01 Historiography of Modern Architecture

Arch 329 History of Architecture II BSU Architecture Dr. Deborah Middleton 08/25/11
Modern Architecture History, Calquhoun
! Modern Architecture is an architecture conscious of its own modernity and striving for
change, understood to be reformist or avant garde.
! This history of modern architecture spans idealist utopias of the avant gardes and the
resistances, and pluralities of capitalist culture. Organized as a chronological sequence
ordered around interconnected and related themes.
! Calquhouns Thesis
! Modernism myths surfaced in connection with the Hegalian attitude, that the study of the
history of architecture would enable predictions of its future course.
! The architect is conceived of as seer, uniquely gifted to discern the spirit of the age and its
symbolic forms, predicated on the possibility of projecting the conditions of the past onto
the present.
! The architecture of the future would embody a true tradition of harmony and organic unity.
! The task of the architect was to first uncover and then create the unique forms of the age.
! The Modern Movement was both an act of resistance to social modernity and an
enthusiastic acceptance of an open technological future.
Modern Architecture 1900 Curtis
! Modern architecture, invention of the late nineteenth early 20
th
c. conceived in
reaction to the supposed chaos and eclecticism of various earlier 19
th
c. historical
forms.
! Ideal of a modern architecture is based on the notion that each age in the past
had possessed its own authentic style, expressive of the epoch.
! Curtis Thesis: Various strands of modern architecture are best understood and
evaluated by being set alongside other architectural developments parallel with
them, to understand what they expressed.
! Myth of modern architecture: the notion that these forms had emerged somehow
untainted by precedent.
! Critical of an approaches that insist upon a simplistic formula to connect ideology
and forms.
! Problem of origins. The first few years of the 20
th
c. was when forms were invented to
express, confidence in modern life, and pose revulsion against superficial revivalism.
! What is the intention, purpose, meaning of history?
1 Self-Transformation of art
- Assumes past works represent the material to be transformed
by its adaptation in the new work, and new material is absorbed
and structured by being connected with the art of the past.

Underlining concepts:
! Conception of architecture as the paradigm of art,
! Adoption of Herbartian theory of Psychological development as a
model of mental life,
! Development of art is a manifestation of the free exercise of the
underlying characteristics of the human mind and its interest in works
of art.
2 Self-Containedness
- Art is understood as initially transforming nature and then as
transforming itself from within, out of purposes which are strictly
artistic.
Underlining concepts:
! Associated with ancient worlds aesthetic ideals of self-containedness,
where the represented object was to be unconnected with other
objects in its context. A continuous unbroken form enclosed within a
boundary.
! Assumed the isolation of the object from its context and insisted on its
separation from the spectator.
! Conceived similarly to how we feel our own bodies to be both
internally continuous and distinct from things around it and
establishes a relationship of a represented object to its context and in
relation to the spectator.
Las Meninas 1656
Diego Velazquez


3 Participation in the Reflective Subjective Life and Attention
- The gaze of a figure is interpreted as attention. Attention implies
that the spectator also attends to something not sensibly present.
Participation in the reflective life is seen as a central way in which
the spectator is engaged by Dutch Painting.
Underlining concepts:
! Dutch painting constructs capacity to surround the presented objects with a
sense of atmosphere, so that the spaces between objects are felt as part of
a homogeneous optical effect.
! Objects are represented as having an existence independent of us but in a
way which leads us to be aware of an interplay between those objects and
our own mental life.

4 Sense of Artistic Intention (Alos Riegl)
- Inner necessity governs artistic performance showing the way in
which the artistic intention is self-generated and not a response
to purposes outside itself. i.e. Conveying ideas or imitating nature
or serving functions with lie outside the creation and
appreciation of the visual forms.
Underlining concepts:
History searches for a continuous development of visual forms
throughout the history of art, focusing on the representative stages
in the self-transformation of visual style.

Alos Reigl (1858-1905)
Kunstwollen Theory of Art
! All art possesses intentionality, or purposiveness, while
allowing that in each period or culture the artistic
purpose may be different.
! We need to distinguish the general notion of the
Kunstwollen from its manifestations at different times.
! The conception of a continuous linear development
of art history.
! Artistic intention must itself be drawn out of
potentialities already latent in the current tradition.
! These theses may apply either to a style or genre or
to a particular work.
! Valuing does not have to be applying norms or
grading, it may be simply attaching value to
something, appreciating it, endorsing the intention
perceived in it.
Heinrich Wolfflin (1864-1945)
The Principles of Art History
! Analysis of painting by use of objective
classifying principles, was instrumental in
influencing the development of formal
analysis in the theory of art during the
20
th
c.
! Wolfflin adopted a neo-Kantian
Philosophical psychology to explain how
our minds and our perception led us to
see the world the way we do.
! Devised a method and procedure to
distinguish the development of style over
time.
Five pairs of opposed or
contrary precepts in the
form and style of art
! From linear to painterly
! From plane to recession
! From closed (tectonic)forms to open (a-tectonic) form
! From multiplicity to unity
! From Absolute clarity to relative clarity of the subject
5 Creativity is the generator of Style

A bicycle shed is a building. Lincoln cathedral is a piece of
architecture. The term architecture applies only to buildings
designed with a view to aesthetic appeal.

