AR8502

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE III

(STUDY MATERIAL)
 SYLLABUS

UNIT 1 MODERNITY AND ARCHITECTURE

Overview of modernity as a historical phenomenon and its various aspects and
manifestations, encompassing social, cultural, technological, economic and
political changes. Outline of various strands of modernity in architecture.
Enlightenment ideals, Neo Classical architecture and its types. Outline of
Industrial Revolution and associated changes. Urban transformations in Europe
and America. Housing projects. New building types and spaces. Industrial
material of steel, glass and concrete. New construction techniques and
standardization. Split of design education into architecture and engineering
streams. Industrial exhibitions. Chicago School, skyscraper development and
Louis Sullivan.

UNIT 2 REACTIONS TO INDUSTRIALISATION

Reactions to industrialization in design. Arts and Crafts in Europe and America.
Works of Morris and Webb. Art Nouveau. Works of Horta, Van De Velde, Gaudi,
Guimard and Mackintosh. Vienna Secession.

UNIT 3 EVOLUTION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE - IDEOLOGIES, MOVEMENTS AND

STYLES
Early modernism in Europe and America. Critique of ornamentation and
Raumplan of Adolf Loos. Peter Behrens and Werkbund. Modern art and
architecture - Expressionism, Futurism, Constructivism, Cubism, Suprematism and
De–Stijl. Art Deco. Functionalism. Bauhaus. CIAM. International Style. Outline of
works and architects associated with all the above.

UNIT 4 MODERNIST ARCHITECTS AND THEIR WORKS

Ideas, works and evolution of Gropius, Corbusier, Aalto, Wright, Mies, Neutra.

UNIT 5 ARCHITECTURE OF COLONIALISM, MODERNITY AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA

Colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent and ambiguous modernity through
colonialism. Colonial architecture and urbanism- forts, bungalows, cantonments,
colonial urbanism, civic buildings, buildings of infrastructure, education, power,
trade and other typologies. Characteristics and styles of colonial architecture
based on chronology and changing intent/typology - Neo-Classicism, Gothic
Revival and Indo-Saracenic. Influence of colonial modernity on Indians and their
architecture. Building of New Delhi showcasing imperial power. Diverse directions
and searches in early 20th century architecture of India. Art Deco and modern
architecture in pre-independence India.
 UNIT I MODERNITY AND ARCHITECTURE

Overview of modernity as a historical phenomenon and its various aspects and

manifestations, encompassing social, cultural, technological, economic and
political changes. Outline of various strands of modernity in architecture.
Enlightenment ideals, Neo Classical architecture and its types. Outline of
Industrial Revolution and associated changes. Urban transformations in Europe
and America. Housing projects. New building types and spaces. Industrial
material of steel, glass and concrete. New construction techniques and
standardization. Split of design education into architecture and engineering
streams. Industrial exhibitions. Chicago School, skyscraper development and
Louis Sullivan.

Overview of modernity as a historical phenomenon

 Modernism was a philosophical movement of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries that was based on an underlying belief in the progress of society.
 Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern
industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by the horror of
World War I.
 Modernism was essentially based on a utopian vision of human life and
society and a belief in progress, or moving forward.
 Modernist ideals pervaded art, architecture, literature, religious faith,
philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences.
 In painting, modernism is defined by Surrealism, late Cubism, Bauhaus, De Stijl,
Dada, German Expressionism, and Matisse as well as the abstractions of artists
like Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky, which characterized the European
art scene.
 The end of modernism and beginning of postmodernism is a hotly contested
issue, though many consider it to have ended roughly around 1940.

Outline of various strands of modernity in architecture

 Rejecting ornament and embracing minimalism, Modernism became the
single most important new style or philosophy of architecture and design of
the 20th century.
 It was associated with an analytical approach to the function of buildings, a
strictly rational use of (often new) materials, structural innovation and the
elimination of ornament.
 It was also known as International Modernism or International Style, after an
exhibition of modernist architecture in America in 1932 by the architect Philip
Johnson.
 The style became characterised by an emphasis on volume, asymmetrical
compositions, and minimal ornamentation.
 In Britain, the term Modern Movement has been used to describe the rigorous
modernist designs of the 1930s to the early 1960s. Walter Gropius and Le
Corbusier were the pioneers of the movement, with the latter having a
profound impact on the design of many public housing schemes in Britain.
 Figure 1 – Timeline of Modernism

Neo Classical architecture

 Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the

neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century.
 In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of
Classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles and the architecture of the
Italian architect Andrea Palladio.
 In form, neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than
chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities to each of its parts. The style
is manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of
naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulae as an outgrowth of
some classicizing features of Late Baroque.
 Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New
Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings.
Characteristics

 Massive scale
 Symmetrical floor plans
 Simplicity of form
 Built to achieve classical perfection (from Greeks and Romans)
 Uncluttered appearance (minimum decorations)
 Roofs are flat and often domed
 Supported with tall columns (Doric or Ionic)
 Gardens around buildings follow geometric patterns
Types of neoclassical architecture
 Temple style
 Palladian style
 Classical Block style
Temple style
 Temple style building design was
based on an ancient temple.
 This building were uncommon during
the renaissance as architects of that
period focused mainly on applying
classical element to churches and
modern buildings like palazzos and
villas.

Figure 2 – Pantheon, Paris

 Many temple style buildings feature are a perish style (a continuous line
of columns around a building), a rare feature of renaissance architecture.
 The most famous temple style buildings of the neoclassical age may be
the Panthéon (Paris, by Jacques-Germain Soufflot) and the British
Museum (London, by Robert Smirke).
 The former is Roman-based (modelled after the Pantheon in Rome), while
the latter is Greek-based.
Palladian style
 Palladian architecture is derived from the villas of Andrea Palladio, the
greatest architect of the Late Renaissance.
 Palladio, like famous artists generally, was followed by
many successors who
absorbed and worked in
his style; these ranged
from unoriginal imitators
to artistic geniuses, the
latter of whom applied
old ideas in brilliant new
ways. Interestingly,
Palladio's greatest
successors emerged
primarily in England.
Figure 3 - Osterley Park (Robert Adam)

 The most famous Palladian architect of the neoclassical period is

Britain's Robert Adam, who designed many fine country houses. These
mansions illustrate that while Palladian architecture shares certain basic
features, it takes diverse forms.
 For instance, Adam's design for Osterley Park includes a classical gateway,
corner towers, and a courtyard, none of which are found in any villa by
Palladio. Another famous example of Adam's creativity is the facade
of Kedleston Hall, which mimics a triumphal arch.
Classical Block style
 A classical block building features a vast rectangular (or square) plan, with
a flat (or low-lying) roof and an exterior rich in classical detail.
 The exterior is divided into multiple levels, each of which features a
repeated classical pattern, often a series of arches and/or columns.
The overall impression of such a building is an enormous, classically-
decorated rectangular block.
 The classical block aesthetic is also known as "Beaux-Arts style", since it was
developed principally by the
French École des Beaux-Arts.
 Two names are especially
prominent in the field of
"classical block" buildings.
The leading early practitioner
was Henri Labrouste, whose
masterpiece is the Library of
Sainte-Geneviève.
 The most famous classical
block of all is the Palais
Garnier, a Neobaroque
opera house designed
by Charles Garnier. Figure 4 - Library of Sainte-Geneviève (Labrouste)

Outline of Industrial Revolution and associated changes

 The nineteenth century brought an age of uncertainty, confidence
apparent in the elegant architecture of the 18th C had diminished,
rejecting irregularity and polychrome, and was subjected to a period of
architectural eclecticism.
 The birth of this sought after style would allow elements to be retained from
previous historic precedents, returning to the style of Michelangelo etc.,
whilst creating something that
is new and original, forming
styles of Neo-Classical and
Neo-Gothic.
 This ability to create a fusion of
styles allowed for expression
devised through creation, not
reminiscence; usually elected
based on its aptness to the
project and overall aesthetic
value, seeking to restore order
and restraint to architecture.
Figure 5 - The Crystal Palace, Hyde Park

 Another Influence can be traced from the industrial revolution, a time of

rapid change, experiencing dramatic variation and experimentation. With
Changes in manufacturing, transport, technology, there was a profound
consequence on the social economics and cultural conditions. The urban
 population radically increased, with cities alike multiplying in size and
number.
 The consequences for these new expanding cities were massive
overcrowding. Factory owners were required to provide a large quantity of
cheap houses, resulting in densely packed terraces, constructed to a low
standard.
 The expansion of mass industry brought the potential of new building
technologies such as cast iron, steel, and glass, with which architects and
engineers devised structures previously un-reached in function, size, and
form.
 Through the rise of the revolution, architecture was now exposed to a
magnitude of new construction methods.
 Structures consisting of metal columns and beams no longer needed walls
for structural support, glass could be fashioned in larger sizes volumes and
dense structures could be replaced by skeleton structures; making it
possible to reach previously restricted height and width very quickly, using
pre-fabricated elements.
 However, this new architecture lacked in imagination and style as the
focus was cast towards functionality.
 An example of this new technology was The Crystal Palace 1851. It was a
glass and iron showpiece, with pre-fabricated parts that could be mass-
produced and erected rapidly.
 This dazzled the millions of visitors passing through its doors as it stood in
blatant disparity to previous massive stone construction.
 Crystal Palace became the foundation for modern architecture; its
transparency signified a sense of ‗no boundaries‘.

Urban transformations in Europe and America

 In both Europe and the United States, the surge of industry during the mid-
and late 19th century was accompanied by rapid population growth,
unfettered business enterprise, great speculative profits, and public failures
in managing the unwanted physical consequences of development.
 Giant sprawling cities developed during this era, exhibiting the luxuries of
wealth and the meanness of poverty in sharp juxtaposition.
 Concern for the appearance of the city had long been manifest in Europe,
in the imperial tradition of court and palace and in the central plazas and
great buildings of church and state.
 American postwar new town development depended largely on
private initiative,with Reston, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; Irvine, California
; and Seaside, Florida, serving as some of the better-known examples.
 Preceding these efforts, however, were a number of small, privately
planned suburbs, including Riverside, Illinois, a
planned community outside Chicago that was designed by Frederick Law
Olmsted in 1868–69, and Radburn, New Jersey, built in 1929 according to
plans conceived by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright.
 In sum, the enormous variety of types of projects on which planners work,
the lack of consensus over processes and goals, and the varying
approaches taken in different cities and countries have produced great
variation within contemporary urban planning.
  Nevertheless, although the original principle of strict segregation of uses
continues to prevail in many places, there is an observable trend toward
mixed-use development—particularly of complementary activities such as
retail, entertainment, and housing—within urban centers.

Housing projects
 The housing sector experienced several changes as a result of the industrial
revolution.
 The rural to urban migration as a result of the industrial revolution created
high demand for houses.
 As the new towns and cities rapidly developed during the Industrial
Revolution the need for cheap housing, near the factories, increased.
Whilst there were some men, such as Robert Owen, who were willing to
create good housing for their workers, many employers were not.
 These employers ruthlessly exploited their workers by erecting poor, and
often unsanitary, shoddily built houses. Workers often paid high rents for, at
best, sub-standard housing.
 In the rush to build houses, many were constructed too quickly in terraced
rows. Some of these houses had just a small yard at the rear where an
outside toilet was placed.
 Others were 'back to back' with communal toilets. Almost as soon as they
were occupied, many of these houses became slums.
 Most of the poorest people lived in overcrowded and inadequate housing,
and some of these people lived in cellars. It has been recorded that, in one
instance, 17 people from different families lived in an area of 5 metres by 4
metres.
 Sanitary arrangements were often non-existent, and many toilets were of
the 'earth closet' variety. These were found outside the houses, as far away
as possible because of the smell.
 Usually they were emptied by the 'soil men' at night. These men took the
solid human waste away. However, in poorer districts, the solid waste was
just heaped in a large pile close to the houses.

Figure 6 - Housing during Industrial Revolution

New building types and spaces

 One of the first entrepreneurs

to concern himself with social
questions was the early British
socialist, Robert Owen. At the
end of the 18th century he
conceived an ideal town for
his workers in the utopian
tradition of the Renaissance.
The idea, however, was never
implemented. Figure 7 - New Moral World (1825)

 A textile manufacturer by the name of

Titus Salt was much more successful in this
respect. In 1851 he built an estate of
terraced houses called "Saltaire" for his
workers in West Yorkshire.

Figure 8 - Saltaire, West Yorkshire

 In France Charles Fourier developed similar ideas for cooperative

production and housing.
 Fourier declared that concern and cooperation were the secrets of social
success.
 Workers would be
recompensed for their
labors according to
their contribution.
 Fourier saw such
cooperation occurring
in communities he
called ―Phalanxes,"
based upon structures
called Phalanstères or
"grand hotels".
Figure 9 - Phalanxes, France
 Following his example, in 1859, Jean-Baptiste Godin set up a housing estate
next to his foundry in Guise, called "Familistère". This consisted of housing
blocks several storeys high, each surrounding a large courtyard covered
with a transparent glass roof and serving as a common space for all the
inhabitants. Public facilities like nschools, kindergartens and shops were
integrated into the site.
  After the First World War the lack of places to live was so great that
governments and corporative companies were compelled to invest huge
amounts of money in housing construction. In Great Britain large estates of
single-family houses were built; and in Germany blocks of flats where
erected, preferably in long parallel lines placed in such a way as to allow
sufficient daylight to reach each row. The blocks of flats often contained
children's crèches, shops and laundries.

New building types and spaces

 Prior to the introduction of bulk iron, architecture relied on compressive
strength to hold buildings up.
 Architects were accustomed to thinking of certain ways to creating structure.
o Rail roads
o Bridges
o Rail Road Station
o Market Place
o Commercial Buildings
o Cultural and Religious Buildings
o Exhibition Buildings
Rail Roads
 The explosion in the development of iron and steel structures was driven
initially by the advance of the railroads.
 In 1767, Richard Reynolds created a set of rails for moving coal at
Coalbrookdale; these were initially wood but became iron rails.
 Massive amounts of Britain‗s industrial output were funneled into the
construction, boosting industry, and
when the British boom subsided these
materials were exported to build
railways abroad.
Iron Bridge
 As with bridges, some of the first
structural advances using steel were
prompted by the railroads.
 Bridges were required to span gorges
and rivers. In 1779, the first iron bridge
was built across the Severn River in
Coalbrookdale, England. Figure 10 - The Iron Bridge, Coalbrookdale
 Trusses were used to build bridges of
unprecedented strength throughout
the nineteenth century, including
cantilever bridges consisting of truss
complexes balanced on supporting
piers.
Railroad Station
 Trains required bridges and rails to get
them where they were going, but
once there, they required a depot
and storage sheds.
Figure 11 - St. Pancras Station, London, England
 These sheds are of an unprecedented scale, large enough to enclose several
tracks and high enough to allow smoke and fumes to dissipate.
 Trusses spanned the open area of the tracks, creating a steel skeleton hung
with steel-framed glass panes.
 The structures were extraordinarily light and open.

Iron Frame Factories

 At this point the capabilities of iron
and steel had been proven and it
was natural to extend the idea to
another utilitarian application—
factories.
 The first iron frame factory was built
in 1796-97 in Shrewsbury, England,
followed rapidly by a seven story
cotton mill with cast iron columns
and ceiling beams.
 Wrought iron beams were
developed in 1850, a significant
advance over brittle cast iron versions. Figure 12 - Ditherington Flax Mill

Exhibition Buildings
 The Crystal Palace created to enclose the Great Exhibition of 1851 in England
was a glass and iron showpiece, which dazzled the millions of visitors who
passed through its doors.
 Built by Joseph Paxton within six months, its design mimicked the greenhouses
that were his customary stock in trade.
 It was spacious enough to enclose mature existing trees within its walls.
 The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Exhibition in Paris was a dramatic
demonstration by the French of their mastery of this new construction
technology.
Market Place
 Cast-iron columns support
the six-aisled building with
its total surface area of
5,300 square meters.
 From the point of hygiene,
this market hall
represented significant
progress: it had running
water for the fish vendors'
sinks, toilet facilities and
gas lighting. Figure 13 - Covered Market in Berlin, 1865-1868
Commercial Buildings
 The Bradbury Building is the oldest commercial building remaining in the
central city and one of Los Angeles‗unique treasures.
 Behind its modest, mildly Romanesque exterior lies a magical light-filled
Victorian court that rises almost fifty feet with open cage elevators, marble
stairs, and ornate iron railings.

Industrial material – steel

 Forged iron and milled steel began to replace wood, brick and stone as
primary materials for large buildings.
 This change is encapsulated in the Eiffel Tower built in 1889. Standing on
four huge arched legs, the iron lattice tower rises narrowly to just over 1000
feet high.
 The Eiffel Tower not only became an icon for France but for industry itself –
heralding a new age in materials, design and construction methods.
 In America, the development of cheap, versatile steel in the second half of
the 19th century helped change the urban landscape.
 The country was in the midst of rapid social and economic growth that
made for great opportunities in architectural design.
 A much more urbanized society was forming and the society called out for
new, larger buildings. By the middle of the 19th century downtown areas in
big cities began to transform themselves with new roads and buildings to
accommodate the growth.
 The mass production of steel was the main driving force behind the ability
to build skyscrapers during the mid 1880s.

Industrial material - glass

 Glass is one of the oldest man made material used without interruption
from its invention to this date. The exact period of glass history is unknown;
however the oldest found date is 7000 B.C. in the Neolithic period. It was
first used in Egypt for decorative objects before 3000 B.C. mainly as colored
glaze on stone, pottery and beads but its use in windows appears to have
been initiated by Romans.
 During the seventeenth century the development of lead glass made a
major step forward in enabling the manufacture of large glazing for
windows, ―a technology that brought glass into the history of architecture‖.
 The rise of interest in greenhouses and conservatories in 1800 led to the
mass marketing for use of glass in architecture.
 New types of buildings including exhibition halls, railway stations and other
public buildings permitted for the design of large well lit spaces. Until 1851,
glass was considered to be a luxury good, the conception which was
gradually diminished during the industrial revolution due to increased
availability of glass.
 Gradually iron and steel developments running parallel to glass made
advancements in metal framing technology with the possibility of large
glass expanses, thus making it an inseparable part of modern architecture.
Industrial material – concrete
 Concrete took a historic step forward with the inclusion of embedded
metal (usually steel) to form what‘s now called reinforced concrete or
ferroconcrete.
 Reinforced concrete was invented in 1849 by Joseph Monier, who
received a patent in 1867. Monier was a Parisian gardener who made
garden pots and tubs of concrete reinforced with an iron mesh.
 Reinforced concrete combines the tensile or bendable strength of metal
and the compression strength of concrete to withstand heavy loads.
 Monier exhibited his invention at the Paris Exposition of 1867. Besides his
pots and tubs, Monier promoted reinforced concrete for use in railway ties,
pipes, floors, and arches.
 Its uses also ended up including the first concrete-reinforced bridge and
massive structures such as the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams.
 The start of the 20th century saw a steady increase in the amount of
factory buildings, bridges and houses built of reinforced concrete.

New construction techniques and standardization

 Prior to the late 19th century, the weight of a multi-storey building had to
be supported principally by the strength of its walls. The taller the building,
the more strain this placed on the lower sections.
 With the Industrial Revolution, the increasing availability of new building
materials such as iron, steel, and sheet glass drove the invention of equally
new building techniques.

Fireproof Design
 In 1796, Shrewsbury mill owner Charles Bage first used his ―fireproof‖ design,
which relied on cast iron and brick with flagstone floors.
 Such construction greatly strengthened the structure of mills, which enabled
them to accommodate much bigger machines.
 Fully fireproof and avoiding the use of timber, it is
clad in an attractive red-brick skin with Venetian
windows and angle quoins.

Cast Iron Technology

 Due to poor knowledge of iron‗s properties as a
construction material, a number of early mills
collapsed.
 It was not until the early 1830s that Eaton
Hodgkinson introduced the section beam, leading
to widespread use of iron construction.
 His work led to experiments in materials strength to
determine the strongest construction beam and to
the eventual design of the I-beam, also known as
the ―Hodgkinson‗s beam.
Figure 13 - Havelock Cotton
Mill: Cast Iron Frame
Iron Glass Construction
 The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition of
1851, was an early example of iron and glass construction.
 It was followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall.
 A further development was that of the steel-framed skyscraper in Chicago,
introduced around 1890 by William Le Baron Jenney and Louis Sullivan.

