Modern Architecture
Modern Architecture
Modern Architecture
Origins
The Crystal Palace, 1851, was one of the first The first house of reinforced concrete in The Home Insurance
buildings to have cast plate glass windows Saint-Denis near Paris, designed by Building in Chicago,
supported by a cast-iron frame François Coignet (1853) by William Le Baron
Jenney, (1884)
Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th century from revolutions in technology, engineering and building materials, and
from a desire to break away from historical architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new
.
The revolution in materials came first, with the use of cast iron, plate glass, and reinforced concrete, to build structures that were
stronger, lighter and taller. The cast plate glass process was invented in 1848, allowing the manufacture of very large windows. The
Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early example of iron and plate glass construction, followed
in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall. These developments together led to the first steel-framed skyscraper, the ten-story
Home Insurance Buildingin Chicago, built in 1884 by William Le Baron Jenney.[2] The iron frame construction of the Eiffel Tower,
1889 Paris Universal Exposition.[3]
then the tallest structure in the world, captured the imagination of millions of visitors to the
French industrialist François Coignet was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete, that is, concrete strengthened with iron bars, as a
technique for constructing buildings.[4] In 1853 Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four-story house in the
suburbs of Paris.[4] A further important step forward was the invention of the safety elevator by Elisha Otis, first demonstrated at the
Crystal Palace exposition in 1852, which made tall office and apartment buildings practical. [5] Another important technology for the
. [6]
new architecture was electric light, which greatly reduced the inherent danger of fires caused by gas in the 19th century
The debut of new materials and techniques inspired architects to break away from the neoclassical and eclectic models that
dominated European and American architecture in the late 19th century, most notably eclecticism, Victorian and Edwardian
architecture, and the Beaux-Arts architectural style.[7] This break with the past was particularly urged by the architectural theorist and
historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In his 1872 book Entretiens sur L'Architecture, he urged: "use the means and knowledge given to us
by our times, without the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today, and in that way we can inaugurate a new
architecture. For each function its material; for each material its form and its ornament."[8] This book influenced a generation of
architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí.[9]
The AEG Turbine factory by Peter The Steiner House in Vienna by Stoclet Palace by Josef
Behrens (1909) Adolf Loos (1910) Hoffmann, Brussels, (1906-1911)
The Théâtre des Champs- Stepped concrete The Fagus Factory in Alfeld by Walter
Élysées in Paris by Auguste apartment Gropius and Adolf Meyer (1911–13)
Perret (1911-1913) building in Paris
by Henri Sauvage
(1912-1914)
At the end of the 19th century, a few architects began to challenge the traditional Beaux Arts and Neoclassical styles that dominated
architecture in Europe and the United States. The Glasgow School of Art 1896-99) designed by Charles Rennie MacIntosh, had a
facade dominated by large vertical bays of windows.[10] The Art Nouveau style was launched in the 1890s by Victor Horta in
Belgium and Hector Guimard in France; it introduced new styles of decoration, based on vegetal and floral forms. In Barcelona,
Antonio Gaudi conceived architecture as a form of sculpture; the facade of the Casa Battlo in Barcelona (1904-1907) had no straight
lines; it was encrusted with colorful mosaics of stone and ceramic tiles[11]
Architects also began to experiment with new materials and techniques, which gave them greater freedom to create new forms. In
1903-1904 in Paris Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage began to use reinforced concrete, previously only used for industrial structures,
to build apartment buildings.[12] Reinforced concrete, which could be molded into any shape, and which could create enormous
spaces without the need of supporting pillars, replaced stone and brick as the primary material for modernist architects. The first
concrete apartment buildings by Perret and Sauvage were covered with ceramic tiles, but in 1905 Perret built the first concrete
parking garage on 51 rue de Ponthieu in Paris; here the concrete was left bare, and the space between the concrete was filled with
glass windows. Henri Sauvage added another construction innovation in an apartment building on Rue Vavin in Paris (1912-1914);
the reinforced concrete building was in steps, with each floor set back from the floor below, creating a series of terraces. Between
1910 and 1913, Auguste Perret built the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a masterpiece of reinforced concrete construction, with Art
Deco sculptural bas-reliefs on the facade by Antoine Bourdelle. Because of the concrete construction, no columns blocked the
spectator's view of the stage.[13]
Otto Wagner, in Vienna, was another pioneer of the new style. In his book Moderne Architektur (1895) he had called for a more
rationalist style of architecture, based on "modern life". He designed a stylized ornamental metro station at Karlsplatz in Vienna
(1888–89), then an ornamental Art Nouveau residence, Majolika House (1898), before moving to a much more geometric and
simplified style, without ornament, in the Austrian Postal Savings Bank (1904-1906). Wagner declared his intention to express the
function of the building in its exterior. The reinforced concrete exterior was covered with plaques of marble attached with bolts of
polished aluminum. The interior was purely functional and spare, a large open space of steel, glass and concrete where the only
decoration was the structure itself. [14]
.
The Viennese architect Adolf Loos also began removing any ornament from his buildings. His Steiner House, in Vienna (1910), was
an example of what he called rationalist architecture; it had a simple stucco rectangular facade with square windows and no
ornament. . The fame of the new movement, which became known as the Vienna Secession spread beyond Austria. Josef Hoffmann,
a student of Wagner, constructed a landmark of early modernist architecture, the Palais Stoclet, in Brussels, in 1906-1911. This
residence, built of brick covered with Norwegian marble, was composed of geometric blocks, wings and a tower. A large pool in
front of the house reflected its cubic forms. The interior was decorated with paintings by Gustav Klimt and other artists, and the
[15]
architect even designed clothing for the family to match the architecture.
