Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
minimalism
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
; and a rejection of ornament.
It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and
corporate
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...
(1851) was one of the first buildings to have
cast plate glass
Architectural glass is glass that is used as a building material. It is most typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope, including windows in the external walls. Glass is also used for internal partitions and as an ar ...
windows supported by a
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
frame
File:Maison François Coignet 2.jpg, The first house built of reinforced concrete, designed by
François Coignet
François Coignet (10 February 1814 – 30 October 1888) was a French industrialist and a pioneer in the development of reinforced concrete as the first person to use iron-reinforced concrete to construct buildings.Day, p. 284
Biography
Coign ...
(1853) in Saint-Denis near Paris
File:Home Insurance Building.JPG, The
Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in Chicago, by
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884.
In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...
(1884)
File:Construction tour eiffel5.JPG, The
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
Locally nicknamed "'' ...
being constructed (August 1887–89)
Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th century from revolutions in technology, engineering, and building materials, and from a desire to break away from historical architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new.
The revolution in materials came first, with the use of
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
,
drywall
Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thick ...
,
plate glass
Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is ...
, and
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
, to build structures that were stronger, lighter, and taller. The
cast plate glass
Architectural glass is glass that is used as a building material. It is most typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope, including windows in the external walls. Glass is also used for internal partitions and as an ar ...
process was invented in 1848, allowing the manufacture of very large windows.
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...
by
Joseph Paxton
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
at the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
of 1851 was an early example of iron and plate glass construction, followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall. These developments together led to the first steel-framed skyscraper, the ten-story
Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in Chicago, built in 1884 by
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884.
In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...
. The iron frame construction of the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
Locally nicknamed "'' ...
, then the tallest structure in the world, captured the imagination of millions of visitors to the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition.
French industrialist
François Coignet
François Coignet (10 February 1814 – 30 October 1888) was a French industrialist and a pioneer in the development of reinforced concrete as the first person to use iron-reinforced concrete to construct buildings.Day, p. 284
Biography
Coign ...
was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete, that is, concrete strengthened with iron bars, as a technique for constructing buildings. In 1853 Coagent built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four-story house in the suburbs of Paris. A further important step forward was the invention of the safety
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
by
Elisha Otis
Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811 – April 8, 1861) was an American industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.
Early years
Otis was b ...
, first demonstrated at the
New York Crystal Palace
New York Crystal Palace was an exhibition building constructed for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City in 1853, which was under the presidency of the mayor Jacob Aaron Westervelt. The building stood in Reservoir Squar ...
exposition in 1854, which made tall office and apartment buildings practical. Another important technology for the new architecture was electric light, which greatly reduced the inherent danger of fires caused by gas in the 19th century.
The debut of new materials and techniques inspired architects to break away from the neoclassical and eclectic models that dominated European and American architecture in the late 19th century, most notably
eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
Edwardian architecture
Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.
Description
Edwardian architecture is ...
, and the Beaux-Arts architectural style. This break with the past was particularly urged by the architectural theorist and historian
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. H ...
. In his 1872 book ''Entretiens sur L'Architecture'', he urged: "use the means and knowledge given to us by our times, without the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today, and in that way we can inaugurate a new architecture. For each function its material; for each material its form and its ornament." This book influenced a generation of architects, including
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
,
Victor Horta
Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, built in 1892–93, is often ...
Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...
by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdo ...
(1896–99)
File:25bis rue Benjamin-Franklin (25437741212).jpg, Reinforced concrete apartment building by
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
, Paris (1903)
File:Vienna - PSK Otto Wagner's Postsparkasse - 5977.jpg,
Austrian Postal Savings Bank
The Austrian Postal Savings Bank building (German language: ''Österreichische Postsparkasse'') is a famous building in Vienna, designed and built by the architect Otto Wagner. The building is regarded as an important work of Vienna Secession, br ...
in Vienna by
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner (; 13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect, furniture designer and urban planner. He was a leading member of the Vienna Secession movement of architecture, founded in 1897, and the broader Art Nouveau move ...
(1904–1906)
File:Berlin AEG Turbinenfabrik.jpg, The AEG Turbine factory by
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and ...
(1909)
File:Casa Steiner - Foto Fachada Trasera.jpg, The Steiner House in Vienna by
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...
, main facade (1910)
File:Woluwe-St-Pierre - Hoffmann 050917 (1).jpg, Stoclet Palace by
Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Pa ...
, Brussels, (1906–1911)
File:Théâtre des Champs-Élysées DSC09330.jpg, The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris by
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
(1911–1913)
File:01Sauvage26rueVavin.JPG, Stepped concrete apartment building in Paris by
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
(1912–1914)
File:Wrocław - Jahrhunderthalle5.jpg, The
Centennial Hall Centennial Hall (german: Jahrhunderthalle) may refer to:
in Canada
* Centennial Hall (London, Ontario), London, Ontario, Canada
* Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
* Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium, former name of TCU Place
in ...
in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
by
Max Berg
Max Berg (17 April 1870 – 22 January 1947) was a German architect and urban planner.
Biography
Berg was born in Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) in Pomerania, then part of the German Empire. He attended the Technical University in Charlotte ...
(1911–1913)
File:Fagus-Werke-01.jpg, The
Fagus Factory
The Fagus Factory (German: ''Fagus Fabrik'' or ''Fagus Werk''), a shoe last factory in Alfeld on the Leine, Lower Saxony, Germany, is an important example of early modern architecture. Commissioned by owner Carl Benscheidt who wanted a radical st ...
in
Alfeld
Alfeld is a town in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. Located on the Leine river, it is the second biggest city in the district of Hildesheim in southern Lower Saxony and part of the Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsbur ...
by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
and Adolf Meyer (1911–13)
File:Taut Glass Pavilion exterior 1914.jpg, The
Glass Pavilion
The Glass Pavilion, designed by Bruno Taut and built in 1914, was a Cupola (geometry), prismatic glass dome structure at the Cologne Werkbund Exhibition (1914), Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition. The structure was a brightly colored landmark of the exh ...
in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
by German architect
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
(1914)
At the end of the 19th century, a few architects began to challenge the traditional Beaux Arts and Neoclassical styles that dominated architecture in Europe and the United States. The
Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...
(1896–99) designed by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdo ...
, had a façade dominated by large vertical bays of windows. The Art Nouveau style was launched in the 1890s by
Victor Horta
Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, built in 1892–93, is often ...
in Belgium and Hector Guimard in France; it introduced new styles of decoration, based on vegetal and floral forms. In Barcelona,
Antonio Gaudi
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
conceived architecture as a form of sculpture; the façade of the Casa Battlo in Barcelona (1904–1907) had no straight lines; it was encrusted with colorful mosaics of stone and ceramic tiles.
Architects also began to experiment with new materials and techniques, which gave them greater freedom to create new forms. In 1903–1904 in Paris
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
and
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
began to use
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
, previously only used for industrial structures, to build apartment buildings. Reinforced concrete, which could be molded into any shape, and which could create enormous spaces without the need of supporting pillars, replaced stone and brick as the primary material for modernist architects. The first concrete apartment buildings by Perret and Sauvage were covered with ceramic tiles, but in 1905 Perret built the first concrete parking garage on 51 rue de Ponthieu in Paris; here the concrete was left bare, and the space between the concrete was filled with glass windows.
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
added another construction innovation in an apartment building on Rue Vavin in Paris (1912–1914); the reinforced concrete building was in steps, with each floor set back from the floor below, creating a series of terraces. Between 1910 and 1913, Auguste Perret built the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a masterpiece of reinforced concrete construction, with Art Deco sculptural bas-reliefs on the facade by Antoine Bourdelle. Because of the concrete construction, no columns blocked the spectator's view of the stage.
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner (; 13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect, furniture designer and urban planner. He was a leading member of the Vienna Secession movement of architecture, founded in 1897, and the broader Art Nouveau move ...
, in Vienna, was another pioneer of the new style. In his book ''Moderne Architektur'' (1895) he had called for a more rationalist style of architecture, based on "modern life". He designed a stylized ornamental metro station at
Karlsplatz
Karlsplatz () is a town square on the border of the first and fourth districts of Vienna. It is one of the most frequented and best connected transportation hubs in Vienna. The Karlskirche is located here.
The first district can be reached e ...
in Vienna (1888–89), then an ornamental Art Nouveau residence, Majolika House (1898), before moving to a much more geometric and simplified style, without ornament, in the
Austrian Postal Savings Bank
The Austrian Postal Savings Bank building (German language: ''Österreichische Postsparkasse'') is a famous building in Vienna, designed and built by the architect Otto Wagner. The building is regarded as an important work of Vienna Secession, br ...
(1904–1906). Wagner declared his intention to express the function of the building in its exterior. The reinforced concrete exterior was covered with plaques of marble attached with bolts of polished aluminum. The interior was purely functional and spare, a large open space of steel, glass, and concrete where the only decoration was the structure itself.
The Viennese architect
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...
also began removing any ornament from his buildings. His Steiner House, in Vienna (1910), was an example of what he called
rationalist architecture
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work '' De architectura'' that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. The form ...
; it had a simple stucco rectangular facade with square windows and no ornament. The fame of the new movement, which became known as the
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austr ...
spread beyond Austria.
Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Pa ...
, a student of Wagner, constructed a landmark of early modernist architecture, the
Palais Stoclet
The Stoclet Palace (french: Palais Stoclet, nl, Stocletpaleis) is a mansion in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann for the Belgian financier Adolphe Stoclet. Built between 1905 and 1911 in the Vienna Sec ...
, in Brussels, in 1906–1911. This residence, built of brick covered with Norwegian marble, was composed of geometric blocks, wings, and a tower. A large pool in front of the house reflected its cubic forms. The interior was decorated with paintings by Gustav Klimt and other artists, and the architect even designed clothing for the family to match the architecture.
In Germany, a modernist industrial movement,
Deutscher Werkbund
The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern arch ...
(German Work Federation) had been created in Munich in 1907 by
Hermann Muthesius
Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...
, a prominent architectural commentator. Its goal was to bring together designers and industrialists, to turn out well-designed, high-quality products, and in the process to invent a new type of architecture. The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and ...
,
Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher.
Career
Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...
(who served as its first president),
Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Pa ...
and
Richard Riemerschmid
Richard Riemerschmid (20 June 1868 – 13 April 1957) was a German architect, painter, designer and city planner from Munich. He was a major figure in ''Jugendstil'', the German form of Art Nouveau, and a founder of architecture in the s ...
. In 1909 Behrens designed one of the earliest and most influential industrial buildings in the modernist style, the AEG turbine factory, a functional monument of steel and concrete. In 1911–1913, Adolf Meyer and
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
, who had both worked for Behrens, built another revolutionary industrial plant, the Fagus Factory in Alfeld an der Laine, a building without ornament where every construction element was on display. The Werkbund organized a major exposition of modernist design in Cologne just a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. For the 1914 Cologne exhibition,
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
built a revolutionary glass pavilion.
Early American modernism (1890s–1914)
File:William H. Winslow House Front Facade.jpg,
William H. Winslow House
The Winslow House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house located at 515 Auvergne Place in River Forest, Illinois, River Forest, Illinois. A landmark building in Wright's career, the Winslow House, built in 1893–94, was his first major commissio ...
, by Frank Lloyd Wright, River Forest, Illinois (1893–94)
File:Oak park house2.jpg, The Arthur Heurtley House in Oak Park, Illinois (1902)
File:LarkinAdministrationBuilding1906.jpg,
Larkin Administration Building
The Larkin Building was an early 20th century building. It was designed in 1903 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1904-1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and ...
by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
,
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
(1904–1906)
File:Unity Temple - Oak Park IL 9 (3224132995).jpg, Interior of
Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Te ...
by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
,
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...
(1905–1908)
File:Frederick C. Robie House.JPG, The
Robie House
The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark now on the campus of the University of Chicago in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was designed as a sing ...
by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, Chicago (1909)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
was a highly original and independent American architect who refused to be categorized in any one architectural movement. Like
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, he had no formal architectural training. In 1887–93 he worked in the Chicago office of
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
, who pioneered the first tall steel-frame office buildings in Chicago, and who famously stated "
form follows function
Form follows function is a principle of design associated with late 19th and early 20th century architecture and industrial design in general, which states that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function ...
". Wright set out to break all the traditional rules. He was particularly famous for his
Prairie Houses
Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped i ...
River Forest, Illinois
River Forest is a suburban village adjacent to Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, U.S. Per the 2020 census, the population was 11,717. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The ...
Robie House
The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark now on the campus of the University of Chicago in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was designed as a sing ...
(1909); sprawling, geometric residences without decoration, with strong horizontal lines which seemed to grow out of the earth, and which echoed the wide flat spaces of the American prairie. His Larkin Building (1904–1906) in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
,
Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Te ...
(1905) in
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...
and
Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Te ...
had highly original forms and no connection with historical precedents.
Early skyscrapers
File:Home Insurance Building.JPG,
Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in Chicago by
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884.
In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...
(1883)
File:Prudential buffalo louis sullivan.jpg,
Prudential (Guaranty) Building
The Guaranty Building, formerly called the Prudential Building, is an early skyscraper in Buffalo, New York. It was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler and completed in 1896. The building has been declared a National Historic Landmar ...
by
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
(1896)
File:Detroit Photographic Company (0645).jpg, The
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Dan ...
in New York City (1903)
File:Carson Pirie Scott building, Chicago, Illinois - Louis Sullivan.jpg, The
Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building
The Sullivan Center, formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building or Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store, is a commercial building at 1 South State Street at the corner of East Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois. Louis S ...
in Chicago by
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
(1904–1906)
File:Woolworth Building and City Hall Park, New York City 1910s retouched.png, The
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is an early skyscraper, early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the tallest building in ...
and the New York skyline in 1913. It was modern on the inside but
neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
on the outside.
