Bauhaus vs. Jonson Wax administrative building

959 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of the bauhaus school

Mingchen Cui
Assignment #2
Arch 222
Bauhaus vs. Jonson Wax administrative building

Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius are widely regarded as the prionneering masters of modern architecture.The Johnson Wax Building and Bauhaus as their symbolic and critical masterpieces shared similar style of form but different idea of interpreting design. Wright’s simplicity approach and Gropius ‘less is more’ idea are seemingly related, but varied by their self preference in most aspects.

Generally, since the aim of Gropius is to reconcile arts and crafts, the Bauhaus is industrial in its aesthetics compressed with steel concrete and glass. Oppositely, Wright favors of nature by focusing organic forms. Therefore, such diffrence of aesthetic from both architect create similar form but different atomosphere of buildings.

Both building have non-traditional shape. Johnson wax building has a very horizontal shape since Wright wants to stress the building belongs to ground. The traditional corners also disappear which has been replaced by round shape to concentrate the fluidness. In contrary, Bauhaus’s asymmetric form provide a good opportunity to fit the different cubic elements in its interlinking system, even though horizontal lines are also being used there, such a feeling of flow can be hardly observed.

Another non-traditional change is the location of the entrance door. Both building require movement to be understood, as pedestrian walking around the continous facades, the door can be founded which is not located at the center or obvious postion. Especially in Johnson Wax Building, the entrance is hiding within the building and you can only access the building by driving car through. Such a smooth transsition from outside to inside high...

... middle of paper ...

...the tower installed alongside the office building as part of the whole, they have to linked each other so there is no need to leave this entire large building which finally become more self-sufficient and union just like Bauhaus.

Overall, Wright and Gropius have engage different aspects and steps of design. Wright borrow ideas from nature to try to apply it into architecture to gain better result for people comfort or effectiveness. Gropius put the function first and by developing the funtion with environment to meet people’s requirement of comfort and convinence. But they both share a same idea which is ‘simplicity’. From my point of view either simplicity and complex are necessary in design. Even though most time they conflict with each other a lot. I beileve one day they must become a union just like Gropius aim ’Arts and craft will finally reconcile’

Show More
Related

  • Understanding Architectural Form: St Peter’s Basilica and Neumann’s Pilgrimage Church

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...understandable of making use of perfect architectural form as geometry, in terms of believe and as well as architecture. His design was straight to the point , making use of geometrical shape and it’s magnificent meaning which itself emphasises a perfect form and perfect centre point at its middle, which itself is a powerful remark on the focus point of the building (crucifixion spot at Tempietto and the pulpit at the Basilica) this achievement is more effective rather than using of coloured and expensive material ,gold ,sculpture ,painting ,large windows and light or other architectural elements which Baraque architecture used to bring about the attraction and highlight it’s point in the building.(the Alter of Grace at Church of Vierzehnheiligen)

    Read More

  • Frank Lloyd Wright And Olmsted: A Legacy Of Design

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    The design principles that Wright and Olmsted lived by helped to create a standard for following generations. Using Nature as an inspiration and a employing a consistent programmatic style have been characteristics that designers have picked up on from Wright, and plan to continue using. Juxtaposing nature and thick urban life, and finding innovative ways to mix the two, has become a signature characteristic that points to Olmsted. Both, Frank Lloyd Wright and Frederik Law Olmsted have had a heavy influence on designers today when it comes to including nature in design, but in very contrasting ways.

    Read More

  • The Influence of Frank Lloyd Wright on Frank Gehry in the Design of his Own House

    2675 Words  | 6 Pages

    Many of Frank Gehry’s early works reflect a refined manipulation of shapes and structures, whereby many of his buildings present distorted shapes or apparent structures. From the Guggenheim museum to the Walt Disney concert hall, Frank Gehry’s architecture is close to none. He cleverly plays with shapes and geometries. In this essay, I shall start with a brief analysis of Gehry’s house and the influences in the design of the house. I shall then analyze the extent to which Frank Lloyd Wright has inspired and influenced Gehry in the design of his house through a comparison with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Jacob’s house.

    Read More

  • Mies Van Der Rhoes and Paul Rudolph

    2349 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is the new decade after the end of world war two and modernism is a well-established practice. Its pioneers and spearheads are prevalent figures looming over the new architects and designers who are trying to make their mark in the shadows of such historically influential people. With new technologies and materials emerging from the world wars the next era of modernism had started to evolved, bringing with it philosophies and ideas which seemed far removed from those of the pioneers of modernism “What emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s was an expanding synthesis of questions utterly removed from the confident statements of the pioneers.”(Spade 1971,10) Two significant buildings were designed in the 50's, both of them for educational institutes and to house students of architecture, there were both designed in completely different styles and methods. The first is Ludwig Mies van der Rohes' Crown Hall, finished in 1956 and designed as a part of a campus master plan for the Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago. Mies' design for Crown Hall is one of his most realised expressio...

