·o

MODERNISM:
WHERE WE'RE AT
(AND HOW WE GOT HERE)

Anthony D. King

27
 MODERNISM: WHERE WE'RE AT ANTHONY D. KING

At the risk of stating the obvious, my aim in the first part Latin word "modernus" (Latin being the language of the Roman why on earth are we speaking about this foreign word of modernity-takes different forms in different epochs and
of this chapter is to clarify just where these words-modern, Empire). As can be seen from this book's contents, these "modernity", and especially, why are we speaking and writ- also in different places. Whether we speak of art, science,
modernity, modernism, modernist and the rest-come from, words are also written in Roman characters (even though, ing about it in English? This is the elephant in the room- the politics, religion, architecture or other spheres of social life,
what they are supposed to signify, how they relate to each in Singapore, where the book originated, geographically and name for which we are very familiar with-colonialism, and the nature of modernity depends on various determining
other, and, not least, what they tell us about the colonial demographically, though not historically, we might expect specifically, (English) linguistic colonization. But let me return factors: societal and social organization, the dominant form
basis of something called "Modernism"; and also about the them to be in Hanzi, Devagnagari or some other Asian script). to this later. of economy, prevailing ideologies, the availability of materi-
economic, social and political conditions for the construction Indeed, there are no doubt words in Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Because "modern" and "modernity" are understood to als, the social distribution of wealth and power, amongst
of 'modern architecture.' In the second part, I shall consider japanese, or Hindi, which have similar meanings to the English mean "as of the · present", without reference to a particular others. These and other factors form a particular constella-
some alternative theoretical frames within which we can think word "modern" but I do not know them and, if written in historical time, or especially, to any particular geographical or tion and give each expression of modernity a distinctive iden-
about the meaning of architectural modernism. Along the way, indigenous script, I would not recognize them. 2 Nonetheless, social space, they have no fixed meaning. On their own, they tity. In social science terms, this is expressed in relation to a
I look briefly at recent writing on colonial architecture and if we did think about these non-English terms we would have tell us nothing. They cannot, in that sense, be used for descrip- particular political economic construction. We speak, for
urbanism and draw attention to some current scholarship access to different constructs of time, forms of periodization tion or analysis. For example, some years ago I picked up an example, about feudalism, industrial capitalism, democratic
which I have found helpful in writing this chapter. and also architectural practice. old reference book, published in the 1860s, and looked up the socialism, welfare oligarchy, colonial imperialism, and so on.
Fourth: the words "modern" and "modernity" and their entry on Delhi. The book told me that "the modern city of Only rarely do these political and socio-economic catego-
I Latin antecedents have a longer history than many of us would Delhi" was built in the seventeenth century (as opposed to the ries coincide with the descriptive categories of architectural
UNRAVELLING MODERNITY probably imagine. The earliest reference that we know of to many Delhis built in earlier times). history which tend to be determined by questions of style-in
As I've written elsewhere, according to contemporary diction- the Latin word, "modernus", is in 494/495 CE where it was What we can say, however, is that the idea of being modern, Europe, for example, by the Baroque, Classicism, Brutalism-
ary definitions, the literal meaning of "modern" means "char- used to distinguish one historical epoch from another. And, of modernity, is defined by difference. The difference can be even though the (supposedly autonomous) development of
acteristic of the present or recent times, as distinguished from according to some, this is the Christian present as opposed to temporal (usually) or spatial. That is to say, the present is architectural style is always grounded in changes in, and chal-
the remote past" (Oxford English Dictionary (OED) 1989). 1 the pagan past. 3 More specifically, its meaning is to separate different, and better than the past. It is about the "now" in lenges to, socio-political structure. New forms and styles
But then we must ask, "characteristic of present or recent what is new from what is old. However, it is important to note relation to the "then". 5 of architecture are always a manifestation of some form of
times" where? If we don't ask that question, when we speak that in classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, it is the past Alternatively, the difference can be spatial: We say that one economic and/or socio-political change, not least those forms
about, say, the "modern" city, we can refer equally, to New that is seen as the norm and the present is judged by reference city or country is different and more modern, than another. we designate as "modernism". They represent forms of social
York, Kabul, or Timbuktu. to the past. What is "modern" is therefore seen as negative, In this case, it is about the 'here' in relation to the 'there'. modernity (see below).
