18TH CENTURY – THE ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD:

The 18th century was described as an astounding century, heralded as the Age of Reason. The Age was
defined by a full social, scientific, intellectual and cultural transformation. “The century will become
more enlightened day by day, so that all previous centuries will be lost in darkness by comparison.” In
the 18th century there were two routes to truth, both inspired by Descartes’ - Quest for Knowledge.
Rationalism and Empiricism.

 Rationalism - A means of constructing knowledge by deduction from general principles as a

route to truth. This is knowledge invented by the human mind exercising pure reason. (Kant)
 Empiricism - The constructing of knowledge by observation of the facts of experience as a route
to truth.

Rationalism began as a 17th century ideology that led to the Enlightenment, a period in history where
reason was the primary instrument for justifying and understanding the “hows” and “whys” of things
and circumstances. The Enlightenment was a time where concrete evidence through scientific research
flourished and Rationalism influenced all field of endeavors and even simple daily tasks. In layman
terms, to be rational is to be understandable, measurable or definite. Using this as premise, Rationalism
in architecture therefore pertains to accuracy in designing and building the height, breadth or depth of a
structure.

Architectural Rationalism was a solid evidence of the Enlightenment influence in the field of
architecture. It continues to persist in the modern world as an independent art movement though much
of the modern Rationalist designs have little resemblance to Enlightenment architecture. The
Enlightenment Architectural Rationalism was focused on being symmetrical, having accurate
measurements of classic shapes, and functionality. It clearly reflected the spirit of the times where
science, mathematics and logic were at the peak of their influence.

Neoclassicism was a widespread movement under the Rationalist wing. It was established in reaction to
the flamboyant and seemingly excessive Baroque and Rococo styles. During the neoclassicist boom,
many artworks and structural designs of the classical Graeco-Roman era were recalled together with the
architectural works of Italian Andrea Palladio. Neoclassicist designs were characterized as follows:
symmetry, columns that functioned as support, minimalistic design composed of basic geometric
shapes, and an overlaid triangular gable commonly known as pediment. The symmetry, functionality,
and geometrical aspects of the neoclassicist movement were defining characteristics of the Rationalist
ideology.
MARC-ANTOINE LAUGIER:

Marc-Antoine Laugier, also known as l'Abbé Laugier, lived and worked in France during the 18th century.
As a Jesuit priest, Laugier fulfilled erudite education that surpassed theological frames. Furthermore, he
was a highly gifted person, being eloquent, perspicacious and skillful orator, writer and translator, home
de letter that produced significant works in music, architecture, painting, history, diplomacy and
preaching.

During his life, he was very respected by the highest cultural circles in France and other parts of the
world, he was elected a member of the Academy of Science in Anger, Lion and Marsey, and his works
were translated into the main world languages. When he wrote his first book Essay on Architecture
(1753), Laugier was already more than forty years old. Until the end of his life, during the next sixteen
years, he published twelve books, as well as a significant number of articles, translations and short texts.

Laugier’s views on architecture examined the whole history and theory of architecture, starting from
Vitruvius. The beliefs that were regarded as irrefutable for centuries were considered wrong and vague
by Laugier. The architecture that was defined by the arranged cosmic order with numerous symbolic
meanings was now deprived of its metaphysical character.

Laugier was among the first theoreticians that used constructive logic that was more powerful than the
secret symbolic meaning of numbers and proportions in architecture. With his radical attitudes he
succeeded in starting a reformation of architecture, stressing that renaissance models of thinking were
long gone and confirming his modernist views that were led by reason as the main postulate of
enlightenment. Following the crisis, and in order to find a stable premise for architecture, Laugier
proposes investigating the most original condition of architecture: Nature. Good architecture is the
authentic imitation of nature. Greek architecture is still the finest because it is the best imitation
(mimesis). His “Essai sur architecture” (1753) set out an interpretation of classicism as a logical
straightforward expression of the need for shelter. He was searching for the first principles of
architecture. He extolled the need for proper columns (pilasters were an aberration – the bastard child
of architecture).

He argued for a return to the antique principles as an antidote to all the accretions from the Renaissance
onwards that had hidden the essence of the origins of the columnar and trabeated construction. Laugier
describes primitive mans idyllic pastoral life…the noble savage seeking shelter from the element and
the rustic hut model from which all the splendor of architecture was derived.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE:

Founded on simple nature. Nature indicates its rules.

Example: The Primitive Hut tells story of primitive man
seeking shelter and building out of necessity. What
this man built became the basis for all architecture.

The Hut is made of the following architectural

elements:

• The column
• The entablature
• The pediment

Laugier wanted a "more rigorous" understanding of

architecture and ornament: look for precedents for classical architecture at the absolute roots of
history. He searched for absolute beauty, which in his primitive hut came from nature. Was rooted in
functional or structural basis. (This theory was the basis of the so-called Rationalist movement.) Little
basis in archeology or fact, and tangental basis in historical text. Like Vitruvius, Laugier places the origins
of architectural forms in nature: the first dwelling was built in the forest, with branches and trees. This
differs from the previous theories of Vitruvius in one important aspect: the hut is an abstract concept as
much as it is a material construction.

The Primitive Hut represents the first architectural idea. Shows beginnings of an understanding of
column, entablature, and pediments. Future architecture is based on these principles.

Columns must:

• Be strictly perpendicular to the ground

• Be free-standing, to be expressed in a natural way
• Be round, because nature makes nothing square
 • Be tapered from bottom to top in imitation of plants in nature
• Rest directly on the floor
The faults:

•“Being engaged in the wall” is a fault because it detracts from the overall beauty and
aesthetic nature of columns.
• The use of pilasters should strictly be frowned upon especially since in nearly every case
columns could be used instead.
• Setting columns upon pedestals is “like adding a second set of legs beneath the first
pair.”
The Entablature must:

• always rest on its columns like a lintel

• In its whole length it must not have any corner or projection
The Faults:

•
Instead of a beam-like structure it becomes an arch
• Against nature because:
• require massive piers and imposts
• They become pilasters
• Force columns to give lateral support; columns are meant to give
vertical support only.
• Not straight, but broken with angles and projections
• Why? “Never put anything into a building for which one cannot give a sound
reason.” Nature is so, buildings should also be.
The Pediment must:

• represent the gable of the roof

• never be anywhere except across the width of a building.
• be above the entablature
The faults:

• To erect the pediment on the long side of a building.

• To make non-triangular pediments
• Should not be curved, broken nor scrolled
• To pile pediments on top of each other

The Doric order (in columns): Has the most beautiful base, but is difficult to use:

• Doric columns can never be coupled successfully

• Interior angles become difficult because of the bases and capitals must
penetrate each other

The Ionic order: Almost faultless, lighter and more delicate than the Doric

• The column suffers because nature dictates that the heaviest part must always
be at the bottom, but the Ionic column is heavy at top
 • The base is ill-formed and could be eliminated
• Offends against the true principles of nature

The Corinthian order: The greatest, most majestic order

• Beautiful, harmonious composition

• Architects should stop using anything by the acanthus leaf which “has
by nature the contour and curves which suit the leaves of the Corinthian
capital.”

