L6- Transition Period I Europe

with significant development in

the world of Architecture

1
Modern Architecture
-Origins & Manifestations
Inventions &
Discoveries

Less is More

Form Follows
Function

Minimalism

Truthfulness of
Form, Material
& Expression
-
2
 Modern Architecture-
Origins
The Industrial Revolution was a period
from the 18th to the 19th century where
major changes in agriculture,
manufacturing, mining, transportation,
and technology had a profound effect on
the socio economic and cultural
conditions of the times.
It began in the United Kingdom, and
then subsequently spread throughout
Europe, North America, and eventually A Wattsteam engine, the
the world. steam engine fuelled
In the two centuries following 1800, the primarily by coal that
propelled the Industrial
world's average per capita income Revolution in Great Britain
increased over 10-fold, while the and the world.
world's population increased over 6- 3
fold.
"For the first time in history, the living
standards of the masses of ordinary
people have begun to undergo
sustained growth. ... Nothing remotely
like this economic behaviour has
happened before.“

It started with the mechanisation of

the textile industries,
the development of iron-making
techniques and
the increased use of refined coal.
Trade expansion was enabled by the
introduction of canals, improved roads
and railways. 4
Innovations during the Industrial
Revolution
The commencement of the Industrial Revolution
is closely linked to a small number of
innovations, made in the second half of the 18th
century:
Three 'leading sectors', in which there were keyThe only surviving example of
a Spinning mule built by the
innovations, which allowed the economic take inventor Samuel Crompton
off by which the Industrial Revolution is usually
defined
Textiles – Cotton spinning using Richard Arkwright's water
frame, James
Steam power – The improved steam engine invented by
James Watt and patented in 1775 was initially mainly used
to power pumps for pumping water out of mines, but from
the 1780s was applied to power other types of machines.
Iron making – In the Iron industry, Model of the spinning jenny in
coke was finally applied to all stages a museum in Wuppertal,
of iron smelting, replacing charcoal. Germany.
 Innovations during the Industrial
Revolution
Transfer of knowledge
Knowledge of innovation was
spread by several means. A
common method :someone
to make a study tour,.
•by the network of informal
A Philosopher
philosophical societies, like the Lunar Lecturing on the
Society of Birmingham, in which Orrery (ca.
members met to discuss 'natural 1766)Informal
philosophical
philosophy' (i.e. science) and often itssocieties spread
application to manufacturing. scientific advances
publications describing
technology.
Encyclopaedias such as
Harris's Lexicon Technique
(1704) and Abraham
Rees's Cyclopadia (1802–
1819) contain much of value.
Periodical publications
about manufacturing and
technology began to
appear in the last decade
Coalbrookdale by Night,
of the 18th century, and 1801, Philipp Jakob
many regularly included Loutherbourg the Younger
Blast furnaces light the iron
7
notice of the latest patents. making town of oalbrookdale
Rise of Metal-frame Architecture
The fundamental technical
prerequisite to large-scale
modern architecture was
the development of metal
framing.
The term industrial age denotes
the period of history in which
machine-manufacturing (as
opposed to manufacturing by
hand) plays a major role. Since iron was becoming
This age began ca. 1750 (with cheaper and more plentiful, it
the onset of the Industrial also became a major structural
material following the building
Revolution), and continues to
of the innovative The Iron
this day. Bridge in 1778 by Abraham 8
The industrial age can be
divided into two parts:
the iron and steam phase
(ca. 1750-1900) and the
steel and electricity phase
(ca. 1900-present).
The “iron and steam
phase” is also the age of
iron-frame architecture.
During this period, cast
iron framing was
introduced to masonry
buildings.
The 1698 Savery Engine – the world's first
commercially useful steam engine: built by 9
Thomas Savery. Also called Miner’s friend
Masonry walls were
gradually relieved of their
structural role, eventually
becoming a cosmetic
“skin” over an iron
skeleton of columns and
arches.

