Arch 219 Midterm 3
Expressionism and Bruno Taut
What are the characteristics of Expressionist architecture? Who was the major Expressionist architect of the 1910s? What material did he emphasize?
Study Question
What aspects of Luis Barragán's buildings seem to be related to International Style buildings? What are some other influences on his works?
Study question
What fundamental criticisms of conventional architecture does Rem Koolhaas make in his essay "Bigness"? How does his design embody his ideas?
Plan of National Gallery of Art
Classicism is a language: Axial symmetry and planning based on rectangles have no inherent meaning. The Classical heritage is long and varied enough to allow multiple interpretations and meanings.
Okada House. Tokyo (1933). Sutemi Horiguchi.
Compare with Theo van Doesburg's Counter Composition V (1924).
De Stijl
De Stijl was a loosely affiliated group of artists, designers, and architects centered in the Netherlands. They reacted against decorative styles such as Art Nouveau and argued for abstraction and universal principles. Impacted a breakthrough
Russell Pope
Educated at Beaux Arts and spent time in France
Study Question: What aspects of Luis Barragán's buildings seem to be related to International Style buildings? What are some other influences on his works?
Luis Barragán and Mexico
Seattle Central Library
Many Diagrams of the more tightly defined spaces (left) and the more informal public spaces. The Book Spiral
Rockefeller Center. New York (1929-39). Reinhard & Hofmeister; Harrison & MacMurray; Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux
" Wisdom and Knowledge Shall be the Stability of thy Times"
Eisenman
" . . . not a singular, unified object [ but ] a building that attempts to move beyond singularity of place to a multiple, dynamic idea of what enclosure is, what defines inside and outside."
"Aims of the Werkbund" (1911, excerpt). Hermann Muthesius. What was the general purpose of the Werkbund as shown by the manifestoes and designs?
". . . architectonic culture is and remains the true index of a nation's culture as a whole. If a nation produces good furniture and good light fittings, but daily erects the worst possible buildings, this can only be a sign of heterogeneous, unclarified conditions . . . Without a total respect for form, culture is unthinkable, and formlessness is synonymous with lack of culture. Form is a higher spiritual need to the same degree that cleanliness is a higher bodily need."
Kahn
"Architecture is the thoughtful making of spaces": "The arch, the vault and the dome mark equally evocative times when they know what to do from how to do it and how to do it from what to do."
Night in the Mountains. Searchlights and Illuminated Buildings, from Alpine Architektur (1919). Bruno Taut.
"But higher knowledge! The greatest work is nothing without the Sublime. We must always recognize and strive for the unattainable if we are to achieve the attainable. We are but guests upon this earth, and our true home is only in the Sublime: in merging with it and in subordinating ourselves to it."
Rossi:
"I have always been interested in the literary technique (we can see it as well in architecture and in the figurative arts) of purposefully making the meaning of a word or a sentence figurative rather than literal . . ."
San Cataldo Cemetery. Modena, Italy (1971-84). Aldo Rossi.
"In every good architect there is a tendency toward naturalism-in other words, a tendency to reproduce what exists. "When this occurs together with small shifts or distortions, the result is of particular interest."
Wigley on conventional architecture
"No form is permitted to distort another; all potential conflict is resolved. The forms contribute harmoniously to a unified whole." Against ideas that architecture is ordered and stable.
Barragán on Silence, Solitude and Serenity
"Silence. In the gardens and homes designed by me, I have always endeavored to allow for the interior placid murmur of silence, and in my fountains, silence sings. "Solitude. Only in intimate communion with solitude may man find himself. Solitude is good company and my architecture is not for those who fear or shun it. "Serenity. Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear, and today, more than ever, it is the architect's duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble. Throughout my work I have always strived to achieve serenity, but one must be on guard not to destroy it by the use of an indiscriminate palette."
Graphic design for AEG (ca. 1910). Peter Behrens. Note the development of the AEG logo from figural to Art Nouveau to Behrens.
(Image includes older logos as well)
Le Corbusier's Five Points of a New Architecture
1. Piloti (raise bldg off ground to use lower space) 2. Free Plan ( columns allow for random partitions) 3. Free facade (same idea as plan, windows whereever because non load bearing walls) 4. Horizontal windows (non load bearing walls) 5. Roof terrace (use of available space)
Lecture 16: Postmodernism and Deconstructivism Study Question
1. What are some criticisms of modernism made by Aldo Rossi? What does he mean by type? 2. What basic argument does Robert Venturi make in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture? 3. In what ways can the work of Michael Graves be seen as postmodern? 4. In what ways do the designs of Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi challenge conventions of architecture? What "deconstructivist" elements or principles do they have?
