Architects

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe


  • From working with Behrens

  • The concept of the artist as agent of the taste of age

  • “Architecture being an expression of technical power”

  • (1927) Werkbund Housing Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany

    • Exhibition of the best in housing design Avant-garde architecture

    • (Right) White House Estate by Mies

  • German Pavilion at Barcelona International Trade Fair (aka Barcelona Pavilion)

    • Single space delineated into subsidiary spaces by planes arrange in space

    • Irony: Required hand-assembly to achieve its apparent mechanical simplicity

  • Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe’s Design Principles

    • “Architecture is the will of the people translated into space” - Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe (1924)

    • “...create form out of the nature of the task, with the means of our time” - Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe (1923:74) 

    • “Less is more” - Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe


Le Corbusier


  • (1908) Worked for Auguste Perret in Paris

  • (1910) Worked for Behrens in Berlin

  • Toured a lot: was captivated by the sharpness of forms under crisp Mediterranean sunlight

  • Settled in Paris, published L’Esprit Nouveau (New Spirit), a journal containing theories of socially responsive architecture

  • Vers Une Architecture (1923) - Toward a New Architecture

    • Mechanical perfection of the airplane, steamship, & automobile = supreme expressions of the beauty of form determined by absolute response to function

    • “The house is a machine for living in” - Le Corbusier

    • “It is the question of building which is at the root of social unrest today: architecture or revolution”


  • Le Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture

  1. Pilotis - a grid of slim reinforced concrete pylons that assume the structural weight of a building. This frees the ground floor circulation

  2. Open Plan - the absence of load-bearing partition walls affords greater flexibility in design and use of living spaces; the house is unrestrained in its internal use

  3. Free design of the facade - separated exterior of the building is free from conventional structural restriction, allowing the facade to be unrestrained, lighter, more open.

  4. Horizontal ribbon windows - these light rooms equally, increasing sense of space and seclusion

  5. Roof Garden - flat roofs with garden terraces serve both harmonic and domestic utility


Cass Gilbert


  • One of the first “celebrity” American architects

  • Most famous for Woolworth Building (1912) - Gothic Skyscraper

    • The Woolworth Building is a residential building; it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929

  • Pioneered cladding a steel frame that became a model for skyscrapers

  • Minnesota State Capitol (1905) by Cass Gilbert

  • The Beaux-Arts Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (1907) by Cass Gilbert


Auguste Perret


  • Was a student at Ecole des Beaux-Arts

  • Although his early work was Nationalist Romantic Style and Art Nouveau, his main interest was the structure of buildings and the use of new materials, such as concrete

  • Rue Franklin Apartment Building in Paris (1903) by Auguste Perret

    • One of Perret’s early concrete experiments where the concrete structure, instead of being concealed, was clearly visible and was part of the exterior design

  • Church of Notre-Dame du Raincy (1923) by Auguste Perret

    • Is a monument to modernism and the use of concrete


  • Conseil Economique Social et Environnemental (Economic, Social, and Environmental Council Building), France (1925) by Auguste Perret


Louis Sullivan


  • Called the Father of Modernism

  • Worked with William Le Baron Jenney

  • Influential Architect of the Chicago School

  • Rejected burrowing classical Greek and Roman Elements

  • Mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School

  • “Form follows function” - Louis Sullivan

  • Education: MIT and Ecole de Beaux Arts

  • Partnered with Dankmar Adler

  • Established Adler and Sullivan

  • Made use of the fireproof steel frame

    • Optimum development (more vertical space)

    • Multi-storey rentable space

    • Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York, 1894

  • The Sullivan Architectural Approach integrates dispositions of elements, spatial functionality, and aesthetic qualities in the building’s facade

  • Adler and Sullivan became well-known for their work on the Auditorium Building in Chicago (1889), now owned by Roosevelt University

  • Strongly advocated for the development of uniquely American architectural forms

  • He used natural ornament as a metaphor for a democratic society

  • “It is the nature of our task that in seeking the form we will find the function.” - Louis Sullivan

  • Bayard-Condict Bldg. NY (1897-99)

    • Clad entirely in white glazed terra cotta, the twelve-story building features monumental piers and mullions that soar upward to round arches, culminating in a row of winged angels amidst of a profusion of Sullivan’s highly distinctive organic ornamentation

  • Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store in Chicago now known as Sullivan Center

    • The building is remarkable for its steel-framed structure, which allowed a dramatic increase in window area created by bay-wide windows, which in turn allowed for the greatest amount of daylight into the building interiors. This steel framed structure uses the post-and-lintel technique to provide a strong, light, and fireproof steel skeleton


Adolf Loos


  • Progress =  elimination of ornament 

  • “Ornament is a crime” - Adolf Loos

  • Loos believed:

    • time + talent of craftsmen should not be waste on making ornaments

    • Objects may one day become obsolete (and thus do not need adornment)

  • Looshaus in Michaelerplatz, Vienna (1912) by Adolf Loos

  • Loos’s stripped-down building influenced the minimal massing of modern architecture, and stirred controversy, In contrast, interiors are richly appointed

  • Steiner House (1910) by Adolf Loos

    • Is a building in Vienna, Austria. It is considered one of the major works of architect Adolf Loos

  • Villa Muller embodies Loos’s ideas of economy and functionality, The Raumplan is evident in the multi-level parts of individual rooms, indicating their function and symbolic importance. Raumplan is exhibited in the interior as well as the exterior

  • Raumplan

    • “Every Space requires a different height: the dining room is surely higher than the pantry, thus the ceilings are set at different levels. To join these spaces in such a way that the rise and fall are not only observable but also practical, in this I see what is for others the great secret, although it is for me a great matter of course”


Frank Lloyd Wright


  • The Froebel Gifts are educational play materials for young children, originally designed by Friedrich Frobel

    • Frank Lloyd Wright’s mother, a trained teacher, bought a set with which the 9-year old Wright spent much time playing. Frank Lloyd Wright later attributed his affinity to form with the blocks. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form two- and three-dimensional compositions

  • Organic Architecture

    • Harmony between human habitation and the natural world

    • Site-sympathetic design approaches

    • Buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition

  • “We have primarily the new ideal of a building as organic. A building should be as dignified as a tree in the midst of nature” - Frank Lloyd Wright

  • Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania 1936-1937 (Main House) 1939 (Guest House)

    • Frank Lloyd Wright brough the inside within with the use of natural materials and specific furnishings

    • Views from the guest house built for the couple’s son. The Kaufmanns asked Wright to include a large living-dining space in their country house. They also wanted the house to include at least three bedrooms, a dressing room, and a guest and servant wing

  • Johnson Wax Headquarters Building (1939) by Frank Lloyd Wright

    • “The Johnson Administration is not going to be what you expect. But, I can assure you of one thing, you’ll like it when it is put up” - Frank Lloyd Wright

    • Features an external continuous curvilinear form lightened by the use of Pyrex glass tubing, that radiates the natural light across the inside

  • “The making of a good building, the harmonious building, one adapted to its purpose and to life, [is] a blessing to life and a gracious element added to life, is a great moral performance” - Frank Lloyd Wright


Alvar Aalto


  • Finnish Architect and designed

  • Believed painting and sculpture as “branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture”

  • His career is characterized by a concern for design as Gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art (exterior and interior)

  • Styles

    • Nordic Classicism

    • International Style

    • Scandinavian Modern

    • Mid-century modern (furniture)

      • He pioneered bent plywood furniture

  • Aalto was fond of curves

  • Villa Mairea, by Altar and Aina Aalto, in Noormarkku, Finland

  • Paimio Sanatorium (1933) is a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland

  • Aalto’s Design Approach: the building itself is a contributor to the healing process. He liked to call the building a “medical instrument”

  • Church of Santa Maria Assunta (1978), Italy by A. Aalto

    • The church was built with prefabricated concrete panels that were assembled on-site. Its facade is characterized by asymmetrical half-arches, which abstractly evoke the profile of the nearby Apennines

  • Alto University, Auditorium of the University Technology, Finland

  • Finlandia Hall (1971) is a congress and event venue in the centre of Helsinki. It is an example of Aalto’s late work, which is characterized by monumentalism

    • A lattice ceiling hides the space to the audience but it allows the creation of the same deep post-echo as tall church towers

    • The interior design is a total work of art.The design of each lamp, piece of furniture, panel, flooring material, and decorative board is a reflection of Aalto’s maturity