20Th Century Architecture

Front 1

- A change occurs in Le Corbusier’s work after the war and is shown in this work
- Sits on a hillside
o Important spiritual site (2 previous religious buildings were there)
- Site of pilgrimage
- Looked to many things for inspiration (3 years to design)
- Roof was based on the construction of concrete dams
- Patron believed that the architect could create the best religious design with more freedom
- Many sculptural elements- many forms come from that of a ship
- Looks different from every angle
- Carved like a cave and tilted floor
- Didn’t want religious iconography, but wanted spirituality by light and the way it enters the space
- Ideally suited to the site
- Humanized and less machine like
- More emotional and less rational

Back 1

Le Corbusier, Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, 1950-54

Front 2

- Joint capital of 2 states
- Symbolized a “new India” (a new and modern progressive state)
- Based master plan on hierarchy of circulation and separated by class
- Saw sectors as individual cities and they should be self sustainable
- Created laws to protect against sprawl
- Used modular design
- Wanted to symbolize progress & harmony (coming out of turmoil)
- Parasol was a reoccurring theme (symbolizes protection)
- First of the buildings to be completed
- Monumental porticos

Back 2

Le Corbusier, High Court, Chandigarh, 1951-55

Front 3

- Large box with grid of windows
- Modern in design, but appears as a historic feeling (shows strength and endurance)
- Main façade has “scooped” porticos
- Vast and inspiring interior space
- Office space arranged around exterior
- Separation of load bearing and cladding functions
- Plan fails to respond to the climate and social conditions
- Insisted that architecture is based on art

Back 3

Le Corbusier, Parliament, Chandigarh, 1951-63

Front 4

- Designed using the same approach as the Bauhaus (form follows function)
- Works with the site and climate
- Designed around letting light in
- Simple, well designed, fittings
- Some glass block walls with steel frame
- Didn’t like the term “international style”
o Integrated modern architecture
- House works together in a dramatic way
o Spotlights & backlights
- Interior:
o Minimal color (mostly black & white w/ splash of red)
- No applied ornament
- Open areas (glass boxes and screened in porch) made it seem like less of a mass, but more of a volume
- Brought in a “New England” style, but it does not seem to represent anything from New England

Back 4

Walter Gropius, Gropius House, Lincoln, MA, 1938

Front 5

- Built for a physician (Edith Farnsworth)
- A weekend retreat
- Wanted a house that was “serious architecture”
- Made almost entirely out of glass and steel
o 8 steel vertical supports that support 2 horizontals (roof and floor)
o Terrace
o 1 room wide open (for the exception of 2 bathrooms and storage)
- Used travertine marble and primavera wood were the only other main materials
- No driveway or landscaping
- One room in a meadow
- Everything is plum and level- glass was perfectly rectangular (fine craftsmanship)
- “Perfect” piece of architecture
- Client was dissatisfied
o No screens (attracts bugs)
o No air conditioning
o Travertine decks required cleaning every other week
o Rust removal
- International Style b/c:
o Lack of ornament but attention is paid to the materials
o Regularity
o Glass makes it appear weightless (mass-less)

Back 5

Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House, Plano,IL, 1945-51

Front 6

- First International Style sky scraper
- National Historic Landmark
- Built for one of the oldest and most conservative banks in the country
- Pulled structure out to the surface which gave more room in the interior
o Provided visual stripes
- One curved wall (streamline affect)
- 27 stories tall and 4 offices deep
- One of the first sky scrapers to be air conditioned
- Elegant materials (marble)
- Furniture was designed by the architects
- Letters are set back so that it doesn’t interrupt the surface
o Letters are 27’ tall

Back 6

George Howe and William Lescaze, PSFS, Philadelphia, PA, 1926-32

Front 7

- International Style b/c:
o Mostly glass
o Straight lines formed by structure and frames
o Regularity (rhythm w/ windows)
o Asymmetrical building (horizontal and vertical)
- No setbacks
o Only occupied 25% of the lot with the tower
- Accessible outdoor space
- Seems like weightless hovering volume
- Sealed box (ac only ventilation)
- Built for Lever Brothers (soap company)
o Building reflects cleanliness

