MOD

ERN
ARCH
ITEC
TURE

ARC2028 HISTORY AND THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 19/20 BY ABED BARAKAT

HISTORY OF
NEOCLASSICAL
MODERN ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE
1850
CHICAGO
SKYSCRAPER
(1890-1900)

1890 ART NOUVEAU

(1890-1910)

THE DEUTSCHER
WERKBUND
(1907)
1900 CONSTRUCTIVIST
(1920-1930)

BAUHAUS (1919-1933)

1910
DE STIJL
(1920-1930)
RATIONALISM
(1920-1930)
The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) is a historical building at Arc-et-Senans in the
department of Doubs, eastern France. It is next to the Forest of Chaux and about 35
kilometers from Besançon. The architect was Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806),
a prominent Parisian architect of the time. The work is an important example of an
early Enlightenment project in which the architect based his design on a philosophy
that favored arranging buildings according to a rational geometry and a hierarchi-
cal relation between the parts of the project.

PALAIS GARNIER OPRAH HOUSE , PARIS

It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the behest of Emperor Napoleon
III. Initially referred to as "le nouvel Opéra de Paris" (the new Paris Opera), it soon
became known as the Palais Garnier, "in acknowledgment of its extraordinary opu-
lence" and the architect Charles Garnier's plans and designs, which are representative
of the Napoleon III style. It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associat-
ed Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened
at the Place de la Bastille. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet.
The theatre has been a monument historique of France since 1923.
Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works program commissioned by
Emperor Napoléon III and directed by his prefect of Seine, Georges-Eugène Hauss-
mann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval neighborhoods
that were deemed overcrowded and unhealthy by officials at the time; the building of
wide avenues; new parks and squares; the annexation of the suburbs surrounding
Paris; and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts. Haussmann's
work was met with fierce opposition, and he was finally dismissed by Napoleon III in
1870; but work on his projects continued until 1927. The street plan and distinctive
appearance of the center of Paris today is largely the result of Haussmann's renovation.

CENTURY OF INNOVATIONS (DEVELOPMENT OF ARC)

COALBROOKDALE BRIDGE, ENGLAND
FIRST BRIGADE MADE OUT OF STEEL
CRYSTAL
PALACE
EXHIBI-
TION,
ENGLAND

OXFORD
MUSEUM,
ENGLAND
(THE USE
OF STEEL
AS A ROOF)
GALLERIA VITTORIO, ITALY

GALLERIA UMBERTO, NEPLES

Galleria Umberto I is a public shopping gallery in Naples, southern Italy. It is located

directly across from the San Carlo opera house. It was built between 1887–1891, and
was the cornerstone in the decades-long rebuilding of Naples — called the risanamen-
to (lit. "making healthy again") — that lasted until World War I. It was designed by
Emanuele Rocco, who employed modern architectural elements reminiscent of the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. The Galleria was named for Umberto I, King of
Italy at the time of construction. It was meant to combine businesses, shops, cafes and
social life — public space — with private space in the apartments on the third floor.
The Galleria is a high and spacious cross-shaped structure, surmounted by a glass
dome braced by 16 metal ribs. Of the four iron and glass-vaulted wings, one fronts on
via Toledo (via Roma), still the main downtown thoroughfare, and another opens onto
the San Carlo Theater. It has returned to being an active center of Neapolitan civic life
after years of decay. The building is part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Centre of
Naples as a World Heritage Site.
CHICAGO 1890-1900 SKYSCRAPER
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world
and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. Much
of its early work is also known as Commercial style.[1]
In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School
was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn
of the 20th century. They were among the first to
promote the new technologies of steel-frame construc-
tion in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial
aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to
influence, parallel developments in European Modern-
ism. A "Second Chicago School" with a modernist
aesthetic emerged in the 1940s through 1970s, which
pioneered new building technologies and structural
systems such as the tube-frame structure.

BURNHAM AND ROOT, AMERICAN ARCHITECTS

MONADNOCK BUILDING ROOKERY BUILDING

FATHER OF SKYSCRAPER:
William LeBaron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American archi-
tect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884 and became
known as the Father of the American skyscraper.
In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking
the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium.

