Abstract
In a metaphorical reading, the industrialized modern city of Modern Times
is a gigantic factory designed to produce the modern man. It tries to regulate the
movements of the body, actions, and mind through modernist spatial layouts of
institutions such as factories, hospitals, and prisons. In this respect, the film can be seen
as a criticism of modern architecture and feedback for architects about the
consequences of the modernist approach. On the other hand, it would not be right to
look for the spatial approaches of the modern age only in the cinematic space of the
film. The film studio where the film was produced is also the product of modernism. In
Chaplin's silent cinema; the film set is not only background for the actions of the
actors, but also a part and catalyst of their creative and spontaneous performance.
Therefore, ironically, the criticism of the mechanizing effect of modern architecture on
the body was produced through the constructivist modern stages of the silent film
studios. This study examines these two different aspects of modern architecture: the
modernist disciplinary approach and the constructivist avant-garde approach, through
the cinematic space and production space of the film Modern Times. By using
Foucault's concepts of disciplinary society and heterotopia, and based on Chaplin's
memoirs as a witness of the modern era, the study aims to analyze different layers of
modern architecture.