Descriptive introduction to the site.
The downing centre loacted in Sydney CBD is now the central courthouse consiting of State government, local and district courts. It was originally built in 1908 as a the major department store Mark Foyes and only consisted of two storys. In 1924 two arcitecs from the firm Ross and Rowe were employed to significatly increase the size of the department store which is now eight stories high. Mark Foyes continued to occupy the building until 1980 when it was then taken over by 'Grace Bros'. 'Grace Bros' continued to use the buiilding until 1983. The building was then converted into a court house which opend in 1985. The Downing centre was given its name after the former Attorney General and Minister for Justice
…show more content…
As the building was originally constructed as a department store it could be argued that it fits in with the Modernist views of capitalism, mass production and consumerism.
A traditional design with modernist views are also seen in the mosaic. The idea of a mosaic dates back thousands of year with the earliest known being found in Abra, Mesopotamia, dating back to 3300–3100 B.C (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History 2012). Although it contains a Modern theme with the name Mark Foys being the centre peice, showing the idea of capitalism through branding.
The arcitechtual style Art Nouveau are present throughout the external detailing of the building. "Art Nouveau, was a reaction against the cluttered designs and compositions of Victorian-era decorative art" ( Wolf 2015). This could be used to argue that when the building was being designed the arcitects delibrately took a Modernist view as they used a style which was opposed to the Traditional style or
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...
Interior Decorators such as Elsie de Wolfe, Eleanor McMillen Brown, and Dorothy Draper helped to pave the way for the Interior Design profession today. Their influential decisions to stray away from the Victorian style of design helped guide both the interior decorating profession, as well as architects who no longer wanted to design in the bulky and cluttered Victorian Style. Elsie de Wolfe designed during the Victorian movement, however “had adopted the 1890’s preference for Neoclassicism” (Smith, 22). Unlike the cluttered and dark interiors of an average Victorian interior, her interiors were, “in the words of one visitor, ‘[models] of simplicity’” (Smith, 20).
Nestled deep within the Berkshire Mountains rests the small town of Westfield, Massachusetts. Every morning, a light, tepid fog settles among the quiet streets, devising a peaceful and calm atmosphere. Light winds gently brisk through the many oak trees, swaying the branches back and forth. From afar, the tall mountains border the limits of Westfield, forming a panorama of natural landscape. Fortunately, I was able to call the town of Westfield my home for many years. However, the town serves as more than a source of scenery. Westfield, Massachusetts, has profound personal importance as it portrays the majority of my lifetime. In fact, residing in Westfield has positively impacted my life as a result of the particular climate, historic motif, and community entrenched within the town.
Is the store layout, design and visual merchandising techniques used consistent with the exterior of the store and the location? What does it say about the type of store this is and the market it is trying to attract? Yes, the store layout, design and visual merchandising techniques used consistent with the exterior of the store and the location. The store has fully showed it is a young but classy type of accessories shop as it played well with the colours.
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...
...rchitecture into the early neo-classical/ baroque style. Wren’s style was one of simple magnificence. His style was composed more of in agreeable proportions rather than glorious decoration. Wren was believed to have contributed design ideas for many buildings for which he did not do final designs. Wren’s design concepts were carried into the early years of the eighteenth century by fellow architects, Hawksmoor, and his partner Vanbrugh. However, Wren’s relative simplicity, and his “Protestant plainness” in comparison with European “Popish” richness, was dominated in their designs by superimpose of rich applied decoration and a more complex and extravagant style.
In the short reading, The Cunning of Cosmetics, by Jeffrey Kipnis, he begins by explaining what architecture is reacting to and how it effects the direction it is going in. As a result from explaining this, he starts to ponder on his job on Herzog & de Meuron and question, “When did my infatuation with HdM’s work begin?”(Kipnis 23) he starts to realize that buildings have the “Ability to insinuate itself into my psyche” without forcing itself upon someone. He is able to analyze this in the magazine he was reading Arch- Plus by Nikolaus Kuhnert and see how he separated the magazine into two sections – Ornament and Minimalism, through this he able to explore prime examples such as Signal Box and Ricola Europ, explaining how the use of their materiality and modern ornamentation can give a “Erotic allure…the sirens of the Odyssey”. Overall he is clarifying that
Modernists longed to recreate the world through new ideas and contemporary techniques to design structurally and provide unprecedented buildings. Architecture took a turn and progressed from total works of art to industrialization during the 20th century. Advancement with technology due to the machine age brought new materials and new tools. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the many architects of this time to not only envision new structural systems, but was able to apply modern style concepts to numerous designs throughout his career. Through the design of the New National Gallery, Mies van der Rohe achieved an unprecedented modern language of architecture with the focus on light, transparency and organization of space to utilize all structural qualities, as well as the relationship to nature through designing from the inside out.
Hector’s design had hostoricly invoked the desire to “celebrate and promote this new infrastructure with a bold structure that would be clearly visible on the Paris streetscape”. The gate utilizes organic forms, typical of Nouveau style, while also making the piece appear as “a single component”. The piece actually hide his modernity within the soft forms of the gate, this strategy being symptomatic of “Art Nouveau's ambivalent attitude to the modern age”. Hector’s final design of the gates allowed for the popularizing of the Art Nouveau style, thus “making the style an important early stage in the evolution of modernist
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...
Architecture is the concept of bringing structure, materiality, form and space together as a whole, provide people with enclosed atmosphere to experience. Considering this, it is important to identify that materiality and the purpose of details has been a key methodology to bringing architectural intentions into the design in an affective manner, more over producing an architectural expression. However, this position is rather declining in architecture, reducing tectonics and materiality to being secondary to form and space. With the start of modernism, the attempt to achieve minimalistic style has caused detailing to increasingly develop into a decorative aspect of a building, neglecting its individual contribution to architecture.
When we are young, most of us are somewhat naive. We are inherently taught that
...erior images show that both buildings highlight the horizontal, are free of ornamentation, and define volume rather than mass. . The architectural style of both Wright and Le Corbusier was to be achieved through standardization, which meant the separation of building elements into independent systems. These included the tendency to create spaces that flow together, rather than being compartmentalized to a particular function. Interior images indicate that both buildings have eroded the box for a space that flows without partitions between them. Additionally they shared attributes include a trend toward simplification of form, the elimination of unnecessary and decorative elements, and a marriage of form and function.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Art Nouveau style became an international movement. For the first time in decorative arts history there was a simultaneous movement throughout Europe and America. Art Nouveau brought the finest designers and craftsmen together in order to design buildings, furniture, wallpaper, fabrics, ceramics, metalwork and glasswork. Art Nouveau was considered more than a style, it was a philosophy. From this philosophy carefully designed articles for the home were designed intended to fit into the scheme of the whole Art Nouveau style. Line was the most important aspect of the Art Nouveau period. Art Nouveau was a rebellion against machine made articles of the 19th century that were copies of past designs. Art Nouveau was also a reaction against the old Victorian tradition. Art Nouveau designers borrowed from the past but because of the emphasis on line and adaptation of natural forms to design. Art Nouveau is easily distinguishable from any other period in decorative arts.
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...