Modern architecture has been criticized for emphasizing practical and technical issues at the expense of aesthetic concerns.
Topic
Otto Wagner's 1896 Modern Architecture and the way it complicates the standard critique of modern architecture as soulless and form-follows-function.
Framework
Highlight Noteworthy. The author pushes back on the common criticism of modern architecture by showing that its founding theorist, Wagner, actually balanced technical concerns with aesthetic and Classical ones.
Main Point
Modern architecture's common faults can't be blamed on Wagner's founding ideals: while Wagner called for forms based on modern technology, he insisted art should control engineering, and his own work (rooted in the Classical tradition) shows the productive tension between technological modernism and Classical inspiration.
P1: The criticism, and a counterclaim
Modern architecture is criticized for being soullessly utilitarian; the high-rises of the 1960s–70s are exhibits. But Wagner's seminal text shows the failures can't be blamed on the founders' ideals.
P2: Wagner's call for modern forms
Wagner argued for new styles based on modern technology and against returning to preindustrial models. He emphasized that modern creations must illustrate "our own better, democratic, self-confident, ideal nature" and incorporate technical/scientific achievements. This sounds like the form-follows-function dogma critics blame.
P3: Art was supposed to control engineering
But Wagner distinguished art from engineering and saw the architect as combining the engineer's skills with the artist's aesthetic judgment. Architects would extend their influence into engineering territory so aesthetic demands could be met. In this symbiosis, art was the controlling influence.