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Early Modern architecture

Further information: Modern architecture

Early Modern architecture began with a number of building styles with similarcharacteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, thatfirst arose around 1900. By the 1940s these styles had largely consolidated and beenidentified as the International Style.

The exact characteristics and origins of modern architecture are still open to interpretationand debate. An important trigger appears to have been the maxim credited to LouisSullivan: "form follows function". Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle thatarchitects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement isless self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy withinthe profession, particularly in regard to modern architecture.

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and an absence ofapplied decoration. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exactdefinition and scope varying widely.[1] In a broader sense, early modern architecture beganat the turn of the 20th century with efforts to reconcile the principles underlyingarchitectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization ofsociety. It would take the form of numerous movements, schools of design, andarchitectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying suchclassification.[1]

The concept of modernism is a central theme in these efforts. Gaining popularity after theSecond World War, architectural modernism was adopted by many influential architectsand architectural educators, and continues as a dominant architectural style for institutionaland corporate buildings into the 21st century. Modernism eventually generated reactions,most notably Postmodernism which sought to preserve pre-modern elements, whileNeomodernism emerged as a reaction to Postmodernism.

Notable architects important to the history and development of the modernist movementinclude Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, LouisSullivan, Oscar Niemeyer and Alvar Aalto.

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Contrasts in modern architecture, as shown by adjacent high-rises in Chicago, Illinois. IBMPlaza (right), by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is a later example of the clean rectilinear linesand glass of the International Style, whereas Marina City, (left), by his student BertrandGoldberg, reflects a more sculptural Mid-Century Modern aesthetic.

Characteristics

The Salk Institute complex in La Jolla, California, by architect Louis Kahn.

Common themes of modern architecture include:

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the notion that "Form follows function", a dictum originally expressed by Frank LloydWright's early mentor Louis Sullivan, meaning that the result of design should derive directlyfrom its purpose

simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of "unnecessary detail" visual expression of structure (as opposed to the hiding of structural elements) the related concept of "Truth to materials", meaning that the true nature or natural

appearance of a material ought to be seen rather than concealed or altered to representsomething else

use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine aesthetic particularly in International Style modernism, a visual emphasis on horizontal and vertical

lines

Early modernism

The Crystal Palace, 1851, was one of the first buildings to have vast amounts of glass supported bystructural metal, foreshadowing trends in Modernist architecture.

There are multiple lenses through which the evolution of modern architecture may beviewed. Some historians see it as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernityand thus the Enlightenment. Modern architecture developed, in their opinion, as a result ofsocial and political revolutions.[2] Others see Modern architecture as primarily driven bytechnological and engineering developments. Still other historians regard Modernism as amatter of taste, a reaction against eclecticism and the lavish stylistic excesses of Victorianand Edwardian architecture.

With the Industrial Revolution, the availability of newly-available building materials such asiron, steel, and sheet glass drove the invention of new building techniques. In 1796,Shrewsbury mill owner Charles Bage first used his 'fireproof' design, which relied on castiron and brick with flag stone floors. Such construction greatly strengthened the structure ofmills, which enabled them to accommodate much bigger machines. Due to poor knowledgeof iron's properties as a construction material, a number of early mills collapsed. It was notuntil the early 1830s that Eaton Hodgkinson introduced the section beam, leading towidespread use of iron construction. This kind of austere industrial architecture utterlytransformed the landscape of northern Britain, leading to the description of places likeManchester and parts of West Yorkshire as "Dark satanic mills". The Crystal Palace byJoseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early example of iron and glassconstruction, followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall. A further

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development was that of the steel-framed skyscraper in Chicago around 1890 by William LeBaron Jenney and Louis Sullivan.

Around 1900 a number of architects and designers around the world began developing newsolutions to integrate traditional precedents (classicism or Gothic, for instance) with newtechnological possibilities. The work of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago,Victor Horta in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner and the Vienna Secessionin Austria, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as acommon struggle between old and new. The work of some of these were a part of what isbroadly categorized as Art Nouveau ("New Art"). Note that the Russian word for ArtNouveau, "Модерн", and the Spanish word for Art Nouveau, "Modernismo" are cognates ofthe English word "Modern" though they carry different meanings. An early use of the termin print around this time, approaching its later meaning, was in the title of a book by OttoWagner.[3][4] The fallout of the First World War resulted in additional experimentation andideas. Following out of the experiments in Art Nouveau and its related movements aroundthe world, modernism in architecture and design grew out of stylistic threads originatingthroughout world.

In the United States

The Robie House, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois.

Main article: Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright's Larkin Building (1904) in Buffalo, New York, Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park,Illinois, and the Robie House (1910) in Chicago, Illinois were some of the first examples ofmodern architecture in the United States. Frank Lloyd Wright was a major influence onEuropean architects, including both Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) and LudwigMies van der Rohe, as well as on the whole of organic architecture. Gropius claimed that his"bible" for forming the Bauhaus was 100 Frank Lloyd Wright drawings that the architectshared with Germany over a decade prior to this point, the Wasmuth Portfolio. WhileWright's career would parallel that of European architects, he refused to be categorizedwith them, claiming that they copied his ideas.[citation needed] Many architects in Germany[who?]

believed that Wright's life would be wasted in the United States, since the US wasn notready for his newer architecture.[citation needed] During the 1930s, Wright would experimentwith his Usonian ideas for a uniquely U.S. American (i.e. "US-onian") take on modernism. It

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would be several decades before European architects would in turn bring their version ofmodern architecture to the United States.

In Italy: FuturismMain article: Futurist architecture

Futurist architecture began in the early-20th century, characterized by anti-historicism andlong horizontal lines suggesting speed, motion and urgency. Technology and even violencewere among the themes of the Futurists. The movement was founded by the poet FilippoTommaso Marinetti, who produced its first manifesto, the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909.The movement attracted not only poets, musicians, artist (such as Umberto Boccioni,Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, and Enrico Prampolini) but also a number of architects.Among the latter there was Antonio Sant'Elia, who, though he built little (being killed inWWI), translated the Futurist vision into bold urban form. The unbuilt designs and theoriesof Futurists went on to influence both the Constructivists and a branch of Italian Fascistarchitecture.

In Russia: ConstructivismMain article: Constructivist architecture

Following the 1917 revolutions in Russia, the societal upheaval and change was coupledwith a desire for a new aesthetic, one more in keeping with the Communist philosophy andsocietal goals of the new state, in contrast to the ornate Neoclassicism that had prevailedprior. This resulted in a new style, Constructivism.Konstantin Melnikov, a RussianConstructivist architect, designed the Melnikov House (1927-29) near Arbat Street inMoscow.

The style prospered, but fell markedly out of favor during the design competition for thePalace of the Soviets from 1931 to 1933, losing to a more traditional revivalism of Russianarchitecture with nationalistic overtones, afterwards termed Postconstructivism. Thisresulted in the ultimate demise of the Russian branch of early architectural modernism,though not before it had a chance to influence architects elsewhere, such as Le Corbusier.

In Western Europe

Arts and Crafts movement

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The AEG Turbinenfabrik ("turbine factory"), 1909, designed by Peter Behrens, illustrating thecombination of industry and design.

Spanning the gap between the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Modernismof the 1920s, was the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) a Germanassociation of architects, designers and industrialists. It was founded in 1907 in Munich atthe instigation of Hermann Muthesius. Muthesius was the author of a three-volume "TheEnglish House" of 1905, a survey of the practical lessons of the English Arts and Craftsmovement and a leading political and cultural commentator.[5] The purpose of theWerkbund was to sponsor the attempt to integrate traditional crafts with the techniques ofindustrial mass production. The organization originally included twelve architects andtwelve business firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include Peter Behrens, TheodorFischer (who served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann and Richard Riemerschmid.Joseph August Lux, an Austrian-born critic, helped formulate its agenda.[6]

As a result of isolation during World War I, an art and design movement developed uniqueto the Netherlands, known as De Stijl (literally "the style"), characterized by its use of lineand primary colors. While producing little architectural design overall (with notableexception of the Rietveld Schröder House of 1924), its ideas went on to influence thearchitects and designers of the 1920s.