Column Frame Construction

 By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders could
suddenly create tall, slender buildings with a strong steel skeleton.
 The rest of the building's elements — the walls, floors, ceilings, and windows
were suspended from the load-bearing steel.
 This new way of constructing buildings, so-called "column-frame" construction,
pushed them up rather than out.
 Like the flying buttress of the 14th
century, the steel weight-bearing
frame allowed not just for taller
buildings, but much larger
windows, which meant more
daylight reaching interior spaces.
 Interior walls became thinner
creating more usable floor space.
 Because steel framing had no
precedent, its use would rewrite
the rules of design and engineering
of large buildings and along with
them a new formal aesthetic.
 Architect Louis Sullivan‗s twelve-
story Prudential Building in Buffalo,
New York is an early example of
column framing.
 Built in 1894, its tall, sleek brick
veneer walls, large windows and
gently curved top pediment ushers
in a new century with the modern
style of the skyscraper.
Figure 14 - Prudential Building, Buffalo, New York
Cast Columns
 In terms of maximizing the space, cast columns had advantages compare to
masonry columns of traditional architecture, because it could carry the same
load as masonry columns.
 Cast Columns much slimmer than masonry columns and can provide more
open indoor space.
 When the construction was complete, the interior exhibition space was
enormous.
 Because there were no solid walls, only the slender columns supporting the self
weight.
 One of the important advantage of the structural frame works, that cast iron
was low in price compare to traditional carved stone.
Industrial exhibitions
 The industrial revolution is one of the Great changes in human history.
 It starts in the middle of 18 century in Britain and continuing until now.
 Industrial exhibitions stimulated the development of industry, served
advertising purposes, and promoted the development of domestic and
foreign trade.
 The exhibition was intended to raise the level of industrial design and of course
to display productions and acquire new and larger markets.

The Great Exhibition 1851

 The Great Exhibition, housed within the ‗Crystal Palace‗, embodied Prince
Albert‗s vision to display the wonders of industry from around the world.
 There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than 10 miles, by over
15,000 contributors.
 Britain, as host, occupied half the display space inside, with exhibits from the
home country and the Empire.
 Paxton‗s innovative design used modules of glass and iron, that could be
fabricated offsite and in due course taken apart again, since the building was
only temporary.

Crystal Palace - Joseph Paxton

Time: 1850-51

Location: London, England

 The Crystal Palace is one of the

Great buildings of Industrial
period, which represent new
direction in architecture. One of
building that represent
revolutionized architecture.
When architecture moved from
traditional mode to the new
step.
Figure 15 - London's Crystal Palace
 This structure is example of how people started experiencing different types of
materials, instead of constructing the buildings by masonry and stone and
maximizing the indoor spaces. It is a design of lightweight and low-cost
buildings.
 This was the step when architecture of industrial period marked the beginning
of new kind of architecture. It plays a big role in a history of architecture.
 The Crystal Palace was a glass and cast iron structure. The structure was built
in London, for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Building in Glass
 In collaboration with glassmaker Robert Lucas Chance, sheets of glass were
made which were 1,2 m (4 ft) long but a mere 2mm (1/13 in) thick and
extremely light As the largest sheets ever produced, this glass conformed to
Paxton‘s concept of the 1.2-m (4-ft) module, and its light weight enabled him
greatly to reduce the size of the glazing sashes and supporting structure.
 Structure was further lightened by his ridge-and-furrow glazing system which
reduced the span of the sash bars by running them crosswise from ridge to
furrow instead of lengthwise.
 Joseph had an experience with combination of cast iron, glass and laminated
wood in his ―Chatsworthhouse” building, which was made of glass. The larges
glass house of that period.
 He experienced the idea Ridge and furrow roof system in Charsworthhouse,
later he applied this system in Crystal Palace‗s design.
 The concept of ridge-and-roof house was lily flowers.
 Paxton‗s reputation as gardener was high, he wanted to lily flower to be
grown in England.
 He takes care of flowers. Later it became a concept for the roof system in
Crystal Palace.
 In construction of the glass house, there was an issue with ridge-and furrow
roof.
 Glass structure required more light,
but because of structural members
of roof (trusses, purlins) building does
not get morning and evening rays.
 To avoid this problem he created
the methods of glass roofing, which
calls ridge and furrow.
 The principle and concepts of the
roof was to get morning and
evening light without any restriction.
 Therefore the glasses were placed in
specific position. He tested this idea
in his Green house. After it was
applied to the Crystal Palace.

Figure 16 - The Paxton ridge-and-furrow roofing system

The Process of Construction

 In startling contrast to the architectural ethos of the day, the building was
not conceived as a form, but instead as a process.
 Every component was designed to conform to Paxton‘s 1.2-m (4-ft)
planning module. To reduce the number of components and lighten the
construction, each element was designed to do more than one job glazing
sash bars doubled as gutters; hollow cast iron columns as rainwater pipes;
and the site hoarding was
subsequently laid as
floorboards.
 Components were fabricated
in workshops throughout
Britain on assembly lines, with
each labourer described by
the architectural critic
Matthew Digby Wyatt as
―acting precisely as the
various portions of a well-
devised machine, skilled in his
own department, profoundly
ignorant in others‖. Figure 17 - The Crystal Palace
 Building elements were transported to London by rail and delivered to site
where they were erected almost instantly so that stockpiling was
minimized.
 The scale of components was broken down so that nothing weighed over
a ton and the building could be assembled largely by manpower, with the
occasional aid of horses.
 The 22.8-m (74.ft) span of the central vaulted aisle was achieved by iron
and timber semicircular ribs, which were fully assembled on the ground
and hoisted ingeniously at an angle in order to clear the slightly narrower
internal width of the vault.
 Special equipment was designed by Fox Henderson to speed site
assembly. Ingenious wheeled trolleys which ran on the Paxton gutters as
rails eliminated the need for scaffolding for the glaziers.
 This new dry construction, in which components fabricated remotely were
simply assembled on site – was fast and safe compared with conventional
construction practices, and was exhilarating for both the labourers and the
public alike.
 The construction of the building became a public spectacle, attracting
large numbers of onlookers and daily coverage in the press, which dubbed
it the ‗Crystal Palace‘.
 Incorporating existing mature trees in Hyde Park within its vaulted transept,
the delicate glazed enclosure created a new experience, dissolving the
distinction between interior and exterior space, and between art and
nature.
 The Crystal Palace also fuelled a debate about the distinction between
Engineering and Architecture.
 Considered a fine example of engineering practicalities and processes but
not beautiful, the building was disowned by the architectural profession.
 The dismantling of the Crystal Palace in 1852 was as rapid and remarkable
as its erection, bringing to a close its brief but glorious life which had so
captured the public imagination.
  The components were purchased by a new company headed by Joseph
Paxton who, after making substantial design modifications, reassembled
the building on a site in South London, in an area now known as Crystal
Palace. It took two years to complete and was used for concerts and
miscellaneous exhibitions, though it was never a popular or economic
success. The building finally burned to the ground in 1936.

Evolution of Skyscrapers
 The first skyscrapers, tall commercial buildings with iron or steel frameworks —
came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 • The first skyscraper is generally considered to be the Home Insurance Building
in Chicago, it was only 10 stories high.
 • Later, taller and taller buildings were made possible through a series of
architectural and engineering innovations, including the invention of the first
process to mass-produce steel.

Role of Henry Bessemer

 Today, the tallest skyscrapers in the world are more than 100 stories and
approach — and even exceed — heights of 2,000 feet.
 They were made possible as a result of the Bessemer process of mass
production of steel beams.
 Construction of skyscrapers was made possible by Englishman Henry
Bessemer, who invented the first process to mass-produce steel inexpensively.

Fuller‘s Development

 In 1889, Fuller erected the Tacoma Building, a successor to the Home

Insurance Building that became the first structure ever built where the outside
walls did not carry the weight of the building.
 Using Bessemer steel beams, Fuller developed a technique for creating steel
cages that would be used in subsequent skyscrapers.

Louis Sullivan
 He pioneered modern design principles in North America, designing buildings
that grew from and for the changing commercial needs of the urban and
rural Midwest.
 His buildings were economical & beautiful, with streamlined forms and
decoration that emphasized their purpose.
 He is known primarily for the creating a form for skyscrapers, office buildings
that pushed upward rather than outward, that highlighted their verticality and
for the strength of his decorative work.

Sullivan and Steel High Rise

 The development of cheap, versatile steel
in the second half of the 19th century
changed the rules of large designs and
thick walls.
 The mass production of steel was the main
driving force behind the ability to build
skyscrapers during the mid-1880s.
 Sullivan‗s use of cast-iron ornament
inspired by nature along the building‗s first
floor and sculptural white terra cotta in the
middle and upper floors, illustrates many of
his theories on the design of tall buildings.
Figure 18 - Wainwright State Office
Building, St. Louis, Missouri
Chicago School
 The Chicago School of
architecture is famous for
promoting steel-frame construction
and a modernist spatial aesthetic.
 A school of architects active in
Chicago at the turn of the 20th
century. They were among the first
to promote the new technologies
of steel-frame construction in
commercial buildings, and
developed a spatial aesthetic that
co-evolved with, and then came
to influence, parallel
developments in European
Modernism.
Figure 18 - Marquette Building, Chicago, Illinois

 While the term “Chicago School” is widely used to describe buildings in the city
during the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago buildings of the era displayed a wide
variety of styles and techniques.
 One of the distinguishing features of the Chicago School is the use of steel-
frame buildings with masonry cladding (usually terra cotta), allowing large
plate-glass window areas and limiting the amount of exterior ornamentation.
 In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects
active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century.
 Elements of neoclassical architecture are used in Chicago School skyscrapers.
Characteristics
 Three parts of a classical column.
o The first floor functions as the
base,
o The middle stories, usually with
little ornamental detail, act as
the shaft of the column,
o The last floor or so represent
the capital, with more
ornamental detail and
capped with a cornice.
 The use of steel – frame buildings with masonry
cladding
 Large plate-glass windows
 Limited exterior ornamentation.
 Large arched windows
 Decorative terra cotta panels
 Decorative bands
 Vertical strips of windows with pilaster-like mullions
 Highly decorated frieze

Masonry to Steel Frames

 The first series of high-rises in both New York and Chicago - including the
Tribune Building (1873-5) designed by Richard Morris Hunt, and the Auditorium
Building (1889), by Adler and Sullivan - had traditional load-bearing walls of
stone and brick.
 Unfortunately, these could not support supertall structures, a problem which
stimulated Chicago School designers to invent a metal skeleton frame.
 First used in Jenney's Home Insurance Building (1884) - that enabled the
construction of real skyscrapers.
 A metal frame was virtually fireproof and, since the walls no longer carried the
building's weight, enabled architects to use thinner curtain walls, thus freeing
up more usable space.
 The same applied to the exterior walls, which could now be replaced by glass,
reducing the amount of electrical lights required.

Chicago Window
 It is a three-part window consisting of a large
fixed center panel flanked by two smaller
double-hung sash windows.
 The arrangement of windows on the facade
typically creates a grid pattern, with some
projecting out from the facade forming bay
windows.
 The Chicago window combined the functions
of light-gathering and natural ventilation; a
single central pane was usually fixed, while the
two surrounding panes were operable.
Figure 19 – Chicago School - Window
Architectural TerraCotta

 Architectural terra cotta had long been

used in San Francisco as ornament, but after
the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, the material
began to be considered both as a substitute
for brick or stone and as a versatile medium
in its own right.
 The Hearst Building of 1909, for instance,
displayed fourteen stories of polychrome
terra cotta above a two-story marble base.
 In 1914, only a year after the success of New
York's terracotta-clad, Woolworth Building,
Willis Polk sheathed the Hobart Building
entirely in terra cotta with dense ornament.
 For a variety of reasons, terra cotta became
the dominant cladding material for tall
buildings constructed in San Francisco
between 1920 and the Depression.
Figure 20 – The Hearst Building, San Francisco
 UNIT II REACTIONS TO INDUSTRIALISATION

Reactions to industrialisation in design. Arts and Crafts in Europe and America.

Works of Morris and Webb. Art Nouveau. Works of Horta, Van De Velde, Gaudi,
Guimard and Mackintosh. Vienna Secession.

Arts & Crafts Movement

 To the proponents of Arts & Crafts, the Industrial Revolution separated
humans from their own creativity and individualism; the worker was a cog
in the wheel of progress, living in an environment of shoddy machine-
made goods, based more on ostentation than function.
 Considering the machine to be the root cause of all repetitive and
mundane evils, some of the protagonists of this movement turned entirely
away from the use of machines and towards handcraft, which tended to
concentrate their productions in the hands of sensitive but well-heeled
patrons.
 The movement‘s earliest proponents reacted against cheap
manufactured goods, which had flooded shops and filled houses in the
second half of the 19th century.
 These proponents sought to re-establish the ties between beautiful work
and the worker, returning to honesty in design not to be found in mass-
produced items.
 In both Britain and America the movement relied on the talent and
creativity of the individual craftsman and attempted to create a total
environment.
 While, the American and British styles shared this philosophy, they differed
greatly in execution.
 The Arts and Crafts ideal they offered was a spiritual, craft-based
alternative, intended to alleviate industrial production‘s degrading effects
on the souls of labourers and on the goods they produced. It emphasized
local traditions and materials, and was inspired by vernacular design—that
is, characteristic local building styles that generally were not created by
architects.
 Arts and Crafts Movement was a response to the industrial revolution. It was
a broad and diverse movement, incorporating many idealistic themes.
Perhaps we should start by identifying the common beliefs.

Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe

 The British Movement focused on the richly detailed gothic style. Their
interior walls were either white-washed or covered in wallpaper depicting
medieval themes.
 The pottery and textile designs were intricate, colourful and realistic.
 While the original intent was to provide handmade goods to the common
man, the cost of paying craftsmen an honest wage resulted in higher
prices than the common man could afford. This limited the movement to
the upper class.
  The unpretentious brick façades were free of ornament, the ground plan
was informal and asymmetrical, and the materials were drawn from the
area and assembled with local building techniques.

Arts and Crafts Movement in America

 The American Movement drew inspiration from the materials, choosing to
highlight the grain of the wood or the form of the pot.
 They incorporated walls of rich wood tones, relegating wallpaper to
borders. Paints were in rich earth tones.
 Furniture and architectural details were designed to take advantage of
machines allowing the individual craftsmen to assemble the furniture and
finish the wood.
 The use of machines lowered the cost, making the furniture, pottery and
metalwork affordable and therefore available to "the people".
 In the United States, the Arts and Crafts Movement took on a distinctively
more Bourgeois flavour.
 While the European movement tried to recreate the virtuous world of craft
labour that was being destroyed by industrialization, Americans tried to
establish a new source of virtue to replace heroic craft production: the
tasteful middle-class home.
 They thought that the simple but refined aesthetics of Arts and Crafts
decorative arts would ennoble the new experience of industrial
consumerism, making individuals more rational and society more
harmonious.
 In short, the American Arts and Crafts Movement was the aesthetic
counterpart of its contemporary political movement: Progressivism.
 In the United States, it should be noted, the term Arts and Crafts movement
is often used to denote the style of interior design that prevailed between
the dominant eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, or roughly the period
from 1910 to 1925.

William Morris
ENGLISH PAINTER, DESIGNER AND WRITER

Born: March 24, 1834 - Walthamstow, England

Died: October 3, 1896 - Hammersmith, England

Movements and Styles: Arts and Crafts Movement, The Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetic
Art

 Morris was an English poet, artist, and socialist reformer, who rejected the
opulence on the Victorian era and urged a return to medieval traditions of
design, craftsmanship, and community. He was inspired by the writings of
John Ruskin and Augustus Pugin who championed the return of gothic
architecture.
 The Red house built for his marriage to Jane Burden, was designed
according to his principles.
 Having built the house, he needed furniture and decoration neither
pretentious nor shoddy-which was all capitalism, could provide- and in
 1861 he founded THE FIRM, to produce honest workmanlike furniture, wall
paper and fabrics for himself and others.
 Later he expanded into stained glass , books, tapestries and carpets
making characteristic use of stylized , two dimensional designs which
emphasized the character of the material he was working with, in contrast
to the exaggerated chiaroscuro of the contemporary machine –produced
designs typified by the great exhibition. As a designer he achieved
international fame which was further enlarged by his poetry.

Philip Webb
British Architect - Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture

Born: January 12, 1831 - Oxford

Died: April 17, 1915 - Worth, Sussex, England

Movements and Styles: Arts and Crafts Architecture, vernacular medieval styles

 Worked in Street‘s office in Oxford where he came to understand Ruskin‘s

theories-their essence and not their superficialities which surrounded them
and a wish to take them further.
 Webb was an uncompromising, even brutal designer devoid of
academicism and prepared to use any styles or mixture of styles without
too much of regard for their original context but merely for the functional
appropriateness of motifs they contained.
 He confined himself almost entirely to the design of houses, in town and
country.
o Palace Green in, London(1868)
o Lincoln ‗s Inn Field, London(1868)
o Joldwyns, Surrey(1873)
o Clouds, wiltshire(1876)
o Smeaton, yorkshire(1878)
o Conhurst, Surrey(1885)

Red House (1859)

 Red House in Bexleyheath in the southern suburbs of London, England is a key
building in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement and of 19th century
British architecture.
 It was the most significant 19th
century attempt to return to
vernacular architecture.
 It was a building almost without
style, in the academic sense
Faintly medieval in appearance,
its forms were directly derived
from the character of the
materials used and were
designed carefully and artfully to
resemble the work of skilled but
simple craftsman. Figure 1 – The Red House
 Its plain brick walls and steeply pitched clay tile roof gave its name RED
HOUSE.
 It was designed in 1859 by
its owner, William Morris,
and the architect Philip
Webb, with wall paintings
and stained glass by
Edward Burne-Jones.
 Morris wanted a home for
himself and his new wife,
Jane.
 He also desired to have a
"Palace of Art" in which he
and his friends could enjoy
producing works of art.
 The house comprises
asymmetrical, L-shaped
plan, pointed arches and
picturesque set of masses
with steep rooflines recall
the Gothic style.
 Its tile roof and brick construction, largely devoid of ornament speak to the
simplicity.
 The house is of warm red brick with a steep tiled roof and an emphasis on
natural materials.
 It was the first domestic dwelling to have stained glass windows.
 The garden is also significant, being an early example of the idea of a garden
as a series of exterior "rooms".
 Morris wanted the garden to be an integral part of the house, providing a
seamless experience.
 The "rooms" were comprised of a herb garden, a vegetable garden, and two
rooms full of old-fashioned flowers — jasmine, lavender, roses, and an
abundance of fruit trees — apple, pear and quince.
 The house is entered through a large wooden door that leads to a rectangular
hallway filled with light from the stained-glass windows.
 Designed wallpaper to the stained-glass windows to the built-in cabinets and
furniture - celebrated the beauty of nature and the medieval guild ideal.

Figure 2 – The Red House Interior

 Throughout the interior spaces, exposed brick arches and timber framing,
frequently laid out asymmetrically, serve as an indoor continuation of the
house‘s external appearance.
 The dining room to the contains the original hutch which has Gothic trefoil
motifs and is painted in ―dragon‘s blood‖.
 The original rustic dining room table remains, along with the decorative arch in
the brickwork around the fireplace.

Art Nouveau
 Art Nouveau, ornamental style of art that flourished between about 1890
and 1910 throughout Europe and the United States.
 Art Nouveau is characterized by its use of a long, sinuous, organic line and
was employed most often in architecture, interior
design, jewellery and glass design, posters, and illustration.
 It was a deliberate attempt to create a new style, free of the imitative
historicism that dominated much of 19th-century art and design.
 The distinguishing ornamental characteristic of Art Nouveau is its undulating
asymmetrical line, often taking the form of flower stalks and buds, vine
tendrils, insect wings, and other delicate and sinuous natural objects; the
line may be elegant and graceful or infused with a powerfully rhythmic
and whip like force.
 There were a great number of artists and designers who worked in the Art
Nouveau style. Some of the more prominent were the Scottish architect
and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Belgian architects Henry van
de Velde and Victor Horta, whose extremely sinuous and delicate
structures influenced the French architect Hector Guimard; the American
architect Louis Henry Sullivan, who used plantlike Art Nouveau ironwork to
decorate his traditionally structured buildings; and the Spanish architect
and sculptor Antonio Gaudí, perhaps the most original artist of the
movement, who went beyond dependence on line to transform buildings
into curving, bulbous, brightly coloured, organic constructions.