Iron bridges and iron-and-

glass buildings (e.g.
greenhouses, train stations,
markets) were also
constructed.
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Transport in Britain during Industrial
Revolution

The Industrial Revolution

improved Britain's transport
infrastructure with a Pontcysyllte
turnpike road network, Aqueduct, Llangollen,
Wales
a canal and waterway network,
a railway network.
BENEFITS
Raw materials and finished
products could be moved more
quickly and cheaply than before. Puffing Billy, an early railway
steam locomotive,
allowed new ideas to spread constructed in 1813-1814 for
11
colliery work.
quickly.
 Coastal sail
.. This became less important with the growth of the
railways at the end of the period.
Navigable rivers All the major rivers of the United
Kingdom were navigable during the Industrial
Revolution. Some were anciently navigable, notably the
Severn, Thames, and Trent.
Canals
Canals were the first technology to allow bulk materials
to be easily transported across the country. By the
1820s, a national network was in existence. Canal
construction served as a model for the organization and
methods later used to construct the railways.
Roads & Railways :Britain's trade enormously,
providing a quick and easy way of to transport mail and
12
news.
 Rise of Metal-frame Architecture
A. Early Modern ca. 1850-
1900
Culmination of iron-frame
architecture (Crystal Palace,
Eiffel Tower)
The Thames Tunnel (opened 1843).
Portland Cement was used in the
world's first underwater tunnel
B. Late Modern ca. 1900-60 C. Postmodern ca. 1960-
present
Chicago school: skyscrapers, D.Art Deco ca.
functionalism Louis 1920-40
Sullivan)international style (Gropius, Antonio Gaudi
Corbusier, Mies),
Wright (organic architecture)
Total aesthetic freedom
E. Art Nouveau ca. 1890-
1910
Cotton mills in Ancoats about 1820
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 Social effects of the Industrial
Revolution
In terms of social structure, the Industrial
Revolution witnessed
the triumph of a middle class of
industrialists and businessmen
over a landed class of nobility and
gentry.
Ordinary working people found England
increased opportunities for
employment in the new mills and ("Cottonopolis"),
factories, but these were often pictured in 1840,
under strict working conditions showing the
with long hours of labour mass of factory
dominated by a pace set by chimneys 14
Harsh working conditions
were prevalent long before
the Industrial Revolution
took place.
Pre-industrial society was
very static and often
cruel—
child labour,
dirty living conditions, and
long working hours
were just as prevalent
before the Industrial
Revolution.
John Lombe's water-
powered silk mill at Derby.
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Social effects of the Industrial
Revolution
The transition to industrialisation was not without
difficulty. Some industrialists themselves tried to
improve factory and living conditions for their
workers.
One of the earliest such reformers was Robert Owen,
known for his pioneering efforts in improving
conditions for workers at the New Lanark mills, and
often regarded as one of the key thinkers of the early
socialist movement.

Over London by Rail Gustave

Doré c.1870.Shows the
New Lanark-Ideal Worker Village- Robert
densely populated and polluted
. Owen
environments created in the
new industrial cities. 16
Social effects of the Industrial Revolution
Whole streets, unpaved and without drains or main
sewers, are worn into deep ruts and holes in which
water constantly stagnates, and are so covered with
refuse and excrement as to be impassable from depth
of mud and intolerable stench.
As a result of the Revolution, huge numbers of thePitiable living conditions
working class died due to diseases spreading through
the cramped living conditions. Chest diseases from the
mines, cholera from polluted water and typhoid were
also extremely common, as was smallpox. Accidents in
factories with child and female workers were regular.
Strikes and riots by workers were also relatively
. Workers- Lancanshire
common. 17
 Modern Architecture Part -2
Materials of Modern Architecture

Age of iron and steam Age of steel and electricity

(age of iron-frame (age of steel-frame
architecture) architecture)
ca. 1750-1900 ca. 1900-present
iron-frame masonry steel framing and reinforced
buildings, concrete serve as the
iron-and-glass buildings, primary structural materials
iron bridges of large-scale architecture

A cast iron frame must use arched construction.

