Architecture, Ideology, and the Ends Beginnings Serve

Abstract

This paper proposes an exploration of beginnings in architecture and the ends to which they serve. We are generally not present at the beginning of the life of most buildings around us; likewise, we are rarely there when buildings cease to exist (whether they ever end is a question of some debate). Discerning the significance of any building demands knowledge of the network of intentions and capital that impelled its construction. Likewise, the destruction of architecture cries out for some understanding of the political economic conditions and cultural attitudes marshaled to justify such an act. Of course, beginnings and ends are themselves a complicated issue for the physical world of architecture as buildings are both an end in themselves and a means to an end. Buildings don't just sit quietly watching history pass--they shape history and to begin to understand the significance of architecture is to examine how and why buildings begin and the ends to which those beginnings serve.