Modern Architecture Exam 2
NOVECENTO: Giovanni Muzio, Ca Brutta, Milan, 1920-22
"1900s": Pro-Fascist, anti-Futurist,stripped neoclassicism Nova Chento: The 1900s, this is a declaration of the new century.The antithesis of futurism. It is U-shaped connected to the rectangular aspect to the side, it has massive volume. Rejection of the futurist, a return to Italian tradition. Stripped neo-classicism. Modernism has influenced this as well Pure and simple, and they had the balconies to be platforms for parties rallies. It is a brisoley.
Giovanni Guerrini, Palace of Italian Civilization, Rome, 1937-42
"The Square Colosseum" This is the working toward the fascist element. The large of the new development that Mussolini and does not finish into the war. The Square Colosseum: it is emulating the Colosseum and the squared double cubed form. You can see the placement of the statues. What do you make of the design of the building? Brisoley in effect. The large scale super graphics at the top of the building. This is the closest to the stripped classicism of Ca Brutta (repeated arch and regimented form). All of these sculptures around and within the portals within the buildings. The way in which modernism and traditionalism coexist and interweave in different ways. Within the colonnades and the traditional arches on the interior, the drawing of the building on the plaza. They would be filled with heroic sculptures on the upper levels - war interrupted, but that was the set of ideas that they followed.
Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (1929-1932) Howe & Lescaze
-"First international modernist skyscraper in the United States" --Roth 379 --Lescaze was a Swiss architect trained in European modernist design --Small shops on ground floor with banking room above, rental in the tower --Bands of ribbon windows, no historical references, supergraphics --First air-conditioned rental space --Dropped ceiling of acoustical tile on metal frame Directions that American architecture did not go into. It has huge graphics at the very top. The radio tower at the top. It is a member owned financial institution. Savings and loans were really important for building America in this time period. The lowest level had many shops that could be rented out. There is a business incubator right on sight. Bands of historical windows, think of the Bauhaus signs. Think drop ceiling. It is particularly helpful where you are reconfiguring the space, VERY IMPORTANT INNOVATION.
Woolworth Building(1911-1913), New YorkCass Gilbert
57 stories with Gothic-revival spire "Cathedral of Commerce" Tallest office building in the world for two decades the ways that people got around the shadow. The cathedral of commerce, built on the money of five and dime stores. What do you see here? A base with a tower shaft coming out of the top. It is cladded gothic revival, it is swinging back and form between the classical and revival. Began to work around the setback laws, we have the Woolworth building.
Oscar Niemeyer, Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Pamulha, Brazil, 1943.
A church is God's hangar on Earth. It is a repeating series of parabolas. It is not classical arches, but it is just as emphatically geometric. Reinforced concrete is the main material. Religious architecture is generally very conservative. What about the tiles in the front? It is a campanelli and a bell tower. It fulfills the elements of church design. The local bishop did not like it (Devil's bomb shelter), he refused to consecrate it for two decades. God's hangar on Earth, called it the devil's bomb shelter. Modernist ideas take a long time to get connected to religious conservatism. It has a bell tower, it is a way of stating the Modernist characteristics.
Le Corbusier, Pavillon Suisse, Cite Universite, Paris, 1930-31
A deliberately Modernist building: "In Paris, it was important that Switzerland appear in another guise than the poet's rustic image of chalets and cows." Built on the difficult site of a former quarry; concrete pilotis holding a lightweight steel frame clad in brick, stone, and glass. Interiors carefully planned with industrial prefabrication, sound-proofing, showers. Student rooms all face south There depends a lot on the patron. When you think of Switzerland what comes to mind? Cows and mountains (at this time). The Swiss wanted a spot that would become the center of Europeanism and become forward looking. He puts the building on concrete pilotis holding a frame above and in the spirit of pandemic planning, the rooms are supposed to face south so they can get as much natural light as possible. Secure footing and then facing toward the south, which allowed him to fill in the upper and lower parts to make the windows to less light, previously he had many light.
JOSE LUIS SERT, JOAN BAUTISTA SUBIRANA, JOSEP TORRES CLAVE, Casa Bloc, Barcelona, Spain, 1932-36
A fragment of the redent housing pattern invented by Corbusier Long blocks connected to make it look like the two. He came to Boston before the war and he designed numerous Modernist towers in Boston.
Hans Scharoun, Berlin Philharmonie Concert Hall, 1956-63
A member of the Deutscher Werkbund. IT revolutionizes the form of concert halls -- instead of a rectangular box (the treatment or a theatre). He gives us a true Modernist building, with the stage in the middle center and the cantilevered flights of seats around the central spot with great acoustics. There is a sense of intimacy. Forward looking and not what'd you'd expect from 1956.
American Art Deco
Art Deco was the leading Modernist (as opposed to Colonial Revival or Beaux Arts) American architectural style of the 1920s and 1930s. Modernist purists, however, often dismissed it as decorative. Art Deco was characterized by geometric volumes and forms. Streamlining was an essential characteristic; everything looked like it was designed for a wind tunnel. Decorative elements were machine-like, with chevrons, rays, and gearing. New materials such as aluminum were employed, as well as bright colors. In some cases, precious marbles and woods were used. European decorative precedents (gothic/classical) were replaced by African, Asian, South Pacific, South American, Central American, Mexican, and Native American motifs. Art Deco at its most exuberant combined with American innovation, particularly in railroads, automobiles, and skyscrapers With the Great Depression in 1929, the exuberance of Art Deco was replaced by a more restrained, less decorative geometric architectural design known as Art Moderne or Moderne
French Origins of Art Deco
Auguste Perret, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1910-13 Reinforced concrete construction. First use of reinforced concrete in a cultural building Clear volumes, geometric design, straight lines with curvilinear character Le Corbusier worked for Perret as a draftsman, 1908-1910. Luxury design, in the first decade of the twentieth century. Began to unionize and then get to have the ability get recognized for their own work. If something is a knock off of your work, then it will get taken off the market. Interesting to compare the graphics of the Soviet design from above, but look at how different it looks from the curvillinear lines that come from Art Deco. Reinforced concrete construction. Geometric design, straight lines while still maintaining the curvilinear lines.
