Modern Architecture 230 - Test One
Vernacular
A category of architecture based on local needs, construction materials and reflecting local traditions.
Cenotaph, Egyptian Style c. 1784 Etienne Louis Boullee
A monument to someones's life after death and creating the feeling of extreme self consciousness and your own mortality
London, Langham Place, All Soul's, 1822-24, John Nash
A part of Regent Street (at the end) also part of the idea of picturesque gardens and purposefully placing monuments
Panorama
A patented invention of the late 18th century so that you can experience an entire cityscape in the round which makes observers feel as though they are in this spot. A way of creating a global society and bringing the world together also seen as a way to show the educational aspects. Also provides more of a positive view of the city and gives a sense e of power/ownership to the people.
Midway Plaisance
A street of old archaic and cultural attributes with the ferris wheel at the end that was meant to rival the Eiffel Tower. Picturesque gardens that are sprinkled with follies to draw your eye through the landscape. Plays a similar role to the idea of the panorama, allows you to be educated and escape to far off places.
Gesamtkunstwerk
A total work of art; places the designer in the charge of a work of art.
Haussmannization
A vast public works program commissioned by Napoléon III and directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of crowded and unhealthy medieval neighborhoods, the building of wide avenues, parks and squares, the annexation of the suburbs surrounding Paris, and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts.
Shingle Style
All of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses used this style. This effect of the building is an envelope of space, rather than a great mass and was enhanced by the visual tautness of the flat shingled surfaces. The horizontal shape of many Shingle-style houses, and the emphasis on horizontal continuity, both in exterior details and in the flow of spaces within the houses.
The Picturesque
An artistic concept and style of the late 18th and early 19th centuries characterized by a preoccupation with the pictorial values of architecture and landscape in combination with each other. The new a aesthetic category means it looks entirely natural but is perfected by man
Orientalism
Architecture of Europe/London show Islamic/Middle East traditions as public entertainment places; not taken seriously. A picturesque decay of Oriental places/justification for colonialism. With a slight similarity between Orientalism and Feminism.
Cenotaph to Issac Newton, 1784, project, Etienne Louis Boullee
Architecture of the Sublime - overwhelming/overpowering scale and threatening quality. Provides recognition to education/shows the monument to reason. Trying to create an accurate representation of the sky at night. During the night it attempts to recreate the day and vice versa. Illusion to immortality and to death (cyprus trees) sphere = circle of life.
Boston Public Library, 1888-92, Charles McKim, William Mead and Stanford White
Classical and Renaissance detailing but planned like Beaux-Arts, just like Bibliotheque by Labrouste with the same division of space. Heavier/weightier at the bottom for the sturdiness. Highly logical/legible - easy for average viewer with a symmetrical/axial plan. All Beaux Arts Architects.
Paris, Arc du Carousel, 1806-08, Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine
Commissioned by Napoleon when he is all about Roman Empires and creating a link between the two. Accurately modeled after the Arch of Septimius Severus in its arch forms and the Quadriga of Horses of San Marco which is where the horses are to accentuate his power. Making a functional connection between the garden and the Louvre.
Oak Park, III, Unity Temple, 1906, Frank Lloyd Wright
Congregation need 3 different spaces which results in 3 different masses. The architect want to restore Chirstianity though Church architecture and therefore it doesn't read as a church. Monastic with bare/austere walls that sound proof the building along with high windows, door placement and cement. All about the congregation and their space. Columns feel like expanse of wall but you don't know when they stop/end.
London, Regent's Park and Regent Street, 1811-1825, John Nash
Designed for the Prince to link his Royal residence with some of his favorite places. However this still is not a straight shot from the house to the park. Takes the idea from the picturesque gardens and purposefully places monuments and places for a picturesque feel
Chatsworth, Victoria Regia House, 1849, Joseph Paxton
Designed in the same manner as the Crystal Palace using a ridge and furrow system as a design structure to allow the water to run
Paris, Passage des Panoramas, ca. 1802 Unknown
Directional passages that cut through the cities as is they were alleys but covered and industrialized like malls. The beginning of the readymade consumerism and the birth of window shipping. Clean/drier experience that forces a mix of social classes and gives women a strong role in society.
