History of Architecture and culture V

V Semester, B.Arch

Compiled by,

Ar. RESHMA BANU S

Unit – I: Leading to a new Architecture

Beginnings of modernity – Origin and development of Neo classicism – structural Neo classicists:
Laugier, Soufflot, Schinkel, Labrouste

Romantic Neo classicists: Ledoux, Boulle, Durand, Jefferson

Industrialization and its impact – Urbanization in Europe and America – split of design education into
architecture and Engineering streams –Emergent new building / space types – Growing need for mass
housing – Development of industrial material and construction technologies – concrete, glass and steel –
structural engineering, standardization – industrial exhibitions – Chicago school and skyscraper
development.

Historical overview of Architecture:

A brief into the various styles of Architecture in history:

o Classical Greece Architecture

o Imperial Rome Architecture
o Romanesque Architecture
o Gothic Architecture
o Renaissance Architecture
o Baroque Architecture
o Rococo Architecture
Introduction to classicism:

Classicism in Architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs
of Leon Battista Alberti and the work of Filippo Brunelleschi. It places:

o Emphasis on Symmetry
o Proportion
o Geometry
o Orderly arrangements of columns
o Pilasters
o Lintels
o The REGULARITY OF PARTS as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical
antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome
o The use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicule’s (‘little
building’) is a common framing device in both classical architecture and Gothic
architecture
o An aedicule frame treats a window or a niche in a section of wall as if it were a building,
sometimes with columns or pilasters flanking the opening
o This style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then Franc, Germany, England, Russia
and elsewhere
o Building off of these influences, the seventeenth – century architects Inigo Jones and
Christopher wren firmly established classicism in England

Neo Classicism:

Birth of Neo classical Architecture:

1. The neo classical movement that produced “Neo classical architecture” began after AD 1765, as
a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo Styles, and as a desire to return to the
perceived “Purity” of the arts of Rome
2. Neoclassical architecture was in Part reaction to the excess of Baroque, Rococo and was partly a
consequence of new discoveries of Greek, Roman architecture
3. Neoclassicism first gained influence in PARIS, through a generation of French art students
trained at the French Academy in Rome
4. In Paris, many of the first generation of neoclassical Architects received training in the classic
French tradition through a series of exhaustive and practical lectures that was offered for
decades by Jacques-Francois Blondel. The finest examples of this style were civic buildings and
private houses

Origins of Neo classical Architecture:

 1. The Architecture of Neo classicism seems to have emerged out of two different but related
developments which radically transformed the relationship between MAN and NATURE
2. The FIRST was a sudden increase in mans capacity to exercise control over nature, which by the
mid 17th century had begun to advance beyond the technical frontiers of the renaissance
3. The SECOND was a fundamental shift in the nature of human consciousness, in response to
major changes taking place in society, which gave birth to a new cultural formation that was
equally appropriate to the lifestyles of the declining aristocracy and the rising bourgeoisie
4. Neoclassical architecture became an INTERNATIONAL style; each country held some distinct
characteristic in their style. It was prevalent in France, Germany and England
5. The architects of the 18th century searched for a new style. Their motivation was not simply to
copy the ancients but to obey the principles on which their work had been based
6. In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the “Architecture of classical Greece”

Example picture of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Marie-Madeleine, The united state Supreme cout

Enlightenment:

The death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David, 1787

Aude Sapere:

The motto of the Enlightenment was “aude sapere” or dare to think. This came through in Neoclassic art
as well. In paintings, the content was usually meant to be uplifting and make moral statement.

In the death of Socrates the subject is the symbol of the enlightenment himself: Socrates.

The ancient Greeks had the first enlightenment – the struggle between superstition and reason. They
were pioneers in the search for man’s nature. By his death he became a martyr for truth. He chose to
take the cup of poison hemlock rather than stop teaching.

In the scene(picture to be embedded) Socrates takes the cup of hemlock almost casually as he continues
his teaching to his mourning followers.

Features of Neo classical Architecture:

Neo classical or “new” classical architecture describes buildings that are inspired by the classical
architecture of ancient Greece and Rome

A Neo classical building is likely to have some or all of these features:

1. Symmetry Shape
2. Tall columns that rise up to the full height of the building
3. Triangular pediment
4. Domed roof

Key Elements:

Symmetry. Form and balance dominate the neoclassical style. There is a purity of symmetry.

These homes rarely stray from the Golden section, “ adds Cobb, referring to the Greek rule of
proportion used in art and architecture

Tall columns. The full height front porch is supported by a row of columns, usually Doric in style and
always even in number

Elaborate doorways. The doorways often have decorative surrounds and pediments, the triangular
section found above the entrance way

Evenly spaced windows. The windows have double hung sashes, most often divided into six or eight
panes. They are always evenly spaced across the home’s façade and typically flanked by shutters

Neo classical style-Architectural characteristics:

1. Neoclassical buildings are characterized by clean, Elegant lines and uncluttered appearances
2. In Neoclassical Architecture orders are used structurally rather than as a form of decoration
3. Columns are free standing, supporting entablatures
4. Roof lines are generally flat and horizontal, without towers / domes
5. Facades tend to be long and flat
6. Classical proportion maintained on the exterior of the building
7. Minimal decoration on the exterior

Neo classicists:

1. Structural Neo classicists are :

o Marc-Antoine Laugier
o JG Aoufflot
o Karl Friedrich Schinkel
o Henri Labstroue

2. Romantic Neo Classicists are :

o Claude Nicolas Ledoux
 o Etienne-Louis Boullee
o Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand
o Thomas Jefferson

Architects associated with Neo classical Architecture in England:

1. James Stuart – Employed Greek Doric order as early as 1758

2. George Dance – Designed Newgate Gaol in 1765, a superficially Piranesian structure, followed
Neo-Proportional Palldian theories of Robert Morris
3. Thomas Hope – Greek Revival – Household furniture and interior decoration (1807)

Architects associated with Neo classical architecture in France:

1. Claude Perrault: He gave his concept of “Positive beauty” (role of standardization and
perfection) and “Arbitrary beauty (expressive function as may be required by a particular
circumstance or character).
2. Abbe’de Cordemoy: He challenged the Vitruvian principle namely Utility, Solidity and beauty by
his own trinity. First principle was the correct proportioning of classical orders, second was their
appropriate disposition, and the third introduced the notion of fitness which warned against the
inappropriate application of classical elements to utilitarian or commercial structures.
3. J.F.Blondel: Opened an architecture School in 1743 and was the teacher of the Enlightenment or
Visionary architects that included Etienne Louis Boullee, Jacques gondoin, Pierre Patte, Marie-
Joseph Peyre, Jean-Baptiste Rondelet and Claude Nicolas Ledoux

Structural Neo Classicists:

 Marc-Antoine Laugier:
 Laugier, Abbe Marc-Antoine (1713-69). French Jesuit, he became one of the earliest and
most important theorists of Neo Classicism
 His Essai Sur L’Architecture (1753) was profoundly influential, setting out a rational
interpretation of classicism as a logical, straightforward expression of the need for
shelter, derived from the primitive Hut of tree truncks supporting a structure
 His approach is to discuss some familiar aspects of Renaissance and post-Renaissance
architectural practice, which he describes as “Faults”
 These “faults” induce his commentary on columns, entablature, and on pediments

Principles:

 Among faults he lists for columns are that of “being engaged in the wall”, the use of pilasters,
incorrect entasis (swelling of the column) and setting columns on pedestals
 Being embedded in the wall detracts from the overall beauty and columns
 That columns should be free
  Use of pilasters should strictly be frowned upon
 Incorrect proportion
 Resting column pedestals
 The horizontal pieces which surmount them have given us ideas of lintels
 Finally the sloping pieces which form the roof have given us the idea of pediments
 Laugier’s writings gave support to the view that harmony and grace were principles laid down by
nature herself

JG Soufflot:

Structural Neo classicist:

Introduction:

Soufflot, Jacques-Germain (1713 - 80). French Neo-classical architect. He studied in Rome (1731 – 80)
before settling in Lyons where he built

 The hotel-Dieu (1739-48)

 The Loge du change (1747-50)
 The theatre (1751-1826)

He was a respected theorist too, and after a further nine month visit to Italy, he was able to
demonstrate his knowledge of classical antiquities

This important Italian study-visit, which he undertook as part of entourage was highly significant in the
history of French Architecture, for it marked a change away from the Rococo of Louis Quinze to the Neo-
classicism of Louis Seize

Jacques-Germain Soufflot’s church, Saint-Genevieve (now the Pantheon), was one of the first
Neoclassical structures in France, heralding the simplification of churches that became increasingly
classical in inspiration

Principles:

1. His severe Neoclassism is characterized by a reliance on architectural details rather than

sculptural decoration. He avoided Adam’s occasional intermingling of classical forms with
Rococo effects
2. Recreated the lightness, spaciousness and proportion of classical architecture (Gothic). Such a
‘translucent’ structure was realized in church of Ste-Genevieve in Paris
3. G.Soufflot’s Roman-inspired design for the church of Ste. Genevieve (now the Pantheon; 1755-
92) emphasized the structural role of the column
Example: Church of Ste. Genevieve (now the Pantheon; 1755-92)

Planning:

1. A Greek cross on plan.

2. The nave and aisles were defined by rows of Corinthian columns carrying a continuous
entablature over which light domes and vaults rose.
3. Soufflot’s pupil, Maximilien Brebion carried out Soufflot’s designs for the drum and dome over
the crossing from 1780
4. In building the church Soufflot had reunited, under one of the most beautiful forms, the
lightness of construction found in Gothic churches with the purity and magnificence if Greek
Architecture
5. With its great Roman temple front, elegant columned drum and dome over the crossing, and
rational geometry it made a great impact

Exteriors:

1. The Pantheon in Paris is considered the most perfect expression of Soufflot’s style
2. The enormous Roman portico is supported by Corinthian columns, and the building’s surface is
almost completely devoid of sculptural detail
3. The spectacular dome is modeled on the dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral in London (designed by
Christopher Wren), showing that English architecture had come of age

Karl Friedrich Schinkel:

Introduction:

 Schinkel, Karl Friedrich (1781-1841). Prussian architect, the greatest in Germany in the first half
of C19.
 He was an Architect, civil servant, intellectual, painter, stage designer, producer of panoramas
and gifted draughtsman
 He became a painter of romantic landscapes and panoramas (Medieval city by the water, 1813)
and stage sets (Magic Flute 1815). In 1813 he designed the Iron cross, Germany’s highest
military award. In 1815 Frederick William III appointed him Prussian state architect
 He designed many buildings that became paradigms of excellence in the period during which he
served his country and king as Prussian state Architect, and he established standards that
influenced generations of architects throughout Germany

Principles:
 1. Interiors with dramatic lighting, changes in levels and spatial fluidity show an original mind at
work
2. His output was prodigious and his stylistically eclectic work was lyrical and logical
3. He also exhibited an alternative (and enchanting) Romantic Gothic design in which the
supposed ‘natural origins of Gothic were alluded to in the palm-fronds on the ribs of the vaults,
like a canopy of peace over the dead queen, and at that time began to see Gothic as an
embodiment of the Germanic soul.

Examples:

By 1830, he had produced his main works:

 The Neue Wache guard house (1816)

 The Schauspielhaus (1812-21)
 Humboldt’s country house (1822-1824)
 The Altes Museum

Altes museum :

The museum was built between 1823 and 1830 by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the
neoclassical style to house the Prussian royal family’s art collected. This was at high point of Schinkel’s
career

Planning:
1. The body of the two storey building is raised
on a plinth, giving the building a greater
stature as well as preventing the risk of
damage to the artwork from moisture or
flooding for which the island is renowned
2. From behind the entrance lobby rises a two
winged grand stairway which is at once inside
and outside enclosed only with columns
3. Schinkel illustrated his idea of the purpose of
the building with decorative figures on the
walls of the stairway. It should provide
material for direct observation and instruction.

Exteriors:
 1. The Altes Museum takes the Greek Stoa in Athens as a model, borrowing heavily from Greek
antiquity and classical architecture.
2. The museum employs the Ionic order to articulate the 87 m (285 ft.) face of the building, which
is the only part of the exterior with any visual sign of the Orders; the other three remaining
facades are of brick and stone banding.
3. Atop the eighteen Ionic columns, which support the portico, sit eighteen sandstone eagles. The
dedication inscription, upon which the eagles are perched, reads:
4. FRIDERICVS GVILHELMVS III. STVDIO ANTIQVITATIS OMNIGENAE ET ARTIVM LIBERALIVM
MVSEVM CONSTITVIT MDCCCXXVIII — Friedrich Wilhelm III founded this museum for the study
of all forms of antiquities and of the liberal arts in 1828.
5. Schinkel experimented with some ideas already current in France; for example. the museum's
division into galleries around an oval hall and the large portico with colonnades- two options
that he interprets in an innovative manner
6. A low block with central rotunda for the sculpture flanked by courts and surrounded by galleries
for paintings, the museum closed the north side of the square with a majestic row of 18 Ionic
columns framed by a podium below, entablature above, and pilasters to either side

Interiors:

Rotunda – Gallery Rotunda – columns Rotunda - Skylight

1. The exhibition rooms of the museum are grouped around two inner courtyards; the center of
the building is the two-story (23 m), skylit rotunda, which is surrounded by a gallery supported
by twenty Corinthian columns.
2. Like the Pantheon in Rome, its interior surface is adorned with coffering (rectangular, sunken
panels). A portion of the museum's statue collection is displayed between the rotunda's twenty
columns.
3. Originally, the 6.9 m (23 ft.) wide granite basin by Christian Gottlieb Cantian, which now rests in
the Lustgarten directly in front of the museum, was to be installed directly under the rotunda's
skylight, but it was judged too large to be moved into the museum.
4. The rotunda was the only portion of the museum, which was reconstructed in its original form
during the 1966 renovation of the Altes Museum.

Pierre Francois Henri Labrouste:

Introduction:

Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste (11 May 1801 – 24 June 1875) was a French architect from the
famous École des Beaux-Arts school of architecture. After a six-year stay in Rome, Labrouste opened an
architectural training workshop, which quickly became the center of the rationalist view. He became
noted for his use of iron-frame construction and was one of the first to realize the importance of its use.

Principles:

1. Labrouste believed that architecture should reflect society

2. Accordingly, his work reflects the rationalism and technical aspects of industrial society
3. His work also embodies the ideals of writer Victor Hugo, who believed that Architecture is a
form of communication like literature and that in organic phases of construction if expressed a
coherent body of social belief

Examples:

1. Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve, built between 1843 and 1850 in Paris

2. The reading room of the bibliotheque Nationale de France in Rue Richelieu, Paris and built
between 1862 and 1868

Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve:

Ground floor plan (hall):

Main floor plan (reading room):

1. One of the greatest cultural buildings of the nineteenth century to use iron in a prominent,
visible way was unquestionably the Bibliotheque Ste- Genevieve in Paris, designed by Henri
Labrouste and built in 1842-50
2. The large (278 by 69 sqfeet) two storied structure filling a wide, shallow site is deceptively
simple in scheme: the lower floor is occupied by stacks to the left, rare book storage and office
space to the right with a central vestibule and stairway leading to the reading room which fills
the entire upper storey
3. The ferrous structure of this reading room – a apine of slender, cast iron Inonic columns
dividing the space into twin aisles and supporting open work iron arches that carry barrel vaults
of plaster reinforced by iron mesh- has always been revered by modernists for its introduction
of high technology into a monumental building
Romantic Neo classicists:

Claude Nicolas Ledoux:

1. Claude Nicolas Ledoux was born in Dormans, France in 1736

2. He was educated at a private architectural school in Paris
3. Established by JF Blondel, the school em[hasized native Baroque tradition but exposed students
to English Architecture
4. After completing his studies, Ledoux assumed several government positions as an engineer
mainly of bridge design
5. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only in domestic architecture but
town planning, as a consequence of his visionary plan for the ideal city of Chaux, he became
known as a utopian
6. He did visit England where he was influenced by the Palladian tradition with which he was
already familiar
7. Although much of Ledoux’s architecture is quite practical and functional, the visionary aspects of
his work are better known. His designs became symbols of the ancient regime and their
exaggerated use of classical elements seems to anticipate post modern classicism

Design Philosophy:

1. His master plan and architectural designs systematically addressed the technical, social and
symbolic dimensions of this important industry.
2. Subsequently, he expanded the project into a visionary scheme for urban and rural
development, which he presented in his treatise, published in 1804.
3. His teacher, Blondel, instilled an enduring appreciaton for the grandeur and compositional logic
in the buildings of Francois Mansart (1598-1666) and a conviction that architects must infuse
their designs with an expressive character appropriate to their purpose.
4. Ledoux pursued this attitude by exploring typology and the ways by which architecture can
convey meaning
5. His investigations into the fundamental characteristics of building types paralleled the
classifivatory efforts of scientists, such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

Principles:

1. As a radical utopian of Architecture, teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he created a singular
architectonic order, a new column formed of alternating cylindrical and cubic stones
superimposed for their plastic effect.
2. In this period, taste was returning ti the qntique, to the disctinction and the examination of the
taste for the “rustic” style.
3. Around the time of the loyal saltworks, Ledoux formalized his innovative design ideas for an
urbanism and an architecture intended to improve society, of a Cite ideale charged with symbols
and meanings.
Examples:

 Rotunde de Chartres
 The royal saltworks at Arc-et-Senans
 Projet de Palais de justice d’Aix-en-Provence

Projet de Palais de Justice D-Aix-En-Provence

 The strict cubic block with columns and

pilaster function now no more than decorative
arrangements
 The columns, pilaster and timberworks
woriented at classical models are just as
characteristic of the early classicism

The Royal Saltworks at arc et Senans:

4. The design, which received royal approval, of the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, or Salines de
Chaux, is considered Ledoux's masterpiece.
5. The initial building work was conceived as the first phase of a large and grandiose scheme for a
new ideal city.
6. The first (and, as things were to turn out, only) stage of building was constructed between 1775
and 1778.
7. Entrance is through a massive Doric portico, inspired by the temples at Paestum.
8. The alliance of the columns is an archetypal motif of neoclassicism. Inside, a cavernous hall gives
the impression of entering an actual salt mine, decorated with concrete ornamentation
representing the elementary forces of nature and the organizing genius of Man, a reflection of
the views of the relationship between civilization and nature endorsed by such eighteenth-
century philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
 1. The entrance building opens into a vast semicircular open air space that is surrounded by ten
buildings, which are arranged on the arc of a semicircle.
2. On the arc is the cooper's forge, the forging mill and two bothies for the workers.
3. On the straight diameter are the workshops for the extraction of salt alternating with
administrative buildings.
4. At the centre is the house of the director (illustrated), which originally also contained a chapel.
5. The significance of this plan is twofold: the circle, a perfect figure, evokes the harmony of the
ideal city and theoretically encloses a place of harmony for common work.

Note: Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, bound together with
hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper's work include but are not limited
to casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts,
pins and breakers.

Etinne-Louis Boullee:

Introduction: Design philosophy:

 Etinne-Louis Boullee was born in Paris, he
studied under Jacques-François
Blondel, Germain Boffrand and Jean-
Laurent Le Geay, from whom he learned
the mainstream French Classical
architecture in the 17th and 18th century
and the Neoclassicism that evolved after
the mid century.
 He was elected to the Académie Royale
d'Architecture in 1762 and became chief
architect to Frederick II of Prussia, a largely
honorary title. He designed a number of
private houses from 1762 to 1778, though
most of these no longer exist; notable
survivors include the Hôtel Alexandre and
Hôtel de Brunoy, both in Paris.
 Together with Claude Nicolas Ledoux he
was one of the most influential figures of
French neoclassical architecture.
1. Evoked the sublime emotions of terror
and tranquility through the grandeur of his
conceptions.
2. He adopted the unadorned geometrical
purity of monumental form and the
immensity of Vista to promote more
exhilaration and anxiety.
3. He used the capacity of light to invoke
presence of divine.
4. Boullee admired the clear, bold lines of
neoclassic architecture but considered
emotion equally as important to
architecture as classical rules of
proportioning.
5. In his writing, Essai sur l’Art, which
remained unpublished until 1953, he
pleaded for a monumental architecture
which employed both emotion and
reason.
6. His designs Boullee restricted himself to
the use of simple, geometrical shapes,
such as pyramids, sphere and cylinders
Examples:

1. The cenotaph of Sir Isaac newtion

2. Salon for the Hotel de Tourolles
3. Hotel Alexandre
4. Hotel de Brunoy

The Cenotaph of Sir Isaac Newton

 Boullee’s style was most notably exemplified

in his proposal for a cenotaph for the English
scientist Isaac Newton, which would have
taken the form of a sphere 150 m (490 ft)
high embedded in a circular base topped
withcypress trees.
 Though the structure was never built, its
design was engraved and circulated widely in  The design of the memorial creates the effect of day
professional circles. and night. The night effect occurs when the
 Boullee's Cenotaph for Isaac Newton is a sarcophagus is illuminated by sunlight coming through
funerary monument celebrating a figure the holes in vaulting.
interred elsewhere. The small sarcophagus  This gives the illusion of stars in the night sky. The day
for Newton is placed at the lower pole of the effect is an armillary sphere hanging in the center that
sphere. gives off a mysterious glow.
Jean-Nicolas Louis Durand:

Introduction

 Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (Paris, 18 September 1760 – Thiais, 31 December 1834) was a French
author, teacher and architect.
 He was an important figure in Neoclassicism, and his system of design using simple modular
elements anticipated modern industrialized building components.
 Having spent periods working for the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée and the civil engineer Jean-
Rodolphe Perronet, in 1795 he became a Professor of Architecture at the École Polytechnique

Design Philosophy:

 He was one of the most influential teachers of his time, and his radically rationalist approach
which emphasized priority of function and economy of means, was expressed in analytical
writings that remained popular into the 20th century
 About 1790 he executed a series of drawings entitled Rudimenta Operis Magni et Disciplinase,
which are probably a pictorial representation of Boulle’s theories, centred on the notion of
expressive forms and character in architecture
 He was an important figure in Neoclassicism and his system of design using simple and modular
elements anticipated modern industrialized building components
Examples:

 L’Hotel des Invalides a vol d’oiseau L’entrée du Palais-Bourbon-Assemblee Nationale

Industrial Revolution – UK, France, Germany….

 Industrial revolution and its impact

 Materials and technologies
 History of steel, concrete, glass

Impact of the Industrial Revolution:

1. Industrial revolution began in the 18th century. European architecture in the 19th century was
profoundly influenced by the industrial revolution. Goods that had traditionally been made in
the home or in small workshops began to be manufactured in the factory.
2. Tasks which had earlier been carried out slowly were performed more quickly and more cheaply
by machinery.
3. Movement of people from rural to Urban communities in search of work in new factories,
leading to expansion of cities.
4. Different types of building were also needed to meet new demands. Among them were houses,
townhalls, museums, concert halls, libraries, hospitals, department stores, shopping arcades,
schools, colleges, banks, offices, warehouses and factories.
5. Railways, which affected social life, also influenced architectural practice. With the railways
came a need for new kinds of buildings such as railway station, railway hotels and goods yards.
Important technological developments

The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of

innovations,[19] beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had
been made in important technologies:

 Textiles – Mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a worker
by a number of times. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a greater factor. The
cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton. Large gains in productivity also
occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton.

 Steam power – The efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and
one-tenth as much fuel. The adaption of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them
suitable for industrial uses. The high pressure engine had a high power to weight ratio, making it
suitable for transportation. Steam power underwent a rapid expansion after 1800.

 Iron making – The substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost of pig iron and
wrought iron production. Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of
scale. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by making it
double acting, which allowed higher furnace temperatures. The puddling process produced a
structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge. The rolling mill was fifteen times faster
than hammering wrought iron. Hot blast (1829) greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production
in the following decades.

Three Unique social elements which lead to the early Mechanization of Britain were:

1. Education
2. Modern work attitudes and
3. A Modern Government

The elements needed or preferred for the industrial revolution are :

 Modern work attitudes

 Education
  A product
 Transportation for the product
 Large market
 Modern Government

Key innovations and inventors of the industrial revolution

1. Agriculture revolution

Occurred since 1600’s onwards. The spread out shared farms, common under the open field system of
cultivation turned into more compact farms

Farmers had discovered a crop rotation system. The other innovations which changed the farming
process include:

Jethro Tull’s major contribution to the agricultural revolution, were his two inventions: THE SEED DRILL
and HORSE HOE. During the agricultural revolution, the agricultural output of England increased about
three and half times. With more productive farms and a smaller work load, more people were able to
leave the farms and go to the city.

2. Inventions in the textile Industry

 In 1733 – Flying shuttle invented by John Kay – an improvement to looms that enabled weavers
to weave faster.
 In 1742 – Cotton mills were first opened in England
 In 1764 – Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves – the first machine to improve upon the
spinning wheel
 In 1764 – Water frame invented by Richard Arkwright – the first powered textile machine
 In 1790 – Arkwright built the first steam powered textile factory in Nottingham, England
 In 1779 – Samuel Crompton combined both the spinning jenny and the water frame to create a
machine known as “Crompton’s mule", which produced large amounts of fine strong yarn
3. Effect on transportation

Improvements to bridges and roads were made early in the 1700’s. Roads and rivers carried the factory
made products to the world markets. Canal building came next, and a network of canals soon joined
important cities. Railroads were made when George Stephenson made a steam engine that could
transport on rails. During the mid 19th century wooden steam powered ships took over sailing ships.

4. Key Inventions - Transport

 In 1800 – John McAdam made a roadbed of large crushed stones with smooth layer of crushed
stones. The “macadam” road is still the basis for most of our modern highways.
 In 1807 – Robert Fulton used steam power to create the first steamboat, an invention that
would change the way and the speed in which materials could be moved between the colonies
of Britain
 In 1829 – Stephenson used the steam engine to create a steam powered train
  In 1886- The German scientist, Gottlieb Daimier, built the first internal combustion engine
 In 1904 – Wilbur and Orville wright successfully flew their flying machine (wright flyer) at Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina
 These first innovations have greatly affected the basic elements of the era: agriculture, power,
transportation, textiles and communication

Social and economic changes due to industrialization:

 The industrial revolution brought a shift from the agricultural societies created during the
Neolithic Revolution to modern industrial societies
 Large portions of the population relocated from the countryside to the towns and cities where
manufacturing centres were found
 Economic changes caused far reaching social changes, including the movement of people to
cities, the availability of a greater variety of material goods, and new ways of doing business
 In the long run, industrial revolution has brought economic improvement in industrialized
societies
 Many enjoy greater prosperity and improved health, especially those in the middle and the
upper classes of society
 Drastic population growth following industrialization has contributed to the decline of natural
habitats and resources. These factors, in turn, have caused many species to become extinct or
endangered

Impact of Industrial revolution on Architecture:

Townships – Growth of Cities

 Large people movement from rural to urban communities in search of work in the new factories.
leading to expansion of cities
 In pre-industrial England, more than three quarters of the population lived in small villages
 By the mid 19th century, however, the country had made history by becoming the first nation
with half its population in cities
 The accommodation of such volatile growth led to the transformations of old neighbourhoods
into slums
 These settlements were congested developments and had inadequate standards of light
ventilation and open space with poor sanitary facilities
 These conditions naturally provoked a high incidence of disease and eventually the public health
act was enacted
 This act in addition to others, made local authorities legally responsible for sewerage, refuse
collection water supply, roads and the burial of the dead
 Edwin Chadwick inspired the society for improving the conditions of the labour classes and he
sponsored the erection of the first working class flats in London in 1844
  Throughout the 19th century integrated industrial settlements emerged, where the industries
provided all the amenities to their workers

The rise of the Industrial town -

The factory system, often powered by steam, helped create new urban communities.

Factories gave rise to townscapes packed with houses, shops and services for their works. Manchester,
centre of the cotton industry, symbolized new industrial towns. Described as ‘Cottonopolis’.

Living conditions:

Nineteenth-century factory workers experienced overcrowding, bad housing and poor diet. This was not
a new phenomenon, but it happened on a scale never seen before

A view of the city of Manchester in 1834. Between 1790 and 1831, Manchester’s population tripled. The
result was terrible living standards for thousands of people.

 Edwin Chadwick inspired the society for improving the conditions of the laboring classes and he
sponsored the erection of the first working flat in London in 1844
 Throughout the 19th Century integrated industrial settlements emerged, where the industries
provided all the amenities to their work
 SIR TITUS SALT’s SALTAIRE. Near Bradford in Yorkshire (1850) was a paternalistic milltown
complete with traditional urban institutions such as a church, school, public baths, houses and
park
 The familistere was built by JP Godin in 1859-70. This complex comprised of three residential
blocks, a crèche, a kindergarten, a theatre, schools, public baths and laundry

Robert Owen:

 1771-1858, English born entrepreneur turned socialist called the “Father of British Socialism”
  Owen first established a community in New Lanark, Scotland, where he revamped the system of
production and provided excellent working conditions
 He established funded schools, non profit stores, and other social services, while the factories in
the town managed to increase their profits

The English park movement founded by Humprey Repton attempted to project the “landscape country
estate into the city.

