Architecture Test #3

Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966 (written 1962).

- Argued that the American City had a logic and a strength that should be incorporated into contemporary style Venturi saw architectural history as far more quirky and eccentric than the "classic" ever-progressive view that had been propagated. - Opened the floodgates for new departures in design, embracing history, anthropomorphism, and vernacular design - Venturi is interested in Mannerism - There isn't just "one kind of architectural history" for Venturi, but there are instead multiple threads of history. Modernism moves from universality to pluralism

Venturi: reconstructed Benjamin Franklin House, Philadelphia, 1976

- Different approaches to preservation. - Jacob Graff House- "fake" reconstruction of a house that had been destroyed - Franklin's Post Office- rehabilitated "actual" historic remnant - Venturi's Benjamin Franklin House (1976)- he does not "fake" the house, he reconstructs the outline of the house which reflects the destroyed original

J.-N-.L. Durand, Lectures on Architecture ("Precis des Leçons"), Paris, 1802-05 and 1821, on the modular basis for rational architecture; see p. 473 and several of Durand's pages illustrated on CourseWeb.

- Durand writes about the modular basis for rational architecture - Durand's book dignifies the entry of rational functionalism into academic architecture. - 18th century is the first time when architects are required to go to school and learn the history of architecture. - Durand proposes new approach to history- boils architectural history down to its basic functional elements - the reduction of formalism to severe "horizontal" and "vertical" proponents - Parti: how one views a building in its instant, elemental form. - The result was buildings that were extremely severe, mathematically rational problems - Demand for new building types at the beginning of the 19th century- new scale. - Use of historical styles as "wallpaper"

Maya Lin, Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC 1983; CourseWeb only.

- Recalls Ledoux's utopian designs - One wing points to the Lincoln Memorial and the other points to the Washington monument - The visitor "sinks" into the earth and "participates" in the memorial - It is Romantic in that it "points" toward infinity

Eero Saarinen: TWA (now American Airlines) Terminal, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, 1955-62; p. 552 and CourseWeb.

- The TWA terminal shows its stresses, it shows what the building is undergoing structurally, and therefore the viewer is "involved" in its dynamism - Like Ronchamp, it is representational. It is fun, dramatic, and dynamic- and therefore it is an "answer" to the austerity of Mies van der Rohe.

Venturi: Venturi House, 8298 Millman Street in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 1962; p. 581.

-Lacks structural integrity, strange jumps in scale, fracturing pediment and gable, towering chimney, false front -However, it was very influential due to its bizarre juxtapositions -Pluralism (Mannerism) of Modernity

If time permits) H.H. Richardson: Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, Pittsburgh, 1884-88; p. 503 and plan of main courtroom floor and facade in this Sourcebook; please visit it Downtown, corner Grant St and Forbes Ave.

-Second most imitated building in the United States. -Richardson, who was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, wins the competition for the courthouse. -The uses primarily Romanesque aesthetic elements , though 12 or more aesthetic sources can be found. -The design basis the jail is a 5th century monastery in Syria. The central sanctuary becomes the control center of the jail. A bridge (looking at Venice) separates jail and courthouse. -However, the building is a rational solution to a highly complex program clothed in eclectic dress. -The new building needed to be fire retardant. It required courthouses, including the isolation of jurors, county administration, a courtyard and jail. -It was originally gas lit, with provisions for vertical communication, future electronic light, and pneumonic tubes -The 5 story building that looks like a 3 story building, and provides for future lowering the Grant Street. The courtrooms can be read from the exterior -The stone was pre-cut. The exterior stone came by railroad from Quincy MA. Interior stone was limestone that came from railroad from Indiana -The modern architect has moved beyond the local conditions that once the restricted architectural decisions. -The voussoirs are 8 feet longa and weigh tons- could not have been built in the Romanesque period -Jurors have deliberation rooms with separate stairs above judges chambers so they won't need to use the corridors and possibly be influenced. -Richardson uses the London model of a tower that sucks in fresh air and two back towers that exhaust air. The towers are "dressed" in using Venetian and Spanish Romanesque sources

Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, Centre Pompidou (Centre Beaubourg), Paris, 1971-77; p. 576.

-The architects refused to "put the building's clothes on"- neither a historical style or modern style is necessary. -Refusal to "turn tricks" of architecture. -Building is "exposed" in its honesty. -museum

Wright: Buildings, Plans, and Designs ("Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe") published in Berlin, 1910-1911; p. 43; An Autobiography, 1932 and later.

