ARCH 352 2.0 NOTES
Erich Mendelsohn. (1887-1953)
"Architecture depends on the sensuous seizure by means of touch and sight." - looks to innovations of art n. - admires work of Olbrich in the succession
L.27 The Search for Meaning: Postmodernism and its Alternatives
What is post-modernism? does modernism end or is it developed on?
Art Nouveau
"new art" > in Belgium and France initially; spreads to Germany and Austria where it's called jugendstil. In the book it's a movement that rebelled to academic approaches to design. Gaudi and Mackintosh parallel but are NOT part of art nouveau.
JJ.P. Oud (1890-1963)
#Factory Project. (1919) #Cafe de Unie. (1925) #Kiefhoek Housing (1924-30)
Problem with Art Nouveau: - all materials were formed and treated the same way > organic curved design > got boring quickly - opened door to new ideas now that we had broken away from past architectural styles
(not key)
Taut. Alpine Architecture. (1919)
- a series of letters among this group talking about crystals and colored glass - trying to look at the creative role of the architect - breakup of cities meant people returning to the land > brotherhood of men type shit - bunch of glass temples in the alps
Mies. Brno, Czech Republic. Tugendhat House. (1928-30)
- - lessons of Barca Pavilion in a residential house > same proportions, same thin columns, same glazed walls - minimal composition in the white boxes and flat roof - on a sloping site - approaching the house you see through the house to the patio with a view of the city. Then a curved wall leads to front door. - thin columns like the pavilion - no doors separating interior spaces > creates flow - you see the luxury in material - no pictures hanging > the art is the wall material itself - the furniture is part of the composition - floor to ceiling windows slide fully down creating an open wall - there is an enclosed garden on the side where the decoration is nature > this also makes it so the glass isn't just a mirror, there is actually something in view all combines to create a total work of art and a complete living space
L. 22 Alvar Aalto and the Nordic Tradition
- Aalto was sorta a counter-modernist. More of an organic nationalism
Critical Issues:
- Decadent Monarchies - Industrialism (taking place everywhere) > people are moving to the cities -- Industry: machine production vs. craft -- Technology: speed, movement, -- powerProletariat: mass politics, working conditions, housing - New Movements in the Arts - Deutsche Werkbund New Traditions
Peter Behrens (1868-1940)
- German architect and industrial designer; major designer of factories and office buildings with extensive use of glass and steel - starts off as a painter and moves towards building design - did lots of graphic design
Loos. Prague. Müller Villa. (1928-30)
- Loos reduced his houses to white plastered boxes - a house is not a work of art it is place to hang works of art - no applied ornament > the stone is the aesthetic appeal - you step in between interior spaces. his interiors were much more complex than his exteriors in elevations
Olbrich. Vienna. Secession House. (1897-98)
- Olbrich was Wagner's assistant - in line with Wagners demand for a modern break from academic styles - diverged from Art N. > orthogonal and symmetrical as a classic temple with stylized foliage clustered into squared-off shapes at the junctures of the facade - horizontal wings thrust up four pylons carrying a sphere of gilded laurel leaves. > The foliated ball was Olbrichs alternative to a dome - a modern temple to art - many secessionist exhibitions were held here - in plan it is an open spaces a precursor to todays art galleries
Otto Wagner
- Otto trained by Shinkel - chosen to design the cities new rail line stations - he joins the succession movement who is under the influence of Art N, breaking away from the academy
Berlage. Amsterdam. Exchange. (1896-1903)
- Search for practicality - life is lacking growth of individualism - away from classicism - a building should be designed to show how it is built and how it stands - new-romanesque brick structure - considered one of the first modern buildings in Holland - occupies a full city block of 3 top lit volumes for each exchange - load bearing walls - Interior a large open space held by trusses being held up by brick > logical structural expression - all decoration is the wall material nothing more