File:WoolworthBuilding crop.jpg, The neo-Gothic crown of the
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is an early skyscraper, early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the tallest building in ...
by
Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...
(1912)
At the end of the 19th century, the first
skyscrapers
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
began to appear in the United States. They were a response to the shortage of land and high cost of real estate in the center of the fast-growing American cities, and the availability of new technologies, including fireproof steel frames and improvements in the safety
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
invented by
Elisha Otis
Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811 – April 8, 1861) was an American industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.
Early years
Otis was b ...
in 1852. The first steel-framed "skyscraper", The
Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in Chicago, was ten stories high. It was designed by
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884.
In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...
in 1883, and was briefly the tallest building in the world.
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
built another monumental new structure, the
Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building
The Sullivan Center, formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building or Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store, is a commercial building at 1 South State Street at the corner of East Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois. Louis S ...
, in the heart of Chicago in 1904–06. While these buildings were revolutionary in their steel frames and height, their decoration was borrowed from
Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...
,
Neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
. The
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is an early skyscraper, early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the tallest building in ...
, designed by
Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...
, was completed in 1912, and was the tallest building in the world until the completion of the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
in 1929. The structure was purely modern, but its exterior was decorated with Neo-Gothic ornament, complete with decorative buttresses, arches and spires, which caused it to be nicknamed the "Cathedral of Commerce".
Rise of modernism in Europe and Russia (1918–1931)
After the first World War, a prolonged struggle began between architects who favored the more traditional styles of
neo-classicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...
and the
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
style, and the modernists, led by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and
Robert Mallet-Stevens
Robert Mallet-Stevens (March 24, 1886 – February 8, 1945) was an influential French architect and designer.
Early life
Mallet-Stevens was born in Paris in a house called Maison-Laffitte (designed by François Mansart in the 17th century). H ...
in France,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
in the new
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, who wanted only pure forms and the elimination of any decoration.
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
popularized the axiom ''
Form follows function
Form follows function is a principle of design associated with late 19th and early 20th century architecture and industrial design in general, which states that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function ...
'' to emphasize the importance of utilitarian simplicity in modern architecture.
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architects such as
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
and
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
often made a compromise between the two, combining modernist forms and stylized decoration.
International Style (1920s–1970s)
File:Villa La Roche 2013.jpg, The
Villa La Roche
Villa La Roche, also Maison La Roche, is a house in Paris, designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret in 1923–1925. It was designed for Raoul La Roche, a Swiss banker from Basel and collector of avant-garde art. Villa La Roche no ...
-Jeanneret (now
Fondation Le Corbusier Fondation Le Corbusier is a private foundation and archive honoring the work of architect Le Corbusier. It operates Maison La Roche, a museum located in the 16th arrondissement at 8-10, square du Dr Blanche, Paris, France, which is open daily excep ...
) by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, Paris (1923–25)
File:Weissenhof Corbusier 03.jpg, Corbusier Haus in
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...
, Stuttgart, Germany (1927)
File:Weissenhof photo house citrohan east façade Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret Stuttgart Germany 2005-10-08.jpg, Citrohan Haus in
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...
, Stuttgart, Germany by Le Corbusier (1927)
File:VillaSavoye.jpg, The
Villa Savoye
Villa Savoye () is a modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.Courlan ...
in
Poissy
Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French.
Poissy is one ...
by Le Corbusier (1928–31)
File:MalletStevensMezy2.jpg,
Villa Paul Poiret
Villa Paul Poiret in Mézy-sur-Seine, Yvelines, France, is an early 1920s Cubism-inspired Art Deco private house originally designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.
The house stands in of parkland in Mézy-sur-Seine, to the west of Paris, ...
by
Robert Mallet-Stevens
Robert Mallet-Stevens (March 24, 1886 – February 8, 1945) was an influential French architect and designer.
Early life
Mallet-Stevens was born in Paris in a house called Maison-Laffitte (designed by François Mansart in the 17th century). H ...
(1921–1925)
File:Villa Noailles (Mallet-Stevens, 1923).JPG, The
Villa Noailles
Villa Noailles () is an early modernist house, built by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, between 1923 and 1927. It is located in the hills above Hyères, in the Var, southeastern France.
His ...
in
Hyères
Hyères (), Provençal Occitan: ''Ieras'' in classical norm, or ''Iero'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
The old town lies from the sea clustered around t ...
by Robert Mallet-Stevens (1923)
File:Villa des frères Martel construite par Robert Mallet-Stevens au 10 rue Mallet-Stevens (Paris), en 1927.jpg, Hôtel Martel rue Mallet-Stevens, by
Robert Mallet-Stevens
Robert Mallet-Stevens (March 24, 1886 – February 8, 1945) was an influential French architect and designer.
Early life
Mallet-Stevens was born in Paris in a house called Maison-Laffitte (designed by François Mansart in the 17th century). H ...
Rietveld Schröder House
The Rietveld Schröder House ( nl, Rietveld Schröderhuis) (also known as the Schröder House) in Utrecht (Prins Hendriklaan 50) was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children.
She c ...
in the Netherlands (1924)
The dominant figure in the rise of modernism in France was Charles-Édouard Jeanerette, a Swiss-French architect who in 1920 took the name
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
. In 1920 he co-founded a journal called L'Espirit Nouveau'' and energetically promoted architecture that was functional, pure, and free of any decoration or historical associations. He was also a passionate advocate of a new urbanism, based on planned cities. In 1922 he presented a design of a city for three million people, whose inhabitants lived in identical sixty-story tall skyscrapers surrounded by open parkland. He designed modular houses, which would be mass-produced on the same plan and assembled into apartment blocks, neighborhoods, and cities. In 1923 he published "Toward an Architecture", with his famous slogan, "a house is a machine for living in." He tirelessly promoted his ideas through slogans, articles, books, conferences, and participation in Expositions.
To illustrate his ideas, in the 1920s he built a series of houses and villas in and around Paris. They were all built according to a common system, based upon the use of reinforced concrete, and of reinforced concrete pylons in the interior which supported the structure, allowing glass curtain walls on the façade and open floor plans, independent of the structure. They were always white, and had no ornament or decoration on the outside or inside. The best-known of these houses was the
Villa Savoye
Villa Savoye () is a modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.Courlan ...
, built in 1928–1931 in the Paris suburb of
Poissy
Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French.
Poissy is one ...
. An elegant white box wrapped with a ribbon of glass windows around on the façade, with living space that opened upon an interior garden and countryside around, raised up by a row of white pylons in the center of a large lawn, it became an icon of modernist architecture.
Bauhaus and the German Werkbund (1919–1933)
File:Bauhaus Dessau 2018.jpg, The
Bauhaus Dessau building
Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau is a World Heritage Site in Germany, comprising six separate sites which are associated with the Bauhaus art school. It was designated in 1996 with four initial sites, and in 2017 two further si ...
, designed by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
(1926)
Bernau bei Berlin ADGB Schule Wohntrakte vorne.jpg,
ADGB Trade Union School
The ADGB Trade Union School (''Bundesschule des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes'' (ADGB)), is a training centre complex in Bernau bei Berlin, Germany. It was built for the former General German Trade Union Federation, from 1928 to 1930 ...
by
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer (18 November 1889 – 19 July 1954) was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus Dessau from 1928 to 1930.
Early life
Meyer was born in Basel, Switzerland, trained as a mason, and practiced as an architect ...
and
Hans Wittwer
Hans Wittwer (4 February 1894 – 19 March 1952) was a Swiss architect who worked in Germany and who taught architecture at the Bauhaus art school in Dessau. He was a proponent of functionalist architecture; the idea that form follows function ...
(1928-30)
File:Haus am Horn, Weimar (Südwestansicht).jpg,
Haus am Horn
The Haus am Horn is a domestic house in Weimar, Germany, designed by Georg Muche. It was built for the Bauhaus ''Werkschau'' (English: ''Work show'') exhibition which ran from July to September 1923. It was the first building based on Bauhaus des ...
, Weimar by
Georg Muche
Georg Muche (8 May 1895 – 26 March 1987) was a German painter, printmaker, architect, author, and teacher.
Early life and education
Georg Muche was born on 8 May 1895 in Querfurt, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, and grew up in the Rhön ...
(1923)
File:The Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, 2010.jpg, The Barcelona Pavilion (modern reconstruction) by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1929)
File:WeissenhofsiedlungJJPOud-pjt.jpg, The
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...
in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, built by the
German Werkbund
The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern arch ...
(1927)
In Germany, two important modernist movements appeared after the first World War, The
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
was a school founded
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
in 1919 under the direction of
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
. Gropius was the son of the official state architect of Berlin, who studied before the war with
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and ...
, and designed the modernist Fagus turbine factory. The Bauhaus was a fusion of the prewar Academy of Arts and the school of technology. In 1926 it was transferred from Weimar to Dessau; Gropius designed the new school and student dormitories in the new, purely functional modernist style he was encouraging. The school brought together modernists in all fields; the faculty included the modernist painters
Vasily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
, and the designer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
.
Gropius became an important theorist of modernism, writing ''The Idea and Construction'' in 1923. He was an advocate of standardization in architecture, and the mass construction of rationally designed apartment blocks for factory workers. In 1928 he was commissioned by the
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
company to build apartment for workers in the suburbs of Berlin, and in 1929 he proposed the construction of clusters of slender eight- to ten-story high-rise apartment towers for workers.
While Gropius was active at the Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe led the modernist architectural movement in Berlin. Inspired by the
De Stijl
''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body ...
movement in the Netherlands, he built clusters of concrete summer houses and proposed a project for a glass office tower. He became the vice president of the German Werkbund, and became the head of the Bauhaus from 1930 to 1933. proposing a wide variety of modernist plans for urban reconstruction. His most famous modernist work was the German pavilion for the 1929 international exposition in Barcelona. It was a work of pure modernism, with glass and concrete walls and clean, horizontal lines. Though it was only a temporary structure, and was torn down in 1930, it became, along with Le Corbusier's
Villa Savoye
Villa Savoye () is a modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.Courlan ...
, one of the best-known landmarks of modernist architecture. A reconstructed version now stands on the original site in Barcelona.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they viewed the Bauhaus as a training ground for communists, and closed the school in 1933. Gropius left Germany and went to England, then to the United States, where he and
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
both joined the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and became the teachers of a generation of American postwar architects. In 1937 Mies van der Rohe also moved to the United States; he became one of the most famous designers of postwar American skyscrapers.
Expressionist architecture (1918–1931)
File:Berlin Grosses Schauspielhaus Poelzig Foyer.jpg, Foyer of the Großes Schauspielhaus, or Great Theater, in Berlin by
Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig (30 April 1869 – 14 June 1936) was a German architect, painter and set designer.
Life
Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to Countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncerta ...
(1919)
File:Einsteinturm 7443.jpg, The
Einstein Tower
The Einstein Tower (German: ''Einsteinturm'') is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam, Germany built by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built on the summit of the Potsdam '' Telegraphenberg'' to house ...
by Erich Mendelsohn (1920–24)
File:Berlin, Mitte, Schuetzenstrasse, Mosse-Zentrum 05.jpg, The
Mossehaus
Mossehaus is an office building on 18–25 Schützenstraße in Berlin, renovated and with a corner designed by Erich Mendelsohn between 1921 and 1923.
The original Mosse building housed the printing press and offices of the newspapers owned by Ru ...
in Berlin by Erich Mendelsohn, an early example of streamline moderne (1921–23)
File:Chilehaus - Hamburg.jpg, The
Chilehaus
The Chilehaus (, "Chile House") is a ten-story office building in Hamburg, Germany. It is located in the Kontorhaus District. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. This large angular building is loca ...
in Hamburg by
Fritz Höger
Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridoli ...
(1921–24)
File:Berlin Hufeisensiedlung UAV 04-2017.jpg, Horseshoe Estate public housing project by
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
) by the Austrian architect
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
(1924–1928)
File:Amsterdam Het Schip 006.JPG, Het Schip apartment building in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
by
Michel de Klerk
Michel de Klerk (24 November 1884, Amsterdam – 24 November 1923, Amsterdam) was a Dutch architect. Born to a Dutch Jews, Jewish family, he was one of the founding architects of the movement Amsterdam School (Expressionist architecture)
Earl ...
(1917–1920)
File:Den Haag De Bijenkorf 001.JPG,
De Bijenkorf
De Bijenkorf (; literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, which also owns Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's ...
store in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
by
Piet Kramer
Pieter Lodewijk (Piet) Kramer (Amsterdam, 1 July 1881 – Santpoort, 4 February 1961) was a Dutch architect, one of the most important architects of the Amsterdam School (Expressionist architecture).
From 1903 to 1911 Piet Kramer worked in the a ...
(1924–1926)
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
, which appeared in Germany between 1910 and 1925, was a counter-movement against the strictly functional architecture of the Bauhaus and Werkbund. Its advocates, including
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
,
Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig (30 April 1869 – 14 June 1936) was a German architect, painter and set designer.
Life
Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to Countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncerta ...
, Fritz Hoger and Erich Mendelsohn, wanted to create architecture that was poetic, expressive, and optimistic. Many expressionist architects had fought in World War I and their experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda. Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between 1914 and the mid–1920s, As result, many of the most innovative expressionist projects, including
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
's ''Alpine Architecture'' and Hermann Finsterlin's ''Formspiels'', remained on paper.
Scenography
Scenography (inclusive of scenic design, lighting design, sound design, costume design) is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography is the combination of technological and material ...
for theatre and films provided another outlet for the expressionist imagination, and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challenge conventions in a harsh economic climate. A particular type, using bricks to create its forms (rather than concrete) is known as Brick Expressionism.
