WK7: MACHINE AGE ARCHITECTURE

Key projects

Machine Age Architecture

Topic:
Machine Age Architecture (late 19th – early 20th century) – efficiency, rationalization, standardization, and speed; explored in factories, housing, offices, and city planning; embodies the logic of machines and societal progress.

Key Ideas / Concepts from Week 7 Lecture:

• Machine Logic in Architecture:

  • Buildings designed for efficiency, productivity, and functionality.
    
    

  • Industrial and technological ideals inform form, materials, and layout.
    
    

• Factories & Industry:

  • New American factories (e.g., Albert Kahn’s Chrysler Tank Arsenal) embody production rationality.
    
    Summary Notes / Insights:

    • Machine Age Architecture integrates technology, production, and urban planning.

    • Emphasizes efficiency, rationalization, and standardization across buildings and cities.

    • Architecture reflects societal optimism in progress and industrialization.

    • Utopian visions manifest in skyscrapers, communal housing, and futuristic city plans.
      

Albert Kahn Associates – Tank Arsenal, Chrysler Corporation (1941, Detroit, USA)

 Architect / Designer: Albert Kahn Associates

Movement / Style: Industrial Modernism / Functionalism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Large wartime factory for mass production of tanks.

• Used reinforced concrete + steel for wide open floor plans.

• Prioritized efficiency, speed, and durability.
  

  Context:

• World War II: U.S. needed rapid weapons production.

• Kahn known as “architect of Detroit” for auto factories.

  Three Points of Significance:

• Shows shift from ornament to purely functional design.

• Symbol of America’s industrial power in wartime.

• Influenced later industrial and modernist factory designs.

  
  Materials / Ornament: Reinforced concrete, steel trusses, glass for light. Minimal decoration.

  
   Key Terms:

• Functionalism – buildings designed mainly for use, not decoration.

• Industrial modernism – modern architecture serving factories and production.
  
  

Ludwig Hilberseimer – Hochhausstadt (Highrise City, 1924, unbuilt)

 Architect / Designer: Ludwig Hilberseimer

Movement / Style: Modernist Urban Planning

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Proposed rational city plan of stacked layers: housing towers above, traffic/industry below.

• Aimed to solve overcrowding and traffic chaos.

  
  Context:

• Post–WWI Germany: housing shortages, rapid urban growth.

• Tied to Bauhaus ideals of rational planning.

  
  Three Points of Significance:

• Early vision of the car city (separating cars/pedestrians).

• Strong example of functionalist planning.

• Unbuilt, but influenced modernist urbanism.

  
  Materials / Ornament:

• Conceptual drawings only.

  
  Key Terms:

• Zoning – separating functions (housing, traffic, work).

• Functional city – planning for efficiency, not tradition.
  
  

Ernst May – The “New Frankfurt” (1925–1930, Germany)

Architect / Designer: Ernst May and team

Movement / Style: Social Housing / Modernism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Large affordable housing program for working-class families.

• Used standardization, prefabrication, modern kitchens.

  Context:

  • After WWI, Germany had housing crisis.

  • Progressive Weimar government supported social reform.

    Three Points of Significance:

  • Provided housing for thousands, practical and modern.

  • Linked modern design to social responsibility.

  • Influenced later social housing across Europe.

    
    Materials / Ornament:

  • Prefabricated concrete, brick, functional kitchens.

    
    Key Terms:

  • Standardization – repeating modular designs to save cost.

  • Social housing – housing programs for the public good.
    
    

Le Corbusier – Plan Voisin (1925, Paris, unbuilt)

Architect / Designer: Le Corbusier

Movement / Style: Modernist Urbanism
Main Idea / Innovation:

• Proposed to demolish part of Paris, replace with glass skyscrapers and highways.

• Focused on efficiency, sunlight, and cars.

  
  Context:

• 1920s optimism for machine age.

• Reaction to messy, medieval Paris.

  
  Three Points of Significance:

• Extreme modernist vision: demolish old for new.

• Influential but controversial urban utopia.

• Inspired later “urban renewal” projects.

  
  Materials / Ornament:

• Glass, steel towers in drawings.

  
  Key Terms:

• Urban utopia – ideal planned city.

• Zoning – strict division of housing, business, transport.
  
  

Louis Sullivan – Wainwright Building (1890, St. Louis, USA)

 Architect / Designer: Louis Sullivan

Movement / Style: Early Skyscraper / Chicago School

Main Idea / Innovation:

• One of the first true steel-frame skyscrapers.