Second: to what length of time does "modern" refer? In bad or inferior. In other words, we can only decide what is modern, or not These problems of categorization of building and architec-
other words, how long are "present and recent times" and In what I am calling English English, the first recorded use modern, in relation to something or somewhere else; the ture are especially exemplified when talking about what we
how long can we go on continuing to be "modern"? Again, of "modern" is, according to the OED, in 1585. "Modernity'" meaning is relational. It is in this context that Duanfang Lu call "modernism". Cultural critics, instead of categorizing the
according to the OED, "modern" is used in contradistinction the quality and chara,cter of being modern is found in 1627. can write about "Third World" modernism, 6 although only on so-called "modern" forms of early twentieth century European
to ancient, and medieval, as in "Modern History", the period "Modernization", meaning to make modern, is first registered the assumption that we have some knowledge of "First" or architecture according to their economic and socio-political
in history after the so-called "Middle Ages" (e.g., the close of in 1770. "Second World" modernisms. The relational meaning of the context, designated it simply as "modern", or (subsequently)
the fifteenth century to today). It might be worth remarking During the eighteenth century, the period of the so-called term always implies at least two positions: one modern situ- "modernist". Of course, infants learn to recognize the link
in passing that this is an intriguing conceptualization of five Enlightenment in Europe, the word modernity is given a sense ation is understood in relation to another. In that sense, it between the signifier "cat" and the furry four-legged object
centuries which-irrespective of where these "Middle Ages" of superiority over the antique. However, it is only in the nine- connotes a sense of (social or political) change. that sits on a chair and purrs. Likewise, we, as members of
were-have sufficient coherence and commonality to be teenth and twentieth centuries that "modern" acquires a posi- The opposite of modern is, of course, commonly termed a postcolonial, international, English-speaking, architecturally
subsumed in one concept (We can assume here that the OED tive meaning, implying improved or efficient. 4 "tra dition" or "traditional" although this binary definition interested speech community, have all learnt to respond to
is referring to Europe and European history). What I want to emphasize, with these historical comments, ignores the many positions in between these two terms as the term "modernism". For the most part, I suspect that we
Third: the terms "modern" and "modernity" (the qual- is that these terms and their meanings have emerged, first well as outside them. Most importantly, these distinctions, imagine it stylistically: as white, box-like, concrete, steel and
ity of being modern, of being "of present or recent times") in Latin, then in English (and other European languages) in between what is, or is not, modern rely on our values and glass buildings. But as it is now almost a century since critics
are English words (not just English English but international 'Western' space and time, that is to say, in the first instance, moral judgements. and others began using 'modern' as a classificatory category it
English). Other European languages such as French, Spanish, without reference to Asia or Africa, and only marginally to It should be evident from the argument so far that moder- behoves us to frame our questions in different, more incisive,
Italian, or German, have similar terms. They all come from the the Americas. The obvious question to ask at this point is nity, or modernism-which we can call the representation ways. Modernism is less about these white, box-like forms

28 29
 MODERNISM: WHERE WE'RE AT ANTHONY D. KING

and their deconstructed postmodern variants and more about during this period, especially British, French, Spanish, Dutch, On these grounds, the distinctive form of Chinese shop houses II
the politics of its utilization, not least in relation to the social and Belgian, we only need to look at any popular account of across Asia, would have had as good, if not better claims to IMPERIALISM, MODERNISM
conditions and social structure of the site, country or region the so-called 'modernist' culture to see that this foundational being "international". AND GLOBALIZATION
where it is introduced. truth still goes unrecognized. "European modernism" is writ- Moreover, was the so-called "International" architectural How did imperialism affect the introduction of what we call
ten about without any reference to the world outside Europe. style one that was produced by the collective agency of architectural modernism in different locations worldwide?
COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL ROOTS OF Dipesh Chakrabarty's 20 year old phrase, "Europe's acquisi- nations as such, or of a particular architectural profession? In a series of excellent case studies from Iraq, Iran, India,
(EUROPEAN) MODERNITIES tion of the adjective 'modern' for itself is a piece of global If so, it was a profession that existed in significant numbers Ghana, Malaya, and Hong Kong, Mark Crinson, in his Modern
The understanding of (economic and social) modernity we are history of which an integral part is the story of European only in the richer states of Europe and America, some of Architecture and the End of Empire (2003) shows just how archi-
probably most familiar with is that usually assumed as beginning imperialism" 9 has still to reach large sections of a somno- which were imperial powers. Eighty years later, there is still tectural modernism was "refracted through the prism of British
in the West-the epoch following what we call, in capitals, the lent academy. Yet without making these connections, there only about one architect for every 12,000 people in India imperialism and its dissolution and aftermath." 12 Another set
eighteenth and nineteenth century "Industrial Revolution" (as is no explaining contemporary postcolonial and post-imperial or China, compared to one for every 2,000 in the United of case studies from mainly colonial or postcolonial states,
if similar revolutions have not occurred since and elsewhere). forms of modernity. This is not just of building, planning and States or United Kingdom. Moreover, did the connection Brazil, Morocco, Peru, Nigeria, Ceylon/Sri Lanka, Turkey,
The standard interpretation is that of an energy, technological, architecture, but the entirety of economic, social and cultural (the "inter") take place between nations, or supra-nationally? India, and also, on the invention of tropical architecture (a
and socio-economic industrial revolution followed by others modernity, including the nature of knowledge. Or even globally (irrespective of any intervention by any central strand of geo-colonialism), is included in Duanfang Lu's
in transportation, communications, urbanization, including nation as such)? Or was it just a few architects pursuing a valuable edited collection on Third World Modernism (2011). 13
building, construction and architecture. This understanding THE 'INTERNATIONAL' STYLE: particular ideology? An ideology made possible by high tech, While each, in its own way, adopts a postcolonial critique,
not only brought a form of capitalist modernity to Europe and ANOTHER CATEGORY MISTAKE high energy materials, and capital-intensive building and design to fully appreciate their contribution, they need situating in
North America, but also, via European (and Japanese) colonial A classic example of the way "stylistic" rather than socio- practices located in the urban and suburban areas of advanced relation to recent writing on colonial and postcolonial archi-
regimes, forms of colonial modernity to cities in Asia, Africa, political analysis of architecture can lead us in the completely industrial capitalism? tecture and urbanism.
and Latin America. wrong direction is provided by the invention of the term What these questions show is the extent to which this In a brief survey of writing on that topic up to 1995 I
What about "modernism", "modernist", "modern move- "International style". so-called "International Style" was, in fact, simply the result of suggested that "critical discourse on colonial urban culture
ment"? These are terms we recognize from the humanities The name was coined by the American architectural histo- a profoundly Euro-American discourse. positioned from a white, male, Western viewpoint and from
referring to particular movements in the arts, literature and rian, Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect, Philip Johnson In fact, in 1932, more than eighty per cent of the coun- different theoretical perspectives, began in the 1950s". 14 What
architecture, roughly between the 1890s and 1940s. They in their book, The International Style: Architecture Since 1922, 10 tries that existed worldwide were colonies, protectorates, characterizes much of postcolonial criticism since that time
follow the phase of economic and social modernity present written to accompany an exhibition of the same name at New dependencies, or commonwealths, especially in Africa, Asia has been a wholesale rejection of that viewpoint; 15 Europe,
mainly in Europe and the US, and give little, or more usually, York's Museum of Modern Art in 1932. The term "interna- and the Middle East. None of these places were mentioned in Chakrabarty's widely-cited phrase, needs to be provincial-
no acknowledgement of the colonial basis on which these tional" {in 1780, a new word according to Jeremy Bentham), by Hitchcock and Johnson. We are not, therefore, speak- ized;16 as an oppositional form of knowledge therefore, post-
economies rested at that time. 7 pertains to relations between nations and presupposes ing at this time about a world primarily of nations, or nation colonial criticism critiques Eurocentric conceptions of the
Yet where would London's financial services industry- the notion of the "national". What is being assumed here, states but a world of empires and colonies. Not an "interna- world. 17 Yet as a new awareness or consciousness, it is also
banks, exchanges, insurance firms, trading houses-have been therefore, is that architectural style is best understood in tional" world but more an "inter-colonial" or "inter-imperial" not just one thing, and whilst a key feature has been an empha-
without the profits of a global empire? 8 How would Manchester relation to the territorial nation state where it exists. world. This was, however, a world of many different cultures, sis on indigenous accounts and the use of indigenous sources 18
have made out without the cotton of India and Egypt (and the International, therefore, must imply something that is even though most had not gone through the experience of others have argued that the word's overuse means that "post-
slave economies of the Deep South)? How did that city's manu- present in and/or appropriate to all nations, irrespective of industrialization and urbanization which, in central and west- colonialism has no longer any fixed meaning." 19 Nonetheless,
