Kulturarvsstyrelsen Og Nordjyllands Historiske Museum
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Modernism and Rationalization Modernism and Rationalization was the title of a seminar in 2005 arranged by the Museum of Northern Jutland, the Institute for History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University and the Heritage Agency of Denmark. The themes were Modernism and Rationalization, Planning and Rationalization and Modernism Exposed. The speakers were from Aalborg University and from the Nordic/Baltic research group Industry and Modernism. KULTURARVSSTYRELSEN OG NORDJYLLANDS HISTORISKE MUSEUM MODERNISM AND RATIONALIZATION Skrifter fra Nordjyllands Historiske Museum nr. 2 Museum of Northern Jutland and The Heritage Agency of Denmark 006 Title Modernism and Rationalization Published by Museum of Northern Jutland and The Heritage Agency of Denmark 006 Skrifter fra Nordjyllands Historiske Museum nr. Editors Caspar Jørgensen and Morten Pedersen The Heritage Agency of Denmark and Museum of Northern Jutland Lay-out Jan Slot-Carlsen Printed by Gandrup Bogtrykkeri Impression 200 Distribution Museum of Northern Jutland, www.nordjyllandshistoriskemuseum.dk, [email protected] ISBN 978-87-98--6 Contents 6 Contributors Caspar Jørgensen and Morten Pedersen 7 Introduction Modernism and Rationalization Anja Kervanto Nevanlinna 13 Industrial Society as a Generator of Modernism Michael F. Wagner 31 Society as a Machine. The Question of Technocracy in Danish History 800-90 Planning and Rationalization Marija Drėmaitė 61 Planning the Rational Soviet Baltic Society: Industry and Built Enviroment in Lithuania in the 960s Maths Isacson 77 Planning the Rational Society in the North Modernism Exposed Bente Jensen 93 The North Jutland Exhibition 933. An Example of Modern Advances in Aalborg in the 90s Anders Houltz 7 Modern Accounts of Past and Present: The Gothenburg Exhibition of 9 Marianne Rostgaard Concluding Remarks 7 Literature 6 Contributors Caspar Jørgensen, Special Advisor, The Heritage Agency of Denmark, Copenhagen Denmark Morten Pedersen, Curator, Museum of Northern Jutland, Aalborg Denmark Anja Kervanto Nevanlinna, Project Leader, Industry and Modernism Research Project; Academy Research Fellow, Academy of Finland and Department of Art History, University of Helsinki, Finland Michael F. Wagner, Associate Professor, Institute for History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark Marija Drėmaitė, Department of Theory of History and Cultural History, Vilnius University, Lithuania Maths Isacson, Professor, Economic History, University of Uppsala; Professor, Department of Philosophy and the History of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden Bente Jensen, Archivist, Aalborg City Archives, Denmark Anders Houltz, Industrial Heritage Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden Marianne Rostgaard, Associate Professor, Institute for History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark 7 Introduction CASPAR JØRGENSEN AND MORTEN PEDERSEN The setting of the seminar was especially appropriate, taking place at Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, a building designed by the great Finnish architect Alvar Aalto together with Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël and clearly inspired by indus- trial plants, especially the windows are like variations of win- dows of industrial sheds. And before the museum was built 968-97 the ground was used for the North Jutland Exhi- bition in 9 of which the exhibition tower is still standing. It was the th seminar in the row of seminars on Industrial Heritage initiated by The Heritage Agency of Denmark. The first tried to delineate the current status of Danish research in industrial history and industrial heritage. The aim of the second seminar was to present different approaches to the preservation of the industrial heritage in museums as well as on site. The examples were drawn from the United Kingdom, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Catalonia. The last two semi- nars have been more narrow and technical. One was about how to make local overviews and selections of the industrial heritage and the other was a discussion between architects and cultural historians about how to reuse industrial build- ings. The seminars are part of a programme by The Heritage Agen- cy of Denmark to forward the preservation of the industrial heritage in Denmark initiated in 00 and culminating in 007, which have been designated the year of industrial cul- ture. 8 Introduction The main aims of this programme are: • To select and argue for the selection of industrial en- vironments, which together symbolize and tell the main history of Danish industry, and to preserve the selected environments in one form or another • To select and interpret industrial environments, which are of regional