Erich Mendelsohn, (who disliked the term Expressionism for his work) began his career designing churches, silos, and factories which were highly imaginative, but, for lack of resources, were never built. In 1920, he finally was able to construct one of his works in the city of Potsdam; an observatory and research center called the
Einsteinium
Einsteinium is a synthetic element with the symbol Es and atomic number 99. Einsteinium is a member of the actinide series and it is the seventh transuranium element. It was named in honor of Albert Einstein.
Einsteinium was discovered as a com ...
, named in tribute to
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
. It was supposed to be built of reinforced concrete, but because of technical problems it was finally built of traditional materials covered with plaster. His sculptural form, very different from the austere rectangular forms of the Bauhaus, first won him commissions to build movie theaters and retail stores in Stuttgart, Nuremberg, and Berlin. His
Mossehaus
Mossehaus is an office building on 18–25 Schützenstraße in Berlin, renovated and with a corner designed by Erich Mendelsohn between 1921 and 1923.
The original Mosse building housed the printing press and offices of the newspapers owned by Ru ...
in Berlin was an early model for the streamline moderne style. His Columbushaus on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin (1931) was a prototype for the modernist office buildings that followed. (It was torn down in 1957, because it stood in the zone between East and West Berlin, where the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
was constructed.) Following the rise of the Nazis to power, he moved to England (1933), then to the United States (1941).
Fritz Höger
Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridoli ...
was another notable Expressionist architect of the period. His
Chilehaus
The Chilehaus (, "Chile House") is a ten-story office building in Hamburg, Germany. It is located in the Kontorhaus District. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. This large angular building is loca ...
was built as the headquarters of a shipping company, and was modeled after a giant steamship, a triangular building with a sharply pointed bow. It was constructed of dark brick, and used external piers to express its vertical structure. Its external decoration borrowed from Gothic cathedrals, as did its internal arcades.
Hans Poelzig
Hans Poelzig (30 April 1869 – 14 June 1936) was a German architect, painter and set designer.
Life
Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to Countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncerta ...
was another notable expressionist architect. In 1919 he built the
Großes Schauspielhaus
The Großes Schauspielhaus (Great Theater) was a theatre in Berlin, Germany, often described as an example of expressionist architecture, designed by Hans Poelzig for theatre impresario Max Reinhardt. The structure was originally a market built b ...
, an immense theater in Berlin, seating five thousand spectators for theater impresario
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most pro ...
. It featured elongated shapes like stalagmites hanging down from its gigantic dome, and lights on massive columns in its foyer. He also constructed the
IG Farben building
The IG Farben Building – also known as the Poelzig Building and the Abrams Building, formerly informally called The Pentagon of Europe – is a building complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which currently serves as the main structure of the West ...
, a massive corporate headquarters, now the main building of
Goethe University
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
in Frankfurt.
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
specialized in building large-scale apartment complexes for working-class Berliners. He built twelve thousand individual units, sometimes in buildings with unusual shapes, such as a giant horseshoe. Unlike most other modernists, he used bright exterior colors to give his buildings more life The use of dark brick in the German projects gave that particular style a name, Brick Expressionism.
The Austrian philosopher, architect, and social critic
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
also departed as far as possible from traditional architectural forms. His Second Goetheanum, built from 1926 near
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
the
Einsteinturm
The Einstein Tower (German: ''Einsteinturm'') is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam, Germany built by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built on the summit of the Potsdam ''Prussian semaphore system#Route ...
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
(1926), were based on no traditional models, and had entirely original shapes.
Constructivist architecture (1919–1931)
File:Tatlin's Tower maket 1919 year.jpg, Model of the Tower for the Third International, by
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, whi ...
(1919)
File:Lenin Mausoleum.jpg, the
Lenin Mausoleum
Lenin's Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum) ( rus, links=no, Мавзолей Ленина, r=Mavzoley Lenina, p=məvzɐˈlʲej ˈlʲenʲɪnə), also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, i ...
in Moscow by
Alexey Shchusev
Alexey Victorovich Shchusev (academic spelling), german: Schtschussew, french: Chtchoussev, pl, Szchusiew. (russian: Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев; – 24 May 1949) was a Russian and Soviet architect who was successf ...
(1924)
File:Pavillon de l'URSS Paris (1925).jpg, The USSR Pavilion at the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
(1925)
File:Moscow RusakovWorkersClub 2253.jpg, Rusakov Workers' Club, Moscow, by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
(1928)
File:Будинок_держпромисловості_1.jpg,
Derzhprom
The Derzhprom ( uk, Держпром) or Gosprom (russian: Госпром) building is an office building located on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Built in the Constructivist style, it was the first modern skyscraper building in th ...
(the House of Industry), Kharkiv, by Sergey Serafimovich, Samul Kravets and Marc Felger (1928)
File:Mr.M. C. Dresselhuyspaviljoen, overzicht van de zuidvleugel, dan wel scheeve vleugel, tijdens restauratie - Hilversum - 20422171 - RCE.jpg, Zonnestraal Sanatorium in
Hilversum
Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...
by Jan Duiker and Bernard Bijvoet (1926–1928)
File:Openluchtschool - Open-air School (8157211576).jpg,
Open air school
Open air schools or schools of the woods were purpose-built educational institutions for children, that were designed to prevent and combat the widespread rise of tuberculosis that occurred in the period leading up to the Second World War. The s ...
in Amsterdam by Jan Duiker (1929–1930)
File:VN5 HDR2.jpg,
Van Nelle Factory
The former Van Nelle Factory ( nl, Van Nellefabriek) on the Schie in Rotterdam, is considered a prime example of the International Style based upon constructivist architecture. It has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Soon ...
in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
by
Leendert van der Vlugt
Leendert Cornelis van der Vlugt (13 April 1894 – 25 April 1936) was a Dutch architect in Rotterdam. In the architects office Brinkman & Van der Vlugt he was responsible for the architecture of the Van Nelle Factory, a listed monument of t ...
and
Mart Stam
Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century Europe ...
(1927–1931)
After the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
of 1917, Russian avant-garde artists and architects began searching for a new Soviet style which could replace traditional neoclassicism. The new architectural movements were closely tied with the literary and artistic movements of the period, the
futurism
Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...
of poet
Vladimir Mayakovskiy
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
, the
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
Rayonism
Rayonism (or Rayism or Rayonnism) was a style of abstract art that developed in Russia in 1910–1914. Founded and named by Russian Cubo-Futurists Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, it was one of Russia's first abstract art movements.
B ...
of painter
Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov ( Russian: Михаи́л Фёдорович Ларио́нов; June 3, 1881 – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Ru ...
. The most startling design that emerged was the tower proposed by painter and sculptor
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, whi ...
for the Moscow meeting of the Third
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
in 1920: he proposed two interlaced towers of metal four hundred meters high, with four geometric volumes suspended from cables. The movement of Russian
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a constructivist style of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. Abstract and austere, the movement aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space, while ...
was launched in 1921 by a group of artists led by Aleksandr Rodchenko. Their manifesto proclaimed that their goal was to find the "communist expression of material structures". Soviet architects began to construct workers' clubs, communal apartment houses, and communal kitchens for feeding whole neighborhoods.
One of the first prominent constructivist architects to emerge in Moscow was
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
Arbat Street
Arbat Street (Russian ), mainly referred to in English as the Arbat, is a pedestrian street about one kilometer long in the historical centre of Moscow, Russia. The Arbat has existed since at least the 15th century, which makes it one of the o ...
in Moscow. Melnikov traveled to Paris in 1925 where he built the Soviet Pavilion for the
International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (french: Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes) was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the Fren ...
in Paris in 1925; it was a highly geometric vertical construction of glass and steel crossed by a diagonal stairway, and crowned with a hammer and sickle. The leading group of constructivist architects, led by
Vesnin brothers
The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Victor Vesnin (1882–1950) and Alexander Vesnin (1883–1959) were the leaders of Constructivist architecture, the dominant architectural school of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. E ...
and
Moisei Ginzburg
Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg ( be, Майсей Якаўлевіч Гінзбург, russian: Моисей Яковлевич Гинзбург; , Minsk – 7 January 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 ...
, was publishing the 'Contemporary Architecture' journal. This group created several major constructivist projects in the wake of the First Five Year Plan – including colossal
Dnieper Hydroelectric Station
The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station ( uk, ДніпроГЕС, DniproHES; russian: ДнепроГЭС, DneproGES), also known as Dneprostroi Dam, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is the largest hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper river. ...
(1932) – and made an attempt to start the standardization of living blocks with Ginzburg's
Narkomfin building
The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Central district of Moscow, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of Constructivist architecture and avant-garde ho ...
. A number of architects from the pre-Soviet period also took up the constructivist style. The most famous example was
Lenin's Mausoleum
Lenin's Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum) ( rus, links=no, Мавзолей Ленина, r=Mavzoley Lenina, p=məvzɐˈlʲej ˈlʲenʲɪnə), also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, i ...
in Moscow (1924), by
Alexey Shchusev
Alexey Victorovich Shchusev (academic spelling), german: Schtschussew, french: Chtchoussev, pl, Szchusiew. (russian: Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев; – 24 May 1949) was a Russian and Soviet architect who was successf ...
(1924)
The main centers of constructivist architecture were Moscow and Leningrad; however, during the industrialization many constructivist buildings were erected in provincial cities. The regional industrial centers, including Ekaterinburg,
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ivanovo, were rebuilt in the constructivist manner; some cities, like
Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population ...
or
Zaporizhzhia
Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zapor ...
, were constructed anew (the so-called ''socgorod'', or 'socialist city').
The style fell markedly out of favor in the 1930s, replaced by the more grandiose nationalist styles that Stalin favored. Constructivist architects and even
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
projects for the new
Palace of the Soviets
The Palace of the Soviets (russian: Дворец Советов, ''Dvorets Sovetov'') was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the pa ...
from 1931 to 1933, but the winner was an early Stalinist building in the style termed
Postconstructivism
Postconstructivism was a transitional architectural style that existed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, typical of early Stalinist architecture before World War II. The term ''postconstructivism'' was coined by Selim Khan-Magomedov, a historian ...
. The last major Russian constructivist building, by
Boris Iofan
Boris Mikhailovich Iofan ( rus, Борис Михайлович Иофан, p=ɪɐˈfan; April 28, 1891 – March 11, 1976) was a Soviet architect of Jewish origin, known for his Stalinist architecture buildings like 1931 House on the Embankment ...
By the late 1920s, modernism had become an important movement in Europe. Architecture, which previously had been predominantly national, began to become international. The architects traveled, met each other, and shared ideas. Several modernists, including
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, had participated in the competition for the headquarters of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
in 1927. In the same year, the German Werkbund organized an architectural exposition at the
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
. Seventeen leading modernist architects in Europe were invited to design twenty-one houses; Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe played a major part. In 1927 Le Corbusier, Pierre Chareau, and others proposed the foundation of an international conference to establish the basis for a common style. The first meeting of the ''
Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne
The ''Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne'' (CIAM), or International Congresses of Modern Architecture, was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged across Europ ...
'' or International Congresses of Modern Architects (CIAM), was held in a chateau on
Lake Leman
, image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg
, caption = Satellite image
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial la ...
in Switzerland 26–28 June 1928. Those attending included Le Corbusier,
Robert Mallet-Stevens
Robert Mallet-Stevens (March 24, 1886 – February 8, 1945) was an influential French architect and designer.
Early life
Mallet-Stevens was born in Paris in a house called Maison-Laffitte (designed by François Mansart in the 17th century). H ...
,
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
,
Pierre Chareau
Pierre Chareau (4 August 1883 – 24 August 1950) was a French architect and designer.
Early life
Chareau was born in Bordeaux, France. He went to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris by the time he was 17.
Work
Chareau d ...
Victor Bourgeois
Victor Bourgeois (29 August 1897 – 24 July 1962) was a Belgian architect and urban planner, considered the greatest Belgian modernist architect.
Bourgeois was born in Charleroi and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from ...
from Belgium;
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
Ernst May
Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner.
May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from Germany; Josef Frank from Austria;
Mart Stam
Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century Europe ...
and
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect.
Early life
Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at n ...
from the Netherlands, and
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...
from Czechoslovakia. A delegation of Soviet architects was invited to attend, but they were unable to obtain visas. Later members included
Josep Lluís Sert
Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Spanish architect and city planner.
Biography
Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Gaudí. He s ...
of Spain and Alvar Aalto of Finland. No one attended from the United States. A second meeting was organized in 1930 in Brussels by Victor Bourgeois on the topic "Rational methods for groups of habitations". A third meeting, on "The functional city", was scheduled for Moscow in 1932, but was cancelled at the last minute. Instead, the delegates held their meeting on a cruise ship traveling between Marseille and Athens. On board, they together drafted a text on how modern cities should be organized. The text, called The
Athens Charter
The Athens Charter (french: Charte d'Athènes, Greek: Χάρτα των Αθηνών) was a 1933 document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s '' Ville Radieuse'' (Radiant C ...
, after considerable editing by Corbusier and others, was finally published in 1957 and became an influential text for city planners in the 1950s and 1960s. The group met once more in Paris in 1937 to discuss public housing and was scheduled to meet in the United States in 1939, but the meeting was cancelled because of the war. The legacy of the CIAM was a roughly common style and doctrine which helped define modern architecture in Europe and the United States after World War II.
Art Deco
File:Paris-FR-75-Expo 1925 Arts décoratifs-pavillon des Galeries Lafayette.jpg, Pavilion of the
Galeries Lafayette
The Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and oth ...
