HOA

History of Architecture
MODULE 2
Classical Architecture and the
Western Succession
 Revivalist
Architecture
Neoclassicism
■ Revival of using Greek and Roman orders as
decorative motifs.
■ Simple, strongly geometric composition.
■ Shallow reliefs on facades.
NEOCLASSIC. Paris Opera House, Charles Garnier.
GREEK REVIVAL. Second Bank of the United States, William Strickland.
Romanticism
Turning to styles of the past to draw playful forms
that addressed the emotions. It allowed architects to
tailor historical styles according to the particulars of
building type and location.
GOTHIC REVIVAL. Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole.
Gothic Revival
■ Revived the spirit and forms of Gothic
architecture.
■ Remained the accepted style for churches in the
U.S. into the 20th century.
GOTHIC REVIVAL. (Rebuilt) Houses of Parliament, London. Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.
Beaux-Arts
Eclecticism
■ Symmetrical plans and eclectic use of
architectural features.
■ Often gives a massive, elaborate, and
ostentatious effect.
École des Beaux-Arts
School of Fine Arts established in 1819 by the French
government. The school taught a way of organizing a
building into a balanced hierarchy of spatial elements
and planning principles.
City Beautiful Movement
▪ Daniel Burnham, proponent.
▪ An approach to urban planning characterized by
monumentally placed buildings, grand promenades,
spacious plazas, and classical sculpture.
The McMillan Plan, a comprehensive planning document for the development of the monumental core and the park
system of Washington, D.C.
An aerial view of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., showing the Lincoln Memorial at the bottom, the Washington
Monument at center, and the U.S. Capitol at the top.
 Modern
Architecture
Industrial Age
▪ Industrial revolution, vast economic and social
upheavals, stemming from mechanization and mass
production, required new building types for industry,
commerce, and transportation.
▪ Material innovations: cast iron, steel, reinforced
concrete, and cheaper manufacturing of glass.
Crystal Palace, London, England. Joseph Paxton.
Brooklyn Bridge. John Augustus and Washington Roebling. (World’s largest steel suspension bridge.)
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. Alexandre Gustav Eiffel.
Skyscrapers
▪ An American invention.
▪ The invention of elevator and more sophisticated
heating, plumbing, and electric lighting systems
made the higher spaces as accessible and
comfortable as the lower ones.
Home Insurance Building, Chicago. William LeBaron Jenney. (Considered as the first skyscraper.)
Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri. Louis Sullivan.
Louis Sullivan
▪ “Form (ever) follows function.”
▪ His greatest contribution to the skyscraper was the
organizing of its identical, stacked floors to express a
strong visual identity. (Three levels: base, shaft, and
top floor)
▪ Used nature-inspired or “organic” decorations to
humanize his imposing structure.
Prudential (Guaranty) Building, Buffalo, New York. Louis Sullivan.
Carson Pirie Scott Department Store (Sullivan Center), Chicago, Illinois. Louis Sullivan.
Frank Lloyd Wright
▪ Believed that buildings should be spread out
horizontally.
▪ Prairie house, homes with overhanging rooflines and
flowing rooms.
▪ Broadacre City, a visionary plan meant to bring urban
life to the country; a low-density settlement with small
establishments and an acre of land for each person.
Robie House, Chicago, Illinois. Frank Lloyd Wright.
Fallingwater (Kauffman House), Pennsylvania. Frank Lloyd Wright.
Broadacre City. Frank LLoyd Wright.
Organic Architecture
▪ Promotes harmony between human habitation and the
natural world.
▪ Materials, motifs, and basic ordering principles based
on nature.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan, New York City. Frank Lloyd Wright.
Johnson Wax Company Administration Center, Racine, Wisconsin. Frank Lloyd Wright.
Art Deco
▪ Also called Style Moderne.
▪ Based on geometric motifs, streamlined and
curvilinear forms, sharply defined outlines.
