ARCH 2040 Unit 4

De Stjil

Group of artists and architects
that advocated for (1) unity of
all arts and (2) pure abstraction
(through reduction to the
essentials of form and color)

important architects of de stjil

Gerrit Rietveld (begins as furniture designer),
Cornelis van Eesteren

Baruch Spinoza believed

Dutch philosopher
 God exists and is abstract. God = Nature.
 Mind and body are not two distinct entities

Gottfried Semper was/said

German architect and theorist – arts and architecture can be understood by looking at raw materials

M.H. Schoenmaekers

say that everything is made of red/blue/yellow

Theo van Doesburg does what?

16 points of a Plastic Architecture

Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren do what together

they make / apply axonometric drawings to hypothetical architecture

Shroder House- architect, significance

Gerrit Rietveld
Embodies the principles of the De Stijl movement and Neoplasticism:
elemental, economic, functional, open
Flowing transition spaces through the use of distinct planar elements
and their articulations
Walls, doors, windows as planar spatial elements – overlapped,
differently colored, and physically separated

name, architect, significance

Café L’Aubette
Theo van Doesburg
Reduces De Stjil to a graphic style rather than architecture

The Bauhaus

means "to build a house"
embraces industrial processes, encourages students to use
Spiritual dimension of the creative act
Cooperation of architects and artists
No distinction between arts and crafts
emphasis on making- reason why architecture programs have a woodshop

Emphasis on form derived from production methods,
material constraint, and programmatic necessity

Was ended by Nazi regime

INFLUENCES AMERICAN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION

Bauhaus Program (Walter Gropius)

Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is
not a ‘profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the
craftsman.

*******The ultimate aim of the Bauhaus is the unified work of art.

Alma Stone Williams

first African-American student enrolled in an all-white institution (Black Mountain College) of higher education in the South during the Jim Crow era

Penland School of Arts and Crafts

founded by Lucy Morgan
began as a collection of weavers that provided materials and sold the goods, but has expanded into other mediums and is now a thriving arts and crafts school

social realism (art movement)

in communist countries, basically/literally propaganda, must be of every day life and accessible to workers

social realism (architecture)

return to the design principles and aesthetics of Neoclassicism: symmetry, centrality, axiality, monumentality–a way of exercising control through architecture and planning

Communist ideas translated in housing policies and massive apartment building developments

public housing in social realism

Standardization –standards and norms applied to construction –assumption that all places and all people are the same

Prefabrication–prefabricated concrete blocks

Uniformization–lack of diversity and variety both in aesthetics and functionality (apartment floorplans)

Same masterplans and same building plans reproduced in multiple locations

Functionalism–buildings are designed solely based on their purpose and function

It goes wrong bc of location and just not being maintained

Rivera-Kahlo House (architect, info)

by Juan O’Gorman
Modern language with local influences –special attention to the needs of the clients –considered the first modern house in Latin America
Modern language: house follows Le Corb's 5 points for a new architecture: house raised on stilts, free plan, free façades, garden terrace, horizontal windows
Local influences: use of Mexican materials, colors, textures, plants

House Studio (architect, info)

by Luis Barragan
Modern language with indigenous influences
Simple, clean lines
Vibrant colors
Spatial experience of moving through different spaces is carefully orchestrated
The house is experienced through all the senses: sight, smell, touch, hearing –attention to materials and how they work together
Materials: concrete, wood, volcanic stone

Glass House

by Linda Bo Bardi
as transparent as Mies’s Farnsworth House, but responds to site conditions, slope, and vegetation –example of Modernism interpreted in local key

Le Corb in India

after India's independence is gained, outside architects are brought in to "modernize" the architecture, Le Corb gets to experiment (ex monument to the open hand, the Palace of Justice, and a lot more)

Balkrishna Doshi

Recipient of the 2018 Pritzker Prize in architecture

Worked with Le Corbusier in Paris for 4 years

Upon returning from Parishe supervised construction sites in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad

Memorial to Gandhi

by Charles Correa (indian architect trained at MIT)
landscape architecture project based on a checkerboard grid – modules defined with thick brick concrete piers linked by reinforced concrete beams – inspiration from ancient Hindu geometry and mandala grids

Architecture in Algeria

They actually do good with affordable housing for once
New mayor of capital Algiers advocates for new social housing as a measure to appease colonial discontent
French architect F. Pouillon is appointed the city’s chief architect –main goal: to improve squatters living in bidonvilles(tin can cities) –new 1600 affordable housing units produced in the first year –modern style, use of masonry
Climatde France social housing (1959) –5000 residents –“royal” courtyard recalling the scale of French palaces –3-story high free-standing colonnade adds intense shadows and gives character to the building

New Gourna Village Story

architect Hassan Fathy planned as a new village for the displaced residents of an old settlement using mud bricks and referenced religious traditions - however, the use of domes and vaults evoked tombs and shrines of the dead, so the villagers refused to move in
he tried to work with the architectural vernacular but failed, leaving the village mostly abandoned, resulting in a project that appears successful, but ultimately socially failed

Charlotte Perriand

applies to work for le corb, initially rejected, but he sees her work later and he hires her- she designs furniture under his name
she is interested in all kinds of materials and both craftmanship and mass production

Also designs the Les Arcs ski resort in France

Les Arcs Ski Resort

by Charlotte Perriand
A previous plan has proposed several towers, but she decides to
nestle the buildings in the folds of the mountains
Apartments arranged in a series of staggered terraces cascading down
the hillside – become almost invisible after snowfall
Buildings perfectly integrated with the environment: south – the
setback provides every dwelling with a terrace to catch the sun; north
– sloping façade protects apartments from the snow

Eileen Gray

Irish designer and architect- meets Japanese artist and develops interest in lacquered screens
Experiments with combinations of synthetic and
natural materials in furniture design: chrome, tubular
steel, Bakelite with cork, slate, or exotic woods

E.1027 House

by Eileen Gray
Reference to Le Corbusier’s 5 points for a
new architecture: pilotis, roof garden, free
plan, horizontal windows, free façade
Moves beyond modernist formulas and
emphasizes the subjective qualities of the
living experience
House conceived from the inside out – need
for an interior life and place of retreat
bedrooms oriented to rising sun
separation of public and private areas
integrates architecture and furnishings- they also have multiple functions that can be adapted to the needs of the owner

Weissenhof-Siedlung

an exhibition to show off modern architecture and how it could be used for affordable housing

curators: Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

guidelines: simple geometric volumes
flat-roof technology, with a terrace and roof-garden
skeletal structure [instead of load bearing walls]
use of pilotis
open free plans
4-storey residential block of 4 row houses
Skeleton structure allows for flexibility of plan organization
Only fixed points in the design (determined by the service
installations): kitchen, bathroom and toilet.
Remaining areas had adjustable walls, allowing residents to
subdivide them as they saw fit.

Villa Tugendhat

part of the Weissenhof-Siedlung?????? (idk, credit given to Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich though)
Innovative technical equipment: glass
curtain wall could be retracted via electric
motors; combination of air system involving
heating, cooling and humidification
uses curtain walls that subvert the very notion of the static wall

The Curtain wall house

by Shigeru Ban

social housing in the US

fails just like the slums it is intended to replace- via segregation, poor maintenance, inadequate funding, and negative public perception

Pruitt-Igoe (buildings)

by Minoru Yamasachi (also designed the World Trade Center Towers)
initially segregated, then desegregated
buildings built solidly, but never finished properly
the ambiguous social spaces become crime havens
there's no maintenance, transportation, or services
so they decided to destroy the buildings

the failure is truly with the housing policies rather than modernist planning and architecture

Levittowns

William Levitt mass produces simplified versions of the ranch house at a rate of 30 houses a day, and due to the mass production, the cost is half the market price
Eventually 140,000 houses are built