L. 13 Art Nouveau in Belgium & France and Parallel Developments Elsewhere.
- Theres a sense that a new architecture is possible but no one knew what it was
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)
- a complex figure - "build, don't talk" > wrote very little - devoted to long and carful development over many years - belief in essential lessons of antiquity that rest in harmonic relationships > not copying but understanding how it all works together
Hanz Poelzig (1869-1936)
- a father figure to the expressionist movement - his vision linked the arts and crafts in England and the later stages of {yougenshtil} - form rises out of the mystic abyss apposed to form follows function
Gropius and Meyer. Cologne. Model Factory Complex, Werkbund Exhibition. (1914)
- a full size model factory complex - simple using prefab. to put together quickly - sense of symmetry in the entrance facade - steel, glass, and concrete brick - spiral stairs with circular glass surrounding > emphasizing thinness - new language expressing this new age
Hoffman. Brussels, Belgium. Palais Stoclet. (1905-1910)
- a further exploration of Wagners planer language using smooth marble panels to create a composition of crisply defined columns outlined in bronze - the cubic sequence of the exterior culminated in the tower that stepped up to a cubic platform supporting 4 heroic figures surrounding a laurel leaf dome > evoking the Secession House in Vienna - an overall asymmetrical composition with moments of symmetry - very flat facade emphasizing thinness ~ large sheet of a thin material - slight reduced classical decoration in the gate to the entry
Moderne Architectur by Otto Wagner
- adaption of modern life and experience of the metropolis - a direct expression of construction and an appreciation for technique and materials - arguing against style assignment - look to the harmonization of art and purpose
Deutshe Werkbund
- an organization to improve German design - included artists, engineers, architects, designers, etc. > the best in their trades - accepted the machine as a mode of design - issue of design reform > should we "norm or form" (should we design for efficient production or for creativity
Antonia San-Elia (1888-1916)
- architect most closely associated with futurism
Adolf Loos
- argued against historicism - wrote "Ornament and Crime" > against the secessionist architecture > only some architecture belongs to art (tomb and monument) all other architecture with a purpose belongs to architecture - buildings should be more conservative
Eileen Gray (1878-1976)
- art-deco designer turned modern - did many cool furniture designs > more of this ship design - incorporating - more relaxed than Mies or Corbusier designs
Loos. Vienna. Goldman Building. (1910)
- at the time a very radical building at the time > looked like a sewer grate - marble facade forms a visual interest but isn't carved nor adds any handmade detail - no art or ornament shaping the space
L. 21 International Interwar Modernism
- b/t ww1 and ww2 - broader scope of modernism - specific forms and how form changed depending on social context - Bauhaus influenced - International style recognized - sense of volume rather than ass
Gropius. Dessau. The Bauhaus. (1925-27)
- backdrop for the high point of the Bauhaus - in plan > no longer symmetrical > pin wheel composition with bridges connecting buildings - very rational - sense of a new movement - unique in scale for this period - all the necessities for students were within the building - 4 story glass box, cantilevered balconies, bridges > new form - a laboratory fro this new education - celebrating the union of art and technology as the manifesto of the Bauhaus does - font on the front adding to the full composition - Glass box: curtain wall, cranks to open up windows - through some windows it frames scened of students in daily activity - total work of art in a modern odium
L. 14 Vienna: From Wagner to Loos
- cultural circle around Vienna - a testing ground for modernism - both an aesthetic and an ethos - approaching the time of ww1 - 1860 proposed development of the city to rival Paris
J.J.P. Oud. Rotterdam. Holland Housing. (1924-27)
- definitely a sense of a streamlined form > like an ocean-liner - a model for standardization - poetic functianalism
Behrens. Berlin. AEG Turbine Factory. (1908-9)