Expressionism

The Second Goetheanum, 1924-1928, in Basel, Switzerland, is an example of architecturalExpressionism.

Main article: Expressionist architecture

Expressionism was an architectural movement that developed in Northern Europe duringthe first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performingarts. Making notable use of sculptural forms and the novel use of concrete as artisticelements, examples include Rudolf Steiner's Second Goetheanum, built from 1926 nearBasel, Switzerland and the Einsteinturm in Potsdam, Germany.

The style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formalinnovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms,sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steeland especially glass. Many expressionist architects fought in World War I and their

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experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed theGerman Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda.[7]

Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between 1914 andthe mid-1920s,[8] resulting in many of the most important expressionist works remaining asprojects on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin'sFormspiels. Ephemeral exhibition buildings were numerous and highly significant during thisperiod. Scenography for theatre and films provided another outlet for the expressionistimagination,[9] and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challengeconventions in a harsh economic climate. A particular type, using bricks to create its forms(rather than concrete) is known as Brick Expressionism.

Modernism reaches critical mass

The Bauhaus building at Dessau, Germany, designed by Walter Gropius

Main articles: New Objectivity (architecture) and Bauhaus

It was at this time, during the 1920s, that the most important figures in Modern architectureestablished their reputations. The big three are commonly recognized as Le Corbusier inFrance, and Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Germany, all of whom trainedunder Peter Behrens.

Gropius and Mies van der Rohe both served as directors of the Bauhaus, one of a number ofEuropean schools and associations concerned with reconciling craft tradition and industrialtechnology. Mies van der Rohe designed the German pavilion (known afterward as theBarcelona Pavilion) at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. Villa Savoye, by LeCorbusier and his cousin, was built from 1928 to 1931. As in Russia, political pressuresturned against the modernists. With the rise of Nazism in 1933, the German experiments inmodernism were replaced by more traditionalist architectural forms.

Style Moderne: tradition and modernism

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Greyhound Bus Station in Cleveland, Ohio, showing the Streamline Moderne aesthetic.

Main articles: Art Deco and Streamline Moderne

Following World War I, a stylistic movement developed that embraced ideas of bothmodernism (or at least modernization) and traditionalism. It is characterized by theadoption of the machine aesthetic, glorification of technological advancement and newmaterials, while at the same time adopting or loosely retaining revivalist forms and motifs,and the continued use of ornament.

In the case of the Art deco, decorative motifs included both those evocative of technology(such as the lightning bolt (electricity) or the tire (the automobile)), and those of the exotic(such as drawing elements from Mesoamerican, African, and Ancient Egyptian designs).Frank Lloyd Wright himself experimented with Mayan Revival, culminating in the concretecube-based Ennis House of 1924 in Los Angeles.

A later variant, Streamline Moderne, simultaneously both played a role in industrial designand borrowed forms from machines themselves.

More restrained forms with national imagery were adopted. In the United States, it took theform of "Stripped Classicism" (alternatively, "PWA Moderne" or "WPA Moderne") a starkversion of the Neoclassicism of Federal buildings earlier in the century.[10] It applicationranged in scale from local post-offices to the Pentagon). At the same time (as noted above),the rise in nationalism was reflected in the Stalinist architecture of the Soviet Union, Fascistarchitecture of Italy, and Nazi architecture of Germany, what historian Kenneth Framptontermed the "New Tradition".[11] To a less political extent, such an idea of modernizedtradition could also be seen in contemporaneous Mycenaean Revival architecture.

During and following World War II, this broad branch of modern architecture declined, withthe rise of the International Style and other mid-century architecture.

Wartime innovation

Quonset hut en route to Japan

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World War II (1939–1945) and its aftermath was a major factor in driving innovation inbuilding technology, and in turn, architectural possibilities.[10][12] The wartime industrialdemands resulting in a supply shortage (of such things as steel and other metals), in turnleading to the adoption of new materials, and advancement or novel use of old ones.Similarly, surplus postwar industrial capacity accelerated the use of new materials andtechniques, particular architectural aluminium (as a result of advances made in its use inaircraft, etc., during the war).[12] At the same time, there was a rapid demand for structuresduring the war (such as military and governmental facilities) as well as for housing after thewar.

These factors encouraged experiments with prefabricated building. Though examples ofprefabrication have existed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, with notableexamples during the Interwar period such as the diner, the semi-circular metal Nissen hut ofWorld War I revived as the Quonset hut, the post-war enameled-steel Lustron house (1947–1950), and Buckminster Fuller's experimental aluminum Dymaxion House.[13]

International Style

The Seagram Building, New York City, 1958, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is regarded as one of thefinest examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a masterpiece of corporate modernism.

Main article: International Style (architecture)

In 1932 (prior to World War II), the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture washeld at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Philip Johnson and collaborator Henry-Russell Hitchcock drew together many distinct threads and trends in architecture, identifiedthem as stylistically similar and having a common purpose, and consolidated them into the

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International style. This was a turning point. However, for the remainder of the Interwarperiod, the Moderne styles overshadowed this movement.

With the labeling of modernist art and architecture in Germany as degenerate, followed byWorld War II, important figures of the Bauhaus and New Objectivity fled to the UnitedStates: Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius went to the Harvard Graduate School of Design(the former becoming part of a group known as the "Harvard Five"), Ludwig Mies van derRohe to Chicago, with others going to Black Mountain College. Still others fled to BritishPalestine, contributing to the design of the White City of Tel Aviv.

While high-style modernist architectural design never became dominant in single-dwellingresidential buildings in the United States, in institutional and commercial architectureModernism became the pre-eminent, and in the schools (for leaders of the architecturalprofession) the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984.[citation needed]

Architects who worked in the International style wanted to break with architecturaltradition and design simple, unornamented buildings. The most commonly used materialsare glass for the facade (usually a curtain wall), steel for exterior support, and concrete forthe floors and interior supports; floor plans were functional and logical. The style becamemost evident in the design of skyscrapers. Perhaps its most famous manifestations includethe United Nations headquarters (Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard Robertson), theSeagram Building and the Toronto-Dominion Centre (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and LeverHouse (Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill).

In the United States, a prominent early residential example was the Lovell House in LosAngeles, designed by Austrian expatriate Richard Neutra in the 1920s. Other examplesinclude the Case Study Houses. Commissioned between 1945 and 1966, the twenty or sohomes that were built primarily in and around Los Angeles, designed by architects such asNeutra and Americans Charles and Ray Eames (the Eames House) have attracted hundredsof thousands of visitors since their completion, and have influenced many architects overthe years, notably the British architect, Michael Manser, whose domestic work is bestexemplified by Capel Manor House in Kent. These and other Modern residences tend tofocus on humanizing the otherwise harsh ideal, making them more livable and ultimatelymore appealing to real people. Many of these designs use a similar tactic: blurring the linebetween indoor and outdoor spaces.[14] This is achieved by embracing "the box" while at thesame time dissolving it into the background with minimal structure and large glass walls, aswas particularly the case with the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe and the GlassHouse by Philip Johnson, the later part of a set of residences by the "Harvard Five" in NewCanaan, Connecticut. Some critics claim that these spaces remain too cold and static for theaverage person to function, however. The materials utilized in a large number of Modernhomes are not hidden behind a softening facade. While this may make them somewhat lessdesirable for the general public, most modernist architects see this as a necessary andpivotal tenet of Modernism: uncluttered and purely Minimal design.[citation needed]

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Urban design and mass housing

National Congress of Brazil, by Oscar Niemeyer, in the modernist-designed city of Brasilia.

