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LAQ-Option 1: Write a note on Art Nouveau and discuss any two works of
Antonio Gaudi in detail with sketches. {15Marks}
Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and
architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe and beyond, the movement issued in
a wide variety of styles, and, consequently, it is known by various names, such
as the Glasgow Style, or, in the German-speaking world, Jugendstil.
Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic
historical styles that had previously been popular.
Artists drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving
elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours.
The movement was committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of the
arts, which viewed so-called liberal arts, such as painting and sculpture, as
superior to craft-based decorative arts, and ultimately it had far more influence
on the latter.
The style went out of fashion after it gave way to Art Deco in the 1920s, but it
experienced a popular revival in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an important
predecessor of modernism.

CASA CALVET (1898-1899):

Casa Calvet is situated at 48 Calle Caspe in Barcelona, and consists of a

basement, first floor, four stories, and a typically Catalonian, flat terrace on the
roof.
According to Csar Martinell, the textile-fabricators, Sons of Pedro Mrtir Calvet,
commissioned Antonio Gaud to design the building, basing their decision on
"the guarantee of success and modernity that Gaud represented", and also
perhaps influenced by the affinity of political ideas with Eduard Calvet, who was
a militant "Catalanista" during the Solidaritat Catalana.
The date of the project was March, 1898, but the municipal license was not
obtained until January of the following year due to the fact that Gaud's plans
were rejected by the municipal architect of the City on the grounds that the
building's height would exceed the maximum permitted for the street on which
it was to be built.
In answer to this, Gaud returned the plans with a red line drawn across them,
cutting the coronation of the facade to the regulation height, and threatening
that if he was not allowed to enact his initial plans, the building would end up
appearing sharply interrupted.
Despite this problem with the Administration, the property received a prize for
the best building finished in 1900 which exhibited major artistic merits.
The structure is formed by supporting walls over those which support the iron
jalousse columns and beams, on the basement and first floors, and small
wooden beams in the rest of the forged works.
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The composition of the principal facade, of the formal seats made of arenisc
stone from Montjuic, is based on the axes that mark the openings of the
balconies.
In the central opening of the principal floor, we find a baroque tribune with
forged-iron railings and relief representing different species of mushrooms,
which Sr. Calvet collected.
In the inferior part of the said tribune, we observe owner's last initial, along
with the shield of Catalonia and a Cyprus - the symbol of hospitality. Further
down, we see the enormous wooden door of the front entrance with a curious
door-knocker - a forged detail which was executed with great difficulty - which
represents a cross coming down upon a bug - the symbol of evil.

CASA VICENS (1883):

Casa Vicens is located at number 24 of Carrer de les Carolines in the Gracia

quarter of Barcelona.
Between 1878 and 1880, Seor Manuel Vicens i Montaner, a stock broker and
not a ceramic specialist as had always been believed, commissioned Gaud to
build a house on the lot that he inherited from his mother in 1877.
The land was between the Convento de Monjas de la Caridad de San Vicente de
Pal and a dead-end alley that runs perpendicular to Carrer de les Carolines.
Gaud built the house against the wall of the convent, producing a large and
spacious garden.
For the other side of the garden, Gaud designed a monumental fountain built
with open brickwork, made up of a parabolic arch topped by a passage between
columns. The water was stored in two tanks placed above the pillars to each
side of the fountain. The fountain was demolished in 1946 due to the sale of
that part of the land.
The garden was enclosed by a stucco wall; at the entrance stood the famous
iron gate labored in the shape of dwarf palm tree leaves. The heavy leaves are
distributed in a square of forged iron "T-profile" beams, the intersections of
which are adored with a reproduction in the same material of the buds of the
Tagetes Erecta plant: this plant is also represented in the ceramics that
decorate the building's facades.
Another piece that was part of the garden was a brick and ceramic faucet that
stood between the wall of the house and the wall of Carrer de les Carolines.
Since 1983, a smaller-scale replica has been on display in the garden of the
Chair of Gaud Studies (Ctedra Gaud).
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LAQ-Option 2: Write a note on Industrial Revolution and its influence in

