Roger Scruton: Modernist buildings exclude dialogue

Posted on 6/09/08 in Europe - West, Greek architecture, Philosophy
Reference Address: http://www.ellopos.com/blog/?p=350

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Scruton presents Krier’s architectural proposal as an antidote to modernist architectures, trying also to “extract” from this the general principles of a healthy architecture, as we used to practice it in Europe. These principles I give you here in select excerpts from Scruton’s, Cities for Living (City Journal). Combine this, with Scruton’s, Architecture needs a grammar.

Just one remark. Scruton rightly goes back to ancient Greece to trace the origin of the European city; however, he tends to forget that his admiration of the European city regards buildings, types and logic developed in the Middle Ages, i.e. in Christian Europe - and this is not irrelevant, even if we just concentrate on the ancient Greek city, where common religion was the ground and main aspect of common life. Only in the Hellenistic cities after Alexander this religious bond was weakened, since ancient Greek religion had already declined in Greece - which, after all, made possible Alexander’s exodus to the East. This is an interval between the ancient Greek religion and the new one, that is Christianity, and it did not belong to the concept of the ancient City, on the contrary, the city became just a common habitation.

After the christening of Hellenism the ancient city appears again transformed by the new religion. Especially Scruton and anyone who admires the European city, must recognise by thinking its historical course, that he can not have it as a place where people will be united only by “social networks, economic cooperation, and friendly competition through sports and festivals”. In this case he will have the equivalent of the Hellenistic city - not of the ancient, nor of the European cities that he admires. We like it or not, a real European Union needs Christianity. We may not like it, but we can not in the same time dream of and fight for an architecture that will be European.