La Samaritaine
La Samaritaine (French pronunciation: a samaʁitɛn is a large department store in Paris, France, located in the first arrondissement. The nearest métro station is Pont-Neuf, directly in front at the quai du Louvre and the rue de la Monnaie ...
department store, by
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
, Paris, (1925–28)
The
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architectural style (called ''Style Moderne'' in France), was modern, but it was not modernist; it had many features of modernism, including the use of reinforced concrete, glass, steel, chrome, and it rejected traditional historical models, such as the
Beaux-Arts style
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpor ...
and
Neo-classicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...
; but, unlike the modernist styles of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, it made lavish use of decoration and color. It reveled in the symbols of modernity; lightning flashes, sunrises, and zig-zags. Art Deco had begun in France before World War I and spread through Europe; in the 1920s and 1930s it became a highly popular style in the United States, South America, India, China, Australia, and Japan. In Europe, Art Deco was particularly popular for department stores and movie theaters. The style reached its peak in Europe at the
International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (french: Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes) was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the Fren ...
in 1925, which featured art deco pavilions and decoration from twenty countries. Only two pavilions were purely modernist; the Esprit Nouveau pavilion of Le Corbusier, which represented his idea for a mass-produced housing unit, and the pavilion of the USSR, by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
in a flamboyantly
futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...
style.
Later French landmarks in the Art Deco style included the
Grand Rex
Le Grand Rex is a Parisian cinema and concert venue.
Location and access
It is located at , boulevard Poissonnière in the 2nd arrondissement, on the grands boulevards.
Its facades and roofs, as well as its hall and its decor have been lis ...
movie theater in Paris,
La Samaritaine
La Samaritaine (French pronunciation: a samaʁitɛn is a large department store in Paris, France, located in the first arrondissement. The nearest métro station is Pont-Neuf, directly in front at the quai du Louvre and the rue de la Monnaie ...
department store by
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage (May 10, 1873 in Rouen – March 21, 1932 in Paris) was a French architect and designer in the early 20th century. He was one of the most important architects in the French Art nouveau movement, Art Deco, and the beginning of ar ...
(1926–28) and the Social and Economic Council building in Paris (1937–38) by
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
, and the
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...
and
Palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France.
For the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) ...
, both built by collectives of architects for the 1937 Paris
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne
The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mus ...
.
American Art Deco; the skyscraper style (1919–1939)
File:American Radiator Building.jpg, The
American Radiator Building
The American Radiator Building (also known as the American Standard Building) is an early skyscraper at 40 West 40th Street, just south of Bryant Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was designed by Raymond Hood an ...
in New York City by
Raymond Hood
Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Th ...
(1924)
File:Guardian Building Detroit Interior Clock.jpg,
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a landmark skyscraper in the United States, located at 500 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Financial District. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and ser ...
in Detroit, by
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland (December 1, 1878 – November 30, 1946) was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.
Biography
Rowland was born December 1, 1878, in Clinton, Michigan, to Clinton Charles and Melissa Ruth Ro ...
(1927–29)
File:Chrysler Building spire, Manhattan, by Carol Highsmith (LOC highsm.04444).jpg,
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
in New York City, by
William Van Alen
William Van Alen (August 10, 1883 – May 24, 1954) was an American architect, best known as the architect in charge of designing New York City's Chrysler Building (1928–30).
Life
William Van Alen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1883 to ...
(1928–30)
File:GeneralElectricBuilding-Crown.jpg, Crown of the
General Electric Building
The General Electric Building (also known as 570 Lexington Avenue) is a skyscraper at the southwestern corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building, designed by Cross & Cross and completed in 1 ...
(also known as 570 Lexington Avenue) by
Cross & Cross
Cross & Cross (1907–1942) was a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross.
History
Cross & Cross was known as Old New York City Society's architectural firm of choice. John Cross (1878–1951) ...
(1933)
File:GE Building by David Shankbone.JPG, 30 Rockefeller Center, now the
Comcast Building
30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1933, the 66-s ...
, by
Raymond Hood
Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Th ...
(1933)
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, an exuberant American variant of Art Deco appeared in the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
,
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
and
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
in New York City, and
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a landmark skyscraper in the United States, located at 500 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Financial District. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and ser ...
in Detroit. The first skyscrapers in Chicago and New York had been designed in a neo-gothic or neoclassical style, but these buildings were very different; they combined modern materials and technology (stainless steel, concrete, aluminum, chrome-plated steel) with Art Deco geometry; stylized zig-zags, lightning flashes, fountains, sunrises, and, at the top of the Chrysler building, Art Deco "gargoyles" in the form of stainless steel radiator ornaments. The interiors of these new buildings, sometimes termed Cathedrals of Commerce", were lavishly decorated in bright contrasting colors, with geometric patterns variously influenced by Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, African textile patterns, and European cathedrals,
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
himself experimented with
Mayan Revival
Mayan Revival is a modern architectural style popular in the Americas during the 1920s and 1930s that drew inspiration from the architecture and iconography of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.
History
Origins
Though the name of the s ...
, in the concrete cube-based
Ennis House
The Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924.
Fol ...
of 1924 in Los Angeles. The style appeared in the late 1920s and 1930s in all major American cities. The style was used most often in office buildings, but it also appeared in the enormous movie palaces that were built in large cities when sound films were introduced.
Streamline style and Public Works Administration (1933–1939)
File:Pan-Pacific Auditorium entrance.jpg,
Pan-Pacific Auditorium
The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California. It once stood near the site of Gilmore Field, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating Dodger Stadium. It was located within sight of ...
in Los Angeles (1936)
File:SFMaritimeMuseum.jpg, The San Francisco Maritime Museum, originally was a public bathhouse (1936)
File:Hoover Dam (3467678621).jpg, Intake towers of Hoover Dam (1931–36)
File:U.S. Post Office (Long Beach Main).jpg,
Long Beach Main Post Office
The Long Beach Main Post Office is a post office building located on Long Beach Boulevard in downtown Long Beach, California.
The Art Deco and PWA Moderne style building opened in 1934 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places ( ...
(1933–34)
The beginning of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
in 1929 brought an end to lavishly decorated Art Deco architecture and a temporary halt to the construction of new skyscrapers. It also brought in a new style, called " Streamline Moderne" or sometimes just Streamline. This style, sometimes modeled after for the form of ocean liners, featured rounded corners, strong horizontal lines, and often nautical features, such as superstructures and steel railings. It was associated with modernity and especially with transportation; the style was often used for new airport terminals, train and bus stations, and for gas stations and diners built along the growing American highway system. In the 1930s the style was used not only in buildings, but in railroad locomotives, and even refrigerators and vacuum cleaners. It both borrowed from industrial design and influenced it.
In the United States, the Great Depression led to a new style for government buildings, sometimes called PWA Moderne, for the Public Works Administration, which launched gigantic construction programs in the U.S. to stimulate employment. It was essentially classical architecture stripped of ornament, and was employed in state and federal buildings, from post offices to the largest office building in the world at that time, Pentagon (1941–43), begun just before the United States entered the Second World War.
American modernism (1919–1939)
File:Ennis House front view 2005.jpg,
Ennis House
The Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924.
Fol ...
in Los Angeles, by Frank Lloyd Wright (1924)
File:Fallingwater - DSC05643.JPG,
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill R ...
by Frank Lloyd Wright (1928–34)
File:Lovell Beach House 02.jpg,
Lovell Beach House
The Lovell Beach House is located on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. The building was completed in 1926 and is now recognized as one of the most important works by architect Rudolf Schindler, second only to the Schindler ...
in
Newport Beach
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws ...
by Rudolph Schindler (1926)
File:Lovell House 2.jpg, Lovell Health House in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, by Richard Neutra (1927–29)
During the 1920s and 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright resolutely refused to associate himself with any architectural movements. He considered his architecture to be entirely unique and his own. Between 1916 and 1922, he broke away from his earlier prairie house style and worked instead on houses decorated with textured blocks of cement; this became known as his "Mayan style", after the pyramids of the ancient Mayan civilization. He experimented for a time with modular mass-produced housing. He identified his architecture as "Usonian", a combination of USA, "utopian" and "organic social order". His business was severely affected by the beginning of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
that began in 1929; he had fewer wealthy clients who wanted to experiment. Between 1928 and 1935, he built only two buildings: a hotel near
Chandler, Arizona
Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and a suburb in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the ...
, and the most famous of all his residences,
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill R ...
(1934–37), a vacation house in Pennsylvania for Edgar J. Kaufman. Fallingwater is a remarkable structure of concrete slabs suspended over a waterfall, perfectly uniting architecture and nature.
The Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler designed what could be called the first house in the modern style in 1922, the Schindler house.
Schindler also contributed to American modernism with his design for the
Lovell Beach House
The Lovell Beach House is located on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. The building was completed in 1926 and is now recognized as one of the most important works by architect Rudolf Schindler, second only to the Schindler ...
in
Newport Beach
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws ...
. The Austrian architect Richard Neutra moved to the United States in 1923, worked for a short time with Frank Lloyd Wright, also quickly became a force in American architecture through his modernist design for the same client, the Lovell Health House in Los Angeles. Neutra's most notable architectural work was the
Kaufmann Desert House
The Kaufmann Desert House, or simply the Kaufmann House, is a house in Palm Springs, California, that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946. It was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., a businessman who also commissioned Fallingw ...
in 1946, and he designed hundreds of further projects.
Paris International Exposition of 1937 and the architecture of dictators
File:Paris 75016 Fontaines du Trocadéro 20090815.jpg, The
Palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France.
For the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) ...
by
Louis-Hippolyte Boileau
Louis-Hippolyte Boileau (; 1878–1948) was a French architect.
Grandson of Louis-Auguste Boileau (1812–1896) and son of Louis-Charles Boileau (1837–1914, architect of the Hôtel Lutetia), Louis-Hippolyte studied at the École nationale supér ...
,
Jacques Carlu
Jacques Carlu (7 April 1890 Bonnières-sur-Seine – 3 December 1976 Paris) was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States.
Biography
Through the 1910s Carlu studied on ...
and
Léon Azéma
Léon Azéma (20 January 1888 – 1 March 1978) was a French architect. He is responsible for many public works in France, especially in and around Paris. His most famous work is 1937 Palais de Chaillot, facing the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Early ...
from the 1937 Paris International Exposition
File:Exposition_Internationale_des_Arts_et_Techniques_dans_la_Vie_Moderne_15.jpg, The Pavilion of Nazi Germany (left) faced the Pavilion of Stalin's Soviet Union (right) at the 1937 Paris Exposition.
File:Rutes Històriques a Horta-Guinardó-pabello republica 02.jpg, Reconstruction of the Pavilion of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...
by
Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José'').
People named Josep include:
* Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician
* Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...
(1937) displayed Picasso's painting ''
Guernica
Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
'' (1937)
File:Nazi party rally grounds (1938) 3.jpg, The Zeppelinfield stadium in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, Germany (1934), built by Albert Speer for Nazi Party rallies
File:Como, ex casa del fascio 04.JPG, The ''Casa del Fascio'' (House of Fascism) in Como, Italy, by
Giuseppe Terragni
Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the C ...
(1932–1936)
File:Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.jpg,
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...
, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
The 1937 Paris International Exposition in Paris effectively marked the end of the Art Deco, and of pre-war architectural styles. Most of the pavilions were in a neoclassical Deco style, with colonnades and sculptural decoration. The pavilions of Nazi Germany, designed by Albert Speer, in a German neoclassical style topped by eagle and swastika, faced the pavilion of the Soviet Union, topped by enormous statues of a worker and a peasant carrying a hammer and sickle. As to the modernists, Le Corbusier was practically, but not quite invisible at the Exposition; he participated in the Pavilion des temps nouveaux, but focused mainly on his painting. The one modernist who did attract attention was a collaborator of Le Corbusier,
Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José'').
People named Josep include:
* Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician
* Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...
, the Spanish architect, whose pavilion of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...
was pure modernist glass and steel box. Inside it displayed the most modernist work of the Exposition, the painting ''
Guernica
Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
'' by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
. The original building was destroyed after the Exposition, but it was recreated in 1992 in Barcelona.
The rise of nationalism in the 1930s was reflected in the
Fascist architecture
Fascist architecture encompasses various stylistic trends in architecture developed by architects of fascist states, primarily in the early 20th century. Fascist architectural styles gained popularity in the late 1920s with the rise of modernism a ...
of Italy, and
Nazi architecture
Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the ...
of Germany, based on classical styles and designed to express power and grandeur. The Nazi architecture, much of it designed by Albert Speer, was intended to awe the spectators by its huge scale. Adolf Hitler intended to turn Berlin into the capital of Europe, grander than Rome or Paris. The Nazis closed the Bauhaus, and the most prominent modern architects soon departed for Britain or the United States. In Italy, Benito Mussolini wished to present himself as the heir to the glory and empire of ancient Rome. Mussolini's government was not as hostile to modernism as The Nazis; the spirit of
Italian Rationalism
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work ''De architectura'' that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. The formu ...
of the 1920s continued, with the work of architect
Giuseppe Terragni
Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the C ...
. His ''Casa del Fascio'' in Como, headquarters of the local Fascist party, was a perfectly modernist building, with geometric proportions (33.2 meters long by 16.6 meters high), a clean façade of marble, and a Renaissance-inspired interior courtyard. Opposed to Terragni was Marcello Piacitini, a proponent of monumental fascist architecture, who rebuilt the University of Rome, and designed the Italian pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition, and planned a grand reconstruction of Rome on the fascist model.
