The Modern Movement In Architecture: Selections From The Docomomo Registers. - Review - book review

Architectural Review, The, April, 2001 by Dean Hawkes

Edited by Dennis Sharp & Catherine Cooke.

Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. 2001. [pounds]25

DOGOMOMO was founded in 1988, at the School of Architecture in Eindhoven. Inspired by the fate of Jan Duiker's abandoned Zonnestraal sanatorium, its aim, explicitly enshrined in its acronym, was to DOcument and to COnserve significant buildings of the MOdern MOvement. Twelve years later the present hook represents the first product of that effort. It presents selective registers of representative buildings drawn up by 32 national arid regional groups of DOCOMOMO International, amounting to a total of over six hundred buildings from Europe, north and south America, Australasia, Israel and Japan.

The book is clearly organized with introductory essays by Hubert-Jan Henket, Maristella Casciato and Dennis Sharp. The register consists of selections of up to twenty buildings from each national or regional group, each of which is introduced by a short essay outlining the local history of the Modern Movement and the criteria by which the buildings have been chosen. One or more images and a brief text describe each project. There is a selected bibliography for each country and the book concludes with a useful general bibliography of books and periodicals compiled by Catherine Cooke.

The editors acknowledge that this is 'work in progress', a beginning not an end to their aims. For example, there are no entries for the whole of Africa, China or India, or for significant regions of central and south America. It, nonetheless, supports the claim that this is a significant document of the architectural achievements of the Modern Movement. Most importantly, the register demonstrates how the founding principles of the new architecture were transmitted, diffused and reinterpreted as they took root across the globe. Among many familiar monuments by the great masters we find numerous little known designs, particularly from the newly independent countries of the former Eastern Bloc, such as Latvia and Estonia. I particularly enjoyed a brief, but fascinating view into the development of architecture in relation to the transformation of the economy and culture of Iceland during the twentieth century.

It is frustrating that greater consistency has not been achieved in the documentation of the projects. In many cases only a single photograph is provided, which is barely adequate documentation in any rigorous definition. Ideally these should be supplemented by a plan and, if possible, by specific reference to other published sources. It would also be helpful, in every case, to provide a statement of the present state of the building. This would greatly enhance the value of the book as a resource for scholars.

But this is an important publication. In her essay, Maristella Casciato writes that the register, '... is a tool which primarily aims to advance modern architectural historiography, freeing it from worn-out art-historical itineraries and creating a methodology of knowledge and procedures for working on the modern heritage'. The act of locating the acknowledged masters and their works in this broader geographical and, hence, more diverse cultural context offers the prospect of just such an advance. We should give thanks to all of those whose efforts continue to provide the data for this enterprise and look forward to future DOCOMOMO publications.