▪ Uses bold colors and synthetic materials (plastics).
Chrysler Building, New York. William Van Alen.
Art Nouveau
▪ “New Art;” based on the return to craftsmanship and
the integration of art, design, and architecture.
▪ Characterized by fluid, undulating motifs, often
derived from natural forms.
Art Nouveau
▪ Germany: Jugendstil
▪ Spain: Modernismo
▪ Italy: Stile Liberty
▪ Austria: Sezession
Hôtel Tassel, Belgium. Victor Horta.
Paris Metro Entrances. Hector Guimard.
Antoni Gaudi
▪ Combined Moorish and Gothic elements with
naturalistic forms, their textured, undulating shapes
recall waves, sea coral, and fish bones.
Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi.
Casa Milà, Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi.
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi.
Modern “-isms”
And Other Architectural Styles
Expressionism
A European movement that generated jagged and
dynamic forms in both painting and architecture.
Einstein Tower, Potsdam, Germany. Erich Mendelsohn.
De Stijl
■ “The Style”
■ Use of black and white with the primary colors
rectangular forms, and asymmetry (inspired by a
Mondrian painting).
Rietveld Schröder House, Utrecht, Netherlands. Gerrit Rietveld.
Constructivism
■ Expression of construction was to be the basis
for all building design.
■ Emphasizes on functional machine parts.
Rusakov Workers' Club, Moscow. Konstantin Melnikov.
Organic Architecture
■ A building should be functional, harmonizes with
its natural environment, and forms an integrated
whole.
■ Shapes are often of irregular contours and
resemble forms found in nature.
Bauhaus
■ Bau (building), haus (house)
■ A school in Germany founded by Walter Gropius
■ Synthesis of technology, craft, and design
aesthetics
■ Emphasis on functional design (“form follows
function”).
The Bauhaus Building, Dessau, Germany. Walter Gropius.
International Style
■ Functional architecture devoid of regional
characteristics.
■ Simple geometric forms, large untextured
surfaces (often white), large areas of glass, and
general use of steel or reinforced concrete
construction.
Le Corbusier
▪ Charles Edouard Jeanneret
▪ “The house is a machine for living in.”
Villa Savoye, Poissy, France. Le Corbusier. (Reflected the architect’s five points of architecture)
▪ Pilotis, structural system of
stilts that lifted the building Five Points of
off the ground to allow
people and traffic to pass
Architecture
underneath;
▪ Free plan, rooms enclosed by
non-load-bearing partitions;
▪ Curtain walls;
▪ Ribbon windows; and
▪ Roof gardens.
Unité d'Habitation, Marseille, France. Le Corbusier. (An apartment block with 23 different unit types)
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France. Le Corbusier. (More complex, sculptural shapes in concrete.)
La Ville Contemporaine. Le Corbusier. (A visionary scheme of highly ordered groupings of skyscrapers)
Mies van der Rohe
▪ “Less is more.”
▪ Best known for developing boxy, steel-and-glass
architecture for nearly every purpose - from houses to
skyscrapers.
Barcelona Pavilion, Spain. Mies van der Rohe. (Barcelona chair)
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois. Mies van der Rohe.
Seagram Building, New York. Mies van der Rohe.
Postmodern
Architecture
Postmodernism
▪ A renewed appreciation for the rich traditions of
architecture past.
▪ Architects began enlivening facades with color,
pattern, and ornaments.
Postmodern Architects
Alvar Aalto
▪ “Nature, not the machine, should serve as the model
for architecture.”
▪ Finnish architect; one of the first modernists to fuse
technology with craft.
▪ Humanized modernism with curved walls and roofs
and wood-finished interiors. He was also sensitive to
the contours of the land and to a building’s orientation
to daylight.
MIT Baker House Dormitory, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alvar Aalto.
Helsinki University of Technology Lecture Hall. Alvar Aalto.
