation consisted of joining two small vernacular buildings in the small French village of Orgeval: a house and a barn. The strategy was completed with a garden that resulted from the demolition of four other buildings. Inside, the architect exhibits an interest in objects of everyday life and authorized designs that extend throughout the spaces of the house. Furniture from the Eames, Prouvé, or the Viennese school is mixed with African rugs, mats, wicker plates, German porcelain, and different versions of vernacular stools. This studied and photogenic accumulation of pieces and ornaments supposedly made the house a more comfortable, fun, and pleasurable experience. It was a fundamental characteristic of the American Way of Life launched to the world by the United States of America, of which Harnden was a loudspeaker in Europe for more than a decade. Consequently, in this work, the American architect would interweave architecture and domesticity in postwar Europe through the combination of respect for a well-understood tradition and the materialistic world typical of his place of origin. This, in part, helps to understand the exoticism with which the magazines mentioned this project. The study and analysis of this hardly known case include its deliberate diffusion and propagandistic impact, in which the design of the interior space is crucial in a context of crisis and emergency in devastated Europe.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hector García-Diego, María Villanueva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The focus of this paper is the significance of the modern bathroom in Turkey, its meaning in the modernization of interiors, in terms of hygiene as a precaution for crises, as well as sanitary ware, and Turkish company VitrA’s role in continuously emphasizing the modern bathroom and challenging behavioral habits through design competitions, from the 1940s onwards. Among one of the most important spaces of hygiene, the bathroom was instrumental in bringing Western habits into the modern Turkish house. Hygiene was a matter of modern national identity emphasized in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century, even before the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The Western ideals of comfort and hygiene, bodily practices, and lavatory fixtures all contributed to the understanding of the modernization process of Turkish interiors. Moreover, a bathroom that combined the Western and today’s internationally accepted alla franga lavatory, a sink and a bath, thus combining these activities became a household application and a reflection of modern life. In the 1950s and 1960s, as the average urban Turkish family life moved to apartments that often housed governmental civil servants, the modern bathroom became a standard household space. Meanwhile, the alla turca lavatory, a lavatory on which one has to crouch, and that is still used in certain parts of Turkey and Asia, represented the uncivilized and unhygienic. With the modernization of the domestic interior, a transformation of wet allocation spaces took place, leading to the questioning of the domestic and public. Moreover, new materials and bathroom equipment were introduced, and bathroom equipment competitions were established, leading to inventions that synthesized habits of the East and the West, reaching a new hygienic standard regarding relevant potential crises. Both the company history of VitrA Eczacıbaşı and the competing designs are showcased in the paper, aiming to support an understanding of social and spatial change in the modern Turkish domestic interior that has redefined identity with proactive lessons for the future.
Copyright (c) 2025 Deniz Hasirci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Learning from the Tuberculosis Crisis in Turkey
Yaşamak Yolu [A Way of Living], the journal of the Istanbul Tuberculosis Association, played a pedagogical and propagandistic role in building a healthy nation after the establishment of the Turkish state. The journal is a valuable archive incorporating the spaces of tuberculosis combat during the 20th century, encompassing social, cultural, and political information. It reveals how tuberculosis was a crisis that influenced Turkey’s Modern Movement in architecture and modern interiors. The discourse on the contagious nature of tuberculosis and the healthy way of living in Yaşamak Yolu impacted ideas about modern interior design in different building typologies. After scanning the 1929-1972 Yaşamak Yolu issues from the Izmir National Library’s archives, this study categorized, analyzed, and evaluated the data at the intersection of tuberculosis and modern interiors, focusing on national and international sanatoria, housing, alternative interiors, and everyday items. Despite the journal’s broad coverage of architectural typologies, this study, among others, focused on the 20th-century Turkish sanatoria as conventional interiors. The notion that the sanatorium movement shaped the Modern Movement in architecture served as the foundation for this study. To reveal the journal’s vast breadth from urban to industrial scale, portable structures, everyday objects, and/or tuberculosis paraphernalia covered in the journal were evaluated as alternate treatment interiors, furniture, and objects. The extensive content and contextual information, along with the publication’s span from 1929 to 1972, made the analysis challenging. Therefore, and to overcome the constraints in selecting specific built environment typologies, this study set the framework to include the timeframe from the journal’s inaugural issue to the point at which the journal’s published doctors/authors recognized the effectiveness of Streptomycin. This marked a turning point in the spatiality of tuberculosis and thus limited the scope of this study to the years 1929-1950. Due to its focus on the interiors of tuberculosis combat facilities, this study revealed that the journal proved to be a significant archive for the field of architectural historiography and design.