factured cotton goods come to dominate colonially controlled culture, religion, geographical location or level of economic ern Europe, had provided the conditions for the invention of over the last decade and a half, more critical accounts, often
markets overseas? How would the new auto industry have development. Yet in the Hitchcock and Johnson book, illustrat- the so-called "International Style". All of these cultures had drawing on indigenous language sources, have questioned
managed without the rubber plantations of Malaya? Where ing the work of some forty architects-especially Corbusier, their own distinctive modes of building and shelter, today's what were previously seen as key attributes of the colonial
would the diet of the English working class have been without Gropius, Mies van der Rohe-a mere fifteen countries were "vernacular architecture". 11 city, such as the "colonizer/colonized" control over the city
Ceylon's colonial tea plantations and sugar from the colonized represented. Except for Japan, all were in the West. To and its dualistic spatial structure based on racial segregation. 20
Caribbean? Despite the vast postcolonial literature published suggest, therefore, that this was an "International Style" when The simple binaries of "traditional/modern", "European/
in the last twenty years, highlighting the imperial and colonial less than a quarter of the sixty-odd nation states existing at native" and others have been rejected. In colonial Singapore,
roots of particular European economies, societies and cultures this time had examples of it is something of an exaggeration. for example, Brenda Yeah shows how the local Chinese

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 MODERNISM: WHERE WE'RE AT ANTHONY D. KING

community retained control over their own space. 21 In differ- and represents, although the distinction is not so clear cut.n some of which has been mentioned here. SOCIAL MODERNITY
ent places elsewhere, local communities have been shown to Other writers consciously eschew theoretical debates, focus- The importance of Katrina's Ray's study of the Bauhaus 39 I referred earlier in my paper to the idea of social modernity, a
either control or play major parts in the development of such ing primarily on innovative empirical research. Such is Zeynep is in the meticulously detailed account it gives of the devel- term I use to refer to the global society in which we all live and
"colonial cities"Y What was previously represented as cultur- Celik's study of the Ottoman empire's Arab colonies which opment of one particular version of architectural modern- to the values needed to support it: the elimination of grossly
ally alienating colonial architecture has also been the subject sheds a fascinating light on the way "modernity" was intro- ism and, with that of Le Corbusier, was to become globally uneven development and of development that is sustainable;
of revisionist accountsY In Calcutta (today's Kolkata), the duced into Middle Eastern and North African cities, but not influential. Equally important, however, is that it provides an of building ecologically sound environments, reducing our
existence of "black" and "white cities" frequently mentioned by the Western world. 34 in-depth study of the economic, psychosocial and political carbon footprint.
in European colonial accounts, has been seen to be part of The third aspect of current writing worth highlighting is the conditions in which it developed, documenting the ways in Social modernity also focuses our attention on civil soci-
the colonial, not the indigenous imagination. 24 In Delhi, indig- increased attention being paid to fusing the study of imperial- which its ideas and practices were projected round the world: ety, on what we understand as democratic government, and
enous language sources have shown that new colonial space ism with that of globalization, especially in relation to histori- hence the subtitle: Modernity and Globalization. what this means for education, health, social welfare, and the
was viewed positively, providing opportunities for the local cal links between both imperial and colonial cities and what Ray describes how the rationale behind Bauhaus design came quality of life; for freedom of thought and expression and its
Indian population to develop alternative lifestyles. 25 In brief, are now known as world and global cities. Initial research from the unique and traumatic conditions faced by Germany implications for the media, the public sphere and religion. It
dependent on the positionality of each author, generalizations suggests that of the current roster of 120 plus actual or emerg- following the First World War. Economic catastrophe, concerns the realms of work and family life, social justice,
about "the" colonial city have become much more suspect. ing "world cities", over two thirds were previously imperial working class poverty, war trauma, loss of global territory, the rule of law. It relates to the buildings and spaces that
The emphasis is on difference rather than similarity. or major colonial cities. 35 Such studies provide important mass migration, reparations, gross unemployment, hyperin- accommodate these institutions and activities; housing,
A second feature of the more recent writing on colonial insights into the geography of imperial network connectivity, flation, hunger and homelessness, rejection of the past, all schools, hospitals and colleges to develop people's poten-
architecture and urbanism is the increase in methodological the historical continuity of specific centres of power and the challenged social identity at its most basic level. They fuelled tial; offices, factories; theatres, parks, libraries, clubs, where
pluralism. This is not surprising in that authors with back- nature and direction of the flows which have carried architec- the unprecedented collapse of faith in past and existing people explore their creativity; mosques, churches, temples,
grounds originally in, say, geography, sociology, architecture, tural ideas and practices round the world. 36 This burgeoning architectural models. gardens to expand the life of the spirit. These can be described
literary studies, art history, urban studies, planning, anthropol- field of scholarship addresses critical issues whether in regard Part of the erasure of history, gender, class and culture as examples of spatial modernity.