The alternative, post-and-beam construction, is not
feasible due to the brittleness of cast iron. (The term
“brittle” is equivalent to “lacking in tensile strength”)
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 Post-and-beam Construction vs. Arched Construction

The familiar post-and-beam metal frames of today’s architecture only

became possible with the mass-production of steel , which has immense
tensile strength.
During the “steel and electricity phase” of the industrial age, which could
also be called the age of steel-frame architecture, steel and reinforced
concrete became the predominant structural materials of large-scale
architecture.
Reinforced concrete which is simply concrete filled with reinforcing steel
bars, or “rebars”, is thus combining the tensile strength of steel with19 the
Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900

Iron-frame architecture, which flourished primarily in

England, France, and (eventually) the United States, occupies
the transitional zone between traditional and modern
architecture.
Iron-frame buildings were erected mainly during the “age of
iron and steam” (ca. 1750-1900). As noted earlier, this
architecture included iron-frame masonry buildings, iron-
and-glass buildings, and iron bridges.

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Utilitarian structures (and utilitarian
products in general) were important for
demonstrating
the aesthetic potential of plain, mass-
produced materials.
Whereas iron supports in grand
architecture were often hidden behind
masonry (such that the buildings retained
a traditional appearance), they were left
exposed in structures where appearance
was deemed unimportant (e.g. mills,
factories) or where masonry was
unnecessary (e.g. bridges, railway
stations).

Utilitarian buildings also often lacked

traditional ornamentation, again due to
lack of concern for appearance.

As the nineteenth century drew on, many

architects began to embrace these
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features (plain industrial materials and
Early Modern ArchitecturePost-and-beam Construction vs
Arched Construction

ca. 1850-1900

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 Early Modern Architecture The Severn Bridge
ca. 1850-1900

Abraham Darby commissioned

this painting by William Williams
in 1780 to promote the Bridge. at
the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge
World Heritage Site.
There are 482 main castings, but
with the deck facings and railings
the number rises to 1,736.
No injuries during the construction
process,.
The Bridge was opened to traffic on
1st January 1781.
Universally recognised as the
symbol of the Industrial
Revolution,
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The Severn Bridge- An aerial View.
It is still used as a foot over bridge
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 Severn Bridge:
The stages of
construction

All the large castings were made individually as they all were slightly
different. The joints would all be familiar to a carpenter - mortise and
tenons, dovetails and wedges - but this was the traditional way in
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which iron structures were joined at the time.
Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900: The Crystal Palace
Iron-and-glass architecture
culminated in the mid-nineteenth
century, with London’s Crystal
Palace (destroyed), designed by
Joseph Paxton (a renowned architect
of greenhouses) as the main pavilion
of the first World’s Fair. The Crystal
Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass
building originally erected in Hyde
Park, London, England,
More than 14,000 exhibitors from
around the world gathered in the
Palace's 990,000 square feet
(92,000 m2) of exhibition space to
display examples of the latest
technology developed in the
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Industrial Revolution.
Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900: The Crystal Palace CRYSTAL PALACE
The Great Exhibition building
was 1,851 feet (564 m) long,
with an interior height of 128
feet (39 m).
Because of the recent invention
of the cast plate glass method in
1848, which allowed for large
sheets of cheap but strong
glass, it was at the time the
largest amount of glass ever
seen in a building and
astonished visitors with its clear
walls and ceilings that did not
require interior lights, thus a
"Crystal Palace“. 27
It’s Construction
– The Crystal Palace was built by
about 5,000 navvies (Navvy is a
shorter form of navigational
engineer).
– The 900,000 square feet (84,000
m²) of glass was provided by the
Chance Brothers glassworks in
Smethwick , Birmingham .
– They were the only glassworks
capable of fulfilling such a large
order, and had to bring in labour
from France to meet it in time.
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A State of the art Building

• The Crystal Palace was

designed, manufactured and
assembled in less than one
year.
• The building is an integrated
system or kit of parts, where
each part serves multiple
functions.
• The columns support the
girders and act as downspouts
for the gutters. The Paxton
gutters shed rain water and
support the roof gables.
• The glass roof panels are both
building enclosure and lighting
system. 29
An Evidence of cultural shift
• With the exception of girder connection
covers there are few components that could
be considered ornamental.
• The real difference lies in the method of
manufacture and the value placed on the
resulting product by society.

