ARCH 301 - Final Exam Review

Quote about Fallingwater

"An image of modern man, caught up in constant change and flow, holding on, if he fells he must, to whatever seems solid, but no longer regarding himself as the center of the world."

Louis Sullivan

"Form follows function." Wanted a uniquely American architecture and was more artistic and philosophical. Sometimes called, "the first modern architect." Master of Art Nouveau ornament.

Three Principles of International Style

1. A new principle of structure--weight-bearing walls no longer important, inner skeleton of steel and concrete, walls become screens, or curtain walls. 2. A new principle of space--space is now a positive, fluid design element. 3. A new principle of function--building's function established first, then form designed around it.

Chicago as Architectural Center

1. Geographical background: site vs. situation. Center of Midwest trade 2. It's architectural heritage. Balloon frame construction. Great Fire. 2 schools of architecture.

Key Aims of International Style

1. Independence from all past architectural traditions. 2. Belief that an entirely new architecture is possible.

Key Plaza Design Factors

1. Location (Near large numbers of potential users) 2. Street-plaza Relationship (Impulse use, clear site lines, beckoning devices) 3. Seating (Physically comfortable, socially comfortable)

Le Corbusier's 5 Points

1. Pilotis -- building raised up on stilts. 2. Open facade -- walls are flat planes with no ornamentation. 3. Ribbon windows -- horizontal strips of windows. 4. Open plan -- interior spaces flow one into another. 5. Flat roof -- reclaimed by users.

Three Principles of Organic Architecture

1. Unity -- the building's plan, structure, materials, and site seem all of a piece. 2. Continuity -- all the building's parts flow into another. 3. Dynamism -- a sense of movement, change, flux, and freedom.

Major Problems with High-Rise

1. Who belongs in the building and who doesn't. 2. Only space belonging to residents is apartments. 3. Lobby, stairs, elevators, halls accessible to everyone. 4. These interior public spaces used infrequently--perfect place to attach and rob. 5. The result: high crime rates and social distress.

Key Designers of the Chicago School

1. William LeBarron Jenney - inventor of skeletal-cage construction and was more practical. 2. Louis Sullivan - "form follows function." Wanted a uniquely American architecture and was more artistic and philosophical.

Johnson Wax Building

A building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1936-1939. Company headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin. Curves began to be important in Wright's designs. Designed to support a sense of corporate togetherness. Write used open plan to bring employees together. Unusual, mushroom shaped columns.

Marshall Field Warehouse

A building designed by H. H. Richardson in Chicago in 1887. It was a vast building for storage and occupied an entire city block. It was made in the Romanesque Revival style and sold goods in bulk to smaller merchants. It had 7 floors and the interior had open loft spaces for storage. It was a large commercial block as a single integrated unit of great force.

Crystal Palace

A building designed by Joseph Paxton in London in 1851. It was built almost entirely out of iron and glass for a World's Fair. Constructed in 6 months out of mass-produced parts. It gave birth to the idea of large-scale public entertainment. Dissolves distinction between interior & exterior space, between art & nature.

Seagram Building

A building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe in 1958. Located in NYC. 39 stories. Curtain wall of bronze and bronze tinted glass. Modular units marked by floors. Purity of straight line.

Barcelona Chair

A chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe. Made of leather and chromed steel. Sleekness and luxurious functionalism. Has come to symbolize International Style.

New Urbanism

A current approach to architecture and urban design that emphasizes compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods supporting a sense of place and community.

Prairie School

A house style created by a group of young Chicago architects let by Frank Lloyd Wright. It lasted from 1900 to 1920.

Postmodern Architecture

A reaction against the universal style of modernist architecture. Begins in late 1960s. Seeks to marry technological and structural elements of international style with past traditions. Emphasizes playful borrowing from earlier architectural styles; designs emphasizing a sense of place, locality, and region; use of decorative elements and ornament.

Cantilever

A structural unit projecting beyond the line of support--beam, balcony, or roof.

Chicago Window

A three-part window. Large fixed center pane flanked by two smaller side windows. Middle panel fixed & side panels operable. Combined light and natural ventilation.

Deconstructivist Architecture

An architecture of imperfection, contradiction, and edginess. Buildings that, "look like they might fall down." Began in late 1980s. "An architecture of no rules." "Defiance of gravity." "Never finished." "Sloping, floating, asymmetrical planes." One hostile description, "an explosion at a chopsticks factory."

