Marketing modernism: Aluminum cladding and the American commercial landscape

In the postwar United States, aluminum became more widely used than any other metal in building construction except for steel. It was first produced in the early nineteenth century, finding architectural uses in the latter part of the century. By the 1960s, it was broadly employed to clad buildings in the form of frames, panels and screens. Because it was a new and extensively useful material, producers believed that its identity must be controlled. Focusing on the marketing mechanisms of Alcoa, Reynolds and Kawneer in the decades surrounding World War II, this dissertation examines the way in which commercial aluminum cladding was marketed as both instrumental in modernization and an image of modernity. Producers claimed that aluminum possessed properties which they believed underpinned the agency of aluminum to enact specific advantages for buyers. Properties that were identified by promoters, such as its relative lightness, ductility and particular visual characteristics were marketed within the context of capitalism as the ability of aluminum to reduce building cost, increase profit and reflect beauty. In turn, these advantages were promoted as enacting prosperity for the buyer and the commercial districts in which aluminum cladding was deployed. The promoted advantages of aluminum cladding and its underlying abilities were carried as messages in visual and textual productions. Furthermore, aluminum-clad buildings themselves were employed by promoters as “silent salesmen,” advertising aluminum to potential buyers, and as “machines for selling,” able to attract customers and make merchants profitable. Reflecting upon the assertions of promoters that aluminum held the ability to modernize the commercial landscape, I argue that for aluminum cladding promoters, modernism – the reactions to modernity in visual, textual and architectural productions – was a marketing project. The reproduction of aluminum-clad buildings in promotional material constituted a modernism to sell for the merchant, the corporation and the aluminum producer.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Tait

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cupers, Kenny
• Mortensen, Peter
• Harris, Dianne
• O'Brien, David
• Weissman, Terri

• Architecture
• Architectural history
• Modernism
• Modern architecture
• Aluminum
• Aluminum cladding
• Architectural materiality

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Tait Johnson

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99216

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/99216