Flashcards di Storia dell'Architettura 2

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Enlightenment and 18th-Century Neoclassicism

The 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, signaled a shift from Baroque theatricality to rationalism and scientific inquiry. Architecture was expected to serve utility and social function. The archaeological excavations of Herculaneum ($1738\,AD$) and Pompeii ($1748\,AD$) provided a concrete view of antiquity. Influential texts emerged, including Winckelmann’s History of Ancient Art ($1763\,AD$), which praised the "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" of Greek models.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann established art history as an autonomous discipline, while Giovanni Battista Piranesi captured the majesty of Roman ruins through his engravings like the Carceri (Prisons). Piranesi’s work at the Chapel of Santa Maria del Priorato highlights his approach of layering decorative fragments from various styles. Piranesi saw Rome as the true model of greatness, often contrasting Roman majesty with Greek measure.

In England, Neoclassicism manifested through Palladianism, initially introduced by Inigo Jones. Richard Boyle (Lord Burlington) and William Kent designed Chiswick House ($1726\,AD$), inspired by Palladio’s Villa Capra but with an octagonal dome and prioritized front/rear facades. Kent’s Holkham Hall utilized a marble salon with a lacunose (coffered) barrel vault reminiscent of Roman architecture. Robert Adam evolved this further with the "picturesque" style at Syon House, using blue marble columns found in the Tiber and a gallery as a domestic museum space.

Visionary Neoclassicism in France and Germany

French Enlightenment theorists Jean-Louis de Cordemoy and Marc-Antoine Laugier advocated for a return to classical clarity. Laugier postulated the "primitive hut"—constructed of trees and branches—as the origin of the classical temple, arguing that orders should have structural rather than decorative value. Jacques-Germain Soufflot’s Ste Geneviève (the Pantheon) in Paris attempted to rival St. Peter’s; while the exterior is Neoclassical, the interior uses Gothic structural logic with thin piers and iron reinforcements designed by Rondelet.

Visionary architects like Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux pushed the limits of the style. Boullée’s Cenotaph for Isaac Newton was a massive sphere representing the universe. Ledoux realized the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans ($1775$-$1779\,AD$), a semicircular industrial complex. He developed the concept of "architecture parlante" (speaking architecture), where a building's form reveals its function—such as the House of the Director acting as an "eye" over the workers. His gatehouses for Paris (Barrières) were designed as monumental tax-collection points, often resembling temples or fortresses.

In Germany, Carl Gotthard Langhans designed the Brandenburg Gate ($1788$-$1791\,AD$) based on the Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis. It became a symbol of national pride and peace. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the preeminent Prussian architect, designed the Altes Museum ($1823$-$1828\,AD$) as a temple of culture for the public, featuring a central rotunda and a colonnaded facade. His Bauakademie ($1831$-$1836\,AD$) used exposed brick and anticipated 20th-century rationalism. Leo von Klenze, Schinkel's contemporary, designed the Walhalla in Regensburg as a Greek-style Doric temple on a hill to celebrate German heroes.

The Museum, Archaeology, and Restoration and the Industrial City

The term "museum" originates from the Greek Mouseîon (Place of the Muses). Initially, collections were private, kept in studioli (centralized spaces for private use) or galleries (longitudinal spaces for ceremonial display). In the late 18th century, the public museum emerged, codified by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand as a symmetric building type with a central rotunda. Archaeology transitioned from antiquarian curiosity to a science through figures like Winckelmann and Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, who introduced the Three-Age System (Stone, Bronze, Iron).

Architectural restoration likewise emerged in the 18th century as a critical act. One approach, championed by Viollet-le-Duc, was "stylistic restoration," where a building was restored to a state of stylistic unity that might never have actually existed (e.g., his work on Carcassonne and Notre-Dame de Paris). Conversely, John Ruskin argued that restoration was "immoral" and that buildings should be allowed to age and die, advocating only for minimal maintenance to preserve the "patina" of time.

The Industrial Revolution forced cities to expand rapidly, leading to the "crisis of the industrial city" characterized by pollution, poverty, and overcrowding. Practical responses included Haussmann’s renovation of Paris ($1853$-$1870\,AD$), which used wide boulevards for hygiene, traffic, and social control. In Vienna, the Ringstraße ($1859$-$1872\,AD$) replaced old city walls with a grand circular road lined with monumental historicist buildings. In London, John Nash’s Regent Street created a scenic connection between the royal parks and the city center, while in Barcelona, Ildefonso Cerdà’s Ensanche plan used a rigid grid of octagonal blocks (manzanas) designed for light and air.

Art Nouveau and the Secession Movement

Art Nouveau (ca. $1890$-$1914\,AD$) sought a new style independent of the past, characterized by the "whiplash" curve, floral motifs, and the integration of decoration and structure. Victor Horta’s Tassel House in Brussels ($1893\,AD$) used exposed iron and glass internal partitions, anticipating the "open plan." Hector Guimard brought this to the public with his Paris Metro entrances. Henry van de Velde and Hendrik Petrus Berlage (Stock Exchange of Amsterdam) moved toward functionalism and "art as total work."

In Austria, the Vienna Secession ($1897\,AD$) was led by Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner, and Joseph Maria Olbrich. Olbrich’s Secession Building featured a gilded "golden cabbage" dome. Otto Wagner’s Karlsplatz Station and Majolika Haus used modern materials like steel and ceramic tiles with gilded sunflowers. Wagner’s Postal Savings Bank used marble slabs bolted with aluminum. Josef Hoffmann’s Stoclet Palace in Brussels exemplified the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), featuring mosaics by Klimt. In Italy, the style was known as Liberty, seen in D'Aronco's Turin Exhibition pavilion and Sommaruga's Palazzo Castiglioni in Milan.