William LeBaron Jenney

Born:
September 25, 1832 Fairhaven, Massachusetts

Died :
June 15, 1907 (aged 74)

Nationality:
American

Occupation:
Architect

Buildings:
-Home Insurance Building in
-Chicago Design
-Metal-framed skyscraper
Chicago Building BY Holabird and Roche, AMERICAN ARCHITECTS

Auditorium Building, louis sullivan

The Auditorium was built for a syndicate of businessmen to house a large civic opera house; to
provide an economic base it was decided to wrap the auditorium with a hotel and office block.
Hence Adler & Sullivan had to plan a complex multiple-use building. Fronting on Michigan Avenue,
overlooking the lake, was the hotel (now Roosevelt University) while the offices were placed to the
west on Wabash Avenue. The entrance to the auditorium is on the south side beneath the tall blocky
seventeen-story tower. The rest of the building is a uniform ten stories, organized in the same way
as Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store. The interior embellishment, however, is wholly
Sullivan's, and some of the details, because of their continuous curvilinear foliate motifs, are among
the nearest equivalents to European Art Nouveau architecture.
19TH CENTURY
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine
arts that began in Britain and flourished in Europe and North America between about
1880 and 1920, emerging in Japan in the 1920s as the Mingei movement. It stood for
traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or
folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially
anti-industrial. It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by
Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers,
and town planners long afterwards.
The term was first used by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition Society in 1887, although the principles and style on which it was based had
been developing in England for at least 20 years. It was inspired by the ideas of archi-
tect Augustus Pugin, writer John Ruskin, and designer William Morris.
The movement developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and spread across
the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. It was largely a reaction
against the perceived impoverishment of the decorative arts at the time and the condi-
tions in which they were produced.

Who Was John Ruskin [1819 – 1900]

One of the great visionaries of the 19th century...

Artist, Critic, Pundit on Aesthetics & Ethics, Thinker,
Seer, this social revolutionary challenged the moral
foundations of Victorian Britain. He despised Capital-
ism & the barbarians who know the price of every-
thing & the value of nothing.
Ruskin believed in the power of art to transform the
lives of people oppressed more by visual illiteracy than
by poor material conditions. His passionate desire was
to open people’s eyes to the free beauties surrounding
them – sunsets, tender dawn light,
iridescent feathers, spectacular natural crystals, green
leaves against blue sky, clouds, the vitality of Gothic
architecture and ornament. His creed was: ‘There is no
wealth but life. ’A pioneering conservationist, who fore-
saw the ‘green-house effect’ more than a century ago,
Ruskin inspired the establishment of The National
Trust, and the founders of the National Parks
movement.
He was one of the first to see a twig as a miniature tree, a rock crystal as a miniature
mountain – ideas now embodied in the ‘fractal geometry’ of Chaos Theory.
Ruskin was a true polymath. His interests were far-ranging, from his enquiries into the
geological structure of the Alps to his observation of the malignant effects of the Indus-
trial Revolution on the atmosphere and the pollution of the environment and men’s
souls,
from his advocacy of the genius of Turner to his realisation that the art and architec-
ture of a place is a reflection of its social and moral condition at a particular moment in
time.
He viewed art as an expression of morality, identifying ‘good’ art with mediaeval –
specifically Gothic – architecture, when the best work was produced by craftsmen who
were honoured and responsible members of a community itself not slave to corrupt
and materialistic values. This was symbolised by St George’s epic fight with the Dragon
[of Capitalism]. Art was no mere pastime for Ruskin. His art was always purposeful,
integral to his thinking on all subjects. He visualised his ideas. He thought visually. He
worked out his ideas through drawing. He hated the growing trend towards specialisa-
tion and refused to separate one area of interest and involvement from others. For
Ruskin, speculation about principles depended upon observation of particularities.
The serial is Ruskin’s strongest thought process. He revelled in stringing together a
potentially endless series of associations on an ‘imaginary’ thread and took great
‘delight in the embroidery, intricacy of involution, - the labyrinthine wanderings of the
clue, continually lost, continually recovered . . .’
‘He was a character of great fascination and complexity . . . made up of contradictions:
intelligence and silliness; puritanism and a refined sensuality; selfishness and extreme
generosity . . . The central drama of his life, that of the pampered aesthete who gradual-
ly becomes aware of social injustice and as a result sacrifices his reputation, his wealth
and ultimately his sanity, is as moving as anything in fiction . . . We should read Ruskin
for the very quality of his mind . . . his refusal to consider any human faculty in isola-
tion.’ [Kenneth Clark]

