EVOLUTION OF MODERN

ARCHITECTURE

LECTURE -1
LINGAYA’S VIDYAPEETH, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
INTRODUCTION
Modern Architecture is Architecture that emerged in the 1920s in Europe and the United
States.

The defining feature of modern architecture is the modern aesthetic which may
be summarized as “plain geometric forms”.

It began as a response by Architects to rapid technological advances and greater

urbanization of society at the turn of the century.

It is the very dominant style which came during the 19th century.

Modern Architecture takes its roots from the Industrial Age when architects are exploring new
materials such as steel and reinforced concrete. The design of buildings are not anymore
influenced by religion nor classicism, but rather architecture is inspired by the machine.
•It is the Architecture of simpleforms(rectangles) enclosed with flat opaque (solid) or
transparent (glass) walls.
•ModernArchitecture expressesvolume, balance and elimination of ornaments.
•Modern styles and concepts, by contrast, took root more quickly in
commercial, industrial, and residential Architecture.
 Neoclassical architecture
 Produced by the neoclassical movement t began in the mid-18th century, manifested both
in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its
architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque.

 Its purest is a style principally derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and
Rome and the architecture of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio

 Intellectually Neoclassicism was symptomatic of a desire to return to the perceived

"purity" of the arts of Rome, Greek,and renaissance classicism

 Architects, however, felt free to select whatever elements from past cultures best fitted
their programs—Gothic for Protestant churches, baroque for Roman Catholic churches,
early Greek for banks, Palladian for institutions, early Renaissance for libraries, and
Egyptian for cemeteries.
AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT
 To reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition
and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method.

 Promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.

 The Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought.

 This new way of thinking was that rational thought begins with clearly stated
principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions
against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence.
REVIVALISM
INTRODUCTION
• Revivalism really took-off during the 19th century, in part as a romantic
reaction to the impersonal nature of the IndustrialRevolution.
• Usually, classically inspired styles such as Greek Revival and RomanRevival
were madly popular in the US andEurope.
• The Gothic Revival style was popular for public buildings, churches, of course,
and even mansions and more modest privatehomes.
GREEK REVIVAL
• The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th
century, in Northern Europe and United States.
• It is the style which includes Greek, Roman and Neoclassical.
• The early forms of Neoclassical Architecture grew up alongside the Baroque,
and functioned as a sort of corrective to the latter’s flamboyance.
FEATURES OF GREEK REVIVAL
• Structures were supported on decorated
columns of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pillars
surmounted by large Renaissance-styledomes.
• Some columns were multiplied and stacked,to
create an impression of height, while facades
were decorated with a combination of
colonnades, rotundas and porticoes.
• Clean, elegantstyles.
• Uncluttered appearance.
• Free standing columns.
• Massive buildings.
• Flat roof and horizontal.
 EXAMPLES OF GREEK REVIVAL

US CAPITOL

BRITISH MUSEUM OLD SAINT PETERSBURG

PANTHEON, PARIS
 GOTHIC REVIVAL
• Gothic Revival is the revival of the Gothic Architecture during 1840s and
1860s in Europe and 1890s in theUS.
• It is not as popular as the Greek revival but its features are shown in the
Churches.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Pitched roof
• Ribbed Vault
• Cross gabled
• Pointed arch Windows
• Stained Glass
• Gothic Arch
 EXAMPLES OF GOTHIC REVIVAL

PARLIAMENT HOUSE,
BUDAPEST TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER
LIVERPOOL, CATHEDRAL

ST. PATRICK’S BASILICA, MONTREAL

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
 The process of change from an agrarian, handicraft economy to
one dominated by industry and machine manufacture.
 The Industrial Revolution began in England about 1760
 Radical changes at every level of civilization throughout the world
 Growth of heavy industry brought a flood of new building materials— cast
iron, steel, and glass
 The steam railroad extended its rails from raw products to the factory , and
to the cities of consumers all over the land.
 Every amenity of urban life was sacrificed to the requirements of industrial
production.
 Railroads and ships joined at the factories , and the waterfront became
the industrial core of the city.
Emergence Of New Building Material
& Typologies
 TECHNOLOGIES
•As the 20th century began modern architects
believed it was necessary to invent an architecture
that expressed the spirit of a new age and would
surpass the styles, materials, and technologies of
earlier architecture

Crystal Palace
by Sir joseph Paxton

By 1920s there understanding that was an increasingly

wide building forms must be determined by their
functions and materials if they were to achieve beauty in
contemporary terms.

•CRYSTAL PALACE in London.

Skyscraper
HSBC Hong Kong Headquarters •Skyscrapers- a new building.
MATERIAL USED
•With the continuous progress in the filed of Iron and
Glass, these material became the most common and
important.

•Apart from these, ceramic hollow tiles and concrete

block were also used.
Tower Bridge- London
•Steel framing and reinforced concrete serve as the
primary structural materials of large- scale architecture

•Iron could be used to span for larger spaces.

•In 1892 French engineer François Hennebique

combined the strengths of both in a new system of
construction based on concrete reinforced with steel
Glass pyramid of the Louvre
Steel
The fundamental technical
prerequisite to large- scale
modern architecture was
the development of metal
framing.

Glass and iron, iron frame

Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton, 1851 Eiffel Tower, Gustav Eiffel, 1887
CHARACTERISTICS
Common themes of modern architecture include:

•The notion that "Form follows function",a dictum originally expressed by Frank Lloyd
Wright's

•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“

•Use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine aesthetic

•Particularly in International Style modernism, a visual emphasis on horizontal and

vertical lines.
ARCHITECTS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Notable architects important to
the history and development of
the modernist movement include
1.Le Corbusier
2.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Tel Aviv-
3.Walter Gropius by Walter Gropius
4.Frank Lloyd Wright
5.Louis Sullivan
6.C.R. Mackintosh
7.Edwin Lutyens
8.Antoni Gaudi
Saddam Husein Gymnasium Wainwright Building by
by le corbuseir Louis Sullivan