Back 7

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, (Gordon Bunshaft), Lever House, NYC, 1951-2

Front 8

- Located across the street from the Lever House
- Company produced high-end liquor
- Curtain wall
- Verticality and horizontality contrast with eachother
- Appears differently throughout the day
- Sophisticated and elegant image
- Interior was dynamic (walls could be moved at will)
- Different style but follows the basic ideas of Sullivan

Back 8

Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, Seagram Building, NYC, 1954-8

Front 9

- Architect:
o Finland’s most famous architect
o Believes in form follows function
o Believed only two things in art: humanity or its lack
o Becomes associated with the town of Jyvaskyla (designed about 70 buildings for this town)
o Tries to create an organic link between energy, people, and buildings
o Often made compromises with clients (unlike FLW)
o Founded ARTEK with his wife
o Created about 1000 buildings
- Establishes his reputation as a master of functionalism
- TB Sanatorium
- Proved that he could emphasize human connection
- Included special furniture, lighting, HVAC, etc. to better help the patients
- Breaks away from strict rationalism- gives concern to psychological needs
- TB is a lung disease so it was thought that fresh air and sunlight were best for the patients
- Each function is created in slightly different ways
- International style
o Flat roofs
o Some ribbon windows
o Smooth surfaces
- clean lines and forms so that it’s easy to clean
- Not following a design in a formulaic manner
- Created compression molded furniture
- Creates the Paimio Chair- designed to help patients breathe better
o Able to be mass produced

Back 9

Alvar Aalto, Paimio Sanatorium, Finland, 1929-33

Front 10

- Most admired piece of residential architecture
- One of Aalto’s major works
- Works to combine many things (collages elements)
- Uses ceilings and floors of wood and incorporates various textiles
o Creates warm “home” feeling
- Takes terrain into account
- Welcomes the outdoors in
- International b/c:
o Variety of materials with smooth surfaces
o Flat roofs
o No applied ornament
- Looks to create an interior forest (bring the woods inside)
o Abstraction of a finished forest
- Break from strict rationalism
- Open and freed plan, but uses different levels to give feeling of walking through land

Back 10

Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea, Finland, 1938-41

Front 11

- Most important architectural contribution to MIT
- Large scale housing with flexible interior units so that they’re not all the same
- Each student room has a view
- Curved exterior provides unique floor plan for each unit

Back 11

Alvar Aalto, Baker House, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1947-8

Front 12

- Architect:
o One of the most famous Philadelphia architects
o Highly influential
o Lived, worked, and taught in Philadelphia
o Went to UPenn
o Studied with Cret
o Made an alliance with George Howe
- Medical research building
- Breaks away from international style
- Breaks away from glass and steel buildings
o Can be other materials
- Lead the Philadelphia School
- Differentiates space
o Served space- laboratories
o Servant spaces- mechanical, elevators, etc
- Tower sections for mechanical areas
- Articulating 2 different primary spaces on exterior
- Created a new modernism
- Had problems with functionality (protection from sun)
- Interested in geometric solids

Back 12

Louis Kahn, Richard's Medical Research Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1957-65

Front 13

- Responds to site (site looks over ocean)
- Goes back to Beaux Art training
- Creates walk through spaces
- Uses the concept of “institution”
o Creates organization
- Antique quality although modern
- Found the underlining form that it should take
- Designs on many different levels

Back 13

Louis Kahn, Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, 1959-65

Front 14

- Believes government should be the central space
- Parliament in center
- Built up on vast brick platform and surrounded by water
- Offices are towards the exterior
o Building is created in “layers”
- Modern building, but seems elemental
o Seems like it could be created in the ancient past (gives off idea of strength and stability)
- Concerned with light and volume
- Exterior shell outside of windows creates shade
- Modern masterpiece
- Creates interactions b/c different buildings and types of buildings are grouped together

Back 14

Louis Kahn, National Assembly Building, Dacca, 1962-75

Front 15

- Architect:
o Not a trained architect, but became one of California’s best developers
o Wanted aesthetically pleasing designs for all
o Keeps profit low to offer high quality
- Atrium in center
- 2 Car garages
- Large picture windows
- Overhangs (to protect from the sun)
- Exposed beams stretch within the house and are exposed
- Community centered (community swimming pools and other shared areas)
- Had 3-4 bedrooms
- Sold for $11,000 to 14,000

