Early Modern architecture

Further information: Modern architecture Early Modern architecture began with a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose around 1900. By the 1940s these styles had largely consolidated and been identified as the International Style. The exact characteristics and origins of modern architecture are still open to interpretation and debate. An important trigger appears to have been the maxim credited to Louis Sullivan: "form follows function". Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern architecture. Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and an absence of applied decoration. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely.[1] In a broader sense, early modern architecture began at the turn of the 20th century with efforts to reconcile the principles underlying architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. It would take the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification.[1] The concept of modernism is a central theme in these efforts. Gaining popularity after the Second World War, architectural modernism was adopted by many influential architects and architectural educators, and continues as a dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate buildings into the 21st century. Modernism eventually generated reactions, most notably Postmodernism which sought to preserve pre-modern elements, while Neomodernism emerged as a reaction to Postmodernism. Notable architects important to the history and development of the modernist movement include Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Louis Sullivan, Oscar Niemeyer and Alvar Aalto.

Contrasts in modern architecture, as shown by adjacent high-rises in Chicago, Illinois. IBM Plaza (right), by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is a later example of the clean rectilinear lines and glass of the International Style, whereas Marina City, (left), by his student Bertrand Goldberg, reflects a more sculptural Mid-Century Modern aesthetic.

Characteristics

The Salk Institute complex in La Jolla, California, by architect Louis Kahn.

Common themes of modern architecture include:

the notion that "Form follows function", a dictum originally expressed by Frank Lloyd Wright's early mentor Louis Sullivan, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of "unnecessary detail" visual expression of structure (as opposed to the hiding of structural elements) the related concept of "Truth to materials", meaning that the true nature or natural appearance of a material ought to be seen rather than concealed or altered to represent something else use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine aesthetic particularly in International Style modernism, a visual emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines

Early modernism

The Crystal Palace, 1851, was one of the first buildings to have vast amounts of glass supported by structural metal, foreshadowing trends in Modernist architecture.

There are multiple lenses through which the evolution of modern architecture may be viewed. Some historians see it as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernity and thus the Enlightenment. Modern architecture developed, in their opinion, as a result of social and political revolutions.[2] Others see Modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments. Still other historians regard Modernism as a matter of taste, a reaction against eclecticism and the lavish stylistic excesses of Victorian and Edwardian architecture. With the Industrial Revolution, the availability of newly-available building materials such as iron, steel, and sheet glass drove the invention of new building techniques. In 1796, Shrewsbury mill owner Charles Bage first used his 'fireproof' design, which relied on cast iron and brick with flag stone floors. Such construction greatly strengthened the structure of mills, which enabled them to accommodate much bigger machines. Due to poor knowledge of iron's properties as a construction material, a number of early mills collapsed. It was not until the early 1830s that Eaton Hodgkinson introduced the section beam, leading to widespread use of iron construction. This kind of austere industrial architecture utterly transformed the landscape of northern Britain, leading to the description of places like Manchester and parts of West Yorkshire as "Dark satanic mills". The Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early example of iron and glass construction, followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall. A further
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development was that of the steel-framed skyscraper in Chicago around 1890 by William Le Baron Jenney and Louis Sullivan. Around 1900 a number of architects and designers around the world began developing new solutions to integrate traditional precedents (classicism or Gothic, for instance) with new technological possibilities. The work of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago, Victor Horta in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner and the Vienna Secession in Austria, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new. The work of some of these were a part of what is broadly categorized as Art Nouveau ("New Art"). Note that the Russian word for Art Nouveau, "", and the Spanish word for Art Nouveau, "Modernismo" are cognates of the English word "Modern" though they carry different meanings. An early use of the term in print around this time, approaching its later meaning, was in the title of a book by Otto Wagner.[3][4] The fallout of the First World War resulted in additional experimentation and ideas. Following out of the experiments in Art Nouveau and its related movements around the world, modernism in architecture and design grew out of stylistic threads originating throughout world.
In the United States

The Robie House, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois. Main article: Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright's Larkin Building (1904) in Buffalo, New York, Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park, Illinois, and the Robie House (1910) in Chicago, Illinois were some of the first examples of modern architecture in the United States. Frank Lloyd Wright was a major influence on European architects, including both Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as well as on the whole of organic architecture. Gropius claimed that his "bible" for forming the Bauhaus was 100 Frank Lloyd Wright drawings that the architect shared with Germany over a decade prior to this point, the Wasmuth Portfolio. While Wright's career would parallel that of European architects, he refused to be categorized with them, claiming that they copied his ideas. [citation needed] Many architects in Germany[who?] believed that Wright's life would be wasted in the United States, since the US wasn not ready for his newer architecture.[citation needed] During the 1930s, Wright would experiment with his Usonian ideas for a uniquely U.S. American (i.e. "US-onian") take on modernism. It
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would be several decades before European architects would in turn bring their version of modern architecture to the United States.
In Italy: Futurism Main article: Futurist architecture

Futurist architecture began in the early-20th century, characterized by anti-historicism and long horizontal lines suggesting speed, motion and urgency. Technology and even violence were among the themes of the Futurists. The movement was founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who produced its first manifesto, the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909. The movement attracted not only poets, musicians, artist (such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, and Enrico Prampolini) but also a number of architects. Among the latter there was Antonio Sant'Elia, who, though he built little (being killed in WWI), translated the Futurist vision into bold urban form. The unbuilt designs and theories of Futurists went on to influence both the Constructivists and a branch of Italian Fascist architecture.
In Russia: Constructivism Main article: Constructivist architecture

Following the 1917 revolutions in Russia, the societal upheaval and change was coupled with a desire for a new aesthetic, one more in keeping with the Communist philosophy and societal goals of the new state, in contrast to the ornate Neoclassicism that had prevailed prior. This resulted in a new style, Constructivism.Konstantin Melnikov, a Russian Constructivist architect, designed the Melnikov House (1927-29) near Arbat Street in Moscow. The style prospered, but fell markedly out of favor during the design competition for the Palace of the Soviets from 1931 to 1933, losing to a more traditional revivalism of Russian architecture with nationalistic overtones, afterwards termed Postconstructivism. This resulted in the ultimate demise of the Russian branch of early architectural modernism, though not before it had a chance to influence architects elsewhere, such as Le Corbusier.
In Western Europe Arts and Crafts movement

The AEG Turbinenfabrik ("turbine factory"), 1909, designed by Peter Behrens, illustrating the combination of industry and design.

