Architectural, Engineering And

Planning Appreciation

Course Code: CE 1212

Lecture No: 03

Presented by-
Nadira Islam Nila
Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering
Northern University of Business & Technology Khulna
 Modern Architecture:
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or
architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction,
particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form should
follow function (functionalism); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of
ornament.

Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th century from revolutions in
technology, engineering, and building materials, and from a desire to break away from
historical architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new.

The revolution in materials came first, with the use of cast iron, drywall, plate glass, and
reinforced concrete, to build structures that were stronger, lighter, and taller.
 The cast plate glass process was invented in
1848, allowing the manufacture of very large
windows. The Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton
at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early
example of iron and plate glass construction,
followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal
curtain wall.

Figure: Crystal Palace

These developments together led to the first steel-framed

skyscraper, the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago,
built in 1884 by William Le Baron Jenney.

Figure: Home Insurance Building

The iron frame construction of the Eiffel Tower, then the tallest
structure in the world, captured the imagination of millions of
visitors to the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition.

French industrialist François Coignet was the first to use iron-

reinforced concrete, that is, concrete strengthened with iron bars,
as a technique for constructing buildings. In 1853 Coagent built
the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four-story house in
the suburbs of Paris
Figure: Eiffel Tower

Figure: Francois Coignet

 Skyscrapers:
At the end of the 19th century, the first skyscrapers began to appear in the United States.
They were a response to the shortage of land and high cost of real estate in the center of
the fast-growing American cities, and the availability of new technologies, including
fireproof steel frames and improvements in the safety elevator invented by Elisha Otis in
1852.

The first steel-framed "skyscraper", The Home Insurance Building in

Chicago, was ten stories high. It was designed by William Le Baron
Jenney in 1883, and was briefly the tallest building in the world.

Figure: Home Insurance

Building
Louis Sullivan built another monumental new structure, the Carson, Pirie, Scott and
Company Building, in the heart of Chicago in 1904–06. While these buildings were
revolutionary in their steel frames and height, their decoration was borrowed from Neo-
Renaissance, Neo-Gothic and Beaux-Arts architecture.

Figure: Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building

 International Style:
The International Style or internationalism is a major architectural style that was
developed in the 1920s and 1930s and was closely related to modernism and modernist
architecture. It was first defined by Museum of Modern Art curators Henry-Russell
Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932, based on works of architecture from the 1920s. The
terms rationalist architecture and modern movement are often used interchangeably with
International Style, although the former is mostly used in the English-speaking world to
specifically refer to the Italian rationalism, or even the International Style that developed in
Europe as a whole.

It is defined by the Getty Research Institute as “the style of architecture that emerged in
Holland, France, and Germany after World War I and spread throughout the world,
becoming the dominant architectural style until the 1970s. The style is characterized by an
emphasis on volume over mass, the use of lightweight, mass-produced, industrial
materials, rejection of all ornament and colour, repetitive modular forms, and the use
of flat surfaces, typically alternating with areas of glass.”
Common characteristics of the International Style include:

 A radical simplification of form,

 A rejection of ornament, and adoption of glass, steel and concrete as preferred materials.

Further, the transparency of buildings, construction (called the honest expression of

structure), and acceptance of industrialized mass-production techniques contributed to the
international style's design philosophy.

Finally, the machine aesthetic, and logical design decisions leading to support building
function were used by the International architect to create buildings reaching beyond
historicism.
The ideals of the style are commonly summed up in three slogans:

 Ornament is a crime,
 Truth to materials,
 Form follows function;

Le Corbusier's description: "A

house is a machine to live in"

Figure: Staatliches Bauhaus

Figure: Schocken Department Stores Figure: Philadelphia Saving Fund
Society (PSFS) Building
Figure: Villa Tugendhat
Figure: Lovell House or Lovell Health House
 Expressionist Architecture:
Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement in Europe during the first
decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts
that especially developed and dominated in Germany.

Brick Expressionism is a special variant of this

movement in western and northern Germany, as
well as in the Netherlands (where it is known as
the Amsterdam School).