- described as the temple of industry - immense open interior lined with tapering beams - parallel tracks ran then length of the hall to carry turbines during assembly - conscious work of art - converts a factory shed style into an architectural monument - an entire sidewall of the factory is glass allowing for plenty of sunlight - the building slopes back giving a monumental feeling heavily glazed exterior
1923 Poster for Bauhaus Expedition
- emergence of new objectivity - a new realism with the embrace of technology and rationality - celebrating the new relationship between the craftsman and their new technological craft
Berg. Breslau, Germany. Centenary Hall. (1913)
- extreme form > impressive concrete ribbed dome - monument to Germany's liberation form Napoleon - Huge domed space with exposed structure - covers 21,000 square feet - skeletal expression of the Pantheon
G. Rietveld. Utrecht. Schröder House. (1923-25)
- full architectural realization of Neo-Plasticism > Neo-plasticism relied entirely on primary colors, flat plains, and orthogonal geometry [elements seen in modern movement] - client and future collaborator, she requested their be no walls > sliding colored wooden plane walls aloud the rooms to be divided up - the furniture and the closets and the window trim were similar to the style and colors - don't see any access or symmetry - the plan shows the dynamics of the space and how the walls can change the space - shapes everyday life
Wagner. Vienna. Second Villa Wagner. (1912-13)
- geometric composition - no longer classical columns or references - flat planer composition
Taut. Cologne. Glass Pavilion (Werkbund Exhibition). (1914)
- glass dome - pavilion to show innovative glass products - circulate around and up to experience different sunlight through the glass - a fountain flowing down in the middle - directly inspired by fantasy writing by Paul S. - in the spirit of a Gothic cathedral - universal paradise for all religious buildings > a vision for a completely unified society - belief in glass architecture to bring in new culture > architecture for the broad masses > glass brings a new era - "building in brick only does us harm, colored glass destroys hate"
Poelzig. Berlin. Grosses Schauspielhaus. (1911-1912)
- his masterwork - a remodeling of the interior and refacing of the exterior - central column in the shape of a palm tree that extends down the wall like a fountain - impressive hall > cavernous feeling of stalactite > "liberation of human spirit" - Horse show shape plan - seats around 5,000 people - the stalactites all have a shiny tip so when light reflects it's probs pretty sweet
Michel de Klerk. Amsterdam. Eigen Housing. (1913-19)
- his most famous work - takes up 4 blocks around a park - some symmetries but mostly responding to the pie shape of the site - a complete urban complex with a nursery school, post office - playful approach to design with soft edges and attention to dutch quaint folk architecture - interior unique telephone booth partly mimicking the exterior - draws of art N. and expressionist painting and carving - gives the inhabitants a more unique, comfortable living situation than most of the class at the time - lots of different unique windows
L. 19 Mies in Berlin
- his transformation into a modern architecture and how his early work shows up in his later work
Auguste Perret (1874-1954)
- influential in reinforced concrete - building on the monolithic concrete joint
Wagner. Vienna. Karlsplatz Station. (1898-99)
- ingenious frame of wrought-iron mullions to fasten white marble panels with gilded floral decorations > illustrated Wagner's definition of "modern" architecture as an art generated from the "lines of load and support, the panel like treatment of surfaces, the greatest simplicity and an energetic emphasis on construction of materials - in line with Wagners demand for a modern break from academic styles - coming to express and expose the structure embracing utility in its simplicity - metal frame and light cladding with Art N. designs in the metal and on the walls - creates an entry way with structural rhythm and synthesizing the artistic and graphic composition all together > seen facade, base of the columns, and under the eves
Perret. Paris. 25 bis Rue Franklin. (1902-03)