Skeletal-cage Construction

An internal metal skeleton holds building up. Walls are no longer weight-bearing. Major development in history of architecture.

Art Nouveau

An international artistic movement from 1890 to WW1. It was an ornamental style based on organic forms. Curving, spiral, wave-like patterns that suggest movement and growth. Opposed mass production of industrial style.

Industrial Style

Architectural style associated with industrial and scientific revolutions of 19th century. Growth of large cities. Began in England around 1750.

Situation

Aspects of a place arising from its location in relation to other place.

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Building designed by Frank Gehry in 1997. Cost 100 million dollars. Features 242 works of modern art in 19 galleries. One of the most complex buildings ever built. Designed with computers. Composed of limestone, glass and titanium.

Guggenheim Museum

Building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959. Only Wright building in New York City. A cylinder expanding with height. Expresses dynamic movement. Inside, a continuous spiral ramp for art exhibits.

Kaufmann House (Fallingwater)

Building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. Perched above a waterfall. A masterpiece of 20th century architecture. Series of tensions in designs. Human-made vs. natural. Horizontal vs. vertical. Sense of flow vs. sense of anchor. Inside vs. outside.

Schroeder House

Building designed by Garit Reitveld in 1924. Located in Utrecht, Holland. Composed of lines and planes. Shows J.K. Wright's influence of sweeping planes and overhanging roofs. Sometimes called the first modern building. Ground floor: kitchen/dining/living area, library and studio. Second floor: open plan with bedrooms divided by slicing partitions.

Villa Savoye

Building designed by Le Corbusier in 1931. Located near Paris. A cube of lightly enclosed and deeply penetrated space. House hovers slightly on its slender supports. Themes of health, fresh air, intellectual clarity. Open plan with main living spaces interconnected. Incorporates ramp from ground floor to roof. One must slow downs and experience the movement between spaces. Architecture as movement and dynamic change.

Unit for Urban Living

Building designed by Le Corbusier in 1952. Located in Marseilles, France. 17 floors. Could house 1600 residents. Communal center with shops, offices. A self-contained community. Represents Le Corbusier's theory of urban design. Recent developments in high-rise design (housing for low-income families with children, elderly, working adults, recent shifts in high-rise design.)

Chapel at Ronchamp

Building designed by Le Corbusier in 1954. Open-air chapel on hilltop in east-central France. No facades, only walls. Few straight lines, many curves. Often compared to a boat floating on a tossing sea. Site long considered sacred. By 12th c. associated with a statue of Virgin Mary. Gothic church on site destroyed in WW2.

Auditorium Building

Building designed by Louis Sullivan in 1889. Designed with Dankmar Adler. Illustrated Sullivan's "form follows function" Chicago's first "civic center". Included an auditorium, hotel, and offices. 10 stories tall with a 17 story tower. Load bearing walls. 4300 seats, 400 rooms, 136 offices.

Guaranty Building

Building designed by Louis Sullivan in 1895 in Buffalo, New York. Sullivan believed that the verticality of a high-rise building should be celebrated. "It should be every inch a proud and soaring thing." It was steel framed and 13 stories tall. Bold architectural style expressing American confidence and prosperity. Sheathed in lightweight, fireproof, terra cotta tiles. Decorated in Art Nouveau patterns.

Carson, Pirie, Scott Building

Building designed by Louis Sullivan in 1899. Chicago department store. It had a steel skeleton filled in by bay windows. Round corner breaks down sense of boxiness. Used design to make shopping enjoyable. Lower stories given over to ornament to draw shoppers. Wildly fantastic, Art Nouveau ornament.

German Pavilion

Building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe in 1929. Open-air information center for a world's fair in Barcelona.

Second Leiter Building

Built in 1889 by William LeBarron Jenney. Department store. External piers indicate metal frame within. Little ornament suggesting economy. Architecture that is simple and direct.

Frank Gehry

Californian architect who approaches architecture as sculpture. Best known for curvaceous structures, often covered with reflective metals.

Sagrada Familia

Designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1882 in Barcelona. Called the Church of the Holy Family. Devoted the end of his life to it. Inspired by the Gothic Style. It's not finished yet. Will have 18 towers.

Casa Mila

Designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1910. It is an apartment house in Barcelona. Undulating walls made out of cut stone. "Not one straight line."

Chicago School

Development of large, multi-story buildings involving a distinct commercial style erected between 1880 and 1910. Mostly commercial construction of office buildings, warehouses, department stores, hotels, etc. The "skyscraper".

