It borrowed too heavily from the past - PDF document

It borrowed too heavily from the past 1) It was cloyingly picturesque and eclectic 2) Modern architects reacted against the architecture of the 19th century: • Elimination of unnecessary detail - Expression of structure - The basics of this new style • Nature of the Modern Movement Desperate need for order brought about by the events of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917 • Rise of authoritarian socialist and fascist states, economic crises and another World War • Emergence of a mass - culture of production, consumption and communication • Architects and planners as designers of a new society • "It is only from the present that architectural work should be derived" - "Put architecture back on its real plane, the economic and social plane" - "The most efficacious production is derived from rationalization and - Establishment of the Congress Internationaux d' Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1928 • Architecture that conveyed the sleekness and energy of a machine 1) Architecture that expressed the mystic powers of human emotion and spirit 2) Architecture that used careful references to the past to enhance the modernity of their designs 3) Architecture was to become a definitive agency in the creation of a new society Architects saw themselves as part of a social revolution 4) Post - war architecture was called to provide the facilities and amenities of economic growth, new habitation for the wartime homeless and for massive increase in the number of urban poor, as well as education, cultural and health services and their accompanying buildings 5) The practice of architecture has become more and more international after World War II. National versions and individual schools of the style soon established themselves. 6) They believed it was necessary to invent architecture that expressed the spirit of a new age and would surpass the styles, materials and building technology of earlier periods • Historical Background The Bauhaus school disbanded when the Nazis rose to power. Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and other Bauhaus leaders migrated to the US • Came from the book "The International Style" by historian and critic Henry - Russell Hitch cock and architect Philip Johnson - Book was published 1932 - International style: term applied to American form of Bauhaus architecture: • The Bauhaus and Modernism The First International Exhibition of Modern Architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, 1932 • "... a single body of discipline, fixed enough to integrate contemporary style as a reality and ye elastic enough to permit individual interpretation and to encourage natural growth..." Has come to represent the mainstream of modern architecture from the 1920's and 1950's -- and even the 1970's • Architecture as volume, rather than mass Walter Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe - Regularity as the chief means of ordering design New concepts in architecture • The International Style Modernism and Modern Architecture: Friday, September 24, 2010 12 Modernism and the International Style Page 1 Mies van der Rohe Born Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 - 1969) - Leading and most influential exponent of the International Style - Style was that of severe simplicity and the refinement of its exposed structural elements - Carried rationalism and functionalism to their ultimate stage of development - his buildings depended for their effect on subtlety of proportion, elegance of materials (including marble, onyx,, chrome and travertine) and precision of details - "Less is more" Le Corbusier Born Charles - Edouard Jenneret (1887 - 1966) - One of the founders of CIAM (Congres Internationaux of Architecture Moderne) - An ideal collaboration of architects, industrialists and business people Contributed to a new journal entitled "L'Esprit Bouveau" that advocated the use of modern industrial techniques and strategies to transform society into a more efficient environment with a higher standard of living on all socioeconomic levels - "The house is a machine for living in" Open planning Interior walls arranged freely, without regard to the traditional demands of structural support Pilotis Slender columns that raise the building above ground Flat roof Used as a garden terrace Non - load bearing external curtain walls With a free arrangement of ribbon windows --- horizontal bands of glass along the length of the facade Architectural programming A basis for design Five Features of Modern Architecture Two concrete slabs kept apart by columns and linked only by an open stair The Dom - ino House A scale of architectural proportions based on the human body and the Golden Section • Provided a range of usable dimensions all related to the human body, and related to each other so as to provide a precise formula for satisfactory proportions. • "Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light." The Modulor Noted Architects of the Modern Movement 12 Modernism and the International Style Page 2 Oscar Niemeyer Born Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho in 1907 - Brazil's best - known and most important modern architects - His fluid forms presented a poetic alternative to the straight lines and right angles of the International Style: fluid and sculptural - Designed