Buildings, Plans, and Designs (Aufgefürte Bauten and Entwürfe) -published in Berlin 1910-1911 - Published in Europe because Wright's audience is primarily European at this point in time. An Autobiography, 1932 - Wright updated this book several times; in this text he outlines his philosophy of using modern materials and decoration with no historical precedent but a hand-made, craftsman style that emphasizes organic quality and gives dignity to human life in face of the interchangeability and lessening of craftsmanship after the Industrial Revolution

A.W.N. Pugin, Contrasts, 1836 and 1841; and True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, 1841; p. 479.

F: A: C: I: T:

Abbé Laugier: Essay on Architecture ("Essai sur l'architecture") 1753, with frontispiece for 1755 edition, showing the "natural" state of architecture; p. 444. 18

F: A: C: I: T:

Eugène-Emanuel Viollet-le-Duc: Discourses on Architecture ("Entretiens sur l'Architecture"), 1858-72.

F: A: C: I: T:

Frank Gehry: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 1997; p. 601.

F: A: C: I: T:

Gehry, Eight Spruce Street, New York, 2011.

F: A: C: I: T:

Jorn Utzon: Sydney Opera House, Australia, designed by this Danish architect 1957, opened 1973; p. 554-556.

F: A: C: I: T:

Writings by Louis Sullivan: "The tall office building artistically considered" appeared in Lippincott's Magazine for March 1896: full text at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/civil-and-environmental engineering/1-012-introduction-to-civil-engineering-design-spring-2002/readings/the-tall-office-building-artistically-considered/; Kindergarten Chats (articles of 1901 collected into book 1918, with the famous quote "Form follows function"); The Autobiography of an Idea (1924): the latter two both on reserve for our class.

F: A: C: I: T:

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959): Robie House, Chicago, 1909, p. 498.

F: A: Expression of organic architect, built the way nature built. Minimalist spatial organization, captures constant flow of space. C: Called the Prairie Style: the long, strong horizontals of the American Midwest I: Decoration represents the "dignity" of the family life T: Relies on steel columns and the technology of the Industrial Revolution

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Friedrichstrasse office building projects (glass skyscrapers), Berlin, 1919 and again in 1921.

F: A: Spiritual fantasy of an all glass skyscraper. Nothing of the boxyness of an industrial factory. C: Mies van der Rohe was the most influential modern architect. Comes from a stone mason background, and therefore has a deep understanding of materials. I: Mies van der Rohe has "classical" sensitivity to the spiritual nature of modernism in his refinement of form T:

Sullivan: Carson Pirie Scott (originally Schlesinger and Meyer) Department Store, Chicago, 1899-1904.

F: A:Earlier buildings were incorporating the Industrial Revolution, but not letting be know on the exterior. Sullivan aesthetically reflects the speed of Chicago's trolley cars. Ceilings are lowered in office spaces- form follows function. The base is heavily decorated in swirling cast iron comparison to the rest of the building because height of the human vision is about 18'. Delicate, subtle, yet rich decoration throughout, even under the cornice. Decoration utilizes the Industrial Revolution, but does not forget the poetry C: The consumers of the space are women I: T:

Sir Charles Barry & Gothic specialist A.W.N. Pugin: Houses of Parliament, London, designed 1836, built 1840-1860s, pp. 475-78.

F: A:Includes the House of Lords and House of Commons, central meeting place called Lobby, private quarters, and existing site conditions. C: The British declare in the competition that the style should be Tudor-Gothic. This points to a nationalist sentiment in order to contrast the French who are destroying their Gothic buildings, and also deals with two portions of the original building that are still standing. Barry wins the competition to design the new Houses of Parliament. Barry is a Rationalist and not a Romantic who produces large public buildings and early railway stations (which is a new building type from 19th century) I: Pugin is intensely interested in returning to the "moral superiority" of the Gothic period and was responsible for the Gothic (anti-modern) decorations T:also includes illumination, fireproofing, and HVAC in the buildings. Fresh air and circulation is needed because of the gas lighting. A 400' high tower pulls in fresh air which is sucked in by steam driven fresh air and then distributed through the building. Air was exhausted through other towers. One of the most advanced HVAC system for its time.- the tower (which looks Gothic) has a very modern, rational function.

Etienne-Louis Boulée, Cenotaph to Newton, 1783; p. 449. RR

F: A:Sublime, impossible architecture meant to overwhelm and inspire. Boulée designs an immense globe that would resemble the universe during the day and would be lit with limelight during the night C: I: T:

Gustave Eiffel: Eiffel Tower, Paris World's Fair, 1889; CourseWeb.

