TEST THREE NOTES
Peter Behrens and Deutscher Werkbund
Holy roman empire
Bunch of small areas and different rules that made up an empire which made industrialization harder than say a large civilized country like France
Instead of industrialization you had rich elites and farmers
The German Reich (1871-1918)
Germany is at an economic and political disadvantage
Political consolidation in 1871 gave a central government in berlin
Standardization of transportation and led to industrialization
Turned focus to modernizing and expanding army
Want to have an export economy
Delegate sent to England who was fascinated with arts and crafts movement
Wanted to implement the good qualities of the arts and crafts movement but use industrializations to make them
Peter Behrens (1868-1940) and Deutscher Werkbund (1907)
Peter is a practicing architect
Built a settlement around the arts and crafts principles
Builds his own house with interesting vernacular architecture
Art noveau and vernacular, and interesting details
Joined the Werkbund and was a part of the AEG
AEG = electrical
Essentially rebranded them into a consistent graphic style
Created the logo and produced advertisements
Redesigned some of their products
Werkbund was about taking the necessary parts of products and making them decorative
AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin 1900
Tried to elevate the type of building by designing and arranging it in a way that it could resemble a historical building without adding decoration
Huge amounts of glass
Steel columns top to bottom
Gambrel (faceted round roof) roof pediment
“Temple to Industry”
Added artificial perspective with the large bricks (non-load bearing) to make it seem bigger than it actually was.
Represented a new culture for Germany
Used triple hinged arch in construction
Rationalism (“Functionalism”)
Walter Gropius (1883-1969
Hired by Peter Behrens
First solo commission was for a shoe mold making factory
Applied what he learned from Behrens to this building
Use of the building is office space for the factory
Wanted ample natural light and ventilation
Lots of glazing
Banded brick on entrance (like AEG turbine factory)
Columns not on the corners to exaggerate the glass
Brick pilasters taper to give the verticality and size illusion
Walter Gropius
Werkbund Pavilion Cologne
Building to show off German mechanical equipment
Glazed stair towers at the corners are the most visually important
Lit at night. Glowed
Expressionism
Bruno Taut
Glass pavilion
Building to show off the glass making
Cologne. Right next to Walter Gropius’s mechanical equipment building
Concrete ribs with glass panels inbetween
Round egg shape look
Interior has a complicated flow to the upper level
Glass tile, colorful, patterns
Electric colored lighting under the little waterfall
All about creating an emotional experience EXPRESSIONISM
Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953)
Interested in the notion of movement
Lines that would create a sense of movement
Department stores
Favored buildings at corners so that you could turn on the road and see the effect on the other side
Einstein Observatory Potsdam (1920s)
Observatory for specific solar events
No right angles
Organic form with some repetitive elements
Very symmetrical plan
Light capturing tower in the center
Stairs are chiseled off to create a jagged effect
Dynamic forms
Built 80-90% of the building with brick and the rest was molded with stucco
Weimar Constitution
After WW1- “Every German family is owed a House”
Bauhaus (1919-1933)
School founded by Gropius and others to reform the education system
At first did not teach architecture, taught design, art, craft, weaving, etc
Only lasted 14 years
Based out of three different cities in those 14 years
Gropius is director for the first 6-7 years
Eventually did get into architecture
Many architecture schools still base the early learning exercises off of the Bauhaus 1st year exercise. (Make 3d objects out of paper)
Developed their own typeface
Graphic design
Photography, stop motion
About color, abstraction, new creations, experimentation
Furniture design
Oscar Schlemmer
Director of the theater department
Drew his own version of the Vitruvian man “body lives outside of itself”
Gropius is responsible for the architectural side
They are in their second home at this time
New School Building
Rectilinear forms, use of industrial type glazing, flat roofs, color accents
Gropius’s response to Germanys’ city post WW1
German city pre ww1
The German cities were very industrial
They were not planned at all
Growing rapidly
His response
Planned neighborhood type of living
Row housing
Oriented and spaced according to light so that all buildings can get light without being shaded by another building
Houses would have their own plumbing for each unit
Walter Gropius Bauhaus Academy, Dessau (1920s)
Designed to house all activities of the school, workshops, offices, residential, cafeteria, and theatre
Pinwheel form
Experiential approach
Reduced materials to very simple materials, stucco and windows, (solid and void)
White stucco does not continue all the way to the ground.