Brasilia, the futuristic new capital for Brazil - His buildings resemble huge sculptures with led forms and little detailing --- symbolizing the cultural and technical progress of modern Brazil - Pier Luigi Nervi 1891 - 1979 - His technical innovations, particularly in the use of reinforced concrete, made possible aesthetically pleasing solutions to difficult structural problems - Considered himself primarily an engineer and technician, not an architect, and he strove primarily for "strength through form" - Maintained that the strong aesthetic appeal of his buildings was simply a by - product of their structural correctness - I.M. Pei Iegh Ming Pei, born 1907 - Chinese - American architect - Work represents a fusion for classical concern for elegance of form with a contemporary concern for functional efficiency - Noted for a rational and sensitive handling of design problems - S.O.M. Architects The firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (est. 1950) - Principal architects were Louis Skidmore, Nathaniel Owings and John Merrill - Became one of the largest architectural firms in post WW II United States, specializing in office buildings - Known for designs displaying crispness and precision, use of high technology and openly - expressed structure - Minoru Yamasaki Known for combining aesthetic appeal with functional efficiency in his designs - Preferred use of refined materials such as wood and polished steel as opposed to concrete and brick - Many of his buildings seem like sculptures in architecture - His works tended to exhibit a variety of ornamental detail - Most famous work: World Trade Center in New York - Eero Saarinen 1910 - 1961 - Son of distinguished architect Eliel Gottieb Saarinen - Finnish - American architect whose style developed from cool, straight facades inspired by Mies van der Rohe, to highly personal and poetic forms of expressionism based on curves and vaults - Best designs include large, unconfined spaces - Alvar Aalto Born Alvar Henrik Aalto - Considered the greatest Finnish architect - Known for combining clear functionalism with personal warmth and grace in his designs - Brought up in the Roman Nationalist tradition and introduced the International modern style to Finland - Acutely sensitive to the landscape and made highly effective use of brick and timber - Frank Lloyd Wright One of the greatest figures of 20th century architecture - Works were guided by organic architecture - Popularly used modules and grids, cantilevers, which freed his designs from merely boxes with openings cut into them - Used organic architecture to create - Was fond of reducing space through he use of an overhanging roof, side walls and stairs that brought the entering person closer to the roof - Introduced the split - level house - His designs were premiere examples of sensitivity to a building's surroundings and creative use of materials - 12 Modernism and the International Style Page 3 • 1960s in the USA: relative peace after World War II. Need for a solution to socio - economic upheaval no longer felt • Rise of free thought: student activism for civil rights, freedom and protection of the environment, anti - war protests, rise of rock music, the drug culture • The advent of space exploration and nuclear power - Marked the end of Modernist architecture's vision for housing society • 1972: demolition of Minoru Yamasmi's celebrated Modernist Pruitt - Igoe housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri 1) Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York 2) Venice Institute • Rise of architectural theory think - tanks: 1) Lotus (Italy) 2) Skala (Denmark) 3) Architecture and Urbanism (Japan) 4) Perspecta 5) Yale Architecture Journal 6) Harvard Architecture Review • Emergence of publications dedicated to architectural theory independent of architectural organizations: - Considered the seminal influence of Postmodernism architecture • 1966: Robert Venturi publishes his 'Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture' • Pluralism: the acceptance of all ides instead of advocating only one absolute idea • All contemporary architectural ideas and styles may be said to be post - modern • The return of humanity to architecture instead of the emulation of the inhuman machine The End of Modernism Advocate the value of low - brow culture as sources of architectural inspiration • 1972: Venturi's Learning from Las Vegas Codified the movement as a style • 1977: Charles Jencks published 'The Language of Post - Modern Architecture' Historicist: seeks to provide visual memory aids to the architectural past without imitation or re - creation • Largely historicist and humorous • Uses semiotic theories to create and interpret historicist codes • Later lead to the interest in history, theory and criticism in major architectral schools 1) Robert Venturi 2) Philip Johnson 3) Robert Stern 4) Charles Moore 5) Michael Graves • Post - modern architects: High - Tech Architecture as a work of engineering art Richard Rogers Renzo Piano Sir Norman Foster James Stirling Neo - Modernism Radical simplicity and absence of ornaments Interests in the works of Le Corbusier Kisho Kurokawa Arata Isozaki Tadao Ando Aldo Rossi I.M. Pei Richard Meier • Later Post - Modernist ideas include high - tech and neo - modernism Post - Modernism Friday, September 24, 2010 12 Modernism and the International Style Page 4