Lecture 16 Study Questions
1.What are some of the ideas and forms from modernist architecture of the 1920s-30s that were continued in High-tech architecture? 2. In what ways to Tadao Ando and Peter Zumthor seem to return to fundamental qualities of architecture? 3. What fundamental criticisms of conventional architecture does Rem Koolhaas make in his essay "Bigness"? How does his design embody his ideas? 4. How do Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid represent major trends in the architecture of the past 20 years?
Glass Architecture (1914). Paul Scheerbart. -Glass Pavilion as example
A poet, argues for new types of architecture based on glass, wants whole walls of glass, intended to elevate culture: "We live for the most part within enclosed spaces . . . If we wish to raise our culture to a higher level, we are forced for better or for worse to transform our architecture. "And this will be possible only if we remove the enclosed quality from the spaces within which we live. This can be done only through the introduction of glass architecture that lets the sunlight and the light of the moon and stars into our rooms not merely through a few windows, but simultaneously through the greatest possible number of walls that are made entirely of glass-colored glass. "The new environment that we shall thereby create must bring with it a new culture."
Party Congress Grounds. Nuremberg, Germany (1934). Albert Speer. Stripped Classicism
Albert Speer becomes Hitler's architect and designs the Party Congress Grounds for parades, auditoriums, and other party functions. Hitler: "Every great period finds the final expression of its value in its buildings."
A return to essentials
Architects don't all participate in ongoing architecture "fashion trends" but just use basic principles of light, space, etc. Design that is simple but rich.
Postmodernism
Architectural postmodernism is by nature not a unified set of developments, but in general postmodernist architects sought to address what they saw as a thinness of meaning in most modernist architecture. Although not rejecting all aspects of modernism, these designers sought to re-introduce history, context, ornamentation, and symbol. Rather than the avowed purity of mythical "international style," these architects attempted to create buildings that were more complex and more diverse.
Studies for Purely Architectural Sculpture (1921). Theo van Doesburg and Hans Vogel.
Argued for universal principles to bring an end to war. Wanted to tear away unnecessary decoration, rooms still boxes.
II. Mies van der Rohe and Post-War Modernism in the United States
As noted in previous lectures, prior to WWII, the social message and architectural forms of modernism found only a limited reception in the U.S., although for private residences Gropius and his colleagues had produced some modernist designs (below, the Gropius House, Lincoln MA, 1937). Gropius and Mies had been active in architectural education, though, and had begun to spread the modernist word.
Frank Gehry (b. 1929, 1989 Pritzker Laureate)
Born in Toronto, Gehry moved to California in 1947 and studied architecture at USC. He opened his own firm in 1967 and first became widely known for the remodeling of his own house in Santa Monica (1978 and later). Here Gehry used cheap industrial materials such as corrugated metal, chain-link fence, two-by-fours, and asphalt to make a conventional house into a challenge to conventional ways of making and interpreting residential architecture.
Although Rio de Janeiro had been the capital since 1763, many figures had argued for an inland capital that would help unify the nation, remove associations with colonial rule, and promote regional development. President Juscelino Kubitschek ordered the creation of a new capital in 1956, seeing it as a way to accelerate change. Lucio Costa wrote: "Brasilia was really Kubitschek's creation. To modernize the country he launched a series of measures . . . He constructed an arch of which Brasilia was the keystone, keeping all the others in place."
Brasilia
Study Question: Describe the overall plan of Brasilia. What are the formal and functional principles of Brasilia? How do Costa and Niemeyer create a clear hierarchy of buildings and functions?
Brasilia
Study Question: Describe the overall plan of Brasilia. What are the formal and functional principles of Brasilia? How do Costa and Niemeyer create a clear hierarchy of buildings and functions?
Brasilia (1957). Lucio Costa.