This section requires expansion. (March 2011)

Main articles: Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne and Athens Charter

See also: Urban renewal

The Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) was a force in shapingmodernist urban planning, and consequently the design of cities and the structures within,from 1928 to 1959. Its 1933 meeting resulted in the basis of what became the AthensCharter, which would drive urban planning practice for much of the mid-20th century.Following its principles, in the late 1950s the entirely-new city of Brasília was built as a newcapital for Brazil, designed by Lucio Costa, with prominent works for it designed by OscarNiemeyer. Le Corbusier applied CIAM's principles in his design for the city of Chandigarh inIndia.

The devastation that WWII wrought in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific and subsequent post-war housing shortages resulted in a vast building and rebuilding of cities, with a variety oftechniques employed for the creation of mass-housing. One attempt to solve this was byusing the Tower block. In the Eastern Bloc, mass housing took the form of prefabricatedpanel buildings, such as the Plattenbau of East Germany, Khrushchyovka of Russia and thePanelák of Czechoslovakia.

Later modern architecture

Mid-Century reactions

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Saint John's Abbey Church, Collegeville, Minnesota, United States, by Marcel Breuer, 1958-1961

Main article: Mid-Century modern

As the International Style took hold, others architects reacted to or strayed from its purelyfunctionalist forms, while at the same time retaining highly modernist characteristics. EeroSaarinen, Alvar Aalto and Oscar Niemeyer were three of the most prolific architects anddesigners in this movement, which has influenced contemporary modernism.

TWA Terminal, John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, 1962, by Eero Saarinen

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City, illustrating an example of "New Formalism"

Central Library of UNAM, in Mexico City, 1950-1956, showing the detailed artwork of plasticintegration.

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Le Corbusier once described buildings as "machines for living", but people are not machinesand it was suggested that they do not want to live in machines.[citation needed] During themiddle of the century, some architects began experimenting in organic forms that they feltwere more human and accessible. Mid-century modernism, or organic modernism, was verypopular, due to its democratic and playful nature. Expressionist exploration of form wasrevived, such as in the Sydney Opera House in Australia by Jørn Utzon. Eero Saarineninvoked suggestions of flight in his designs for the terminal at Dulles International Airportoutside of Washington, D.C, or the TWA Terminal in New York, both finished in 1962.[15] TheMission 66 project of the United States National Park Service was also built during this time.

Contributing to these expressions were structural advances that enabled new forms to bepossible or desirable. Félix Candela, a Spanish expatriate living in Mexico, and Italianengineer Pier Luigi Nervi, made particular strides in the use of reinforced concrete andconcrete shell construction. In 1954, Buckminster Fuller patented the geodesic dome.

Another stylistic reaction was "New Formalism" (or "Neo-Formalism", sometimes shortenedto "Formalism").[15][16] Like the pre-war "Stripped Classicism", "New Formalism" blendedelements of classicism (at their most abstracted levels) with modernist designs.[17]

Characteristics drawing on classicism include rigid symmetry, use of columns andcolonnades or arcades, and use of high-end materials (such as marble or granite), yet worksin this vein also characteristically use the flat roofs common with the InternationalStyle.[15][17] Architects working in this mode included Edward Durrell Stone, MinoruYamasaki, and some of the middle-period work of Philip Johnson, with examples in theUnited States including the Kennedy Center (1971) and the National Museum of AmericanHistory (1964) in Washington, D.C., and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (mid-1960s) in New York.[15][17]

Arising shortly after the end of World War II, a particular set of stylistic tendencies in theUnited States during this time is known as Googie (or "populuxe"), derived from futuristicvisions inspired by the imagery of the Atomic Age and Space Age, with motifs such as atomicorbital patterns and "flying saucers", respectively, such as in the Space Needle in Seattle.Though the style was unique to the United States, similar iconography can be seen in theAtomium in Brussels.

A distinctly Mexican take on modernism, "plastic integration", was a syncretization ofMexican artistic traditions (such as muralism) with International Style forms,[18] and can beseen in the later works of Luis Barragán and Juan O'Gorman, epitomized by the CiudadUniversitaria of UNAM in Mexico City.[19]

Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior, product and graphic design that generallydescribes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban developmentfrom roughly 1933 to 1965. The term, employed as a style descriptor as early as the mid-1950s, wasreaffirmed in 1983 by Cara Greenberg in the title of her book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the1950s (Random House), celebrating the style which is now recognized by scholars and museumsworldwide as a significant design movement.

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Architecture

Many consider Frank Lloyd Wright's principle movement of organic architecture combinedwith Arts and Crafts as an American jumping point for the aesthetic of Mid-Century Modern,however one need only visit a Wright house's interior to realize the Mid-Century modernmovement in the US was really an American reflection of the International and Bauhausmovements – including the works of Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies Van Der Rohe. Thoughthe American component was slightly more organic in form and less formal than theInternational Style it is more firmly related to it than any other. Brazilian and Scandinavianarchitects were very influential at this time, with a style characterized by clean simplicityand integration with nature. Like many of Wright's designs, Mid-Century architecture wasfrequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism intoAmerica's post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windowsand open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing theoutdoors in. Many Mid-century houses utilized then-groundbreaking post and beamarchitectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made ofglass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs, with an emphasis placedspecifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residentialMid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style.

Eichler Homes – Foster Residence, Granada Hills

In Europe the influence of Le Corbusier and the CIAM resulted in an architectural orthodoxymanifest across most parts of Post War Europe that was ultimately challenged by the radicalagendas of the architectural wings of the avant-garde Situationist International, COBRA, aswell as Archigram in London. A critical but sympathetic reappraisal of the internationalistoeuvre, inspired by Scandinavian Moderns such as Alvar Aalto, Sigurd Lewerentz and ArneJacobsen and the late work of Le Corbusier himself was reinterpreted by groups such asTeam X including structuralist architects such as Aldo van Eyck, Ralph Erskine, Denys Lasdun,Jorn Utzon and the movement known in the UK as New Brutalism.

Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was instrumental in bringingMid-Century Modern architecture ("Eichler Homes") to subdivisions in the Los Angeles areaand the San Francisco Bay region of California and select housing developments on the east

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coast. George Fred Keck, his brother Willam Keck, Henry P. Glass, and Ludwig Mies van derRohe created Mid-Century Modern residences in the Chicago area. Mies van der Rohe'sFarnsworth House is extremely difficult to heat or cool, while Keck and Keck were pioneersin the incorporation of passive solar features in their houses to compensate for their largeglass windows.

Mid-Century modern in Palm Springs

Miller House, by Richard Neutra

The city of Palm Springs, California is noted for its many examples of Mid-Century modernarchitecture.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Architects[8] include:[9]

Welton Becket – Bullock's Palm Springs (with Wurdeman) (1947) (demolished, 1996[10]) John Porter Clark – Welwood Murray Library (1937); Clark Residence (1939)(on the El

Minador golf course); Palm Springs Women's Club (1939) William F. Cody – Stanley Goldberg residence;[11] Del Marcos Motel (1947); L'Horizon Hotel,

for Jack Wrather and Bonita Granville (1952); remodel of Thunderbird Country Clubclubhouse (c. 1953) (Rancho Mirage); Tamarisk Country Club (1953) (Rancho Mirage) (nowremodeled); Huddle Springs restaurant (1957); St. Theresa Parish Church (1968); PalmSprings Library (1975)

Craig Ellwood – Max Palevsky House (1970) Albert Frey – Palm Springs City Hall (with Clark and Chambers) (1952–1957); Palm Springs

Fire Station #1 (1955); Tramway Gas Station (1963); Movie Colony Hotel; Kocher-SamsonBuilding (1934) (with A. Lawrence Kocher); Raymond Loewy House (1946); Villa HermosaResort (1946); Frey House I (1953); Frey House II (1963); Carey-Pirozzi house (1956);Christian Scientist Church (1957); Alpha Beta Shopping Center (1960)(demolished)