Back 15

Floor plan for Eichler Homes, Anschen & Allen, California, c.1950

Front 16

- Responds to the need of GI Vets
- Small single family homes that are between industry and the city
- New form combines middle class suburbia with an attainable GI group of people
- People become thrilled to have this small home (pride of home ownership)
- Sold the idea of community
- Cluster neighborhoods
- Aware of urban planning theory
- By 1960 the company was producing 1 house in every 16 minutes in the factory
- Typically had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, etc.
- Small boxy cape cods
- Many ideas taken by FLW
- Open floor plans were very helpful
- Special-needs paid attention to children
- Family and play rooms developed

Back 16

Levitt Model House, Levittown, NY, 1949

Front 17

- Architect:
o Rebels against the International Style
o Uses angular and curved geometries
- Use of curved geometries and angular planes
- Multiple structural systems
- Interior: trays of seating flowing at different levels
- Mimics music through architecture
- Puts in personal feelings towards architecture

Back 17

Hans Scharoun, Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall, 1956-63, Berlin

Front 18

- A good example of the style Italy reflected after the war
- 33 stories
- Near railroad station
- Non-rectangular
- Flattened and oval in shape
- Not as much glass as the International Style
- Form gives architectural decoration
- Structure: double vertebrate
- Not imitation of American style (produce their own)

Back 18

Gio Ponti with Luigi Nervi, Pirelli Building, 1958-61, Milan

Front 19

- Holds offices and apartments
- 26 stories
- Upper stories appear to be supported by buttresses
- Tries to fit in with the neighborhood (near gothic cathedral)
- Verticality relates to gothic cathedral
- Punched windows that fit in with the neighboring buildings
- Want to give sky scraper an identity so they related it to historic structures
- Thought it was natural to incorporate historic styles in their work b/c they’re proud of their past

Back 19

Ernesto Rogers and Enrico Peresutti, Torre Velasca, 1956-58, Milan

Front 20

- Architect:
o Develops architecture that still recognizes and respects Mexico’s culture and history
o Able to see beyond the machine and imagery of the International Style
o Creates spaces for contemplation
o Poetic puzzles to move through
- Good example of how modernism is altered depending on where it was used
- Clients wanted to be modern and cosmopolitan
- Uses water extensively
o Takes on many different aspects
- Uses color and careful framing of views
- Influence of International Style, but puts his own heritage into it

Back 20

Luis Barragan, San Cristobal, 1968, Mexico City

Front 21

- Architect:
o Wants to fuse architecture with landscape and typography
o Usually reduces structures to minimalist passageways
- Part of a larger plan for a city called Brasilia
- Contains presidential palace, congress building, etc. (governmental purposes)
- Representative to nation’s new look to industrialization and progress
- Seems monumental
- Seems international (could be placed anywhere- not tied to site)

Back 21

Oscar Niemeyer, Plaza of the Three Powers, 1958, Brasilia

Front 22

- Architect:
o Taught by Le Corbusier
o Uses updated version of the “5 Points of Architecture”
- Uses Metabolist Architects ideas
o Create visionary urban projects
o Blend mechanisms with a “space ship design”
o Use moveable parts and connect pod-like structures to it
- Gives monumental forms
- Mix-use building
- Almost a small city
- Main elements:
o Grids of cylindrical shafts
o Large horizontal beams that contain offices
o Served and service spaces
o Total flexibility within rigid framework
o Similar to “post and beam architecture”
- use of local influences

Back 22

Kenzo Tange, Yamanasi Press and Radio Center, 1961-67, Kofu

Front 23

- Mechanical/techno style
- Houses many functions
- Wanted to create a popular institution
- Mega structure with steel tube frame
- Glazed elevation
- Mechanical tubes (pulled to the outside of the building) serve as ornament
- Half of site dedicated to outside plaza
- Constructed from prefabricated parts
- Uninterrupted floor space (place partitions wherever)