• Once Londoners saw the efficiency and

grace of its construction the Crystal Palace
became a focus of pride.

• The design marks a

cultural shift in values
from garish hand made
ornament of the past to
the clean, streamlined
machine made products
of the future. 30
Early Modern Architecture Post-and-beam Construction vs Arched Construction

ca. 1850-1900
Iron-and-glass
architecture
culminated in the
mid-nineteenth
century, with
London’s Crystal
Palace The quantity of
applied ornament and
embellishment is
overwhelming but is
indicative of what was
acceptable, even
desirable by Victorian
standards. 31
 Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900

The Eiffel Tower,

designed by Gustave
Eiffel

.
The fierce controversy provoked by the tower’s modern aesthetic
illustrates the era’s lack of mainstream acceptance for plain,
unornamented construction.
The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars
32
in
Paris,
Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900
The Guaranty Building
Called the Prudential Building, was
designed by Louis Sullivan and
Dankmar Adler, and built in Buffalo,
New York. Sullivan's design for the
building was based on his belief that
"form follows function"

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Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900

The next step in the development of modern architecture was the shift from iron-
frame to steel-frame construction.
Steel-frame architecture emerged in Chicago, among a circle of architects known as the
Chicago school, which flourished ca. 1880-1900.
.At this point in history, architects faced growing pressure to extend buildings
upward, as cities grew and property values soared.
In response, the Chicago school built the world’s first skyscrapers.
(A good definition of “skyscraper”, for the purposes of architectural history, is “a metal-
frame building at least one hundred feet tall”.) 34
The Home Insurance Building (1884; demolished), by William Le Baron Jenney (a
Early Modern Architecture
ca. 1850-1900
metal frame composed of both
iron and steel,
pure steel-frame construction
emerged (in works of the
Chicago school) within a
decade.
metal-frame architecture, the
entire weight of the building is
supported by the frame.
The building’s walls : “curtains”
or “screens”, which are hung
upon the frame merely to seal
the building’s interior from the
elements.
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 The skyscraper was the great
technical achievement of the
Chicago school.

The school is also responsible

for a great aesthetic
achievement:
the gradual reduction of
traditional ornamentation in
skyscraper design.
Whereas buildings of ordinary
height lend themselves well to
traditional styles, skyscrapers
were an entirely
new building type, for which
traditional aesthetics proved
unsatisfactory; consequently,
skyscrapers accelerated the 36
 ORNAMENTATION
Early Modern Architecture
This transition away from traditional
ornamentation culminated in the
development of functionalism by
Louis Sullivan, the foremost architect
of the Chicago school.
Functionalism is an aesthetic approach
in which a building is simply designed
according to its function, then graced
with features that are naturally
suggested by its internal structure.
This approach, which leads to the
simple geometry of the modern
aesthetic, is aptly summarized in
Sullivan’s guiding principle:
“form follows function”. The intricate frieze along the top of the 37
building along with the bull's-eye windows
Functionalism provided the modern
aesthetic with a theoretical foundation;

consequently, Sullivan is often referred to

as the “father of modern architecture”.
Sullivan’s masterpiece is the Wainwright
Building.
The exterior of this building
reflects its three-part internal
plan (a two-story base, a middle
section with seven floors of
offices, and a service floor at the
top), and a brick pier indicates
each column in the steel
frame.
The horizontal dividers are recessed
behind the piers, which emphasizes the
building’s verticality: an aesthetic choice
that illustrates the creative freedom
within the bounds of functionalism.5
Most surfaces are plain, although the 38
horizontal dividers feature stucco
Art Nouveau
In the meantime, a rival aesthetic emerged:
Art Nouveau, a style that flourished in Europe
and America at the turn of the century (ca. The piers read as pillars
1890-1910).7 Like functionalism, Art Nouveau
was purposely developed as an all-new
aesthetic, free of traditional ornamentation.
Yet this was an exuberantly decorative style,
defined by organic, curving, asymmetrical lines
inspired by natural forms (e.g. stems, flowers,
vines, insect wings).

