Case Studies Final
Martin Wagner and Bruno Taut, Grossiedlung Berlin-Britz, 1925‑26
Industry
Martin Wagner, Siedlung Lindenhof, 1919-1920
Industry
Le Corbusier, Maison Dom-ino, 1914 (patent drawing)
Industry - Blueprint, ready for patent of mass production - Meant to be like a house - Liberation of envelope - Eliminated need for basement and attic - Maximize floor space - Structural columns - Objects of simplest form Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Weissenhof Siedlung (or Weissenhofsiedlung), Stuttgart, 1927 Organizer: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Industry - Housing settlement on the Weissenhof hill - Idea that modern movement was a rhetorical product - Modernity: discovering new form - Institutional center for modern architecture - Notion that architecture could have formative role Terms: Siedlung Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier, Maison Citrohan, 1921‑22 (theoretical study or model project)
Industry - Just like model T (car) Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Walter Gropius, Siedlung Dessau-Törten, Dessau,1926-1928
Industry - Large settlement for factory workers - Slightly varied units - Dry assembly - Railroad tracks run through middle (like assembly line) Terms: Existenzminimum Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier, Weissenhof Houses no.14 and no.15 (C1 and C2), Stuttgart, 1927
Industry - One of the earliest built manifestations of the Five Points of Architecture - Precedent for the international style - Based around the ideals of reducing costs, simplifying housekeeping, and improving living conditions - " A key innovation of the building was the transformable open living space that could be subdivided into multiple sleeping compartments with sliding partitions; similarly, beds would slide out of large built-in closets. For the exhibition, the fact that there were two units with similar plans presented the opportunity to set up one living space for daytime use, and the other living space for nighttime use" Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier, "Five Points for a New Architecture," 1927
Industry - Pilotis - Roof garden - Free plan - Ribbon windows - Free facade Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Moisei Ginzburg, Stroikom, F Type Communal Housing Unit, 1928 (theoretical study)
Industry - Pre-fab module - Scientifically determined minimum that would let someone live happily Terms: Taylorization, Fordism, time-and-motion studies Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Walter Gropius and Fred Forbat, Baukasten im Grossen (Giant Building Blocks),1922
Industry - Pre-fab pieces that you can stack on top of each other, change orientation of them, customizable Terms: Typisierung Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy, 1929
Industry - Purism - everyday objects in their simplest form - Potential of mass production - Always on the move-- minimal lifestyle because we don't need many things Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier, Plan Voisin, 1925 (theoretical and unrealized proposal)
Industry - Re-planning of parks - According to principles of rationalized production - Opportunity to rethink entire cities - Hierarchical organization of living-- city becomes a factory Terms: Rationalisierung Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Walter Gropius, Weissenhof House no.16 and no.17, Stuttgart, 1927
Industry - Simple, quick frame - Start of modern building industry Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Quartier Frugès, Pessac-Bourdeaux,1925
Industry - Workers housing - Created a sense of variety through color - Housing for factory workers Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Moisei Ginzburg, Narkomfin Housing, Moscow, 1928‑1930
Industry Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Walter Gropius and Fred Forbat, Wabenbau (Honeycomb Building), 1920‑22 (theoretical study, unrealized)
Industry Reading: Le Corbusier, "Mass Produced Buildings"
Moisei Ginzburg (with M. Barsch), Green Town (Moscow), Mobile Housing Units, 1930 (theoretical study or model project)
Industry - Modern technologies helps with decentralization of cities - Parks in center of cities - Ability to have house anywhere - Infinite freedom, multiple house attach ability
Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, 1977 (book)
Language
Michael Graves, The Portland Building, 1979-82
Language
Minoru Yamasaki, et. al., Pruitt-Igoe Housing, St.Louis, 1950-55
Language
Philip Johnson (with John Burgee), AT&T/Sony Building, New York, 1983
Language
Arthur Drexler, curator, Architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts, MoMA, 1975 (exhibition)
Language - "The exhibition helped reintroduce subjects long banished from architectural practice and helped reinstate drawing itself, in a more elaborate form, as a tool of investigation for architects." - catalyzed the profession Terms: Whites, IAUS
Christopher Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 1964 (book)
Language - Analyzed urban space based off of form and content - Arranged in types and patterns Reading: Venturi reading Terms: structural linguistics
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building, 1958