Victor Gruen – City National Bank (now Bank of America) (1959)[12] (designed as an homageto the Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, by Le Corbusier)

A. Quincy Jones – Palm Springs Tennis Club (with Paul R. Williams) (1946); Town & CountryCenter (with Paul R. Williams) (1947–1950); J.J. Robinson House (with Frederick E. Emmons)(1957); Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg House (with Frederick E. Emmons)(1963)

John Lautner – Desert Hot Springs Motel (1947); Arthur Elrod House (1968)(interiors used infilming James Bond's Diamonds Are Forever); Bob Hope's home (1973)

Frederick Monhoff – Palm Springs Biltmore Resort (1948) (demolished, 2003[10])

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Richard Neutra (Posthumous AIA Gold Medal honoree) – Grace Lewis Miller house (1937)(includes her Mensendlieck posture therapy studio);[13] Kaufman House (1946);[14] Samueland Luella Maslon House, Tamarisk Country Club, Rancho Mirage (1962) (demolished,2003[10])

William Pereira – Robinson's (1953) William Gray Purcell (with protégé Van Evera Bailey) – Purcell House (1933) (cubist modern) R.M. Schindler – Paul and Betty Popenoe Cabin, Coachella (1922, demolished); Maryon

Toole House (1947)(Palm Desert) Charles Tanner – Community Church (1935) Earle Webster – "The Ship of the Desert" nautical moderne house (1936) (with Adrian

Wilson) Donald Wexler – Steel Developmental Houses,[15] Sunny View Drive (1961). Home developer,

Alexander Homes, popularized this post-and-beam architectural style in the CoachellaValley. Alexander houses and similar homes feature low-pitched roofs, wide eaves, open-beamed ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows.[4]:66–75

E. Stewart Williams – Frank Sinatra House (1946) (with piano-shaped pool); Oasiscommercial building (with interiors by Paul R. Williams) (1952); William and Marjorie EdrisHouse (1954); Mari and Steward Williams House (1956); Santa Fe Federal Savings Building(1958); Coachella Valley Savings & Loan (now Washington Mutual) (1960); Palm SpringsDesert Museum (1976)

Harry Williams – Plaza Shopping Center (1936) (one of the first car-oriented centers in theUnited States)

Paul Williams – Palm Springs Tennis Club (with Jones) (1946) Lloyd Wright – Oasis Hotel (1923) Walter Wurdeman – Bullock's Palm Springs (with Welton Becket) (1947) (demolished,

1996[10])

Restoration projects have been undertaken to return many of these homes and businessesto their original condition.[16]

Industrial design

Scandinavian design was very influential at this time, with a style characterized by simplicity,democratic design and natural shapes. Glassware (Iittala – Finland), ceramics (Arabia –Finland), tableware (George Jensen – Denmark), lighting (Poul Henningsen – Denmark), andfurniture (Danish modern) were some of the genres for the products created.

Edith Heath (1911–2005) was an industrial designer, potter, and founder of Heath Ceramicsin 1948. The company, well known for its Mid-Century modern ceramic dish-ware(Heathware) and architectural tiles, is still operating out of Sausalito, in Marin County of theSan Francisco Bay Area, California. Edith Heath's "Coupe" line remains in demand and hasbeen in constant production since 1948, with only periodic changes to the texture and colorof the glazes.[17]

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Brutalism and monumentality

The National Assembly Building of Bangladesh by Louis Kahn; compare its "weightiness" with worksabove.

Main article: Brutalist architecture

Architects such as Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei and others respondedto the "light" glass curtain walls advocated by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, by creatingarchitecture with an emphasis on more substantial materials, such as concrete and brick,and creating works with a "monumental" quality. "Brutalism" is a term derived from the useof "Béton brut" ("raw concrete"), unadorned, often with the mold marks remaining, thoughas a stylistic tendency, Brutalism would ultimately be applied more broadly to include theuse of other materials such as brickwork in a similar fashion. The term was first used inarchitecture by Le Corbusier.

Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Examples are typically verylinear, fortresslike and blockish, often with a predominance of concrete construction.Initially the style came about for government buildings, low-rent housing and shoppingcenters to create functional structures at a low cost, but eventually designers adopted thelook for other uses such as college buildings.

Critics of the style find it unappealing due to its "cold" appearance, projecting anatmosphere of totalitarianism, as well as the association of the buildings with urban decaydue to materials weathering poorly in certain climates and the surfaces being prone tovandalism by graffiti. Despite this, the style is appreciated by others[who?], with some of theangular features being softened and updated in buildings currently being constructed inIsrael and Latin America, and preservation efforts are taking place in the United Kingdom.

The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term in 1953, from the Frenchbéton brut, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings. Theterm gained wide currency when the British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in thetitle of his 1966 book, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?, to characterize a somewhatrecently established cluster of architectural approaches, particularly in Europe.[1]

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Characteristics

Trellick Tower, London, 1966–1972, designed by Ernő Goldfinger. It is Grade II* listed.

Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and,where concrete is used, often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situcasting. Although concrete is the material most widely associated with Brutalistarchitecture, not all Brutalist buildings are formed from concrete. Instead, a building mayachieve its Brutalist quality through a rough, blocky appearance, and the expression of itsstructural materials, forms, and (in some cases) services on its exterior.[citation needed] Forexample, many of Alison and Peter Smithson's private houses are built from brick. Brutalistbuilding materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions.Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be consideredBrutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism,International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.

Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of thebuilding. In the Boston City Hall, designed in 1962, the strikingly different and projectedportions of the building indicate the special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such asthe mayor's office or the city council chambers. From another perspective, the design of theHunstanton School included placing the facility's water tank, normally a hidden servicefeature, in a prominent, visible tower.

Brutalism as an architectural philosophy, rather than a style, was often also associated witha socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alisonand Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. Critics argue that this abstract nature ofBrutalism makes the style unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being integrating andprotective, as its proponents intended. Brutalism also is criticised as disregarding the social,

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historic, and architectural environment of its surroundings, making the introduction of suchstructures in existing developed areas appear starkly out of place and alien. The failure ofpositive communities to form early on in some Brutalist structures, possibly due to thelarger processes of urban decay that set in after World War II (especially in the UnitedKingdom), led to the combined unpopularity of both the ideology and the architecturalstyle.

History

Royal Liverpool University Hospital in Liverpool, England.

J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.


The best known early Brutalist architecture is the work of the French architect Le Corbusier,in particular his Unité d'Habitation (1952) and the 1953 Secretariat Building in Chandigarh,India.

Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the United Kingdom during the mid twentiethcentury, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities soughtinexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, andgovernment buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even whenthey had large budgets, as they appreciated the 'honesty', the sculptural qualities, andperhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style.

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History






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Combined with the socially progressive intentions behind Brutalist streets in the skyhousings such as Corbusier's Unité, Brutalism was promoted as a positive option forforward-moving, modern urban housing. In practice, however, many of the buildings built inthis style lacked many of the community-serving features of Corbusier's vision, and instead,developed into claustrophobic, crime-ridden tenements. Robin Hood Gardens is aparticularly notorious example, although the worst of its problems have been overcome inrecent years. Some such buildings took decades to develop into positive communities. Therough coolness of concrete lost its appeal under a damp and gray northern sky, and itsfortress-like material, touted as vandal-proof, soon proved vulnerable to spray-can graffiti.

Figures

The Habitat 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

In the United Kingdom, Architects associated with the Brutalist style include ErnőGoldfinger, wife-and-husband pairing Alison and Peter Smithson, Richard Seifert, BasilSpence, John Bancroft and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun. In Australia,examples of the Brutalist style are Robin Gibson's Queensland Art Gallery, Ken Woolley'sFisher Library at the University of Sydney (his State Office Block is another, High Court ofAustralia by Colin Madigan in Canberra and WTC Wharf (World Trade Centre inMelbourne).[2] John Andrews's government and institutional structures in Australia alsoexhibit the style.

