-Linked to Social Reform post WWI.
-Search for unified language of design.
A. Bauhaus (Gropius), "The Building as Entity"
B. International Style (1930s), "Machines for Living
BAUHAUS
-develop aesthetic on sound craft skills
-treat fine arts/crafts equally
-machine aesthetic: "machine is modern medium of design"
-"Art is not a 'profession'." "There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman."
-glass wall architecture
-steel frame/ferro-concrete
-most efficient organization possible
-rectangular/geometric
INTERNATIONAL STYLE
-MOMA 1932 exhibition tries to define and codify a style
-takes formalist approach, ignoring ideologies/individual formal vocabularies underneath surface style
-PRINCIPLES:
1. no loadbearing walls ("curtain" wals of glass, metal or masonry)... therefore an architecture of volume rather than mass. This leads to larger window and door openings and free-flowing space.
2. avoidance of applied decoration and elimination of strong contrasts of color inside and outside (follows writings of Loos, Ornament is Crime)
-lends itself to low-cost urban housing, standardized units and skyscrapers
-strips away of use of Classical, Gothic and Renaissance styles
POMPIDOU CENTER BY ROGERS/PIANO
-signals arrival of anti-modernist aesthetic (transitional)
-can compare to modernist "machine for living" because houses different activities
-uses Bauhaus pragmatism and love of technology as a point of departure but transforms into what one critic called "a child's tinkertoy fantasy realized on an elephantine scale"
-use of colos, exposed skeleton and lots of diagonals in addition to setting a new standard in open-space flexibility.
-icon to popular culture (because of multi-purposes)
EAMES
-mass produced articles purchased through catalogues to make their house
-economic appeal plus industrial aesthetic
-coincides with rise of "prefab" housing (Safdie)
MEIER
-turns Purism/de Stijl into Mannerism
-reverses simple closed forms and ribbon windows into abstractions
-architecture is where term originates
-Pruitt-Igo public housing project becomes prime example of failure of Modernism
-failure because Modernism was indifferent to personal privacy, individuality and context
-Modernism forced people to adjust their lives to architecture
-critics of Pruitt-Igo see opportunity to condemn Bauhaus as "bankruptcy of both form and principle" (too narrow, impersonal, self-referential in insistence on Formalism dictated purely by function and technology.
-can't serve society with cultural and economic diversity.
POSTMODERNIST ARCHITECTS
-seek to build in relation to (1) everything (site and established environment, clients needs, including humor and adventure in living)
-(2) any historical precedent that might be relevant
-(3) find communicable symbols for whole enterprise
-demonstrate that traditional tools, methods and traditions are all VALID but DEBATABLE and open to REARRANGEMENT and REEXAMINATION in order to solve architectural problems, especially with arrival of new materials.
-postmodernism in architecture is more often seen as an identifyable style:
(1) influenced by masters of Modernism AND architects like Gaudi who followed their own path
(2) resist unifying aesthetic and single vision that was Modernism
-they accept some modernist theories and reject others
-eclectic mix of history and decoration/ornament, metaphor, symbolism, playfulness
-but has political consequences, becomes associated with capitalism and cultural institutions
-displays fascination with products of society (similar to way Pop Art did)
VENTURI
-often called "Father of Postmodernism"
-did not have Bauhaus training, learned from more "classically trained" master and then studied in Rome
-wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966
-declared that Modernism was out of synch with the irony and diversity of modern times
-responded to Van der Rohe's "less is more" with "less is a bore"
-wrote Learning from Las Vegas in 1972
-declares the "strip" to be as important to study as ancient Greece/Rome
-phenomenon of urban sprawl... new type of urban form... need to understand it to be able to do it WELL.
-in his own work is going for "messy vitality"
VENTURI, CHESTNUT HILL HOUSE
-parody of conventions of 'ugly and ordinary' crackerbox (stucco veneer, wood frame, pitched roof, front porch, central chimney)
-approaches these elements with wit and satire, shifts proportions
-unity and ambiguity (5 windows on each side of the door but not arranged symmetrically)
-expands scale of facade, making two false fronts, divides them at center to reveal it and then unifies them (emphasizes BOTH division and connection)
-proclaims "houseness" of house.
-inside is complicated, the spaces are irregular and shift from large downstairs "public spaces" to smaller intimate "private spaces" upstairs
-not "total design" but a shelter with symbolism
MOORE, PIAZZA D'ITALIA
-inspired by Disneyland, public space and articulation of "american dream"
-wants to "make places" (sense of place erased by International Modernism)
-playful use of classical forms (classical forms/styles highlighted by multi-colored neon lights in facade)
-entirely decorative AND symbolic
STERN, WALT DISNEY ANIMATION BUILDING
-direct references to Disney characters (cone at entrance recall's Mickey's hat in Fantasia)
-evokes fast-food architecture
DECONSTRUCTION
-Tschumi, Hadid, Eisenman are key architects to consider Derrida's concept of deconstruction to architecture
STRUCTURE AS METAPHOR -- FRANK GEHRY
-or is he a "post-postmodernist" ? (He denies being a Postmodernist)0
-he combines disparate forms, materials and plays with shifts in scale
-his recent museums (Weisman, Guggenheim Bilbao) have "white box" interiors with an organic, expressive shell (is he combining International Modernism and Postmodernism?)
-he uses most recent computer technology (CATIA), to translate blocks covered in gauze and crumpled paper (sculptural models) into specs for manufacture
-Guggenheim Bilbao is inspired by Bilbao's industrial history and river.
-Titanium sheath adds organic whimsy to geometries of Modernism underneath (anchored with 6 limestone cubes that house more "traditional" elements (Galleries, Restaurant, Retail)
-design is based on blossoming flower, symbolizing the political/economic ambitions of the local government to assert themselves on international stage.