Copyright (c) 2025 Deniz Avci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The effects of climate change, resource depletion, and volatile economic circumstances require a reflection on current design approaches that can be gained through lessons from the original and mediated intentions of the Modern Movement. An important example can be found in South Africa before WW II, where the introduction of standardized building materials, particularly metal-framed windows, generated unique, mediated Modern Movement-inspired domestic interiors resulting from responses to a burgeoning industry, physical context, and functionalist attitudes to human activities. The clarion call of the Modern Movement for an architecture of economy, efficiency, and health underlined Le Corbusier’s “Cinq Points de l’Architecture Moderne” (Curtis, 1996, p. 175). This dictum was transmigrated to South Africa through the work of the zerohour Group formed in 1932. Unfortunately, the starkness of the ‘foreign’ architecture did not resonate with the general public, while interiors overheated and flat roofs leaked in the summer. In 1936, Iscor, a South African company, began assembling standardized metal window frames. Architects like Norman Eaton, Hellmut Stauch, and Robert Cole Bowen, sensitive to local contexts, utilized these metal window frames to create unique architectural interiors. The windows and associated modules not only provided an economical construction and structural logic through planning efficiency but generated more contextually and climatically related interiors, healthier internal environments, and fluid internal-external relationships. This article delves into the origins and impacts of the Modern Movement in Johannesburg and Pretoria, focusing on the transformative influence of the standard metal window. Then, the bioclimatic, technological, and spatial effects of these windows on residential interiors and their lasting legacy will be highlighted.
Copyright (c) 2025 Arthur Barker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
While the modernist discourses of the 20th century pretended to solve all the problems of daily life through the acts of standardization, unification, and scientific progress, the modernist practice incorporates its advancements and conflicts within the same built environment. One such discourse is on domestic health and hygiene, which proposes to integrate various functions of bathing, cleaning, washing, and defecation within the so-called volume ‘wet space’, equipped with modern utilities. It is questionable how healthy and hygienic such a spatial model is compared to traditional domestic life, in which most of these functions have been segregated and/or performed according to cultural norms. This neglected problem has become evident with long-term lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in apartment blocks where all inhabitants have to share a single wet space throughout the day. This paper questions whether the modernist discourses of health and hygiene function properly in modern domestic architecture and how the conflicts of wet space can be read. Accordingly, we concentrate on selected apartments in Turkey that were built between 1950 and 1970 and are still in use today: Ataköy Housing Estate, Phase I-II, and Yeşiltepe Blocks, developed and built by the Emlak Kredi Bank. Through scholars’ and architects’ discourses and practices on domestic hygiene derived from articles and architectural drawings in national archives, the paper provides a comparative analysis of wet spaces in these apartments in terms of their location within the spatial layout, the utilities and materials applied, as well as their privacy level. The analysis shows that the limitations of the wet space in these modern apartment interiors reveal the possible risks to domestic health and hygiene, particularly in times of pandemic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Selim Sertel Öztürk, Burkay Pasin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
After World War II, Finland and Poland needed swift housing reconstruction. In Finland, the solution was prefabricated, wooden detached houses, which soon were exported globally. In 1947-48, Poland imported around 4,000 Finnish houses to the mining areas in Silesia. The architecture was based on domestic Finnish models developed from modernist housing ideals. The division of the interiors focused on rational usage of space, labor, and hygiene. Today, most of the buildings are preserved, and it is possible to track the adaptations of the architecture from foreign temporary structures to local homes and heritage to provide data for developing future reconstruction architecture. This article analyzes how Finnish modernist ideals on home and housing were circulated internationally by exporting prefabricated wooden housing to reconstruction areas in Upper Silesia. The main questions relate to how the Finnish ideology on modernist housing and interior planning was adapted to the local culture of home and housing in Silesia and what can be learned from the reception and adaption of the interiors when designing housing for reconstruction after crises today. The article is based on archival material from Finland and Poland, such as architectural drawings, maps, and documentation on trade and export. The main methodologies are architectural and design analysis combined with historiographic reading of archival data and literature. The article shows how architecture with interiors planned for Finnish domestic use became integrated into the Silesian home culture, transforming temporary housing into permanent homes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mia Åkerfelt, Anna Wilczynska, Tzafrir Fainholtz, Martti Veldi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Petite Maison dans les Environs de Castellar: this is how Eileen Gray (1878-1976), a designer active in early 20th-century France, entitled in her cahiers the architecture she built between 1931 and 1935. The villa, later named Tempe à Pailla, is an opportunity to deepen her research on that intense dialog between interior and exterior, between domestic space and natural environment, already experimented with Jean Badovici (1893-1956) in the villa E1027 (1926-1929) in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. According to Eileen Gray’s definition, a house is not a machine à habiter but ‘the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation.’ The theme of spatial flexibility is approached through the design of mechanical moving components that rotate or slide, unfold, and contract, thanks to the possibilities of new materials, in a mechanical ballet that expands the narrow dimension of a maison minimum into a dwelling with a greater width. These solutions are intended to negate the facade as a frontier line between the architectural space and the close surroundings; any hierarchical relationship between furniture, interiors, architecture, and site is denied. The kinaesthetic aspect in Tempe à Pailla is absolute, since the house lives of the relationship between the movement of architectural components and the experiential dimension of the human body in domestic space, all in relation to the surrounding natural environment. This article aims to demonstrate how Eileen Gray’s innovative theoretical framework, exemplified by villa Tempe à Pailla, offers valuable lessons for addressing contemporary challenges. In this context, it highlights the design solutions adopted by the architect to ensure the well-being of inhabitants, even within minimal spaces, emphasizing the importance of transitional spaces between built and natural environments, thereby expanding the notion of the interior. At the same time, it becomes an opportunity to explore how a renewed relationship with nature can offer meaningful insights for contemporary architectural practices, which now more than ever require particular attention to environmental issues.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vittoria Bonini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In the second half of the 20th century, significant modern residential buildings were built in several Brazilian cities. However, regarding the middle-class examples, the layout of most of these apartments was very similar to the 19th-century bourgeois houses. Furthermore, despite using a reinforced concrete structure—always hidden—there was no greater spatial or visual integration. This collection of buildings, neglected by the real estate market in the 1980s, was rediscovered in the early 2000s by new buyers. The former owners gave way to people who admired the qualities of modern architecture, even though they knew they would probably face several difficulties arising from significant renovation. The most common adaptations made in the second occupation included modifying layouts and modernizing facilities and finishes. Besides, the internal spaces became more fluid and integrated than the original version, encouraging conviviality. The number of internal partitions decreased, as did the decorative elements and furniture. More recently, it was possible to recognize a third episode in this history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when entire families were locked in their homes in a forced and unprecedented coexistence, there was a need for yet another adaptation process. This time, the actions aimed to recover private environments that better support life in confinement, where different non-domestic activities started to happen inside the homes. A process of ‘demodernization’ seems to have taken place, rehearsing a return to pre-modern layouts of compartmentalized spaces. Through the observation and analysis of the changes in three study cases in the city of São Paulo, this work aims to reflect more broadly on the transformations in the way of living in modern apartments. In addition to bibliographical research and analysis of the projects’ graphic material, this research included reports from residents and access to their personal files.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marta Silveira Peixoto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Traveling during an epidemic can be challenging both for people and for the design of suitable infrastructures. In the late 19th century, as knowledge about infectious diseases spread, hygienic conditions and inspections became mandatory, especially in places of passenger traffic. This led to the need for specific adaptations in the existing infrastructure of such places. However, the port of Gdynia, which the Republic of Poland decided to build in 1922 on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea shortly after the country regained independence, was an entirely different case. During the 1920s and 1930s, Gdynia served as a significant travel hub for passengers traveling between Central Europe and America. This period also witnessed the rise of modern design methods in the development of the city and its port. The entire port infrastructure was built from the ground up, allowing for the implementation of the latest and most advanced solutions. The article presents research on a building complex in Gdynia called the Emigration Point. The study aims to analyze the design guidelines for the modern interior and the design itself to recreate the path a guest of the Emigration Point would take, from arrival to leaving the complex. The complex was designed to minimize the risk of infection and the development of potential diseases among emigrants. The research involved detailed historical analyses using primary source studies, such as project drawings and original documentation. This method was complemented with digital tools to reconstruct buildings or architectural spaces that have been significantly altered or no longer exist. The study also investigates the impact of the Modern Movement’s assumptions on the project’s conditions, including the complex layout, pavilion designs, functional and spatial principles, materials, the interior, and equipment. Additionally, it raises questions about the validity of the solutions proposed at the time, how they relate to current threats, and what we can learn from them.