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.
•. 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 materials such as iron, steel
and sheet glass drove the intention of new building techniques.
• Modern architecture represented the first complete and clear break in the history of
architecture.
• 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.
• 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.
Modernism eventually generated reactions,
Postmodernism which sought to preserve pre-modern elements,
Neo-modernism emerged as a reaction to Postmodernism.
• 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, Oscar
Niemeyer and Alvar Aalto.

Common themes of modern architecture include:

• "Form follows function", 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.

Ornament is a crime, by Adolf Loos can be considered one of the manifests of modern
architecture.
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, in post-modern
world would be considered a crime.
Form follows function- a building has first and foremost served the purpose for what it was
built.
• 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 aesthetically beautiful and a big part of the new idea of sincerity
in architecture. What you see is what you get.
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.
Modern Movement Thoughts
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 that our culture has led us to a world without ornament, and any educated
man who is in favour 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 favoured.

• 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.

• 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.

• Numerous building in early 19th century echoed this concept. His one building The
Looshaus in Vienna (also known as the Goldman & Salatsch Building is an ideal example.

•
Form follows function
• In 1896, Louis Sullivan coined the phrase in an article titled “The Tall Office Building
Artistically”

• It is a principle associated with 20th-century modernist architecture and industrial design which
says that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or
purpose.

• Sullivan developed the shape of the tall steel skyscraper in late 19th Century Chicago at a
moment in which technology, taste and economic forces converged and made it necessary to
break with established styles.

• If the shape of the building was not going to be chosen out of the old pattern book, something
had to determine form, and according to Sullivan it was going to be the purpose of the building.

• Thus, "form follows function", as opposed to "form follows precedent". Sullivan's

assistant Frank Lloyd Wright adopted and professed the same principle in a slightly different
form—perhaps because shaking off the old styles gave them more freedom and latitude.

• The phrase "form (ever) follows function" became a battle cry of Modernist architects after the
1930s. The credo was taken to imply that decorative elements, which architects call
"ornament", were superfluous in modern buildings. However, Sullivan himself neither thought
nor designed along such lines at the peak of his career.

• American architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase in an 1896 article in which he described his
philosophy for designing tall buildings like Chicago's Auditorium Building, St Louis' Wainwright

• Building, and Buffalo's Guaranty Building. The basic idea he wanted to get across was that
buildings and products should be designed with use and function in mind. If an architect takes
on a project to design a new art gallery, he or she should place utmost importance in the
character of the building as a gallery

• Example - The Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, designed by Louis Sullivan, is
emblematic of his famous maxim "form follows function".
Alvar Aalto

Born Hugo Alvar Henrik

Aalto
3 February 1898
Kuortane, finland
Nationality Finnish
Awards RIBA Gold Medal
AIA Gold Medal
Design Functionalism
Philosophy

Buildings Paimio Sanatorium

Finlandia Hall

Product Design Savoy Vase

Paimio Chair

Alvar Alto Finnish architect and designer.

• His design philosophy was influenced by nature and organic materials.

• The beauty of his work is hidden in his design approach of Functionalism but with a
strong connection to the organic relationship between man, nature and buildings.
• With his innovative designs and natural forms led towards organic Modernism
• Aalto's career spans the changes in style from Nordic Classicism to purist International
Style Modernism to a more personal, synthetic and idiosyncratic Modernism.
 • Aalto's wide field of design activity ranges from the large scale of city planning and
architecture to interior design, furniture and glassware design and painting
• Aalto's early career runs in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization
of Finland during the first half of the twentieth

• In architecture, functionalism is the principle that design a building based on the

purpose of that building.
• His furniture designs are considered Scandinavian Modern, in the sense of a concern for
materials, especially wood. He received a patent for various manufacturing processes,
such as bent wood.
Projects:

Finlandia Hall
Finlandia Hall is a congress and event venue in the centre of Helsinki on the Töölönlahti Bay

• The main feature of the Finlandia Hall building is a tower like section with a sloping roof.

• Alvar Aalto’s idea behind the design was that a high empty space would provide better
acoustics.

• A suspended ceiling hides the space to the audience but it allows the creation of the
same deep post-echo as tall church towers.

