Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch7

the architectural system of frank lloyd wright

Turn of the century Chicago saw an influx of middle class businessmen. Frank Lloyd Wright would solidify an architecture for these people. His clients wanted an aesthetic that matched their lifestyle: a contrast of economy with with wealth.

Wrights work consisted mainly in houses so his architectural metaphors spoke of the domestic life. These houses were primarily suburban and emphasized a detachment from the urban city to something more pastoral. His key motifs were the central fire place and the horizontal lay out.

The fire place is a very old motif that may have lost its ritual importance by the early modern period, but none the less still translated as a metaphor for domestic life.

The language of tall office buildings were about being vertical. The horizontal layout was a hallmark of the house. It allowed easy access to the whole house and suggested simplicity. It was well embraced as a template for an appropriate house.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch6

responses to mechanization: the deutscher werkbund and futurism

Unlike it's American counter part, Germany and Italy romanticized the factory in the early days of modernization. They didn't need to sort out how to make a vernacular for a warehouse, they needed to sort out how to elevate it as a worshiping space. Both of these civilizations felt these buildings would build the future and the buildings form needed to reflect that.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch5

arts and crafts ideals in britain and the u.s.a.

Britain had a somewhat unusual early modern period. Like the Art Nouveau style, the arts and craft movement found in England emphasized a local style. Not only in vernacular but also in material local to the area. The architecture praised a simple domestic life and largely relevant to wealthy home owners.

There were many admirers of the style, but one of its charms was it's resistance to standardized materials that would put the laborer out of business. It's proponents praised it's ability to reason what was important and necessary against a tide of fashion willing to corrupt stable ways of living.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch4

rationalism, the engineering tradition and reinforced concrete

Concrete is a litmus test for early modern architects who advocated that a building's form should arise from the material it is made out of. Any shape was conceivable with concrete.

Yet the motif of the rectangle was successful in concrete regardless of its other possibilities. The rectangle seemed to connect with the modern unconscious in a way that was not just material or process.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch3

The search for new forms and the problem of ornament

Art Nouveau obviously contrasts from the Chicago School. The aim or Art Nouveau was not to decorate buildings of commerce. It was concerned with homes, municipal buildings, religious places, etc. To use modern building material and technique was a bit more subversive since there were traditions to making these structures.

Nature is emphasized in Art Nouveau but the emphasis could be misleading. The essence of Art Nouveau, in most cases, was to rebel against the past and not to glorify nature. Trying to grab content from the spindly decoration would be like saying Mohawks glorify upright hair. The nature motif seemed prolific because it stood out.

Although Art Nouveau was in one way rebellious, it was also rooted in the past. Unlike Art Nouveau, The Chicago Style had little tradition and so buildings stood on their own and often their language described the building itself. On the other hand, in stark contrast, the architect Gaudi enfused metaphysical metaphors similarly to gothic cathedrals. The Chicago School symbolized the frame with the frame. Gaudi used the frame to symbolize motifs such as material being used to describe the spiritual in allegory like how cathedral ceilings are made to symbolize heaven.

But not all Art Nouveau was as allegorical as Gaudi. In many ways it a distilled version of using past traditions that have lost their meaning. Architects that rebelled against Art Nouveau rid decorative elements in design. Yet this two was not the same as the Chicago School. It was more a reaction to the Art Nouveau than making the structure aware of it's structure.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch2

Industrialization and the city: the skyscrapper as type and symbol

The modern building language started with commerce buildings. Commerce benefited from being large and concentrated and would be the first to test out the necessary parts to make this possible.

Large buildings such as warehouses and office buildings would stretch how far it would be feasible to use past building techniques, particularly masonry. When it was unfeasible the traditions were tossed out.

The structure of standardized steel beams started to influence the rectangular shape. Once architects realized this form, the repeated shape was more than just a shape but the idea of the shape. Architects would play with this shape even when it was not essential to the building. It was the idea that it was essential.

Modern Arch Since 1900 Ch1

The Idea of a Modern Architecture in the Nineteenth Century

Around the turn of the 19th century there was a great restlessness in architecture. Many architects felt buildings were mere replicas from past cultures. New functions as well as new buildings materials and construction intensified a search for relevancy. Architects could not look to the past to solve certain problems. There was a desire and necessity to create architecture that would speak for a new age.

Architects followed certain prejudices. A camp of them advocating a one over the other.

1. natural science - Some advocated that the materials and structure would suffice to be studied alone, disregarding any decoration or symbolic language. It also proposed that things would evolve like living creatures.
   
   
2. spiritualism - There was a notion that forms of buildings will be part inspired by nature but the form will be this spiritual manifestation imposed on the building material.
   
   Instead of natural phenomena, some where infatuated with past civilizations. One picks a particular style and rejects all others. In many cases this was because one favored a particular culture. The idea would be to replicate the building style in order to inject that culture's way of thinking into current society.
   
   
3. Mathematics - Abstract patterns and symmetry would be fleshed out onto the materials. Not because it is necessary for the structure but for the sake of the abstract representation of abstract thought.
   
   Some advocated an approach based on chance but set in some limits. Building elements from many cultures would be compiled into one language. This method would be a free for all where elements of buildings would exist not for a particular reason but in many sense an arbitrary decision of the architect to place it there.
   

These modes of thinking were still just approaches. None of them as of yet had a robust portfolio. Their manifestations were still to come.