The intricate frieze along

the top of the building
along with the bull's-eye
windows
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Art Nouveau
The most overt architectural expression of Art Casa Mila- Barcelona
Nouveau is found in the “growing” buildings
of Antonio Gaudi, whose masterpiece is the The piers read as pillars
Sagrada Familia, a cathedral in Barcelona.
Casa Mila, also in Barcelona, is his foremost
residential work.

The intricate frieze along

the top of the building
along with the bull's-eye
The Sagrada Familia, a
windows
cathedral in Barcelona
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 Art Deco The Chrisler
GE Building
The piers read as pillars

The Empire State Building

During the period ca. 1920-40 (i.e. the interwar period), another
short-lived rival to mainstream modernism flourished: Art Deco.
Like the modern aesthetic, Art Deco shuns traditional decoration
in favor of plain geometric forms.
The main difference is that, compared with the light minimalism of
the modern aesthetic, Art Deco works typically look heavy and
41
contrived
. The main difference : with the light
minimalism of the modern aesthetic, Art
Deco works typically look heavy and
contrived.
Distinctive features of Art Deco
•setbacks (inward steps),
•narrow strips of windows (with strips
of concrete/masonry between them,
which gives the building a sense of
heavy construction).
•Although Art Deco was primarily a
French style,
• it culminated architecturally in the
USA in New York: the GE Building(the centerpiece
of Rockefeller Centre), the Chrysler Building, and the
Empire State Building
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Late Modern Architecture ca. 1900-1960

The piers read as pillars

The Bauhaus, German school of design by Walter Gropius

In the early twentieth century, the modern aesthetic (simple, unadorned geometric forms) finally matured,
becoming the mainstream aesthetic of architecture and design across the world. This was achieved primarily by
the Bauhaus, a German school of design that operated for most of the interwar period. The school was closed
when the Nazi government came to power, forcing many of its scholars to emigrate to the United States, where
they continued to serve as leaders of the architecture/design world (such that the “Bauhaus age” actually
stretched decades beyond the closure of the school).

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 The piers read as pillars

The scope of Bauhaus included

interiors, furniture and accessories

The International Style

The scope of Bauhaus efforts included architecture, visual art, interior design, graphic design, and industrial
design (product design). It should be noted that while Bauhaus designers generally embraced the aesthetic theory
of functionalism, deliberate use of this theory (or even familiarity with it) is not a prerequisite to designing works
that feature the modern aesthetic. Thus, for any given modern-style building or object, the designer may or may
not have had functionalism in mind.
The modern aesthetic reached maturity when excess material (including traditional ornamentation) had been
stripped away, leaving only a basic structure of plain geometric forms. As noted above, this maturation was
achieved in the early twentieth century, with the Bauhaus leading the way (in terms of both innovation and
propagation). Architecture that features the mature modern aesthetic is known as international style architecture,
due to the rapid global diffusion of this style once it emerged.
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The International Style
The piers read as pillars

The international style’s three most influential pioneers were Gropius, Corbusier, and Mies.
Walter Gropius, founder and first director of the Bauhaus, designed the buildings of the school’s second
campus. Plain walls (white and grey) and screens of glass, sometimes several stories in height, predominate.
Gropius’ balconies showcase an impressive new structural possibility of steel-frame construction:
cantilevering (platforms fixed only at one end), which further contributes to a sense of architectural
weightlessness.