Gives appearance of the building floating
Stairs were important for the social aspect of the school
Stair landing wide enough to stop and talk
Colorful interior
Interesting light fixtures throughout
The interesting design was all functional
Mies Van Der Rohe (1886-1969)
Third and final director of the Bauhaus while in Berlin
Does some theoretical works
Designed theoretical tall clad skyscraper buildings
Form is the floorplan extruded all the way up
Lilly Reich (1885-1947)
Worked with Mies Van Der Rohe
Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart 1927
Free standing new neighborhood designed also in response to pre WW1 living conditions
Mies organizes the exhibition, sets the standards, and designs the largest building
Everything is supposed to be white, flat roof, examples of the latest technology
His building was an apartment block
Le Corbusier did two houses in this exhibition
Barcelona Pavilion (with Lily Reich) Barcelona, Spain
An entry space to the Stuttgart Exhibition
Emphasis on horizontality
Textured stone
Space was not meant to be closed off
False perceptions were made about this due to the black and white photo and how the picture was taken above eye level
Floor to ceiling glass
Pools of water
Developed furniture for this project
Expensive modernism
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edourad Jenneret (1887-1965)
Villa Fallet (La Chaux-de-Fonds) 1905-06
Arts and crafts
Local stone
Steep roof
Vernacular
Villa Farve-Jacot (Le Locle)
Steep site
Round foyer for stair hall
Large double volume living room behind stairs
Steep pitched roof
Stucco façade
Abstracted classical orders on columns
Interior has simple geometries
Villa Schwob 1916
Very unusual
Blank square of stucco on the exterior
Double height interior in the living space
White stucco interior
The lesson of Rome is the underlining simple geometry
Maison Dom-ino (1914)
Illustrates the idea of a basic structural system with columns and concrete slabs
Thinking about how he can eliminate load bearing walls
Towards an Architecture (book of his)
1) search for type: non material essence, consisting of all necessary qualities for a class of thing (as known through studying examples)
2) develop the type rationally
The perfect form comes from the increasing iterations
3) search for universally valid results - “object type”
Purism style of painting
Object types have a basic relationship with perfect geometry
Citrohan House (1920-22)
Develops idea that house should be elevated above the ground
Thinks the houses should not be super large
Made different examples while “on the way to the ideal form”
Five points of Architecture: How to develop the architectural type rationally
1) raised on “pilotis”
2) open plan
3) free façade
4) ribbon window
5) roof garden
Charlotte Perriand
Worked with Corbusier did furniture etc. what women were allowed to do
Villa Savoye
“purest” of all of his buildings
Implemented all of his 5 points
Was not meant to be approached by foot meant to be driven too
Rural environment
Geometry is very important
Colored the first floor green to try and blend in with the crass
Sink In the foyer is seen by him as the ideal object type and was not designed by him was made by factory (home depot sink)
Look of the roof deliberately evoked the look of a ship
Importing Modernism and skyscrapers in America
Sullivan’s principles:
Exterior expression of functional zones
Expression of verticality
Ideal Form follows the function is a modern Arts and Crafts movement
New York Zoning Codes 1916
Equitable building in lower Manhattan
Take the buildable area and basically just extrude it straight up
It was so large and intimidating that it scared people
Mandated setbacks
As the building rises the façade has to have a setback from the façade below (gives that step up look)
Art Deco
Exposition des Arts Decortifs (Paris 1925)
Lots of color
Simple planar surfaces
Not a lot of ornament
Emphasis on curves movements and color
Grasped quickly on skyscrapers
William Van Alen
Chrysler Building New York (1929-30)
Volume was adapted to the NY zoning codes
Abstracted form at the top of the building
Stainless steel crown on top
Repeated cellular approach to the floors
Some Sullivan ideas and some art deco ideas
Competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower
Skyscraper designs by Europeans (generated by theory) VS. skyscraper designs by American Architects (non-theoretical aesthetic criteria, such as style or how the building meets the sky)
Walter Gropius’ Entry
Based on the notion of the structural frame
Rectilinear frame
Picturesquely asymmetrical
Chicago window
Bruno Taut’s Entry
Extruded form then tapers to the top
Colored lights
Crown at the top
Emphasis on the vertical grid
Adolf Loos’ Entry
Two parts with a straight forward base and a doric column extrusion up the top
Howells and Hood’s Gothic revival was chosen
Why gothic?
