ARCH 521 final
Modernism can be thought of as:
-A style -A time period -A way of thinking
The five architects who were initially identified as being a part of this camp were (whites)
-Eisenman -Graves -Gwathmey -Hejduk -Meier
Why were architects questioning modernism in the 1960s?
-Post-WWII development finally allowed a real testing ground for modernism, and it began to be built widely -Modernism wasn't changing the world for the better in the way that it had promised
What defined the origins of modern architecture in America?
-Building traditions were shorter, imported, and much less entrenched -Brand new cities were cropping up everywhere -THe industrial revolution had an impact here
In what ways is Le Corbusier's later work (Unite d'Habitation, Chandigarh, Monastery of la Tourette, etc.) different from his early villas? (choose all that apply)
-Continued to adapt his early theories while pushing into new expressive territory -Mostly larger projects -Extensive use of "beton brut" (raw concrete) -No longer pure international style
What institutions was Walter Gropius involved in?
-Deutscher Werkbund -Bauhaus (as a director)
What was the Chicago School about? What was driving them?
-Facing the challenges of commerce and industry while considering the purpose of architecture
What milestone does the Reliance Building mark for building technology?
-First building to use pure steel framing, allowing a facade that is mostly glass
What was Frank Lloyd Wright's position on technology?
-He believed that machines were a fact of modern life that should be used to create new architecture
The following things are true about Adolf Loos
-His buildings differentiated between interior and exterior -Was more influential for his writings and theories than for his built work -He thought ornament was a crime - no decoration allowed
Behrens was important in modern architectural history because:
-His office produced three of the most important architects in the time period immediately after him - Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van Der Rohe -His factory designs were ingenious fusions of abstracted classical vocabulary and straightforward structural skeletons -Inspired the "factory aesthetic" that would influence universal machine style later
Pick from this list all the architectural qualities advocated for by Antonio Sant'Elia advocated for in his "Manifesto of Futurist Architecture"
-Impermanence -Oblique and elliptic lines -bold groupings and masses -being more machine-like
Corbusier's Villa Savoye is a prime example of:
-International style architecture -Architectural promenade -Corbusier's 5 points of architecture
What developments led to territorial changes at the scale of the building, allowing them to soar at new heights?
-Invention of the steel frame -Invention of the elevator
Why did such a burst of innovation come out of Chicago during this time?
-It was the main hub for western expansion -The great Chicago fire left a blank slate of prime real estate -Population had increased drastically
Why is the Monadnock Building unique among the buildings of the Chicago School?
-Masonry wall is 6' thick at the base -2 halves designed by 2 different architecture firms ( Burnham and Root and Holabird and Roche) -Lack of ornamentation on the facade
Why does Victor Hugo think that the book will destroy architecture?
-Printing costs less and reaches further than architecture ever can -Architecture used to be the dominant art, the dominant recorded language, but the book has replaced it in this role
What were some of the technical transformations that were coming about during this timeframe (1750-1939)
-Reinforced concrete -Modular building units -Prefabrication -Wrought iron and cast iron
What represents the Vitruvian triad
-Solidity, usefulness, delight -Firmitas, utilitas, venustas
Futurists were about:
-Speed, technology, and violence -passionate loathing of ideas from the past -technological triumph of man over nature
What 3 kinds of transformations are introduced by the Module 1 lectures
-Technical -Cultural -Territorial
Which one of these buildings displays the purest ideals of the Arts & Crafts movement?
-The Gamble House (Greene&Greene)
Neo-classical architecture was about:
-The search for a "true style" based not on copying the style of the ancients, but on a search to find and obey the principles of the ancients -Fundamental shift in nature of human consciousness -Sudden increase of man's capacity to control nature
Who was the founder and ambassador of the De Stijl movement?
-Theo van Doesburg
The origins of modern architecture are somewhat different between Europe and the United States. What defined the origins of modern architecture in Europe?
-Thousands of years of building culture -New architectural movements were reactions against immediately preceding building norms -Beaux Arts education came from Europe -Cities were built up over hundreds of years of layered historical fabric
Why was the plan of the Brick Country House so radical for its time
-walls did not meet each other in the conventional way -It completely reinvented the way rooms were created by walls
Which of these choices was one of the influential theoretical positions taken by Louis Sullivan in his essay, "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered?"
-Tripartite - every tall building should have a base, middle and top
A few characteristics of Mies' work are:
-a rich sense of materials, onyx, travertine, rare woods -often sets his buildings up on a raised level, making it feel like a temple -borrows formal arrangements from classicism -open plans, walls slipping past each other - conception of space based on infinity
Arts + Crafts ideals differed from Art Nouveau ideals in the following ways:
-anti-industrialization, -more sober, direct, toned down aesthetic
What are some of the defining features of the Seagram building>
-co-designed with Philip Johnson -free from ornament, the facade is expressed only by steel structure and glass -set back from the urban street edge, giving it a large public plaza
What was the mission of the Deutscher Werkbund?
-enhance quality of life with well designed objects -elevate taste level above the rest of the world -create a new unified style -create flourishing culture that is both influential and genuine
The following things are true about Mies early on in his career
-he had no formal architectural education, and worked as a brick layer -he worked for Peter Behrens -He started off his career designing in a more traditional style
Constructivists were about:
-marxist/socialist agenda -mass production instead of individual works of art -focus on construction instead of composition
Important influential work in all three movements was carried out by:
-painters -architects -sculptors
The industrial revolution brought about
-population growth - eventual health reform and legislation of construction and maintenance -Poor living conditions -Disease
Members of the De Stijl movement were about:
-pure abstraction: no objects of subjects in their compositions -Primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and black and white
What are Corbusier's 5 Points of Architecture
-ribbon windows -free facade -free plan -rooftop terrace -pilotis
What did all early European modern movements have in common?