New York World's Fair (1939)
File:1939fairhelicline.jpg, The Trylon and Perisphere, symbols of the 1939 World's Fair
File:World Fair 1939 LOC gsc.5a03061.jpg, Pavilion of the Ford Motor Company, in the Streamline Moderne style
File:RCA Exhibit Building 1939 World's Fair Postcard 2007.016 front.tif, The RCA Pavilion featured early public television broadcasts
File:House of Glass Worlds Fair 1939 LOC gsc.5a03199.jpg, Living room of the House of Glass, showing what future homes would look like
The
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...
marked a turning point in architecture between Art Deco and modern architecture. The theme of the Fair was the ''World of Tomorrow'', and its symbols were the purely geometric trylon and periphery sculpture. It had many monuments to Art Deco, such as the Ford Pavilion in the Streamline Moderne style, but also included the new International Style that would replace Art Deco as the dominant style after the War. The Pavilions of Finland, by Alvar Aalto, of Sweden by
Sven Markelius
Sven Gottfrid Markelius (25 October 1889 – 24 February 1972) was a Swedish modernist architect. Markelius played an important role in the post-war urban planning of Stockholm, for example in the creation of the model suburbs of Vällingby (1950 ...
, and of Brazil by
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
and
Lucio Costa
Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio.
Lucio is also an Italian surname.
Given name
* Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilia ...
, looked forward to a new style. They became leaders in the postwar modernist movement.
World War II: wartime innovation and postwar reconstruction (1939–1945)
File:Le Havre hiver 1944-1945.JPG, The center of
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
destroyed by bombing in 1944
File:LeHavre.jpg, The center of
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
as reconstructed by
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
(1946–1964)
File:Quonset hut emplacement in Japan.jpg,
Quonset hut
A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I ...
en route to Japan (1945)
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
(1939–1945) and its aftermath was a major factor in driving innovation in building technology, and in turn, architectural possibilities. The wartime industrial demands resulted in shortages of steel and other building materials, leading to the adoption of new materials, such as aluminum, The war and postwar period brought greatly expanded use of
prefabricated building
A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building.
Hist ...
; largely for the military and government. The semi-circular metal
Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of Corrugated galvanised iron, corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British ...
of World War I was revived as the
Quonset hut
A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I ...
. The years immediately after the war saw the development of radical experimental houses, including the enameled-steel
Lustron house
Lustron houses are prefabricated enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era United States in response to the shortage of homes for returning G.I.s by Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund. Considered low-maintena ...
(1947–1950), and Buckminster Fuller's experimental aluminum
Dymaxion House
The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques. Fuller designed several versions of the house at different times — all of them ...
.
The unprecedented destruction caused by the war was another factor in the rise of modern architecture. Large parts of major cities, from Berlin, Tokyo, and Dresden to Rotterdam and east London; all the port cities of France, particularly
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
, Brest, Marseille, Cherbourg had been destroyed by bombing. In the United States, little civilian construction had been done since the 1920s; housing was needed for millions of American soldiers returning from the war. The postwar housing shortages in Europe and the United States led to the design and construction of enormous government-financed housing projects, usually in run-down center of American cities, and in the suburbs of Paris and other European cities, where land was available,
One of the largest reconstruction projects was that of the city center of Le Havre, destroyed by the Germans and by Allied bombing in 1944; 133 hectares of buildings in the center were flattened, destroying 12,500 buildings and leaving 40,000 persons homeless. The architect
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete and prefabricated materials, designed and built an entirely new center to the city, with apartment blocks, cultural, commercial, and government buildings. He restored historic monuments when possible, and built a new church, St. Joseph, with a lighthouse-like tower in the center to inspire hope. His rebuilt city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.
Le Corbusier and the ''Cité Radieuse'' (1947–1952)
File:Unite d'Habitation salon.jpg, Salon and Terrace of an original unit of the
Unité d'Habitation
{{Infobox company
, name = Moldtelecom
, logo =
, type = JSC
, foundation = 1 April 1993
, location = Chişinău, Moldova
, key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim
, num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019
, industry = Telecommunica ...
, now at the
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (Architecture and Heritage City) is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known as Musée n ...
in Paris (1952)
File:RonchampCorbu.jpg, The Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp (1950–1955)
Shortly after the War, the French architect
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, who was nearly sixty years old and had not constructed a building in ten years, was commissioned by the French government to construct a new apartment block in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
. He called it
Unité d'Habitation
{{Infobox company
, name = Moldtelecom
, logo =
, type = JSC
, foundation = 1 April 1993
, location = Chişinău, Moldova
, key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim
, num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019
, industry = Telecommunica ...
in Marseille, but it more popularly took the name of the Cité Radieuse (and later "Cité du Fada" "City of the crazy one" in Marseille French), after his book about futuristic urban planning. Following his doctrines of design, the building had a concrete frame raised up above the street on pylons. It contained 337 duplex apartment units, fit into the framework like pieces of a puzzle. Each unit had two levels and a small terrace. Interior "streets" had shops, a nursery school, and other serves, and the flat terrace roof had a running track, ventilation ducts, and a small theater. Le Corbusier designed furniture, carpets, and lamps to go with the building, all purely functional; the only decoration was a choice of interior colors that Le Corbusier gave to residents. Unité d'Habitation became a prototype for similar buildings in other cities, both in France and Germany. Combined with his equally radical organic design for the Chapel of Notre-Dame du-Haut at
Ronchamp
Ronchamp () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.
It is located between the Vosges and the Jura mountains.
Mining Museum
Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and h ...
, this work propelled Corbusier in the first rank of postwar modern architects.
Team X and the 1953 International Congress of Modern Architecture
In the early 1950s, Michel Écochard, director of urban planning under the
French Protectorate in Morocco
The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prote ...
, commissioned GAMMA ()—which initially included the architects
Elie Azagury
Elie Azagury (; 1918-2009) was an influential Moroccan architect and director of the (GAMMA) after Moroccan independence in 1956. He is considered the first Moroccan modernist architect, with works in cities such as Casablanca, Tangier, and Agadi ...
Shadrach Woods
Shadrach Woods (June 30, 1923 – July 31, 1973) was an American architect, urban planner and theorist.
Biography
Schooled in engineering at New York University and in literature and philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, Woods joined the Pa ...
—to design housing in the Hay Mohammedi neighborhood of
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
Vernacular Modernism
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
,
Vladimir Bodiansky Vladimir Bodiansky (March 25, 1894 – December 10, 1966) was a French engineer with origins in Russia and a specialty in modern architecture.
Early life and education
Vladamir Bodiansky began his education in 1910 at the Moscow Highway Institute. ...
, and
André Wogenscky
André Wogenscky (1916 - 2004) was a French Modernist architect — and member of the Académie des beaux-arts.
20th-century French architects
Modernist architects
1916 births
2004 deaths
People from Remiremont
Members of the Acadé ...
—prepared a study of Casablanca's bidonvilles entitled "Habitat for the Greatest Number". The presenters,
Georges Candilis
Georges Candilis ( el, Γεώργιος Κανδύλης; 29 March 1913 – 10 May 1995) was a Greek-French architect and urbanist.
Biography
Born in Azerbaijan, he moved to Greece and graduated from the Polytechnic School of Athens between 19 ...
and
Michel Ecochard
Michel may refer to:
* Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name)
* Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers)
* Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...
, argued—against doctrine—that architects must consider local culture and climate in their designs. This generated great debate among modernist architects around the world and eventually provoked a schism and the creation of
Team 10
Team 10 – just as often referred to as Team X or Team Ten – was a group of architects and other invited participants who assembled starting in July 1953 at the 9th Congress of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) and c ...
. Ecochard's 8x8 meter model at Carrières Centrales earned him recognition as a pioneer in the architecture of
collective housing
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
, though his Moroccan colleague
Elie Azagury
Elie Azagury (; 1918-2009) was an influential Moroccan architect and director of the (GAMMA) after Moroccan independence in 1956. He is considered the first Moroccan modernist architect, with works in cities such as Casablanca, Tangier, and Agadi ...
was critical of him for serving as a tool of the French colonial regime and for ignoring the economic and social necessity that Moroccans live in higher density vertical housing.
Late modernist architecture
Late modernist architecture is generally understood to include buildings designed (1968–1980) with exceptions.
Modernist architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
includes the buildings designed between 1945 and the 1960s. The late modernist style is characterized by bold shapes and sharp corners, slightly more defined than
Brutalist architecture
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...
.
Postwar modernism in the United States (1945–1985)
The International Style of architecture had appeared in Europe, particularly in the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
movement, in the late 1920s. In 1932 it was recognized and given a name at an Exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York City organized by architect
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
and architectural critic
Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture.
Early life
He ...
, Between 1937 and 1941, following the rise Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, most of the leaders of the German Bauhaus movement found a new home in the United States, and played an important part in the development of American modern architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim Museum
File:Lakeland FSC Pfeiffer Chapel01.jpg, The Pfeiffer Chapel at
Florida Southern College
Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...
by Frank Lloyd Wright (1941–1958)
File:Building, globe, and grounds of the S.C. Johnson and son headquarters building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Racine, Wisconsin LCCN2011634906.tif, The tower of the
Johnson Wax Headquarters
Johnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was c ...
and Research Center (1944–50)
File:Price Tower - Bartlesville.jpg, The
Price Tower
The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower at 510 South Dewey Avenue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was built in 1956 to a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertical ...
in
Bartlesville
Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Can ...
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
(1946–1959)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
was eighty years old in 1947; he had been present at the beginning of American modernism, and though he refused to accept that he belonged to any movement, continued to play a leading role almost to its end. One of his most original late projects was the campus of
Florida Southern College
Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...
in
Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal c ...
, begun in 1941 and completed in 1943. He designed nine new buildings in a style that he described as "The
Child of the Sun
Child of the Sun is a collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the campus of the Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. The twelve original buildings were constructed between 1941 and 1958. Another of Wright's designs, a ...
". He wrote that he wanted the campus to "grow out of the ground and into the light, a child of the sun".
He completed several notable projects in the 1940s, including the
Johnson Wax Headquarters
Johnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was c ...
and the
Price Tower
The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower at 510 South Dewey Avenue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was built in 1956 to a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertical ...
in
Bartlesville
Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Can ...
, Oklahoma (1956). The building is unusual that it is supported by its central core of four elevator shafts; the rest of the building is cantilevered to this core, like the branches of a tree. Wright originally planned the structure for an apartment building in New York City. That project was cancelled because of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, and he adapted the design for an oil pipeline and equipment company in Oklahoma. He wrote that in New York City his building would have been lost in a forest of tall buildings, but that in Oklahoma it stood alone. The design is asymmetrical; each side is different.
In 1943 he was commissioned by the art collector
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman and art collector. He is best known for establishing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Guggen ...
to design a museum for his collection of modern art. His design was entirely original; a bowl-shaped building with a spiral ramp inside that led museum visitors on an upward tour of the art of the 20th century. Work began in 1946 but it was not completed until 1959, the year that he died.
Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer
File:Story Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge MA.jpg, Story Hall of the
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
and (
The Architects Collaborative
The Architects Collaborative (TAC) was an American architectural firm formed by eight architects that operated between 1945 to 1995 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The founding members were Norman C. Fletcher (1917-2007), Jean B. Fletcher (1915-19 ...
Litchfield, Connecticut
Litchfield is a town in and former county seat of Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,192 at the 2020 census. The boroughs of Bantam and Litchfield are located within the town. There are also three unincorpora ...
, by
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
(1950) The swimming pool mural is by
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...
File:Walter Gropius photo MetLife Building fassade New York USA 2005-10-03.jpg, The PanAm building (Now
MetLife Building
The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Internation ...
) in New York, by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
and
The Architects Collaborative
The Architects Collaborative (TAC) was an American architectural firm formed by eight architects that operated between 1945 to 1995 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The founding members were Norman C. Fletcher (1917-2007), Jean B. Fletcher (1915-19 ...
(1958–63)
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
, the founder of the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
, moved to England in 1934 and spent three years there before being invited to the United States by Walter Hudnut of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Gropius became the head of the architecture faculty.
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
, who had worked with him at the Bauhaus, joined him and opened an office in Cambridge. The fame of Gropius and Breuer attracted many students, who themselves became famous architects, including
Ieoh Ming Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei – website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
and
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
. They did not receive an important commission until 1941, when they designed housing for workers in Kensington, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh., In 1945 Gropius and Breuer associated with a group of younger architects under the name TAC (
The Architects Collaborative
The Architects Collaborative (TAC) was an American architectural firm formed by eight architects that operated between 1945 to 1995 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The founding members were Norman C. Fletcher (1917-2007), Jean B. Fletcher (1915-19 ...
). Their notable works included the building of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1956–57), and the headquarters of Pan American Airways in New York (1958–63).
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
File:VT16_PD_zahrada.jpg,
Villa Tugendhat
Villa Tugendhat is an architecturally significant building in Brno, Czech Republic. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, and was designed by the German architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. It w ...
in
Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
, Czech Republic (1928–30)
File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - exterior-8.jpg, The
Farnsworth House
The Edith Farnsworth House, formerly the Farnsworth House, is a historical house designed and constructed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between 1945 and 1951. The house was constructed as a one-room weekend retreat in a rural setting in Plano, I ...
in
Plano, Illinois
Plano is a city near Aurora in Kendall County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 11,847 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, being about 55 miles (90 km) from Chicago. The city was home to the Plano Har ...
(1945–51)
File:S.R. Crown Hall.jpg,
Crown Hall
S. R. Crown Hall, designed by the German-American Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois.
History
Before the building of Crown Hall, t ...
at the
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...
, Chicago (1956)
File:Seagrambuilding.jpg, The
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, ...
, New York City, 1958, by Ludwig Mies van der RoheLudwig Mies van der Rohe described his architecture with the famous saying, "Less is more". As the director of the school of architecture of what is now called the
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...
from 1939 to 1956, Mies (as he was commonly known) made Chicago the leading city for American modernism in the postwar years. He constructed new buildings for the Institute in modernist style, two high-rise apartment buildings on Lakeshore Drive (1948–51), which became models for high-rises across the country. Other major works included
Farnsworth House
The Edith Farnsworth House, formerly the Farnsworth House, is a historical house designed and constructed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between 1945 and 1951. The house was constructed as a one-room weekend retreat in a rural setting in Plano, I ...
in
Plano, Illinois
Plano is a city near Aurora in Kendall County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 11,847 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, being about 55 miles (90 km) from Chicago. The city was home to the Plano Har ...
