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Around the Lagoon of Nations the nation pavilions were grouped representing two architectural styles: radical Classicism with hardly any ornament at all – preferred by countries with authoritarian regimes because of its monumentality – and International Style Modernism with clear forms. The Soviet pavilion by Boris Iofan, who had also designed the surprisingly similar predecessor pavilion for the Paris World Exhibition in 1937, represented the first style. Two dynamically forward pushing blocs of marble and granite connected with two arcades enclosed a yard of honour in which an eighty metres high pylon stood carrying a steel statue of a labourer with a glowing red star in his raised right hand. Only a few countries could afford a truly modern pavilion like Finland. Alvar Alto developed his Paris design further with freely suspended wavelike wood panels in the interior. The British pavilion by Stanley Hall was rather undecided but in that also representative for the contribution of many countries. The white curving walls, the oblique supports, the suspended roof of the portico and the curving staircases were reminiscent of Le Corbusier avant-garde architecture. But combined with a monumental entrance hall the architectural language shifted to rigid representation.
The first country to confirm its participation was the USSR promising a 4 million dollar pavilion. Therefore other European nations felt challenged to designate significant sums of money for the World Fair as well. Of the larger countries only Germany stayed away although a contribution had been announced in 1937. The growing protests of American anti-nazi-groups provoked the negative reply of the German Reich saying it could not raise the money for the pavilion. In September 1939 everybody could see what the money had been saved for.
| Year: 1939 | City: New York | Country: USA |
| Duration: 30th April - 31st October 1939 und 11th | ||