Eero Saarinen
▪ Used advances in structural systems to create
sculpturally expressive buildings.
▪ His buildings followed a unique design direction
according to the particulars of their site and purpose.
TWA Flight Center, New York. Eero Saarinen.
Dulles International Airport, Dulles, Virginia. Eero Saarinen.
Louis Kahn
▪ “Architectural form should reflect a building’s social
purpose.”
▪ His work is often compared to ancient monuments.
▪ Composed of circles, squares, and triangles, his
designs were constructed of rough concrete and brick
to convey a massive primal quality.
▪ Daylight played an important role in his buildings.
Phillips Exeter Academy Library, New Hampshire. Louis Kahn.
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Louis Kahn. (Exemplifies his mastery of natural illumination.)
Richards Medical Research Building, Pennsylvania. Louis Kahn. (Divided clustered towers into “served” and “servant”
spaces, an architectural principle that is still followed today.)
Robert Venturi
▪ “Less is a bore.”
▪ Suggested that architects should embrace ambiguity,
decoration, and “messy vitality” in their buildings.
▪ His vision was an architecture of “both-and” rather
than “either-or.” This led to the development of a more
pluralistic attitude towards architecture that still
prevails today.
Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia. Robert Venturi.
Episcopal Academy Chapel; Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Robert Venturi.
Philip Johnson
▪ Once an advocate of the International Style, became
one of postmodernism’s biggest promoters.
The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut. Philip Johnson. (International Style)
AT&T Building, New York. Philip Johnson.
James Stirling
▪ Proponent of New Brutalism and high-tech.
▪ He sculpted his buildings to convey solidity.
Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. James Stirling.
Michael Graves
▪ Incorporated decorative, historical references within
his abstract designs.
▪ His architecture often has a childlike, cartoonish
quality, shown to exaggerated effect.
Team Disney Burbank, California. Michael Graves.
The New York Five
The New York Five
Leading the modern revival group:
▪ Peter Eisenman
▪ Michael Graves
▪ Charles Gwathmey
▪ John Hejduk
▪ Richard Meier
Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Richard Meier. (A cultural acropolis of six building situated high above a Los Angeles
freeway.)
Postmodern Styles
Brutalism
▪ Inspired by the béton brut (raw concrete) used by Le
Corbusier in his later buildings.
▪ Used to describe massive modern architecture built of
reinforced concrete, with the concrete’s rough,
abrasive surfaces left exposed.
Art and Architecture Building, Yale University. Paul Rudolph.
High Tech
▪ Using the technology of building in a highly expressive
way.
▪ Pioneered by Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, and
Renzo Piano.
Centre Pompidou, Paris. Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. (The innards of the building are placed on the exterior.)
Millenium Dome, London. Richard Rogers. (Spans 80,000 sq.m.; largest fabric-covered structure in the world.)
HSBC Building, Hong Kong. Norman Foster. (Mechanical ducts are kept hidden; prefers a slick, clean skin of metal
and glass that is articulated by structure.)
Deconstructivism
▪ Using bent, angled and exploded forms to represent
the uncertainty of our times.
▪ Drew upon the literary theories of Jacques Derrida,
who holds that “there is no fixed truth but only multiple
interpretations.”
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain. Frank Gehry.
Vitra Fire Station; Weil am Rhein, Germany. Zaha Hadid.
One World Trade Center; New York City. Daniel Libeskind. (The tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.)
Green Architecture
▪ Sustainable design, considering land use,
transportation issues, energy efficiency, indoor
ecology and waste reduction when designing
buildings.
▪ Sustainability, to ensure that our actions and decisions
today do not inhibit the opportunities of future
generations.
Nanyang Technological University; Singapore. CPG Consultants Pte Ltd.
How a building may be “green”
▪ Using materials for healthier buildings
▪ Gaining energy efficiency through systems and siting
End of Module 2
▪ Greening the architectural for..

Part 3