Victor Horta
Belgian Architect and Designer

Born: January 6, 1861 - Ghent, Belgium

Died: September 8, 1947 - Brussels, Belgium

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern Architecture

 Horta is famous for his pioneering work in Art Nouveau and the translation of
the style from the decorative arts into architecture in the early 1890s.
 His work in Art Nouveau is marked by a keen understanding of the capabilities
of industrial advances with iron and glass as structure and infill.
 Horta's buildings disclose an honest handling of their materials' properties,
particularly the ability of iron to be twisted and bent into hairpin forms that
extend seamlessly into the accompanying décor, inside and out, making the
buildings "total works of art."
 Horta was an adaptable architect who
transitioned from Art Nouveau to other
styles such as Art Deco as public tastes
dictated.
 Though Horta was respected during his
lifetime for his brilliance with Art
Nouveau, he himself predicted the styles
own demise and that many of his works
would be demolished eventually.

Horta House and Studio, Brussels (1895-98)

 Horta's own house and studio are now
home to the Horta Museum and
constitute an important example of his
surviving work.

Figure 3 – Horta House and Studio

 Its significance lies primarily in the way that it acts as a superb piece of
rationalist architecture, expertly communicating its function and serving as an
advertisement for Horta's own forward-looking architectural practice.
 At ground level, the house catches the viewer's attention with the sinuous
curves of Horta's signature ironwork
and the I-beam used as a lintel over
the double window left of the main
entry, hinting at the house's industrial
methods of construction.
 This subtle move is brought to full
fruition on the interior with the frank
exposure of the iron frame,
particularly in the dining room,
where Horta has unusually chosen
the industrial material of white
glazed ceramic subway tile to cover
all the surfaces of the walls and ceiling. Figure 4 – Horta House and Studio Interior
 When the viewer looks upward from
the street, she is immediately struck
by the demonstration of the
remarkable tensile and structural
properties of iron, Horta's signature
material: a delicate iron balcony
whose posts extend upwards into
sinuous corbels that astonishingly
supports an entire stone oriel that
bulges outward into space from the
plane of the facade, thereby
suggesting both Horta's own daring
and genius as a designer.
Figure 5 – Horta House and Studio Balcony
 Finally, once the viewer glances over to the right of the projecting bay, he
notices the huge curtain wall topped by a skylight that signals a studio,
indicating that the inhabitant is himself the residence's designer, whose perch
on the top floor suggests he is fully in command of his craft. Inside,
this sense of exclusivity can be seen in the spiraling staircase that terminates at
the top in a brilliant tangle of sinuous metal structure under a skylight of white-
and-gold-colored glass.
 Having climbed the trunk of a tree and finally reached the canopy, it is as if
one now sits ensconced amongst its leafy branches and shielded from the
bustle of activity on the levels below.
 The major materials used where Stone, iron, glass, wood.

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet

Catalan Architect and Designer

Born: June 25, 1852 - Reus, Catalonia, Spain

Died: June 10, 1926 - Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, Modern Architecture

 Antoni Gaudí i Cornet, in his early years, he spent many hours observing
nature. As an architectural student, he did not shine, but exceeded himself
with genius ideas.
 Nature was Antoni Gaudí main teacher and supreme source of inspiration. He
took inspiration from nature to shape all of his works.
 Gaudí wanted to discover the essence of Mother Earth and pass the essence
onto his creations. He reached professional success with the Church of
Colonia Güell, Casa Batlló, Casa Mila (also
known as La Pedrera), Park Güell,
and Sagrada Familia.
 Antoni Gaudí is often considered the
master of Catalan Modernism.
 In his Catalan Modernism style of
architecture, Antoni Gaudí's works show his
search for perfection in art, perfection in
humanity, and perfection in society.

Casa Batlló (1904 – 06)

 The Casa Batlló is unusual among Gaudí's
works in that it comprises a renovation of
an existing structure, originally built in 1877.
 Josep Batlló, the house's owner since 1900,
commissioned Gaudí thinking that he
would tear the building down and start
anew, but Gaudí convinced him to merely
renovate it.
Figure 6 – Casa Batllo
 Located on the Passeig de Gracia, one of the main boulevards in central
Barcelona, the house sits adjacent to the Casa Amatller (1882), designed by
 Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and down the block from the Casa Lleó Morera,
designed by Lluis Domenech i Montaner; both of these are
grand Modernisme houses and together with the Casa Batlló they form a
group colloquially called the "Apple of Discord" due to the way each seems
to be jockeying against the other for curb appeal.
 Gaudí knew he had to create a building whose forms would daringly hold its
own against these other examples.

Figure 7 – Casa Batllo, Section

 The ultimate design has often been termed the "House of Bones" due to the
cage-like framework over the second-floor windows, whose vertical members
resemble the shapes of human bones with their slender curves.

Figure 8 – Casa Batllo, Section

 The comparison is apt, as the house appears to have no straight lines
anywhere in its design; the light fixture above the dining room table is set into
a blue ceiling whose spiral contours appear like water circling a drain.
 The facade surface is covered in intricate trencadís tiles mixed with glass,
giving it a shimmering effect among the various sculptural balconies, which
appear like face masks that
could be used by revelers during
Mardi Gras.
 Day and night (when it is lit
artificially), the building acts as a
magnet of attention like a huge
vertical sheet of intricately
arranged jewels, thus bringing
new energy into an ordinary,
unremarkable structure.
 Most important, however, is the
symbolism at the top of the
structure, which includes a tower
crowned by a cross, studded with
the tiled monograms of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph of the Holy
Family in the Christian tradition. Figure 9 – Casa Batllo, Dragon Roof
 This turret rises from an undulating roof covered in iridescent tiles. It is said that
the form of the turret is supposed to resemble the hilt of the sword of St.
George, the patron saint of Catalonia, whose blade is piercing the skin of the
dragon that he says.
 In this way, the building indicates the deeply personal nature of the design,
reflecting both Gaudí's regionalism and his mindfulness of Catholicism.

Henry Van De Velde

Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist

Born: 3 April 1863 - Antwerp, Belgium

Died: 25 October 1957 - Oberägeri, Switzerland

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, Modern Architecture

 Van de Velde is the most international artist of the Art Nouveau movement
and one of the major. Born in Antwerpen, he started as a painter influenced
by divisionism.
 His Art Nouveau designs, always bent with dynamic curves, are some of the
most typical of the period. They often turn to abstraction like in the placard for
the Tropon firm or the book covers for "Ecce Homo" by Nietzche.
 His Art Nouveau furniture often opposed these dynamic lines with massive
shapes so as his buildings.
 He was reproached to build his buildings like furniture. Nevertheless, Henry Van
de Velde is one of the Art Nouveau architects who makes most the shapes
give an emotion.
Villa Bloemenwerf (1895)
 This villa, which is named Bloemenwerf, meaning courtyard of flowers, was
Henry Van de Velde‘s first creation as an architect. He designed it in close
collaboration with his wife, Maria Sèthe.
 Van de Velde, who wanted the
house to be functional and
rational, drew inspiration from the
architecture of English cottages.
 It was to be his private residence
and studio, as well as a meeting
place for all the European
intellectual and artistic elite of
the time.
 La villa is included in the
Tentative List of the l‘UNESCO, a
precondition for its inscription on
the World Hertitage List.
 The polygonal-shaped villa is built
on a large, sloping, tree-filled site. Figure 10 – Villa Bloemenwerf, Belgium

Figure 11 – Villa Bloemenwerf, Plan

 The three gables with their broken vertical lines, which constitute one of the
most visible, distinctive characteristics of this façade, the other being the
wide, slate-covered porch protecting the main entrance.
 The garden was designed by Maria Sèthe, who wanted it to be full of flowers
so as to reflect the theme of the wallpaper in the lounges.
 The villa was designed around a light well, which floods the centre of the
building with daylight.
 The interior decor, while being
minimalist, is very refined, with
attention paid to the smallest
details.
 Van de Velde designed several
pieces of furniture for it and
selected the English wallpaper,
which covered the walls with
stylised flowers.
Figure 11 – Villa Bloemenwerf, Exterior

Guimard
French Architect and Designer

Born: 10 March 1867 - Lyons, France

Died: 20 May 1942 - New York, New York, USA

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, Modern Architecture

 Hector Guimard is by far the best-known French Art Nouveau architect.

 His work is easy to distinguish amongst other practitioners of the style, with
plastic, abstracted and sometimes bizarre vegetal and floral imagery in iron,
glass, and carved stone that is usually
twisted and bent into irregular and
asymmetrical forms.
 Guimard's work has recently been
discovered to be rather political -
particularly pacifist and socialist.
 The strange forms in his architecture
are intended to function as great kinds
of social levelers, favoring no social or
economic class above any other in
terms of their familiarity or ability to be
interpreted. As a result, they also
constitute a step towards artistic
abstraction, one of the great
developments of 20th-century
modernism.
 Guimard's Paris Métro entrances are
his signature work and classic
emblems of Figure 12 – Paris Metro Entrance
 Art Nouveau, which combine the movement's embrace of nature as well as
the advances of technology, standardization, and modernization.
 Their sinuous, unusual forms stand out against the typical street environments,
making them ideal for their functions, and they have become worldwide
icons for mass transit design.
École du Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart School), Paris (1895)
 Guimard's first significant work, the École
du Sacré Coeur, an elementary
education facility in the
16th arrondissement, shows the way that
he uses technological innovations to
improve on a classic building type in
French architecture.
 The building exhibits the usual features of
most French primary schools: the bands of
yellow brick or stone punctuated by large
panels of windows, often topped by
shallow arched lintels of red brick, like on
the upper level. Figure 13 – École du Sacré Coeur
 The key feature of the structure, however, is at ground level, where Guimard
has used pairs of inclined iron columns arranged in a V shape (seen here) to
raise the entire classroom space one
floor above.
 The scheme is directly taken from a
design by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-
duc for just such a school, to
demonstrate the possibilities of iron
structural technology.
 Here, Guimard has rotated the columns
90 degrees from Violet‘s plan to align
with the plane of the façades and thus
clear the space at ground level under
the rest of the structure as a playground,
thus solving the problem of the limited
space on the site. Figure 14 – École du Sacré Coeur, Structure
 Much of this area at ground level, however, was enclosed in the 1950s, which
eliminated this recreational function.
 The columns themselves use an
unusual shape that leaves them
open to precise interpretations, thus
attracting continual rumination and
attention. They taper towards the
bottom, with flared joints where they
join the I-beams that support the rest
of the school structure above,
resembling torches that may
represent the archetypal lamp of
learning.
Figure 15 – École du Sacré Coeur, Column
 The twisted grooves on the upper parts of the columns add a kind of
dynamism to the shape, as if to represent the compression of force transferred
 through them to the ground below, much like the sinews of muscles or the
plastic three-dimensional forms of stems of plants.
 It thus represents some of Guimard's first recognizable experiments with Art
Nouveau.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Scottish Architect, Designer, and Painter

Born: June 7th, 1868 - Glasgow, Scotland

Died: December 10th, 1928 - London, England

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, The Vienna Secession, Symbolism

 Mackintosh worked in close collaboration with his wife Margaret Macdonald,

his friend Herbert MacNair, and his wife's sister Frances Macdonald together
they were known as "The Four".
 They developed The Glasgow Style that was similar in intent to William
Morris and The Arts and Crafts Movement, believing in the "total design", that is
the creation of every aspect of an interior including furniture, metalwork, and
stained glass.
 Mackintosh achieved a humble simplicity in design - both for the exterior and
the interior furnishings of buildings - and sought for, above all, integrity of
materials and harmony of space.
 Aside from being a highly imaginative visionary architect and interior designer,
Mackintosh in his later years became an avid painter of flowers.

Glasgow School of Art (1899 - 1909)

 Mackintosh redesigned both
the interior and exterior of the
Glasgow School of Art to stand
as a shining example of his
early, forward-looking, pluralist
architecture.
 The building was made of
stone in order to reference
Scottish Baronial tower houses,
which Mackintosh considered
incredibly modern in their
original use of iron and glass.
Figure 16 – Glasgow School of Art
 Mackintosh was always sensitive to surrounding architecture and existing
national traditions but at the same time added his own free style
aesthetics; on the left-hand side of the building there is an entrance
reminiscent of an ancient ziggurat built to unusual, non-classical
proportions.
 As such he seamlessly merges a wide variety of different influences.
 Perhaps most prominently, and especially in the interior, Mackintosh
displays his interest in Japanese design; as well as overall restrained
decorative elements.
  He created a functional iron screen on the North facade which bears
similarity to Japanese heraldic emblems or 'mon'.
 The exterior of the building served as notable inspiration for Bauhaus
director Walter Gropius' Fagus Factory (1911-13), through its very similar
rectilinear composition and window design.
 From a philosophical perspective, Mackintosh sought to unite the body
and spirit, and beauty and function through perfectly designed interior
space.
 The library was built at the heart of the art
school building and inside the space was
carefully divided by wooden beams akin
to Japanese houses and illuminated by
large windows.
 This part of the facade stands in contrast
to the East Front where windows were
kept to a minimum. Art historian Alan
Crawford described this part of the
building, "a pause in the design, such as
occurs between the chapters of a book
or the verses of a poem."
 The studio spaces within were simple and
austere but were decorated - by
balancing contrast - with exuberant floral
ironwork akin to Hector Guimard's classic
Art Nouveau designs for the Paris Metro
(1900). Figure 16 – Glasgow School of Art, Interior
 Art historian Nikolaus Pevsner claimed such juxtapositions as "essential to
grasp the fusion in his art of puritanism with sensuality." Traditionally furniture
was viewed as an extension of architecture but for Mackintosh it served as
more of a complement.
 The square chandeliers in the library as well as the curved and colorful
shapes in the stained glass windows clearly highlight the artist's interest in
Symbolism, and overall, the building has been dubbed by writer Cairney as
"Mackintosh's self-portrait" and by the design historians the Fiells as
"Mackintosh's masterwork".

Vienna Secession
 The Vienna Secession was created as a reaction to the conservatism of the
artistic institutions in the Austrian
capital at the end of the
19th century.
 It literally consisted of a set of
artists who broke away from
the association that ran the
city's own venue for
contemporary art to form their
own, progressive group along
with a venue to display their
work. Figure 17 – Vienna Secession Building
 The Vienna Secession's work is often referred to as the Austrian version of
Jugendstil, the German term for Art Nouveau, and it is the work of its
members in association with that style that has contributed most to its
fame, particularly outside of Austria.
 The Secession's most dramatic decline in fortunes occurred at virtually the
same time that Jugendstil fell out of style elsewhere in Europe. When
most people speak of the Vienna Secession, they are usually referring to
the initial period of its history between 1897 and 1905.
 The Secession was in large part responsible for the meteoric rise to
international fame of several of its members, including Gustav Klimt, Joseph
Maria Olbrich, Koloman Moser, and Josef Hoffmann, who helped to a large
extent, put Austrian art back on the map during the first two decades of
the 20th century and beyond. The Secession's building
created the first dedicated, permanent exhibition space for contemporary
art of all types in the West.
 It gave a physical form and geographic location to designers committed
to narrowing the gap in prestige between the fine arts of painting,
sculpture, and architecture and the decorative and graphic arts, along
with encouraging the exchanges between these genres.
 Since the Secession was founded to promote innovation in contemporary
art and not to foster the development of any one style, the formal and
discursive aspects of its members' work have changed over the years in
keeping with current trends in the art world.
 It still exists and its famed building still functions as both an exhibition space
for contemporary art and a location that displays the work of its famous
founding members.
 UNIT III EVOLUTION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE - IDEOLOGIES,
MOVEMENTS AND STYLES

Early modernism in Europe and America. Critique of ornamentation and

Raumplan of Adolf Loos. Peter Behrens and Werkbund. Modern art and
architecture - Expressionism, Futurism, Constructivism, Cubism, Suprematism
and De–Stijl. Art Deco. Functionalism. Bauhaus. CIAM. International Style.
Outline of works and architects associated with all the above.

Evolution of Modernism
 Modernism is a historical trend of thought that affirms the power of human
beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment with the aid of
scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation.
 Growing out of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, it was one
the dominant ideologies of the 20th C.
 In essence, the modernist movement argued that the new realities of the
industrial and mechanized age were permanent and desirable.

Early modernism in Europe

 Phase 1: Iron-frame architecture,
which flourished primarily in England,
France, and the United States,
occupies the transitional
phase between traditional and
modern architecture.
 Two works of iron-frame architecture:
Iron-and-glass architecture
culminated with London's Crystal
Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton;
the foremost iron-frame structure of
all time: the Eiffel Tower, designed by
famed bridge engineer Gustave
Eiffel.
Figure 1 – Crystal Palace, London, England

 Phase 2: Steel-frame architecture emerged in Chicago, among a circle of

architects known as the Chicago school, which flourished ca. 1880-1900.
 The skyscraper was the great technical achievement of the Chicago school.
The school is also responsible for a great aesthetic achievement: the gradual
reduction of traditional ornamentation in skyscraper design.
 Skyscrapers were an entirely new building type, for which traditional aesthetics
proved unsatisfactory.
 Phase 3: This transition away from traditional ornamentation culminated in the
development of functionalism by Louis Sullivan.
 Functionalism is a design approach in which a building is simply designed
according to its function, then graced with features that are naturally
suggested by its internal structure.
 This approach, which leads to the simple geometry of the modern aesthetic, is
aptly summarized in Sullivan's guiding principle: "Form Follows Function".

Early modernism in America

 A late feature of modern art in general, Modernist Architecture was the
attempt to create new designs for the "modern man".
 It rejected all traditional styles based on older prototypes, and proposed a
new type of functional design which used modern materials and construction
techniques, to create a new aesthetic and sense of space.
 Unlike in Europe, where Modernism emerged during the first decade of the
20th-century, modernist American architecture only appeared in the mid-to-
late 1920s, because America relied much more heavily on historical models
than Europe, whose avant-garde art movement was altogether stronger.
 In addition, given the importance of urban development in the economic
recovery of the United States, and the growth of numerous markets within
America, it is hardly surprising that most modernist developments during the
1930s involved large commercial buildings, notably skyscrapers.
 In keeping with its anti-historical attitude, Modernist architecture favoured
simplified forms, and only the sort of essential ornamentation that reflected
the theme and structure of the building.
 Important architects in the history and development of the modernist
movement in America, included a number of refugees from Europe, such
as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), Walter Gropius (1883-1969) the
former director of the Bauhaus Design School, and Louis Kahn (1901-74).
 Other important modernists included: Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard
Neutra (1892-1970), Eero Saarinen (1910-61), Louis Skidmore (1897-
1962), Nathaniel Owings (1903-84), John Merrill (1896-1975), Philip
Johnson, I.M.Pei and Robert Venturi.

Critique of ornamentation and Raumplan of Adolf Loos

 Adolf Loos was the founding thinker and creator of the Modern architectural
style.
 Adolf Loos was an architect who grew up in Germany and was the leading
critic of the use of decoration and style in architecture, which he argued
needed to be functional.
 Loos viewed the use of design and ornament as childish and backward. He
frequently railed against the idea that buildings should be made visually
pleasing in any neither way that did not add to, nor flow from, the function of
the structure.
 He was particularly hostile to the ornament, so heavily promoted by the
Secessionists, and the title of his lecture-essay ―Ornament and Crime‖ (1910)
became one of the most famous dictums in the world of architecture.
 His repulsion to the ornament wasn‘t aesthetic but cultural, representing his
opposition towards waste, the ephemeral, and the frivolous. He didn‘t want to
propose a style to follow, so to unadorned façades he opposed opulent
interiors.
Raumplan
 Raumplan is a design of spaces. Three dimensional way of thinking about a
building, which allows precisely immense experiences. Every space has
different needs and different height requirement.

Figure 2 – Raumplan Theory

Rufer House, Vienna, Austria 1922

 Adolf Loos adopted the cubic building the
South and settled to the climatic conditions
of Central Europe.
 This building was explained rationally by the
architect with the creation of the cover
concrete and its possibilities, although the
use of the flat roof involves more than the
simple application of new building
techniques.
Figure 3 – Rufer House

 The exterior smooth and unadorned of these houses-cube corresponds to the

theory of ―lack of ornaments‖ developed by Loos to use objects, including the
house, and that would apply in conjunction with programs Raumplam theory.
 The design of Rufer House represented the first integral application of Loos‘s
―raumplan‖, that is the arrangement of rooms on different levels, consistency
between elevations and internal spaces, and simplification of the structural
system.
 Figure 4 – Rufer House, Plan

 The example of ―cube house‖ developed in the ―Rufer House‖ built in 1922
(10x10x12m), to Joseph and Marie Rufer, trimmed with a terrace on the roof,
shows most clearly, with its almost fully cubic the radicalism of the program
proposed by Loos.
 For the first time breaks with custom enclosures put a floor on the same level,
short ladders together the different heights. Thus two different room
dimensions create a spatial unit, each of the environments yields part of its
surface to the other.
 In the cubic volume that makes the house open three doors, one on the small
terrace overlooking the garden and two on the other sides, one is the main
entrance and the other service.