In Germany, a modernist industrial movement, Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) had been created in Munich in 1907
by Hermann Muthesius, a prominent architectural commentator. Its goal was to bring together designers and industrialists, to turn out
well-designed, high quality products, and in the process to invent a new type of architecture.[16] The organization originally included
twelve architects and twelve business firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include Peter Behrens, Theodor Fischer (who
served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann and Richard Riemerschmid.[17] In 1909 Behrens designed one of the earliest and most
influential industrial buildings in the modernist style, the AEG turbine factory, a functional monument of steel and concrete. In 1911-
1913, Adolf Meyer and Walter Gropius, who had both worked for Behrens, built another revolutionary industrial plant, the Fagus
factory in Alfeld an der Leine, a building without ornament where every construction element was on display. The Werkbund
organized a major exposition of modernist design in Cologne just a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War in August
1914. For the 1914 Cologne exhibition,Bruno Taut built a revolutionary glass pavilion.[18]
Frank Lloyd Wright was a highly original and independent American architect who refused to be categorized in any one architectural
movement. Like Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, he had no formal architectural training. In 1887-93 he worked in the
Chicago office of Louis Sullivan, who pioneered the first tall steel-frame office buildings in Chicago, and who famously stated "form
follows function." [19] Wright set out to break all the traditional rules. Wright was particularly famous for his Prairie Houses,
including the Winslow House in River Forest, Illinois(1893–94),;Arthur Heurtley House (1902) and Robie House (1909); sprawling,
geometric residences without decoration, with strong horizontal lines which seemed to grow out of the earth, and which echoed the
wide flat spaces of the American prairie. His Larkin Building (1904-1906) in Buffalo, New York, Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park,
Illinois and Unity Temple had highly original forms and no connection with historical precedents.[20]
At the end of the 19th century, the first skyscrapers began to appear in the United States. They were a response to the shortage of land
and high cost of real estate in the center of the fast-growing American cities, and the availability of new technologies, including
fireproof steel frames and improvements in the safety elevator invented by Elisha Otis in 1852. The first steel-framed "skyscraper",
The Home Insurance Buildingin Chicago, was ten stories high. It was designed byWilliam Le Baron Jenneyin 1883, and was briefly
the tallest building in the world. Louis Sullivan built another monumental new structure, the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company
Building, in the heart of Chicago in 1904-06. While these buildings were revolutionary in their steel frames and height, the designs of
their facades were in the more traditional neo-renaissance, Neo-Gothic and Beaux-Arts architecture. The Woolworth Building,
designed by Cass Gilbert, was completed in 1912, and was the tallest building in the world until the completion of the Chrysler
Building in 1929. Its exterior was in the Neo-Gothic style, complete with decorative buttresses, arches and spires, which caused it be
nicknamed the "Cathedral of Commerce."[21]
Raymond Duchamp-Villon, 1912, Villa Allegonda in Katwijk by Jacobus Oud with Theo van
Study for La Maison Cubiste 2 stained-glass windows by Theo van Doesburg Doesburg (r) and
(Cubist House). Image published (1917), interesting to compare with the Villa Cornelis van
in Les Peintres Cubistes, by Schwob (1916) by Le Corbusier Eesteren (l) in
Guillaume Apollinaire, 17 March their studio in
1913 Paris (1923)
Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, row of
by Gerrit Rietveld (1924) row of 5 houses by Jacobus 3 houses by Mart Stam (1927)
Oud (1927)
House C.H. van der Leeuw The Villa La Roche-Jeanneret (now Corbusier Haus in Weissenhof
(director of the Van Nelle Fondation Le Corbusier) by Le Estate, Stuttgart, Germany (1927)
Factory) in Rotterdam by Corbusier, Paris (1923–25)
Leendert van der Vlugt (1928-
1929)
Citrohan Haus in Weissenhof Estate, The Villa Savoye in Poissy by Le Villa Paul Poiret by Robert Mallet-
Stuttgart, Germany by Le Corbusier Corbusier (1928–31) Stevens (1921-1925)
(1927)
The dominant figure in the rise of modernism in France was Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, a Swiss-French architect who in 1920 took
the name Le Corbusier. In 1920 he co-founded a journal called 'L'Espirit Nouveau and energetically promoted architecture that was
functional, pure, and free of any decoration or historical associations. He was also a passionate advocate of a new urbanism, based on
planned cities. In 1922 he presented a design of a city for three million people, whose inhabitants lived in identical sixty-story tall
skyscrapers surrounded by open parkland. He designed modular houses, which would be mass-produced on the same plan and
assembled into apartment blocks, neighborhoods and cities. In 1923 he published "Toward an Architecture", with his famous slogan,
"a house is a machine for living in."[22] He tirelessly promoted his ideas through slogans, articles, books, conferences, and
participation in Expositions.
To illustrate his ideas, in the 1920s he built a series of houses and villas in and around Paris. They were all built according to a
common system, based upon the use of reinforced concrete, and of reinforced concrete pylons in the interior which supported the
structure, allowing glass curtain walls on the facade and open floor plans, independent of the structure. They were always white, and
had no ornament or decoration on the outside or inside. The best-known of these houses was the Villa Savoye, built in 1928-1931 in
the Paris suburb of Poissy. An elegant white box wrapped with a ribbon of glass windows around on the facade, with living space
that opened upon an interior garden and countryside around, raised up by a row of white pylons in the center of a large lawn, it
became an icon of modernist architecture.[23]
Gropius became an important theorist of modernism, writing ‘’The Idea and Construction’’ in 1923. He was an advocate of
standardization in architecture, and the mass construction of rationally-designed apartment blocks for factory workers. In 1928 he
was commissioned by the Siemens company to build apartment for workers in the suburbs of Berlin, and in 1929 he proposed the
construction of clusters of slender eight to ten story high rise apartment towers for workers.
While Gropius was active at the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe led the modernist architectural movement in Berlin. Inspired
by the De Stijl movement in the Netherlands, he built clusters of concrete summer houses and proposed a project for a glass office
tower. He became the vice president of the German ‘’Werkbund’’, and became the head of the Bauhaus from 1930 to 1932. proposing
a wide variety of modernist plans for urban reconstruction. His most famous modernist work was the German pavilion for the 1929
international exposition in Barcelona. It was a work of pure modernism, with glass and concrete walls and clean, horizontal lines.
Though it was only a temporary structure, and was torn down in 1930, it became, along with Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, one of
[24]
best-known landmarks of modernist architecture. A reconstructed version now stands on the original site in Barcelona.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they viewed the Bauhaus as a training ground for communists, and closed the school in
1932. Gropius left Germany and went to England, then to the United States, where he and Marcel Breuer both joined the faculty of
the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and became the teachers of a generation of American postwar architects. In 1937 Mies van
[24]
der Rohe also moved to the United States; he became one of the most famous designers of postwar American skyscrapers.
Foyer of the The Einstein Tower by Erich The Mossehaus in Berlin The Chilehaus
Großes Mendelsohn (1920–24) by Erich Mendelsohn, an in Hamburg by
Schauspielhaus, early example of Fritz Höger
or Great Theater, streamline moderne (1921–24)
in Berlin by Hans (1921–23)
Poelzig (1919)
Horseshoe-shaped public housing The main building of Goethe University, originally the IG
project by Bruno Taut (1925) Farben Building in Frankfurt, designed by Hans Poelzig (1928–
30)
Second Goetheanum in Dornach near Basel Columbushaus in Berlin by Erich "Wendingen" 1918-
(Switzerland) by the Austrian architect Rudolf Mendelsohn (1932) 1931, Dutch architecture
Steiner (1924-1928) and art magazine. Main
theme: Expressionist
architecture (Amsterdam
School, Mendelsohn,
Finsterlin, Feininger et
al.)
Expressionism, which appeared in Germany between 1910 and 1925, was a counter-movement against the strictly functional
architecture of the Bauhaus and Werkbund. Its advocates, including Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig, Fritz Hoger and Erich Mendelsohn,
wanted to create architecture that was poetic, expressive, and optimistic. Many expressionist architects had fought in World War I and
their experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the
German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a
utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda.[25] Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between
1914 and the mid-1920s,[26] As result, many of the most innovative expressionist projects, including Bruno Taut's Alpine
Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels, remained on paper. Scenography for theatre and films provided another outlet for
the expressionist imagination,[27] and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challenge conventions in a harsh
economic climate. A particular type, using bricks to create its forms (rather than concrete) is known as
Brick Expressionism.
