20 Century Architecture

th

and Design into the 21st Century

Modern to Post-Modern
 Modernism
• After 1900 artistic innovation in Europe and the US increased in a
rapid succession of movements, or “isms”. The modern movement
lasted through the first half of the 20th Century.

• Modernism rejects old, traditional ideas and styles in art and design

• Although Modernist styles are diverse, art moved toward abstraction

based on line, color, shape, space, and texture

• Modern architecture and design moved toward abstraction and

rejected historical styles and ornamentation

• Modern architecture reveals rather than conceals the inner structure

of the building
Art Nouveau
• Art Nouveau began in France
• (Late 19th Century – Early 20th
Century)
• Art Nouveau incorporates Organic
and Natural Forms into the
decoration
• Architecture +Interior Design,
Fashion, Graphic Arts, Decorative
Arts
Louis Sullivan American

Louis Sullivan, Carson,

Pirie, Scott Building
(Chicago), 1899-1904
Louis Sullivan American
• Art Nouveau (organic /
natural motifs and
decoration

• Used Cast iron

decoration on first and
second floors

• Large display windows

Louis Sullivan, Carson,

Pirie, Scott Building
(Chicago), 1899-1904
 Antonio Gaudi
Spanish

Antonio Gaudi, Casa Mila

(Barcelona, Spain), 1907
 Antonio Gaudi
Spanish

• Apartment building
incorporating organic form (Art
Nouveau)
• Design inspired by the
discovery of the Altamira Caves
(Prehistoric Caves in Spain)
• Gaudi was trained as an
ironworker before he became
an architect
• Gaudi created buildings as
“living things”
Antonio Gaudi, Casa Mila (Barcelona,
Spain), 1907
 De Stijl (The Style)
• Began in 1917 by a group of artists in Holland

• “balance between individual and universal values”

• Integration of Art and Life

• Geometric Forms / “Purity” and Simplicity

 Gerrit Rietveld

Garrit Rietveld, Schroder House (Utrecht, Holland) 1924

 Gerrit Rietveld
• Rietveld was a furniture maker
and architect

• Schroder House combines

geometric forms and primary
colors with black, white, grey

• simple, open spaces

• furniture designed by Rietveld

Garrit Rietveld,
Schroder House
(Utrecht, Holland) 1924
• Movement in 1920’s and 1930’s associated with “the
Jazz Age”
Art Deco
• Began in France, but spread to other parts of
Europe, USA, and around the world

• People still wanted decoration despite the de Stijl

and other modern movements eliminating all
unnecessary decoration

• Industrial Design Combined with Fine Art Elements

(industrial materials (metal) and objects + patterns and
repeated shapes)

• Industrial Design – cars, household appliances,

fashion, decorative objects, architecture

• Inspiration from Ancient Cultures, including Egypt

The Chrysler Building
New York

William van Alen (American), The Chrysler Building

(New York), 1928 - 1930
The Chrysler Building
New York • Exterior made of
stainless steel

• Art Deco motifs –

repeated shapes
(triangles, etc.)

• Built for Car

Manufactuer, Chrysler
William van Alen
Automotive Company
(American), The
Chrysler Building
(New York), 1928 -
• Monument to the
1930
“Roaring 1920’s”
 Prairie Style
• American Midwest Architect Frank Lloyd Wright invented the Prairie
Style in early 20th Century

• Related to The Arts and Crafts Movement, using craft, including

stained glass windows, ceramics, and wood carpentry

• Wright preferred the countryside to the city

• Natural Materials / Natural Environment

• Inspired by Japanese Architecture (long, low buildings with open

interior spaces). Wright designed a hotel in Tokyo (now demolished)
Frank Lloyd Wright
American

Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling

water (Pennsylvania, USA) 1935
- 1937
 Frank Lloyd Wright
American

• “harmony with
nature”

• Built over a
waterfall

•Natural materials

Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling • Japanese influence

water (Pennsylvania, USA) 1935
- 1937
Frank Lloyd Wright
designed everything for
Frank Lloyd Wright
the interiors of his
buildings (furniture, lamps,
stained glass windows, etc.)
 The Bauhaus
• The Bauhaus was an important art and design school in Germany
opened in the 1920’s

• The Bauhaus focused on understanding Pure Form (color, shape,

line, composition, space, etc,)

• Many important artists and designers taught and studied there

• The Bauhaus trained artists, designers, and architects to accept

and anticipate the needs of the 20th Century

• The Bauhaus greatly influenced modern design – “streamlined”

the look of architecture and design, including typography

• The Bauhaus was closed by the Nazis in 1933

The Bauhaus
Bauhaus
designers
invented new
simplified
forms of
typography The Bauhaus
(sans serif) designers
created
“streamlined”
design with
simple,
“clean lines”
Walter Gropius German
Walter
Gropius, the
Bauhaus
(Dessau,
Germany),
1925 - 1926
Walter Gropius German
• Main Building of Bauhaus
Art and Design School

• In 1919, Gropius, German

architect, was appointed
director of The Bauhaus

• Gropius focused on Formal

Elements (shape, color,
line, etc.)