Spanning the gap between the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Modernism of the 1920s, was the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) a German association of architects, designers and industrialists. It was founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius. Muthesius was the author of a three-volume "The English House" of 1905, a survey of the practical lessons of the English Arts and Crafts movement and a leading political and cultural commentator. [5] The purpose of the Werkbund was to sponsor the attempt to integrate traditional crafts with the techniques of industrial mass production. The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include Peter Behrens, Theodor Fischer (who served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann and Richard Riemerschmid. Joseph August Lux, an Austrian-born critic, helped formulate its agenda.[6] As a result of isolation during World War I, an art and design movement developed unique to the Netherlands, known as De Stijl (literally "the style"), characterized by its use of line and primary colors. While producing little architectural design overall (with notable exception of the Rietveld Schrder House of 1924), its ideas went on to influence the architects and designers of the 1920s.
Expressionism

The Second Goetheanum, 1924-1928, in Basel, Switzerland, is an example of architectural Expressionism. Main article: Expressionist architecture

Expressionism was an architectural movement that developed in Northern Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts. Making notable use of sculptural forms and the novel use of concrete as artistic elements, examples include Rudolf Steiner's Second Goetheanum, built from 1926 near Basel, Switzerland and the Einsteinturm in Potsdam, Germany. The style was characterised 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. Many expressionist architects fought in World War I and their
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experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist agenda. [7] Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between 1914 and the mid-1920s,[8] resulting in many of the most important expressionist works remaining as projects on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels. Ephemeral exhibition buildings were numerous and highly significant during this period. Scenography for theatre and films provided another outlet for the expressionist imagination,[9] and provided supplemental incomes for designers attempting to challenge conventions in a harsh economic climate. A particular type, using bricks to create its forms (rather than concrete) is known as Brick Expressionism.
Modernism reaches critical mass

The Bauhaus building at Dessau, Germany, designed by Walter Gropius Main articles: New Objectivity (architecture) and Bauhaus

It was at this time, during the 1920s, that the most important figures in Modern architecture established their reputations. The big three are commonly recognized as Le Corbusier in France, and Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Germany, all of whom trained under Peter Behrens. Gropius and Mies van der Rohe both served as directors of the Bauhaus, one of a number of European schools and associations concerned with reconciling craft tradition and industrial technology. Mies van der Rohe designed the German pavilion (known afterward as the Barcelona Pavilion) at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. Villa Savoye, by Le Corbusier and his cousin, was built from 1928 to 1931. As in Russia, political pressures turned against the modernists. With the rise of Nazism in 1933, the German experiments in modernism were replaced by more traditionalist architectural forms.
Style Moderne: tradition and modernism

Greyhound Bus Station in Cleveland, Ohio, showing the Streamline Moderne aesthetic. Main articles: Art Deco and Streamline Moderne

Following World War I, a stylistic movement developed that embraced ideas of both modernism (or at least modernization) and traditionalism. It is characterized by the adoption of the machine aesthetic, glorification of technological advancement and new materials, while at the same time adopting or loosely retaining revivalist forms and motifs, and the continued use of ornament. In the case of the Art deco, decorative motifs included both those evocative of technology (such as the lightning bolt (electricity) or the tire (the automobile)), and those of the exotic (such as drawing elements from Mesoamerican, African, and Ancient Egyptian designs). Frank Lloyd Wright himself experimented with Mayan Revival, culminating in the concrete cube-based Ennis House of 1924 in Los Angeles. A later variant, Streamline Moderne, simultaneously both played a role in industrial design and borrowed forms from machines themselves. More restrained forms with national imagery were adopted. In the United States, it took the form of "Stripped Classicism" (alternatively, "PWA Moderne" or "WPA Moderne") a stark version of the Neoclassicism of Federal buildings earlier in the century.[10] It application ranged in scale from local post-offices to the Pentagon). At the same time (as noted above), the rise in nationalism was reflected in the Stalinist architecture of the Soviet Union, Fascist architecture of Italy, and Nazi architecture of Germany, what historian Kenneth Frampton termed the "New Tradition".[11] To a less political extent, such an idea of modernized tradition could also be seen in contemporaneous Mycenaean Revival architecture. During and following World War II, this broad branch of modern architecture declined, with the rise of the International Style and other mid-century architecture.
Wartime innovation

Quonset hut en route to Japan

World War II (19391945) and its aftermath was a major factor in driving innovation in building technology, and in turn, architectural possibilities. [10][12] The wartime industrial demands resulting in a supply shortage (of such things as steel and other metals), in turn leading to the adoption of new materials, and advancement or novel use of old ones. Similarly, surplus postwar industrial capacity accelerated the use of new materials and techniques, particular architectural aluminium (as a result of advances made in its use in aircraft, etc., during the war).[12] At the same time, there was a rapid demand for structures during the war (such as military and governmental facilities) as well as for housing after the war. These factors encouraged experiments with prefabricated building. Though examples of prefabrication have existed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, with notable examples during the Interwar period such as the diner, the semi-circular metal Nissen hut of World War I revived as the Quonset hut, the post-war enameled-steel Lustron house (1947 1950), and Buckminster Fuller's experimental aluminum Dymaxion House.[13]

International Style

The Seagram Building, New York City, 1958, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is regarded as one of the finest examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a masterpiece of corporate modernism. Main article: International Style (architecture)

In 1932 (prior to World War II), the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Philip Johnson and collaborator HenryRussell Hitchcock drew together many distinct threads and trends in architecture, identified them as stylistically similar and having a common purpose, and consolidated them into the
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International style. This was a turning point. However, for the remainder of the Interwar period, the Moderne styles overshadowed this movement. With the labeling of modernist art and architecture in Germany as degenerate, followed by World War II, important figures of the Bauhaus and New Objectivity fled to the United States: Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius went to the Harvard Graduate School of Design (the former becoming part of a group known as the "Harvard Five"), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Chicago, with others going to Black Mountain College. Still others fled to British Palestine, contributing to the design of the White City of Tel Aviv. While high-style modernist architectural design never became dominant in single-dwelling residential buildings in the United States, in institutional and commercial architecture Modernism became the pre-eminent, and in the schools (for leaders of the architectural profession) the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984. [citation needed] Architects who worked in the International style wanted to break with architectural tradition and design simple, unornamented buildings. The most commonly used materials are glass for the facade (usually a curtain wall), steel for exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports; floor plans were functional and logical. The style became most evident in the design of skyscrapers. Perhaps its most famous manifestations include the United Nations headquarters (Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard Robertson), the Seagram Building and the Toronto-Dominion Centre (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and Lever House (Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill). In the United States, a prominent early residential example was the Lovell House in Los Angeles, designed by Austrian expatriate Richard Neutra in the 1920s. Other examples include the Case Study Houses. Commissioned between 1945 and 1966, the twenty or so homes that were built primarily in and around Los Angeles, designed by architects such as Neutra and Americans Charles and Ray Eames (the Eames House) have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors since their completion, and have influenced many architects over the years, notably the British architect, Michael Manser, whose domestic work is best exemplified by Capel Manor House in Kent. These and other Modern residences tend to focus on humanizing the otherwise harsh ideal, making them more livable and ultimately more appealing to real people. Many of these designs use a similar tactic: blurring the line between indoor and outdoor spaces.[14] This is achieved by embracing "the box" while at the same time dissolving it into the background with minimal structure and large glass walls, as was particularly the case with the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe and the Glass House by Philip Johnson, the later part of a set of residences by the "Harvard Five" in New Canaan, Connecticut. Some critics claim that these spaces remain too cold and static for the average person to function, however. The materials utilized in a large number of Modern homes are not hidden behind a softening facade. While this may make them somewhat less desirable for the general public, most modernist architects see this as a necessary and pivotal tenet of Modernism: uncluttered and purely Minimal design.[citation needed]

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Urban design and mass housing

National Congress of Brazil, by Oscar Niemeyer, in the modernist-designed city of Brasilia. This section requires expansion. (March 2011) Main articles: Congrs International d'Architecture Moderne and Athens Charter See also: Urban renewal

The Congrs Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) was a force in 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 became the Athens Charter, which would drive urban planning practice for much of the mid-20th century. Following its principles, in the late 1950s the entirely-new city of Braslia was built as a new capital for Brazil, designed by Lucio Costa, with prominent works for it designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Le Corbusier applied CIAM's principles in his design for the city of Chandigarh in India. The devastation that WWII wrought in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific and subsequent postwar housing shortages resulted 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 took the form of prefabricated panel buildings, such as the Plattenbau of East Germany, Khrushchyovka of Russia and the Panelk of Czechoslovakia.