• Aalto used marble in both indoor and outdoor surfaces as a contrast to black granite.
For Aalto, marble was a tie to the Mediterranean culture, which he wanted to bring to
Finland.

• Every detail in the building is designed by Aalto and the interior design of the building is
a tribute to detail.

• The design of each lamp, piece of furniture, panel, flooring material and decorative
board reflects the mature approach resulting from Aalto’s long career as an architect.

• The interior reflects many of the themes characteristic of Aalto’s other works, such as
his passion for unsymmetrical forms and natural, low-key materials and colours.

• The special feature of the Congress Wing is the “waves” of the facade that give the
building unique beauty and vivacity. The curve fallows the natural terrain saving most of
tree on the site.

• Aalto’s Finlandia Hall is a work of art and a major sight in its own right – down to its
smallest details. Its design, atmosphere, and functionality create something truly unique
and a venue for unforgettable events
Paimio Sanatorium, Paimio - Finland (1933)

Paimio Sanatorium, Finland

The main idea for the Sanatorium, to healing and rehabilitation of tuberculosis patients.

Aalto paid great attention to all details of the design and functionality of the building

Special care was taken when planning the rooms for patients, including warm colors for the
ceiling and comfortable furniture that Aalto himself designed.

Plan was meant to be functionally zoned and biodynamical aligned to the compass so that the
direction of each wing was defined according to its requirements for sunshine and view.
The top most floor is provided with large Sun deck for the patients to enjoy sunlight throughout
the day.

Aalto also believed that bright colors made people feel better and be more active. So the lobby
was treated with Bright yellow walls and floor tiles

Great attention was given to the designing of details like Designed lamps that were placed out
of the patients line of vision

No sharp edges, unnecessary ornaments, or shelves that gather dust were used in the interior.

The Sanatorium received very positive critics both in Finland and abroad, putting Aalto into the
scene of morn architecture.
Alvar Aalto University, Otaniemi

Alvar Aalto designed the campus for the Otaniemi Technical University in Espoo, Finland
between 1949 and 1966.
Aalto's buildings for the university include the main building, the library, the shopping
centre, and the water tower, with a crescent-shaped auditorium at the center.
Red brick, black granite, and copper combine to celebrate Finland's industrial heritage in the
old campus designed by Aalto.
The Fan shaped auditorium, looking Greek-like on the outside but sleek and modern on the
inside, remains the centre of the Otaniemi campus of the newly named Aalto University.
Many architects have been involved with new buildings and renovations, but Aalto
established the park-like design. The school calls it The jewel of Finnish architecture.

Furniture design:

▪ He concluded that standardization and mass production could not be sustained in

Finland's small economy.

▪ His chairs were the result of great study and investigation into, posture, laminated
wood, aesthetic considerations and efficient mechanical methods of mass production.

▪ Alvar Aalto’s furniture included:

➢ The Paimio Chair

➢ The Viipuri Stacking Stools

➢ Cantilevered Chair
▪ Paimio Chair is said to have been influenced
by the curved contours of the Finnish lakes.

▪ It is one of the most elegant modern chairs.

▪ The frame is laminated birch bent into a

closed curve with solid birch cross-rails.

▪ The seat is molded from one piece of birch

plywood.

▪ The springy plywood fixed on a closed

frame was Aalto’s brainstorm for making a
wooden chair “soft”.

▪ The Paimio Chair is constructed from both

two dimensional molded plywood and
laminated timber.

▪ It was supported by cantilevered

continuous arm and leg frame of laminated
Birch plywood steam bent in the shape of a
"C" and had horizontal braces to the back.

▪ The frame was thicker from the front of the

seat down as there was more stress on the
frame there.

▪ He constructed the frame with 7 layers of

lamination and less for the arms and back
as they required less reinforcement.
ADOLF LOOS.

