Architectures of Life-Building in the Twentieth Century: Russia, Germany, Sweden , 2018
Abstract (English)
The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improvin... more Abstract (English) The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improving the conditions of everyday life originated in Europe during the 1920s. This book explores three modes of functionalism by way of a comparative analysis of both the theoretical discourses and architectural practices associated with functionalism in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. These three countries made significant contributions to the application of functionalism within mass housing construction, the overarching purpose of which was to transform the traditional home into a rational living space.
This study provides both close readings of foundational modernist texts as well as an empirical study of the avant-garde heritage in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. As a special case study, a visual analysis of IKEA catalogues is presented, the purpose of which is to provide an illustrated history of modernist aesthetics within mass-produced living spaces, from the era of functionalism up to the present day.
Abstract (Svenska) Det modernistiska begreppet livsbyggande, som en arkitektonisk metod för att förbättra vardagslivets villkor, uppstod i Europa under 1920-talet. Denna bok undersöker tre former av funktionalism via en komparativ analys av teoretiska diskurser såväl som arkitekturpraktiker i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. Dessa tre länder gjorde viktiga bidrag till funktionalismens tillämpning inom storskalig bostadsproduktion, med det övergripande syftet att förvandla det traditionella hemmet till en rationell bostad.
Denna studie innehåller både närläsningar av grundläggande teoretiska texter inom modernismen och en empirisk studie av avantgardets arv i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. En speciell fallstudie utgörs av en bildanalys av IKEA:s kataloger, med syftet att ge en historia i bild av modernismens estetik inom storskalig bostadsproduktion från funktionalismen till idag.
The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Mosc... more The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Moscow, by juxtaposing the records of his visit to Russia in 1926–1927 with the author’s reflections on ...
The present article aims at giving a brief introduction to the Nobel family’s living in Russia an... more The present article aims at giving a brief introduction to the Nobel family’s living in Russia and to the generally unknown architectural heritage in St. Petersburg that Nobels had left before fleeing the country after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and that still exists in a rather neglected state. This heritage resembles and symbolises many Nobel’s technological and social inventions that were complexly applied to the overall improvement of the average peoples’ everyday life through the development of the new type of housing for the workers – the so-called Nobel’s worker’s town. I touch upon the themes of creativity and intelligence, fantasies and materialisation of utopian dreams that were defining features of several generations of the Nobels through the case of the family’s Russian period. To think on where fantasies of the seemingly pragmatic entrepreneurs and serious scientists had brought them and how their heritage had become a subject to oblivion on one side and an objec...
Architectures of Life-Building in the Twentieth Century: Russia, Germany, Sweden , 2018
Abstract (English)
The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improvin... more Abstract (English) The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improving the conditions of everyday life originated in Europe during the 1920s. This book explores three modes of functionalism by way of a comparative analysis of both the theoretical discourses and architectural practices associated with functionalism in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. These three countries made significant contributions to the application of functionalism within mass housing construction, the overarching purpose of which was to transform the traditional home into a rational living space.
This study provides both close readings of foundational modernist texts as well as an empirical study of the avant-garde heritage in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. As a special case study, a visual analysis of IKEA catalogues is presented, the purpose of which is to provide an illustrated history of modernist aesthetics within mass-produced living spaces, from the era of functionalism up to the present day.
Abstract (Svenska) Det modernistiska begreppet livsbyggande, som en arkitektonisk metod för att förbättra vardagslivets villkor, uppstod i Europa under 1920-talet. Denna bok undersöker tre former av funktionalism via en komparativ analys av teoretiska diskurser såväl som arkitekturpraktiker i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. Dessa tre länder gjorde viktiga bidrag till funktionalismens tillämpning inom storskalig bostadsproduktion, med det övergripande syftet att förvandla det traditionella hemmet till en rationell bostad.
Denna studie innehåller både närläsningar av grundläggande teoretiska texter inom modernismen och en empirisk studie av avantgardets arv i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. En speciell fallstudie utgörs av en bildanalys av IKEA:s kataloger, med syftet att ge en historia i bild av modernismens estetik inom storskalig bostadsproduktion från funktionalismen till idag.
