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History of Contemporary Architecture Prof. Michela Rosso

AA 2016/2017

IN WHAT STYLE SHOULD WE BUILD?

THE QUESTION OF STYLES IN ARCHITECTURE

PLURALISM & REVIVALISM

Biblio references Bergdoll: 142-145; 156-165; 165-167

6 index/biblio

Nationalism and stylistic debates in architecture (BERGDOLL: 142-145)

“The character of whole nations, cultures, and epochs speaks through the totality of their architecture,

which is the outward shell of their being”

Jacob Burckhardt, Reflections on History, 1871

End of the 18th century

the rise of nations the construction of national identities…

the cult of the fatherland, the love for the homeland

After the French Revolution (1789-1799) with the suppression of the absolute monarchy and of the feudal system, the nationalization of the church’s properties,

the emancipation of the individual, the abolition of the privileges of the aristocracy, the establishment of equality…

the nation,

as a new emerging ideal, fills the void left by other allegiances

(church, the crown, the aristocratic privilege)

Regent Street in 1837, seen from Piccadilly Circus

METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS under GEORGE IV in London

The construction of new public squares and streets as backdrops

for public ceremonies in a populist key

Regent Street (1811-1825)

Trafalgar Battle, in a painting by J. M. TURNER, 1805 NELSON’s COLUMN Trafalgar Square, London 1840-1843

NATIONALISM and the new public monuments

Nationalism and stylistic debates in architecture The national orders

An emendation of the classical order

Philibert de l’Orme: the French Order, 1576

PLURALISM the simultaneous use of different architectural styles

REVIVALISM

a single historical style is considered appropriate for modern architecture

MEDIAEVAL REVIVAL 6 index/biblio

ENGLAND TWO NEO-GOTHIC BUILDINGS

1. THE CASTELLATED HOUSE AT STRAWBERRY HILL, LONDON

2. THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON

THE WRITINGS IN FAVOUR OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

(BERGDOLL: 142-145) (BERGDOLL: 156-165)

House at STRAWBERRY HILL Horace Walpole

South Eastern view

North-Western view �

HORACE WALPOLE House at Strawberry Hill Built since 1749 onwards

The House became a tourist

attraction In 1748 Walpole had printed a guidebook and issued tickets

Looks like a building

grown over time

The ENTRANCE

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

Tribuna degli Uffizi, Florence

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Primo piano

THE GALLERY

Richard Payne Kinght Downtown Castle

18th century

Fonthill Abbey, a mock-Gothic building Designed by James Wyatt for William Th. Beckford 1795-1807, collapsed in the early 1820s

Above: the fire at the Westminster Palace, 1832 in a painting by William M. Turner

Right: A.W.N. Pugin

Gothic revival in Britain

Two further facts had favoured the diffusion of the GOTHIC REVIVAL IN BRITAIN

A.  in order to re-establish the authority of the Anglican Church over the population, a population that had been growing of 7 millions in few decades, an Act of

Parliament was approved in 1818 for the construction of 600 new parish churches, of which only 224 were finally built,

all in the Gothic style .

B. George IV had expanded and decorated WINDSOR CASTLE in the Gothic taste.

The project was a highly publicized enterprise supervised by Jeffry Wyatville… Pugin himself was employed in it for the design of its furniture

PALACE OF WESTMINSTER THAMES ELEVATION

Charles Barry 1835

Houses of Parliament PALACE OF WESTMINSTER

Westminster Hall , from 1097 onwards

GOTHIC as a choice of continuity

London 1836 AUGUSTUS W. N. PUGIN Contrasts or a Parallel between the Noble edifices of the Middle Ages and Corresponding Buildings of the Present Day; showing the Present Decay of Taste

CONTRASTED TOWNS 1440 VERSUS 1840

CONTRASTED RESIDENCES FOR THE POOR

1440 VERSUS 1840

THE PLATE IS A SATIRICAL REPRESENTATION

OF LONDON MAJOR CLASSICIST

BUILDINGS OF THE TIME

1 Elevation of the National Gallery by William Wilkins,

1832-1836

4 VAULTS of the house at n. 13 of Lincoln’s Inn Fields by John Soane

2 Buildings in REGENT STREET by

John NASH, 1832-1836

3 The Carlton Club by Robert Smirke, 1833-1836

BUILDINGS & architectural details CONTAINED IN THIS ILLUSTRATION

CLASSICIST (CONTEMPORARY)

VERSUS GOTHIC (MEDIAEVAL)

“the professor’s home” (John Soane)compared with a medieval building builtin the French town of Rouen

The Present Revival of Christian Architecture Frontispiece of An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England by A.W.N. PUGIN, 1843

Gothic Furniture in the Style of the 15th Century, London 1835

Two great rules for design are these

1 there should be no features about a building which are not necessary by

convenience, construction or propriety

2 all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building

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THE MEDIAEVAL REVIVAL

FRANCE

THE EMERGENCE OF THE NOTION OF HERITAGE AFTER THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE FIRST MUSEUM OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS VIOLLET LE DUC AND THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL

(BERGDOLL: 165-167)

Where and when do we see the first appearance of the expression ‘national monument’?

In France. With the FRENCH REVOLUTION

1 all the properties of MONARCHY, ARISTOCRACY, the EMIGRATED people and the CHURCH

are NATIONALISED

All of a sudden, the State becomes the owner of an imense patrimony of buildings that used to belong to the Monarchy and the Church.

PROTECTION begins

2 On 14th JULY 1789 the state PRISON of BASTILLE, symbol of monarchic despotism is demolished.

ICONCLASM: IDEOLOGICAL DEMOLITION OF ALL THE SYMBOLS OF ABSOLUTISM

COMMEMORATION begins

The Gothic revival in FRANCE

is connected to the French rationalist tradition (PERRAULT/CORDEMOY/LAUGIER/SOUFFLOT)

THE CHURCH OF SAINTE GÉNEVIÈVE AN HYBRID BUILDING

A SYNTHESIS OF CLASSICAL TRABEATION AND MEDIAEVAL ARCUATION

CLASSIC & GOTHIC

The scientific and systematic study of Gothic

Project for a modern Concert Hall by E. E. VIOLLET LE DUC

Not a copy but a paraphrase, a reformulation of GOTHIC

architecture

William M. Turner, The Great Western Railway …1844

The railway track, the first iron standardised element, the antecedent of an iron column

The use of exposed iron as a structural as well as decorative element

THE MEDIAEVAL REVIVAL

ITALY SOME EXAMPLES OF NEO-GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

CASTLE AND PARCO DEL ROCCOLO (BUSCA, CN) After 1831 For the Marquis Roberto Tapparelli d’Azeglio

COMPLESSO DI POLLENZO (CN) Ernesto Melano, Pelagio Palagi, Xavier Kurten for the king Carlo Alberto di Savoia 1832-1847

CHIESA DI SAN VITTORE AT POLLENZO (CN) Ernesto Melano

LA MARGARIA Parc of Racconigi, by Pelagio Palagi 1836-1843