Cultures 3: Test 3

Mies van der Rohe, quote, after Frampton.

"The materials: concrete, steel, glass. Reinforced concrete structures are skeletons by nature. No gingerbread. No fortress. Columns and girders eliminate bearing walls. This is skin and bone construction." Started out working as stone mason. Started working at Bruno Paul's firm in his early architecture career.

Mies van der Rohe, quote, after Frampton 2

"Yet it is the question of value that is decisive. We must set up new values, fix our ultimate goals so that we may establish standards. For what is right and significant for any era - including the new era - is this: to give the spirit the opportunity for existence." Notion of Zeitgeist.

Bauhaus Graphic with statement by Walter Gropius.

Architects, sculptors, painters, we must return to the crafts! For art is not a "profession." There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. ... Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between the craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith. Mallgrave/Contandriopoulos, "120 Walter Gropius from 'Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar' (1919)"

Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgart. Mies van der Rohe. 1927. Master Plan.

Exhibition. Where Mies invited 16 other architects. Buildings were meant to be permanent. Roof had to be flat and exterior walls had to be white.

Church of the Sacred Heart, Vinohrady, Prague. Joze Plecnik. 1928-1932.

First design can see his historic reference to add a sense on monumentality.

Moller House, Vienna. Adolf Loos. 1930.

Formal expression on the front, street side. Public expression of the building. Covered balcony. Back side: impact of interlocking of space of program on the outside of the house. Less formal and intimate. Spaces that open up. Interstitial spaces. Create overlaps.

Text from Malgrave/Contandriopoulos, 61. Hermann Muthusius from Style-Architecture and Building-Art (1902).

From this point of view, a great part of contemporary architectural production fails completely, for its creators remain imprisoned in their efforts at a style. If we wish to seek a new style - the style of our time - its characteristic features are to be found much more in those modern creations that truly serve our newly established needs and that have absolutely no relation to the old formalities of architecture: in our railway terminals and exhibition buildings, in very large meeting halls, and further, in the general tectonic realm, in our large bridges, steamships, railway cars, bicycles, and the like. It is precisely here that we see embodied truly modem ideas and new principles of design that demand our attention. Here we notice a rigorous, one might say scientific objectivity [Sachlichkeit], an abstention from all superficial forms of decoration, a design strictly following the purpose that the work should serve. All things considered, who would deny the pleasing impression of the broad sweep of an iron bridge? Who is not pleased by today' s elegant landau, trim warship, or light bicycle? Since such works stand before us as the products of our time, we see a modem sensitivity recorded in them. They must embody an expressive modem form; they must mirror the sensibility of our time, just as the richly acanthusladen cannon barrel did the seventeenth century or the carved and gilded sedan chair the eighteenth century. In such new creations we find the signs indicating our aesthetic progress. This can henceforth be sought only in the tendency toward the strict matter-of-fact [Sachlichen], in the elimination of every merely applied decorative form, and in shaping each form according to demands set by purpose.

Illustrations and text from Vers une architecture, by Le Corbusier. 1923.

He begins to work on a series of publications. They made a journal and hand picked the sponsors to help push their ideas. They got other architects to write for them. Became an outlet for new architecture.

Willow Tea Rooms, Room de Luxe, Glasgow, Scotland. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. 1897-1889.

His work begins as a part of a group called the Glazgo 4. They became well known for their approach for art design and craft. There is a spring like quality in some of their work like art Nouveau. Underlying grids in their work and Celtic symbols and signs in the work also.

Walker Warehouse, Chicago. Adler and Sullivan. 1888.

I shall say that it would be greatly for our esthetic good if we should refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a period of years, in order that our thought might concentrate acutely upon the production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude. --Louis Sullivan He started to distance himself from the succession.

Spatial Diagram for a House, by Theo van Doesburg. 1924.

In 1923 Gropius states: "The Bauhaus believes the machine to be our modern medium of design and seeks to come to terms with it." Quote is the Bauhaus answer to what it is to be modern.

Le Parthenon, Athens, watercolor by Le Corbusier, 1911, and Le Forum vu du Temple de Jupiter, Pompei, watercolor by Le Corbusier, 1911.

Influences for Le Corbusier. He is really good at drawing from multiple sources and synthesizing those influences together. Water color sketches by Corbusier.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and work.

Instructor at the Bauhaus. Develops a way to include the machine as a way of architecture.

What conceptual framework(s) supplanted the use of a concretized style in Le Corbusier's early work?

