Novelty in Architecture, Essay Example

One of the common themes of Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture and De Stijl’s Manifesto I is that of newness or novelty in architecture: both texts namely start with references to a concept of novelty. Obviously, this is one of the most fundamental questions in art, not only in architecture: what makes a distinct style of art or architecture distinguish itself from its historical predecessors? Is this itself a value in architecture?

Clearly, both Le Corbusier and De Stilj subscribe to some importance to novelty in architecture; if this were not the case, they would not feel that it is imperative to describe their own unique views on architecture. However, the two texts differ in terms of how they approach the concept of the new. Le Corbusier possesses a more radical approach, whereas De Stilj’s can be considered moderate. At the very outset of his text, for example, Le Corbusier writes: “A great epoch has begun. There exists a new spirit” (3), and, furthermore, “architecture is stifled by custom.” (3) Le Corbussier thus construes the necessity for novel so as to liberate architecture from its “stifling” by tradition.

De Stilj in contrast balances the old and the new: the new is instead a paradoxical balance between the new and the old. Hence, the De Stilj manifesto states: “there is an old an a new consciousness of the age. The old one is directed towards the individual. The new one is directed towards the universal.” (39) Yet the truly new must also contain the old: “The new art has brought to light that which is contained in the new consciousness of the age: a relationship of equality between the universal and the individual.” (De Stilj, 39) If the old is defined by the individual and the new by the universal, the truly new balances both principles. The new therefore does not have an antagonistic relationship to the old, as in Le Corbusier, but seeks to integrate it.

These two opposing views of the new may be supplemented by Steed’s text The Psychogeography of Urban Architecture. Steed warns us to be cautious of novelty and newness as a value in itself: “it is what is new and exciting and fresh that always seem to succeed in catching our attention.” (56) Yet this is also a phenomenon that “plays directly into the issue of consumerism.” (Steed, 56) In other words, novelty becomes merely another form of standard free-market, capitalist and consumerist ideology, instead of a revolutionary force.

Accordingly, these three texts provide us respective perspectives in thinking about one of the crucial features of art and architecture: the accent placed on novelty. Exploring the tension between the old and the new, the balance between the old and the new, and the sense in which the new may not in fact be the new, following these authors, can help us develop some theses on novelty in architecture.

Works Cited

De Stilj. “Manifesto I.” City: Publisher, Year. pp. xx-yy.

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York: Dover, ????.

Prescott-Steed, David. The Psychogeography of Urban Architecture. Boca Raton, FL: 2013.