Residential Architecture

The International Style, was a period were a new forms architecture was created in ideas that focus on the individual invention. Architects like  Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Mies Van der Rohe defined modern architecture through their residential design. The post would focus on the practice  and influences on their design. Each architect created a specific characteristic  that can be see through lifetime career, can be simple as used of material or the form of the building.

Le Corbusier  hold a vision of the ideal city, using nature as example. Corbusier would  Avoid a Beaux Arts education, he rather believed in learning self doing it or by self educating themselves. At his early career he was influences by multiple architects and ideas. one power concept he adapted on his work was finding a way to reconcile the "Traditional Architecture and Modern Architecture." His early work concentrated in neoclassical style.  One the revolutionary ideas he is very known is was the creation of the Dom-ino skeleton, This module consist in free floor plate known as planes and hold in place by columns, and foer Vertical circulation stairs case independent from structure. He view as these style could mass produce and the inside can be configure in any way you want. Since buildings is made of concrete it can last a longtime so it can be configure as many-times the owner needed the space differently.  We can observe this was already implemented at Maison Cook House. which utilizes a free floor plan with a structure separated from the plan and arranged in a grid system.

Domino-Plan
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/116/314827020_97b9b7e2c4.jpg

In  the 1920 Le Corbusier  was involve in the Purist Movement with an “interest in mechanization and pure proportion.” It influenced his later designs as well as the aesthetic of modern architecture. in the process of developing his work, Le Corbusier focus his work on creating proportions on his facades. Using ideas  like the golden section he used a proportional system to communicate ideas on his design. The purpose was to achieve a aesthetic beauty. We are able to observe this idea on his work at Maison la roche. 

Golden Rectangle in his building or his 'Machines for Living'.
http://eliinbar.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/le-corbusier0002.jpg

 Alvar Aalto also started out with Neoclassical and Rationalism, Later he turn in to developing a new form of Modernism. A good example of his work is  Viipuri Library. IT started as a neoclassical building  but later on the design process it transformed into a modernist design. Aalto career have many shifts on his design process, in the 1930 he turns to look in nature for inspiration. using natural materials. On his career he always focused on the texture of the surfaces of his designs. “human life and the natural landscape.”

Villa Mairea- Alvaro Aalto
http://www.lindsayrgwatt.com/archives/old_blog/16_London_Jaunt_files/villa_mairea_inset2.jpg

Aalto used to design all the pieces of furniture in his residences. A clear example of this can be seen in the Villa Mairea were he use wooden poles as if the interior would be in a middle of a forest.  These house represent an important move forward to functionalism leaving the neoclassical period behind. The wooden poles in a since frame the views creating an inviting social space. He approach his design in looking at the context of the building and making his building raise from the ground rather than plotting his building anywhere.  The ideas was to used the geographic location to view climate systems an orientation of the building.

Villa Mairea- Alvaro Aalto
http://sp9.fotolog.com/photo/9/15/123/mai_2008/1233781680186_f.jpg

Mies’s designs changed throughout his career as it was influences by earlier architects. his design always features  an emphasis on the on columns and monolithic walls painted white.  This can be seen in the Tugendhat House, which uses chrome columns, polished marble, and a white uniform façade.  Similar to the Barcelona Pavilion and to Le Corbusier, the columns and structure of the house are separated from the form, allowing the container to not be associated with the structure, an idea continued in the modern office building, as well as the free development of the interior.

Tugendhat-Mies van da roe
http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_1052_0004-469-0-20100802164322.jpg

Meis looked at  nature, but instead of shaping his building like nature he used the idea of interlocking nature and people. The ideas was of creating an feeling the nature is inside. He achieve this by framing views. Look trough nature by transparency glass. Creating a separation but in physiological you feel as if you were outside because the used of the material.  a perfect example of these can be seen in Farnsworth House that utilizes an almost entirely glass façade to allow for views out across the entire site.  The house have simplistic form compare to its surroundings it creates a great contrast which make the design unique.

Farnsworth House
Image source: http://maciejratajski.blogspot.com/2009/12/farnsworth-house.html

Simplicity of the Modern Housing

            The modern movement can be described as minimalism.  In contrast to those classical buildings those were highly ornamented. The modern housing were fuse to the functionalist aspect of a building itself.  Making this modern houses “Clean”, the idea behind it was that a modern houses would only follow the function of a building. Either if it was to show the drastic changed between private vs. public space. Ideas of framing what the architect wanted the user of the house to see. The modern houses were all similar in the innovational way they used their spaces as a module that was manipulated to the architecture needs. 

The Steiner House

Adolf Laos in 1910 design, The Steiner house was designed for the painter Lilly Steiner.  Located in a Vienna suburb where the planning regulations were strong enough to have a direct impact on the final design. Adolf Laos imposed by the shape of the site and external forces like the planning codes.  Decided to place a large window built in a sloping roof. The large window at the front brings light into the atelier of the painter, which was located at the ground level.  He uses the idea of the modern architecture by a simple façade. He uses a semi-circular metal-sheathed roof and articulating the transition between the front and garden elevations.

