Pioneers of modern architecture Lecture 2

Pioneers of modern architecture

Lecture 2Simegn Z. / WSU, 2015

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ContentFrank Lloyd Wright(1867-1957)Le Corbusier(1887-1965)Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

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Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright(1867-1959),American architect, considered one of the greatest figures of 20th-century architecture.

Principle:Through all his designs, he was guided by principles that he termed organic architecture. Every building should relate harmoniously to its natural surroundings and that a building should not be a static, boxlike enclosure but a dynamic structure, with open, flowing interior spaces. To achieve this organic design, he used geometric units, or modules, that generated a grid. The first modules were squares, but Wright later used diamonds, hexagons, and other geometric shapes, upon which he laid a free-flowing floor plan. Another device Wright favored was the cantilever, a long projection (often a balcony) that was supported at only one end. The grid and the cantilever freed Wrights designs from being merely boxes with openings cut into them.

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WorksPrairie HousesExperimentinginmany styles during the 1890s, Wright proved his mastery of the architectural ideas of the time. He chose to use his principles of organic architecture to develop the prairie housea long, low structure that hugged the Midwest prairie. A shallow roof emphasized its horizontal lines. Wright disliked basements, his earliest independent commission, his buildings were set firmly on the earth, rather than in it.

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At the approach to the house, Wright reduced space by using an overhanging roof, side walls, and stairs that bring the person entering closer to the roof. All this compression sets the stage for a dramatic explosion of space as one finally turns into the living room. Wrights living rooms typically have a height of one-and-a-half or two stories, but they seem much larger because of the compression experienced before entering them. Wright also designed the furnishings of many of his houses, or he had other designers create them to his detailed specifications.

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Robie house (1906-1909) on Chicagos South Side.

This long, three-story structure stands no taller than the surrounding two-story houses. A roof cantilever extends 6.4 m (21 ft) from the western wall of the house over a west-facing veranda. On the south facade, 14 glass doors open onto a main-floor balcony, which shades the 10 windows and 4 doors on the ground floor below. The house spreads in to landscape by means of low parapet walls which integrated the building with nature.

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At every point the horizontal line is stretched and emphasized, internally as well as externally.The main living level is one long space, divided into living room and dining room by a freestanding fireplace.

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A shallow roof overhang enables sunlight to enter through the main floor doors in winter but keeps sunlight out in the hot summer months.Wright used steel beams to have large span living room.Cantilevered steel beams create long, uninterrupted spaces that extend through windows onto porches and balconies, making walls disappear.The bold ground hugging lines are the characteristics of this building.

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The house is an elongated rectangle that follows the line of street.In this building Masses and voids are in equilibrium.Wright makes the corners to disappear. Wright also integrated the lighting and heating into the ceiling and floor, and designed nearly all the furniture.

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In the Robbie House, the living room flows into the dining roomThe rich wood molding, ceiling beams, bookshelves, and niches found throughout the house unify the interior.Fireplace breaks horizontality of building with Un-plastered brick .A wide chimney cluster rises from the center of the building, providing a sole vertical element .

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Falling water (1936 Pennsylvania)

Falling water is considered Wright's masterwork. Ironically,theworkfor which Wright is best known is one of his largest and least democratic works.Cantilevered dramatically over a waterfall in southwest Pennsylvania.Falling water is notable for its relationship with the environment, it appears to emerge from the rocks above the waterfall. Brings the outdoors inside.

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Not only does the waterfall become part of the house a staircase in the living room leads down to it.The wooded glen that surrounds the house is visible from every room. Concrete balconies cantilever at right angles from the houses vertical stone core, and a balcony off the main living space extends over the waterfall.Corner window without frame at the corner considered invention of Wright.

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Vertical elements such as stairs and chimneys faced in rough stone and from a nearby quarry.Horizontal windows and projecting terraces embrace the surrounding natural scene. The layout of the building is broken down in a series of rooms that intersect around the central nucleus of the livingroom.

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Johnson Wax Company(1930s Racine, Wisconsin)

It included the companys Administration Building (1936), an elegant house for Johnson that has four wings arranged in a pinwheel pattern around a central core.The main office building, an early example of open planning, occupies the right wing of the building.The roof of the Administration Buildings main workroom appears to float above a forest of tall, tapered columns with broad, flat tops. These narrow concrete columns seem to hung down from the circular ceiling slabs that they in fact support the roof.Immediately under the tower is a recreational area and car park.Light enters through skylights and long bands of glass tubing.