F: A:Towers over the other monuments of Paris as centerpiece of an International Exhibition. Built on a masonry, prefabricated, riveted (new construction process), built in 6 months. Almost completely function except for minimal decoration at base. C: tallest structure ever attempted at 1000 ft high. Eiffel is an engineer, not an architect. I: Expression Viollet-le-Duc's structural theory. T:

John Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849; p. 484.

F: A:-Functionally expressive ornament - Truth in expression of building materials / structure - Beauty derived from the observation of nature - Bold / irregular forms - Durable construction - Adherence to traditional Christian architectural forms (Gothic architecture) C: I: T:

Gropius and Adolf Meyer: Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-26; p. 521-25

F: Art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. A: Collaboration of all the arts: painting, sculpture, weaving, theatre, architecture, industrial design. Total absence of history beyond the name "Bauhaus" which refers to refers to the houses of Gothic masons. Rather than taking in light, architecture now "sheds" light at night due to electricity C: I: T:

LeCorbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret): Towards a New Architecture ("Vers une architecture"), 1923; English trans. 1927; pp. 528-30.

F: Book on Architectural Style, Opinion A: Rejection of historical style, extols industrial buildings that are the strict expression of their function, like grain elevators and ships. C: I: Believes that buildings should be designed in an industrial, efficient, utilitarian spirit. However, Le Corbusier seeks a "deeper" understanding history and the context in which historical buildings were built. Will the future bring architecture or revolution? T:

Neumann, Vierzehnheiligen (country pilgrimage church) in Bavaria, Germany, designed 1738; redesigned by Neumann 1742, completed 1772, after Neumann's death; interior design mainly by Johann Jakob Michael Küchel; pp. 431-435 and colorplate 10.

F: Church for helper saints (catholic?) A:Extremely complex plan which pushes the boundaries of plan organization. There are two alters, one alter for sighting of saints and another at east end, and no aisles. There are no right angles in the church, the twirling forms have no structural significance, the ceiling vaults seem to "open."Use of reflected ceiling plan because ceiling has become the most important design elements C: N/A I:dedicated to the cult of 14 "helper saints" T: structural problems b/c rococo was not interested in structure. Use of medieval type of heavy buttressing to support the structure- no structural innovation

Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, England, also outside London, just five miles from Chiswick; 1749-77, by Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of Oxford: p. 462. RR

F: Home A:Looks "older" and "more Gothic" when ivy is allowed to grow over it. Nature runs wild, as opposed to the severity of Versailles. Ruins were created and nature was pushed to be more wild if the effect did not occur naturally. Plaster vaults that recall the great fan vaults of the late English Gothic. Comfortable, intimacy of scale C: Inherits an estate which has actual Gothic buildings on it, which he tears down to build a "better" Gothic building. Walpole writes The Castle of Ortanto: Gothic novel I: Gothic was associated with the terrifying, mysterious, and thrilling T: N/A

Chiswick House, outside London, begun 1725 by the Earl of Burlington (Richard Boyle) and William Kent as a "spin" on Palladio's Villa Rotonda: p. 442. RR

F: Home of the Earl of Burlington A: Similar structure to the Villa Rotunda, with a higher dome, the attic has been removed, bare window frames, and the exterior stairs have been removed and replaced with a rustication at the basement wall. Tougher and more emphatic language that Palladio. C: I: T:

LeCorbusier, Villa Savoye, near Paris, France, 1929, pp. 531-33. Compare with Fallingwater, 1937: the latter so utterly tied to its place, the former so utterly liberated from it.

F: House A: Nothing is handmade, everything is industrial and machine-made. Designs a house where a car can also dwell within the structure C: I: Liberation from history, "The House is a Machine for Living" T:

Wright: Fallingwater, the Kaufmann House, near Pittsburgh, PA, 1934-37, p. 60.

F: House A:Designed "for the music of the waterfall"- reference to Ledoux's design. The cantilevers "mimic" the waterfalls. Fallingwater resides in the bosom of nature. Wright pushes the Mrs. Kaufmann's upper balcony beyond the lower balcony to create a brilliant, dynamic massing. C:The crowning achievement of Frank Lloyd Wright. Built for the Edgar Kaufmann, Pittsburgh businessman and founder of Kaufmann Department Stores. I:Rationalization of modern life: the house is built like an industrial battleship. Romanticism: the building is humanized by hand cut stone and localized by local materials, nature is used as a key design impetus in the house; Poetic organic architecture, linkage with nature T: The balconies are structural disasters are drooping. The drooping was halted by post-tensioning in 2002. Constructed of steel beams, reinforced concrete and glass- but we don't not think of it as an industrial building due to the Romanticism of the hand-hewn exterior stone and the subtle detail.