Erik Gunnar Asplund, Stockholm Public Library, 1920-28
Basic geometric form, square base with a cylindrical element. Similar to the rotunda. Book stack that serves as the main checkout area
Essex House Hotel (1938), Miami Beach, FLHenry Hohauser
Because it was forward-looking and fun, it was often applied to resort architecture (particularly the new car culture) Hotel and car culture. Concentration of art deco culture. Long lines that end in the curved forms. Notice the curved edges, notice the edges with the neon signs. Travel and resorts. High end architecture for people who had endured the 1920s and 1930s. The sleek resort buildings.
Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton, Highpoint 1 flats, Highgate, London. 1933-1935. Ove Arup, Engineer.
Built as middle-class housing for workers of a single company. Both the height and density were unusual for England, which primarily built low-rise Garden City-inspired units. 2-3 bedroom units; communal tea-room at base. Inspired by Russian design and especially Cobusier's Plan Voisin; celebrated by Corbusier and H-R Hitchcock. This is a big change in London design, this was very much under the thumb of the Garden City (revival styles -- new sleek, and high tech). It was uncommon for London at this time. It was long axis with two side axis. It was similar to the form of the Cathedral with the transcepts moving across. Most of the upper levels have a line between the units and you can go up between the units. You can have this communal tea room at the base. Corbusier celebrated it as an exemplar of Modernism. Arrangements of flats. Selling point was the stripped down corridors, the push button elements and the various flats throughout. This was very popular, it was accompanied by the regular public. Changing the scale of development in London, getting away from the Conservative apartment and Garden city ideals with that approach. The amenities in the room, all of these are important characteristics.
DE STIJL: GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD and TRUUS SCHROEDER, Schröder House, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1924.
By Gerrit (furniture designer). Both were committed to it, she was a patron and he knew construction. They worked together and for most of their lives they lived in the house together. The geometric form that is the cube is disintegrated. Arts and Crafts sight moved next to it. It looks extremely different from surrounding environment (3 decades after Arts and Crafts - can see the differences). It has a cubic form, it a 3 dimensional form of a Mondrian painting. Angular elements. The patch of wall connected. There is yellow and red hidden throughout it. The Schroder House. How did they come to the design of this house? They were both followers of De Stijl. Thomas Rietveld was a furniture maker. Schroeder hired him to make this house - collaborative to make this house. Gridded universe. Is it The Roseburg or Mandrian? It is more Madrian painting because there is the primary colors, abstract nature, planer characteristics. What is the overhang mean? It is the planar design of the building, but what else does it link to? It looks similar to Frank Lloyd Wright. The glazed corner looks like the Fagus Shoe Factory. They are responding to these recent designs. An idea of an open plan. It was supposed to have the rooms flow from one place to another. The areas were delineated by movable walls. You can see the colors in the floor (primary colors differentiate the spaces whether the wall is drawn or not). Notice the utilitarian radiator forms. The famous zig-zag chairs. You can see the design ideas in these chairs.
Crystal House orHouse of Tomorrow (1933)Century of Progress Exposition, ChicagoGeorge Fred Keck
Century of progress exhibition to mark the founding of the Chicago nearly a century earlier. Flat paneled walls, ship railing, lack of historical detailing, curtain detailing, and the private parking for the House of Tomorrow.
Albert Speer, Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1936
Characteristics of Nazi architecture, which was deliberately anti-avant-garde: simplicity, monumentality, utilitarian forms, stripped neoclassicism, German rural vernacular (such as alpine style) Evoking conservatism and simplicity. They are a strong contrast. They embrace a German complexity, that this the strength of German Modernism ideals.
Marcel Breuer, Armchair, Model B3, Dessau, Germany. Late 1927 or early 1928. Chrome-plated tubular steel with canvas slings,28-1⁄8 × 30-1⁄4 × 27-3⁄4" (71.4 × 76.8 × 70.5 cm).The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Classic example of Bauhaus interior design What is different here? The material is not wood, the material is much different than we normally think of chairs. This is the quintessential Bauhaus production, this material was used in bicycle frames. Tubular steel can be used to be in some sort of frame and then fit strips of canvas to fit the frame. You have a chair that can be produced in a factory. Really inexpensively, this affected how chairs produced later on. It comes from bicycle production and reimagining it for architectural purpose.
CONSTRUCTIVISMMoisei Ginzburg, Narkomfin Apartment Building, Moscow, 1930-1932. Section showing 2-story spaces, originally open ground floor on pilotis.
Collectivist, feminist design; direct inspiration for Corbusier's Unite and other works A way to put into one building the ideas of the comunist parties. It is a communal space, it is a collectivist space with all people working together. What is important about the design? It cuts down on the number hallways and makes use of the space. Most important elements of constructivism that were built. What are some of the innovations here? We sorting the elements of sleeping away from cooking, child care. It promotes a more egalitarian society, because it frees them to enter the workforce because men also expected to take care in the collective. Talked about COVID and how it set back women's progress as well. What wasted space were they able to cut by half? Used primarily for the hallways to cut down on space. Four floors of hallways, two floors of hallways, which serve as two different levels of the building. You have an innovative look at the 1 and ½ stories, but no kitchens.
Giacomo Trucco, Fiat Factory, Turin, 1916-1923
Concrete construction, 26' cubic modules. Le Corbusier featured it in his L'Esprit Nouveau and took a turn on the test track in 1934. Trucco is credited with the Fiat Factory. It was such of a revolution that it had poetry written about it. The scale of the building is extremely important. Where did the ideas and the inspiration for this architecture come from? American automobile factories and it is a way for Italy to rebuild during and after the war. It was the largest manufacturing facility in the entire world. They loved American industry, they loved the forms of the large elevators that held grains along the Great Lakes. They loved the elemental aspects, American production are not beholden to architecture that weighed down European architects. Main body of the building, the main idea was that you brought the raw materials up to the top and then you would bring them down. Organic approach to manufacturing. The cars could be tested up on the track at the top. The roadway of the sky. Cubic modulus of reinforced concrete. Gives you the proper banking for the form. Italian version of the Ford factory. Combines the aspect of Russian and italian aspects. Based on an American principles though -- reinforced concrete.