 Repton demonstrated this, in collaboration with the architect John Nash, in their layout of
regent’s park in London (1812-27)
 The proposed development enclosing the park by a continuous display façade penetrating into
the existing urban area and extending as a terraced accommodation from the aristocratic vistas
of regent’s park in the north to the urbanity of st James Park and Carlton Park and Carlton House
terrace in the South. The Royal palace of the Carlton House was lined with elegant Neo-classical
buildings with broad processional avenues

Two alternative models for the European garden city were proposed by :

 Axial structure of Spanish linear Garden city by Arturo Soria Y Mata in early 1880’s
 The English concentric Garden city by Ebenezer Howard

The English Garden city by Howard’s was widely adopted than the linear model sponsored by Soria Y
Mata. The linear city model was considered to be theoretical rather than practical and hence failed

Garden City Concept:

The Garden city concept is one out of many attempts to reduce and solve social problems during the
Industrialization period. The problems occurred, as more and more farmers became workers in the
factories. The living conditions became worse, due to the fact that many workers’ settlements were
located next to industrial areas or within the cities

The idea of the Garden city was formulated by Ebenezer Howard in his book: “Tomorrow: A peaceful
path to Reak Reform”, 1898 and was revised in 1902 under the title “Garden cities of Tomorrow”

Howard analysed in his book the reasons for people to move to the city or to the country side. He found
out that both have advantages and function as magnets. Therefore, his solution was to develop a city
structure which contains the advantages of a city and those of the countryside. He expressed this in his
image of “The three magnets”.
Settlement structure

The main objective of the concept is to find a new city. The common strategies of city
expansion(suburbs) did not work because you always had to adapt to old structures and usually the
suburbs were too close to the mother cities. The surrounding area of the Garden City is used for
agriculture and recreation

City Expansion:

To avoid problems which occur in expanding cities, the concept limits the city a maximum population
upto 32,000 people. Further growing of the Garden City is not possible. Therefore a new city is to be
developed in a reasonable distance of about 7 km to the others to protect the country side. The cities
are well connected through a railway system to exchange goods.
City Structure:

 The Garden city consists for different zones, street types and green
 The core in the centre is about 4 sqkm and contains a central park, surrounded by a commercial,
cultural and administrative zone
 Here, the idea of the shopping mall came up, as Howard wanted to develop a “Crystal palace”
where goods such as hand craft produced by the inhabitants could be sold protected from
weather
 During the weekends the core was supposed to be cultural and recreational centre
 Six magnificient boulevards connect the centre with the circumference, dividing the city into six
parts
 A wide (Grand Avenue) and some smaller (first to fifth Avenue) ring roads are arranged circular
around the centre, and together with the radial roads, they form the wards – living area
 Every family has a house of a minimum size of 6m * 30 m with a shared or owned garden
 Social infrastructure (ie schools) is located along the Grand Avenue
 The outer ring is supposed for a small scale industries and manufactories to keep the inhabitants
away from emission and a green belt and a circle railway mark the border to the countryside
Spanish Linear Garden City by Arturo Soria Y Mata in early 1880’s

Soria Y Mata’s linear city was intended to “ruralize the city and urbanize the countryside”, He
established the compania Madrilena de Urbanizacion in 1892 as a means to bring his first linear city
around Madrid to fruition – intended to be 48 Km long, ringing the city, with a 7 km radial connection. 5
km section was completed in the 1910s – a linear suburb of fairly dense low-rise housing all along the
axis of a combined railway/tramway/boulevard

The linear garden city:

 The first real design for a linear city is probably made by Arturo Soria Y Mata, who around 1880
designed his Ciudad Lineal; a linear garden city, connecting existing Spanish urban centre’s
trying to diffuse the difference between urban and rural areas
 The plan consists of a central railroad with on both sides gridded slabs for housing and working.
Soria Y Mata aimed on involving all villages around Madrid in his Ciodad Lineal, in order to bring
the country to the city and the city of the country
  Soria stated about his plan that every point of the linear city a new community could arise as
the branch on a tree. In this fashion a linear urban network could arise. Only a small part of the
plan was realized
 The concept of the Ciudad Lineal was further developed by designers like Gonzales de Castillo en
George Beloit Levy. The linear garden city concept has been leading concept of the linear city
movement till halfway nineteen twenties

The linear city was an urban plan for an elongated urban formation. The city would consist of a series of
functionally specialized parallel sectors. Generally, the city would run parallel to a river and be built so
that the dominant wind would blow from the residential areas to the industrial strip. The sectors of a
linear city would be:

 a purely segregated zone for railway lines,

 a zone of production and communal enterprises, with related scientific, technical and
educational institutions,
 a green belt or buffer zone with major highway,
 a residential zone, including a band of social institutions, a band of residential buildings and a
"children's band",
 a park zone, and
 an agricultural zone with gardens and state-run farms

Garnier’s Utopian Industrial City

Une cite industrielle of 1932

Garnier (1869-1948) was a French architect who pioneered the use of reinforced concrete and was a
forerunner of modernist urban planning. He divided his ideal City into separate zones for industrial,
residential, touristic, healthcare, and educational activities
Perry’s Neighborhood Unit - Clarence Arthur Perry

 In the 1920s, Urban planner Clarence

Perry developed a influential
prototypical plan for the
“neighborhood unit”, organized
around the elementary school
 The design put the school in the
neighborhood centre, such that most
children would have less than a 5
minute, quarter-mile walk to the
school and wouldn’t have to cross a
major street
 The target population for Perry’s 160
acre neighborhood was about 6000
people. Equivalent to a density of 38
per acre

Haussmann Regularized Paris

In 1853 Haussmann regularized Paris into a regional metropolis. The city of Paris built some 137 km of
boulevards which were considerably wider, more thickly lined with trees

 With all this came standard residential plan types, regularized facades and standard system of
street furnitures.
 This entire was well ventilated with large open spaces.
 There was adequate sewer system and fresh water piped into the city

By 1891, inventions like railways, electric tram, passenger lifts, steel frames which gave rise to muti
storey buildings, emerged as the natural unit for future expansion

 In addition to this growth of heavy industry brought a flood of new building materials
 Cast iron, steel and glass – with which architects and engineers devised structures hitherto
undreamt of in function, size and form
 THE CRYSTAL PALACE (1850-1851; RECONSTRUCTED 1852-1854) IN LONDON, a vast exhibition
hall, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, used the new materials
Characteristic features of the buildings – 19th Century

1. There is no single style which is characteric of the 19th Century. Architects drew their
inspiration from and copied virtually every historical style known to them: Greek,
Roman, Gothic, Renaissance as well as Chinese, Indian and Egyptian.
2. Buildings are often more easily recognized as belonging to the 19th century by the
function they perform than by the style in which they were built.
3. Some buildings were designed in a single historical style, with the fundamental rules of
that style strictly observed. Few others were a blend of different styles.
4. A mixture of various styles within the same building is one of the characteristic features
of the 19th century
5. Some styles were considered suitable for certain buildings (Neo Gothic for churches,
Neo classical for Civic buildings).
6. Another recognizable feature is mass produced decorative detail using the same mould.
7. Other features include stained glass windows, patterned brickwork and ceramic tiling.
8. Exteriors of many houses were notable for wrought iron balconies and contrasting
colours of bricks.
9. Most extraordinary feature of the 19th century architecture was combination of modern
technology and historic styles

New materials and technologies

History of metals and their usage:

 In architecture before 1800, metals played an auxiliary role. They were used for bonding
masonry (dowels and clamps), for tension members (chairs strengthening domes, tie rods across
arches to reinforce the vaults) and for roofing, doors, windows and decoration
 Small items made of iron, dating from around 4000 BC., were made in Egypt and Sumer.
 The iron used for these probably came from meteorites, which made the metal significant to
ancient people. During the 3rd BC., smelted iron came into use, mostly for weaponry, across
Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean and around 12000 BC. This was wrought iron, a low
carbon, malleable metal that was painstaking to obtain, by burning iron and charcoal to form
bloom, a spongy mixture from whuch ash and impurities had to be removed by beating and
folding
 Developments in iron working continued around the globe during the last few centuries BC and
into the middle ages.
 In china, cast and wrought iron were combined to make steel
 The middle east also produced high quality weapons from steel. After the Baroque faded slowly
away, eighteenth-century architecture consisted primarily of revivals of previous periods
 Previously, building materials had been restricted to a few manmade materials along with those
available in nature: timber, stone, lime mortar and concrete. Metals were not available in
sufficient quantity or consistent quality to be used as anything more than ornamentation. The
Industrial Revolution changed this situation dramatically. The availability of new building
 materials such as iron, stell, concrete and glass drove the invention of new building techniques
as part of the industrial revolution. But for a very long time architects did not really use them

Iron and steel

The development of construction methods in iron and steel was the most important innovation in
architecture since ancient times. Iron was available in three forms:

1. The Least processed form, cast iron, was brittle due to a high percentage of impurities. It
still displayed impressive compressive strength.
2. Wrought iron was a more refined form of iron, malleable, though with low tensile
strength. Steel was the strongest, most versatile form of iron. Through a conversion
process, all of the impurities were burned out of the iron ore and then precise amounts
of carbon were added for hardness.
3. Steel had tensile and compressive strength greater than any material previously
available, and its capabilities revolutionized architecture.

The explosion in the development of iron and steel structures was driven initially by the advance of the
railroads. Bridges which were required to span gorges and rivers were of three types:

1. The bridge with a traditional arch made of iron instead of stone.

2. Later, THE TRUSS became the primary element of bridge building. Trusses were used to
build bridges of unprecedented strength throughout the nineteenth century, including
cantilever bridges consisting of truss complexes balanced on supporting piers.
3. A third, more attractive TYPE of steel bridge was the suspension bridge, in which the
roadway is hung from steel cables strung from supporting towers. Availability of iron
and steel in large quantities enabled architects to build on a new and massive scale. The
evolution of steel frame construction in the 20th century entirely changed the concept of
the wall and the support. These methods provided for stronger and taller structures,
greater unsupported spans over openings and interior or exterior spaces

Use of cast iron:

 The rail was the first unit of construction. Iron was avoided for dwelling houses and used for
arcades, exhibition halls and railway stations. But the social conditions for its increase utilization
as a building material came into being a hundred years
 Cast iron, was used in bridge building as early as 1779. Wilkinson assisted Darby and his
Architect TF Pritchard in designing and erecting the first cast iron bridge, a 30.5 metre span built
over the seven near coal brookdale in 1779
 In 1796 Thomas Telford made his debut as a bridge builder 39.5 m span bridge erected over the
severn
  William strut’s six storey cotton mill, built at Derby in 1792 and Charles bage’s flax-spinning mill
erected at Shrewbury in 1796, employed cast iron columns
 In 1830s that Eaton Hodgkinson introduced the section beam, leading to widespread the art of
iron construction

Use of wrought Iron:

 Wrought iron masonry reinforcement in France had its origins in Paris, in Perrault’s east façade
of Louvre (1667) and Soufflot’s portico of Ste-Genevieve(1772)\
 Victor Louis used wrought iron roof for theatre Francais of 1786 and theatre in the palais-Royal
of 1790
 Around this time the technique of iron construction underwent an independent evolution,
beginning with the American James Finlay’s invention of stiffened flat deck suspension bridge in
1801
 In Britain Brown’s wrought iron flat bars were used in Union Bridge (span 115 metre), built over
tweed in 1820
 British wrought iron suspension construction culminated in Brunel’s Clifton bridge (span 214
metre), Bristol designed in 1829
 Stephenson and FAIRBAIRN BRITANNIA’s tubular bridge over the Menai straits and Brunel’s salt
ash viaduct (1859) made use of plated wrought iron
 The Britannia Bridge comprised of iron plated box tunnels which bridged the straits in 70 m
span. Stone towers at intervals introduced for the anchorage of suspension members
 The Paris exposition of 1889, which included Eiffel’s iron tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel
with overall height of 300m

Use of Steel:

 The major disadvantage of iron, low tensile strength, was overcome in the mid 1850s, when the
Bessemer process of making steel (an alloy of iron and carbon)
 The first major structure built entirely of steel was the Cantilevered forth bridge in Scotland,
completed in 1890. Its two record-setting spans of 521m (1710 ft) were the longest in existence
until 1917

The arched Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St.Louis, Missouri, designed by James Eads and
completed in 1874, was the first steel bridge in the United states. At the time the Eads Bridge was built,
it was the longest structure in the United states.

The Eads Bridge has three main spans. The Centre span is 160m (520 ft) long, and the spans on either
side are each 153m (502 ft) in length.

John and Washington Roebling also designed and built the Brooklyn bridge, which was the world’s
longest suspension bridge at the time of its completion in 1883, having a main span of 486 m 31 cm
(1595 ft 6 in)
The completion of the Brooklyn Bridge marked the beginning of an 80 year period of large scale
suspension bridge design in the United States

 George Fuller’s innovative steel cage system for buildings, which involved a unified steel
framework to support the weight of tall buildings, created the multistory factories and the
skyscrapers
 The masonry bearing wall was transformed to the steel frame, which assumed all the load
bearing functions. The building’s skeleton could be erected quickly and the remaining
components hung on it to complete it, an immense advantage for high rise buildings on busy
city streets
 Chicago architect Louis Sullivan in his wainwright building (1890-1891) in St.Louis, Missouri, his
Guaranty Building (1895) in Buffalo, NewYork, and his Carson Pirie Scott Department store
(1899-1904) in Chicago, gave new expressive form to urban commercial buildings
 His career converges with the so called Chicago School of Architects, whose challenge was to
invent the skyscraper or high rise building, facilitated by the introduction of the electric elevator
and the sudden abundance of steel
 The best example is the development of the tall steel skyscraper in Chicago around 1890 by
William Le Baron Jenney and Louis Sullivan
 In the same time another huge steel building was built in Paris. The “Galleries des Machines” a
huge 422 m long, 114m wide and 47m high hall by Charles Dutert and Victor contamin
 Russian Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin’s proposal for a spiraling steel monument to the third
International in 1920 provided a dynamic optimistic visual image for the new technology
 By the mid of 18th Century cast iron columns and wrought iron rails used in conjunction with
modular glazing, had become the standard technique for the rapid prefabrication and erection
of urban centres

Examples of modern structures of steel:

1. Wainwright Building

The Wainwright building is a 10 storey red brick landmark office building in downtown Missouri. Built in
1891 and designed by Adler and Louis Sullivan, it is among the first skyscrapers in the world. Sullivan
used a steel frame and applied his intricate terracotta ornament in Vertical bands to emphasize the
height of the building.

2. The Carson Pirie, Scott and Company Building

3. Tatlin’s Constructivist tower

Concrete:

The industrial revolution provided another building material, a stronger more durable and fire resistant
type of cement called Portland cement was developed in 1824. The new material was still limited by low
tensile strength, however, and could not be used in many structural applications. The nineteenth
century builders came up with idea of reinforced concrete. Though expensive, iron and steel had high
tensile strength and could be easily formed into long thin bars. Enclosed in cheap, easily formed
concrete, the bars were protected from fire and weather. The result was a strong, economical, easily
produced structural member that could take almost any form imaginable, including columns, beams,
arches, vaults, and decorative elements. It is still one of the most common building materials used
today.

History of Concrete in Architecture:

Concrete was employed in ancient Egypt and was highly developed by the ancient Romans, whose
concrete made with Volcanic ash cement (Pozzolana) permitted a great expansion of architectural
methods, particularly the development of domes and vaults (often reinforced by brick ribbing) to cover
large areas, of foundations, and of structures such as bridges and sewerage systems were water
proofing was essential. The technique of manufacture declined in the middle ages and was regained in
the 18th century.

Use of concrete – building examples

In France, Francois Coignet was the first to use reinforced concrete. In 1861 he developed a technique
for strengthening concrete with metal mesh (ferroconcrete) and used this material in building sewers,
other public structures including a remarkable series of six storey apartment blocks in 1867

In 1892 French Engineer Francois Hennebique combined the strengths of both steel and concrete in a
new system of construction based on concrete reinforced with steel. Hennebique’s invention of
monolithic joints created monolithic frames. His invention made possible previously unimaginable
effects: extremely thin walls with large areas of glass; roofs that cantilever to previously impossible
distances; enormous spans without supporting columns or beams; and corners formed of glass rather
than stone, brick, or wood.

One the earliest architects to experiment with these new effects was Belgian Architect Engineer
Auguste Perret, whose 1903 apartment building on Rue Franklin in Paris, France, exemplified basic
principles of steel reinforcement. On the façade, Perret clearly separated the structural elements of
steel reinforcement. On the façade, Perret clearly separated the structural elements of steel reinforced
concrete from the exterior walls, which were simply decorative panels or windows rather than structural
necessities.

The reinforced concrete structure also eliminated the need for interior walls to support any weight,
permitting a floor plan of unprecedented openness. Perret’s building stood eight storey high with two
additional storey set back from the front of the building, typical height of most Paris buildings at the
time.

Robert Maillart designed the reinforced concrete bridges in dynamic parabolic curves.
Examples of early concrete constructions:

1. Rue Franklin apartments – Auguste Perret –

2. Einstein Tower -

Glass –

 History of glass
 Uses of glass – Building examples

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITIONS – 19th Century

During the 19th and 20th century international exhibitions, popularly called world’s fairs, have become
elaborate showcases for technological and cultural developments as well as manufactured products.
Some of the important international expositions include:

1. The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace (1851)

2. In Paris a series of international expositions were held, they are –
a. The Paris Exposition of 1855, Exposition Universelle (1855)
b. The Paris exposition or Paris World’s Fair of 1878
c. The Paris Exposition of 1889 - Exposition Universelle (1889)
d. The Paris Exposition of 1900
e. The Paris Exposition of 1925
f. Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes
3. World’s columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893
4. Vienna Exposition held in 1873

The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace

 The great Exhibition, also known as the crystal Palace Exhibition was held in Hyde Park in
London in the specially constructed Crystal Palace
 The Crystal Palace was originally designed by Sir Joseph Paxton in only 10 days and was a huge
iron goliath with over a million feet glass
 Over 13,000 exhibits were displayed and viewed by over 6,200,000 visitors to the exhibition.
This building was divided into a series of courts depicting the history of art and architecture
from ancient Egypt through the Renaissance
 Sir Joseph Paxton, its Architect, was famous for his elegant conservatories and greenhouses; in
essence, the crystal palace was the largest greenhouse ever built. Except for three entrance
porches, symmetrically disposed, its glazed perimeter was uninterrupted
 Paxton used prefabricated glass units framed in wood and case iron, supporting them on a cast
iron skeleton
  The massive glass house was 1848 feet (about 563 m) long by 454 feet (about 138 m) wide, and
went from plans to grand opening in just months. Its overall form was structured around a basic
8 feet cladding module, structural spans varying from 24 to 72 feet
 The crystal palace itself was almost outshone by the park in which it stood, which contained a
magnificient series of foundations, comprising almost 12,000 individual jets. The park also
contained unrivaled collections of statues, many of which were copies of great works from
around the world
 After the great exhibition closed, the crystal palace was moved to Sydenham hill in South
London and reconstructed in what was, in effect, a 200 acre Victorian theme park

Images of Crytal palace – 1851

Paris Exposition - 1855

 After London hosted the first international exposition in 1851, Napoleon II realized that France
needed to seize back the initiative
 The exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1855, Jean Marie Viel and Alexandre Barrault served
respectively as architect and engineer for the Palais de L’industrie
 The Palace of industry measured 850 feet long and 350 feet wide. The principal nave itself was
630 feet long, 158 feet wide and connected on four sides by two storey hight, ninety eight foot
wide aisles
 It contained semi circular trusses which bridged an 80 foot span to create an enormous
exhibition room.
Architectural transformations were the main focus since the beginning of industrial revolution.
Three major types of architectural transformations were brought about:

 Cultural transformations
 Technical transformations
 Territorial transformations

Cultural Transformations

The architecture of Neo-classicism seems to have emerged out of two different but related
developments which radically transformed the relationship between man and nature.

Neoclassical style - Monticello House

There was a sudden change and increase in man’s capacity to have control over nature, which by
17thcentury had begun to advance beyond the technical frontiers of Renaissance. There was change in
the nature of human consciousness, in response to major changes taking place in the society. It gave
birth to the cultural transformation taking place in the society.

The change in human consciousness yielded new categories of knowledge and historic mode of thought,
that was reflexive to ask question to its own identity.
The over-elaboration of architectural language in the Rocco interiors of the Ancient Regime and the
secularization of enlightenment. Their motivation was not simply to copy the ancients but to obey the
principles on which their work had been based. In England, Rococo had never been fully accepted the
impulse to redeem the excess of Baroque found its first expression.

By the end of 1750s, however, the British were already pursuing in construction of Rome. Neo-classicism
proponent could be found in the construction of residences. The final development of British Neo-
classicism came first in the work of Dance pupil John Soane, Adam and even from the English Baroque.
Sir John Soane, (10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English Architect. He was renowned
specialist in the Neo-classical style of architecture.
Some of the characters of the Neo-classical style are mentioned below:
 Clean lines
 Massing of simple form
 Decisive detailing
 Careful proportions
 Skilful use of light sources
The influence of his work, coming at the end of the Georgian era, was swamped by the revival styles of
the 19th century. It was not until the late 19th century that the influence of Sir John’s architecture was
widely felt.

Bank of England – Best known work of the Neo-classical architecture which gave a boost to the spread
of commercial architecture.

Bank of England - Sir John Soane

 An early awareness of cultural relativity in the late 17th century prompted Claude Persault to
question the validity of proportions and refined through classical theory.
 Apart from insisting on the judicious application of classical elements, cordemoy was concerned
with their geometrical purity in action against such Baroque devices as regular columniation.

 The Abbe Laugier in his Essai Sur l’ architecture reinterpreted Cordemoy to poist a universal
natural architecture, the primordial ‘primitive hut’ consisting of 4 tree trunks supporting the
pitched roof.
  After Cordemoy, he asserted this primal form as the basis for a sort of classified Gothic
structure in which there would be neither arches nor pilasters nor pedestals nor any
articulation.
 Such a ‘translucent’ structure was realized in Jacque-German Soufflot’s Church of St. Benevieve
in Paris begun in 1755.

Technical transformations:

Industrial revolution brought about in the development of machines working on steam power which
brought about the development of railways.

Rotary steam power and the iron frame came into being at around the same time through the
interdependent efforts of three men:
1. James Watt
2. Abraham Darby
3. John Wilkinson
Of these three men, John Wilkinson was the iron master of his days, whose invention of cylinder boring
machine in1775 was essential to the perfection of watts steam engine.

John Wilkinson - The Iron Master (Inventor of boring machines)

 Because his cylinders were so accurately bored, he became the main supplier of these
for Boulton and Watt, and also licensed steam engines from them to assist in his ironworks. He
also encouraged them to provide steam engines to operate forges, and rotary engines for
driving mills, the first rotary engine being installed at Bradley in 1783.
 He suggested the use of cast iron for many roles where other materials had been used for ages.
  He was profoundly known as the “Iron Mad Wilkinson”
 The first cast-iron bridge was built which was 30.5m (100ft) span over the severn
nearCoalbrookdale in 1779.
 The area around Ironbridge is described by those promoting it as a tourist destination as
the“Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution”

Coalbrookdale Bridge 1779 - first cast-iron bridge

 IN 1796, a 71m (236ft) cast-iron bridge was built across the wear of Sunderlands to the designs
ofThomas Wilson who adopted ‘Paine’s voussoir’ method of assembly.
 Telford pioneering career was brought to a close with his brick encased, iron-framed
warehouses at St. Katherine dock in London designed by Philip Hardwick and erected in
1789. They were based on the system of fireproof multistory mill construction in the Midlands
during the last decade of 18th century.
 Main structural antecedants for St. Katherine were William Struts’s 6-storey Calico mill, built at
Derby in 1792, Charles Bage’s spinning mill erected at Shrewsbage’s in 1796.
 Both of these structures has cast-iron columns, the pressing need to perfect the fireproof
system for mill buildings. It replaced the timber beams. T-section iron beams were being used.
 The beams carried shallow brick vaults, the whole assembly being stiffened by an outer shell
and by wrought-iron, the rods retaining the structure in lateral direction.

For example: Theatre Francais has a wrought-iron roof.

Theatre Francais - wrought iron roof

 An iron roof with a hollow-pot, fire proof, fire proof floor structure, which was derived from the
Roussillon vault.
 First Rondelet and then Durand codified a technique and a design method whereby a
rationalized classicism could be brought to accommodate not only social demands but also new
techniques.
 Brown’s wrought-iron flat bar links were patented in 1817 and applied with lasting success to his
115m span of Union Bridge built over the Tweed in 1820. The Collaboration no doubt informed
Telford’s design for his 177m span.
 Menai Straits bridge, which after 8 years of arduous work was finally opened in 1825.
 The strait varies in width from 400 metres from Fort Belan to Aber Menai Point to 1,100 metres
from Traeth Gwyllt to Caernarfon Castle. It then narrows to about 500 metres in the middle
reaches (Port Dinorwic and Menai Bridge) and then it broadens again. At Bangor Pier it is 900
metres wide. It then widens out, and the distance from Puffin Island to Penmaenmawr is about
7.5 km.
 Menai Strait Bridge - cast iron bridge

Originally this carried rail traffic in two wrought-iron rectangular box spans, but after a disastrous fire in
1970, which left only the limestone pillars remaining, it was rebuilt as a steel box girder bridge. Between
the two bridge crossings there is a small island in the middle of the strait,
UNIT II : REVIEWING INDUSTRIALISATION

Opposition to industrial arts and production – Arts and crafts in Europe and America: Morris, Webb-Art
Nouveau: Horta, Van de velde, Gaudi, Guimard, Mackintosh – Vienna secession: Hoffman, Olbrich-
Wright’s early works

BIRTH OF ARTS AND CRAFT MOVEMENT

1. The Victorian style of heavily ornamented interiors displaying many pieces of furniture
collections of small ornamental objects, and surfaces covered with fringed cloths prevailed in
middle-class homes in ENGLAND AND AMERICA during the latter half of the 19th century
2. Techniques of mass productions promoted the use of reproductions in many different styles.
3. WILLIAM MORRIS, the British poet, artist and architect rejected this opulence in favour of
simplicity, good craftsmanship, and good design.
“THE ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT WAS BORN”
19TH CENTURY and the early years of the 20TH CENTURY
As a reaction to the”soulless” machine-made production aided by the Industrial Revolution.

EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLTION

 Separated humans from their own creativity and individualism.
 The worker was a cog in the wheel of progress.
 Cheap manufactured goods, which had flooded shops and filled houses n the second half of the
19th century.
 The machine to be the root cause of all repetitive and mundane evils.
1.These proponents sought to re-establish the ties between beautiful work and the worker,
RETURNING TO AN HONESTY IN DESIGN NOT TO BE FOUND IN MASS-PRODUCED ITEMS
2. The movement relied on the talent and creativity of the individual craftsman and attempted to
create a total environment.
3. Arts and Crafts Movement was a response to the industrial revolution. It was a broad and diverse
movement, incorporating many idealistic themes.

BELIEFS OF ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT:

1. That well-designed buildings, furniture and household goods would improve society.
2. That the material environment affected the moral fibre of society
3. That the ideal was contented workers making beautiful objects
4. And that both design and working lives had been better in the past
5. It was neither anti-industrial nor anti-modern
6. The Arts and Crafts movement were against the principle of a division of labour.
7. The Arts and crafts ideal they offered was a spiritual, craft-based alternative, intended to
alleviate industrial productions degrading effects on the souls of laborers and on the goods the
produced.
8. It emphasized local traditions and materials and was inspired by vernacular deign – that is,
9. “CHARACTERISTIIC LOCAL BUILDING STYLES THAT GENERALLYA WERE NOT CREATED BY
ARCHITECTS”
ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN EUROPE:
 BRITISH MOVMENT focuses on the richly detailed gothic style.
 Their interior walls were either e the common man, the cost of paying craftsman an honest
wage resulted in higher prices than the common man could afford
 This limited the movement to the upper class.
ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT ARCHITECTS:
JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)
WILLAM MORRIS (1834-1896)
PHILIP WEBB (1813-1915)
RICHARD NORMAN SHAW
EDEN NESFIELD
GEORGE EDMUND STREET

1.JOHN RUSKIN 1819 – 1900:

 Art critic, a fine writer of profound insight

 1836-1853- First volume book- “ MODERN PAINTERS”
 1849- “THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE” PUTTING FORWARD basic precepts for the
designer
Sacrifice - Involved in striving for excellence
Truth - in the honest use of materials
Power - of simple grand forms
Beauty - imparted by the use of nature as a source of inspiration
Life - given by the hand craftsmanship
Memory - offered to future generations by a work of art built for property
Obedience - of disciplining oneself to the use of finest styles of the past (which according to
Ruskin’s view were Italian Romanesque, Italian gothic, English Gothic of the late 13th and early 14th
century

DESIGN PRINCIPLES:
1. In the Stones of venice (1851-18530, he examines the venetian Gothic in more detail and also
developed his ideas on craftsmanship, explaining the artistic achievements of the middle ages in
terms of medieval craftsmans intimate involvement in the building process and conversely the
ugliness of the modern world in terms of modern craftsmans denied opportunity for self
creation through fulfilling work.
2. To him riches were less important than privilege and to demand uncreative work from one’s
fellow was immoral.
3. He had an immediate though superficial influence on many contemporary architects and
builders.
4. The post Ruskin period was marked by the use of Italian details – particularly plate tracery of the
Dodge’s palace, of decorative carving in natural vegetable forms, and by mixing of materials to
achieve polychromatic effects.
In Oxford where he lived and taught, his ideas affected a wole generation of
buildings.
1. OXFORD MUSEUM-DEANE AND WOODWARDS (1855-1859—ON
WHICH Ruskin collaborated for a while.
2. CHURCH OF ST.PHILIP AND JAME, OXFORD (1860-1862)-by
George Edmund Street-which was rich in Ruskinian polychrome
Masonary
The concepts of truth and power expressed in the seven Lamps of
architecture became a fundamental part of development of modern
architectural theory. He criticized Capitalism very vehemently.

OXFORD MUSEUM
-DEANE AND WOODWARDS (1855-1859) On which
Ruskin collaborated for a while.

Name : Church of St Philip and St James;

Type of site : Parish Church Faith: Anglican
Date: 1862
Architecture: Neo-Gothic

2.PHILIP WEBB (1831-1915)

Worked in street’s office in Oxford where he came to understand Ruskin’s theories their essence
and not their superficialities which surrounded them and a wish to take them further.
Webb was an uncompromising, even brutal designer devoid of academicsm and prepared to use
any styles or mixture of styles without too much of regard for their original context but merely
for the functional appropriateness of motifs they contained
He confined himself almost entirely to the design of houses, in town and country
1. Red House (18590
2. Palace Green in London (1868)
3. 19 Lincoln’s Inn Field in London (1868)
4. Joldwyns in surrey (18730
 5. Clouds in wiltshire (1876)
6. Smeaton in Yorkshire 918780
7. Conhurs in surrey (1885)

RED HOUSE:- (1859)

INTRODUCTION
 Red House in Bexleyheath in the southern
suburbs of London, England is a key building in
the history of the Arts and crafts movement
 19th century British architecture.
 Was the most significant 19th century attempt
To return to vernacular architecture
 It was a building all most without style, in the academic
sense.
 Medieval in appearance.
 Forms were directly derived from the character
of the materials used and were designed
carefully and artfully to resemble the work of skilled
but simple craftsman
EXTERIORS
 Its plain brick walls and steeply pitched clay tile
roof gave its name RED HOUSE
 It was designed in 1859 by its owner. William
Morris, and the architect Philip Webb, with
wall paintings and stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones.
 Morris wanted a home for himself and his new wife, jane.
 He also desired to have a “Palace of Art” in which
he and his friends could enjoy producing works of art.
 The house is of warm red brick with a steep tiled
roof and an emphasis on natural materials.
 It was the first domestic dwelling to have stained glass
windows.
PLANNING
 Morris wanted the garden to be an integral part of the house, providing a seamless experience.
 The “rooms” were comprised of a herb garden, a vegetable garden, and two rooms full of old-
fashioned flowers-jasmine, lavender, roses and an abundance of fruit trees-apple, pear and
quince.
3. WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896):

1. Morris was an English poet, artist, and socialist reformer,

2. Who rejected the opulence on the Victorian era and urged a return to medieval
traditions of design, craftsmanship, and community.
3. He was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and Augustus Pugin who championed the
eturn of gothic architecture (the lasttrue architectural movement in their opinion)
4. The Red House (ALSO BY PHILIP WEBB) built for his marriage to jane Burden, was
designed according to his principles.
5. Having built the house, he needed furniture and decoration neither pretentious nor
shoddy-which was all capitalism could provide-
6. 1861 he founded THE FIRM to produce honest workmanlike furniture, wall paper and
fabrics for himself and others.

Later he expanded into

 Stained Glass
 Books
 Tapestries and
 Carpets making characteristic use of stylized, two
dimensional designs which emphasized the character of the
material he was working with, in contrast to the exaggerated
chiaroscuro of the contemporary machine-produced designs
typified by the great exhibition.
ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA
o The AMERICAN MOVEMENT drew inspiration from the materials, choosing to
HIGHLIGHT THE GRAIN OF THE WOOD OR THE FORM OF THE POT.
o They incorporated walls of rich wood tones, relegating wallpaper to brothers.
o Paints were in rich earth tones.
o Furniture and architectural details were designed to take advantage of machines
o Allowing the individual craftsmen to assemble the furniture and finish the wood.
o The use of machines lowered the cost, making the furniture, pottery and metalwork
affordable and therefore available to “the people”.
o On a distinctively more BOURGEOIS flavor.
o The aesthetic counterpart of its contemporary political movement: Progressivism
o Spawned a wide variety of attempts to reinterpret European Arts and Crafts ideals for
Americans.

Living room from the Little Armchair, 1907-9, Library table, 1906, Gustav
house, Wayzata, Minnesota, Charles Sumner Stickley craftsman workshops.
1912-14, Made by Frank Lloyd Greene and
Wright Henry Mather
Greene
These includes the
1. “CRAFTSMAN”
-Style architecture,
-furniture, and
-other decorative arts such as the designs promoted by Gustav Stickley in his magazine,
The Craftsman.
-A host of Stickley’s furniture (the designs of which are often mislabeled the “Mission Style”)
included three companies formed by his brothers
2. The ROYCROFT community founded by Elbert Hubbard.
3. The “PRAIRIE SCHOOL” of Frank Lloyd Wright,
4. The COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT,
5. The BUNGALOW STYLE of houses popularized by Greene and Greene.
6. ”Utopian communities like Byrdcliffe and Rose Valley,
7. The contemporary studio craft movement. Studio pottery-exemplified by Grueby,
8. Newcomb, teco, Overbeck and Rookwood pottery
9. Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s Pewabic Pottery in Detroit-
10. The art tiles by Ernest A.Batchelder in Pasadena, California,
 Mission,
 Prarie, and
 California bungalow styles of homebuilding remain tremendously popular in the United
States today.

