XXth century architecture

Twentieth–century architecture has lost almost all vestiges of regional style and has been characterized by broad international trends. Eclecticism and Art Nouveau continued as rival stylistic tendencies in the early years of the century. The relatively new materials – steel and reinforced concrete – were usually disguised by traditional forms in eclectic work; their structural potential was demonstrated more clearly in the organic curves of Art Nouveau. An architectural style that exploited the advantages of reinforced concrete had its beginnings in buildings by the Frenchman Auguste Perret. The simplicity of Perret’s work provided refreshing contrast to the crowded surfaces and self-conscious ornament of both eclecticism and Art Nouveau. Simplification was carried further by several Viennese architects, notably Adolf Loos. After 1910, the severe cubic forms of Loos’s work were echoed in other countries and came to be known as the International Modern Style. The austere geometric buildings of this style were designed by Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and other architects who worked at the Bauhaus, Germany’s famous school of design during the 1920’s and by Le Corbusier in France. A secondary trend developed between 1910 and 1925 in Holland and Germany, where certain architects designed buildings with sudden curves or exaggerated streamlining. Effects ranged from playfulness and whimsy to overpowering animated or machinelike forms. The architecture has been described as expressionistic.

In the United States, Frank Lloyd Wright followed his master Louis Sullivan, in rejecting eclecticism, and Wright’s use of uninterrupted interior spaces, asymmetrically expanding plans, long horizontal lines, and interloking masses influenced the early work of Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and several of the Dutch architects, all of whom learned of Wright’s work through German publications. In place of severe geometric simplicity, however, Wright preffered proliferation of masses and the enrichment of surfaces with contrasting textures and colors. Wright has had great influence in residential design, while Groppius and Mies van der Rohe have shaped the prevailing styles in skyscraper design.

The principles of modern architecture and urban planning found their major support in CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture), which lasted from 1928 until 1956. CIAM’s mast influential members were Le Corbusier, Gropius, Alvar Aalto, and Jose Luis Sert.

Auguste Perret. Museum of Public Works. 1936-46. Paris

Auguste Perret. Museum of Public Works. Interior

Auguste Perret (1874-1954)

was a French architect, a world leader and specialist in reinforced concrete construction. He worked on a new interpretation of the neo-classical style. Perret created an architecture that effectively blended modern theories with Gothic forms (in his temples). Perret showed an interest for detail and texture. He established a connection between natural forms, classical symmetry and order, and the structural system of concrete.

Adolf Loos. Scheu House. 1912. Vienna

Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

one of the most important pioneers of the modern movement in architecture. His buildings were rigorous examples of austere beauty, ranging from conventional country cottages to planar compositions for storefronts and residences. He preferred simple, boxlike geometric forms that rely completely on proportions for their aesthetic effect. Loos recommended pure forms for economy and effectiveness. Loos argued against decoration by pointing to economic and historical reasons for its development.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (United States, 1867-1959)

Wright, America’s leading architect in the first half of the twentieth century had two years of engineering training at the University of Wisconsin before going to Chicago and joining the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Unlike Sullivan, Wright designed few large public buildings. He acquires from Sullivan a love of mass, a hatred of imitation, and the convictions that form should be determined by function and that decoration should emphasize structure.

The low, widespread, asymmetrical ranch house has its ancestry in Wright’s early prairie houses, the best known of which is the Robie House. The asymmetrically arranged spaces are interrupted as little as possible and flow around the central chimney mass. Wright believed that walls should be opened up by large groups of windows to achieve the greatest sense of spaciousness, but he loved to contrast large window areas with unbroken masses of wall. He felt that the exterior should seem to be part of the building’s site. The long low lines of the Robie House echo the flat earth plane and were originally punctuated by greenery in planters, so that the house seemed to be a part of nature. The wide overhanging eaves are typical expressions of Wright’s conviction that the sheltering function of a roof should be emphasized. Concrete, brick, stone, and natural wood were used for contrasts of colour and texture. Wright often elaborated on interlocking structures; throughout his work, masses, spaces, and the smallest details interpenetrate to express the unity of the whole. Wright’s favourite term for such unity of site, structure, and decoration was organic architecture. His designs are remarkably original, though he learned much from Japanese architecture, and, though some of his more massive buildings have a similarity to ancient Mayan architecture. His greatest technical triumph was the design of the Imperial Hotel in Tokio (1915-22), which was planned to be earthquake-proof and was undamaged by the terrible earthquake of 1923.

The houses of his later years sometimes employ a polygonal, circular, or triangular thematic shape as a unifying module for floor plans, for built-in furniture, and even for gardens. A circular module was the basic for the most controversial large building of his career, New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

F.L. Wright. Robie House. 1909. Chicago

Plan of the Robie House.

F.L. Wright. William Winslow house. 1893. Chicago

F.L. Wright. Guggenheim Museum. 1956-60. New York

F.L. Wright. Guggenheim Museum. Interior

Дата добавления: 2015-10-26