Modern and Post Modern

Architecture
Presented by:
Abhishek Maharjan (202)
Chaneswori Sukupayo (215)
Eris Maharjan (216)
 Introduction
•Modern Architecture is Architecture that emerged in the 1920s in Europe and
the United States.
•It began as a response by Architects to rapid technological advances and
greater urbanization of society at the turn of the century.
•It is the very dominant style which came during the 19th century
•It symbolized the Ideal Public Virtues of democracy, liberty and reason.
•It is the Architecture of simple forms(rectangles) enclosed with flat opaque
(solid) or transparent (glass) walls.
•Modern Architecture is considered
progressive(forward looking) rather than
regressive(backwards looking).

•Modern Architecture expresses volume,

balance and elimination of ornaments

•Modern styles and concepts, by contrast,

took root more quickly in commercial,
industrial, and residential Architecture.

Seagram Building, New York

 TECHNOLOGIES
 As the 20th century began modern architects believed it was necessary to
invent an architecture that expressed the spirit of a new age and would
surpass the styles, materials, and technologies of earlier architecture
 By 1920s there was an increasingly wide understanding that building forms
must be determined by their functions and materials if they were to achieve
beauty in contemporary terms.
 CRYSTAL PALACE in London.
 Skyscrapers- a new building.
 MATERIAL USED
 With the continuous progress in the filed of Iron
and Glass, these material became the most
common and important.
 Apart from these, ceramic hollow tiles and
concrete block were also used.
 Steel framing and reinforced concrete serve as
the primary structural materials of largescale
architecture
 Iron could be used to span for larger spaces.
 In 1892 French engineer François Hennebique
combined the strengths of both in a new system
of construction based on concrete reinforced with
steel
 In modern architecture also using traditional
materials in new ways such as: stone, wood,
brick ..etc.
 CHARACTERISTICS
 Common themes of modern architecture include:
 The notion that "Form follows function", a dictum originally expressed by Frank
Lloyd Wright's
 Simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of "unnecessary detail“
 Visual expression of structure (as opposed to the hiding of structural elements)
 The related concept of "Truth to materials“
 Use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine aesthetic
 Particularly in International Style modernism, a visual emphasis on horizontal
and vertical lines.
 Minimalism
 Less is more
 VILLA SAVOYE

SEAGRAM BUILDING

The Guggenheim Museum

 NOTE
 Age of Iron-frame Architecture ca. 1750-1900
 Age of Steel-frame Architecture ca. 1900-present
ARCHITECTS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE
 Notable architects important to the history and development of the
modernist movement include
1.Le Corbusier
2.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
3.Walter Gropius
4.Frank Lloyd Wright
5.Louis Sullivan
6.C.R. Mackintosh
7.Edwin Lutyens
 LE CORBUSIER
 Le Corbusier ( October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965),
was an architect, designer, painter, urban planner,
writer and one of the pioneers of what is now called
modern architecture.
 He was born in Switzerland and became a French
citizen in 1930.
 His career spanned five decades, with his buildings
constructed throughout Europe, India and America.
 He was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal and AIA
Gold Medal in 1961.
 STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE
 MECHANICAL ANALOGY
 LINGUISTIC ANALOGY
 FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE

– USE OF PILOTIS I.E. REINFORCED CONCRETE STILTS.

– FREE FAÇADE I.E NON-SUPPORTING WALLS THAT COULD BE DESIGNED
AS THE ARCHITECT WISHED.
– OPEN FLOOR PLAN , MEANING THAT THE FLOOR SPACE WAS FREE TO BE
CONFIGURED INTO ROOMS WITHOUT CONCERN FOR SUPPORTING WALLS.
– LONG HORIZONTAL RIBBON WINDOWS THAT ALLOW UNENCUMBERED
VIEWS OF THE LARGE SURROUNDING.
– ROOF GARDEN TO COMPENSATE FOR THE GREEN AREA CONSUMED BY
THE BUILDING AND REPLACING IT ON THE ROOF.
 VILLA SAVOYE

