Novelty in architecture as a factor of its design: a conservative view

The purposeful attitude towards novelty is a relatively young phenomenon. The attitude to the New as an independent value was shaped initially in the Renaissance (or in the late Middle Ages); it lies in the same channel with the theory of progress. The phenomenon of fashion was gradually formed under its influence and involved into its orbit almost all aspects of life, including art and architecture, one or another degree. The endless need for renewal is defined as one of the main features of modernity as a paradigm (‘modern’ as new, contemporary). What is fashion as a cultural phenomenon, and why did it acquire such great importance precisely in the Modern Times – the epoch of architectural ‘styles’? When does tradition become fashion? How are novelty and freedom, the two main values of the modern paradigm, related? How does the general attitude towards novelty affect the criteria for the aesthetic assessment of contemporary architecture? The category of fashion only recently has become a subject of philosophical reflection, while not affecting the sphere of architecture. In this article, the phenomenon of the New in architecture is considered from the point of philosophical traditionalism. Another starting point of reasoning is the method of the Viennese school of art history, formulated in the phrase “History of art as the history of the spirit”. The religious and philosophical context reveals a fundamentally different approach to the phenomena of novelty and freedom in tradition and modernity and deepens the understanding of the revolution that was carried out in modern architecture. Thus, it helps to substantiate S.O. Khan-Magomedov's idea of two superstyles and refutes the generally accepted point of view, according to which modern architecture directly inherits and evolutionarily develops the achievements of tradition. Taking this idea as a whole, we consider it more broadly – in the sphere of traditional and modern architecture.