In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • The Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical: Scientific Management and the Rise of Modernist Architecture
  • Lindy Biggs (bio)
The Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical: Scientific Management and the Rise of Modernist Architecture. By Mauro F. Guillén . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. Pp. xii+186. $29.95.

Modern architecture has intrigued many historians, quite a few engineers, and now a sociologist of institutions, Mauro Guillén. From its title, one might expect this book to explore the intriguing relationship between scientific management and the changing architectural aesthetics of the twentieth century. But the title has only slight bearing on the book's content, there is little mention of beauty, and only a superficial discussion of scientific management. In his opening chapter, Guillén claims to be providing "the first systematic assessment of the economic, social, and political conditions that prompted architects to pursue a modernist approach to design." This is an ambitious goal for a short book, and it is not realized.

In the second chapter, Guillén sets out to "analyze in detail the specific ideological, technical, and aesthetic connections" between scientific management and modernist architecture. To this end, he has selected one hundred architects and rated each on a four-point scale based on whether the architect "welcomed or opposed mechanization and standardization in art and architecture and whether he explicitly accepted or rejected scientific management" (p. 15). In the third chapter, Guillén asks "what caused modernist architecture?" and outlines ways in which other scholars have answered the question: that it was an outgrowth of machine-based industrialization; that it was a response to social and political conditions; that it was shaped by the patronage of industrial firms and the state; and finally that it emerged from the influence of engineering. Because none of these explanations is adequate for Guillén, he sets forth his own, which "draws from the sociological theory of institutions and from the theory of social movements, and emphasizes the roles of both new sponsors and a new set of [End Page 643] architects with an engineering background seeking to professionalize architecture" (p. 42). This approach to a topic familiar to many historians of technology, and one about which many of us have written, adds little to our understanding of modern architecture. Indeed, attempting to explain something as ubiquitous and difficult to define as modernist architecture seems like an exercise in frustration.

The one useful part of Guillén's book is his discussion of the modern architecture of South and Central America, which amplifies a literature previously dominated by the examination of European and North American architecture. Otherwise, The Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical fails to provide a "systematic assessment of the economic, social, and political conditions that prompted architects to pursue a modernist approach to design." There is scant reference to primary source material, and there is no evidence that the author has read many of the works of the early architects themselves. He fails to support his claim that architects were not influenced by industry. Indeed, this short book has the feel of a paper by a student who has read various authors, extracted their best ideas, and then found a way to criticize those ideas without truly making the topic his own. One expects more from a senior scholar with a named professorship at the Wharton School, and from a premier university press.

Lindy Biggs

Dr. Biggs is a member of the history faculty at Auburn University and a former secretary of SHOT.

...

pdf

Share