(1945–1951), a simple horizontal glass box that had an enormous influence on American residential architecture. The Chicago Convention Center (1952–54) and
Crown Hall
S. R. Crown Hall, designed by the German-American Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois.
History
Before the building of Crown Hall, t ...
at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1950–56), and The
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, ...
in New York City (1954–58) also set a new standard for purity and elegance. Based on granite pillars, the smooth glass and steel walls were given a touch of color by the use of bronze-toned I-beams in the structure. He returned to Germany in 1962–68 to build the new Nationalgallerie in Berlin. His students and followers included
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
, and
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
, whose work was substantially influenced by his ideas.
Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames
File:Eames House0.jpg,
Eames House
The Eames House (also known as Case Study House No. 8) is a landmark of mid-20th century modern architecture located at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was constructed in 1949, by husband- ...
by
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...
Neutra Office Building
The Neutra Office Building is a office building in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, California. The building was owned and designed by Modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1950. It served as the studio and office for Neutra's architect ...
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...
. The most celebrated work of the Eames was
Eames House
The Eames House (also known as Case Study House No. 8) is a landmark of mid-20th century modern architecture located at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was constructed in 1949, by husband- ...
in Pacific Palisades, California, (1949) Charles Eames in collaboration with
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
It is composed of two structures, an architects residence and his studio, joined in the form of an L. The house, influenced by Japanese architecture, is made of translucent and transparent panels organized in simple volumes, often using natural materials, supported on a steel framework. The frame of the house was assembled in sixteen hours by five workmen. He brightened up his buildings with panels of pure colors.
Richard Neutra continued to build influential houses in Los Angeles, using the theme of the simple box. Many of these houses erased the line distinction between indoor and outdoor spaces with walls of plate glass. Neutra's Constance Perkins House in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
(1962) was re-examination of the modest single-family dwelling. It was built of inexpensive material–wood, plaster, and glass–and completed at a cost of just under $18,000. Neutra scaled the house to the physical dimensions of its owner, a small woman. It features a reflecting pool which meanders under of the glass walls of the house. One of Neutra's most unusual buildings was Shepherd's Grove in Garden Grove, California, which featured an adjoining parking lot where worshippers could follow the service without leaving their cars.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Wallace K. Harrison
File:Manhattan House 65 jeh.JPG,
Manhattan House
Manhattan House is an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The building is at 200 East 66th Street, just east of Third Avenue.
by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(1950–51)
File:Lever House by David Shankbone.jpg,
Lever House
Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue (Manhattan), Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International style (architecture), International Style by Gordon Bunshaft a ...
by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(1951–52)
File:Manufacturers Trust Company Building 510 Fifth Avenue.jpg,
Manufacturers Trust Company Building
510 Fifth Avenue, originally the Manufacturers Trust Company Building, is a commercial building at the southwest corner of West 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1954, it is the first bank building in ...
, by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
, New York City (1954)
File:Yale-beinecke-library.jpg,
Beinecke Library
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(1963)
File:United Nations Headquarters.JPG,
United Nations Headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
in New York, by
Wallace Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He i ...
with
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
and
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
in New York City by
Wallace Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He i ...
(1966)
Many of the notable modern buildings in the postwar years were produced by two architectural mega-agencies, which brought together large teams of designers for very complex projects. The firm of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
was founded in Chicago in 1936 by
Louis Skidmore
Louis Skidmore (April 8, 1897 – September 27, 1962) was an American architect, co-founder of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and recipient of the AIA Gold Medal.
Biography
Louis Skidmore was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. H ...
and Nathaniel Owings, and joined in 1939 by engineer John Merrill, It soon went under the name of SOM. Its first big project was
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the gigantic government installation that produced plutonium for the first nuclear weapons. In 1964 the firm had eighteen "partner-owners", 54 "associate participants, "and 750 architects, technicians, designers, decorators, and landscape architects. Their style was largely inspired by the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and their buildings soon had a large place in the New York skyline, including the
Manhattan House
Manhattan House is an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The building is at 200 East 66th Street, just east of Third Avenue.
(1950-51),
Lever House
Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue (Manhattan), Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International style (architecture), International Style by Gordon Bunshaft a ...
(1951–52) and the
Manufacturers Trust Company Building
510 Fifth Avenue, originally the Manufacturers Trust Company Building, is a commercial building at the southwest corner of West 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1954, it is the first bank building in ...
(1954). Later buildings by the firm include
Beinecke Library
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
(1963), the
Willis Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), ...
, formerly Sears Tower in Chicago (1973) and
One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...
in New York City (2013), which replaced the building destroyed in the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001.
Wallace Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He i ...
played a major part in the modern architectural history of New York; as the architectural advisor of the
Rockefeller Family
The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...
, he helped design
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
, the major Art Deco architectural project of the 1930s. He was supervising architect for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and, with his partner
Max Abramowitz
Max Abramovitz (May 23, 1908 – September 12, 2004) was an American architect. He was best known for his work with the New York City firm Harrison & Abramovitz.
Life
Abramovitz was the son of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents. He graduate ...
, was the builder and chief architect of the
headquarters of the United Nations
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
; Harrison headed a committee of international architects, which included
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
(who produced the original plan approved by the committee) and
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
. Other landmark New York buildings designed by Harrison and his firm included Metropolitan Opera House, the master plan for
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
, and
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...
.
Philip Johnson
File:Glasshouse-philip-johnson.jpg, The
Glass House
The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work".
The Glas ...
by
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
in
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census.
About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...
(1953)
File:IDS reflecting Wells Fargo.jpg, The
IDS Center
The IDS Center is an office skyscraper located at 80 South 8th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Completed in 1972, it is the tallest building in Minneapolis, and the tallest building in the state at a height of . It originally stood , thou ...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Philip Johnson (1969–72)
File:Crys-ext.jpg, The
Crystal Cathedral
Christ Cathedral (Latin: ''Cathedralis Christi''; Spanish: ''Catedral de Cristo''; Vietnamese: ''Nhà Thờ Chính Tòa Chúa Kitô''), formerly and informally known as the Crystal Cathedral, is an American church building of the Diocese of Or ...
by Philip Johnson (1977–80)
File:Williamstower.jpg, The
Williams Tower
The Williams Tower (originally named the Transco Tower) is a 64-story, class A art deco office tower located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas. The building was designed by New York-based John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson in ...
in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Texas, by Philip Johnson (1981–1983)
File:Pittsburgh-pennsylvania-ppg-place-2007.jpg, PPG Place in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Pennsylvania, by Philip Johnson (1981–84)
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
(1906–2005) was one of the youngest and last major figures in American modern architecture. He trained at Harvard with Walter Gropius, then was director of the department of architecture and modern design at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
from 1946 to 1954. In 1947, he published a book about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and in 1953 designed his own residence, the
Glass House
The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work".
The Glas ...
in
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census.
About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...
in a style modeled after Mies's
Farnsworth House
The Edith Farnsworth House, formerly the Farnsworth House, is a historical house designed and constructed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between 1945 and 1951. The house was constructed as a one-room weekend retreat in a rural setting in Plano, I ...
. Beginning in 1955 he began to go in his own direction, moving gradually toward expressionism with designs that increasingly departed from the orthodoxies of modern architecture. His final and decisive break with modern architecture was the AT&T Building (later known as the Sony Tower), and now the 550 Madison Avenue in New York City, (1979) an essentially modernist skyscraper completely altered by the addition of broken
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
with a circular opening. This building is generally considered to mark the beginning of Postmodern architecture in the United States.
Eero Saarinen
File:St Louis night expblend cropped.jpg, The
Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider ...
in Saint Louis, Missouri (1948–1965)
File:Warren - General Motors Technical Center (50826111923).jpg, Main building of the
General Motors Technical Center
The GM Technical Center is a General Motors facility in Warren, Michigan. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; fourtee ...
(1949–55)
File:Ingalls Rink Highsmith.jpg, The
Ingalls Rink
David S. Ingalls Rink is a hockey rink in New Haven, Connecticut, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and built between 1953 and 1958 for Yale University. It is commonly referred to as The Whale, due to its shape. The building was constructed fo ...
in
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, Connecticut (1953–58)
File:Jfkairport.jpg, The TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York, by
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
(1956–62)
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
(1910–1961) was the son of
Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen.
Lif ...
, the most famous Finnish architect of the Art Nouveau period, who emigrated to the United States in 1923, when Eero was thirteen. He studied art and sculpture at the academy where his father taught, and then at the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad ...
Academy in Paris before studying architecture at Yale University. His architectural designs were more like enormous pieces of sculpture than traditional modern buildings; he broke away from the elegant boxes inspired by Mies van der Rohe and used instead sweeping curves and parabolas, like the wings of birds. In 1948 he conceived the idea of a monument in St. Louis, Missouri in the form of a parabolic arch 192 meters high, made of stainless steel (1948). He then designed the
General Motors Technical Center
The GM Technical Center is a General Motors facility in Warren, Michigan. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; fourtee ...
in Warren, Michigan (1949–55), a glass modernist box in the style of Mies van der Rohe, followed by the IBM Research Center in Yorktown, Virginia (1957–61). His next works were a major departure in style; he produced a particularly striking sculptural design for the
Ingalls Rink
David S. Ingalls Rink is a hockey rink in New Haven, Connecticut, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and built between 1953 and 1958 for Yale University. It is commonly referred to as The Whale, due to its shape. The building was constructed fo ...
in
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, Connecticut (1956–59, an ice skiing rink with a parabolic roof suspended from cables, which served as a preliminary model for next and most famous work, the
TWA Terminal
The TWA Flight Center, also known as the Trans World Flight Center, is an airport terminal and hotel complex at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The original terminal building, or head house, operated as a terminal ...
at JFK airport in New York (1956–1962). His declared intention was to design a building that was distinctive and memorable, and also one that would capture the particular excitement of passengers before a journey. The structure is separated into four white concrete parabolic vaults, which together resemble a bird on the ground perched for flight. Each of the four curving roof vaults has two sides attached to columns in a Y form just outside the structure. One of the angles of each shell is lightly raised, and the other is attached to the center of the structure. The roof is connected with the ground by curtain walls of glass. All of the details inside the building, including the benches, counters, escalators, and clocks, were designed in the same style.
Louis Kahn
File:First Unitarian Church of Rochester NY North Side at West end 1227-8.jpg, The
First Unitarian Church of Rochester
The First Unitarian Church of Rochester is located at 220 Winton Road South in Rochester, New York, U.S. The congregation is one of the largest in its denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association. The non-creedal church conducts progr ...
by Louis Kahn (1962)
File:Salk Institute 2.jpg, The
Salk Institute
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...
by
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
Kimball Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...
in
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
(1962–74)
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
(1901–74) was another American architect who moved away from the Mies van der Rohe model of the glass box, and other dogmas of the prevailing international style. He borrowed from a wide variety of styles, and idioms, including neoclassicism. He was a professor of architecture at Yale University from 1947 to 1957, where his students included
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
. From 1957 until his death he was a professor of architecture at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. His work and ideas influenced
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
,
Minoru Yamasaki
was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...
, and
Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...
as they moved toward a more neoclassical style. Unlike Mies, he did not try to make his buildings look light; he constructed mainly with concrete and brick, and made his buildings look monumental and solid. He drew from a wide variety of different sources; the towers of Richards Medical Research Laboratories were inspired by the architecture of the Renaissance towns he had seen in Italy as a resident architect at the
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome.
The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.
History
In 1893, a group of American architects, ...
in 1950. Notable buildings by Kahn in the United States include the
First Unitarian Church of Rochester
The First Unitarian Church of Rochester is located at 220 Winton Road South in Rochester, New York, U.S. The congregation is one of the largest in its denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association. The non-creedal church conducts progr ...
, New York (1962); and the
Kimball Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...
in
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
, Texas (1966–72). Following the example of
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and his design of the government buildings in
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...
, the capital city of the
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
&
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
State of India, Kahn designed the
Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban
Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban or National Parliament House, ( bn, জাতীয় সংসদ ভবন ''Jatiyô Sôngsôd Bhôbôn'') is the house of the Parliament of Bangladesh, located at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. ...
(National Assembly Building) in
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
(1962–74), when that country won independence from Pakistan. It was Kahn's last work.
Green Building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
by
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei – website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
(1962–64)
File:National Center for Atmospheric Research - Boulder, Colorado.jpg, The
National Center for Atmospheric Research
The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...
in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
by I. M. Pei (1963–67)
File:Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell Univ Ithaca NY USA.jpg,
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...
at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...
by I. M. Pei (1973)
File:National Gallery East Wing by Matthew Bisanz.JPG, East Wing of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, D.C., by I M. Pei (1978)
File:Louvre Museum Wikimedia Commons.jpg, Pyramid of the
Louvre Museum
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in Paris by I. M. Pei (1983–89)
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei – website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
(1917–2019) was a major figure in late modernism and the debut of Post-modern architecture. He was born in China and educated in the United States, studying architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. While the architecture school there still trained in the
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
style, Pei discovered the writings of
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, and a two-day visit by Le Corbusier to the campus in 1935 had a major impact on Pei's ideas of architecture. In the late 1930s, he moved to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied with
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
and
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
and became deeply involved in Modernism. After the war he worked on large projects for the New York real estate developer
William Zeckendorf
William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed ...
, before breaking away and starting his own firm. One of the first buildings his own firm designed was the
Green Building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While the clean modernist façade was admired, the building developed an unexpected problem; it created a wind tunnel effect, and in strong winds the doors could not be opened. Pei was forced to construct a tunnel so visitors could enter the building during high winds.
