A lot of modern architects and designers boasted the fact that they followed know existing style, some say modernism was a lot more than just a style, it was a new, refreshed and revived outlook on the world accustomed by new viewpoints of space and time. One of the most iconic ‘modern’ architects was Charles Edouard Jeanneret Gris, who took a great interest in exploring new materials, who rejected precedents from the past and pioneered simplicity. Charles Edouard Jeanneret Gris was born in Switzerland on October 6th 1887 and chose to be known as Le Corbusier. He initially worked in France, where he was most active, utilizing his many talents by being an architect, designer, writer, painter, urban planner and theorist. Corbusier started his academic life in 1900, as a goldsmith & engraver; he studied at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Corbusier was taught the history of art, drawing and naturalist aesthetics of art nouveau by L’Eplattenier who Corbusier later, himself referred as his only teacher. Corbusier left his current studies at the time and progressed with his studies of art and decoration with the intention of becoming an artist/painter. It was L’Eplattenier who insisted that Corbusier studies architecture, and therefore organized some local projects that Corbusier could work on.
In 1907, the twenty-year-old Corbusier had designed his first house, Villa Pallet. Following the completion of this project Corbusier went on a series of trips through central Europe that included apprenticeships with architects, one of the most significant being Auguste Perret, a structural rationalist who was at the forefront of reinforced concrete construction.
During October 1910 to March 1911, Corbusier worked with a renowned architect...
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...ion of it being used by everywhere and everyone was present too. William J. R. Curtis in his book ’Le Corbusier: ideas and forms,’ explains the importance and functionality of the Citrohan Housing System:
“Citrohan’ was a pun on ‘Citroën’ – a house like a car. Le Corbusier hoped to mass-produce the pieces of the building by Taylorized methods like those being used in automobile factories.3 Housing shortages in post-war France were a critical matter, and the architect was directing his ideas at government agencies and industrial- ists as much as at private clients... The Citrohan embod- ied the conception of a ‘machine à habiter’ – a ‘machine for living in’ – a functional tool raised to the level of art through judicious proportions, fine spaces and the strip- ping away of pointless decoration and purposeless habits. It was a utopian challenge to the status quo.”
Marcel Breuer, born in the early 1900’s in Hungary, was one of the first and youngest students to learn under the Bauhaus style, taught by Walter Gropius. Breuer started his career designing furniture, using tubular, or “handle bar like”, steel (Dodd, Mead, and Company 32). One of the most popular of these furniture designs was his Club Chair B3designed in 1922. In the 1930’s, Breuer moved to the United States to teach and practice architecture. In the 1950’s, he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Between 1960 and 1980, Breuer was honored with several honorary doctoral degrees from several universities around the world. After retiring in 1976 due to poor health, Breuer was awarded several other awards, and his work was displayed in exhibitions around the world. Breuer died on July 2nd, 1981, at the age of 79 (Marcel Breuer Associates 6).
Gehry draws his inspiration from famous paintings such as the Madonna and Child which he qualifies as a “strategy for architecture” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 42) and which he used as an inspiration for a project in Mexico . Through his interpretation of the paintings and artwork, Gehry looked for a new kind of architecture. His search for a new type of architecture culminated in 1978 with his own house in Santa Monica. What was once a traditional Californian house would be redesigned to become one of the most important and revolutionary designs of the 20th century, giving Gehry international prestige and fame. Frank Gehry’s “Own House” uses a mixture of corrugated metal, plywood, chain link and asphalt to construct a new envelope for an existing typical Californian house. This house has been inspired by Joseph Cornell, Ed Moses and Bob Rauschenberg. Gehry comments on his house by saying that there was something “magical” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) about it. He admits having “followed the end of his [my] nose” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) when it came to constructing the “new” house, which led Arthur Drexler, former Director...
Using the quote by Habermas as a starting point, select up to two buildings designed in the twentieth century and examine what ‘sudden, shocking encounters’ they have encountered, or created. Analyse the building’s meanings as a demonstration of an avant-garde, or potentially arriere-garde, position.