Architects who supported Japanese Traditional Culture
Bruno Taut "Houses and People of Japan" Gropius "Tradition and Creation in Jap. Arch" Frank Lloyd Wright - strong supporter of "organic" architecture, who thought/saw Jap. arch as organic
Rossi and the concept of type
For Rossi, type mean not a simple functional or programmatic type (e.g. a hospital or school), but something more fundamental. "I would define the concept of thype as something that is permanent and complex, a logical principle that is prior to form and that constitutes it." "Ultimately, we can say that type is the very idea of architecture, that which is closest to its essence." Rossi conceived the type as abstract, not an object but "the idea of an element that must itself serve as a rule for the model." "Type . . . manifests itself with a character of necessity; but even though it is predetermined, it reacts dialectially with technique, function, and style, as well as with bot the collective character and the indiidual moment of the architectural artifact."
Snow, Glacier, Glass, from Alpine Architektur (1919). Bruno Taut. Taut wrote about architecture as something different that could transform the world
From Alpine Architecture: "SNOW, GLACIER, GLASS "SNOWFIELDS in regions of eternal ice and snow - built over and decked with embellishments in the form of planes and blocks of colored glass. Mountain flowers. "The execution would most certainly involve unheard of difficulties and sacrifices, but would not be impossible. 'The Impossible is so seldom required of Man' (Goethe)."
the Deutscher Werkbund
German industrialization was late. Exhibitions were unimpressive. Strong bureaucratic influence on German design reform. formed in Munich in 1907 to help integrate art and industry at a national level (Modern design with production). It originally comprised 12 companies and 12 architects. Major figures associated with the Werkbund included Hermann Muthesius and Peter Behrens. The Werkbund's activities included publishing, exhibitions, consumer education, and the reform of industrial/product design. Bad design = Bad culture
Postmodernism
Given that postmodernist architects sought diverse solutions to architectural problems and reacted to modernism in different ways, there could be no single postmodernist style. Each designer addressed different issues, but they often turned to the local context and historical buildings as sources for design.
Major figures associated with the Werkbund
Hermann Muthesius and Peter Behrens.
Symmetry vs. Regularity
Historical styles use axial symmetry; in International Style, instead of symmetry there is a regularity derived from regularity of underlying structure.
Three principles of the international style
Mass vs (1. Volume) Symmetry vs. (2. Regularity) Ornament vs. (3. Avoidance of Applied Decoration)
• The Weimar Republic ends in 1933 when Hitler takes power. • Hitler is often described as a frustrated architect-in Mein Kampf he writes after visiting Vienna in 1907-8, "in a few days I myself knew that I should some day become an architect." • The Nazi party does not envision a single style of architecture-it uses a variety of approaches for different projects. Compare Mies van der Rohe's Reichsbank project (1933) and a housing project in Aachen (1930s).
Hitler's Germany
Modernism
Honesty associated with function of the building. Ex: Concrete won't be made to look like stone.
Study question
How do Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid represent major trends in the architecture of the past 20 years?
Lecture 10
I. The International Style Exhibition II. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe A. Early works to 1925 B. Weissenhofsiedlung C. German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition D. Tugendhat House III. Le Corbusier A. Writings: Toward an Architecture B. Early works to 1925 C. Weissenhofsiedlung D. Villa Savoye
Tadao Ando (b. 1941, 1995 Pritzker Laureate)
If Kenzo Tange was the first Japanese architect to achieve prominence outside Japan, Ando became perhaps the most famous. Self-trained as an architect, Ando worked outside the architectural establishment in Japan before making his name with simple, subtle buildings of concrete and glass. Not unlike Kahn, Ando uses basic elements of architecture-light, mass, texture-to create strong sensory effects.
The Golden Age, 1920s-1930s
If the major technical and structural elements of the skyscraper had matured by the 1920s, the expression of the skyscraper remained a vibrant topic. At the same time as European modernists developed the International Style, US architects experimented with various decorative strategies for skyscrapers.
Prefectural Industry Promotion Building
Images of destruction post bombing of Hiroshima. Floors collapsed, walls still standing.
Modernism and Fascism
In 1926, seven young architects form the Rationalist group, claiming that architecture must develop from logic: "The new architecture, the true architecture, must result from a rigid adherence to logic, to rationality . . . " Echoing Le Corbusier, the Rationalists wrote that they did not seek to create a "style," but sought "rather to allow form the constant use of rationality, from the perfect correspondence between the structure of the building and the purposes it serves, a style to be born through selection." At the same time, they emphasized that tradition remained relevant: "There is no incompatibility between our past and our present. We do not want to break with tradition; it is tradition that transforms itself and assumes new aspects, (though) few may recognize it." "Here, in particular, there exists a classical foundation. The spirit (not the form, which is something different) of tradition is so profound in Italy that evidently, and almost mechanically, the new architecture will preserve a stamp that is typically ours."
