The Long Wait for the Inevitable: Metanarratives of Construction

Abstract

What is the relationship between the historical events in Figure 1? The timeline contains a prophecy and a history. The prophecy was the factory-made house. It seemed obvious to Gropius that the modern house would soon be built like the modern car, and it would happen as quickly as the assembly line. History is the fate of this prophecy over the next hundred years: countless prototypes, countless failures, and a few short-lived success stories. We should understand why this prophecy was not fulfilled, but I wish to explore why this dream and others like it persisted in the face of so many unsuccessful initiatives. Modern architecture is full of large-scale, long-term prophecies of technical and tectonic change. Borrowing a phrase from JeanFrançois Lyotard, I will call these phenomena metanarratives. Modernism is full of them, and they are often failures. The following four buildings are exemplary.