Language - Communication between building and street-- gathering space - Inviting - Not common use -
Venturi, Rauch, Scott-Brown, National College Football Hall of Fame, 1967 (unrealized project)
Language - Huge building with a billboard - Decorated shed (not duck) Terms: Grays, postmodernism
Peter Eisenman, House VI (Frank House), Cornwall, CT, 1975
Language - Movement for "Cardboard architecture"- Undecorated, functionless - Architecture of signs - Taking a house as cube and reading abstract planes within it - Window splits the bedroom in half Terms: Whites, postmodernism, IAUS
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, with Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, 1972 (book)
Language - Populist sympathies Terms: Grays, postmodernism
Aldo Rossi, Cataldo Cemetery, Modena, 1971
Language - Stripped down, doesn't quite look like a cemetery - Buildings are supposed to be four walls - Goes back to primitive architecture Terms: La tendenza
John Portman, Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, 1976
Language - Written about in critical texts: helped develop architectural discourse - "A full blown post-modern building" - Hard to understand how to enter it - Entrances situated in different levels - Skin is like 80' aviator sunglasses - All about movement-- movement for the sake of movement - Virtual/hyper space- imaginary - Relies on pure image and spectacle - From Jameson reading: Does not attempt to use Utopian language but rather use the already existing syntax "learned from Las Vegas", aspires to be a total space, a kind of miniature city, disjunction of surrounding city, "glass skin achieves a peculiar and placeless dissociation of the Bonaventure from its neighborhood" - Dramatic elevators, huge column running through - "Postmodern hyperspace"-- allows human body to locate itself Reading: Jameson reading Terms: post-industrial society
Paolo Portoghesi, curator, Venice Biennale: The Presence of the Past, 1980 (exhibition) "Strada Novissima" (The Newest Street), Arsenale exhibition space
Language - ways to represent the same thing - Addresses academic side of architecture - Shows all the components of post modernism - Looks at history as a way to define post-modernism
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, "On Ducks and Decoration," 1968 (article, including illustration)
Language Terms: Grays, postmodernism
Aldo Rossi, Gallaratese Housing Complex, Milan, 1969
Language Terms: La tendenza
Richard Meier, Smith House, Darien, CT, 1965-67
Language Terms: Whites
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1963 (book)
Language - "Less is a bore" - From Mcleod reading: "vividly illustrated the tensions between an elitist appreciation of high art and a populist embrace of Main Street" Terms: Grays, postmodernism
Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, 1962
Language - Built for mother - Demonstrates symbolic language of complexity and contradiction - Sign/symbol of doorway-- not actual doorway - House is deceptive-- signs of things, but not actually things Terms: Grays, postmodernism
Richard Neutra, Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA, 1946
Nature - Representative of regionalism - Sensory experience of architecture is most important - Buildings mediate relationship to natural world - House absorbs shock from nature - "Membrane between man and nature" - Attachable appliances-- not disposable-- built into house
Charles and Ray Eames, Case Study House #8, Los Angeles, 1945-49
Nature - Steel frame - House as extension of human body - Envelope acts as shock absorber/ mediator
Kenzo Tange (with MIT students), Boston Harbor Project, 1959 (studio project)
Nature - Two layers of roads - A frame - Shelving system - 3 key components: modular, great or limited extensions, structural framework into prefabricated units - Very very large and constantly growing
Alison and Peter Smithson, House of the Future, Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, London, 1957
Nature Terms: Independent group
Cultural District of Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, estimated completion 2020
Technology
Frank Gehry, Gehry House, Santa Monica, CA, 1977-78
Technology
Zaha Hadid, Fire Station, Vitra Factory Complex, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany, 1993
Technology
Greg Lynn, Embryological House, 1998-9 (theoretical project)
Technology - Blob is complex form that can only be created digitally - Complexity through flexibility - Only possible through computer - Envisioning abstract, formal process - New aesthetics of amorphousness and undecidability - Computer allows us to see form (unlike in real life) - Aesthetics of spontaneity, unpredictability, flexibility Terms: "blob" and "fold"
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
Technology - City of Bilbao paid for construction of building - Direct economic effect: If you build, people will come Terms: Bilbao effect, parametric design, CAITA
Zaha Hadid, Wangjing Soho Complex, Beijing, China, 2014
Technology Terms: Parametric design
Vladimir Krinsky, Project for ARCOS building, Moscow, 1924