Contemporary Views of Ruskin

‘Ruskin was one of the most remarkable men, not only of England and our time, but of
all countries and all times. He was one of those rare men who think with their hearts,
and so he thought and said not only what he himself had seen and felt,but what every-
one will think and say in the future.’ [Tolstoy]
‘He will teach me, for is not he, too, in some degree the truth?’ [Proust]
‘The books of Ruskin are . . . a sort of revelation.’ [William Morris]
‘Unto This Last captured me and made me change my life.’ [Gandhi]
‘There is nothing going on among us as notable to me as these fierce lightning-bolts
Ruskin is copiously and desperately pouring into the black world of anarchy all around
him. No other man in England that I meet has in him the divine rage against iniquity,
falsity & baseness that Ruskin has, and that every man ought to have.’ [Thomas Carlyle]
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer,
poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and
Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile
arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the
modern fantasy genre, while he played a significant role proliferating the early socialist
movement in Britain.

Red House is a significant Arts and Crafts building located in the town of Bexleyheath
in Southeast London, England. Co-designed in 1859 by the architect Philip Webb and
the designer William Morris, it was created to serve as a family home for the latter,
with construction being completed in 1860. Following an education at the University of
Oxford, Morris decided to construct a rural house for himself and his new wife, Jane
Morris, within a commuting distance of central London. Purchasing a plot of land in
what at the time was the village of Upton in Kent, he employed his friend Webb to help
him design and construct the house, financing the project with money inherited from
his wealthy family. Morris was deeply influenced by Medievalism and Medieval-in-
spired Neo-Gothic styles are reflected throughout the building's design. It was
constructed using Morris' ethos of craftsmanship and artisan skills and is an early
example of what came to be known as the Arts and Crafts movement.
Art Nouveau
is an international style of art, architecture and
applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in
different languages by different names: Jugendstil in
German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernismo catalán
in Spanish, etc. In English it is also known as the
Modern Style (not to be confused with Modernism
and Modern architecture). The style was most popular
between 1890 and 1910. It was a reaction against the
academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th
century architecture and decoration. It was often
inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous
curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics
of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or
whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and
later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.
One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction
between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most
widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewel-
ry and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as
French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic
John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts
and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting
Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art") that would unify the architecture, furnishings,
and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents. The first Art
Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the archi-
tecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and
especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893. It moved quickly to
Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and
applied the style for the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900
Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such
as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the
glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé. From Belgium and France, it spread to the
rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country . It often
appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish
artistic identities (Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darm-
stadt in Germany), as well as in centres of independence movements (Helsinki in
Finland, then part of the Russian Empire; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain). By 1914, and
with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the
1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco
and then Modernism.The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention
Tassel House, BELGIUM

Solvay House, Belgium

LA CASA MILA, Antoni Gaudi

Casa Milà popularly known

as La Pedrera or "The stone
quarry", a reference to its
unconventional
rough-hewn appearance, is
a modernist building in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
It was the last private resi-
dence designed by archi-
tect Antoni Gaudí and was
built between 1906 and
1912.
The building was commissioned in 1906 by Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon [ca;
es]. At the time, it was controversial because of its undulating stone facade, twisting
wrought iron balconies and designed by Josep Maria Jujol. Several structural innovations
include a self-supporting stone façade, and a free-plan floor, underground garage and the
spectacular terrace on the roof.
In 1984, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 2013 it has been the
headquarters of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera [ca; es] which manages the visit to
the building, exhibitions and other cultural and educative activities at Casa Milà.
Secession Building,

The Secession Building (German: Wiener

Secessionsgebäude) is an exhibition hall
built in 1898 by Joseph Maria Olbrich as an
architectural manifesto for the Vienna Seces-
sion, located in Vienna, Austria. Secession
refers to the seceding of a group of rebel
artists from the long-established fine art
institution. The building features the Beetho-
ven Frieze by Gustav Klimt, one of the most
widely recognized artworks of Secession
style (a branch of Art Nouveau, also known
as Jugendstil in Germany and Nordic coun-
tries). The building was financed by Karl
Wittgenstein, the father of Ludwig Wittgen-
stein. The motto of the Secessionist move-
ment is written above the entrance of the
pavilion:
"To every age its art, to every art its freedom" (German: Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst
ihre Freiheit). Below this is a sculpture of three gorgons representing painting, sculp-
ture, and architecture
Antoni Gaudi
Guell park, Barcelona Spain

Casa Batlló, Barcelona Spain

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Spain (Construction started: March 19, 1882)

Art Nouveau in Istanbul:

Casa Botter, RAIMONDO

This house was built for the
Sultan’s taylor, Jean Botter, a
Dutchman, in Rue de Pera
(now İstiklal Caddesi) in the
heart of the city. The atelier
and the shop occupy the
ground floor with the apart-
ments on the upper floors.
The decorative apparatus,
including the wrought iron
of the balustrades and the
door- and windowframes
are definitely Art Nouveau
and make this building the
earliest relevant example of
this style in İstanbul.