Later modern architecture

Mid-Century reactions

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Saint John's Abbey Church, Collegeville, Minnesota, United States, by Marcel Breuer, 1958-1961 Main article: 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.

TWA Terminal, John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, 1962, by Eero Saarinen

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City, illustrating an example of "New Formalism"

Central Library of UNAM, in Mexico City, 1950-1956, showing the detailed artwork of plastic integration.

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Le Corbusier once described buildings as "machines for living", but people are not machines and it was suggested that they do not want to live in machines. [citation needed] During the middle of the century, some architects began experimenting in organic forms that they felt were more human and accessible. 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 Jrn Utzon. Eero Saarinen invoked 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.[15] The Mission 66 project of the United States National Park Service was also built during this time. Contributing to these expressions were structural advances that enabled new forms to be possible or desirable. Flix Candela, a Spanish expatriate living in Mexico, and Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, made 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", sometimes shortened to "Formalism").[15][16] Like the pre-war "Stripped Classicism", "New Formalism" blended elements of classicism (at their most abstracted levels) with modernist designs.[17] Characteristics drawing on classicism 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.[15][17] 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 (mid1960s) in New York.[15][17] 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 syncretization of Mexican artistic traditions (such as muralism) with International Style forms,[18] and can be seen in the later works of Luis Barragn and Juan O'Gorman, epitomized by the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM in Mexico City.[19]
Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior, product and graphic design that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. The term, employed as a style descriptor as early as the mid-1950s, was reaffirmed in 1983 by Cara Greenberg in the title of her book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s (Random House), celebrating the style which is now recognized by scholars and museums worldwide as a significant design movement.

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Architecture
Many consider Frank Lloyd Wright's principle movement of organic architecture combined with Arts and Crafts as an American jumping point for the aesthetic of Mid-Century Modern, however one need only visit a Wright house's interior to realize the Mid-Century modern movement in the US was really an American reflection of the International and Bauhaus movements including the works of Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies Van Der Rohe. Though the American component was slightly more organic in form and less formal than the International Style it is more firmly related to it than any other. Brazilian and Scandinavian architects were very influential at this time, with a style characterized by clean simplicity and integration with nature. Like many of Wright's designs, Mid-Century architecture was frequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism into America's post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windows and open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing the outdoors in. Many Mid-century houses utilized then-groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs, with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residential Mid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style.

Eichler Homes Foster Residence, Granada Hills

In Europe the influence of Le Corbusier and the CIAM resulted in an architectural orthodoxy manifest across most parts of Post War Europe that was ultimately challenged by the radical agendas of the architectural wings of the avant-garde Situationist International, COBRA, as well as Archigram in London. A critical but sympathetic reappraisal of the internationalist oeuvre, inspired by Scandinavian Moderns such as Alvar Aalto, Sigurd Lewerentz and Arne Jacobsen and the late work of Le Corbusier himself was reinterpreted by groups such as Team X including structuralist architects such as Aldo van Eyck, Ralph Erskine, Denys Lasdun, Jorn Utzon and the movement known in the UK as New Brutalism. Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was instrumental in bringing Mid-Century Modern architecture ("Eichler Homes") to subdivisions in the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay region of California and select housing developments on the east
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coast. George Fred Keck, his brother Willam Keck, Henry P. Glass, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created Mid-Century Modern residences in the Chicago area. Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House is extremely difficult to heat or cool, while Keck and Keck were pioneers in the incorporation of passive solar features in their houses to compensate for their large glass windows.
Mid-Century modern in Palm Springs

Miller House, by Richard Neutra

The city of Palm Springs, California is noted for its many examples of Mid-Century modern architecture.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Architects[8] include:[9]

Welton Becket Bullock's Palm Springs (with Wurdeman) (1947) (demolished, 1996[10]) John Porter Clark Welwood Murray Library (1937); Clark Residence (1939)(on the El Minador golf course); Palm Springs Women's Club (1939) William F. Cody Stanley Goldberg residence;[11] Del Marcos Motel (1947); L'Horizon Hotel, for Jack Wrather and Bonita Granville (1952); remodel of Thunderbird Country Club clubhouse (c. 1953) (Rancho Mirage); Tamarisk Country Club (1953) (Rancho Mirage) (now remodeled); Huddle Springs restaurant (1957); St. Theresa Parish Church (1968); Palm Springs Library (1975) Craig Ellwood Max Palevsky House (1970) Albert Frey Palm Springs City Hall (with Clark and Chambers) (19521957); Palm Springs Fire Station #1 (1955); Tramway Gas Station (1963); Movie Colony Hotel; Kocher-Samson Building (1934) (with A. Lawrence Kocher); Raymond Loewy House (1946); Villa Hermosa Resort (1946); Frey House I (1953); Frey House II (1963); Carey-Pirozzi house (1956); Christian Scientist Church (1957); Alpha Beta Shopping Center (1960)(demolished) Victor Gruen City National Bank (now Bank of America) (1959)[12] (designed as an homage to the Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, by Le Corbusier) A. Quincy Jones Palm Springs Tennis Club (with Paul R. Williams) (1946); Town & Country Center (with Paul R. Williams) (19471950); J.J. Robinson House (with Frederick E. Emmons) (1957); Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg House (with Frederick E. Emmons) (1963) John Lautner Desert Hot Springs Motel (1947); Arthur Elrod House (1968)(interiors used in filming James Bond's Diamonds Are Forever); Bob Hope's home (1973) Frederick Monhoff Palm Springs Biltmore Resort (1948) (demolished, 2003[10]) 15