ogy, area studies, amongst others, have increasingly adopted to the multiethnic, multicultural nature of contemporary cities which characterized Bauhaus design was accounted for by Cities differ or are similar because of many factors-
the conceptual language of other writers in the field. 26 The worldwide or their urban and architectural development. In a Gropius's idea that it was war trauma that drove artistic activ- their histories, cultures, geographies and not least, their forms
more literary and art historical strands of the postcolonial very real sense, colonial cities were the "flip side" of the nine- ity and this was an exclusively male experience. The result was of economic and political organization. Today, neo-liberal
critique have brought an increased sophistication to the inter- teenth and twentieth century industrial cities of the West. All that women were marginalized, if not made invisible, through- capitalist modernity dominates North and South America,
pretation of identity, subjectivity, meaning, and also memory the more surprising, then, that in the broader field of u"rban out the institution's history. Europe and Asia. In the wealthiest cities, the growth in
in relation to architectureY This has resulted in a merging of and architectural studies, and the theory that it generates, Ray traces the trajectory of all the Bauhausler as, in later consumption has seen the spreading, worldwide, of similar
the differences between what have earlier been social science scholarship on colonial and postcolonial studies is often either years, they "migr·ated across the globe, following largely types of buildings and spaces-themed shopping malls, super-
and humanities strands in postcolonial criticism as also, the marginalized or ignored. Euro-American colonial paths" (my italics) to Britain, Africa, markets, multiplex cinemas, suburban sprawl, gated communi-
topic of colonial and postcolonial architecture and urban- It should be evident from this brief survey that the impor- Australia, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Israel, USA, USSR, ties, the privatization of public utilities like water, transport,
ism. The type of historical study based primarily on European tance of the two studies mentioned earlier is not only in their Mexico, China, Germany, Japan, India, Brazil, amongst others. electricity, and gas.
sources is best exemplified by Mia Fuller's historical anthro- innovative focus on architectural modernism 37 and its relation- "Bauhaus" was to become a commodity and a brand, the ideas
pology of Italian colonialism in North Africa, 28 Peter Scriver's ship to multiple ways of being modern, but also on the creative adapted to all political situations, in colonies and post-colo- FINDING FRAMES
work on the Public Works Department buildings of lndia 29 or methodology they adopt. In Lu's introduction, she discusses nies. Its power, as an architectural discourse, lay in a strategy That there are "multiple" and also "polycentric modernities"
Robert Home's study of the making of British colonial cities. 30 "Third World" modernism from four interconnected perspec- of decontextualization. based on different values, different histories, and different
While Nihal Perera's research on the development of postco- tives: modernism as globalism, as developmentalism, as nation- Ray's account suggests answers to many of the questions trajectories, is now part of conventional wisdom. Thinking
lonial identity in Sri Lanka draws on political economy, world alism, and as postcolonialism. 38 The books, as a whole, address raised at the start of this chapter. Whether in this, or in the about the Third World invites us to reconsider both First
systems and also cultural studies, 31 Stephen Legg and Jiat-Hwee a wide range of contextualities, exemplifying the notion that case studies of Lu and Crinson, we have now a wide-ranging and Second World modernisms. How do the political and
Chang both deploy Foucauldian insights to address topics at there are multiple ways of being modern. And although these collection of empirical studies which provide insights into the economic differences between these two deconstruct the
very different scales. 32 This question of scale is important, studies focus specifically on the topic of architectural modern- dissemination, accommodation and resistances to the spread idea of a single and totalistic "Western modernism"? The very
with some studies focusing primarily on the space of the city, ism, they build on an extensive interdisciplinary literature on of architectural modernist ideas. idea of a gargantuan "West" (or, indeed, of "Euro-America")
with others on the building and the institution(s) it contains colonial and postcolonial architecture and urbanism, only prompts us to ask about both the extent and location of its

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 MODERNISM: WHERE WE'RE AT ANTHONY D. KING

ENDNOTES
boundaries. The notion of "the West" also asks us to consider religion, professional values and practices, and legal systems. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I The quotation is from the Oxford Engl1sh Dictionary 1989. This section draws on
"The Times and Spaces of Modernity", Chapter 4 in Anthony D. King, Spaces of Global
what it means to think about modernisms in the East, South Not least, the cultural dimensions of imperialism impinge on Many thanks to Abidin Kusno and Jiat-Hwee Chang for
Cultures: Architecture Urbanism Identity (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).