OBSERVATIONS ON ART OF BUILDING:

On the Solidity of Buildings:

• Building must be solid for long life, much like the ancients did
• Solidity depends on two things: Choice of material and its efficient use
On Convenience:

• The situation (site) must be considered to include views and ventilation

• The planning (exterior and interior) must be suitable, comfortable, have good
circulation, and always include a courtyard
• The internal communications (servants halls, stairways, etc) must be located for quick
access
On How to Observe Bienseance in Buildings:

• A building must be neither more nor less magnificent than is appropriate to its purpose.

CONCEPT OF AESTHETICS:

By analyzing Laugier’s rationalist aesthetics, we may perceive three significant tendencies that are
everpresent in his aesthetic concept of architecture. These are,

• vérité (truthfulness),
• simplicité (simplicity)
• Naturalisme (naturality).

“Beauty of buildings depends on three things: accuracy of proportions,elegance of forms, and choice
and distribution of ornaments.”

REVOLUTIONARY ARCHITECTURE
 • It is “revolutionary” or “visionary” because it pushed Neo-Classical ideas beyond its time, thus
inaugurating many modern architectural ideas.
• Rational and sensationalist appreciation of architectural form. Monument and monumentality.
• Grandiloquent, symbolic, and monumental forms. A composition of self-sufficient parts.
• Beauty of masses, and simplicity of forms and surfaces, generated by elemental geometric units.
A poetics of “plainness”.
• “Architecture parlante”: an architecture that speaks.
• Issues of character of a building: what is it for, what does it convey? Expression of function and
content. A romantic atmosphere of mood, effect and atmosphere.

ETIENNE-LOUIS BOULLEE:

Etienne-Louis Boullee (1728-99) a Parisian Architect and Teacher again important due to his theoretical
works. He taught generations of pupils, including Durand. From 1778 to 1788 he produced a great range
of visionary drawings based on those he used for teaching and for entering architectural competitions.

He responded to Laugier’s reductionist themes by stripping all un-necessary ornament from over-scaled
purely geometric forms –platonic solids. He repeated elements such as columns in huge long ranges and
made his architecture expressive of its purpose. (architecture parlante)

His Cenotaph to Newton is perhaps his most

famous design. An image of the supreme
work of the creator revealed to mankind
through science. His “Architecture. Essai sur
l’Art’ written in the 1790’s was not published
until this century. His work was characterised
by the removal of all unnecessary
ornamentation, inflating geometric forms to
a huge scale and repeating elements such as
columns in huge ranges.

Boullée promoted the idea of making architecture

expressive of its purpose, a doctrine that his detractors
termed architecture parlante ("talking architecture"),
which was an essential element in Beaux-Arts architectural
training in the later 19th century. His focus on polarity
(offsetting opposite design elements) and the use of light
and shadow was highly innovative, and continues to
influence architects to this day. He was "rediscovered" in the 20th century and has influenced recent
architects such as Aldo Rossi.

His style was most notably exemplified in his proposal for a cenotaph for the English scientist Isaac
Newton, which would have taken the form of a sphere 150 m (490 ft) high embedded in a circular base
topped with cypress trees. Though the structure was never built, its design was engraved and circulated
widely in professional circles. Boullee's Cenotaph for Isaac Newton is a funerary monument celebrating
a figure interred elsewhere. Designed in 1784, for all its apparent originality, it actually derives from
contemporary archaeology. The small sarcophagus for Newton is placed at the lower pole of the sphere.
The design of the memorial creates the effect of day and night. The effect by night, when the
sarcophagus is illuminated by the starlight coming through
the holes in the vaulting. The effect by day is an armillary
sphere hanging in the center that gives off a mysterious
glow. For Boullée symmetry and variety were the golden
rules of architecture.

Library building

CLAUDE-NICOLAS LEDOUX:
One of the most successful and celebrated Parisian architects of the late 1700s, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
developed an eclectic and visionary style combined with social ideals. In 1764 Ledoux began working for
the Department of Water and Forests preparing plans, deciding on repairs, and designing everything
from cemeteries and schools to roads and drinking fountains. His position as one of the most
fashionable architects of the time was confirmed when he was chosen to design a theater and a pavilion
for two of Paris's most celebrated courtesans. In the mid-1780s, Ledoux designed a new wall around the
city of Paris with over fifty customs posts, most of which were destroyed during the French Revolution.

Throughout his life, Ledoux designed simplified, powerful geometric forms. Later his private houses
became more eccentric, with odd layouts and uneven elevations. He was one of the most prolific and
greatest architects of his time. Known for his pure neo-classicism but with clever geometry. (Many
buildings in Paris) The transformation of architectural meaning related to an architectural problem; For
example in his masterpiece Chaux - a utopian town, - He used simple geometry, the sphere, pyramid,
circle and square. Simplified stripped down classicism is mixed with allusions to the pure geometries
including the Egyptian pyramid, a phallus shaped brothel and a hooped shaped house for a cooper.

The Architecture is no longer taken from tradition the classical orders are replaced by Euclidean solids –
scale , geometry and symbolic intention. Boullee and Ledoux emphasised the differences between the
scientific and artisitc” dimensions. Rational theory was qualified as science concerned with construction.
True art on the other hand was believed to consist in the conception of rhetorical images. A lot of their
work remained unbuilt - like Piranesi they saw the value of speculation, of utopian dreaming and of
experimenting through drawing. Utopian visions of architecture and the city
19th CENTURY - STRUCTURAL RATIONALISM:

• Complete rejection of past styles and also a search for new forms of ornament which could be
an expression of their own time.
• Effect of the French Theorist Eugene Viollet- Le- Duc who proposed a new rational approach to
architecture based on rediscovering Gothic principles of constructing ribbed vaults , only using
iron. Iron should be used honestly and left exposed rather than hiding it by fake materials.

ART NOUVEAU MOVEMENT:

• A modern movement started in Europe around the start of the 20th Century.
• Art Nouveau was in many ways a response to the Industrial Revolution. Some artists and
architects welcomed technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of new
materials such as cast iron.
• Others deplored the shoddiness of mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed to elevate
the decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of craftsmanship
and design to everyday objects.
• Affected by the theories of Structural Rationalism (Viollet- Le- Duc ), John Ruskin ( Gothic ideas)
and the Arts and Crafts movement.

VIOLLET LE DUC:

He was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings.
Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect. He was the architect hired to design the internal
structure of the Statue of Liberty. Basic intervention theories of historic preservation are framed in the
dualism of the retention of the status quo versus a "restoration" that creates something that never
actually existed in the past.

Viollet-le-Duc advocated that restoration is a "means to reestablish [a building] to a finished state, which
may in fact never have actually existed at any given time.“ His architectural theory was largely based on
finding the ideal forms for specific materials, and using these forms to create buildings. His writings
centered on the idea that materials should be used 'honestly'. He believed that the outward appearance
of a building should reflect the rational construction of the building.