The area between the ground floor, mezzanine and first floor of the Botter house
contained the studio, workshop and changing room and the storerooms of the Sultan’s
tailor Jean Botter, whilst the remaining floors provided apartments for the family. This
layout recalls that of the “Miethaus”, that is, the building for commercial and domestic use
which developed in Vienna starting with the model of Otto Wagner’s Ankerhaus. This was
further evolved in a proto rationalist sense by Max Fabiani in the Portois and Fix and
Artaria buildings, as well as becoming a subject of study for the students of the Wag-
nerschule betvveen 1897 and 1901. Differently from the Viennese, D’Aronco did not
interest himself in the research of the elaboration of the facades where the covering is a
two-dimensional concept to be expressed in ceramic or marble, instead he insisted that
the wall was a plastic and malleable element in which the decoration is interconnected

Şeyh Zafir Türbesi,

Besiktas
De Stijl (DE STYLE):
The Netherlands-based De Stijl movement embraced an
abstract, pared-down aesthetic centered in basic visual
elements such as geometric forms and primary colors.
Partly a reaction against the decorative excesses of Art
Deco, the reduced quality of De Stijl art was envisioned by
its creators as a universal visual language appropriate to
the modern era, a time of a new, spiritualized world order.
Led by the painters Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian
- its central and celebrated figures - De Stijl artists applied
their style to a host of media in the fine and applied arts
and beyond. Promoting their innovative ideas in their jour-
nal of the same name, the members envisioned nothing
less than the ideal fusion of form and function, thereby
making De Stijl in effect the ultimate style. To this end, De
Stijl artists turned their attention not only to fine art media
such as painting and sculpture, but virtually all other art
forms as well, including industrial design, typography, even
literature and music. De Stijl's influence was perhaps felt
most noticeably in the realm of architecture, helping give
rise to the International Style of the 1920s and 1930s.

Theo van Doesburg (Dutch 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced
painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl.
He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nelly van Doesburg.
Rietveld Schröder House (SHRODER)
The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for
Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children. She commissioned the house to be designed
preferably without walls.

Architectural style: De Stijl

Location: Netherlands

Three main colors that were used on De Stijl are:

Blue Red Yellow

And non essential colors (Monochrome):

White Black Gray

Suprematism (Russian: Супрематзм): is an art movement focused on basic geometric
forms, such as circles, squares, lines, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colors.
It was founded by Kazimir Malevich in Russia, around 1913, and announced in Malev-
ich's 1915 exhibition

Distinct from Constructivism

Malevich's Suprematism is fundamentally opposed to the postrevolutionary positions
of Constructivism and materialism. Constructivism, with its cult of the object, is
concerned with utilitarian strategies of adapting art to the principles of functional
organization. Under Constructivism, the traditional easel painter is transformed into
the artist-as-engineer in charge of organizing life in all of its aspects. Suprematism, in
sharp contrast to Constructivism, embodies a profoundly anti-materialist, anti-utilitar-
ian philosophy. In "Suprematism" (Part II of The Non-Objective World), Malevich
writes: Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illus-
trate the history of manners, it wants to have nothing further to do with the object, as
such, and believes that it can exist, in and for itself, without "things" (that is, the
"time-tested well-spring of life"). Jean-Claude Marcadé has observed that "Despite
superficial similarities between Constructivism and Suprematism, the two move-
ments are nevertheless antagonists and it is very important to distinguish between
them." According to Marcadé, confusion has arisen because several artists—either
directly associated with Suprematism such as El Lissitzky or working under the
suprematist influence as did Rodchenko and Lyubov Popova—later abandoned
Suprematism for the culture of materials. Suprematism does not embrace a humanist
philosophy which places man at the center of the universe. Rather, Suprematism envi-
sions man—the artist—as both originator and transmitter of what for Malevich is the
world's only true reality—that of absolute non-objectivity. ...a blissful sense of liberat-
ing non-objectivity drew me forth into a "desert", where nothing is real except
feeling... — "Suprematism", Part II of The Non-Objective World For Malevich, it is upon
the foundations of absolute non-objectivity that the future of the universe will be built
- a future in which appearances, objects, comfort, and convenience no longer domi-
nate.
Constructivist architecture:
was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and
early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Com-
munist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the
movement produced many pioneering projects and finished buildings, before falling out
of favor around 1932. It has left marked effects on later developments in architecture.