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Orchowska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The boundaries between the private, shared, and public spheres are challenged in completely new ways in times of pandemics, and we need new strategies to redefine them. During pandemics, prevailing requests for physical distancing in the urban space eliminated the programs from everyday lives that all have included social interaction, exchange, and connectedness. So, the request for physical distance caused actual social distance, which further brought new problems of solitude and isolation to the individual in the urban environment. How can architecture and design help to provide physical distance while maintaining social closeness, empathy, and solidarity in cities? Modern Movement heritage, especially in the countries that were under socialist political regimes, teaches us that shared spaces, collective spaces as part of public spaces, are places in which community is being formed and strengthened, where new forms of affiliation and belonging arise. The socialist paradigm emphasizes the importance of open public spaces within the residential zone as places for maintaining physical activity and health, as well as social interaction. By examining the modernist development of New Belgrade through a comparative analysis of two case studies focusing on the same area—specifically, the blocks known as Blok 22—we can reinvigorate the concept of the connection between the interior and shared spaces. The specific values of open spaces within the residential modernist block have proven to be particularly important during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, especially regarding the degree of connectedness or separation between private and public spaces. During the pandemic, a student workshop was organized, resulting in projects that offered new architectural scenarios and models for using shared spaces in a residential block. These models allowed for the preservation of physical distance among individuals while enabling social interactions and even the emergence of new programs as an extension of housing. The workshop highlighted the importance of this concept not only during crises but also in contemporary living conditions in large cities, which struggle with issues of alienation and loneliness.
Copyright (c) 2025 Milena Kordić, Ana Zorić, Dejan Todorović, Rade Mrlješ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Great Fire of Izmir in 1922 caused a great loss of life and property, and the historic city center was destroyed in a few days. However, this tragedy led to the realization of one of the most important modernization projects of the Early Republican Period in Turkey. The modern city plan for the burned area was prepared between 1924 and 1925 by Réné and Raymond Dangér under the consultancy of Henri Prost. It was as a typical example of the French urbanism school and, together with the buildings designed in the style of the modern Turkish architecture movement, ensured the production of spaces that would support the new lifestyle of modern society. One of the achievements of this plan was that Izmir Culturepark strengthened the image of the contemporary city with the green areas in the city center. Moreover, the International Izmir Fair, held in Culturepark every year starting in 1936, was also an important event in the socio-cultural and economic life of the city. Some of the most attractive structures of the International Izmir Fair were pavilions built for the new institutions and provinces of the Republic of Turkey, foreign countries, and local and foreign companies. They have become exhibition objects as well as the promotion of commercial products, provinces, or countries. The pavilions carried symbolic significance for various reasons, including the presentation of innovations and advancements in building materials and technologies and the reflection of evolving architectural paradigms over time. They have also contributed to the development of the interior architecture profession as well as collaborations between other art disciplines. This paper focuses on the interior designs of the pavilions designed and built for the International Izmir Fair between 1936 and 1970, despite the constraints faced by both the country and the city of Izmir following the 1922 fire. The scope of the study documents the existing data about the pavilions and evaluates them in terms of modern interior design history in Turkey.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nağme Ebru Karabağ, Gülnur Ballice https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Interiors Between Privacy and Togetherness
Docomomo International is proud to present the second issue of the Docomomo Journal co-edited with the International Specialist Committee on Interior Design (ISC/ID), represented by guest editors Zsuzsanna Böröcz and Deniz Hasirci. Established at the Council Meeting during the 16th International Docomomo Conference in Lisbon in 2016, the ISC/ID has since grown and evolved, as evidenced by significant activities, including seminars, discussions, and publications. Already before the establishment of the ISC/ID, interior design and modern living have been explicit themes in two Docomomo Journal issues: no. 46 Designing for Modern Life and no. 47 Global Design, both published in 2012, extended beyond the architectural scale to encompass the qualities of interior space and the constituent elements and materialities of daily life.