-search for new architecture to reflect the new age -reaction against the past
According to Heidegger, to dwell is to:
-spare, preserve -"be in the world" -build
the five architects who were initially identified as part of this camp were (greys)
-stern -robertson -moore -greenburg -giurgola
Why did the public reject the Weissenhofseidlung and other international style projects
-subtleties of spatial characteristics were lost on the public, who thought they were a bunch of uniform white cubes -because of the struggling German economy after WWI, architecture had been developing mostly on paper without being built. When it emerged it was foreign and cold in the eyes of the public. -They were seen as anti-german, inhuman, and unnatural
In the context of architecture, what is a "total work of art?"
-the Hill House, by Mackintosh -a building in which everything is designed specifically for that building and that building's aesthetic, down to the furniture and fixtures -Hotel Tassel, by Horta
what is the definition of GENIUS LOCI, according to Norberg-Shulz
-the spirit of a place
According to Norberg-Shulz, what factors determine the character of a place? Choose all that apply.
-the way things are made to create that place -time; the changing of the seasons, the course of the day and the weather, which all affect light -the material and formal constitution of a place
What was the goal of the greys/postmodernism?
-to fix the mistakes of modernism by allowing for more complexity and contradiction -to create architecture that better reflected the nature of modern existence
Mies' mature work can be said to be:
-uncompromisingly pure in architectural expression -perhaps too pure; sometimes in the quest for purity, forgets that humans need functional spaces
What are some of the characteristics of Art Nouveau architecture?
-use of new materials and construction methods -vertical emphasis -nature inspired
Carlo Scarpa is considered to be a critical regionalist architect because he:
-utilized local materials and techniques -designed in a way which responds specifically to site -made architectural references to Venice by incorporating water into his buildings
Le Corbusier was a
-writer/theorist -urban planner -architect -painter -sculptor
what is true about the movements that came immediately after the international style?
After international style, there were two opposing groups of architects - "the Whites" (continuing in the tradition of modernism) and "the Grays" (breaking with modernism and experimenting with complexity and contradiction.)
What do many of these early modernist European architects have in common if you look at their early lives/careers?
Beaux-Arts/neoclassical/traditional education, which they broke from
Match each architect with their direct influence
Berlage - Frank Lloyd Wright
The skeleton frame shows the fundamental change in structural principle, different from the masonry buildings that preceded it. The major change is the relationship between load and support and between ________________________________.
Cladding and frame
The text which best sums up their position on architecture is
Colin Rowe's "Mathematics of the Ideal Villa"
Who designed Eistein Tower
Eric Mendelsohn
Match architect with influence
Guimard - Viollete le Duc
What modernist style is the Bauhaus building in Dessau an example of
International Style
Where each of these movements originate? Futurism
Italy
Corbusier's most famous quote comes from his fascination with his time "The house is a _________________ for living in."
Machine
Match each architect with their direct influence
Mackintosh - William Morris
Corbusier experimented with a concrete framework idea that greatly affected all of his architecture afterwards. What was it called?
Maison Domino
Which commercial building built in 1885-1887, was the first to successfully blend the technologies of the two different eras (masonry and iron frame), having a huge impact on all buildings of the Chicago School that came after it?
Marshall Field's Building
Bibliothèque St. Genevieve, Henri Labrouste
Neoclassical
Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton, Etienne-Louis Boullee
Neoclassical
Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton
Neoclassical
Imaginary Prison Interior, Giovanni Piranesi
Neoclassical
UVA Campus, Thomas Jefferson
Neoclassical
Which architect became known for the gentle curves in his building and use of reinforced concrete?
Oscar Niemeyer
The Voisin Plan was an (unrealized) urban plan that le Corbusier designed for which city
Paris
Who coined the term "international style"
Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Which architect/engineer created beautiful ribbed and vaulted structures out of concrete
Pier Luigi Nervi
Who came to define "west coast modernism" what was the project that proved to be a turning point in his career?
Richard Neutra / Lovell House
The text which best sums up their position on architecture is
Robert Venturi's "Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture"
Classicism with the intent of being visionary. Emotionally striking.
Romantic Classicism
Where did each of these movements originate? Constructivism
Russia/Soviet Union
Which architects created some of the most iconic skyscrapers in existence from the Sears Tower, the Lever House, John Hancock Center and the Freedom Tower
Skidmore, Owings, Merrill (SOM)
What major breakthroughs in the concrete structure (discussed in this lecture) allowed it to become versatile and more attractive to engineers and architects?
Steel reinforcing
Classicism that stressed the primacy of structure. All ornament should derive from structure
Structural Classicism
Why did Mies move to America in 1937?
The Nazi party was growing increasingly hostile towards modernists (feeling they were anti-German) and many of them left moved to the United States as a result. Mies was one of them.
Where did each of these movements originate? De Stijl
The Netherlands
The whites _______________ the ideals of modernism. They called themselves _______________________.
continued, post-functionalists
Vernacular architecture
is indigenous to a specific time or place (not imported or copied)
In this lecture, most of the work we were looking at was:
many unbuilt projects - they were influential conceptual ideas for architecture, but they didn't end up being built
The greys _____________________ the ideals of modernism. They called themselves ______________________.
rejected, postmodernists
Critical Regionalism
seeks to mediate between the global and local languages of architecture
Frampton is writing this book to examine architecture through the lens of __________________ as opposed to ____________________.
tectonics, dialect
Frampton states that the built environment comes into existence out of the constantly evolving interplay between which three factors:
topos, typos, and tectonic