Richard Neutra (Posthumous AIA Gold Medal honoree) Grace Lewis Miller house (1937) (includes her Mensendlieck posture therapy studio);[13] Kaufman House (1946);[14] Samuel and Luella Maslon House, Tamarisk Country Club, Rancho Mirage (1962) (demolished, 2003[10]) William Pereira Robinson's (1953) William Gray Purcell (with protg Van Evera Bailey) Purcell House (1933) (cubist modern) R.M. Schindler Paul and Betty Popenoe Cabin, Coachella (1922, demolished); Maryon Toole House (1947)(Palm Desert) Charles Tanner Community Church (1935) Earle Webster "The Ship of the Desert" nautical moderne house (1936) (with Adrian Wilson) Donald Wexler Steel Developmental Houses,[15] Sunny View Drive (1961). Home developer, Alexander Homes, popularized this post-and-beam architectural style in the Coachella Valley. Alexander houses and similar homes feature low-pitched roofs, wide eaves, openbeamed ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows.[4]:6675 E. Stewart Williams Frank Sinatra House (1946) (with piano-shaped pool); Oasis commercial building (with interiors by Paul R. Williams) (1952); William and Marjorie Edris House (1954); Mari and Steward Williams House (1956); Santa Fe Federal Savings Building (1958); Coachella Valley Savings & Loan (now Washington Mutual) (1960); Palm Springs Desert Museum (1976) Harry Williams Plaza Shopping Center (1936) (one of the first car-oriented centers in the United States) Paul Williams Palm Springs Tennis Club (with Jones) (1946) Lloyd Wright Oasis Hotel (1923) Walter Wurdeman Bullock's Palm Springs (with Welton Becket) (1947) (demolished, 1996[10])

Restoration projects have been undertaken to return many of these homes and businesses to their original condition.[16]

Industrial design
Scandinavian design was very influential at this time, with a style characterized by simplicity, democratic design and natural shapes. Glassware (Iittala Finland), ceramics (Arabia Finland), tableware (George Jensen Denmark), lighting (Poul Henningsen Denmark), and furniture (Danish modern) were some of the genres for the products created. Edith Heath (19112005) was an industrial designer, potter, and founder of Heath Ceramics in 1948. The company, well known for its Mid-Century modern ceramic dish-ware (Heathware) and architectural tiles, is still operating out of Sausalito, in Marin County of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Edith Heath's "Coupe" line remains in demand and has been in constant production since 1948, with only periodic changes to the texture and color of the glazes.[17]

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Brutalism and monumentality

The National Assembly Building of Bangladesh by Louis Kahn; compare its "weightiness" with works above. Main article: Brutalist architecture

Architects such as Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei and others responded to the "light" glass curtain walls advocated by Ludwig Mies van der 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 "Bton brut" ("raw 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 such as brickwork in a similar fashion. The term was first used in architecture by Le Corbusier. Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Examples are typically very linear, fortresslike and blockish, often with a predominance of concrete construction. Initially the style came about for government buildings, low-rent housing and shopping centers to create functional structures at a low cost, but eventually designers adopted the look for other uses such as college buildings. Critics of the style find it unappealing due to its "cold" appearance, projecting an atmosphere of totalitarianism, as well as the association of the buildings with urban decay due to materials weathering poorly in certain climates and the surfaces being prone to vandalism by graffiti. Despite this, the style is appreciated by others [who?], with some of the angular features being softened and updated in buildings currently being constructed in Israel and Latin America, and preservation efforts are taking place in the United Kingdom. The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term in 1953, from the French bton brut, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured boardmarked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings. The term gained wide currency when the British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in the title of his 1966 book, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?, to characterize a somewhat recently established cluster of architectural approaches, particularly in Europe. [1]
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Characteristics

Trellick Tower, London, 19661972, designed by Ern Goldfinger. It is Grade II* listed.

Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and, where concrete is used, often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting. Although concrete is the material most widely associated with Brutalist architecture, not all Brutalist buildings are formed from concrete. Instead, a building may achieve its Brutalist quality through a rough, blocky appearance, and the expression of its structural materials, forms, and (in some cases) services on its exterior. [citation needed] For example, many of Alison and Peter Smithson's private houses are built from brick. Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions. Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism, International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism. Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functions ranging from their structure and services to their human usein the exterior of the building. In the Boston City Hall, designed in 1962, the strikingly different and projected portions of the building indicate the special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such as the mayor's office or the city council chambers. From another perspective, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the facility's water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominent, visible tower. Brutalism as an architectural philosophy, rather than a style, was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. Critics argue that this abstract nature of Brutalism makes the style unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being integrating and protective, as its proponents intended. Brutalism also is criticised as disregarding the social,
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historic, and architectural environment of its surroundings, making the introduction of such structures in existing developed areas appear starkly out of place and alien. The failure of positive communities to form early on in some Brutalist structures, possibly due to the larger processes of urban decay that set in after World War II (especially in the United Kingdom), led to the combined unpopularity of both the ideology and the architectural style.

History

Royal Liverpool University Hospital in Liverpool, England.

J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. This section requires expansion. (March 2011)

The best known early Brutalist architecture is the work of the French architect Le Corbusier, in particular his Unit d'Habitation (1952) and the 1953 Secretariat Building in Chandigarh, India. Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the United Kingdom during the mid twentieth century, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the 'honesty', the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style.
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Combined with the socially progressive intentions behind Brutalist streets in the sky housings such as Corbusier's Unit, Brutalism was promoted as a positive option for forward-moving, modern urban housing. In practice, however, many of the buildings built in this style lacked many of the community-serving features of Corbusier's vision, and instead, developed into claustrophobic, crime-ridden tenements. Robin Hood Gardens is a particularly notorious example, although the worst of its problems have been overcome in recent years. Some such buildings took decades to develop into positive communities. The rough coolness of concrete lost its appeal under a damp and gray northern sky, and its fortress-like material, touted as vandal-proof, soon proved vulnerable to spray-can graffiti.

Figures

The Habitat 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

In the United Kingdom, Architects associated with the Brutalist style include Ern Goldfinger, wife-and-husband pairing Alison and Peter Smithson, Richard Seifert, Basil Spence, John Bancroft and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun. In Australia, examples of the Brutalist style are Robin Gibson's Queensland Art Gallery, Ken Woolley's Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (his State Office Block is another, High Court of Australia by Colin Madigan in Canberra and WTC Wharf (World Trade Centre in Melbourne).[2] John Andrews's government and institutional structures in Australia also exhibit the style. Paul Rudolph and Ralph Rapson, from the United States are both noted Brutalists. Walter Netsch is known for his Brutalist academic buildings (see above). Marcel Breuer was known for his "soft" approach to the style, often using curves rather than corners. Clorindo Testa in Argentina created the Bank of London and South America, one of the best examples of the fifties. More recent Modernists such as I.M. Pei and Tadao Ando also have designed notable Brutalist works. In Brazil, the style is associated with the Paulista School and is evident in the works of Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006). In the Philippines, Leandro Locsin designed the massive brutalist structures, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine International Convention Center. In New Zealand, Sir Miles Warren and his practice Warren & Mahoney led the development of the so-called "Christchurch School" of architecture, which fused Brutalist architectural style with Scandinavian and Japanese values of straightforwardness. Warren's buildings have had a significant effect on New Zealand's public architecture.

