Delenda est Carthao, « Carthage must be destroyed ! » writes Frantz Jourdain quoting Caton in AA’s first issue in November 1930, as he defends modern architecture. 

President of the Society of Modern Architects, Frantz Jourdain (1847 – 1935) is an art critic, a man of letters and, of course, an architect. Famous for having designed the Samaritaine with Henri Sauvage – a key piece of the Art Nouveau movement – he is close to the founders of “Art for all”, a group linked to the Federation of Popular Universities founded in 1901.

Entitled “Architecture and urban regulations,” his article denounces a vision of architecture stuck in the nostalgia of a bygone era. According to Jourdain, this sectarian tendency dishonors the twentieth century, and it is urgent to bring to norms the “foci of moral and physical pestilence”, in which the most marginalized fringes of the population are housed.

To read the full article, click on the cover below.

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