ARCHITECTS INVOLVED IN THE MOVEMENT:

 The “MISSION OAK” style furniture embraced by GUSTAV STICKLEY,
 The “PRARIE SCHOOL” of FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT,
 The COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT, the bungalow style of houses popularized by GREENE
AND GREENE

THE MISSION STYLE

 The term Mission style was also used to describe Arts and Crafts Furniture and design in the
United States.
 The use of this term reflects the influence of traditional furnishings and interiors from the
American Southwest which had many features in common with the earlier British Arts and Crafts
forms.
 Charles and Henry Greene were important Mission Style architects working in California.
 Southwestern style also incorporated Hispanic elements associated with the early Mission and
Spanish architecture, and Native American design.
 The result was a blending of the arts and crafts rectilinear forms with traditional Spanish
Colonial architecture and furnishings.
 Mission Style interiors were often embellished with Native American patterns, or actual
Southwestern Native American artifacts such as rugs, pottery, and baskets.
Mission Style, the Morris chair
Mission Style Footstool

MISSON STYLE:-
1. Charles and Henry Greene
The Gamble House Pasadena, California, is an outstanding
example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture.
The house and furnishings were designed by Charles and
Henry Greene in 1908 for David and Mary Greene of the
Procter and Gamble Company.
Interiors:
 Rooms in the Gamble House were built using
multiple kinds of wood; the teak, maple, oak, Port
Orford cedar, and mahogany surfaces are placed
in sequences to bring out contrasts of color, tone and grain.
 Inlay in the custom furniture designed by the architects matches inlay in the tile mantle
surrounds, and the interlocking joinery on the main staircase was left exposed.
 One of the wooden panels in the entry hall is actually a concealed door leading to the kitchen,
and another panel opens to a clothes closet.
 The Greenes used an experienced team of local contractors who had worked together for them
in Pasadena on several previous homes, including the Hall brothers, Peter and John, who are
responsible for the high quality of the woodworking in the house and its furniture.
 The woods, the low and horizontal room shapes, and the natural light that filters through the art
glass exterior windows, coexist with a relatively traditional plan, in which most rooms are
regularly shaped and organized around a central hall.
 Although the house is not as spatially adventurous as the contemporary works of Frank Lloyd
Wright or even of the earlier New England "Shingle Style," its mood is casual and its symmetries
tend to be localized - i.e. symmetrically organized spaces and forms in asymmetrical
relationships to one another. Ceiling heights are different on the first (8'10") and second floors
(8'8") and in the den (9'10") and the forms and scales of the spaces are constantly shifting,
especially as one moves from the interior of the house to its second-floor semi-enclosed
porches and its free-form terraces, front and rear.
 The third floor was planned as a billiard room, but was used as an attic by the Gamble family.
The Gamble family crest, a crane and trailing rose, was integrated in part or whole in many
locations around the house.
GUSTAV STICKLEY: (March 9, 1858 – April 21, 1942)

 Gustav Stickley created the first truly American furniture, known throughout the
World as craftsman
 A hardworking dedicated man, stickley achieved success in the early 1900s as
THE LEADER OF THE ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA
 GUSTAV STICKLEY was a furniture maker and architect as well as the leading spokesperson for
the American Arts & Crafts movement.
 His trip to the 1900 Paris Exhibition confirmed his bias against reproductions. While taking his
philosophical inspiration from the Arts & Crafts European movement, STICKLEY took his artistic
inspiration from America.
 STICKLEY felt that art should be of and by the people, stemming from their everyday lives.
 In 1901, stickley founded THE CRAFTSMAN, A PERIODICAL WHICH BEGAN BY expounding the
philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement but which matured into the voice of the
American movement.
 He worked with architect Harvey Ellis to design house plans for the magazine, which published
221 such plans over the next fifteen years.
 He also established the Craftsman Home Builders Club in 1903 to spread his ideas about
domestic organic architecture.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES:
These ideas had an enormous influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Stickley believed that:
1. A house ought to be constructed in harmony with it landscape, with special attention paid to
selecting local materials;
2. An open floor plan would encourage family interaction and eliminate unnecessary barriers;
3. Built-in bookcases and benches were practical and ensured that the house would not be
completely reliant on furniture from outside;
4. Exposed Structural elements, light fixtures, and hardware are all considered to be decorative;
and
5. Artificial light should be kept to a minimum, so are groupings of windows were necessary to
bring in light.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT:

Frank Lloyd Wright originated the PRAIRIE STYLE-
 Open plans
 Horizontality,
 Natural materials which was part of the American Arts and Crafts movement
 Hand Craftsmanship, simplicity, function an alternative to the then dominant classical
 Revival style (Greek forms with occasional Roman influences)
 Wright’s approach to design was closely associated with that of the Arts and Crafts movement,
in which the architect designed not only the house but also the interior detailing, furniture
lighting fixtures, and even doorknobs, hinges and other hardware.

(Prairie School was a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common to the
Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with
broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid
construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to
evoke and relate to the native prairie landscape. The term Prairie School was not actually used by these
architects to describe themselves (for instance, Marion Mahony used the phrase The Chicago Group);
the term was coined by H. Allen Brooks, one of the first architectural historians to write extensively
about these architects and their work.)

WRIGHTS EARLY WORKS:-

 Wright believed that the architectural form must ultimately be determined by the particular
function of the building, its environment, and the type of materials employed in the structure.

Among his fundamental contribution:

1. The use of various building materials for their natural colors and textures, as well as for their
structural characteristics
2. His exteriors incorporated low Horizontal proportions and strongly projecting eaves.

This concept was particularly evident in his early prairie style, single-family houses, among them
1. Martin House (1904) in Buffalo, New York;
2. Coonley House (19080 in Riverside, lllinois; and
3. Robie House (19090 in Chicago.

FRANK LOYD WRIGHT AND THE MYTH OF THE PRARIE (1890-1916)

FORMATIVE PERIOD (1890’S)

 F.L Wright spent his formative period (early 1890’s) with Adler and Sullivan
 “The transformation of industrial techniques through art” – this exotic vision was what inspired
his early career.
 Yet what form this vision would take was not very clear
 Like his master he oscillated between the authority of the classical order and the vitality of the
asymmetrical form
 Issues of monumentality seems to have been problematic for both Sullivan and Wright
 The initial solution was the doubly articulated formula of:
o The Classical land stone-for urban
o Gothic- for the rural

1890
 After 1890, Wright was virtually in charge of Sullivan’s domestic work
 For Sullivan and wright, the young egalitarian culture of the new world could not be based on
something so ponderous Hence turned towards the more exotic places like India, China,
Egyptian and the Assyrian origins (Sources which were all removed from the west)

1. Oak Park, llinois

 Wright’s home in Oak Park, Illinois Nathan Grier Moore House

Unity Temple by Frank Llyod Wright

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES of wright’s work:
1. Horizontal lines
2. Flat or hipped roofs with broad
overhanging eaves,
3. Windows grouped in horizontal
bands
4. Integration with the landscape.
5. Solid construction
6. Craftsmanship and
7. Discipline in the use of ornament
8. Horizontal lines were thought to
evoke and relate to the native prairie
landscape
EXAMPLES:
1. Oak Park, lllinois
2. Robie House
3. Willits House
4. Bradley House
5. Winslow House
2. ROBIE HOUSE
1. The Robie house is a residential prairie school style masterpiece designed by architect Frank
Lloyd Wright and built in 1910.
2. It is located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park.
3. The House in famous for its art glass windows, which dapple the house with color and light.
ROBIE HOUSE (1909)
Frank Lloyd Wright dining room chair Larkin administration building frank lloyd wright
3. Willits house

Stained Glass in Willits house

4. Bradley House

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHTS Bradley House, 1902. Kankakee, lllinois

5. WINSLOW HOUSE 1893-1908
 Built at river forest, lllinois 1893
 In the winslow house the problem of evolving an egalitarian but appropriate format was
provisionally resolved by providing 2 distinctively different aspects
 The street or the urban façade-being symmetrical and entered on an axis
 Rural or garden façade being asymmetrical and entered on one side
 This anticipates that planning strategy of Wright’s prairie style” in which irregular distortions to
the rear of the formal façade conveniently accommodate awkward ingredients such as the
service elements
 Winslow house was a transitional work
 It is clearly confirmed by the mixed fenestrations, part sash and part casement

1. The low hipped prairie roof appears for the first time
2. The animation of surfaces with Sullivan esque bands of ornament and string courses testifies to
the continued influence of Wright’s master.
3. The early emphasis on fireplace testifies to another more critical influences, that of Japanese
architecture
COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT
1. The Country Day School movement is a movement in progressive education that originated in
the United States in the late 19th Century
2. Country Day Schools seek to recreate the educational rigor, atmosphere, camaraderie and
character-building aspects of the best college prep boarding schools while allowing students to
return to their families at the end of the day
3. To avoid the crime, pollution and health problems of the industrial cities of the early 1900s, the
schools were sited in the ‘country’ where wealthy families owned large homes in what would
later be known as suburbs
4. The country Day School movement shared many values with the Arts and Crafts movement.
5. School buildings and campus landscaping were designed with the goal of creating an
inspirational atmosphere that would foster learning and culture
6. Students were given opportunities to develop leadership skills through clubs and student
organizations.
ART NOUVEAU

ART NOUVEAU – French for “new art”

DEFINITION
The name “Art Nouveau”
Derived from the name of a
shop in paris. Maison de I’Art ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH ART NOVEAU:
Nouveau .at the time run by
Samuel Bing. That showcased
objects that followed this
approach to design
 General term to describe flowing sinuous designs based on
natural forms
 Style in art, architecture and design that peaked in
popularity at the beginning of the 20th century.
 Flourished in Europe between 1890 and 1910.
 One of the earliest (and shortest-lived) efforts to develop
an original style for the modern age.
 It was a Romantic individualistic and anti historical and a
highly decorative movement.
 Emile Andre
 August Endel
 Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926)
 Victor Horta (1861-1947)
 Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956)
 Hector Guimard (1867-1942)
 Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)
 Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)
 Otto Wagner

The Peacock Skirt, by Aubrey

Beardsley
 CHARACTER OF ART NOUVEAU

Art Nouveau sculpture, detail
of facade in Metz, France
Art Nouveau interior at the
1900 Paris Universal Exhibition
by Bruno Möhring, German
pavilion
 DYNAMIC.
 UNDULATING and Flowing,
 Curved “whiplash” lines of syncopated rhythm characterize
much of Art Nouveau.
 Usage of hyperbolas and parabolas.
 Conventional mouldings seem to spring to life and “grow”
into plant-derived forms
 Use of HIGHLY-STYLIZED NATURE as the source of
inspiration and expanded the “natural” repertoire to
inspirationand expanded seaweed, grass, and insects.
 Correspondingly ORGANIC FORMS.
 Curved lines, especially floral or vegetable, and the like,
were used.
MATERIALS USED
 Iron
 Glass
DECORATION
 Curved lines
 Floral
 Geometric Patterns

doorway at place Etienne

Pernet
ANTONNIO GAUDI (1852-1926)

EARLY LIFE
-Antoni Gaudi (25 june 1852-1926)
-Antonio Gaudi – was a CATALAN ARCHITECT who belonged to the
MODERNIST STYLE (ART NOUVEAU) movement and was famous for
his unique style and highly individualistic designs.
-The artist’s parents--- Frances Gaudi Serra and Antonia Cornet
Bertran.
-Came from families of metalsmiths. It was this exposure to nature at
an early age that influenced him to incorporate natural shapes into
his later work
-Gaudi’s first works were designed in the style of GOTHIC
architecture and traditional Spanish architectural modes but he
soon developed his own distinct sculptural style.
-French architect EUGENE VIOLLET-LE-DUC.
Who promoted an evolved form of gothic architecture proved a
major influence on Gaudi.
-But the student surpassed the master architect and
contrived highly original designs

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

 The creator of the city of Barcelona

 Attentive observer of nature
 Attracted to the varied forms of nature
 colors and geometry
 A pioneer in his field using color, texture
 and movement
 Gothic art. Orient structures, the Art
 Nouveau movement.
 Use of traditional elements with fanciful ornamentation
and brilliant technical solution
 Developed a sensuous, Curving almost surreal design
style which established him as the innovative leader of the
Spanish Art Nouveau movement.

Casa Batlló
NOTED WORKS

 CASA VICENS (1883 – 1885)

 Palau guell (1885 – 1889)
 College of the teresianas (1888 – 1890)
 Crypt of the Church of Colonia Guell (1898 – 1916)
 Casa Calvet (1899 – 1904)
 CASA Mila (La Padrera) (1905 – 1907)
 Park Guell (1900 – 1914)
 SAGRADA FAMILIA Nativity Façade and
Crypt of the Sagrada Familia Church
(1884 – 1926)

CASA VICENS

BUILDING TYPE: Family residence

COUNTRY: Barcelona, Spain
CLIENT: Industrialist Manuel Vicens
PERIOD: 1883-1889

a) Gaudi built the exotic CSA VICENS

b) His first major commission in BARCELONA
c) STYLE: QUASI-MOORISH
d) In casa vicens, Gaudi first formulated the
essence of his style which while
GOTHIC-IN STRUCTURAL PRINCIPLE
ISLAMIC-IN INSPIRATION

FEATURES OF CASA VICENS

 They were distributed in a long surface with a semi-subterranean BASEMENT.

GROUND FLOOR, SECOND FLOOR AND ATTIC
 Gaudi used the traditional catain vault in which arch-like forms are achieved thrugh corbelling
out laminated layers of tiles
 The vault became a key feature of his style appearing in its most delicate form in the thin, shell
structure of his sagrada Familia school in Barcelona of 1909
 FACADE
1. The facade walls of the house are built with VISIBLE RUBBLE WORK (undressed stone) and of rough
red bricks, and colored ceramic tiles in checkerboard and floral patterns.

2. Adorned with horizontal rows of ceramics that represent the African marigolds

3. Form the second floor up, these rows; become vertical and their coating is replaced with alternating
green and white tiles.

4. The windows are Protected from the sun and curious onlookers with pretty shutters with square
geometrical designs Wrought iron windows with flowers tiles and Sculptured stones.

5. The plan is asymmetrical with protruding gables and buttresses. Galleries project even farther at the
top. Rooftop towers are reminiscent of Moorish architecture.

Note: Moorish architecture is the articulated Berber–Islamic and Hispano–Islamic architecture of North
Africa, and theIberian peninsula.

ROOF

The roof is sloped on two sides, with four gables

The ventilation conducts and chimneys are profusely decorated with the same ceramic material as the
façade

Planned around a conservatory which in it

Banded brick, glazed tiles and decorative
Iron work was more exuberant than any other house

SAGRADA FAMILIA

Location : Barcelona, Spain

Date: 1882 to 1926
Building type : Church
Context : Urban
Construction system :
Masonry
 PLAN
APSE
CHAPELS
CLOISTER
CROSSING AND TRANSEPTS
CRYPT
GLORY FAÇADE
THE NATIVITY FAÇADE
PASSION FAÇADE
MAIN NAVE
SACRISTIES

The sagrada Familia is a temple of Basilical type with a

shape of Latin Cross

The central axis is occupied by

four lateral nave of 7.5 meters wide each one and
a central nave of 15 meters wide, what does a total of 4.5 meters

The total length of the temple, including the nave and the apse is of
95 meters

The transept is formed by three naves with a total width of 30meters

and a length of 60
This transept has two exits.
CLOISTER CROOSING AND TRANSEPTS
The cloister, which
Runs around the
Perimeter of the
Church, is a space
That connects the
Facades, the
Sacrifices and the
chapels
SACRISTIES THE NATIVITY FACADE
The sacristies are domed
Administrative buildings
on the corners of the
north part of the church
GLORY FAÇADE
The main façade of the
Church facing south-east
Towards the sea and
Formed by four towers
Joined by a large portico
Or narthex
MAIN NAVE
Space between the
Main façade and the
Crossing composed of
one central nave and
two naves on each
side
The transverse nave
that links the nativity
façade with the
passion façade is
divided into three
spaces the
transpects which
connect directly with
the two facades, and
the crossing, which
is the central
element and is
crowned by five
towers
Façade of the
Transept facing east
and consisting of
four towers with
three doorways. It is
dedicated to the
birth of Jesus and
was the first to be
built, with the direct
intervention of
Gaudi.
PASSION FAÇADE
Façade of the transept
Facing west, formed by four
Towers joined by a large
porch and dedicated to the
passion, death and
resurrection of christ
 THE TREE STRUCTURE
1. Gaudi planned inclined branching
columns in the shape of a tree for the
church
From a long, meticulous empirivcal study
of models of inverted weights with chains
Or strings and graphic calculations, he
managed to determine the inclination of
the
Load-bearing elements (columns-trees) in
order to optimize the structuralbehaviour
by transferring the loads to the central
nucleus. In that way he makes
He also manges to bring down the main
loads along the interior pillars of the
Nave and not along the perimeter of the floor
or the exterior elements.
THE OUTSTANDING WALLS
 The Sagrada Familia exterior
Walls only have to bear their
Own weight, because the
Vaults weight and push are
Transmitted to the floor
Through the interior columns
 In addition, the walls are
Completely perforated by
Rose windows, gives, large
Windows and other openings
Lightening very much the
Weight
 Here also the hyperboloids
Are the most used form
Allowing Gaudi to adopt the
Better technical and
Aesthetical solutions

 The walls basement has a

Height of four meters over
Which begins the first series
Of large windows with a 20
Height of twenty meters.

FACADE
1.The higher ones are
Those of the central
Nave they are
Comprised of a series of
Pyramids-one by vault
Connected between
Them ad with the large
Windows pediments
With some large
Paraboloids
2. They are culminated by lampposts with
References to the Holy
Family

Between the roof and the vaults, it is an space of some 25

Meters divided into four plants connected by a small spiral
Staircases
CASA BATLLO

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Date: 1905 to 1907

Building Type: Apartment Building

Construction system: Concrete

Context: Urban

Style: Expressionist of Art Nouveau

Client: Josep Batllo 1 casanovas

CASA BATLLO

1. The present casa batllo, is the result of a
TOTAL REFURBISHMENT of an old
Previous conventional house built in 1877 in a prosperous district of
1. The local name for the building is CASA
DELS OSSOS (House of Bones) and
indeed it does have a VISCERAL,
SKELETAL ORGANIC quality
* It was originally designed for a
middle-class family and situated
Barcelona
* Gaud was commissioned by the owner to
totally renew the old
building.
*On that base, Gaudr projected
This astonishing house, one of the
most fancyand special of Barcelona
The changes made by Gaudr on
The old building were radical
And affect all the building
*In fact the building of Gaudi is a new
building
 1.Inside, the spaces were Totally
REORGANIZED in order to obtain in it more
Natural light (the courtyard is covered with
Blue ceramic progressively brighten to assure
The same or similar light on top and on
ground) and ventilation
2.Gaudi also added two floors to the building
ADDITIONS
1. Gaudi added a gallery, the balconies and the
polychrome ceramics

FACADE

GAUDI CARRIED OUT ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE AND BRILLIANT URBAN FACADES OF THE WORLD

The façade covered by MOSAICS of SPELDID COLORS is perhaps the Most suggestive, creative and
original Of the city of Barcelona

The balconies remember pieces of SKULLS WITH ITS EYES AND MOUTH.

The FIRST FLOOR, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular OVAL WINDOWS and flowing
sculpted Stone work.

The COLUMNS to first floor look Like human bones.

ROOF

a. The design of that roof is one of the most characteristics of Gaudi for urban buildings

b. The interior is also very impressive showing various decorative elements as furniture, glasses,
forged, iron elements, fireplaces etc

The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur

The roof decorated with POLYCHROME CERAMICS of brilliant colors is crowned by a tower with
the typical Guadi four branches cross.
VICTOR HORTA (1861 – 1947)
Victor Horta- ‘Key European Art Nouveau Architect’
BELGIA ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER
EARLY LIFE
1. Born in chent, Belgium in 1861
2. After studying drawing, textiles and
architecture at the Ghent, Academiedes
Beaux Arts, he worked in paris
3. He returned to Belgium
and worked for the classical architect
Alphons Balat, before he started his
own practice
4. Horta was a leading Art Nouveau
Architect until Art Nouveau lost
public favor. At this time he easily
assumed the role of a
NEOCLASSICAL DESIGNER
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
*The Characterizations are the use of industrial
materials like STEEL AND IRON in the visible parts of
houses
*New decorations inspired by nature (e.g. the
famous whiplash motive. Which occurs very often in
the Art Nouveau style and especially in the work of
Horta) decorative mosaics or graphical
Patterns on the facades of houses can be seen
applied in the Horta Museum itself.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
*Victor Horta created buildings
which rejected Historical
Styles and marked the beginning
of modern architecture
*He conceived modern
architecture as an abstract
principles derived from
relations to the
environment, rather than on
the imitation of form.
*Although the ORGANIC FORMS
of Art Nouveau architecture as
established by Horta do not meet
our standard ideas of modern
Architecture, Horta generated ideas
which became predecessors to the
ideas of many modernist
SIGNIFICANT BUILDINGS : HOTEL TASSEL
HOUSE AND STUDIO VICTOR
HORTA
HOTEL VAN EETVELDE
HOTEL SOLVAY
PALAIS DES BEAUX ARTS IN
BRUSSELS
MAISON SE PEUPLE
Another common characteristics of Horta’s
architecture focuses on his STAIRCASES
His IRON BRAISTERS and STONE STEPS
combined to make a prime example of
Horta’s mastery over organic forms and
tightly organized spaces.
His staircases mapped out movement
throughout the building as it carried its use
through the spaces.
Location : Brussels, Belgium
Date: 1893-1894
Building Type: Cultural
Context: Urban
Style: Art Nouveau
Client: Professor Emile Tassel

HOTEL TASSEL

The Hotel Tassel has an OPEN PLANNING The octagonal vestibule on the ground floor rose Upwards
through a half level towards the garden, it Expands laterally into an adjacent foyer space covered By an
IRON SUPER STRUCTURE The FREE STANDING COLUMNS of this space embellished with IRON
TENDRILLS, echo similar Serpentine forma throughout The rest of the metal works.

From the balustrades to the light fittings the same aesthetic is dominated a linear exuberance that is
delicately echoed in the mosaic floor and wall finishes and in the coloured glass panels of the door to
the salon.

The main volumes are still tempered by the use of Rocco Mouldings

HOTEL TASSEL

In an otherwise façade the stone

Quoins an iron bay window are wrought in such a way as to imply the thrust of the inner metallic
structure.
 HOUSE AND STUDIO VICTOR HORTA
“ORNAMENTATION WAS NO Location: Brussels, Belgium
LONGER A SIN BUT THE Date: 1898
MEDIUM BY WHICH ONE Building Type: Large House, architects house
COULD REACH BEHIND THE Context: Urban
STATIC WORLD OF Architectural Style: Art Nouveau
APPEARANCES” Construction System: Iron, Wood, Cut Stone
Façade
*Horta rejected the standard Brussels building
type with the staircase to the one side of the
building
*Expressed quality of iron-used both inside
and
Outside like weightless ribbons spiraling and
twisting into space.
*Floors supported for the most part by iron
columns, rooms could into one and another
and be disturbed in a novel manner

Victor Horta-Maison Tassel, Belgium

Combined staircase with a light well, placed at the center.
Allowed him to vary the elevations of the floors in the front and back

Four floors in the front along the street and three in the back
with the main rooms oriented to the center

Interpenetrating space as well as the use of mirrors to enhance

the feeling of space

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

Was A SCOTTISH ARCHITECT, DESIGNER AND WATERCOLORIST

EARLY LIFE:
1868-On June 7the 1868 in Glasgow London

1884-ed training as an architect in the office of John Hutchinson in 1884, evening classes at the Glasgow
school of art.

1890- he won travelling scholarship and toured Italy before setting down into practice.

1894-Exhibitions with Herbert McNair and the macDonald sisters, later known as the Glsgow Four-
Mackinthosh developed an artistic relationship with Margaret Macdonald, Frances Macdonald and
Herbert McNair. Known as “The Four” they exhib9ited posters, furnishings and a variety of graphic
designs in Glasgow, London, Vienna, and Turin. These Exhibitions helped establish Mackinthosh’s
reputation marries Margaret MacDonald in 1900 and works with her on most projects.
1896-participates in the competition for the Glasgow school of Art.

1. Mackintosh’s biography reveals that most of his architectural achievements and design schemes
were created parallel to his work on the Glasgow school of art. The art school is perhaps not
only his only master piece; it also marks the most productive phase of his career.
2. Today the Glasgow school of art is acclaimed as one of the outstanding works of architecture of
the early 20th century modernism.

NOTED WORKS

1. GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, AT GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 1897 TO 1909.

2. HILL HOUSE, AT HELENSBURGH, SCOTLAND, 1902 TO 1903.
3. THE WILLOW TEA ROOMS, AT GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 1902 TO 1904.

THE MACKINTHOSH STYLE:

1. Mackintosh’s architectural philosophy involved readically updating the Scottish Baronial style.
2. Favoring ELEGANTLY RECTILINEAR DESIGNS, FREE FROM WHAT HE CALLED ‘ANTIQUARIAN
DETAIL’
3. He was a COLLECTOR OF JAPANESE ARCHITECTURAL BOOKS and prints and in much of his work
traditional Scottish design meets art nouveau, harnessing the simplicity of Japanese from in the
process.
4. His architectural style had a distinctive edge.
5. And the sophistication of his artistic imagination is notable
6. He combined powerful architectural forms and soft, seductive decoration in a very distinctive
way.
 IDEALOGIES AND PHILOSOPHIES:

HIS BUILDING FALL INTO 3 CATEGORIES

 LOW PITCHED HOP ROOFS, presenting quiet unbroken

skylines
 Ex: Willits house
 LOW ROOFS WITH SIMPLE PEDIMENTS countering on long
ridges
 Ex: Bradley House
 THOSE TOPPED WITH SIMPLE SLAB
 Ex: Unity Church

- Used material in their natural form INFLUENCES:

- Wright practiced what is known
As ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE 1. Louis Sullivan, whom he considered to
An architecture that evolves be his ‘Lieber Meister’ (dear master
Naturally out of the context 2. Nature, Particularly shapes/forms and
Most importantly for him the colors/patterns of plant life
Relationship between the site and 3. Music (his favorite composer was
Ludwigvan Beethoven)
The building and the needs of the client
- Wright responded to the 4. Japan (as in art, prints, buildings)
transformation of domestic life 5. Froebel Gifts (Educational Kindergarden
That occurred at the turn of the play gifts)
twentieth century when servants
became a less prominent or
completely absent feature of
most American households by
developing homes with
progressively more OPEN
PLANS
ELEMENTS COMMON TO HIS BUILDINGS

1. All materials are used in the natural form

2. Free flow of space no sharp distinction between the inside and the outside.
3. Overlapping intergral spaces, offsets, changing ceiling heights
4. No ornamentional facadeds
5. Quality spaces no attics and no dead spades
6. Built-in furniture
7. Each piece serves many functions no piece works alone
8. Grandeur is used Sparingly

SIX PROPOSTIONS FORMULATED FOR HIS RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

1. SIMPLICITY AND REPOSE

A building should have very few rooms, comfort and utility should go hand in hand with beauty.
Openings must be a form of natural ornamentation. The whole building must be taken as a
integral unit
2. VARIED STYLE OF HOUSING
there must be as many styles of houses as people
3. HARMONISING
A building should appear to grow from its site and be shaped to harmonise with its surroundings
4. PROMOTING NATURAL COLOURS
He preferred soft, warm, optimistic tones.
5. BRINGING OUT THE NATURE OF MATERIALS
He understood the material and used them to express their nature
6. HIS STATEMENT OF FAITH
A building that has character grows valuable as it grows older

EARLY WORKS OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

FROM 1880 UPTO 1920

 1880’S
 All souls church, Chicago, lllinois. 1885
 Unity chapel, spring Green, Wisconsin. 1886
 Hillside Horne School, Spring Green, Wisconsin. 1887
 Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Car park, lllinois. 1889 1890’s

Louis Sullivan Bunglow, ocean springs, Mississiooi. 1890. Destroyed by Hurricane Katrina

Albert Sullivan House, Chicago, lllinois. 1892

Francisco Terrace Apartments, Chicago. Lllinois. 1895

 1. 1900’s
Between 1900 and 1917 his residential designs were “ PRAIRIE HOUSES”
(extended low buildings with shallow. Sloping roofs. Cea sky lines. Suppressed
Chimneys, overhangs and terraces. Using unfinished materials). So-called
Because the design is considered to complement the land around Chicago
These houses are credited ith being the first examples of the “OPEN PLAN”

1. LARKIN ADKMINISTRATION BUILDING, BUFFALO, NEW YORK. 1903

2. Unity Temple, Car park, lllinois 1904
3. George Barton House, Buffalo NY. 1903
4. Darwin d Martin House. Buffalo NY. 1905
5. Westcott House. Sprinfield. Ohio. 1907

LATE PRAIRIE PERIOD

1. Frederick Robie house in Chicago (1907-1909)
2. A very and Queene Coonley House in Riverside, lllinois

2. 1910’s
1. New York City Exhibition for the Universal Portland cement company.
New York, New York. 1910
2. Taliesin spring Green, Wisconsin. 1911
3. IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKYO, JAPAN. 1915 demolished 1968 lobby and pool reconstructed in
1976 in at Meiji Mura, near Nagoya, Japan
4. Ravine Bluffs Development, Glancoe, lllinois. 1915
5. American system Built Homes.

1. To accommodate the needs of the congregation, Wright divided the community space from the
temple space through a low, middle loggia that could be approached from either side.

This was an efficient use of space and kept down on noise between the two main gathering areas: those
coming for religious services would be separated via the loggia from those coming for community
events.
PLANNING

This design was one of wright’s first use of a bipartite designs with two portions of the building similar in
composition and separated by a lower passageway and one section being larger than the other.

The MAIN FLOOR of the temple is accessed via a lower floor (which has seating space) an the room also
has two balconies for the seating of the congregation.
These varying seating levels allowed the architect to design a building to fit the size of the congregation,
but efficiently no one person in the congregation is more than 40feet from the pulpit.
Wright also designed the building with very acoustics.

MATERIALS USED:

1. To reduce construction costs

wright chose steel-reinforced
concrete as the main building
material for unity Temple
2. Built from reinforced concrete
Poured on the site that is
Wooden forms were built on
site and R.C.C slab is used
here (new architectural
expression) It is cast monolithic
3. To reduce noise from the street.
Wright eliminated street 1. To reduce noise from the street, wright
Level windows in the temple. Eliminated street level windows in the
Instead natural light comes Temple instead, natural light comes from
From stained glass windows in Stained glass windos in the roof, of
The roof or clerestories along the clerestories along the upper walls
Upper walls. 2. Because the members f the parish
would
4. Concrete was poured into not be able to look outside, unity temples
them in order to create the walls stained glass was designed with green,
Yellow, and brown tones in order to evoke
the colors of nature.
Location : Chicago, Cook Country llinois, USA

Architectural Style : Prairie Style

1. Built in 1910
2. The Building has a LOW PROPORTIONED. HORIZONTAL PROFILE Which gives it the
appearance of spreading out on the flat prairieland.
3. STEEL-FRAMED CANTILEVERED ROOF OVERHANGS, continuous Bands of art-glass windows
And doors, and the use of natural materials are typical PRAIRIE STYLE FEATURESwhich
emphasizes this “horizontal Line” of the building.

PRAIRIE SCHOOL:

PRAIRIE SCHOOL was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style most Common to the
Midwestern United States.
The term “Prairie School” was not actually used by these architects to describe
Themselves; the term was coined by H. Allen Brooks one of the first architectural
Historians to write extensively about these architects and their work

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES

1. HORIZONTAL LINES
2. FLAT OR HIPPED ROOFS WITH BROAD OVERHANGING EAVES
3. WINDOWS GROUPED IN HORIZONTAL BANDS
4. INTEGRATION WITH THE LANDSCAPE
5. SOLID CONSTRUCTION
6. CRAFTSMANSHIP, AND
7. DISCIPLINE THE USE OF ORNAMENT.
8. HORIZONTAL LINES WERE THROUGHOUT TO EVOKE AND RELATE TO THE
NATIVE PRAIRIE LANDSCAPE

EXAMPLES

1. Oak Park, lllinois

2. Robies House
3. Willits House
4. Bradley House
5. Winslow House

1. A CHIMNEY MASS containing the houses four fireplaces rises through the center of the house
acting as the anchor to which the house is designed around on all three levels. The exterior
walls are constructed of a Chicago common brick core with a red-orange iron-spotted Roman
bric veneer.
2. The planter urns, copings lintels, sills and other exterior trim work are of Bedford limestone.
3. The FIREPLACES AND CHIMNEYS ARE CONSTRUCTED OF THE SAME BRICK AND LIMESTONE
 AS THE EXTERIOR AND HAVE A SENSE of an artistic sculptural shape of their own as opposed
to being a part of a wall.