Emphasis on the verticality
Leading your eye up like gothic churches do
Gothic in the detail and ornament
Formula for the floor layout
“core” of the building had the circulation and vertical access (stairs, elevator, mechanical) was beginning to be made
Lots of structure within the core
Detailing on the exterior was very gothic
Woolworth building was the first gothic revival skyscraper built
Built in 1913 pre dated the zoning code but appreciated the slimmer tower look
Was a form of marketing and advertising by just being a large noticeable building
Tower of life in San Antonio is gothic revival with the verticality
How modernism was brought to the USA
1- Modernism brought to the USA by the Chicago tribune competition
2- Modernism also brough to the USA by the show “International Modernism”
3- Many of the modernist move to the USA
1932 exhibit at the museum of modern art, new York (organized by Philip Johnson and henry Russell Hitchcock): “International Modernism”
International Modernism in Europe:
Volume (not mass)
Regularity (not symmetry)
No historical detail
Howe and Lescaze
Philadelphia savings fund society, Philadelphia (1929-1932
Represents the real first true modern building
3 parts, base, repeated floors, and what appears to be a vertical service core
Frist large scale advertising with name on top of building
Floor plan breaks the rule of having the service core in the center
One of the firs applications of escalators
Famous European architects move to the USA around time of Hitler taking power
Mies landed in Chicago and was a teacher
Does new campus for IIT
Steel frame and very modernist structures
Gropius ends up at Harvard
Broyer established a practice
They come and teach modernism
Late Le Corbusier
Modernist principles
Personal expression
Expression of material
Mainly known for his “purist” villas that follow his 5 points of architecture
Maisons Jaoul, Paris (designed 1937)
Materials easily recognizable on the outside
Green roof
Different expressions than his usual “purist” villas
Two town home Ish buildings on the same lot
Shallow vaults on the interior
Very earthy pallet
Modular man
Thinking of a more humanist approach to architecture
Proportions derived from the human man
Unite d’Habitation, Marseilles (1946-1952)
Multi family project
Cast in place concrete frame
Briezsole
Shading structure used to shade the interior from the summer sun but let the winter sun in
Reduced the amount of corridors
Very colorful
Cross ventilation
Double height living spaces
Intentionally rough form boarded concrete on the pilote base
Worked with auguste perrier
Becomes a model for social housing
Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (1955)
Does not have 5 points of church architecture
Fascinated with tent architecture
Form boarded concrete
Thick walls
Tall structure maybe representing a bell tower
White stucco
The entrance to the building is at the pinnacle of a hill
Irregularly placed windows
Preserved the slope of the hill which pulls you down toward the alter
Friary at La Tourette, Near Lyons (1953-1961)
Engraved into a hill
Enter at the middle of the building and can circulate around the whole thing and can go up or down a few floors
All board formed concrete
Square plan
Series of irregular shaped arched struts
Late Frank Lloyd Wright (1911-1959)
Taliesin, Wisconsin
Bought a piece of land and developed it for his own home and other functions
Built on the brow of the hill not quite the peak
Architecture ought to harmonize with nature
Emphasis on views to the exterior
Arts and crafts total work of art on the interior, built in furniture.
Millard House, Los Angeles (1923): “Textile Block”
Rectilinear and blocky form with much less windows than his prairie style homes
Wants to make quality housing more available and affordable
Based on an idea of a repeated module
Broadacre City (beginning in 1932)
Formulates an idea based on the grid in the western part of the united states
Decentralized city
Idea of each house having enough acreage to be self sufficient
“Usonian” Houses (1936 and later)
Houses apart of broadacre city
Most productive part of his career
Built some communities and solo builds of these houses
Slab foundation and flat roof to get rid of attic and basement
Wood framed
Emphasized connection with exterior with floor to ceiling windows and doors
Open plan
Floors with radiant heating in the floors
Falling Water, Bear run, PA (1935-1938)
Kauffman family commission
Put the house right on their favorite rock where they had picnics
Composed of stone vertical areas where local stone was used “arts and crafts vernacular”
Concrete cantilevers painted a cream white
Large windows
Outward moving force that is similar to his earlier houses
No apparent front door (sense of discovery)
Glass is tucked into the stone to have the eye follow the stone to the outside
Was under engineered where the concrete began to sag
Rock where the family use to have their picnics was bulging through the floor right Infront of the fireplace
Johnson Wax Headquarters, Racine, Wisconsin (1936-1950)
Very odd building for FLW
Curved edges
Very inward focused
Composed mostly of a reddish pink brick
Windows are strange, can not see through them which was intentional
Solution to being in a not very pretty location was to use light tubes which let light in to the space but you could not see out of the windows
Most well known for the structural mushroom columns
Had to prove the structural columns ability to work
Large work space with tube windows and mushroom columns (feels like you are underwater looking up at Lilly pads)
Taliesin Fellowship (1932-1959)
His apprentice community
Taliesen West, Scottsdale Arizona (1937)
Wright and his fellowship spent the fall and winter here and spring and summers in Wisconsin
Built with the knowledge of the site
Free standing self sufficient structure for when they are there
Develops 2 systems based on the environment
1. Masonry system with low volumes
Built form work and put local stones and stiff concrete to create these rusticated walls
2. Tent idea that relates to the desert
Tall volumes with rib structures and permeable canvas like roofing that allows a breeze through but also water when it does rarely rain
Very low ceilings
Native plant landscaping which was radical at the time
How did architects develop upon International Modernism?