Erich Mendelsohn, (who disliked the term Expressionism for his work) began his career designing churches, silos, and factories
which were highly imaginative, but, for lack of resources, were never built In 1920, he finally was able to construct one of his works
in the city of Potsdam; an observatory and research center called the Einsteinium, named in tribute to Albert Einstein. It was
supposed to be built of reinforced concrete, but because of technical problems it was finally built of traditional materials covered with
plaster. His sculptural form, very different from the austere rectangular forms of the Bauhaus, first won him commissions to build
movie theaters and retail stores in Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Berlin. His Mossehaus in Berlin was an early model for the streamline
moderne style. His Columbushaus on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin (1931) was a prototype for the modernist office buildings that
followed. (It was torn down in 1957, because it stood in the zone between East and West Berlin, where the Berlin Wall was
, he moved to England (1933), then to the United States (1941). [28]
constructed.) Following the rise of the Nazis to power
Fritz Höger was another notable Expressionist architect of the period. His Chilehaus was built as the headquarters of a shipping
company, and was modeled after a giant steamship, a triangual building with a sharply pointed bow. It was constructed of dark brick,
and used external piers to express its vertical structure. Its external decoration borrowed from Gothic cathedrals, as did its internal
arcades. Hans Poelzig was another notable expressionist architect. In 1919 he built the Großes Schauspielhaus, an immense theater in
Berlin, seating five thousand spectators for theater impresario Max Reinhardt. It featured elongated shapes like stalagmites hanging
down from its gigantic dome, and lights on massive columns in its foyer. He also constructed the IG Farben building, a massive
corporate headquarters, now the main building of Goethe University in Frankfurt. Bruno Taut specialized in building large scale
apartment complexes for working-class Berliners. He built twelve thousand individual units, sometimes in buildings with unusual
shapes, such as a giant horseshoe. Unlike most other modernists, he used bright exterior colors to give his buildings more life The use
of dark brick in the German projects gave that particular style a name,Brick Expressionism. [29]
The Austrian philosopher, architect and social critic Rudolf Steiner also departed as far as possible from traditional architectural
forms. His Second Goetheanum, built from 1926 near Basel, Switzerland the Einsteinturm in Potsdam, Germany, and the Second
Goetheanum, by Rudolf Steiner (1926), were based on no traditional models, and had entirely original shapes.
Model of the the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow by The USSR Rusakov Workers' Club, Moscow,
Tower for the Alexey Shchusev (1924) Pavilion at the by Konstantin Melnikov (1928)
Third 1925 Paris
International, by Exposition of
Vladimir Tatlin Decorative Arts,
(1919) by Konstantin
Melnikov (1925)
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian avant-garde artists and architects began searching for a new Soviet style which could
replace traditional neoclassicism. The new architectural movements were closely tied with the literary and artistic movements of the
period, the futurism of poet Vladimir Mayakovskiy, the Suprematism of painter Kasimir Malevich, and the colorful Rayonism of
painter Mikhail Larionov. The most startling design that emerged was the tower proposed by painter and sculptor Vladimir Tatlin for
the Moscow meeting of the Third Communist Internationalin 1920: he proposed two interlaced towers of metal four hundred meters
high, with four geometric volumes suspended from cables. The movement of Russian Constructivist architecture was launched in
1921 by a group of artists led by Aleksandr Rodchenko. Their manifesto proclaimed that their goal was to find the "communist
expression of material structures." Soviet architects began to construct workers' clubs, communal apartment houses, and communal
kitchens for feeding whole neighborhoods.[30]
One of the first prominent constructivist architects to emerge in Moscow was Konstantin Melnikov, the number of working clubs -
including Rusakov Workers' Club (1928) - and his own living house,Melnikov House (1929) near Arbat Street in Moscow. Melnikov
traveled to Paris in 1925 where he built the Soviet Pavilion for the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts
in Paris in 1925; it was a highly geometric vertical construction of glass and steel crossed by a diagonal stairway, and crowned with a
hammer and sickle. The leading group of constructivist architects, led by Vesnin brothers and Moisei Ginzburg, was publishing the
'Contemporary Architecture' journal. This group created several major constructivist projects in the wake of the First Five Year Plan -
including colossal Dnieper Hydroelectric Station (1932) - and made an attempt to start the standardization of living blocks with
Ginzburg's Narkomfin building. A number of architects from the pre-Soviet period also took up the constructivist style. The most
famous example was Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow (1924), byAlexey Shchusev (1924)[31]
The main centers of constructivist architecture were Moscow and Leningrad; however, during the industrialization lots of
constructivist buildings were erected in provincial cities. The regional industrial centers, including Ekaterinburg, Kharkiv or Ivanovo,
were rebuilt in the constructivist manner; some cities, like Magnitogorsk or Zaporizhia, were constructed anew (the so-called
socgorod, or 'socialist city').
The style fell markedly out of favor in the 1930s, replaced by the more grandiose nationalist styles that Stalin favored. Constructivist
architects and even Le Corbusier projects for the new Palace of the Soviets from 1931 to 1933, but the winner was an early Stalinist
building in the style termedPostconstructivism. The last major Russian constructivist building, by Boris Iofan, was built for the Paris
World Exhibition (1937), where it faced the pavilion of Nazi Germany by Hitler's architectAlbert Speer.[32]
Art Deco
Pavilion of the Galeries Lafayette Department Store The Grand Rex movie
at the Paris International Exposition of Decorative theater in Paris
Arts (1925) (1932)
The Art Deco architectural style (called Style Moderne in France), was modern, but it was not modernist; it had many features of
modernism, including the use of reinforced concrete, glass, steel, chrome, and it rejected traditional historical models, such as the
Beaux-Arts style and Neo-classicism; but, unlike the modernist styles of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, it made lavish use of
decoration and color. It reveled in the symbols of modernity; lightning flashes, sunrises, and zig-zags. Art Deco had begun in France
before World War I and spread through Europe; in the 1920s and 1930s it became a highly popular style in the United States, South
America, India, China, Australia and Japan. In Europe, Art Deco was particularly popular for department stores and movie theaters.
The style reached its peak in Europe at theInternational Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925, which featured
art deco pavilions and decoration from twenty countries. Only two pavilions were purely modernist; the Esprit Nouveau pavilion of
Le Corbusier, which represented his idea for a mass-produced housing unit, and the pavilion of the
USSR, by Konstantin Melnikov in
a flamboyantly futurist style.[34]
Later French landmarks in the Art Deco style included the Grand Rex movie theater in Paris, La Samaritaine department store by
Henri Sauvage (1926–28) and the Social and Economic Council building in Paris (1937–38) by Auguste Perret, and the Palais de
Tokyo and Palais de Chaillot, both built by collectives of architects for the 1937 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts et
Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. .[35]
The American Radiator Guardian Building in Chrysler Building Crown of the General Electric Building
Building in New York Detroit, by Wirt C. in New York City, (also known as 570 Lexington Avenue)
City by Raymond Hood Rowland (1927–29) by William Van by Cross & Cross (1933)
(1924) Alen (1928–30)
30 Rockefeller Center,
now the Comcast
Building, by Raymond
Hood (1933)
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, an exuberant American variant of Art Deco appeared in the Chrysler Building, Empire State
Building and Rockefeller Center in New York City, and Guardian Building in Detroit. The first skyscrapers in Chicago and New Y
ork
had been designed in a neo-gothic or neoclassical style, but these buildings were very different; they combined modern materials and
technology (stainless steel, concrete, aluminum, chrome-plated steel) with Art Deco geometry; stylized zig-zags, lightning flashes,
fountains, sunrises, and, at the top of the Chrysler building, Art Deco "gargoyles" in the form of stainless steel radiator ornaments.
