Doors of modernity

At the turn of the 20th century, a range of new objects, appliances, machines, and infrastructures began to be incorporated into buildings: ticket offices, elevators, heating systems, and revolving doors. Much like technical objects designed by engineers, scientists, doctors, or inventors, these elements are not generally considered part of architecture—even though, alongside with more conventional components such as walls, ceilings, staircases, and windows, they shaped the framework of modern life. They were as much its expression as its condition. Taking the revolving door as an example, this essay explores how the management of modern crowds in the emerging mass society transformed the very core of public architecture. It further shows that the acceptance of this seemingly generic object was far from self-evident, but rather contingent on a specific architectural and societal milieu. Finally, it argues that the function of the revolving door could, depending on that milieu, be radically inverted—turned into its very opposite.