- innovative for the time > not a flat wall to the street it has balconies. Has a central atrium with views of the Eiffel tower - clad skeletal frame with terra cotta insets - large windows thanks to concrete columns - divided into 5 bays > emphasizing verticality - b/t the windows and the frame are art N. floral motif tiles - exposed concrete is not yet acceptable
Dessau. Bauhaus Master Housing. (1925-26)
- integrates color, form, form and space - Mobile book shelves - composing all of the elements fro the backdrop of Bauhaus education
Bruno TAUT (1880-1938)
- known for his being a utopian visoinary - completes 12,000 housing units - "arch. consists of exclusively of powerful emotions and addresses itself to those emotions
Mendelsohn. Potsdam. Einstein Tower (observatory). (1917-1921)
- looks to express new scientific discoveries > not mystic like other expressionist more interested in speed and technology - designed for Albert Einstein and to test his theories of relativity - subterranean laboratory - set up on a grass pedestal - "Sphynx reborn in the 20th century" - brick coated with stucco due to the limitations of the period
Perret. near Paris. Notre Dame du Raincy. (1922-25)
- made of exposed reinforced concrete - spire rises 145' - interior exposed concrete with thin load bearing columns and a central vault > lots of stained windows and light - thin shell concrete roof - change in the feel of the space moves with the sun
Gropius and Meyer. Alfeld-an-der-Leine. Fagus Factory (1911-13)
- most of the building seems regular apposed to the south entrance > has a glass curtain wall with an offset asymmetrical entrance - using indented lines in brick to emphasize horizontally - articulating clear modern architectural language with the class, steel, and brick
Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953)
- one of two most important figures in the movement - wire art of bent metal peaces > elemental forms > sense of floating
Sant-Elia. [nb]. Citta Nuova ("new city"). (1914)
- purification of the art N. with the straight line - "theres nothing more beautiful than a humming power station" - the new city > he wanted to rebuild the city as a luminous shipyard - draws from bold 19th century factories - "the problem of modern problem with architecture is not...but to raise a structure... benefiting science and technology" - has a huge impact on architecture - many of these futurist men die as cause of the war > but the idea moves to the Netherlands
Wagner. Vienna. Postal Savings Bank. (1904-06)
- rational style in classical planning > Art N. beginning to fade - he clamped thin sheets of granite cladding into place with aluminum nubs which became the facades main ornament > tectonic expression - roofline flanked with statues of winged victories with hands held up symbolizing the hight of power of the Austro Hungarian empire - first non-historicist reshaping of an engineering vocabulary > new way of cladding - interior is lit from above through a glass skylight and from below through a glass floor - transformation of a railway shed - efficiency of materials > cost effective and effective - complete integration fo lights, vents and engineering
L. 18 The Bauhaus: From Expression to the Triumph of Neue Sachlinchkeit "New Objectivity"
- school founded in the aftermath of war - closed by the Nazis in 1933 - has been in several cities in Germany - many exhibitions - the school designed many different things from African style chairs to Coffins > quite a range
Mondrian trees > Mondrian Composition
- simplification of forms further and further until you just get lines and then you get the classic de Stijl > "Mondrian Composition"
The Amsterdam School
- the Netherlands were neutral during ww1 so they could keep designing - students here emphasized individualism, fantasy, picturesqueness > a continuation of attitudes from before ww1
Hendrik Petrus BERLAGE ( 1856-1934)
- transitional figure
Tatlin. [nb]. Monument to the Third International (1920)
- would have been higher than the Eiffel tower - monument to the constitution and function of the soviet state > metaphor for harmony of a new social order - four large volumes inside rotate at speeds of once a year, day, month, hour. - "cathedral of socialism"
Things to keep in mind while taking notes: - Unique elements for comps. - Overarching importance if any. - Snapshot of societal values at the time. - Phrases that point towards a style: "distinct rational volumes" = may be neo-classicism.
