Hoa V
Hoa V
Hoa V
Modernism
Challenging CIAM declarations
Team X
Brutalism
Writing of
Venturi
Jane Jacob
Aldo Rossi
Christopher Alexander
MODERNISM
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 (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.
Modernist architecture can express a number of stylistic
ideas, including:
Structuralism
Formalism
Bauhaus
The International Style
Brutalism
Minimalism
Little or no ornamentation
Factory-made parts
Man-made materials such as metal and concrete
Emphasis on function
Rebellion against traditional styles
Architects, influenced by this style:
Le Corbusier
Philip Johnson
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.
HIGH TECH:
High-tech buildings are often called machine-like.
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE:
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.
DECONSTRUCTIVISM:
Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an approach to
building design that attempts to view architecture in bits and
pieces.
The basic elements of architecture are dismantled.
Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no visual logic.
They may appear to be made up of unrelated, disharmonious
abstract forms.
Deconstructivism in architecture, also called deconstruction,
is a development of postmodern architecture that began in
the late 1980s.
It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an
interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or
skin, non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and
dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as
structure and envelope.
The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit
the many deconstructivist "styles" is characterized by a
stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.
FORMATION OF CIAM:
The International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM)
was founded in June 1928, at the Chateau de la Sarraz in
Switzerland, by a group of 28 European architects organized
by Le Corbusier, Hlne de Mandrot (owner of the castle),
and Sigfried Giedion (the first secretary-general).
CIAM was one of many 20th century manifestos meant to
advance the cause of "architecture as a social art".
INFLUENCE:
The organization was hugely influential.
It was not only engaged in formalizing the architectural
principles of the Modern Movement, but also saw
architecture as an economic and political tool that could be
used to improve the world through the design of buildings
and through urban planning.
The fourth CIAM meeting in 1933 was to have been held in
Moscow. The rejection of Le Corbusier's competition entry for
the Palace of the Soviets, a watershed moment and an
indication that the Soviets had abandoned CIAM's principles,
changed those plans.
Instead it was held onboard ship, the SS Patris II, which
sailed from Marseille to Athens.
Here the group discussed concentrated on principles of "The
Functional City", which broadened CIAM's scope from
architecture into urban planning.
Based on an analysis of thirty-three cities, CIAM proposed
that the social problems faced by cities could be resolved by
strict functional segregation, and the distribution of the
CIAM Conferences:
CIAM's conferences consisted of:
1928, CIAM I, La Sarraz, Switzerland, Foundation of
CIAM
1929, CIAM II, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on The
Minimum Dwelling
1930, CIAM III, Brussels, Belgium, on Rational Land
Development
1933, CIAM IV, Athens, Greece, on The Functional City
TEAM 10:
Team 10, just as often referred to as "Team X", was a group
of architects and other invited participants who assembled
starting in July 1953 at the 9th Congress of C.I.A.M. and
created a schism within CIAM by challenging its doctrinaire
approach to urbanism.
The group's first formal meeting under the name of Team 10
took place in Bagnols-sur-Cze in 1960; the last, with only
four members present, was in Lisbon in 1981.
Team 10's core group consists of the seven most active and
longest-involved participants in the Team 10 discourse,
namely
Jaap Bakema,
Georges Candilis,
Giancarlo De Carlo,
Aldo van Eyck,
Alison and Peter Smithson and
Shadrach Woods.
They referred to themselves as "a small family group of
architects who has sought each other out because each has
found the help of the others necessary to the development
and understanding of their own individual work."
Team 10's theoretical framework, disseminated primarily
through teaching and publications, had a profound influence
HISTORY:
Team 10's core group started meeting within the context of
CIAM, the international platform for modern architects
founded in 1928 and dominated by Le Corbusier and Sigfried
Giedion.
After the war CIAM became the venue for a new generation
of modern architects.
As a student, Candilis had already been taking part in the
CIAM meetings since the congress in Athens, 1933, while
Bakema and Van Eyck had been involved in the discussions
on the future of modern architecture since the reunion
congress in Bridgwater, 1947.
Alison and Peter Smithson attended the congress in
Hoddesdon in 1951 to hear Le Corbusier speak, and it was
there that they met, among others, Candilis, Bakema and
Van Eyck.
These individuals would form part of the core of Team 10
after the dissolution of CIAM, as would Shadrach Woods and
Giancarlo De Carlo.
The younger members who instigated the changes in CIAM
formed a much wider group than the later core of Team 10.
BRUTALISM:
The Bauhaus architect Le Corbusier used the French phrase
bton brut, or raw concrete, to describe the construction of
his rough, concrete buildings.
Brutalism grew out of the Bauhaus Movement and the bton
brut buildings by Le Corbusier and his followers.
Heavy and angular, Brutalist buildings can be constructed
quickly and economically.
Common features include:
Precast concrete slabs
Rough, unfinished surfaces
WORKS:
His earliest works of the 1960s were mostly theoretical and
displayed a simultaneous influence of 1920s Italian
modernism (see Giuseppe Terragni), classicist influences of
Viennese architect Adolf Loos, and the reflections of the
painter Giorgio De Chirico.
A trip to the Soviet Union to study Stalinist architecture also
left a marked impression.
PUBLICATIONS:
Dr. Alexander is the author of numerous books and papers.
He has initiated a new approach to architectural thinking, in
which the same set of laws determines the structure of a
city; a building; or a single room.
He has spent most of his life in searching for these laws.
His approach to solving this universal problem takes
advantage of scientific reasoning, and totally opposes other,
unscientific approaches based on fashion, ideology, or
arbitrary personal preferences.
This is so different from the way architecture has been
taught since the second world war that it causes conflicts
with established architectural schools
Alexander offers definitive solutions to the problems of urban
architecture and design.
It is a great pity that these were not adopted when first
published.