Internships from Perret and L'Eplattenier, cubism, trips. He wanted to learn how architecture began and how it developed. He wanted an overall understanding of it. Not to recreate it but to understand it.

Plans for Villa Project for the Venice Lido (Villa Moissi), not built. Adolf Loos. 1923.

Loos used this project on how his theory would work. How he separates program along a circulation spine. Spaces are slipping apart. Volumes are intersecting together and locking. Loos became a strong influence for other modernists, such as Le Corbusier, partially because of his unornamented white cubic aesthetic and partially due to the spatial problems postulated by his Raumplan theory of design.

Loos's Raumplan and theoretical contributions

Raumplan The "Room Plan" concept prioritized space, or the "room", as the form generator. Room, in this sense, is both the volume of space and its intended use. Rooms were distinguished by their relative position in space, rather than by partition walls. These spaces were interlocked along the circulation route so that spaces opened up into one another. Reference: Semper's concept of space and Ruskin's theory of material Loos: I say, however: a good construction, when rendered as an image on a flat surface, makes no impression. I am most proud of the fact that the interiors which I have created are entirely without effect when photographed, and that the inhabitants of my dwellings cannot recognize their own homes in a photographic image. --Architektur, 1910.

Tugendhat House, Brno, Czech Republic. Mies van der Rohe. 1930. Entire Project.

Set into the side of the hill. Dynamic for daylighting, interior versus exterior. Flow of spaces. Terraces into the hillside. The whole wall slides down into the lower space. Whole space opens up and becomes outdoor space. Stone wall separates space but is activated by occupation.

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret: Le Corbusier.

The 1920s in Europe, Russia and, to some degree, the United States was one of those rare periods in the history of architecture when new forms were created which seemed to overthrow previous styles and set a new, common basis for individual invention. Sometimes called the 'International Style', this shared language of expression was more than a mere style; it was also more than a revolution in building technique, though its characteristic effects of interlocking spaces, hovering volumes and interpenetrating planes admittedly relied on the machine-age materials of concrete, steel, and glass.

Text from Curtis, P. 100

The moral tenor of life was to be raised through the impact of well-designed objects in the marketplace, in the home, and in the workplace - indeed, in the environment as a whole·. Evidently he envisaged a sort of unified style to replace the confectionery of nineteenth-century eclecticism, which should be expressed with equal clarity in a lamp-post, a teacup, a monument, or even a factory building. Central to his outlook was a belief in the return to fundamental formal qualities which would express architectonically the dignity and the calm endeavor of a new, confident national German spirit.

The Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain. Mies van der Rohe. 1929. Entire Project.

Turning point in his work. Designed as a pavilion for royal reception room for the German Government. Shows the public a different side of modern architecture. Exposed visual and sensual qualities of architecture. Exposes relationships between surface and materiality. Started with material first.

Mies van der Rohe, quote from "G", after Frampton.

Wagner influence. Construction of the building is exposed. "We refuse to recognize the problems of form, but only problems of building. Form is not the aim of our work, but only the result. Form by itself, does not exist. Form as an aim is formalism; and that we reject. Essentially our task is to free the practice of building from the control of the aesthetic speculators and restore it to what it should be: building."

How does this principal relate to his ideas on the innovation of building materials?

• "to master his material in such a way that his work is independent of the value of the raw material." • There is the connection of materials and how they are used. The materials used have nothing to do with the 'worth' of it but rather the quality it brings or has on the structure or environment.

How does Le Corbusier's design theory offer responses to the question: What does it mean to be modern?

• He searched for the modern equivalent to the classical architectural system of the past. He looked at the car as a way to design the house in a modern fashion. He also used mass produced processes to solve the housing crisis. (p170) • "...Le Corbusier had spoken of the new dwelling as a 'machine for living in', and by this he meant a house whose functions had been examined from the ground floor up and stripped to the essentials."

What influenced the design of the Domino system?

• He used this system based on the need for shelter after the war as a solution for the housing crisis. It was just a skeleton of a building with the vertical circulation attached. • "...he had invented the 'Dom-ino' skeleton, which went far beyond Perret in its exploitation of the cantilever principle and which would become a central instrument of Le Corbusier's urbanism as well as his architecture."

What is Adolf Loos's approach to modernity?

• His approach to modernity is the lack of ornamentation like Sullivan's beliefs of ornamentation but maybe less extreme. Loos feels more as if we have outgrown ornamentation. The modern way is to loose ornamentation and allow nature and other materials to be the ornamentation.