architecture.
{15 Marks}
The Industrial Revolution, which began in England about 1760, led to radical
changes at every level of civilization throughout the world. The growth of heavy
industry brought a flood of new building materialssuch as cast iron, steel, and
glasswith which architects and engineers devised structures hitherto
undreamed of in function, size, and form.
Disenchantment with baroque, with rococo, and even with neo-Palladianism
turned late 18th-century designers and patrons toward the original Greek and
Roman prototypes. Selective borrowing from another time and place became
fashionable.
Its Greek aspect was particularly strong in the young United States from the
early years of the 19th century until about 1850.
New settlements were given Greek namesSyracuse, Ithaca, Troyand Doric
and Ionic columns, entablatures, and pediments, mostly transmuted into white-
painted wood, were applied to public buildings and important town houses in
the style called Greek revival.
In France, the imperial cult of Napoleon steered architecture in a more Roman
direction, as seen in the Church of the Madeleine (1807-1842), a huge Roman
temple in Paris.
French architectural thought had been jolted at the turn of the century by the
highly imaginative published projects of tienne-Louis Boulle and Claude
Nicholas Ledoux.
These men were inspired by the massive aspects of Egyptian and Roman work,
but their monumental (and often impractical) compositions were innovative,
and they are admired today as visionary architects.
The most original architect in England at the time was Sir John Soane; the
museum he built as his own London house (1812-1813) still excites
astonishment for its inventive romantic virtuosity.
Late English neoclassicism came to be seen as elitist; thus, for the new Houses
of Parliament the authorities insisted on Gothic or Tudor Revival.
The appointed architect, Sir Charles Barry, was not a Gothic expert, but he
called into consultation an architect who wasA. W. N. Pugin, who became
responsible for the details of this vast monument (begun 1836).
Pugin, in a short and contentious career, made a moral issue out of a return to
the Gothic style. Other architects, however, felt free to select whatever
elements from past cultures best fitted their programsGothic for Protestant
churches, baroque for Roman Catholic churches, early Greek for banks,
Palladian for institutions, early Renaissance for libraries, and Egyptian for
cemeteries.
In the second half of the 19th century dislocations brought about by the
Industrial Revolution became overwhelming. Many were shocked by the hideous
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new urban districts of factories and workers housing and by the deterioration of
public taste among the newly rich.
For the new modes of transportation, canals, tunnels, bridges, and railroad
stations, architects were employed only to provide a cultural veneer.
The Crystal Palace (1850-1851; reconstructed 1852-1854) in London, a vast
but ephemeral exhibition hall, was the work of Sir Joseph Paxton, a man who
had learned how to put iron and glass together in the design of large
greenhouses. It demonstrated a hitherto undreamed-of kind of spatial beauty,
and in its carefully planned building process, which included prefabricated
standard parts, it foreshadowed industrialized building and the widespread use
of cast iron and steel.
Also important in its innovative use of metal was the great tower (1887-1889)
of Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel in Paris. In general, however, the most gifted
architects of the time sought escape from their increasingly industrialized
environment by further development of traditional themes and eclectic styles.
Two contrasting but equally brilliantly conceived examples are the sumptuous
Paris Opera (1861-1875) by Charles Garnier and Bostons grandiose Trinity
Church (1872-1877) by Henry Hobson Richardson .
Taxes against glass, windows and bricks were repealed which saw a new
interest in using these building materials. Factory made plate glass was
developed and complex designs in iron grillwork were a popular decoration for
the classical and Gothic buildings. There were also terracotta manufacturing
improvements, which allowed for more of its use in construction. Steel
skeletons were covered with masonry and large glass skylights were popular.
Improvements to the iron making process encouraged the building of bridges
and other structures. Large indoor open spaces were now made possible with
the use of strong iron framed construction; this was ideal for factories,
museums and train stations. The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Exhibition in
Paris was a dramatic demonstration by the French of their mastery of this new
construction technology.
To the architect-engineer belongs a new decorative art, such as ornamental
bolts, iron corners extending beyond the main line, a sort of Gothic lacework of
iron. We find that to some extent in the Eiffel Tower.
But it was heavily criticized by some architects and artists who scorned it as an
example of the blackness of industry and saw it as blight on the citys skyline.
The Crystal Palace created to enclose the Great Exhibition of 1851
inEnglandwas a glass and iron showpiece, which dazzled the millions of visitors
who passed through its doors. Built by Joseph Paxton within six months, its
design mimicked the greenhouses that were his customary stock in trade. It
was spacious enough to enclose mature existing trees within its walls.
There was some rejection of the new Industrial Revolution architecture and its
emphasis on classical construction, Palladian styles and Victorian gingerbread
houses; some impressive Gothic revival architecture was commissioned instead.
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Notable examples were the British Parliament Buildings with their pointed spires
and suggestion of strength and moral values. Strawberry Hill, built after the
mid-eighteenth century, seems patterned after a Gothic castle and though it
combined some novel construction materials which reflected strong spiritual and
religious sentiments in its design.
Regarding architecture of this era, John Ruskin, a co-founder of the Arts and
Crafts movement toward simplicity argued, You should not connect the delight
which you take in ornament with that which you take in construction or in
usefulness. They have no connection, and every effort that you make to reason
from one to the other will blunt your sense of beauty. Remember that the
most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for
instance.
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LAQ-Option 1: Elaborate on the architecture during Post Modernism times

