Status and its representation are tied deeply into evolution. Animals use their bright feathers and thick manes to show off their power, status and productivity. Humans are no different, except there are more than just masculinity and productivity to show off—these notions of power have transformed into political and economical power in human society. Of course, we no longer have bright feathers and red inflatable noses, but thanks to our abilities to craft and build, we found other means to manifest these statuses in our social structure. Architecture, as one of the largest things mankind can craft, has since become a crucial element in the manifestation of political and economical power.
Architecture is one of the indispensable foundations of human society. For thousands of years, it shelters mankind from harshness of environment. Moreover, for the better part of the history, architecture has transcended its original purpose when mankind assign it with meanings and expectations—architecture serves not only as a shelter, but also as a means of communication and a medium for virtues. Among them, there are pyramids that symbolize Egyptians’ belief of immortality and afterlife; there is the grand Colosseum that represents the social structure of Roman Empire. Light-filled cathedrals
with stained glasses and delicately carved pillar saints represent the holiness of Christianity. Great mosques the pilgrimage to Allah.
Architecture has changed throughout history, but two of the driving forces of the change have never changed—political power and economical power. Architecture is first of all the manifestation of political and economical power, a projection of values—an outward notion. From another perspective, political power and economic power is in return harvested through architecture by influencing its audience with its spatial, sculptural and social compositions—an inward motion. This essay serves to explain the dichotomy between architecture and power through the lens of the history of banking. The first part will be dedicated to illustrate how political and economical powers are demonstrated through architecture. The second part will devote to explain how these two types of powers are concentrated and harvested through architecture.
Architecture is commonly used to manifest its subject’s political and economic power. The Medici family along with their renaissance palace Palazzo Medici Riccardi is an example which family prestige and wealth accumulated from their banking system is reflected through architecture.
During 12th to 14th century, Italian banking has seen a substantial development in its institutional structure. Florentine merchants have been actively participating in the champagne fairs, servicing an extensive trading network, extending from northwest Europe to the Levant and specializing in the critical function of currency exchange and money transfer.1 In 1393, Giovanni di Bicci de’Medici created the Medici Bank when the Florentine polity and economy were in chaos—a chaos created by the crash of two commercial banking giants about six decades earlier. In 1339, Edward III, King of England at the time, defaulted on a massive loan of 1.3 million gold florins. It is said to be larger than the collective of all Florentine cloth production. (Gosh, 542) This default heavily impacted the Bardi family and the Peruzzi family, two of the most prominent commercial banks at the time, making both bankrupt and triggering a collapse of economy in Florence, putting the lifeline of people—business and commerce—in jeopardy.
With the economy in shamble, the working class started revolt due to the plumbing production of cloth and the feuds among different factions of the ruling class in the city intensified. Moreover, the internecine wars among the princes around Florence made the situation worse. In short, the extend of commercialism of warfare, continuous readjustment of boundaries and involvement of ruling oligarchies in state politics made Florence a fertile field for owners of mobile capital to rise to prominence.2 It was at this time that Giovanni realized the weakness of the oligarchic ruling system in Florence—the separation of political power and economic power leads to tremendous inefficiency in stabilizing the local economy. He succeeded in converging these two factors in his own family bank.
Giovanni believed “a solid base” is indispensable for a successful banking industry. Therefore, he set in place a rigid system very similar to today’s risk management—legal and structural safeguards that ensure the risks in one branch do not spread to other branches.
However, in a turbulent time as it was, Giovanni could not have secured the prosperity for the Medici family with only technical and risk management skills. He also had his eyes on the political side of the business. Therefore, he founded the Medici Party—by a series of careful marriages and inter-family bonding, he links Medici family with less wealthy but more prestigious families, acquiring a circle of less influential but numerous bodies of friends, thus broadening his support all over Florence.
In order to substantiate this union of economic and political power in tangible form of representation, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi was built. Designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, the palace is well known for its stone masonry, namely, the element of rustication. It is a formal technique where the foundation and the exterior walls on the ground floor are built or cladded with large sized cut stones, piling up high in front of pedestrians. This technique gives a rustic texture to the façade, in contrast to the smooth finish of ordinary masonry, emphasizing its heaviness and steadiness. The sense of scale is exaggerated when inspected up-close, conveying a sense of overarching power. When a pedestrian walks past it, he sees how heavy the wall is and how large the stones are in comparison to his flesh, a sense of sublimity and admiration would take control. This first level is a manifestation of Giovanni’s early belief in founding the bank: a solid, powerful base for a great enterprise to reside on. The weight of the money and the scale of its financial power are demonstrated through the heaviness and massiveness of its stonework.