Walter Gropius, The International Style (Internationale Architektur) 1925.

F: N/A A: Characterized by abstract forms, geometric shapes, and poetic minimalism. Meant to be universal. The International Style was not merely a functionalist product, they also evoked a richness and a spirituality. Therefore architecture will be based on materials and structure. C: developed by European architects after WWI, and is epitomized by Mies van der Rohe's statement, "Less is More." I: By doing so, architecture can rise above history and nationalism (and the horrors of WWI). T: N/A

Mies with Philip Johnson: Seagram Building, New York City, 1957; see Roth pp. 145-46, with remarks on how wasteful of energy the building was.

F: Office Building A: The Seagram company does not use the entire lot, but pulls the building back from the street to give way to a public space. The slab skyscraper reflects the proportions of a Greek Temple which is dematerialized like a Gothic Cathedral The piers supporting the building are incased in steel. The real steel that is supporting the building, the exterior bronzed steel cladding that "expresses" the structural steel in the interio. C: The building is logical conclusion of a set of architectural forces that had their root in the mid-19th century and is also the creation of one artist. I: The Seagram building illustrates that no building can be entirely "functional," and no building is entirely without function. The irony of the Seagram Building is that a work in such a radical tradition became a great icon of the conformity of Late Capitalism in the 1950's. T: glass and steel skyscraper

Sir Joseph Paxton: Crystal Palace, London, 1851; burned 1936; p. 488.

F: Prince Albert proposes that England should have an International Exhibition. A: 1851 feet long, built in 1851. Basement is masonry, the upper floors are glass walls (using larges panes of glass available in that era) supported by cast and wrought iron. Elements beyond the rational: the sense of the infinite and a tree (nature) captured within the rationality of the design. For Queen Victoria, the experience of the Crystal Palace was the most religious experience she had ever had. In the exhibit, everything was manufactured out of cast iron. C: burned down 1936. I: Nationalism? T:Crystal Palace is constructed in 6 months. Great speed of assembly. Paxton is a greenhouse builder, not an architect. Prefabricated, and pieces were color-coded to aid workers. New building methodology: builders now can be unskilled and building can be built at a huge scale.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806): Royal Saltworks at Chaux (the Salines de Chaux), Arc-et-Senans, France, 1775-79; p. 451 CourseWeb reproduces gatehouse and director's house as built and as standing today. RR

F: Saltworks factory, government project A:Speaking Architecture: The director's House is strange combination of pseudo-Palladian elements. The director can watch all the workers from his house. C:shows saltworks as developed later into an ideal city plan. I: T:

Mies: German Pavilion, Barcelona Exposition, Barcelona, Spain, 1929, pp. 525-28.

F: This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition A:The buildings is sleek, abstract, and as dematerialized as a Gothic Cathedral Though totally abstract and refined, the Pavilion is a practical building. The Pavilion is astonishingly rich, invents the Barcelona chair, brings jasper and onyx stone from Africa, and flawless stainless steel. The columns stand away from the partition wall because they are too beautiful to be hidden and must express themselves C: I: Mies stated his belief in a universal architecture in which the particulars of site, material, etc. hardly apply. Mies presents the viewer with a poetic paradise on earth through abstract, rational, reductive modernism. T:

Jacques-Germain Soufflot: The Panthéon, Paris (begun as church of Ste.-Genevieve), 1755-92; pp. 438, 447-48. 18

F: conceived as a monument to Paris and the French nation as much as it was the church of Paris's patron saint. A:For Soufflot, strength is more important than beauty. Reference to Bramante's Tempietto. The windows originally emphasized structure rather than wall but they had to be filled in because of the dome needed additional wall support. Classical temple front. C: Soufflot participated in archeological research of ancient sites, and therefore he actually knows how Greek and Roman temple fronts should be constructed. I: catholic church, nationalism T:Pediment is stabilized by wrought iron tie rods Use of point-loading arches on the interior emphasizes a new value put on achievements of Gothic architecture . Therefore Soufflot is a rational, scientific architect using the latest technologies. Emphasis on structure above all else.

Johann Balthasar Neumann: Würzburg Residenz, Würzburg, Germany, designed 1722; center block with grand staircase and Kaisersaal, 1737 and later; pp. 428-429. Frescoes in the Kaisersaal and grand staircase painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1750-53; p.428.