Paul Rudolph and Ralph Rapson, from the United States are both noted Brutalists. WalterNetsch is known for his Brutalist academic buildings (see above). Marcel Breuer was knownfor his "soft" approach to the style, often using curves rather than corners. Clorindo Testa inArgentina created the Bank of London and South America, one of the best examples of thefifties. More recent Modernists such as I.M. Pei and Tadao Ando also have designed notableBrutalist works. In Brazil, the style is associated with the Paulista School and is evident in theworks of Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006). In thePhilippines, Leandro Locsin designed the massive brutalist structures, the Cultural Center ofthe Philippines and the Philippine International Convention Center. In New Zealand, SirMiles Warren and his practice Warren & Mahoney led the development of the so-called"Christchurch School" of architecture, which fused Brutalist architectural style withScandinavian and Japanese values of straightforwardness. Warren's buildings have had asignificant effect on New Zealand's public architecture.

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Architects whose work reflects certain aspects of the Brutalist style include Louis Kahn.Architectural historian William Jordy says that although Kahn was "[o]pposed to what heregarded as the muscular posturing of most Brutalism", some of his work "was surelyinformed by some of the same ideas that came to momentary focus in the Brutalistposition."[3]

On university campuses

In the late 1960s, many campuses in North America were undergoing expansions and, as aresult, there are a significant number of Brutalist buildings at American and Canadianuniversities, beginning with Paul Rudolph's 1958 Yale Art and Architecture Building and the1965 Art Museum at Colgate. Rudolph's design for the University of MassachusettsDartmouth is an example of an entire campus designed from scratch in the Brutalist style.Likewise, architect Walter Netsch designed the entire University of Illinois-Chicago CircleCampus (now the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago) under a single, unifiedbrutalist design.[4] The University of Chicago's Joseph Regenstein Library is one of the largestlibraries in the world, designed in the brutalist style.

Juxtaposition with Historic Buildings

Edinburgh University's Appleton Tower, crudely juxtaposed next to an 18th century terrace

Brutalist appears at its most brutal when placed in a historic context such as next to a listedbuilding or within a conservation area. Here the contrast in scale and detail epitomises whythe style obtained its name. Excellent examples exist in historic university cities such asEdinburgh, Scotland.

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Criticism and reception

Park Hill (detail), Sheffield. Lynn, Smith 1961

The proposed demolition of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Washington, D.C. hasresulted in court battles between historic preservationists and church members.

Brutalism has some severe critics, including Charles, Prince of Wales. His speeches andwritings on architecture have excoriated Brutalism, calling many of the structures "piles ofconcrete". "You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe", said Prince Charles at theCorporation of London Planning and Communication Committee's annual dinner at MansionHouse in December 1987. "When it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them withanything more offensive than rubble."[5] Much of the criticism comes not only from thedesigns of the buildings, but also from the fact that concrete façades do not age well indamp, cloudy maritime climates such as those of northwestern Europe and New England. Inthese climates, the concrete becomes streaked with water stains and sometimes with mossand lichens, and rust leaches from the steel reinforcing bars.

At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, tothe hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late1970s. This led to the development of Alexander's A Pattern Language and A Timeless Wayof Building.

In recent years, the bad memories of under-served Brutalist community structures have ledto their demolition in communities eager to make way for newer, more traditionally-oriented community structures. Despite a nascent modernist appreciation movement, andthe identified success that some of this style's offspring have had, many others have been orare slated to be demolished.

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Theodore Dalrymple, a British author, physican, and political commentator, has written forCity Journal that Brutalist structures represent an artifact of European philosophicaltotalitarianism, a "spiritual, intellectual, and moral deformity." He called the buildings "cold-hearted", "inhuman", "hideous", and "monstrous". He stated that the reinforced concrete"does not age gracefully but instead crumbles, stains, and decays", which makes alternativebuilding styles superior.[6]

Brutalism today

Western City Gate, Belgrade, Serbia, 1980

The Buffalo City Court Building in Buffalo, NY.

Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely givenway to Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced an updating ofsorts in recent years. Many of the rougher aspects of the style have been softened in newerbuildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface,

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covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. Modernist architectstaking this approach in recent projects include Steven Ehrlich, Ricardo Legorreta, and GinWong. The firm of Victor Gruen and Associates has revamped the style for the manycourthouse buildings it has been contracted to design. Architects from Latin America havebeen reviving the style on a smaller scale in recent years. Brutalism has recently experienceda major revival in Israel, due to the perceived sense of strength and security the stylecreates.

Even in Britain, where the style was most prevalent (and later the most reviled), a numberof buildings recently (as of 2006) have appeared in an updated Brutalist style, includingSolidspace's 1 Centaur Street in Lambeth, London, and Elder & Cannon's The Icon inGlasgow in Scotland. The 2005 Stirling Prize shortlist contained a number of buildings (mostnotably Zaha Hadid's BMW Central Building and the eventual winner, Enric Miralles' ScottishParliament Building) featuring significant amounts of exposed concrete, something thatwould have been regarded as aesthetically unacceptable when the prize was inauguratednine years previously.

There also has been a reappraisal of first-generation Brutalist architecture and a growingappreciation that dislike of the buildings often stems from poor maintenance and socialproblems resulting from poor management, rather than the designs themselves. In 2005 theBritish television channel Channel 4 ran a documentary, I Love Carbuncles, which placed theU.K.'s Brutalist legacy in a more positive light. Some Brutalist buildings have been grantedlisted status as historic and others, such as Gillespie, Kidd and Coia's St. Peter's Seminary,named by Prospect magazine's survey of architects as Scotland's greatest post-war building,have been the subject of conservation campaigns. The Twentieth Century Society hascampaigned against the demolition of buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and TrinityCentre Multi-Storey Car Park.

Tube architectureMain article: Tube (structure)

In 1963, a new structural system of framed tubes appeared in skyscraper design andconstruction. The Bangladeshi architect and structure engineer Fazlur Khan defined theframed tube structure as "a three dimensional space structure composed of three, four, orpossibly more frames, braced frames, or shear walls, joined at or near their edges to form avertical tube-like structural system capable of resisting lateral forces in any direction bycantilevering from the foundation."[20] Closely spaced interconnected exterior columns formthe tube. Horizontal loads, for example wind, are supported by the structure as a whole.About half the exterior surface is available for windows. Framed tubes allow fewer interiorcolumns, and so create more usable floor space. Where larger openings like garage doorsare required, the tube frame must be interrupted, with transfer girders used to maintainstructural integrity.

The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut ApartmentBuilding which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1963.[21] This laid the

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foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own JohnHancock Center and Sears Tower, and can been seen in the construction of the World TradeCenter and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s, such as the Petronas Towersand the Jin Mao Building.[22] The architecture of Chicago employing the ideas developed byKhan is often known as the "Second Chicago School".[23]

In structural engineering, the tube is the system where in order to resist lateral loads (wind,seismic, etc.) a building is designed to act like a hollow cylinder, cantilevered perpendicularto the ground. This system was introduced by Fazlur Rahman Khan while at Skidmore,Owings and Merrill's (SOM) Chicago office.[1] The first example of the tube’s use is the 43-story Khan-designed DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building in Chicago, Illinois, completed in1963.[2]

The system can be constructed using steel, concrete, or composite construction (thediscrete use of both steel and concrete). It can be used for office, apartment and mixed-usebuildings. Most buildings in excess of 40 stories constructed since the 1960s are of thisstructural type.