The interiors of these new buildings, sometimes termed Cathedrals of Commerce", were lavishly decorated in bright contrasting
colors, with geometric patterns variously influenced by Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, African textile patterns, and European
cathedrals, Frank Lloyd Wright himself experimented with Mayan Revival, in the concrete cube-based Ennis House of 1924 in Los
Angeles. The style appeared in the late 1920s and 1930s in all major American cities. The style was used most often in office
ge cities when sound films were introduced.[36]
buildings, but it also appeared in the enormous movie palaces that were built in lar
Intake towers of Hoover Dam (1931–36) Long Beach Main Post Office (1933–34)
The beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 brought an end to lavishly-decorated Art Deco architecture and a temporary halt to
the construction of new skyscrapers. It also brought in a new style, called "Streamline Moderne" or sometimes just Streamline. This
style, sometimes modeled after for the form of ocean liners, featured rounded corners, strong horizontal lines, and often nautical
features, such as superstructures and steel railings. It was associated with modernity and especially with transportation; the style was
often used for new airport terminals, train and bus stations, and for gas stations and diners built along the growing American highway
system. In the 1930s the style was used not only in buildings, but in railroad locomotives, and even refrigerators and vacuum
cleaners. It both borrowed fromindustrial design and influenced it. [37]
In the United States, the Great Depression led to a new style for government buildings, sometimes called PWA Moderne, for the
Public Works Administration, which launched gigantic construction programs in the U.S. to stimulate employment. It was essentially
classical architecture stripped of ornament, and was employed in state and federal buildings, from post offices to the largest office
orld War.[38]
building in the world at that time,Pentagon (1941–43), begun just before the United States entered the Second W
Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach by Lovell House in Los Angeles, California, by
Rudolph Schindler (1926) Richard Neutra (1927–29)
During the 1920s and 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright resolutely refused to associate himself with any architectural movements. He
considered his architecture to be entirely unique and his own. Between 1916 and 1922, he broke away from his earlier prairie house
style and worked instead on houses decorated with textured blocks of cement; this became known as his "Mayan style", after the
pyramids of the ancient Mayan civilization. He experimented for a time with modular mass-produced housing. He identified his
architecture as "Usonian", a combination of USA, "utopian" and "organic social order". His business was severely affected by the
beginning of the Great Depression that began in 1929; he had fewer wealthy clients who wanted to experiment. Between 1928 and
1935, he built only two buildings: a hotel near Chandler, Arizona, and the most famous of all his residences, Fallingwater (1934–37),
a vacation house in Pennsylvania for Edgar J. Kaufman. Fallingwater is a remarkable structure of concrete slabs suspended over a
waterfall, perfectly uniting architecture and nature.[39]
The German architect Rudolph Schindler also contributed to American modernism with his design for the Lovell beach house in
Newport Beach. The Austrian architect Richard Neutra moved to the United States in 1923, worked for short time with Frank Lloyd
Wright, also quickly became a force in American architecture through his modernist design for the same client, the Lovell House in
Los Angeles.
The 1937 Paris International Expositionin Paris effectively marked the end of the Art Deco, and of pre-war architectural styles. Most
of the pavilions were in a neoclassical Deco style, with colonnades and sculptural decoration. The pavilions of Nazi Germany,
designed by Albert Speer, in a German neoclassical style topped by eagle and swastika, faced the pavilion of the Soviet Union,
topped by enormous statues of a worker and a peasant carrying a hammer and sickle. As to the modernists, Le Corbusier was
practically, but not quite invisible at the Exposition; he participated in the Pavilion des temps nouveaux, but focused mainly on his
painting.[40] The one modernist who did attract attention was a collaborator of Le Corbusier, Josep Lluis Sert, the Spanish-Catalan
architect, whose pavilion of the Second Spanish Republic was pure modernist glass and steel box. Inside it displayed the most
modernist work of the Exposition, the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. The original building was destroyed after the Exposition,
but it was recreated in 1992 in Barcelona.
The rise of nationalism in the 1930s was reflected in the Fascist architecture of Italy, and Nazi architecture of Germany, based on
classical styles and designed to express power and grandeur. The Nazi architecture, much of it designed by Albert Speer, was
intended to awe the spectators by its huge scale. Adolf Hitler intended to turn Berlin into the capital of Europe, more grand than
Rome or Paris. The Nazis closed the Bauhaus, and the most prominent modern architects soon departed for Britain or the United
States. In Italy, Benito Mussolini wished to present himself as the heir to the glory and empire of ancient Rome.[41] Mussolini's
government was not as hostile to modernism as The Nazis; the spirit of Italian Rationalism of the 1920s continued, with the work of
architect Giuseppe Terragni His Casa dl Fascio in Como, headquarters of the local Fascist party, was a perfectly modernist building,
with geometric proportions (33.2 meters long by 16.6 meters high); a clean facade of marble, and a Renaissance-inspired interior
courtyard. Opposed to Terragni was Marcello Piacitini, a proponent of monumental fascist architecture, who rebuilt the University of
Rome, and designed the Italian pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition, and planned a grand reconstruction of Rome on the fascist
model. [42]
The RCA Pavilion featured the first public television Living room of the House of Glass, showing
broadcasts what future homes would look like
The 1939 New York World's Fair marked a turning point in architecture between the Art Deco and modern architecture. The theme of
the Fair was the World of Tomorrow, and its symbols were the purely geometric trilon and perisphere sculpture. It had many
monuments to Art Deco, such as the Ford Pavilion in the Streamline Moderne style, but also included the new International Style that
would replace Art Deco as the dominant style after the War. The Pavilions of Finland, by Alvar Aalto, of Sweden by Sven Markelius,
and of Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa, looked forward to a new style. They became leaders in the postwar modernist
movement. [43]
World War II (1939–1945) and its aftermath was a major factor in driving innovation in building technology
, and in turn, architectural
possibilities.[38][44] The wartime industrial demands resulted in shortages of steel and other building materials, leading to the
adoption of new materials, such as aluminum, The war and postwar period brought greatly expanded use of prefabricated building;
largely for the military and government. prefabricated building; the semi-circular metal Nissen hut of World War I revived as the
Quonset hut. The years immediately after the war saw the development of radical experimental houses, including the enameled-steel
Lustron house (1947–1950), and Buckminster Fuller's experimental aluminumDymaxion House.[44][45]
The unprecedented destruction caused by the war was another factor in the rise of modern architecture. Large parts of major cities,
from Berlin, Tokyo and Dresden to Rotterdam and east London; all the port cities of France, particularly Le Havre, Brest, Marseille,
Cherbourg had been destroyed by bombing. In the United States, little civilian construction had been done since the 1920s; housing
was needed for millions of American soldiers returning from the war. The postwar housing shortages in Europe and the United States
led to the design and construction of enormous government-financed housing projects, usually in run-down center of American cities,
and in the suburbs of Paris and other European cities, where land was available,
One of the largest reconstruction projects was that of the city center of Le Havre, destroyed by the Germans and by Allied bombing
in 1944; 133 hectares of buildings in the center were flattened, destroying 12,500 buildings and leaving 40,000 persons homeless.