Case Study Houses
In 1945, John Entenza, the editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, began the Case Study House program in order to sponsor the design and construction of contemporary homes. This program helped make modern houses more broadly visible and later provided commissions for young architects. Prominent designers who built Case Study Houses included Ray & Charles Eames, Richard Neutra, and William Wurster. As the program continued into the 1950s, many Case Study House architects explored steel as the primary structural material. 30 houses built.
Deconstructivism
In 1988, the Museum of Modern Art presented "Deconstructivist Architecture," an exhibition curated by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley that included work by seven contemporary architects. Wigley argued that in recent years architects had begun to question the basic stability and order of buildings. Wigley: "The architect has always dreamed of pure form, of producting objects from which all instability and disorder have been excluded."
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976). Expressionist Compare and contrast Alvar Aalto's architecture of the 1930s with the work of European modernists such as Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier. What were the similarities and differences?
In Finland, Alvar Aalto mastered the language of European modernism but developed his own approach based on more expressive forms and a wider variety of materials. Aalto was interested in the relationship between nature and architecture, in terms of both space and materials.
Japan
In the 1920s, Japanese architects began adopting modernist ideas from Europe. In 1928, Kunio Maekawa became the first Japanese architecture to work in Le Corbusier's atelier, and after returning to Japan he served as a mentor to many young architects. Many Japanese modernists drew parallels between historical Japanese architecture and modern European buildings. The flexible spaces, light skeletal structure, large wall openings, and absence of applied ornament linked conventional Japanese wooden houses with modernist ideals.
Frank Lloyd Wright after WWII
In the 1930s, Wright's career reaches another high point with Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax, and other designs. After WWII, Wright's work becomes more idiosyncratic, as seen in the Marin County Civic Center.
In the early twentieth century, French Beaux-Arts architecture dominated large-scale public architecture in Rio de Janeiro (e.g. Teatro Municipal, 1909). As we saw in lecture 11, by the late 1920s, progressive Brazilian architects had begun building modernist houses. Le Corbusier visited Brazil in 1929, sketching plans for the city. Lucio Costa (1902-1998) became the first prominent Brazilian modernist, mentoring many younger architects such as Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012).
Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Brazil
Persistence of Tradition Hitler and Mussolini inspired by political power shown by Roman Architecture
In the 1930s, nationalist governments in Italy and Germany promoted architecture that was influenced by Classical precedents. Hitler and his architects looked to ancient Rome for symbols of political power, but also used modern technology to create spectacles for the masses. In Italy, architects referred to historical architecture in a variety of ways. Some works, such as the Casa del Fascio in Como, appeared primarily modernist, while others were more explicit in their use of the Classical past. In the United States during the Great Depression, the government sponsored Classical buildings in Washington to commemorate American history and culture. In all three settings, Classical architecture was manipulated and modified to serve modern political means.
II. Postmodernism and the United States
In the 1960s, Robert Venturi, Charles Moore, and other architects launched a fundamental attack on modernism. Decrying what they saw as the impoverished 'purity' of many modernist buildings, they sought to include a wider variety of sources in contemporary architecture. The term "postmodernism" became used to denote approaches that criticized fundamental tenets of modernism.
Study Question
In the Atomic Bomb museum, how did Kenzo Tange draw on the work of Le Corbusier? In that building as well as the Olympic Gymnasia, how did Tange suggest connections to Japanese historical architecture?
Brazil
In the early twentieth century, French Beaux-Arts architecture dominated large-scale public architecture in Rio de Janeiro (e.g. Teatro Municipal, 1909). By the late 1920s, progressive Brazilian architects had begun building modernist houses. Le Corbusier visited Brazil in 1929, sketching plans for the city. Lucio Costa (1902-1998) became the first prominent Brazilian modernist, mentoring many younger architects such as Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012).
Study question
In what ways can the work of Michael Graves be seen as postmodern?
Study Question
In what ways do the designs of Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi challenge conventions of architecture? What "deconstructivist" elements or principles do they have?
Study question
In what ways do the designs of Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi challenge conventions of architecture? What "deconstructivist" elements or principles do they have?