• Clear 3-part design: base, shaft, top.

  
  Context:

• Industrial America; growing cities needed taller offices.

• Sullivan: “Form follows function.”

  
  Three Points of Significance:

• Symbol of the modern skyscraper age.

• Set model for later skyscraper proportions.

• Blended ornament with modern structure.

  
  Materials / Ornament:

• Steel frame, terracotta façade ornament.

  
  Key Terms:

• Form follows function – design should match purpose.

• Chicago School – group developing tall steel buildings.
  

Daniel Burnham – Flatiron Building (1901–03, New York, USA)

Architect / Designer: Daniel Burnham
Movement / Style: Beaux-Arts with Modern Steel Frame

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Triangular skyscraper shaped by site.

• Showed how steel allowed unusual forms.

Context:

• Growth of New York; new landmark for the city.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Iconic urban form, still famous today.

2. Combines classical style with modern structure.

3. Example of adapting design to city streets.
   

Materials / Ornament: Steel frame, limestone, Beaux-Arts detail.

Key Terms:

• Beaux-Arts – grand classical-inspired style.

• Iconic landmark – building with strong visual identity.

Raymond Hood – Radiator Building (1923–24, New York, USA)

Architect / Designer: Raymond Hood
Movement / Style: Art Deco Skyscraper

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Setback skyscraper to follow NYC zoning laws.

• Strong vertical lines and night lighting.
  

Context:

• 1920s boom; zoning rules shaped skyscrapers.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Example of early Art Deco skyscraper.

2. Shows integration of modern lighting.

3. Emphasizes height and drama.
   

   Materials / Ornament: Black brick, terracotta, gold trim.

Key Terms:

• Setback law – required buildings to step back for light/air.

• Art Deco – decorative modern style with geometric motifs.
  

William van Alen – Chrysler Building (1928–30, New York, USA)

Architect / Designer: William van Alen
Movement / Style: Art Deco

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Tall, decorative skyscraper for Chrysler company.
  
  

• Famous crown with stainless steel arches.
  
  

Context:

• 1920s competition for tallest building.
  
  

• Symbol of corporate power.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Masterpiece of Art Deco style.
   
   

2. Expresses speed and machine age.
   
   

3. Landmark in skyscraper history.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Brick, steel, stainless steel crown.

Key Terms:

• Crown – decorative top of skyscraper.
  
  

• Art Deco – geometric, decorative modernism.
  
  

Rockefeller Center (1932–39, New York, USA)

Architect / Designer: Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray; Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux
Movement / Style: Art Deco / Modern Urban Complex

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Large office, entertainment, shopping complex.

• Integrated art, public space, and commerce.
  

Context:

• Built during Great Depression; symbol of hope + investment.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. One of first modern urban complexes.

2. Mix of architecture, sculpture, murals.

3. Model for future multi-use developments.
   

Materials / Ornament: Limestone façades, Art Deco decoration.

Key Terms:

• Complex – group of linked buildings.

• Public plaza – open space for people.
  
  

Futurism – Antonio Sant’Elia, Drawings for La Città Nuova (1914, Milan)

Architect / Designer: Antonio Sant’Elia
Movement / Style: Futurism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Visionary city of machines, speed, technology.

• Sketched vertical, industrial megastructures.
  

Context:

• Italian Futurism embraced modern machines.

• Just before WWI.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. First radical machine-age architecture vision.

2. No past references; pure future.

3. Inspired avant-garde and modernists.
   

Materials / Ornament: Drawings only; concrete, steel imagined.

Key Terms:

• Futurism – art/architecture celebrating speed + machines.

• Avant-garde – radical new artistic movement.
  
  

Futurism – Matte Trucco, Fiat Factory (Lingotto, 1916–23, Turin, Italy)

Architect / Designer: Matte Trucco
Movement / Style: Futurism / Industrial Modernism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Huge car factory with rooftop test track.

• Symbol of Futurist ideals made real.
  

Context:

• Italy, growing car industry.

• Built after Sant’Elia’s visionary ideas.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Futurist concepts in real building.

2. Rooftop test track = radical function.

3. Symbol of Italy’s modern industry.
   

Materials / Ornament: Reinforced concrete, minimal decoration.

Key Terms:

• Test track – road loop for car testing.

