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Interiors Between Privacy and Togetherness
Full text linkDocomomo International is proud to present the second issue of the Docomomo Journal co-edited with the International Specialist Committee on Interior Design (ISC/ID), represented by guest editors Zsuzsanna Böröcz and Deniz Hasirci. Established at the Council Meeting during the 16th International Docomomo Conference in Lisbon in 2016, the ISC/ID has since grown and evolved, as evidenced by significant activities, including seminars, discussions, and publications. Already before the establishment of the ISC/ID, interior design and modern living have been explicit themes in two Docomomo Journal issues: no. 46 Designing for Modern Life and no. 47 Global Design, both published in 2012, extended beyond the architectural scale to encompass the qualities of interior space and the constituent elements and materialities of daily life
Modern Interiors in Times of Crisis
Full text linkThe idea for this special issue stemmed from a time of crisis in the world, aiming to search for lessons from related modern interiors to shed light on the future. Crises vary in scale and dimension, and the realization that the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022 was not a contained crisis but one of many that bound the past, present, and future led to the broadened framework for the call for papers in April 2023.There were many submissions from around the world, and the aim regarding paper selection was to ensure a varied outlook on the topic, focusing strictly on the modern interior while practicing a generous definition of what constitutes a crisis. The papers included in this special issue encapsulate these aspects as well as an emphasis on the spatial composition, the relationship between inside and outside, furniture, art, and the processes by which these features define the interior
When Leisure Ends in Loss: Revising Urban Entertainment Facilities from Socialist Romania
Full text linkThe article aims to analyze how the large-scale buildings designed to host entertainment activities during the 1960s and 1970s in socialist Romania transitioned from iconic experimental architecture to an obsolete problematic heritage. During those years, leisure activities became part of the propaganda while state-funded infrastructure was built around them. Organized leisure time is directed towards shaping the ‘new man’. The paper focuses on two different architectural programs that fit into the leisure section: restaurants and commercial centers within holiday resorts and multi-purpose sports halls in cities. The objects in question are defined by different types of post-war modern architecture, varying from mid-century modern up to brutalism. During the socialist period, both case studies were directly managed by the state, from financial aspects to functional ones. After the fall of the communist regime, their status changed, and they endured the transition from a closed socialist economy to a capitalist one. While the sports halls remained under public administration, the restaurants and commercial centers in the holiday resorts were privatized. Alongside a series of unfortunate events that occurred during the 1990s, the general public developed a negative perception of this kind of architecture due to its connection with the former regime. While both case studies are relevant to the entertainment of the general public before 1989, after the fall of the socialist regime, there is a difference in their management and subsequent use, resulting in their presentation in parallel in this paper. The research is centered on how the changes after 1989 led to the fragile state of this heritage today and aims to propose contemporary approaches to properly address them. The buildings suffered both reversible and irreversible transformations, lack funding, and are improperly exploited. Since the late modern socialist heritage is often disregarded in Romania, this paper aims to establish possible guidelines for preserving and adapting these buildings for the present and the future
The Kurnėnai School: A Unique Example of Interwar Lithuanian Modernism and Its Preservation
Full text linkThis article presents the history of the funding, construction, and restoration of Kurnėnai School in the Alytus district—an exemplary project of interwar Lithuanian architecture. In 1934, Laurynas Radziukynas, a Lithuanian American born and raised in Kurnėnai, donated 160 thousand litas for the construction and furnishings of an elementary school in his hometown. The project for the school was drafted in the U.S. Most of the construction materials and furnishings were also bought in the U.S. and brought to Lithuania by sea. The school was equipped with highly modern plumbing for its time, including central heating, a biologically processed sewage system, and a shower. Next to the school, a wind turbine was built, with a pump that pumps water from an artesian well (97 meters deep) up into a water tower reservoir. The school tower was adorned with a ceramic Vytis (Lithuanian coat of arms) designed by Vytautas Brazdžius (1897-1969). There was also a schoolyard for physical exercise and a garden. Against the architectural backdrop of interwar period educational facilities, the school of Kurnėnai stood out as exceptionally modern. In 1990, the school’s architectural ensemble was entered into the Register of Cultural Properties of Lithuania and is considered a protected heritage piece of regional significance. The school was closed in 2008, following a demographic decline. As the building fell into disuse, its condition steadily declined, and it was restored from 2019 to 2020. This article discusses the construction, use, and restoration of the school in a chronological manner, in line with the principles of formal and historical analysis, as well as the factors enabling the preservation of this school as a time capsule with perceptible interwar optimism and maximalist pursuit of modernity