Concept

The tube system concept is based on the idea that a building can be designed to resistlateral loads by designing it as a hollow cantilever perpendicular to the ground. In thesimplest incarnation of the tube, the perimeter of the exterior consists of closely spacedcolumns that are tied together with deep spandrel beams through moment connections.This assembly of columns and beams forms a rigid frame that amounts to a dense andstrong structural wall along the exterior of the building.[3]

This exterior framing is designed sufficiently strong to resist all lateral loads on the building,thereby allowing the interior of the building to be simply framed for gravity loads. Interiorcolumns are comparatively few and located at the core. The distance between the exteriorand the core frames is spanned with beams or trusses and intentionally left column-free.This maximizes the effectiveness of the perimeter tube by transferring some of the gravityloads within the structure to it and increases its ability to resist overturning due to lateralloads.

History

By 1963, a new structural system of framed tubes had appeared in skyscraper design andconstruction. Fazlur Khan defined the framed tube structure as "a three dimensional spacestructure composed of three, four, or possibly more frames, braced frames, or shear walls,joined at or near their edges to form a vertical tube-like structural system capable ofresisting lateral forces in any direction by cantilevering from the foundation."[4] Closelyspaced interconnected exterior columns form the tube. Horizontal loads, wind for example,are supported by the structure as a whole. About half the exterior surface is available forwindows. Framed tubes allow fewer interior columns, and so create more usable floor

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space. Where larger openings like garage doors are required, the tube frame must beinterrupted, with transfer girders used to maintain structural integrity.

The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut apartmentbuilding which Khan designed and which was completed in Chicago by 1963.[5] This laid thefoundations for the tube structural design of many later skyscrapers, including his own JohnHancock Center and Willis Tower, and the construction of the World Trade Center, PetronasTowers, Jin Mao Building, and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s.[6]

Variations

From its conception, the tube has been varied to suit different structural requirements:

Framed tube

WTC Twin Towers structures was one of the first in use the framed tube design.

This is the simplest incarnation of the tube. It can take a variety of floor plan shapes fromsquare and rectangular, circular, and freeform. This design was first used in Chicago'sDeWitt-Chestnut apartment building, designed by Khan and completed in 1965, but themost notable examples are the Aon Center and the original World Trade Center towers.

Trussed tube

Also known as the braced tube, it is similar to the simple tube but with comparatively fewerand farther-spaced exterior columns. Steel bracings or concrete shear walls are introducedalong the exterior walls to compensate for the fewer columns by tying them together. Themost notable examples incorporating steel bracing are the John Hancock Center, theCitigroup Center and the Bank of China Tower. When the outer columns are insuffient tosupport the load, interior cores can be used. 780 Third Avenue on Manhattan, a 50-storyconcrete frame office building, is an example of using concrete shear walls for bracing whilealso incorporating an off-center core.[7]

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Variations


Framed tube



Trussed tube


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Variations


Framed tube



Trussed tube


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Bundled tube

Breakdown of the bundled tube structure of the Willis Tower with simplified floor plans.

Instead of one tube, a building consists of several tubes tied together to resist the lateralforces. Such buildings have interior columns along the perimeters of the tubes when theyfall within the building envelope. Notable examples include Willis Tower and OneMagnificent Mile.

Willis Tower, completed in 1973, introduced the bundled tube structural design and was the world'stallest building until 1998

The bundle tube design was not only highly efficient in economic terms, but it was also"innovative in its potential for versatile formulation of architectural space. Efficient towersno longer had to be box-like; the tube-units could take on various shapes and could bebundled together in different sorts of groupings."[8] The bundled tube structure meant that"buildings no longer need be boxlike in appearance: they could become sculpture."[9]

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Postmodern architectureMain article: Postmodern architecture

The Sony Building (formerly AT&T building) in New York City, 1984, by Philip Johnson, illustrating aPostmodern spin on the boxy office towers that preceded it with the inclusion of a classical brokenpediment on the top.

Modern architecture met with some criticism, which began in the 1960s on the grounds thatit seemed universal, elitist, and lacked meaning. Siegfried Giedion in the 1961 introductionto his evolving text, Space, Time and Architecture (first written in 1941), began "At themoment a certain confusion exists in contemporary architecture, as in painting; a kind ofpause, even a kind of exhaustion." At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 1961 symposiumdiscussed the question "Modern Architecture: Death or Metamorphosis?"

The loss of traditionalist structures to make way for new modernist construction, especiallyvia the Urban Renewal movement, led to further criticism, particularly the demolition ofPenn Station in New York in 1963. That same year, controversy materialized around the Pan

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Am Building that loomed over Grand Central Terminal, taking advantage of the modernistreal estate concept of "air rights",[24] In criticism by Ada Louise Huxtable and DouglassHaskell it was seen to "sever" the Park Avenue streetscape and "tarnish" the reputations ofits consortium of architects: Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi and the builders Emery Roth &Sons. The proposal for a tower over the terminal itself resulted in the landmark U.S.Supreme Court case Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, upholding the city'slandmark laws. Alongside these preservation efforts came the increasing respectability andfashionability of more traditional styles.

Architects explored Postmodern architecture which offered a blend of some pre-modernelements, and deliberately sought to move away from rectilinear designs, towards moreeclectic styles. Even Philip Johnson came to admit that he was "bored with the box." By the1980s, postmodern architecture appeared to trend over modernism.

High Postmodern aesthetics lacked traction and by the mid-1990s, a new surge of modernarchitecture once again established international pre-eminence. As part of this revival, muchof the criticism of the modernists was re-evaluated; and a modernistic style once againdominates in institutional and commercial contemporary practice. Although modern andpostmodern design compete with a revival of traditional architectural design in commercialand institutional architecture; residential design continues to be dominated by a traditionalaesthetic.

Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which aregenerally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late1970s[1] and continues to influence present-day architecture. Postmodernity in architectureis said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture inresponse to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. As with many culturalmovements, some of Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen inarchitecture. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist style arereplaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and newways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architectsrediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms thathad evolved through centuries of building which had been abandoned by the modern style.

Influential early large-scale examples of postmodern architecture are Michael Graves'Portland Building in Portland, Oregon and Philip Johnson's Sony Building (originally AT&TBuilding) in New York City, which borrows elements and references from the past andreintroduces color and symbolism to architecture.

Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic, where reference andornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modernstyles. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and unusualsurfaces, most famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling and the Piazzad'Italia by Charles Moore. The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh has also been citedas being of postmodern vogue.[citation needed]

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Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings as vulgar, associated with a populistethic, and sharing the design elements of shopping malls, cluttered with "gew-gaws".Postmodern architects may regard many modern buildings as soulless and bland, overlysimplistic and abstract. This contrast was exemplified in the juxtaposition of the "whites"against the "grays," in which the "whites" were seeking to continue (or revive) themodernist tradition of purism and clarity, while the "grays" were embracing a moremultifaceted cultural vision, seen in Robert Venturi's statement rejecting the "black orwhite" world view of modernism in favor of "black and white and sometimes gray." Thedivergence in opinions comes down to a difference in goals: modernism is rooted in minimaland true use of material as well as absence of ornament, while postmodernism is a rejectionof strict rules set by the early modernists and seeks meaning and expression in the use ofbuilding techniques, forms, and stylistic references.

One building form that typifies the explorations of Postmodernism is the traditional gableroof, in place of the iconic flat roof of modernism. Shedding water away from the center ofthe building, such a roof form always served a functional purpose in climates with rain andsnow, and was a logical way to achieve larger spans with shorter structural members, but itwas nevertheless relatively rare in modern houses. (These were, after all, "machines forliving," according to LeCorbusier, and machines did not usually have gabled roofs.) However,Postmodernism's own modernist roots appear in some of the noteworthy examples of"reclaimed" roofs. For instance, Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House breaks the gable inthe middle, denying the functionality of the form, and Philip Johnson's 1001 Fifth Avenue inManhattan advertises a mansard roof form as an obviously flat, false front. Anotheralternative to the flat roofs of modernism would exaggerate a traditional roof to call evenmore attention to it, as when Kallmann McKinnell & Wood's American Academy of Arts andSciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, layers three tiers of low hipped roof forms oneabove another for an emphatic statement of shelter.

