The high modernist dream: engineering a perfect society from a blank slate
In short: High modernism isn't just an aesthetic; it is a profound confidence in the power of science and technology to reorder the world. It seeks to master nature and human behavior by stripping away local context to create a legible, standardized, and utopian reality.
High modernism is defined by an unfaltering belief in scientific and technological progress as the primary means to restructure social and natural environments. Unlike general modernity, which often promotes organic growth, high modernity advocates for a complete transformation of existing conditions. It operates on the idea of a 'blank slate,' where historical, geographical, and social contexts are disregarded in favor of standardized models. This approach often relies on the expertise of intellectuals, engineers, and bureaucrats to render complex systems—like old cities or social dynamics—legible through spatial ordering, such as grid planning.
While it is often associated with the late 1905s and 1960s Cold War era, the roots of high modernism are ancient. The Greek philosopher Hippodamus proposed the grid plan in the 5th century BC, implementing it in the port of Piraeus. Similarly, the Qin dynasty (221 BC–206 BC) in China practiced high modernist governance through massive standardization of weights, measures, and even philosophy. In the modern era, the Industrial Revolution accelerated these goals, as mass production required the homogenization of local context to achieve economies of scale—exemplified by Henry Ford’s famous quote regarding the black Ford Model T.
The application of high modernism varies wildly in success. In the West, projects like the Pruitt–Igoe housing complex in the U.S. became symbols of failure and demolition by 1972. However, in Asian cities like Hong Kong and Singapore, modernist high-rise housing remains a functional and dominant reality. Conversely, the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev embraced high modernism as a tool for socialist transformation, using rational planning to create the 'New Soviet Man' and mass-produced 'Khrushchyovka' apartments to eliminate social inequality.
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