Interrupted Modernity in Santiago de Chile: The Political Afterlife of the Ochagavía Hospital
Full text linkThe Ochagavía Hospital serves as a tangible reminder of Chile’s interrupted modernist aspirations and shifting political ideologies. Conceived in the late 1960s under the principles of the Welfare State, it was envisioned as the largest public healthcare facility in the country, bringing high-complexity services to Santiago’s southwestern periphery. Designed with a “tower and slab” typology and influenced by international references such as the Saint-Lô Hospital in France, the project embodied hygienic principles and the role of modern architecture in promoting social equity. However, construction was halted following the 1973 military coup, and for four decades the building remained unfinished, informally appropriated by nearby communities, artists, and activists. This article analyzes the architectural, political, and symbolic trajectory of the Ochagavía Hospital, focusing on how its form, location, and evolving uses reflect broader transformations in Chile’s political economy. Combining critical architectural analysis, historiographic research, and the study of visual and literary archives, the article examines how the hospital became both a symbol of abandoned utopia and a stage for memory and resistance. Particular attention is given to the building’s resignification during the dictatorship, including the performance “Suda-mérica” by Pedro Lemebel and interventions by Lotty Rosenfeld. In 2013, the hospital was sold and converted into a logistics and office center, erasing its original public intent and marking the final step in its privatization. As an unfinished modernist project turned commercial infrastructure, the Ochagavía Hospital exposes the effects of neoliberal reforms on public architecture, while also revealing the layered meanings that emerge from spatial abandonment and reappropriation. The building’s transformation stands as a poignant reminder of Chile’s intricate political, social, and economic history. Its unfinished state offers a critical lens through which to understand the broader urban consequences of Chile’s political transitions and the enduring legacy of neoliberalism
Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Interior Spaces
Full text linkThis exhibition review, in the format of a visual essay, presents a selection of projects shown in the exhibition Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces. Initiated and organized by the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum in 2023, Retrotopia was a comprehensive, cooperative project focusing on the role and impact of design in the countries belonging to the former Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslavia. Never before have these countries been represented together in one exhibition with their attendant material that helps to outline and raise awareness and understanding of the region’s design activities between the 1950s and the 1980s. Eleven design capsules were created, each highlighting two projects: one representing the public space and one the private sphere and the interior. The spectrum of interior projects and objects on display ranged from experimental housing exhibitions and cybernetic living machines to new furniture concepts, modular kitchen furniture, tableware, household tools, and toys for children
In Memory of Bertold Burkhardt 1941-2025
No full textIn June, Berthold Burkhardt, one of the supporters of the first hours of Docomomo, passed away. He was involved in the organization of the International Docomomo Conference at Bauhaus Dessau (1992), and actively participating in the “restart” of Docomomo Germany in 2006.He studied architecture and civil engineering in Stuttgart (1960-1965). As an architect and engineer in Frei Otto’s office, he was involved in iconic buildings such as the German Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal and the roof structures for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. As a staff member of Institute for Lightweight Structures at the University (ILEK) in Stuttgart and in research projects, he devoted himself scientifically to the topic that occupied him throughout his entire professional life: lightweight structures.In 1984 he was appointed as professor and Head of the Institute for Structural Design at TU Braunschweig. He was able to combine his research with architectural teaching and his work as an independent architect, from 1993 together with Martin Schumacher in the Burkhardt + Schumacher office. Conservation and renovation projects became increasingly important, e.g. the employment agengy in Dessau by Walter Gropius and the Chancellor’s Bungalow in Bonn by Sep Ruf.Next to his active involvement in Docomomo, he was a member of ICOMOS, Europa Nostra, the Alvar Aalto Society, the Koldewey Society for Historical Building Research and the Society for the History of Building Technology, and served several years as head of the monitoring group for the German World Heritage Sites. As an expert and advisor, he supported the Wüstenrot Foundation and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, and played a key role in setting the course for the general refurbishment of the Bauhaus building from 1996 onwards.We will miss him as an architect, engineer, scientist, mentor and friend
Paradoxical Modernism in Singapore’s Mosque Architecture: Secularism, Indo-Saracenic Elements, and Mosque Upgrading in the Inaugural Mosque Building Fund Phase (1977-1983)