and discuss about architect Philip Johnson and his works.

Philip Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1906.

He received an A. B. in architectural history from Harvard University in 1930
and upon graduation became the Director of the Department of Architecture at
the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1932 he co-directed the Modern Architecture exhibition at MOMA which
introduced European modern architecture to a wide American audience.
Building on the MOMA show, Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock codified the
principles of modern architecture in the book The International Style:
Architecture since 1922 .
During the 1930s, Johnson used his personal wealth to champion the cause of
many modern architects most notably Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
In 1940 Johnson returned to Harvard's Graduate School of Design where he
trained under Marcel Breuer.
He received a B.Arch in 1943 and practised architecture in Cambridge,
Massachusetts until 1946, when he moved back to New York to serve as
Director of Architecture at MOMA.
He worked with Richard Foster from 1964 to 1967 and with John Burgee from
1967 until his retirement.
received the Pritzker Architecture prize in 1979.
As an architect, Johnson is most widely respected for his work in the early
1950s while still under the influence of Mies Van Der Rohe.
However, he altered his architectural principles from Modernist to Post-
Modernist to anti-Post Modernist at will. This has led to the criticism that he
showed more interest in style than in substance. He will probably be
remembered more as a stimulator of ideas than as a designer.

The Glass House

Johnson's early influence as a practicing architect was his use of glass; his
masterpiece was the Glass House (1949) he designed as his own residence
in New Canaan, Connecticut, a profoundly influential work.
The concept of a Glass House set in a landscape with views as its real walls
had been developed by many authors in the German Glasarchitektur drawings
of the 1920s, and already sketched in initial form by Johnson's mentor Mies.
The building is an essay in minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and the
effects of transparency and reflection.

The house sits at the edge of a crest on Johnsons estate overlooking a pond.
The building's sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel; the floor, of brick, is
not flush with the ground but sits 10 inches above. The interior is an open
space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom
and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling.
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Johnson continued to build structures on his estate as architectural essays.