 VILLA SAVOYE IS A MODERNIST VILLA IN POISSY, IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF

PARIS, FRANCE.
 A MANIFESTO OF LE CORBUSIER'S "FIVE POINTS" OF NEW ARCHITECTURE,
THE VILLA IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BASES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE.
 THE HOUSE WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT AS A COUNTRY RETREAT ON BEHEST OF
THE SAVOYE FAMILY.
 DURING WORLD WAR II THE JEWISH SAVOYE FAMILY WAS SENT TO
CONCENTRATION CAMPS BY THE NAZIS WHO TOOK OVER THE HOUSE AND
USED IT FOR STORAGE.
 Design Feature

THE REINFORCED CONCRETE GIVES

US THE PILOTIS. THE HOUSE IS UP IN UNTIL NOW LOAD-BEARING WALLS
THE AIR, FAR FROM THE GROUND. FORMING THE GROUND FLOOR AND
THE GARDEN IS ALSO OVER THE THE UPPER STORIES, UP TO EAVES.
HOUSE, ON THE ROOF REINFORCED CONCRETE IN THE
HOUSE PROVIDES A FREE PLAN.

THE COLUMNS SET BACK FROM

THE FACADES, INSIDE THE
HOUSE. THE FLOOR CONTINUES REINFORCED CONCRETE PROVIDES A
CANTILEVERED. THE FACADES REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF THE
ARE NO LONGER ANYTHING THE STAIRCASE AND THE RAMP IN THE WINDOW.
BUT LIGHT SKINS OF HOUSE WINDOWS CAN RUN FROM ONE END
INSULATING WALLS OR OF THE FACADE TO THE OTHER.
GROUND FLOOR FIRST FLOOR PLAN TOP FLOOR PLAN
PLAN
SECTION THROUGH
RAMP
 Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe
 was a german architect and educator, is widely
acknowledged as one of the 20th century's greatest
architects. By emphasizing open space and
revealing the industrial materials used in
construction.
 BORN- march 27,1886 – august 17,1969
 NATIONATIONALIY German (1886-1944) American
(1944-1949)
 AWARDS
 order pour le merite (1959)
 Royal gold medal (1959)
 AIA gold medal (1960)
 Presidential medal of freedom (1963)fine modern
architecture
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS WORK
 He believed that the configuration and arrangement of every architectural
element must contribute to a unified expression
 Every aspect of architecture, from overall concept to the smallest detail,
supports his effort to express the modern age.
 He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture.
 He is often associated with the aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the
details.
 His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel
and plate glass to define interior spaces.
 He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural
order balanced against the implied freedom of free flowing open space
 The Seagram Building
 Located in new York
 This 39-story, 516-foot tall office building was one of the original skyscrapers set
the standards for city office buildings
 Designed with modernist ideas with an emphasis on the steel frame structure,
curtain wall, and rational floor
 One of the main qualities are the luxurious materials used bronze coated beams,
amber tinted glass, marble, travertine and so on.
 The generous plaza to the building the tower itself only takes up 40%of the site
 The plaza attracts many people and creates a procession from the city streets to
the entry, consists of two large fountains and plenty of sitting space.
SEAGRAM BUILDING
 LOUIS SULLIVAN
 Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924)
 An American architect  Called the ―FATHER OF
SKYSCRAPERS
 An influential architect and critic of the Chicago School.
 A mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the
Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as
the Prairie School.
 Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American
architecture
 He posthumously received the AIA Gold Medal in 1944.
 Form Follows Function
 Wainwright Building CAPITAL

 Known as the Wainwright State Office

Building, it is a 10-story red brick office
building at St. Louis, Missouri.
 The Wainwright Building is among the
SHAFT
first skyscrapers in the world. It was
designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis
Sullivan (father of modern architecture)

