STRUCTURAL

RATIONALISM

& PROBLEMS OF

ORNAMENTA-

TION IN

MODERN MODERN

PERIOD

Voillet- le-Duc

� According to him-“In architecture there are two

necessary ways of being true.It must be true according to the

programTo be true according to the program is

to fulfill exactly and simply the conditions imposed by need.

& it must be true according to the method of construction.

This is to employ the materials according to their qualities and properties, purely questions of symmetry and apparent form are only secondary condition in the presence of our dominant principles.”

� For Viollet-le Duc , these principles clearly precluded the architectural tradition of French Classical Rationalism.

� In place of an ‘abstract’ international style he advocated a return to regional style he advocated a return to regional building.

� His illustration to the Entretiens, which in some aspects anticipated Art Nouveau, ostensibly indicated the kind of architecture that would evolve from his principle of Structural Rationalism.

� He proffered not only models but also methods which would free architecture from the eclectic irrelevancies of historicism.

� In this way, his Entretiens came to serve as an inspiration to the avant garde of the last quarter of 19th century.

� His methods penetrated to those European countries where French cultural influence was strong but cultural influence was strong but tradition of classicism was weak.

� Eventually his ideas spread even to England, where they influenced men such as Sir Gorge Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse and even Norman Shaw.

� Outside France his thesis, in particular its implicit cultural nationalism, had its most pronounced impact on the works of Antonio Gaudi, Victor Horta, and Hendrik Petrus Berlage.

Ornamentation

� There is an old debate in the history of architecture concerning the relative primacy of formal and structural invention

� On one side are those who see major revolutions in style as the direct result of new materials and methods of construction &,

� On the other hand are those who argue that changes in world-views or aesthetic intention changes in world-views or aesthetic intention adapt techniques to their expressive aim.

� Many believed ‘Art Nouveau was actually the first stage of modern architecture in Europe, if modern architecture be understood as implying primarily the total rejection of historicism’.

� It was a major step towards the intellectual and stylistic emancipation of modern architecture.

� Art nouveau proposed fresh inventions exploiting the lightness and airiness permitted by glass and metal construction and drawing inspiration from nature instead of ponderous monumentality

� Viollet-le-Duc, formulated model of architectural history linking the frank expression of building construction and materials to the progressive march of history.

� He was increasingly aware of the impact of new materials like iron impact of new materials like iron and plate glass .

� He felt that the nineteenth century must try to formulate its own style by finding forms appropriate to the new techniques, and to altered social and economic conditions.

� Mackmurdo’s design can be said to be the start of a sequence.

� It was an early manifestation of a broad shift in sensibility.

� It could also be sensed in such � It could also be sensed in such diverse examples as the ornamental designs of Louis Sullivan, Antonio Gaudi, and William Burges.

� A consolidation did not occur until the early 1890s, in the work of Victor Horta, which seemed a three- dimensional equivalent to the painter’s two-dimensional linear inventiveness.

Victor Horta

� Born in 1861 in Ghent� Studied art and architecture at the

local academy.� Worked with an architect by the

name of Jules Debuysson in ParisEntered Ecole des Beaux-Arts in � Entered Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Brussels

� Became a draughtsman for a minor neo-classical architect, Alphonse Balat

� In mid 1880s he designed some uninteresting houses in Brussels.

Horta’s hotel Tassel

� Synthesis of architecture and the decorative art and its declaration of new formal principles.

� With this Horta became one of the first architects to make an extensive use of iron in domestic architecture.

� Narrow fronted building.

� Three storied

� Bald façade with bowing central volume

� Restrained use of stonework

� There was a discreet introduction of an exposed iron beam-this in the ample space of the stairwell.

� He treated iron as though it were an organic filament insinuated into the fabric.

� Principal innovation lay in the frank expression of metal structure.

� Emphasis was on the direct use of a modern material & the inspiration of natural forms for the metal ornament, recall Viollet-le-Duc ’s exploration in iron

Vollet-le-Duc’ s proposal for a wrought iron bracket, 1863-72

Hotel Tassel

Tendril like

ornamentation

VegetalVegetalVegetalVegetal

shapes for:shapes for:shapes for:shapes for:

WallpaperWallpaperWallpaperWallpaper

Banisters

Floor mosaicFloor mosaicFloor mosaicFloor mosaic

Extension of style…

� He designed a number of town halls in Brussels in the 1890s.