• Adolf Loos (10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austro-Hungarian architect.
• He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay “Ornament
and Crime”
• Adolf Loos gained greater notoriety for his writings than for his buildings. Loos
wanted an intelligently established building method supported by reason.
• Loos recommended pure forms for economy and effectiveness. He rarely considered
how this "effectiveness" could correspond to rational human needs.
• He believed that everything that could not be justified on rational grounds was
superfluous and should be eliminated.
• He abandoned the aesthetic principles of the Vienna Secession. In this and many
other essays he contributed to the elaboration of a body of theory and criticism of
Modernism in architecture and design.
• 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.
 • His fight for freedom from the decorative styles of the nineteenth century led a
campaign for future architects.
• In Loos's essay, "passion for smooth and precious surfaces“ 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.
ARCHITECTURAL WORKS:
• Loos’ important buildings include:

• 1899 Café Museum, Vienna

• 1910 Looshaus

• 1910 Steiner House, Vienna

• 1928 Villa Muller, Prague (now in the Czech Republic)

• 1929 Khuner Villa, Kreuzberg, Austria

Steiner House in Vienna, Austria.

• This design was much better accepted than Loos' earlier works and quickly became a
worldwide example of rationalist architecture.
• In his buildings, Loos normally starts with one main volume in which the space,
configuration, and elements follows the rules and composition of classical architecture.
• He organizes the interior of that volume with smaller cubes, rectangles boxes, and
cylinders arranged in a volumetric puzzle of sorts. This determines the internal organization
of his buildings and Loos regularly uses protrusions from the main block to create other
areas of the building such as terraces.
• In the Steiner house, Loos uses his volumes to create a classical tripartite façade. He does
this by creating a recess between the two wings of the house that continues straight to the
roof.
• In general, Loos lets his fenestration be subdivided into squares and rectangles that all
obey a modular system, which correspond perfectly with the geometry of the façade. This
system sets up order on the interior such as the living room being connected to a terrace
that has access to the garden.
By placing the serving space in the basement and attic. This was the style for which Loos
strove: a refined and intricate interior with a simple and nonthreatening exterior.
Loos built his buildings with roughcast walls and used the stucco to form a protective skin
over the bricks.
Loos did not want to use the stucco as a cheap imitation rock and condemned that practice;
in general he used stucco for its functionality.
The stucco façades have another benefit: they create a smooth, unornamented, and white
surface. This surface represents the nature of the material and also does not hint to what is
inside the building.
In the case of the Steiner house, Loos was only able build one floor above the street level.
This led him to create a one quarter round roof that is facing the street.
This roof flattens out the apex and makes the two additional floors that look out onto the
garden impossible to see from the street.
The curved roof was an interesting choice because it was not a straight break from gabled
roofs or a brand new innovative idea.
Instead it was meant to demonstrate certainty of form and economy of space, proving that
traditions can be manipulated or rid of completely, for a functional and non-aesthetic
purpose.
1. The Looshaus in Vienna (also known as the Goldman & Salatsch Building) is regarded as
one of the most important structures built in the Vienna.
2. The building marks the rejection of historicism, as well as the ornaments used by the
Vienna Secession.
3. There is a sharp contrast between the marble-lined facade used at the ground floor and
the plain plaster facade of the residential floors above.
 EERO SAARINEN
• Eero Saarinen (August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish American architect and
industrial designer of the 20th century famous for shaping his Neo futuristic style
according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or
machine-like rationalism.
• The focus of his design practice was on utilizing new construction techniques as well as
creating architecture which contained variety and visual effect.
• 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.
• Saarinen's was a career of innovation. His airport terminals combined the poetry of
sculpture with daring structural feats and organisational 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, New york

 Plan of TWA.

• IT WS A MAJOR AMERICAN AIRLINE FROM 1924 UNTIL 2001 .

• In order to capture the concept of flight, Saarinen used curves to create spaces that flowed
into one another. It demonstrates his expressionism and the technical marvel in concrete
shells. This represented a futuristic style.
• The flowing, curvilinear forms which define this airport terminal make this work a good
example of expressionist architecture.
• The forms symbolically suggest flight.
• Interior spaces are also open and flowing.
• The exterior's concrete roof imitates a bird in flight with two massive "wings."
• The interior consists of a continuous ribbon of elements, all whisking themselves in from
the exterior, so that ceilings continuously run into walls and those walls become floors.
 GATEWAY ARCH - The St. Louis Gateway Arch