The idea for this special issue stemmed from a time of crisis in the world, aiming to search for lessons from related modern interiors to shed light on the future. Crises vary in scale and dimension, and the realization that the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022 was not a contained crisis but one of many that bound the past, present, and future led to the broadened framework for the call for papers in April 2023. There were many submissions from around the world, and the aim regarding paper selection was to ensure a varied outlook on the topic, focusing strictly on the modern interior while practicing a generous definition of what constitutes a crisis. The papers included in this special issue encapsulate these aspects as well as an emphasis on the spatial composition, the relationship between inside and outside, furniture, art, and the processes by which these features define the interior.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zsuzsanna Böröcz, Deniz Hasirci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Memory of Bertold Burkhardt 1941-2025
In June, Berthold Burkhardt, one of the supporters of the first hours of Docomomo, passed away. He was involved in the organization of the International Docomomo Conference at Bauhaus Dessau (1992), and actively participating in the “restart” of Docomomo Germany in 2006. He studied architecture and civil engineering in Stuttgart (1960-1965). As an architect and engineer in Frei Otto’s office, he was involved in iconic buildings such as the German Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal and the roof structures for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. As a staff member of Institute for Lightweight Structures at the University (ILEK) in Stuttgart and in research projects, he devoted himself scientifically to the topic that occupied him throughout his entire professional life: lightweight structures. In 1984 he was appointed as professor and Head of the Institute for Structural Design at TU Braunschweig. He was able to combine his research with architectural teaching and his work as an independent architect, from 1993 together with Martin Schumacher in the Burkhardt + Schumacher office. Conservation and renovation projects became increasingly important, e.g. the employment agengy in Dessau by Walter Gropius and the Chancellor’s Bungalow in Bonn by Sep Ruf. Next to his active involvement in Docomomo, he was a member of ICOMOS, Europa Nostra, the Alvar Aalto Society, the Koldewey Society for Historical Building Research and the Society for the History of Building Technology, and served several years as head of the monitoring group for the German World Heritage Sites. As an expert and advisor, he supported the Wüstenrot Foundation and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, and played a key role in setting the course for the general refurbishment of the Bauhaus building from 1996 onwards. We will miss him as an architect, engineer, scientist, mentor and friend.
The Executive Board of Docomomo Deutschland e.V.
Copyright (c) 2025 The Executive Board of Docomomo Deutschland e.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In February, Bernard Bauchet, a pioneer restoration architect of French Modern Movement buildings, passed away. In him we lose a knowledgeable and amiable person. He was involved, in one or another way, in all important projects of the rich French Moden Movement legacy. He restored la Maison de Verre by Chareau and Bijvoet, and published the book “la Maison de Verre” (GA publishers). He was responsible for the restoration and renovation of la Maison du Brésil by le Corbusier, Lucio Costa’s work in the Cité Universitaire in Paris, the Unité d’Habitation (first tranche) by le Corbusier in Brieu en Foret, and several other buildings by le Corbusier, Robert Mallet Stevens, Jean Lurçat and Auguste Peret. For the haute couture house of Azzedine Alaïa he did the transformation and renovation of the old warehouses by Victor Baltard in Paris 4th. I had the pleasure to cooperate with Bernard on the restoration of la Maison de Theo van Doesburg in Meudon, and together we participated in the scientific committee of the restoration and renovation of le Collège Néerlandais by Willem Dudok in the Cité Universitaire in Paris. Bernard was a member of other commitees as well, such as the Commission Nationale des Monuments Historiques (collège Mouvement Moderne), the expert committee of the Fondation le Corbusier, the scientific committee of la Maison E1027 by Eileen Gray in Roquebrune, and la Maison du Peuple by Beaudouin-Lods and Jean Prouvé in Clichy. He published various articles and participated in the international Docomomo conferences in New York and Ankara. Bernard’s curiosity and enthusiasm to learn and understand the motivation of the original architect he was dealing with, together with his knowledge of materials and implementation techniques made him extraordinary in the orbit of the Modern Movement. As the representative of la Maison Azzedine Alaïa wrote: “Bernard Bauchet était un architect exceptional, un homme d’un talent et d’une humaité rare.”