� The props for the mood were the spacious stairwells, the long internal vistas through dinning rooms and over winter gardens

� The rich contrasts of colored glass, silk stuffs, gold, bronze, and exposed metal, and vegetal forms.

� Horta’s buildings never lapsed into mere theatricality

� There were always a tense, underlying formal order

Hotel Solvay

� In the Hotel Solvay in 1895-1900, his newly found style was successfully carried through in all aspects of through in all aspects of the design

� This included the linking of the interior volumes and the treatment of façade

� the façade had a display of appropriate linear ornament

The Maison du Peuple

� Built for the Belgian Workers’ Socialist party in 1897-1900

� Most original work of Horta’s careerHorta’s career

� The only one in which he seems to have felt free to pursue the principles of Viollet-le-Duc to their logical conclusion.

� Here native brick and stone vernacular was brilliantly exploited to create an architecture of revealed construction

� The façade combined convex and concave curvesand concave curves

� Visible iron skeleton� This was every bit as ‘radical’ as

Sullivan’s contemporary skyscraper design in Chicago

� This treatment was inspired by earlier nineteenth century engineering structure like train-sheds and exhibition building

� There is emphasis on lighting the interiors, this was achieved by the choice of materials, through infill panes of glass.

Details of façade Maison du Peuple

Convex curveConvex curveConvex curveConvex curve Concave CurveConcave CurveConcave CurveConcave Curve

Entrance on shorter convex Entrance on shorter convex Entrance on shorter convex Entrance on shorter convex

protrusionprotrusionprotrusionprotrusion

Visible iron skeletonVisible iron skeletonVisible iron skeletonVisible iron skeleton

Extensive use of glassExtensive use of glassExtensive use of glassExtensive use of glass

Exposed steel framework for all Exposed steel framework for all Exposed steel framework for all Exposed steel framework for all

major volumes: the offices, major volumes: the offices, major volumes: the offices, major volumes: the offices,

meeting rooms, lecture theatersmeeting rooms, lecture theatersmeeting rooms, lecture theatersmeeting rooms, lecture theaters

Auditorium Maison du Peuple

HammerHammerHammerHammer----beam system in beam system in beam system in beam system in

steelsteelsteelsteel

Side walls and fenestrationsSide walls and fenestrationsSide walls and fenestrationsSide walls and fenestrations----

reduced to thin infill screensreduced to thin infill screensreduced to thin infill screensreduced to thin infill screens

Ceiling ingeniously corrugated to Ceiling ingeniously corrugated to Ceiling ingeniously corrugated to Ceiling ingeniously corrugated to

control reverberationscontrol reverberationscontrol reverberationscontrol reverberations

The A l’Innovation Departmental Store

� Horta’s experimentation with iron and steel was continued in this project in 1901

� Here materials were chosen for their capacity for large internal their capacity for large internal spans and wide openings

� practical consideration were again transcended in a façade composition

� Delicate screens and large plates of glass provided a forward-looking image to a relatively new building type

� Similar to the work of Louis Sullivan

Style liberty…

� The full triumph of the new style in the public taste was clearly evident at the Paris exhibition of 1900and the Turin Exhibition of 1902

� Here ‘Art Nouveau’ or the ‘Style � Here ‘Art Nouveau’ or the ‘Style Liberty’ was dominant

� While one ideal of Art Nouveau was the perfectly crafted and unified interior, the style also revealed its possibilities for much broader public applications

� Most notable of these were Hector Guimard’s design for the Paris Metro.

Hector Guimard

� Like Horta, Guimard passed through the academy

� Had been at the Ecole des Beaux-Art from 1885 to the Beaux-Art from 1885 to the early 1890s

� At the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs from 1882 to 1885 he had become acquainted with Viollet-le-Duc’s Rationalism

� He reinterpreted it in a highly personal way.