• Details- construction 1961 to 1966

• Catenary curve arch, 630 feet high, and 630 feet wide at the base.
• Received American Institute of Architects 25 Year Award, 1990
• Style Structural Expressionist Modern
• Notes Arched gateway to the historical American West, on the bank of the Mississippi River.
A 630 foot high graceful sweeping tapered curve of stainless steel, the St. Louis Gateway
Arch is the tallest memorial in the US.
• The gateway arch preserved the tradition of mathematical rigor and formal simplicity in the
design of American monuments.
• The arch is comprised of steel-clad concrete triangular sections that vary from . It varies in
thickness from 54ft (bottom), to 17ft (top). The steel plates are assembled very tightly
against each other in order to increase its structural stability and also to increase its
aesthetics—making it look even more slender than it is.
 Saarinen was challenged by
furniture design, especially
the chair, which presents
aesthetical and structural
problems that are
particularly difficult to solve.
In 1948 Saarinen created a
womblike chair using a glass
fibre shell upholstered in
foam rubber and fabric.

His last furniture designs

comprised a series of
pedestal-based chairs and
tables (1957) that combined
a sculptural aluminium base
with plastic shells for the
chairs and discs of marble or
plastic for the table tops.
The curvilinear forms of his
furniture designs paralleled
his growing interest in
sculptural architectural
forms.

Tulip chair and womblike chair

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.
• Topography, climate, and culture were important factors in his work.
• 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.
• 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.
• He insisted on planning the gardens and interior design details of his buildings,
including lighting and furniture.
• Among Mendelsohn's famous works in Germany are the Einstein Tower in Potsdam,
various factories, the Schocken family commercial buildings, and power plants.

Expressionist architecture is an architectural movement in Europe during the first

decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that
especially developed and dominated in Germany.

The style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal

innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms,
sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel
and especially glass. Many expressionist architects fought in World War I and their
experiences, combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the
German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic socialist
agenda.[2] Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between
1914 and the mid-1920s.
Characteristics of Expressionist Architecture
1. Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
 2. Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner experience.
3. An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary.
4. Conception of architecture as a work of art.
5. Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of
concepts more important than pragmatic finished products.
6. Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
7. Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lightning, crystal
and rock formations.[10] As such it is more mineral and elemental than florid and
organic which characterized its close contemporary art nouveau.
8. Uses creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
Einstein Tower, Potsdam, Germany (1920-21)

• Einstein Tower represented the:

• Truth of reinforced concrete construction in which a steel frame or skeleton supported
and stiffened the concrete flesh
• Stresses shaping the form (the compression and tension of both reinforced concrete and
the human body)
• Intricate curved pieces of the human spine corresponded to his aesthetic taste
• Human presence that could arouse the empathy of viewers.
o "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 too hold Einstein's own astronomical laboratory...
o Mendelsohn was after a completely plastic kind of building, moulded rather than
built, without angles and with smooth, rounded corners.
o 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.
o Even so, this 'sarcophagus of architectural Expressionism' is one of the most
brilliantly original buildings of the twentieth century.
 Hat factory in Luckenwalde
established his reputation. The Hat
Factory was commissioned in
1921, Mendelsohn's design
included four production halls, a
boiler, a turbine house, two
gatehouses and a dyeing hall. The
dyeing hall became a distinctive
feature of the factory, the building
was shaped with a modern,
ventilation hood that expelled the
toxic fumes used in the dyeing
process. The structure even
ironically resembled a hat.
Hat Factory in Luckenwalde
RICHARD JOSEPH 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 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 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 Creating a
unique adaptation that became known as Desert Modernism.
• 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.
• His architecture of simple geometry and airy steel and glass set a standard in American
design.
• The dramatic images of flat-surfaced, industrialized residential buildings contrasted
against nature.
• He adamantly believed that modem architecture must act as a social force in the
betterment of mankind.
Design Philosophy:
• His design approach is very simple.
• His designs are pure, clean and straight line organized without any curve or arc
• and mixed with landscape of the site without any ambiguity or confusion in
design.
• Neutra introduced green design concept in connection with building and nature.
• He termed “biorealism” to describe the inherent and inseparable relationship
between man and nature.
• International style was varied and adopted to the region by using desert natural
elements mainly like rugged stone and desert plants in landscaping.
• Used natural elements like water, light and concrete throughout his designs.
• Neutra’s ability to incorporate technology, aesthetics, science and nature in his
designs brought him to the forefront of MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE.
• Plate glass walls, ceilings and deep over hangings connecting indoors and
• outdoors had become the trade mark of Neutra’s architecture
]
Kaufmann Desert House
• Kaufmann House was a vacation home for Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. and
his family to escape the harsh winters of the northeast.
• The design of the house is quite simplistic; at the centre of the house is
the living room and the dining room that is the heart of the house and the
family activity.
• The rest of the house branches out like a pinwheel in each of the cardinal
directions. From the centre of the house each wing that branches out
has its own specific function; however, the most important aspects of the
house are oriented east/west while the supporting features are oriented
north/south.
• The north and south wings are the most public parts of the house that
connect to the central living area. The south wing consists of a covered
walkway that leads from the centre of the house to the carport.
• The house’s swimming pool is one of the most iconic and recognizable
aspects of the Kaufmann House; however, it is not solely a photographic
gem or simply a recreational feature.
 .
Kaufmann House