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Architects whose work reflects certain aspects of the Brutalist style include Louis Kahn. Architectural historian William Jordy says that although Kahn was "[o]pposed to what he regarded as the muscular posturing of most Brutalism", some of his work "was surely informed by some of the same ideas that came to momentary focus in the Brutalist position."[3]

On university campuses
In the late 1960s, many campuses in North America were undergoing expansions and, as a result, there are a significant number of Brutalist buildings at American and Canadian universities, beginning with Paul Rudolph's 1958 Yale Art and Architecture Building and the 1965 Art Museum at Colgate. Rudolph's design for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is an example of an entire campus designed from scratch in the Brutalist style. Likewise, architect Walter Netsch designed the entire University of Illinois-Chicago Circle Campus (now the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago) under a single, unified brutalist design.[4] The University of Chicago's Joseph Regenstein Library is one of the largest libraries in the world, designed in the brutalist style.
Juxtaposition with Historic Buildings

Edinburgh University's Appleton Tower, crudely juxtaposed next to an 18th century terrace

Brutalist appears at its most brutal when placed in a historic context such as next to a listed building or within a conservation area. Here the contrast in scale and detail epitomises why the style obtained its name. Excellent examples exist in historic university cities such as Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Criticism and reception

Park Hill (detail), Sheffield. Lynn, Smith 1961

The proposed demolition of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Washington, D.C. has resulted in court battles between historic preservationists and church members. Brutalism has some severe critics, including Charles, Prince of Wales. His speeches and writings on architecture have excoriated Brutalism, calling many of the structures "piles of concrete". "You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe", said Prince Charles at the Corporation of London Planning and Communication Committee's annual dinner at Mansion House in December 1987. "When it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble."[5] Much of the criticism comes not only from the designs of the buildings, but also from the fact that concrete faades do not age well in damp, cloudy maritime climates such as those of northwestern Europe and New England. In these climates, the concrete becomes streaked with water stains and sometimes with moss and lichens, and rust leaches from the steel reinforcing bars. At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, to the hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late 1970s. This led to the development of Alexander's A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building. In recent years, the bad memories of under-served Brutalist community structures have led to their demolition in communities eager to make way for newer, more traditionallyoriented community structures. Despite a nascent modernist appreciation movement, and the identified success that some of this style's offspring have had, many others have been or are slated to be demolished.

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Theodore Dalrymple, a British author, physican, and political commentator, has written for City Journal that Brutalist structures represent an artifact of European philosophical totalitarianism, a "spiritual, intellectual, and moral deformity." He called the buildings "coldhearted", "inhuman", "hideous", and "monstrous". He stated that the reinforced concrete "does not age gracefully but instead crumbles, stains, and decays", which makes alternative building styles superior.[6]

Brutalism today

Western City Gate, Belgrade, Serbia, 1980

The Buffalo City Court Building in Buffalo, NY. Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely given way to Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced an updating of sorts in recent years. Many of the rougher aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete faades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface,
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covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. Modernist architects taking this approach in recent projects include Steven Ehrlich, Ricardo Legorreta, and Gin Wong. The firm of Victor Gruen and Associates has revamped the style for the many courthouse buildings it has been contracted to design. Architects from Latin America have been reviving the style on a smaller scale in recent years. Brutalism has recently experienced a major revival in Israel, due to the perceived sense of strength and security the style creates. Even in Britain, where the style was most prevalent (and later the most reviled), a number of buildings recently (as of 2006) have appeared in an updated Brutalist style, including Solidspace's 1 Centaur Street in Lambeth, London, and Elder & Cannon's The Icon in Glasgow in Scotland. The 2005 Stirling Prize shortlist contained a number of buildings (most notably Zaha Hadid's BMW Central Building and the eventual winner, Enric Miralles' Scottish Parliament Building) featuring significant amounts of exposed concrete, something that would have been regarded as aesthetically unacceptable when the prize was inaugurated nine years previously. There also has been a reappraisal of first-generation Brutalist architecture and a growing appreciation that dislike of the buildings often stems from poor maintenance and social problems resulting from poor management, rather than the designs themselves. In 2005 the British television channel Channel 4 ran a documentary, I Love Carbuncles, which placed the U.K.'s Brutalist legacy in a more positive light. Some Brutalist buildings have been granted listed status as historic and others, such as Gillespie, Kidd and Coia's St. Peter's Seminary, named by Prospect magazine's survey of architects as Scotland's greatest post-war building, have been the subject of conservation campaigns. The Twentieth Century Society has campaigned against the demolition of buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car Park.

Tube architecture
Main article: Tube (structure)

In 1963, a new structural system of framed tubes appeared in skyscraper design and construction. The Bangladeshi architect and structure engineer Fazlur Khan defined the framed tube structure as "a three dimensional space structure composed of three, four, or possibly more frames, braced frames, or shear walls, joined at or near their edges to form a vertical tube-like structural system capable of resisting lateral forces in any direction by cantilevering from the foundation."[20] Closely spaced interconnected exterior columns form the tube. Horizontal loads, for example wind, are supported by the structure as a whole. About half the exterior surface is available for windows. Framed tubes allow fewer interior columns, and so create more usable floor space. Where larger openings like garage doors are required, the tube frame must be interrupted, with transfer girders used to maintain structural integrity. The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1963.[21] This laid the
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foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own John Hancock Center and Sears Tower, and can been seen in the construction of the World Trade Center and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s, such as the Petronas Towers and the Jin Mao Building.[22] The architecture of Chicago employing the ideas developed by Khan is often known as the "Second Chicago School".[23] In structural engineering, the tube is the system where in order to resist lateral loads (wind, seismic, etc.) a building is designed to act like a hollow cylinder, cantilevered perpendicular to the ground. This system was introduced by Fazlur Rahman Khan while at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's (SOM) Chicago office.[1] The first example of the tubes use is the 43story Khan-designed DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building in Chicago, Illinois, completed in 1963.[2] The system can be constructed using steel, concrete, or composite construction (the discrete use of both steel and concrete). It can be used for office, apartment and mixed-use buildings. Most buildings in excess of 40 stories constructed since the 1960s are of this structural type.

Concept
The tube system concept is based on the idea that a building can be designed to resist lateral loads by designing it as a hollow cantilever perpendicular to the ground. In the simplest incarnation of the tube, the perimeter of the exterior consists of closely spaced columns that are tied together with deep spandrel beams through moment connections. This assembly of columns and beams forms a rigid frame that amounts to a dense and strong structural wall along the exterior of the building. [3] This exterior framing is designed sufficiently strong to resist all lateral loads on the building, thereby allowing the interior of the building to be simply framed for gravity loads. Interior columns are comparatively few and located at the core. The distance between the exterior and the core frames is spanned with beams or trusses and intentionally left column-free. This maximizes the effectiveness of the perimeter tube by transferring some of the gravity loads within the structure to it and increases its ability to resist overturning due to lateral loads.

