About Robin:

Robin Grow is the long-term President of the Art Deco & Modernism Society of Australia, author of the award-winning Melbourne Art Deco (2009), preservation advocate and historian. He has researched and written extensively on the interwar and postwar eras for ADMSA’s publication (the Spirit of Progress) and has presented papers at local, national and international conferences, including World Congresses on Art Deco at New York, Havana, Rio and Cleveland. He is currently the Vice-President of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies (ICADS). Major areas of interest are changes to design aesthetics, architectural styling, the introduction of new technology and new materials, and the relations between architecture and society, including governments.

Designing for the State

Major changes to society occurred in the years after WW1 – aviation, electricity transport, building and construction, film, music, and so on. These years also saw the emergence of new forms of political control, particularly in European countries such as Italy, Germany and Russia. Totalitarian states controlled most aspects of daily life, and the most obvious manifestations of state ideologies could be found in architecture. Many new designs represented the values and ideals of the state that governed the location. This presentation describes the design of new buildings that reflected the values and principles of the State, such as authoritarianism and power, nationalism, unity and social solidarity and symbolism, massive size, use of propaganda, new building types using new materials, a reverence for the past, day to day control of lives, modernization, and militarism. It also describes the role played by architects and designers in these regimes. Some architects fully embraced the State philosophy and accepted State control if they wished to continue working, whilst others fled to safer places.