LARKIN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING BUFFALO NEW YORK 1903

Designed in 1904

Client : The Larkin Soap company of Buffalo, New York

Demolished in 1950

The Five story red brick building was noted for many innovations including

1. Air Conditioning
2. Plate-glass windows
3. Built in desk furniture
4. Suspended toilet bowls
Sculptor Richard Bock provided ornamentation for the building
UNIT III MODERN ARCHITECTURE: DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONALISATION 13

Adolf Loos and critique of ornamentation- Raumplan:Peter Behrens- Werkbund-Modern

architecture and art- Expresssionsm: Mendelsohn, Taut, Polzeig-Futurism-constructivism, Cubism-
Suprematism-De- stiji Bauhaus-Gropius, Meyer and mies-CIAM I to X and its role in canonizing
architecture-growth of International Style

Ideas and works of Gropius, Le Corbusier, Aalto, Mies, later works of Wright

NOTE: F.L.WRIGHT’S LATER WORK IS COVERED IN UNIT -2 EARLY WORK: 1880-1920

LATER WORK:1920 Onwards

Exampies for Later Work: IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKYO, JAPAN, 1915 demolished, 1986, lobby and pool
reconstructed in 1976 in at Meiji Mura, near Nagoya, Japan

ISSUES OF ORNAMENTATION AND AESTHETICS UNIT-III

Adolf Loos and the arguments on Ornamentation-Futurists movement manifestos and the works of
Sant’Elia-Expressionism and the works of Mendelsohn, Polzeig-Cubism and constructivism and its
influence on Architecture-Destijl: Ideas and works.

ADOLF LOOS(1870-1933)

Adolf Loos was born in Brno(Bruenn), Moravia, now Czech Republic, on December 10, 1870. He
studied architecture in Dresden and as a student; Adlof Loos was particularly interested in the works
of the classicist Schinkel and, above all, the works of Viteuvius. In 1896, Adolf Loos returned to
Vienna, started working in the building firm of Carl Mayreder. He set up his own practice in 1897 and
produced his first major work-the Café Museum in Vienna-in 1899.

INFLUENCES

Adolf Loos ranks as one of the important pioneers of the modern movement in architecture.
Ironically, his influence was based largely on a few interior designs and a body of controversial
essays. Adolf Loos’s buildings were rigorous examples of austere beauty, ranging from conventional
country cottages to planar compositions for storefronts and residences. His built compositions were
little known outside his native Austria during his early years of practice.

In 1922, Adolf Loos was appointed to the post of Chie Architect of the Housing Department of the
Commune of Vienna. His projects during this time were primarily con struction modulated arounts
simply – composed layouts utilizing basic construction technology. Flexible interior arrangements
were achieved through the use of movable partitions. Exteriors were typical of suburban housing
Vegetable gardens, which were considered essential extensions of the dwellings, were assigned high
priorities.
ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

Adolf Loos was an architect who became more famous for his ideas than for his buildings. Ho
believed that reason should determine the way we build, and he opposed the decorative Art
Nouveau movement. Adolf Loos published essays that marked the beginning of a long theoretical
opposition to the then popular art noveau movement. In Ornament &Crime and other essays, Loos
described the suppression of decoration as necessary for regulating passion.

His theories culminated in a short essay entitled, “Ornament And Crime”, published in 1908. To
Adolf Loos, the lack of ornament in architecture was a sign of spiritual strength. Adolf Loos referred
to the opposite, excessive ornamentation, as criminal - not for abstract moral reasons, but because
of the economics of labor and wasted materials in modern industrial civilization.

Another point of contention was the masking of the true nature and beauty of materials by useless
and indecent ornament. In his 1898 essay entitled “Principles of Building,” Adolf Loos wrote that the
true vocabulary of architecture lies in the materials themselves, and that a building should remain
“dumb” on the outside.

To Adolf Loos, the house did not belong to art the house must please everyone, unlike a work of art,
which does not need to please anyone. The only exception, that is, the only constructions that
belong both to art and architecture, which by necessity must serve a specific end, must be excluded
from the realm of art.

ADOLF LOOS- IDEOLOGIES

 Loos’ interiors were decorated comfortably using beautiful materials and elegant details, in
sharp contrast to simple exteriors.
 Loos deliberately kept the public outside and the private inside of his houses as separate as
possible.”The building should be dumb outside and only reveal wealth inside.”
 “Raumplan” concept (“plan of volumes”) – designing continuous spaces, merging spaces for
living rather than regularly divided floors with limited flexibility. Each room on a different
level, with floors and ceilings set at different heights
 Loos rarely designed furniture – his knieschwimmer armchair was used in several interiors
designed in the 1920s.
 Residences designed by Adolf Loos featured: Straight lines, Clear planar walls and windows,
Clean curves and Raumplan concept.

MAJOR WORKS

 1899 – Cafe Museum, at Vienna.

 1908 – American Bar, Vienna.
 1910 –Steiner House, Vienna.
 1910 – Goldman & Salatsch Building, a mixed –use building overlooking Michaelerplatz,
Vienna (known colloquially as the “ Looshaus”)
  1922 –Rufer House, Vienna.
 1926 – Villa Moller, Vienna.
 1928 – Villa Muller , Prague (now in the Czech Republic).
 1929 – Khuner Villa, Kreuzxberg , Austria.

1. Goldman Salatsch Building, Looshaus, Michaelerplatz (1910)

Between 1909 and 1911, Adolf Loos designed and constructed one of his best known works, the
controversial Looshaus in the Michaelerplatz, in the heart of old Vienna. This complex design
enunciated theorems on the relationship between the memory of the historic past of a great city and
the invention of the new city based on the modern work of architecture. The design was
characterized by a mute façade from which all ornamental plastic shapes were absent. The architect
referred this building as “Purism” – the lack of ornament which became his moral defining principle
of architecture.

The side elevations of the Commercial zone at the base reveal the different levels of the spaces
within. The entrance to this zone is between four swuat columns. Above the commercial spaces are
the white rendered planer facades of the housing stories with their articulation in the form of
punched rectangular openings. Few criticized it as “A Building without eyebrows”/’’ A manhole-
cover building.

This building is of a monumental scale, from the proportions of the two floors, with the monolithic
columns in Cipollino marble, to the squat form of the roof. Even the window openings, deeply
incised in the facades of the housing stories, suggest a firm immovable quality. This building is
monumental not only in its dimension and proportion but in term of its demeanor.

2. Villa Muller, Prague (1928)

One of his most attractive projects, the Muller Villa in prague, built in 1930 and restored in 2003, was
the culmination of his pioneering “Raumplan “ concept – desiging continuous spaces for living of
rather than regularly divided floors with limited flexibilt. Outside, the Villa Muller is distinguished by
its cubic shape, with flat roof and terraces, its irregular windows and its clean, white façade. Inside,
the Villa Muller is more traditional, finished with luxurious and vibrant marbles, woods and
silks,”combined innovative promenade “ from outside to inside.
 The first entrance way is low, with strong but
dark colors such as deep green/blue tiles. This
opens onto a cloakroom area that is generous
in plan, brighter with white walls and a big
window, but still low. At the far end a short,
modest staircase takes the visitor round a right
– angle bend, emerging dramatically between
marble pillars into the double – height, open –
plan sitting room. The promenade continues
past the raised dining room to the upper floors
of the house, the Raumplan providing unusual
and exciting views into adjacent rooms. On the
top level is a roof terrace, with a “window” in
the freestanding end wall to frame the view of
Prague cathedral.

3. Rufer House, Vienna (1922)

This dwelling was built for Joseph and Marie Rufer. The house has the shape of a cube with the
external walls serving as a structural shell. These four bearing walls contain the house within a small
area . At the center of the volume, a column articulated the spaces under the Raumplan logic and
also conceals the plumbing for the water and heating. In order to achieve a balanced composition,
Loos included three elements in the elevation: a squashed frieze and a cornice to top the cubic
volume and a rectangular molding depicting a Parthenon frieze and positioned low on the street
front. Some critics have stated that this frieze not only balances the formal composition between
voids and surface but also balances the purist abstraction of the cune with the figutative.
4. Steiner House, Vienna (1910)

The Steiner house was designed for the painter Lilly Steiner and her husband Hugo. Loos was a
remarkable architect when working within the limits imposed by the shape of the site or external
forces like the planning codes. The regulations only permitted a street front with one story and a
dormer window (a window built in a sloping roof ). The large window at the front brings light into
the atelier of the painter, which was situated on the first level. The garden façade is three storied
and with the use of the semi – circular metal – sheathed roof, Loos manages to articulate the
transition between the front and garden elevations. For Loos the exterior was the public side of the
house; that is the reason for the bare wall surfaces. The interior was the private side and reflected
the owner’s personal taste.
5. Khuner Villa Austria (1929)

The Khuner Country House is a late work of Loos, completed when he was sixty. Like the Villa Muller,
a restrained (in this case somewhat traditional) facade hides a subtle interior design of different
room heights – Loos’ Raumplan. The house was built as a country nized around a home for a
Viennese food manufacturer, Paul Khuner. The house is organized around a central, double – height
living and dining space, with the upstairs landing forming a gallery around three sides. On the fourth
side, a full – height picture window provides dramatic views of the Alpine meadows.

The rooms are tailored to each of his family members, with an impressive number additionally for
guests. The Raumplan design gives different heights, and very different characters, to the different
spaces within the house. Mr Khuner’s study combines a small, cost feel emphasized by the low
ceiling and the steps down into the room from the main hall, combined with generous, bright views
of the scenery from the outsize landscape window.

EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionist architecture refers to an architectural style that developed in Europe in the first part of
the 20th Century. The term “Expressionist architecture” initially described the activities of the
German, Dutch, Austrian, Czech and Danish avant garde from 1910 until ca. 1924 which occurred
concurrently and interdependently with the expressionist movement in the visual and performing
arts. Expressionist architecture describes a type of architecture which uses the form of a building as
a means to evoke or express the inner sensitivities and feelings of the viewer or architect. This
tendency can be coupled with the notion that the form can represent the physical manifestation of a
transpersonal or mystic spirit. Today the meaning has broadened even further to refer to
architecture of any date or location that exhibits some of the qualities of the original movement such
as utopianism, distortion, fragmentation, or the communication of violent or overstressed emotions.

CHARACTERISTICS FEATURES

 Elastic Forms – Form played a defining role in setting apart expressionist architecture form its
immediate predecessor, art nouveau.
 While art nouveau had an organic freedom with ornament, expressionist architecture strove
to free the form of the whole building instead of just its parts.
 The style was characterized by an early – modernist adoption of novel materials, formal
innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms,
sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel
and especially glass.
 Distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or
dynamic application of formal elements.
 Distorted shapes, fragmented lines and organic or biomorphic forms.
 Conception of architecture as a work of art.
 Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
 Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
 Sense of Movement achieved by swooping, curving roofs with the use of concrete.
 Expressionist architecture utilized curved geometries; a recurring form in the movement is
the dome.
 Another expressionist motif was the emphasis on either horizontality or verticality for
dramatic effect, influenced by new technologies such as cruise liners and skyscrapers.
 Utilizes creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
 The freedom of Expression is more suggestive of sculpture than of architecture, massive
sculpted shapes.
 A recurring concern of expressionist architects is materials. There was often an intention to
unify the materials in a building so as to make it monolithic. Extensive use of concrete and
brick.
 Lack of symmetry, many fanciful works rendered on paper but never built.
 Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical. Expressionist architecture also tends
more towards the Romanesque and the rococo than the classical.
 Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is an eastern as western. It draws as much
from Moorish, Isiamic, Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as from Roman or Greek.
  The major permanent extent landmark of Expressionism is Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein
Tower in Potsdam.

ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH EXPRESSIONISM

Three major German architects of the period associated with the expressionist movement were
Bruno Taut, Hans Scharoun and Erich Mendelsohn. Bruno Taut and Paul Scheerbart’s were known
for the glass architecture. Mendelson was familiar for concrete architecture. Other notable
architects associated with expressionism include:

 Adolf Behne
 Hermann Finsterlin
 Walter Gropius – early period
 Hugo Haring
 Fritz Hoger
 Hans Poelzig
 Rudolf Steiner

ERICH MENDELSOHN (1887 – 1953)

Erich Mendelsohn was born in Allenstein, East Prussia in 1887. He was a German Jewish architect,
known for his expressionist buildings in the 1920s. He studied in Berlin and Munich where he
became involved with Expressionism. He escaped from Nazi Germany to England in 1933 and after
1934 designed medical centers and other buildings in Haife and Jerusalem.

In 1941, Mendelsohn became a resident of the United States, where he designed several impressive
synagogues in the Midwest. He is best known for his exuberant, sculptural design for the Einstein
Tower in Potsdam (1919 – 21). Mendelsohn turned to more restrained forms in such later works as
the Schocken Department Stores in Stuttgart (1926 – 27) and in Chemnitz (1928).

HIS IDEOLOGIES AND PHILOSOPHIES

 He adopted only certain fundamental aspects of expressionism – The principle of organic

unity and the desire to show the character and content of a building in symbolic form.
 His conscious aim in design was to achieve organic unity, used the structural potentialities of
steel and reinforced concrete.
 Another aspect of Expressionism – “Dynamism” achieved in his designs . As a result, his early
building avoid the eclectic borrowing that mark so many of his contemporaries.
 Mendelsohn used no historical precedents in formulating his designs. As a result, his early
buildings avoid the eclectic borrowing that many of his contemporaries.
  His architectural ideas were derived form expressionistic sketches and romantic symbolism
which recognized that the qualities of modern building materials should dictate a new
architecture.
 In later designs, mendehlson move away from his earlier expressionist architecture,
designing a series of buildings in a more linear fashion.

IMPORTANT PROJECTS

 EINSTEIN TOWER in Potsdam, (1917/1920)

 MOSSEHAUS is an office building in Berlin, renovated by Erich Mendelsohn in 1921 -23.
 RED FLAG TEXTLL.E FACTIRY, Leningrad, 1926.
 SCHOCKEN DEPARATMENT STORE, Stuttgart (1926 1928).
 THE DE LA WARR PAVILION, Bexhill – on – Sea, Sussex, England (1934)
 COHEN HOUSE, Chelsea, London (1934 – 1936).

1. EINSTEIN TOWER, ERICH MENDELSOHN(1917/1920)

The Einstein Tower is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in
Potsdam, Germany designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built for astronomer
Erwin Finlay-Freundlich to support experiments and observations to validate Albert Einstein’s
relativity theory. This organic, Self-contained form of the tower was used as “Astronomical
observatory” and “Factory for optical instruments”. The building was first conceived around
1917, built from (1920 to 1921) and became operational in 1924. It is still a working solar
observatory today as part of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam.

The exterior was originally conceived in concrete, but due to construction difficulties, much
of the building was actually realized in brick, covered with stucco. Formwork problem meant
that the specified material could be used only for the entrance portal and the topmost ring of
the tower. The rest of the flowing form was built in brickwork, covered with a thick layer of
cement rendering to lend the surface a uniform appearance.

Light from the telescope is brought down through the shaft to the basement where the
instruments and laboratory are located. This sculpted building with its expressionistic form is
devoid of applied ornament, from and space are shaped in fluid concrete to express concepts
of the architect. A dynamic quality pervades the volume of the building, intensifying its
expression and the space around it. This sculptural design represents a unity that can be
neither divided nor extended. The design, while logical and perfectly sufficient to its
purpose, stood out like an “ungainly spaceship” in the suburbs of Potsdam. It remains the
icon of expressionist architecture.
1. MOSSEHAUS renovated by Erich Mendelsohn in 1921-23.

Mossehaus is an office building in Berlin, renovated and with a corner designed by Erich
Mendelsohn in 1921-3. The original Mosse building housed the printing press and offices of the
newspapers owned by Rudolf Mosse. The sandstone-fronted historicist 1901 building by Cremer
& Wolffenstein was badly damaged in 1919. In 1921, on the strength of his Einstein Tower,
Menselsohn was hired to add extra storeys and a new entrance to the building. Mossehaus was
at one time the tallest non-church building in Berlin.

The new frontage made prominent use of aluminum and the new upper floors were made form
ferro-concrete. The use of strips and sculpted elements in the fenestration gave it a dynamic,
futuristic form, emphasized by the contrast with the Wilhelmine style below. It was perhaps the
first example of a streamlined building, and hence a great influence on Streamline Moderne.
2. RED FLAG TEXTLE FACTORY, Leningrad, 1926

The Red Banner Textile factory in Leningrad was designed by Erich Mendelsohn, in 1925-1926.

Mendelsohn was the first foreign architect in 1925 to be asked to design in the USSR, on the
basis of his dynamic, futuristic Expressionist architecture. However, the primitive construction
techniques of the time were insufficient to realize the structure in full, and liberties were taken
with Mendelsohn’s design.

Mendelsohn participated only in the first stage of the project. He designed the power station of
the factory. The other buildings were completed by S. O. Ovsyannikov, E.A. Tretyakov, and
Hyppolit pretreaus, who was the senior architect of this project. Mendelsohn disowned the
building after its completion in 1926, although he would frequently make use of the model as an
example of his approach to industrial architecture. The factory is still partly in use as storage
space.

The Red Banner factory under construction in 1926

BRUNO JULIUS FLORIAN TAUT (1880-1938)

Bruno Julius Florian Taut (1880-1938), was an author, German architect and urban planner. Taut
is best known in the English-speaking world for his theoretical work, speculative writings and a
handful of exhibition buildings. After training in Berlin and joining the office of Theodor Fischer
in Stuttgart, Taut opened his own Berlin office in 1910. After the war, Taut’s theories and
designs marked him as a leader in architectural innovation.

He served as city architect in Magdeburg from 1921 to 1923. Taut’s best-known single building is
the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion at the Cologne Werkbund Exhibition (1914). Many of
the works of Bruno Taut were domed, such as the Glass Pavilion and the Worpswede Kaseglocke.
 Glass Pavilion at the Cologne Werkbund Exhibition.

In 1924 he was made chief architect of GEHAG, a private housing concern, and designed several
successful large residential developments in Berlin, notably the 1925 Horseshoe Development
(“Hufeisensiedlung”), named for its configuration around a pond, and the 1926 Uncle Tom’s
Cabin Development (“Onkel-Toms Hutte”) in Zehlendorf. The designs featured controversially
Modern flat roofs, humane access to sun, air and gardens, and generous amenities like gas,
electric light, and bathrooms. Bruno Taut used brick as a way to show mass and repetition in his
Berlin Housing Estate “Legien-Stadt”.

Taut moved to Turkey in 1936, designed a number of educational buildings in Ankara and
Trabzon. The most significant of these buildings were the “Faculty of Languages, History and
Geography” at Ankara University, Ankara Ataturk High School” and “Trabzon High School”. Taut
is unique among his European modernist contemporaries in his devotion to color. He applied
lively, clashing colors to his first major commission, the 1912 Falkenberg housing estate in Berlin,
which became known as the “Paint Box Estates”.

HIS IMPORTANT WORKS:

 1912 Falkenberg housing estate in Berlin, “Paint Box Estates”

 Glass pavilion for the Werkbund Exhibition (1914).
 Horseshoe Development in Berlin(1924).
 Worpswede artists’ colony (1921)
 Housing estate>>uncle Toms hut<< in Berlin (1926-31).

1. BRUNO TAUT’S-GLASS PAVILION (1914)

The Glass Pavilion, built in 1914 by Bruno Taut, was a prismatic glass dome structure at the
Werkbund Exhibition. The structure was a brightly colored landmark at the exhibition, and was
constructed using concrete and glass. The concrete structure had inlaid colored glass plates on
the façade that acted as mirrors. Taut described his little temple of beauty as… ”reflections of
light whose colors began at the base with a dark blue and rose up through moss green and
 golden yellow to culminate at the top in a luminous pale yellow.”

The structure was made at the time when expressionism stood highest in Germany The building
was destroyed soon after the exhibition since it was an exhibition building only and not built for
practical use. The Glass pavilion was a pineapple-shaped multi-faceted polygonal designed
rhombic structure. It was a fourteen-sided base constructed of thick glass bricks used on the
exterior walls devoid of rectangles.

2. HORSESHOE DEVELOPMENT IN BERLIN (1924)

During the critical housing shortage that existed in Germany following W.W.I., various co-op housing
societies and associations, public housing associations and trades unions housing groups were
formed to build economical housing in Berlin. One of the largest of these associations, Gehag (public
utility homes, savings and construction company), was founded in 1919 to build housing for its
members. In 1924, Bruno Taut was appointed chief architect. Taut had been involved in the
development of the Gross-Siedlungen (large residential community) large garden city-type housing
complexes, and had some experience designing a similar garden city development in Magdeburg in
1912-15.
Built in an outlying area south of central Berlin, Britz-Hufeisensiedlung—literally “houseshoe”
community, named from the horseshoe shape of the inner group of apartments which are built
around a natural pond. There are over 1000 dwellings in Hufeisen, equally divided between 3-story
row houses and 3-story point access slabs. The slabs here are arranged as partial perimeter blocks
defining large interior gardens. In addition, buildings step in plan and vary in height and exterior
details so that; diversity is achieved within the format of a unified organization. This was a very
controversial feature in the 1920’s, one with political overtones especially when seen in context of
adjacent buildings which had steep pitched roofs and what Taut referred to as a “romantic”
ambiance. Even so, some of the slabs had a stepped section, and overhanging eaves which tended to
soften the stark profile of flat-roofed buildings. Some of the buildings were also painted red.

The individual buildings contain quite conventional 2-4 bedrooms flats in the typical arrangement of
two apartments per floor per stair. The position of the stairs on the street side of the buildings
results in a repeating pattern of vertical glazed zones alternating with zones of regular windows.
Balconies opening to the opposite side dominate the garden facades. The small openings at the top
floor-a normal feature of housing of this period, light an attic space which was used for washing and
storage. The two story row houses feature complete basements, and pitched roofs with small
dormer attic windows.

2. WORPSWEDE ARTISTS’S COLONY (1921)

This circular wooden house surrounded by pine trees was designed by the architect Bruno Taut. This
small structure was given its name because of its resemblance to a cheese cover. The cheese bell is
now a monument with expressionist bizarre shapes and extensions. Since 2001 the kaseglocke has
been used as a museum. The niches in the two floors housed the shelves and cabinets. Access to the
first floor is by means of stair along the circumference.
HANS POELZIG (1869-1936)

Hans poelzig was a German architect, painter and set designer. Polezig was born in Berlin in 1869. In
1903 he became a teacher and director at the Wroclaw Art Academy. From 1920-1935 he taught at
the Technical University of Berlin. After finishing his architectural education around the turn of the
century, poelzig designed many industrial buildings. He was appointed city architect of Dresden in
1916. He was an influential member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Association of Craftsmen).

Poelzig’s work developed through Expressionism and the New Objectivity in the mid-1920s before
arriving at a more conventional, economical style. In 1911, he designed the 51.2 m tall Upper Silesia
Tower in Poznan for an industrial fair. It later became a water tower. Poelzig was also known for his
distinctive 1919 interior redesign of the Berlin Grosses Schauspielhaus for Weimar impresario max
Reinhardt, and for his vast architectural set designs for the 1920 UFA film production of The Golem:
How He Came into the world. The interior of the Grosses Schauspielhaus was domed. Poelzig also
designed the 1929 Broadcasting House in the Berlin suburb of Charlottenburg, a landmark of
architecture.

Poelzig’s single best-known buildings is the enormous and legendary I.G. Farben Building, completed
in 1931 as the administration building for IG Farben in Frankfurt.

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS

 1901 Church spire, Wroclaw.

 1911 Sulphuric acid factory in Lubon.
 1911 Exhibition Hall and Tower in Poznan for an industrial fair.
 1912 Department store in Junkernstrasse, Wroclaw.
 1913 Exhibition hall, wine restaurant, Pergola for exhibition, Wroclaw.
 1919 Grosses Schauspiehaus, in Berlin.
 1920 Festival Theater for Salzburing.
 1929 Haus des Rundfunks (Radio Station), Charlottenburg, Berlin.
 1931 I.G Farben Building in Frankfurt.
  Apartment and cinema at Rosa-Luxemburg-platz, Berlin.

1. GROSSES SCHAUSPIELHAUS, BERLIN (1919)

The Grosses Schauspielhaus (Great Theater) was a theatre designed by Hans Poelzig in Berlin,
Germany. The structure was originally a market built by architect Friedrich Hitzer, and it retained its
external, gabled form. It then became the Zirkus schumann, a circus arena. It was renovated by
poelzig and reopened in 1919, with seating for 3500 people. It was a cavernous, domed space,
painted red and had no balconies, which contributed to its vastness. The dome and pillars were
decorated with maquernas, a honeycombed pendentive ornament, which resembled stalactites.
When illuminated, the ceilings lightbulbs formed patterns of celestial constellations, and the vaulted
ceiling took on another concept, the night sky. In the loby and elsewhere, poelzig made use of
colored lightbulbs to create striking visual backdrops. Separate entrances were provided for the
expensive and the cheap seats. The theatre also included a restaurant for the wealthy audience
members, a cafeteria for the poorer audience members, and a bar. The performers and technicians
enjoyed their own bar, a barber shop, ample dressing room space, and the modern stage equipment.

2. HAUS DES RUNDFUNKS (RADIO STATION), BERLIN-1929

The Haus des Rundfunks (House of Broadcasting), located in Charlottenburg, Brelin, is the oldest self
contained broadcasting house in the world. It was designed by Hans poelzig in 1929 after winning a
competition. The building contains three large broadcasting rooms located in the centre, shielded
from street noise by the surrounding office wings.

From the ends of the 150-meter long central front in the Masurenallee two wings convex swing back
and form blunt triangle. In the middle are three trapezoidal broadcasting halls, the large atrium
behind the main front radial out, thus making four courtyards. Impressive is the central front five,
the middle 32 axes for a floor increases.

The monumental building is only vertically divided- with reddish brown ceramic plates Strip disguised
jump from the black geklinkerten wall surfaces. Since 1987 covered more than five projectiles
reaching the main hall, with its yellow geklinkerten galleries and the two lamps striking back into old
glory. The focus is Georg Kolbes sculpture “Big Night” of 1930.

The office and editorial rooms are located on the outer areas of the building and surround the three
large studio complexes. The largest broadcasting room comprises the heart of the building, and
aside from this there is also a smaller broadcasting room and an area for radio dramas which
possesses a diversity of acoustic characteristics.

Poelzig put a great deal of thought into the acoustics of the rooms. The chair in the large
broadcasting room were specially designed so that seats had the same sound-absorbing qualities
whether they were occupied or not. In the smaller broadcasting room a hundred wall panels could
be flipped. One side of the panels absorbed sound, the other reflected it. In this way very different
reverberation effects could be created.
The Amsterdam school (It’s a style of Architecture)

The Amsterdam school was highly influenced by expressionism and was characterized by the use of
rounded, organic facades with many purely decorative, non-functional elements such as spires,
sculptures and “ladder” windows. The three leaders of the Amsterdam school Michel de Klerk, Johan
van der Mey and Piet Kramer all worked for the architect Cuypers until about 1910.

The Amsterdam School (Dutch: Amsterdamse School) is a style of architecture that arose from
1910 through about 1930 in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam School movement is part
of international Expressionist architecture, sometimes linked to German Brick Expressionism.

Van der Mey’s major commission, the 1912 cooperative-commercial Scheepvaarthuis (Shipping
House), is considered the starting point of the movement, and the three of them collaborated on
that building. The Scheepvaarthuis is the prototype for Amsterdam school work: brick construction
with complicated masonry, traditional massing and the integration of an elaborate scheme of
building elements (decorative masonry, art glass, wrought ironwork, spatial grammar, and especially
integrated figurative sculpture) that embodies and expresses the identity of the building. The aim
was to create a total architectural experience, interior and exterior, that also carried social meaning.

The school’s philosophy was applied to all manner of buildings, including home and apartment
blocks. The most important examples of the style are obviously found in Amsterdam, amongst the
most important of which is Het Schip, designed by de Klerk. The De Bijenkorf department-store in
the Hague (1924) is considered to be the last example of “classic” Amsterdam school expressionism.
 "Het Schip" apartment building In Apartment building Het Schip in Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, 1917-20 by Michel de southern facade on Zaanstraat
Klerk

"De Dageraad" housing estate, Amsterdam, "De Bijenkorf" department store in The Hague,
1920-23 By Piet Kramer 1924-26 by Piet Kramer
Expressionism in late 50’s and 60’s

In the middle of the twentieth century, in the 50s and 60s, many architects began designing in a
manner reminiscent of expressionist architecture. In this post was period, a variant of expressionism
brutalism has an honest approach to materials that in its unadorned use of concrete, was similar to
the use of brick by the Amsterdam School. The designs of Le Corbusier took a turn for the
expressionist in his brutalist phases, but more so in his Notre Dame du Haut. Another mid – century
modern architect to evoke expressionism was Eero Saarinen. A similar aesthetic can be found in
later building such as Eero Saarinen’s 1962 TEA Terminal at JFK International Airport. His TWA
Terminal at JFK International Airport has an organic form, as close to Herman Finsterlin’s Formspiels.
More recently still, the aesthetics and tactility of expressionist architecture have found echo in the
works of deconstructivist architects such as Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind.

FUTURUSM (1909 – 1944)

Futurist architecture (or Futurism) began as an early – 20th century. This artistic movement startedin
Italy and lasted form 1909 to 1944. Futurism was a largely ltalian and Russian movement, although is
also had adherents in other countries like England. The Futurists explored every medium of art,
including painting, sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture and even gastronomy.

The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among them to produce a manifesto of
their artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of (1909). Marinetti summed up the major principles of the
Futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas form the past, especially polotocal and artistic
traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology, and violence. The car, the
plant, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the
technological triumph of people over nature.

 Futurism is not a style but an open approach to architecture, so it has been reinterpreted by
different generations of architects across several decades, but is usually marked by striking
shapes, dynamic lines, strong contrasts and use of advanced materials.
 Form of architecture characterized by anti – historicism and long horizontal line suggesting
speed, motion and urgency.
 Futurist form suggest speed, dynamism and strong expressivity, In an effort to make
architecture belonging to modern times.
 That Futurist architecture is the architecture of calculation, of simplicity; the architecture of
reinforced concrete, of steel, glass, cardboard, textile fiber, and of all those substitutes for
wood, stone and brick that enable us to obtain maximum elasticity and lightness.
 Decoration as an element superimposed on architecture is absurd, and that the decorative
value of Futurist architecture depends solely on the use and original arrangement or raw or
bare or violently colored materials.
 Monolithic skyscraper building with terraces, bridges and aerial walkways that embodied the
sheer excitement of modern architecture and technology.
 The term architecture is meant to harmonize the environment with Man with freedom and
great audacity.

ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH FUTURISM

 Santa Elia
 Virgilio Marchi
 Louis Armet
 Welton Becket
 Arthur Ericksin
 Wayne McAllister
 Oscar Niemeyer
 William Pereira
 Zaha Hadid
 Frank Gehry
MANIFESTOS OF FUTURISM FOR FUTURE CITY

Manifestoo of futurist Architecture published in Lacerba 11 July 1914, supposedly by Sant’Elia stated
that:

 Architecture must be impermanent. The decorative value of futurist architecture depends

solely the use and original arrangement of raw or bare or violently colored materials.
 Should invent and remake the Futurist city like a huge tumultuous shipyard, agile, mobile,
and dynamic in all its part; and the Futurist house like a gigantic machine.
 Elevators would be on the out side of the buildings, buildings would be proportioned in
accordance with their needs.
 Built of concrete, glass , and steel they would proudly display their structure and mechanical
functions”.

ANTONIO SANT’ELIA (1888 – 1916)

He was born in Como, Lombardy. He opened a design office in Milan in 1912 and became involved
with the Futurist movement. Between 1912 and 1914, influenced by industrial cities of the United
States and the Viennese architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, he began a series of design drawings
for a futurist Citta Nuova (“New City”) that was conceived as symbolic of a new age.

