The Aesthetics of Authoritarianism: Architecture as a Visible Manifestation of Power

Besides relying on force, totalitarian rulers use visuality, symbolism, and tightly supervised public spaces to operate their rule. Building designs operate as one of the enduring means for the functioning of government power. The physicality of buildings and the environment of a community last and endure for more than the period of office of the leaders who built them, and they can implement their rule by controlling what is physically present.

Illustration by The Geostrata

From Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, to the present-day authoritarian regimes, architecture has served more than just a functional purpose, becoming a tool of political propaganda.

Political theorists and cultural scholars name this phenomenon as the aesthetic dimension of authoritarianism, when rulers attempted to visualize a sense of durability and timelessness for their rule and the role and manifestation of power. Architectural design not only demonstrates power and organizes power requirements but also permits internal analysis of power.

The designs of built environments, and in particular their grand size and organized architecture and spatial system, help the regimes to control how the people should behave, gather, and perceive their relationship with political power. These structures support the established power relationships and render their demonstration as natural and enduring.

ARCHITECTURE AS POLITICAL AESTHETIC

The German philosopher Walter Benjamin observed that fascism transforms political events into artistic visual displays. Autocratic political regimes depend on public visual displays and emotional experiences through their public demonstrations and their major architectural structures. The state presents its political operations as theatrical performances where people engage through their emotional reactions instead of their logical analysis.

The field of architecture demonstrates its distinctive character among all artistic forms. Buildings create permanent structures that people must interact with throughout their daily routines, which makes them different from paintings and films. Every citizen must interact with public squares and ministries, monumental boulevards, and large state buildings because these spaces create the environments they must inhabit. The public spaces develop a constant pattern that demonstrates state authority through their design.

Hannah Arendt showed that totalitarian governments seek to control both political bodies and the mental processes of people. The dominance of the state uses architecture as its tool for display. The design of enormous structures with their towering columns and vast open spaces creates an effect that makes people feel unimportant and temporary, and easy to substitute. The state maintains its image as an everlasting present force that exists everywhere. Therefore, authoritarian regimes use spatial territory as their method of establishing complete control.

FASCIST ITALY: ROMAN GRANDEUR REBORN

Mussolini's Italy was another example of how authoritarian governments used architectural designs to express their power. The architects of Italian fascism sought to restore a great civilization that they considered lost through their architectural achievements. Mussolini used the ancient Roman Empire as his regime's foundation to claim his government would continue its imperial legacy.

The EUR district stands as a remarkable testament to this vision, which Roman planners developed for the 1942 World’s Fair. The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana serves as the main building of the site, which the designers built using classical Roman arches and modernist geometric forms. The building's repetitive arches create a design that shows both order and continuity, while its huge size establishes a sense of power and everlasting presence.

The fascist architectural program received its main inspiration from architect Marcello Piacentini, who introduced his design approach of simplified classicism to the world. The architectural style maintained its classical architectural grandeur but removed all decorative elements, which resulted in buildings that had both contemporary and everlasting design characteristics. The design elements of their work, which included their unadorned surfaces, their enormous architectural elements, and their unchanging architectural design, reflected the fascist value system, which prioritized discipline and social unity and rank-based social structures.

What makes the architecture of Fascist Italy unique is the way that it was not entirely about erasing or censoring history but selecting and reinterpreting it. Ancient engravings and inscriptions from the times of Imperial Rome, for instance, as well as various monuments of figures such as Julius Caesar, were not destroyed; rather, they were used to create symbols of civilizational continuity.

Physical examples of this were seen throughout Rome and other cities of Italy, for example, in the Via dei Fori Imperiali, a street that brought together remnants of ancient Rome and modern constructions. Such tactics were directly related to tribal nativism, which created an idea of Italians being the chosen nation with a long history dating back to the times of imperial Rome. Rather than trying to censor various perspectives of their history, the government chose to glorify only one version of it by incorporating it into architecture. 

As Emilio Gentile writes, fascism is a political religion, and architecture became the means of creating ritualistic spaces dedicated to myths of origin and destiny. The monumental squares, government buildings, and memorial structures functioned as civic temples that established national myths while generating emotional loyalty to the government.

NAZI GERMANY: MONUMENTALITY AND RACIAL MYTHOLOGY

Nazi Germany established its architectural style through the combination of racial mythology and its ambition for a global empire, which was reflected in its design principles. Hitler developed a strong interest in architectural design, which he defined as a medium for ideological expression. He believed that architectural design should show the everlasting supremacy of the Aryan Reich.

Albert Speer, who served as Hitler's main architect, created the concept which came to be known as the "Theory of Ruin Value”, which posits that buildings should be developed so that they turn into aesthetically pleasing ruins even after their destruction, similar to ancient Rome. The concept expressed a wish for architectural designs to endure through time because even when the Third Reich architecture deteriorated, it would still show its alleged monumentality.

The Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg stands as the most well-known example of Nazi architectural spectacle. The design of the rally site included wide open areas, giant columns, and symmetrical architectural elements. The architectural elements of the building existed as intentional design elements. They created pathways that would lead people to experience collective unity through heightened submission and emotional attachment.

Susan Sontag, a cultural critic, claimed that fascist aesthetics celebrate submission while people work together and lose their unique identities, to the extent that the architectural design of Nazi rallies created powerful spatial environments that made people feel stronger emotional ties to the regime.

STALINIST ARCHITECTURE: SOCIALIST REALISM AND POWER

Authoritarian architectural styles extended beyond fascist governments. The Soviet Union developed its unique monumental architectural style, which became known as Socialist Realism during Joseph Stalin's leadership. Stalinist architecture, which maintained its ideological differences from fascism, adopted three aesthetic characteristics, which included grand scale, centralized symbolism, and an emphasis on state authority.

The Seven Sisters skyscrapers in Moscow represent the most important architectural works that were built between the late 1940s and the early 1950s. The tall buildings used American skyscraper design principles together with neoclassical decorative elements to create a striking skyline that represented Soviet technological advancement and political supremacy.

Boris Groys, a cultural theorist, claims that Socialist Realism created a complete aesthetic framework that required all cultural activities to support the state's ideological story, stating that political beliefs used architecture as their instrument. 

Stalinist cities constructed public buildings that presented an unfriendly appearance that discouraged public entry. The state building design used large dimensions together with unyielding shapes to create a perception that the government possessed absolute power, which required citizens to show respect and obedience instead of engaging in governmental affairs.

BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE AND RAW MATERIALITY

Brutalist architecture developed from the modernist ideas of architects like Le Corbusier, who focused on the use of béton brut (raw concrete), function, and monumentality in the search for an appropriate language of architecture in industrial societies. The architecture created by Le Corbusier, as witnessed in the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille and the planned city of Chandigarh in India, exemplified the organization of social activities within a certain space using strict form and repetition.

While the initial idea behind such a design was associated with the creation of a new utopia with its ideal conditions for collective living and planning, these elements were easily adopted by state institutions. 

Be it the United States with its Boston City Hall or the totalitarian USSR with its huge residential housing complexes, constructed with Brutalist aesthetics, the massive scale, fortress appearance, and rawness of the material used created an impression of something unchangeable and authoritative. Thus, as noted by Reyner Banham, brutalism embodied how, while focusing on structural integrity and honesty, the buildings’ message of permanence and institutional dominance became rather intimidating and detached from people's emotional experience, subordinating them in a highly ordered and controlled built environment.

SPACE SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL

The authoritarian architectural style serves as a tool for governments to maintain power over their citizens. Fascist urban designers used their broad street networks and big public square spaces as more than aesthetic design elements. The design enabled military units to conduct parades while people could demonstrate their support through public events, and authorities could manage the resulting crowd movements. The design of the area created large outdoor areas, which made it harder for people to hold unapproved gatherings.

French philosopher Michel Foucault presented his theory that architectural design serves as a tool for establishing discipline through his famous work. People behave according to built environments because these environments determine what areas they can see, where they can go, and who they can meet. Power exists as a force that maintains control over people and continues to operate through the arrangement of physical spaces.

Authoritarian regimes even build their capital cities with main roads that connect to important government structures and monuments of national leaders. The spatial design system creates a visual pathway that shows the rank of political leaders. The city itself transforms into a power structure that leads people to important authority symbols while showing them their social status within the political system.

CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE 

The architectural logic developed in the twentieth century continues to influence modern authoritarian regimes. Freeway intersections function as open social spaces that connect all areas of Pyongyang and Ashgabat to their main presidential palace and government office complexes and their ceremonial squares. They follow the same design rules, which include symmetry, scale, and visual dominance that earlier authoritarian regimes used to create power structures in their systems.

These forces of power control people even in democratic societies. Monumental state buildings, expansive government complexes, and security-driven urban planning can sometimes echo the spatial logic of authoritarian power. The practice of architecture always maintains its underlying political bias because built structures show the fundamental social values that exist in the societies that create those structures. 

CONCLUSION

Siegfried Kracauer established that political systems use mass ornament as their means to display their existence. Political power uses architectural design to create structures that display its authority while establishing a long-lasting presence and creating an emotional impact. The ultimate goal of authoritarian governments is to establish a sense of power in people before they can bring themselves to trust it. The government uses monumental architecture together with extensive public areas and specific urban planning to create cities that serve as vehicles for spreading its ideological message.

---

BY ADITI SHREE

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com