• Industrial modernism – factories as models of design.

Constructivism – Project for a Lenin Tribune (1920)

Architect / Designer: Soviet Constructivists (various)
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Temporary stage/platform for revolutionary speeches.

• Designed as dynamic, machine-like form.
  

Context:

• Early Soviet Union: architecture used for propaganda.
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Architecture as political tool.

2. Dynamic, modern, anti-traditional.

3. Shows Constructivist emphasis on movement.
   
   Materials / Ornament: Wood, steel (conceptual).

Key Terms:

• Propaganda – spreading political messages.

• Constructivism – Soviet movement using industrial forms.
  
  

El Lissitzky – Wolkenbügel (“Cloud-hanger”) (1924, Moscow, unbuilt)

Architect / Designer: El Lissitzky
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Horizontal skyscraper “hanging in the sky.”
  
  

• Offices lifted on pylons above street.
  
  

Context:

• Soviet experimentation with new urban forms.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Radical alternative to vertical skyscrapers.
   
   

2. Blend of art + architecture.
   
   

3. Vision of future Soviet city.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Steel + glass (concept drawings).

Key Terms:

Avant-garde – experimental, new forms.

Horizontal skyscraper – breaking vertical tradition.

Vladimir Tatlin – Monument to the Third International (“Tatlin’s Tower”), Petrograd (1919–20, unbuilt)

Architect / Designer: Vladimir Tatlin
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Huge spiral tower for international communist meetings.
  
  

• Symbolic, never built.
  
  

Context:

• Post-revolution Russia, optimism of new order.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Most famous unbuilt Constructivist project.
   
   

2. Spirals show movement, revolution.
   
   

3. Symbol of avant-garde Soviet idealism.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Steel, glass (never realized).

Key Terms:

• Symbolism – form represents revolution + future.
  
  

Constructivism – industrial, geometric, experimental.

Ivan Leonidov – Lenin Institute (1927, unbuilt)

Architect / Designer: Ivan Leonidov
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Huge cultural + research complex.
  
  

• Libraries, planetarium, towers linked by bridges.
  
  

Context:

• Soviet focus on education + science.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Visionary “science city.”
   
   

2. Futuristic forms, not traditional.
   
   

3. Influenced later megastructures.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Glass, steel (concept).

Key Terms:

• Megastructure – giant unified building-complex.
  
  

• Avant-garde – radical design.
  
  

Ivan Leonidov – Proposal for New Town of Magnitogorsk (1930, unbuilt)

Architect / Designer: Ivan Leonidov
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Urban plan for industrial mining city.
  
  

• Combined factories, housing, culture.
  
  

Context:

• Stalin’s first 5-Year Plan (industrial growth).
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Vision of socialist industrial city.
   
   

2. Balances work + living.
   
   

3. Utopian, but never realized.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Drawings only.

Key Terms:

• Utopia – ideal imagined society.
  
  

Industrial city – planned around production.

Moisei Ginsburg & Ignaty Milinis – Narkomfin Housing, Moscow (1928–29)

Architect / Designer: Ginsburg & Milinis
Movement / Style: Constructivism / Social Housing

Main Idea / Innovation:

• Collective housing with shared facilities.
  
  

• Mix of private and communal life.
  
  

Context:

• Soviet experiment with new social living.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. Early model for modernist apartments.
   
   

2. Influenced Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation.
   
   

3. Symbol of “new socialist lifestyle.”
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Reinforced concrete, ribbon windows.

Key Terms:

• Communal living – shared kitchens, childcare, spaces.
  
  

Ribbon windows – long horizontal windows.

Yakov Chernikhov – Architectural Fantasies (1920s–30s, drawings)

Konstantin Melnikov – Soviet Pavilion (Paris Exposition, 1925)

Architect / Designer: Konstantin Melnikov
Movement / Style: Constructivism

Main Idea / Innovation:

• International pavilion showing Soviet modernism.
  
  

• Wooden structure, dynamic diagonals.
  
  

Context:

• Paris world fair; Soviets presenting themselves as modern + progressive.
  
  

Three Points of Significance:

1. First Soviet avant-garde building on world stage.
   
   

2. Impressed Western architects.
   
   

3. Showed new Soviet identity.
   
   

Materials / Ornament: Wood, glass.

Key Terms:

• Pavilion – temporary exhibition building.
  
  

Avant-garde – radical, new design.