SANTA ELIA”S CONCEPT OF NEW CITY – LA CITTA NUOVA,(1914)

 Sant Elia’s visions were not materialized and we only have his sketches to refer to. His
vision was for a highly industrialized and mechanized city of the future, which he say not
as a mass of individual buildings but a vast, multi – level, interconnected and integrated
urban hub.
 The city would resemble a complex that linked domestic and industrial habitats – at the
center would be the power station (the new cathedral).
 The bold three – dimensional drawings imagined Milan in the year 2000. At the center of
his visions was the power station, the great dynamo of the 20th century.
 Santa’ Elia “New city” represents multi levels, built form new materials and technology;
reinforced concrete, glass, and steel.
 There would be no decorative elements. He felt that the “disposition of raw, naked, and
violenty colored materials can derive the decorative value of a truly Modern
architecture”.
 Elevators replaced stairwells and served as dynamic vertical elements fully expressed on
the outside of the monumental buildings.
 Emphasis was given to the vertical line. He stressed curvatures and other dynamic
expressions. It resembles in part the new cities that are depicted in science fiction films.
ISSUES OF ORNAMENTATION AND AESTHETICS UNIT – III

Cubism and Construtivism and its influence on Architecture – Destijl : Ideas and Works.

CUBISM

Cubist architecture developed between the years 1910 – 1914. Cubism was an early 20th century
avant – garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired
related movements in music and literature. It was a revolt against the excessively decorative style.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF CUBISM

 Principle:- that the basic shape is THE CUBE.

 In cubist artworks, objects are
o BROKEN UP,ANAL YZED, AND RE–ASSEMBLED in an abstracted form.
 The cubists had technology on their side. Reinforced concrete was making its way into
construction, and enabled them to design open floor plants.
 Cubism can be divided into two phases:
o ANALYTICAL CUBISM, the earlier phase, continued until 1912,
o SYNTHETIC CUBISM, which lasted through 1915.
  Analytical cubism fragment the physical world into intersecting geometric planes and
interpenetrating volumes.
 Synthetic cubism, by contrast, synthesize (combines) abstract shapes to represent objects in
a new way.
 New form of window and doors (HEXAGONAL WINDOWS).
 Crystal like form lead to the crystal cubism, wherever round shapes were found, for instance
even in grilles, the term RONDO – CUBISM was used.
 Cubist villas were both costly and demanding, give that most of them were made of brick,
which is difficult to cut into geometric shapes.
 Concrete was far more ideal as a material for Cubist construction, since it could be poured
into more dramatic geometric forms.

ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH CUBISM

1. Pavel Janak,
2. Josef Gocar,
3. Josef Chochol and
4. Vlastislav Hofman became the creators and propagarors of cubism in architecture.
5. This style, Cubism in architecture, was accepted by only some people like architects
Gocar, Chochol, Kralicek and others.

PAVEL JANAK (1882)

Pavel Janak became one of the pioneers of cubism in architecture.

In 1911, he sketched crystals form the National Museum’s collection of mineralogy and tried to
create something like a ‘crystalline’ architecture with many motife of or prisms and pyramids, very
dynamic architecture, closer to Excpressionism.

He was the architect of prague Castle, participated in the reconstruction Micovny, Belvederu or
Riding School. He proposed numerous alterations to the Old Town Hall and summer star.

After 1918 Janák and Gočár developed Cubism into Czech Rondocubism, with decoration taken from
folk and nationalist themes, and then subsequently into a purer functionalism. His 1925 Palace Adria
is an unusually late example of integrated sculpture. As the chairman of the Czechoslovak Werkbund
he drew up the master plan for the 1932 Baba Werkbund Housing Estate, the last of the European
housing exhibitions, and also designed 3 of its 32 houses. He was also entrusted with the design for
the Hussite Church in Vinohrady.
JOSEF GOCAR’S (1880 – 1945)

Josef Gocar was a Czech architect, one of the founders of modern architecture in Czechoslovakia.
Josef Gocar received his early instruction at the State Technical School in Prague. At the age of 23 he
went to study under Jan Kotera at the Prague Schoed by of Applied Arts. For two years afterward,
1906 -1908, Gocar was employed by Kotera’s studia. At that time he decided to join the Manes
Union of Fine Arts, but left it in 1911 to join the Cubist Group of Visual Artists. Gocar joined Pavel
Janak , Josef Chochol and Odoln Grege in founding the Prague Art Workshops in 1912.

After his involvement in cubism, Gocar turned to “national” Czech Rondocubism style in the early
20s. Later on he adopted the Functionalist approach to architecture. Among his greatest
accomplishment are the Czechoslovak Pavilion for the Exposition internatale des art decoratifs at
industriels moderns in Paris of 1925;he was awarded the Grand Prize for that design. In 1926 Gocar
was awarded the Ordre de la Legion d’honneur.
WORKS

1. Wenke Department Store, Jaromer, (1909 – 1911)

2. House of the Black Madonna, Prague’s Old Town (1911 – 1912)
3. Bauer villa, Libodrice near Kolin, (1912 – 1913)
4. Saint Wenceslas church, vrsovice, Prague, 1929 – 1930

HOUSE OF THE BLACK MADONNA (1911 -1912)

The House of the Black Madonna is a cubist building designed by Josef Gocar, in the “Old Town area
of Prague, Czech republic. The House of the Black Madonna sometimes referred to as Black Mother
of the Lord. The House at the Black Madonna was originally designed to house a department store.
Herbst’s store occupied the ground and second floor of the building. Grand Café Orient was
established was established on the first floor. The topmost floor has apartments.
Josef Gocar built his house as the first example of cubist architecture in Prague. Gocar designed this
house (department store) for the wholesale merchant Frantisek Josef Herbst. Gocar’s building was
subject to strict harmonization rules that demanded the department store not conflict with its
historical setting. It uses the language of baroque in the architecture in the cubist forms which
exemplifies the ‘contextualization’ of cubist architecture.

The House at the Black Madonna like many of Gocar’s houses was built with a reinforced – concrete
skeleton. Main feature include. Angulated bay windows, lconic capitals between windows, and
Cubist railing of the balcony. This very modern building style of reinforced - concrete skeletons
allowed for large interior spaces without ceiling support that more complimented cubist aesthetics.
Grand Café Orient, which encompassed the entire first floor without supporting pillars, was a
revolutionary feat of engineering.

The facade breaks with the cubist and modern traditions at the third level and incorporated elements
to reconcile the cubist building with its surrounds. For example the roof is a kin to Baroque double
roofs. The third story also features flat windows and pilasters with Classical fluting between them.
In 1994,the space was created again as a center for Czech art and culture. Reconstructed in 2003, it
is currently in use as a small museum of cubism.

EMIL KRALICEK (1877 – 1930)

Kralicek was a Czech architect, studied at Prague Industrial Arts School. He began designing in
Prague around 1900 in the office of Matej Blacha, and worked in the styles of classicism, Art
Nouveau, Czech Cubism and Czech Rondocubism successively. Beginning as draftsman Kralicek
worked himself into a position of project manager, and developed collaboration with a number of
Czech sculptors like celda kloucek, Antonin Waigant and Karel Pavlik.

Notable Works:

 Hotel Zlata Husa, Prague,1909 – 1910

 Adam Pharmacy, 1911 – 1913
 Kovarovic house in prague, 1912 -1913
 Supich Building, now the Moravian Bank, Wenceslas Square.

Emil Kralicek’s - Kovarovic House

Otakar Novotny and Emil Kralicek’s Kovarovic House in Prague’s is a brilliant example of radical
Cubism. The well – known Diamond House with its diamond – shaped motifs used in the windows
and around the roof line.
Emil Kralicek’s – Cubist streetlamp

It was designed by Kralicek in

1912, designed for the back lot
of Adam’s Pharmacy, stands on
Jungmann square. There was
strong criticism of the lamp then
by conservatives. Now, it is an
icon of sorts for Czech Cubism

Constructivist architecture

Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in
the 1920s and early 1930s. Constructivist (Constructivism) is a term used to define a type of totally
abstract (non – representational) relief construction. The principles of constructivism theory are
derived from three main movement that evolved in the early part of the 20th century: Suprematism
in Russia, De Stijl (Neo Plasticism) in Holland and the Bauhaus in Germany. In architecture,
constructivism is a broader movement of functionalism.

Thus any object (building) efficiently made for its purpose is ideal to be followed. This calls for
encouragement of modern materials and methods of construction.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, two distinct threads emerged, the first was encapsulated in
Antoine Pevsner’s and Naum Gabo’s Realist manifesto which was concerned with space and rhythm,
the second represented a struggle between pure are and the Productivists (Alexander Rodchenko,
Varvara Stepanova and Vladimir Tatlin, a more socially-oriented group who wanted this art to be
absorbed in industrial production). Although it was divided into several competing factions, the
movement produced many pioneering projects and finished buildings, before falling out of favour
around 1932.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

 In 1922, Naum Gabo wrote that constructivists no longer paint pictures or carve sculptures
but make construction in space. The distinction between painting and sculpture ceases and
becomes architecture.
 Constructivists reduced all natural forms to simple geometric forms. Geometric form was
thus the structural form and this cubism was symbolic of Constructivism.
 Constructivism combined advanced technology and engineering.
 Space organized by means of an open structure, rather than enclosed volumes, combination
of frame and glazing rather than solid walls, all these devices being aimed at preserving the
visual impression of undivided space.
 The Constructivists emphasized and took advantage of the possibilities of new materials.
Steel frames were seen supporting the large areas of plate glass.
 The joints between various parts of a building were exposed rather than concealed.
Buildings had balconies and sun-decks, exteriors were painted white.
 The first Constructivist architectural project was the 1919 proposal for the headquarters of
the Communist International in St Petersburg by the Futurist Vladimir Tatlin, often called
Tatlin’s Tower.

ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH CONSTRUCTIVISM

 EI Lissitzky-(1890-1941)
 Moisei Ginzburg, architect (1892-1946)
 Ivan Leonidov-architect (1902-1959)
 Konstantin Melnikov -architect (1890-1974)
 Vladimir Tatlin-(1885-1953)

KONSTANTIN MELNIKOV

Konstantin Melnikov was a Russian architect and painter. Melnikov studied at the school for 12
years, first completing General Education(1910), then graduating in Arts (1914) and architecture,
Melnikov leaned to painting at the Moscow school of painting, sculpture and Architecture. During
World War I and the first years after Revolution of 1917, Melnikov worked within the Neoclassical
tradition. Before the Russian Revolution, he was involved in AMO Truck plant project.
In 1918-1920, he was employed by the New Moscow planning workshop headed by Zholtovsky and
Alexey Shchusev, designing Khodynka and Butyrsky District sectors of the city. His first success in
architecture was a 1922 entry to a workers housing contest. Codenamed Atom, Melnikov’s design
employed the sawtooth arrangement of units that became his trademark in later Works. Unlike
other, “revolutionary” projects, Atom was based on traditional single-family townhouse and
apartment units.

HIS IMPORTANT PROJECTS

 Rusakov Workers’ Club, Moscow

 Melnikov’s own residence, Moscow
 Burevestnik Factory Club, Moscow
 Svoboda Factory Club, Moscow

1. The Rusakov Workers’ Clubis

The Rusakov Workers’ Club in Moscow is a notable example of constructivist architecture. Designed
by Konstantin Melnikov, it was constructed from 1927 to 1928. The club, according to Melnikov, is
not a single fixed theater hall, but a flexible system of different halls that may be united into a single,
large volume when necessary. His larger main halls can be divided into three independent halls. In
plan, the club resembles a fan; in elevation, it is divided into a base and three cantilevered concrete
seating areas.

Three prominent balcony-blocks are cut like wedges into the symmetrical volume of the building, the
main façade of which is in concrete and glass. The blocks contain three small auditorioums for 200
people which were used either individually or combined to from a single large space for 1200 people.
At the rear of the building are more conventional offices with bold use of exterior stairs. The only
visible materials used in its construction are concrete, brick and glass. The function of the building is
to some extent expressed in the exterior, which Melnikov described as a “tensed muscle”.
 2. MELNIKOV HOUSE

The finest existing specimen of Melnikov’s work is his own residence in Moscow, completed in 1927-
1929. Melnikov preferred to work at home, and always wanted a spacious residence that could
house his family, architectural and painting workshop. It consists of two intersecting cylindrical
towers decorated with a pattern of hexagonal windows. Floorplan evolved from a plain square to a
circle and an egg shape, without much attention to exterior finishes.

VLADIMIR TATLIN

Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953) Worked as a painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of
the two most important figures in the Russian avant-grade art movement of the 1920s, and he later
became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement. He began his art career as an icon
painter in Moscow, and attended the Moscow school of painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Tatlin
achieved fame as the architect who designed the huge Monument to the Thrid International, also
known as Tatlin’s Tower.
 1. TATLIN’S TOWER

Tatlin designed the huge

Monument to the Third
International, also known as Tatlin’s
Tower ( 1919–20 ). The monument
was to be a tall tower in iron, glass
and steel which have dwarfed the
Eiffel Tower in pairs. This
Monument to the third
International was a third taller at
1,300 feet high. Inside the iron-
and-steel structure of twin spirals,
the design envisaged three building
blocks, covered with glass windows,
which would rotate at different
speeds (the first one, a cube, once a
year; the second one, a pyramid,
once a month; the third one, a
cylinder, once a day). High prices
prevented Tatlin from executing
the plan, and no building such as
this was erected in this day. (This
was never built, though)
EL LISSITZKY

Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (1890-1941), was Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, and
architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with
his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designed numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for
the former Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus, and Constructivist movements. In
1925, after the Swiss government denied his request to renew his visa, Lissitzky returned to Moscow
and began teaching interior design, metalwork, and architecture at VKhUTEMAS (State Higher Artistic
and Technical Workshops), became increasingly active in architecture and designs.

1. WOLKENBUGEL (CLOUD-IEON)-LISSITZKY
 In 1926, he and architect mart Stam designed
the Wolkenbugel (Cloud-iron), a unique
skyscraper on 3 posts planned for Moscow.
Although never built, the building was a vivid
contradiction to America’s vertical building
style, as the building only rose up a relatively
modest height then expanded horizontally
over an intersection so make better use of
space. Its three posts were on three different
street corners, canvassing the intersection.
Lissitzky wrote about the building as being a
proposal for a new, “rational architecture,” a s
opposed to the trend towards massive
skyscrapers going on at the time, mostly in the
united States.
DE STIJL

“De Stijl” is a Dutch phrase meaning “the style. The de stijl arts movement was centered in
Amsterdam during 1917 -1932, also called Neoplasticism. The leaders of the movement were the
artists Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. Their austerity of expression influenced architects,
principally J.J.P. Oud and Gerrit Rietveld. The movement lasted until 1931; in architecture a few de
Stijl principles are still applied. The works of De Stijl influenced the Bauhaus style and the
international style of architecture and interior design.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF DESTIJL

 De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by
using only straight (horizontal and vertical) line and rectangular forms.
 The movement focused on pure and simple elements of artistic expression, including straight
line, right angles, basic geometric shapes and primary colors like red, yellow and blue. Black,
white and grey were used as well.
 The works avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition.
 In many of the group’s three – dimensional works, vertical and horizontal line are positioned
in layers or planes that do not intersect, thereby allowing each element to exist
independently and unobstructed by other elements.
 This feature can be found in the Rietveld Schroder House and the Red and blue chair.
 They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form
and colour.
 This element of the movement embodies the second meaning of stijl: “a post, jamb or
support,” this is best exemplified by the construction of crossing joints most commonly seen
in carpentry.
ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH DE STIJL

The leaders of the movement were the artists Theo van Doesburg and Pied Mondreian. Next to
Van doesbryg , the group’s principal member were the painters Piet Mondrian and Bart van der Leck,
and the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert Van ‘t Koff and J.J.P.Oud.

GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD (1888 – 1964)

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designe and an architect. Rietveld was born in Utrecht
in 1888, the son of a cabinetmaker. As a young boy of 11, Rietveld wad an apprentice craftsman in
his father’s workshop. He attended architecture drawing classes given by P.J.C. Klaarchamer. In
1918, Rietveld became one of the first members of the De Stiji movement. His celebrated “ Red and
Blue “ chair design was first published in “De Stijl” magazine. In 1923, the “Red and Blue” chair was
included in an exhibition at the Bauhaus.

Later, Rietveld completed his most important architecture commission for the Schroeder House in
1924. True to his neoplasticism roots, he started to design experimental fiberboard and plywood
furniture in 1927. He designed low – cost furniture constructed form packing – crated components.
Rietveld started designing with alternative materials, making a stamped aluminium chair in 1942 a
line of chairs using bent metal components in 1957. His last chair design in 1963, the Stelman, chair,
saw the return of the us of solid wood elements and geometric formalism.

1. The Rietveld Schroder House

Rietveld is best known for building the Schroder House in Utrecht in this style in 1924. It was
considered to be the only building created completed form destijl principles of design. His
concepts are always clearly and functionally presented through use of economical and modest
materials. The two – story house is built onto the end of a terrace, but it makes no attempt to
relate to its neighbouring buildings. Inside there is no static accumulation of rooms, but a
dynamic changeable open zone. The ground floor can still be termed traditional: ranged a
rounds a central staircase are kitchen and three sit/ bedrooms.

The living area upstairs is a large open zone except for a separate toilet and a bathroom.
Rietveld felt that as living space it should be usable in either from, open or subdivided. This was
achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels. When entirely partitioned in, the living
level comprises three bedrooms, bathroom and living room. The facades are a collage of planes
and lines whose components are purposely detached from, and seem to glide past, and one
another. External surfaces are in white and shades of grey with black window and doorframes,
and a number of linear elements in primary colors.
 The house is small and yet commands the
space around it effortlessly. The
architecture is not an expression the
materials used, but of the space itself.
The interior is a reflection of the
orderliness of the modernistic town. It
forms a microcosm of pronounced lines
which navigate across color surfaces,
alongside and around pieces of furniture,
which in turn comprise permanent
features on the interior landscape. And
just as each architectural element of a
modernist town reflects a particular
function, there are separate areas for
movement, storage, sitting, sleeping and
working. Did not imitate nature through
decoration but instead allowed nature
through windows and glass skylight.

2. RED AND BLUE CHAIR

Architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld
(Netherlandish, 1888-1965)”scientifically”
designed a chair in 1918 using formulas
and calculations to arrive at his chair to
keep one both alert yet comfortable. His
work was part of the “deStiji” arts
movement which focused on the
essentials of form and design. Rietveld’s
multi-colored chair was originally created
for the Schroder house, also designed by
Rietveld. It has geometric lines and bold
colors that were born of the deStiji arts
movement, evolving form the Cubist
design components.
In 1917, Rietveld created the canonical
“Red/Blue Chair” and projected the Neo-
plastic aesthetic into three dimensions.
The chair, with its simple planes of
primary colors set against a lattice of
interlocking black bars, was above all a
modest piece and followed the Bauhaus
ideology of producing modern furniture
simply, cheaply, and efficiently.
JACOBUS JOHANNES PIETER OUD

Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (1890-1963) was a Dutch architect. His fame began as a follower of
the De stiji movement. As a young architect, he was influenced by Berlage, frank Lloyd Wright
and studied under Theodor Fischer in Munich. Oud attempted to reconcile strict, rational,
‘scientific’ cost-effective construction technique against the psychological needs and aesthetic
expectations of the users. Oud’s early buildings, those designed between 1906 and 1916, show a
nearly total dependence upon the work of Berlage (for example, the design for a bathhouse for
Purmerend, 1915).

In 1917 Oud joined Theo van Doesburg and became involved with the movement De stiji. Oud’s
work now assumed-the bleached, cubical forms, characteristic of the new architecture of the
1920’s (design for row houses, Scheveningen, 1917). Between 1918 and 1933, Oud became
Municipal Housing Architect for Rotterdam. During this period he mostly worked on socially
progressive residential projects (mass housing). Oud became a leader in the European
architecture of the International style.

Oud contributed a group of low-cost row houses (1927) to the exhibition of the Werkbund, at the
Weissenhof in Stuttgart. This exhibition marked the maturation of the International style. Other
outstanding works from this period in Oud’s career include the façade design of asymmetrical
rectangles for the Café de Unie in Rotterdam (1925; destroyed) and workers’ housing quarters in
the Hook of Holland (1924-1927) and the Kiefhoek area of Rotterdam (1924-1929). The workers’
quarters show the plain stucco cubes, the efficient planning, and the social consciousness
characteristic of the progressive architecture of the 1920’s in Europe.

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS

 1922 Garden Village in Rotterdam at Oud – Mathenesse.

 1925 Café de Unie in Rotterdam.
 1926 – 1927 Worker’s Houses – Holland.
 1927 Row of 5 houses, Weissenhof Housing Exposition, Stuttgart.
 1928 – 1930 Keifhoek Housing Development in Rotterdam.
ROW OF 5 HOUSES – WEISSENHOF HOUSING
EXPOSITION, STUTTGART (1927)
1956, National Monument (with sculptor
John Raedecker), Dam Square,
AmsterdamThe Weissenhof Estate is an
estate of working class housing which was
built in Stuttgart in 1927. The estate was
built for the Deutscher werkbund exhibition
of 1927, and included twenty – one building
coprising sixty dwellings, designed by sixteen
European architects. Out of 21 dwellings, J.
Oud designed five Gallery houses at
Weissenhof Estate. The twenty – one building
vary only slightly in form, consisting of
terraced and detached houses and apartment
buildings and display a strong consistency of
design. All the twenty – one building have
simplified facades, flat roofs used as terraces,
window bands, open plan interiors, and the
high level of prefabrication which permitted
their erection in just five months.

KEIFHOEK HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN ROTTERDAM (1928 – 1930)

J. P. Oud designed keifhoek housing development in Rotterdam in 1928. The district comprises
approximately 300 homes, shops, a church and two children’s playgrounds. Feature include 2
storeyed terrace housing, flat roof, horizontal articulated facades with band of fenestration, use of
red grey and yellow colors, white stucco, rounded corners with shops below.

NEOPLASTICISM

Neoplasticism is the belief that art should not be the reproduction of real objects, but the expression
of the absolutes of life. To the artist’s way of thinking, the only absolutes of life were vertical and
horizontal lines and the primary colors. To this end neoplasticisist only used planar elements and the
colors red, yellow, and blue. The neoplastic movement happened in the 1919’s and the two main
painters of this movement where piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.

PIET MONDRIAN

Mondrian was born on March, 7 1872 in Netherlands. Although Mondrian intended to become a
painter his family pursued him to acquire a degree in education. He studied in the Amsterdam
Academy of Fine Arts form 1892 to 1895 and then began to paint on his own. Up through 1907,
Mondrian’s paintings followed an effective trend of art in The Netherland. The Dutch artist
Mondrian repeatedly lived and worked in Paris for longer periods of time. His topic less, elementary
compositions originated form processing of symbolist shifting of meanings of colors and cubistic
shape – splitting.

In 1911 Mondrian saw, for the first time, the Cubist works of Georges Braque and Pable Picasso in
Amsterdam. He was so deeply amazed by their works that he moved to Paris in 1912. Back in Paris
he began to adjust the principles of Cubis to his aown use. He produced many analytical series such
as “Trees” (1912 – 1913) and “ Scaffoldings” (1912 =1914). He produced moved towards increased
abstraction, which led him to a style of only vertical and horizontal brushstrokes.

Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, van der Leck, and Vilmos Huszar together founded the art
magazine and movement of De Stijl ( the style) in 1917. Through De Stijl, Mondrian developed his
own theories of a new art form called neplasticism. He believed that art should not concern itself
with reproducing images of real objects but instead focus on their underlying nature. He maintained
the belief that a canvas should contain only basic element such as primary colors, straight lines, and
right angles. His “ Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue” was composed solely of a few black lines
and a well – balanced block of color. This gave his painting a sense of proportionality like no other
and created a prodigious effect with its limitations.

Examples of Piet Mondrian’s paintings (their title always beginning with the term “composition):

 Composition with Red, Yellow, Blue and Black

 Composition 2
 Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue
 Composition with two lines
 Composition with Blue

Elementarism.

A form of Neo – Plasticism propounded by van Doesburg in the mid – 1920s, notably in a manifesto
published in the journal De stijl in 1926.

Elementarism is partly a reaction against the too dogmatic application of Neo – Plasticism, and partly
a consequence of Neo – Plasticism itself. Van Doesburg wrote an article in the form of a manifesto,
in the course of which he said: What it seeks, above all, is a strict rectification of the Neo – plastic
ideas. He then went on to explain what he meant by ‘rectification’. As against the homogeneous
construction of Mondrian’s Neo – plasticism, he proposed a heterogeneous form of expression,
deliberately unstable, with inclined planes. He tried, in this way, to increase the dynamic effect, and
renew the element of surprise. The painters Cesar Domela and Vordemberge – Gildewart, previously
disciples of Mondrian, followed Van Doesburg

Elementarism expanded the limitations of necplasticism Neoplasticism allowed only the depiction of
flat surfaces, straight lines, and right angles in artworks, whereas Doesburg believed that the use of
inclined planes was also acceptable.

Whilst maintaining Mondrian’s restriction to the right angle, Elementarism abandoned his insistence
on the use of strict horizontals and verticals. By introducing inclined lines and forms van Doesburg
sought to achieve a quality of dynamic tension in place of Mondrian’s classical repose. Mondrian was
so offended by this rejection of his principles that he left De Stijl.

INFLUENCE OF ART MOVEMENTS ON MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODERN ART

Parallel to the rapid scientific, technological, and social changes that have taken place in the 20th
century are the rich varieties of art styles that have developed. Notable are the number of “isms,”
such as Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, neoplasticism, surrealism,
precisionism, and minimalism.

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

The approach to designing and constructing buildings that has characterized most of the 20th century
has come to be called modern architecture. First established in Germany after World War I, it rapidly
attracted a following in other European countries. In 1932 the Museum of Modern Art in New York
City, in a famous exhibition, acclaimed it as the INTERNATIONAL STYLE, (q.v.). Neither of these terms
is descriptive of the movement. Initially, it offered pure abstract forms to replace stylistic traditions
inherited from the Renaissance. Gradually this austere purism become diffused, and by the 1980s
architectural theory and practice had ceased to follow modernist orthodoxy.

The Renaissance itself had taken diverse directions, yet all of these shared a common trait – they
continued to manipulate the orders (columns and entablatures) and the arches and vaults forming
the vocabulary of masonry building developed by the Greeks and Romans. In the late 19th century,
however, the revival of historic styles had often degenerated into an indiscriminate and unprincipled
mixture of borrowings; this mixture was called eclecticism (a term of opprobrium).
ORIGINS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

The Industrial Revolution had so changed the technological and social context of design that old
concepts were no longer valid. Form 1840 on, leading artists, designers, and critics tried to develop
new approaches to environmental art. Modern architecture has its roots in a number of transient
efforts in various centers.

In England the writer and critic John Ruskin and the writer and designer William Morris encouraged
what became known as the ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT, (q.v.). Inspired by the medieval past, the
movement rejected the idea that machine – made object could constitute a true culture. It affirmed
the importance of handicraft and led leading artists to become involved in the design of ordinary
human artifacts and surroundings.

Modern Architecture

Introduction

Modern architecture started in the year 1920, after the industrial revolution in Europe. Modern
architecture originated in the United States and Europe and spread form there to the rest of the
world. By the 1940 these styles had been consolidated and identified as the international Style and
became the dominant way of building for several decades in the twentieth century.

The modern movement was an attempt to create a non historical architecture of functionalism in
which a new sense of space would be created with the help of modern materials. The modern
movement had given birth to “ modern man,” who would need a radically new kind of architecture.

Evolution of Modern Architecture

The modern movement came into being to suit the need of masses. It had no influence of
Geographical, Geological, Climatic conditions, Social and Religious customs. Modern architecture as
primarily driven by technological and engineering developments, and the availability of new
materials such as iron, steel, concrete and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as
part of the industrial revolution.

With economic pressure brought about, the need and importance for functional planning was felt.
Architects got more freedom to plan buildings suitable for various purposes and environments. The
crystal palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 is an early example; possibly the best
example is Louis Sullivan’s development off the tall steel skyscraper in Chicago around 1890.
Characteristics

Modern architecture is usually characterized by:

 It arises form an accurate analysis of the needs of modern society – achieved by the direct
application of means to ends.
 Important civic buildings, aristocratic palaces, churches, and public institutions had long been
the mainstay of architectural practices, but modernist designers argued that architects
should design all that was necessary for society, even the most humble buildings.
 It represents the logical solution of the problem of shelter – houses, schools and colleges,
health centers and hospitals, railways and bus station, clubs and theatres, banks, office
buildings and factories.
 They began to plan low – cost housing, railroad les stations, factories, warehouses, and
commercial spaces.
 In the first half of the 20th century many modernist produced housing as well as furniture,
textiles, and wallpaper to create a totally designed domestic environment.
 Building style with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the
elimination of ornament- “unnecessary detail”.
 Functionalism, geometric order, proportions and simplicity were the key factors.
 It is based on a study of scientific resources and an exploitation of new materials; it is the
architecture of industrial living.
 A rejection of the principle that the materials and functional requirement determine the
result.
 An adoption of the machine aesthetic, expressed structure.
 New materials like cement concrete, steel and glass brought changes in cinstruction
methods.
 Framed structures of steel or R.C.C. instead of load bearing ones, became the prominent
feature of the modern architecture.
 Steel found to be most suitable material for framing huge cellular building over
uninterrupted spans .
 Functional structure with R.C.C. columns, beams, slabs, chajjas, canopies produced new
breed of buildings.
 Massive stone wall were replaced by thin R.C.C. curtain walls thus producing large interior
space.
 A wide range of shapes used for roods form flat, barrelvault, shellroof hemispherical domes,
hyperbolic paraboloid domes.
 Prestressed concrete helped in the construction of bridges, hangers of air ships.
 Use of materials in their natural state, exposed brickwork, finished concrete, varied use of
steel and glass became popular.
 Use of plywood, laminates, glass, different types and shades of colours, helped architects to
make new structures more elegant.
  Finally it is organic – meaning the architecture looks if it belongs to the environment in which
it is placed.

MODERN ARCHITECTS

 Le Corbusier
 Mies van der Rohe
 Louis Kahn
 Philip Jonson
 Frank Lloyd wright
 Louis Sullivan
 Walter Groupis

LATER PHASE MODERN ARCHITECTS

 Richard Rogers
 Norman Foster
 I.M. Pei
 Nicholas Grimshaw
 Michael Hopkins

NOTABLE EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS

 Amount notable early modern architectural projects are exuberant and richly decorated
buildings in Glasgow, Scotland, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh;
 Imaginative designs for a city of the future by ltalian visionary Antonio Sant’Elia;
 Houses with flowing interior spaces an projecting roofs by the American pioerr of
modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright.
 Important modern buildings that came later includes the sleek villas of Swiss – French
architect le Corbusier;
 Bold new factories in Germany by Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius; and
 Steel and glass skyscrapers designed by German –born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The International style

Introduction

The International style was a major architectural style of the 1920s and 1930s. The term usually
refers to the building and architects of the formative decades of modernism, before World War ll.
The international style was little more of architecture which had spread throughout the developed
world by the time of the Second World War.

Evolution of International style

The term had its origin form the name of a book – “The International Style: Architecture Since 1922”.
By Henry – Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson written to record the International Exhibition on
modern Architecture held at the Museum of modern Art in New York city in 1932 which identified,
categorized and expanded upon characteristics common to modernism across the world. Thus the
basic design principles to the international style thus constitute part of modernism.

The foundations of this style can be traced to the Bauhaus, an architectural school founded by water
Gropius in 1918. The style arose from the need to create decent housing for the post-WWI German
worker, and to address the needs of a growing technological and mechanized world. Breaking from
the Arts and crafts movement, Bauhaus embraced technology, new materials and the mass
production of furnishings and fixtures. In the form of the International style, the Bauhau’s influence
eventually extended around the world.

Ideals of this style

Hitchcock’s and Johnson’s aims were to define a style of the time, which would encapsulate this
modern architecture. They identified three different principles:

 The expression of volume rather than mass,

 Balance rather than preconceived symmetry and
 The expulsion of applied ornament.

The ideals of the style are commonly summed up in four slogans:

 Ornament is a crime,
 Truth to materials,
 Form follows function, and
 Le Corbusier’s description of houses as “machines for living”.

Architects working in the International style gave new emphasis to the expression of structure, the
lightening of mass, and the enclosure of dynamic spaces. While Johnson and Hitchcock wrote that
the new architecture was defined by “an effect of volume, or more accurately, of plane surfaces
bounding a volume”.