The architect Auguste Perret, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete and prefabricated materials, designed and built an entirely
new center to the city, with apartment blocks, cultural, commercial and government buildings. He restored historic monuments when
possible, and built a new church, St. Joseph, with a lighthouse-like tower in the center to inspire hope. His rebuilt city was declared a
UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.[46]
Shortly after the War, the French architect Le Corbusier, who was nearly sixty years old and had not constructed a building in ten
years, was commissioned by the French government to construct a new apartment block in Marseille. He called it Unité d'Habitation
in Marseille, but it more popularly took the name of the Cité Radieuse, after his book about futuristic urban planning. Following his
doctrines of design, the building had a concrete frame raised up above the street on pylons. it contained 337 duplex apartment units,
fit into the framework like pieces of a puzzle. Each unit had two levels and a small terrace. Interior "streets" had shops, a nursery
school and other serves, and the flat terrace roof had a running track, ventilation ducts, and a small theater. Le Corbusier designed
furniture, carpets and lamps to go with the building, all purely functional; the only decoration was a choice of interior colors that Le
Corbusier gave to residents. Unité d'Habitation became a prototype for similar buildings in other cities, both in France and Germany.
Combined with his equally radical organic design for the Chapel of Notre-Dame du-Haut at Ronchamp, this work propelled
[47]
Corbusier in the first rank of postwar modern architects.
The Pfeiffer Chapel at Florida Southern The tower of the Johnson Wax The Price Tower in
College by Frank Lloyd Wright (1941-1958) Headquarters and Research Center Bartlesville,
(1944–50) Oklahoma (1956)
Frank Lloyd Wright was eighty years old in 1947; he had been present at the beginning of American modernism, and though he
refused to accept that he belonged to any movement, continued to play a leading role almost to its end. One of his most original late
projects was the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, begun in 1941 and completed in 1943. He designed nine
new buildings in a style that he described as "The Child of the Sun". He wrote that he wanted the campus to "grow out of the ground
and into the light, a child of the sun."
He completed several notable projects in the 1940s, including the Johnson Wax Headquarters and the Price Tower in Bartlesville,
Oklahoma (1956). The building is unusual that it is supported by its central core of four elevator shafts; the rest of the building is
cantilevered to this core, like the branches of a tree. Wright originally planned the structure for an apartment building in New York
City. That project was cancelled because of the Great Depression, and he adapted the design for an oil pipeline and equipment
company in Oklahoma. He wrote that in New York City his building would have been lost in a forest of tall buildings, but that in
Oklahoma it stood alone. The design is asymmetrical; each side is dif
ferent.
In 1943 he was commissioned by the art collector Solomon R. Guggenheimto design a museum for his collection of modern art. His
design was entirely original; a bowl-shaped building with a spiral ramp inside that led museum visitors on an upward tour of the art
[43]
of the 20th century. Work began in 1946 but it was not completed until 1959, the year that he died.
Story Hall of the Harvard Graduate School of The Stillman House Litchfield, Connecticut, by
Design by Walter Gropius and (The Marcel Breuer (1950) The swimming pool mural is
Architects Collaborative) by Alexander Calder
Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, moved to England in 1934 and spent there years there before being invited to the United
States by Walter Hudnut of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Gropius became the head of the architecture faculty. Marcel
Breuer, who had worked with him at the Bauhaus, joined him and opened an office in Cambridge. The fame of Gropius and Breuer
attracted many students, who themselves became famous architects, including Ieoh Ming Pei and Philip Johnson. They did not
receive an important commission until 1941, when they designed housing for workers in Kensington, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.,
In 1945 Gropius and Breuer associated with a group of younger architects under the name TAC (The Architects Collaborative). Their
notable works included the building of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1956–57), and the
ork (1958–63). [48]
headquarters of Pan American Airways in New Y
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe described his architecture with the famous saying, "Less is more". As the director of the school of
architecture of what is now called the Illinois Institute of Technology from 1939 to 1956, Mies (as he was commonly known) made
Chicago the leading city for American modernism in the postwar years. He constructed new buildings for the Institute in modernist
style, two high-rise apartment buildings on Lakeshore Drive (1948–51), which became models for high-rises across the country.
Other major works included Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1945-1951), a simple horizontal glass box that had an enormous
influence on American residential architecture. The Chicago Convention Center (1952–54) and Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of
Technology (1950–56), and The Seagram Building in New York City (1954–58) also set a new standard for purity and elegance.
Based on granite pillars, the smooth glass and steel walls were given a touch of color by the use of bronze-toned I-beams in the
structure. He returned to Germany in 1962-68 to build the new Nationalgallerie in Berlin. His students and followers included Philip
[49]
Johnson, and Eero Saarinen, whose work was substantially influenced by his ideas.
Influential residential architects in the new style in the United States included Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames. The most
celebrated work of the Eames was Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California, (1949) Charles Eames in collaboration with Eero
Saarinen It is composed of two structures, an architects residence and his studio, joined in the form of an L. The house, influenced by
Japanese architecture, is made of translucent and transparent panels organized in simple volumes, often using natural materials,
supported on a steel framework. The frame of the house was assembled in sixteen hours by five workmen. He brightened up his
buildings with panels of pure colors.[50]
Richard Neutra continued to build influential houses in Los Angeles, using the theme of the simple box. Many of these houses erased
the line distinction between indoor and outdoor spaces with walls of plate glass.[51] Neutra's Constance Perkins House in Pasadena,
California (1962) was re-examination of the modest single-family dwelling. It was built of inexpensive material–wood, plaster, and
glass–and completed at a cost of just under $18,000. Neutra scaled the house to the physical dimensions of its owner, a small woman.
It features a reflecting pool which meanders under of the glass walls of the house. One of Neutra's most unusual buildings was
Shepherd's Grove in Garden Grove, California, which featured an adjoining parking lot where worshippers could follow the service
without leaving their cars.
Many of the notable modern buildings in the postwar years were produced by two architectural mega-agencies, which brought
together large teams of designers for very complex projects. The firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was founded in Chicago in
1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and joined in 1939 by engineer John Merrill, It soon went under the name of SOM.