International Exposition in Paris in 1937. Note the German Pavilion (Albert Speer) to the left and the Soviet Pavilion (Boris Iofan) to the right.
Contrast between Soviets and Germans
Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, et al. (including Corbusier), Ministry of Education, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1936-45
Corbu lectured in Brazil in 1929.Note pilotis and brises soleil Brazil. Courbusier, sculpted elements at the top. The single slab of the building, the pilotes. What are the elements? Brisoleys. Continuation and Brazil is a first mover for the Modernism in Latin America. Minister of Education in Rio, working directly with Corbusier. Consulted directly with this design. Sunscreen and sunshades against the sunlight.
Weissenhofseidlung Exhibition, Stuttgart, 1927
Deutsche Werkbund & Bauhaus collaboration Half of the houses were destroyed by the Nazis or during the war. Deutsche Werkbund and bringing it to a residential neighborhood. Cement wall and cement panel, this whole group of designs by important modernist architects.
Ebenezer Howard'sGroup of Slumless Smokeless Cities1898
Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) was a utopian city planner. He wrote a book (1898, 1902) proposing a Garden City concept: philanthropically owned, planned, self-governing, self-sustaining cities with an improved quality of life for the working class; an antidote to rural depopulation and unchecked urban growth. In 1899 he formed the Garden Cities Association to implement his plans: planned small cities surrounded by a greenbelt. Mocked at first, the idea eventually spawned dozens of new cities around the globe. Modernist in the sense of the plan. That is the garden city movement, we see Ebenezer Howard who planned for the utopian city. Came out of the British socialist background. He was trying to build this society that would bring about the most good for the most people. Looking at England when it is in the depths of the problems from the industrial revolution -- smog was suffocating to people who lived in London. The concentration of population and industry in the same area was devastating for human health. A central hub with spokes going out around it. The metaphor he uses was the spokes of the wheel. These garden cities that are placed around the periphery. He writes the book, the Garden cities of tomorrow. The garden city concept: privately owned cities who are owned by the corporation who are interested in the public good. There is a real focus on design, the industries were placed along the outer edge or the rim of the wheel. The important things (museum, parks) would be at the center. The housing would be near the center part and then they would be separated from the the factory. Their spreading out would also lessen pollution. It is contributing to planning and ideas of Garden cities. On the other side, would be surburbanism
Richard Neutra, Lovell (Health) House, 1927-29, Hollywood Hills, CA
First steel-framed house in the US; walls made of gunite (sprayed-on concrete) European trained as a Modernist there, and comes to America and works with Wright. First steel framed house in the USA. It is very important based on your location in California. This is built right into the slope of the hill. Gunite, sprayed on concrete panels to keep it in place. Interior is very undecorated, focus on Defining elements of California culture as the influence of the East Coast is less overwhelming and people began to think about what was unique about American architecture and design.
Bauhaus Isometric Architectural Drawing (1923)Bauhaus and De Stijl use of isometric projections in architectural drawings caused a sensation in the 1920s in Paris and Isometric drawing showing the representation of 3-dimensional objects in 2-dimensional form, a type of axonometric projection. Because these drawings do not show perspectival depth, they can easily cause optical illusions.
Focus on isometric drawing. This shows the representation of 3D objects in 2D form. They had used isometric principles to show how it works. You can either pull them in or push them out with your eyes (very abstracting or confusing -- important for Bauhaus). New approach to technology and new ideas. New approach to visualization. How is this modernism, other than it being new? Think about it, and circle back later.
Tony Garnier, Project for an Industrial City, 1904 (published 1917)
Garnier was a French architect (city planner for Lyon) who argued for Socialist utopian designs based on comprehensive planning and zoning of uses. His ideal town was located between a mountain and a river to provide cheap hydroelectric power. Zoned for separate residential and manufacturing districts, Buildings were constructed out of inexpensive reinforced concrete using Modern principles. Separate circulation systems for people and vehicles He is looking at a larger scale and industrial design. He wants to build them away from existing areas (similar to the garden cities). Build at base of mountain and could function via hydroelectric power via mountain rivers. His buildings were much more innovative and forward looking (separate circulation systems for people and vehicles, and interstates and pedestrian areas). How is it different than the garden city? More mobility to fit elements where they best might work on it. Working with the landscape rather than imposing on the landscape (unlike the garden city). He plans everything to be duplex (double the density). We are moving here to de-densify the city, moving from the manufacturing from wider distribution. He wanted to place at the base area of the mountain and then plains below. Inexpensive and concrete forms for the city. Very modernist approach to design with reinforced concrete for inexpensive aspect.
Walter L. Dodge House (1914-16), Hollywood, CA, Irving Gill
Gill was draftsman in Sullivan's office. Minimalist, asymmetric. Adobe/Southwestern influence, cubic with stripped Modern lines, planar walls with punched windows. Gill used concrete as his main building material, experimenting with concrete frames, hollow terra cotta blocks reinforced with iron rods, poured-in-place concrete, and other technologies Dodge house fits very closely with what happens in Europe. It does not have same insistence on polemics. Planar walls, punched windows, stripped mission in style. Gill was a draftsman for Louis Sullivan within the important group of architects. What are some of the things that define this architect? Not a big fan of ornamentation. Adobe Southwest style that reflects his material and uses of concrete. This is still quite unusual for a time like this (very utilitarian, long time before we see any form of breakthrough).
