Peter Meyer and the Swiss Discourse on Monumentality

Abstract

Sigfried Giedion's concept of a monumentality, widely discussed in the United States during the 1940s, absorbed arguments of his Swiss fellow countryman, the architect, art historian, and critic Peter Meyer (1894-1984). He addressed this issue from 1937 on, in numerous articles published in the journal Das Werk , which he edited between 1930 and 1942. Meyer rejected all forms of eclectic historicism but criticized the radical modernism of Le Corbusier as well. In an important departure from his previous blanket opposition to monumentalism in architecture, Meyer suggested that modern architects could begin to explore a monumentality so long as they reserved it for particularly significant public building programs, such as representing the nation state. He regarded the Swedish new empiricism of Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, as well as the architecture of the Perret brothers in France, as the best examples of monumentality. The emblematic type of program he had in mind for this emotive and expressive form was the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition (Schweizerische Landesausstellung) in Zurich, where he was involved in the debates surrounding the planning of the exhibition.