Build to Lead

In the closing pages of "The Government of Space", Jean-Louis Cohen wondered what form the future presidential library might take – one that Donald Trump, like his predecessors, would have commissioned at the end of his term of office. This posthumous volume, now published by Quodlibet, brings together the lectures given by the French historian in Mendrisio between 2016 and 2017, when Trump’s first presidency seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime event and we had not yet seen the (utterly tacky) plans for the White House ballroom or the colossal triumphal arch intended to commemorate American Independence.

In fact, Cohen asks precisely this question: is architecture functional to the aims of politics? The answer is less obvious than one might imagine. Indeed, he dispels a theory, widely held in the last century, according to which the architecture of totalitarian regimes – necessarily harmful and colossal – is contrasted with democratic architecture, which is equally necessarily superior in terms of quality and ideology.

The issue is far more complex and contradictory. Cohen reiterates that this relationship is not straightforward and, indeed, often proves to be more pragmatic and uninhibited than we have been led to believe. This is evidenced by post-war Rome, where construction projects such as those on Via della Conciliazione and in the EUR district were – providentially – completed despite the regime’s salutary collapse. Democracy, after all, whilst undeniably superior to totalitarianism, is not in itself a guarantee of architectural quality, just as the latter is not necessarily an expression of a virtuous political system. Even in democratic systems, in fact, the architecture of power often ends up expressing the aspirations and ambitions of an elite which seeks to represent itself through it.

Added to this is the use of history as a means of legitimising power. Cohen shows how even very different regimes have, in the past, sought models and points of reference capable of justifying their ambitions, constructing historical narratives that serve their political agendas. Architecture thus becomes not only a means of representing power, but also a tool through which to invent a continuity with the past and assert authority over the present.

Jean-Louis Cohen was, after all, one of the leading historians of contemporary architecture, capable of looking beyond the boundaries of the discipline to explore its cultural and political implications. This approach runs through all his research and is further confirmed in this volume.

Subsequent events seem to confirm the relevance of his reflections. If we consider the storming of the US Capitol in 2021 or the events in Brasília two years later, the architecture of power has not only been the scene of political violence, but has itself become the target of it.