History
By 1963, a new structural system of framed tubes had appeared in skyscraper design and construction. Fazlur Khan defined the framed tube structure as "a three dimensional space structure composed of three, four, or possibly more frames, braced frames, or shear walls, joined at or near their edges to form a vertical tube-like structural system capable of resisting lateral forces in any direction by cantilevering from the foundation."[4] Closely spaced interconnected exterior columns form the tube. Horizontal loads, wind for example, are supported by the structure as a whole. About half the exterior surface is available for windows. Framed tubes allow fewer interior columns, and so create more usable floor

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space. Where larger openings like garage doors are required, the tube frame must be interrupted, with transfer girders used to maintain structural integrity. The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut apartment building which Khan designed and which was completed in Chicago by 1963.[5] This laid the foundations for the tube structural design of many later skyscrapers, including his own John Hancock Center and Willis Tower, and the construction of the World Trade Center, Petronas Towers, Jin Mao Building, and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s.[6]

Variations
From its conception, the tube has been varied to suit different structural requirements:
Framed tube

WTC Twin Towers structures was one of the first in use the framed tube design.

This is the simplest incarnation of the tube. It can take a variety of floor plan shapes from square and rectangular, circular, and freeform. This design was first used in Chicago's DeWitt-Chestnut apartment building, designed by Khan and completed in 1965, but the most notable examples are the Aon Center and the original World Trade Center towers.
Trussed tube

Also known as the braced tube, it is similar to the simple tube but with comparatively fewer and farther-spaced exterior columns. Steel bracings or concrete shear walls are introduced along the exterior walls to compensate for the fewer columns by tying them together. The most notable examples incorporating steel bracing are the John Hancock Center, the Citigroup Center and the Bank of China Tower. When the outer columns are insuffient to support the load, interior cores can be used. 780 Third Avenue on Manhattan, a 50-story concrete frame office building, is an example of using concrete shear walls for bracing while also incorporating an off-center core.[7]

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Bundled tube

Breakdown of the bundled tube structure of the Willis Tower with simplified floor plans.

Instead of one tube, a building consists of several tubes tied together to resist the lateral forces. Such buildings have interior columns along the perimeters of the tubes when they fall within the building envelope. Notable examples include Willis Tower and One Magnificent Mile.

Willis Tower, completed in 1973, introduced the bundled tube structural design and was the world's tallest building until 1998

The bundle tube design was not only highly efficient in economic terms, but it was also "innovative in its potential for versatile formulation of architectural space. Efficient towers no longer had to be box-like; the tube-units could take on various shapes and could be bundled together in different sorts of groupings." [8] The bundled tube structure meant that "buildings no longer need be boxlike in appearance: they could become sculpture."[9]

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Postmodern architecture
Main article: Postmodern architecture

The Sony Building (formerly AT&T building) in New York City, 1984, by Philip Johnson, illustrating a Postmodern spin on the boxy office towers that preceded it with the inclusion of a classical broken pediment on the top.

Modern architecture met with some criticism, which began in the 1960s on the grounds that it seemed universal, elitist, and lacked meaning. Siegfried Giedion in the 1961 introduction to his evolving text, Space, Time and Architecture (first written in 1941), began "At the moment a certain confusion exists in contemporary architecture, as in painting; a kind of pause, even a kind of exhaustion." At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 1961 symposium discussed the question "Modern Architecture: Death or Metamorphosis?" The loss of traditionalist structures to make way for new modernist construction, especially via the Urban Renewal movement, led to further criticism, particularly the demolition of Penn Station in New York in 1963. That same year, controversy materialized around the Pan
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Am Building that loomed over Grand Central Terminal, taking advantage of the modernist real estate concept of "air rights",[24] In criticism by Ada Louise Huxtable and Douglass Haskell it was seen to "sever" the Park Avenue streetscape and "tarnish" the reputations of its consortium of architects: Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi and the builders Emery Roth & Sons. The proposal for a tower over the terminal itself resulted in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, upholding the city's landmark laws. Alongside these preservation efforts came the increasing respectability and fashionability of more traditional styles. Architects explored Postmodern architecture which offered a blend of some pre-modern elements, and deliberately sought to move away from rectilinear designs, towards more eclectic styles. Even Philip Johnson came to admit that he was "bored with the box." By the 1980s, postmodern architecture appeared to trend over modernism. High Postmodern aesthetics lacked traction and by the mid-1990s, a new surge of modern architecture once again established international pre-eminence. As part of this revival, much of the criticism of the modernists was re-evaluated; and a modernistic style once again dominates in institutional and commercial contemporary practice. Although modern and postmodern design compete with a revival of traditional architectural design in commercial and institutional architecture; residential design continues to be dominated by a traditional aesthetic. Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s[1] and continues to influence present-day architecture. Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. As with many cultural movements, some of Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved through centuries of building which had been abandoned by the modern style. Influential early large-scale examples of postmodern architecture are Michael Graves' Portland Building in Portland, Oregon and Philip Johnson's Sony Building (originally AT&T Building) in New York City, which borrows elements and references from the past and reintroduces color and symbolism to architecture. Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic, where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and unusual surfaces, most famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling and the Piazza d'Italia by Charles Moore. The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh has also been cited as being of postmodern vogue.[citation needed]

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Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings as vulgar, associated with a populist ethic, and sharing the design elements of shopping malls, cluttered with "gew-gaws". Postmodern architects may regard many modern buildings as soulless and bland, overly simplistic and abstract. This contrast was exemplified in the juxtaposition of the "whites" against the "grays," in which the "whites" were seeking to continue (or revive) the modernist tradition of purism and clarity, while the "grays" were embracing a more multifaceted cultural vision, seen in Robert Venturi's statement rejecting the "black or white" world view of modernism in favor of "black and white and sometimes gray." The divergence in opinions comes down to a difference in goals: modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of material as well as absence of ornament, while postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists and seeks meaning and expression in the use of building techniques, forms, and stylistic references. One building form that typifies the explorations of Postmodernism is the traditional gable roof, in place of the iconic flat roof of modernism. Shedding water away from the center of the building, such a roof form always served a functional purpose in climates with rain and snow, and was a logical way to achieve larger spans with shorter structural members, but it was nevertheless relatively rare in modern houses. (These were, after all, "machines for living," according to LeCorbusier, and machines did not usually have gabled roofs.) However, Postmodernism's own modernist roots appear in some of the noteworthy examples of "reclaimed" roofs. For instance, Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House breaks the gable in the middle, denying the functionality of the form, and Philip Johnson's 1001 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan advertises a mansard roof form as an obviously flat, false front. Another alternative to the flat roofs of modernism would exaggerate a traditional roof to call even more attention to it, as when Kallmann McKinnell & Wood's American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, layers three tiers of low hipped roof forms one above another for an emphatic statement of shelter.