Art is separated from non-art not by any concrete, visible
features of a particular work but rather by the presence or
absence of a presumed idea in the mind of the maker.

Pevsner

Underlining concepts:
- The architect is the individual genius endowed with aesthetic
idea.

- The way a society views the achievements of the past and
defines the goals of the present are inevitably interlocked. We are
applying the value standards of today and setting goals for
tomorrow.




Ecole des Beaux Arts
! Concepts of harmony, order, unity, (Italian Renaissance
concepts). Focused on gentle rhythms, composition as a
manifestation of tranquility.
! Geometric laws, overall symmetry, multiple axis,
harmonious geometric arrangements.
6 Zeitgeist (genius seculi) guardian spirit of the age
! Originates with German Romanticism and the philosophy
of Johann Gottfried Herder. (1769)
! In Hegels theory of history Zeitgeist is an imminent Spirit
guides the progress of each epoch and place: great
works are those in which that Spirit is embodied.
! In the great architectural masterpieces, as in every
great work of art, the human shortcomings which every
period exhibits so liberally fall away. This is why these
works are true monuments of their epochs; with the
overlay of recurrent human weaknesses removed. The
central drives of the time of their creation show plainly.
! Giedions architect, whose genius consists in his sensitivity to the
central drives, may be more accountable, less of a free agent,
than Pevseners, but both of them are distinguished by their
ability to impart a certain je ne sais quoi that gives a special
essence to architectural design that is absent from vernacular
building.
Hero-ization of the architect implied an idealist criticism that is not a
modern invention.

7 Functionalism
- Undifferentiated space, where a great number of activities
can take place with a minimal adjustment.
- Aim is to devise a whole versus the analysis of parts.
8 Type, Categories and Classification of Form
! Architectural categorization is seen as a rational parallel to the
classification of plants and animals taking place in the 18
th
c.
! Idea that there are building types and that these have discernable
morphology.
! Form arises from the functions to be performed (associated with a
notion of determinism)
! Ideas and selection play a crucial role in how we create
architecture. (S. Giedon adopted this concept)
! Typology favors continuity argues that functionalism favors and may
lead to innovation and may degenerate continuity.
! Christopher Alexander (1977) A Pattern Language suggests that the
timeless way is to be found in traditional vernacular architecture.
! Idea: That continuity rather than change will produce the most
relevant architecture for society.
9 Search for Architectural Meaning
! The idea of the unconscious pattern that integrates a
culture and the individuals relation emerged in the
writings by Marx and Freud.
! This idea challenges us to penetrate more deeply into our
own motivations as designers, historians, and critics to
understand the meaning of architecture of the past.
! Architectural meaning descriptive expressive and with
metaphorical references, Suggestive of the development
of an architectural message.
Early 19
th
c. Artists
! Camille Pissarro
(1830-1903)
Impressionist & Neo-
impressionist painter.
! He studied at Ecole des
Beaux-arts and
Academie Suisse.
Influenced by Carot.
! Studied and became
friends with Claude
Monet, Armand
Guillaumin, Paul
Cezanne, all held
disdain for the Salon.
! In 1873 he established a
separate collective,
Societe Anonyme des
Artistes, Peintres,
scultpteurs et Graveurs
which included 15
artists.
Pissaro
Influential German Theorists of Architecture
Schinkel
Glorified the unity of purpose, material and technique by insisting on the
intentional practicality of the layout and on the clear articulation of
construction which should correspond to the specific conditions of each
material and technique.
His ideas actually represented a clear-cut functionalism hidden behind
eclectic classicism.
Semper
Introduced the contrast of tectonic and
stereotomic (descriptive geometry)
architecture, (an architectural system based
on the relation between load and supporting
structure, as against an architectural system
based on the continuity of volume.
Key concept: The congruity of each artistic
phenomenon with its origin and the specific
conditions of its evolution.
Style of an architecture is true only if its forms
were motivated by construction material and
the prevailing socio-economic cultural and
climatic conditions.
Sempers ideas represent the proto-
renaissance of later functionalism
Stereotomy, facade of the Great Mosque of
Kairouan, Tunisia
Wolfflin
Style is primarily the visual expression of the Lebensqefuehl of an epoch.
This common denominator in all vital expressions of a period did not enter
consciousness of the first generation of 20
th
c. German Architects.
The early awareness of functionalism considered only the mechanistic
behavior patterned and tried to create the most efficient frame and
organization for it.
It did not consider as pertinent the emotional reactions of man, referred to
by Wolfflin as humanization, which focused on the psychological reactions
provoked by the art work.
Developed procedures for the critical evaluation of art and architecture
based on dualities.

Schmarsow
Architectural space was seen as the active creation of human
Koerpergefuele; (feelings and conscious awareness of the body), and is a
reaction of mans physique based mainly on physiological laws of human
nature projected into the outer world.
Movement into depth is seen as an identical problem with the creation of
aesthetic space.
The outer skin of a building, the faade must be conceived as merely the
shell or frame of this purposeful organized hollow.

