Modern Architecture: The Early Twentieth Century

The early twentieth century showed the start and growth of modern architecture. It was a period where architect starts to reject designing with the traditional materials, such as bricks, and the traditional neoclassical architectural style which the building was being decorated with ornamental elements. The early twentieth showed an emergence of new technologies and materials. Engineers were using those technologies and materials to design and construct new building types such as train stations and exhibition buildings. Such designs influence architects of that period to design and experiment with those technologies and materials. Architects are now designing with materials such as concrete, glass and steel. Their designs were simple, emphasising …show more content…
The use of steel and concrete structure, cladded with a double glass façade which acts as an insulator to prevent the interior spaces form getting too hot. The coloured glass which Scheerbart mention in his book was the same as the tinted glass used in buildings to help prevent the glare from the sun. Bruno Taut’s Glashau was revolutionary. It was a new architecture language during that period of time. Taut managed to take Scheerbart’s vision and accurately translate it into architecture. Many critics mocked Scheerbart and Taut’s Glass utopia, they felt it is a dystopia as it was so different from the architecture style of that period. However, Scheerbart’s and Taut’s glass utopia had become a reality. Glass architecture have become one of the main architecture style in the buildings we see …show more content…
It showed how far architecture have come. In the case of Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut’s Glass utopia, it was successful. Something that people thought to be joke during that time became one of the most use architecture style and elements in building today. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City was considered a dystopia during that period and would still be considered a dystopia today. The idea of giving one acre of land to each family would not have work since there is a limited amount of land and land is too expensive for the government to give them away for free. However, his idea of people becoming dependent of technology such as telephones and automobiles was interesting as it has become a reality for us. Wright’s idea of prefabricated housing have also become a reality for us since we precast and prefabricate most elements in constructing a building. It was interesting looking back into the past where people felt that these ideas and vision would never be realised and looking in the present this ideas and vision as integrated themselves to be part of our