Authenticity
There’s nothing bogus about Mickey Mouse. This star on Hollywood Boulevard, one of over 2600 in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrates his life and achievements.
THE RIGHT ANGLE JOURNAL
For most of its history, architecture had no need to concern itself with authenticity. “Architecture,” in the early days, consisted of buildings intended to convey a sense of importance. If that meant borrowing from earlier styles, so be it. There was still plenty of unimportant building going on – homes, sheds, barns, factories, shops, studios and other lowly, unofficial structures.
Understandably, when the word “authenticity” entered our language, in the 1700s, it had little to do with architecture. In fact, for the next century-and-a-half, architectural movements, one after the other, were described with qualifiers, such as “neo-” (Classical), “revival” (Romanesque, Gothic) and “style” (Regency, Queen Anne, Edwardian). Victorian-era architecture and design, still wildly popular today, can be best described as “eclectic” – not so much a style as a riot of styles. If the Victorians concerned themselves with authenticity at all, it was in their fascination with curios – quaint, authentic objects collected from exotic locales, displayed without context for the sake of novelty.
From this eclectic omnium-gatherum mélange, emerged the ab initio movements of the late 19th century: attempts to reconnect architectural form with its function or its means of creation; to dispense with derived architectural styles in the interests of developing an architecture that was true to its roots, that reflected its purpose, or the means of its creation, and not distinguished by stylistic embellishments.
“Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement,” said British designer William Morris in 1880. And, as Chicago architect Louis Sullivan decreed, in 1896, “Form follows function.” Wouldn’t it be better if a building reflected its purpose, instead of being dressed up to look like something else? To which Viennese architect Adolf Loos added in 1910, “The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects.” The search for authenticity in architecture had begun.