The Steiner house became highly influential example of modern architecture; it played a significant role in establishing Laos reputation as a modern architect to the audience outside of the Viennese community, and became an obligatory reference for architects during the 1920s and 30s. Laos introduces the ideas of garden facades and an example radical rationalist architecture.  The façade was assimilated to the formal of purism of the 1920s.  Laos the exterior was the public side of the house; that is the reason for the bare wall surfaces. The interior was the private side and reflected the owner's personal flavor. 

            A good a example of the new movement of modern architecture is the works of Adolf Laos. He used a system of planning call the Raumplan. As he stated in shorthand record of conservation in Plzen (Pilsen) 1930“My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me” These idea was categorized the organization of elements that would interact with each other eliminating the central hall and adding a staircase. Laos also added the introduction of light into his design which included the addition of windows in the staircase. He wanted to create an experience for the space in a way that he started to frame views around his design. The exterior of the façade were reducing to its minimal form. Laos thought it was a way to show a distinctive distinguishes between public and private.  A house that shows his ideals is the Mr. Muller house.

Mr. Muller House Purism Exterior

Section Perceptive Elevation Between Spaces

            Victor Bourgeois a Belgian architect and urban planner, considered the greatest Belgian modernist architect and was invited to design a house for the Weissenhof Estate exhibition in Stuttgart.  Bourgeois used a similar way as Laos designing it modern housing. He uses the same cleanness exterior. There no ornamentation on the façade of the building. The entrance is  hide by a curve wall making a clear distinction between public and private space. Exploring his ideas in his floor plan there a way of shifting a modular cube finds form of his design. These ideas can be also express in the creation of his façade.   These approaches were the ones the Laos was taking as he sais his drawing do not reflect his architecture but his spaces do. 

Ground Level

Second Floor

Sources:

http://architect.architecture.sk/adolf-loos-architect/adolf-loos-architect.php

http://www.mullerovavila.cz/english/raum-e.html

           

Early Arquitects

            Henry Van der Velde’s influence on this time period could not have been accomplished without Willy Finch.  In 1982, these two created a decorative art movement that paid it’s respects to the English Arts and Crafts Society through their painter’s group, Les XX.  After awhile of work, they slowly became less associated with the industrial arts and were more recognized along the fine arts.  Through this experience, Van der Velde had the opportunity to present a series of lectures.  

At the turn of the century, technologies from science and industrialization warped the modes of transportation, economy, and commercialism. From these technologies, sprang a new malleable material. Iron would change the flow of the architect’s pen from short, acute, symmetrical floor designs hindered by stone’s structural capabilities into fluid, naturalistic motions upon which art and architecture would enter into the interior. According to William Curtis, “Art Nouveau artists rejected historicism, but they could not altogether reject tradition, for even the creator intent on producing new forms will rely, in some degree, on old ones.” [1] The proportionality and symmetry from what stone columns and flying buttresses offered could not nearly harbor the industrial and proletariat programmatic necessities of the 19^th century.

Haussmann’s attempt to breathe life and, quite literally, air back into Paris at the beginning of the century proposed a fresh canvas for urban façade design. The storefront and its adjacent sidewalk would become the new medium for which the social stage would lay. It brought forth colorful public characters, such as the Flâneur. This patron would meander through the streets and accomplish nothing but simply existing in space. Their main stoop from which they observed the rush of the crowds was from the thresholds of department stores. 

The Parisian street front was only a dynamic forum for the public, but also an organizing system for a new housing movement. When the grand avenues were carved out from the preexisting medieval township, numerous households that had stood for generations were displaced. Luckily for the new commercial avenues, persons were not exiled to the countryside, but elevated to housing located above stores and public spaces. This kept customers nearby and revenue in the new industrial age flowing. The economic prosperity influenced people to renovate their individualistic surroundings in the domestic home.

Running parallel to the metamorphosis of Parisian urban fabric was the inevitable change of the typical household architecture. Now that man had to strike out of the familiarity of his home and trudge exposed to the factories, weaving together the nurturing threads of the proletariat’s home was imperative. 

Art Nouveau architect, Henry Van de Velde was a supporter that the house was “an expression of the personality.”4 His specific contribution included the idea that while traditional architecture forms are created to contain a space, the new technology of iron has the quality of malleability and should work to redefine the idea of ornamentation. With his furniture, such as his work, Chair in 1896, the ornamentation begins to be incorporated with the overall form and functionality instead of being an entity standing alone.

