State, Welfare, and the Translation of Architectural Modernism

This article examines the differential translation of architectural modernism across distinct geopolitical contexts between ۱۹۴۰ and ۱۹۸۰, focusing on the contrasting trajectories in Pahlavi Iran and post-war New Zealand. While modernism is often discussed as a universalizing stylistic trajectory or a mere diffusion of Western aesthetic principles, this study argues that its operationalization is fundamentally mediated by the prevailing state structure and the specific nature of state-society relations. Utilizing a theoretical framework synthesizing Henri Lefebvre's concept of the social production of space, Michel Foucault's insights into power/knowledge and biopolitics, and Hilde Heynen's analysis of architecture as a mediator of modernity, we propose that modernism functions not as a pure style, but as a malleable discourse translated into specific spatial technologies. In Pahlavi Iran, where the state apparatus was centralized and focused on rapid, symbolic national modernization, architectural modernism primarily served as a visible technology of state power, legitimizing autocracy and projecting an image of elite progressiveness. Conversely, in New Zealand, characterized by a strong post-war welfare state and established democratic institutions, modernism was translated into spatial practices geared towards social provision, efficiency, and the management of everyday life through public housing and social infrastructure. Through comparative analysis, we illuminate how seemingly universal architectural forms acquire divergent political and social meanings based on their local inscription within distinct regimes of spatial governance.

کلیدواژه ها:

Modern architecture ، Henri Lefebvre ، Michel Foucault ، Hilde Heynen ، Iran ، New Zealand