The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Mosc... more The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Moscow, by juxtaposing the records of his visit to Russia in 1926–1927 with the author’s reflections on ...
The present article aims at giving a brief introduction to the Nobel family’s living in Russia an... more The present article aims at giving a brief introduction to the Nobel family’s living in Russia and to the generally unknown architectural heritage in St. Petersburg that Nobels had left before fleeing the country after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and that still exists in a rather neglected state. This heritage resembles and symbolises many Nobel’s technological and social inventions that were complexly applied to the overall improvement of the average peoples’ everyday life through the development of the new type of housing for the workers – the so-called Nobel’s worker’s town. I touch upon the themes of creativity and intelligence, fantasies and materialisation of utopian dreams that were defining features of several generations of the Nobels through the case of the family’s Russian period. To think on where fantasies of the seemingly pragmatic entrepreneurs and serious scientists had brought them and how their heritage had become a subject to oblivion on one side and an objec...
The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Mosc... more The article provides a closer reading of Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and Poverty and Moscow, by juxtaposing the records of his visit to Russia in 1926–1927 with the author’s reflections on ...
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Books by Irina Seits
The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improving the conditions of everyday life originated in Europe during the 1920s. This book explores three modes of functionalism by way of a comparative analysis of both the theoretical discourses and architectural practices associated with functionalism in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. These three countries made significant contributions to the application of functionalism within mass housing construction, the overarching purpose of which was to transform the traditional home into a rational living space.
This study provides both close readings of foundational modernist texts as well as an empirical study of the avant-garde heritage in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. As a special case study, a visual analysis of IKEA catalogues is presented, the purpose of which is to provide an illustrated history of modernist aesthetics within mass-produced living spaces, from the era of functionalism up to the present day.
Abstract (Svenska)
Det modernistiska begreppet livsbyggande, som en arkitektonisk metod för att förbättra vardagslivets villkor, uppstod i Europa under 1920-talet. Denna bok undersöker tre former av funktionalism via en komparativ analys av teoretiska diskurser såväl som arkitekturpraktiker i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. Dessa tre länder gjorde viktiga bidrag till funktionalismens tillämpning inom storskalig bostadsproduktion, med det övergripande syftet att förvandla det traditionella hemmet till en rationell bostad.
Denna studie innehåller både närläsningar av grundläggande teoretiska texter inom modernismen och en empirisk studie av avantgardets arv i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. En speciell fallstudie utgörs av en bildanalys av IKEA:s kataloger, med syftet att ge en historia i bild av modernismens estetik inom storskalig bostadsproduktion från funktionalismen till idag.
Papers by Irina Seits
The modernist concept of life-building as an architectural method for improving the conditions of everyday life originated in Europe during the 1920s. This book explores three modes of functionalism by way of a comparative analysis of both the theoretical discourses and architectural practices associated with functionalism in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. These three countries made significant contributions to the application of functionalism within mass housing construction, the overarching purpose of which was to transform the traditional home into a rational living space.
This study provides both close readings of foundational modernist texts as well as an empirical study of the avant-garde heritage in Russia, Germany, and Sweden. As a special case study, a visual analysis of IKEA catalogues is presented, the purpose of which is to provide an illustrated history of modernist aesthetics within mass-produced living spaces, from the era of functionalism up to the present day.
Abstract (Svenska)
Det modernistiska begreppet livsbyggande, som en arkitektonisk metod för att förbättra vardagslivets villkor, uppstod i Europa under 1920-talet. Denna bok undersöker tre former av funktionalism via en komparativ analys av teoretiska diskurser såväl som arkitekturpraktiker i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. Dessa tre länder gjorde viktiga bidrag till funktionalismens tillämpning inom storskalig bostadsproduktion, med det övergripande syftet att förvandla det traditionella hemmet till en rationell bostad.
Denna studie innehåller både närläsningar av grundläggande teoretiska texter inom modernismen och en empirisk studie av avantgardets arv i Ryssland, Tyskland och Sverige. En speciell fallstudie utgörs av en bildanalys av IKEA:s kataloger, med syftet att ge en historia i bild av modernismens estetik inom storskalig bostadsproduktion från funktionalismen till idag.