Study question
In what ways to Tadao Ando and Peter Zumthor seem to return to fundamental qualities of architecture?
Amerika (1929). Erich Mendelsohn.
Mendelsohn documented great American skyscrapers in NY. For Mendelsohn, Le Corbusier, and many other European architects, the lure of the United States lay in skyscrapers such as the Chicago Tribune building (left) and American Radiator Building (right), and in the skyline of Manhattan.
Skyscrapers move from Chicago to NY
More money and better grounds for building (bedrock)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Much of Frank Lloyd Wright's work shared certain characteristics with European modernist architecture: destruction of the box; freedom from historical styles; asymmetric planning; flowing spaces. Wright, though, vehemently denied any European influence on his own work and disparaged European modernist architects. Compare and contrast Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture of the 1930s with the work of European modernists such as Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier. What were the similarities and differences?
Richard Neutra
Neutra was Austrian, came to the U.S. to work in Chicago, worked briefly for Wright, then moved to California in 1926. He designed this house for Philip Lovell, a physician who emphasized sunlight, exercise and hygiene as elements of healthy living.
Ornament vs. Avoidance of Applied Decoration
No additional ornament, balconies/doors/windows/materials as decoration
Senate chamber, National Congress Complex. Brasilia (1958-60). Oscar Niemeyer.
Photo
Bigness
Rem Koolhaas and Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) Koolhaas claims that Bigness characterizes modern large-scale structures. With technology and sheer size making irrelevant historical criteria such as composition, scale, detail and proportion, neither modernist nor historical architecture can address modern cities. No particular defining feature with Bigness.
Rossi and the critique of "naïve functionalism"
Rossi argues that the city cannot be understood in terms of mere function. Living in Milan and other cities with long histories, he sees cities as collective artifacts, composed of smaller elements (buildings) that each have their own history. If function were the primary determinant of urban form meaning, then there would be continuity. Rossi says architecture is complex.
Lloyd's of London Building.
Sixty years after the Futurists, Sant'Elia's rhetoric is realized: He wrote buildings wouldn't just be static and he was right. "The lifts must not hide like lonely worms in the stair wells; the stairs, become useless, must be done away with and the lifts must climb like serpents of iron and glass up the house fronts."
Capitalist Monuments: Skyscrapers in the US
Skyscraper designers looked to traditional Gothic
How did Le Corbusier's work change after the war? Compare and contrast one of his pre-war works with a post-war work. How did Mies van der Rohe's work change after the war? Compare and contrast one of his pre-war works with a post-war work. What ideas or elements connect Wright's Guggenheim Museum with his earlier works such as Fallingwater or the Johnson Wax Building? What were some of the distinctive characteristics of the Case Study Houses? How did these houses continue aspects of pre-war houses such as the Villa Savoye or Lovell House?
Study Questions for L13
Describe the overall plan of Brasilia. What are the formal and functional principles of Brasilia? How do Costa and Niemeyer create a clear hierarchy of buildings and functions? In the Atomic Bomb museum, how did Kenzo Tange draw on the work of Le Corbusier? In that building as well as the Olympic Gymnasia, how did Tange suggest connections to Japanese historical architecture? What aspects of Luis Barragán's buildings seem to be related to International Style buildings? What are some other influences on his works? Which aspects of Louis Kahn's designs and writings seem to be closely related to pre-WWII modernism? Which ones were different from or opposed to earlier modernism?
Study Questions for Lecture 14
Ancient Roman Arch for inspiration
Symbol of Republic (political power) both 19th century Virginia and 19th century Paris (in addition to Germany and Italy) looked to ancient Rome
Origins of the Skyscraper
Tall towers, such as bell towers and defensive towers, existed long before the modern skyscraper. For example, in Florence, Italy, countless towers were built for churches, civic buildings, and churches from 1200-1400. How did these differ from modern skyscrapers? -skyscrapers are tall office buildings (main purpose) Distinctly american, had new things like telephones, fire-proof construction, central heating, ventilation, plumbing, lighting, elevators
Lecture 11
The International Style: International and Regional Alvar Aalto in Finland The United States A. Richard Neutra B. Frank Lloyd Wright Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil Japan
Unité d'Habitation. Marseilles (1947-52). Le Corbusier.
The Unité is a city in the air, with 337 apartments, shopping, nursery, gymnasium, roof terrace, etc.
