The study is an in-depth discourse on the essay ‘Architecture as Critique of Modernity’ written by Hilde Heynen, which was one of the primary texts from the topic ‘Criticism and Ideology’ in the latter period of the module. Due to its length, comprehensiveness and density of academic intellectual knowledge, the study concentrates on single rather than contrasts two or more essays. The author thinks the topic ‘criticism and ideology’ is the axis as well as the intersection of architectural history and architecture, as abstract and entity; and Heynen’s work applying the dual character of modernity, Theodor W. Adorno’s aesthetic theory and the idea of mimesis to architecture well unfolds the relation, tension and contradiction between the two in a dialectical way. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how Heynen confronts and organizes the subjects, and makes her points; especially centres upon its ‘compatibility’ and ‘translation’. Also, by locating the essay back to the Cold War period, the time it being written; simultaneously, putting it into the nowadays context, the author believes the kind of reread would able to assess the value of the essay more accurately.

 

Keywords: Compatibility, Critique, Hilde Heynen, Reread, and Translation.