Relationship to previous styles

San Antonio Public Library, Texas

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Ancient ruyi symbol adorning Taipei 101, Taiwan

New trends became evident in the last quarter of the 20th century as some architectsstarted to turn away from modern Functionalism which they viewed as boring, and whichsome of the public considered unwelcoming and even unpleasant. These architects turnedtowards the past, quoting past aspects of various buildings and melding them together(even sometimes in an inharmonious manner) to create a new means of designing buildings.A vivid example of this new approach was that Postmodernism saw the comeback ofcolumns and other elements of premodern designs, sometimes adapting classical Greek andRoman examples (but not simply recreating them, as was done in neoclassical architecture).In Modernism, the traditional column (as a design feature) was treated as a cylindrical pipeform, replaced by other technological means such as cantilevers, or masked completely bycurtain wall façades. The revival of the column was an aesthetic, rather than a technological,necessity. Modernist high-rise buildings had become in most instances monolithic, rejectingthe concept of a stack of varied design elements for a single vocabulary from ground level tothe top, in the most extreme cases even using a constant "footprint" (with no tapering or"wedding cake" design), with the building sometimes even suggesting the possibility of asingle metallic extrusion directly from the ground, mostly by eliminating visual horizontalelements—this was seen most strictly in Minoru Yamasaki's World Trade Center buildings.

Another return was that of the “wit, ornament and reference” seen in older buildings interra cotta decorative façades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco periods. In Postmodern structures this was often achieved by placingcontradictory quotes of previous building styles alongside each other, and evenincorporating furniture stylistic references at a huge scale.

Contextualism, a trend in thinking in the later parts of 20th century, influences theideologies of the postmodern movement in general. Contextualism is centered on the beliefthat all knowledge is “context-sensitive”. This idea was even taken further to say thatknowledge cannot be understood without considering its context. While noteworthyexamples of modern architecture responded both subtly and directly to their physicalcontext (analyzed by Thomas Schumacher in "Contextualism: Urban Ideals andDeformations," and by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in Collage City[2]), postmodernarchitecture often addressed the context in terms of the materials, forms and details of thebuildings around it—the cultural context. The term "Contextualism" itself is anamalgamation of the words "context" and "texture".[2]

Roots of Postmodernism

The interior of the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń clearly draws from classical forms ofWestern European church architecture.

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The Postmodernist movement began in America around the 1960s–1970s and then it spreadto Europe and the rest of the world, to remain right through to the present. The aims ofPostmodernism or Late-modernism begin with its reaction to Modernism; it tries to addressthe limitations of its predecessor. The list of aims is extended to include communicatingideas with the public often in a then humorous or witty way. Often, the communication isdone by quoting extensively from past architectural styles, often many at once. In breakingaway from modernism, it also strives to produce buildings that are sensitive to the contextwithin which they are built.

Postmodernism has its origins in the perceived failure of Modern Architecture. Itspreoccupation with functionalism and economical building meant that ornaments weredone away with and the buildings were cloaked in a stark rational appearance. Many felt thebuildings failed to meet the human need for comfort both for body and for the eye, thatmodernism did not account for the desire for beauty. The problem worsened when somealready monotonous apartment blocks degenerated into slums. In response, architectssought to reintroduce ornament, color, decoration and human scale to buildings. Form wasno longer to be defined solely by its functional requirements or minimal appearance.

Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London by Robert Venturi (1991)

Robert Venturi

Vanna Venturi House with its split gable

Robert Venturi was at the forefront of this movement. His book, Complexity andContradiction in Architecture (published in 1966), was instrumental in opening readers eyesto new ways of thinking about buildings, as it drew from the entire history of architecture—both high-style and vernacular, both historic and modern—and lambasted overly simplisticFunctional Modernism. The move away from modernism’s functionalism is well illustratedby Venturi’s adaptation of Mies van der Rohe’s famous maxim “Less is more” to "Less is abore." The book includes a number of the architect's own designs in the back, includingstructures such as Guild House, in Philadelphia, that became major icons of postmodernism.He sought to bring back ornament because of its necessity. He explains this and his criticismof Modernism in his Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by saying that:

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Robert Venturi



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Robert Venturi



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Architects can bemoan or try to ignore them (referring to the ornamental and decorativeelements in buildings) or even try to abolish them, but they will not go away. Or they willnot go away for a long time, because architects do not have the power to replace them (nordo they know what to replace them with).

Venturi's second book, Learning from Las Vegas (1972) further developed his take onmodernism. Co-authored with his wife, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learningfrom Las Vegas argues that ornamental and decorative elements “accommodate existingneeds for variety and communication”. Alex Todorow in one of his essays, A View from theCampidoglio, to that effect when he says that:

When [he] was young, a sure way to distinguish great architects was through theconsistency and originality of their work...This should no longer be the case. Where theModern masters' strength lay in consistency, ours should lie in diversity.

Postmodernism with its diversity possesses sensitivity to the building’s context and history,and the client’s requirements. The postmodernist architects often considered the generalrequirements of the urban buildings and their surroundings during the building’s design. Forexample, in Frank Gehry's Venice Beach House, the neighboring houses have a similar brightflat color. This vernacular sensitivity is often evident, but other times the designs respond tomore high-style neighbors. James Stirling's Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard Universityfeatures a rounded corner and striped brick patterning that relate to the form anddecoration of the polychromatic Victorian Memorial Hall across the street, although inneither case is the element imitative or historicist.

Aims and characteristics

The City Hall in Mississauga, Ontario conveys a Postmodern architectural style depicting theconcept of a "futuristic farm".

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Hood Museum of Art at the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire(1983)

The aims of Postmodernism, including solving the problems of Modernism, communicatingmeanings with ambiguity, and sensitivity for the building’s context, are surprisingly unifiedfor a period of buildings designed by architects who largely never collaborated with eachother. The aims do, however, leave room for various implementations as can be illustratedby the diverse buildings created during the movement.

The characteristics of postmodernism allow its aim to be expressed in diverse ways. Thesecharacteristics include the use of sculptural forms, ornaments, anthropomorphism andmaterials which perform trompe l'oeil. These physical characteristics are combined withconceptual characteristics of meaning. These characteristics of meaning include pluralism,double coding, flying buttresses and high ceilings, irony and paradox, and contextualism.

The sculptural forms, not necessarily organic, were created with much ardor. These can beseen in Hans Hollein’s Abteiberg Museum (1972–1982). The building is made up of severalbuilding units, all very different. Each building’s forms are nothing like the conforming rigidones of Modernism. These forms are sculptural and are somewhat playful. These forms arenot reduced to an absolute minimum; they are built and shaped for their own sake. Thebuilding units all fit together in a very organic way, which enhances the effect of the forms.