F: functioned as a palace for the Prince Bishop A: large staircase focus is on movement and the ceiling mural also play an important role in the space of this work. Geometric formal garden: Versailles is a model. The construction phases of the palace move from the high formalism of French Classicism to the "free-hand" geometry-free play of the Rococo- side wings were built first using clear geometries to the center block which is no longer geometric. Rococo is not interested in structural aspects- delicate plaster ceilings are hung from the structure Fantastic opening of space and light and form- no geometry remains. C: Würzburg is in a Catholic area of Germanic Europe. I: N/A T:of Gesamtkunstwerk- integration of painting sculpture and architecture

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Charles-Louis Clerisseau: Virginia State Capitol, Richmond, 1785-89, p. 460. This design was both rationalist and romantic; CourseWeb shows it towering over Richmond with a distinct Acropolis effect, as photographed by Matthew Brady during the Civil War.

F: gov. state capitol A: This design was both rationalist and romantic; the image shows it towering over Richmond with a distinct Acropolis effect, as photographed by Matthew Brady during the Civil War. The Virginia State Capital was romantic in its huge size, the way it dominates the entire town, the insertion of an ancient building into which at that time was wilderness. C:Jefferson wished to create a new cultural tradition for the United States using classicism. The Virginia State Capital is based on the Maison Carrée in Nîmes. Jefferson and his assistant actually measured the Maison Carrée and recorded it on graph paper. This was indicative of an important shift in the way that the "primitive" architecture of Greece and Rome were "re-discovered" as ideals of honest architecture I: T:

Karl Friedrich von Schinkel: Altes Museum (Old Museum), Berlin, 1824-30; pp. 473-474. An evocation of Durand.

F: museum A:Highly rational, emphasis on clarity of the structure and the program. Clear entrance, geometric cube seen pushing up above the façade is the rotunda. C: Influence of Durand's severity, geometry, and structural integrity. I: T:

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) and Dankmar Adler (1844-1900): Wainwright Building, St. Louis, 1890-91. (Roth, p. 10 and 509, illustrates their similar Guaranty Building in Buffalo). The Wainwright represents as much honesty to its steel frame as Sullivan could present to his late-Victorian public, and the logic of function.

F: office building A:The reconciliation of rationalism of the Industrial Revolution and Romanticism. Uses the functionality of the Industrial Revolution in a new way that accepts the severity of the new materials: skyscrapers. - The building has three functions and form must reflect function: the entrance, the mezzanine, and the rest of the building accessed by an elevator. The top of the building is where mechanical systems are stored. Due to fire codes, the steel cannot be expressed on the exterior. However, Sullivan "expresses" the steel columns with brick piers on the exterior. Every second pier is represents a structurally "honest" vertical support and extends to the ground, the intermediate piers are "fake." The corners are thickened for aesthetic reasons, not structural reasons. The piers are capped by a large capital at the top, and small decorative capitals at their base: not classical. Sullivan's decoration is industrial produced- but it "appears" to be hand-crafted C: I: Sullivan asks: How do we produce building that are entirely of their age? T: steel and brick as well as its height and elevators.

facade designs for the church of St.-Sulpice in Paris. Compare the rejected Rococo design of Juste-Aurèle Meissonier, 1726 (on CourseWeb) with the Neoclassical winning design for the same facade by Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, 1732-77 (also on CourseWeb). Note influence on Servandoni of Greek architecture at Paestum and Athens; possibly also excavations at Pompeii. 18

Juste-Aurèle Meissonier, proposed facade for the church of St.-Sulpice, Paris, 1726 - Typical Baroque façade with a tabernacle front inspired by Borromini Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, winning design for the facade of St.-Sulpice, 1732—77, Classical orders and little decoration created an almost brutal affect that is more "honest" architecturally, and also created a strong chiaroscuro effect like the David painting:

Ledoux: Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Mores, and Legislation (L'Architecture considerée sour le rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la legislation), 1804 and 1847: a Utopian and fantastic twist on what started as real projects. Ledoux's Utopian designs included the Inspector's House at the Source of the Loue, project, ca. 1785; p. 450. RR

Refers to social engineering. Ledoux wants to use architecture to influence the moral spirit of humankind. For example, in his design of a prison for Aix-en-Provence 1785 (work in context), Ledoux demonstrates that it is not enough to put criminals in prison, but we have to make an example of them architecturally. An example of "Speaking architecture"

LeCorbusier: Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France, 1950-55; pp. 549-51.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_du_Haut -LeCorbusier realizes later in life that buildings are transitory -"Hand-drawn," no right-angles, irregular- clearly the work of a human being in contrast to the machine-aesthetic of his earlier work -Representational form- people had different "readings" of it, but all saw it as "intensely human" -LeCorbusier turns his back on modernism and reflects on history and humanism at Ronchamp