Figure: Einstein Tower

 Characteristics of Expressionist Architecture
Expressionist architecture was individualistic and in many ways eschewed aesthetic dogma,
but it is still useful to develop some criteria which defines it. Though containing a great
variety and differentiation, many points can be found as recurring in works of Expressionist
architecture, and are evident in some degree in each of its works:

 Distortion of form for an emotional effect.

 Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.

 An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary.

 Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of concepts
more important than pragmatic finished products.
 Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.

 Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lightning, crystal and
rock formations. As such it is more mineral and elemental than florid and organic which
characterized its close contemporary Art Nouveau.

 Uses creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.

 Tendency more towards the Gothic than the Classical architecture. Expressionist
architecture also tends more towards the Romanesque and the Rococo than the classical.

 Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as eastern as western. It draws as much

from Moorish, Islamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as from Roman or
Greek.

 Conception of architecture as a work of art.

Figure: Water tower in Poznań
 Materials of Expressionist Architecture
A recurring concern of expressionist architects was the use of materials and how they
might be poetically expressed. Often, the intention was to unify the materials in a building
so as to make it monolithic.
The collaboration of Bruno Taut and the utopian poet Paul Scheerbart attempted to
address the problems of German society by a doctrine of glass architecture.
The Glass Pavilion was a brightly colored landmark of the
exhibition, constructed using concrete and glass. The dome had
a double glass outer layer with colored glass prisms on the
inside and reflective glass on the outside. The facade had inlaid
colored glass plates that acted as mirrors.
The purpose of the building was to demonstrate the potential of
different types of glass for architecture. It also indicated how
the material might be used to orchestrate human emotions and
assist in the construction of a spiritual utopia. Figure: Glass Pavilion
Another example of expressionist use of monolithic materials was by Erich Mendelsohn
at the Einstein Tower. Not to be missed was a pun on the tower's namesake, Einstein, and
an attempt to make the building out of one stone, that is, Ein Stein.
The exterior was originally conceived in
concrete, but due to construction difficulties
with the complex design and shortages from the
war, much of the building was actually realized
in brick, covered with stucco. Because the
material was changed during construction of the
building, the designs were not updated to
accommodate them. This caused many
problems, such as cracking and dampness.
Extensive repair work had to be done only five
years after the initial construction, overseen by Figure: Einstein Tower
Mendelsohn himself. Since then numerous
renovations have been done periodically.
Brick was used in a similar fashion to express the inherent nature of the material. Josef
Franke produced some characteristic expressionist churches in the Ruhrgebiet in the 1920s.
Bruno Taut used brick as a way to show mass and repetition in his Berlin housing estate
"Legien-Stadt". In the same way as their Arts and Crafts movement predecessors, to
expressionist architects, populism, naturalism, and according to Pehnt "Moral and
sometimes even irrational arguments were adduced in favor of building in brick"

Figure: St. Reinold's Church

 Green Architecture
In the last decade there has emerged a strong interest in developing “green” architecture –
designs that incorporate ecologically and environmentally sustainable practices in site
preparation, materials, energy use and waste systems.

Some are simple: buildings oriented to the south or west helps with passive solar heating.
Others are more complex: Solar voltaic cells on the roof to generate power to the
building.

Green roofs are made of sod and other organic material and act as a cooling agent and
recycle rainwater too. In addition, technological innovations in lighting, heating and
cooling systems have made them more efficient.
 Materials Used in Green Architecture
The materials used in green architecture are those that encourage good thermal
performance, energy efficiency, water efficiency, resource management and save
general construction costs. The materials long-term effects on the environment are a
key criterion for selection.

The following list provides a guide to the types of materials which are suitable for green
building. The best materials are those which combine several of these features; materials
like Accoya modified wood.