The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов, Dvorets Sovetov) was a project
to construct an administrative center and a congress hall in Moscow, Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union (present-day Russian Federation) near the Kremlin, on the site of the
demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Vladimir Tatlin ( 28 December [O.S. 16 December] 1885 – 31
May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and
stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed
the The Monument to the Third International, more commonly
known as Tatlin's Tower, which he began in 1919. With Kazimir
Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the
Soviet avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later
became an important artist in the Constructivist movement.
The Deutscher Werkbund (German Association
of Craftsmen; German:is a German association of artists,
architects, designers, and industrialists, established in
1907. The Werkbund became an important element in
the development of modern architecture and industrial
design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus
school of design. Its initial purpose was to establish a
partnership of product manufacturers with design
professionals to improve the competitiveness of German
companies in global markets. The Werkbund was less an
artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to inte-
grate traditional crafts and industrial mass production
techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing
with England and the United States. Its motto Vom
Sofakissen zum Städtebau (from sofa cushions to
city-building) indicates its range of interest.

Werkbund Theater, Cologne, Germany in 1914

Glass Pavilion, Werkbund exhibition

The first Werkbund Exhibition of 1914 was held at Rheinpark in Cologne, Germany.
Bruno Taut's best-known building, the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion of which
only black and white images survive today, was in reality a brightly colored landmark.
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model factory for the exhibition. The
Belgian architect Henri van de Velde designed a model theatre. Berlin-based Marga-
rete Knuppelholz-Roeser designed the controversial Haus Der Frau.

The exhibition happened mainly on the initiative of the later German chancellor
Konrad Adenauer, then a 36-year-old aspiring inventor, Werkbund member and local
politician at Cologne. The city spent the luxurious sum of 5 million Goldmarks (equiva-
lent to 24 million 2009 €) on the event. Planning began in earnest in 1912, and
construction work started in early 1914. The exhibition was opened to the public by
Van de Velde on May 15th, 1914. Scheduled to last until the end of October, it was
prematurely shut down on August 8th, in reaction to the outbreak of World War I a
week earlier; the exhibition buildings were dismantled shortly afterwards. There
were two more Werkbund Exhibitions after the war. The second was the Stuttgart
Exhibition of 1927, which included the Weissenhof Estate. At that time, the third
Werkbund Exhibition had been tentatively scheduled for 1937, but the plan was
shelved in 1932 because of the Great Depression and could not be taken up again
since the Nazis opposed and ultimately outlawed the Werkbund. It finally took place
on a reduced scale in 1949, back in Cologne, and turned out to be the last Werkbund
Exhibition.
Bauhaus:

The Staatliches Bauhaus : commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school
operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts. The school
became famous for its approach to design, which strove to combine beauty with
usefulness and attempted to unify the principles of mass production with individual
artistic vision.
The Bauhaus was founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term
Bauhaus—literally "building house"—was understood as meaning "School of Build-
ing", but in spite of its name the Bauhaus did not initially have an architecture depart-
ment. Nonetheless, it was founded upon the idea of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk
("'total' work of art") in which all the arts, including architecture, would eventually be
brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents
in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design, and architectural educa-
tion.[2] The Bauhaus movement had a profound influence upon subsequent develop-
ments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typog-
raphy. The school existed in three German cities—Weimar, from 1919 to 1925;
Dessau, from 1925 to 1932; and Berlin, from 1932 to 1933—under three different
architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928; Hannes Meyer from 1928 to
1930; and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was
closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime, having been paint-
ed as a centre of communist intellectualism. Although the school was closed, the staff
continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over
the world.
The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, tech-
nique, instructors, and politics. For example, the pottery shop was discontinued when
the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important
revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he trans-
formed it into a private school and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer
to attend it.
Poli House Tel Aviv, Israel Master Houses of Kandinsky and Klee
Dessau, Germany

