英文解釈教室の出典を探る(13)

Chapter 3 that-Clause

3.1 例題

現代建築入門の古典です

The words "modern architecture" are used here to mean something more particular than contemporary architecture. They are used to mean the new kind of architecture that is growing up with this century as this century's own contribution to the art of architecture; the work of those people, whose number is happily increasing, who understand that architecture is a social art related to the life of the people it serves, not an academic exercise in applied ornament. The question that immediately arises, whether there is in fact enough difference between people's lives as they are lived in this century and as they were lived in previous centuries to justify a truly "modern" architecture being very different from that of the past – and indeed whether “modern” architecture is quite as revolutionary as it is supposed to be – must be discussed later.

But there can be no denying that examples of an architecture entirely different from what we are accustomed to, have appeared on the scene during the last ten years, following their appearance in other countries during the last twenty years. And there can be no denying that the designers of these buildings are extremely sincere. They are not, as their detractors often suggest, “Bolshies” or stunt-mongers. They have thought things out very thoroughly, and they believe that the new architecture that we are calling “modern” (henceforward we will drop the quotation marks) is something that is needed in the world to-day. They believe also that in developing and perfecting it so as to answer this century's problems and to be in tune with its outlook, they are helping at the revival of architecture as a live art – something that even those who do not wholeheartedly admire the form the new architecture is taking admit that it has not been for many years. For it is a mistake to suppose that, because modern architects are particularly concerned to relate buildings more closely to the needs they have to serve, they are only interested in the practical side of architecture. They know that they are practising an art, and are therefore concerned with the pursuit of beauty. They feel however that it is time we made clear the difference between beauty itself and the merely conventional forms that habit has made us associate with it. But that also is a question that we must discuss later.

出典：Richards, J. M., An Introduction to Modern Architecture, 1940

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