Elements of International style

The International style is usually characterized by:

 A style of architecture applied to residences to residences and public buildings that is

 minimalist in concept, is devoid of regional characteristics, stresses functionalism, and rejects
all nonessential decorative elements.
 Favoured light weight technique, synthetic modern materials and standard modular parts so
as to facilitate fabrication and erection.
 Flexibility of free plan – open interior spaces achieved through frame construction.
 Simplification of form – Simple geometric forms, often rectilinear, occasionally, cylindrical
surfaces.
 Reinforced- concrete and steel construction with a nonstructural skin.
 Complete absence of ornamentation and decoration; often, an entire blank wall – typically of
glass steel, or stucco painted white
 Typically this style emphasizes the horizontal aspects of a building. Houses in this stle are
characterizes by open interior spaces and are commonly asymmetrical.
 Commercial building are not only symmetrical but appear as a series of repetitive elements
 Doorway and window treatments conspicuously plain, lacking decorative detailing
 Focussed on the transparency of buildings and, thus, the construction – called as the honest
expression of structure.

The typical International Style high –rise usually consists of the following

1. Square or rectangular foot print

2. Simple cubic “extruded rectangle” form
3. Windows running in broken horizontal rows forming a grid
4. All façade angles are 90 degrees.

Notable architects – International style

Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier are among the architects most clearly
associated with the style. Other architects include:

 Alvar Aalto
 Welton Becket
 Philip Johnson
 Louis Kahn
 Richard Neutra
 Oscar Niemeyer
 Rudolf Schindler

Notable architectural projects – International style

Important examples include the Bauhaus at Dessau, Germany, by Walter Gropius (1925 -26) and the
Villa savoye, Poissy – sur –Seine,France, by Le Corbusier (1929 -30). Spurred by American corporate
culture, the glass box office tower – developed through a debased interpretation of Mies van der
Rohe’s prophetic dictum,” less is more”- popularly represented that which was new, innovative, and,
above all modern..

CLAM – CONGRESSES AND DECLARATIONS

CIAM – CONGRESS INTERNATIONAUX D’ ARCHIECTURE MODERN

The need identify common directions and to awaken understanding for new approaches in
architecture and hence in urban planning, led to the founding of CIAM.

Topics discussed by 1st Congress (CIAM) – 1928 (The La Saraz Document, Switzerland)

LA – SARAZ DECLARATION

 Modern Technology
 Standardisation
 Cost Efficiency
 Urban Planning
 Youth Education
 Architecture of the state.
 Topics discussed by 2nd Congress (CIAM ll) – 1929 at Frankfurt
 THEME – “The Existence Minimum Apartment”
 Topics Discussed by 3rd Congress (CIAM lll) – 1930 at Brussels
 THEME – “Rational methods of Development”
 Topics discussed by 4th Congress (CIAM lv) – 1933 at Athens
 THEME – “The Functional City”
 This congress identified the four primary functions of city:
 Residential
 Work
 Free form
 Traffic

The city should be designed for maximum comfort and maximum time savings.

Topics discussed by 5th Congress (CIAMV) – 1937 at Paris

THEME – “Dwelling and Leisure”

The three stages of CIAM

 Stage l – 1928 -1933

 Stage ll – 1933 – 1947
 Stage lll – 1947 – 1956
THE LA – SARAZ DECLATATION

This declaration in 1928 was signed by 24 Architects representing

a) France
b) Switzerland
c) Germany
d) Holland
e) Italy
f) Spain
g) Austria
h) Belgium.

The declaration emphasized building rather than architecture as the “Elementary Activity” of Man
intimate linked with evolution and the development of Human Life.

THE DECLARATION

1. The idea of Modern Architecture includes the link between the Phenomenon of Architecture
and that of General Architecture.
2. The idea of “Economic Efficiency” does not imply production furnishing maximum
commercial profit, but production demanding a minimum effort.
3. The need for maximum Economic efficiency is the inevitable result of the impoverished state
of the general economy.
4. The most efficient method of production is that which arises from “Rationalisation and
standardization”. These two act directly on working methods of both Modern Architecture
(conception) and in the building industry (realization).
5. Realisation and standardization react in a three fold manner:

 They demand of architecture conceptions leading to simplification of working methods

on site and the factory.
 They mean for building forms a reduction in skilled labour force.
 They expect from the consumer a revision of his demands in the direction of
readjustment to the new condition of social life.

THE ATHENS CHARTER

In 1943, the French group published an annotated version of the principles of the 4th congress in the
form of “Athens charter”. There were hundred and eleven propositions of the charter. It tried to
address the problems associated with towns throughout the world. The proposals were given under
five headings:

1. Dwellings
 2. Recreational
3. Work
4. Transportation
5. Historic buildings.

The Athens Charter had the following declarations:

a) A rigid functional zoning of city plans with green belts between the areas reserved for the
different functions.
b) A single type of urban housing expressed in the charter as “high, widely spaced apartment
blocks”, wherever the necessity of housing and high density population exists.

THE END OF CIAM

It didn’t take long for the architectures to question the conclusions reached in Athens. Chief among
the “doubters” were young British architects-Alison and peter Smithson, broke away from CIAM in
1956. In 1953, they had outlined their concerns:

 “Man may identify readily with his own hearth”, but not easily with the town within which
it is placed.
 Belonging is a basic emotional need-its associations are of the simplest order. From
“Belonging”. Enriching sense of Neighbourliness.
 The short narrow street of slum succeeds where spacious redevelopment frequently fails.
 The Smithsons worried that CIAM ideal city would lead to isolation and community
breakdown.

The last CIAM X meeting held in 1956 at Dubrounik where the Smithsons group now known as Team
X had taken over. The official demise of CIAM and the succession of Team X were confirmed in a
meeting at otterlow in the presence of the old master Henry Van de velde.
 UNIT V- INSTITUIONS WERKBUND AND BAUHAUS

Works of

a) Peter Behrens
b) Walter Gropius

BACK GROUND:

Why Germany:

 Britain, the pioneer found it more profitable to invest her surplus abroad than to modernize
her home environment and production.
 This meant that the 20th century industrialism did not emerge much in Britain
 It emerged in a more industrial nation like Germany

Gottfried Semper

 Architect and liberal revolutionary

 Fled from Dresden, to Paris first and then to London
 There on the occasion of the 1851 Exhibition he wrote his essay (Science, Industry and art)
 Published in Germany in 1852
 In his book he examined the impact of industrialization and mass consumption on the entire
field of applied art and architecture.
 Semper crystallized his critique of industrial revolution
 We have artists but no actual art
 The abundance of means is the first serious danger with which art has to struggle.

Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876

1. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, German industrial and applied art products
were regarded as inferior to those from England and France.
2. It was realized that Germany products were ”cheap and nasty”.
3. German industry must relinquish the principles of competition in price alone and instead use
the intellectual power and the skill of workers to refine the product and this to a greater
degree approaches art.
4. Numerous critics held that improved design in both craft and industry was essential to the
future prosperity or Germany.
5. And Germany could only compete with the products of exceptionally high quality.

THE DEUTSCHE WERKBUND (1898-1927)

1. The Werkbund was founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius.
2. Its initial membership consisted of 12 independents and 12 crafts firm.
 3. The important architects involved were
1. Peter Behrens
2. Josef Hoffmann,
3. Bruno Paul, and
4. Richard Riemerschmid.
5. Henry Van de Velde

The werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional
crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with
England and the states. Its motto “Vom Sofakissen zum Stadtebau” (from sofa cushions to city-
building) indicates its range of interest.

REASONS FOR THE BIRTH OF WEERBUND

1. To compete with the rapidly expanding United states.

2. To elevate the taste of the German society.
3. To bring good design and quality which will represent Germany’s national purity.

KEY DATES OF THE DEUTSCHER WERKBUND:

 1907 Establishment of the Werkbund in Munich

 1914 Cologne exhibition
 1924 Berlin exhibition
 1927 Stuttgart exhibition (including the Weissenhof Estate)
 1929 Breslau exhibition
 1938 Werkbund closed by the National Socialists
 1949 reestablishment

PHILOSOPHIES OF WERKBUND

1. Largely influenced by the Arts and craft movement

2. Adapted a more flexible attitude to machine manufacturing
3. Emphasized the creation of standard building elements
4. Emphasized prefabricated elements
5. Emphasized Basic units and the buildings is a multiple of the basic unit
6. There was this argument between Norm and form between type and Individuality
7. There were differences in the ideologies of Muthesius and Behrens and Van de Velde
8. Muthesius emphasized on the design where as early as 1908, Behrens rejected it for a design
should have individuality

To demonstrate their arguments the architects participated in the Werkbund exhibition in 1914 at
cologne and put forth their ideas.
The Werkbund Exhibition of 1914 was held in Cologne, Germany. Bruno Taut’s best-known building,
the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion familiar from black and white reproduction, was a brightly
colored landmark. Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model factory for the exhibition.
Henri van de Velde designed a model theater.

LIFE AND WORKS

 German architect and designer.

 He became director of Dusseldorf’s arts crafts school in 1903.
 The large electrical company AEG hired him in 1907 as its artistic adviser, a comprehensive
job that led him to design the hexagonal trademark of the AEG, its catalogs, its office
stationery, products such as electric fans and street lamps, and retail shops and factories.
 His AEG Works turbine factory in Berlin (1909-12), with its sweeping glass curtain wall,
became the most significant building in Germany at that time. He was an influential pioneer
of Modernism; Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe all worked in his
office.

AEG TURBINE FACTROY Built in 1909

1. Far from being a straight forward design in iron and glass, Behrens turbine factory was a
conscious work of art, a temple to industrial power.
2. The hexagonal AEG honeycomb pattern was used not only for the actual products but for
the architecture itself.
3. Instaed of concealing the different load-bearing systems of the two bay hall behind the
bulwarks of stone, he exposed them to view in the long faces of the factory.
4. The steel skeleton frame penetrates the glass skin articulating and enclosing the building.
5. Sloping glass membranes takes the place of massive vertical walls.
6. He transformed the seemingly fragile internal trussed girders through which day light
flooded in, into closed box sections.
7. The horizontal bean that links the 14 steel columns at the top does indeed recall a frieze with
metopes.
 8. The light steel frame of the street façade of the turbine factory is terminated at the ends by
solid battered corner elements whose elements whose surfaces are rendered in such a way
as to deny any sustaining load.
9. This tectonic formula of flanking light trabeated frames with massive corners characterizes
virtually all the industrial structures that Behrens designed for AEG.

INTRODUCTORY YEARS:

The Bauhaus school was founded by WALTER GROPIUS IN WEIMAR.

In 1919, the Bauhaus manifesto proclaims that the ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building.

Bauhaus is a German expression meaning house for building. In 1919, the economy in Germany was
collapsing after a crushing war. Architect Walter Gropius was appointed to head a new institution
that would help rebuild the country and form a new “rational” social housing for the workers.

In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an
architecture department during the first years of its existence.

The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and
modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent development in art,
architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

BAUHAUS SCHOOLS:

The school existed in three German cities:

1. WEIMAR from 1919 to 1925,

2. DESSAU from 1925 to 1932,
3. BERLIN from 1932 to 1933.

Under three different architect-directors:

1. Walter Gropius form 1919 to 1927,

2. Hannes meyer from 1927 to 1930,
3. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933.

When the school was closed by the Nazi regime students at the school were taught both by an artist
and a master craftsman.

IDEALOGIES:

1. One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art, craft, and technology. The
machine was considered a positive element, and therefore industrial and product design
were important components.
 2. The Bauhaus school pioneered a functional, severely simple architectural style, featuring
the elimination of surface decoration and extensive use of glass.
3. The radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-
production was reconcilable with the individual architect spirit.
4. One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus is in the field of modern furniture
design. The ubiquitous Cantilever chair by Dutch designer Mart Stam, using the tensile
properties of steel, and the Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer are two examples.

Walter Gropius

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe

BAUHAUS AT WEIMAR:

1. The Dessau years saw a remarkable change in direction for the school.
2. Hannes Meyer became director when Gropius resigned in February 1928, and brought the
Bauhaus its two most significant building commissions, both of which still exist: Five
apartment buildings in the city of Dessau, and the headquarters of the federal school of the
German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau.
3. Meyer favored measurements and calculations in his presentations to clients, along with the
use of –off-the=shelf architectural components to reduce costs, and this approach proved
attractive to potential clients.
4. The school turned its first profit under his leadership in 1929. In the next two years under
Meyer, the architectural focus shifted away from aesthetics and towards functionality.
Meyer’s approach was to research user’s needs and scientifically develop the design solution.
But Meyer also generated a great deal of conflict. As a radical functionalist, he had no patience with
the aesthetic program, and forced the resignations of Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, and other long-
time instructors.

Bauhaus at Weimer

Bauhaus at Dessau

Bauhaus at Berlin

BAUHAUS AT BERLIN:

1. 1933, Nazi writers had already labeled the Bauhaus “un-German” and criticized its modernist
styles, deliberately generating public controversy over issues like flat roofs.
2. Increasingly through the early 1930’s they characterized the Bauhaus as a front for
communists and social liberals. Indeed, a number of communist students loyal to Meyer
moved to the Soviet Union when he was fired in 1930.
 3. Even before the Nazis came to power, political pressure on Bauhaus had increased.

Despite Gropius protestations that as a war veteran and a patriot his work had no subversive political
intent, the Berlin Bauhaus was closed in April 1933. Mies van der Rohe was expelled from Germany
Curiously; however, some Bauhaus influences lived on in Nazi Germany.

Gropius was founder of the Bauhaus and one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

This house was his first architectural commission in the United States. He designed it in 1937, when
he came to teach at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design,

 It was built in 1938.

 It remained Gropius’ home from 1938 until his death in 1969.
 The house caused a sensation when built. In keeping with Bauhaus philosophy, every aspect
of the house and its surrounding landscape was planned for maximum efficiency and
simplicity.
 Gropius carefully sited the house to complement its New England habitat on a rise within an
orchard of 90 apple trees.

Set amid fields, forests, and farmhouses, the Gropius House mixes up the traditional materials of
New England architecture (wood, brick, and fieldstone) with industrial materials such as glass block,
acoustical plaster, and chrome banisters. The house structure consists of a traditional New England
post and beam wooden frame, sheathed with white painted tongue and grove vertical siding.
Traditional clapboards are used in the interior foyer, but are applied vertically.

LeCorbusier

Le Corbusier, the four compositions of 1929

1. Maison La Roche
2. Villa at Garches
3. Weisenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart
Villa Savoye

 Le Corbusier employed ‘regulating lines’,

that classical device used to maintain
proportional control over façade, manifest
for instance in the disposition of the
fenestration in accordance with the golden
section
UNIT IV –MODERN ARCHITECTURE: LATER DIRECTIONS

 Post WW II developments and spread of international style

 Later works of Corbusier: United de Habitation, Chandigarh
 Brasilia City Planning
 Works of later modernists: Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Eero Saarinen

LATER MODERN ARCHITECTURE-AFTER WAR II

Mid-Century MODERN

As the International Style took hold, others architects reacted to or strayed from its purely
functionalist forms, while at the same time retaining highly Modernist characteristics. Eero Saarinen,
Alvar Aalto and Oscar Niemeyer were three of the most prolific architects and designers in this
movement, which has influenced contemporary modernism.

Mid-century Modernism, or organic modernism, was very popular, due to its democratic and playful
nature. Expressionist exploration of form was revived, such as in the Sydney Opera House in
Australia by lorn Utzon.

Eero Saarinen would invoke suggestions of flight in his designs for the terminal at Dulles International
Airport outside of Washington, D.C, or the TWA Terminal in New York, both finished in 1962.

LATER MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Mid-Century MODERN

Contributing to these expressions were structural advances that enabled new forms to be possible or
desirable. Felix Candela, a Spanish expatriate living in Mexico and Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi,
would make particular strides in the use of reinforced concrete and concrete shell construction. In
1954, Buckminster Fuller patented the geodesic dome.

Another stylistic reaction was “New formalism” (or “Neo-formalism”) would blend elements of
classicism (at their most abstracted levels) with modernist designs. Characteristics drawing on
classism include rigid symmetry, use of columns and colonnades or arcades, and use of high-end
materials (such as marble or granite), yet works in this vein also characteristically use the flat roofs
common with the International Style.

Architects working in this mode included Edward Durrell stone, Minoru Yamasaki, and some of the
middle-period work of Philip Johnson, with examples in the United states including the Kennedy
Center(1971) and the National Museum of American History (1964) in Washington, D.C., and the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (mid-1960’s) in New York.
LATER MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Mid-Century MODERN

Arising shortly after the end of World War II, a particular set of stylistic tendencies in the United
states during this time is known as Googie (or “populuxe”), derived from futuristic visions inspired by
the imagery of the Atomic Age and Space Age, with motifs such as atomic orbital patterns and “flying
saucers”, respectively, such as in the Space Needle in Seattle. Though the style was unique to the
United States, similar iconography can be seen in the Atomium in Brussels.

A distinctly Mexican take on modernism, “plastic integration”, was a suncretization of Mexican

artistic traditions (such as muralism) with International Style forms, and can be seen in the later
works of Luis Barraggn and Juan O’Gorman, exiptomized by the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM in
Mexico City.

LATER MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Mid-Century MODERN

 Urban design and mass housing

The Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) would be a force in the shaping
Modernist urban planning, and consequently the design of cities and the structures within, from
1928 to 1959. Its 1933 meeting resulted in the basis of what would become, via Le Corbusier, the
Athens Charter, which would drive urban planning practice for much of the mid -20 century.

Following its principles, in the late 1950’s the entirely-new city of Brasilia was built as a new capital
for Brazil, designed by Lucio Costa, with prominent works for it designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Le
Corbusier himself would help design the city of Chandigarh in India.

The devastation that WW II wrought in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific and subsequent post-war
housing shortages would result in a vast building and rebuilding of cities, with a variety of techniques
employed for the creation of mass-housing. One attempt to solve this was by using the Tower block.
In the Eastern Bloc, mass housing would take the form of prefabricated panel buildings, such as the
Plattenbau of East Germany, Khrushchvoyka of Russia and the panelak of Czechoslovakia.

LATER WORKS OF LE CORBUSIER:

1. NOTRE DAME DU HAUT

2. CITY OF CHANDIGARH
3. UNITED DE’ HABITATION

NOTRE DAME DU HAUT 1950-54

 NOTRE DAME DU HAUT- RON CHAMP, FRANCE 1950-54

Informally known as RONCHAMP, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut is in France

BUILDING TYPE: church

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM: Reinforced concrete

SITE: the site is on a hill near Belfort in eastern France

STRUCTURE:

 In the interior, the spaces left between the walls and roof are filled with clerestory windows
as well as asymmetric light from the wall openings.
 The chapel is renowned for its simple aesthetic and curvilinear artistic expression along with
the size and layout of the windows which were based on his MODULAR.
 The structure is built mostly of concrete and stone, which was a remnant of the original
chapel built on the hilltop site destroyed during world war II.

ATTRICUTES:

SOFT-FORM COMPOSITION, DEEP WINDOWS WITH COLORED GLASS WALL THICKNESS '4 TO 12’.
NOTRE DAME DU HAUT

 The floor of the chapel follows the natural slope of the hill down towards the altar.
 The towers are constructed of stone masonry and are capped by cement domes.
 The concrete shell of the roof is left rough, just as it comes from the formwork.
 Water tightness is effected by a built-up roofing with an exterior cladding of aluminium.
 The interior the walls are white: the ceiling grey: the communion bench of cast iron.
NOTRE DAME DU HAUT

DESIGN CONCEPT:

Simple, Geometric shape from Le corbusier’s earlier buildings have given way to more subtle, fractal,
natural shapes here, leading to the description of Ranchamn as the first post-Modern building.

NOTRE DAME DU HAUT

CONCEPT:

 The whole conception of Ron champ is dominated by the REVERSE CURVE ASYMMETRICAL
ROOF cast in two separate membranes.
 The interior is strangely list by colored glass, patches of light contrasting with the shadowy
areas in a highly dramatic and emotional way.

APPROACH:

 Its entrance is a along a path.

 The approach of the building, is an OBLIOUE approach-it enhances the effect of perspective
on the front façade and form of a building.

ROOF:

 The billowing (to swell out, puff up, etc., as by the action of wind) roof of concrete was
planned to slope towards the back, where a fountain of abstract forms is placed on the
ground.
 When it rains, the water comes pouring off the roof and down onto the raised, slanted
concrete structures, creating a dramatic but natural fountain
Chandigarh,

HISTORY

 The idea of building Chandigarh was conceived soon after India’s independence in 1947,
when the tragedy and chaos of partition, and the loss of its historic capital Lahore, had
crippled the state of Punjab.
 A new city was needed to house innumerable refugees and to provide an administrative seat
for the newly formed government of re-defined Punjab.
 Chandigarh was regarded as a unique symbol of the progressive aspirations of the new
republic and the ideology of its struggle for independence.
 It aimed to provide a generous cultural and social infrastructure and living even to the
poorest of the poor.
 The near vacuum of indigenous expertise needed to realize this dream prompted the search
for western skill.
 Yet conscious of the specificities of their situation, the search was narrowed to…a good
modern architect who was not severely bound by an established style and who would be
capable of developing a new conception originating from the exigencies of the project itself
and suited to the Indian climate, available materials and the functions of the new capital.
 The Chandigarh project was, at first, assigned to the American planner Albert Mayer, with his
associate Matthew Nowicki working out architectural details. Le Corbusier’s association with
the city was purely fortuitous, a result of Nowicki’s sudden death.
 Corbusier continued to be associated with the city as the principal.
 Architectural and planning advisor for till his death in 1965.
Chandigarh

CORBUSIER’S PLAN OF MODERN CHANDIGARH

 Taking over from Albert Mayer, Le Corbusier produced a plan for Chandigarh that conformed
to the modernist city planning principles, in terms of division of urban functions, an
anthropomorphic plan (resembling or made to resemble a human form) form, and a
hierarchy of road and pedestrian networks.
 This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual maps on the drawing
board together with notes and sketches had to be translated into brick and Nortar.
 Le Corbusier retained many of the seminal ideas of kayer and Nowicki. Like the basic
framework of the waster plan and its components: The Capitol, City Centre, besides the
university, Industrial area, and Linear parkland.
 Even the neighborhood unit was retained as the basic module of planning. However, the
curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki was reorganized into a wesh of rectangles, and the
buildings were characterized by an honesty of Materials.
 Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete
surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architectural form characteristic of
Chandigarh, set amidst Landscaped gardens and parks.
Chandigarh,

The initial plan had two phases: the first for a population of 150,000 and the second taking the total
population to 500,000. Le Corbusier divided the city into units called “sectors”, each representing a
theoretically self-sufficient entity with space for living, working and Leisure. The sectors were linked
to each other by a road and path network developed along the Line of or a hierarchy of seven types
of circulation patterns. At the highest point in this network was the V1, the highways connecting the
city to others, and the lowest were the V1s, the streets leading to individual houses. Later a V0 was
added: cycle and pedestrian paths.

Chandigarh,

 The city plan in Laid down in a grid pattern.

 The whole city has been divided into rectangular patterns, forming identical looking Sectors,
each sectors Measures 800m X1200m. The sectors were to act self-sufficient
neighbourhoods, each with its own market, places of worship, schools and colleges-all within
10 minutes walking distance from within the sector.
 The original two phases of the plan delineated sectors from 1 to 47, with the exception of 13
(Number 13 is considered unlucky).
 The Assembly, the secretariat and the high court, all located in sector-1 are the three
monumental buildings designed by Le Corbusier in which he showcased his architectural
genius to the maximum.
 The city was to be surrounded by a 16 kilometre wide greenbelt that was to ensure that no
development could take place in the immediate vicinity of the town, thus checking suburbs
and urban sprawl.
 While leaving the bulk of the city’s architecture to other members of his team, Le Corbusier
took responsibility for the overall master plan of the city, and the design of some of the
major public buildings including the High court, Assembly, secretariat, the Museum and Art
Gallery, school of Art and the Lake Club.
 Le Corbusier most prominent building, the court House, consists of the High court, which is
literally higher than the other, eight lower courts. Most of the other housing was done by Le
Corbusier cousin pierre Jeanerette.
 It continues to be an object of interest for architects, planners, historians and social
scientists.

Chandigarh,

Open hand

 Open hand in Chandigarh, India is one of the most significant monuments of the city.
 The credit for laying down its plan goes to Le Corbusier.
 It is located in sector 1 in the Capital complex.
 Chandigarh, open hand monument has been designed in the form of a giant hand made form
metal sheets that rotates like a weathercock, indicating the direction of wind.
 This giant hand is 14 metres high and weighs around 50 tonnes.
 The significance of open hand is that it conveys the social message of peace and unity that is
open to give & open to receive.
  Open hand is the city’s official emblem.

Secretariat - Chandigarh

 The Secretariat is the largest of these edifices in the Capitol Complex. It is the Headquarter
of both Punjab and Haryana government.
 It is a huge multi-storied linear slab-like structure, intended as a work place for 6000 people.
 The building is 256 meters Long and 42 meters high.
 It is composed of 8 storeys.
 The long line of rhythmic sun breakers is relieved by introducing varied heights and
projections, together with a roof containing towers, funnels. Pavilions and a cafeteria jutting
out like an art object placed on a pedestal.
 In the hands of Corbusier, this basically repetitive framework has been shaped into a work of
art.
 Built during 1953-59, it is shaped like an eight-storey concrete slab, with its distinctive brise-
soleil I louvered screen I of deeply sculptured two-storey porticos in the centre, housing the
offices of ministers.
 The Cafeteria rests atop the terrace like an art object, giving a spectacular view of the city.

High court

 This structure has a double roof, projecting

over the office block like a parasol or an
inverted umbrella.
 This magnificent outward sweep of the
upper roof symbolic of protection a justice
 to the People.
 The 3 vertical piers, rising 60 feet from the
floor and painted in bright colours form
grand entrance of the building façade. On
the rear walls of the court rooms, hang the
giant wooden tapestries.
 Classic example of Cubism.
 Perfectly composed vertical and horizontal
lines with solids and voids.

 Access to the upper floors is

through a ramp sheltered by a
portico.
 The gradual climb reveals the vast
expanse and the coloured concrete
volumes of the building.
 The rooms are shielded by the sun
breakers from inside.

Assembly hall

 The most majestic entrance to the assembly is reflected in a large pool of water.
 The main entrance is fitted with a door made of enamel steel, a gift from France to Punjab on
which many of Corbusier’s motifs are depicted.
 The circular auditorium is crowned by a frustum which is said to depict the horn of a cow.

Untied de’ habitation

Architect Le Corbusier

Location Marseilles, France

Date 1946 to 1952

Building Type Multifamily housing

Construction concrete
System

Climate Mediterranean

Style Modern
United de’ habitation

Le Corbusier most influential late work was his first significant postwar structure the unit Ed’
Habitation in Marseilles of 1947-25.

The giant, twelve-storey apartment block for 1,600 people is the late modern counter part of the
miss housing schemes of the 1920’s similarly built to alleviate a severe postwar housing shortage.

Although the program of the building is elaborate, structurally it is simple: a rectilinear ferroconcrete
grid, into which are slotted precast individual apartment units, like ‘bottles into a wine rack’ as the
architect put it.

Through ingenious planning, twenty-three different apartment configurations were provided to

accommodate single persons and families as large as ten, nearly all with double-height living rooms
and the deep balconies that form the major external feature.

United de’ habitation

 The Unite d’ Habitation, literally, “Housing Unity” or “Housing Unit is the name of a
modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier (with the
collaboration of painter-architect NadirAfonso), which formed the basis of numerous
housing developments designed by him throughout Europe with this name.
 The first and most famous of these buildings, also known as City Radieuse (radiant city) and,
informally, as La maison bu Fada (French-provencal, “The Lunatic’s House”), is located in
Marseille, France work, it proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial
inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy.
 The Marseille building comprises 337 apartment s arranged over twelve stories, all
 suspended on large piloti. The building also incorporates shops, sporting, medical and
educational facilities, and a hotel.
 The flat roof is designed as a communal terrace with sculptural ventilation stacks and a
swimming pool.

United de’ habitation

Inside, corridors run through the centre of the long axis of every third floor of the building, with each
apartment lying on two levels, and stretching from one side of the building to the other, with a
balcony.

In the block’s planning, the architect drew on his studies of early soviet communal houses such as the
Narkomfin Building.

Appropriately, unlike many of the inferior system-built blocks it inspired, which lack the original’s
generous proportions, communal facilities and parkland setting, the Unit’s is popular with its
residents and in now mainly occupied by middle-class professionals.

The building is constructed in hgton brut (rough-cast concrete), as the hoped-for steel frame proved
too expensive in light of post-war shortages.

The replacement material influenced the Brutalist movement, and the building inspired several
housing complexes including the Alton West estate in Roehamnton, London and park Hill in Sheffield.

Brasilia

BRASILIA-Capital city:

The Athens Charter (CIAM 4), which would drive urban planning practice for much of the mid 20 th
century.

Following its principles, in the late 1950’s the entirely-new city of Brasilia was built as a new capital
for Brazil, designed by Lucio Costa, with prominent works for it designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

LUCIO COSTA & OSCAR NIMEYER

Brasilia

BRASILIA-1960:

Brasilia is the capital of Brazil. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the
country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central.

 As a metropolitan area, it ranks lower at sixth and the fourth largest city in Brazil.
  As the national capital, Brasilia is the seat of all three branches of the Brazilian government.
The city also hosts the headquarters of many Brazilian companies such as the Banco do
Brasil, Caixa Economica Federal, Correios and Brasil Telecom.
 The city a world reference for urban planning.
 The city was planned and developed in 1956 with Lucio Costa as the principal urban planner
and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. In 1960, it formally became Brazil’s national
capital. When seen from above, the main planned part of the city’s shape resembles an
airplane or a butterfly. The city is commonly referred to as Capital Federal, or simply BSB.
People from the city of Brasilia are known as brasilienses or candanaos.
 Brasilia was a conception of technocratic elite surrounding the figure of President lusceline
Kubitschek de Oliveria, and was a symbol of national commitment to Industrial development.

Brasilia

MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE-transformation & dissemination

 First World War destroyed social and economic order and to that extent eroded some of the
impulses which had brought Modern Architecture into existence.
 Optimism in architectural innovation.
 Architects seeking forms in the late 1940’s found himself in the position of an extender of
tradition.
 Creative transformation was a necessity.
 Striking Feature: of the years and between the end of the war and about 1960 was a battle
between factions seeking a revitalization on the basis of a new post-war state of mind.
 The international victory of modern arch. From Rio de Janeiro to Sydney, from Tokyo to
Beirut, the inheritance of pre-war architecture began to pop-up.
 It also stemmed from the need of indigenous elites to break with earlier nineteenth century
colonial traditions.
 Brazil in the ‘developing world’- post-war architecture could build on pre-war beginnings.
 The formal complexity of Brazilian modern arch. May be traced in the in part to the colonial
 baroque, but it also drew upon the biomorphic abstraction of modern art.
 There was a dual pressure to symbolize progress and to celebrate myths.

Brasilia

LUCIO COSTA-Designed the city planning of Brasilia

OSCAR NEIMEYER-Designed the main state Institutions in Brasilia.

ABOUT LUCIO COSTA:

He is a Freelance Town planner. Conception of what a city should be so the city will be a result of
regional planning but the cause of it: ITS FOUNDATION LEAD TO THE PLANNED DEVELOPMENT OF
THE WHOLE REGION. Brasilia a ‘Ovitas’ possessing attributes in a capital not merely as on ‘urbs’.

PRELIMINARY REMARK:

The city should be planned for orderly and efficient work, but, at the same time, be both vital and
pleasing, suitable for reverie and intellectual speculation, it should be such a city as, with time, could
became not only the seat of government and administration, but also one of the more lucid and
distinguished cultural centers in the country.

LUCIO COSTA’S CONCEPTION- ideas conceived & took shape & resolved.