Back 23

Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1971-77

Front 24

- Architect:
o Considered a potent force
o Coined term “international style”
- Looks like piece of furniture
- Generally viewed as the first post modern sky scraper
- Slender rectangular building
- No setbacks
- Repetition of like spaces
- Differentiated top and base (Sullivan’s ideas)
- 9 strips of vertical fenestration
- Pediment hides utilities (has use) but gives a unique view to skyline
- Entry criticized b/c it made visitor feel very small and didn’t protect from weather
- Historical/ classical references
- Chippendale furniture roof top- abstracted from Vanna Venturi building

Back 24

Philip Johnson, AT&T Building, NYC, 1979

Front 25

- Architect:
o Designing for Target now
o Studied at University of Cincinnati & Harvard
o Became eclectic in his forms
- Uses a lot of inspiration from classical tradition
- Rejection of modernism & the machine
- Inspired by classical design
- Use of teal, terracotta, and blue
o Colors allude to natural world
- Civic building
- Rejects iconic style of Mies
- Uses windows to reflect grid pattern of city
- Tripartite division of building (base, body, and head)
- First major public building of the post modern movement
- Fits into its urban context
- Mini city
- Considered “most significant building of its period” by outside critics
- Tenants did not like it
o Many called out sick (sick building syndrome)
- some main elements needed to be replaced

Back 25

Michael Graves, Portland Building, Portland, OR, 1980-83

Front 26

- High tech tent
- Material was Teflon
- Tent was used in repeating order
- Used as a center for pilgrims who were making pilgrimage to Mecca
- Thought about circulation shade and construction
- Tent shape is very traditional
- Allowed for great ventilation
- Modern yet traditional

Back 26

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1980

Front 27

- Houses governmental system
o Royalty system
o Tribal groups
- Central street was created within & acted like a traditional village
o Functions were arranged around the street
- References the tents of the “elders”
- Sheltering roof
- Gives off idea of protection (from climate and government)

Back 27

Jørn Utzon, National Assembly Building, Kuwait, 1972

Front 28

- Architect:
o Part of the Japanese New Wave
o Looked inward and wanted a more poetic architecture
o Light, stillness, and space were important elements
- Cast concrete structure
- Sense that it was created through a reductive process
- Stark emptiness but not sterile
- Echoes Bauhaus
- Consists of 2 overlapping squares
- Uses modernist ideas
- Dedicates himself to use of the building

Back 28

Tadao Ando, Church on the Water, Tomamu, Japan, 1985-8

Front 29

- Architect:
o Part of the “Team of Four”
o Breaks partly with the international style
- One of the most expensive buildings to date
- Open plan
- Looks at how utility systems are incorporated
- Created a new vision of the work space
- Structure was brought out to the corners (typhoon proof)
- Creates exoskeleton
- Lifted on structural legs (forms gateway into city)
- Promotes Hong Kong as a place of power

Back 29

Norman Foster, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, 1979-85

Front 30

- Architect:
o Feels that architecture is linked with social purpose
o Provides comfort and stimulating experience for occupants
o Believes architecture must be progressive as opposed to nostalgic
- Originally a traditional house & adds a casing around it
- Nontraditional materials (metal gate, corrugated metal, etc)
- Elevated everyday materials to new levels

Back 30

Frank Gehry, Gehry House, Santa Monica CA, 1978

Front 31

- Architect:
o Develops highly theoretical work
o Buildings seem to exist in their own spaces
o Believed place and tradition was having less and less meaning
- Broke the traditional grid of the campus
- Established own grid within the grid of the campus
- Interest in Dada
- Mocks other architects of the time (broken castle tower)
- Rejects rules and contexts

Back 31

Peter Eisenman, The Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio State Univ., Ohio, 1983-9

Front 32

- Architect:
o Concerned with form
o Parodies history
- Creates a new landscape for the 20th century
- Planned on abstract grid of coordinates
- Concerned with relationship between form, function, and meaning

Back 32

Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1984-9

Front 33

- Creates spaces that are in tune with human experiences
- Connects lines between location and cultures in Berlin
- Zigzag form
- Expresses the disappearance of Jewish culture in the area
- Visitor’s experience is very controlled
- Supposed to give off the feeling that something is missing

Back 33

Daniel Libeskind, The Jewish Museum, Berlin, 1989-96