In Entretiens sur l'architecture, Viollet-le-Duc praised the Greek temple for its rational representation of
its construction. For him, "Greek architecture served as a model for the correspondence of structure and
appearance." According to him-“In architecture there are two necessary ways of being true. It must be
true according to the program. To be true according to the program is to fulfill exactly and simply
the conditions imposed by need. And it must be true according to the method of construction. This is to
employ the materials according to their qualities and properties, purely questions of symmetry and
apparent form are only secondary condition in the presence of our dominant principles.”
For Viollet-le Duc , these principles clearly precluded the architectural tradition of French Classical
Rationalism. In place of an ‘abstract’ international style he advocated a return to regional building. His
illustration to the Entretiens, which in some aspects anticipated Art Nouveau, ostensibly indicated the
kind of architecture that would evolve from his principle of Structural Rationalism. He proffered not only
models but also methods which would free architecture from the eclectic irrelevancies of historicism.

In this way, his Entretiens came to serve as an inspiration to the avant garde of the last quarter of 19th
century. His methods penetrated to those European countries where French cultural influence was
strong but tradition of classicism was weak. Eventually his ideas spread even to England, where they
influenced men such as Sir Gorge Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse and even Norman Shaw. Outside
France his thesis, in particular its implicit cultural nationalism, had its most pronounced impact on the
works of Antonio Gaudi, Victor Horta, and Hendrik Petrus Berlage.

Viollet-le-Duc, formulated model of architectural history linking the frank expression of building
construction and materials to the progressive march of history. He was increasingly aware of the impact
of new materials like iron and plate glass. He felt that the nineteenth century must try to formulate its
own style by finding forms appropriate to the new techniques, and to altered social and economic
conditions. In several unbuilt projects for new buildings, Viollet-le-Duc applied the lessons he had
derived from Gothic architecture, applying its rational structural systems to modern building materials
such as cast iron.

He also examined organic structures, such as leaves and animal skeletons, for inspiration. He was
especially interested in the wings of bats, an influence represented by his Assembly Hall project. Viollet-
le-Duc's drawings of iron trusswork were innovative for the time. Many of his designs emphasizing iron
would later influence the Art Nouveau style, most noticeably in the work of Hector Guimard. His writings
inspired some American architects, including Frank Furness, John Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, and
Frank Lloyd Wright.
JOHN RUSKIN:

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman,
watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. Ruskin’s developing interest in
architecture, and particularly in the Gothic revival, led to the first work to bear his name, The Seven
Lamps of Architecture. It contained 14 plates etched by the author. The title refers to seven moral
categories that Ruskin considered vital to and inseparable from all architecture.
Ruskin's theories of architecture, and his emphasis on the importance of the Medieval Gothic style. He
praised the Gothic for what he saw as its reverence for nature and natural forms; the free, unfettered
expression of artisans constructing and decorating buildings; and for the organic relationship he
perceived between worker and guild, worker and community, worker and natural environment, and
between worker and God.

Ruskin's strong rejection of Classical tradition in The Stones of Venice typifies the inextricable mix of
aesthetics and morality in his thought. For Ruskin, the Gothic style in architecture embodied the same
moral truths he sought to promote in the visual arts. It expressed the 'meaning' of architecture—as a
combination of the values of strength, solidity and aspiration—all written, as it were, in stone. He also
argued that no new style was needed to redress this problem, as the appropriate styles were already
known to man. The 'truest' architecture was therefore, the older Gothic of medieval cathedrals and
Venice.

Ruskin associated Classical values with modern developments, in particular with the demoralising
consequences of the industrial revolution, resulting in buildings such as the Crystal Palace, which he
criticised. Ruskin's distaste for oppressive standardisation led to later works attacking Laissez-faire
capitalism which he considered to be at the root of it. His ideas provided inspiration for the Arts and
Crafts Movement.

Ruskin's belief in preservation of ancient buildings had a significant influence on later thinking about the
distinction between conservation and restoration. Ruskin was a strong proponent of the former, while
his contemporary, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, promoted the latter.

For Ruskin, the "age" of a building was crucially significant as an aspect in its preservation: "For, indeed,
the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, not in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep
sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or
condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.”

QUOTES:

• “No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”

 • “Essence of architecture consisted not the necessary aspects of a building but those features
that were unnecessary. Decoration was what distinguished architecture from mere
construction.”
• Architecture is something more than utilitarian and indicates a spiritual aesthetic and beneficial
context.
• Goodness of spirit and greatness of architecture go together. Good architecture could result
only from the efforts of good man working in the context of a healthy society.

QUATREMÈRE DE QUINCY:

Quatremère did not write a formal treatise; instead, he was commissioned to write the first formal
dictionary of architecture.

What does writing a dictionary accomplish?

1.A need for clarification and careful distinctions between meanings of words that had overtime,
accrued multiple ambiguous meanings and connotations.

2. For the first time, instead of writing for a patron or institutional privilege, Quatremère writes for the
public.

3. In an age of expanding readership and scholarly academic professionalism, the dictionary was easily
produced and equally a readily consumed object.

In hopes of “satisfying all classes of readers by embracing the universality of knowledge comprised by
subject.” Quatremère believed that architecture was imitative of nature in two ways:

1. In the details of nature – like the certain characteristics of an individual

2. In nature as a collective whole – like refering to a specific species

In regards to Laugier’s hut:

• Architecture has no direct model in nature that can be concretely considered an origin.

• The hut is merely the beginning, not an origin because a certain distance had

to be traveled in architectural theory to arrive at it.

• Influence should be seen, not in a material sense, but in a metaphorical one.

Nature offers three kinds of materials:

1. Earth – when made into bricks, ranks among stone.

2. Stone – projections and cornices received their form from imitating wood

3. Wood – offers a vast array of analogies, inductions and free assimilations

Believed the beginning of laws, principles, theory, and practice of architecture went back to the Greeks.
(typical for a neo-classicist) Architecture imitates types or models presented by nature to art. Also
theorized that Laugier’s hut was not the beginning of architecture, but merely one of three original
architectural types:

1. Hut - • Post and lintel construction

• Transposed into stone and became a model for Greek architecture

2. Cave - • Heavy dark interiors marked religious architecture of the Egyptians

3. Tent - • Light and mobile structure shows traces in wooden structures of the Chinese.

Each of the three types originated as shelter for a kind of people in a particular place, all bound by the
laws of necessity, through use, climate, or country.

TYPE –is an object with respect to which each artist can conceive works of art that may have no
resemblance to each other

MODEL – is an object that should be repeated as is

CHARACTER – implies something more expressive than type.