1. Possession of a place: two axes crossing at right-angles; the very sign of the cross.
2. Sought to adapt this sign to the local topography, the natural drainage of the area, to the
best possible orientation; one of the axes was curved in order to make it fit into the
equilateral triangle which limits the urbanized area.
3. To apply to the technique of town planning the free principles highway engineering,
including the elimination of intersections, the curved axis, which corresponds to the natural
ways of access, was made into a through radial artery, with fast central lanes and side lanes
for local traffic. Along this axis, the bulk of the residential districts have been placed.
4. As a consequence of this residential concentration, the civic and administrative centers, the
cultural, entertainment and sporting centers, the municipal administration facilities, the
barracks, the storage and supply zones, the sites for small local industries, and the railway
station, naturally fell into place along the transverse axis, which thus became the
monumental axis of the system. Alongside the intersection of the axes, but appertaining
functionally and in terms of urbanistic composition to the monumental axis, the banking and
commercial districts have been placed, as well as the offices for private business and the
liberal professions, and the ample areas set aside for retail trade.
5. The intersection of the monument and the highway-residential axes, the former being on a
lower level, called for the creation of a broad platform where only parking and local traffic
 would be permitted, and which logically suggested the location of the entertainment center
for the city, with the cinemas, theatres, restaurants, etc.
6. Through traffic to other sectors passes along the lower ground level under the platform, in
one way lanes, the platform being closed at its ends but open on the two broader sides; most
of this covered area is used for parking, and the inter-urban bus station has been placed
three and is accessible to passengers from the upper level of the platform (fig.6). When the
transversal axis reaches the platform its central lanes go underground, beneath the lower
ground level, at which local traffic continues to circulate and which slopes gently down unit it
levels with the esplanade in the ministry district.
7. Thus, and with the introduction of three separate clover-shaped turn-offs on each arm of the
highway axis, and as many lower level crossings, automobiles and buses circulate both in the
residential districts without any intersections what so ever. For heavy vehicular traffic a
secondary independent road system with point crossings was established, but without
crossing or interfering in any way with the main system, except above the sports district.
This secondary system has access to the buildings of the commercial district at basement
level, goes around the civic center on the lower plane, and is reached through galleries at
ground level.
8. A general network for automotive traffic thus established, independent paths for local
pedestrian traffic were created both in the central and the residential districts, ensuring free
circulation.
9. The most outstanding buildings are those which will house the fundamental powers, and
because these are three in number, and autonomous, the equilateral triangle seemed the
elementary form most appropriate to enclose them; then too, this solution is linked with the
architecture of remote antiquity. A triangular temaced embankment was therefore created.
It will be supported on retaining walls of rough stone, rising above the surrounding
countryside. It is approached from the freeway leading to the residence and the airport.
One of the buildings was placed at each angle of this plaza. Plaza of the three powers as it
might well be called-with Government House and the Supreme Court occupying the base of
the triangle and congress at the apex.
10. We find the entertainment center an appropriate mixtune of Piccadilly Circus, Time Square
and the Champs Elusees. On the front face of the platform the cinemas and theatres have
been concentrated, the Pattem chosen being low and uniform so that they form a single,
harmonious and continuous architectonic whole; they have a gallery, broad pavements,
terraces and cofes, and the full height of the respective facades can serve for the installation
signs and advertisements.
11. Two great nuclei reserved exclusively as shopping centers, and two other areas, one reserve
for the banking and commercial enterprises and the other as office space for the liberal arts
professions, agencies, representatives, etc; in the former the Bank of Brazil, and in the later
the Central post office and Telegraph building. These areas and districts can be reached by
car directly from the various traffic lanes, and by pedestrians along paths free from traffic
crossings.
12. The sports district, located between the Municipal plaza and the radio transmitter tower,
 which is envisaged as a triangular structure standing on a monumental base of unfaced
concrete and having a metal superstructure with an observation tower half a way up. On one
side is the stadium with its dependencies, and beyond it the Botanical Gardens; on the other
is the race course with its stands and riding club, and the zoological Gardens beyond. These
two vast green spaces, symmetrically laid out in relation to the city’s monumental axis, will
serve as the new city’s “lungs”.
13. In the Municipal plaza were Sited the Town Hall, police Headquarters, the fire Brigade and
the public Welfare Building; a prison and an asylum are also part of this district, though set at
some distance from the urbanized core.
14. Beyond the municipal sector space was set aside for the garages of the city’s public transport
system, beyond them again on both sides lie the military barracks, and a broad transversal
strip reserved for small local industries completes the sector. This industrial area has its own
autonomous residential section, and is connected with the railway station and with a branch
of the heavy vehicular highway.
15. Having run the length of city’s monumental axis, it can be seen that the fluency and unity of
the layout form the Government plaza at one end to the municipal plaza at the other does
not preclude variety, and that each sector forms what we might call an autonomous plastic
unit within the whole. This autonomy creates spaciousness on a noble scale, and permits the
appreciation of each unit’s individual qualities without adversely affecting their harmonious
integration in the urban whole.
16. “super-quadras” the residential buildings could be arranged in many and varying manners,
always provided that two general principles are observed: uniform height regulations,
possibly six stories raised on pillars, and separation of motor and pedestrian traffic,
particularly on the approaches to the elementary school and public facilities existing in each
block.
17. Social gradations can easily be regulated by giving a higher value to certain blocks, such for
example as the single blocks bordering on the embassy district. The district lies on both sides
of the residential highway parallel to the city’s main axis, and has an independent avenue for
access, while it shares the heavy vehicles traffic lanes with the residential blocks.

Brasilia

LUCIO COSTA’S CITY PLAN:

Costa’s city plan resembled an aero plane with its wings spread out in a slight arc and a cross laid on
the landscape. The focal point was the plaza of the three powers, containing the Presidential palace,
the Supreme Court & the congress with its secretariat. The bifurcated slab of the secretariat stood
between the main state chambers, which were expressed as Saucer shapes, one face up and the
other down. The notch between the prisms carried the axis of the city on over the vast space of the
continent towards the infinity. Flanking the axis on each side were the ministries, also oblong prisms
with glazed facades, but this time lying on their sides. Completing this ensemble of abstract shapes
was the cathedral (1959-70), with the bundle of curved beams contributing to a hyperboloid shape
but also evoking the image of a crown of thorns. Reflection Ag pools, level changes and Ramps
complemented the wide-open spaces and launched the eye towards the sky.

ABOUT OSCAR NEIMEYER:

Oscar Neimeyer was born in Rio de lanerio. He went to school and graduated from the Escola
Nacianai de Belas Artes in Rio in 1934. After graduating, he went on to work with Le Corburien, who
is often considered the leader in the modemist movement in architecture during the 20th century.

Oscur Bibeiro de Almeida Niemeyer soares Filho is a Brazilian architect who is considered one of the
most important names in international modern architecture. He was a pioneer in exploring the
formal possibilities of reinforced concrete solely for their aesthetic import.

His buildings are often characterized by begin spacious and exposed, mixing volumes and empty
space to create unconventional pattems and often propped up by pilotic. Both lauded and criticized
for being a “sculptor of monuments”. Among his numerous famous works there are the many public
buildings he designed for the city of Brasilia a UNESCO World Heritage site. The United Nations
Headquarters in new York City (with others), etc.

Oscar Niemeyer is considered Brazil’s greatest 20th century architect, because of his prolific and
distinctive work.

PRELIMINARY REMARK:

The opportunity to design the buildings for the new capital of Brasilia gave Niemeyer a chance to
experiment with different forms. Niemeyer added to the stark modernist style of Le Corbusier more
organic, curved and warm. Niemeyer’s style shows a marriage between modern and baroque styles
that many feel is uniquely Brazilian.

Brasilia’s important government buildings are the best representation of Niemeyer’s work; the
domes of the National congress, the distinctive curved columns of the palaces and supreme court,
and the utterly original designs of the Brasilia cathedral and Ministry of Justice all show his best
works.

Brasilia

POWER & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT…

The plaza of the three powers…

 A. The National Congress with its Secretariat.
B. The Planalto palace.
C. The Supreme Court.

HISTORIC SITES & MUSEUMS

Eixo Monumental

At the end of the Eixo Mounmental lies the Esplarisado dos Minitberrios, an open are in downtown
Brasilia. The rectangular lawn area is surrounded by two eight-lane wide avenues where many
important government buildings, monuments and memorials are located. This is the main body of
the “airplane” shape of the city, as planned by Lucio costa.

Brasilia

NATIONAL CONGRESS:

Brazil’s bicameral National congress consists of the senate (the upper house) and the Chamber of
Deputies of Brazil (the lower house). Since the 1960’s the National congress has its seat in Brasilia.
As with most of the official buildings in the city, it was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the style of
modern Brazilian architecture. The hemisphere to the left is the seat of the senate and the
hemisphere to the right is the seat of the chamber of Deputies. Between them there are two
towers of offices. The congress also occupies other surrounding buildings, some of them
interconnected by a tunnel.

The building is located in the middle of the Exio Monumental, the main avenue of the capital. In
front of it there is a large lawn and a reflecting pool. The building faces the praca do Tres poderes,
where the palacio do planlto and the supremo Tribunal Federal are located.

 From the viewpoint of architecture, a building like that of the National congress must be
featured by its Fundamental elements. Our aim was to emphasize their plastic appearance
and therefore we transplanted them onto a huge esplanade where their forms sprout like a
symbol of the legislative power.
 The senate cupola has a normal, parabolic form which is 128 ft in diameter but that of the
chamber of deputies is in the form of a bowl which rises about 33 ft above the surface of the
roof and is 203 ft in diameter.
 The two cupolas, one convex and the other concave, impart a feeling of individualism and
of modern form to the building.

Brasilia

PLANALTO PALACE:

The palacio do planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. As the seat of
government, the term “o plonalto” is often used as a metonym for the executive branch of the
government. The main working office of the president of the Republic is in the palacio do Planalto.
Besides the president, senior advisors also have offices in the “planalto”, including the vice-president
of Brazil and the chief of staff; the other ministries are laid along the Esplanada dos MInisterios.

The idea was to project an image of simplicity and modernity using fine lines and waves to compose
the columns and exterior structures.

The palace is four stories high, and has an area of 36,000 sa.m. Four other adjacent buildings are also
part of the complex.

Brasilia

SUPREME COURT

The supreme court housed in a building opposite to planalto palace. Its colonnade which gives its
architectural Personality, closely resembles that of the planalto place though its proportions are
smaller.

‘’One of the most self – assured, self confident – even self - conscious – buildings to emerge as a
result of the interplay of the architectonic and engineer – inspired building was saarinen’s TWA
Terminal Buildings at New York. It alarmed the remaining purists of modern architecture.

Its bird – like symbolism, exciting forms and cavernous interior were not simply a casual reminder of
the changes that had taken place in architectural thinking in the 1950s, but a demonstration of the
architect’s role as an originator and, in the American scene, as a ‘building stylist’ …. Clearly it
represented a revival of architectural Expressionism”…

- Dennis Sharp Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History.

“This is surely one of the world’s most dramatic airline terminals. Few straight lines here:
approached head on, its curving contours uncannily suggest a bird in flight. Inside, the main lobby’s
soaring, swooping walls, its carefully modeled staircases, seating areas, and many other features are
a blend of graceful sculpture forms selected ‘to suggest the excitement of the trip’.

- From Sylvia Hart Wright. Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture:

From Postwar to Postmodern.
Later Modernist

The Creator’s Words…

“All the curves, all the spaces and elements right down to the shape of the signs, display boards,
railings and check – in desks were to be of a matching nature. We wanted passengers passing
through the building to experience a fully – designed environment, in which each part arises from
another and everything belongs to the same formal world”.

- Eero Saarinen, 1959 from Peter Gossel and Gabriele Leuthauser. Architecture in the
Twentieth Century.

Later Modernist

“We should stop thinking of our individual buildings. We should take the advice my father gave me,
Always look at the next larger thing. ‘When the problem is a building, we should look at the spaces
and relationships that buildings creates with others… In the process [the architect] will gradually
formulate strong convictions about outdoor space – the beauty of the space between the buildings –
and if he does, he does, he will carry his conviction on to his most important challenge – how to build
cities”.

Brutalism and monumentality

Brutalism architecture

Architects such as Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei and others would respond to the
“light” glass curtain walls advocated by Ludwig Mies van de Rohe, by creating architecture with an
emphasis on more substantial materials, such as concrete and brick, and creating works with a
“monumental” quality. “Brutalism” is a term derived from the use of “Beton brut” (“ram concrete”),
unadorned, often with the mold marks remaining, though as a stylistic tendency, Brutalism would
ultimately be applied more broadly to include the use of other materials in a similar fashion, such as
brickwork. The term was first used in architecture by Le Corbusier.
Later Modernist

LOUIS KHAN

The National Assembly Building of Bangladesh by Louis Kahn, 1962-74

Architect Louis L Kahn

Location Dacca, Bangladesh man

1962 to 1974 timeline

Date
government center
Building Type
concrete, marble
Construction system
desert
Climate
Modern
Style

Later Modernist

“The interior of the Assembly Building is divided into three zones. The Central zone is the area of the
Assembly. The middle zone provides inner circulation, ties together the galleries of the people and
the press gives access to Committee rooms and the Library. The outer zone is the area of the offices,
party Rooms, Lounges, Tea Rooms and Restaurant, the Garden Entrance, and the Entrance of the
Mosque”…

- Alessandra Latour ed Louis L Kahn: Writings, Lectures

Later Modernist

The main characteristic of the National Assembly building is its monumentality. The mass of concrete
lined with punctuated by pure geometrical openings and the dominating circular and rectangular
concrete masses impart a supreme monumentality to the building quite suited to its noble functions.
At the dead centre of the Assembly building is the main hall where MPs sit and the sessions of the
parliament are held.

The plan is concentric; various layers of functions are situated around the main hall. A seven –
storied high ambulatory, with light coming from the roof, surrounds the assembly hall like a
circumambulatory path around a deity. There are four identical office blocks along four arms with
other functions on four corners. There is also an elaborate circulation system with series of different
types of stairs. The plan is essentially a square manipulated into an octagon. There are nine levels
with horizontal connections in three floors only. The height of the structure is 49.68m (163 ft) above
the ground.

Later Modernist

The main building complex consists of nine individual blocks, of which eight at its periphery rise to a
height of the 110 feet, while the octagonal block at the centre shoots up to 155 feet. The central
block accommodates the Assembly chamber with a capacity of 354 seats for members of the
parliament.

The entire complex has a floor area of 823,000 square feet in the main buildings, 223,000 square feet
in the South plaza and 65,000 square feet in the North plaza on the north. The formal entrance
through the south plaza gradually rises to a height of 20 feet and 6 inches in a broad flight of stairs.

The basement accommodates a parking area, offices of maintenance agencies and service
installations for the main building. The buildings had a water body of artificial lake touching its walls
on all sides, and the North and the South plaza tie it to the site. The edifice appears to rise out of
water.

The approach to the Parliament Buildings is through the grand plaza on the south and through the
presidential Square from the north with gardens of green grass and eucalyptus trees. The northern
approach had an amphitheatre where state functions are held. Further north across the North Plaza
there is a road by the side of the Crescent Lake.

Later Modernist

There is not a single column in the whole building. Hollow columns that are parts of space
enclosures have been adapted as structural supports. It is more like a concrete mass carefully carved
and sculptured into a superbly functional entity. The construction material used is concrete and cast
concrete forms both interior and exterior surfaces.

Use of light and the unique way of bringing light to public spaces are the most distinguishing element
of Kahn’s design. Light form the roof illuminate different spaces as if ambient glows are showered
form heaven.

One of the important considerations in designing the National Assembly building was protection
from the sun and rain, while admitting free circulation of air achieved by providing huge geometric
openings at the outer façade in the form of triangles, rectangles, full and segmented circles and flat
arches.

The structure provides a visual impression of a majestic edifice. It avoided conventional method of
placing windows in the exterior and the disadvantages of monumental composition were removed
by provision of core walls with small gaps in between. Architecturally, the complex marks a distinct
departure from the rest of modern building in Dhaka.

Later Modernist

“The architectural image of the assembly building grows out of the conception to hold a strong
essential form to give particular shape to the varying interior needs, expressing them on the exterior.
The image is that of a many – faceted precious stone, constructed in concrete and marble”.

- Louis L Kahn from Heinz Ronner, with Sharad lhaveri and Alessandro Vasella
Louis L Kahn

The Creator’s Words…

“In the assembly I have introduced a light – giving element to interior of the plan. If you see a series
of columns you can say that the choice of columns is a choice in light. The Columns as solids farme
the spaces of light. Now think of it just in reverse and think that then the voids are rooms, and the
column is the maker of light and can take on complex shapes and be the supporter of spaces and give
light to spaces.

The Creator’s Words…

I am working to develop the element to such an extent that it becomes a poetic entity which has its
own beauty outside of its place in the composition. In this way it becomes analogous to the solid
column I mentioned above as a giver of light.

“It was not belief, not design, not pattern, but the essence from which an institution could emerge”…
The evident in most of Rahns buildings, the national assembly hall responds immensely to the
surrounding culture. One of the noticeable characteristics of the structure is the marble bands that
run vertically and horizontally across the structure these bands run at increments of 5 feet for one
main reason: kahn realized that in a day, the people of Bangladesh could only pour five feet of
concrete. Without the bands, the structure would show the different levels of the concrete poure
and the building would look unsatisfactorily constructed.

The bands accomplish two things:

1, they establish a human proportion to the entire structure, and

2, they hide the imperfections of incremental concrete pours.

The main objective of the project was to focus on how the building is put together. From a single
screw all the way to conjoining concrete walls, we were to understand and diagram how these
structures were physically built.

Brutalism has an image problem…

The word itself, which most people associate with “brutal” rather than brut as in beton, does no
great service to the style. Nor do the many terrible buildings thrown up in its name, especially those
by heavy – handed urban renewalists. Nor do its ongoing associations in popular culture with
dystopian cityscapes (think A Clockwork Orange’s tour of concrete London). Nor do the cracks,
spalls and stains one sees embedded in facades from decades of neglect. It takes a committed eye to
find beauty in those chunky folds of concrete, those unapologetic masses bullying their way into the
cityscape.

Among these out – of – favor works are those by paul Rudolph. After building ships for the Navy in
World War II and studying at Harvard under Walter Gropius, Rudolph began his career designing
innovative modernist houses in Florida, became chairman of Yale’s architecture department in 1958,
and by the early 1960s was one of the country’s most prolific architects. His brand of Brutalism (the
term itself didn’t gain traction until the late 1960s, and Rudolph himself never used it) was intriguing
powerful and intensely three – dimensional.

Brutalism has an image problem…

Yet by the end of the decade, Rudoiph’s large commissions in the U.S. began to dry up. By the late
1970s, Brutalism had gone mainstream, becoming derivative and banal, and changing tastes swept
any building clad in exposed concrete into the aesthetic dustbin. The poor planning, deferred
maintenance, ineffective mechanical systems and lack of owner stewardship plaguing Brutalist
buildings became conflated, in the public imagination, with their design. None of this helped the
reputation of Rudolph, who spent the rest if his career mixing residential projects at home with
skyscrapers in the Far East. He died in 1997.
Later Modernist

PAUL RUDOLPH

Yale University Art and Architecture Building, 1959-63

Architect Paul Rudolph

Location New Haven, Connecticut man

1959 to 1963 timeline

Date
University building, architecture school
Building Type
concrete,
Construction system
Temperate
Climate
urban campus
Context
Modern
Style
The art and architecture building at Yale University Rugged
Notes cuboid forms.

Later Modernist

Art and Architecture Building Commentary…

“The dramatic entrance to the building is up a narrow flight of steps that penetrate deeply into the
mass of the main volume, between it and the main vertical circulation tower. Future extension of
the building will simply connect to this.

The strong vertical striations of the corduroy – textured surfaces are obtained by pouring concrete
into vertically – ribbed wood forms, that are then stripped away, and concrete edges hand –
hammered to expose the aggregate. This has become Rudolph’s favorite treatment for exposed
concrete surfaces, because, apart from being an interesting surface, it controls staining and
minimizes the effect of discoloration inherent in concrete. Art works, restrained use of lively colors –
mainly orange – and cleverly built – in furnishings enhance the architecture, which is intended ‘to
excite and challenge the occupants,’ says Rudolph.

Later Modernist

Thirty – seven changes of level accommodate functional and circulation areas, and since walls are de
– emphasized these levels are defined principally by floor and ceiling planes. Rudolph, like [Louis l.
Kahn], is concerned with the method and drama of natural lighting. This has clearly been an
important factor in the design of the building, as it contributes to the changing character and
psychological implication of space.

Internally the building is organized around a central core space defined by four large concrete slab
columns that, similar to the external towers, are hollow to accommodate mechanical services. On
two sunken levels, sculpture and basic design studios encircle a central auditorium, the approach to
which is rather torturous and abscure.

Later Modernist

At street level, the library occupies a single story side. Above this, with the possibility of looking
down into the reading area, is a two – story central exhibition hall, with administrative offices on its
mezzanine, and a central, sunken jury pit.

At the fourth level is the most dramatic space: an architectural zone on five levels, each connected by
a few steps.

Between the four central piers two skylights rise as giant clerestories, intensifying natural light in the
center of the space that receives it on all four sides through peripheral gazing. Painting and graphic
art studios are on the top two levels, with an open terrace for sketching. Finally, there is a
penthouse apartment for guest critics, that also had its own terrace.

Later Modernist

“Rudolph has been criticized for the serious functional shortcomings of the building: that he put the
areas he cared least about in the basement; that the painters are very disturbed by south light; that
the sculptors are in the low – ceilings ‘caves’; that the best spaces are reserved for architectural
activity. Functionally, Rudolh’s building is a studied, politically architectural statement.
Architecturally it tends to extend beyond its own urban context. It cleverly established a general
urban scale and a particular internal scale, both compatibly and expressively related”.

- From Paul Heyer. Architects on Architecture: New Directions in American

The Creator’s Words…

‘External forces dictated that this building turn the corner and relate to the modern building opposite
as well as suggest that it belongs to Yale University. The internal forces demanded an environment
suitable for ever varying activities which will be given form and coherence by the defined spaces
within. As the years go by, it is hoped other interests and activities will take place within the spaces,
but the space itself will remain”.

- Paul Rudolph. The Architecture of Paul Rudolph New York Praeger Publishers, 1970.
Later Modernist

Yale University Art and Architecture Building: section perspective.

COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA-UNIT V

COLONIAL INDIA INDO SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE WORKS OF CHISHOLM PLANNING OF NEW

DELHI

COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA-UNIT V

Colonial Architecture-Introduction

Architecture has always been a symbol of power, designed to endorse the might of the patron. By
the time the Europeans arrived, several outsiders had invaded India and created architectural styles
reflective of their original and adopted homes. The European colonisers created an architecture that
was a symbol of their mission of conquest, whether it the dedicated to the church or to the state.

Early European Powers

The Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and the French, all came to India with perhaps different
intents, but their architectural articulation was based on the same principle of establishing their
identity and authority.

The Portuguese, led by Vasco da Gama in 1498, were the first to come to India, and were more
driven by a Catholic missionary Zeal than a desire for lasting political control. Their first, and indeed,
most glorious buildings were churches, cathedrals, basilicas and seminaries.

Colonial Architecture Early European Powers

 The British, who, by the beginning of the 17th century had established the
East India Company, formally made India a colony of the British Empire in 1857.
 By this time, their presence had been architecturally established through the construction of
a host of buildings, including forts, garrison churched and civic structures.
 The architecture that they created, both before and after 1857, was an expression of the
power of the state, and the term ”colonial” of “imperial” is commonly understood to refer to
thus phase of architecture in India.

The fort of Diu was built on the gulf of Cambay, by the Portuguese, Protected by the sea on three
side this citadel is fortified by a deep moat on the fourth side.

British Architecture – Colonial Architecture

 Although at the time of Britain’s colonizing activities there was a move in England and
Europe to incorporate “exotic” oriental elements into prevalent neoclassical style to create
the Ecclesiastic movement, the British in India departed from the norm.

Imperial lodge Simla designed by Henry Irwin in the English Rena issuance style with hardly any
Indian influence in its detailing and forms. It now houses the institute of advanced studies.

British Architecture - Colonial Architecture

 Colonial buildings were built in a pure rendering of different classical styles where clear
lines, imposing pediments and white surfaces reflected the power and dignity of Greek and
Roman originals.
 In England, the Gothic style we being revived, and the British Perpendicular Gothic, the
chosen style for most civic buildings made in the mid1800s in India, necessitated the use of
imported glass.

British Architecture – Colonial Architecture

 Climatic conditions of India, however, make it imperative for them to adapt the forms and
styles of medieval Europe to the functional requirements of the subcontinent.
 This adaptation marked the beginning of a hybridisation of Indian and Euro0pean stylistic
elements, leading to the creation of what is no referred to as the Indo Saracenic style.
 The range to this style is wide indeed, from incorporating a few Indian decorative elements
in to a basic Gothic building, to a full-blown syntheses of both traditions.
 The fusion of the two traditions, though awkward and self-conscious at first, found its
balance in the architecture of Six Edwin Lutyens, in his design of the capital of New Delhi.

British Architecture – Colonial Architecture

  Colonial architecture encompassed a wide range of buildings, from churches to warehouses.
 British architecture, in turn, influenced native rulers to adopt Western palace types in whole
or part.
 Elements such a salons and banqueting hall were freely introduced to cater to the new needs
of entertaining Western guests.

The Colonial Church

 Let by the Portuguese, the Europeans, in the 15th century, established colonies along the
coasts of India.
 The Portuguese, built many splendid cathedrals and churches in Goa. These were built
typically in the European Classicist and Baroque styles.

The church of Bom Jesus, Goa crowded with beautiful detailiog.

The Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa

 When they arrived in 1498, the Portuguese were the first to introduce Catholicism to India.
 The church of Bom Jesus(Good Jesus) in Goa was completed in r605. It is built of lateritic and
plaster and has a three storied Tenaissance façade.
 The Interior is omamented with wood and gold leaf, characteristic of the “Indian Baroque”
style.
 All three classical orders of columns-Doric, Ionic and Corinthian-find expression in the
church.

The Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa

The Colonial Fort

The early architectural needs of the colonial powers Who came to India were manifested in buildings
catering to their mercantile needs. Later fortified these and housed not only warehouses but also
residential and official quarters for officers and soldiers, churches, banks and theaters. Thus, Fort St.
William was built to house the entire European community.

St. Andre’s Krik, Madras

 St. Andre’s Krik, in madras, consecrated in r821, was based on the design of St. Martins in
 the Fields, London.
 Thomas de Havilland and James Caldwell of the Madras Engineers modified the original
design to make it structurally suited to the marshy site to the marshy site on which the
church was built.
 The foundations of St. Andrew’s Kirk, considered to be the finest British church built in India
in the 19th century.
 The building itself is basically circular in form one of only three churches in India which has a
circular seating plan.
 It is axially flanked by tow rectangular compartments, one of which contains the deep
entrance porch.
 The porch is surrounded by double colonnade of twelve massive ionic columns, and
surmounted by a pediment.
 One of the facades has a pediment flanked by tow British lions, and the motto of the East
India Company engraved on it.
St. Andre’s Krik, Madras

 The main chamber measures 15 meters in diameter.

 It is roofed by a shallow dome and supported by an annular arch, made of specially designed
hallow potter cones, on which rest sixteen columns with Corinthian capitals.
 The concessions made by the builders the how tropical climate van be seen in the cool
checkered floor of black and white marble, the cane pews and louvered doors.

The Colonial Fort

Bengal was the center of the trading empire of the East India company and font William was
the most important symbol of the British military power in Asia.

The Bastion – seen between St. Peter’s church and the Warren of Barracks

Fort St. George, Madras

 Built in the mid – 17th century, Fort St. George at Madras is the oldest fort to be built by East
India Company.
 Within its stellar fortifications, separated from the native settlement that lay outside, was
the European settlement.
 The area within the fort was known as White Town, and the Indian township outside was
 called Black Town.
 Within the fort there was a clear demarcation of space.
 The military garrison lay beneath the walls, while the civilians lived near the warehouses.
 This division was the beginning of a later well-established separation in all British settlements
in India, with the military area coming to be known as the Cantonment.

Fort St. George, Madras

Within the fort there was a clear demarcation of space. The military garrison lay beneath the walls,
while the civilians lived near the warehouses. This division was the beginning of a later well-
established separation in all British settlements in India, with the military area coming to be known
as the Cantonment.

The town planning of fort St. George, is the first instance of large – scale English town planning
principles in India.

Plan of fort St. George reflects the Star shape, allowed angular bastions and protected
recessed flanks.
In the 1750’s when the British recovered from the French it was designed in semi-
octagonal form by Benjamin Robins.

Fort St. George, Madras-designed by Jan Van Ryne in 1754 showing Public buildings
Including St. Mary’s church
Fort William, Calcutta

 Fort William designed on the star-shaped plan by a Caption Brohier.

 The civic buildings of the Company were built around open space, known as the Maidan.
 The public buildings are outside the walls of the fort.

Plan of Fort William.

The original fort was destroyed by Siraj-ud-daulah, the nawab of Bengal in 1756.
Brohier’s new design was completed in 1733.

The Victoria Memorial, Calcutta

 Commissioned by Lord Curzon in 1906 to rival the Taj in grandeur (which it never did), and to
mark over 300 year of British presence in India, it was monument built in tribute to Queen
Empress.
 The building houses personal memorabilia relating to Queen Victoria’s reign, and artifacts,
documents and painting that illustrate the progress of the British Indian empire.
 Lord Curzon specified that the building be designed either in the Classical or the Palladian
style and also built of the same white Makrana marble as the Taj Mahal, to rival the beauty
of the magnificent Mughal monuments.

The Victoria Memorial, Calcutta

 The plan of the building consists of a large central part, flanked by tow chambers separated
from it by colonnaded corridors.
 The central chamber is roofed by a high dome and each corner of the building with smaller
domes.
 The dome is surmounted by a 5 meter high bronze revolving statue of the Angle of Victory,
symbolizing British power.
 The entire building is place on a low marble plinth surrounded by reflecting pools and 26
hectares of gardens.
 The statuary was made in Italy and the building completed in 1921.
 Colonial architecture-Civic Buildings

 Colonial architecture in India-civic buildings-synthesis of the two architectural cultures.

 Early examples of civic architecture, which include town halls, railway terminuses,
museums, law courts municipal buildings, university buildings and libraries, were based
entirely on design philosophies of the west.

Victoria Terminus, Bombay

 The Victoria Terminus, labelled the finest Gothic building in India. The building was designed
by Frederick William Steven.
 Modeled on St. Pancras Station in London, the Victoria Terminus is a symmetrical building
that combines Gothic elements such as pointed arches, vaults, dome and ornament.
 A massive masonry dome in the center provides the focus of the building, atop which stands
the Statue of progress.

Victoria Terminus, Bombay

 The ornamentation of the dome, as well as the rest of the building, was the work of the
Bombay Art School.
 Arches pierce the facades, emphasized by polychromatic stone and glazed tiles.
 The windows are filled with stained glass or delicate wrought-iron grillwork tracery.
 Turrets rise above the two tranverse projections on either side.
 The ornamentation consists of floral designs and grotesque animals.
COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

Writers’ Building, Calcutta-Civic Building

 In 1780, the Writers’ Building was constructed to house the junior clerks of the East India
Company, making it the first civic building built by the British in India.
 Initially, this very long, plain building, said to be designed by a carpenter, Thomas Lyon, was
like a barraks, strictly utilitarian and with very little architectural ornamentation.
 In 1880, the Writers’ Building was given a major face lift. Terracotta dressing with an omate
Corinthian façade and a dummy pedimented portico.

Municipal Corporation Building, Bombay

 Designed by Stevens, the Bombay Municipal Corporation building was finished in 1893.
 It combines the Indo-Islamic (or Indo-Saracenic) style with Gothic in form and ornament.
 The vast stair case tower that rises in the center of the building proclaims its British
origins, but the windows are framed by the cusped arch in the Indo-Islamic style, and the
corner towers have bulbous domes of the same origin.

 The term “bungalow” is conceptually derived from bangle, the vernacular thatched roof hut
of Bengal.
 The original bangle was a rectangular abode on a raised plinth, with the sloping roof
projecting out to form a verandah supported on wooden pillars.
 The word was corrupted to bungalow and came to mean any single-storied house with a
verandah.
 The arrival of the Europeans in India, gave rise to the need to provide homes that were more
comfortable than the tents used by the military personnel.
 These homes not only had to be suited to the local climate, built from local materials and by
local masons and carpenters, but also had to maintain the concepts of European identity and
 superiority.

