We have long since ceased to believe in the axioms of modern architecture. The image presented in the "official" historiography no longer convinces us. But why do we view this pristine and coveted image so suspiciously?
Modern architecture has been under attack for decades, denting its image of supposed whiteness, purity and rationality. Its ability to represent a heroic era constituting a global paradigm has worn thin, and today we recognise that the omnipresent white plaster covering everything, characterising the “international style” promulgated by Philip Johnson and Henry Russell-Hitchcock, is nothing more than a mask. This mask hides material, social and technological policies that are not all that modern, that remain attached to old systems of power and that sometimes even contradict what many understood to be…