Form - Associated with ASNOVA - Proportions, asymmetry Terms: ASNOVA Reading: Hans Auer, from "The Development of Space in Architecture"
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, 1920-1921 (multiple versions, unrealized)
Form - Based on idea that supporting steel skeleton would be able to free the exterior walls from their load bearing function - Crystal shaped plan - Reflected vision of Expressionist architects and artists - Open space - Skin was separate from structure Terms: German expressionism Reading: Mies van der Rohe from "Office Building"
Bruno Taut, Die Stadtkrone, 1919 (visionary projects, published as a book)
Form - City on the hill Terms: German idealist philosophy Reading: Mies van der Rohe from "Office Building"
Gerrit Rietveld, Schroeder House, Utrecht, 1924
Form - Elemental structure that combines color (painting) and architecture Terms: De Stijl, Elementarism Reading: El Lissitzky, "Element and Invention"
Bruno Taut, Glass Pavilion for the Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne, 1914
Form - German expressionism- "arts and crafts" - Built temporarily - Framed structure that rises above concrete base - Dome composed of color prisms - Ceiling was like kaleidoscope - Emphasis on upwards movement Terms: German expressionism, Bauhaus Reading: El Lissitzky, "Element and Invention"
Louis Sullivan (with Dankmar Adler), Wainwright Building, St.Louis,1890-91
Form - Structural steel frame - Looks almost like temple - Follows written and unwritten rules of real estate - Calculate most rentable size of an office - Make convenient and easily inhabitable - Maximization of natural light - Building is shaped like a U - Ground floor-- retail space, store fronts - Image ability-- concentration on top - Functions as brand name - A building can be too tall to be profitable (principle of diminishing returns) - Zoning regulations - "income producing property" - Natural light set dimensions of building Terms: Functionalism, economic height, real estate cycle Reading: Louis Sullivan, from "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered"
Bruno Taut, Alpine Architecture, 1919 (visionary projects, published as a book)
Form - Utopian project designed by architect Bruno Taut displaying his building plans for a city in the Alps Reading: Mies van der Rohe from "Office Building"
John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, Chicago Tribune Building, Chicago,1922
Form - Winning project for competition - Suggestion of flying buttresses - Slightly neo-gothic - Advertisement for tribune - Landmark and brand name - "Income producing property"-- land was more profitable because building was there - Chicago tribune donated money to building construction Terms: economic height, real estate cycle Reading: Hans Auer, from "The Development of Space in Architecture"
Ludwig Hilberseimer, Chicago Tribune Competition Entry, 1922 (unrealized)
Form Reading: Hans Auer, from "The Development of Space in Architecture"
El Lissitzky, Wolkenbügel (Cloud Hook) Skyscraper, 1924 (unrealized)
Form - "Scrapes the sky" - Would become landmark of the city - Ideas of skyscraper - From reading: "plastic architecture"-- relates to sculpture, gives definitions of "cube" and "sphere", closed vs. open Terms: G group, ASNOVA Reading: El Lissitzky, "Element and Invention"
Theo van Doesburg, Counter-Construction, 1923 (drawing)
Form - Art and architecture of the future invasions geometric, planar structures - Abstract, hidden geometries, deconstruction of actual things into fundamental components Terms: De Stijl, Elementarism Reading: El Lissitzky, "Element and Invention"
El Lissitzky, Hans Richter, Theo van Doesburg, eds.,G: Materials For Elemental Form-Creation, 1923 - 1926 (journal)
Form - Buildings, even if not built, can have an impact - Magazine was international and avant garde - Notion of form, collection of evidence in engineering, technology, new things, pop culture, any point of inspiration Terms: G group, Gestaltung (form making or design) Reading: El Lissitzky, "Element and Invention"
Walter Gropius, Chicago Tribune Competition Entry, 1922 (unrealized)
Form - International, reveals facts of construction, importance of asymmetry Reading: Hans Auer, from "The Development of Space in Architecture"
David Greene, Living Pod, 1965 (theoretical project)
Nature
Dennis Crompton, Computer City, 1964 (theoretical project)
Nature
Mike Webb, The Suitaloon, 1968 (theoretical project)
Nature
Peter Cook, Plug-In City, 1964 (theoretical project)
Nature
R. Buckminster Fuller, Dome over Manhattan, 1960 (theoretical project)
Nature
R. Buckminster Fuller, World Game, 1965 (theoretical project)
Nature
R. Buckminster Fuller, Wichita House, 1941-46 (prototype built only)
Nature - "Weaponry into livingry" - Aerodynamic problems - Fully mechanized, pre-fabricated
Kenzo Tange, Tokyo Bay Proposal, 1962 (theoretical project)
Nature - Chain of rectangular freeway loops - Organic feeling - Plugged in suspension bridges - High tech grid that mimics functions of systems - Biotechnological organism - "environment" to "network" - Think of architecture as shell for functional networks
R. Buckminster Fuller, 4-D Tower House, 4-D Timelock, 1928 (theoretical project, published as a book)
Nature - Emphasis that modern age is in constant mobility
Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller, US Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal, 1967
Nature - Geodesic dome - Micro-bio organism - Principle of tensegrity - Force and load across entire surface
R. Buckminster Fuller, Dymaxion House, 1928 (unrealized)
Nature - Hexagonal - Single family unit - Supported by trusses
Kiyonori Kikutake, Ocean City, 1962 (theoretical project)
Nature - Post-war population crisis - Surfaces floating on top of water - Can be arranged in various forms-- like "leaves on a tree"
Le Corbusier, et.al., Chandigarh, East Punjab, India, 1951-63
Place - Capital of new state of India - New town is symbolic of freedom of India - Highly ordered and rational - Rigid hierarchy - High court, assembly and secretary - Bring liberal Western modernism to India - Not a place-- need democratic building - Traditional Indian culture and modern fusion - Vernacular smokehouse chimneys - Parasol/umbrella roof-- like Indian architecture - Vaulted roof is like horns of a cow-- features of livestock of area - Sculpture of open hand Terms: Regionalism, beton brut
Alison and Peter Smithson, Sugden House, Wanord, England, 1955-56
Place - Modern (geometric forms, clean lines, asymmetric) - Masonry windows spaced irregularly, like a barn Terms: New Brutalism, Team X
William Wurster, Butler House, Pasatiempo, CA, 1931-36
Place - Stonehenge is more important than semi-modern architecture Terms: Bay Region Style
Lucio Costa, Jorge Moreira, Affonso Reidy and Oscar Niemeyer, Ministry of Education and Public Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1936-45
Place -
Aldo van Eyck, Orphanage, Amsterdam, 1957-1962
Place - 125 children - Cluster of modular units around centralized courtyard - Low architecture - Centrality of courtyard - Conveys sense of belonging and identity - "Vernacular of the heart" Terms: Team X
Lucio Costa (master plan) and Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia, Brazil, 1956‑60 Buildings by Niemeyer: Secretariat, Chamber of Deputies, Senate, Cathedral, Presidential Palace, Supreme Court
Place - Adapting to the style of the place - Brazilian architect doing Brazilian architecture - After the war, trying to redefine Brazilian democracy Term: Regionalism
Le Corbusier, Maison Roq et Rob, Cap Martin, France, 1950
Place - Designed but never built - Hutlike, softened modernism - Native, residential structures of Algeria - Rethink architecture for new era - Indigenous, local and primitive Terms: Regionalism
Alvar Aalto, Finnish Pavilion, Paris World's Fair, 1937
Place - Finland's biggest export is wood-- used for pavilion to represent their country - Paris exposition is famous for juxtaposition between entrance and German and Soviet Pavilion - Europe is in retreat from modernism
Frank Lloyd Wright, Kaufman House (Fallingwater), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1934-7
Place - Fused into site - Influential to Aalto - Masonry walls set into cliff and house is supported by vertical rubble and masonry walls - Combines super modern elements made possible by modern technology - Prominent wood frames - Constant confrontation between natural and artificial - Stairwell to nothing
Edward Durell Stone, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India, 1959
Place - International cooperation - Democratic way of life is most advanced and best one - Invitation to give serious study to climate and site, grasp historical meaning, etc. - Trying to adapt Indian culture into architecture without understanding it
Hassan Fathy, New Gourna, Egypt, 1946-1952
Place - Issue in Egypt pertaining to the discontinuation of historical architectural trends - Historical Egyptian architecture remains intact - Trying to incorporate Western architecture into Egyptian culture, which people have a problem with Reading: Hasan Fathy, Architecture for the Poor Terms: Regionalism
Alvar and Aino Aalto, Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, 1938-39
Place - L-shaped plan - Pond that mirrors lake - Sauna added later - Modern, open plan - Free floating columns and thick walls - Scattered, structural columns - Space of interior and exterior are interwoven
Le Corbusier, Plan Obus for Algiers, 1932-42 (unrealized project)
Place - Pressure to devise urban plan for quickly growing city - Dramatic highway - Incorporated housing units - Narrow streets and white walls - Occupied by "noble savage" - More authentic than European - Humanist ideals - Relationship between politics - Big open streets and modern transportation - Conserving purity of distinctions Terms: brise-soleil
Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, curators, Modern Architecture: An International Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, 1932 (exhibition)
Place - Volume rather than mass - Totally new invention of unprecedented form - New approach to production, planning, form, etc. Dynamic asymmetry, rather than Beaux-arts symmetry - Fine proportions-- technique, materials rather than applied decoration - Modernism is universal-- applicable anywhere Terms: International Style
Le Corbusier, Villa De Mandrot, Le Pradet, South of France, 1929-31
Place Terms: Ineffable space
