John Ruskin's Influence On American Architecture

The ninetieth century, or the machine age, became a time period in America in which the demands for goods were heightened due to the fast pace producibility the machine was capable of. No longer bound by human limitation, the machines allowed for a hyper manufacturing of products in a quicker and inexpensive manner. However, not all backed for the machine age and argued that the machine had taken away the quality of product. Philosopher John Ruskin wrote in The Seven Lamps of Architecture, about machines destroying creativity, and he was an advocate of medieval architecture due to it’s honesty in craftsmanship and preservation of material which he felt industrialization had eliminated (Kemp 1992). He also voiced social criticism regarding to the morality and health concerns risen from the machine age. He considered the work to be “servile labour” as the worker’s health, and overall loss of traditional skills that had embodied design in past centuries. Furthermore, William Morris thought that the separation of design with manual creation damaged the aesthetics of the product, and argued that the profession of making “became disconnected from life” (MacCarthy 2009). Morris’ ideas wanted to unite all the arts in home decorations, by emphasizing nature and form simplicity. …show more content…
The style later became a movement that tried to reform mass-produced objects that were result’s of industrialization. The designer’s motto were to embody art and ornamentation, making the pieces aesthetically pleasing, functional, and to preserve intrinsic quality of the material. (Blakesley 2006). The design became whole and each piece and space was fabricated to be individualistic within an overall piece of art; the rugs, furniture, art glass, etc. The movement took off and became in demand, making it become a steady flow of income for architects and designers that were part of the movement (Todd