Royal Pavilion at Brighton, John Nash, 1815

Revival Architecture

Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton

• Seaside resort for prince regent, later King George IV

• Islamic domes, minarets and screens

• Onion domes and finials

• Underlying the exotic façade is a cast iron skeleton

• Interior: palm-tree columns in cast iron

Revival ArchitectureBarry and Pugin, Houses of Parliament,

London• Old Houses of Parliament burned to the

ground in 1834• Competition held in 1835 to rebuild the

Houses• Only styles allowed in the competition were

Elizabethan Tudor and Gothic• 97 entries, this was the winning entry• Ground plan is cruciform• Two main axes meet in an octagonal central

lobby: House of Commons meets the House of Lords

• Barry was a classicist, a regularity of the rhythms of the façade

• Pugin was a medievalist: towers and decorative elements

Vast office complex: 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, 2 miles of corridors, 8 acres

Harmonized with other medieval buildings nearby, like Westminster Abbey

Big Ben, the clock tower, is like a medieval village clock

Placement of a detached tower is Italian in inspiration

Revival Architecture

Garnier, The Opera, ParisExterior:• Rich polychrome façade of colored

marbles• Domed auditorium• Huge fly space for stage behind

that• Elaborate side entrance for the

Emperor• Subscribers had a pendant entrance• General ticket holders entered

fronthttp://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Paris_Opera.html

Interior:• Iron used, but not in exposed places• Mirrors on columns flicker with gas

light, allowing ladies to check their hair before entering the great staircase

• Auditorium made for the staircase, rather than the staircase for the auditorium

• Auditorium as anti-climax• Garnier said the staircase IS the

opera• Lower steps swell gently outward• Porch of the caryatids frames the

finest seats

Beginnings of Modern Architecture

Paxton, Crystal Palace, London• Competition to build a World’s Fair in

London to be held in 1851• Buildings to be temporary, economical,

simple, and capable of rapid construction• 245 designs submitted, none suitable• Paxton formulated this design in eight

days, fulfilling all requirements• Built in 39 weeks of prefabricated

materials• 1851 feet long, 18 acres• Free of internal walls• 7,200 cast iron and wrought iron

columns• 900,000 square feet of sheet glass

Hollow cast iron columns act as drain pipes

Glass curtain walls

Portal bracing to counteract lateral forces of the wind

Paxton’s experience in greenhouses inspired the design

Burned in 1936

Early Modern Architecture

Eiffel, Eiffel Tower, Paris• Eiffel designed hundreds of metal

structures, mostly railway bridges• The base of the Eiffel Tower

resembles a railway bridge• Built as the symbol of the 1889

World’s Fair in Paris• Elevator invented in Yonkers,

NY in 1853 by Elisha Otis, who designed the radical tilting elevators of the Eiffel Tower

• Exposed iron allows wind forces to go through the building

Early Modern ArchitectureRichardson, Marshall Field Warehouse, Chicago• Rounded arches, rusticated masonry which

decreases as it goes up• Flat cornice on top• Cf. Palazzo Medici-Riccardi• Iron columns as interior supports• Self-bearing masonry loads• 7 story embryonic skyscraper• Arranged around a central court• No architectural features: pediments, pinnacles,

capitals• Main entrance unaccented• Subtle grouping of windows: variation in size

and shape of bays• Simplification of rhythm• Solid look of building despite large proportion

of window space• Masculine image of wholesale store, rather than

the feminine image of a retail store

Romanesque inspiration

Destroyed 1930

Early Modern ArchitectureSullivan, Guaranty Building, Buffalo• Ornament as a major design feature• Building entirely covered in decorative terra

cotta panels• Inspiration of Romanesque buildings• Taller and more slender, with windows recessed

to allow for height of piers to seem more dramatic

• No office space more than 25 feet from windows• Generous rear lighting courts• Steel frame with lighter outer walls• First building to use Gray columns, designed

with distinctive open webs, had lateral stiffness against wind loads

• Arrow-like motifs on façade are a playful account of stress forces on the building

• Ornamental grills that Sullivan designed for the elevators were to be silhouetted against daylight

Art Nouveau

Gaudi, Casa Mila, Barcelona, Spain• Sinuous curved façade of an apartment

building• Wrought iron balconies a Catalonian specialty• Produces the effect of a great piece of

sculpture• Wavy stringcourses define floors• Roses at top are a religious symbol of Mary• Small windows of attic story peak out over

roof line• Fanciful chimneys dominate the top• Artistic expression in the forms• Traditional use of stone carving façade with

modern sense of design• Interior curving walls respond to vegetal

designs

Expressionistic, fantastic, organic forms in undulating facade and roof line. light court

Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi defied rigid geometry when he designed Casa Mila Barcelona. Casa Mila Barcelona is an apartment building with a fanciful aura. Wavy walls seem to undulate and a comical array of chimney stacks dance across the roof. "The straight line belongs to men, the curved one to God," Gaudi asserted.