Stowe House and Gardens, Buckinghamshire (England), 1677-1788; John Vanbrugh, Robert Adam, James Gibbs, William Kent, John Soane and Lancelot Brown
Draws your eye and frames the vistas. Picturesque places were more associates with landscape gardens than houses. The Sublime and the Picturesque can be seen in any style and depending on the viewer can be interchanged.
General Plan for Riverside, Illinois, 1869, Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
Earliest total plan suburb, best engineered streets - all of amenities. He believed that in order for you to live happy, you had to be surrounded by nature (common areas). Characteristics were: 1. Expansive Riverfront 2. Triangular Islands 3. Large Common Areas 4. Curvilinear Roadways. Breaking away from the rectangular straight roadways. Ideas come from the English Park tradition.
Charlottesville (VA), University of Virginia, 1817-26, Thomas Jefferson
Employs a village form and doesn't privilege a single building. A number of buildings in pavilions built to different neoclassical languages with attributes of the Pantheon. The library/rotunda are both encompassing and devoted to all realms of learning
Pennsylvania Station, NYC, 1906-10, Charles McKim, William Mead, Stanford White
Entrance in the center with the monumentality of the center space and the height of the entrance (takes up the whole city block). Highly symmetrical/clearly funnel in/out but gives ambiance and smooth circulation. Juxtaposition of iron and glass with two different sublime spaces. Elevating civil life in general; outdoing what the french/english did with idea of the city beautiful movement. All Beaux Arts Architects.
Laing Stores, Murray and Washington Street (NYC), 1848-49, ironwork by James Bogardus
Experiments w/cast iron architects and decorations on the outside. Cheaper and easily repetitive, an architect used the material to render traditional/classical themes and can be used for structural support. New York is the original help for cast iron then it moved to Chicago. Uses a colossal and simple language references classical renaissance theory.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. founded 1861 and renamed Morris and Co. 1875
Founded as a way to express his ideas; handmade pieces of cloth and they were paid a good wage. Anti-industrial images of the works (using vegetable dyes from the middle ages on the middle ages) Motifs are flat (like Pugin-no real background space). Brings back things like calligraphy and certain typefaces.
Turkish Pavilion, Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893,
Frank Lloyd Wright gets the idea of his Oak Park, Winslow House from this building with its overhanging areas, horizontal lines and the hipped rood that work to make the building feel heavy/blocky. Commissioned by the Turks to show their capabilities.
Ho-Ho-Den (Japanese Pavilion), Columbian Exposition, 1893
Frank Lloyd Wright uses the same ideas of flat patterning and treat of the surface like paneling as well as the implementation of porches is his Highland Park Ward Willits House. Commissions by the Japanese to show their capabilities.
Neoclassicism/Neoclassical
Greek and Roman ideas that its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of Classical antiquity.
New York, Map of Manhattan (Board of Commissioners), 1810
Grid system - democratic way of dividing space; rational and orderly
John Ruskin, "The Seven Lamps of Architecture" (1849) and "The Stones of Venice" (1851-53)
He is famous for the styles he recommends such as gothic but is not tied to Catholicism but rather a higher moral standing not just churches but every building should be gothic. He also believes that the gothic is morally superior because of its imperfections (the Greco-Romans don't allow for imperfections because there is no room for freedom for the work man or the praising of imperfections) If our art is corrupt = society is corrupt. We've drawn a false line between manual labor and a writing gentleman. Three types of deceit were not considered to be good: Structural (looks like the carry weight but do not), surface (don't make one material look like another - you can cover but not change) and operative (the use of cast iron or machine made ornaments).
Buffalo, Guaranty Building, 1894-95, Louis Sullivan
He was not Beaux-Arts trained and was not impressed by the idea of it. The problem was approached naturally and the biological motif of a honeycomb was used (biomimicry). Not much could be done on the internal scope because of the function of the building but he believes that the exterior is where the creativity lies in architecture. The idea that form follows function and works from the interior out. Following Pugin/Ruskin's ideas that there is a readability of the function on the outside. Drawing from an architectural precedent - cornice is making that part of the building as distinct. He wanted to avoid using different types of building forms in one like in the WU building. He believed that a skyscraper is a building with in itself that has to be lofty and tall and even added vertical beams where they weren't needed to emphasize verticality and recesses the window to not show the horizontality.
Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque S. Genevieve, Paris, 1843-48
Henri Labrouste attended the Beaux Arts and focused on Rome. One of the first public libraries, long and narrow and highly rational/legible. Reading room upstairs with stacks downstairs. No classical orders, only classical details and not much decoration mainly to show what is inside.
Crystal Palace I, Hyde Park, London, 1850/51 Joseph Paxton
Housed the famous world exhibition of 1851, was a temporary building made of glass and iron. The goal of the exhibition was to learn from the trends/upcomings and deciding the path; showing England's power and their reach. Joseph was better know as a gardener who designs greenhouses. Uses the idea of biomimicry with the vains of a flower, using the ridge and furrow system.
Chicago, First Leiter Building, 1879, William LeBaron Jenney
In the floor plan the dots are support columns on the inside that allow for a curtain wall of architecture where structural aspects aren't on the outside so there are fuller walls of windows - also allows for exposition/flexibility. Reduces building to a steel frame and is considered to start the Chicago School of Architecture. Much more utilitarian in its form compared to the Western Union building. The WU building has aspects of three different building types within it and has examples of corporations creating names for their specific titles.
E.E Viollet-le Duc, "Dictionnaire raisonne", 1868
In this book he points to the gothic as superior because he thinks it is structural and rational; every decorative element has a reason for it. Pointed gothic/pointed art = progressive; think it went well with full iron
Issac Bell House, Newport, RI (1882-3), McKim, Mead & White
It is a typical example of the Shingle Style, and it is distinguished by the extreme open character of its planning. The difference between this house and Wright Home is mainly the square footage because Wright uses the same open floor plan and prioritizes size of rooms based on their overall functions.
Philip Webb and William Morris, The Red House, Bexleyheath, England, 1859-60
Looks back to the medieval and preindustrial past. He advocated the idea that models should be simple but well crafted and in reach of all people. Arts and Crafts are attributed directly to him - believes that ornament is should be chosen that is intrinsic to the structure and is a total work of art. Brick, wood, tiles attempting to express their true nature. Post and beam structure is part of the aesthetic appeal - refers to pre-industrial past and traced back to an individual.
Chicago, III, Robie House, 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright
Looks low strung with extreme horizontality to make it a real prairie style house. Great views to the outside but not vice versa. Pulled out from the center (center hearthy - recesses his horizontal mortar; projecting masses) long horizontality w/brick. The architect emphasizes the horizontality which is the opposite of what Sullivan does. For privacy he hides the entrance. Has ship-like qualities and the furniture mimics the ideas in the house.
London, Horner's Colosseum, Regent's Park, 1824 Decimus Burton
Made to look as though it was out of stone with resemblances to the Pantheon which makes it look important and permanent. Carries the idea of Aesthetic education on the exterior where as the interior is about lightening and the spectacle. Created to hole the panorama of London.
Louis Sullivan
Main building: the Guaranty Building in Buffalo. He sees the art building as an organic form - the honeycomb. Him and his partner were able to practice/introduce German themes/practices. Concentrates mostly on the exterior where he can express himself, the skyscraper capture forms in a way that is rational. Exterior forms are expression of their internal function but that is not exactly what he meant. He loves ornamentation but believes it has to be carefully considered like Pugin with the idea of flat ornamentation but also influenced by abstracted nature.
Paris, Arc du Triomphe de l'Etoile, 1806-36, Chalgrin
Napoleon drawing on the Arch of Titus as a copy of power and the empire building.
Berlin, Altes Museum, 1823-28, K.F. Schinkel
Neoclassicism language being used to court the rising educated middle class privileging of art and culture over military. The location creates a dialogue between monarchy and class. The style is neoclassical and is done in a highly rational manner. The organization is didactic and accessible combining the inside/outside
Staffordshire, England, St. Giles Cheadle, 1840-46, A.W.N Pugin
Notable for the use of color and decoration. Doesn't employ illusionistic attributes, flatness emphasized in decoration. Avoids 3D spaces because he doesn't want to lie; wants to be honest (no false perspective)
Prairie Style/Prairie House
One of the few architectural styles that was not imported from Europe, the Prairie School of architecture originated in the Midwest and was catapulted to prominence by its most famous master, Frank Lloyd Wright. Prairie home designs are characterized by strong horizontal lines. Low-pitched hipped roofs with wide overhanging eaves enhance the horizontal appearance of Prairie-style house plans.