Figure 4 – Rufer House, Section

 The concept Raumplan also affects the outside of this building, the elevations
reflect the internal organization, but, in order to achieve a balanced
composition, the architect paid attention to the contrast resulting from the
combination of bare walls and white with dark spots windows.
 The ―rigor‖ of cubic uniformity allows some ―freedom‖ or ―irregularity‖ in the
location of the openings in the facades. But freedom is not arbitrary, only just
and necessary, not determined by the guidelines but by internal requirements.
 This almost perfect cube is formed by a basement and four levels. There are
only two breaks in the volume: a terrace that connects the great room or
music room to the garden and an open terrace that extends the upstairs
rooms outdoors, both are on the side facing the garden.
 The main entrance is located on the ground floor, slightly elevated above the
natural ground level, giving access to the hall. On the upper floors are
accessed by stairs lit by a window directed to the north.

 Basement - In the basement are the service areas and the home
of the caregiver.
 First floor - In this part develops the ―public area‖ of the house.
There are two levels in the lowest were located the kitchen,
pantry, wardrobe, bedroom and two bathrooms. At the highest
level of this plant develops the dining room, library and living
room or music that has access to a balcony terrace to the
garden.
 Second Floor - Bedrooms and dependencies
 Third floor or attic - This part is located several service units and a
terrace.

 The axis of the composition is a single central pillar, which fulfills both a
structural function and other systems as a conduit for electricity, water and
heating.
 This structural scheme is supported by exterior bearing walls.
 This simple system allows structural minimize internal dividing walls, being
replaced by thin walls or furniture wood.

Peter Behrens
German architect and designer

Born: 14 April 1868 - Hamburg, North German Confederation

Died: 27 February 1940 (aged 71) - Berlin, Prussian Free State, Nazi Germany

Movements and Styles: Art Nouveau, Modern Architecture

 One of Germany's greatest architects during the first decade of the 20th
century, Peter Behrens was a pioneer of corporate design as well as modernist
architecture i.e., buildings characterized by functionalist style and new
materials.
 Behrens started his career as a painter, illustrator and book-binder but would
eventually become an artistic consultant for AEG (General Electric
Company).
 Behrens turned to architecture after designing and building his own home. He
even conceived the items in the interior, towels, shelves, furniture and
everything in between.
 He was one of the pioneers of architectural reform, and his factory buildings
designed of brick, glass and steel gained popularity during the early 20th
century. During the years between 1907 and 1912 Behrens had many
 assistants and students including architecture big wigs Mies van der Rohe, Le
Corbusier and Adolph Meyer.
 Noted for his modern-style factories and office buildings - his most famous
work is the AEG Turbine Factory (1909) - he is seen by most art critics as a link
between Art Nouveau and 20th century industrial design.
 In addition to his design work, Behrens helped to establish the German Work
Federation - loosely modeled on the English Arts and Crafts movement - in
order to streamline the production
of high quality applied
art and crafts of various kinds.

AEG Turbine Factory 1910

 The AEG Turbine Factory, one of the
first companies to implement the
transformations since 1870 which
placed the German industry on an
international level.
 As opposed to the ―materialism‖,
Behrens focused his design on the
belief strength of the artist and art to
transform the brutality of daily life in
a dignified existence. Figure 5 – AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin
 The key architectural idea in the design of the main nave group consisted of
steel component, as is characteristic of regular triangular building. Thus the
interior volume is contained on all sides within a closed flat and smooth, in
order to achieve clarity of architectural proportions.
 In aesthetic terms the main
conflict Behrens he faced
in the design of the factory
was the tectonic nature of
the wide glass and metal
wall proposed by engineer
Karl Bernhard, as a solution
needed to master the
great structure and
comply with the concept
of Stereotomie that since
the construction of the
pavilions of the Exhibition
of Art in northwest German
Oldenburg defended
Behrens. Figure 5 – AEG Turbine Factory, View
 The challenge was, therefore, to find a solution that was flexible enough to
adapt to the dictates of a particular technology, including the use of certain
products for the construction, while preserving the architecture as a symbol to
set the values culture of a modern capitalist state.
 The culmination of
this process of
synthesis is
expressed on the
facade triumphant;
―temple like‖ factory
with central crystal
window staggering
proportions that only
advanced
technology could
have given.

Figure 5 – AEG Turbine Factory, Section

 With his limited knowledge of any type of building technology, Behrens had to
have the support of an engineer for a building as large and technically
complex.
 The vessel was originally formed by a rectangular of 207 meters long, 39 wide
and 25 feet high, flanked by two orders a body formed by a skeleton with 22
main frames placed every 9 meters, being considered in conjunction with the
architect‘s work, the first comprehensive industrial design history.
 The 22 main frames not only support the roof and building envelope but also
lane two 50-ton cranes. The ship was divided into a basement, ground floor
and first floor.
 The calculations and planning plant were made by the civil engineer Charles
Bernhard. Located on a corner and has a slight rotation relative to Turmstrasse
Avenue as it follows the line of the street Berlichingenstrasse, accentuating her
figure rotation and increases its scale.

Structure
 Triarticulate metal structure,
porches, consists basically of athree-
hinged arch reinforced with a cross
beam, is a regular rhythm, and is
visible from the outside, especially in
relation to the studs, which are
arranged between large horizontals.
 Longest half arc rises vertically to the
second hinge and then breaks into
three facets before reaching the
third hinge at the apex of the arc.

Figure 6 – AEG Turbine Factory, Structure

 Using technology to ambitious, Behrens hides the fact that the factory
structural system consists of a series of hinged arches, leveling the building with
a ledge which cuts voluminous on top as vertical element.
 Thus, the visual impression created Behrens of a lintel in which the vertical
elements of the arcs represent the columns of a classical temple.
 In the elevations of the long sides is achieved a contrast between the strength
of the structural supports and the quality fragile glass panels of the enclosure.
The entire deck is glass and rests on a metal trusses arcs mode discharging
directly on the outer walls
 When you reach the corner, a shot glass wall interrupted and materializes the
wall which strengthens the contrast curve edge between the wall structure
and glazed skin. The cover follows the contour of the upper broken porches.
 On the facade, Behrens makes a pediment with broken profile. Under it a
large window, and in the corners solid cloths, downgraded, creating an
overhang. It gives the character of the work only constructive and functional
values, but follows the idea that ―the artistic value of the work is determined
by the representation of the ideal of functionality.‖ 

Figure 7 – AEG Turbine Factory, Facade

 The building is distinguished fundamentally by the scale and the careful use of
materials, the relationship between structure and closing is absolutely
maintained.
 With its contradictions and its classicism, marks the evolution in contemporary
architecture of this sector typological and represents the paradigm of any
rationalist industrial building period that begins with the Faguswerk of Walter
Gropius.
Materials
 In its construction were mainly used glass and steel, with three prong masonry
metal arches.
 Although within a powerful symbolism, Behrens technology gives the
opportunity to express not only allegorically through large-scale industrial
materials, but also in the strong evocation of the dominant role of the
machine society, in detail memorable building, such as giant hinges inserting
bases arcs with concrete pedestals.

Deutscher Werkbund
 Deutscher Werkbund, English German Association of Craftsmen, important
organization of artists‘ influential in its attempts to inspire good design and
craftsmanship for mass-produced goods and architecture.
 The Werkbund, which was founded in Munich in 1907, was composed of
artists, artisans, and architects who designed industrial, commercial, and
household products as well as practicing architecture.
 The group‘s intellectual leaders, architects Hermann Muthesius and Henry van
de Velde, were influenced by William Morris, who, as leader of the 19th-
century English Arts and Crafts Movement, proposed that industrial crafts be
revived as a collaborative enterprise of designers and craftsmen.
 Van de Velde and Muthesius expanded Morris‘ ideas to include machine-
made goods.
 They also proposed that form be determined only by function and that
ornamentation be eliminated.
 Soon after the Werkbund was founded, it divided into two factions.
 One, championed by Muthesius, advocated the greatest possible use of
mechanical mass production and standardized design.
 The other faction, headed by van de Velde, maintained the value of
individual artistic expression. The Werkbund adopted Muthesius‘ ideas in 1914.
 The Werkbund‘s influence was further enhanced by its exhibition of industrial
art and architecture in Cologne (1914).
 Among the buildings exhibited were some of the most notable examples of
modern architecture in steel, concrete, and glass.
 These included a theatre by van de Velde and an administrative office
building, the Pavilion for Deutz Machinery Factory, and garages by the
architect Walter Gropius.
 The Werkbund also participated in the Paris exhibition of industrial arts and
building held in 1930.
 The Werkbund‘s displays were organized by Gropius, along with László
Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer, and Herbert Bayer.
 The association was disbanded in 1933 with the advent of Nazi rulein
Germany. It was revived, however, after World War II.

Modern art and architecture

 Modern art, painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphic arts are
characteristic of the 20th and 21st centuries and of the later part of the 19th
century.
 Modern art embraces a wide variety of movements, theories, and attitudes
whose modernism resides particularly in a tendency to reject traditional,
historical, or academic forms and conventions in an effort to create an art
more in keeping with changed social, economic, and intellectual conditions.
 From about the 1890s on, a succession of varied movements and styles arose
that are the core of modern art and that represent one of the high points of
Western visual culture.
 Modern architecture arose out of the rejection of revivals, classicism,
eclecticism, and indeed all adaptations of past styles to the building types of
industrializing late 19th- and 20th-century society.
 It also arose out of efforts to create architectural forms and styles that would
utilize and reflect the newly available building technologies of structural iron
and steel, reinforced concrete, and glass.
 Until the spread of postmodernism, modern architecture also implied the
rejection of the applied ornament and decoration characteristic of pre
modern Western buildings.
 The thrust of modern architecture has been a rigorous concentration on
buildings whose rhythmical arrangement of masses and shapes states a
geometric theme in light and shade.
 This development has been closely tied to the new building types demanded
by an industrialized society, such as office buildings housing corporate
management or government administration.
 Among the most important trends and movements of modern architecture
are the Chicago School, Functionalism, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, De Stijl,
the Bauhaus, the International Style, the New Brutalism, and postmodernism.

Expressionism
 Expressionism was an early 20th-century movement in art and architecture.
 It developed between 1910 and 1924 among a group of architects from
European countries including Germany, Austria, and Denmark.
 Expressionism is often defined by what is it not.
 The architects who designed Expressionist buildings avoided traditional box
shapes and resisted basing their designs on past historical styles.
 They tended toward abstraction, which means the designs weren't based on
objects or structures seen in the real world.
 Expressionist architecture was designed to evoke inner feelings and extreme
emotions.
 Buildings created in this style made a statement and stood out from the
structures around them.
 The characteristics of the expressionist architecture forms in something more
gothic rather than classic, which resulted in forms and shapes that are
individualistic from the other forms of architecture around that time, its
detachment to realism and more to a symbolic form from conceptual
representation.
 Architects often used distorted unusual forms and incorporated innovative
building techniques using materials like brick, steel, and glass.
 Many prominent architects of the time, including Walter Gropius and Bruno
Taut, designed Expressionist buildings. Others include, Fritz Höger, Erich
Mendelsohn, Mies van der Rohe, Hans Poelzig, etc.,
 Unfortunately, many of the structures were never built and exist only on paper.
Of those that were built, some were temporary and others did not survive into
the present, but you can still find several striking examples of Expressionist
architecture, especially in Germany.

Einstein Tower, Germany

 The Einstein Tower, designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn, was built
between 1919 and 1921.
 Located in Potsdam, Germany in a science park, it's surrounded by grassy
lawn and trees.
 The building, a solar observatory, is made of brick covered with cement.
 It's all curving edges and undulating forms and seems almost to emerge from
the ground below it like some kind of organic or scientific organism.
Concept
 The complexity of shapes that make up the tower reflects on the one hand, a
great sense of artistic freedom and, secondly, follows the ideas of Mendelsohn
on what he called ―functional dynamics‖, although it never came to define
objectively, can be interpreted in their
works in general as a clear desire for
continuous and integrated forms.
 Continuing its forms modulate the light
throughout the day by generating a
series of unique and original futuristic
visions. It is considered not only an
advanced lab but also a monument
―firmly supported on the ground but
also ready to fly or take a leap,‖ a
product of the aerodynamic shapes
that compose it.
Figure 7 – Einstein Tower, Germany

Spaces
 Einstein Tower, restored in the 1980s – houses a telescope, a laboratory and
housing facilities for a limited number of scientists and technicians.
 The experiments being carried out in the tower needed a laboratory
completely isolated from the outside light and temperature changes in
order to accurately study the theories of Einstein on the bending of light to
subject her to a significant gravitational field.

Figure 8 – Einstein Tower, Section

 Hence the widening of the base of the building that achieve the objective
through the thickness of the walls and antechambers prior to the laboratory.
 To get the light captured by the telescope to the lab than were available a
system of mirrors at 45 degrees that reflected light from the top of the tower to
its base.
Materials
 Originally the building was designed to be built in reinforced concrete
because of the affinity design and constructive Erich Mendelsohn felt by the
material product to turn the admiration he had felt by the works of Auguste
Perret.
 However, various operational problems he had with the builder finally
determined that the tower was built in brick and finished with a coating with
the appearance of concrete.

Futurism
 Futurist architecture emerged in the early-20th century in Italy.
 It was motivated by anti-historicism and characterized by long horizontal lines
and streamlined forms suggesting speed, dynamism, movement and urgency.
 Architects became involved in the artistic movement known as ‗futurism‘
which was founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with his ‗Manifesto
of Futurism‘ (1909), along with other creatives such as writers, musicians, artists,
and so on. They all were attracted to, and interested in, the new ‗cult of the
machine age‘ and the technological changes of the new century.
 Utopian visions for futurist cities were proposed by architects Mario Chiattone
and Antonio Sant‘Elia, which emphasised the use of new materials and
industrial methods, as well as new developments such
as elevators and structural steel components.
 Futurist architecture came to be characterised by the notion of movement
and flow, with sharp edges, strange angles, triangles, domes, and so on. In
many respects, the more defined styles of Art Deco and Art
Modern adopted Futurist ideas of design and form, which were thought to be
limitless in scope and scale.
 Few notable architects were Santiago Calatrava, Michael Graves, Zaha
Hadid, and Oscar Niemeyer.

Constructivism
 Constructivist architecture, or ‗constructivism‘, is a form of modern
architecture that developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s.
 Inspired by the Bauhaus and the wider constructivist art movement that
emerged from Russian Futurism, constructivist architecture is characterized by
a combination of modern technology and engineering methods and the socio-
political ethos of Communism.
 Despite there being few realised projects before the movement became
outdated in the mid-1930s, it has had a definite influence on many
subsequent architectural movements, such as Brutalism.
 Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the USSR became economically
insecure and unable to embark on major construction projects.
 The fundamental tension of Constructivist architecture was the need to
reconcile the economic reality of the USSR with its ambition for using the built
environment to engineer societal changes and install the avant-garde in
everyday life.
 Architects hoped that through constructivism, the spaces and monuments of
the new socialist utopia, the ideal of which the Bolshevik revolution had
waged, could be realised.
 As such, constructivist architecture was used to build utilitarian projects for
the workers, as well as more creative projects such as Flying City, that was
intended as a prototype for airborne housing.
 The main characteristic of constructivism was the application of 3D cubism to
abstract and non-objective elements.
 The style incorporated straight lines, cylinders, cubes and rectangles; and
merged elements of the modern age such as radio
antennae, tension cables, concrete frames and steel girders. The possibilities
of modern materials were also explored, such as steel frames that supported
large areas of glazing, exposed rather than
concealed building joints, balconies and sun decks.
 The style aimed to explore the opposition between different forms as well as
the contrast between different surfaces, predominately between solid
walls and windows, which often gave the structures their characteristic sense
of scale and presence.
 The first and perhaps most famous project was one an unrealised proposal for
Tatlin‘s Tower, the headquarters of the Comintern in St. Petersburg.
 Many subsequent, ambitious projects were not actually built, but Russia‘s
fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg is regarded as a ‗Constructivist museum‘
including 140 built examples of the form. Another famous surviving example is
the social housing project Dom Narkomfin in Moscow.
 Vladimir Tatlin, Ivan Nikolaev, Vladimir Shukhov, Ilya Golosov, Konstantin
Melnikov are some of the constructivism architects.

Tatlin’s Tower, Russia

 Tatlin‘s Tower or the project for the
Monument to the Third International
(1919–20), was a design for a grand
monumental building by the Russian
artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin,
that was never built.
 It was planned to be erected in
Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) after
the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, as
the headquarters and monument of
the Comintern (the third
international).
 Tatlin's Constructivist tower was to be
built from industrial materials: iron,
glass and steel. In materials, shape
and function, it was envisaged as a
towering symbol of modernity.
 It would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower
in Paris.
Figure 9 – Tatlin„s Tower, Russia
 The tower's main form was a twin helix which spiraled up to 400 m in height,
around which visitors would be transported with the aid of various mechanical
devices.
 The main framework would contain four large suspended geometric
structures.
 These structures would rotate at different rates. At the base of the structure
was a cube which was designed as a venue for lectures, conferences and
legislative meetings, and this would complete a rotation in the span of one
year.
 Above the cube would be a smaller pyramid housing executive activities and
completing a rotation once a month.
 Further up would be a cylinder, which was to house an information centre,
issuing news bulletins and manifestos via telegraph, radio and loudspeaker,
and would complete a rotation once a day.
 At the top, there would be a hemisphere for radio equipment.
 There were also plans to install a gigantic open-air screen on the cylinder, and
a further projector which would be able to cast messages across the clouds
on any overcast day.
 Tatlin‘s design for the Monument conveyed meaning in multiple ways. The
rising spirals, diagonal girder, and rotating internal volumes give symbolic form
to the aspirations and dynamic forces of the world communist revolution.

Figure 10 – Tatlin„s Tower, Plan

 The planned materials of metal and glass were associated with modern
engineering and construction technology, and signified the advanced, even
futuristic, goals of communist society.
 This was further emphasized in the plan to have the interior volumes revolve
mechanically, which symbolized the alignment of communist world revolution
with the astronomical movement of the sun, earth, and moon, and also
likened the new government to an efficient modern machine.
 The Monument stressed the Comintern‘s transparency to the people in its fully
visible support structure and the glass interior volumes housing its various
functions.
 The importance given to disseminating information and propaganda to the
masses is also integral to the design and acknowledges the crucial role
played by mass communication technologies in modern society and their
power to promote world revolution.

Cubism
 Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braques.
 It was the first style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th
century in response to a
world that was changing with
unprecedented speed.
 Cubism was an attempt by
artists to revitalize the tired
traditions of Western art
which they believed had run
their course.

Figure 11 – The model of a cubist house (Maison Cubiste),

1912
 The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as
perspective, which had been the rule since the Italian Renaissance. Their aim
was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age.
 Artists needed a more radical approach - a 'new way of seeing' that
expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was
extending the boundaries of communication and travel.
 This new way of seeing was called Cubism - the first abstract style of modern
art.

Suprematism
 Suprematism, the invention of Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was one of the
earliest and most radical developments in abstract art.
 Its name derived from Malevich's belief that Suprematist art would be superior
to all the art of the past, and that it would lead to the "supremacy of pure
feeling or perception in the pictorial arts."
 Heavily influenced by avant-garde poets, and an emerging movement in
literary criticism, Malevich derived his interest in flouting the rules of language,
in defying reason.
 He believed that there were only delicate links between words or signs and
the objects they denote, and from this he saw the possibilities for a totally
abstract art.
 And just as the poets and literary critics were interested in what constituted
literature, Malevich came to be intrigued by the search for art's barest
essentials.
 It was a radical and experimental project that at times came close to a
strange mysticism.
 Although the Communist authorities later attacked the movement, its
influence was pervasive in Russia in the early 1920s, and it was important in
shaping Constructivism, just as it has been in inspiring abstract art to this day.