and North. Does the "Global South" mean the wealth of the various practices and rules of building, planning and archi- their incisive and helpful suggestions on an earlier version of 2 Abidin Kusno reminds me that Alexander Woodside, in his book, Lost Modernities:
tecture, the symbolic function of which is as crucial to the China, Vietnam, Korea and the Hazards of World History (Cambridge MA: Harvard
Australasia or the poverty of sub-Saharan Africa? this paper.
University Press 2006) argues that China and Korea were already modern in the Han
As I have shown earlier, much has been written recently imperial as to the post-imperial, independent state. Dynasty if we measure modernity by the practice of meritocracy (clearly implemented
about colonial and postcolonial modernism and its architec- Of various possible frameworks, the one I find most trou- in the Confucian "thorny" examinations for scholars who wanted to become imperial
bureaucrats). There were already practices of "equal opportunity" and competition
tural manifestations. If we take Lu's collection as a bench- bling is that embodied in the original title of the conference based on merit.
mark, the main focus of these essays is on the reception, that led to this book, the binary notion of the "non-West" and 3 Duanfang Lu, citing Jurgen Habermas, "Modernity versus Postmodernity", New
German Critique 22, (1982): 3-14, "Introduction: Architecture, Modernity and Identity
transformation, or re-invention of modernist architectural (implicitly), "the West"; this is not only because of this total- in the Third World" in Third World Modernism: Architecture, Development and Identity,
practices in various "Third World" locations. Yet over the izing notion of "the West" but more because of the horror of ed. Duanfang Lu (london and New York: Routledge, 2011): 25.
4 King, Spaces of Global Cultures, 67
next decade, many countries will dispute this "Third World" defining an identity in negative terms, of what it is not. The
5 Nezar AISayyad and Ananya Roy, "Medieval Modernity: On Citizenship and
designation. Models of modernity arise outside these catego- "non-West" simultaneously invests all power in the West, Urbanism in a Global Era," Space and Polity I0, no.l (2006): 1-20.
ries, most noticeably in the Middle East-Abu Dhabi, Qatar, eclipsing thousands of identities in the rest of the world. 6 Lu, ed. Third World Modernism.
7 King, Spaces of Global Cultures, 68-9.
Dubai, Kuwait. What influence, if any, will these wealthy oil- The first known use of the term "non-Western" is in 1902.~ 4 8 Anthony D. King, Global Cities: Post-Imperialism and the Internationalization of London
states have on models of modernity elsewhere, not least-as Significantly, this was at the height of European imperial power (London and New York: Routledge, 1990).
9 Dipesh Chakrabarty, "Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for
I write in late February 2011-in the current state of popular in Asia, Africa and the Middle East (Out of curiosity, when writ- 'Indian' Pasts!" Representations 37 (Winter 1992): 1-32.
protest and uncertainty? ing the first version of this chapter, I Googled "non- Eastern". 10 Henry R Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style (New York:
W.W.Norton, 1966; first published 1932)
What are the routes and also vehicles in which these and The answer came up, "Do you mean non-Western?"). 45 II This section is taken, with revisions, from Anthony D. King, "Internationalism,
other ideas about modernism travel? Is it through the prac- Imperialism, Postcolonialism, Globalization: Frameworks for Vernacular Architecture",
Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 13, no. 2, (2006/7): 65-6.
tices of the so-called "global" architectural firms, not least as GLOBALIZING STUDIES OF MODERNITY
12 Mark Crinson, Modern Architecture and the End of Empire (Aidershot: Ashgate
these follow the trajectories of global corporations?~ 0 How far Today, some of us have been tempted to translate these (and 2003).
is the growing internationalization of education responsible other) frameworks and perspectives into a single coherent 13 Lu, ed. Third World Modernism.
