Metropolis. Mass. Machine. (Miasto. Masa. Maszyna) was a statement of a Polish avant-garde poet Tadeusz Peiper published in 1922. It was a statement for a new, modern society. City was the epitome of modernity, as was the technology. Modern people didn’t live any more as desolate units, but as a part of large, mass-based societies, subject to complicated dynamics. This was seen as a future in early 20th century, and contemporary progressive architecture followed this route.
This website is meant to be a virtual scrapbook. It’s aim is to assist me in management of the research material on Irish modernism in architecture. It’s not definite by any means, and subject to (hopefully) constant changes and new information.
The focus of this project is mostly the early ‘heroic’ period of modernism, which as seen from the graphics above, adjusted for certain delays in the new ideas being slowly adopted in Ireland, coincides with the creation of the Irish Free State and lasts roughly up to the declaration of Ireland as a republic in 1949. This creates a very handy time bracket for this website. Although there is quite a number of Irish modernist buildings created after 1949 (Busáras, or Central Bank being the most notable ones) – they would fall outside the scope of this project.
Metropolis. Mass. Machine. 