Paris Metro

� Began in 1900� Naturally inspired forms were

used to create arches and furnishing in iron

� These were then mass-� These were then mass-produced from moulds

� Over the next four years, these apparently natural emanations from the subterranean world erupted in the streets of Paris

� This made Guimard notorious as the creator of the ‘Style Metro’.

Interchangeable Interchangeable Interchangeable Interchangeable

standard iron pieces, standard iron pieces, standard iron pieces, standard iron pieces,

cast in the form of cast in the form of cast in the form of cast in the form of

naturalistic elementsnaturalistic elementsnaturalistic elementsnaturalistic elements

Enameled steelEnameled steelEnameled steelEnameled steel

Glass Glass Glass Glass

Front- Paris Metro Station

Side elevation Front elevation

Art nouveau continues…

� In the hands of major talents, Art Nouveau was far more than a change in architectural dress

� It was far more than a new system of decoration

� In the best work of Horta, Guimard, the very anatomy and spatial the very anatomy and spatial character of architecture were fundamentally transformed.

� Their forms were usually tightly constrained by functional discipline

� Also by a Rationalist tendency to express structure and material

� Furthermore, each artist in his own way attempted to embody a social vision and to enhance the institution for which he built

Antonio Gaudi

� Similar points can be made for the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi

� His achievements seems to have sprung from two have sprung from two rather antithetical impulses,

� The desire to revive indigenous architecture &,

� The compulsion to create totally new forms of expression

� Born in 1852� Earliest work date from

1870s� They indicate his reaction They indicate his reaction

against the prevalent Neo-gothic

� Inspiration for his early designs are clearly medieval

� Immediately after his graduation he had been involved with the Mataro Workers’ co-operative, who commissioned him to design a workers settlement comprising houses, a community structure and a houses, a community structure and a workshop—of which only the last was built in 1878.

� Gaudi began to work for the bourgeoisie, building the exotic Casa Vicens in a quasi-Moorish style in 1878.

� In Casa Vicens Gaudi first formulated the essence of his style

� Which while Gothic in structural principle was Mediterranean

Palau Guell, Barcelona

� AS Casa Vicens had been built around a conservatory, so the Palau Guell was built around a music room, an organ loft and chapel

� The interiors were transformed into spaces of an almost ecclesiasticalcharacter

� The façade were elaborately ornamented with wave-like ironwork

� This preceding Horta’s experiment by a few years

� Gaudi’s style, like Guimard’s was in part an abstraction of medieval form

Interior Palau GuellInterior Palau Guell

Casa Mila, Barcelona

� 1905-10� Swirling curve façade� Even interior spaces and the

plan –curve� The elevation in is in constant � The elevation in is in constant

motion� Sophisticated ornamentation

and stone-cutting� Contrived texture of the ledges

give impression of gradual errosion

Elevation constant motionElevation constant motionElevation constant motionElevation constant motionDeepDeepDeepDeep----cut, overlapping ledgescut, overlapping ledgescut, overlapping ledgescut, overlapping ledges

Casa Mila, Barcelona

� As in the Park Guell, the articulation of the structure has been sacrificed to the evocation of some primal force

� Nothing could have been further from Violett-le-Duc from Violett-le-Duc

� For neither the fabric nor its mode of assembly was explicitly rendered

� Departing from the principles of Violett-le-Duc, Gaudi finally transformed his ideas to powerful images.

The main terrace is The main terrace is The main terrace is The main terrace is

supported by a supported by a supported by a supported by a

hypostyle hallhypostyle hallhypostyle hallhypostyle hall

Hollow concrete columns with Hollow concrete columns with Hollow concrete columns with Hollow concrete columns with

drains running through their drains running through their drains running through their drains running through their

Curved buttresses textured with Curved buttresses textured with Curved buttresses textured with Curved buttresses textured with

scales suggest the form of somescales suggest the form of somescales suggest the form of somescales suggest the form of some

trees or some natural origin of trees or some natural origin of trees or some natural origin of trees or some natural origin of

gothic flyinggothic flyinggothic flyinggothic flying buttressesbuttressesbuttressesbuttresses