KIKUJI ISHIMOTO & BUNZO YAMAGUCHI, Shirokiya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan, 1928-1931Ishimoto was a student at the Bauhaus and a leader of the Japanese Secession movement
Globalization of the Bauhaus designs. Important leader in Japanese architecture.
River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI (1917-1925) Albert Kahn
Home of the moving assembly line What is the key to the design of the River Rouge Plant? It is only one single story and streamlined the assembly line. The office block (multi-story), just as complex, but you have to be able to move materials and parts into the assembly line. You have to get the finished cars off and out to various dealerships around the country. It is a complex set of designs. It has a curtain glass wall
American Radiator Building (1924), New York (c. & r.); Raymond Hood
Hood becomes a major designer for skyscrapers in New York. It is difficult to determine design, but follows profile of the Chicago design of previous runner up. What is significant about this design? It sets the form for the setback skyscraper and sets the form for the setback laws.
WILLIAM VAN ALEN, Chrysler Building, New York, New York, 1928-1930.
Hood ornaments and it looks like a car. Chevrons within chevrons.
Henry Bacon, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, 1911-22.
How does this connect to Modernism? The white city and the Columbian exhibition. All of these buildings are using classical detailings and put into place the aspects of Washington D.C. This is the stripped classicism and more interpretative form than you would expect.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Johnson Wax Administration Center, Racine, Wisconsin, 1936-39(Tower 1943-45).
How would you compare it to the Buffalo space? It has an open plan, it has a large. Utilitarian concrete pillars, whole part of the complex and the tower added to the forties. Open plan, corporate space for corporate identity, the turner mushroom column. You have a corporate headquarters next a factory and an industrial neighborhood that wants to have a separate identity. What was their top product? Floor Wax, the image of the was poured over the world. The corporate entrance to the world. Interior is important, the height of the columns and the large open space. Desks no longer bolted to the floor. Wright has designed all the furniture for the building. Wright often got into disagreements with local building inspectors. Open space that was used for new design. The desk and for the furniture. Beautiful design, three-pointed design. It does not work at all.
Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton, Penguin Pool, London Zoo, 1934. Ove Arup, Engineer
Innovation happens in England often around the edges. This was the Penguin Pool at the London Zoo. Understood the principles of bringing stuff back to their basics. You have the pool with the ramp with two different spots that interlock. They would come down the ramp and then the enclosures on both sides. It looks like the reinforced concrete. Ove Arup: engineer for many early Modernist ideas. There is an infection called Bumblefoot, which harmed the Penguins. It is a contained form of Modernism, but what can you do next with it moving forward.
German Pavilion for the World's Fair in Barcelona of 1929Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
It is a reception building to receive the King and Queen of Spain. The open space with the walls that do not connect to each other. Reflection pools at the end. The long bench. The main building. What is the dotted line stand for? The roof from up above. The eight columns (+ signs) are holding up the buildings. There is no exterior walls. It is an exterior building and it is in Barcelona, so it works. Mies' design is supposed to remind us of what? The ideas of De Stijl. You have the elements of a De Stijl competition and elements floating over the base. Eight pilotes are holding it up. Remember it is a permeable box that you can walk in and out of. These abstractions and rectilinear designs that extend out into infinity. How do we place this? It is a ton of open space and the walls are not connected. It is a sense of abstract space and boxy space. The roof elements over the main building. You have the eight columns holding up the roof form. You can see through the building to the greenery beyond. Open design. You can see the elements of the Mondrian painting that correspond with the Barcelona Pavilion. The walls are not load bearing and are randomly placed within the interior. The walls are marble. Mies will use utilitarian designs and then the fine materials for cladding. We will see it here, we will see it for the Saleroom Building in New York. Bauhaus furniture here. Glass wall at the end. Looking out toward the reflecting pool.
Walter Gropius House, Lincoln, MA (1938)Gropius & Marcel Breuer
It is owned by Historic New England that combines elements of the Bauhaus and what Gropius saw as the New England design. The glass is important because it is a Modernist issue. It would be opened up with a lot natural coming in. The lack of ornamentation and flat walls. Entryways on pilotis and the use of all of these different materials that are not standard for the residential design. Think Villa Sa Voye because it is just punched into the wall, it opens to the open air terrance. Modernist twist on a new England design.
Theo van Doesburg, Sophie Taeuber, and Jean (Hans) Arp, Interior, Café l'Aubette, 1926-28, Strasbourg, destroyed by 1940. Reconstructed in 2006.
It is the form of the cafe and the chairs are set up to viewing a film (element in the center). It was reconstructed in 2006. They studied the plans and early images and reconstructed it. Elements of abstraction and geometric forms exist. Especially the walls and the ceilings. Especially likes the stairs. The Dadaist movement which influenced in the De Stijl movement. What is significant about Theo van Doesburg? Editor of De Stijl magazine (gives the movement its name - The Style). We look at him as a theorist, but this is his single built project? What do we learn from this project? Form of the gridded universe, geometric abstraction, we can see the black and white and the colored images in comparison. It was very important within Strasbourg. His universe has diagonal and slanted lines, but Madrian it was gridded and straight lines. Perfect lines. Clear break from the past. What is the counterpart in painting? Mondrian and disagreement with Theo van Does Burg that he would change it off the grid and go diagonal.
Letchworth (1903), Parker & Unwin, architects, founded by Ebenezer Howard,
It was the first Garden City. Thirty miles from London, it was built near a rail station and served as an exposition grounds to attract others to the Garden City principles. The design incorporated axial hub planning, green space, and separately zoned areas for industry. First garden city, green space, separate places for industry. Some of the housing that was built, you can see the basic axial hub and how it was placed on the landscape. What was the architecture? It was comfort architecture that went with modernist planning style.
Kenzo Tange, Peace Memorial and Museum, Hiroshima, 1949-55
Leading architects and Modernist at this time. Largely civilian targets that were destroyed at the Second World War. There was a breaking of past traditions and embracing new ideas in the Post-War period. Pilotes and balconies. Parabolic arch and on axis with the destroyed relic building. It was both very Modernist and it was a difficult place for architects to navigate after the war. There are many different feelings after the war, the way that he linked the elements after the war is very important. Commercial target caused the death of 140,000 people.