How Tel Aviv Became Home to 4,000 Bauhaus Buildings

The Tel Aviv coastline is crowded with a mishmosh of skyscrapers, Ottoman-inspired
villas, and four-story cubes painted a sunlight-reflecting shade of white. Eclecticism is
synonymous with the city, whose architecture matches its melting pot of residents. But
in a place where stylistic jumble is the standard, one strain stands out as the defining
architectural aesthetic and a beloved household name: Bauhaus. Even Tel Avivians with
limited design backgrounds will proudly tout that their city is a Bauhaus destination.
But given Tel Aviv’s distance from the Bauhaus’s German birthplace—both geographical-
ly and culturally—how did Israel’s cultural capital become such a stronghold for Bau-
haus design?
When the Nazis shut down the Bauhaus school in 1933, they believed they were nipping
its “degenerate” influence in its minimalist bud. The Nazi party rejected the German art
academy’s love of new technologies and tenets of “less is more,” “form follows function,”
and avoidance of ornamentation; instead, they favored a return to classicism (illustrated
by the art they chose to loot across Europe). But shuttering the school had the opposite
effect: It launched Bauhaus design ambassadors into a worldwide diaspora, allowing
modernism to take root outside Germany.
All three directors of the Bauhaus were architects who spread the gospel of the sleek
and streamlined International Style, after leaving Germany at different points during the
1930s. Founding director Walter Gropius became head of Harvard University’s graduate
architecture department; the second Bauhaus director, Hannes Meyer, taught in the
USSR; and the third, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, led the architecture department at Chica-
go’s Illinois Institute of Technology.
The 700 total students that enrolled at the Bauhaus during its short 14-year existence
dispersed globally, too, including four architects—Arieh Sharon, Munio Gitai Weinraub,
Shmuel Mestechkin, and Shlomo Bernstein—who moved to British Mandatory Palestine
in the 1930s. There, they found a rare opportunity, a modernist architect’s dream: the
chance to shape a 20th-century city almost from scratch, serving thousands of newcom-
ers in need of housing and urban amenities.
That city was the newly established Mediterranean metropolis of Tel Aviv.
As a result, the city now boasts more than 4,000 International Style structures, one of
the largest concentrations in the world. “There’s a treasure here,” says Nitza Szmuk, a
Tel Aviv–based architect who conducted a citywide survey in the 1990s that identified
the exact number. Szmuk also included 1,000 notable designs in a proposal that earned
the city UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2003 for being “a synthesis of outstanding
significance of the various trends of the Modern Movement in architecture.”
Locally dubbed “The White City” for its pearly plaster veneers, the cluster of buildings
arose from a unique combination of circumstances. It was partially a happy accident: An
urgent demand for housing overlapped with the style’s popularity. “[Tel Aviv’s adoption
of the International Style] was a historical coincidence,” Micha Gross, co-founder of the
Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv, told Artsy. “During the years Tel Aviv was being constructed,
the International Style in architecture was ‘in.’”
Modernist architecture also appealed to the large influx of German Jewish immigrants
who, like the members of the Bauhaus, fled the Nazis’ rise to power. For these newcom-
ers, many of whom had to leave significant assets behind, low construction costs that
didn’t sacrifice style were a major draw.
“One thing that made it easier to adopt the International Style in Tel Aviv was the fact
that it was very simple, for a society that couldn’t afford affluence,” Eran Neuman, an
architecture professor and the curator of a recent Arieh Sharon retrospective at the Tel
Aviv Museum of Art, explained to Artsy. “On the one hand, it was pristine; on the other
hand, you didn’t need a lot of money to build an International Style building.” No decora-