A.W.N Pugin, Contrasts, 1836/1841, pamphlet
Painted the revival as the only way to continue as a catholic convert. Views neo-classical (from Greece and Rome) forms are the only things suitable for Britain; belief that proper gothic would help return faith in God, trying to reform modern society with the gothic. Believed that vaulting in wood/stone and not plaster was dishonest and that the entire building should be in the same style (honesty in construction). The book shows that there was a 19th century deterioration of taste - questioning where our priorities lie (religion vs. industry). Also believed that ornamentation was key to forms.
Central Park, New York, planned 1857, finished 1880, Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
Perfectly planned and made out unlike most other parks. Shows democracy - where all classes could mingle; a giant time square. 800 acres planned on picturesque principles against the evils of modernism. Planned around the grid on the principles of recreation, transportation and water supply. Continuous and finished version of French/English gardens. 3 components: meadows (framing views), ravines (picturesque), formal aspects (treeline walkway-Literary Walkway, Bethesda Terrace, Dairy - a public good/simulation of the country side for small children). People are supposed to experience uninterrupted views of nature (40 under/over passes continue this idea and considers and aesthetic experience incredibly important. Urban life needing to be combatted.
Administration Building, 1893, Richard Morris Hunt
Placed most specifically and grandly placed on the Court of Honor. This building is much more palatable than the Eiffel Tower. He though the tower had too much engineering and they wanted to cover up the form. The building were made of staf - a mix of plaster/cement put on top of wood/steel frames. Pugin/Ruskin would not be fond of it because it fosters a false sense of stability for Chicago.
Trinity Church, Boston, 1872-77, H.H Richardson
Polychrome stone treatment (influenced by Ruskin); known for his use of brown stone with mortar to be same color. Very Romanesque feel and interior is navigable; archeological correct/heavy and round arches/ Particular attention to color and texture; drawing on Pugin - 3D. Heavily ornamented - Gesamtkunstwerk. Beaux-Arts.
Richmond (VA), Capitol, 1785-89, Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clerisseau
Provide and image of stability in a new nation where Greek and Roman ideas are important because of the influence of democracy and greatness
Paris, Notre Dame, 1163-1345; Restoration 1845-68, E.E Viollet-le-Duc
Representative of the idea of restoration. Repaired monuments in France that were destroyed; had value from French Nationalism. Restoration = making things new; restoring back to an ideal moment in time and gets rid of anything after the 1400s.
Paris, Opera, 1861-74, Charles Garnier
Sits at the intersection of a number of main streets and is the perfect representation of the social norms of the time, with the use of three different class based entrances. There is an emphasis on circulation with the staircase which also gives the opportunity to see and be seen. The building is also very readable from the outside.
The Sublime
Something that appears as powerful and/or overwhelming because it gives a sense that is dangerous or vaguely threatening.
Panopticon/Panoptic
Surveillance intended to speak to you. The concept of the design is to allow a single watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.
Cologne, Cathedral, begun 1248, restoration and completion 1842-80 (August Reichensberger)
The German belief of the gothic lead to the completion in the 19th century tried to stick to the original form.
Plan for the city of Washington,1791/91, Pierre Charles L'Enfant
The architect turned to Baroque town planning concepts similar to those that would have been seen at Versailles. He planned the city based on two forms of government being housed at each end, the capital and the white house. He connected the buildings with two axes crossing at right angles and used a rectangular grid for the rest of the city creating a web-like pattern just like Versailles. Wanted the two buildings to be able to watch each other.
Chicago, Reliance Building, 1890-95, Burnham and Root
The birth of the skyscraper where architects and overseers are creating a factory like system. Important relationship between the wall and the windows. The window is visually more interesting - ornamentation is part of the structure (Ruskin-Pugin influence). The window begins to takes precedence over the wall letting light and air in. Completely functional and NOT superfluous ornamentation.