Full text linkThis paper examines the paradoxes of applying modernist architectural principles, rooted in secular, functional ideals, to mosque design during the initial phase of Singapore’s Mosque Building Fund (MBF) from 1977 to 1983. Drawing on archival plans, photographs, and newspaper articles, it explores how national objectives shaped mosque construction, resulting in what this paper terms “paradoxical” Modernism: architectural outcomes that adapt modernist ideals to meet the Malay/Muslim community’s spiritual, symbolic, and communal needs. Rather than signalling deficiency, the term highlights the negotiated tensions between state planning and religious expression in a postcolonial context. It examines the collaboration among the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), architects from the Housing Development Board (HDB), and the Mosque Building Committee (Jawatankuasa Pembinaan Masjid, JPM), focusing on how these partnerships balanced planning objectives with community feedback. The resulting mosque designs attempted to reconcile modernist forms with Malay/Muslim perceptions of appropriate mosque aesthetics and functions. The study analyses how modernist idioms, the International Style and Brutalism, were used to reinterpret Indo-Saracenic elements such as domes, minarets, and arches into simplified, geometric forms across seven MBF mosques: Muhajirin (1977), Mujahidin (1977), Assyakirin (1978), An-Nur (1980), Al-Ansar (1981), Al-Muttaqin (1980), and En-Naeem (1983). The analysis is structured around three key areas: first, a discussion of mosque designs influenced by modernist idioms; second, how Indo-Saracenic forms were adapted to fit these idioms; and third, the integration of elements such as open courtyards and balconies. Finally, the paper addresses how redevelopment pressures have led to modifications or demolition of these buildings. These changes reveal the “paradoxes” not as flaws, but as signs of how architecture responded to evolving community needs and planning priorities. Instead, these mosques should be recognised as culturally significant reflections of their time’s socio-political conditions, raising broader questions about conserving modernist religious architecture in Singapore
Interior Hygiene: Body, Space, Society, Ideals in the Modernist Turkish Context
Full text linkThe focus of this paper is the significance of the modern bathroom in Turkey, its meaning in the modernization of interiors, in terms of hygiene as a precaution for crises, as well as sanitary ware, and Turkish company VitrA’s role in continuously emphasizing the modern bathroom and challenging behavioral habits through design competitions, from the 1940s onwards.Among one of the most important spaces of hygiene, the bathroom was instrumental in bringing Western habits into the modern Turkish house. Hygiene was a matter of modern national identity emphasized in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century, even before the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.The Western ideals of comfort and hygiene, bodily practices, and lavatory fixtures all contributed to the understanding of the modernization process of Turkish interiors. Moreover, a bathroom that combined the Western and today’s internationally accepted alla franga lavatory, a sink and a bath, thus combining these activities became a household application and a reflection of modern life. In the 1950s and 1960s, as the average urban Turkish family life moved to apartments that often housed governmental civil servants, the modern bathroom became a standard household space. Meanwhile, the alla turca lavatory, a lavatory on which one has to crouch, and that is still used in certain parts of Turkey and Asia, represented the uncivilized and unhygienic.With the modernization of the domestic interior, a transformation of wet allocation spaces took place, leading to the questioning of the domestic and public. Moreover, new materials and bathroom equipment were introduced, and bathroom equipment competitions were established, leading to inventions that synthesized habits of the East and the West, reaching a new hygienic standard regarding relevant potential crises. Both the company history of VitrA Eczacıbaşı and the competing designs are showcased in the paper, aiming to support an understanding of social and spatial change in the modern Turkish domestic interior that has redefined identity with proactive lessons for the future
Imperfect Modernism
Full text linkIn this special issue of the Docomomo Journal, we introduce the concept of “Imperfect Modernism” and continue enriching the ongoing debate on Modernism, highlighting that it exists not only as an ideal but also as a fragmented, locally interpreted practice. It was shaped by geopolitical, economic, and socio-cultural constraints: shifts in power and political upheavals, resource shortages, the needs of local communities, and the integration of traditional architectural practices. Within this “imperfection” are encoded highly informative layers of heritage, which enable the reconstruction of the lived experience of 20th-century architecture, rather than merely its abstract ideals.“Imperfect Modernism” does not contradict earlier interpretations but extends an integrative logic, emphasizing that the value of modernist architecture lies not in the perfection of forms and concepts, but in the imprints of historical and political constraints and local adaptations, which render it a vibrant, vulnerable, and diverse heritage of the 20th century.In the special issue Imperfect Modernism, we aimed to highlight the geographical and civilizational diversity of modernist architecture, while also examining how it served not only as a witness to the pivotal moments of the 20th century—such as political and social utopias, technological breakthroughs, and aesthetic and social experiments—but also as a reflection of the dual forces of globalization and a unified architectural vision on one hand, and the struggle to preserve ethnic and religious identities on the other