The final secular design of the Spanish surrealist Antoni Gaudí, Casa Milà Barcelona is an apartment building with a fanciful aura. Wavy walls made of rough-chipped stone suggest fossilized ocean waves, while doors and windows look like they are dug out of sand. A comical array of chimney stacks dances across the roof. 

The Schroder House, Utrecht

Gerrit Rietveld architect, at Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924 to 1925

De Stijl

Rietveld, Schroder House, Utrecht, Netherlands

• Architectural interpretation of a DeStijl painting

• Colors in conformity with DeStijl paintings

• Private rooms on bottom floor• Living room upstairs• Designed with sliding partitions to

open or close space• Shifting free-floating interior• Large flat areas of space define

exterior• Vertical flat columns of color break

up exterior white spaces

Tatlin, Monument to the Third International

• Design principles based on inner behavior and loading capacities of a diverse assemblage of material

• Formal response to Cubism, Futurism• Experimented with glass, iron, sheet

metal, wood• Believed that non-objective art was

the ideal for a new society, free of past symbolism

• Honors the Russian Revolution of 1917

• Huge glass and iron building that would have been world’s largest

• Center of Moscow, propaganda and news center for the Soviet Union

• Axis pointed to star Polaris: symbol of universal humanity

• Three geometrically shaped chambers were to rotate around a central axis inside a titled spiral cage

• Each chamber housed a facility for a different kind of government activity

• Each rotated at a different speed• Bottom: glass structure for lectures and

meetings, rotated once a year• Middle: room intended for administrative

needs, rotated monthly• Top: information center rotated daily• Existed only as a metal and wooden model,

now lost or destroyed• Lacks a main façade; seems to burrow into

the earth

Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-20

Bauhaus and the International StyleGropius, Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany• Bauhaus encouraged a progressive use of

technology and materials in construction• Architects were to be aware of trends in

painting, sculpture, ceramics, woodwork, etc.• Taught that everything can be designed from

a chair to a faucet• Gropius designed Bauhaus in 1925 according

to his principles• No architectural decoration on exterior• Structure of building visible through glass

panels• Main block of building raised off the ground• Skeleton construction with curtain wall of

glass embracing the exterior

Two horizontal stringcourses on top and bottom

Huge influence on 20th Century design

Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius (1883-1969). Studied at the Colleges of Technology of Berlin and Munich. Worked under the german architect Peter Behrens from 1907-10. He was influenced by the writings of Frank Lloyd Wright. Founded the Bauhaus (House of Building), one of the most influential architecture and design schools of the 20th century. The rise of National Socialsim and Adolf Hitler drove Gropius out of Germany. He first went to London, but eventually settled in Boston, where he taught at Harvard and MIT. (WJC)

Bauhaus and the International StyleLeCorbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine,

France• House is a “machine for living”• Four sided solution to a site, building meant to be

seen from every angle• Three bedroom villa with room for four servants• Ground floor is the expression of the transition of

people from the car to the home in a circular driveway

• Living area raised above the ground on thin columns

• Living area framed by a continuous series of windows, not respecting the function of the areas it embraced

• Windows transition living room to kitchen to outdoor areas without marking the rooms off

• Roof no railing, only a six inch parapet, acts as an open patio

Abstractness of conception, a horizontal band of alternating white and open spaces

Exterior structural supports eliminated and form an interior skeleton

1928 Villa Savoye

Le CorbusierHe was convinced that the bold new industrial age required an equally audacious style of architecture. And who better to design it than him?