In the early twentieth century the Modern movement of architecture and industrial design came about. This movement was a reaction to the change within society and the introduction of new technologies. The ever changing world and technology meant artists to evolve alongside the changing world and this kind of ‘industrial revolution’ that was happening. Modernists ideas have seeped into every form of design especially architecture and design. Although most modernists insisted they were not following any style in particular, their work is instantly
However, the success of the building schemes relied on the construction methods and innovations that are now attributed as bei...
Rowland, Kurt F. A History of the Modern Movement: Art Architecture Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973. 142. Print.
During the 1970s Architects first started to think about low-energy buildings, this was due to the oil crisis in the early 1970s. Which resulted in experimental houses, in different styles of ‘folksy or rustic’, thus being quoted as the ‘alternative anti-industrial ideology’. Whereas Herzog did not adopt this style, he carried on using the Modernist tradition. Herzog was an early pioneer of pneumatics and low-energy architecture in West Germany, a country that adopted the belief with enthusiasm, thus turning it into a ‘new orthodoxy’.
Historically speaking, there have been many famous architects that have struggled with finding a ratio between aesthetics and functionalism. Le Corbusier is a good example ...
Le Corbusier’s Vers Une Architecture (Towards a New Architecture) is focused on the architectural qualities of “the machine”. He states that “the house is a machine for living in,” where the principles of architects should be to make the house suited for its purpose, as if it was a machine. This restates the argument that functionalism is more important than appearance, and that progress comes from architects abandoning the concept of traditional styles and decorative effects. Le Corbusier understood that architecture has nothing to do with various styles because functionality will always come before the subjectivity of appearance; he saw the aesthetic, not as just another style but the substance of architecture. In which he drew parallels
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
In his book, Precisions on the Present State of Architecture, Le Corbusier breaks down the construction of the modern house. Following functionalist ideals, he states, “There is really not a square centimeter lost here; and that’s not a small job!” (Le Corbusier 130). This idea of making the most of every centimeter ties back to functionalist thought. In Le Corbusier’s house, there is no excess space, no grandiose rooms or decoration, and no elements that are not essential for living. Each centimeter has a purpose. Later in the passage, Le Corbusier proclaims, “Monsieur will have his cell, Madame also, Mademoiselle also. Each of these cells has floors and a ceiling carried by freestanding independent columns” (130). By reducing each room to simply a cell, Le Corbusier removes the excess of a dwelling; the inhabitants do not have designated rooms or spaces, but cells. Evoking ideas of prison cells, the rooms described by Corbusier appear only large enough to sleep. There will be few extravagancies. Combining the two quotes, functionalisms influence on Corbusier’s planning and thought become strikingly
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
Charles Jencks in his book “The Language of Post-Modern Architecture “shows various similarities architecture shares with language, reflecting about the semiotic rules of architecture and wanting to communicate architecture to a broader public. The book differentiates post-modern architecture from architectural modernism in terms of cultural and architectural history by transferring the term post-modernism from the study of literature to architecture.
In chapter one of Frampton’s writing, “Cultural Transformations,” he describes how changes in society create new architectural styles due to new cultural needs. Frampton starts by explaining the relationship between man and nature in different architectural styles. Man and nature were distinct entities; however, for the sake or ornamentation in architecture, the two were constantly combined. This idea soon changes with Baroque architecture where man and nature started to be distinctly separate, and this later leads to the Neoclassical style which shows an increased desire for man to have control over nature (Frampton 1). Neoclassicism essentially stems from a new cultural formation that grew from the life styles of declining aristocracy and the rising bourgeoisie, and this transition leads
The works of Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Antoine Predock shows a high level of honour and truthfulness. These architects were concrete revolutionalists, they partially over-turned the concepts of ‘purism’, ‘less is more’ and functionalism with the plastic freedom made possible by reinforced concrete.