Essay

Donkey ladder

Anca Sandu Tomașevschi

Donkey's Scale*

Big, bigger, the biggest
In the early post-war decades, there was still a saying in the West: Bigger is Better. The statement had, of course, a myriad of connotations, from the sexual to the cult of infinite growth as a means of world progress. The idea came, of course, from America at the turn of the century, when Daniel Burnham expressed a Machiavelli-inspired general view: Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. Some fans of this grandiloquent optimism were also to be found in Europe. The Corbusianist aesthetic appetite for grand gestures was probably derived from this spirit of youthful virility - via the Soviet Union. And this also explains the enthusiasm of the 1960s for Les Grands Projets. I don't think it was just the burning desire to solve the post-war housing crisis, but also the impetus left over from the time of intensive industrial, economic and urban development. At the same time, expressionism was also producing, in the name of the will to art, great monuments of design architecture such as the Sydney Opera House. And when Dutch structuralism made that splendid effort for the sake of small identities, it was criticized for compromising the big identity.

In 1973, in counterpoint, a book by a German-British economist, with the punchy title Small is Beautiful, went viral. E.F. Schumacher was the author's name, and he proposed replacing universalist thinking and large-scale start-ups with small, differentially appropriate, locally appropriate, decentrally controlled measures, explaining that these are effective in a truly democratic, people-centred policy. Incidentally, the subtitle of the book was A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. His plea had a remarkable audience in that year of the great energy crisis, and then had a resurgence with the debates about globalization and sustainability.

It still happens, lo and behold, that a settled critique tempers and refocuses energies when Big becomes too Big, and Bigger is Better degenerates into too Big is Bad.
Read the full text in issue 6/2013 of Arhitectura magazine
Big, Bigger, the Biggest
During the first post-war decades, there was a very popular saying in the West: Bigger is Better. It had a multitude of connotations, ranging from the sexual one to the cult of infinite growth as a means of prosperity for humankind. The idea obviously originated in the America from the beginning of the century, when Daniel Burnham had voiced a general opinion inspired by Machiavelli: Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. Some fans of this inflated optimism could be found in Europe as well. Corbusier's aesthetic eagerness for grand gestures was apparently due to this spirit of juvenile virility, via the Soviet Union. And this is how I also think the enthusiasm of the '60s for Les Grands Projets can be accounted for. I don't think it was merely a burning desire to resolve the post-war housing crisis, I think it was also about that energy left over from the time of intensive industrial, economic and urban development. At the same time, expressionism was also producing, in the name of the will for art, great monuments of architectural design such as the Sydney Opera House. And when Dutch structuralism made that splendid effort for the sake of small identities, it was criticized for compromising the great identity.

In 1973, as a counterpoint, a book written by a German-British economist began to gain popularity. It had a poignant title: Small is Beautiful. The author's name was E.F. Schumacher and he proposed that Universalist thinking and large-scale planning be replaced with small measures, differently adjusted to the local scale and controlled in decentralized fashion, explaining that these are actually efficient in the framework of a truly democratic and people-oriented politics. In fact, the subtitle of his book was A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. His plea had a remarkably wide appeal in that year of the great energy crisis and saw an outbreak afterwards, with the emergence of the debates on globalization and sustainability.

It happens, therefore, that poised criticism occasionally tempers and re-directs the energies, when Big becomes too Big, and Bigger is Better degenerates into too Big is Bad.
Read the full text in the print magazine.
* Donkey's scale is a phrase usually employed to refer to an arrangement of things according to their height, from the lowest to the tallest. (translator's note)