The early 20th century was known as the machine age because it had been transformed by technology: new machines and industrial processes were invented; mechanical mass production became a reality; people were conscious of living in a modern age. This was a huge inspiration to artists and designers.
In Italy a group of writers and artists were captivated by the modern age. They started to celebrate the new technologies in their work and began to call themselves Futurists. The Futurists were entranced with the speed, energy and violence of modern life. They were obsessed with industry and machines. They turned their back on the past and said that they were opposed to "all that is old and worm-eaten."
The leader of the movement was F.T. Marinetti, who was a poet. Futurism began as a literary movement, and they published aggressive manifestos as well as a magazine called Lacerba.
Here are some quotes from the manifestos:
'We declare that the world's beauty has been enriched by a new beauty; the beauty of speed.'
They celebrated the dynamism of modern life, and things like cars and trains.
"We will glorify war - the world"s only hygiene.'
We might ask how war can be regarded as hygiene. That is explained by the next quote.
'Peoples too must follow a constant hygiene of heroism and allow themselves every ten years a glorious shower of blood.'
The idea is that war kills off the weak, the old and infirm, leaving society stronger. As you might have guessed the Futurists were members of the Italian Fascist movement. They felt that the old, useless aspects of society should be burned away in the name of progress. These quotes anticipate the First World War, and indeed the rise of Fascism under Hitler and Mussolini.
But the important thing is that they were among the first people to celebrate the "miracles of contemporary life": things like machinery, industrialisation and developments in science. In the words of Marinetti, "Nothing in the world is more beautiful than a great, humming power station . . . synthesised in control panels bristling with levers and gleaming commutators." This was the emergence of the machine aesthetic that was used by Modernists for the next few decades.
Futurist paintings feature dynamic forms suggesting speed and energy. This was a comment on how the new science of photography had altered human perception. He's sculpted motion blurs into the form.
The Futurists wrote manifestos on painting and sculpture, but there was no manifesto on architecture until 1914, five years after the movement had been founded. That was ironic because Futurism was concerned with transforming civilisation, yet they had no recruit in the area that could most directly influence society - architecture. That embarrassed Marinetti, so it was a relief when a young architect called Antonio Sant' Elia joined the movement in 1914.
Sant' Elia produced a series of designs called La Città Nuova (1914) - the new city. It consists of futuristic cityscapes forming a technological metropolis that was intended to be "a battery of human and mechanical energy." This is the machine aesthetic in action. The buildings combine sharp diagonals and sheer verticals. His buildings are often surmounted by industrial chimneys or radio masts. They make symbolic use of an iconography derived from machines.
His trademarks were external elevators and interconnecting bridges. The buildings are penetrated by tramlines and roads, which are used for visual rather than practical effect. They become giant machines themselves. In the architecture manifesto (1914), Marinetti wrote: "We must invent and rebuildour modern city like an immense and tumultuous shipyard . . . mobile and everywhere dynamic, and the modern building like a gigantic machine."
These buildings remained on paper. The fact was that they could not be built, because Sant' Elia's vision far exceeded the technological capabilities of the day.
In other words, the Futurist interest in the machine arose from a naïve celebration of the machine as a symbol. They failed to grasp the practical aspects of technology and could not adapt to the technological limitations of the day. For that reason, Sant' Elia's designs remained on the drawing board.