Offset obliquely fifty feet from the Glass House is a guest house, echoing the
proportions of the Glass House and completely enclosed in brick
It now contains a bathroom, library, and single bedroom with a vaulted ceiling
and shag carpet. It was built at the same time as the Glass House and can be
seen as its formal counterpart. Johnson stated that he deliberately designed it
to be less than perfectly comfortable, as "guests are like fish, they should only
last three days at most".
Later, Johnson added a painting gallery with an innovative viewing mechanism
of rotating walls to hold paintings (influenced by the Hogarth displays at Sir
John Soane's house), followed by a sky-lit sculpture gallery. The last structures
Johnson built on the estate were a library and a reception building, the latter,
red and black in color and of curving walls. Johnson viewed the ensemble of
one-room buildings as a total work of art, claiming that it was his best and only
"landscape project."
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LAQ-Option 1: Write a note on the ideologies and design philosophy and

works of architect Geoffery Bawa with sketches.

GEOFRREY BAWA

Geoffrey Bawa was Sri Lanka 's most influential and prolific architect and South Asia
's leading guru of tropical architecture. In November 2001, he received the Aga Khan
Award for Architecture, Special Chairman's Award.

Features

Sri Lanka has been subjected to strong outside influences from its Indian
neighbours, from Arab traders and from European colonists, and it has always
succeeded in translating these elements into something new but intrinsically Sri
Lankan. Bawa has continued this tradition.
His architecture is a subtle blend of modernity and tradition, East and West,
formal and picturesque; he has broken down the artificial segregation of inside
and outside, building and landscape; he has drawn on tradition to create an
architecture that is fitting to its place, and he has also used his vast knowledge
of the modern world to create an architecture that is of its time.
Bawa's philosophy that an architect should re-examine his own culture and
society's traditions, is what has influenced people the
most.
He was inspired by that (Japanese design), a kind of stripped-down vernacular,
because most Sri Lankan buildings, they have a tradition of heavy bases going
up into something that's light. It's actually
an Asian tradition.
Highly personal in his approach, evoking the pleasures of the senses that go
hand in hand with the climate, landscape, and culture of ancient Ceylon, Bawa
brings together an appreciation of the Western humanist tradition in
architecture with needs and lifestyles of his own country.
His sensitivity to environment is reflected in his careful attention to the
sequencing of space, the creation of vistas, courtyards, and walkways, the use
of materials and treatment of details
Works

A) The Sri Lankan Parliament

The new Sri Lankan Parliament is an asymmetric group of colonnaded pavilions

with striking copper roofs floating on a man-made lake.
The site was originally a marsh and was dredged to form a small island to
support the structures and a wide shore with dense tree cover.
The approach is along a causeway and across a forecourt. Again, Bawa has
used a modernist framework to support indigenous components of past
architecture and produced a building of great beauty and harmony.
The chamber, the focus of power, lies within the main pavilion with balconies
and galleries rising three storeys.
The tiered terraces below hold administrative and committee offices. Other
pavilions accommodate rooms of varying functions.
Traditional wood and stone columns, reminiscent of ancient palaces and
temples, support the stately copper roofs.
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The Parliamentary complex is Bawas most symbolic work, conceptualized as

movements through spaces, resulting in the asymmetrical configuration. It is
also perhaps the only project where he has allowed form to override the priority
of landscape
B) The Ruhunu University

It sits serenely on three hills outside the southern ancient town of Matara.
The elegant buildings gaze out into the vastness of the Indian Ocean.
Seen from its entrance across the lake, it is simultaneously reminiscent of an
English country estate as well as the Kandy Lake.
Geoffrey Bawa has drawn upon these, elegant historical precedence, the
potential of opening up vistas and combined them all with a modern approach
to create a group of buildings for the diverse functions of a university.
Covered walkways link the gazebos, pavilions and verandahs spaces for
retreat, contemplation or the gathering of minds.
The buildings are of different sizes at different levels, with the residential
quarters closest to the beach.
The Arts and Science Faculties are sited on the other two hills with the library,
open-air theatre, social center and coffee shop in between.
Bawa has used the natural terrain and the stunning views to their optimum
whilst impressions left by places
C) Colombo House

The Colombo House and office of Geoffrey Bawa is a reworking of already existing
small units.