Quatremère distinguishes three meanings of architectural character:

1. Essential Character – natural character, the purest simplest essence of something

2. Distinctive Character – refers to a building’s dominant quality

3. Relative Character – two parts

a) Ideal – art of architecture metaphysically considered

b) Imitative – allows for sensuous ideas through manipulation of forms

*Relative character is much like that of ideal beauty and imitative beauty

Within Quatremere's Encyclopedie Methodique, character is an active engagement in the process of

altering the relationship between appearance and meaning. It is less concerned with the state of an
object, but with the qualities and the impressions that imitation engenders in the public. An object put
through a successful process of imitation engages the moral and intellectual interests of the public with
strong character. Strong character can be sensed in the singularity and distinctiveness of an object.

Quatremére de Quincy tried to define the concept of type by comparing ‘model’ and ‘type.’ He defined
‘model’ as a mechanical reproduction of an object and ‘type’ as a metaphorical entity. The model is a
form to be copied or imitated: “all is precise and given in the model”. Type, on the contrary, is
something that can act as a basis for the conception of works, which bear no resemblance to one
another: “all is more or less vague in the type”.

The architectural ‘type’ was at once ‘pre-existent germ,’ origin and primitive cause. With Quatremére de
Quincy’s work, the idea of type was explicitly and systematically theorized for the first time in the
history of architecture.

The Oxford dictionary definition of type reflects this understanding: “by which something is symbolized
or figured, anything having a symbolical signification, a symbol, or emblem.” The term Typology was
used to refer to the study of types; the comparative analysis and classification of structural or other
characteristics into types. Typology referred to the study of sets that are recognizable through the
coherence determined by the repetition of a single cultural type.

Quatremère’s last theory is a metaphysical one that distinguishes the source of rules, namely principles.
Principles are considered to be simple truths from which many lesser truths or rules are derived.
Quatremère’s four classes of rules (first two are based on nature and the second two are based on
conventions):

1. Reason or “the nature of things” - The theory of art in architecture – imitation, invention,
principles, rules

2. Constitution of the soul, mind, and senses - Beauty in architecture – symmetry, eurythmy,
proportion, ordonnance
 3. Authority of precedents - Retrieval of traditional knowledge – antique, restoration, restitution

4. Even habit and prejudice - Theoretical parameters influencing renewal within tradition –
indissociable couples imitation and invention, conventions and genius.

Quatremère de Quincy’s dictionary is composed according to criteria of historical, metaphysical,

theoretical, elementary or didactic, practical reference.

Differential levels of theory:

• Didactic – instucts the architect about the rules and percepts of the profession.
• Practical – informs the architect of all that has been achieved in architecture in the past.
• Metaphysical – fundamental essence and spirit behind the architecture of a period.

MODERN MOVEMENT THEORY

INTRODUCTION:
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of
ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching
movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely. 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. 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.

Modern architecture was a crucial turning point in architectural history. Its effects were overall
benefic and a great impulse for the stirring of new ideas and concepts about how the architecture
of the future should be made.

Modern architecture represented the first complete and clear break in the history of architecture.
Nothing done until that point was considered relevant and the modernists wanted to reinvent
architecture. So new rules about what this new architecture should be appeared and soon modern
architecture took off with unprecedented vigor.

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. 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.

COMMON THEMES:
 The notion that "Form follows function", a dictum originally expressed by 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.

CHARACTERISTICS:

1. Ornament is a crime: This was the name of an essay written in 1908 by Adolf Loos, one
of the most influential architectural critics of his time. This can be considered one of the
manifests of modern architecture. In this essay he literally considers that any form of
ornament should be punishable by law. He considers tattoos disgraceful and that their
only fit for lesser humans. He considers that our culture has led us to a world without
ornament, and any educated man who is in favor of ornaments should be considered a
criminal. The lack of ornamentation became one of the central characteristics of modern
architecture. Instead of ornaments, the volumetric shape of the building was favored. An
expressive and beautiful volumetric exterior using basic geometrical shapes, composed in
an interesting way was considered the way forward, while ornaments were considered
old-fashioned, and belonging to a lesser culture.

2. A complete break with history: Modern architecture had a new perspective on

architecture and it decreed that anything done before it has no value. This is why modern
architects and urban planners would have had no problem in completely whipping out a
whole medieval town center in order to build a sky-scraper, which for us in our post-
modern world would be considered a crime. In modern architecture schools the discipline
of the history of architecture was taken of the curricula. This clean and complete break
with history is one of the key characteristics of architecture.

3. Form follows function: These words are attributed to one of the fathers of modern
architecture, Mies van der Rohe. While in most styles before modernism the facade and
the form of the building were dictated by esthetic criteria, Mies suggested that a good
architect should always put the function as a priority. So, a building has first and foremost
served the purpose for what it was built. After all the problems arising from circulations,
relations between different parts of the building, easy accesses to important parts of the
construction, were solved, the form would resolve itself. After the skeleton of the
building was constructed, after all the criteria of functionality, than the other bits would
fall exactly into place, including form.

4. Sowing off the structure: Modern architecture put an emphasis on the structure of the
building. While for a great part of architectural history structure was considered
something unimportant, something that needed to be shoved aside and hidden where
 possible, modern architecture embraced the idea that structure should become a central
part of this new style. So structure was considered esthetically beautiful and a big part of
the new idea of sincerity in architecture. What you see is what you get.

5. The embrace of new materials: Modern architecture is closely related to the use in large
scale of the new material called armed concrete. It was embraced by many architects for
its versatility and its resistance. The thing that made armed concrete so special was that it
was relatively cheap and could be poured into almost any form, with the advantage that it
had a very high resistance to compression, because of the concrete and very high
resistance to tension, because of the steel mesh. This was a revolution, because the two
materials concrete and steel worked together like a charm. Also, modernism was all about
the sincerity of the materials used. Wood should be used as wood, and should look like
wood, and so on for every other material. This came because of the practice that was
established for many centuries, using different kinds of materials to decorate or mask the
structure. The embrace of new materials and the so called sincerity of expression are also
very important characteristics of modern architecture.

6. Brutalism and Monumentality: Architects such as Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel
Breuer, I.M. Pei and others would respond 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 "Béton 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 in a similar fashion, such as brickwork. The term was first used in architecture
by Le Corbusier.

ADOLF LOOS:

Adolf Loos was an Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern

architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna
Secession, with the Austrian version of Art Nouveau. In this and many other essays he
contributed to the elaboration of a body of theory and criticism of Modernism in architecture.

Adolf Loos gained greater notoriety for his writings than for his buildings. Loos wanted an
intelligently established building method supported by reason. He believed that everything that
could not be justified on rational grounds was superfluous and should be eliminated. Loos
recommended pure forms for economy and effectiveness. He rarely considered how this
"effectiveness" could correspond to rational human needs.

Loos argued against decoration by pointing to economic and historical reasons for its
development, and by describing the suppression of decoration as necessary to the regulation of
passion. He believed that culture resulted from the renunciation of passions and that which
brings man to the absence of ornamentation generates spiritual power.
Loos attacked contemporary design as well as the imitative styling of the nineteenth century. He
looked on contemporary decoration as mass-produced, mass-consumed trash. Loos acted as a
model and a seer for architects of the 1920s. His fight for freedom from the decorative styles of
the nineteenth century led a campaign for future architects.