One last Art Nouveau architect worth mentioning that contributed a multitude of work is Hector Guimard. Along with the Eiffel Tower, his subway thresholds have become a recognizable symbol of Parisian architecture. Similar to Horta’s faith in Viollet-le-Duc’s theory of exposed structural architecture, Guimard also believed in the truth of a structure’s form being on display. He pushed the subject even further and was not afraid to use structural ironwork as an educational tool about the new technology. Taking this art to the public realm, Guimard wanted to expose iron to the utilitarian high-traffic streets, yet was careful not to deny it a naturalistic exuberance.

Guimard’s work is said to be infused with a dash of Gothic Rationalism, perhaps from the influence of Viollet-le-Duc or the respectable nature of Guimard as a historian. However, it is far from being stuck in the past, and can appear futuristic even today. The webbing of the Paris Métro radiates upwards and outwards calling attention to ones surroundings while providing adequate definition as an isolated passage to the underworld.

These three men, Guimard, Horta, and Van de Velde, set benchmarks for these foreign and overwhelming technologies of glass and iron. Within these benchmarks, principles of Art Nouveau were massaged and procured and would go on to define a thoughtful and naturalistic style. Instead of unengaged ornamentation, wall motifs ran seamlessly into three dimensional railings, columns, and even furniture. The artist’s fluidity cradled structural loads in Horta’s private residences, emphasized a threshold to the Paris Métro by Guimard, and faded from the foreground of furniture into the background of a room’s composition by the hand of Van de Velde.

            The underlying forces behind Art Noveau can be narrowed down to a few basic concepts.  The first, the one that most people immediately notice, the flowing organic form.  This imitation of nature was definitely vital to the success of this period.  Not only did many pieces possess this organic form, but it also served a purpose.  It must not only be for ornamentation, but also be absolutely necessary to holding the piece together, many times even structurally.  The third and final thing was clearly an obsession.  All of these artists took this new concept and ran with it.  They designed everything from the structure, to the ornamentation on the wall, to the clothes people would wear in these spaces.  Hector Guimard, Victor Horta, and Henry Van der Velde were three influential people of this time and were under the influence of Art Nouveau at it’s peak.

            Hector Guimard was one who took France by storm with this movement.  He had a serious commitment to the ideology of Viollet le Duc.  He “integrated the new decorative principles into a coherent architectural style”1.  Guimard was provided with the opportunity to design the School of Sacre Coeur in Paris and the Maison Coilliot in Lille.  The illustrations alone from these buildings inspired many architects and designers to incorporate these ideas into their own work.  Guimard  found it necessary to carry the analogy between metal structure and plant form further than any other architect of his time. 

            Architecture was a passion of Victor Horta in which he received Beaux-Arts training.  With this training, he mixed a neoclassical style with Viollet-le-Duc’s rationalism and constructed a series of houses throughout Belgium.  He received many commissions from domestic clients who shared his socialist views.  Some describe his style as a “whiplash style in France and abroad. [By] rejecting historical styles and embracing new materials, Horta laid the foundations for modern architecture."

Manifestation of Modern Architecture

                                                                               

They were the architects of the 19^th century who introduced the ideas that contributed to the development Modern Architecture. They used the theories to build and restored architecture. Manifesting the main key elements to describe the modern architecture we know now. Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc shared a common interest in Gothic architecture, however, they had different perspectives towards form and styles to gothic architecture as a result two different forms were born. Ruskin thought Gothic from an emotional view, Ruskin obsessed in admiring the life and beauty in the details formed by the craftsmen. He valued the idea of natural forms over mechanization.

            Viollet-le-Duc view was in rational approach, he was more fascinated by the logic of the design and construction of structural solutions of gothic buildings. He arrives to the tectonics view of architecture. While this led Ruskin viewpoint that architecture: “is not a matter of design but of an ornament” (Pevsner 20), a building is only considered architecture once it gains ornamentation. He believes it was beyond the structures solutions to the design.  Viollet-le-Duc gave more importance to reason and science behind the building than its decorative style. He thought a building looks can not contradict its structure purposes good architecture is defined by its structure rational.

Semper Opera

http://www.semperoper.de/en.h

Gottfried Semper was very sensitive to Gothic architecture, he admire the Greek architecture, which in a similar way he pay attention to value on craftsmanship as Ruskin did.  A point of view independent of Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc, and defined style as a consideration of socio-political conditions driven by free will, as his work was very much affected by his own political affiliations. This led Semper to develop The Four Elements of Architecture,” Hearth, Substructure Roof Enclosure. Argued that more evolved architecture integrates all of these categories into one main concept for a building.

Viollet-le-Duc, Design for a Market Hall, 1864.

              These men did agreed on a single representation of architectural elements in design should be realistic. They affirmed what Ruskin statement in “The Seven Lamps of Architecture.”  Viollet-le-Duc wrote in Entretiens, that architectural elements should be represented as they are, in their clear and true form, so as to not cause deception or suggest something artificial.