In previous centuries architecture had been associated in its development with what were essentially unchanging building problems: the church, the castle, the town hall and the merchant's house. New tasks now began to appear, which hitherto had been without significance in architectural development: factories, workshops and administrative buildings; highways, stations and airports; hospi- tals and sports buildings; schools, libraries and exhibition halls. At the same time there arose an ever more pressing need co-ordinate from the standpoint of over- all control the immense multiplicity of requirements and regulations. The problem involved the technical, sociological and formal aspects of town planning, and finally national planning as well. Beyond the town boundaries regional planning sought a basis for individual planning by ordering the disposition of industrial and residential zones, highways and green spaces and of built-up and agri- cultural areas. Confronted with such an abundance of tasks eclecticism with its methods based upon historical precedents was certain to founder.

3. Backyards between Hussiten- and Acker Stras- se, Berlin, behind a street elevation loaded with eclectic finery. Late nineteenth century.

During the same period a complete change in production methods took place.
Handicrafts were gradually superseded and supplanted by industry; technics
began to appear as the determining factor. Manufacturing processes were in-
creasingly mechanized. The staggering developments in natural sciences, which
were leading to a different conception of our world, changed everyday activities
in all respects. Seventy years ago in our grandparents' time, living and work
rooms were still lit with gas; the motor car and the electric tram, the aeroplane,
the radio and the telephone had not yet been invented. To-day, barely three
generations later, we no longer measure the speed of the jet fighter in miles per
hour, but by the speed of sound.

The pioneers of modern architecture could still know little of what the age of
technics might bring. They instinctively sensed, however, the coming trans-
formation in the social structure of the time and they recognized with absolute
clarity that the new architectural problems could be solved only by contemporary
means. Their protest against style mimicry and historical make-believe became
audible for the first time when, in the last decade of the nineteenth century, Louis
Sullivan in Chicago, Hendrik Petrus Berlage in Amsterdam, Henry van de Velde
in Belgium and Otto Wagner in Vienna issued their simultaneous challenge,
starting a movement which led to modern architecture.

If we look back at the history of modern architecture a number of decisive factors
stand out. The search for a new language of form and the development of new
concepts of space were stimulated by the introduction of building materials
which took the place of conventional materials and were associated with new
constructional methods. At the same time modern architecture was guided by a
strong social sense, which influenced the thinking and conduct of leading archi-
tects and is seen in the changed attitude to important building problems. In the
nineteenth century, housing, the real cardinal problem of a socially conscious
architecture, had remained in the hands of building contractors and real estate
speculators. The results were the wretched dwellings of our big cities, in which
-- cut off from natural surroundings, air and sunshine -- a large part of the popu-
lation had to live. The English Garden City movement tackled this problem.
In 1898 Ebenezer Howard proclaimed his theory of settling factory and office
workers in small garden towns, a prelude to the great housing schemes which
grew up after the first world war.

The impetus given by new principles and materials of construction and the
humanizing of the art of building are important forces in the history of modern

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