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Guggenheim Museum(1957-1959) in New York City

Its spiraling ramp provides a dramatic setting for art, although critics have questioned the ramps suitability as an exhibition space. Wrightsinnovativedesigns and use of materials often drew controversy.Builders doubted whether his cantileversespecially at Fallingwaterwould support their weight. Others questioned the practicality of his designs, such as that for the Guggenheim.

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Wrights legacy consists of more than 1,000 designs, nearly half of which were built. He continued working until his death, two months before his 92nd birthday. Architects worldwide now employ grid systems as well as the open type of floor plan he pioneered. The originality of Wrights designs, his sensitivity to a buildings surroundings, and his creative use of materials especially concrete and cement blocks have been widely recognized. A number of his buildings are considered national landmarks.

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Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, professional name of Charles douard Jeanneret (1887-1965), Swiss-French architect, painter, and writer, who had a major effect on the development of modern architecture.In 1922 he went into partnership in Paris as an architect with his cousin, the engineer Pierre Jeanneret, and adopted his mother's maiden name, Le Corbusier. While practicing as an architect, Le Corbusier was also active as a painter and writer. Mostly associated with Amde Ozenfant in the school of purismIn 1920 he founded with Ozenfant the review L'Esprit Nouveau (The New Spirit), for which he wrote numerous articles to support his theories on architecture; these theories were developed from 1920 to 1925 and culminated in his concept of the ideal house as a machine for living.

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Le Corbusier (Charles douard Jeanneret) (1887-1965)modular theory a system of fundamental dimensions, based on the measurements of the human body, designed by Le Corbusier to create harmonious proportions.The House is a machine for living in

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Le Corbusier

Essentially a functionalist, he broke with the forms and design of historic styles, and sought a new 20th-century style to be based on engineering achievements in bridge building and steamship construction; on modern materials such as ferroconcrete, sheet glass, and synthetics; and on contemporary needs such as town planning and housing projects. His work did much to bring about general acceptance of the now-common international style of low-lying, unadorned buildings that depend for aesthetic effect on simplicity of forms and relation to function.

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United Habitation (1947 -1952, Marseilles)

This was the project which embodied the modular co-ordination ideas of Le Corbusier in their most concentrated form.This united Habitation was designed with living and social facilities for two thousand people.A revolutionary event, sun space and ground to raise a family privacy, in silence and in natural surroundings.It was designed as one unit of a new type city and contains a street of shops and social and service accommodation of various kinds, as well as two-level apartments to house 1,6oo people.

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The villa Savoie(1921 & 1931)

The villa Savoie at Poissy, is one of Le Corbusier's most classic and influential buildings, embodying the principle set out by the architects manifestoFive points in a new architecture Raised on Pilotis,It is designed on free plan, with a free facad, almost continuous ribbon windows, Roof garden with a solarium,On the first floor, the glass walled living area,Wraps in L shape around a terrace, From ground to roof level winds an entrance ramp.

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The Secretariat(1951-1958, Chandigarh, India)

The Secretariat and the High Court Buildings in Chandgarh, India, are a part of his plan for the entire city. The secretariat building is a part of the complex of public buildings, including an assembly and Law Courts, designed by Le Corbusier for the new capital he laid out for the state of PunjabThe 800 ft long raw concrete slab of the secretariat is patterned by its grid of sun breakers, one of Le Corbusiers favorite architectural devices.

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Ronchamp church, France(Notre-Dame du Haut, 1950-1955)

It is the most personal of Le Corbusiers works; wholly original, since every form and spatial effect is related to the architects concentrated attempt to achieve a sense of religious dignity and purpose.This unusual building is a synthesis of architecture and sculpture. The frame of the structure is steel and metal mesh, over which concrete was sprayed.It is lit by irregular, wedge shaped windows of varying size filled with colored glass which allow diffused light to reflect on their sides.

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The roof is slightly raised on metal supports, creating a thin band of daylight between it and the top of the wall. Light filters through the rounded half domed towers and falls on the altars of the chapel below.The design solves the setting problem of pilgrimage churches, by grouping an altar and pulpit outside and providing an outdoor nave for about 12,000 pilgrims at a time.

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Duringthe1920sLe Corbusier, defined five features of modern architecture: Interior walls arranged freely, without regard to the traditional demands of structural support;Pilotis, or slender columns that lift the building above the ground;A flat roof to be used as a garden-terrace;External curtain walls that bear no weight, with a free arrangement of windows or other openings;Ribbon windows, or narrow horizontal bands of glass across the length of a faade.

