National representation through visual form: The phenomenon of national style in architecture

Abstract

The formation and development of national ideas in society stimulates the manifestations of the phenomenon of national style in architecture, which suggests that architectural forms help to visualize and affirm these ideas in society. The purpose of this article is to identify the relationship between the development of the national idea in society, and the emergence of forms in architecture that would represent it. The article shows, that the processes of nation-building and state formation are always accompanied by the need to express oneself in cultural and material values, which is directly reflected in architecture. The problem of national self-determination has become key in the development of societies since the eighteenth century - the time when theoretical ideas about the nation began to form. The concept of a nation began to be understood especially actively as a result of the revolution of 1848. The specificity of this concept at that time was, that it acquired an ethnocultural color, which grew out of the mythology of common ancestors, blood ties, common language, national soul. A key factor in determining the membership of a community, that presented itself as a nation, was a sense of common ethnic origin. At this time, the search for national forms in architecture began. Domestic variations of the Renaissance or Gothic (England, Germany, France) are "brought to life", and forms of folk architecture (Ukraine, Russia) are used. In cases where the arsenal of their own architectural heritage was not suitable for interpretation of prototypes, architects turned to other areas of creativity: literature, epic, creating on their basis a mythologized image of folk tradition (Finland, Sweden, Denmark). An important stimulus for the search for and formation of national styles in architecture are the processes of establishing or restoring an independent state (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania). This encouraged the development of "national style" in contemporary architectural works, which could represent a new national country in the global context. Formative sources are becoming important for the creation of forms of national styles. The architecture of these sources is mostly associated with the periods of the "golden age" - the times of the greatest previous political and cultural prosperity of the countries. "National style" in architecture is expressed by means of historicism (appeal in the current work to the forms of the past), because historicism appealed to its own architectural heritage. Thus, the formation and development of national styles chronologically coincides with the processes of nation-building: the development and growth of national identity, the formation of national movements, the creation of independent states, etc. At the same time, architectural forms are given special semantic characteristics that should embody specific national values.