High-rise for Working Adults (With no Children)

Dwelling used like a hotel room. Doorperson crucial. Best located in high-intensity urban areas with eateries, bars, cafes, cleaners etc.

Prairie House

Dwellings with long, sweeping, ground-hugging lines. Said to express the great open spaces of the American Midwest.

Antoni Gaudi

Famous Art Nouveau architect who designed the Casa Mila and the Sagrada Familia.

Great Chicago Fire of 1871

Fire that ravaged most of the city. 18,000 buildings destroyed. 100,000 people homeless. Need for a completely new city.

New Types of Buildings in Industrial Style

For new social and economic needs. For example, railroad stations, factories, warehouses, office buildings.

Organic Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright's style of buildings growing out of their site.

Ludwig Mies van der Rhoe

German architect that worked at the Bauhaus. Some of the most imaginative work in International Style. Had a strong interest in skyscrapers.

Bauhaus

German design school founded by architect Walter Gropius. Refers to "School of Building". Interested in machine design and high-quality mass production. Set of cubical cells of glass, steel, and concrete. Clear, sharp forms. Each section houses a specific function: classrooms, offices, workshops, and dormitory.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Greatest 20th century architect. Born in southern Wisconsin. Apprenticed with Louis Sullivan. Started Taliesin -- an architectural school. Style was an organic architecture with buildings that seem to grow from the site.

Robie House

Home designed in 1909 by Frank Lloyd Wright. Best example of Prairie Style. Long, sweeping, ground-hugging lines. Confounds the idea of the typical house. 1. Few solid walls and little ornament--rather free-floating roofs, large blocks, and ribbon windows (cantilever). 2. No obvious front facade or entry. 3. Main living ares on 2nd floor (for privacy). 4. Use of open plan--interior spaces flow into each other.

William LeBarron Jenney

Inventor of skeletal-cage construction and was more practical. Originally an engineer. Sought the most economical form of building.

New Building Materials & Techniques in Industrial Style

Larger structures, required more structural strength, 1780s: Iron construction, 1840s: Use of plate glass.

Site

Local aspects of a place--e.g., its soil, water, geology, topography, etc.

Chicago

Midwestern city with a poor site but excellent situation which made it the center of Midwestern trade.

Location

Most important plaza design factor.

Eastgate Town Center

New Urbanism design in Chattanooga Tennessee. Slated to be complete in 2030.

High-rise for Elderly

No stairs thus fewer mobility problems. Design allows for social interaction.

Effective Capacity

Number of people who by free choice sit in a plaza during normal peak-use periods.

William Whyte's Major Argument

Parks and plazas are sociable places - designed so that they attract people. Key words: lots of people, lots of activity, lots of life, interaction, hustle and bustle, "carnival-like".

Le Corbusier & High-rise Housing

Public housing for low-income families. Over 6 stories high. 150+ families having common entry. Double-loaded corridors. Elevators at center. 2-4 sets of emergency stairs.

Le Corbusier's Image of the City

Saw the future as cities of skyscrapers surrounded by huge green parks. "The vertical city in the midst of nature." "The tower in the park."

Impact of Prairie School

Sense of movement and flow. Much different from boxy Victorian houses of the time.

Skyscraper Shifts

Shift to super-tall buildings (1000ft+). Shift to mixed uses (from offices only). Shift to more fluid designs (from "austere glass box"). Shift to Asia and Middle East (from North America).

Design Elements of New Urbanism

Smaller blocks, convenience for pedestrians, higher densities of residents, integrated architectural styles, public spaces, multiple uses spatially together (residential, employment, shopping and recreation all accessible by walking).

Triangulation

Some object or event that draws and holds people.

Le Corbusier

Swiss architect who did most of his work in France. Believed architecture should help create a better society. Most striking example of International Style.

Self-leveling Capacity

The fact that people have an innate sense of the right number of users for a space. In other words, plaza use is self-regulating.

International Style (Modernist)

The world-wide architectural style of the 20th century. Sleek, boxlike, abstract, technological, without ornament. The "austere glass box." Also called "modernist" style.

New Clients & Users in Industrial Style

Until 19th c., architectural trends set by upper class. With industrial revolution, middle class commission buildings. Large functional buildings with little ornament.

Balloon-Frame Construction

Use of light, pre-cut lumber held together by nails. Much faster and requiring less skill than earlier timber post-and-beam construction.