45
The International Style

The 5 points of Architecture in the Villa Savoye:

1.Ribbon Window, 2.Roof gardens, 3.Pilotis, 4.free plan,5.free facade

The Swiss architect Le Corbusier, though not a member of the Bauhaus, absorbed
and became a leading figure of the international style. He preferred smooth expanses
of white reinforced concrete pierced with horizontal strip windows, as well as a
degree of curvilinear geometry . Le Corbusier’s masterpiece is the Villa Savoye.
46
The International Style

The piers read as pillars

The Seagram Building The Lakeshore Drive Apartments-

Chicago

While Gropius and Le Corbusier made ample use of reinforced concrete, pure glass-and-steel construction in
the international style was perfected by Mies van der Rohe (another director of the Bauhaus), who believed
so firmly in eliminating all embellishment that his guiding principle was simply “less is more”. Mies brought
the international style to the height of its influence, as descendants of his glass-and-steel skyscrapers
appeared in every corner of the globe. The Seagram Building in New York, essentially a steel frame sheathed
in curtains of glass, is often considered his masterpiece. The Lake Shore drive apartments brought in a
revolution in high-rise residential lifestyle.

47
The International Style

The piers read as pillars

The Robie House

Contemporary with the “Bauhaus age” was the career of the greatest American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who
focused primarily on residential designs. Wright sought to make his buildings organic; that is, to adjust their layouts
and features until they merge with their natural surroundings, rather than simply imposing a rectangular box of a
house on any given locale. Wright felt that a house should not be located on a site, but rather be a natural extension
of the site.The exterior walls of a Wright house are articulated in a relatively complex, asymmetrical manner (so as to
avoid a stiff, “boxy” appearance), and the house is often visually united with the earth via broad, flat surfaces parallel
with the ground (e.g. eaves, cantilevered balconies). Interiors are open and flowing (rather than mechanically
subdivided into small rooms), and ample windows (including windows that bend around corners) throughout the
house merge the interior with the world outside. A mixture of building materials (e.g. brick, wood, stone, concrete)
further contributes to the sense of the house as an organic feature of the landscape.
48
The International Style

The piers read as pillars

Despite the contrast between functionalism and
Wright’s “organicism”, both are clearly modern
(i.e. not based on anything traditional), and
consequently similar in appearance to a
significant degree. Wright shared the
functionalist appreciation for simple geometry
and plain, unadorned surfaces, and he
embraced mass-produced building materials.
One could categorize Wright’s architecture as a The Falling Water –Bear Run Pennsylvania
branch of the international style, or as a cousin.
Wright’s first great works were his Prairie The Guggenheim Museum
Houses, built in the Midwest; best-known
among them is Robie House in Chicago. His
most famous building of all is Fallingwater,
Pennsylvania, while his foremost urban work is
the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

49
 After The International Style

The piers read as pillars

Toward the end of the Late Modern period, the
international style experienced two notable
trends. One was more extensive use of
curvilinear geometry (as illustrated by Wright’s
Guggenheim Museum, as well as Corbusier’s
later work). The other was brutalism: a style that
features harsh, bulky concrete structures, often
with unfinished surfaces. These trends are
considered the transitional phase to postmodern
architecture, as architects grew impatient with
the severe simplicity of the international style.

50
Postmodern Architecture

The piers read as pillars

The Sydney Opera house

Postmodern Architecture
ca. 1960-present
As advances in building materials and engineering opened up
incredible new possibilities for architectural design, it was only a
matter of time until the severe international style was rejected in
favor of total aesthetic freedom. (Given its timeless appeal,
construction in the international style has continued since ca. 1960,
albeit to a more limited extent.) Consequently, it is difficult to
generalize postmodern architecture beyond the observation that
“anything goes”.
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 Postmodern Architecture

The piers read as pillars

Nonetheless, postmodern architecture does exhibit a range of common

features, such as complex geometry (including curvilinear geometry),
blending of modern and traditional elements, colorfulness, and
playfulness. Many postmodern buildings have a sleek, futuristic
appearance; these are often described as “high-tech” or “space-age”
architecture.

Thankyou

The Gherkin Building

- EDUSAT LECTURE- 1
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