Erich Mendelsohn, Anglo-Palestine Bank, Jerusalem, British Mandate Palestine, 1936
Looks at the angle and the port holes of the, it is now a government agency in Jerusalem. First skyscraper.
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE, Project for a glass skyscraper, Berlin, Germany, 1922 (model no longer extant).
Mies was director of the Bauhaus from 1930 until 1933, when the Nazis worked to close the school. Similar to Le Corbusier that is similar to the DOM-ino house. The exterior of the skyscraper is difficult to discern. The glass skyscraper links to the Bruno Taut's glass house. The possibilities of it. It is not within the realm of technology at the time period. We can see how Mies responds to these people. Director of the Bauhaus until 1933. Who opened the Bauhaus? Walter Gropius. Connected back to German expressionism and back to glass designs of previous decades (American skyscrapers as well).
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE, Project for a glass skyscraper, Berlin, Germany, 1922 (model no longer extant).
Mies was director of the Bauhaus from 1930 until 1933, when the Nazis worked to close the school. Third was its closure. Why would the Nazis be against the Bauhaus? They were against Modernist art generally because it challenged traditional ideas. The Nazis gained power by scapegoating groups (Jews, socialists, and inteligenistas) all connected to the Bauhaus. That was a good thing, but they wiped out the careers of people who worked there. People connected with it left Germany when it was still possible. They were at the height of their careers when they left and recreated the Bauhaus across the globe. See the connections with Mies ideas and Bauhaus. Visionary approach to the Bauhaus, last director of it, shows the approach that was available to students.
Book & Exhibition, 1932
Modernism enters the museum as a "style"Some Modernisms celebrated, other ignored For years, this would be a text that you would read in classes like our own. We are looking at the time frame after the war and then rise of organized fascism. The curators are Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock at the MoMA, an investment into architecture by these museum. Influenced architectural style of this time period. Philip Johnson was important throughout the 20th century (as a critic, and as an architect -- most famous for the Glass House in CT). Recently, Johnson's political life and how he behaved toward other architects (brought him a lot of controversy). The title: The International Style: what type of approach are Hitchcock and Johnson going for? What is the style mean? Certain rules that govern what it looks like. Often times we find a style, based on what something looks like. It could pigeon holed architects and Hitchcock and Johnson started the clock on the freshness of Modernism. They (the people involved) really hated the international style
Pandemic Architecture:Johannes Duiker, Open-Air School, Amsterdam, 1929-1930
Modernist principles of factory and sanatorium design incorporated into scientific school design Restored 1993 Open-air, curtain glass windows, and industrial materials. Every part of the space gets natural light. There is a whole movement called open-air school. This is where Modernism made the most advances because of challenges like the Pandemic. Students could be outside regardless of whether due to the open-air area. This central stair and elevator tower in this diamond shape. Open-air school, focus on fresh air and sunlight to create the most healthful conditions. You have a diamond-shaped school. What is the gridded element (3) -- it is an open terrace.
Tribune Tower Competition Entries (1922)Bruno Taut (l), Walter Gropius (c).Eliel Saarinen
Most ambitious design, build the most beautiful building that had ever been built. Stylistically what is going on in comparison to the Wrigley? It has more gothic elements. It looks like spires, flying buttresses at higher levels, floating buttresses. It is a design and a historias detail. Bruno Taut: glass pavilion. It is a tapering pyramid for Bruno Taut, very interesting design. Walter Gropius, stripped down and noticeably asymmetrical. Rounded arches and vaguely classicist. How does he handle the top in comparison to Gropius or Taut? Gradual setbacks all the way toward the top. Even though there is it is still a very influential design.
Juan O'Gorman, House of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Mexico, 1931-32. Note the use of industrial clerestories.
Most radically house of the time period. What do you think it is when you see it? It looks like a factory when you see it. Lots of natural light. What kind of light do you favor? North facing walls, wherever possible? Why? You do not want the glare, you do want a good steady light without having glare. They each have their own wing of the house. The walkway links their house from up above. It is very forward looking house design out of the year 1931. Villa Savoye looks domestic in comparison. Industrial clear stories? You see the elements at the top and designed to keep out the south sun and max out the northern lights.
Oscar Niemeyer, Niemeyer House, Rio de Janeiro, 1953
Moves us into the post war era nicely. It is not a nice time for Brazil politically. Here you see Oscar Niemeyer's house, this outdoor seating space. The house is nearly transparent, you can see through it. Most of the bedrooms are down a floor. The form of the house is a curvilinear shape with amoebas and dogs. Here is the large rock that connects to the form of the house. The biomorphic shape of the house is represented. The dotted line is the roof life. It is a surrealist image that is the floor plan of the building.
VLADIMIR KARFIK, Bata (Svit) Tower, Zlin, Czech Republic, 1938
One of the first high-rise buildings in Europe: concrete frame, brick cladding. Director's office an exterior elevator Which was a big company that was based in this city and it transformed this part of the city. You have housing for all of the workers and the elevators. You will notice here that the directors office was a room in an elevator. The director could go up and down the various floors. Structure of the building was not conventional. You have blocks of housing and you have the single use housing that became a model town of Modernism. Verticality into Eastern Europe.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre City, 1934
PROJECT. Decentralization, Usonian houses, middle class suburbia Large scale designs from FLW. It looks like a Midwestern suburbs with its gridded atmosphere. You see a plan and a model for it. A built up city core and notice how he zones it into sections. You have small houses and an arenas. Broadacre City is not built, but it looks like a USA suburb and does not have the density that European architects are advocating for at this time.
Modern Diner (1940), Pawtucket, RIJ.B. Judkins Co.
