MODERN ARCHITECTURE

ABHIJIT NATU, LECTURE ON 27.6.2011

Frank Lloyd Wrigt

 Buildings were spatial in intention and effect

and not like Sullivan’s humanistic ally
sculptural.
 Important characteristics
 Open, horizontal extended plans
 Element of continuity (fluid spatial quality)
Robbie House (1908-09)

Open horizontally extended plans

Stabilized at centers by fireplace mass
Interior space carried outwards by porches and
Terraces (integration and continuity)
Revolt against Art Noveau

 Rationalism
 Rejection of principle of Continuity in building
forms (naturalistic).
 The New European forms of the beginning of
20th Century generally expressed the
separateness between man and nature.
 Expression of machine aesthetic.
August Perret

 Claimed rigid
technological
determinism for his
work in concrete
 Paradox – continuity of
form was so natural to
Church of Notre Dame at Le Raincy concrete.
(1923)
Rectangular skeleton
Solid / perforated panels can be easily
precast and set within the frame
Comparing Horta’s Maison de Peuple with
Otto Wagner’s Post office at Vienna(1904)

Horta’s Maison de Peuple (Art Noveau) Otto Wagner’s Post Office at Vienna (1904)
Continuity in form Linearity is now taut and hard
Naturalistic Despite the curve of the ceiling there is
articulation , distinctness of different components
in the building (edges expressed clearly)
Seeking a machined and not an organic character.
Adolf Loos

 Ornament is Crime
(revolt against
Classical)
 Architecture based
upon hard abstract
principles.

Muller House
Peter Behrens

 Revolutionary German Architect.

 Romantic dramatization of machined
materials
 Awesomely scaled geometry of romantic
classic forms
Turbine Factory by Peter
Behrens (1909)
 Steel bents are
exposed at sides and
their profile makes the
shape of the massive
gable.
 Massive courses of
masonry walls
 Taut curtain of metal
and glass.