Characteristics: Low density
▪ No urban life
▪ Setbacks
▪ Cul-de-sac roads (dead end roads)
▪ No civic activities
▪ No commercial services

Byker Wall

by Ralph Erskine
basically a good example of social housing (in Europe)
existing houses demolished- but some things like pools and pubs were kept in the design
The layout encouraged cars to be left at the edges of the
estate
Public spaces were included to encourage social interaction.
The area was landscaped with trees and gardens.
The outer Wall was designed to protect the rest of the
development both from the wind and traffic pollution (at the
time a proposed motorway was due to be built alongside it).
Huge variety of housing design. The Byker Wall varies from 3 to
12 stories high – there are also a lot of low rise and individual
houses.
Textured, complex facades, colorful brick, wood and plastic
panels

Matteotti Neighborhood

by Giancarlo de Carlo
made to replace an existing worker's village
made with a participatory process so people got to have input, including public and private green spaces, places for social life, separation between vehicular and pedestrian flow
45 different building types

Municipal Orphanage

by Aldo van Eyck
said that a house should be a small city and a city should be a large house
includes spaces like a gym, library, ect
spaces for kids of all ages, all with their own outdoor spaces

Paul Revere Williams

becomes the first African-American architect member of the
AIA
does revival style architecture and modern architecture
one of the most influential architects in California

Frank Sinatra Residence

by Paul Revere Williams

Modern language with Asian-influenced details: dividing walls made
of wood and metal –make smalls spaces appear brighter and larger

Modern built-in cabinets to house the electronics

Emphasis on sound quality: walls of main living space filled with
special acoustical gravel + powerful speakers installed under the ceiling sheetrock

The Williams Residence

by Paul Revere Williams
unlike the historical houses in the same neighborhood
Clean lines, smooth outer skin, soft curves + straight lines, communication between indoor-outdoor spaces

The Eameses House

designed by Ray and Charles Eames- architects that also did painting, film, and other art forms
Made from cheap, prefabricated parts –statement about the
potential of ordinary materials in residential design
Kit of metal parts and panels ordered from industrial
catalogues
Double-height loft open to a luxuriant garden
Modernist vocabulary of flat roofs, box-like open plans, glass
planes and pergolas

Louis Kahn

designs low income housing plans during the depression
"a good building makes a good ruin"
Modern language with a reverence toward the works of the past,
especially the grand vaulted spaces of ancient Roman architecture and the
massive towers of medieval Europe
Structural innovation and modern programs combined with an ancient
language of monolithic forms and deep shadows

Jewish Community Bath House

by Louis Kahn
"buildings should be composed in terms of “servant and served spaces”"
Structure functions as container of “servant” spaces that liberate the
“served” spaces

Anne Tyng

architect
Studies architecture at Harvard- one of the first women to graduate from the program
Passion for mathematics –does pioneering work in space frame architecture:
interlocking geometric patterns create light-filled spaces
▪ Works with Kahn and influences his designs for the space-frame ceiling at the Yale
University Art Gallery and the Trenton Bath House
▪ Inventor the Tyng Toy –a small selection of plywood pieces that can be combined into a
wide variety of toys and pieces of furniture

Villa Mairea

by Alvar Aalto and Aino Marsio-Aalto (Aalto employs a hybrid language: modern, functionalist architecture (pure planes, strip windows, no decoration) + free, organic forms
Interest in light and materiality

Rational L-shaped plan + free forms (entrance canopy, terrace)
▪ Raw materials: fieldstones, birch saplings
▪ Creative ways of bringing light inside: a cavity scooped out of the
mantelpiece in the living room allows a ray of light to enter from
a side window

MIT Baker House Dormitories

by Alvar Aalto
Maximizes the view of the river for every student
▪ Southern orientation of all rooms
▪ Increased density: undulating shape, fan-shaped ends
▪ Single-loaded corridor & a variety of room shapes
▪ South side: rooms
▪ North side: stairways, common spaces