Lack of historic ornament
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)
His early work is a variation of academic classicism known as Nordic classicism
Nordic classicism is similar to academic classicism but more stripped down
Paimio Sanitorium (1929-1933)
Asylum for tuberculosis patients
Clear forms in term of geometry
White stucco
Repeated modular window
Orange color
Built in a remote wooded area
Window sizes differ based on the function of the room that the window is associated with
Interested in ergonomics (human proportions and movements)
Retractable shades to let light in during cold and shade during hot
Curvilinear design becomes a signature of his
Uses lots of curvilinear forms in his furniture designs
Uses plywood
1938 worlds fair in New York
Interior of the Finnish pavilion was curvilinear and he designed the interior
Villa Mairea, Noormarkku (1937-1939)
Complex house
3 sided building and the 4th side is nature that encloses the back yard
White stucco with interesting windows and wood elements
Contrasting forms and materials
Use of materials made you feel connected with nature
Sauna has a green roof that is connected to the main structure with a walk way and the sauna is made out of wood
Plays with the perception of the columns to resemble trees
Saynatsalo Town Hall, Saynatsalo (1949-1952)
Strange mix use building
Admin offices
Meeting room for town council
Library
Retail shops under the library area
Rectilinear with courtyard space
One regular stair (employee stair) and one irregular stair (visitor side)
Brick on the exterior
Courtyard is completely glazed and does not have a formal relationship with the main exterior material.
The pedestrian irregular stair is planted.
Employee regular stair is not planted.
Brick was a veneer and not load bearing.
Church of the Three Crosses, Imatra (1956-1958)
Create a place of worship that can be modified by space to hold different events.
Achieved the space separation by using partitions.
Curvilinear form shown in plan and section
Entrance is on the same side as the speaker.
Modern Architecture in Mexico
Juan O’Gorman (1906-1982)
Corbusier influence
House of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, San Angel D.F. (1931-32)
Two separate houses attached by a bridge
Color used
Fence made out of cactus
Similar to Corbusier
UNAM Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City
Mario Pani, Enrique del Moral, and Others (completed 1954)
Large scale with lots of open space
Large buildings with large open space between them
Architects used form of local old pyramids to design
Stepped ramps
Volcanic rock material
O’Gorman designs the Library
Massive mosaic façade
Built retaining wall to create flat surfaces through the slopped site
Composed in 2 pieces
Long shorter main library area
Tall stacked volume for book storage
Overall composition of the mosaic resembles the talac which was a mythological Mexican symbol
Does his own personal house
Built his house on top of and between two very large basalt volcanic rocks
Luis Barragan (1902-1988)
Very prolific
Influenced by Mexican vernacular architecture
Loved color
Casa Luis Barragan (1947)
Blank wall with some windows built right up to the sidewalk
Roof terrace – planar surfaces, abstractly arrange, little detail, rough stucco walls, stone paving floor, shadows cast
Stairwells used as large light volumes
No stair railings
Used wood on things that were mainly going to be touched
Ceiling to floor window to force your eye outside
Tlapan Chapel, Tlapan, Mexico City (1954-60)
Addition to existing building
Fascinated with water which were used as quite reflective pieces
Grid wall used in courtyard as a very interesting reflected light form
Strange angle wall in the chapel that reflects light from the adjacent window and illuminates the cross
Satellite Towers near Mexico City (1958) with Mathis Goeritz
Skinny hollow concrete triangular towers
Looks two dimensional from the side
San Cristobal Stables near Mexico City (1968)
House for people and horses
Large, centralized basin for horses to wade in and drink from
White stucco, large window openings
More rural location
Created a wall with trees
Water spout fountain thing that poured water into the water basin
Casa Gilardi (1977)
Sharing wall with neighboring building – hinders ability to bring in light from side walls
Very colorful
Courtyard used to bring light into the house
Rough stucco, bright colors, interesting windows
Windows with different colored walls that cast into the home
Reflecting pool
Felix Candela (1910-1997)
Hyperbolic Paraboloid surfaces that work well in both compressive and tensile forces
Thin structurally sound concrete forms