Its first big project was Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the gigantic government installation that produced
plutonium for the first nuclear weapons. In 1964 the firm had eighteen "partner-owners", 54 "associate participants,"and 750
architects, technicians, designers, decorators, and landscape architects. Their style was largely inspired by the work of Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe, and their buildings soon had a large place in the New York skyline, including the Lever House (1951-52) and the
Manufacturers Trust Company Building (1954). Later buildings by the firm include Beinecke Library at Yale University (1963), the
Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower in Chicago (1973) and One World Trade Center in New York City (2013), which replaced the
building destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 1, 2001. [52]
Wallace Harrison played a major part in the modern architectural history of New York; as the architectural advisor of the Rockefeller
Family, he helped design Rockefeller Center, the major Art Deco architectural project of the 1930s. He was supervising architect for
the 1939 New York World's Fair, and, with his partner Max Abramowitz, was the builder and chief architect of the United Nations
Building; Harrison headed a committee of international architects, which included Oscar Niemeyer (who produced the original plan
approved by the committee) and Le Corbusier, Other landmark New York buildings designed by Harrison and his firm included
Metropolitan Opera House, the master plan for Lincoln Center, and John F. Kennedy Airport.[53]
Philip Johnson
The Glass House by Philip Johnson in New Canaan, Connecticut The IDS Center in
(1953) Minneapolis,
Minnesota, by
Philip Johnson
(1969–72)
The Crystal Cathedral by Philip Johnson The Williams PPG Place in Pittsburgh,
(1977–80) Tower in Pennsylvania, by Philip
Houston, Johnson (1981–84)
Texas, by
Philip Johnson
(1981–1983)
Philip Johnson (1906-2005) was one of the youngest and last major figures in American modern architecture. He trained at Harvard
with Walter Gropius, then was director of the department of architecture and modern design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from
1946 to 1954. In 1947, he published a book about Mies van der Rohe, and in 1953 designed his own residence, the Glass House in
New Canaan, Connecticutin a style modeled after Mies's Farnsworth House. Beginning in 1955 he began to go in his own direction,
moving gradually toward expressionism with designs that increasingly departed from the orthodoxies of modern architecture. His
final and decisive break with modern architecture was the A
T&T Building (later known as the Sony Tower, and now the 550 Madison
Avenue in New York City, (1979) an essentially modernist skyscraper completely altered by the addition of curved cap at the top of a
piece of chippendale furniture. This building is generally considered to mark the beginning of Postmodern architecture in the United
States. [53]
Eero Saarinen
The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Main building of the General Motors
Missouri (1948–1965) Technical Center (1949–55)
The Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Connecticut The TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New
(1953–58) York, by Eero Saarinen (1956–62)
Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) was the son of Eliel Saarinen, the most famous Finnish architect of the Art Nouveau period, who
emigrated to the United States in 1923, when Eero was thirteen. He studied art and sculpture at the academy where his father taught,
and then at the Académie de la Grande ChaumièreAcademy in Paris before studying architecture at Yale University. His architectural
designs were more like enormous pieces of sculpture than traditional modern buildings; he broke away from the elegant boxes
inspired by Mies van der Rohe and used instead sweeping curves and parabolas, like the wings of birds. In 1948 he conceived the
idea of a monument in St. Louis, Missouri in the form of a parabolic arch 192 meters high, made of stainless steel (1948). He then
designed the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan (1949–55), a glass modernist box in the style of Mies van der
Rohe, followed by the IBM Research Center in Yorktown, Virginia (1957–61). His next works were a major departure in style; he
produced a particularly striking sculptural design for the Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Connecticut (1956–59, an ice skiing rink with a
parabolic roof suspended from cables, which served as a preliminary model for next and most famous work, the TWA Terminal at
JFK airport in New York (1956-1962). His declared intention was to design a building that was distinctive and memorable, and also
one that would capture the particular excitement of passengers before a journey. The structure is separated into four white concrete
parabolic vaults, which together resemble a bird on the ground perched for flight. Each of the four curving roof vaults has two sides
attached to columns in a Y form just outside the structure. One of the angles of each shell is lightly raised, and the other is attached to
the center of the structure. The roof is connected with the ground by curtain walls of glass. All of the details inside the building,
[54]
including the benches, counters, escalators and clocks, were designed in the same style.
Louis Kahn
The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn (1962–63) Richards Medical Research Laboratories by Louis
Kahn (1957–61)
The Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, The:National Parliament Building in Dhaka,
Texas (1966–72) Bangladesh (1962–74)
Louis Kahn (1901–74) was another American architect who moved away from the Mies van der Rohe model of the glass box, and
other dogmas of the prevailing international style. He borrowed from a wide variety of styles, and idioms, including neoclassicism.
He was professor of architecture at Yale University from 1947–57, where his students included Eero Saarinen. From 1957 until his
death he was professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. His work and ideas influenced Philip Johnson, Minoru
Yamasaki, and Edward Durell Stone as they moved toward a more neoclassical style. Unlike Mies, he did not try to make his
buildings look light; he constructed mainly with concrete and brick, and made his buildings look monumental and solid. He drew
from a wide variety of different sources; the towers of Richards Medical Research Laboratories were inspired by the architecture of
the Renaissance towns he had seen in Italy as a resident architect at the American Academy in Rome in 1950. Notable buildings by
Kahn in the United States include the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York (1962); and the Kimball Art Museum in Fort
Worth, Texas (1966–72). Following the example of Le Corbusier and his design of the government buildings in Chandigarh, the
capital city of the Haryana & Punjab State of India, Kahn designed the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in
[55]
Dhaka, Bangladesh (1962–74), when that country won independence from Pakistan. It was Kahn's last work.
Green Building at the The National Center for Atmospheric Herbert F. Johnson
Massachusetts Institute Research in Boulder, Colorado by I.M. Pei Museum of Art at
of Technology by I.M. (1963–67) Cornell University in
Pei (1962–64) Ithaca, New York by I.M.
Pei (1973)
Ieoh Ming Pei (1917- ) was a major figure in late modernism and the debut of Post-modern architecture. He was born in China and
educated in the United States, studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While the architecture school there
still trained in the Beaux-Arts architecture style, Pei discovered the writings of Le Corbusier, and a two-day visit by Le Corbusier to
the campus in 1935 had a major impact on Pei's ideas of architecture. In the late 1930s he moved to the Harvard Graduate School of
Design, where he studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and became deeply involved in Modernism. [56] After the War he
worked on large projects for the New York real estate developer William Zeckendorf, before breaking away and starting his own
firm. One of the first buildings his own firm designed was theGreen Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While the
clean modernist facade was admired, the building developed an unexpected problem; it created a wind-tunnel effect, and in strong
winds the doors could not be opened. Pei was forced to construct a tunnel so visitors could enter the building during high winds.
Between 1963 and 1967 Pei designed the Mesa Laboratory for the National Center for Atmospheric Research outside Boulder,
Colorado, in an open area at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The project differed from Pei's earlier urban work; it would rest in
an open area in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. His design was a striking departure from traditional modernism; it looked as if
it were carved out of the side of the mountain.[57]
In the late modernist area, art museums bypassed skyscrapers as the most prestigious architectural projects; they offered greater
possibilities for innovation in form and more visibility. Pei established himself with his design for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of
Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1973), which was praised for its imaginative use of a small space, and its respect for
the landscape and other buildings around it. This led to the commission for one of the most important museum projects of the period,
the new East Wing of the National Gallery of Artin Washington, completed in 1978, and to another of Pei's most famous projects, the
pyramid at the entrance of Louvre Museum in Paris (1983–89). Pei chose the pyramid as the form that best harmonized with the
Renaissance and neoclassical forms of the historic Louvre., as well as for its associations with Napoleon and the Battle of the
Pyramids. Each face of the pyramid is supported by 128 beams of stainless steel, supporting 675 panels of glass, each 2.9 by 1.9
meters. [58]
In France, Le Corbusier remained the most prominent architect, though he built few buildings there. His most prominent late work
was the convent of Sainte Marie de La Tourette in Evreaux-sur-l'Arbresle. The Convent, built of raw concrete, was austere and
. [59]
without ornament, inspired by the medieval monasteries he had visited on his first trip to Italy
In Britain, the major figures in modernism included James Stirling (1926-1992) and Denys Lasdun (1914-2001). Lasdun's best-
known work is the Royal National Theatre (1967-1976) on the south bank of the Thames. Its raw concrete and blockish form
offended British traditionalists;Charles, Prince of Wales Prince Charles compared it with a nuclear power station.
In Belgium, a major figure was Charles Vandenhove (born 1927) who constructed an important series of buildings for the University
[60]
Hospital Center in Liege. His later work ventured into colorful rethinking of historical styles, such as Palladian architecture.