BASE
 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
 An American architect, Interior designer, writer
and educator Born on June 8,1867 In Richland
center ,Wisconsin
 After working as a draftsman in Joseph Lyman
Silsbee office and as a co-architect with adler
and Sullivan he established his own firm in
Chicago.
 He designed more then 1000 structures and
completed 500 works. He believed In designing
structures which are harmony with humanity
and its environment , a philosophy called
organic architecture
 Basic Principles of Wright Designs

 Organic Colors
 Simple Geometric Shapes
 Integration of Building with Natural Surroundings
 Strong Horizontal Lines
 Hidden Entries
 The Guggenheim Museum
 Situated in Manhattan, New York City, it is
the permanent home of a renowned and
continuously expanding collection of
Impressionist, Post Impressionist, early
Modern and contemporary art.
 Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the
cylindrical building, wider at the top than
the bottom, was conceived as a "temple of
the spirit".
 Its design was inspired by a "Ziggurat"
Babylonian temple pyramid, inverted.
 Criticism and Reactions
 Modern architecture met with some criticism, which began in the 1960s on
the grounds that it seemed universal, elitist, and lacked meaning.
 The loss of traditionalist structures to make way for new modernist
construction, especially via the Urban Renewal movement, led to further
criticism.
 POST MODERNISM

Postmodern architecture began as an international style first which was generally cited as being from the
1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s.Thus,
Two possible process of post modernism regarded as:
1. A moment
2. A natural development of modernism

• Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or
areas of study,

 including art,

 architecture,

 music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology

• The easiest way to start thinking about postmodernism is by thinking about modernism, the movement
from which postmodernism seems to grow or emerge.
Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic, where reference and ornament have
returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles
• The movement largely has been a reaction against the austerity, simplicity and functional design approach
of themodern architecture/international style
 Birth of postmodern
 Began in America around the 1960s–1970s and then it spread to Europe and
the rest
 Began with its reaction to Modernism becoming aware or conscious of
failure of Modern Architecture.
 Solving the problems of Modernism
 Translation of doctrine “less is more” to “less is bore”
 Rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists
 Need of regional or vernacular forms, reflecting neighborhood culture
 Expression in the use of building techniques, forms, and stylistic references
 Character
 return of "wit, ornament”
 response to the formalism of the International Style of
modernism
 The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the
modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics.
 References from the past and reintroduces color and
symbolism to architecture. Eg:MICHAEL
GRAVES,Portland Building MICHAEL GRAVES,Portland
 Also been described as neo-eclectic. Building The distinctive look
 rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists and of Portland Building, with its use of
seeks meaning and expression in the use of building a variety of surface materials and
techniques, forms, and stylistic references colors, contrast to the architectural
style most commonly used for large
 regional or vernacular forms, reflects neighborhood office buildings at the time
culture
 Took past components of
different styles and melded them
together to create new means of
design. It is known for the re-
emergence of surface ornament,
reference to its surrounding
buildings, and historical
references.

Team Disney –The Eisner Building,

1991 Michael Graves,
 Post modernists looked into past architecture in
order to learn from it. Classical designs such as
pillars, arches, and domes used in new,
almost humorous ways, just to send a message
to the modernist people.
 It favoured personal preferences and variety
over objective truths and principles sensitivity to
the building’s context, history and the client’s
requirements.
 physical characteristics- the use of sculptural
forms, ornaments and anthropomorphism
 conceptual characteristics - pluralism,
doublecoding, high ceilings, irony, paradox &
contextualism

Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, 1976-

1980.
CHARLES MOORE,
Used classical styles in new combinations: pillars,
arches, domes, curtain wall facades, sculptures and
roman conventions