What is Le Corbusier's attitude toward history? How does this concept impact his work?

• Le Corbusier does not work with historicism but uses a modern equivalent to classical architectural systems. • "He attempted to cut through to the anatomy of past architecture, to reveal principles of organization, and to relate plan shapes to the dynamic and sensuous experience of volumes in sequence and in relation to setting."

How does the use of 'outside' sources, or influences, impact his work throughout the early phase of his career?

• Le Corbusier uses nature to influence his early work. • "Charles L'Eplattenier, encouraged Jeanneret's habit of the close study and observation of nature, prompting his student to look beyond appearances to the underlying structures of plants and fossils, and stressing the beauty of simple geometrical forms." • "...Le Corbusier has 'Regionalist' beginnings, he was introduced to a whole way of thinking that had far more universal implications, and that would continue to enrich his creative procedures in all media until the end of his life."

Maison Cook, near Paris. Le Corbusier. 1926. Rendering.

Almost a cube. Displaced normal programs of a house. Flipped them upside down. Questioned program. Functional entry space. Main living area is at top. Maison Cook is where his Five Points come fully into play.

Bauhaus product design.

Architecture, craft, arts, and material production were seamlessly integrated with each other.

'Five Points of a New Architecture.' Le Corbusier. 1926.

1) PILOTIS 2) ROOF GARDEN 3) FREE PLAN 4) FREE FAÇADE 5) RIBBON WINDOWS Outlined in Maison Cook. In response of modern equivalent to classical architecture systems.

Bauhaus in Dessau. Walter Gropius. 1926.

1925 Gropius decides to move the school to Dessau because he felt that the political stance there would better suit ideals of the school. They preceded to design the school with the principles with the views the it had already established. The Bauhaus school itself becomes a famous piece of architecture and becomes internationally known. Becomes a touch stone for modern architecture. Strong sense of unity and continuity in the design. Can see the rational structure of the building due to the transparency of the glazing. Really taking advantage of contemporary structural design and curtain wall systems.

Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 1897-1909.

Competition project that Mackintosh won in 1897. Entryway has Celtic resembles in the windows and ironwork. Uses local stone and was the same stone used in the construction of buildings used in all over Glasgow. Large factory style windows which symbolizes the industrial nature of the city of Glasgow. He takes references and abstracts them. Can see these abstracts within the entrance of this space.

Villa Savoye, Poissy, France. Le Corbusier. 1929.

Demonstrates all five of his point of architecture. Uses the Pilotis for a turn around parking area. Ribbon Windows with white cubic structure that references Tony Garne and his trips to the Mediterranean. White form and columns. Reaches back to classical architecture. Not separating his self from architectural traditions(how it functions). He does not have a historicist style. Deeply recessed ground floor walls are painted green. Built for a couple who would have a driver. Would drop them off and then park the car. Parking is incorporated into the design. Processional ramp at entrance

Dom-ino construction system. Le Corbusier. 1914.

Design idea that which he theoretically looks at a structure for mass produced public housing. Concrete blocks under the main floor slab. Columns support two more floors. Explores the envelope and its separation of the structure.

Project for a Glass Skyscraper, not built. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. 1922.

Doesn't try to maximize the site. Theoretical project. Lightness of the skeleton. Skin and bones. Expression of a new type of architecture.

Early Influences

Early influences: cubism, internships, trips around, geometry. The work he does as an intern architect at the offices of Auguste Perret and Peter Behrens allows him to learn. He learns about the usage of concrete while working for Perret. Both of these architects provide a newfound knowledge that which influences his future architecture.

Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux, Paris Exhibition, 1937.

Grid of vertical trusses that are tensioned by cables. Fabric material between vertical truss system. Structural elements are pulled in tension away from each other. Free plan.

Proun I D, by El Lissitsky. 1919.

He invited architects to come and teach at the school and live on the campus.

Apartment House, Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgart. Mies van der Rohe. 1927.

Largest space for building project in exhibition Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgart.

Project for housing at Pessac. Rendering. Le Corbusier. 1924.

Le Corbusier's design for the public house space. Connecting green spaces, rooftop greeneries, White cube shaped homes.

How does his position on materiality relate to that of other architects?

Loos states that it is about quality of the work and not just quantity when it comes to materials. This is similar to Semper's beliefs in that he used materials based on their function or usefulness.

The International Style Exhibition. 1932.