In Finland, the most influential architect was Alvar Aalto, who adapted his version of modernism to the Nordic landscape, light, and
materials, particularly the use of wood., After World War II, he taught architecture in the United States. In Sweden, Arne Jacobsen
was the best-known of the modernists, who designed furniture as well as carefully-proportioned buildings.
In Italy, the most prominent modernist was Gio Ponti, who worked often with the structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, a specialist in
reinforced concrete. Nervi created concrete beams of exceptional length, twenty-five meters, which allowed greater flexibility in
forms and greater heights. Their best-known design was the Pirelli Building in Milan (1958-1960), which for decades was the tallest
building in Italy.[61]
The most famous Spanish modernist was the Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert , who worked with great success in Spain, France and
the United States. In his early carer he worked for a time under Le Corbusier, and designed the Spanish pavilion for the 1937 Paris
Exposition. His notable later work included the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Provence, France (1964), and the Harvard
Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as Dean of Architecture at theHarvard School of Design.
Notable German modernists included Johannes Krahn, who played an important part in rebuilding German cities after World War II,
and built several important museums and churches, notably St. Martin, Idstein, which artfully combined stone masonry, concrete and
glass. Leading Austrian architects of the style included Gustav Peichl, whose later works included the Art and Exhibition Center of
the German Federal Republicin Bonn, Germany (1989).
Latin America
The National Congress building in Brasilia by The Cathedral of Brasilia by Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer (1956–61) (1958-1970)
The Palácio do Planalto, seat of the Brazilian government, by The Torre
Oscar Niemeyer (1958–60) Latinoamericana in
Mexico City by Augusto
H. Alvarez (1956)
The Colegio de México in Mexico City by Teodoro Interior of the Luis Barragán House and Studio in
González de León and Abraham Zabludovsky Mexico City, by Luis Barragan (1948)
(1976)
Brazil became a showcase of modern architecture in the late 1930s through the work of Lucio Costa (1902-1998) and Oscar
Niemeyer (1907-2012). Costa had the lead and Niemeyer collaborated on the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro
(1936–43) and the Brazilian pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Following the war, Niemeyer, along with Le Corbusier,
conceived the form of theUnited Nations Headquartersconstructed by Walter Harrison.
Lucio Costa also had overall responsibility for the plan of the most audacious modernist project in Brazil; the creation of a new
capital, Brasilia, constructed between 1956 and 1961. Costa made the general plan, laid out in the form of a cross, with the major
government buildings in the center. Niemeyer was responsible for designing the government buildings, including the palace of the
President;the National Assembly, composed of two towers for the two branches of the legislature and two meeting halls, one with a
cupola and other with an inverted cupola. Niemeyer also built the cathedral, eighteen ministries, and giant blocks of housing, each
designed for three thousand residents, each with its own school, shops, and chapel.
Following a military coup d'état in Brazil in 1964, Niemeyer moved to France, where he designed the modernist headquarters of the
[62]
French Communist Party in Paris (1965-1980), a miniature of his United Nations plan.
Mexico also had a prominent modernist movement. Important figures included Félix Candela, born in Spain, who emigrated to
Mexico in 1939, and participated in the construction of the new University of Mexico City; he specialized in concrete structures in
unusual parabolic forms. Another important figure was Mario Pani, who designed the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico
City (1949), and the Torre Insignia (1988). Augusto H. Alvarez designed the Torre Latinamericano, one of the early modernist
skyscrapers in Mexico City (1956); it successfully withstood the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which destroyed many other
buildings in the city center. 1964. Pedro Ramirez Vasquez and Rafael Mijares designed the Olympic Stadium for the 1968 Olympics,
and Antoni Peyri and Candela designed the Palace of Sports.Luis Barragan was another influential figure in Mexican modernism; his
raw concrete residence and studio in Mexico City looks like a blockhouse on the outside, while inside it features great simplicity in
form, pure colors, abundant natural light, and, one of is signatures, a stairway without a railing. He won the Pritzker Architecture
orld Heritage Site in 2004.[63]
Prize in 1980, and the house was declared UNESCO W
House of Kunio Maekawa in Tokyo (1935) International House of Japan by Kunio Maekawa,
Tokyo (1955)
Yoyogi National Gymnasium by Kenzo Tange Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, by Jorn
(1964) Utzon (1973)
House Arjomand, Kerman, Iran, by Dariush Borbor House Nahavandi, Tehran, Iran, by Dariush Borbor (1965)
(1961)
Japan, like Europe, had an enormous shortage of housing after the war, due to the bombing of many cities. 4.2 million housing units
needed to be replaced. Japanese architects combined both traditional and styles and techniques. One of the foremost Japanese
modernists was Kunio Maekawa (1905-1986), who had worked for Le Corbusier in Paris until 1930. His own house in Tokyo was an
early landmark of Japanese modernism, combining traditional style with ideas he acquired working with Le Corbusier. His notable
buildings include concert halls in Tokyo and Kyoto and the International House of Japan in oTkyo, all in the pure modernist style.
Kenzo Tange (1913-2005) worked in the studio of Kunio Maekawa from 1938 until 1945 before opening his own architectural firm.
His first major commission was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum . He designed many notable office buildings and cultural
centers. office buildings, as well as theYoyogi National Gymnasiumfor the 1964 Summer Olympicsin Tokyo. The gymasim, built of
concrete, features a roof suspended over the stadium on steel cables.
The Danish architect Jorn Utzon (1918-) worked briefly with Alvar Aalto, studied the work of Le Corbusier, and traveled to the
United States to meet Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1957 he designed one of the most recognizable modernist buildings in the world; the
Sydney Opera House.. He is known for the sculptural qualities of his buildings, and their relationship with the landscape. The five
concrete shells of the structure resemble seashells by the beach. Begun in 1957, the project encountered considerable technical
difficulties making the shells and getting the acoustics right. Utzon resigned in 1966, and the opera house was not finished until 1973,
ten years after its scheduled completion.[64]
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, by Renzo The Lloyds The HSBC Building in
Piano and Richard Rogers (1971-1977), building in London, Hong Kong, by Norman
by Richard Rogers Foster (1979-1985)
(1978-1986)
The Guild House in The AT&T Building The Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans, Louisiana by Charles
Philadelphia by Robert (now 550 Madison Moore (1974–78)
Venturi (1960–63) Avenue), New York
City, by Philip
Johnson (1979–
84)
The Portland Building in The Getty Center in Los Angeles by Richard
Portland, Oregon by Meier (1984–97)
Michael Graves (1982)
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain, Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow,
by Frank Gehry (1991-1997) Poland, by Arata Isozaki and Krzysztof Ingarden (1994).
According to Ingarden form of museum was inspired by the
waves of nearby river Vistula and waves from art by Hokusai.
Beginning in the late 1960s, the international style was increasingly challenged by critics and architects who wanted architecture to
have more imaginative and expressive forms, not always strictly attached to function. There was no single new style; some new
buildings were in a high-tech style, exploring new and original materials. Others were neoclassical, with elements of historic regional
architectural styles; and others were astonishing gigantic works of glass, steel and concrete sculpture, pushing to the limits the
possibilities of building technology. Very often, new museums and concert halls were the most dramatic examples of the new styles.