De–Stijl
 The Netherlands-based De Stijl movement embraced an abstract, pared-
down aesthetic centered in basic visual elements such as geometric forms
and primary colors.
 Partly a reaction against the
decorative excesses of Art
Deco, the reduced quality of
De Stijl art was envisioned by
its creators as a universal
visual language appropriate
to the modern era, a time of
a new, spiritualized world
order.
 Led by the painters Theo van
Doesburg and Piet
Mondrian - its central and
celebrated figures - De Stijl
artists applied their style to a
host of media in the fine and
applied arts and beyond.
 De Stijl's influence was
perhaps felt most noticeably
in the realm of architecture,
helping give rise to
the International Style of the
1920s and 1930s. Figure 12 – The Hague Covers City Hall in Mondrian Painting
 De Stijl architecture offers dynamic conceptions of spatial relationships in
reaction to conventionally static, grounded architecture from the beginning
of the 20th century.
 Spatial innovation, based on principles developed by the De Stijl painter and
writer Piet Mondrian from the philosophical-mathematical writings of
M.H.Schoenmaekers, is clearly evident in three iconic De Stijl projects from the
mid-1920s: Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren‘s Maison d‘Artiste
and Maison Particuliére and Gerrit Rietveld‘s Schröder House in Utrecht, the
Netherlands.
 These modernist touchstones represent the synthesis of ideal universal
projections of space and everyday manipulations of life embedded within art.
 Architecture proved to be the ideal art form to represent De Stijl through its
ability to transform space, surface, universal ideas, particular situations,
exterior, and interior.
Rietveld-Schröder House, 1924
 Designed by Gerrit Rietveld for Truus Schröder in 1924, who was responsible
design and build a house on the outskirts of Utrecht.
 Rietveld as the customer had a great influence on the result.
 For this building is the team: he is responsible for the overall design and colors,
and Schröder Schrader of the plant-floor high open
 Rietveld-Schröder House was the first architectural manifesto of the group De
Stijl, universally recognized as one of
the first truly modern buildings in the
world.
Concept
 It is a house between party that
integrates the context of the tree
through the courtyard on the ground
floor, transparencies and fragmented
spaces.
 The most notable aspect of the
home-Rietveld Schröder is the
independence of visual parts,
achieved by the physical separation
of the planes, the use of color,
accentuating and determines the
identity of each party, use of the free
and modulation of the horizontal and
vertical. Figure 12 – Rietveld-Schröder House
 There have been adding domestic solutions, with spaces that can be
modified by movable panels, and furniture, perfectly integrated treated more
as an architectural element.
 Get the building is a particularly flexible, both outside and within the
the house is proof of the maturity architectural methodology in line with its
poetic neo plasticism author.

Figure 12 – Rietveld-Schröder House, Plans

Description
 Built of steel, brick and glass, is an asymmetrical composition of horizontal and
vertical planes at the same time it achieves the ideal of pure and balanced
relationship advocated by Mondrian and two of the key objectives of modern
architecture: the freedom and the separation plant between formal structure
and enclosures.
 Rietveld sought continuity space architecture allowing spaces communicate
with each other and with the infinite space that surrounds the building.
 Just as the components of its furnishings are simple and flat shapes without
profiles developed with the building architecture is a geometric.
 Rietveld-Schröder house is above all a composition of planes and lines pure.
 The color scheme based on red, yellow and blue combination with
achromatic surfaces used more effectively in-house Rietveld Schröder in any
of the later works of Rietveld.
 The interior of the house is a logical consequence of the desire to achieve a
synthesis of painting, architecture and design typical of the late nineteenth
century.

Figure 13 – Rietveld-Schröder House, Interior

Art Deco
 Art Deco, also called style modern, movement in the decorative arts
and architecture that originated in the 1920s and developed into a major
style in Western Europe and the United States during the 1930s.
 Its name was derived from the Exposition Internationals des Arts Décoratifs et
Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, where the style was first exhibited.
 Art Deco design represented modernism turned into fashion.
 Its products included both individually crafted luxury items and mass-
produced wares, but, in either case, the intention was to create a sleek and
anti traditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication.
 The distinguishing features of the style are simple, clean shapes, often with a
―streamlined‖ look; ornament that is geometric or stylized from
representational forms; and unusually varied, often expensive materials, which
frequently include man-made substances (plastics, especially Bakelite; vita-
glass; and ferroconcrete) in addition to natural ones (jade, silver, ivory,
obsidian, chrome, and rock crystal).
 Though Art Deco objects were rarely mass-produced, the characteristic
features of the style reflected admiration for the modernity of the machine
 and for the inherent design qualities of machine-made objects (e.g., relative
simplicity, planarity, symmetry, and unvaried repetition of elements).
 Among the formative influences on Art Deco were Art Nouveau,
the Bauhaus, Cubism, and Serge Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes.
 Decorative ideas came from American Indian, Egyptian, and early classical
sources as well as from nature. Characteristic motifs included nude female
figures, animals, foliage, and sun rays, all in conventionalized forms.
 New York City‘s Rockefeller Center (especially its interiors supervised
by Donald Deskey; built between 1929 and 1940), the Chrysler Building by
William Van Alen, and the Empire State Building by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
are the most monumental embodiments of Art Deco. During the 1930s the
style took over South Beach in Miami, Florida, producing an area known as the
Art Deco historic district.
Chrysler Building, New York City, United States
 Chrysler Building, office building in New York
City, designed by William Van Alen and often
cited as the epitome of the Art
Deco skyscraper.
 Its sunburst-patterned stainless
steel spire remains one of the most striking
features of the Manhattan skyline.
 Built between 1928 and 1930, the Chrysler
Building was briefly the tallest in the world, at
1,046 feet (318.8 metres).
 It claimed this honour in November 1929—
when the building was topped off with a 180-
foot (55-metre) spire—and held the record
until the Empire State Building opened in 1931.
 The decorative scheme of the facade and
interior is largely geometric; at the request
of Walter P. Chrysler, who commissioned the
building, stainless steel automobile icons (e.g.,
radiator caps in the form of Mercury) were
incorporated in the frieze on the setback at
the base of the tower and in decorative work
on other parts of the building.
 The building‘s pierless corners and sleek
design are typical of the modernism of the
1920s.
 A major restoration of the landmark structure
was conducted in the early 1980s.
Figure 14 – Chrysler Building, Manhattan

Concept
 Walter Chrysler wanted to make it clear that manufactured cars when he
commissioned the building, decorating it with eagles, radiator caps and
 hub caps inspired by the Chrysler models, all based on architecture of pure
Art Deco, which makes it a skyscraper with a unique style.
 Inside the triangular lobby with entrances and exits to the sides, it is lit in a
very theatrical way and decorated with stainless steel, marble and granite
Africans worldwide.
 On the roof there is a huge mural of 36 meters long by 26 meters wide by
Edward Trumbull painted images representing progress, transport and
energy.

Figure 14 – Chrysler Building, Concept

Structure
 The structure has been made with a steel frame, masonry and metal
cladding.
 The skeleton of the dome is made of curved steel beams. The interior walls are
brick dome but the outside is coated with a type called Nirosta stainless steel.
Spaces

Figure 14 – Chrysler Building, Interior

 The entrance hall, three stories high, tapers as it rises, showing a triangular
shape and entrances on three sides by Lexintong Av, on 42nd Street and 43rd
Street.
 This space is richly decorated with red Moroccan marble walls, floors and onyx
sienna and numerous compositions Art Deco in blue marble and steel.
 In plants 66-68 had a very exclusive club called the Cloud Club.
 On the second floor of this club was the private dining room of Walter P.
Chrysler. The Club opened in 1930 and closed in 1977.
 In the descriptions of the first projects the creation of an observation deck on
the 71st floor with a powerful telescope and cafe was mentioned.
 Although he conducted the large telescope was not placed, reducing its
scope.
 The observatory had sloping walls decorated with stars and planets, and
ceilings hung with lamps shaped like Saturn. The platform is closed to the
public in 1945.
Materials
 In the building they were used 29.961tn steel, barking 3,826,000 and
approximately 5,000 windows were placed.
 Chrysler was one of the first major buildings that used massive metal on the
outside, this time the metal ornament refers to the car, symbol of the
machine age.
 Metal hubcaps, gargoyles with the shapes of the radiator caps, car
fenders, flared ornaments and metal shafts used as decoration on the
facades of black and white brick.
 The building is clad in white and dark gray brick brick used as decoration
to enhance the horizontal rows of windows.
 The hall is decorated lavishly with walls
of red Moroccan marble, sienna-
colored floors and marble onyx blue
steel in the compositions of Art Deco.
 32 elevators in the building are
aligned in a diverse modeling
paneling.
Lighting
 Decorating the metal needle is used two
lighting sets, the first V-shaped are
embedded in the steel plates that cover
were placed at the time of construction
and allow variation of colors for the
occasion.
 The latter were added later in the arms of
the building focusing masts. Figure 15 – Chrysler Building, Façade

Functionalism
 Functionalism, in architecture, the doctrine that the form of a building should
be determined by practical considerations such as use, material, and
structure, as distinct from the attitude that plan and structure must conform to
a preconceived picture in the designer‘s mind.
 As architects began to show discontent with the historical revivalism that had
been paramount in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a type of architecture
 based on the clear outward expression of the function of the building was
bound to develop.
 The slogan ―form follows function,‖ coined in the 1880s by one of the pioneers
of modern architectural design, Louis Sullivan, and the dictum of the
architect Le Corbusier ―a house is a machine for living,‖ which dates from
1920, both state the idea uncompromisingly.
 The latter assertion, however, although typical of the polemical statements
made in the 1920s, when the battle for a more functional approach to
architecture was being most strenuously fought, was not meant literally, as
other statements of Le Corbusier indicate.
 The supporters of Functionalism in architecture have on occasion asserted
that good architecture is automatically produced by the fulfillment of
practical needs; yet in this fulfillment there remain many alternatives among
which the architect must choose, and such a choice may determine the
difference between good and bad architecture.

Bauhaus
 The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect
Walter Gropius (1883–1969).
 Its core objective was a radical concept: to reimagine the material world to
reflect the unity of all the arts.
 Gropius explained this vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation
of the Bauhaus (1919), which described a utopian craft guild combining
architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression.
 Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and
designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this
new system of living.
 The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education.
 Given the equal stress it placed on fine art and functional craft, it is no surprise
that many of the Bauhaus's most influential and lasting achievements were in
fields other than painting and sculpture.
 The furniture and utensil designs of Marcel Breuer, Marianne Brandt, and
others paved the way for the stylish minimalism of the 1950s-60s, while
architects such as Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were
acknowledged as the forerunners of the similarly slick International Style that is
so important in architecture to this day.

Bauhaus building in Dessau, Germany 1926

 With the Bauhaus building, Gropius put in
practice his ambition to design
processes of living, in order to unite art,
technology and aesthetics in the search
for functionality.
 It was born from the merging of the
Academy of Fine Arts and the School of
Arts and Crafts, in an attempt to
overcome the existing divorce between
art and industrial production on one
hand, and art and crafts on the other. Figure 16 – Bauhaus Building, Germany
 The use of new materials and technologies was promoted, without devaluing
the artisan legacy.
 His great manifesto for architectural rationalism would be the exceptional
Bauhaus building, in which they would bring together the characteristics of
the Modernism movement: rationally articulated pure spaces (functionalism);
innovative usage of new materials, such as the glass curtain-walls in the
façades; horizontal windows; an absence of ornamentation; a global design
for all elements; and, above all, a spatial conception presided over by the
interrelation between the interior and exterior by means of the glass wall.

Facades
 More than anything, the façades testify that the Bauhaus is very much a
typical building of modernity.
 Each façade corresponds to the requirements of the activity which takes
place inside: the façade of the block of classrooms is formed of horizontal
windows, whose function is to ensure adequate light; while the apartment
building, on the contrary, has small individual apertures designed to
increase privacy.

Figure 17 – Bauhaus Building, Facade

 The workshops display an imposing glass frontage, which permits the

maximum illumination and view of the interior from outside.
 In this façade, Gropius revisited the theme of Faguswerk and the Cologne
factory, establishing a glass closure which sits over the front of the structure,
keeping the pillars tucked in and adding a cantilever which allows the corner
buttress to be eliminated, thus creating the famous image of angular
transparency which constitutes one of the most typical formal aspects of the
Bauhaus.
 The front façade is where the first level is set back, to produce the levitation of
the upper volume comprised of a curtain wall, which creates a tension
toward the access, as a result of the contrast of opacity with the lower
volume.
Spaces
 The main entrance of the Bauhaus is divided by three doors, separated by
red columns, which provide access to the entrance vestibule and stairs.

Figure 18 – Bauhaus Building, Site Plan

Figure 19 – Bauhaus Building, Plan

Staircase
 The stairs were designed in three parts: the part in the middle is the widest
and leads to the upper floors, the narrower laterals descend the levels. In
front of the staircase, there is a large floor-to-ceiling window which is as
wide as the stairs.
 A very characteristic feature of the Bauhaus building is that in walking the
corridors or stairs, there are almost always various possibilities for where to
go, as a result of which the different sections of the building achieve a
certain correspondence.
 The building is distributed over three main wings, interconnected by a
bridge element, whose X-shaped form breaks with the concept of
symmetry and gives its functional efficacy precedent over its aesthetic
coherence.
 It was characterised by orthogonal levels and sections, generally
asymmetric, and an absence of decoration on the façades. The interior
spaces are bright and airy.
 Six floors of 28 bedrooms, each
20m². All had a small balcony;
a concrete slab which
protrudes toward the open
space.
 This building is also the most
solid volume, interrupted only
on the East façade by the
cantilevered balconies and on
the West by the windows.

Figure 20 – Bauhaus Building, Bridge Element

Bridge element
 As well as connecting the distinct wings, it led to the office, Gropius‗private
workshop and a club or recreation area.
 The bridge expressed the idea of an architecture freed from the ground,
which does not impede urban circulation.
Structure
 A steel and concrete structure forms the frame of the building, ensuring the
unity of the complex and allowing for the existence of three different façades,
built with very innovative though fragile materials such as glass.
 The static construction is not as it may seem- completely in reinforced
concrete- as only the frame is. The surfaces in between are mostly made of
brick, as are the floors.
Materials
 The Modernist movement enjoyed the possibilities of new industrial materials,
such as reinforced concrete, rolled steel and large-scale glass panels.
 Along with these new materials, the façades here also have a typical smooth,
white plaster. However, they also have a base of rough plaster in grey. This
base has an optical effect, as it gives the impression of the building being
much lighter.
 The corridors and stairs had magnesian floors, the offices had linoleum in
various colours, and the walls were covered with lime plaster.
 The cement used in the construction was very porous as it contained too
much gravel, while the layer which covered the frame of the building had too
little, which is why the iron frame has oxidised.
 The plaster used for the columns of the bridge which has remained as
exposed concrete presents a relief which appears as though hammered,
something which was unusual in modernist works.

CIAM
 Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) was a series of
eleven architecture and urban planning congresses. Initiated by a group
of European modernist architects, these conferences were held between
1928 and 1959.
 The ideas developed and exchanged within the context of CIAM
influenced the development of architecture and urban planning
worldwide.
 The founding members of CIAM included architects Walter Gropius from
Germany, Le Corbusier from France, Mart Stam from the Netherlands, and
Sven Markelius from Sweden.
 The first congress took place in 1928 in La Sarraz, Switzerland, and the last in
1959 in Otterlo, the Netherlands.
 The meetings were designed to exchange ideas about modern
architecture and city design within a European, and later, an international
context.
 Each congress focused on a specific topic such as the Minimum
Dwelling (CIAM II) or the Heart of the City (CIAM VIII). The members of
CIAM elected a permanent executive body, the Comité international pour
la résolution des problèmes de l‘architecture contemporaine (CIRPAC),
whose first secretary-general was the Swiss art and architecture critique
Siegfried Giedion.
 Initially, CIAM was a continental European endeavor, with much of its
activity focused on Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
 This framework changed in 1933 when the Modern Architectural Research
Group (MARS) was established in London, forming a link between modern
architects from Great Britain and CIAM‘s activities.
 Over the course of the 1930s, fascist politics and the prospect of war
caused many of the key members of CIAM to leave their home countries.
Several of them, like Walter Gropius and Serge Chermayeff, found a new
home in the United States.
 These émigrés remained active within CIAM and thus contributed to the
further internationalization of the organization and a stronger connection
to the United States after 1945.
 There are, however, very few actual built projects by CIAM members in
North American cities and it is difficult to gauge the influence of CIAM
ideas on architecture and urban planning in the USA.
 Eric Mumford has traced these aspects in Defining urban design. It is safe to
say that what Mumford calls ―CIAM-type urbanism‖ found a strong echo in
the United States and that European immigrants played a major role in this
complex process of transfer and exchange.
 One example of this is the book Can our cities survive? by Spanish city planner
Jose´ Luis Sert, who came to New York as an exile in 1939. Can our cities
 survive? is the first comprehensive English account of CIAM‘s principles
published in the United States.
 Increasing attacks on the radical functionalistic concepts of the founding
members of CIAM by a younger generation of modern architects led to a
schism within the group and the end of the organization in the late 1950s.

International Style
 The International Style is often thought of as the "architecture of the machine
age," which symbolized for many the crystallization of modernism in building
design.
 This became particularly true after World War II, when the post-war economic
building boom made the International Style a kind of "unofficial" American
architecture.
 Often called "minimalist" architecture, International Style buildings are well-
known for the way they seem to strip away all extraneous ornament from the
structure, leading to an extreme blurring of interior and exterior space, the
exposure of buildings' construction with unvarnished honesty, and the
glorification of modern industrial materials: chiefly, steel, concrete, and glass.
 The International Style was one of the first architectural movements to receive
renown and be adopted unequivocally on every inhabited continent.
 It became a global symbol of modernity both before and after World War II,
especially in Latin America and Asia, where nations felt a keen desire to
industrialize and compete politically and economically with traditional powers
in Europe and North America.
 The term "International Style" was coined in 1932 by an eponymous exposition
of European architects at the Museum of Modern Art in New York curated by
Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson to describe an ethos of
construction purely in terms of materials and space, with virtually no reference
to the sociopolitical dimension, as had been highly emphasized in Europe. This
differentiated the International Style between its understandings in Europe
versus in the USA.

Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, United States

 Farnsworth House, pioneering steel-and-glass house in Plano, Illinois, U.S.,
designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1951.
 The structure‘s modern
classicism epitomizes
the International Style of
architecture and Mies‘s dictum
―less is more.‖
 It is set on the floodplain of the
Fox River and is one of only
three houses built by Mies in
the United States.
 The house invites nature in
through continuous glass walls
and is anchored delicately to
the forest floor. Figure 21 – Farnsworth House, United States
 The simplicity of the design, precision in detailing, and careful choice of
materials made this and others of Mies‘s buildings stand out from the mass of
mid-century Modernism.
 Mies‘s design featured an all-glass exterior. Intended as a vacation home or
weekend retreat, the house lacked storage space, closets, and other
necessities of full-time living, which the architect ignored in favour of
an aesthetic perfectionism.
 The house‘s main structural support
consists of eight white vertical I-beams,
which connect the rectangular roof and
floor slabs with floor-to-ceiling plate glass.
 The structure is suspended on those
beams some 5 feet (1.5 metres) above
the ground and more than 8 feet (2.5
metres) above the Fox River, which lies
just 100 feet (30 metres) to the south.
 A third of the slab is an open-
air porch (which Farnsworth had
screened in after the house was finished),
and the only operable windows are two
small hopper units (which are hinged at
the bottom) at the eastern end in the
bedroom area. Figure 21 – Farnsworth House, Structure
 A rectangular offset patio, covered with the same travertine as the floor slab
of the house, sits a few steps below the house.
 A central core contains all services, two bathrooms, and a kitchen with a
continuous stainlesssteel countertop on the north side, and a primavera wood
living space and fireplace on the south side. I-beams connect just
below the roof and patio surfaces, their welds polished smooth to make the
connection invisible.
 Smoothness and continuity are also apparent in the details of the other
surfaces of the house, from the floors to the wood panels.

Figure 22 – Farnsworth House, Interior

 UNIT IV MODERNIST ARCHITECTS AND THEIR WORKS

Ideas, works and evolution of Gropius, Corbusier, Aalto, Wright, Mies, Neutra.

Walter Gropius
German Architect

Born: May 18, 1883 - Berlin, Germany

Died: July 5, 1969 - Massachusetts, USA

Movements and Styles: Bauhaus, The International Style

 Walter Gropius one of the pioneers of modern architecture and the founder of
the Bauhaus, a revolutionary art school in Germany.
 The Bauhaus replaced traditional teaching methods with a flexible artistic
community, focusing on a collaborative approach to learning and the
creation of integrated design projects.
 Later, the Bauhaus also incorporated mass production techniques into its
output, designing objects and buildings for a wide audience. The school
taught some of the most famous names in modernism as well as attracting
established artists working within the fields.
 Despite its relatively short-lived existence, the Bauhaus and the design styles
associated with it were hugely influential on a global scale, but particularly so
in the United States where many of the artists moved before and during the
Second World War to escape persecution by the Nazis.