Modern architecture being packaged as a unified front. "According to the definition devised by Barr, the International Style was characterized by "emphasis upon volume-space enclosed by thin planes or surfaces as opposed to the suggestion of mass and solidity; regularity as opposed to symmetry or other kinds of obvious balance; and, lastly, dependence upon the intrinsic elegance of materials, perfection, and fine proportions, as opposed to applied ornament." Hitchcock later revised this statement to include the articulation of structure in the place of the point about ornament. Even allowing for this adjustment, it is apparent that the architecture of the Weissenhof Siedlung was succinctly described by Barr's definition."

Steiner House, Vienna, Austria. Adolf Loos. 1910.

Much smaller scale at the street. White cubic forms. White stucco. Massings. Interlocking of space. Volumes of space start to shift against one another.

Prague Castle Renovation, plan and aerial view. Hradcany, Prague, Czech Republic. Joze Plecnik. 1920- 1935.

Plecnik was born in Slovenia. Worked on the Prod Castle, was a whole site, not just one building. The Country's president was really charging Plecnik with the idea of transforming the site into a symbol of Chezkoslovakia's new found independence. Plecnik treated the spaces as they move into each other and have them play off of each other with view axis. Uses historic forms and uses them to create experiences from one condition to the other.

Maison Citrohan, not built. Le Corbusier. 1922. Photo of model.

Project where Le Corbusier uses the domino system to develop this theoretical project. He wants to introduce the car as a new element of program. With this he lifts the house up so that the program of the car has its own space underneath. The ground floor is then lifted up and given a view. He then gives the roof back to the home owners by creating a space on the roof.

Country House in Brick, not built. Mies van der Rohe. 1923.

Residential project. As a way of working through his ideas. Influence of destijl and Frank Lloyd Wright. He does not draw the doors. Flow into spaces. Interior space while creating exterior space. Looks at the brick carefully; the design of it. Texture of brick is relieved by the glazed openings.

Friedrichstrasse Office Tower, not built. Mies van der Rohe. 1919.

Skeletal structure. Curtain wall glazing. Not maximizing the site with the building. Core is in the middle of the three towers.

Excerpt from The New Vision with examples of student work.

Systematic work toward "standardized production" does not form the first step in Bauhaus instruction. The synthetic approach to structure is introduced by experience with the material. the amassing of impressions often appearing unimportant at first. Tactile exercises provided, for example, the beginning for the elementary instruction, but there is always the further aim: a grasp of materials through actual experience of its properties. its possibilities in plastic handling, in tectonic creation, in work with tools and machines such as is never attained through book knowledge in the usual school exercises and the traditional courses of instruction.

Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau, Exposition des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. Le Corbusier. 1925.

Temporary pavilion built for a exposition. Tree was incorporated into the space. Cube shape.

House for an Art Lover, not built. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. 1901.

Theoretical project called House for an Art Lover. Austrian architect called Joseph Hoffman. Relates to the Hill House with white stucco exterior and look. Collage of different architecture elements.

Müller House, Prague, Czech Republic. 1929.

Uses interlocking conditions as details in the house. Street side of house: formal approach. Building responds to the terrain Moving around the house it begins to open up. Materials: Green marble. Material comes together as part of his raumplan concept. Plays a part in the interlocking spaces. Used for its detail. Colorations and patterning. Detail it gives the space. Can see through to other spaces. Different spaces of the same house. Would choose materials based on their qualities. Raumplan design. Different spaces of the same house: would choose materials based on their qualities. Role plan design.

House and Studio for Ozenfant, Paris. Le Corbusier. 1923.

White planar cubic services, custom made industrial factory style windows. We start to see how his built work and theoretical projects come together.

Villa Stein/de Monzie, Garches, France. Le Corbusier. 1928. Sketches.

placed outside the city

How does Adolf Loos conceptualize the use of architectural materials? How does this concept relate to his attitude toward ornament?

• Loos states that we have outgrown ornamentation. The use of material can be much more beautiful than that of ornamented walls.

What is Loos's 'Principal of Cladding'?

• The principle of cladding comes from mans need of comfort. Man sought refuge from the weather and used coverings for warmth. • "...cladding is older even than structure." • "The principle of cladding, which was first articulated by Semper, extends to nature as well. Man is covered with skin, the tree with bark." • His law: "we must work in such a way that a confusion of the material clad with its cladding is impossible. That means, for example, that wood may be painted any color except one - the color of wood."