Relationship to previous styles

San Antonio Public Library, Texas

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Ancient ruyi symbol adorning Taipei 101, Taiwan New trends became evident in the last quarter of the 20th century as some architects started to turn away from modern Functionalism which they viewed as boring, and which some of the public considered unwelcoming and even unpleasant. These architects turned towards the past, quoting past aspects of various buildings and melding them together (even sometimes in an inharmonious manner) to create a new means of designing buildings. A vivid example of this new approach was that Postmodernism saw the comeback of columns and other elements of premodern designs, sometimes adapting classical Greek and Roman examples (but not simply recreating them, as was done in neoclassical architecture). In Modernism, the traditional column (as a design feature) was treated as a cylindrical pipe form, replaced by other technological means such as cantilevers, or masked completely by curtain wall faades. The revival of the column was an aesthetic, rather than a technological, necessity. Modernist high-rise buildings had become in most instances monolithic, rejecting the concept of a stack of varied design elements for a single vocabulary from ground level to the top, in the most extreme cases even using a constant "footprint" (with no tapering or "wedding cake" design), with the building sometimes even suggesting the possibility of a single metallic extrusion directly from the ground, mostly by eliminating visual horizontal elementsthis was seen most strictly in Minoru Yamasaki's World Trade Center buildings. Another return was that of the wit, ornament and reference seen in older buildings in terra cotta decorative faades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the BeauxArts and Art Deco periods. In Postmodern structures this was often achieved by placing contradictory quotes of previous building styles alongside each other, and even incorporating furniture stylistic references at a huge scale. Contextualism, a trend in thinking in the later parts of 20th century, influences the ideologies of the postmodern movement in general. Contextualism is centered on the belief that all knowledge is context-sensitive. This idea was even taken further to say that knowledge cannot be understood without considering its context. While noteworthy examples of modern architecture responded both subtly and directly to their physical context (analyzed by Thomas Schumacher in "Contextualism: Urban Ideals and Deformations," and by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in Collage City[2]), postmodern architecture often addressed the context in terms of the materials, forms and details of the buildings around itthe cultural context. The term "Contextualism" itself is an amalgamation of the words "context" and "texture".[2]

Roots of Postmodernism

The interior of the Basilica of Our Lady of Liche clearly draws from classical forms of Western European church architecture.
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The Postmodernist movement began in America around the 1960s1970s and then it spread to Europe and the rest of the world, to remain right through to the present. The aims of Postmodernism or Late-modernism begin with its reaction to Modernism; it tries to address the limitations of its predecessor. The list of aims is extended to include communicating ideas with the public often in a then humorous or witty way. Often, the communication is done by quoting extensively from past architectural styles, often many at once. In breaking away from modernism, it also strives to produce buildings that are sensitive to the context within which they are built. Postmodernism has its origins in the perceived failure of Modern Architecture. Its preoccupation with functionalism and economical building meant that ornaments were done away with and the buildings were cloaked in a stark rational appearance. Many felt the buildings failed to meet the human need for comfort both for body and for the eye, that modernism did not account for the desire for beauty. The problem worsened when some already monotonous apartment blocks degenerated into slums. In response, architects sought to reintroduce ornament, color, decoration and human scale to buildings. Form was no longer to be defined solely by its functional requirements or minimal appearance.

Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London by Robert Venturi (1991)

Robert Venturi

Vanna Venturi House with its split gable Robert Venturi was at the forefront of this movement. His book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (published in 1966), was instrumental in opening readers eyes to new ways of thinking about buildings, as it drew from the entire history of architecture both high-style and vernacular, both historic and modernand lambasted overly simplistic Functional Modernism. The move away from modernisms functionalism is well illustrated by Venturis adaptation of Mies van der Rohes famous maxim Less is more to "Less is a bore." The book includes a number of the architect's own designs in the back, including structures such as Guild House, in Philadelphia, that became major icons of postmodernism. He sought to bring back ornament because of its necessity. He explains this and his criticism of Modernism in his Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by saying that:
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Architects can bemoan or try to ignore them (referring to the ornamental and decorative elements in buildings) or even try to abolish them, but they will not go away. Or they will not go away for a long time, because architects do not have the power to replace them (nor do they know what to replace them with). Venturi's second book, Learning from Las Vegas (1972) further developed his take on modernism. Co-authored with his wife, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas argues that ornamental and decorative elements accommodate existing needs for variety and communication. Alex Todorow in one of his essays, A View from the Campidoglio, to that effect when he says that: When [he] was young, a sure way to distinguish great architects was through the consistency and originality of their work...This should no longer be the case. Where the Modern masters' strength lay in consistency, ours should lie in diversity. Postmodernism with its diversity possesses sensitivity to the buildings context and history, and the clients requirements. The postmodernist architects often considered the general requirements of the urban buildings and their surroundings during the buildings design. For example, in Frank Gehry's Venice Beach House, the neighboring houses have a similar bright flat color. This vernacular sensitivity is often evident, but other times the designs respond to more high-style neighbors. James Stirling's Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University features a rounded corner and striped brick patterning that relate to the form and decoration of the polychromatic Victorian Memorial Hall across the street, although in neither case is the element imitative or historicist.

Aims and characteristics

The City Hall in Mississauga, Ontario conveys a Postmodern architectural style depicting the concept of a "futuristic farm".

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Hood Museum of Art at the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (1983) The aims of Postmodernism, including solving the problems of Modernism, communicating meanings with ambiguity, and sensitivity for the buildings context, are surprisingly unified for a period of buildings designed by architects who largely never collaborated with each other. The aims do, however, leave room for various implementations as can be illustrated by the diverse buildings created during the movement. The characteristics of postmodernism allow its aim to be expressed in diverse ways. These characteristics include the use of sculptural forms, ornaments, anthropomorphism and materials which perform trompe l'oeil. These physical characteristics are combined with conceptual characteristics of meaning. These characteristics of meaning include pluralism, double coding, flying buttresses and high ceilings, irony and paradox, and contextualism. The sculptural forms, not necessarily organic, were created with much ardor. These can be seen in Hans Holleins Abteiberg Museum (19721982). The building is made up of several building units, all very different. Each buildings forms are nothing like the conforming rigid ones of Modernism. These forms are sculptural and are somewhat playful. These forms are not reduced to an absolute minimum; they are built and shaped for their own sake. The building units all fit together in a very organic way, which enhances the effect of the forms. After many years of neglect, ornament returned. Frank Gehrys Venice Beach house, built in 1986, is littered with small ornamental details that would have been considered excessive and needless in Modernism. The Venice Beach House has an assembly of circular logs which exist mostly for decoration. The logs on top do have a minor purpose of holding up the window covers. However, the mere fact that they could have been replaced with a practically invisible nail, makes their exaggerated existence largely ornamental. The ornament in Michael Graves' Portland Municipal Services Building ("Portland Building") (1980) is even more prominent. The two obtruding triangular forms are largely ornamental. They exist for aesthetic or their own purpose.[citation needed] Postmodernism, with its sensitivity to the buildings context, did not exclude the needs of humans from the building. Carlo Scarpa's Brion Cemetery (197072) exemplifies this. The human requirements of a cemetery is that it possesses a solemn nature, yet it must not cause the visitor to become depressed. Scarpas cemetery achieves the solemn mood with
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the dull gray colors of the walls and neatly defined forms, but the bright green grass prevents this from being too overwhelming.[citation needed] Postmodern buildings sometimes utilize trompe l'oeil, creating the illusion of space or depths where none actually exist, as has been done by painters since the Romans. The Portland Building (1980) has pillars represented on the side of the building that to some extent appear to be real, yet they are not.[citation needed] The Hood Museum of Art (19811983) has a typical symmetrical faade which was at the time prevalent throughout Postmodern Buildings.[citation needed] Robert Venturis Vanna Venturi House (196264) illustrates the Postmodernist aim of communicating a meaning and the characteristic of symbolism. The faade is, according to Venturi, a symbolic picture of a house, looking back to the 18th century. This is partly achieved through the use of symmetry and the arch over the entrance. [citation needed] Perhaps the best example of irony in Postmodern buildings is Charles Moores Piazza d'Italia (1978). Moore quotes (architecturally) elements of Italian renaissance and Roman Antiquity. However, he does so with a twist. The irony comes when it is noted that the pillars are covered with steel. It is also paradoxical in the way he quotes Italian antiquity far away from the original in New Orleans.[citation needed] Double coding meant the buildings convey many meanings simultaneously. The Sony Building in New York does this very well. The building is a tall skyscraper which brings with it connotations of very modern technology. Yet, the top contradicts this. The top section conveys elements of classical antiquity. This double coding is a prevalent trait of Postmodernism.[citation needed] The characteristics of Postmodernism were rather unified given their diverse appearances. The most notable among their characteristics is their playfully extravagant forms and the humour of the meanings the buildings conveyed.[citation needed]