    Read More

  • essay

    1786 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...erfect atmosphere to convey speed, efficiency, and technology of the time. This open floor plan not only functions as an efficient visual element but also incorporates the idea of communal work. Customers, store leaders, associates, tech gurus etc. are all free to wander and work together without office walls or boundaries to separate them. The change in the use of light began during the Bauhaus era when lampshades which used to block light and create harsh separations were replaced with broad flood lights evenly spaced to create equal lighting throughout. The use of pure white walls and metal trim also make direct reference to the Bauhaus ideals. Likewise there is an egalitarian principle evoked in the designs. Built to human scale and made clearly for use by people rather than large monumental or overly scaled buildings that often promote power and authority.

    Read More

  • Frank Lloyd Wright

    4276 Words  | 9 Pages

    Heinz, Thomas A., Frank Lloyd Wright: Architectural Monographs No 18, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992.

    Read More

  • The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacob

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    But these contrived differences give rise to esthetic difficulties too. Because inherent differences—those that come from genuinely differing uses—are lacking among the buildings and their settings, the contrivances repre...

    Read More

  • Wright and Le Corbusier

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wright designed according to his desire to place the residents close to the natural surroundings. He felt that a house should be a natural extension of its surroundings and not just positioned on a site. Wright designed his buildings so its layouts and features could merge with its surroundings rather than merely resembling a rectangular box on a lot. Wright stated, “A building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped to harmonize with its surroundings.” His main objective was to demonstrate how people can be harmonious with

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Art Deco And Buhaus

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of those similarities is the use of geometric attributes. Art Deco had verticality and even the decorations had geometric shapes on them creating a designs likes chevrons. Bauhaus did not have excess decorations but instead had strong rectangular walls and perfect circular designs. The geometrics are there and prominent in both styles. Both styles have also been the influence of architecture that is still being seen today. Both styles were emerging around the same time during the 20th century. These styles are also similar because they both value fine crafts and design. The luxury and glamour of design and jewelry of Art Deco was created with fine craftsmanship and thought. The same can be said and seen in the work of Bauhaus. Their school was founded on the ideals that the Bauhaus movement would “… reunite art and industry, craft and industrial design… with a purpose of a utopian vision to make a better world for all through better designed objects and environments” (Tom Thomas).

    Read More

  • Frank Lloyd Wright

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    Architecture, the practice of building design and its resulting products, customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally significant. Today the architecture must satisfy its intended uses, must be technically sound, and must convey beautiful meaning. But the best buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of history of cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals. Architecture is a social art, yet Frank Lloyd Wright single handily changed the history of architecture. How did Frank Lloyd Wright change architecture?

    Read More

  • Modern vs. Postmodern Architecture

    1622 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Charles Jencks The Language Of Post Modern Architecture

    2290 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jencks believes “the glass-and-steel box has become the single most used form in Modern Architecture and it signifies throughout the world ‘office building’” (27). Thus, modern architecture is univalent in terms of form, in other words it is designed around one out of a few basic values using a limited number of materials and right angles. In...

    Read More

  • Barcelona Pavilion Case Study

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    A smaller pool lays adjacent to the building on the opposite side enclosed by a wall of marble. Mies designed the pavilion to blur the lines between inside and outside space. There are parts of the walls that seem to be missing which creates a flow between the two main spaces. The pavilion’s thin sweeping roof is supported by eight cruciform columns clad in chrome. This created an open and free space where he lined the outside of the building with glass. He then carefully placed a thin slab of onyx in the middle of the open volume.

    Read More

  • The Falling Water House by Frank Lloyd Wright

    2553 Words  | 6 Pages

    His works were totally reflected and enhanced the environment of nature on the site, the whole idea of a house could be were forever changing when it is his design. Wright’s architectural achievements in simplicity and unity were possible to be build supported by the method of the construction and materials like; Reinforced concrete, steel, metal sheet, glass plate and plastics. This genius architect offered a building with a relationship of Architecture and landscape, with community as well. Many projects nowadays have influenced from Wright’s modern styles, this well-known architect has many influences that became his principles. First is his exemplary teacher...

    Read More

  • The Use of Traditional Styles in Contemporary Architecture

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Through the modern era technologies evolved and avant garde was not just a matter of being ahead in you design concepts,. but also in the materials that you use. Modernist designers, in an obsession of moving forward, where always looking to enhance their ideals with new materials. When the modernist bubble burst the post-modern views came forward, embracing styles and techniques of history, architectures where liberated to be able to blend and combine techniques from throughout history. Contemporary architects, in various forms, continue on with the post-modern legacy of taking inspiration from history and seek out to use traditional building methods not only for convenience but also economical, environmental, contextual and symbolic reasons.

    Read More

More about Bauhaus vs. Jonson Wax administrative building

Open Document