Three of today's most celebrated architectural movements - Art Deco, Bauhaus, and Brutalism - have endured harsh criticism and outright persecution throughout their histories. Despite their current cult status and widespread appreciation in contemporary design, these revolutionary styles faced significant opposition when they first emerged, with some continuing to spark controversy even today.
The Bauhaus movement, founded in Germany after World War I, represents one of the most dramatic cases of architectural persecution. In 1919, young architect Walter Gropius merged the applied arts and fine arts schools in Weimar with an ambitious vision to put art at the service of industry while returning to artisanal manufacturing. "Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all return to artisanal work, because there is no professional art. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman," Gropius declared.
The movement's goal was to produce affordable everyday design accessible to the masses, particularly crucial in the harsh post-war context facing European citizens. Housing conditions, especially in Germany, bordered on misery for many. Bauhaus designers advocated for low-cost architecture and design using minimal materials. This inclusive project, open to all students without prerequisites, embodied the socialist ideals developing in Europe during the 1910s under Marxist influence.
The Bauhaus - meaning "house of building" - attracted renowned architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Marcel Breuer, as well as artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Tel Aviv now houses the world's largest collection of Bauhaus buildings. However, the movement's avant-garde, cosmopolitan nature (including openness to women) displeased the Nazis, who closed the school and dissolved the movement in 1933, perceiving it as "degenerate art." They preferred classical styles inspired by antiquity.
Many Bauhaus designers fled to the United States, but the movement continued to gain ground, expanding into other fields like graphic design and painting with innovative principles of simplicity, aesthetics, and functionalism. Today, it ranks among the most appreciated design movements in interior decoration, with pieces like Breuer's Wassily and Cesca B32 chairs and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe's Barcelona chair becoming icons. Disturbingly, Germany's far-right returned to anti-Bauhaus rhetoric in May, with AfD deputy Hans-Thomas Tillschneider declaring: "Bauhaus cannot serve as our model, but only as a historical aberration" - arguments historians note are similar to those used by Nazi Germany.
Brutalism, perhaps the most divisive of these styles, emerged after World War II with the goal of rapid, low-cost reconstruction and housing. Between 1950 and 1970, cities acquired large concrete buildings with geometric, rationalized forms. Iconic structures like Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille (1952), London's Barbican Center by Peter Chamberlin, Geoffry Powell, and Christoph Bon (1960s-1970s), and Milan's Velasca Tower by BBPR (1961) - now highly praised and even used as luxury fashion show venues - initially horrified the public.
These buildings were criticized as "ugly" and "austere," accused of taking up too much space and lacking sufficient ornamentation. However, Brutalism wasn't merely about functionalism; it also promoted an aesthetic rooted in the modernity of emerging cities while respecting nature. British architects Alison and Peter Smithson, movement leaders, argued in 1956 that "Brutalism attempts to emerge a raw poetry from the confused and powerful forces at work in a mass production society... Its essence is ethical."
Brutalism also carried modern ideals of a more egalitarian society, founded notably on community living (like Le Corbusier's Housing Unit). These ideas continue to be viewed unfavorably by the MAGA movement today, with Donald Trump signing a decree upon his inauguration requiring public buildings to follow "classical architectural tradition" - an approach reminiscent of the German far-right's stance on Bauhaus. This pattern raises questions about whether architectural modernity disturbs certain political factions.
Art Deco, unlike the socially egalitarian utopias of Bauhaus and modernism, targeted an affluent audience. The movement emerged in the 1920s (simultaneously with Bauhaus) and infiltrated various domains from fashion to decoration, architecture to jewelry. The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts marked its peak and worldwide public recognition, attracting six million visitors captivated by the movement's graphic lines and emblematic gilding.
"Born in the champagne of rediscovered peace," as F. Scott Fitzgerald noted in The Great Gatsby, Art Deco celebrated the Roaring Twenties, post-war effervescence, and the festive lightness of cities. Joyful buildings like Paris's Palais de la Porte Dorée and Grand Rex, or Roubaix's swimming pool, flourished across French territory and more broadly in Europe and North America before spreading worldwide. Art Deco became the symbol of arts, entertainment, and the booming cinema industry of the era.
Despite widespread approval, the movement faced criticism from contemporaries for being insufficiently democratic and catering to wealthy classes sensitive to its opulence. "From the start, it was designed for the middle class, which was rebuilding and furnishing its habitat. Caught up in the dynamism of the 1920s, they wanted something new and modern," explains Bénédicte Mayer, conservation attaché at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in Paris.
Responding to criticism, architects shifted toward more accessible architecture and economic housing, as in Reims, where the city was rebuilt in Art Deco style after World War I. The situation changed between the wars when new modernist architectural styles displaced Art Deco, criticizing its overly decorative identity as insufficiently functional. The movement was abandoned for several decades before finally regaining aesthetic interest in the late 20th century, now more beloved than ever by design enthusiasts in this centennial year of its birth.