Bauhaus and the International Style LeCorbusier, Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp,

France• Pilgrimage church to replace a church damaged

in WW II• Reinforced concrete frame• Weight of roof carried on a series of points

leaving the area directly beneath open for glass• Floating roof, shaped like the prow of a ship, a

nun’s habit and/or praying hands• Windows puncture surface of the walls in a

seemingly random manner• Looks like a sacred cave with bare forms of

concrete exposed to view• Each exterior view is entirely differently

rendered• Sloping side walls bend in as they rise, allowing

the roof to cantilever over the top

Wright

Robie House, Chicago• Prairie school of architecture• Organic quality of his architecture,

used natural materials often: brick, uneven surfaces, concrete containing pebble aggregate, sand-finished stucco and plaster, rough-sawn timber, natural woods

• Avoided the machine aesthetic of the International School

• Earth color schemes: browns, yellows, greens

• Cantilever of roof lines over the windows and lower stories

• Corners turned with windows

Wright

Robie House, Chicago (continued)

• Panes are set edge to edge with no interior support

• Roof is angled to protect the house from the summer sun, but allows lower winter sun to penetrate interior

• No blinds, no curtains

• Hard to find entrance: an insular building

• Almost no storage or closet space

• Designed all interior furnishings to fit in a Wright environment

WrightFallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania• Irregularity and complexity of

ground plan and design• Blends in with surroundings of

wooden area• Building set into a wall above a

waterfall• Cantilevered patios broadly reinforce

the horizontal lines of the falls• Local stone used to face body of

building• Supports for cantilever hidden from

view• Cantilevers appear to float• Architecture in harmony with site

Fallingwater, by Frank Lloyd Wright, at Ohiopyle, (Bear Run), Pennsylvania, 1934 , 1938, 1948

Fallingwater may look like a loose pile of concrete slabs about to topple into the stream... but there is no danger of that! The slabs are actually anchored through the stonework of the hillside. Also, the largest and heaviest portion of the house is at the rear, not over the water. And, finally, each floor has its own support system.

When you enter the recessed front door of Fallingwater, your eye is first drawn to a far corner, where a balcony overlooks the waterfall. To the right of the entryway, there is a dining alcove, a large fireplace, and stairs leading to the upper story. To the left, groups of seating

offer scenic views.

Wright

Guggenheim Museum, New York

• Spiraling forms get larger as the building goes up

• Huge interior ramp for exhibition of paintings

• Central well of space dominated by a modern glass dome, used to cast light into the interior

• Undecorated concrete

• Architecture dominates the interior, and often marginalizes the art it houses

Le Corbusier's United Nations Secretariat building over-looks the New York City skyline along the East River. International Style is a term often used to describe Bauhaus architecture in the United States. The name came from the book The International Style by historian and critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip Johnson. The book was published in 1932 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The term is again used in a later book, International Architecture, by Walter Gropius. While German Bauhaus architecture had been concerned with the social aspects of design, America's International Style became a symbolism of Capitalism: The International Style is the favored architecture for office buildings, and is also found in upscale homes built for the rich. One of the most famous examples of the International Style is Le Corbusier's United Nations Secretariat building. The smooth glass slab dominates

New York's skyline along the East River.

The Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe Hovering in a green landscape, the transparent glass Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is often celebrated as his most perfect expression of the International Style. The house is rectangular with eight steel columns set in two parallel rows. Suspended between columns are two steel-framed slabs (the ceiling and the roof) and a simple, glass-enclosed living space and porch. All the exterior walls are glass, and the interior is entirely open except for a wood paneled area containing two bathrooms, a kitchen and service facilities. The floors and exterior decks are Italian travertine limestone. The steel is sanded smooth and painted a gleaming white.

The Farnsworth House took six years to design and build. During this period, Philip Johnson built his famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. However, Johnson's home is symmetrical, ground-hugging structure with a very different atmosphere.

Edith Farnsworth was not happy with the house Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed for her. She sued Mies van der Rohe, claiming that the house was not livable. Critics, however, said that Edith

Farnsworth was lovesick and spiteful.

1946 - 51

Designed and built from 1946 to 1951, Farnsworth House is considered a paradigm of international style architecture in America. The house's structure consists of precast concrete floor and roof slabs supported by a carefully crafted steel skeleton frame of beams, girders and columns. The facade is made of single panes of glass spanning from floor to ceiling, fastened to the structural system by steel mullions. The building is heated by radiant coils set in the concrete floor; natural cross ventilation and the shade of nearby trees provide minimal cooling. Though it proved difficult to live in, the Farnsworth House's elegant simplicity is still regarded as an important accomplishment of the international style.