14 Anthony D. King, "Writing colonial space: A review article", Comparative Studies
for new developments? narrative and write more global histories of architecture, histo- in Society and History 37, no 3 (1995): 541-54; see also Anthony King, "Postcolonial
These issues of movement, of ideas, people, institutions, ries not just about monuments and spectacular forms but also Cities" 'in International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, val. 8, ed. Rob Kitchen
and Nigel Thrift (Oxford: Elsevier 2009): 321-6. For comprehensive bibliographies
practices, organizations, suggest a shift in theoretical para- including the everyday buildings of domestic vernacular. This is of colonial architecture and urbanism in India, see Peter Scriver and Vikramaditya
digms into the literature on mobilities~ 1 and especially, the a daunting task which other disciplines, such as art history, are Prakash, eds. Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British Indio ond
Ceylon (london and New York: Routledge, 2007), Chapters I and 2.
mobility of urban and architectural phenomenaY belatedly addressing. 46 However, to do this, we need to recog- 15 Abidin Kusno, Behind the Postcolonial: Architecture, Urban Space and Political Cultures
In the later nineteenth, and early twentieth century much nize that architecture, building, and urban space are essen- in Indonesia (london and New York: Routledge, 2000), 6.
16 Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical
of the world was under the control of some sixteen global tially social products. They don't just happen irrespective of
Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000) .
empires, a situation that did not change until well after the human , social and political agency. In the first instance we have 17 For a recent example, Jennifer Robinson, Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity ond
middle of the twentieth century.43 As I have argued throughout to deal with social phenomena, social institutions-such as Development (london and New York: Routledge, 2006).
18 On different understandings of the term and the merits of indigenous and non-
this chapter, a framework based on a recognition of imperial- households, governments, nations, and religions-and their indigenous accounts, see Anthony D. King, "Postcolonialism, Representation and
ism and colonialism and their "post" continuities is essential. relationships, powers, practices and functions: it is these that the City" in A Companion to the City, ed. Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2000), 262 .; also Anthony D. King, "Actually Existing Postcolonialisms:
Viewing the world as both postcolonial (focusing on ex-colo- give rise to building types and urban forms, and the architec- Colonial Urbanism and Architecture after the Postcolonial Turn", Postcolonial
nial territories) and (technically) post-imperial (on what were ture in which they appear. Making use of the histories of cities, Urbamsm: Southeast Asian C1t1es and Global Processes, ed. Ryan Bishop, John Phillips and
Wei Wei Yeo (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), 167-86, which also reviews
previously imperial metropoles) enables us to incorporate civilizations, and planning should help us do this. The analysis recent stud1es 1n the field.
the political and economic perspectives of much of the "First/ of modernism as a social strategy and product has to be seen 19 Brenda S.A. Yeoh, "Postcolonial Cities", Progress in Human Geography 25, no. 2
Third World" paradigm. Additionally, however, it helps us shed (2001): 456-68.
as a discourse that seeks to change the present, by looking
20 Brenda S A. Yeoh, Contestmg Space: Power Relations ond the Urban Built Environment
light on the continuing relevance of the cultural dimensions forwards and backwards, temporally and spatially. in Coloma/ Singapore (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press 1996): Jyoti Hosagrahar,
of imperialism, on continuities brought by a shared language, Indigenous Modermt.es: Negot1atmg Urban Form (London and New York: Routledge,
2006); see also Kusno, Behind the Postcolonial; William Glover, Making Lahore Modern:
knowledge, forms of education, powerful media interests,

34 35
 MODERNISM: WHERE WE'RE AT

Constructing and Imagining o Colonial City (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 39 Katrina R. Ray, Bauhaus Dream-house: Modernity and Globalization (London and
2008). New York: Routledge, 2010).
21 Yeoh. Contesting Space. See also Siddhartha Raychaudhuri "Colonialism, Indigenous 40 Donald McNe1ll, The Global Arch1tect: F~rms, Fame ond Urban Form (London and New
Elites and the Transformation of Cities in the Non-Western World: Ahmedabad York: Routledge, 2009); Xufei Ren, Building Globalization: TransnatiOnal Architectural
(Western India) 1890-1947", Modern Asian Studies 35, no.3 (2001): 677-726. Production in Urban China (Chicago: University of ChiCago Press 2011) (forthcoming).
22 Joseph Nasr and Mercedes Volait, eds. Urbanism: Exported or Imported: Native 41 John Urry, Mobilities (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008).

e
Aspirations and Foreign Plans (Chichester: Wiley-Academic 2003); Preeti Chopra, A 42 Guggenheim and Soderstrom, eds. Re-Shaping C1ties.
