By Eliel Saarinen. Reinhold Publishing Corporation © 1943. 380 pages. Hardcover. Finnish architect and designer Eliel Saarinen discusses humanity's obligation to create living conditions that promote health and prosperity, with a focus on vision and planning.
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Excerpt:
It might seem almost paradoxical to deal with cultural problems at a time when all of humanity is involved in a struggle of such gigantic proportions as mankind never before has experienced. And no one knows when all this is going to end. On the other hand, there has been put into man's heart an impetus of optimism which even in the darkest of times keeps man dreaming about brighter days to come.
So even now.
In the present endeavor to design a perfect blueprint for the post-war world -- and as this endeavor, to a great extent, concerns man's accommodations -- there has been much discussion as to what the post-war dwelling must be.
The post-war problem of architectural design, however, is not as simple as the designing of a mere dwelling. Primarily, the post-war problem of architectural design must be the designing of such community environment as could make of the community, and of the dwelling alike, a culturally healthy place in which to live. And due to the fact that, already long before the war-clouds gathered themselves one third, perhaps, of the population of the United States was forced to live in the substandard conditions of more or less decayed communities, the designing of a livable environment for one's dwelling place is by no means a post-war problem, caused by the war situation, but a problem of a fundamental importance, war or no war. This war -- once over -- however, might help one to realize the obligation of the post-war period to make good the indifference of the pre-war period. Indeed, this is an essential obligation which, in fact, must be a war in itself, and a serious one, too. It must be a war against slums and urban decay. It must be a war against those obsolete and obviously inadequate pre-war methods of town-building which caused the growth of these slums and the urban decay. It must be a 'revolution' in order to bring better methods, and better results. But as urban growth is a slow process, this revolution, at best, can and must be turned toward a constructive 'evolution': evolution based on the fundamental principles of all town-building, no matter whether in war or peace.
Consequently, in the following analysis of civic problems, I will not consider these problems from the points of view of war or post-war times in particular. That is, I will not consider the problems from a mere emergency angle with temporarily palliative solutions. I will consider them in the light of such principles as can secure results that are both constructive and lasting.
- Eliel Saarinen
Cranbrook, 1943