interest • To initiate investigations of industrial environments of selected industries combining different approaches like analysis of the built environment, technology and work- ing culture • To encourage electronic registration of the museums collections to make it possible to get an overview of the industrial artefacts collected and the research done thus far and to formulate a policy for future research and col- lection • To start an ongoing debate among specialists and the general public about the values and interpretation of in- dustrial society as a historic phenomenon, as well as a de- bate about which parts of the industrial heritage should be preserved. The debate is planned to culminate in 007 with the presentation of the industrial environments and a number of exhibitions, books, lectures and other activities at the Danish museums. Further, the ambition is not to take the national frame for granted. The thought is that it will be rewarding to under- stand the industrial heritage in its local setting as well as in its North European context. For example most of the technol- ogy deployed in Denmark has been transferred from abroad and adopted to the national and local settings. One of the conclusions of the first seminar was that the re- search done until now in Denmark concerning the industrial heritage has barely included the industrial environment after Introduction 9 90. And further that there is a need for syntheses as well as for a multi-disciplinary approach. The situation in the other Nordic and Baltic countries seems to be the same. In fact the summary of the situation in Denmark looks like a copy of the conclusion reached by Marie Nisser and Maths Isacson in their article from 998 on the present restructuring of indus- trial society in Sweden.) On this background the Heritage Agency of Denmark was delighted to support the seminar, although it should not be expected that a fully developed synthesis on modernism and rationalization will be presented in the following contribu- tions. The speakers were from Aalborg University and from a Nor- dic/Baltic research group. The researchers from Aalborg have, among other subjects, a special interest in the labour process as well as Taylorism, and have recently published a special issue of the journal Den Jyske Historiker 00 on Denmark during the second industrial revolution. The Nordic/Baltic project is a year research project supported by the Nordic Research Council. The aim of the project Industry and Mod- ernism is to analyze the significance of industrial companies, their production systems and architecture in the development of the Nordic and Baltic societies during the high-industrial period (c. 90-980). And one of the hypotheses is that in- dustrialists and their professionals (engineers and architects) were the driving forces in the development of modernism, directly through the built forms they produced and indirectly through the ideals and forms of organization these repro- duced. The researchers from the Nordic-Baltic group have published some preliminary results in The Finnish Journal of Urban Studies 00. ) Museernes arbejde med Industrisamfundets Kulturarv. Arbejdsrapport fra seminar den 8. august 00 på Nationalmuseet. Caspar Jørgensen and Vibe Øde- gaard (eds). København 00. Isacson, Maths and Nisser, Marie: Industrisamhäl- lets omvandling – en utmaning. Bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift no. 6, 998, pp. -. 0 Introduction Before ending this introduction we will briefly mention some key concepts and rudimentarily sketch the framework on which the seminar was planned. The point of departure is the concept of techno-economic paradigms developed by the economist Carlota Perez in the tradition of Joseph Schumpeter. Perez identifies five techno- logical revolutions: • The Industrial Revolution (with capital letters) • Age of steam and railways • Age of steel, electricity and heavy engineering • Age of oil, automobile and mass production • Age of information and telecommunication A technological revolution is defined by Perez “as a power- ful and highly visible cluster of new and dynamic technologies, products and industries capable of bringing about an upheaval in the whole fabric of the economy and of propelling a long-term up- surge of development. It is a strongly interrelated constellation of technical innovations generally including an important all-per- vasive low-cost input, often a source of energy, sometimes a cruel material, plus significant new products and processes and a new infrastructure.” ) And Perez notes that each technological breakthrough pro- vides a set of interrelated generic technologies and organi- zational principles which spreads to the whole productive system. The new possibilities and their requirements unleash a profound transformation in “the way of doing things” across the whole