Joint Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay (Minneapolis : Minnesota 43 John Darwin, After Tamur/ane; The R1se and Fall of Global Emp~res. 1400-2000
University Press, 2011) which misrepresents my own views on chis topic; King, Spaces (London: Penguin, 2008).
of Global Cultures, chapter 5. 44 Merriam Webster Dictionary Online 2010.
23 R.B.H . Goh, Contours of Culture: Space and Social Difference in Singapore (Hong 45 Notably, entries for "non-Eastern" are much briefer than for "non-Western". The
Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2005 ); Kusno, Behind the Postcolonial; Sharada first three refer to non-Eastern philosophy (library catalogue), non-Eastern takeouts
Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra, Bombay. The City W1thm (Bombay: India Bookhouse, (In downtown Toronto) and, in a religious sense, non-Eastern groups or rites. These
1995); Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra, Bombay Deco (Mumbai: Eminence three examples are sufficient co indicate that qualifying a noun with "non" is an indica-
Designs, 2008) . cion of the dominance of the subject that that noun refers co in any given domain.
24 Swaci Chattopadhya, Representing Calcutta: Modernity, Nationalism and the Colonial 46 James Elikins, Zhivka Valiavicharska and Alice Kim, eds. Art and Globalization
Uncanny (London and New York: Routledge 2005) . (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 20 IOJ reproduces selections from
25 Hosagrahar, Indigenous Modernities; see also Glover Makmg Lahore Modern . a series of seminars on the main topic with subsequent 'assessments' of the
26 Including poststruccuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist and other theoretiCal discussions by scholars from art history and related fields. In all, there are
approaches, as in Gulsum Nalbantoglu and B.C.T. Wong, eds. Postcolonial Spaces contributions from 38 participants.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1997).
27 Crinson, Modern Architecture; Goh, Contours of Culture ; Andrew Kincaid, Postcolonial
Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Env~ronment (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 2005); Kusno, Behind the Postcolonial; Abidin Kusno. The Appearances of Memory:
Mnemonic Practices of Architecture and Urban Form in Indonesia (Durham and London :
Duke University Press 2010).
28 Mia Fuller, Moderns Abroad: Architecture, Citie~ and Italian Imperialism
(London and New York: Routledge 2007) .
29 Scriver and Prakash, eds. Colonial Modernities.
MODERNISM ACROSS
30 Robert Home, Of Planting and Planning: The Making of British Colonial Cities
(London: Spon, 1997).
31 Nihal Perera, Society ond Space: Colonialism, Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity in
HEMISPHERES,
Sn Lanka (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998)
32 Stephen Legg, Spaces of Coloma/ism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities (Oxford:
OR, TAKING
Blackwell 2007); Jiat-Hwee Chang, "Tropicalizing Technologies of Environment and
Government: The Singapore General Hospital and the Circulation of the Pavilion Plan
hospital in the British Empire 1860- 1930", in Re-Shaping Cities: How Global Mobility
INTERNATIONALISM
Transforms Architecture and Urban Form, ed. Michael Guggenheim and Ola Soderstrom
(London and New York: Routledge 20 I0): 123-42.
33 Anoma Pieris, Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Perya/ History of Singapore's
SERIOUSLY
Plural Society (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009); Chopra, A Joint Enterprise;
Scriver and Prakash, eds. Coloma/ Modernities, (2007).
34 Zeynep Celik, Empire, Architecture and the City: Ottoman-French Encounters 18883-
19/4 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008) .
Mark Crinson
35 Anthony D. King, "World Cities: Global! Postcolonial! Postimperial! Or Just the
Result of Happenstance! Some Cultural Comments" in The Global Cities Reader, ed.
Ne1l Brenner and Roger Keil (London and New York: Routledge 2006), 319-24;
Anthony D. King "Imperialism and World Cities", in International Handbook of
Globalization and World Cities, ed . Ben Derudder, Michael Hoylake, Peter Taylor,
Frank Wittox (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 2011) (in press) . Yeoh (2001 : 456) suggests
chat 'the colonial and imperial city are umbilically linked'. See also Bishop et al,
Postcolonial Urbanism (2003).
36 Guggenheim and Soderstrom, eds. Re-Shaping Cities.
37 Building on James Holston's excellent foundational study The Modernist C1ty:
An Anthropological Critique of Brasilia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
38 Lu justifies her use of the 'Third World' category by including case studies from
nations sharing 'broad historical, economic. social , cultural, and ideological commo-
nalities: a history of colonization, relatively low per capita income, culturally non-
Western, and agriculcurally-(racher chan industrially)-based economies', 2.

36 37