Influential architects
Some of the best-known and influential architects in the Postmodern style are:
The template below (Columns-list) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.

Aldo Rossi Barbara Bielecka Ricardo Bofill John Burgee Terry Farrell Michael Graves Helmut Jahn Jon Jerde Philip Johnson
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Ricardo Legorreta Frank Gehry Charles Moore Boris Podrecca Csar Pelli Paolo Portoghesi Siavash Teimouri Antoine Predock Toms Taveira Robert A.M. Stern James Stirling Robert Venturi Peter Eisenman Mario Botta

Changing pedagogies
Critics of the reductionism of modernism often noted the abandonment of the teaching of architectural history as a causal factor. The fact that a number of the major players in the shift away from modernism were trained at Princeton University's School of Architecture, where recourse to history continued to be a part of design training in the 1940s and 1950s, was significant. The increasing rise of interest in history had a profound impact on architectural education. History courses became more typical and regularized. With the demand for professors knowledgeable in the history of architecture, several PhD programs in schools of architecture arose in order to differentiate themselves from art history PhD programs, where architectural historians had previously trained. In the US, MIT and Cornell were the first, created in the mid-1970s, followed by Columbia, Berkeley, and Princeton. Among the founders of new architectural history programs were Bruno Zevi at the Institute for the History of Architecture in Venice, Stanford Anderson and Henry Millon at MIT, Alexander Tzonis at the Architectural Association, Anthony Vidler at Princeton, Manfredo Tafuri at the University of Venice, Kenneth Frampton at Columbia University, and Werner Oechslin and Kurt Forster at ETH Zrich.[3] The creation of these programs was paralleled by the hiring, in the 1970s, of professionally trained historians by schools of architecture: Margaret Crawford (with a PhD from U.C.L.A) at SCI-Arc; Elisabeth Grossman (PhD, Brown University) at Rhode Island School of Design; Christian Otto[4] (PhD, Columbia University) at Cornell University; Richard Chafee (PhD, Courtauld Institute) at Roger Williams University; and Howard Burns (M.A. Kings College) at Harvard, to name just a few examples. A second generation of scholars then emerged that began to extend these efforts in the direction of what is now called theory: K. Michael Hays (PhD, MIT) at Harvard, Mark Wigley (PhD, Auckland University) at Princeton (now at Columbia University), and Beatriz Colomina (PhD, School of Architecture, Barcelona) at Princeton; Mark Jarzombek (PhD MIT) at Cornell (now at MIT), Jennifer Bloomer (PhD, Georgia Tech) at Iowa State and Catherine Ingraham (PhD, Johns Hopkins) now at Pratt Institute.

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Neomodern architecture
Further information: Neomodern

Neomodernism is a reaction to Postmodernism and its embrace of pre-modern elements of design. Examples of modern architecture in the 21st century include One World Trade Center (2013) in New York City and Tour First (2011), the tallest office building in the Paris metropolitan area. Emporis named Chicago's Modern Aqua Tower (2009) its skyscraper of the year.[25] Neomodern art is a reaction to the complexity of postmodern architecture and eclecticism, seeking greater simplicity.

Neomodern architecture
Neomodern architecture continues modernism as a dominant form of architecture in 20th and 21st centuries, especially in corporate offices. It tends to be used for certain segments of buildings. Residential houses tend to embrace neo-historical and neo-eclectic styles, for instance, and major monuments today most often opt for starchitect inspired uniqueness. Neomodern architecture shares many of the basic characteristics of modernism. Both reject the postmodern ornamentation, decorations, and deliberate attempts to imitate the past. Neomodern buildings, like modern ones, are designed to be largely monolithic and functional.

Neomodern artist group

The neomodern artist group was founded in 1997 by Guy Denning[1] on the premise that the diversity of contemporary art was being stifled by the state supported art institutions and organisations. The group have no common style or media but there is a bias towards figurative painting. Original artists listed: Jim Butler, David Cobley, Emily Cole, Mark Demsteader, Guy Denning, Ian Francis, Juno Doran, Ghislaine Howard, Jamin, Maya Kulenovic, Mark Stephen Meadows, Antony Micallef, Motorboy, Carol Peace, Graeme Robbins, Harry Simmonds, Tom Wilmott, Kit Wise, Claire Zakiewicz

Examples of contemporary modern architecture

Warsaw Central railway station (1975) in Poland.

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Crystal Cathedral (1980) in Garden Grove, California

Tour Total (1985) in the Paris suburb Courbevoie, La Dfense district.

Borgata (2003) in Atlantic City

Eureka Tower (2006) in Melbourne

Trump International Hotel and Tower (2009) in Chicago.

Reina Sofa Museum in Madrid.

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Preservation

In 2007, the Sydney Opera House by Jrn Utzon was listed as a World Heritage Site. Several works or collections of modern architecture have been designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. In addition to the early experiments associated with Art Nouveau, these include a number of the structures mentioned above in this article: the Rietveld Schrder House in Utrecht, the Bauhaus structures in Weimar and Dessau, the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, the White City of Tel Aviv, the city of Brasilia, the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM in Mexico City and the University City of Caracas in Venezuela, and the Sydney Opera House. Private organizations such as Docomomo International, the World Monuments Fund, and the Recent Past Preservation Network are working to safeguard and document imperiled Modern architecture. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund launched Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program. Following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, Modern structures in New Orleans have been increasingly slated for demolition. Plans are underway to demolish many of the city's Modern public schools, as well as large portions of the city's Civic Plaza. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds will contribute to razing the State Office Building and State Supreme Court Building, both designed by the collaborating architectural firms of August Perez and Associates; Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse; and Favrot, Reed, Mathes and Bergman. The New Orleans Recovery School District has proposed demolitions of schools designed by Charles R. Colbert, Curtis and Davis, and Ricciuti Associates. The 1959 Lawrence and Saunders building for the New Orleans International Longshoremen's Association Local 1419 is currently threatened with demolition although the union supports its conservation.

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