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Interested In;Extreme clarity and simplicity and a new architectural language Architecture should communicate the meaning and significance of the culture in which it exists High level of abstractionMies van der Rohe

Introduction

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (18861969))a German-American architect , along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. Despite having no architectural training, his influence can be seen in cities all over the world. He created an influential 20th century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity and a new architectural language that could be used to represent the new era of technology and production. He adopted the idea that architecture should communicated the meaning and significance of the culture in which it exists .Mies' architecture was created at a high level of abstraction.

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to create free and open spaces, enclosed within a structural order with minimal presence.In search for rational solutionsHis ideas were from the basic principle of construction

IntroductionMies sought to create free and open spaces, enclosed within a structural order with minimal presence. His famous phrase less is more perfectly captured his steadfast devotion to pure Modernist design, and encapsulated the Modernists search for rational solutions to the complicated problems of urban existence. Meis has evolved his ideas from the basic principle of construction: hence the form of his building is the expression of their structure.

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Mies van der Rohe offered in his buildings open, flexible spaceThe final form is a neutral-looking box that expresses nothing of the particular functionMies van der Rohes designs appear to be a good illustration of for the idea of honesty in the building.

Introduction

In his search for the perfect form, Mies van der Rohe offered in his buildings open, flexible space suitable for different uses. Although each was for a particular purpose, often the final form is a neutral-looking box that expresses nothing of the particular function. So there was nothing to differentiate commercial office blocks from residential apartments other than the curtains in the latter. So keen was Mies to preserve the pristine rhythms of his faades that at Lake Shore Drive apartments, Chicago, 1950, he tried to prevent residents from putting up curtains!

Mies van der Rohes designs appear to be a good illustration of for the idea of honesty in the building ,but owing to fire regulations, the structural frames of his buildings were usually clad and not quite as openly expressed. At theLake Shore Drive apartments non-structural I beams are attached to the faade at regular intervals almost like decoration to give a bold vertical rhythm.

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Famous phrase of Mies Less is more and God is in the details.

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Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms

Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time."

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German Pavilion(1929)

German Pavilion German Pavilion, 1929 designed by Mies van der Rohe, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. The design was predicated on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosurea regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes .The structure was more of a hybrid style, some of these planes also acted as supports. Mies wanted this building to become "an ideal zone of tranquility" for the weary visitor, who should be invited into the pavilion on the way to the next attraction. He chose the place where these optical effects would have the strongest impact; the building offers multiple views of the sculpture .The building characterized by Free flow of spaces

Structure was more of a hybrid stylePlanes also acted as supportsAn ideal zone of tranquility for the weary visitorCharacterized by Free flow of spaces.The building offers multiple views

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German Pavilion

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German Pavilion

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The wall was designed to be part of space rather than enclose it. The walls of glass direct the flow of visitors through the building.The roof defines the space below it. There are no rooms in the ordinary sense rather a series of planes arranged in space, defining a group of interrelated areas.There is no one obvious path and it is dominated by non-directional spaces

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German Chair

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The most perfect statements of his architectural approach Simple square box is a powerful expression of Meiss ideas about flexible interior spaceInterior space defined by transparent walls

New National Gallery(1965-1968, Berlin)

New NationalGalleryNew NationalGalerie, Berlin, 1965-68 is Considered as one of the most perfect statements of his architectural approach, the upper pavilion is a precise composition of monumental steel columns and a cantilevered (overhanging) roof plane with a glass enclosure. The simple square box is a powerful expression of his ideas about flexible interior space, defined by transparent walls and supported by an external structural frame.

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New National Gallery

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characterized by an aesthetic of industrial simplicity,free flowing interior of the upper level.The aesthetic is achieved by strong contrast of Glass and steel.

Crown Hall, illinois Institute of Technology(1956, Chicago)

Crown Hall

This building characterized by an aesthetic of industrial simplicity, with clearly articulated exposed steel frame construction. The steel frame is in filled with large sheets of glass of varying qualities of transparency, resulting in a light and delicate steel and glass facade wrapping the open plan, free flowing interior of the upper level.

The aesthetic is achieved by strong contrast of Glass and steel.

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Crown Hall

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Creation of plaza paved in granite and furnishedThe buildings of skin and bones.

Seagram Building(1958)

Seagram Building The space between the avenue serves as the pretext for the creation of plaza paved in granite and furnished with plants and pools of water. It took a lot of effort to make skyscrapers like the Seagram building look uncomplicated, and the forest of inferior imitations which sprang up across the globe in the 1960s and 1970s did much to undermine Modernisms reputation. He called the building The buildings of skin and bones .

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Seagram Building

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