Prefabrication, diner design, and other characteristics. Why does this look like a railroad car? It was never a railroad car, it has those streamlined characteristics. These diners could be shipped out anywhere in the USA. Put up on a cement and glass block as the base. Material is steel and metal panels. You will have aluminum and curvillinear and moderne art deco style.
Pioneers of the Modern Movement
Published in 1936Modern architecture becomes the subject of architectural history, and now a "movement" Gone from a one time gallery show and then now a textbook? What does this do for them? The idea of a movement gives it more intellectual characteristic and sturdy. A set of ideas that pushed it forward (modernists really wanted to upend the practice of architecture).
Alvar Aalto, Paimio Sanatorium, Finland, 1929-33
Reaction to the environment deciding to aspect (in architectural context) - how it position toward the sun. The long block is the main part of the building with the single corridor, you can see the glass windows and the single corridor. Facing directly south you have the patient rooms with this design. How do you treat TB when you do not have the type of antibiotics we have today? Fresh air, sunlight and lots of time. Much of the wall could be opened up to the sunlight. You could clean under them often and different then things could be disinfected. Open air response to the pandemic! Rooms face southward, the patients can be wheeled out into the direct sun. New materials can clean and sanitize, the importance of hygenics. It is increasingly apart of the appeal of Modernism.
Hans Döllgast, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, [Leo von Klenze 1826],
Reconstruction 1946-57Döllgast reconfigured the front of the building into twin monumental staircases to the second level, with a simple concrete ceiling and slurry-coated walls. Heavily damaged in bombings. You have a really important public museum. The building was pretty severely damaged in the bombings, what do you do? Complete restoration or do you try to rebuild it? How do you recognize the problematic history of Germany through the Second World War? What does he do regarding the reconstruction? What compromises does he make? It is a neoclassical building with a set of repeating units. He shows the fenestration of the original, he rebuilds the wall with reclaimed bricks so that its role as an institute of German culture during the second World War will always be reckoned with. On the interior he simplified the front of the building and centralized the front through this massive hallway. This put the building back together, but recognizing that the world had changed. You see the remains of the building and the reconstructed element, not completely the neoclassical ideas.
CONSTRUCTIVISMVladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-1920.
Reconstruction of the lost model, 1992-1993. Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf. Tatlin's model was designed as an abstract sculpture to replace figurative tsarist sculptures and celebrate the Comintern. The completed building would stand taller than the Eiffel Tower and straddle the Neva River. The four glass-sheathed building volumes would rotate (top to bottom): Hemisphere = Radio Station: hourly Cylinder = Press Bureau: daily Pyramid = Executive: monthly Cube = Legislature: yearly It is a model for the massive building. The Russians are trying to catch up to the West. This is the challenge to the Eiffel Tower. It is three bases moving up in a spiral. Another way of the Russians of catching up to the West for the architecture. Abstract sculpture and architectural design. Within this tower, there are four building volumes sheathed in class. The square is the legislature (once a year). The pyramid represents the executive (once a month). The cylinder represents the Press bureau (once every day), and then a sphere for the radio tower (once every hour). These elements move It was an answer to the Eiffel Tower. This huge metal framed building represents the country, the spiral form, the building is going to span the near river. Whether it could have been finished is a question and there are only models. It is the radio, which is the new technology. Could it have ever been built? Completely moving beyond the ideas of architecture (tenets of Constructivism) It does not seem out of the realm of the possibility of the previous building being built because this design was achieved.
Rockefeller Center (1933)Raymond M. Hood, princ. arch.
Rockefeller are financing a lot of the projects. We are looking at large scale construction projects. Well coordinated, the underground connecting concourse that connects all of the buildings together. It remakes the entire corner of Manhattan.The RCA building has the serrated form to it. Streamlining geometric characteristics, we see the view of the connecting concourse. Radio concerts, settings for films, it is a new sense of American architecture. It is certainly the amenities that bring it into the center.
Le Corbusier, Cite de Refuge, Paris, 1929-33
Salvation Army shelter, construction funded by wealthy patron. "[This building] served as a laboratory." --Corbu This is the Salvation Army Quarters in Paris. It becomes a laboratory that he would do in the future. Note the cylindrical geometric forms, curvilinear forms, and rectangular form. Straight and right angle lines. The primary colors came from De Stijl and Mondrian. What are the elements you see in the plan (Modernist characteristics)? Industrial materials, glass block walls, geometric shapes, and the recurring modules. Open-air characteristic and primary colors (De Stijl).
Taliesin West
Scottsdale, Arizona, 1937-38 Wright established his own version of an educational atelier, Taliesin Fellowship. He created a winter studio in the open desert landscape of Scottsdale. Built into the ground and originally roofed with canvas, the structure derived from Native American dug-out buildings. Built from native rock stacked into forms and then fixed with concrete It is a combination of a home with studio wing. It was a school of architecture. It was a whole different set of approaches. What connects it to falling water? The way that it responds to the environment, partially submerged in the landscape, it was dug out, but what about materials? He used local rocks and stone right from the site. Canvas top, no permanent roof. TV shows and movies from the 1950s, which are influenced by Wright's designs. It is the Robinson space craft that was set down in this space. You can see that the roots were canvas, and a more permanent material.
Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, De La Warr Seaside Pavilion, Bexhill, Sussex, 1933-34
Socialist and Jewish. Impossible for him to continue in Germany. Moved to England to escape. These kinds of long and open balconies for Londoners on a holiday. What does this starway remind you of? the Schocken Department Store. Cylinder with the staircases. The Modernist stripped artwork that characterizes the staircase. Einstein tower, we see his influence. Rise of the Nazis forced him to emigrate. Connection of Modernism to an easier place, and a nice match to the outside Modernist forms.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Kaufmann House (Fallingwater), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939.