Bank of America Center in Houston, by John

Burgee and Philip Johnson, completed 1983
Used classical styles in new combinations: pillars, arches, domes,curtain
wall facades, sculptures and roman conventions
Used classical styles in new combinations: pillars, arches,
domes,
curtain wall facades, sculptures and roman conventions
Similar to old cathedrals, draws the eye upwards toward
the sky
Reconciled differences between old and new generations (culture
wars)
Postmodern architecture takes old styles and updates them
 Philoshopical background

 heavily influenced by phenomenology, structuralism and existentialism

 Reaction against modernism belief of objective truth
  role of language, power relations, and motivations in the formation of ideas and beliefs
 realities to be plural and relative,
 apparent realities are only social construct
  world is subjective
  identity, unity, authority, and certainty translated to difference, plurality, textuality,
and skepticism.
  reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed
as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality
  Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles
 Relation with past
 comeback of columns and other elements of
premodern designs
 terra cotta decorative façades
 bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the
Beaux-Arts and Art Deco periods
 flying buttresses and high ceilings
 References from the past and reintroduces
color and symbolism to architecture
 Also been described as neo-eclectic.
 juxtapose baroque, medieval, and modern ROBERT VENTURI
elements in the same room or building Children’s Museum of Houston
WHERE stucco pilasters, columns
 This eclecticism is often
combined with the use of non-
orthogonal angles and unusual
surfaces, most famously in the
State Gallery of Stuttgart by
James Stirling

State Gallery
of Stuttgart
by James
Stirling
 Critics
 Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings as vulgar, associated
with a populist ethic,

 Postmodern architects may regard many modern buildings as soulless and

bland, overly simplistic and abstract
 1. Robert Venturi's Vanna Ventury
 One building form that typifies .(present;
symbolize) the explorations of
Postmodernism is the traditional gable roof,
in place of the iconic flat roof of modernism
 always served a functional purpose in
climates with rain and snow, and was a
logical way to achieve larger spans with
shorter structural members

 Robert Venturi's Vanna Ventury

House breaks the gable in the middle,
denying the functionality of the form
 Character
 Return of styles
 Balanced asymmetry replaced by classical symmetry
 Transparency in wall fearuring incresing small windows
 Absence of decoration replaced by return of applied ornaments
 Building bringing inside-outside
 Structure framework, beam, duct, vent appear on surface
 Visible inner working space
 Exploring contradictions
 irony and paradox
 2. ROBERT VENTURI
Gordon wu hall (Princeton New Jersey, 1983
 The brick, limestone trim,
and strip windows adhere
to the entrance, set off-
center and broadside in the
building, is marked by a
bold marble and gray
granite panel recalling early
Renaissance ornament and
symbolizing the entrance to
the College as a whole as
well as to the building itself.
 3. ROBERT VENTURI
Guild House (1964)

 One of the earliest

expressions of Post-Modern
buildings

 Guild House is a six-story

building with a
symmetrical facade that
steps outward to a
monumental, classically
ordered entrance pavilion
 4. ARCHITECTS
ROBERT VENTURI(June 1925,USA)

 Was in the forefront of Postmodern

movement

 A controversial critic of the purely

functional and spare designs of modern
orthodox architecture, Venturi has been
considered a counterrevolutionary

 Used classical styles in new

combinations: pillars, tourettes, arches,
domes, curtain wall facades; green and
roman conventions

 Written books in favour of post

modernism criticising the modernist
movement by re-interpreting Mies vad
der Rohe’s famous saying “Less is more”
to "Less is a bore." 
 5.ROBERT VENTURI
Children’s Museum of Houston (USA, 1992)

 The stucco pilasters,

columns and pediment
give the building
symbolic meaning and a
link to a greater
architectural tradition
 1. ARCHITECTS
JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992,UK)

 His career began as one of a

number of young architects who,
from the 1950s onwards,
questioned and
subverted(overturn) the
compositional and theoretical
precepts of the first Modern
Movement

 Compositional inspiration, from

ancient Rome and the Baroque, to
the many manifestations of the
modern period, from Frank Lloyd
Wright to Alvar Aalto
 2. JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992,UK)
Cambridge University: Faculty of History(1968):

 The building is listed by English

Heritage.
 winning designinto an
architectural competition in 1963.
However, after the competition, it
was discovered that a part of the
original site was unavailable to
the University and the building
was turned 90 degrees to fit the
land available. apart from
changes in siting, is almost the
same as the original project.
 3JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992,UK)
Engineering School in Leicester :
.