Between 1963 and 1967 Pei designed the
Mesa Laboratory
The Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is a research center located in Boulder, Colorado. The building complex was designed by modernist architect I. M. Pei in 1961 as his first project outside of city building desig ...
for the
National Center for Atmospheric Research
The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...
outside
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
, in an open area at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The project differed from Pei's earlier urban work; it would rest in an open area in the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
. His design was a striking departure from traditional modernism; it looked as if it were carved out of the side of the mountain.
In the late modernist area, art museums bypassed skyscrapers as the most prestigious architectural projects; they offered greater possibilities for innovation in form and more visibility. Pei established himself with his design for the
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...
at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...
(1973), which was praised for its imaginative use of a small space, and its respect for the landscape and other buildings around it. This led to the commission for one of the most important museum projects of the period, the new East Wing of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, completed in 1978, and to another of Pei's most famous projects, the pyramid at the entrance of
Louvre Museum
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in Paris (1983–89). Pei chose the pyramid as the form that best harmonized with the Renaissance and neoclassical forms of the historic Louvre, as well as for its associations with Napoleon and the
Battle of the Pyramids
The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French Invasion of Egypt. The battle took place near the village of Embabeh, across the Nile River from Cairo, but was n ...
. Each face of the pyramid is supported by 128 beams of stainless steel, supporting 675 panels of glass, each .
Fazlur Rahman Khan
File:Hancock_tower_2006.jpg,
John Hancock Center
The John Hancock Center is a 100- story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.
The skyscraper was designed ...
in Chicago by
Fazlur Rahman Khan
Fazlur Rahman Khan ( bn, ফজলুর রহমান খান, ''Fozlur Rôhman Khan''; 3 April 1929 – 27 March 1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrape ...
was the first building to use X-bracing to create the trussed-tube design.
File:2004-07-14_2600x1500_chicago_lake_skyline.jpg,
Willis Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), ...
in Chicago was the first building to use the bundled-tube design.
In 1955, employed by the architectural firm
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(SOM), he began working in Chicago. He was made a partner in 1966. He worked the rest of his life side by side with Architect Bruce Graham. Khan introduced design methods and concepts for efficient use of material in building architecture. His first building to employ the tube structure was the Chestnut De-Witt apartment building. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became noted for his designs for Chicago's 100-story
John Hancock Center
The John Hancock Center is a 100- story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.
The skyscraper was designed ...
, which was the first building to use the trussed-tube design, and 110-story Sears Tower, since renamed
Willis Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), ...
, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, which was the first building to use the framed-tube design.
He believed that engineers needed a broader perspective on life, saying, "The technical man must not be lost in his own technology; he must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people." Khan's personal papers, most of which were in his office at the time of his death, are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
. The Fazlur Khan Collection includes manuscripts, sketches, audio cassette tapes, slides and other materials regarding his work.
Khan's seminal work of developing tall building structural systems are still used today as the starting point when considering design options for tall buildings. Tube structures have since been used in many skyscrapers, including the
construction of the World Trade Center
The construction of the first World Trade Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project to help revitalize Lower Manhattan spearheaded by David Rockefeller. The project was developed by the Port Authority of N ...
Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC Twin Towers, ( Malay: ''Menara Berkembar Petronas'') are 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1998 to 2003, they were officially desig ...
,
Jin Mao Building
The Jin Mao Tower (; Shanghainese:'' Cinmeu Dagho''; lit. ‘Golden Prosperity Building’), also known as the or , is a , 88-story (93 if counting the floors in the spire) landmark skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai, China. It contains a s ...
, Bank of China Tower and most other buildings in excess of 40 stories constructed since the 1960s. The strong influence of tube structure design is also evident in the world's current tallest skyscraper, the
Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...
in
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
. According to Stephen Bayley of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'':
Minoru Yamasaki
File: Skyline_Twin_Towers_Sander_Lamme.jpg, The Twin Towers of the
World Trade Center (1973–2001)
The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. At the time o ...
Minoru Yamasaki
was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
(1955-1976)
File: CenturyPlazaTowers.jpg, The
Century Plaza Towers
Century Plaza Towers are two 44-story, twin towers in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. They are the tallest buildings in California outside Downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Commissioned by Alcoa, the towers were ...
in Los Angeles, California (1975)
File:OneWoodwardAvenue.JPG,
One Woodward Avenue
One Woodward Avenue, formerly known as the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company Building, is a class-A office skyscraper in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Located next to the city's Civic Center and Financial District, it overlooks the International ...
in Detroit, Michigan (1962)
In the United States, Minoru Yamasaki found major independent success in implementing unique engineering solutions to then-complicated problems, including the space that elevator shafts took up on each floor, and dealing with his personal fear of heights. During this period, he created a number of office buildings which led to his innovative design of the towers of the World Trade Center in 1964, which began construction 21 March 1966. The first of the towers was finished in 1970. Many of his buildings feature superficial details inspired by the pointed arches of
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...
, and make use of extremely narrow vertical windows. This narrow-windowed style arose from his own personal
fear of heights
Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear or phobia of heights, especially when one is not particularly high up. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort, that share both similar causes and options for ...
. One particular design challenge of the World Trade Center's design related to the efficacy of the elevator system, which was unique in the world. Yamasaki integrated the fastest elevators at the time, running at 1,700 feet per minute. Instead of placing a large traditional elevator shaft in the core of each tower, Yamasaki created the Twin Towers' "
Skylobby
A sky lobby is an intermediate interchange floor in a skyscraper where people can change from an express elevator that stops only at the sky lobby to a local elevator that stops at a subset of higher floors.
When designing supertall buildings ...
" system. The Skylobby design created three separate, connected elevator systems which would serve different segments of the building, depending on which floor was chosen, saving approximately 70% of the space used for a traditional shaft. The space saved was then used for office space.Remarks by Lee K. Jaffee, World Trade Center Press Conference, New York Hilton Hotel, 18 January 1964. In addition to these accomplishments, he had also designed the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project, the largest ever housing project built in the United States, which was fully torn down in 1976 due to bad market conditions and the decrepit state of the buildings themselves. Separately, he had also designed the Century Plaza Towers and One Woodward Avenue, among 63 other projects he had developed during his career.
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...
(1956–60)
File:National Theatre, London.jpg,
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
, London, by
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie (''née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his b ...
(1967–1976)
File:Helsinki University of Technology auditorium.jpg, Auditorium of the University of Technology, Helsinki, by Alvar Aalto (1964)
File:Academisch ziekenhuis C.H.U..jpg, University Hospital Center in Liège, Belgium by Charles Vandenhove (1962–82)
File:Looking up at Torre Pirelli from Piazza Duca d'Aosta, Milan.jpg, The
Pirelli Tower
Pirelli Tower (Italian: ''Grattacielo Pirelli'' – also called "''Pirellone''", literally "Big Pirelli") is a 32-storey, skyscraper in Milan, Italy. The base of the building is , with a length of and a width of . The construction used approxima ...
in Milan, by
Gio Ponti
Giovanni "Gio" Ponti ( ͡ʒo18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher.
During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more tha ...
and
Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi (21 June 1891 – 9 January 1979) was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known wor ...
(1958–60)
File:02 Fondation Maeght.JPG, The
Fondation Maeght
The Maeght Foundation or Fondation Maeght () is a museum of modern art on the ''Colline des Gardettes'', a hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the southeast of France about from Nice. It was established by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in 1 ...
by
Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José'').
People named Josep include:
* Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician
* Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...
(1959–1964)
File:Katholische Kirche Idstein 022.JPG, Church of St. Martin, Idstein Germany by
Johannes Krahn
Johannes Krahn (17 May 1908 – 17 October 1974) was a German architect and an academic teacher.
Career
Born in Mainz, Johannes Krahn studied architecture from 1923 to 1927 at the Technische Lehranstalten Offenbach. He continued his studies 19 ...
(1965)
File:Warszawa 1975 WDC 42783.jpg,
Warszawa Centralna railway station
Warszawa Centralna, in English known as Warsaw Central Station, is the primary railway station in Warsaw, Poland. Completed in 1975, the station is located on the Warsaw Cross-City Line and features four underground island platforms with eight tr ...
in Poland by Arseniusz Romanowicz (1975)
File:Orphanage-1a.Aldo van Eyck.jpg, Municipal Orphanage in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
by
Aldo van Eyck
Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch architect. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism.
Family
He was born in Driebergen, Utrecht, a son of poet, critic, essay ...
(1960), "Aesthetics of Number", architectural movement Structuralism.
In France,
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
remained the most prominent architect, though he built few buildings there. His most prominent late work was the convent of Sainte Marie de La Tourette in Evreaux-sur-l'Arbresle. The Convent, built of raw concrete, was austere and without ornament, inspired by the medieval monasteries he had visited on his first trip to Italy.
In Britain, the major figures in modernism included
Wells Coates
Wells Wintemute Coates OBE (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an expatriate Canadian who is best known for his work in England, the most notable of which is the Modernist ...
(1895–1958),
FRS Yorke
Francis Reginald Stevens Yorke (3 December 1906 – 10 June 1962), known professionally as F. R. S. Yorke and informally as Kay or K, was an English architect and author.
One of the first native British architects to design in a modernist style, h ...
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie (''née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his b ...
(1914–2001). Lasdun's best-known work is the
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
(1967–1976) on the south bank of the Thames. Its raw concrete and blockish form offended British traditionalists;
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...
compared it with a nuclear power station.
In Belgium, a major figure was Charles Vandenhove (born 1927) who constructed an important series of buildings for the University Hospital Center in Liège. His later work ventured into colorful rethinking of historical styles, such as Palladian architecture.
In Finland, the most influential architect was Alvar Aalto, who adapted his version of modernism to the Nordic landscape, light, and materials, particularly the use of wood. After World War II, he taught architecture in the United States. In Denmark,
Arne Jacobsen
Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA () 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple we ...
was the best-known of the modernists, who designed furniture as well as carefully proportioned buildings.
In Italy, the most prominent modernist was
Gio Ponti
Giovanni "Gio" Ponti ( ͡ʒo18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher.
During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more tha ...
, who worked often with the structural engineer
Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi (21 June 1891 – 9 January 1979) was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known wor ...
, a specialist in reinforced concrete. Nervi created concrete beams of exceptional length, twenty-five meters, which allowed greater flexibility in forms and greater heights. Their best-known design was the
Pirelli Building
Pirelli Tower (Italian: ''Grattacielo Pirelli'' – also called "''Pirellone''", literally "Big Pirelli") is a 32- storey, skyscraper in Milan, Italy. The base of the building is , with a length of and a width of . The construction used approxi ...
in Milan (1958–1960), which for decades was the tallest building in Italy.
The most famous Spanish modernist was the Catalan architect
Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José'').
People named Josep include:
* Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician
* Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...
, who worked with great success in Spain, France, and the United States. In his early career, he worked for a time under Le Corbusier, and designed the Spanish pavilion for the 1937 Paris Exposition. His notable later work included the
Fondation Maeght
The Maeght Foundation or Fondation Maeght () is a museum of modern art on the ''Colline des Gardettes'', a hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the southeast of France about from Nice. It was established by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in 1 ...
in Saint-Paul-de-Provence, France (1964), and the
Harvard Science Center
The Harvard University Science Center is Harvard's main classroom and laboratory building for undergraduate science and mathematics, in addition to housing numerous other facilities and services.
Located just north of Harvard Yard, the Science Ce ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as Dean of Architecture at the
Harvard School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
.
Notable German modernists included
Johannes Krahn
Johannes Krahn (17 May 1908 – 17 October 1974) was a German architect and an academic teacher.
Career
Born in Mainz, Johannes Krahn studied architecture from 1923 to 1927 at the Technische Lehranstalten Offenbach. He continued his studies 19 ...
, who played an important part in rebuilding German cities after World War II, and built several important museums and churches, notably St. Martin, Idstein, which artfully combined stone masonry, concrete, and glass. Leading Austrian architects of the style included
Gustav Peichl
Gustav Peichl (18 March 1928 – 17 November 2019) was an Austrian architect and caricaturist.
Life
He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna until 1953 and worked in the office of Roland Rainer. To pay for architectural school, he drew ca ...
File:MESP4.jpg, Ministry of Health and Education in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
by
Lucio Costa
Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio.
Lucio is also an Italian surname.
Given name
* Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilia ...
(1936–43)
File:MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro 02.jpg, MAM Rio museum, by
Affonso Eduardo Reidy
Affonso Eduardo Reidy (Paris, 26 October 1909 - Rio de Janeiro, 10 August 1964) was a Brazilian architect. He was the son of an English father and a Brazilian mother. Reidy entered the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro at age 17. H ...
(1960)
File:Congresso Nacional.jpg, The National Congress building in Brasilia by Oscar Niemeyer (1956–61)
File:Catedral de Bsb.jpg, The Cathedral of Brasilia by
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
(1958–1970)
File:06-11-2014 Novembro Azul (15546341448).jpg, The
Palácio do Planalto
The Palácio do Planalto () in Brasília is the official workplace of the president of Brazil.São Paulo Museum of Art
The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo ...
, MASP, by
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi, born Achillina Bo (5 December 1914 – 20 March 1992), was an Italian-born Brazilian modernist architect. A prolific architect and designer, she devoted her working life, most of it spent in Brazil, to promoting the social and cult ...
(1957–68)
File:Torre Latinoamericana 1.jpg, The
Torre Latinoamericana
The Torre Latinoamericana () is a skyscraper in downtown Mexico City, situated in the historic city center. Its central location, height (), and history make it one of the city's most important landmarks. It is widely recognized internationally ...
