Architecture of Israel - latest issue

BRUNO ZEVI
WORDS IN HIS MEMORY

In the introduction to his book, "The Modern Language of Architecture", Bruno Zevi suggests discussion through architecture instead of discussion of architecture. "In fact, most people in the field of planning and building can barely mumble... they produce unclear, meaningless sounds... thousands of architects and students work without knowledge of the vocabulary, grammar, and use of the language of modern architecture". Bruno Zevi headed the National Italian Institute of Architecture in Rome, edited leading architectural magazines and served as a professor at the universities of Rome and Venice. Before the Second World War, he took part in the anti-fascist struggle as a member of the Party for Freedom and Justice, and was later a member of the Italian Parliament. As a passionate supporter of the Modernist movement, Zevi opposed the attribution of Modernism to International Architecture which, in his mind, diminished its value. He was particularly against attempts to read Modern architecture with the tools of a Classic language that he felt no longer existed. His principal argument was that through modern language it is possible to understand and interpret architecture of all periods, in contemporary terms. In contrast to the former generation of Modernists - Gideon and Pevsner, who emphasized the rational and functional - Zevi saw in Modernist architecture a multi-faceted movement and himself as "an emissary of the organic, moral, humanist, democratic and humanly proportioned stream". Zevi mocked critics Colin Rowe and Kenneth Frampton, claiming they used "intellectual virtuoso to justify every architectural phenomenon - including those that represent contradictions". He preferred the consistently principled critic whose role is "protector of those values of (Modern) architecture, threatened by ever changing fashion trends". Zevi compared late Modernism to 16th century mannerism, which contributed to popularization of master artists before him, in contrast to the "immoral revivals" which looked to the past. Post-Modernism he defined as "the ideology of despair and death, masked often in a disguise of tragic humor". He enthusiastically accepted De-Constructivism, seeing in it the awakening of modernism after a period of distressing Neo-Academicism. The future, he believed, was in Modernism, "as it takes social responsibility and deals with contemporary problems". Zevi was not frightened by the crisis in Modern movement. On the contrary, he saw it as evidence of a "vital movement which struggles and fights for change and progress, as does Judaism". Bruno Zevi was a proud Jew, active in the Italian Jewish community. For him, Judaism was an example of "an outlook that preserves its principles while constantly being renewed and adopting progressive ideas". He often mentioned Einstein, Freud, and Schoenberg as founders of Modern culture, and he wondered if the time had arrived to produce an architectural stream based on the principles of Judaism. Israel was very dear to him and he often visited his many friends and family there. In the 1950s he was invited by the president of the Technion to join the teaching staff, but differences of opinion between himself and the Faculty of Architecture prevented him from doing so. Zevi died in January 2000 at the age of 81.