Totalitarian Architecture Research Paper

Fear of the Return of Totalitarian Architecture Due to Technological Advancements

This paper examines some of the different aspects of the coming worldwide technological totalitarianism and the expanding of it influence. The argument that this is both a conscious and accidental program of influential individuals and organizations carried out through the procedure of reification of philosophical beliefs which are misshapen into institutions, services, technologies policies and in the end, culture. Some experts that have explored this topic believe that by pay no attention to the costs of new technologies, what there may be some kind of loss in the bargain and that it can lean so something that is immeasurable and potentially disastrous. It is obvious that history was not or is not all the way inevitable, however, it is likewise a question of human values in connection to changes that are looked at as being natural. Although there have repeatedly been positive effects for large statistics of individuals from scientific development, in fact, the formation and usage of technology has mainly been abused to additional ruling class welfares.

The Fear of Totalitarianism

The return of Totalitarianism appears to be something that is very scary foe some and they would have good reason to be alarmed considering the fact that most regimes that brought in this type of era likewise invented the type of architecture that was not matched by anything in history. nonetheless a means to the defeat of the new state. When the time comes, either congress succumbs or we will remove it."[footnoteRef:1] [1: Payne, Alina A. "Rudolf Wittkower and Architectural Principles in the Age of Modernism." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53.3 (1994): 322-342.]

Technology and its effects on Architecture in a Totalitarian Approach

The changes that computers are bringing to totalitarian architecture are connected to the innovations of the Industrial Revolution for instance steel, electricity and elevators affecting, for example the idea of construction and skyscraper. Research shows that a good example of an architect that was interested in the effects of the industrial revolution was Mies van der Rohe. He knew how to take advantage of the benefits that the Industrial Revolution created. Today this generation is witnessing that the concept of architectural project is not the same as it was during the old totalitarianism era many years ago. We are now in the Digital Age where totalitarian architects, are finding a new way to signify, express, produce and create totalitarian buildings through digital information. By utilizing processes and techniques matching to those employed in the industry and this is the most important feature of the Digital Architecture. On the other hand, many people, architects and students understand that the features of the totalitarian digital architecture are the reawakening of multifaceted curving shape.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Carpo, Mario. "Architecture in the Age of Printing." The History of Architectural Theory. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 6 March 1998]

For instance, in architecture where-witness Giedion-theory and history are apprehensive albeit traditional bedfellows, such an assessment of their mutual relationship should prove mostly wanted. Communist and fascist governments in the first half of the twentieth century both created monumental architecture, largely to threaten their people and showcase the regime's strengths. For instance in Nazi Germany in the 1930s Herman Goring's Reich Air Ministry was the prevalent office building in the world when it was finished in August 1936. It has been labeled as being "in the archetypal style of National Socialist intimidation architecture," with a floor area of 112,000 square meters, 2,800 rooms, 7 km of corridors, over 4,000 windows and 17 stairways.

Another example of proper organized revitalization and management of the Totalitarian Architecture where technology has impacted is in Spain. It is commonly categorized under the term of Plaza Mayor, which carry out a lot of the procedure characteristics of totalitarian design, for instance linear geometry, designed mostly to serve secular and non-institutional uses. From the method of the Spanish square and the way in which they invigorated their open spaces so as to communicate the ideology of the determination of the open space, there are some significant methods to be measured and respected.[footnoteRef:3] For instance, the key emphasis area of the public open urban space, so as to perform a political message, is not a church, a statue, or some other kind of tribute, but either a main building that indicates the representation of authority, or the space itself, which was primarily intended for political demonstrations, military displays, and leadership speeches.[3: Einiki Etairia 2007, 'Good Practice Booklets; Heritage in MEDA Countries and Information and Communication Technologies', in The EUROMED III Project: Byzantium -- Early Islam, RMSU (Regional Management Support Unit), pp. 1-10]

One frightening technology of the new Totalitarian Architecture is in Netherlands is the 3D-printed canal house which will be made where all can look inside and see what is going on. The end product will be the first 3D printed canal house, and work is anticipated to be finished inside the next three years. The construction organization is parallel to that of a manufactured house, where the rooms can be detached quite effortlessly in case the house needs to be moved. Inside the 3D printed walls, there are vacant gaps for connecting construction parts, electric cables, wiring and water pipes. However, this architecture is considered to be something that invades privacy such as Orwell discussed in his book 1984.

George Orwell's Dystopian tale 1984

When it came to the totalitarian architecture, Orwell gave his readers a clear picture of the modern state that had turned out to be dystopian -- one in which confidentiality as a civil virtue and a crucial right was no longer valued as a degree of the robust strength of a healthy and flourishing democracy. Orwell was clear that the privilege to privacy had come under egregious attack. As significant as Orwell's warning was in shedding light on the horrors of mid-20th century totalitarianism and the boundless governments of state spying forced on citizens, this section serves as a vivid but incomplete metaphor for mapping the extensive trajectory of global surveillance and authoritarianism now distinguishing of the first decades of the new millennium.[footnoteRef:4] Today this is called spy architecture. Overall, spy architecture is large, bland, and hidden. Very rarely will it occupy the heart of a city in modern times. One example of this technology is the in the U.S. with the FBI headquarters, which inhabits a conspicuously placed Brutalist building in the heart of the nation's capital and also the newly constructed building for the Department of Defense located in Alexandria, Virginia. [4: Giroux, Henry. Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance State. 14 Feruary 2014. http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/11/totalitarian-paranoia-in-the-post-orwellian-surveillance-state/. 18 March 2014.]

Another example is the NSA headquarters, which reflects back its huge parking lots to passing drivers, while its Platonic volumes propose invulnerability. The message is clear: The NSA can see, but cannot be seen. It is interesting to note how these buildings depart from traditional modes of understanding surveillance, for example the much-discussed Panopticon by Jeremy Bentham[footnoteRef:5] [5: Marisa Taylor and Jonathan S. Landay, "Obama's crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.," McClatchy Washington Bureau, (June 21, 2013).]

The Panopticon is a kind of institutional building which was designed in the late 18th century. The idea of the design is to allow a single watchman to observe prisoners of an organization without them being able to tell whether they are being watched or not. Even though it is actually impossible for the single watchman to look at every all cells at once, the fact that the inmates are not able to know when they are being watched means that all prisoners must act as though they are watched at all times, efficiently controlling their own behaviour continually. The design contains of a circular structure with an "inspection house" at its center, from which the manager or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are posted around the perimeter. Bentham considered the basic plan as being similarly appropriate to hospitals, schools, sanatoriums, daycares, and asylums, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon penitentiary, and it is his prison which is most extensively unspoken by the period.

Wittkower's Paradigm

As the return of totalitarian architecture comes into view slowly, there are other things that are being revived such as the Wittkower's paradigm. Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism establishes a clear attempt on Wittkower's part in order to get a hold of the center of Renaissance architecture. Even though developed from three articles on Alberti and Palladio in that order, the book brings forth this aspiration to broader conclusions. Today, even in the modern era, the Wittkower's agenda is still basically twofold: not only does he set out to recognize the theory of architecture in the Renaissance, nonetheless he frames this effort as a direct reply (and rebuttal) to formalist approaches that customarily show Renaissance architecture as.....