This is sustainable, durable, manufacture is resource efficient, it is made from

renewable material and it is non-toxic. Materials like these are the mainstay of the most
ecological builds and their use helps towards obtaining certification such as LEED.
 Principles of Green Architecture
1. Energy efficiency

The principles of green architecture incorporate various measures that encourage energy
efficiency. It is done through designs that cut down energy consumption including the
energy requirements for energy use and the exploitation of alternative and sustainable
energy sources such as wind and solar.

For instance, green architecture takes care of natural air flow patterns and natural lighting
to reduce the needs for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning; and artificial daytime
lighting respectively. The designs simply insist on reducing the lifetime costs of heating,
lighting, air condition and other electric power usage requirements.
2. Water efficiency

Green architecture works with the inspiration of ecological surrounding to protect water
quality and reduce water consumption or wastage. It is part of the sustainable principles in
green construction which encourage the efficient use of water.

This green architecture principle makes certain that water is harvested, used, purified and
re-used during the entire construction period. At the same time, the architectural design
ensures that in the entire life cycle of the building not only supports efficient water use but
also preserves the quality of surrounding water systems and makes use of water recycling
mechanisms.
3. Land use efficiency

Land use efficiency pertains to architectural designs that encourage suitable site
development in terms of preservation of the surrounding environment and reuse of
existing local materials. It advocates for the incorporation of roof gardens, earth shelters
and extensive landscaping around and throughout the building.

4. Low environmental impact and conservation of natural

characteristics

Construction projects are proven to be responsible for more than 50% of environmental
impacts and the destruction of natural systems. Construction projects also contribute to
about 10% of the total global emissions every year. One of the principles of green
architecture is to therefore use green designs to lessen these environmental impacts.
Particularly, this green principle is all about preventing degradation of the site during
construction, sprawl management, and the controlled use of resources as well as ensuring
energy-efficient buildings lessen the overall impacts on the environment. The design aids
in the conservation of natural resources, improved water and air quality, and the
protection of ecosystems and biodiversity.

5. Material efficiency
The proper management and use of materials in construction is also another huge
concern. Proper construction techniques have to be employed and this is where green
architecture comes in. As such, material efficiency is one of the green architecture
principles as it creates designs that inspire sustainable construction by optimizing the
construction operations. Material efficiency as a green architectural principle sees to it
that the lifetime of the building enhances efficiency in terms of maintenance and
operations. Energy efficiency and resource conservation are the aspects incorporated in
the designs to guarantee overall material efficiency.
6. Low maintenance costs
As stated earlier, the operational and construction costs associated with the conventional
construction mechanisms prove quite high and are equally material demanding. Green
architectural design facilitates the use of materials and construction techniques that help in
cutting back the operational and construction costs by more than half, all attributed to their
cost-effectiveness.

This green architecture principle necessitates the need of using renewable plant products,
recycled metal and recycled stone among other non-toxic products. Renewable and
reusable products ensure high performance while at the same time reducing the long-term
maintenance costs.
7. Waste reduction
Green architecture advances the demand for reducing the wastage of water, energy, and
materials during and even after construction. On this basis, the green architectural design
offer easier ways of reducing the amount of consumer product wastage generated by the
building occupants through the integration of on-site solutions like compost bins and eco-
friendly waste management system. The design also takes care of water recycling and
energy saving approaches in construction to reduce water and energy wastage respectively.

8. Use of renewable energy

Among the green architecture principles is the use of renewable energy. This principle
ideally works to make renewable energy part of the architectural design or a highly
recommended feature. The use of wind power, solar energy and biogas are examples of
renewable energy technologies which are often included in the green architecture designs.
The architects are keen at tailoring the designs based on the geographical locations to take
full advantage of the available renewable energy. For instance, green oriented architects
design buildings to fully utilize the seasonal changes in the sun’s position and other
regional renewable energy sources such as wind and biomass.

9. Indoor environmental quality

Indoor environmental quality is also part of the green architecture principles. The designing
of a house or commercial building based on the green principles involves the features of
comfortable interior space with an emphasis on natural temperature control, proper
ventilation and the use of products that do not give off toxic compounds or gases. The
purpose of the principle is to assure the quality of indoor environments.
Thank you