Michael Graves
The most celebrated figure of 1980s postmodernism was Michael Graves, an architect who had passed through a modernist stage to develop his own approach based on the free combination and manipulation of historical (mostly Classical) motifs. In 1960, Graves received the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, which allowed him to travel in Europe for a year. He later noted that his experiences there transformed his understanding of architecture.
The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 (1932). Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson.
This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is crucial in spreading images of modernist architecture in the U.S. Hitchcock and Johnson claim that there is a new style that holds common principles from Europe to North America to Asia. Three principles.
Peter Zumthor (b. 1943, 2009 Pritzker Laureate)
Unusual among Pritzker Prize winners, Zumthor is known best for relatively modest works, often located outside large cities. He eschews the dramatic forms and slick materials typical of other high-profile architects, preferring to work with mass, texture, and a strong sense of place. Modest works.
Mass vs Volume
Use of load-bearing wall emphasizes mass; use of skeletal structure with curtain wall emphasizes volume. Compare the 19th-century Paris Opera with Gropius's Bauhaus
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966). Robert Venturi.
Venturi argues for buildings that work at multiple scales and suggest various meanings, such as the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building.
Venturi vs Mies
Venturi sees work of Mies as TOO simple although still beautiful
Le Corbu after WWII
WWII transforms the urban, architectural, social, and cultural environment of Europe. The historian Spiro Kostof: "Never in the past had such thoroughgoing destruction of the environment been countenanced in such a short time. Never had there been such a global need to rebuild." Le Corbusier had few chances to build from the late 1930s through WWII, and his postwar work develops in seemingly unpredictable directions.
Bauhaus Building. Dessau, Germany (1926). Walter Gropius.
What were the most unusual attributes of the Bauhaus building? What was the basic aim of the Bauhaus as expressed in the reading by Gropius? How can the Bauhaus building be related to the Bauhaus goals?
The Bauhaus, Germany School to unify arts, crafts and architecture
What were the most unusual attributes of the Bauhaus building? What was the basic aim of the Bauhaus as expressed in the reading by Gropius? How can the Bauhaus building be related to the Bauhaus goals?
Study Question
Which aspects of Louis Kahn's designs and writings seem to be closely related to pre-WWII modernism? Which ones were different from or opposed to earlier modernism?
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).
Works for Peter Behrens in Berlin 1908-1911. Expressionist phase after WWI, then develops more abstract style. Emigrates to US in 1937 at the same time as Gropius, becomes professor at Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology). Armour in Chicago, a reason why Chicago has leading architecture. Defines mainstream modernism!! More conservative, highly ordered architecture
The United States
buildings characterized as International Style by Hitchcock and Johnson are also called modernist buildings. In general, Modernism refers to a family of concepts, forms and buildings that first develop in the 1920s in Europe. By the 1930s, American architects were familiar with the work of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and other European modernists. At Harvard, Gropius trained students in a Bauhaus-inspired architecture program. Mies van der Rohe arrived in the U.S. in 1937 and settled in Chicago, teaching at the Armour Institute. However, many American designers argued that American buildings should be distinctly American. Frank Lloyd Wright, a generation older than the European modernists, criticized them even as his own work showed parallels with modernist architecture. In general, the reach of modernism in the U.S. prior to WWII was limited to a few areas such as Boston. Unlike in Japan and Brazil, in the U.S. modernism did not become a style for public institutional buildings until after WWII.
Three principles of the International Style
• Architecture as Volume rather than mass. • Regularity rather than symmetry. • Avoidance of Applied Decoration.
Mussolini's Italy
• Benito Mussolini becomes the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and establishes himself as dictator in 1925. • Under Mussolini, various styles of architecture are used to represent the state, but the Classical legacy is strong.
Mussolini begins to remake Rome using three principles:
• Demolition of historic fabric. • Isolation of historic monuments. • Revaluation of monuments in a new context.
Bauhaus in the 1930s
• Gropius resigns in 1930, Hannes Meyer becomes director. • Dessau city government closes Bauhaus in 1932. • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe assumes directorship, but Nazis shut down Bauhaus in 1932. • Many figures associated with Bauhaus flee; Gropius and Mies emigrate to the U.S. • Gropius creates Bauhaus-influenced architectural program at Harvard; Bauhaus becomes model for post-WWII architectural education (cf. pre-war Beaux Arts education).