Ideas
 Gropius believed that all design should be approached through a study of the
problems that needed to be addressed and he consequently followed the
modernist principle that functionality should dictate form. He applied these
beliefs to wider social issues, designing affordable housing in the interwar
period and seeking to improve
physical conditions for factory
workers through his architecture.
 As well as pushing boundaries in
architectural design, Gropius also
experimented with innovative
building and assembly techniques
using prefabricated units and new
materials such as reinforced
concrete. Similar ideas were later
utilized to create cheap, mass
produced housing in the 1940s.
Figure 1 – Gropius House, Massachusetts
 Gropius is credited with the introduction of modernist architecture to the
United States through his design of the Gropius House and his teaching at
Harvard University. Gropius's buildings were in stark contrast to previous
 architectural styles and were characterized by their cubic design, flat roofs
and expanses of glass that allowed for a merging of interior and exterior
spaces.
The Fagus Factory (1910)
 Gropius designed the façade
of this factory in conjunction
with Adolf Meyer in the period
after they left the office of
Peter Behrens.
 The floor to ceiling glass
creates a sense of light and
the large rectangular panes,
punctuated by steel mullions
and brickwork, wrap the
factory in a continuous manner
rarely seen in building design
before.
 Of particular note are the
corners, where the glass joins
at right angles, giving the
illusion of not needing support. Figure 2 – The Fagus Factory (1910) , Germany
 This works to eliminate the distinction between interior and exterior, a
reoccurring theme in modernist architecture.
 Every element of the building is simple, functional, and cubic in construction
and this pre-empts the Art Deco aesthetic of the interwar period. The
entrance and clock date from a 1913 expansion to the building, also
designed by Gropius and Meyer.
 The building was commissioned by Carl Benscheidt, the General Manager of
Fagus, a company that specialized in the manufacture of shoe lasts, foot-
shaped forms that were used in the production and repair of shoes.
 Benscheidt was keen for the building to demonstrate a clear break with the
past and this provided Gropius and Meyer with a chance to experiment with
new ideas and technologies.
 The influence of their experience at Behrens's office, where they worked on
projects such as the AEG Turbine Factory, can be seen in the openness of the
aesthetic and the expansive use of glass.
 Gropius was particularly intrigued by how good design could benefit society
as a whole and in this design he saw the use of glass as advantageous for the
factory workers, who would be exposed to more light and fresh air than they
had been in the enclosed brick factories of the 19th century.

Concept
 For the architect as the building had to fit the function for which it was
planned and consistent with a constructive logic based on that function, your
image should not hide but show it as a beautiful and modern architecture
should adapt to the new world machines.
 A prismatic block, three plants with rectangular and flat base which
reinforced concrete structure with brackets displaced inward frees the exterior
 walls of any load bearing plant whose clearly expressed their interest modern
commercial and functional.

Figure 3 – The Fagus Factory (1910) , Site Plan

Spaces
 The first building designed by
Gropius to the shoe factory
was the office and is one of
the most important and
characteristic of the complex.
 Office: The building has three
floors with a flat roof which
together with the
replacement of the walls with
large windows, which in turn
also made up the corners of
the building became one of
the building systems
characteristic of the modern
movement.
Figure 4 – The Fagus Factory , View

 The two other large buildings in the complex are the production hall and
warehouse.
 Both were built in 1911 and expanded in 1913.
 The production hall is a one-story building that became the present facade
after enlargement.
 The store is a four-story building with few openings.
 The design closely followed the original plan of Werner.
 Besides them, the site contains several small buildings designed by Gropius
and Meyer later.

The Façade
 Gropius designed the façade of this factory in conjunction with Adolf Meyer in
the period after they left the office of Peter Behrens.
 The floor to ceiling glass
creates a sense of light and the
large rectangular panes,
punctuated by steel mullions
and brickwork, wrap the
factory in a continuous manner
rarely seen in building design
before.
 The corners, where the glass
joins at right angles, giving the
illusion of not needing support.
 The facade is articulated with
narrow brick pillars, slightly
recessed, which were placed
between the iron frames
sticking out of the building and
housed the large windows
creating a light curtain wall of
a hitherto unseen, creating an
inner space natural light and
partly diluting indoor-outdoor
boundaries. Figure 5 – The Fagus Factory , Façade
 It is particularly striking resolution of the corners of the block as they
converge on two windows perpendicular to the unique presence in them of
the light metal support bar.
Structure
 The reinforced concrete structure, with supporting displaced inwards, allowed
to free the exterior walls, especially at the corners of the building supporting
role.
 The main building, rectangular in shape, was designed as a structural
framework without pillars in the corners, with a front metal grid cut by glass
covers, one of the first examples of ―curtain wall‖.
 Figure 6 – The Fagus Factory , Structure

Materials
 Gropius‘s Fagus factory is where for the first time the walls of a factory was
replaced with glass. This novel, for the time, ―curtain wall‖ has a height that
spans all three floors of the building.
 A metal structure of iron bars holding the glass planes that make up those
windows and metal planes contribute to highlight the distribution of plants.
 The narrow columns that articulate the facade and the reception and lower
sockets were made of brick colored stew.

Le Corbusier
Swiss-French Modern Architect, Urban Planner, Designer, Sculptor, Painter, and
Writer

Born: October 6, 1887 - La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Died: August 27, 1965 - Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France

Movement: The International Style, Modern Architecture

 Charles Édouard-Jeanneret was born in the fall of 1887 in the small industrial
town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the section of the Alps called the Jura
Mountains, just across the border from France.
 The highly polemical designer hailed from obscurity in the Swiss Jura Mountains
to become the most influential urban planner and architect of the
20th century.
 He was one of the key designers who formulated the ideas behind a truly
modern, avant-garde architecture during the interwar period.
 Le Corbusier's ideas about immense, rationalized, zoned, and industrially-
constructed cities both shocked and seduced a global audience, and while
they never came to fruition as a cohesive vision, his disciples put many of their
pieces into place around the world, both during and after his lifetime.
 Over fifty years after his death, Le Corbusier still manages to exercise influence
and arouse hatred for his ideas and buildings.
 His complex ties to politics and the sociological dimensions of architecture -
along with his voluminous records and archives - mean that he will continue to
be the subject of debates for decades to come.
Evolution & Ideas
 Le Corbusier was and remains a highly polemical figure in the history of
modern architecture.
 Widely praised as a visionary whose imaginative plans for urban
agglomerations and spaces dramatically transformed our understanding of
what a city should be and could look like, he is equally reviled for the soulless
monotony that his strand of modernism encouraged and the wanton
destruction of the urban fabric that he both championed and prompted
among his followers in urban planning during the latter half of the
20th century.
 Le Corbusier is one of the major originators of the International Style, along
with such contemporaries as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius,
with whom he once worked, among many others. His work was featured
especially prominently in the landmark exhibition in 1932 at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York - and subsequent book - that gave the movement its
name.
 Le Corbusier's role in the birth of modern architecture is magnified because of
his ability to elucidate and disseminate his principles succinctly and forcefully.
 His Five Points of a New Architecture, which form the backbone of his
architectural thought of the 1920s, constitute some of the most direct set of
ideas in architectural theory, which he successfully demonstrated in his
numerous contemporaneous villas of the interwar period.
 Le Corbusier's early writings and buildings glorified modernism and modernity
as the key to bringing society out of the cataclysm of World War I at the
beginning of the 1920s, a time when many others shrank from the embrace of
modern life.
 Indeed, his architecture and faith in technological progress and heavy
industry helped create what many architectural historians would later call "the
machine age."
 Le Corbusier's political and ideological positions remain fraught with
complexities and controversy - at times he could be labeled a capitalist, a
communist, or a Fascist - and his copious inspirations and voluminous records
and archival materials provide critics and scholars with a seemingly endless
array of possible interpretations.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut
(1950-55)
 In 1950, Le Corbusier was
invited to design a new
Catholic pilgrimage chapel
in Ronchamp, a small French
town in the Vosges
Mountains near the Swiss
border, to replace the one
that had been destroyed
during World War II.
Figure 7 – Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Exterior
 Perched on top of a hill, the
church is atypical among Le
Corbusier's works; its highly
sculptural forms use virtually
no right angles and make no
references to his usual
prismatic clarity. The inclined
walls appear almost to be
collapsing inwards under the
weight of the massive brown
concrete roof.

Figure 8 – Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Interior

 Only when the visitor enters the small, darker sanctuary, pierced by small
shards of light, does he discover the thickness and solidity of these walls that
firmly enfold the space and create a solemn atmosphere imbued with
meditative tranquility.
 In Notre-Dame-du-Haut one sees how Le Corbusier's work provides
architectural critics and historians with a vast array of avenues for analysis in
an attempt to decipher his achievement.
 Scholars have traced his inspirations for the chapel to Mediterranean sources,
the Athenian Acropolis, the Hebrew Temple in the wilderness, and Bronze Age
crypts.
 The shape of the roof has been variously compared to a billowing sail, a
duck's tail, and a nun's cowl.
 Thus this mysterious panoply itself invites a kind of intellectual rumination and
reflection that undoubtedly mirrors the religious contemplation that Le
Corbusier attempts to encourage in the pilgrim.
 The sense of contemplation is likewise drawn out over the substantial hike one
must take up the hill in order to reach the chapel, thereby mirroring the
spiritual journey in many religions that one makes to achieve enlightenment,
or simply the winding adventure of human life with its unexpected twists and
turns.

Alvar Aalto
Finnish Architect

Born: Feb. 3, 1898, Kuortane, Finland, Russian Empire

Died: May 11, 1976, Helsinki, Finland

Movements and Styles: Modernism

 Alvar Aalto, in full Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, is a Finnish architect, city planner,
and furniture designer whose international reputation rests on a distinctive
blend of modernist refinement, indigenous materials, and personal expression
in form and detail. His mature style is epitomized by the Säynätsalo, Finland,
town hall group (1950–52).
 The years 1927 and 1928 were significant in Aalto‘s career. He received
commissions for three important buildings that established him as the most
advanced architect in Finland and brought him worldwide recognition as
well. These were the Turun Sanomat Building (newspaper office) in Turku, the
tuberculosis sanatorium at Paimio, and the Municipal Library at Viipuri (now
Vyborg, Russia). His plans for the last two were chosen in a competition, a
common practice with public buildings in Finland. Both the office building and
the sanatorium emphasize functional, straightforward design and are without
historical stylistic references.
 They go beyond the simplified classicism common in Finnish architecture of
the 1920s, resembling somewhat the building designed by Walter Gropius for
the Bauhaus school of design in Dessau, Germany (1925–26). Like Gropius,
Aalto used smooth white surfaces, ribbon windows, flat roofs, and terraces
and balconies.
 The third commission, the Viipuri Municipal Library, although exhibiting a similar
dependence on European prototypes by Gropius and others, is a significant
departure marking Aalto‘s personal style.
 It was Aalto‘s particular success here that identified him with the so-
called organic approach, or regional interpretation, of modern design. He
continued in this vein, with manipulation of floor levels and use of natural
materials, skylights, and irregular forms.
 By the mid-1930s Aalto was recognized as one of the world‘s outstanding
modern architects; unlike many of his peers, he had an identifiable personal
style.
 Aalto, whose work exemplifies the best of 20th-century Scandinavian
architecture, was one of the first to depart from the stiffly geometric designs
common to the early period of the modern movement and to stress
informality and personal expression. His style is regarded as both romantic and
regional.
 He used complex forms and varied materials, acknowledged the character of
the site, and gave attention to every detail of building.
 Aalto achieved an international reputation through his more than 200
buildings and projects, ranging from factories to churches, a number of them
built outside Finland.
 His late designs showed an increased complexity and dynamism that some
regarded as incautious. In particular, his work of the late 1960s and early 1970s
was marked by splayed, diagonal shapes and clustered, overlapping
volumes. Energy and imagination were ever present.

Saynatsalo’s Town Hall (1949-1952)

 The plan for the industrial community on the island of Saynätsälo (1942)
foresaw the future site of
the administrative center
at the highest part of the
island.
 In January 1949, Aalto won
the competition for this
building, whose
construction ended in

Ar.Gnana Shini G Assistant Professor Sigma College of Architecture

 1952, and it was immediately transformed by critics into a symbol of the
values of European democracy: democracy, municipalism, harmony
between public and private, lack of ostentation, harmony between nature
and technology. Figure 9 – Saynatsalo‟s Town Hall
Concept
 Aalto plan develops a U-shaped building, a patio set artificially high above
the ground, towards which are directed the inclinations of the roof.

Spaces
 The building contains offices and units of local government, a library, a small
commercial area with a bank, a pharmacy, a hairdresser and living spaces for
municipal employees.
 Around the elevated courtyard, the Board of the Council stands as a master
volume: the public library is to the south, offices to the north and east, the
west homes.
 A fourth lower body houses services and the commercial part, and concludes
the setting around the square at the floor with the emergence of two
staircases.
 A few more formally rigid, organically shaped, irregular levels of soil and herbs
seem to be spontaneous spilled on the lowest ground.
 Neither of the two staircases were positioned with thought to the sense of
access, and search for insights into the escorzo, habitual resort in the best
works of Aalto.
 Access to the Chamber of the Council is by a staircase that rises from the
lobby within a volume of
solid brick to break into a
glazed gallery.
 The room itself is a big
empty space paved in
glossy wood and enclosed
by walls of brick with two
points of interest: the lateral
light filtered by latticework
of wood and two wooden
armors deployed in the
form of a fan near the
ceiling timber.
Figure 10 – Saynatsalo‟s Town Hall, Elevation
 The transparent facade and rhythmic corridor unify the perimeter of the
courtyard, the omnipresence of the brick in this area of distribution adds even
more to the idea of an outdoor gallery, reinforcing the idea of opening to the
public.

Materials
 The entire collection is made of brick – a material that Aalto begins to use in
other contemporary works, such as the dormitories of the Baker House at MIT
 and his home in Muuratsalo – an unusual element in the architecture of
Finland.
 Accompanying the brick, we find wood, copper and pieces of stone or dark
ceramic, usually located at encounters with the natural terrain.
 But at the same time, this building is constructed with memories of other
architectures: the medieval Italian architecture – the towers of San
Gimigniano or the City Council of Siena, the Careliana House with refined lines
of its roofing and asymmetrical shapes, and finally the volumetric ploys of the
Russian Constructivists.

Frank Lloyd Wright

American Architect and Designer

Born: 8 June 8, 1867 - Richland Center, Wisconsin, USA

Died: April 9, 1959 - Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Movements and Styles: Modern Architecture, Arts and Crafts Movement

 He was born Frank Lincoln Wright June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin,
USA, which - as many scholars have rightfully noted - was a mere two years
after the end of the American Civil War.
 Thus his lifespan of more than ninety-one years extends between then and the
dawn of the Space Age in 1959. A
 Wright is often considered the foremost practitioner of the Prairie Style of
architecture in the United States, and his philosophy of "organic architecture"
has attracted numerous followers; many of them arrived through Wright's own
Taliesin Fellowship, which has evolved into its own formal school of
architecture that still exists today.
 Over a 70-year career, he designed over 1,000 structures of virtually every
possible type - including a doghouse - of which some 532 were built.
Accomplishments

Evolution & Ideas

 Wright called his design philosophy "organic architecture," which, at its core,
promoted the construction of buildings that exuded harmony with their
respective environments, enhancing their surroundings rather than extruding
from them. It promoted simplicity and necessity in layout and decoration and
the frank exposure of the true properties of materials, befitting their use.
 Wright, unlike the architects of the International Style, did not shun decoration,
but used nature as inspiration for ornament.
 Wright was in large part responsible for creating the first indigenous American
architecture, the Prairie Style, derived in part from the Arts & Crafts Movement,
which reflected the flat landscape of the Midwestern United States and
advocated for buildings with a strong emphasis on horizontality and natural
materials, with broad, flat roofs with wide overhanging eaves.
 Wright's huge ego meant that he was highly individualistic, and regarded
himself as the foremost, if not the only, practitioner of modern architecture.
 At nearly every possible chance, he polemically positioned himself against the
European originators of the International Style, in particular Le
Corbusier and Walter Gropius, whose work he believed was merely derivative
of his and not innovative.
 Wright was highly unorthodox in both his architecture and his personal life.
Nonetheless, in the latter half of his career, he attracted numerous disciples,
mainly through the establishment of the Taliesin Fellowship, a kind of
work/study apprenticeship on his property in Wisconsin and Arizona where his
students assisted him in both design and farm labor. After his death, some,
such as William Wesley Peters and Edgar Tafel, became important architects
in their own right.
 Wright used the concept "Usonia" (standing for the United States of North
America) to describe his vision for American society that he eventually
developed, beginning with the low-cost Usonian Houses for average citizens.
These formed the core of the decentralized communities represented by his
prototype called Broadacre City.

Falling water (1934-37)

 Wright's most famous building, and likely the most famous modern house in
the world, Fallingwater is often seen as the commission that revived Wright's
career.
 It was built as the vacation home for Pittsburgh department store magnate
Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., and his family. To a large extent, Fallingwater is
Wright's response to the International Style architects in Europe such as Le
Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, among many
others, whose work was seen as cutting edge at the 1932 Modern
Architecture - International Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
 In that show, Wright had been portrayed as merely a precursor to
architectural modernism, and famously feuded bitterly with curators Philip
Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock during the planning stages about not
being more prominently featured.
 Wright's philosophy of organic architecture sought to integrate buildings
within the landscape, and
indeed Fallingwater
accomplishes this
masterfully, with a central
vertical core of local stone
that anchors the house on
the outcropping above Bear
Run, whose waterfall
cascades below.
 Wright built the house around
the Kaufmanns' favorite sitting
spot above the falls, allowing its
rock to poke through the living
room floor to preserve it. Figure 11 – Falling Water House
 From a distance, the house appears as a series of abstract rectilinear trays of
terraces floating in the trees above Bear Run (the name of the stream that
runs under the house), such that one can nearly always hear, but never see,
 the stream from within the house. In this sense, Wright seems to be taking the
rigid planes of the International Style and beating the Europeans at their own
game.
 It re-established Wright's preeminence and in the wake of its completion (and
that of the Johnson Wax Administration Building) Wright was honored with a
feature on the cover of Time magazine, along with a sketch of Fallingwater,
and his own one-man show at MoMA in 1940.
 The lore of Fallingwater's creation (recounted in Wright's biography above),
combined with its subsequent history, has only added to its significance.
 It is also the most notorious example of Wright's engineering failures, as its
lower cantilevers began to fail due to inadequate amounts of steel
reinforcement almost from the moment they were constructed, despite
numerous warnings at the time.
 Eventually the house famously required, in 2002, a complete post-tensioning
repair that stabilized the terraces.
 As a result, it now also comprises one of the most significant moments in the
histories of both historic preservation and structural engineering.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

German-American Architect and Designer

Born: March 27, 1886 - Aachen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire

Died: August 17, 1969 - Chicago, Illinois, USA

Movements and Styles: The International Style, Modern Architecture, Bauhaus, Art
Nouveau

 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe himself has a vaunted place within modern
architecture as one of the founders of the International Style in Germany.
 Over the thirty years, he helped establish the International Style as the
definitive architectural language of North American postwar modernism and
influenced hundreds of emulators worldwide.
 His steel-and-glass aesthetic became the archetype of the term "modern
architecture" for decades even after his death.
 Mies' buildings became the prime targets for postmodernists who later
attacked the International Style.
 Along with Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, Mies helped pioneer the
crystallization of the International Style as the core movement of modern
architecture during the early 1920s.
 Unlike Le Corbusier and other early champions of the International Style who
moved away from it, in part due to critiques of modern architecture in the
1960s, he remained completely devoted to the movement over the last four
decades of his career.

Evolution & Ideas

 Mies first called his designs for steel-and-glass skyscrapers and horizontally-
oriented houses and pavilions "skin-and-bones" architecture due to their
minimal uses of industrial materials, definition of space, along with the rigidity
of structure, and their transparency.
 His architecture promotes the dissolution between interior and exterior and the
negation of feeling completely enclosed.
 Instead, they encourage maximum flexibility in their spatial configurations,
which for Mies meant that they maximized their spatial utility.
 Mies' buildings often emphasize their own singularity relative to their
surroundings, putting themselves - and through their transparency, their
inhabitants - on view.
 This makes many of them, such as the Barcelona Pavilion, ideal for public
functions, but it also makes some of them, such as the Farnsworth House,
notoriously difficult to inhabit when privacy is needed.
 Having grown up around his father's stonecutting shop, Mies was very sensitive
to the choices of materials in his designs, including fine stone, chrome, bronze,
and even brick.
 Many of his buildings, especially the Tugendhat House and Seagram Building,
were extremely expensive structures to build and are noted equally for their
fine craftsmanship along with their industrial methods of construction.