The influence of purpose and function on form, influenced the
architectural slogan.,
to build from inside to outside from interior to the volume-body
The creation of space is the decisive factor and its purposeful (functional)
organization only as a natural symptom of all human activity.

Von Hildebrand
Space must be conceived as a succession of visual planes confined in
depth.
Connected sculptural visual impressions perceived as a chronological
succession could also be applied in architecture.
Introduced the element of time into architectural aesthetics.
Leopold Ziegler

Nature has form, Architecture and Sculpture is form.
The accent in architecture shifts from the emphasis on construction to the
development of parts which are per se structurally undefined. I.e. facades,
ceilings.
Works of art represent a value, architecture should show only a necessary
minimum of structural elements (an outspoken anti-functional attitude).

Max Unglehrt
Denies any kind of functional causation of architectural form,
which for him is a symbol of absolute matter necessarily always
in abstract form.
Hermann Eicken
Architecture, like any art work must primarily clarify our concept
of the world, through a combination of visual and conceptual
approaches. Visual approach- conveys visual form in two
dimensions only.
Conceptual/cognitive approach conveys three dimensions, the
form in volume, while the visual form is the goal of painting and
sculpture, the conceptual form is the task of architecture.
Style is a variation of different stages of volume imagination
during their respective periods.
Purpose, material etc. have nothing to do with the conceptual
form.
Rudolf Metzger
Agrees with Eicken that any work of art is primarily the clarification of
our concept of the world.
Architecture achieves this in the identification of architectural forms
with human forms and especially with human movements.
Denies categories of space and volume, function, rather the identify of
architectural form and dynamic sensation relates to specific
architectural forms, Greek columns, gothic pointed arch.
Josef Frank
Architecture is the expression of civilization, with the history of
architecture reflecting the history of ideas. Posited that the style of a
period is nothing but a totality of its symbols.
He negates functionalistic expression but believes in the autonomy of
architecture.
No new forms of construction or materials but new ideas have
produced new architecture.
Hermann Soergel
Considers space as the actual content of architecture, volume is merely
the means for the creation and definition of space. * Negates Sempers
theory.
Distinguishes existential space, the objective real imaginable space, and
visual space, the physiological, visually perceivable space, and
effectual space, the aesthetically impressive space, the key element
created by the architect and to which the beholder reacts.
Distinguishes between architecture as technique and architecture as art.
Technique can be molded artistically without loosing its character as
technique. Art means liberty, and has technical qualities.
Posited an anti-functional viewpoint. Architecture as art is autonomous
in spite of its rational technical and material data.
Paul Klopfer
Considers space as the content of architecture. *negates Sempers theory.
Exclusively creating space are steroform and tectonic architecture,
supplemented by the juxtaposition of forms derived from material and
technique with forms created by formullen( Riegl) which is interpreted by
Klopfer to mean static persevering or dynamic driving forces.
Differences between the individual historical styles can be traced back to
four categories.
Static-tectonic, dynamic tectonic, static-stereotom and Dynamic sterotom.
Excludes the idea of functionalism as a stylistic criterion.
Leo Adler
Architecture is the translation of an a priori purposeless aesthetic space
concept into the visual purposeful reality of three-dimensional space.
Asks: if architecture were only the development of the tectonic structure
its history would mean a logical but not aesthetic development. The means
of creating architectural space are the surfaces of bloc-volumes.
He denies the existence of pure volume architecture completely.
The technical-functional concept refers to only the individual elements of
structure for an intellectually defined purpose. While the real architectural
concept mirrors a vision of totality.
Paul Kechter & Otto Schubert
Conceive of architecture merely as a problem of a man-created world of
space within an already existing space world (follow Schumachers ideas).

Fritz Schumacher
Distinguishes intellectual, sensuous and emotional effects as the decisive
ones. Regulates functional considerations to a secondary role.
He conceives of architecture as twofold, creation of space by the
limitations of volume.
The interior is perceived only as a projection of concave parts, into an
imagined plane behind while exterior, the convex volume is projected into
the superior general space.
Architecture represents a threefold relationship:
Interior space, Volume (determining interior as well as exterior space),
General exterior space. This threefold relationship can be perceived by
visual experience and also by movement, successive action in time.
Stylistic differences are explained as shifts within the threefold relationships.
Fredlich Ostenfdorf
Volume as the content of architecture was conceived of by a small group
of architecture theorists.
(1900-1914) was an influential teacher of architecture in Germany.
Preached that shaping of mass and volume was to be the aim of
architectural endeavors.
Since space is enclosed by masses, the great task of architecture is the
shaping of the external forms. Space is reduced to a mere hollow within the
shell.
The art of designing must be based entirely on the concept of the eventual
volume form. Emotions must be excluded as much as any specific
expression of purpose or structural technique.
Space in its concavity represents the universal objective and passive
elements. It merely envelopes volume, the specific individualistic subjective
element. Space by its character remains always neutral, indifferent and
there fore it never can become the object of artistic creation, while volume
by proportion, direction, isolation, and concentration, can be shaped into
a closed and unified form the ideal architecture.