Stacked stone piers and cantilevered concrete trays mimicking the trees and ledges on the site; integrating house to site This would be the perfect place to put the house. The house would be a part of the element of the landscape. What are the important principles behind Fallingwater? We talked about the ideas of horizontality and the ways that it created the water fall. The horizontal concrete trays that are carried out over the water. The stacked stone towers are the trees on the site, it speaks to the essential organic character of falling water. You have wood frames holding in large panes of glass. Where is the main focus of the house? The hearth is the main focus of the house. You notice the stones from the site that are preserved within Challenges for the design long-term? They have had to re-engineer the canaleavers in place. It is a very professional approach. You below the house and you go across the bridge and across the river behind the house. You go into the interior spaces. There is a floating staircase that goes to a quiet point in the design above the water. These horizontal lines are a dominant characteristic. The walls are mostly glass and you can see through the form of the building.
British Art Deco: Wallis Gilbert and Partners, Hoover Factory, London, 1935
Streamlining, Chevron's and Art Deco. You see an example in London from 1935. It is not neoclassical but not quite Modernist. The polychromy is Art Deco, streamlining Chevron and the brightly colored building. The checkmarked shape forms. Chevron shapes and it is a check mark. It is a V shape with the check mark form. The red band on the sides. There are many colors.
Erich Mendelsohn, Schocken Department Store, Stuttgart, 1926-1927 (demolished 1960).
Sullivanian principles of department store construction, American lighting technology, and Bauhaus construction Staircase cylinder over front entry to attract customers; floors opened up for unobstructed display space. The display was focused on the corner. The repeated forms of the Chicago windows, the industrial piston, and the store comes to life at night. The lighted display at night. It was a very exciting design. American lighting and Bauhaus design allowed for display space. Larger commercial and industrial store. What a building looks like at night, something that was only possible due to the advent of electrical lighting. What else are they looking for? They are looking at American architecture, architecture that hadn't been overly influenced by European architecture. Designs that focused on bringing people in. You are focusing these elements on the front part with the offices at the rear.
Weissenhofseidlung Exhibition, Stuttgart, 1927. Duplex house by Corbusier
The glass is a lot more see through and then facing south was actually too much sunlight. He came back and refigured some of the elements. The panel system was much better about it. Could look out toward Paris.
Lovell Beach House (1922-26), Newport Beach, CA, Rudolf Schindler
The ideal beach house. Schindler worked in Wright's office and combined European Modernism with American response to landscape. Reinforced concrete frame with rooms fitted in like boxes Elements of Californian design culminate in the Lovell Beach House. What are the characteristics of an ideal beach house? Windows, ease of access to beach, the overhang, those are the basic elements. It is a fully concrete frame and the elements are placed in like trays. He is a generation after Louis Sullivan. He started in Wright's office after living in Europe. He combines European ideas with Wright's determination of site and location. Why the ideal beach house? Second floor, why do you want to have the higher up? Better views, some resiliency in terms of storms, better air circulation, better breezes up higher, and fewer problems with mosquitos and gnats. A number of reasons as to why that is helpful. Fresh air into your lungs all night and the opening and functioning of these windows. Sleeping porches, and behind them are the bedrooms. If it is nice out, you can sleep outside, but it is a pretty well thought out design. This very much has a place, it is a beach house and that is its job.
Maginnis & Walsh, Boston College's Chestnut Hill Campus, 1908+
The way that the buildings are aligned here and how they would be developed. Quad angles built into the planning. It is interesting how a campus develops over time. Intentionally designed to consistently bring you back to main campus. Why talk about the Boston College campus? Modernism has been very dogmatic and its axial plan. This historical revival style as to what we want to accomplish as an institution. Gothic and pointed elements. Buttresses and pointed arches, lancets. What about this promo shot and how does it focus it? It emphasizes symmetricality. It continues all the way around.
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, Empire State Building, NYC, 1931. King Kong 1933
There is a long shaft between the long and horizontal lines as the tallest building in the world. The architecture is more subdued. There is an entire decade of bad economic news. Why does it have that particular form/why is it shaped like that? The New York State government is funding it. In general, the marble and more subdued form. That is where you land as a landing pad, you tether them and then you are in the heart of New York. Maintaining a dirigible with all of the updraft was very difficult.
El Lissitzky, Cloudhanger Project, 1925. Horizontal skyscrapers as opposed to vertical American skyscrapers.
There was never a sense of Russian design, Russia has not had much advance in terms of technology. It was always a follower in architecture. Instead of a vertical idea, it would be a horizontal one, the Russian answer to the horizontal skyscraper. Russian form of the horizontal skyscraper. Much of what we talked about were theoretical and never completed. The idea of a horizontal skyscraper -- an answer to the vertical American skyscraper. There was no financing and political and economic chaos, no financing either in the Soviets. It was a shift in Soviet policy against Modernisms (scapegoating it)
Bertram Goodhue, Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, 1921-1932
This combination of a large classical base with the Modernist skyscraper
Erik Gunnar Asplund, Stockholm Exhibition Building, 1930
This is a building that revolutionizes Scandandivan architecture. The connection to leisure, stripped forms, and various other items. Pilotes and ramps. The frequent use of pilotes, super graphics, and pilotes is significant. It influenced all of Scandanavian architecture. When you think of mid-century Modernism: practical Scandinavian architecture and how it completely reworked the society. Basically repeating the different corporate sponsors. Way of thinking about life, rid of old ornate furniture and gives it anew. It is a society wide influence that is the
Dymaxion House #1 (1927)R. Buckminster Fuller
This was a house built out of aluminum. It was the Amazon drone that it delivers the building wherever your site was. Fuller worked on ideas of prefabrication and reinventing the house. Prefabricated, delivered to construction site by dirigible.
Konstantin Melnikov House (1927), Moscow, Konstantin Melnikov.
Twin cylinders, formed by a honeycomb lattice shell of brick and wood. Architectural prototype It was cooperative design with the state that is a pair of twin cylinders. It is likely that he would have used concrete but the lack of materials for him causes him to use brick. Willing to get it done, it is the possibility of this type of architecture moving forward. The push to build a private house where that was forbidden. It was inventive and the constructivism, but you have two cylindrical spokes on it.