Seagram Building, Manhattan, New York (1954-58)

 The Seagram Building constitutes Mies'
definitive, realized statement on the form of
the skyscraper. Though he had been working
with the type since the early 1920s, the
Seagram was the first office tower
commission that he was able to build, and
his first in New York, which in the 1950s was
becoming the hub of skyscrapers-as-symbol
of American corporate modernism.
 It also represents the close relationship
between Mies and Phyllis Lambert, the
architecture enthusiast and daughter of
Seagram's then-CEO, who would go on to
found the Canadian Centre for Architecture
in Montreal. Figure 12 – Seagram Building
 Philip Johnson, then one of Mies' disciples, received the commission to design
the Four Seasons Restaurant inside.
 Mies' design is somewhat understated. The Seagram's location on Park
Avenue, while fashionable, happened to be almost right across the street
from the already-built Lever House, designed by Gordon Bunshaft for
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which employed the curtain-wall prismatic tower
form that Mies had essentially invented.
 As he had earlier done with the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago, Mies
chose to enclose the fireproof concrete-clad steel frame in a metal casing,
and then emphasize each vertical spandrel with an ornamental I-beam
raising the entire height of the building and reinforcing the sense of verticality.
 Significantly, these I-beams and the exterior structure are made of bronze,
which gives the structure both a dark tone, almost like a looming monolith.
 Meanwhile, bronze, of course, is the popular material used for honorific
exterior sculpture, and by setting the skyscraper back from the street behind
 an open plaza, Mies underlines the sense of the skyscraper-as-sculpture,
reifying it as a precious, crystalline geometric form.
 The Seagram ultimately used a massive 1,500 tons of bronze, making it one of
the most expensive skyscrapers ever built at the time.
 Finally, Mies' strategy with the plaza represents a new concept of corporate
modern identity, wherein the company "gives back" to the general public a
useful space within its dedicated building plot that also helps open the street
below to more natural light. It was, most practically,
 Mies' way of satisfying New York's 1916 zoning law that insisted that skyscrapers
be set back from the street plane once they reached a certain height in order
to allow sunlight to filter down. The continued employment of the open plaza
concept with other skyscrapers in New York over the rest of the 1950s
prompted a change in the law in 1961, wherein it became the city's officially-
encouraged model for skyscraper design.

Richard Neutra
Australian-American Architect

Born: April 8, 1892, in Vienna Austria

Died: Wuppertal, Germany, 1970.

Movements and Styles: Modern Architecture

 Richard Joseph Neutra was a notable Austrian-American architect,

accredited for introducing the International Style into American architecture
and for developing the style of California Modern into residential architecture.
 He attended the Technical University, where he studied architecture
under Adolf Loos.
 Loos educated Neutra in the rapidly trending American Style, and Neutra was
particularly influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
 In 1919, after serving the army in the WWI, Neutra settled in Germany along
with his wife, and began working for renowned architect and designer, Erich
Mendelsohn.

Evolution & Ideas

 In 1923, Neutra migrated to the US, he settled in Chicago, and briefly worked
with Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1925, he moved to Los Angeles and in 1926, he
established his own practice. In 1929, he was commissioned to design the
Lovell Health House in Los Angeles, this design marks his early success and rise
to fame.
 The house was praised for its glass work, cable-suspended balconies, flowing
space and an array of windows. The house has become an iconic symbol
representative of Neutra‘s distinct style.
 In 1946, Neutra was praised for his design of the Kaufmann house, and his
participation in the early Case Study House Programs. In 1952, he worked on
the Moore House in Ojai, California, and provided the design a stylistic
balance between the abode and its surrounding environment through his
innovative and creative ideas.
 The house was located in the middle of a desert, and therefore, it faced a
shortage of water. However, Neutra added a reflecting pool to the design for
water storage and irrigation.
 He built the house in such a way that it seemed to float on the pond, and
resembled an oasis. In the 1950s, this design was awarded by the AIA.
 In 1961, he undertook another innovative project, the Gettysburg Cyclorama
Centre, which also garnered world-wide acclaim.
 All his designs have the unique and distinguished feature of making the
outdoors a part of the house by adding a range of porches, patios or
gardens.
 Neutra believed that ―architecture should be a means of bringing man back
into harmony with nature and with himself‖.
 During the 50s and the 60s, Neutra was commissioned for building and
designing churches, colleges, universities, housing projects, cultural centres,
and office buildings.
 In 1966, he formed a partnership with his son, and named the firm Richard and
Dion Neutra Architects and Associates.
 Homes designed by Richard Neutra combined Bauhaus modernism with
Southern California building traditions, creating a unique adaptation that
became known as Desert Modernism.
 Neutra's houses were dramatic, flat-surfaced industrialized-looking buildings
placed into a carefully arranged landscape. Constructed with steel, glass,
and reinforced concrete, they were typically finished in stucco.
 Neutra experimented constantly. He embraced technology, oddly enough,
as a way to connect man with nature. His philosophy of ―biorealism‖ sought to
use biological sciences in architecture ―so that design exploited, with great
sophistication, the realm of the senses and an interconnectedness to nature
that he believed fundamental and requisite to human well-being,‖ as
described by architect and Neutra scholar Barbara Lamprecht.
 His prolific career encompassed iconic residences, innovative schools and
multi-family housing, civic and commercial projects around the world, and
inspiring city and community plans, including an unbuilt plan for affordable
housing in Chavez Ravine.

Kaufmann Desert House, Palm Springs, CA (1946 to 1947)

 A decade after Edgar Kaufmann hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design the
famous Fallingwater House in
Bear Run, PA, the same
Kaufmann wanted to build a
house on the West Coast.
 Kauffman visited Taliesin West,
the summer study of Wright,
located in the middle of
Arizona, but was not particularly
impressed. He went to Richard
Neutra, from whom he
expected an equally brilliant
project, but lighter, because
Palm Springs was best known for
 its frivolity and lack of morality. Figure 13 – Kaufmann Desert House
 Since the 1920s, the city, situated at the foot of Mount San Jacinto, offered
refuge to the stars of Hollywood. Albert Frey, patron of Le Corbusier, had built
his house here in 1940 and in 1937 completed the tiny House of Millar Neutra.
 However, this lunar landscape, as Neutra called it, is dominated by the Desert
Kaufmannn House, covering 300 square meters and costing $348,000, a great
achievement of modern architecture, with the appearance of a great silver
airplane that has landed on a green carpet and is held in place by a few
meticuously placed stones.

Concept
 This vacation home was designed to emphasize the desert landscape and its
harsh climate.
 The desert, or rather, this primordial wilderness area that stretches around Palm
Springs, fascinated Neutra.
 His 1927 book ―Wie Baute Amerika‖ ends with images of houses of the Indian
peoples of New Mexico and Arizona, praising their overlapping rooms, with
terraces on the roof and the ability of mud brick to withstand inclement
weather.
 Despite the neat precision of the Desert House, it evokes the spirit of the
houses of those Indian tribes, which he admired so much.
 Richard Neutra built a building in which the horizontal planes of the decks
seem to float on transparent glass walls, giving the whole an overall look of
lightness.
 On the other hand, to take advantage of the small slope of the plot, the
house is almost fused with the landscape that surrounds it, because its
volumes do not rise too much above the land, almost the entire house is on a
single floor, except a small terrace which is accessed from outside. Beside the
house, in a somewhat lower level, a swimming pool reflects its structure.

Spaces
 The Kaufmann House distills space in the silver-plated horizontal planes that
rest atop transparent glass panes. The unique sharp vertical feature is the
chimney located next to the ―public square‖, as Neutra called it.
 As in his own home, Neutra skillfully dodged the ban on building a second
height, eliminating the walls of the roundabout, except for the chimney and
the vertical sheets of aluminum. From an aesthetic point of view, they defined
a clear plan, from a purely functional, serving as a shield against the wind.
 Although one wing of the house sits on an east-west axis, the other sits
perpendicular or to the cardinal directions to expand the areas of residence.
 The large sliding windows, whose bronze-colored blinds alleviated the silvery
glow of the house, lead to an open, adjacent courtyard in the living room
and in the master bedroom, open to the pool.
 The east wing is connected with the living space of the north wing through a
gallery that houses a bedroom suite.
 In the north wing another corridor opens along an outside patio that leads to
two other rooms.
 The lounge area, shared with the dining room and more or less square, is at
the center of the house. The plan in the form of crosses guarantees that the
four wings get both daylight and good ventilation.
 The south wing connects to the public sphere and includes a marquee and
two long covered walkways. These walkways are separated by a huge stone
wall to give entry to the services by one side and the house on the other.
 In the west wing there is a kitchen, service spaces and rooms for staff which
can be reached by a deck ―breezeway‖.
 The garden permeates almost inadvertently throughout the house with
smooth oscillations. Even designed with right angles, the forms of the house
are very smooth; yet the severe winds of northeast Palm Springs still blow
everything they can get a hold of, despite improvements to the walls and
blinds.
 The decision to build the bedrooms and courtyards a spiral, reveals a specific
social order. An extreme privacy is guaranteed both to the hosts, as the
children, guests, and servants. The only coexistence between them occurs in
the shaded walkways, terraces and courtyards. Blinds that flank a long dark
pool connect the guest wing with the rest of the house.
 The rear facade of the house opens to the landscape and garden, while the
facade overlooking the street appears closed, with its facade of ashlars stone.

Structure
 To give greater visibility to the renowned quality of ―floating‖ in the design, the
structural system combines wood and steel so that the amount of vertical
supports necessary, limited in any case, is reduced.
 This is particularly evident in the living room, whose walls of steel and glass slide
outward toward the southeast, whiles the construction of deck and supports
the hanging wall sliding moving toward the pool and spatially linking the
house with it.
 This radial arm became the hallmark of Neutra, is the ―spider leg,‖ the
umbilical cord that merges space and building.
 Flat roofs of concrete to open courtyards paved.

Materials

 Neutra used as basic materials

stone, glass and steel, and
tended not to depart from the
range of colors than the desert
offered, so that the house
does not affect their natural
environment. Moreover, the
presence of patios and
porches in the housing
connects the interior and
exterior, so that the desert
seems to be taking part in the
same building. Figure 14 – Kaufmann Desert House, Material
o Stone - The natural stone from Utah who Neutra used in the
exterior and interior creates a vivid chiaroscuro effect that is
difference in the smoothness in other finishes. However, the
stone is carefully chiseled, both in the original house, for which
Neutra trained masons who had worked in Falling Water, who
had come Kaufmann, as in the restoration carried out by the
new owners by mid in the 90s and lasted five years.
o Aluminum - The main outdoor rooms are enclosed by a
vertical aluminum fins that offer flexible protection against
sandstorms and intense heat. This is repeated at the
roundabout from the second floor.
o Glass - The walls are made almost entirely with sliding windows.
Although both have unprotected glass in the southern part of
a home located in the middle of the desert seems crazy, this is
because the house was to be used only one month per year,
in January.
o Steel - Support for windows that slide into the garden outline
the house giving her silvery appearance.
o Gutters - In the gutters of Southern highlights a beautiful detail.
At its eastern end, the narrow strips are continuing a stretch, so
that the excess rainwater can flow to the east and dropped
onto the rocks. The gargoyles are an architectural element
known in Japanese gardens as in medieval cathedrals. Neutra
and the modernization became a ―leap of water‖ that is a
tribute to the distant Falling Water House Bear Run.
 UNIT V ARCHITECTURE OF COLONIALISM, MODERNITY AND
NATIONALISM IN INDIA

Colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent and ambiguous modernity through

colonialism. Colonial architecture and urbanism forts, bungalows,
cantonments, colonial urbanism, civic buildings, buildings of infrastructure,
education, power, trade and other typologies. Characteristics and styles of
colonial architecture based on chronology and changing intent/typology -
Neo-Classicism, Gothic Revival and Indo-Saracenic. Influence of colonial
modernity on Indians and their architecture. Building of New Delhi
showcasing imperial power. Diverse directions and searches in early 20th
century architecture of India. Art Deco and modern architecture in pre-
independence India.

Colonial architecture

 Every age conceived the architecture according to its needs. At every stage
it responded to the prevailing
attitudes. Whatever they were,
as each age presented
architecture that was the
characteristic of its people, their
faiths and ideals, their stage of
civilization projecting their
beliefs and at the same time
accommodating various
external influences, the stupas,
temples, palaces, forts,
mosques, minars and the
mausoleums which were built in
great numbers in different
epochs of ancient and
medieval history of India served
the purpose of those times.
Figure 1 – British Army Barracks and Offices, Red Fort
 The advent of the British and the French and eventually the supremacy of the
British over the French led to the establishment of many cantonment cities
and barrack architecture by the British to enable them to keep a control over
princely states.
 Unlike its predecessors, the British architecture was need oriented. It was no
longer ornamental and its place was taken by simplicity but in sheer size and
height it inspired awe.
 Thus, the political stability of the British period encouraged a building boom.
 After the glorious Mughal Architecture, India saw the development of the
Indo-European Architectural heritage, which was the amalgamation of the
styles of the European countries, like Portugal (Portuguese), Holland (Dutch),
 France (French) and finally culminating in the colonial occupation by the
British.
 The European constructed forts, churches, town hall, clock towers, market
complexes, and gateway etc. The Architecture of the Imperial Portuguese
marked by Churches and Cathedral reflecting the post-Renaissance
European architecture. There are examples of old mansions, remains of
fortifications and defences, dating mainly from 18th century A.D.
 The Portuguese architecture was very much influenced by contemporary
developments in Europe at that time. The Churches of Goa are also the fusion
of Renaissance Principles and aesthetics to suit local colonial tastes, monetary
resources and raw materials.36 The buildings built by the British were not as
elegant and grand as that of the Mughals, but were civic and utilitarian
buildings and commemorative structures.
 Indo-European Architecture in India during British period closely followed the
developments in their home country but also sought inspiration from existing
architecture in India for great legitimacy.
 The contributions made by the British led to the creation of a composite
architectural style imbibing European, Indian and Mughal elements and was
also called the colonial architecture.
 One of the most significant legacies of British rule in India is the colonial
Architecture from the two centuries antecedent the struggle for
independence.
 These imposing buildings including Palaces, mansions, clubhouses, and
government official buildings, represented a hybrid of western and eastern
sensibilities as their architect sought to plant the flag of British dominance in a
foreign culture.

Urbanism forts
 Most of the forts in India are actually castles or fortresses. But when the
British Government in India were cataloguing them in the 17th–19th century
they used the word forts as it was common in Britain then. All fortifications
whether European or Indian were termed forts.
 Thereafter this became the common usage in India. In local languages,
the fort names are suffixed by local word for fort thus usage of
the Sanskrit word durga, or Urdu word qila or the Hindi word garh or gad in
Rajasthan, and Maharashtra is common. For
example, Suvarnadurg, Mehrangarh, Sudhagad etc.
 With the advent of the East India Company, the British established trading
posts along the coast.
 The need for security against local rajas as well as other European rival
nations led to the construction of forts at each post.
 Mumbai fort, Fort William in Kolkata, Fort St George in Chennai were the
main bastions constructed. These cities developed from the small
townships outside the forts.
 Parsimony of the East India Company, non-availability of trained engineers
and use of local materials and artisans resulted in the simple design and
construction initially.
 The vulnerability of these earlier forts, hostilities with the French and the
growing might of the Company resulted in stronger and more complex
 designs for the second round of construction, the design of Fort St George
reflecting the influences of the French engineer Vauban.

Fort William in Kolkata

 A lavish edifice dating
back to the British Raj –
Fort William, Kolkata is a
gala affair spread over
an expanse of 70.9 acres.
 The Kolkata Fort William
stands tall on the eastern
banks of Hooghly River
overlooking the huge
Brigade Parade Ground.
 Fort William in Kolkata is
one of the major tourist
attractions in Kolkata,
mainly for its historical
connect and majestic
architecture.

Figure 2 – Fort William, Kolkata

 Standing on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, Fort William portrays a
colonial existence in the city.
 Fort William, citadel of Calcutta (now Kolkata), named for King William III of
England. The British East India Company‘s main Bengal trading station was
moved from Hooghly (now Hugli) to Calcutta in 1690 after a war with the
Mughals. Between 1696 and 1702 a fort was built in Calcutta, with the
nawab (ruler) of Bengal‘s permission.
 In 1700 Calcutta became a separate presidency (administrative unit)
accountable to London; until 1774 its governors, and thereafter until 1834 its
governors-general, were given the added title ―of Fort William in Bengal.‖ In
1756 the fort was taken by Sirāj al-Dawlah, nawab of Bengal. After the
recovery of Calcutta (1757), this fort was demolished and a new one
constructed farther south, with an unobstructed field of fire. The latter fort,
completed in 1773, still stands.
 As per history, there were two Fort Williams – the old and the new one
respectively.
 The original Fort William was built in 1696 and consisted of a two-storied
building and the guard room of the entire structure.
 It was much later in 1757 during the War of Plassey, Siraj-Ud-Daulah – the
Nawaab of Bengal – made an attack on the fort defeating the British. The
prisons were made captive in a dungeon – an incident that was termed as
the Black Hole Tragedy. It was after the incident, the fort was renewed in
an attempt to make it stronger. Sir Robert Clive commenced the building
of the new fort which was completed in 1780.
Architecture

 The Kolkata Fort William is an

octagonal structure facing
the River Ganga from three sides,
while the other five sides face
towards the lush gardens of the
Maiden Grounds.
 Embellished with hundreds of
arched windows that overlook the
greenery, the Fort is beautifully
adorned with stonework on its
surface.
 The fort is entirely built with brick
and mortar, and maintains a
pattern that would not be easily
penetrable with cannon firing slid
shot.
Figure 3 – Fort William, Site Plan
 There is a moat inside the star-pattern design to provide protection against
firing on the wall.
 There are six gates for entrance inside the fort, namely - Chowringhee,
Plassey, Calcutta, Water Gate, St
Georges and the Treasury Gate.
Among these, the Plassey Gate is
the most prominent with a huge
archway.
 There is a church named St. Peter
Church inside the new fort which
was constructed in the year 1928.
 The church used to serve as a
chaplaincy centre for the British,
but is now converted into a library
for the army troops of HQ Eastern
Command.

Bungalows
 The word Bungalow come from
Bangla, the Hindi or Marathi term
meaning "of or belonging to
Bengal", as in Bangladesh (East
Bengal).
 As a term to describe a type of
dwelling, it is used in practically
every continent; something called a
bungalow can be found in all
English-Speaking countries as well as
many ex-colonial ones.
Figure 4 – Bengali Huts
 As a word of foreign origin, "bungalow" has been incorporated into the main
European languages and friends from countries as far apart as Japan and
Guatemala confirm that the term and the dwelling it describes can both be
found there.
 In the Seventeenth Century, bangla was used to describe the very distinctive
peasant huts of rural Bengal. Though the earliest identified written reference to
these in English is in 1659, the characteristic curvilinear ridge and crescent-like
eaves produced by bending bamboo poles for the roof had influenced the
architecture of Muslim invaders at least two centuries earlier and was to be
reproduced both in Moghul and Rajput building. Depending on their
resources and size, peasant families both in the past and today might have
one or more of these huts.
 Evidence suggests that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
Europeans in Bengal, prior to having their own more permanent buildings
constructed, or when travelling "up country", would sometimes use such
locally built shelters in addition to their own tents, or the budgerows on which
they slept when travelling by river. There were, however, many different types
of Bengali hut and well into the Twentieth Century, these were used by
Europeans in rural areas.
 According to one source, it was
the chauyari, or hut with a "four-
sided" roof rather than the
curvilinear form of the bangla
which was favoured by the
British.
 The main features were the
single storey (an obvious
outcome of the light walled
construction), thatched roof,
raised mud plinth, the square or
sometimes oblong plan and the
"verandah", another colonial
term introduced from Portugal or
Spain, formed by the supports
under the overhanging roof.
Figure 5 – Bungalows after the Battle of Plassey
 That the Europeans took to the bangla rather than other forms of North Indian
dwelling resulted, firstly, from the obvious fact that Bengal was the main scene
of the Company's operations and also, because it was a rural form
constructed by local labour.
 It also accorded more to their own cultural model of a dwelling than the
various inward-facing, courtyard house-types of urban northern India.
 Though illustrations confirm that native building forms were used, and
probably did provide the prototype for the "Anglo-Indian" bungalow, John
Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father, believed that it had evolved from an
adaptation of the army service tent.
 The history of the bungalow becomes both confused and interesting from the
later Eighteenth Century. After
the Battle of Plassey (1757),
when the British really became
masters of Bengal, new
cantonments, or permanent
military camps, were established.
 Here, European officers were
eventually housed in thatched
roofed bungalows with various
devices for thermal control, such
as the jaump (a horizontally
suspended screen over the
verandah), adopted from the
local culture. William Hodges
provided an accurate
description in 1793. Figure 6 – Tropical Bungalows
 Bungalows were generally raised on a base of brick, one, two or three feet
from the ground, and consist of only one storey; the plan of them usually is a
large room in the centre for an eating and sitting room, and rooms at each
corner for sleeping; the whole is covered with one general thatch, which
comes low to each side; the spaces between the angle rooms are verandas
or open porticos to sit in during the evenings; the centre hall is lighted from the
sides with windows and a large door in the centre. Sometimes the centre
verandas at each end are converted into rooms.
 Two developments, however, were taking place: as Europeans had modified
the Bengali dwelling for themselves, and had incorporated the term into their
vocabulary, "bungalow" increasingly came to be applied to any separate
house lived in by Europeans.
 Secondly, developments in design, plan, materials and construction
appropriate to a form of "tropical dwelling" seem to have been introduced by
Company military engineers using experience not only from India but perhaps
from the West Indies and elsewhere. And these developments also
incorporated ideas from
pattern books and the
more formal architecture
of Europe.
 Various early nineteenth-
century sources refer to
two types of bungalow:
the pyramidal, thatched
roof variety developed
from the indigenous
model and the flat-
roofed, "classical" or
"Military Board" style.
Figure 7 – Pyramidal, thatched roof Bungalows
 Fanny Parkes, however, in Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque
(1850), clarities the distinction: "if a house has a flat roof covered with flag-
 stones and mortar, it is called a pukka house; if the roof be raised and it be
thatched, it is called a bungalow".