He explains his philosophy, describing how ornamentation can have the effect of causing objects
to go out of style and thus become obsolete. It struck him that it was a crime to waste the effort
needed to add ornamentation, when the ornamentation would cause the object to soon go out of
style. Loos introduced a sense of the "immorality" of ornament, describing it as "degenerate", its
suppression as necessary for regulating modern society.

EERO SAARINEN:

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century
famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching
structural curves or machine-like rationalism.

Eero Saarinen was one of the great masters of American twentieth-century architecture, and the
only whose career and work has not been documented in a comprehensive monograph-until now.
Saarinen's buildings are famous worldwide: the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal in
JFK Airport, Dulles Airport, outside Washington D.C., the CBS Building in New York, the
General Motors Technical Center in Michigan, the US Embassy in London, and many other
landmarks.

Equally celebrated are his furniture designs, including the Tulip Table and Womb Chair. While
Saarinen's exuberant, even expressionistic, forms were lightning rods for many critics, his unique
personal style is now much admired, making him a key figure for many designers practicing
today.

Saarinen's was a career of innovation. His airport terminals combined the poetry of sculpture
with daring structural feats and raganizational genius; his pioneering industrial complexes for
GM, IBM, and Bell Labs brought rational modernism to corporate America; and his furniture
and residential buildings conveyed an optimistic, humane vision for the future. This lavishly
illustrated monograph spans Saarinen's entire career, including his drawings, models, most
important built works, and furniture.
TWA TERMINAL at JFK Airport

Dulles Airport Terminal

ERICH MENDELSOHN:

Erich Mendelsohn was a Jewish German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the
1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores
and cinemas.
The visionary Mendelsohn, a contemporary of Walter Gropius and Miese van der Rohe,
produced works that have influenced generations of architects. Mendelsohn’s career followed the
jagged trajectory of many German Jewish émigrés fleeing Nazism; he worked in England, Israel
and finally, in the USA. Mendelsohn’s drawings pulsate with energy and his buildings are
stunning. His earlier work, the Einstein Tower, is one of the most important exemplars of
modern architecture.

Topography, climate, and culture were important factors in his work. He insisted on planning the
gardens and interior design details of his buildings, including lighting and furniture. In his own
house, built in 1927, he designed all of the kitchenware and utensils.
Mendelsohn was known as a great lover of nature. He made use of shapes derived from nature,
especially the spiral structures seen in the shells of sea mollusks. Such spirals served as the basis
for his design of staircases.
Among Mendelsohn’s famous works in Germany are the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, various
factories, the Schocken family commercial buildings, and power plants. The Weizmann House
was his first project in Israel. Later on, he also designed the Hadassah Medical Center on Mount
Scopus, the Anglo-Palestinian Bank, the Schockens’ house in Jerusalem, the Rambam Medical
Center in Haifa, and the Wolf Building at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Einstein Tower:

"Erich Mendelsohn's small,

but powerfully modeled
tower, built to symbolize the
greatness of the Einsteinian
concepts, was also a quite
functional house. It was
designed to hold Einstein's
own astronomical
laboratory... Mendelsohn
was after a completely
plastic kind of building,
moulded rather than built,
without angles and with
smooth, rounded corners.
He needed a malleable material like reinforced concrete, which could be made to curve and
create its own surface plasticity, but due to post-war shortages, some parts had to be in brick and
others in concrete. So the total external effect was obtained by rendering the surface material.
Even so, this 'sarcophagus of architectural Expressionism' is one of the most brilliantly original
buildings of the twentieth century.
 Einstein Tower Hat Factory

Weizmann Residence De LA War Pavilion, Bexhill

Cohen House, London Schoken Department Store

RICHARD NEUTRA:

Richard Joseph Neutra was an Austrian American architect. Living and building for the majority
of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered among the most
important modernist architects. He graduated in 1917 from the Technische Hochschule, Vienna,
where he had been taught by Adolf Loos, and was influenced by Otto Wagner. He worked for
Erich Mendelsohn in 1921-22 and in 1923 emigrated to the U.S. where he worked on several
projects with Rudolf N. Schindler before establishing his own practice.

He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the
size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to impose their artistic vision on a client.
Neutra sometimes used detailed questionnaires to discover his client's needs, much to their
surprise. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

Neutra created a modern regionalism for Southern California which combined a light metal
frame with a stucco finish to create a light effortless appearance. "He specialized in extending
architectural space into a carefully arranged landscape. The dramatic images of flat-surfaced,
industrialized residential buildings contrasted against nature were popularized by the
photography of Julius Shulman."

An experienced and outspoken writer and speaker, Neutra worked with a series of successful
partners including his wife, Dione, from 1922, his protege, Robert Alexander, from 1949-58 and
his son, Dion, from 1965. He adamantly believed that modern architecture must act as a social
force in the betterment of mankind.

Kaufmann Desert House:

"The Kaufmann house, Palm Springs, 1946, moved in

the direction of the pavilion, which is Neutra's last
development in domestic architecture. Horizontal
planes resting on horizontal planes hover over
transparent walls. The material loses its importance—
magnificent as the dry-joint stone walls are in
themselves—and the gist of the house is the weightless
space enclosed. The victory over the front door is
almost complete; it is reached by slow stages, like the
Mexican house whose entrance on the street leads
through a garden to an unemphasized door."

"As an architect, my life has been governed by the goal

of building environmental harmony, functional
efficiency, and human enhancement into the experience
of everyday living. These things go together,
constituting the cause of architecture, and a life devoted
to their realization cannot be an easy one.

"I have been privileged, or perhaps doomed, to

eschew simpler, lighter burdens. Shaping man's
surroundings entails a lot more than spatial,
structural, mechanical, and other technical considerations—certainly a lot more than
pontificating about matters of style. Our organic well-being is dependent on a wholesome,
salubrious environment. Therefore exacting attention has to be paid to our intricate sensory
world."— Richard Neutra. from William Marlin.

Lovell House:

"The Lovell house had in Los Angeles in 1929 an

importance comparable to the early iron or steel and
glass exhibition buildings in Europe, and indeed it
was through this house that Los Angeles
architecture first became widely known in Europe.
Brilliant as the structure was in conception, it is
doubtful whether it could have been executed
without Neutra's familiarity with the methods of
contractors and sub-contractors.

"The open-web skeleton, in which standard triple

steel casements were integrated, was fabricated in
sections and transported by truck to the steep
hillside site, and the lightweight bar joists of floors
and ceilings were electrically welded in the shop.
The balconies, usually called cantilevered, are
instead suspended by slender steel cables from the
roof frame. This use of members in suspension, and
also the U-shaped reinforced thin concrete cradle in
which the pool was suspended, created a stir in
architectural circles. The walls of the house are of
thin concrete, shop from two-hundred-foot-long
hoses, against expanded metal, which was backed
by insulation panels as forms."