• Gropius promoted the unity

of art, architecture, and Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus (Dessau,
design Germany), 1925 - 1926
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe German

Mies van der

Rohe,
German
Pavilion in
International
Exposition
(Barcelona,
Spain), 1929
 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe German

• Director of Bauhaus
from 1930 - 1933

• Mies van der Rohe said

“Less is More”

•Simple, Open Space

and Quality Materials

• “Domino system” - Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion in

combine rectangles to International Exposition (Barcelona,
form architecture Spain), 1929
Barcelona Chair Mies van der Rohe

• Designed for King and

Queen of Spain to sit on in
German Pavilion

• Later, the design was mass-

produced and became a
status symbol in homes and
offices

Mies van der Rohe,

Barcelona Chair, 1929
 Mid-Century Modern
Late 1940’s, 1950’s, into the Early 1960’s

• Organic Forms vs. Geometric Forms

• Fusion of Architecture and Sculpture

• Simplicity

• New Industrial Materials

 Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright,

Guggenheim Museum
(New York), 1943 -
1959
 Frank Lloyd Wright
• Art Museum built for
Guggenheim family
(major American art
patrons)
• Concrete Building
• Shape inspired by the
spiral shaped shell of a
snail
• Building slopes down
from top to bottom (using
gravity)
• Central atrium with
natural light

Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim

Museum (New York), 1943 - 1959
Le Corbusier French

Le Corbusier,
Notre Dame du
Haut (Ronchamp,
France), 1950 -
1955
 • Small church
Le Corbusier French chapel which
replaced a building
destroyed in WWII

• Shape represents
praying hands or
wings of a dove
(symbol of peace)

• Reference to
Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut
Medieval Architecture
(Ronchamp, France), 1950 - 1955

• Concrete over metal

structure
 Eero Saarinen
born in Finland

• Airport Terminal in New York

• Futuristic

•Scandanavian Modernism

•Simple curved, organic shapes

• Theme of Motion / “Wings in Flight”

Eero Saarinen, Terminal at
Kennedy Airport (New York),
• Two concrete “shells” 1952 - 1956
Eero Saarinen
born in Finland

Eero Saarinen,
Terminal at Kennedy
Airport (New York),
1952 - 1956
Tulip Table and Chairs

Eero Saarinen, Tulip Pedestal Furniture, 1957

 Tulip Table and Chairs
• Eero Saarinen wanted to
eliminate the “problem” of
too many legs on furniture

• Based on the shape of

tulip flower (organic shape)

• Made of Molded Plastic

(new material)

Eero Saarinen,
• “Clean” and simple Tulip Pedestal
design Furniture, 1957
Seagram Building
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
and Philip Johnson, Seagram
Building (New York), 1956 -
1958
• International Style
• Simple and Pure
rectangular shape
• Mies van der Rohe
helped change the look
of cities – tall “glass
boxes” (design easily
imitated)
• Amber colored
windows and bronze
colored structure
Seagram Building

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

and Philip Johnson, Seagram
Building (New York), 1956 -
1958
Comparison
 Post-Modern Architecture
The Past 20 – 30 Years

• Belief that Early Modernist Architecture was impersonal and sterile

• Complex and Eclectic structures

• Post-Modern architecture accepts and embraces the “messy and

chaotic” nature of urban life

• References to architecture from the past

 Pompidou Center
Paris

Richard Rogers
(British) and Renzo
Piano (Italian),
Pompidou Center
(Paris), 1977
 Pompidou Center
Richard Rogers (British) and Renzo
Piano (Italian), Pompidou Center
(Paris), 1977
Paris
• Cultural Center and
Museum
• Building “turned inside out”
with the water, electrical, etc.
pipes, ducts, and tubes on the
outside
• Square in front of the
museum popular place to
“hang out”
• Reference to Eiffel Tower
(structure visible)
HSBC Hong Kong

Norman Foster, Hong

Kong and Shanghai
Bank (Hong Kong), (1979
- 1986)
 HSBC Hong Kong
• High Tech Architecture

• Supporting skeleton on the outside

• Computer programmed sun track which

finds sun rays to bring into the space

• Client wanted the most beautiful bank in

the world Norman Foster, Hong
Kong and Shanghai
Bank (Hong Kong), (1979
- 1986)
Frank Gehry
Canadian (lives in USA)

Frank
Gehry,
Guggenheim
Museum
(Bilbao,
Spain) 1997
• Art Museum (built for
Guggenheim family – same as in
Frank Gehry
Canadian (lives in USA)
New York)

• Deconstructivist
Architecture (concept of “taking
apart”)

• Imbalanced and
Asymmetrical Forms

• Sculptural

Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum

• Structure is covered in (Bilbao, Spain) 1997
Titanium Steel
Comparison
Santiago Calatrava
Spanish

Santiago
Calatrava,
Milwaukee Art
Museum (USA),
2001
Santiago Calatrava
Spanish

• Art Museum

• Organic / Sculptural Form

(“bird-like” / “boat-like”)

• Kenetic Architecture (the

Santiago Calatrava, Milwaukee Art
Museum (USA), 2001
roof moves – opening and
closing according to the
weather conditions)
• Connects the building on
Lake Michigan to the city
with a bridge
Zaha Hadid
Born in Iraq / Lives in London

Zaha Hadid,
MAXXI Art
Museum (Rome,
Italy), 2009
 Zaha Hadid
Born in Iraq/ Lives in London

• Only Woman to receive the Pritzer Prize

in Architecture (most important award for
architects)
• MAXXI refers to 21st Century (Roman
Numerals XXI)
• Contemporary Art Museum
• Overlapping of geometric shapes
• Deconstructivist / Postmodernist Zaha Hadid,
MAXXI Art
Museum (Rome,
Italy), 2009