Copyright (c) 2025 Hubert-Jan Henket https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Interior Spaces
This exhibition review, in the format of a visual essay, presents a selection of projects shown in the exhibition Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces. Initiated and organized by the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum in 2023, Retrotopia was a comprehensive, cooperative project focusing on the role and impact of design in the countries belonging to the former Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslavia. Never before have these countries been represented together in one exhibition with their attendant material that helps to outline and raise awareness and understanding of the region’s design activities between the 1950s and the 1980s. Eleven design capsules were created, each highlighting two projects: one representing the public space and one the private sphere and the interior. The spectrum of interior projects and objects on display ranged from experimental housing exhibitions and cybernetic living machines to new furniture concepts, modular kitchen furniture, tableware, household tools, and toys for children.
Copyright (c) 2025 Claudia Banz, Helena Huber-Doudová https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Authority to Liberate the Ottoman Legacy
One of the most striking elements of Dušan Grabrijan’s and Juraj Neidhardt’s oeuvre is the extent and freedom of associations with the contested Ottoman legacy in the first decades of the socialist era in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as seen in their book Architecture of Bosnia and the Way towards Modernity. Such freedom primarily resulted from the increasingly favorable political environment that permitted and encouraged decentralization from the predominantly negative portrayal of the Ottoman past. This paper seeks to unravel the structure and sources of the main discourses used by Grabrijan and Neidhardt in Architecture of Bosnia to deal with the stigma of the Ottoman heritage. We argue that they utilize a certain syncretic language that reflects their own and varied experiences within the Orient-Occident borderline. We assert that their first generating discourse is that of modernism, while the second one revolves around the so-called ‘close neighbor’ or ‘domesticated foreigner’ perspective on the Orient. The premise of Grabrijan’s and Neidhardt’s first position is argued through the parallels of their narrative and the inherent modernist authorization to operate with scientific displacement. The premise of the second position is confirmed through contact nodes with the local differentiated orientalist discourse, which Heiss and Feichtinger (2013) define as distinct in relation to Said’s general concept of oriental Otherness as formulated in Orientalism (1978). In addition to plunging into the dualistic nature of Grabrijan’s and Neidhardt’s work on the lines of modernism and otherness, center-periphery, the conclusions of the paper point to the broader problem of the controversies of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian heritage, where the relationship of modernism towards/with Ottoman heritage is still an underrepresented subject.
Copyright (c) 2024 Lejla Džumhur, Aida Idrizbegović-Zgonić https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The article covers the early work of Juraj Neidhardt (Zagreb, 1901-Sarajevo, 1979) and the architectural themes he introduced. Aside from the large-scale urban projects Neidhardt worked on at the time, the Archiepiscopal Boys´ Seminary–integrated into its landscape and determined by its ambience–remains his only built design in the interwar period. And that was before his departure for Europe to work in the studios of Peter Behrens in Berlin and Le Corbusier in Paris. In 1925, the Construction Committee defined a detailed program for the metropolitan seminary; Neidhardt made sketches on his initiative under the guidance of Jože Plečnik and, in close cooperation with the Building Committee, designed and supervised the construction until 1928. Neidhardt established himself as a significant large-scale creator very early on. As part of the seminary, he designed an ensemble that can only be experienced by gradual observation and movement. The tension of the compositional axis is achieved by the dominant tower of the observatory (the only echo of Mendelsohn in Croatian architecture) on one side and the chapel on the other. The meander composition he applied–the spatial principle of overflowing space into space–will become one of the leading principles in urban planning. As a testimony of the ambivalence of the architecture of the 1920s–large buildings in a bold monumental stripped classical form, showing traces of expressionism–the seminary is often overlooked by urban architectural knowledge. Its survival was put to the test when the earthquake that hit Zagreb in 2020, left it with the red mark (extensive damage), making this an opportunity, through the method of cross-reading and analysis, to take another closer look to understand the dynamics of change and innovation in terms of urban development and individual architectural practice.
Copyright (c) 2024 Darja Radovic Mahecic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0