OTTO WAGNER:

Otto Wagner was born in Penzing, near Vienna in 1841. In 1894 he supervised and taught at a
special school of architecture within the Academy of Fine Arts. Moderne Architecktur, his
inaugural address at the school, called for an architecture based exclusively on modern materials
and modern construction methods. As a teacher, Wagner soon broke with tradition by insisting
on function, material, and structure as the bases of architectural design.

In 1890 Wagner designed a new city plan for Vienna, but only his urban rail network was used.
This network borrowed from the classical urban monumentality of his early training but adopted
the modern construction and functional planning he so adamantly demanded. The buildings
within the network exhibited a decorative styling that owed much to the Secession school.
Wagner continued searching for a style which embodied the principles he taught. In his later
works he dispensed with almost all ornamentation and used materials in their simplest forms.
These works show a simple but effective blending of plan, space and materials.

Post Office Savings Bank:

"Wagner's Post Office Bank was won in

competition in 1903 and erected in two stages,
1904-06 and 1910-12. The Hall roof,
completed as part of the first stage in 1906,
was a major innovation although only a small
part of the vast project. It covered the centrally
positioned public space in the trapezoidal-
shaped, six-storey building. The glazed vault
was suspended from cables in the original
competition design and a larger area was
involved, but in the final design, a secondary
roof was incorporated above the curved
ceiling. The floor to the Hall was also finished
in glass to allow light to penetrate rooms below."

KENZO TANGE:

Kenzo Tange was born in Osaka, Japan in 1913. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in
1938 and worked for Kunio Maekawa until 1941. He studied city planning at the graduate school
at the University of Tokyo after which he assumed a position as an assistant professor of
architecture. He received a degree in engineering in 1959. Two years later Tange established
Kenzo Tange + Urtec which later became Kenzo Tange Associates. He served as professor of
urban engineering at the University of Tokyo from 1963 to 1974, when he retired as professor
emeritus.

Tange's early designs attempted to combine modernism with traditional Japanese forms of
architecture. In the late 1960s he rejected this earlier regionalism in favor of an abstract
international style. Although his styles have transformed over time, he has consistently generated
designs based on a clear structural order.

Reflecting the influence of Le Corbusier, his urban philosophy dictates the generation of
comprehensive cities filled with megastructures that combine service and transportation
elements. Although closely associated with the Metabolist movement because of his functionalist
ideas, he never belonged to the group. Influential as a teacher of modern architecture, Tange
received the gold medals of the RIBA, the AIA and the French Academy of Architecture. He
also received the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The modular expansion of Tange's Metabolist visions had some influence on Archigram with
their plug-in mega structures. Although the Osaka Expo had marked a decline in the Metabolist
movement, it resulted in a "handing over" of the reigns to a younger generation of architects such
as Kazuo Shinohara and Arata Isozaki.
Tange was a prime exemplar of the use of Brutalist architecture. His use of Béton brut concrete
finishes in a raw and undecorated way combined with his civic projects such as the
redevelopment of Tokyo Bay made him a great influence on British architects during the 1960s.
Brutalist architecture has been criticized for being soulless and for promoting the exclusive use
of a material that is poor at withstanding long exposures to natural weather.
Hiroshima Peace Center:

"The building is raised up on pillars, its structure a framework of exposed concrete. The complex
as a whole has a monumental quality. There are two secondary buildings, one on either side,
consisting of an auditoruim, a hotel, an exhibition gallery, a library, offices and a conference
centre to the west, and an assembly hall with capacity for 2,500 people to the east....Together
they form a kind of screen for the square of Peace, which extends to the north, in which up to
50,000 people can congregate around the monument to Peace. The monument...in the form of a
hyperbolic parabola, brings together modern tendencies and techniques and the ancient form of
the Haniwa, the traditional tombs of the rulers of old Japan.

Olympic Arena:

"Together with a number of other important projects which Kenzo Tange carried out after 1959,
the Olympic stadia in Tokyo can be regarded as the culmination of his career, designed in 1960
and built in 1964, on a par with the highest achievements of the Japanese tradition. The plan [of
the larger stadium] is in the form of two semi-circles, slightly displaced in relation to one
another, with their unconnecting ends elongated into points. The entrances are located in the
concave sides. The roof is supported on two reinforced concrete pillars, and is made up of a
system of steel cables onto which enameled steel plates are then soldered. The curving form of
the roof serves to make it more resistant to wind, which can reach hurricane force in this region.
POST MODERN THEORY:
INTRODUCTION:
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 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.
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.

AIMS AND CHARACTERISTICS:

The aims of Postmodernism, including solving the problems of Modernism, communicating
meanings with ambiguity, and sensitivity for the building’s 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.
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.
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.
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.

ROBERT VENTURI:

Robert Venturi was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925. He attended the Episcopal
Academy in Philadelphia and graduated from Princeton University. He worked with Eero
Saarinen and Louis I. Kahn before he founded his own practice in 1958. In 1964 he formed a
partnership with John Rausch. Three years later, his new wife, Denise Scott Brown, joined the
partnership.

Although Venturi has designed many buildings, his theories have created more impact. Based on
the philosophy of 'complexity and contradiction', he has re-assessed architecture to stress the
importance of multiple meanings in appreciating design.

In contrast to many modernists, Venturi uses a form of symbolically decorated architecture based
on precedents. He believes that structure and decoration should remain separate entities and that
decoration should reflect the culture in which it exists. In contradiction, Venturi also considers
symbolism unnecessary since modern technology and historical symbolism rarely harmonize.

Although Venturi considers himself a architect of Western classical tradition, he claims that
architectural rules have changed. He rejects a populist label, but in Learning from Las Vegas he
shifted from an intellectual critique of Modernism in terms of complexity to an ironic acceptance
of the "kitsch of high capitalism" as a form of vernacular. His theories have generated the
populist aesthetic of the recent Post-Modernism.

Robert Venturi was at the forefront of Post modern 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 modern—and lambasted overly simplistic Functional
Modernism. The move away from modernism’s functionalism is well illustrated by Venturi’s
adaptation of Mies van der Rohe’s 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.
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”. Postmodernism with its diversity possesses sensitivity to the
building’s context and history, and the client’s requirements. The postmodernist architects often
considered the general requirements of the urban buildings and their surroundings during the
building’s design.
Vanna Venturi House:

Venturi's first important project to be

built was his mother's house, the
Vanna Venturi House of 1961-1964.
Disarmingly simple after the spatial
antics of later Modernism, its plan,
like that of the Beach House project,
is based on a symbolic conception
rather than upon one that is purely
spatially abstract. It is centered on
the idea of the chimney, the hearth,
from which— and you can feel it—
the space is pulled. The space is
distended from that hearth as the mass of the chimney rises up to split the house. Here the
principle of condensation becomes an extremely complex and interesting one. With the chimney
rising through the gable, the general parti derives from that of the Beach House. Now, however,
the living room is half-vaulted, and that semicircle is picked up in the tacked-on arch of the
facade; now, the whole house is rising and being split through the middle.