After many years of neglect, ornament returned. Frank Gehry’s Venice Beach house, built in1986, is littered with small ornamental details that would have been considered excessiveand needless in Modernism. The Venice Beach House has an assembly of circular logs whichexist mostly for decoration. The logs on top do have a minor purpose of holding up thewindow covers. However, the mere fact that they could have been replaced with apractically invisible nail, makes their exaggerated existence largely ornamental. Theornament in Michael Graves' Portland Municipal Services Building ("Portland Building")(1980) is even more prominent. The two obtruding triangular forms are largely ornamental.They exist for aesthetic or their own purpose.[citation needed]

Postmodernism, with its sensitivity to the building’s context, did not exclude the needs ofhumans from the building. Carlo Scarpa's Brion Cemetery (1970–72) exemplifies this. Thehuman requirements of a cemetery is that it possesses a solemn nature, yet it must notcause the visitor to become depressed. Scarpa’s cemetery achieves the solemn mood with

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the dull gray colors of the walls and neatly defined forms, but the bright green grassprevents this from being too overwhelming.[citation needed]

Postmodern buildings sometimes utilize trompe l'oeil, creating the illusion of space ordepths where none actually exist, as has been done by painters since the Romans. ThePortland Building (1980) has pillars represented on the side of the building that to someextent appear to be real, yet they are not.[citation needed]

The Hood Museum of Art (1981–1983) has a typical symmetrical façade which was at thetime prevalent throughout Postmodern Buildings.[citation needed]

Robert Venturi’s Vanna Venturi House (1962–64) illustrates the Postmodernist aim ofcommunicating a meaning and the characteristic of symbolism. The façade is, according toVenturi, a symbolic picture of a house, looking back to the 18th century. This is partlyachieved through the use of symmetry and the arch over the entrance.[citation needed]

Perhaps the best example of irony in Postmodern buildings is Charles Moore’s Piazza d'Italia(1978). Moore quotes (architecturally) elements of Italian renaissance and Roman Antiquity.However, he does so with a twist. The irony comes when it is noted that the pillars arecovered with steel. It is also paradoxical in the way he quotes Italian antiquity far away fromthe original in New Orleans.[citation needed]

Double coding meant the buildings convey many meanings simultaneously. The SonyBuilding in New York does this very well. The building is a tall skyscraper which brings with itconnotations of very modern technology. Yet, the top contradicts this. The top sectionconveys elements of classical antiquity. This double coding is a prevalent trait ofPostmodernism.[citation needed]

The characteristics of Postmodernism were rather unified given their diverse appearances.The most notable among their characteristics is their playfully extravagant forms and thehumour of the meanings the buildings conveyed.[citation needed]

Influential architects

Some of the best-known and influential architects in the Postmodern style are:

‹ The template below (Columns-list) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.›

Aldo Rossi Barbara Bielecka Ricardo Bofill John Burgee Terry Farrell Michael Graves Helmut Jahn Jon Jerde Philip Johnson

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Ricardo Legorreta Frank Gehry Charles Moore Boris Podrecca César Pelli Paolo Portoghesi Siavash Teimouri Antoine Predock Tomás Taveira Robert A.M. Stern James Stirling Robert Venturi Peter Eisenman Mario Botta

Changing pedagogies

Critics of the reductionism of modernism often noted the abandonment of the teaching ofarchitectural history as a causal factor. The fact that a number of the major players in theshift away from modernism were trained at Princeton University's School of Architecture,where recourse to history continued to be a part of design training in the 1940s and 1950s,was significant. The increasing rise of interest in history had a profound impact onarchitectural education. History courses became more typical and regularized. With thedemand for professors knowledgeable in the history of architecture, several PhD programsin schools of architecture arose in order to differentiate themselves from art history PhDprograms, where architectural historians had previously trained. In the US, MIT and Cornellwere the first, created in the mid-1970s, followed by Columbia, Berkeley, and Princeton.Among the founders of new architectural history programs were Bruno Zevi at the Institutefor the History of Architecture in Venice, Stanford Anderson and Henry Millon at MIT,Alexander Tzonis at the Architectural Association, Anthony Vidler at Princeton, ManfredoTafuri at the University of Venice, Kenneth Frampton at Columbia University, and WernerOechslin and Kurt Forster at ETH Zürich.[3]

The creation of these programs was paralleled by the hiring, in the 1970s, of professionallytrained historians by schools of architecture: Margaret Crawford (with a PhD from U.C.L.A)at SCI-Arc; Elisabeth Grossman (PhD, Brown University) at Rhode Island School of Design;Christian Otto[4] (PhD, Columbia University) at Cornell University; Richard Chafee (PhD,Courtauld Institute) at Roger Williams University; and Howard Burns (M.A. Kings College) atHarvard, to name just a few examples. A second generation of scholars then emerged thatbegan to extend these efforts in the direction of what is now called “theory”: K. MichaelHays (PhD, MIT) at Harvard, Mark Wigley (PhD, Auckland University) at Princeton (now atColumbia University), and Beatriz Colomina (PhD, School of Architecture, Barcelona) atPrinceton; Mark Jarzombek (PhD MIT) at Cornell (now at MIT), Jennifer Bloomer (PhD,Georgia Tech) at Iowa State and Catherine Ingraham (PhD, Johns Hopkins) now at PrattInstitute.

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Neomodern architectureFurther information: Neomodern

Neomodernism is a reaction to Postmodernism and its embrace of pre-modern elements ofdesign. Examples of modern architecture in the 21st century include One World TradeCenter (2013) in New York City and Tour First (2011), the tallest office building in the Parismetropolitan area. Emporis named Chicago's Modern Aqua Tower (2009) its skyscraper ofthe year.[25]

Neomodern art is a reaction to the complexity of postmodern architecture and eclecticism,seeking greater simplicity.

Neomodern architecture

Neomodern architecture continues modernism as a dominant form of architecture in 20thand 21st centuries, especially in corporate offices. It tends to be used for certain segmentsof buildings. Residential houses tend to embrace neo-historical and neo-eclectic styles, forinstance, and major monuments today most often opt for starchitect inspired uniqueness.

Neomodern architecture shares many of the basic characteristics of modernism. Both rejectthe postmodern ornamentation, decorations, and deliberate attempts to imitate the past.Neomodern buildings, like modern ones, are designed to be largely monolithic andfunctional.

Neomodern artist group

The neomodern artist group was founded in 1997 by Guy Denning[1] on the premise that thediversity of contemporary art was being stifled by the state supported art institutions andorganisations. The group have no common style or media but there is a bias towardsfigurative painting. Original artists listed: Jim Butler, David Cobley, Emily Cole, MarkDemsteader, Guy Denning, Ian Francis, Juno Doran, Ghislaine Howard, Jamin, MayaKulenovic, Mark Stephen Meadows, Antony Micallef, Motorboy, Carol Peace, GraemeRobbins, Harry Simmonds, Tom Wilmott, Kit Wise, Claire Zakiewicz

Examples of contemporary modern architecture

Warsaw Central railway station (1975) in Poland.

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Crystal Cathedral (1980) in Garden Grove, California

Tour Total (1985) in the Paris suburb Courbevoie, La Défense district.

Borgata (2003) in Atlantic City

Eureka Tower (2006) in Melbourne

Trump International Hotel and Tower (2009) in Chicago.

Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.

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Preservation

In 2007, the Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon was listed as a World Heritage Site.

Several works or collections of modern architecture have been designated by UNESCO asWorld Heritage Sites. In addition to the early experiments associated with Art Nouveau,these include a number of the structures mentioned above in this article: the RietveldSchröder House in Utrecht, the Bauhaus structures in Weimar and Dessau, the BerlinModernism Housing Estates, the White City of Tel Aviv, the city of Brasilia, the CiudadUniversitaria of UNAM in Mexico City and the University City of Caracas in Venezuela, andthe Sydney Opera House.

Private organizations such as Docomomo International, the World Monuments Fund, andthe Recent Past Preservation Network are working to safeguard and document imperiledModern architecture. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund launched Modernism at Risk, anadvocacy and conservation program.

Following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, Modern structures in New Orleanshave been increasingly slated for demolition. Plans are underway to demolish many of thecity's Modern public schools, as well as large portions of the city's Civic Plaza. FederalEmergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds will contribute to razing the State OfficeBuilding and State Supreme Court Building, both designed by the collaborating architecturalfirms of August Perez and Associates; Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse; and Favrot, Reed,Mathes and Bergman. The New Orleans Recovery School District has proposed demolitionsof schools designed by Charles R. Colbert, Curtis and Davis, and Ricciuti Associates. The 1959Lawrence and Saunders building for the New Orleans International Longshoremen'sAssociation Local 1419 is currently threatened with demolition although the union supportsits conservation.

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Documents

origins of modern architecture

premodern elements

international style

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dominant architectural