A place for man: towards a modern monumentality

Abstract

The problem of monumentality constitutes one of the most conflicting aspects in modernism. Inevitably associated with the subject of its criticism, Nineteenth century architecture, modern theory and practice struggled from its inception between obliterating symbolism and mantaining the representative character of the architectural object, between rupturing with past formalisms and accepting the former classic character. This text investigates, through the analysis of some of the main positions appeared since the origin of the Modern Movement to the postmodern crisis, this diatribe, in an intent to understand the existence of an essentially modern monumentality; an autonomous alternative, characteristic of the new architecture and independent of any inherited symbologies or formal conditions.