Karl Ehn, Karl-Marx-Hof, Vienna, 1927
Very distinctive front and back, there are brick towers interspersed with other elements, much dynamic form to a large, imposing not very interesting building shape. What public health challenges? Spanish flu earlier in the decade, worldwide pandemic with millions of people killed. Architects who are thinking of larger social good are attempting to incorporate them into our design. Pandemic and rebuilding after the war. You have a real need for housing as soldiers returned and wanted to build families. True to its name, you wanted to build collectivist goals. Notice how close it is to public transportation, which is important for accessibility.
Giuseppi Terragni, Casa del Fascio, Como, 1932-36
Wall without windows is perfect for Italian flag and Mussolini in military gear. What do you make of this building? What does it remind you of? Basic form of the building is a big cube with the elements cut of the sides of the building. You have the beams across the top, you have the sense of a single volume, with the opening still able to have a roof garden. Across from a cathedral. The idea (how do these walls function?) Brisoley? It is a sunshade, like a Frank Lloyd Wright idea that they keep the sun off the building, you have the series of balconies that open up to the central square. You could also act as balconies where you could give speeches to the square below. Keep the hot Italian sun off the building, the depth of the walkway, a place to mobilize the crowds in the square. You have the glass walls that are permeable and see out into the hills beyond.
Shop Block, Bauhaus campus, Dessau, 1925, Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 in Weimar. In 1925 he moved it to Dessau and designed the campus there. Gropius left the Bauhaus in 1928, and fled Germany for Britain in 1934. In 1937 he emigrated to the U.S. and taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Modern typography Gropius maneuvers the movement to the Dessau rather than Weimar. Less of a political approach. Gropius was a socialist and a conservative. He was able to design a new campus, he wanted to get the Bauhaus to create designs that would be picked up by industry and mass-produced. The counterpoint to English Arts and Crafts. Mechanized production. Why out of Weimar? Weimar is a basketcase, there is a ton of inflation and a ton of political turmoil. The school is based on socialist principles and disruptive to the campus life, so move the whole university. The workshop is the most important because it has the curtain glass wall, which is the focus of the architecture, it is the center of Bauhaus construction and given its own characteristic form. Why the Dessau, it was more of an industrial city, there were close to manufacturers who could implement these ideas so effectively. Based on an interconnected network of buildings in a pinwheel form. Part of the complex is raised on pilotis, why the pinwheel form? It is an interconnected design that allows for a lot of light into the building. Classrooms on the far side, everything connected together via the bridge with the offices. Curtain glass wall and that's an important aspect. It is entirely sheathed in curtain glass. Here you look through the glass to see the breaks in the building. It has clear visibility, the focus on the workshop, not the studio, allowing you to see exactly into the the building. It brings in the process and you can see what is happening in the building. Its important and essential. Pinwheel design gives interrelatedness and a distinct element to each building. Shop block is the most distinct element. It is not the studio. Crossing over into technology, something is known as supergraphics. Note the way that they are put on with steel rods that has a nice shadow. The refectory is a place to eat. Notice the way that Gropius uses glass here and how it connects over the street. What is in the bridge within the context of a college or university? The professors have offices there. It is the only building with height to it and each room has a balcony. The theater was an important part of the Bauhaus.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Tugendhat House, Brno, now Czech Republic, 1928-30
What does it tell us about Mies' interpretation of it? There are chrome columns which are strange for a residential home (industrial material). There is not decoration itself, the walls themselves are the decoration (with the onyx elements). The curved aspect of the wall cuts off one area from the other (its mahogany -- very fine and expensive materials). The ribbon windows and the open terrance are important. Interior details remind us of? It reminds of us of the focus on the materials rather than the ornamentation. Pillars are made of chrome.
GEORGE BERGSTROM, The Pentagon, Washington, DC, (Alexandria, VA) 1941-43
World's largest office building, with 17 miles of hallways; 5 sides, 5 above-ground floors, 5 concentric hallways. Primarily reinforced concrete with ramps instead of elevators—because of war-time steel shortages; faced with Indiana limestone. Built with segregated facilities for African-Americans, but FDR ordered the removal of "Whites Only" signs, thus the only integrated public building in VA until the 1965 abolition of the state segregation laws. The Pentagon is an important building for a lot of reasons: Modernist building. There is going to be a shortage of steel, buildings of reinforced concrete. They use buildings and ramps to maximize the use of concrete. It is faced with Indiana limestone. This was in Alexandria, Virginia. 9/11 resulted in the building being extremely significant.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Ennis House, Los Angeles, 1923-1924
Wright uses Mayan and other Meso-American influences in concrete-block houses. Decorative interlocking concrete blocks were cast onsite."Textile-block" houses It has the feel of the Mayan temple in terms of spacing. You enter into a space that is very low and constricting and heavy and dark, and then you move into an area of bright light. What was his main reasoning for that choice/how did it fit into the things that we were talking about? Arts and Crafts movement from before, regional vernacular of the southern California region. Southwest, West Coast set of ideas. He wants the materials from the building site and build authenticity. You have beautiful elements over LA, the textile blocks are cast on-site, it has not been sold yet. You can see the form of the building.
Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, Federal Capitol Plan, Canberra, Australia, 1912
You can see a little bit of Versailles. It looks like the garden city with hubs, traditional and new ideas being put together. Here you see the approach for there.
"Cathedral of Light," Albert Speer, Zeppelin Field, Nuremberg, 1934Speer surrounded the rally with 152 anti-aircraft lights pointed up Photographed and filmed by Leni Riefenstahl for Triumph of the Will
You saw the mixing of the nazi and christian imagery as one co-opted the other, this is also a series of rallies that was filmed. Cleave lights and anti-aircraft lights, it was amazing showmanship. The main person is Albert Speer. He gains notoriety
AUGUSTE PERRET, Reconstruction of Le Havre, France, 1945-55. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Younger French architects that rebuild it. The open character of the tower looking up to the heavens.
