Character And Symbolism In Modernism

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Modernism emphasized utility and function; symbolism and sculptural form, the use of technology and modern materials. In Modernism character becomes a significant force in architectural theory. With the introduction of steel and the reinforcement frame the important aspect of the age was the machine. Additionally, The utopian project drove several social experimentations speaking in the diverse investigation of the 1920s.
Character becomes an important force in architectural theory. Although character starts with a functionalist aesthetic and it is the fitness of the building which is expressed, the idea of power begins to overpower the functional character becomes connected to emotiveness. Further, function begins to take on a symbolic expression rather than the idea of fitness. Claude Nicolas Ledoux and Etienne Louis Boullee are students of Blondel, and they extended his theoretical position to an extreme. Domination of the visual and the impact of architecture on the senses is a driving concern on Boullee. Character becomes a blanket over layed of simple ideas geomiticly driven...

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