Plans and elevations are built on a rigid axial, even Palladian, symmetry, which becomes
monumental in the street faced but looser at the extremities and rear of the house, in keeping
with the domestic program. In addition to the immediacy of its unique formal and functional
qualities, the house is rich in references to historic architecture.

Gordon Wu Hall:

The interior of the building was planned

not only to create a series of spaces to
accommodate the social and dining
activities of 500 students, but also to
provide opportunities for informal,
intimate and spontaneous social interaction. The long dining room with a tall bay window at its
end provides a sense of grandeur and recalls Princeton's Neo-Gothic dining halls; but low
ceilings, large windows and natural wood furnishings create another scale of intimacy and
comfort that allows the large room to become a pleasing cross between a cafe and a grand dining
commons. At the entry lobby a stairway leads past another large bay window to a lounge,
administrative offices and library on the upper floor. The first flight of stairs unexpectedly
extends to one side to form bleacher-like risers suitable for sitting. The extended stairwell
suggests a grand stair sweeping upward, but serves informally as a spontaneous waiting and
gathering place. On special occasions it becomes an indoor amphitheater.

CHARLES JENCKS:

Charles Alexander Jencks is an American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer.
His books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism are widely read in
architectural circles and he studied under the influential architectural historians Sigfried
Giedion and Reyner Banham. Jencks now lives in Scotland where he designs landscape sculpture
and writes on cosmogenic art.

Charles jencks very well traces the problem of modern architecture which gave rise to post-
modern architecture. He starts with modern architecture and relates the situation. He sees the
main problem to be one of communication. All building mean something, indeed building carries
a plurality of meanings which people read into them despite what architects intended. But
because the architects have abandoned the traditional ‘languages’ of architecture and tried to
design ‘functional’ buildings, modern architecture has become so poverty stricken – Jencks call
it univalent – that this plurality of meanings simply cannot read into it. Most of us, indeed, have
been brought up to think that such over simple architecture is evidence of social responsibility
and integrity on the part of architect.

Jencks is synonymous with his writings of Postmodernism in architecture. He discusses his

theories of postmodern architecture in his best-selling book The Language of Post-Modern
Architecture 1977 and susequent six editions. Jencks discusses the paradigm shift in modern to
post-modern architecture. Modern architecture concentrates on univalent forms such as right
angles and square buildings often resembling office buildings. However, post modern
architecture focuses on forms derived from the mind, body, city context and nature.
His later book the Iconic Building examines the trend setting and celebrity culture. Jencks
discusses why buildings are being designed this way. The reason that our culture seeks the
‘iconic building’ is because it has the possibility of reversing the economic trend of a flagging
“conurbation”. An iconic building is created to make a splash, to generate money, and the normal
criteria of valuation do not apply. “Enigmatic signifiers” can be used in an effective way to
support the deeper meaning of the building.
Jencks has lectured at over forty universities throughout the globe, including Peking, Shanghai,
Tokyo, Milan, Barcelona, and in the US at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. In his most
recent work he collaborated with the late Maggie Keswick on fractal designs of building and
furniture as well as extensive landscape designs base on complexity theory, waves and solitons.
Critical Modernism - Where is Post Modernism going came out in 2007. It is an overview of
post-modernism in which Jencks argues that Post modernism is another critical reaction
to Modernism that comes from within Modernism itself.
The Story of Post-Modernism, Five Decades of the Ironic, Iconic and Critical in Architecture,
2011, summarizes the history of the movement since its origins in the 1960's.

DECONSTRUCTION THEORY:

Deconstruction is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is

influenced by the theory of "Deconstruction", which is a form of semiotic analysis. It is
characterized by fragmentation, an interest in manipulating a structure's surface or skin, non-
rectilinear shapes which appear to distort and dislocate elements of architecture, such as structure
and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit deconstructivist "styles" is
characterized by unpredictability and controlled chaos.
Deconstructivist architects were influenced by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.
Eisenman was a friend of Derrida, but even so his approach to architectural design was
developed long before he became a Deconstructivist. For him Deconstructivism should be
considered an extension of his interest in radical formalism. Some practitioners of
deconstructivism were also influenced by the formal experimentation and geometric imbalances
of Russian constructivism. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century
movements:the modernism/postmodernism interplay, expressionism, cubism, minimalism and co
ntemporary art. Deconstructivism attempts to move away from the supposedly constricting 'rules'
of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."
The main channel from deconstructivist philosophy to architectural theory was through the
philosopher Jacques Derrida's influence with Peter Eisenman. Eisenman drew some
philosophical bases from the literary movement Deconstruction, and collaborated directly with
Derrida on projects including an entry for the Parc de la Villette competition, documented
in Chora l Works. Both Derrida and Eisenman, as well as Daniel Libeskind were concerned with
the "metaphysics of presence," and this is the main subject of deconstructivist philosophy in
architecture theory. The presupposition is that architecture is a language capable of
communicating meaning and of receiving treatments by methods of linguistic philosophy. The
dialectic of presence and absence, or solid and void occurs in much of Eisenman's projects, both
built and unbuilt. Both Derrida and Eisenman believe that the locus, or place of presence, is
architecture, and the same dialectic of presence and absence is found in construction and
deconstructivism.
According to Derrida, readings of texts are best carried out when working with classical
narrative structures. Any architectural deconstructivism requires the existence of a particular
archetypal construction, a strongly-established conventional expectation to play flexibly against.
In addition to Derrida's concepts of the metaphysics of presence and deconstructivism, his
notions of trace and erasure, embodied in his philosophy of writing and arche-writing found their
way into deconstructivist memorials. Daniel Libeskind envisioned many of his early projects as a
form of writing or discourse on writing and often works with a form of concrete poetry. He made
architectural sculptures out of books and often coated the models in texts, openly making his
architecture refer to writing. The notions of trace and erasure were taken up by Libeskind in
essays and in his project for the Jewish Museum Berlin. The museum is conceived as a trace of
the erasure of the Holocaust, intended to make its subject legible and poignant. Memorials such
as Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe are also said to reflect themes of trace and erasure.

Greater Columbus convention center Wexner center for the Arts

KENNETH FRAMPTON:

Kenneth Frampton is a British architect, critic, historian and the Professor of Architecture at the
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York.
Frampton is well known for his writing on twentieth-century architecture. His books include
Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980; revised 1985, 1992 and 2007) and Studies in
Tectonic Culture (1995).

Frampton achieved great prominence (and influence) in architectural education with his essay
"Towards a Critical Regionalism" (1983). Frampton's own position attempts to defend a version
of modernism that looks to either critical regionalism or a 'momentary' understanding of the
autonomy of architectural practice in terms of its own concerns with form and tectonics which
cannot be reduced to economics.

Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter placelessness and lack
of identity in modern architecture by using the building's geographical context. The term "critical
regionalism" was first used by the architectural theorists Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre
and, with a slightly different meaning, by the historian-theorist Kenneth Frampton.

Critical regionalism is not regionalism in the sense of vernacular architecture, but is, on the
contrary, an avant-gardist, modernist approach, but one that starts from the premises of local or
regional architecture. The idea of critical regionalism emerged at a time during the early 1980s
when Postmodern architecture, itself a reaction to Modernist architecture, was at its height.
However, the writer most associated with Critical Regionalism, Kenneth Frampton, was in fact
critical towards postmodernism.

In Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an

architecture of resistance, Frampton recalls Paul Ricoeur's
"how to become modern and to return to sources; how to
revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal
civilization". According to Frampton's proposal, critical
regionalism should adopt modern architecture, critically, for
its universal progressive qualities but at the same time value
should be placed on the geographical context of the
building.

Emphasis, Frampton says, should be on topography,

climate, light; on tectonic form rather than on scenography
(i.e. painting theatrical scenery) and should be on the sense
of touch rather than visual sense. Frampton draws on
phenomenology for his argument.

Two examples Frampton briefly discusses are Jørn Utzon

and Alvar Aalto. In Frampton's view, Utzon's Bagsværd
Church (1973–6), near Copenhagen is a self-conscious
synthesis between universal civilization and world culture.
This is revealed by the rational, modular, neutral and
economic, partly prefabricated concrete outer shell (i.e.
universal civilization) versus the specially-designed,
'uneconomic', organic, reinforced concrete shell of the
interior, signifying with its manipulation of light sacred
space and 'multiple cross-cultural references', which
Frampton sees no precedent for in Western culture, but
rather in the Chinese pagoda roof (i.e. world culture).

In the case of Aalto, Frampton discusses the red brick Säynätsalo Town Hall (1952), where, he
argues, there is a resistance to universal technology and vision which is effected by using the
tactile qualities of the building's materials. He notes, for instance, feeling the contrast between
the friction of the brick surface of the stairs and the springy wooden floor in the council chamber.

CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER:
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander, Austrian Architect, is a registered architect noted for his
theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and
around the world. Reasoning that users know more about the buildings they need than any
architect could, he produced and validated a "pattern language" designed to empower anyone to
design and build at any scale.

What is a pattern?

When a designer is designing something (whether it is a house or a computer program or a

lamp), they must make many decisions about how to solve problems. A single problem is
documented with its typical place (the syntax), and use (the grammar) with the most common
and recognized good solution seen in the wild, like the examples seen in dictionaries. Each such
entry is a single design pattern. Each pattern has a name, a descriptive entry, and some cross-
references, much like a dictionary entry. A documented pattern should explain why that solution
is good in the pattern's contexts.

Many patterns form a language…

Just as words must have grammatical and semantic relationships to each other in order to make a
spoken language useful, design patterns must be related to each other in position and utility order
to form a pattern language. Alexander's work describes a process of decomposition, in which the
designer has a problem (perhaps a commercial assignment), selects a solution, then discovers
new, smaller problems resulting from the larger solution.

The actual organizational structure (hierarchical, iterative, etc.) is left to the discretion of the
designer, depending on the problem. This explicitly lets a designer explore a design, starting
from some small part. When this happens, it's common for a designer to realize that the problem
is actually part of a larger solution. At this point, the design almost always becomes a better
design.

In the language, therefore, each pattern has to indicate its relationships to other patterns and to
the language as a whole. This gives the designer using the language a great deal of guidance
about the related problems that must be solved.

A pattern language, a term coined by architect Christopher Alexander, is a structured method of

describing good design practices within a field of expertise. Advocates of this design approach
claim that ordinary people can use it to successfully solve very large, complex design problems.
Like all languages, a pattern language has vocabulary, syntax, and grammar; but a pattern
language is applied to some complex activity other than communication.

In pattern languages used for design, the parts break down in this way:
The language description, the vocabulary, is a collection of named, described solutions to
problems in a field of interest. These are called "design patterns." So, for example, the language
for architecture would describe items like: settlements, buildings, rooms, windows, latches, etc.

Each solution includes "syntax," a description that shows where the solution fits in a larger, more
comprehensive or more abstract design. This automatically links the solution into a web of other
needed solutions. For example, rooms have ways to get light, and ways to get people in and out.

The solution includes "grammar" that describes how the solution solves a problem or gets a
benefit. So, if the benefit is not needed, the solution is not used. Perhaps that part of the design
can be left empty to save money or other resources. So, if people do not need to wait to enter a
room, instead of a waiting room, perhaps you can use a simple doorway.

In the language description, the grammar and syntax cross index (often with a literal alphabetic
index of pattern names) to other named solutions, so the designer can quickly think from one
solution to related, needed solutions, and document them in a logical way. In Alexander's book,
the patterns are in decreasing order by size, with a separate alphabetic index.

The web of relationships in the index of the language allows for many different paths through the
design process. This simplifies the designer's life, because the design process can start from any
part of the problem that the designer understands, and work toward the unknown parts. At the
same time, if the pattern language has worked well for many projects, there is reason to believe
that even though the designer may not completely understand the design problems at first, the
process will complete, and the resulting design will be usable. For example, skiers coming inside
will need to shed snow and store equipment. The messy snow and boot cleaners should stay
outside. The equipment needs care, so the racks should be inside. etc.

It really is a language: There is even an analogy to spelling or phonology, in the documentation

standards for the designs and patterns. Without these, the people building the design won't be
able to read the design.

AMOS RAPOPORT:

Amos Rapoport is the author of the book House, Form & Culture - which talks about how
culture, human behavior, and the environment affect house form. He is one of the founders of the
field of Environment-Behavior Studies (EBS). His work has focused mainly on the role of
cultural variables, cross-cultural studies, and theory development and synthesis. In addition to
House, Form, and Culture he is the author of three other books and nearly 200 articles, papers,
and chapters, as well as editor or co-editor of four books.

Rapoport details his theory, which he summarizes as: My basic hypothesis, then, is that house
form is not simply the result of physical forces or any single casual factor, but is the consequence
of a whole range of socio-cultural factors seen in their broadest terms. Rapoport’s book is the
direct opposite of traditional patterns of study in architectural theory and history where efforts
have always been on monuments and “high style” buildings of various civilizations.
The foundation of the book was laid on the intellectual debate of the meaning and characteristics
of folk, primitive, and vernacular buildings on one side, and modern buildings on the other–
possibly even forming a continuum. The book linked behaviour and form, and theorized that
built form has influence on behaviour, not in a causal manner but in the way of “coincidences.”

Rapoport debunked the many “alternative theories of house form” by refuting the rather extreme
explanation and weak foundation of architecture that “climate and the need for shelter”
determine the form of dwellings. His balanced view on the impact of climate on house form is
commendable; after giving enough evidence on the supremacy of culture over climate in
determining house form, he submitted that “it is a characteristic of primitive and vernacular
buildings that they typically respond to climate very well.”