Modern Architecture: From Turn of the Century to Global Modernisms

Vocabulary flashcards covering major architectural figures, movements, and principles from the turn of the 20th century to Global Modernisms.

Otto Wagner

A central figure in the transition from historicist architecture to modernism in Vienna who argued that architectural styles must evolve in response to the conditions of their time.

Historicist Architecture

Architectural styles that imitate or revive past historical styles, which many modernists rejected as being inadequate for contemporary needs.

Modern Architecture

According to Otto Wagner, an architectural style that arises organically from the contemporary conditions of its time, including construction methods, new materials, and social functions.

Postal Savings Bank

A 1904-06 building in Austria by Otto Wagner that used thin marble sheets as a veneer and modern materials like metal, glass, and visible rivets.

Art Nouveau

An international style known as Jugendstil or Stile Liberty that emerged in the 1890s, characterized by organic forms, flowing lines, and the use of iron and glass.

Whiplash line

The characteristic sinuous, flowing curve typical of Art Nouveau design, often used in architecture and decorative arts.

Total Design

The concept of designing every element of a building as a cohesive whole, including the architecture, interiors, and furniture.

Victor Horta

The architect of the Tassel House (1892) in Brussels, which used fluid forms and iron and glass to create a departure from conventional residential design.

Antoni Gaudí

The foremost architect of Catalan Modernism whose highly individualistic work, like the Sagrada Familia, combined historical Gothic elements with innovative structural solutions inspired by nature.

Catalan Modernism

A regional variant of Art Nouveau led by Antoni Gaudí that combined local traditions with personal artistic vision and rational engineering.

Rational Engineering

Structural design based on scientific principles and efficiency rather than stylistic imitation.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

A British architect who designed the Glasgow School of Art, merging Art Nouveau influences with local medieval Scottish traditions and functional technology.

Adolf Loos

A Viennese architect known for his cultural critique against ornamentation and his development of the Raumplan.

Ornament and Crime

A 1908 essay by Adolf Loos arguing that the evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of decoration from utilitarian objects.

Raumplan

Loos's 'space plan' concept that emphasized designing architecture as a series of interconnected three-dimensional volumes rather than flat floor plans.

Futurism

A radical movement that sought to celebrate modernity, speed, and technology while advocating for a total break from historical styles.

Giacomo Balla

A Futurist artist who emphasized the portrayal of motion, exemplified in his work Dynamism of a Dog (1912).

Antonio Sant’Elia

A Futurist architect who envisioned cities as dynamic work sites and houses as 'machines for living' with visible lifts and industrial aesthetics.

Expressionism

An architectural movement that used forms and materials like glass to evoke emotional and spiritual responses rather than focusing purely on functionality.

Bruno Taut

An Expressionist architect who designed the Glass Pavilion (1914) to showcase the transformative power of light and transparency in architecture.

De Stijl

A Dutch movement advocating for abstraction and universality through the use of primary colors, vertical and horizontal lines, and elementary forms.

Schröder House

A 1924 residence designed by Gerrit Rietveld that applied De Stijl principles to create flexible, adaptable, and socially radical living spaces.

Bauhaus

A school founded in 1919 in Weimar by Walter Gropius that aimed to unify arts, crafts, and architecture into a cohesive whole for the benefit of society.

New Objectivity (neue Sachlichkeit)

A movement reflecting functional and asymmetric design, as seen in the 1926 Bauhaus Building in Dessau.

Marianne Brandt

A pioneering Bauhaus designer who became the head of the metal workshop, known for iconic works like the 1924 table lamp.

Marcel Breuer

An innovator at the Bauhaus who introduced chromed steel as a material for furniture, creating pieces like the Wassily Chair (1925).

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

A modernist architect and former Bauhaus director celebrated for his minimalism, luxurious material use, and collaborative work with Lilly Reich.

Lilly Reich

An influential exhibition and interior designer who collaborated with Mies van der Rohe on projects including the Barcelona Pavilion and the Tugendhat House.

Barcelona Pavilion

A 1929 structure by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich notable for its fluid spatial arrangement and high-quality materials like glass and steel.

François Hennebique

Developed a comprehensive European-wide system for reinforced concrete in 1892 using stirrups to resist shear forces.

Auguste Perret

An architect who combined classical symmetry with Gothic structural rationalism in reinforced concrete, seen in the Notre Dame du Raincy.

Dom-ino House

A 1915 prototype by Le Corbusier that used reinforced concrete columns and floor slabs to eliminate load-bearing walls, enabling open floor plans.

Five Points of a New Architecture

Le Corbusier’s modernist principles realized in structures like Villa Savoye: Pilotis, Free Plan, Free Façade, Horizontal Windows, and Roof Terrace.

Charlotte Perriand

A modernist designer whose furniture and interior work with Le Corbusier emphasized functionalism and the humanistic 'art of living.'

Eileen Gray

The designer of the villa E-1027 who critiqued the 'machine for living' ideology by focusing on human scale, spiritual emanation, and comfort.

The International Style

A movement defined by volume rather than mass, regularity rather than symmetry, and the avoidance of applied decoration.

Organic Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright's philosophy emphasizing the destruction of the box and the harmonious integration of a building with its natural site.

Richard Neutra

An Austrian-American architect whose Lovell House (1929) synthesized European modernist form with a focus on hygiene, sunlight, and the California climate.

Alvar Aalto

A Finnish architect who expanded rationalism to include sensory experience and nature, seen in works like the Viipuri Library and Villa Mairea.

Oscar Niemeyer

A Brazilian architect who moved away from rigid European modernism by using free-flowing curves inspired by the natural landscape and the human body.

Sutemi Horiguchi

A pioneer of Japanese modernism and member of Bunriha Kenchikukai who sought a dialogue between radical innovation and historical Japanese architecture.

Bunriha Kenchikukai

The Secession Architectural Association founded in Japan in 1920 that called for a new architectural realm separate from the styles of the past.