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Italian Futurism
An early 20th century avant-garde movement in Italy; believed history and old culture was bad and needed to be destroy. Believed in the beauty of speed. - increased industrialization - they got the automobile - shipyards a'blazin futurism manifesto - they called it a war and war is the worlds best hygiene - very technological imagery and descriptions - proposed 11 points Uberto Boccioni - abstract artist working in cubism - also Picasso - Umberto looks for pure plastic rhythm - they all thought golthic style was dome as hell
Mies. Potsdam, Germany. Riehl House. (1907)
An early work - connection b/t landscape and building - less remarkable for the house itself but for the extension of the house in the wall - the site is framed with the these walls - combo of symmetry and asymmetry creating a dynamic space - more classical interior but starts to abstract > square wall pattern that unifies the composition
L.16 Expressions in Germany and the Netherlands
Expressionism 1905-20 (period after ww1) - In Germany it was a reaction to economic chaos due to political polarization - euphoric belief in the future - lots of abstract art with architectural themes
1. the Piloti > to raise the mass off the ground 2. The Free Plan 3. Free Facade 4. Horizontal Windows 5. Roof Gardens - incorporated in Villa Stein
Le Corbusier "5 Points"
L.25 Post-war Modernist Trajectories
Modernism spread across he world after WW2. Modernism had also been institutionalized after the war > reflected international organization
L. 15 Continental Directions (1900-14) Werkbund
On the eve of World War: decadent monarchies; emergent industrialism; new technology; the politics of the proletariat. New directions in the arts. Selected architects and emergent directions: Berlage, Perret, Behrens, Gropius. The Deutsche Werkbund and its influence. Expressionism. The "Glass Chain." The Amsterdam School.
L.17 Toward a new aesthetic between art and life: futurism de Stijl Russian Constructivism
The primary currents that come together to form the modern movement > from Italy, Russia, and the Netherlands
Context: Art N.: Some causes... - Period of political reform - 19th-century stylistic confusion - spread fo buildings of metal and glass, but no clear architectural style appropriate to metal and glass
Significant political reform and a spread of liberalism and socialism > people though this should mark architectural reform > "what would this new architecture of the people be?" - time of growth of cities, new tech, electric streetcar. - we do see nature continuing to inspire design but a new organize curved design apposed to geometric. - Influence of Japanese art > wood block prints > "fluid flow of the gown" - Flowing furniture design - The curved line
Russian Constructivism
Sparked by the Russian Revolution, this movement sought to combine the new technologies of photography and film to create dynamic compositions for posters, books, magazines, buildings, and interior designs. - transform a peasant country into a flourishing one
Victor Horta - Considered to be the first in Art N. - designing for middle classes - Art N. was an architecture style not just for the elite - an organic art apposed to labored arts of tradition
Tassal House (not key) Belgium - Very organic flowing design incorporated in all - Steel as primary means of organizing and animating the space - Rally against symmetry
Mies. Barcalona, Spain. Barcalona Pavilion. (1929)
The German Pavilion at the international expo - floating planes, interconnected interior and exterior - sits on a podium - free plan flowing inside outside - light pool with sculpture - 8 columns > modern expression of classical elements - back has a more symmetrical approach > both modern and classical values - plays with light - accentuates the floating roof and composition of planes - many different textures - taken down after expo Vertical Symmetry: the elevation puts your eye height in the middle creating symmetry
de Stijl ("the style") [sometimes referred to as the "Rotterdam School"]
in the Netherlands - bold detachment from tradition - Neo-Plasticism - expressing functional ideal of satisfying all physical and spiritual needs - lasts 14 years - embraced rational and abstract approaches to architecture - rational, disciplined - apposed to the expressionist of the Amsterdam School The straight line
L.28 Modernism, Technology, Place
local vernacular into pure forms
L.24 Pax Americana: Architecture in 'Merica (1945-1975)
looking at the relative peace in America at the time. Lots of immigrants and refugees. The school, house, and high-rise. Mies: comp. to Gropius - both influenced by Bauhaus
Suprematism
the supreme reality in the world is pure feeling, which attaches to no object. This called for non-objective forms in art. Malevich believed that people could easily understand his art because of the universality of the symbols
L. 20 Le Corbusier and the Esprit Nouveau
tremendously influential in the 20th century - described as socially inept but also very social, interesting guy...