An astonishing play of light and space has transformed the former buildings into a
labyrinth of verandahs, rooms, passages and courtyards with a dramatic white
entrance tower.

It is an intimate place, a refuge from the city, with views of spaces through spaces
within and without that have been cleverly designed.

The compact house seems turned in on itself, incorporating all the essential elements
of a town into a miniature study in introspection.

A familiar blend of traditional and modern components and a meeting of the oriental
and occidental is pervasive yet marvelously subtle.
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LAQ-Option 2: Discuss the ideologies and works of architect Raj Rewal and
explain one of his works in detail.
Creation of geometric systems and responding visual imageries are apparent in
Raj rewals architectural works.
His imaginative leaps are based on his foundational knowledge and experience.
His building design include pure structural expressions, cubic volumes.
He also provide for honesty in expression.
They reflect a concern for climatic sensitivity.
His architectural pursuit is centered on attempts to evolve a contemporary
architecture rooted in traditional wisdom.
He has been influenced by the architecture of Le corbusier and louis khan.
Also influenced by the typologies of traditional building and cities like Jaisalmer.
Building on traces from the past he transforms them into the new.
In his work continuity and change consort one another in familiar terms.
The strategy thus allows a monumental quality to be imported in the projects.
In 1962, he created a hyperbolic paraboloid structure with newspapers
plastered on board to articulate the skin.
The pattern for Bhikaji Cama place designed in 1965 is reminiscent of the
organization of traditional urban settlements.
Much like traditional bazars he created designs modulated on a rhythm based
on repetition of cubic forms.

REWAL HOUSE, NEW DELHI

In 1973, He designed 2 independent house units, one for the architect and his
family, the other for his parents.
He were designed in such a manner as to give both privacy and inter-
relatedness to each other.
Communication between the two houses is through the kitchen yard, at the
back,
While separate entrances and front gardens are provided across an extremely
narrow frontage of only 5 meters for each.
Living, dining, kitchen and study areas are on the ground floor, yet the
introduction of a small cellar under the dining room offered the
possibility of a split-level and hence greater richness.
Part of the living room is of double height, and is overlooked by mezzanine.
A small interior courtyard within the two units brings indirect light and good
cross-ventilation to these spaces.
Large pivoting glass doors provide continuity between the living room and the
garden outside.
The use of material is restricted to exposed brick externally and internally
(painted white outside).
The ceilings and cantilevered stairs are of exposed concrete, softened by the
texture left by wooden form work.
The flooring of kotah stone in brown and bronze achieves a certain continuity,
carried through in the teak-framed doors and windows.
The rewal house served as a prototype for his later large scale mass housing
designs.
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SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS:

1. Write a brief note on Critical Regionalism

Definition

Critical Regionalism is an approach to architecture that attempts to incorporate local

tradition and culture into modern architectural design to differentiate architecture
from that found around the world and to respect cultural traditions.

Origin
In the eighties, Alexander Tzonis, Liane Lefaivre (1981) and Kenneth Frampton
(1985) created the term critical regionalism