The bungalow was designed to facilitate this by various means;

 The large compound.
 Enclosed by walls, gates;
 The long driveway;
 The deep verandah; and
 Even the insulating thick walls and high ceilings.
 The bungalow evolved as a response to these requirements and soon came to represent
the ideal tropical colonial house, and was adopted as a prototype throughout the British
empire.

Colonial Bungalows

 Bungalows soon developed into luxurious mansions, their size and from representing the
social status of the occupants.
 The wooden posts, originally used to support the verandah, gave way to Doric and Tuscan
columns.
 Elaborate carriage porches projected out to mark the entrance. Tiles replaced the earlier
thatch, and ornamental balustrades were added.
 Classical detailing was superimposed on indigenous structures, not only to maintain the
European identity but also to copy the grand town residences of Calcutta.

Section of a typical bungalow showing the central wide colonnaded verandah covered by a
pitched roof and flanked on either side by Venetian windows.
Colonial Bungalows-The plan

 The plan rectangular

 Projecting colonnaded portico that led to a verandah on a high plinth
 The verandah ran the entire length of the house, the centrally placed drawing room, and was
connected to the dining room behind through an open archway.
 The dining room opened out on to a rear verandah, also deep and colonnaded, which
overlooked the back garden. Windows and doors were arched.
 The kitchen was generally located in a separate outer building.
 The extensive grounds included modest quarters for the retinue of native servants required
to maintain the bungalow.

Colonial Bungalows- Bungalows in the South

 Bugalows in the south of the country, especially in Bangalore and Mysore, developed their
own architectural style.
 Wide porch roofs and gables were enriched by elaborately carved barge boards and
fretworks canopies known as “monkey tops.”
 These were expressed as projecting pointed hoods over doors, windows and canopies
enclosing verandahs and porches.

Colonial Architecture-Hill Stations

 Between 1815 and 1947, the British created over 80 hill stations or small towns nestling amongst
the mountains of India.
 The architecture of the colonial house in the hills was based more on vernacular housing traditions.
 These houses were constructed from local stone Roofs were slated or shingled, over a shallow
pitched form.
CANTONMENT

The Cantonment is a military town which also housed civil servants-usually separately.

Features:

 Attractive with tree lined streets

 Contains cathedral, law courts and other public
 Transformed from military camps into towns under the Raj
 Eg-Bangalore Cantonment had a population of I lakh by the end of the 19th c.

CANTONEMNT

Features:

 Consisted of public offices, churches, parks, shops and schools

 The upper income families lived there
 It was an entity distinct from the old city-traffic between the two had to stop at a toll gate
and pay taxes.
 The major cities had race courses, bars and dance halls.
 It was a European town in India made possible by the dominant position in society of a few
and large numbers of lowly paid servants.
 The predominant house form was the Bungalow

CANTONEMNT-BUNGALOW

The bungalow appears to have a dual origin.

1. The detached rural Bengal house sitting in its compound

2. The British suburban villa

It was a fusion of these two types that led to a building form which would later become an enduring
symbol of the Raj.

 The early bungalows had long, low classical lines and detailing.
 The Gothic revival in England-spawning buildings with pitched roofs and richly carpentered
 details.
 The Classical bungalow with its Doric, and later, in New Delhi for instance, Tuscan orders
became a symbol not only of an European heritage but also of the military and political might
of Britain.

CANTONMENT-BUNGALOW

The typical residential bungalow for the wealthy was:

 Was set back from the road by a walled compound

 The amount of land enclosed was a symbol of status.
 For a senior officer a ratio of 15:1, garden to built form, was appropriate, while for a
beginning rank it could even be 1:1

In this sense the British showed a hierarchical system no less developed than the complex caste
system which they ascribed to India.

Indo Saracenic architecture

 Indo Saracenic architecture was an effort to merge British and Indian aspirations after 1858
and to show that despite being an imperial power, the British in India were part of the Indian
milieu.
 The Indo Saracenic movement began in the 1870’s (similar themes go back to Chepauk
palace 1768 by Paul Benfield). The palace was a mix of tropical Gothic and Muslim
precedents.
 Lasted until Independence and thereafter in Revivalist modes drawing more from Hindu than
Mughal precedents
 Indo-Saracenic also known as Indo Gothic, was style of architecture used by British architects
in the late 19th century in India.
 It drew elements from Mughal architecture, and combined it with the Gothic revival style
favored in Victorian Britain.

Indo Saracenic style

The Indo Saracenic is a mixture of Indian and Islamic architecture but remained British in spatial
organization and composition.

 It was not an evolutionary synthesis but done self consciously

 Evolved over time and varied in degree of complexity and homogeneity
 Consistent in borrowing from Indian prototypes
 Each architect’s work is distinguishable-eg. Jacob and Emerson
  Gathered momentum in 19th c. in direct proportion to the increasing power of nationalism
 Seen by the British-Britain’s benevolence
 To others symbol of dominance
 Craftsmen were employed as skilled workers
 Accepted by the Indian elite
 Later works were dominated by the PWD for design
 The style continued to be popular with the Indian royalty
 Built palaces and public buildings in the princely states
 The Ranjit Vilas Palace, Cbbota Udaipur etc

INDO SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE

Characteristics:

 It is fundamentally British with Indian characteristics including:

 Onion (bulbous) domes
 Overhanging eaves
 Pointed arches, cusped arches, or scalloped arches
 Vaulted roofs
 Domed kiosks
 Many miniature domes
 Domed chhattris
 Pinnacles
 Tower or minarets
 Open pavilions or pavilions with Bangala roofs
 Pierced open arcading

Indo Colonial Architecture

The Laxmi Vilas palace, Barado

 This colossal palace was designed by Major Charles Mant.

 It was completed twelve years later by Robert Fellowes Chisholm in 1890, after the death of
Mant.
 The craftsmanship and materials used display a blend of “native” details with the needs of a
modern palace.
 In plan it follows the traditional sections of public spaces and separate living quarters for the
maharaja and the zenana.
 The Indo-Saracenic architectural style contains Hindu, Mughal, Jain and Gothic elements.
Indo Colonial Architecture

The prince of Wales Museum, Bombay

 The British excelled in museum design. The foundation stone of this museum was laid in
1905 by the Prince of Wales (future George V).
 It was modeled on the basic of Gol Gumbaz of Bijapur and designed by George wittet.
 The museum was built of blue basalt and yellow sandstone.
 It has a immense concrete dome in the center with domelets all around.
Indo Colonial Architecture

The National Art Gallery, Madras

 Designed by Henry Irwin, the

National Art Gallery in Madras is
modeled on the basis of Buland
Darwaza of Fatehpur Sikri.
 Made of prink sandstone, the gallery
is more Indian in architectural style
than colonial.

Indo Colonial Architecture-Characteristics:

Architects:

Robert Fellowes Chisholm, Charles Mant, Henry Irwin, William Emerson, George Wittet and Frederick
Stevens

Typologies:

Buildings built in this style were usually grand public buildings such as clock towers, courthouses civic
and municipal buildings, government colleges, town halls, railway stations, museums and art
galleries.

Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840-1915):

 He worked briefly for the Bengal Public Works Department before he was appointed head of
the school of Industrial Arts in Madras in 1850’s.
 When he won the competition for the design for Presidency College in the city, he was
appointed by Lord Napier the Governor as consulting architect to the Government of Madras
(1865-80).
 He moved on to Baroda in 1889 as consulting architect to the Maharaja working there to
return to England in 1902.
 Chisholm took some of the ideas developed in India to England-his design for the never
 constructed Indian Museum London, was an Indic style.

Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840-1915):

Early work was primarily Gothic and Romanesque:

 The Government Arts & Crafts College Madras 1855

 PWD Headquarters, Madras 1868
 Nilgiri Library 1865
 Presidency College Madras University 1870

Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840-1915):

Napier Museum 1872, Thiruvanathapuram & Victoria Jubilee Town Hall

Influenced by roof forms, projecting eaves, balconies and brackets of Padmanabhapuram palace

Napier Museum 1872, Thiruvanathapuram Victoria Jubilee Town Hall

Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840-1915):

 As Consulting architect to the Government of Madras ha was commissioned to extend the

Chepauk palace and modify it into the Board of Revenue Office 1866
 He used tall minaret like tower to unite the palace and extension
 He also designed the Senate house 1879 Redesigned the Central Station 1890’s combining
Italianate with Hindu overtones

Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840 – 1915):

 Chisholm was largely responsible for transforming Madras from a Classical city in to an Indo
 Saracenic metropolis.
 The unity of the whole area along the sea front remains an outstanding example of civic
design where similarity off the parts creates a whole that transcends the quality of individual
buildings.
 After Chisholm’s departure to Baroda in 1881, Henry Irwin continued the Indo Saracenic
movement in Madras.

Other places – Indo Saracen – Hyderabad, Mysore, Bombay, Lucknow, Lahore

1. Hyderabad – Vincent Each

 High court, City College, Osmania General Hospital, Railway station
 A adopted sharply pointed arches and domes of the Out Shari tombs with narrowed neck
and lotus petal rings
 Town Hall & State Archaeological Museum
 Majority of Hyderabad’s public buildings Indo arsenic.

Other places – Indo Saracen – Hyderabad, Mysore, Bombay, Lucknow, Lahore

2. Mysore
 Amba Vilas place, Public Offices, Modern Hindu Hotel, Landsdowne Market, Janata Bazaar,
Silver Jubilee Clock tower, Rajendra Vilas Palace
 The Janata Bazaar – mixture of Roman arches with Tuscan, Ionic capitals and chhattris –
Bengali Rajasthani touch

3. Bombay
 The Indo Saracenic in Bombay is overshadowed by the Neo gothic.
 The GPO – central dome offset by 2 turreted domes draws on Gol Gumbaz & Humayun’s
towb. Public space lies beneath dome. Service facilities are in the annexe
 Prince of Wales Museum – George Willet – storey building constructed of basalt & Kurla
stone and capped by a dome. The façade is heavily decorated, with arched openings and
weighty brackets. The entrance portico has a Banglardar roof with jaalis in the openings.
Influence of Bijapur.
 Gateway of India – George Willet best known indo saracenic architectural composition.
Bears a resemblance to Rani Rupmati’s mosque and Jami Masjid Ahmedabad
 The Gateway of India, Bombay

 The Gateway of India was built as a triumphal arch under which George V and Queen
Mary would pass when they disembarked at Bombay on their way to Delhi for the
Coronation Durbar in 1911.
 Designed by George Witter, it is built at the place where a 19th century iron gazebo had
earlier stood, welcoming new comers a cross the seas to the empire in India.
 The side chambers of the triple arched gateway were to serve as reception rooms.
 The semi octagonal pilasters on either side of the main arch extend upwards and are
capped with domed chatters, joined together by a high parapet.
 Eaves supported on carved corbels accentuate the horizontal lines.

INDO SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE IN BARODA I VADODARA I KOLHAPUR

Major Charles Mants’s – Town, Hall, General library Albert Hospital, High school

 He developed indo Saracenic from Venetian Gothic to a more pure form Chisholm completed
the Lakshmi Vilas Palace begun by Mant.
 Nyay mandir, Baroda Museum and Art Gallery, Khanderao market and the complex that
houses the Faculty of Arts of the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University.
 The Arts College has a huge Islamic dome over the central hall surrounded by a cluster of
smaller domes.
 The main arch I a triple arch of stone capped with finials – Buddhist & use of carved
elephants are column capitals.

SIR SWINTON JACOB

 “Jeypore portfolio of Architectural Details 1890”

 6 volumes of 600 drawings – copings, plinths, jails, mosques, tombs, forts, temples and
palaces, facades of buildings.
 The plans and spatial organization continued to be British but the façade – hybrid.
 Particularly appropriate for school and college buildings.
SIR WELLIAM EMERSON

Factors which led to the city planning:

 Redevelopment of Indian cities.

 Building of railways caused disruption in the city.
 Growth in population and changes in military technology led to the demolition of old city
walls.
 New institution and buildings were introduced – urban renewal projects.
 In the suburbs – bungalows, villas and housing societies were built.
 Exodus of middle class to the suburbs.
 Delhi devastated by both economic development and planning procedures.
 Extensive area around Red Fort demolished.
 Chandini Chowk lost its character.
 Extensive cantonment for the army and a civil line area (primarily British residents) for civil
servants and business people.

BUILDING OF NEW DELHI SHOWCASING IMPERIAL POWER

 King George proclaimed the transfer of the capital form Calcutta to Delhi at the climax of the
1911 Imperial Durbar.
 New Delhi was inaugurated early in 1931. Like Calcutta, it was stamped with the hallmark of
authority and like most other seats of British power in India it stood apart from its Indian
predecessors. This was contrary to the original intention.
 The prevailing enthusiasm of Anglo – Indian imperial designers for the synthesis of eastern
and western styles quailed before the problem of assimilating an urban order.
 Devised in accordance with the principles of the Modern English Garden City, and the vital
chaos of Shahjahanabad: the latter seemed to be the very embodiment of all the evils of
laissez – faire growth that the formulators of the Garden City movement specifically
deplored.

BUILDING OF NEW DELHI SHOWCASING IMPERIAL POWER

1914 – Classical Revival

The plan of New Delhi was actually designed by “The New Delhi Planning Committee” but was
influenced by Sir Edwin Lutyens

Planning of New Delhi 1914 CITY OF NEW DELHI BY LUTYE

 NEW DELHI WAS LAID OUT ON THE GARDEN CITY PATTERN IN 1912 BY EDWIN LUTYENS.
 LUTYENS’ PLAN WAS TO LANDSCAPE A VAST EXPANCE JOINING THE RIVER YAMUNA & THE
 ARAVALI RIDER YAMUNA & THE ARAVALI RIDGE NEW DELHI WAS LAID ON THE GEOMENTRIC
PATTERN OVER A TRIANGULAR BASE.
 LUTYENS VISUALISED THAT THE CENTRAL VISTA WOULD HAVE A GRAND VISION HILIGHTING
THE SUPREMACY OF THE BRITISH RULE.
 THUS, VICEROY’S PALACE ON THE RAISINA HILL WITH THE TWO SECRETARIET BUILDINGS ON
ELTHER SIDE OF IT OCCUPED THE HIGHEST LAND OF THE HILL & WOULD DOMINATE THE
SKYLINE OF NEW DELHI.
 THE MAIN FEATURE OF NEW DELHI IS THE BROAD PROCESSIONAL AVENUE RAJPATH.

Planning of New Delhi 1914 – “Classical Revival capital complex” VICEROY’S GARDEN, NEW DELHI:

THE MAIN FEATURES OF VICERORY’S GARDEN ARE:

 INTRODUCTION OF LAWN
 USE OF FOUNTAINS IN CORTYAEDS, EVEN OF THE ROOF
 GRAND AVENUES
 STRAIGHT & BROAD PATH WAYS
 32 BROAD STEPS LEADING UP TO THE PORTICO.

Planning of New Delhi 1914 – “Classical Revival capital complex”

Planning of New Delhi 1914

 Planning inspiration came from other imperial models and new capital cities: the Paris and
Champs – Elysees of Baron Haussmann,
  Wren’s unbuilt plan for London, as well as L’Enfant’s plan for Washing ton DC.
 Other planning ideas came from contemporary British experiments in urbanism:
 The Circus at Bath for Connaught Place, and Hampstead Garden City for the residential
suburbs of New Delhi.

Planning of New Delhi 1914

New Delhi’s plan is based on 2 crossing axes

 The King’s way – Raj Path

 The Queen’s way – Jan Path

And radiating axes, one which links the council house through the Connaught place to old Delhi

Planning of New Delhi 1914

At the head of the King’s way on a hillock – Viceroy’s House – Rashtrapathi Bhavan

 A adjacent to it is the Secretariat

 At the other end of the King’s way are the ruins of the Purana qila
 A rise in the topography of the Raj path towards Rashtrapathi Bhavan obscures the lower
portion of the building as one approaches
 Baker designed the Council house – Parliament building
 The building sits on a previously executed plan, symbolizing subservient nature, in the eyes
of the Raj – notes by Nehru and Corbusier prior to the building of Chandigarh – 1952

Planning of New Delhi 1914

Secretariat building, Delhi. The Secretariat building in Delhi, one of a set of two buildings designed by
British architect Sir Herbert Baker to accompany the Rashtrapati Bhavan ( the official residence of the
President of India). Built between 1912 to 1931 in a combination of Mughal and Rajputana
architectural styles

ALL INDIA WAR MEMORIAL ARCH, DELHI

 Also called India Gate, the All India War Memorial Arch was completed in 1931.
 It was built after World War I as a memorial to Indian soldiers who died for the imperial
cause in this and along with the British, in the Afghan War of 1919.
 Designed by sir Edwin Lutyens, the arch stands symbolically along the focal ceremonial
 driveway, Raj Path.
 The Arch is a colossal, honey-colored structure, 43 meters high, with delicately sculptured
panels of stone work relief.

PLANNING & ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

An equilateral triangle is defined by the ceremonial, administrative and commercial centers of the
new Metropolis.

 The commercial centre (CONNAUGHT PLACE) in the north forms the apex.
 Rajpath, the east-west axis of power, provides their base.
 The north-east diagonal serves the Law; the north-west diagonal by passes the cathedral and
the originally unforeseen parliament.
 Rajpath is aligned with the entrance to the Purana Ouila.
 It runs through the India Gate War Memorial and the portal buildings of Baker’s secretariat,
from the Chattri in which the city’s founder, the king-Emperor, stood in imperial majesty to
the durbar hall of the house where his Viceroy sat.
 Centered on the great circular durbar hall, the Viceroy’s House is clearly a revision of its
Calcutta predecessor.

PLANNING & ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

 Lutyen’s imperial eclecticism ranged from Wren’s St. Stephen’s Wall brook (for the Viceroy’s
library) to the Mahastupa at Sanchi (for the central cupola) and the chahar bagh.
 INDO SARACENIC – On the way he took in the ubiquitous Indian chattri and chadya, cross
fertilized acan thus and volute with padma and bell for his Order and tethered Indian
elephants at salient portal corners where the great ancient Mesopotamian monarchies had
ceremonial syncretic winged monsters.
 INDO SARACENIC
 Baker was equally liberal with his Indian motifs in the Secretariats and the massive, strangely
unassertive, circular parliament building, but Lutyens thought him singularly insensitive to
the spirit of the scheme as a whole in the angle at which he set Rajpath’s ascent between the
Secretariats to the plane of the Viceroy’s house.
Some of the symbolism Lutyens choses:

 The exterior dome of the Viceroy’s Palace – Buddhist stupa – Sanchi

 More concerned with geometry than symbolic reference
 Materials are sandstone – attitudes Mughal –schme British
 Lutyens a dapted Indian forms to a much greater degree than Baker
 Achieved a partial synthesis of British & Indian forms
 Indo Saracenic – more classical than Gothic

Both in New Delhi and other places – buildings – sloping, continuous overhangs, domes & chhattris in
Lutyen’s style, plinth with projecting thickness.

Viceroy’s palace – Rashtrapati Bhavan

 Lutyens work in Delhi has had an impact on urban design schemes even today.
 Eg. Darulshafa scheme in Lucknow by the PWD.

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT

STARTED – 1760 by the BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY

FORMALISED – 1854 to 1855, divided into three presidencies

They developed a standardized form for all type of military and civil buildings.

As kipling said,

“along low wall pierced with round headed cavities, entirely without architectural sense of mass;
with no distinguishing features and no detail to speak of exept the cornic and the impost form which
it springs.”

From 1857 to 1858

The impetus was to economize on the redundant and potentially Counter Productive design decision
making in situations where skilled design professionals were few.
The tussle between engineer and architects to control the building design process has also been an
ongoing in India.

Thus in 19th century, several architects active role in PWD, in designing, some of the architects
include

 George wittet
 Ramchandra bullal
 Hayavadana

SPLIT BETWEEN ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS:

Thus, despite the increasing public recognition of architecture as an undertaking separate form
engineers, much building design remained in the hands of engineers;

A number of major buildings of the late 19th century were designed by military engineers.

There were several architects in this period who built structures to the Indian group despite the
problems faced by them.

Frederick William Stevens

(11 November 1847 -3 March 1900)

He was an English architectural engineer who worked for the British colonial government in India.
Stevens most notable design was the Victoria railway station (later known as the chatranathi sivaij
terminus in Mumbai.

VICTORIA TERMINUS

Victoria Terminus, Mumbai was completed in 1888 and was named after Queen Victoria on Jubilee
Day, 1887.

It took ten years to complete and was named “Victoria Terminus” in honour of the queen and
Empress Victoria; it was opened on the date of her Golden Jubilee in 1887. This famous architectural
landmark in Gothic style was built as the headquarters of the great Indian Peninsular Railway. Since
then the station came to be known as Bombay VT.

The station was designed by Frederick William Stevens, a consulting architect in 1887 – 1888. He
received as payment 16.14 lake rupees. Stevens earned the commission to construct the station
after a masterpiece watercolour sketch by draughtsman Axel Haig. The final design bears some
resemblance to St .Pancras Station in London.
 The station building was designed in the Victorian Gothic style of architecture. The building
exhibits a fusion of influences from Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture and
traditional Indian architecture. He British used European styles such as classical and gothic
for their pre colonial buildings by the mid – nineteenth century some new buildings types
were designed in the then fashionable high Victorian gothic style
 There are also open arcades, staircases and galleries to provide air and shade, and much of
carved ornaments was by local craftsmen and depicted local flora and fauna
 There are four gateways to the main entrance and the rectangular yard in front, maintains an
ornamental garden on one side
 The station building was designed in the Victorian gothic style of architecture. The building
exhibits a fusion of influences form Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture and
traditional Indian architecture. He British used European styles such as classical and gothic
for their pre colonial buildings by the mid – nineteenth century some new buildings types
were designed in the then fashionable high Victorian gothic style
 Internally, the wood carving, tiles, ornamental iron and brass railings, grills for the ticket
offices, the balustrades for the grand staircases and other ornaments were the work of
students at the Bombay School of Art
 There is a clock on the tower with a diameter of 3.19 meters
 The frontage of the terminus is symmetrical with a massive central dome and a number of
smaller domes and conical towers on the wings on either side
 The central dome bears a thirteen feet solid statue of a woman (progress) with a flaming
torch in her right arm raised towards the sky and a spoked wheel low in her left hand, by
Thomas Fam, and architectural carver
 A life – size statue of Queen Victoria is placed in front of the central façade. The other
statures include one representing ‘Agriculture’ on the central gable (triangular upper part of
a wall at the end of a ridged roof) on the south side and on each of the two gables in the
wings of the west façade representing ‘Engineering & Science’ and ‘Shipping & Commerce’
 He also carved the Imperial lion and the Indian tiger on the gate piers in the front. Beneath
this dome are the stairs to each floor
 The wood carving, tiles, ornamental iron and brass railings, grills for the ticket offices, the
 balustrades for the grand staircases and other ornaments etc were the work of students at
the Bombay School of Art. The cantilevered staircase that leads to the dome, the large
spacious booking hall with its pointed arcades, glazed tiles, stained glass and wooden vaulted
ceilings all look simply stunning

The stained glass detail which showcases the gothic influence not only brings in natural light to the
place but also has an added advantage in terms of beautifying the place.

Glass windows that are rich in primary Colours

The grills, balustrades have been designed so as to respond with every detail.

 Ornamented panels displaying peacocks, monkeys, elephants and British lions are mixed up
among the buttresses, domes, turrets, Spires and stained…
 Carvings of gargoyles, and animals like elephants, peacocks, monkeys, and lions intermingle
with the domes, ramparts, spires turrets, and stained glass windows
 Thus the terminus looks more like a cathedral than a terminus.

The main structure is built with light brown sandstone and limestone whereas the decorative
elements are carved on to high quality Italian marble.

The ground floor of the North Wing, also known as the Star Chamber is floored with Italian marble
along with polished Indian Blue stone.

Charles Wyatt

He was an English architect, and nephew to the architects James Wyatt & Samuel Wyatt. He entered
the army in 1780 as a cadet, sailing for India aboard the ship Mount Stewart on the 27th June of the
same year, but the ship was captured by the French & Spanish fleets and returned to England. His
second attempt to reach India was successful, arriving in 1782. He joined the Bengal Engineers,
eventually being promoted to Captain in 1800 and Commander of Police. In June 1803 he was made
Superindent of Public works.

Raj Bhavan or “Government House”

 The structure was built in pre – Independence times (1803). Once the residence of the
Viceroy of India, and called the Government House, the palatial house is now the residence
of the Governor of West Bengal.
 The design of Government House, Calcutta, is an adaptation of the plan of Kedleston Hall in
Derbyshire which was built for Lord Curzon of Kedleston, in the Years 1759 -1770 by the
 renowned architect Robert Adam.
 The scheme of a great central pile with curving corridors radiating from its four angles to
detached wings, each constituting a house in itself, was admirably adapted to a climate
where every quarter must be seized.

Difference between govt. house and kedleston hall

 Government House resembles Kedleston Hall in the broad external Features of shape,
designed orientation, in the extreme dimensions form East to West, in the concentration of
the main State rooms in the middle pile, in the placing there of a great marble hall supported
by columns and in the superimposition of a dome above the Southern façade.
 Kedkeston is built mainly of a grey or yellowish sandstone and only partly of brick while
Government House is built entirely of brick covered over with white plaster which is color –
washed every year.
 They differ also in completeness of construction, only two of the projecting wings having
been finished at Kedleston, whereas Government House has all four Government House also
has a semi – circular projecting portico and colonnade on the South front which Kedleston
lacks.
 The curved corridors at Government House are two Story’s high and so their roof line is level
with that of the wings and of the main building, whereas at Kedleston the corridors are only
one storey high so that the wings stand up higher than the curving corridors which join them
to the central pile.

Structure and Interiors:

 While the basic features of Kedleston such as the Palladian Front, the Dome etc. have been
faithfully copied, the Government House is a much larger, three storeved structure.
 The main entrance to the government house is through the north, which has a grand
entrances staircase, which is supported by 6 doric columns in the front, which suggests the
roman influence.
  This leads to the central space which comprises of the breakfast hall, marble hall and the
throne room respectively, these spaces lead to the four main suites.
 The Prince of Wales suite in the north – west wing of the first floor is the suite where the
President, Vice – President and the Prime Minister of India reside when visiting the state of
West Bengal. The Wellesley suite is located on the second floor in the north – eastern wing.
The Duffer in suite is on the second floor of north – west wing. The fourth site is the
Anderson suite.
 There is a gun mounted on a dragon towards the north gate. Around the main gun there are
ten guns that were taken from the Chinese, in commemoration of the peace initiated by the
Naval and Military forces of England and India.
 Government House in addition has spacious verandahs on the Southern face, there also exist
a big dome supported by Doric columns which further adds beauty to the southern façade.
 Government House there are four comparatively small staircases at the four angles of the
central pile which are very much better suited for the arrangements which have to be made
for the coming and going of public entrée and private entrée guests at large functions.
 Occasional public meetings by the Governor are held in the magnificent marble hall in the
ground floor. The Council Chamber used to be the meeting place of Executive Council of the
Governor General.
 The Brown Dining Room was used as the breakfast room, while the adjoining Blue Drawing
Room is the room is the room where the Governor meets guests. It is completely furnished
with wood, including the walls, ceilings and the floor.
 It is located in the first floor, on the south eastern side.
 The two fine full – length portraits of Louis le Bien Amie and his queen, together with the
chandeliers and twelve busts of the Caesars in the aisles of the Marble Hall, are said to have
been taken form a French ship.
 Coffered wooden slabs for the ceiling and wooden flooring is being used in almost all the
rooms through the buildings
 The Throne Room is like a Durbar where princes were welcomed and durbars held.
 The ball rooms are all well lit with crystal chandeliers, coffered wooden roofing, supported by
Doric columns. The flooring is made of chipped slate in black which further enhances the
interiors.
 Doric columns are used to signify the separation of the spaces.

TOP: Detail of crystal chandelier

Left: Ball room showing the coffered wooden roofing, the chip slate flooring and Doric columns.

TOWN HALL, CALCUTTA

 JOHN Garstin was the chief engineer of Bengal and erected on the esplanade, beside
Wellesley’s government house, a town hall of considerable size.
 The funds necessary for the construction were collected from the public with the help of
 lotteries.
 In 1807 the cost estimation were approved and the construction work was commenced in
December of the same year.
 In 1813 the town hall was finished.
 In the following year certain annexes were built and a iron fence was erected on the south
side facing the esplanade.
 With its Palladian beastly portico, this building was raised from public funds collected by
lottery.
 It was used for the meetings of merchants or other classes of society, for the traction of
mercantile affairs or other business, and for public entertainment on great occasions.
 The building have two storey shaped like a solid block with protruding porticoes. The one to
the north serving as a gateway for carriages.
 The elegant façade facing the maiden consists when analyzed of a double sub structure a low
plinth supports the arcade of the ground floor and the latter in its turn supports the piano no
bile through the corners of both storey run high pilasters and above the centre section is a
standard Palladian hex style portico the order is Tuscan Doric and the entablature is
continued to form a heavy horizontal through out the entire structure.
 Once opened the Governor General in Council dictated on 22 March 1814 that the use of the
Town Hall:-
‘’… shall be reserved for authorized general meetings of the inhabitants of Calcutta, or for
meetings of merchants or other classes of society, for the transaction of mercantile affairs or
other business, and for public entertainments on great occasions…’’

TOWN HALL, BOMBAY

 Colonel Thomas Cowper prepared the drawings and commenced construction work after his
death in 1825, the building was completed (in 1833), by other officers of Bombay engineers.
 This structure seems to be strikingly neo classical. Palladian features are entirely lacking.
The building conveys an impression of might and mass.
 Greek order with sturdy fluted columns and a solid entablature.
 The plinth is of normal height and its arcades indicate a considerable wall thickness. The
 steps in the centre are divided in to broad platforms; the long façade has the room for three
porticos. The one in the middle, above the flight of steps and the main entrance, is like the
whole Doric order form Parthenon in Athens.
 Entrances, through the portico on north side there is a vestibule and a windings staircase to
the room above, shaped to produce dramatic effects. There is a Greek characteristic detail
of palmettos which fill the space between the mutual’s at the angles of the cornice and the
lion’s masks of gargoyles.
 The Greek frontages are placed high up and against heavy walls. Tall windows are inserted in
between the columns. The Cornice above these Are not enough to protect against the sun.
 It has porticos on its return walls which is the less significant.
 The staircases which form large ellipse in the floor are illuminated form above by a skylight.
The corners of the room lie in semi darkness and in the niche commemorative statues of civil
servants.
 The entrance into an adjoining room is flanked by columns and here light is thrown down in a
white cone form a skylight. In the outer parts of the room also discern white marble heads
and a dark window and door moldings. Adjacent to the room is a large hall with columns of
the Corinthian order.
 The library interiors with Doric columns running along the curved profile of the rooms.

DALHOUSIE POST OFFICE

 Dalhousie square is located just south of Howrah bridge (neo classical style)
 It was built by architect Walter L.B. Granville who also acted as the consulting architect to the
government of India from 1863 to 1868.
 When Kolkata was the administrative centre for British India, BBD bath was the centre of
power and now where the GPO stands was the first citadel of the British.
 Dalhousie Square, named after Lord Dalhousie who appointed Governor – General in 1847,
was the main administrative area of Kolkata. This place is bustling with activity from morning
till evening and is the commercial nerve of the city.
 The square also housed the headquarters of the East India Company known as the Writer’s
Building, the currency office, and the General Post Office. Near the fort was the infamous
black hole where Sire UP Doula put 146 people in a small room and only 23 were alive in the
morning now only those memories haunt the mind and nothing else.
 Dalhousie Square has been renamed BBD Bagh after three Indian nationalists Renoy, Badal,
and Dinesh the three freedom fighters who were hung by the British during the protest
against the partition of Bengal in 1905.
 It is a square area built around the old lal dighi tank which exist till date.
 There are many historical buildings surrounding the square.
 The post office is situated in B.B.D bagh on the North West corner built with Doric columns.
 As the capital of the British in India in the 19th century, Kolkata was endowed with many
buildings projecting appropriate grandeur. which is constructed in neo classical style. With
gleaming white chuan (a form of polished stucco made of burnt seashells, helped Kolkata
gain the Entitles “city of palaces”.
Bibliography:

Modern Architecture
A critical History
Kenneth Frampton