Antoni Gaudí represented the Catalan Modernismo variant. His work, like the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, and Casa Milà, fused Gothic structural logic with organic forms. He used parabolic arches for their static properties and developed the trencadís technique of colorful ceramic mosaics. Gaudí saw architecture as a spiritual, holistic experience, where every column and chimney was a sculptural element.

The Birth of the Skyscraper and American Functionalism

American architecture transitioned from Thomas Jefferson’s classical republicanism (Monticello, University of Virginia) to the pragmatic verticality of Chicago. After the Great Fire of $1871\,AD$, Chicago became a laboratory for iron, steel, and fireproof construction. Henry Hobson Richardson’s Marshall Field Wholesale Store used massive masonry but hinted at the power of the internal frame. William Le Baron Jenney’s Home Insurance Building ($1884\,AD$) was the first with a steel skeleton.

Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler perfected the skyscraper form. Sullivan’s Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo emphasized verticality as a poetic expression, famously stating that "form follows function." Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building in New York ($1913\,AD$, $232\,m$ tall) utilized a Neo-Gothic "cathedral" aesthetic. Daniel Burnham’s 1893 Columbian Exposition (the "White City") briefly returned American architecture to Neoclassicism, influencing the City Beautiful movement.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan’s pupil, developed "Organic Architecture." His Prairie Houses ($1893$-$1909\,AD$), like the Robie House, focused on horizontal lines, overhanging eaves, and a central hearth (the "heart" of the home). Wright "broke the box," dissolving the corner and creating fluid, interlocking interior spaces. His later works, like Fallingwater ($1936\,AD$), cantilevered over a natural waterfall, and the Johnson Wax Building, with its "mushroom" pillars and Pyrex tubing, pushed structural limits.

The Modern Movement: Bauhaus, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe

In Germany, the Deutscher Werkbund ($1907\,AD$) sought to bridge the gap between art and industry. Peter Behrens designed the AEG Turbine Factory ($1909\,AD$), using glass and steel as noble materials. Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in $1919\,AD$, merging fine arts and crafts to prepare students for mass production. The Bauhaus building in Dessau ($1925\,AD$) utilized a pinwheel plan and the glass "curtain wall."

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe succeeded Gropius at the Bauhaus and later moved to the USA. His philosophy of "Less is More" was realized in the Barcelona Pavilion ($1929\,AD$), which used luxury materials (marble, travertine) to define a fluid, centerless space. In America, his Seagram Building ($1958\,AD$) set the standard for the corporate glass-and-bronze skyscraper, while the Farnsworth House achieved a minimalist "glass box" floating above the ground.

Le Corbusier defined the Five Points of a New Architecture in $1923\,AD$: 1. Pilotis (columns elevating the building); 2. Toit-jardin (roof gardens); 3. Plan libre (free plan enabled by the skeleton); 4. Fenêtre en longueur (ribbon windows); 5. Façade libre (free facade). His Villa Savoye ($1931\,AD$) is the manifesto of these points. After WWII, he moved toward "Brutalism" with the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille and the organic, sculptural Ronchamp Chapel.

Italian Rationalism and the Naples Urban Transformation

In Italy, architecture between the wars oscillated between Piacentini’s Neoclassical Monumentalism and the Rationalism of the Gruppo 7 (led by Giuseppe Terragni). Terragni’s Novocomum in Como and his Casa del Fascio ($1932\,AD$) utilized white surfaces, glass, and geometric clarity. Giovanni Michelucci’s Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence ($1932\,AD$) was praised for its functionalist integration into the historic city.

Naples underwent significant changes during the Fascist era, aiming to be the "Port of the Empire." In the 1930s, the San Giuseppe/Carità district was gutted to create Piazza Matteotti, featuring Giuseppe Vaccaro’s Palazzo delle Poste—a curved masterpiece of Rationalism clad in diorite and marble. Marcello Canino’s Palazzo della Provincia and other administrative buildings followed. The Mostra d'Oltremare ($1940\,AD$) at Fuorigrotta acted as an Urban Exhibition, featuring the Mediterranean Theater and the Arena Flegrea, designed as an open-air theater for $10,000$ people.

Post-war architecture saw the rise of High-Tech (Piano and Rogers’ Pompidou Center), Postmodernism (the 1980 Venice Biennale's Strada Novissima), and Decconstructivism (Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao). Contemporary icons like Zaha Hadid’s Afragola Station or Fuksas’s Cloud in Rome continue the tradition of formal experimentation and technological daring.

Questions & Discussion

Lesson with Francesca Mattei: The Renaissance and its Double

Ǫuestion: How did 19th-century architects like Percier and Fontaine view the Renaissance? Answer: Jacob Burckhardt in $1886$ defined the Renaissance as a civilization. For Fontaine and Percier, the Renaissance was "modern." In their $1798$ publication, they described Renaissance structures as a bridge between antiquity and the contemporary era. They utilized direct observation, drawings, and the Grand Tour to study these models. They influenced the École des Beaux-Arts, using drawings of buildings like the Villa Medici and Villa Madama to teach their students. They argued that even non-expert modern Italians possessed a sense of order and symmetry inherited from these mines of antiquity.

Ǫuestion: What is the significance of the Barrio Gotico in Barcelona? Answer: The Barrio Gotico is largely a 20th-century invention ($1920s$-$1950s$). While it contains seven truly Gothic buildings, much of it was reconstructed using authentic Gothic materials from demolished areas during the opening of Via Laietana. It was a project of re-contextualization to create a glorious past for the city, following the rediscovery of 15th-century designs for the Cathedral's facade. Figures like Adolf Florensa guided this "restoration" until $1968$.