Teodoro González de León
Teodoro González de León (May 29, 1926 – September 16, 2016) was a Mexican architect.
Biography
González de León studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) from 1942 to 19 ...
Luis Barragan
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
(1948)
File:Mural on rear of Alfonso Caro Auditorium, UNAM, Mexcio City.jpg, The Alfonso Caro Auditorium in UNAM, Mexico City, by
Eugenio Peschard
Eugenio Peschard Delgado was a Mexican architect. Prior to joining the faculty of the National University in 1940, Peschard was an architect in the Ministry of Communications and Public Works and a member of the Council of Architecture of the F ...
(1953)
File:Torres del Parque.JPG, Residencias del Parque in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
,
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
by
Rogelio Salmona
Rogelio Salmona (April 28, 1929 – October 3, 2007) was a French Colombian architect. He was noted for his extensive use of red brick in his buildings and for using natural shapes like spirals, radial geometry and curves in his designs. Duri ...
(1965-1970)
Architectural historians sometimes label Latin American modernism as "tropical modernism". This reflects architects who adapted modernism to the tropical climate as well as the sociopolitical contexts of Latin America.
Brazil became a showcase of modern architecture in the late 1930s through the work of
Lucio Costa
Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio.
Lucio is also an Italian surname.
Given name
* Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilia ...
(1902–1998) and
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
(1907–2012). Costa had the lead and Niemeyer collaborated on the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1936–43) and the Brazilian pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Following the war, Niemeyer, along with Le Corbusier, conceived the form of the
United Nations Headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
constructed by Walter Harrison.
Lucio Costa also had overall responsibility for the plan of the most audacious modernist project in Brazil; the creation of new capital, Brasilia, constructed between 1956 and 1961. Costa made the general plan, laid out in the form of a cross, with the major government buildings in the center. Niemeyer was responsible for designing the government buildings, including the palace of the President;the National Assembly, composed of two towers for the two branches of the legislature and two meeting halls, one with a cupola and other with an inverted cupola. Niemeyer also built the cathedral, eighteen ministries, and giant blocks of housing, each designed for three thousand residents, each with its own school, shops, and chapel. Modernism was employed both as an architectural principle and as a guideline for organizing society, as explored in '' The Modernist City.''
Following a military coup d'état in Brazil in 1964, Niemeyer moved to France, where he designed the modernist headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris (1965–1980), a miniature of his United Nations plan.
Mexico also had a prominent modernist movement. Important figures included Félix Candela, born in Spain, who emigrated to Mexico in 1939; he specialized in concrete structures in unusual parabolic forms. Another important figure was
Mario Pani
Mario Pani Darqui (March 29, 1911 – February 23, 1993) was a famous Mexican architect and urbanist. He was one of the most active urbanists under the Mexican Miracle, and gave form to a good part of the urban appearance of Mexico City, with ...
Torre Insignia
Torre Insignia (also called Torre Banobras and the Nonoalco Tlatelolco Tower) is a building designed by Mario Pani Darqui which is located on the corner of Avenida Ricardo Flores Magón and Avenida de los Insurgentes Norte, in the Tlatelolco ho ...
(1988); Pani was also instrumental in the construction of the new University of Mexico City in the 1950s, alongside
Juan O'Gorman
Juan O'Gorman (July 6, 1905 – January 17, 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect.
Early life and family
Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal Distri ...
,
Eugenio Peschard
Eugenio Peschard Delgado was a Mexican architect. Prior to joining the faculty of the National University in 1940, Peschard was an architect in the Ministry of Communications and Public Works and a member of the Council of Architecture of the F ...
, and
Enrique del Moral
Enrique del Moral Dominguez (21 January 1905 – 11 June 1987) was a Mexican architect and an exponent of the functionalism movement, a modernist group that included Mexican artists and architects such as José Villagrán Garcia, Carlos Obreg ...
. The
Torre Latinoamericana
The Torre Latinoamericana () is a skyscraper in downtown Mexico City, situated in the historic city center. Its central location, height (), and history make it one of the city's most important landmarks. It is widely recognized internationally ...
, designed by Augusto H. Alvarez, was one of the earliest modernist skyscrapers in Mexico City (1956); it successfully withstood the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which destroyed many other buildings in the city center.
Pedro Ramirez Vasquez
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...
and Rafael Mijares designed the Olympic Stadium for the 1968 Olympics, and Antoni Peyri and Candela designed the Palace of Sports.
Luis Barragan
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
was another influential figure in Mexican modernism; his raw concrete residence and studio in Mexico City looks like a blockhouse on the outside, while inside it features great simplicity in form, pure colors, abundant natural light, and, one of is signatures, a stairway without a railing. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1980, and the house was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
Asia and Australia
File:House-Kunio-Maekawa-03.jpg, House of Kunio Maekawa in Tokyo (1935)
File:International House of Japan.jpg, International House of Japan by Kunio Maekawa, Tokyo (1955)
File:Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyōgijō 1.jpg,
Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Yoyogi National Gymnasium, officially is an indoor arena located at Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, which is famous for its suspension roof design.
It was designed by Kenzo Tange and built between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming ...
by
Kenzo Tange
is a common masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*賢三, "wise, three"
*健三, "healthy, three"
*謙三, "humble, three"
*健想, "healthy, concept"
*建造, "bu ...
(1964)
File:Sydney Opera House Sails edit02.jpg,
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
in Sydney, Australia, by
Jørn Utzon
Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon ...
(1973)
Japan, like Europe, had an enormous shortage of housing after the war, due to the bombing of many cities. 4.2 million housing units needed to be replaced. Japanese architects combined both traditional and styles and techniques. One of the foremost Japanese modernists was Kunio Maekawa (1905–1986), who had worked for Le Corbusier in Paris until 1930. His own house in Tokyo was an early landmark of Japanese modernism, combining traditional style with ideas he acquired working with Le Corbusier. His notable buildings include concert halls in Tokyo and Kyoto and the International House of Japan in Tokyo, all in the pure modernist style.
Kenzo Tange
is a common masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*賢三, "wise, three"
*健三, "healthy, three"
*謙三, "humble, three"
*健想, "healthy, concept"
*建造, "bu ...
(1913–2005) worked in the studio of Kunio Maekawa from 1938 until 1945 before opening his own architectural firm. His first major commission was the
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is a museum located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in central Hiroshima, Japan, dedicated to documenting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II.
The museum was established in August 1955 with the ...
. He designed many notable office buildings and cultural centers. office buildings, as well as the
Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Yoyogi National Gymnasium, officially is an indoor arena located at Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, which is famous for its suspension roof design.
It was designed by Kenzo Tange and built between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming ...
for the
1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
in Tokyo. The gymnasium, built of concrete, features a roof suspended over the stadium on steel cables.
The Danish architect
Jørn Utzon
Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon ...
(1918–2008) worked briefly with Alvar Aalto, studied the work of Le Corbusier, and traveled to the United States to meet
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. In 1957 he designed one of the most recognizable modernist buildings in the world; the
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
. He is known for the sculptural qualities of his buildings, and their relationship with the landscape. The five concrete shells of the structure resemble seashells by the beach. Begun in 1957, the project encountered considerable technical difficulties making the shells and getting the acoustics right. Utzon resigned in 1966, and the opera house was not finished until 1973, ten years after its scheduled completion.
In India, modernist architecture was promoted by the postcolonial state under Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
, most notably by inviting Le Corbusier to design the city of
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...
. Important Indian modernist architects include
BV Doshi
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi OAL (born 26 August 1927) is an Indian architect. He is considered to be an important figure of Indian architecture and noted for his contributions to the evolution of architectural discourse in India. Having worked ...
,
Charles Correa
Charles Mark Correa (1 September 1930 – 16 June 2015) was an Indian architect and urban planner. Credited with the creation of modern architecture in post-Independent India, he was celebrated for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban p ...
,
Raj Rewal
Raj Rewal (born 24 November 1934 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India) is a leading Indian architect. Education
Rewal lived in Delhi and Shimla from 1934–1951. He attended Harcourt Butler higher secondary school. Between 1951-1954 he attended the De ...
,
Achyut Kanvinde
Achyut Purushottam Kanvinde (9 February 1916 – 28 December 2002) was an Indian architect who worked in functionalist approaches with elements of Brutalist architecture. He received the Padma Shri in 1974.
Early life and education
He was bor ...
, and Habib Rahman. Much discussion around modernist architecture took place in the journal MARG. In Sri Lanka,
Geoffrey Bawa
Deshamanya Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA (23 July 1919 – 27 May 2003) was a Sri Lankan architect. He was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation.
Early life
Geoffrey Bawa was born in Colombo on 23 July 1919, the young ...
pioneered tropical modernism. Minnette De Silva was an important Sri Lankan modernist architect.
Post independence architecture in Pakistan is a blend of Islamic and modern styles of architecture with influences from Mughal, indo-Islamic and international architectural designs. The 1960s and 1970s was a period of architectural Significance. Jinnah's Mausoleum,
Minar e Pakistan
Minar E Pakistan ( ur, , literally "Tower of Pakistan") is a tower located in Lahore, Pakistan. The tower was built between 1960 and 1968 on the site where the All-India Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution (which was later called the Pak ...
Islamic summit minar
The Summit Minar is an obelisk-shaped structure built in the centre of Charing Cross, Mall Road in the city of Lahore, Punjab the province of Pakistan. It was built to commemorate the second Islamic Summit Conference held in Lahore from 22 to 24 ...
and the
Faisal mosque
The Faisal Mosque ( ur, , faisal masjid) is the national mosque of Pakistan, located in capital Islamabad. It is the fifth-largest mosque in the world and the largest within South Asia, located on the foothills of Margalla Hills in Pakistan's ...
date from this time.
Africa
File:Vincent Timsit Workshop (VÉTÉ) 09.jpg, Vincent Timsit Workshop
File:Vincent Timsit Workshop (VÉTÉ) 07.jpg
File:Villa Camembert 19.jpg
File:Tunisie Siège du RCD.jpg, Tour de la nation,
.
Some notable modernist architects in Morocco were
Elie Azagury
Elie Azagury (; 1918-2009) was an influential Moroccan architect and director of the (GAMMA) after Moroccan independence in 1956. He is considered the first Moroccan modernist architect, with works in cities such as Casablanca, Tangier, and Agadi ...
and
Jean-François Zevaco
Jean-François Zevaco (,1916–2003) was a French-Moroccan architect born in Casablanca. He is considered an emblematic figure of the modernist architectural movement in Morocco and in Africa, and his legacy is important in terms of the number of ...
.
Asmara
Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...
, capitol of
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
, is well known for its modernist architecture dating from the period of Italian colonization.
Preservation
Several works or collections of modern architecture have been designated by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
as
World Heritage Sites
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...
. In addition to the early experiments associated with Art Nouveau, these include a number of the structures mentioned above in this article: the
Rietveld Schröder House
The Rietveld Schröder House ( nl, Rietveld Schröderhuis) (also known as the Schröder House) in Utrecht (Prins Hendriklaan 50) was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children.
She c ...
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (german: Siedlungen der Berliner Moderne) is a World Heritage Site designated in 2008, comprising six separate subsidized housing estates in Berlin. Dating mainly from the years of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933 ...
, the
White City of Tel Aviv
The White City ( he, העיר הלבנה, ''Ha-Ir ha-Levana''; ar, المدينة البيضاء ''Al-Madinah al-Baydha’a'') is a collection of over 4,000 buildings in Tel Aviv from the 1930s built in a unique form of the International Style, ...
, the city of
Asmara
Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...
UNAM
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigge ...
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
, and the
Centennial Hall Centennial Hall (german: Jahrhunderthalle) may refer to:
in Canada
* Centennial Hall (London, Ontario), London, Ontario, Canada
* Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
* Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium, former name of TCU Place
in ...
in Wrocław, along with select works from Le Corbursier and
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
.
Private organizations such as
Docomomo International
Docomomo International (sometimes written as DoCoMoMo or simply Docomomo) is a non-profit organization whose full title is: International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. ...
, the
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...
, and the Recent Past Preservation Network are working to safeguard and document imperiled Modern architecture. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund launched ''Modernism at Risk'', an advocacy and conservation program. The organization MAMMA. is working to document and preserve modernist architecture in Morocco.
See also
*
Modernisme
''Modernisme'' (, Catalan for "modernism"), also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan cultu ...
*
Modern furniture
Modern furniture refers to furniture produced from the late 19th century through the present that is influenced by modernism. Post-World War II ideals of cutting excess, commodification, and practicality of materials in design heavily influenced ...
*
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
*
Organic architecture
Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. This is achieved through design approaches that aim to be sympathetic and well-integrated with a site, so buildings, furn ...
*
Critical regionalism
Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. The stylings ...
*
Complementary architecture
Complementary architecture is a movement in contemporary architecture promoting architectural practice rooted in comprehensive understanding of context, aiming to contribute to the environment in such a way as to continue and improve or emphasise i ...
*
List of post-war Category A listed buildings in Scotland
__NOTOC__
This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland which date from after 1945 (the post-war period). The majority of these buildings are examples of Brutalist architecture or related modernist architecture which was ambitiously ...
*
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually i ...
* USA: Modern Architectures in History , Request PDF - Researchgate
* The article goes in-depth about the original main contributors of modern architecture.
* Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: Building for Democracy. Taschen, 2021.
* This article goes into depth about Frank Lloyd Wright and his contributions to modern architecture. and what he focused on to be apart of modern architecture.
* “What Is Modern Architecture?” Hammond Historic District, https://www.hammondhistoricdistrict.org/what-is-modern-architecture.
* The article goes through the elaborations of the origin of modern architecture and what constitutes modern architecture.
* an April 2011 radio and Internet report by the
Special English
Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on 19 October 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and othe ...
service of the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...