1957Park Avenue

New York, New York, USALudwig Mies van der Rohe (and Philip Johnson),

architects  

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson rejected "bourgeois" ornamentation when they designed the Seagram Building in New York City. A shimmering tower of glass and bronze, the Seagram Building is both classical and stark. Metallic beams emphasize the height of the 38-story skyscraper, while a base of granite pillars leads to horizontal bands of bronze plating and bronze-tinted glass.

The Art Deco style evolved from many sources. The austere shapes of the Bauhaus School and streamlined styling of modern technology combined with patterns and icons taken from the Far East, ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, Egypt, India, and Mayan and Aztec cultures. Art Deco buildings have many of these features:

•Cubic forms

•Ziggurat shapes: Terraced pyramid with each story smaller than the one below it

•Complex groupings of rectangles or trapezoids

•Bands of color

•Zigzag designs

•Strong sense of line

•Illusion of pillars

By the 1930s, Art Deco evolved into a more simplified style known as Streamlined Moderne, or Art Moderne. The emphasis was on sleek, curving forms and long horizontal lines. These buildings did not feature zigzag or colorful designs found on earlier Art Deco architecture.

The Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. For a few months, this Art Deco skyscraper was the tallest structure in the world. It was also one of the first buildings composed of stainless steel over a large exposed surface. The architect, William Van Alen, drew inspiration from machine technology for the ornamental details on the Chrysler Building: There are eagle hood ornaments, hubcaps and abstract

images of cars.

Philip Johnson's At&T Headquarters (now the SONY Building) is often cited as an example of postmodernism.

Postmodern architecture evolved from the modernist movement, yet contradicts many of the modernist ideas. Combining new ideas with traditional forms, postmodernist buildings may startle, surprise, and even amuse. Familiar shapes and details are used in unexpected ways. Buildings may incorporate symbols to make a statement or simply to delight the viewer. Philip Johnson's At&T Headquarters is often cited as an example of postmodernism. Like many buildings in the International Style, the skyscraper has a sleek, classical facade. At the top, however, is an

oversized "Chippendale" pediment.

I.M. Pei, Architect - Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. Modernist architecture emphasizes function. It attempts to provide for specific needs rather than imitate nature. The roots of Modernism may be found in the work of Berthold Luberkin (1901-1990), a Russian architect who settled in London and founded a group called Tecton. The Tecton architects believed in applying scientific, analytical methods to design. Their stark buildings ran counter to expectations and often seemed to defy gravity. Modernist architecture can express a number of stylistic ideas, including:

•Structuralism

•Formalism

•Bauhaus

•The International Style

•Brutalism

•Minimalism

Modernist architecture has these features:

•Little or no ornamentation

•Factory-made parts

•Man-made materials such as metal and concrete

•Emphasis on function

•Rebellion against traditional styles

The Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm) in Potsdam is an Expressionist work by architect Erich Mendelsohn, 1920. Expressionism evolved from the work of avant garde artists and designers in Germany and other European coutries during the first decades of the twentieth century. Key features of Expressionism are:

•distorted shapes

•fragmented lines

•organic or biomorphic forms

•massive sculpted shapes

•extensive use of concrete and brick

•lack of symmetry

•many fanciful works rendered on paper but never built

Neo-expressionism built upon expressionist ideas. Architects in the 1950s and 1960s designed buildings that expressed their feelings about the surrounding landscape. Sculptural forms suggested rocks and mountains. Organic and Brutalist architecture can often be described as Neo-expressionist.

Centre Pompidou in France by by Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, and Gianfranco Franchini. High-tech buildings are often called machine-like. Steel, aluminium, and glass combine with brightly colored braces, girders, and beams. Many of the building parts are prefabricated in a factory and assembled later. The support beams, duct work, and other functional elements are placed on the exterior of the building, where they become the focus of attention. The interior spaces are open and adaptable for many uses. The High-tech Centre Pompidou in Paris appears to be turned inside out, revealing its inner workings on the exterior

facade.

The Sydney Opera House, designed by Jørn Utzon, winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2003

Frank Lloyd Wright said that all architecture is organic, and the Art Nouveau architects of the early twentieth century incorporated curving, plant-like shapes into their designs. But in the later half of the twentieth century, Modernist architects took the concept of organic architecture to new heights. By using new forms of concrete and cantilever trusses, architects could create swooping arches without visible beams or pillars. Organic buildings are never linear or rigidly geometric. Instead, wavy lines and curved shapes suggest natural

forms.