Concept

The term was created to describe a contemporary architecture which could

neither be branded as internationalism nor as a folkloric or historical concept of
region and architecture.
The architecture of critical regionalism makes reference to the site, the genius
loci on a more abstract level. Rather than dealing extensively with the region
itself and a particular regional style, Framptons concept of regionalism mainly
focuses on the relationship of a building to its site and location in a sociological
context.
According to Tzonis and Lefaivre, architecture should also refer to the notion of
self-reflection. It should be independent of an emotional (therefore easy to
manipulate) view of a countrys way of looking at region, tradition and history.
Furthermore, Framptons critical attempt was to work against an ever-
increasing industrialized and standardized world-wide use of building materials
and construction methods which neglects and destroys local building traditions
and their transgression into contemporary architecture.
In the process of the reflection on the own and the foreign in contemporary
architecture, the term critical regionalism was also used as a theoretical basis
to describe modern architecture in developing countries.
It was taken up in many countries of the South to re-examine their traditions in
search of their "own" traditional values, principles and national identity.
This process has had an impact on contemporary architecture and has
eventually triggered an intense discussion on how local "own-ness" should be
created without simply copying fragments from the past.
Frampton put forth his views in "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points of
architecture of resistance."
He evokes Paul Ricoeur's question of "how to become modern and to return to
sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal
civilization".
According to Frampton, Critical Regionalism should adopt modern architecture
critically for its universal progressive qualities but at the same time should
value responses particular to the context.
Emphasis should be on topography, climate, light, tectonic form rather than
scenography and the tactile sense rather than the visual.
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Critical Regionalism is an approach that strives to counter the issues of

meaning, self identity and placelessness by using contextual forces to give a
'sense of place' and meaning to the architecture we practise.
It is different from Regionalism; a practice that attempted to re-produce things
from the region in exactly the same way as it had occurred in the past.
Frampton raised two very important questions and asked, "how to become
modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and
take part in the universal civilization evolving".
The core of critical regionalism was evidently different in that the intention was
to return to roots, or make an attempt to connect to the roots while at the
same time constructively evolve within the contemporary forces and programs
of the societies of the modern era.
Quite naturally, the most visible and articulate architects and architecture based
on this philosophy emerged in the non-West, particularly in the Asian region
where rich cultures and civilizations had existed and had been submerged and
become dormant in the emerging ideals and practices of the Western modern
societies.
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2.Write a note on C.I.A.M.

The Congrs internationaux d'architecture moderne CIAM (International
Congresses of Modern Architecture) was an organization founded in 1928 and
disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged
around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the
objective of spreading the principles of the Modern Movement focusing in all the
main domains of architecture (such as landscape, urbanism, industrial design,
and many others).
The International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) was founded in
June 1928, at the Chateau de la Sarraz in Switzerland, by a group of 28
European architects organized by Le Corbusier, Hlne de Mandrot (owner of
the castle), and Sigfried Giedion (the first secretary-general). CIAM was one of
many 20th century manifestos meant to advance the cause of "architecture as a
social art".
The organization was hugely influential. It was not only engaged in formalizing
the architectural principles of the Modern Movement, but also saw architecture
as an economic and political tool that could be used to improve the world
through the design of buildings and through urban planning.
Here the group discussed concentrated on principles of "The Functional City",
which broadened CIAM's scope from architecture into urban planning. Based on
an analysis of thirty-three cities, CIAM proposed that the social problems faced
by cities could be resolved by strict functional segregation, and the distribution
of the population into tall apartment blocks at widely spaced intervals.
These proceedings went unpublished from 1933 until 1942, when Le Corbusier,
acting alone, published them in heavily edited form as the "Athens Charter."
As CIAM members traveled worldwide after the war, many of its ideas spread
outside Europe, notably to the USA. The city planning ideas were adopted in the
rebuilding of Europe following World War II, although by then some CIAM
members had their doubts. Alison and Peter Smithson were chief among the
dissenters.
When implemented in the postwar period, many of these ideas were
compromised by tight financial constraints, poor understanding of the concepts,
or popular resistance. Mart Stam's replanning of postwar Dresden in the CIAM
formula was rejected by its citizens as an "all-out attack on the city."
The CIAM organisation disbanded in 1959 as the views of the members
diverged. Le Corbusier had left in 1955, objecting to the increasing use of
English during meetings.
For a reform of CIAM, the group Team 10 was active from 1953 onwards, and
two different movements emerged from it: the New Brutalism of the English
members (Alison and Peter Smithson) and the Structuralism of the Dutch
members (Aldo van Eyck and Jacob B. Bakema)