Beast like benches embedded with Beast like benches embedded with Beast like benches embedded with Beast like benches embedded with

fragments of colored tile mark off fragments of colored tile mark off fragments of colored tile mark off fragments of colored tile mark off

the edge of stepped terracesthe edge of stepped terracesthe edge of stepped terracesthe edge of stepped terraces----these these these these

offering views over the cityoffering views over the cityoffering views over the cityoffering views over the city

drains running through their drains running through their drains running through their drains running through their

corescorescorescores

Problems-Art Nouveau

� One of the complaints was that its proposition relied too completely on a subjective approachThey were not geared � They were not geared sufficiently to the ideal of designing types for standardized mass production

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

� Mackintosh is important because of the imaginative force of his own design

� Particularly the Glasgow School of Art

� He is also important because his � He is also important because his development encapsulated the path beyond Art Nouveau.

� This led towards a more sober form of expression

� In this broad dispositions of simple masses and sequence of dynamic spaces was stressed.

� His style emerged independently of Horta’s but from loosely similar sources and concerns

� In 1897 he won a competition to design the new School of Art in Glasgow

School of Art in Glasgow

� Stands on an almost impossible slope

� Two tiers of studios along north side

� Modeling room, the architecture � Modeling room, the architecture school, and the design and composition room facing east and west director’s room and studio were placed over the entrance

� Museum was set to the rear of the scheme

� The richness of scheme arose from the sequence of room of different sizes

� From the orchestration of different qualities of light

� And from the clever overlapping of � And from the clever overlapping of down the slope in section

� And also from the way the stairs, corridors, and display rooms were modeled as if from a continuous volume of space

� Windows, walls, chimneys, steel brackets and other functional elements were handled with uncompromised directness.

� There is a tense interplay between solid and void, mass and plane

Entrance Entrance Entrance Entrance

emphasized by a emphasized by a emphasized by a emphasized by a

cluster of motifs cluster of motifs cluster of motifs cluster of motifs

and an archand an archand an archand an arch

Ironwork on the exterior, in the Ironwork on the exterior, in the Ironwork on the exterior, in the Ironwork on the exterior, in the

railing and in the cleaning railing and in the cleaning railing and in the cleaning railing and in the cleaning

brackets on the main windowbrackets on the main windowbrackets on the main windowbrackets on the main window

Direct handling of glass and metalDirect handling of glass and metalDirect handling of glass and metalDirect handling of glass and metal————frank frank frank frank

evocation of industrial technologyevocation of industrial technologyevocation of industrial technologyevocation of industrial technology

Chiseled abstract shapesChiseled abstract shapesChiseled abstract shapesChiseled abstract shapes

Austere vertical windows on the Austere vertical windows on the Austere vertical windows on the Austere vertical windows on the

outsideoutsideoutsideoutside————supplemented by rectangular supplemented by rectangular supplemented by rectangular supplemented by rectangular

brackets in the interior of reading roombrackets in the interior of reading roombrackets in the interior of reading roombrackets in the interior of reading room

Later became centre for Later became centre for Later became centre for Later became centre for

modern movementmodern movementmodern movementmodern movement

Glasgow School of art, interior of library

modern movementmodern movementmodern movementmodern movement

Otto Wagner

� In 1895 Wagner published Moderne Architektur

� In this he spoke of the need for architecture to orient itself to ‘modern life’

� He argued that the new style should be a ‘realist’ oneshould be a ‘realist’ one

� Which seems to have implied a direct expression of the means of construction;

� An admiration for modern techniques and material

� And responsive to the changing aspirations of the society

� He insisted that ‘new purpose should give birth to new methods of construction, and by this reasoning new forms’

Vienna Post Office Savings Bank

� 1904-06� We enter an entirely different world

from that of Art Nouveau� A world in which nuts and bolts

rationality, and a stable and dignified order have replaced the dynamic tendrils and curvaceous effectstendrils and curvaceous effects

� Wagner has invoked and subverted norms of monumentality in his solution

� Façades themselves were covered with thin marble sheets with bolt-heads expressed and dramatized by shiny aluminum caps