Figure 8 – "Classical" or "Military Board" style

Urbanization in India
 Even since 2500 B.C., urban places have played an important role in the
evolution of India‟s culture, economic and social life.
 The growth and development of the cities started in ancient and medieval
age but it got momentum during the colonial period in India.
 When British started to rule India; Calcutta, Bombay and Madras became
leading administrative, commercial and industrial cities; In 1911, the capital of
British India was shifted to Delhi and it became a modern commercial and
administrative area.
 Several hill stations, industries, port city, railway station, court town etc. are also
the product of colonized India.
Provincial Capitals
 The foundation of the provincial
capitals where laid at the three port
cities namely Madras, Bombay and
Calcutta, took place in 1639, 1665 and
1668 respectively.
 Their raison-de-etre that is a reason for
existence was geared to commercial
extraction and exploitation of wealth.
 The expanding network of railways
linked these cities to the countryside
from where raw materials and labour
were drawn.
Figure 9 – The Old Fort Ghat, Calcutta
 By nineteenth century, the importance and size of these port cities had far
exceeded the importance of older centers.
 Examples are, for administration Murshidabad, for religion Banares, for
manufacturing Dacca and for trade Calicut.
 This period also saw the stagnation of a large number of old inland urban
centres and the supremacy of the three new coastal ports, through which
manufactured products from Britain entered India.
 Soon after, the capitals of inland provinces were located on the trunk routes
like Allahabad, Lahore and Nagpur.
 All these provincial capitals, built as an accretion to the existing native towns,
were administrative as well as commercial centres.
 In the provincial capitals, the residential areas for the white population and
the areas occupied by them were distinctively better in regard to layout,
amenities, entertainment and commercial activities.
 The native areas, within the provincial capitals were allowed to grow without
much direction, as they had existed before, without any provision for
legislation, taxation and policy.

Cantonment Towns
 The Cantonments in India were
developed in the initial few
decades of the nineteenth
century, and established along
the main routes of the country, at
strategic places and regarded as
a part of typical urban growth.
 The growth of Cantonment towns
and their number was directly
connected to the British military
expansion and military need of
the colonial power to control the
older native city, which once
conquered had to be integrated
into the economic system of neo-
imperialism. Figure 10 – Bangalore Cantonment
 The Cantonments started as 'temporary encampments of the military and
their camp-followers'.
 Gradually the population of the Cantonments increased as quarters were built
for dependents, servants and camp-followers, and especially when certain
persons were allowed to erect accommodations at their own expense.
 In most Cantonments, bazaar areas were designated in which civilians were
allowed to build shops and houses, although some of these concessions
extended beyond the bazaar sections.

Hill Stations
 Although Hill stations were not unknown, prior to their founding by the British in
India, they were few and had a small population and were often visited
seasonally for specific purposes.
 For example, Srinagar was a Mughal recreational centre, Kedarnath and
Badrinath were Hindu religious centres, Almora in the Kumaon hills was an
administrative town of the local rulers.
 The development of a large number of Hill stations over a wide area was a
British introduction to India.
 The Hill stations were established in response to the health and social
requirements of the colonial community, to have an exclusive 'social space'
the environment of which resulted from the distinctive forms of culture-specific
behaviour and conjured up prospects of health and vitality, promises of fun
and relaxation.
 These were primarily the places where the Governors of Provinces, the
administrators and the white population could spend their summer holidays
away from the hot and dusty plains of India which led to the development of
the centres of social activities.
 Also patterned with spacious bungalows, parks, roads, avenues, vistas and
rides.
 The residential areas of the native population were at lower levels of sanitary
facilities, while the military area was situated at elevated areas.
 One always went up to the military area and came down to the civil area
where there was a concentration of the native population.

Railway Towns
 The Railway towns were established in 1853, after the introduction of railway
by the British.
 By the very nature of railway transport, all
the towns were located on the plains and
the largest number of these towns were
located in Uttar Pradesh on the Ganga-
Yamuna plain.
 The railway settlements in the plains
became the focal point of urban
development in many places.
 Many of these towns were either at
important railway junctions, for example,
Mughalsarai or at a terminus, for example,
Howrah, Calcutta. Figure 11 – Jamalpur colony
 The railway settlement housing the railway employees and the workshops, was
not as strictly segregated from the city population as the Cantonment and
very often developed near existing old towns, for example Banares and
Mughalsarai.

Town Hall
 Town Hall is one of the most majestic structures among the other heritage
buildings built by colonial governments.
 A city hall, town hall, civic centre or a municipal building, is the chief
administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality.
 It usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments, and their
employees.
 The Town hall was colloquially called as 'Tondal' during the 19th century.
 Mumbai's Town Hall is a
colonial structure and
was built in 1833.
 The Town Hall was
designed by Colonel
Thomas Cowper who
was one of the best
engineers in Bombay
(Mumbai).
 With a span of 200 feet
and height of 100 feet,
the structure was inspired
by Greek and Roman
styles of architecture.

Figure 12 – Asiatic society of Bombay

 The entrance of the building is adorned with a Grecian portico and 8
impressive Doric styled pillars.
 There is a flight of 30 steps leading to the entrance of the Town Hall.
 The entire construction was made of stones brought from England and was
beautifully designed in a neo-classical fashion.
 Within the building, the floors are covered in ancient wood, the staircases are
spiral and the terraces are adorned with beautiful wrought iron.
 The hall boasts of a collection of remarkable marble statues of Indian patrons
of the 19th century.

Educational Institution
 With the advent of the British, their policies and measures breached the
legacies of traditional schools of learning and this resulted in the need for
creating a class of subordinates.
 Initially, British East India Company was not concerned with the development
of education system because their prime motive was trading and profit-
making.
 To rule in India, they planned to educate a small section of upper and middle
classes to create a class ―Indian in blood and colour but English in taste‖ who
 would act as interpreters between the Government and the masses. This was
also called the “downward
filtration theory”.
 Senate House, University of
Madras is one of the finest
monuments in Chennai and a
living example which shows the
remarkable architectural skills of
the famous architect of 19th
century, Robert Fellowes
Chisholm.
 The structure is a live example of
the Indo-Saracenic style with a
harmonious blend of Byzantine
architectural features.

Figure 13 – Senate House, University of Madras

Characteristics and styles of colonial architecture based on Neo-Classicism

 Neo-Classical architecture in India was initiated by the European colonists
who brought with them the vast
concept of their 'world view' and a
baggage full of the history of
European architecture including
Romanesque, Neo-Classical, Gothic
and Renaissance.
 At Chennai (Madras) large number of
security asked for wider growth
outside the confines of the fort walls.
This resulted in the spread of Madras
'flat-tops', garden houses set in large,
landscaped compounds. These
houses, with deep verandas to offer
shade, were adapted from Palladian
prototypes. Figure 14 – The Adyar Club, Madras
 Pediment centrepieces and curved bays
to the garden frontage were common
themes, imparting a sense of grandeur
and presence as well as providing a
welcome respite from the severe rays of
sun. Some of the notable survivals include
the Adyar Club, the old Madras Club,
Brodie Castle and Government House,
Guindy.

Figure 15 – The Raj Bhavan, Kolkata

 Large numbers of the structures were similar to the garden houses at Chennai;
a well-proportioned cube of two or three storey‟s set in a garden compound
with the inner rooms screened by a colonnaded verandah or portico.
 • The setting of the houses in separate garden areas was prompted as much
by good planning and it encouraged a cool flow of air and reduced the risk
of disease, as by a desire for exaggerated individual impact.

 Entrance porches became porte-cocheres, often of enormous proportions, to

accommodate the elephants of visiting grandees arriving by howdah.
 The materials include a rough brick core covered with Madras chunam, a
form of lime stucco made from burnt seashells and polished to a high sheen.
 With the development of the city of Kolkata gathering momentum, the more
central districts like the Chowringhee and the Esplanade, acquired a
continuous street frontage of boundary walls, screens and gates, which
complemented the fine classical architecture of the houses.

Characteristics and styles of colonial architecture based on Gothic Revival

 The neo-Gothic style was a revival of the early Gothic style of architecture
which had its roots in buildings, especially churches, built in northern Europe
during the medieval period.
 It was characterised by high-pitched roofs, pointed arches and detailed
decoration.
 This style was adapted for building infrastructure in Bombay.
 An impressive group of buildings facing
the seafront including the Secretariat,
University of Bombay and High Court
were all built in this style.
 Many Indians merchants gave money for
some of these buildings. They were
happy to adopt the neo-Gothic style
since they believed it was progressive
and would help make Bombay, a
modern city.
 The British invested a lot in the design and
construction of railway stations in this
style, an example of which is Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai. Figure 16 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai
 This was characterized by high pitched roofs, pointed arches ,detailed
decoration and had its roots in buildings especially churches, built in Northern
Europe during medieval period.
 This style was adapted for buildings in Bombay (Gothic city of India).
 Victoria terminus is an outstanding example of Victorian Gothic Revival
architecture in India.
Characteristics and styles of colonial architecture based on Indo – Saracenic
 Starting with the classical prototypes
of British architecture the British
colonial rule eventually saw
evolvement of a new architectural
style, the Indo-Saracenic is Revival
architecture also referred as Indo-
Gothic, Neo-Mughal, Mughal-Gothic
and Hindu-Gothic.
 It was a combination of the Gothic
revival style with that of the Neo-
Classical, Indo-Islamic and Indian
architectural style that was initiated
by the British architects in British India
during late 19th century and became
a favoured style.
Figure 17 – Chepauk Palace
 „Chepauk Palace‟ situated in Chennai was the first Indo-Saracenic building.
 Many other buildings of Chennai portraying this architecture include the
„Madras High Court‟, „Chennai Central Station‟ and the „Victoria Public Hall‟
among others.
 Prominent buildings across India showcasing this unique style includes the „Taj
Mahal Palace‟ in Mumbai, the „Mysore Palace‟, the „Victoria Memorial‟ in
Calcutta, the „Khalsa College‟ in Amritsar and the „Mumbai GPO‟.
 The second half of 19th century saw significant advancement of colonial
architecture including development of infrastructures like the „Rajabai Clock
Tower‟ modelled on „Big Ben‟ in London, the „University Senate Hall‟ and the
„University Library‟ within the premises of „Bombay University‟ by prominent
Gothic revival architect Sir Gilbert
Scott.
 One of the most famous chef
d'oeuvres of British era remains the
grand and exquisite „Victoria
Memorial‟ located in Kolkata that
dedicated to the memory of
Queen Victoria.
 • This monument made of white
marble epitomizing beauty and
elegance was designed by William
Emerson and showcases Saracenic
revivalist style of architecture
comprising of a fine blend of British
architectural style with that of
Deccani, Egyptian, Venetian,
Mughal and other Islamic styles. Figure 18 – Rajabai Clock Tower, University
of Mumbai Fort Campus
 The second half of 19th century saw significant advancement of colonial
architecture including development of infrastructures like the „Rajabai Clock
 Tower‟ modelled on „Big Ben‟ in London, the „University Senate Hall‟ and the
„University Library‟ within the premises of „Bombay University‟ by prominent
Gothic revival architect Sir Gilbert Scott.
 One of the most famous chef d'oeuvres of British era remains the grand and
exquisite „Victoria Memorial‟ located in Kolkata that dedicated to the
memory of Queen Victoria.
 • This monument made of white marble epitomizing beauty and elegance
was designed by William Emerson and showcases Saracenic revivalist style of
architecture comprising of a fine blend of British architectural style with that of
Deccani, Egyptian, Venetian, Mughal and other Islamic styles.
 This represented hybrid architectural style combined diverse architectural
elements of Hindu and Mughal
with gothic cusped arches,
domes, spires, minarets and
stained glass.
 It was developed towards the
beginning of 20th century and the
inspiration for this style was
medieval buildings in India with
their domes, chattris, jalis and
arches.
 By integrating Indian (even the
provincial style) and European
styles in public architecture, the
British wanted to prove that they
were legitimate rulers of India.
Figure 19 – Victoria Memorial, Kolkata
 The prominent ones include – Gateway of India, Chepauk palace in Madras
(1st Indo-Saracenic), Victoria memorial hall.
 In addition, the architecture of New Delhi (Rome of India) by Lutyens and
Baker is considered as one of the most significant contribution of British rule.

Influence of colonial modernity on Indians and their architecture

 The establishment of the British Empire greatly influenced the architecture and
culture of India and led to a fusion of styles and techniques.
 As with the Mughals, architecture under European colonial rule became an
emblem of power designed to endorse the occupying power.
 Numerous European countries invaded India and created architectural styles
reflective of their ancestral and adopted homes.
 The European colonizers created architecture that symbolized their mission of
conquest, dedicated to the state or religion.
 Among the key British architects of this time were Robert Fellowes Chisholm,
Charles Mant, Henry Irwin, William Emerson, George Wittet, and Frederick
Stevens.
 The European impact on Indian architecture affected a synthesis of
indigenous styles and instituted the typical colonial style of architecture.
 Transition from traders to establishing their settlements at various places paved
way towards building European styles houses besides the factories and
gradually strong fortress and imposing churches.
 Imperial power was especially expressed by using grand and representative
buildings.
 The invading thought of themselves as superior and tried to emphasize this
point via architecture.
 Local craftsmen incorporated new skills from the foreigners and added them
to their trade.
 Colonial architecture became assimilated into India's diverse traditions.
 Other innovations made during the European Industrial Revolution came
when the British Raj focused on India.
 Later on, the involvement brought more experimental styles such as the Art
Deco movement, internationally acclaimed architect Le Corbusier.
 Ever since, fusion has been a consistent feature of both modern Indian
architecture and very classic European architecture.
 The passing of power from the EIC to the British crown, rise of Indian
Nationalism and the introduction of railways- design and construction, were
the watershed in the British colonial Indian architectural history.

Building of New Delhi showcasing imperial power

 The architectural style of the British period is very prominent in Delhi and is
represented by the Central Secretariat, Parliament House or the ' Sansad
Bhavan ' and the President's House or Rashtrapati Bhavan , formerly the British
viceroy's house, the splendid Rajpath , India gate and combining the best
features of the modern English school of architecture with traditional Indian
forms.
 The British followed various architectural styles - Gothic, Imperial, Christian,
English Renaissance and Victorian being the essentials.
 In 1911 King George V passed an order declaring that the capital would be
moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
 The city was planned systematically, combining 20th century architecture.
 Sir Edwin Lutyens was responsible for the overall plan of Delhi.

Parliament House, New Delhi

 The Central Hall of the Parliament has been designed to be circular in shape.
 The dome is 98 ft in diameter and is believed that it is one of the most
magnificent domes in the world.
 The Central Hall is a place of historical importance in India for two reasons: The
transfer of colonial power to the Provisional Government under Nehru in 1947
and the framing of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly took place in
this very hall.
 Originally, the Central Hall was used as the Library of the erstwhile Central
Legislative Assembly and the Council of States until 1946, when it was
converted and refurnished into the Constituent Assembly Hall.
 Situated toward the finishing line of the Sansad Marg, the Parliament House or
Sansad Bhavan is a standout amongst the greatest structures in New Delhi.
 The Parliament House includes a central corridor which is round fit as a fiddle
and is viewed as essential piece of the working since this is where the Indian
Constitution was drafted.
 There untruths a garden in the middle of three chambers.
 This as well as Parliament House likewise has the offices for the settlement for
the ministers, the imperative officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,
Chairman and Parliamentary Committees.
 With the point of instructing individuals on Democratic Heritage of India, The
Parliament House likewise houses an exhibition hall which goes back to 2500
back and is set up in an exceptionally fascinating manner and is made
finished with light recordings and sounds, huge intuitive PC screens and others.
 Developed in the Imperial Style, the Parliament House comprises of an open
veranda with around 144 sections.

Contributions of Sir Edwin Lutyen and Sir Herbert Baker

 The British government, experiencing a sense of crisis due to rising anti-
imperialist wave in India, declared Delhi to be its new capital in 1911.
 Thus the British leading architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker were
invited to design the city of New Delhi and its important edifices.
 The architects designed a monumental urban street complex that was
essentially alien to Indian cities.
 Their architectural style involved a fusion of classical European and Indian
elements.
 Lavish colonnades, open verandas, tall, slender windows, chhajjas (wide roof
overhangs) and cornices jaalis (circular stone apertures) and chhatris (free-
standing pavilions) were used at the same time as decorative elements from
typical historic Indian architecture.
 Lutyen designed Rashtrapati Bhavan, formerly the Viceroy s residence.
 It is built of sandstone and has design features like canopies and jaali from
Rajasthan.
 Lutyen designed many other monuments in Delhi including India gate.
 In recognition of his contributions, New Delhi is also known as Lutyens Delhi.
 Similarly, Baker, who came to India to work with Lutyen, had also designed
many buildings in New Delhi such as Central Secretariat building, Parliament
House, Bungalows of MPs etc.

Art Deco and modern architecture in pre-independence India

 Art Deco in India (and especially in Mumbai) evolved into a unique style that
came to be called Deco-Saracenic.
 Essentially, it was a combination of the Islamic and the Hindu architectural
styles.
 Art Deco is one of Mumbai is least noticed architectural styles, though
Mumbai and its suburbs possibly have the largest number of Art Deco
buildings in the world.
 Deco details touch every architectural aspect flooring, wood panelling,
railings, weather shades, verandahs, balconies and facades that are very airy
and built in stepped -back style, etc.
 The interiors have Victorian influences while the exterior was Indian.
 Art Deco architecture in Mumbai developed during the 1930s and produced
distinctly angular shaped buildings with facades.
 The Art Deco style is also extremely popular amongst various Cinema halls that
sprung up in the early to mid 20th Century including Metro Cinema, Eros
Cinema etc.
Architecture after the Independence
 India became independent from the British Empire in 1947 and Indian
architecture immediately parted from European classical styles and rushed
into modernism.
 Modern Indian architecture still honours and upholds the traditions of India,
but the architectural form works to better meet the needs of modern-day
society.
 Modern Indian architecture reflects its various socio-cultural sensibilities which
vary from region to region.

Characteristics
 A traditional character in Indian architecture, but with modern form and style.
 Buildings are less ornate and more utilitarian and expressive in form.
 Building materials used in construction are a basic and locally available but
cutting edge.
 The use of steel and glass to erect innovative building forms is very popular
and striking in the landscape.
 Urban centres in India are booming, bringing along with it a rise in population
and property demand.
 High rise buildings have also become very common in these dense urban
areas where space must be maximized.
 Another modern characteristic in India is building of structures which are more
responsive to its ecology and climate.
 Also, many architects in India including Laurie Baker and Charles Correa have
concerned themselves with building low-cost housing for poor households.
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