Court of Honor
The entry was for the fair that creates a totalizing aesthetic experience and shows architectural control
Paris, Au Bon Marche, Dept Store, 1854, 1872; Alexandre Laplage, Louis-Auguste Boileau and Gustave Eiffel
The first real department store. It used modern materials and ideas (indoor plumbing, electric lighting, elevators, iron). Was a place to buy everything at once (1 stope shop) at a fixed price. The invention of an exchange policy where the consumer is in control and there is a small profit margin. Has a bathroom = lady's lounge/private spaces in public places. The roof gardens put you above everything - "high class positions". Also played with the idea of circulation and seeing and being seen.
Stowe, England, Gothic Temple, 1739-50, John Vanbrugh, William Kent and Lancelot Brown
The idea about creating your own gothic as an attempt to search for an identity
Stourton, Wiltshire, Stourhead, landscape garden, 1739-50
The idea of the picturesque with follies in order to frame specific views to evoke specific feelings
The Ionic Order
The more elegant shafted column with a base and elegant curves (Athena)
The Corinthian Order
The most elegant and tallest order marked with a specific capital (Canthus leaves - derived from nature)
The Doric Order
The oldest most "manly"/Spartan and pared down order with squashed pancake features
Flaneur/flaneuse
The person who goes and people watching which gives a sense of a freedom of anonymity
Chicago World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, Daniel Burnham and F.L Olmstead
The planners supported the Beaux Arts building because of the encourages educational and clean ideas, creating something that was the opposite as the actual Chicago. Wanted an overarching/overpowering idea as well as a socially/educational change of area. Beaux Arts buildings used to stand along but then held the idea that these building could animate city/areas. Chicago wants to make its mark and show its exponential development. The fair's architecture represents Roman influences - Sullivan believed that the fair set American architecture back 50 years.
Folly/Follies
The structure/temple added to a landscape garden to recreate a painting like setting within the garden
Oak Park, III. Wright Home and Studio 1889-1909, Frank Lloyd Wright
The use of elemental architectural forms interesting variety/unity with shingles and triangular gables. Creates rooms within rooms but without walls (uses screens). Openness but still air of privacy through the manipulation of ceiling heights. Exposure of wood as a design feature and the idea of focusing ever around the hearth comes from "De Stil" that highlights a particular family life. Manipulates ceiling heights in the office and based on importance. Elevating home life/lifestyle. Uses the Shingle style.
Paris, Rue de Rivoli, 1806-35, Percier & Fontaine
There is connection between the Louvre and the Tueillerry garden. Very orderly and balanced/geometric. One of the first steps toward the rebuilding of Paris part of Napoleon's legitimizing himself by using neoclassical language.
London, Euston Station, 1835-39, Philip Hardwick
Train stations are a mix of old ideas to new materials and the idea that trains are the gateway into the city. There is a shift between the business area (the shed) and the waiting area
Chaux (Arc et Senans, Burgundy), Salt Works, 1775-79; C.N. Ledoux
Uses classical vocabulary as an attempt to transform society in the service of the king. Reconfiguring a consolidation of power, very rural. King wants to reform peasants by moving them to an dictatorial complex. Hard edges/severe treatment almost showing strong classicism
Highland Park, III, Ward Willits House, 1902, Frank Lloyd Wright
Very rectangular and derived from Asian prototypes but with the same rough plan (pinwheel plan around one central hearth). Entering rooms of the diagonal. Screens you can be on with nature w/out the intrusion of people.
Froebel Blocks
What Frank Lloyd attributes his ideas to. Creates the idea of genius and the idea of the self-made man (no real hard work is involved) Sprezzatura - nonchalance
"The City Beautiful Movement"
White/Clean/Safe - everything Chicago was not) Burnham and Olmstead are the primary movers of the movement
Essay on Architecture 1753, Marc Antoine Laugier
Written in 1753. Talked about the primitive form of the hut found in nature and the sense that all architecture derives in nature and that its base is in structure and not decoration.
"Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful" 1757 Edmund Burke
Written in 1757 by Edmund Burke. It was the first complete philosophical exposition for separating the beautiful and the sublime into their own respective rational categories
Plates from: "Antiquities of Athens", 1762 James Stuart and Nicholas Revett
Written with impressionistic and mirrored drawings from Greece rather than Rome. The monuments are being drawn so precise and being recreated as a status symbol of wealth and education.
Centotaph
an open tomb
Architecture Parlante
speaking architecture; can be understood by everyone