tive tiles or ornamental plasterwork meant cheaper construction that could be executed
by less-specialized craftsmen.
And the communal ideals of the Bauhaus—which aimed to break down barriers
between fine artists, craftsmen, and manufacturers—resonated with Tel Aviv’s mostly
working-class founding generation, who wanted architecture that reflected egalitarian
values. “Architecture is, in a sense, the mirror of society,” Sharon wrote in his book
Kibbutz + Bauhaus: An architect’s way in a new land (1976). “But it should not be only a
reflective, passive mirror, but also an active, guiding force, directing future development
of the community.”
Sharon used architecture to forge community in his crowning achievement of the 1930s:
the Cooperative Workers Residences (1933–35) in central Tel Aviv. The U-shaped hous-
ing complex, whose inspiration has been attributed to the Gropius-designed Bauhaus
dormitories in Dessau, included many shared spaces for residents to meet, including an
inner courtyard, a kindergarten, a ground-floor grocery store, an assembly hall, and
reading rooms.
The majority of Tel Aviv’s International Style buildings didn’t recall their Bauhaus prede-
cessors, though. For the most part, Tel Aviv architects adapted the International Style to
the city’s harsh Mediterranean climate.
Glass use was more limited in Tel Aviv, in order to reduce the potential greenhouse
effects of the strong Middle Eastern sunlight. The horizontal ribbon windows that
graced European International Style buildings were replaced with dramatic balconies,
creating horizontal lines that broke up otherwise geometric exteriors; while they func-
tionally allowed for shade and ventilation, they were also a sneaky form of embellish-
ment, since the striking shadows cast by the balconies ornamentally shifted throughout
the day. A tour guide at the Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv, Elisa Wexler, emphasized: “Bauhaus
in Tel Aviv is a Tel Avivian Bauhaus.”
When the Nazis expelled the Bauhaus from Berlin, they couldn’t have imagined that the
school’s design aesthetic would find a warm embrace in the outstretched terraces of the
first modern Jewish city.
“A breach has been made with the past, which allows us to envisage a new aspect of
architecture,” Gropius wrote of the beginnings of the International Style in his book The
New Architecture and the Bauhaus (1965). For Tel Aviv’s pioneering generation, which
severed ties with birthplaces in Europe, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and
beyond, the International Style helped sketch blueprints for a new future.
Frank Lloyd
(June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American archi-
tect, interior designer, writer, and educator, whose
creative period spanned more than 70 years, designing
more than 1,000 structures, of which 532 were com-
pleted. Wright believed in designing structures that
were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a
philosophy he called organic architecture. This philoso-
phy was best exemplified by Fallingwater (1935),
which has been called "the best all-time work of Ameri-
can architecture."[1] As a founder of organic architec-
ture, Wright played a key role in the architectural move-
ments of the twentieth century, influencing three gener-
ations of architects worldwide through his works.[2]
Wright was the pioneer of what came to be
called the Prairie School movement of architecture, and he also developed the concept
of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, his unique vision for urban planning in the
United States. In addition to his houses, Wright designed original and innovative offic-
es, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other structures. He often
designed interior elements for these buildings, as well, including furniture and stained
glass. Wright wrote 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the
United States and Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of
Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."[1] In 2019, a selection of his
work became a listed World Heritage Site as The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank
Lloyd Wright.