� The ‘modernity’ of Wagner’s solution relied upon the freshness and luminosity of his institutional interpretations and his radical reinterpretation of pre-existing norms for public architecture

Slender metallic columns Slender metallic columns Slender metallic columns Slender metallic columns

of the entrance canopyof the entrance canopyof the entrance canopyof the entrance canopy

Bathed with natural lightBathed with natural lightBathed with natural lightBathed with natural light

Vienna Post Office Savings Bank

Josef Hoffmann

Protruding volumes in Protruding volumes in Protruding volumes in Protruding volumes in

facadefacadefacadefacade

Balanced but Balanced but Balanced but Balanced but

asymmetricalasymmetricalasymmetricalasymmetrical

Stepped stairStepped stairStepped stairStepped stair----

tower tower tower tower ------------main main main main

Palais Stoclet, Brussels 1905-11

tower tower tower tower ------------main main main main

emphasisemphasisemphasisemphasis

Bow Bow Bow Bow

windowswindowswindowswindows

Adolph Loos

� Moved towards rectilinear and volumetric simplification which was even more drastic than Hoffman

� He admired simplicity and directness of peasant architecture and even of modern architecture

� He declared ‘to seek beauty only in form and not in ornament is the goal to which all humanity is striving’

� In his few house designs of that period he reduced the external vocabulary to rectangular stucco boxes punctured by simple openings

� Without even the reminiscence of a cornice or a plinth.

Plan elevation

Effect relied on the adroit placement of large plateEffect relied on the adroit placement of large plateEffect relied on the adroit placement of large plateEffect relied on the adroit placement of large plate----glass glass glass glass

window in undercoated planar surfacewindow in undercoated planar surfacewindow in undercoated planar surfacewindow in undercoated planar surface

Steiner House in Vienna

Modern Architecture

� The notion of a ‘modern architecture’ was rooted in developments of the late eighteenth century.

� The very conception of ‘modern architecture’ implied a frank engagement with the new social and technological with the new social and technological realities brought about by industrialization.

� Its very notion contradicted traditional views of design which relied upon an overt use of past models in the genesis of forms.

� It also implied that the rejection of superficial imitation of past forms, and a more ‘direct’ and ‘honest’ portrayal of the contemporary world

� ‘Modern Architecture was a ‘direct’ expression of function and structure.

The Advent…

� The historical process which led to the creation of the modern movement had no clear beginning which can be pinpointed with precision. There were a number of predisposing causes and strands of ideas, each with its own pedigree.

� The critical synthesis began the turn of the � The critical synthesis began the turn of the century.

� It followed that revivals should be regarded as failures to establish a true expression.

� There was a loss of confidence in the renaissance tradition and the theories which had supported it—this led to the birth of progressive ideals

� A split of sorts was created between engineering and architecture, with the former often appearing more inventive and responsive to contemporary needs.

� Another major force in the creation of the ideas of modern architecture was the Industrial Revolution.

� It created new patrons, generated new problems, supplied new methods of construction (e.g. in iron), and suggested new forms.

� Industrialization transformed the very pattern of life � Industrialization transformed the very pattern of life in country and city

� It led to the proliferation of new building task—railways stations, suburban houses, skyscrapers—for which there was no obvious convention or precedent.

� Industrialization also disrupted the world of crafts and hastened the collapse of vernacular traditions.

� Local vernaculars were gradually invaded by standardized system in iron, glass and steel- this in the end of the nineteenth century.

� Industrialization also created new economic structures and centers of power. Where the patronage of architecture in the eighteenth-century Europe had relied principally on the Church, the state, and the aristocracy, it came increasingly to rely on the wealth and purposes of the new middle classes.purposes of the new middle classes.

� A major theme of modern architecture in the early twentieth century would be the reform of the materialistic city, and its replacement by a supposedly more humane and harmonic order enriched through contact with ‘nature’.

� With new materials came new ideas and beliefs which finally led us to a distinct period called ‘Modern’.

� It was different from Art Nouveau, different from Rationalism. although these played a role in getting us today where we are in architecture