On modern propositions in contemporaneity: to overcome or to rescue?

Abstract

Considering that Brazilian modern architecture is internationally recognized, modernist discourse is often present in the national academic debate which reflects in specialized and ordinary practice of spatial proposition. However, the currently fast technological and social transformation demands a constant review the pertinence of these theories and values. The present article aims to discuss the validity of a modern perspective - understood not as a monolithic conceptual structure but as a complex and diversified movement beyond the superficial appearance - in approaching contemporary spatial proposition. Therefore, this investigation of the Modern Movement is set upon three basic questions regarding the persistence, relevance and responsibility of Architecture as a field of knowledge and of the architect as a space agent. Furthermore, this paper ponders if Modernism is still a valid reference while exploring radical strategies or if its undoing is necessary in finding new ways to deal with 21st century demands.