Prairie: Prairies are flat, fertile lands dominated by grasses. Prairie grasses, like these
in the U.S. state of Colorado, hold soil firmly in place, so erosion is minimal. Prairie
grass roots are very good at reaching water more than a meter deep, and they can live
for a very long time.
Ennis house, Los Angeles

Lloyd was an early advocate of green design.

In his 1954 book The Natural House, he describes creating a green roof to outfit a house
for his son, laying the groundwork for the sustainable design movement so prevalent
today. Not only that, but many of his designs revolved around the core principle that
design should become an extension of its natural surroundings.
Rationalism (architecture):
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from
Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work De architectura that
architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. This formulation was
taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Progres-
sive art theory of the 18th-century opposed the Baroque use of illusionism with the
classic beauty of truth and reason. Twentieth-century Rationalism derived less from a
special, unified theoretical work than from a common belief that the most varied prob-
lems posed by the real world could be resolved by reason. In that respect, it represented
a reaction to Historicism and a contrast to Art Nouveau and Expressionism. The term
Rationalism is commonly used to refer to the wider International Style.
Casa Del Fascio, 1932

Early Rationalist Architecture

Rationalism as a strict style can be divided into three main eras: the 17th century, the
early 20th century, and the late 20th century. However, to understand rationalist archi-
tecture, we have to go back a bit further. The concept of rational architecture first
emerged with the ancient Greeks. Philosophers like Aristotle proposed that humans
were rational beings, and they designed architecture to fit that need. Thus, from the
very beginning, rational architecture was defined by its function as much as its form.
The ancient Greeks built mighty temples based on mathematical principles, making
them perfectly symmetrical and geometrically ordered. The ancient Romans expanded
upon this ideology. Vitruvius, the first person to codify architecture into a consistent
discipline, formally asserted that architectural forms could be rationally deduced.
From there, rationalism as a formal ideology began.
20th Century Rationalism
20th century Rationalist architecture was interchangeably called Neo-Rationalist.
Although the designs were different from 18th century rationalism, neo-Rationalists
continued to practice important principles of Rationalist Architecture. The simplistic
form and ornamentation was still retained; the functionality aspect became known as
‘theme.’ In fact, as many historians claimed, neo-Rationalism was an evolution of 18th
century Enlightenment Architecture. The need to justify architectural works remained
strong as it had then. The Enlightenment brought about the Industrial Revolution
around 18th-19th centuries. The effects lasted and were carried over to the 20th centu-
ry, where industrialization became a fad. Economic advancement was no longer associ-
ated with brick and wood but with new elements like steel, iron and glass. As industri-
alization reached its peak in the 20th century, the growing importance of machinery
led to the development of an ‘industrial architecture,’ composed of those new
elements.
Modernism was the dominant rationalist movement of the 1900s. It basically aimed to
employ new materials suited to the spirit of industrialization and free architects from
the bondage of styles, which curtailed individual touches. The works of early Modern-
ists Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany and Frenchman Le
Corbusier were mostly products of socio-political revolutions. Following World War I,
the German Modernist ventured into new structures that ‘meet social needs.' The
Bauhaus design school resulted from this venture. Bauhaus became identified as the
‘International Style,’ adopted by many Modern structural designs in various countries.

The UN New York Base

The International Style was characterized by

rational principles of minimalism and function-
al design and structure. Neoclassical pedi-
ments, columns and flanking wings were
replaced by rectangular shapes of concrete
cement, steel, and other new elements. There
were hardly traces of particular cultures or
social context and a neutral architecture that
was universally applicable prevailed
Deconstructivism (1980)
is a Postmodern architectural style characterised by the idea of fragmentation and the
manipulation of a structure’s surface. Buildings adopting the style are often formed of
components that have been disassembled and reassembled in a new and unorthodox
way, giving the impression of a chaotic design devoid of precise logic.
It attempts to move away from the conventions of modernism that can be viewed as
‘constricting rules’, such as the notions that ‘form follows function’, ‘purity of form’, and
‘truth to materials’.
Deconstructivism in architecture was influenced by the deconstructivist theories of
the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who said that ‘architecture is nothing but one
of many ways of communication’. It was also influenced by early-20th century construc-
tivist architecture developed in Soviet Russia.
Deconstructivism developed out of the postmodern style and first gained widespread
attention in 1988 with an exhibition entitled ‘Deconstructivist Architecture’ in New
York’s Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition featured the work of architects such as
Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. Where deconstructivism deviates from
the postmodernist style in its rejection of ornament as decoration.

Jacques Derrida born Jackie Élie Derrida; July

15, 1930 – October 9, 2004) was an Algeri-
an-born French philosopher best known for
developing a form of semiotic analysis known
as deconstruction, which he discussed in
numerous texts, and developed in the context
of phenomenology. He is one of the major
figures associated with post-structuralism and
postmodern philosophy.
During his career Derrida published more than
40 books, together with hundreds of essays and
public presentations. He had a significant influ-
ence upon the humanities and social sciences,
including philosophy, literature, law, anthropol-
ogy, historiography, applied linguistics, sociolin-
guistics, psychoanalysis and political theory.
His work retains major academic influence throughout the US[ continental Europe,
South America and all other countries where continental philosophy has been predomi-
nant, particularly in debates around ontology, epistemology (especially concerning
social sciences), ethics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language. In
most of the Anglosphere, where analytic philosophy is dominant, Derrida's influence is
most presently felt in literary studies due to his longstanding interest in language and
his association with prominent literary critics from his time at Yale. He also influenced
architecture (in the form of deconstructivism), music, art, and art criticism.
Coop himmelblau, Vienna

Zaha Hadid
peak hong
kong

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin

Jüdisches museum berlin
The building zigzags with its titanium-zinc façade and features underground axes,
angled walls, and bare concrete “voids” without heat or air-conditioning. With his
“Between the Lines” design, American architect Daniel Libeskind did not want simply
to design a museum building, but to recount German-Jewish history. Even before the
Jewish Museum Berlin opened in the fall of 2001, almost 350,000 people had toured
the empty building, which continues to fascinate innumerable guests from Germany
and abroad. Today the Libeskind building houses the permanent exhibition, which is
currently getting modernized and is therefore not accessible for visitors. The building
allows for many interpretations. For some people it brings to mind a broken Star of
David; for others it is a bolt of lightning. Many people are left with a feeling of insecuri-
ty or disorientation.