[65]
Among the most striking examples of high-tech architecture is the Centre Georges Pompidou, the museum of modern art in Paris
(1971-1977), A jury of distinguished architects, including Philip Johnson and Oscar Niemeyer, reviewed 681 different proposals and
chose one by two relatively-unknown architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The museum resembles an enormous machine. It
in reality has two structures; a reinforced concrete interior structure, and on the exterior another structure of steel and glass, where all
the functional working of the buildings, from air conditioning ducts to escalators, are clearly visible. Rogers followed the Pompidou
Center with the Lloyds Building in Central London (1978–86), a twenty-story office building which steel structure which resembles
[66]
an industrial building assembled from a kit of metal and glass parts.
The British architect Norman Foster was another important innovator in high-tech architecture. His HSBC Building in Hong Kong, a
78-meter tall office tower, was prefabricated in Britain in the form of five modules, made of 30,000 tons of steel and 4,500 tons of
aluminium, which were assembled like pieces from a kit in Hong Kong. While it was high-tech on form, it also followed the
traditional Chinese principles ofFeng Shui. [67]
The movement of postmodern architecture had the opposite goal from that of high-tech architecture; its intent was to bring back the
traditions and decorative elements of past styles. The term was first used by American architectural historian Charles Jencks in 1975,
and then became the title of his 1977 book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. In his book he declared that modern
architecture had died precisely at 3:32 in the afternoon of July 15, 1972, when an aging complex of high-rise public housing
buildings in Saint Louis, Missouri, designed and built following the modernist precepts of Le Corbusier, was dynamited and torn
down. He called for a return to eclecticism, variety and ornament.
Another important advocate of postmodernism was Robert Venturi, in his book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
and particularly in his book Learning from Las Vegas (co-authored with Denise Scott-Brown and Steven Izenour, 1972), in which he
celebrated the neon advertising signs and flamboyant casino architecture of Las Vegas, Nevada. He denied the principle of Mies van
der Rohe that "Less is More", and called for a return to complexity and ornament. Venturi created a variety of buildings to illustrate
his ideas, notably the Guild House in Philadelphia, with subtle classical elements.[68]
Philip Johnson, who had first taken his inspiration from Le Corbusier, also began to look beyond modernism for something new. His
AT&T Building (now 550 Madison Avenue) in New York, a modernist office tower with a neoclassicalChippendale pediment on top,
like a piece of 18th century furniture, became an icon of post-modernism.Charles Moore created the exuberantPiazza d'Italia in New
Orleans, Louisiana, a public square filled with recreated pieces of Italian renaissance architecture. [69] Other notable postmodernists
included Michael Graves, with his pioneering Portland Building in Portland, Oregon and theDenver Public Library.
Several influential architects at the end of the 20th century are difficult to put into any one category or movement. The notable end-
of-century buildings of Richard Meier include the Getty Center in Los Angeles (1984-1997), where buildings of different shapes are
united by their whitish stone-faced facades and broad panels of glass; and the
High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1980–83).
The California architect Frank Gehry created the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1991-1997) as an enormous work of
stainless steel sculpture, entirely detached from its environment and from any historical style. His Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los
[70]
Angeles is also a vast work of metal sculpture, resembling the sails of ship at sea.
Prominent architects in Europe at the end of the 20th century included Jean Nouvel in France, noted for the Fondation Cartier and the
Institut du Monde Arabe; the Swiss architect Jacques Herzog, who transformed the Bankside Power Station in London into the Tate
Modern Gallery.
Preservation
Several works or collections of modern architecture have been designated by
UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. In addition to the early experiments associated
with Art Nouveau, these include a number of the structures mentioned above in this
article: the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, the Bauhaus structures in Weimar
and Dessau, the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, the White City of Tel Aviv, the
city of Asmara, the city of Brasilia, the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM in Mexico
City and the University City of Caracasin Venezuela, and the Sydney Opera House.
Private organizations such as Docomomo International, the World Monuments Fund, In 2007, the Sydney Opera House by
and the Recent Past Preservation Network are working to safeguard and document Jørn Utzon was listed as aWorld
Heritage Site.
imperiled Modern architecture. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund launched
Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program.
Following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, Modern structures in New Orleans have been increasingly slated for
demolition. Plans are underway to demolish many of the city's Modern public schools, as well as large portions of the city's Civic
Plaza. Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA) funds will contribute to razing the State Office Building and State Supreme
Court Building, both designed by the collaborating architectural firms of August Perez and Associates; Goldstein, Parham and
Labouisse; and Favrot, Reed, Mathes and Bergman. The New Orleans Recovery School District has proposed demolitions of schools
designed by Charles R. Colbert, Curtis and Davis, and Ricciuti Associates. The 1959 Lawrence and Saunders building for the New
Orleans International Longshoremen's Association Local 1419 is currently threatened with demolition although the union supports its
conservation.
See also
Contemporary architecture
Modern furniture
Modern art
International style (architecture)
Organic architecture
Critical regionalism
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
List of post-war Category A listed buildings in Scotland
References
Bibliography
Bony, Anne (2012). L'Architecture Moderne(in French). Larousse.ISBN 978-2-03-587641-6.
Bouillon, Jean-Paul (1985).Journal de L'Art Nouveau(in French). Paris: Skira.ISBN 2-605-00069-9.
Burchard, John; Bush-Brown, Albert (1966).The Architecture of America- A Social and Cultural History . Atlantic,
Little and Brown.
Conrads, Ulrich, ed. (1971).Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture . Translated by Bullock,
Michael. Boston, Mass.: The MIT Press.ISBN 9780262530309. OCLC 959124824.
Duncan, Alastair (1988).Art déco. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 2-87811-003-X.
Ducher, Rpbert (2014). La charactéristique des styles(in French). Flammarion.ISBN 978-2-0813-4383-2.
Journel, Guillemette Morel (2015).Le Corbusier- Construire la Vie Moderne (in French). Editions du Patrimoine:
Centre des Monument Nationaux.ISBN 978-2-7577-0419-6.
Le Corbusier (1925). L'Art décoratif d'aujourdhui(in French). G. Crés et Cie.
Le Corbusier (1923). Vers use architecture (in French). Flammarion (1995).ISBN 978-2-0812-1744-7.
Poisson, Michel (2009).1000 Immeubles et monuments de Paris(in French). Parigramme.ISBN 978-2-84096-539-
8.
Taschen, Aurelia and Balthazar (2016).L'Architecture Moderne de A à Z(in French). Bibliotheca Universalis.
ISBN 978-3-8365-5630-9.
Tietz, Jurgen (1999). The Story of Architecture of the 20th century. Konemann. ISBN 3-8290-2045-7.
von Boehm, Gero (2000). Conversations with I. M. Pei: Light is the Key . Prestel. ISBN 3-7913-21765.
External links
Six Building Designers Who Are Redefining Modern Architecture , an April 2011 radio and Internet report by the
Special English service of the Voice of America.
Famous architects – Biographies of well-known architects, almost all of the Modern Movement.
Architecture and Modernism
"Preservation of Modern Buildings" edition ofAIA Architect
Brussels50s60s.be, Overview of the architecture of the 1950s and 1960s in Brussels
A Grand Design: The Toronto City Hall Design Competition Modernist designs from the 1958 international
competition
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