From Ideals to Ideology— Two Contrasting Views оf Architectural Discourse аt the 1937 Paris Exposition
From Ideals to Ideology— Two Contrasting Views оf Architectural Discourse аt the 1937 Paris Exposition

Summary/Abstract: If language is a word that describes a toolkit of communication, then architecture and associated design may be considered their own languages, which communicate the purposes, permissions, and boundaries of the socio-political contexts from which they arose. Such languages of architecture and design will have their own “grammatical” tools and discourse styles, with consequent differences of meaning between them. This paper considers the differences in architectural and design discourse styles expressed by two totalitarian states at the 1937 Paris International Exposition. Such expositions were traditionally places where liberal democratic ideals of free trade and discourse were extolled. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany confronted such ideals through ideology in that forum. However, while each of them communicated a totalitarian language of purposes, permissions, and boundaries, there were essential differences in the styles of discourse represented by the architecture and design of their respective pavilions. Indeed, they were polar opposites of each other and the liberal ideals they contested.

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