 Combination of diverse
shapes, materials level
functionality as the
guiding principle of the
design
 4. JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992,UK)
Stuttgart: Neue Staatgalerie (1984)

 Originally, the
classicist building of
the Alte
Staatsgalerie was
also the home of
the Royal Art School

 New building
extension by Stirling
was a
controversial archite
ctural design on a
site right next to
the old building.
 5. JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992,UK)
University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
 1. MICHAEL GRAVES
Portland Building (1982)

 The distinctive look of Portland

Building, with its use of a variety of
surface materials and colors, small
windows, and inclusion of prominent
decorative flourishes, was in stark
contrast to the architectural style most
commonly used for large office
buildings at the time

 It is an icon of postmodern architecture

 The design completely rejected

Modernist principles established in the
early 20th century
 2. MICHAEL GRAVES
Humana Building(1982)

 Each side of the building is

designed slightly differently

 Building is also known for its

exterior construction of flat
pink granite.

 Curved portion towards the

top of the building is actually
an open-air observation deck

 Time Magazine listed it as

one of the ten best buildings
of the 1980s
 PHILIP JOHNSON(1906-2005,USA)
AT & T BUILDING (Now Sony bldg) (1984)

 At the time, it was seen as provocation on a

grand scale: crowning a Manhattan
skyscraper
 Instead of a building made of sleek glass and
metal, this building is predominantlymasonry
(only 30% of the outside is glass)and revives
a classical architecturalvocabulary Johnson &
his associates divided the
 building into three parts, reminiscent of
thethree elevations of a Greek temple –

 base,
 Column and
 pediment
 The top slopes down like a
pediment, including a space in
the middle known as an
orbiculum (similar to the look
of 18th century dressers)
 Thin strips of masonry that
make up the center resembles
the fluting of columns
 The entrance
includes a massive
round arch,similar to
a triumphal arch or
a Romanesque
portal.
MODERNISM VS.
POSTMODERNISM
 THE TERM ʺPOSTMODERNʺ BEGINS TO MAKE SENSE
IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT ʺMODERNISMʺ REFERS
TO.
 IN THIS CASE, ʺMODERNISMʺ USUALLY REFERS TO
NEO-CLASSICAL, ENLIGHTENMENT ASSUMPTIONS
CONCERNING THE ROLE REASON, OR RATIONALITY,
OR SCIENTIFIC REASONING, PLAY IN GUIDING OUR
UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN CONDITION AND, IN
EXTREME CASES OF POSTMODERN THEORY, NATURE
ITSELF.
Modernism (or Enlightenment Postmodernism
Humanism)

Reason and science provide Reason and science are Ideologies

accurate, objective, reliable in the Nietzschean or Marxist
foundation of “knowledge” (anti sense: simply myths created by
supernatural) man.

it is universal and “true”. Because There is no universal , it is

it is universal, Reason can help us subjective truth . Science is no
overcome all conflicts more universal than any other
culture’s definition of “truth”.

Reason and human The application of pure

independence/freedom are Reason used to colonize
inherently linked; foreign cultures
The application of Reason There is no objective means
leads to a progressive upon which to predicate
movement toward morality and right/just
civilization, democracy, governance.
freedom, scientific
advancement.

Science is the paradigm of all No Science is the paradigm of all

true knowledge true knowledge
Modernist Feminism: Women are Postmodern Feminism: The
oppressed by patriarchy and can categories male/female,
use Reason to achieve both masculine/feminine are
independence and regain their themselves culturally constructed
“authentic selves”. and/or Ideology. Gender roles are
culturally relative in all cultures
and contexts.
Existence of stable, coherent The “self” is a myth and largely a
“self”, independent of culture composite of one’s social
and society. experiences and cultural
contexts. The ʺselfʺ is an
Ideology.
CONCLUSION
Modern architecture did not develop , but
after the first world war started to develop
and grow rapidly Modern architecture is
the rifest style of architecture in the world,
because it is the most interesting type of
design, also shows greatness and
development of the countries.