Apart from the rustication at the ground floor, the palace also embodies other values of the Medici bank. The palace itself is composed of three levels. This tripartite division is emphasized by horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. The transition from the rusticated masonry of the ground floor to the more delicately refined stonework of the third floor makes the building seem lighter and taller as the eye moves upward to the massive cornice that caps and clearly defines the building’s outline. The stratification and gradual refinement as the story goes up signal the notion of social hierarchy, and the decreasing height of each level up is implying its exclusiveness. However, the palazzo’s overall silhouette and uniformity still illustrates that this hierarchy could not exist without a stable and harmonious social structure at every level, which in turn resonates with Giovanni’s friendly relationship with all the different social classes.
The Medicis have always prized their privilege of economic and political power. It was through their home, the Palazzo Medici, that this privilege got to be preserved and developed. The architecture of Palazzo Medici reflected the family value of wealth, community and power. In return, the establishment of this estate and the Medici Bank also concentrates these values and unified the Florentine people.
Another example of architecture that reflects and recollects this social and economic power is the Bank of England, designed by Sir John Soane. The origin of Bank of England can be traced back to England’s crushing defeat by the France, the dominant naval power at its time, through numerous naval engagements during the 1690s. It directly became the catalyst for England’s rebuilding itself as a global power. England had no choice but to build a powerful navy. No public funds were available, and the credit of William III’s government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 that the government wanted.4 Under this extraordinary condition, the Bank of England was founded in the name of the government and given exclusive power to government’s balance and the issuance of bank notes. The lenders would give the government cash (bullion) and issue notes against the government bonds, which can be lent again—1.2million was instantly raised in twelve days. The establishment of such institution sparkled a chain reaction to the industrial production: with more lending and money supply to the market, the ironworks to make more nails for the fleet and the agricultural trades slowly transcended England’s poor economy, quadrupled its naval power. Ever since, the institution has represented power and virtue, in both economic means and political means. The establishment of the bank jumpstarted the economy again saving thousands of jobs while it supported the British navy as its financing backbone.
Sir John Soane was appointed to oversee the reconstruction of Bank of England headquarter in London. For forty-five years the English architect would replace most of the rooms and largely extend the existing building while also being the responsible for all the repairs on the inside and outside and the integrations needed to respond to new safety norms. The building progressively expanded to occupy a whole block, an isolated island composed of a series of profoundly different rooms arranged around several courts. The reconstruction, following Bank of England’s intrinsic theme of power and virtue, focuses on rich sequences of individual interior spaces that reinterpret classical language, reducing it to rich volumes and simplified ornamental themes. The classical language, inherited from the Greek and Roman era, quite fittingly also possess the intrinsic value of power and virtue. Such are expressed through its geometrical floor plan, decorated capitals and elegant curves in arches and ornamentations. Some of the rooms, like the Old Colonial Office and rotunda, reveal as majestic vaulted volumes with natural light coming mostly from above.6 These large spaces surrounded by beautiful arches and topped with sculptures create a sense of solemnness and deity. Upon entering, the subjects (bankers and clients) would immediately feel the atmospheric influence of the classical virtue and would be perceived to behave in a more elevated manner. The economic power of the bank was also manifested through the delicate construction and expansive structure of its vault.
It isn’t hard to notice that the architecture of Bank of England possesses both the outward projection of values and the inward harvesting of the economic and political powers. On one hand, Architecture here is used by Sir John Soane to first of all represent the majesty, virtue and power of the bank as well as England herself. On the other hand, the virtue and power through which it projected became the gravity that pulls in more influence and capita to ensure the prosperity of England’s economy.
Architecture has changed throughout history. Palazzo Medici and the Bank of England are of different styles, but the function of these architecture in relation to banking and the underlying theme of economic and political power have never change. Both Palazzo Medici and the Bank of England serve as manifestation of political and economic power, a projection of values—an outward notion. Moreover, the political power and economic power they tried to project is in return harvested through architecture by influencing its audience with its spatial, sculptural and social compositions—an aggregative inward motion. The dichotomy between architecture and power will last no matter how society progress, because architecture is born from the substantiation of power, and power cannot exist without its temple.
Originally published 15.10.2019