• The low, horizontal planes that make up the pinwheel design bring the
house closer to the landscape making it appear as if it is hovering above
the ground.
• The floating effect is emphasized through a series of sliding glass doors
that open up to cover walkways or patios.
• The way in which Neutra designed the Kaufmann House was such that
when the sliding glass doors were opened the differentiation of interior
and exterior was blurred as if it was a sinuous space.
• The glass and steel make the house light, airy, and open, but it is the use
of stone that solidifies the houses contextual relationship.
• The light colored, dry set stone, what Neutra calls “Utah buff,” brings out
the qualities of the glass and steel, but it also blends into the earthy tones
of the surrounding landscape of the stone, mountains, and trees

Lovell House:
• "The Lovell house had in Los Angeles in 1929, constructed with 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.
• It is a Health house built for Dr. Phillip Lovell on a steep hillside.
• The Lovell House is claimed to be the first house in the United States to use a steel
structure that is typically found in skyscraper construction
• The building appears as a series of floating white trays, abstract and machine – crafted
designed in modernist international style.
• Externally it is simple having sprayed concrete surfaces.
The house is located on a landscaped, steeply terraced hill and has views of
Santa Monica mountains, pacific oceans and the city of los Angeles illuminated in
night in the foreground.
Interior reflects neutra’s interest in cubism, transparency and hygiene.

OTTO WAGNER
• Otto Wagner was born in Penzing, near Vienna in 1841. In 1894 he supervised and taught
at a special school of architecture
• As a teacher, Wagner soon broke with tradition by insisting on function, material, and
structure as the bases of architectural design.
• Wagner's architecture was a cross between traditional styles and Art Nouveau, or
Jugendstil, as it was called in Austria.
He is one of the architects credited with bringing modernity to Vienna, and his architecture
remains iconic in Vienna, Austria.
His design combined with technical and constructional functionality with high asthetic
criteria.
Wagner taught that the creation of a ‘realistic’ building (i.e. a modern building) was not a
matter of style (i.e. aesthetics), but rather of solving its design problems so as to meet the
practical needs of its modern inhabitants. This primary concern for functionalism in
architecture made the Wagnerschule unique throughout Europe at this time.
Majolika Haus, 1898-1899

Otto Wagner's ornate Majolika Haus is named after the weather-proof, ceramic tiles
painted in floral designs on its façade, as in majolica pottery. Despite its flat, rectilinear
shape, the building is considered Art Nouveau.
Wagner used new, modern materials and rich color, yet retained the traditional use of
ornamentation. The eponymous majolica, decorative iron balconies, and flexible, S-shaped
linear embellishment accentuate the building's structure. Today Majolika Haus has retail on
the ground floor and apartments above.
Austrian Postal Savings Bank, 1903-1912

Postal Savings Bank is often cited as architect Otto Wagner's most important work.
In its design, Wagner accomplishes beauty with functional simplicity, setting the tone for
modernism
The "modernism" of the architecture is Wagner's use of traditional stone materials (marble)
held in place by new building materials — aluminium covered iron bolts, which become the
façade's industrial ornamentation.
 Post office building is geometric and simplified style, without ornament.
Cast-iron architecture of the mid-19th century was a "skin" molded to imitate historic
designs; Wagner covered his brick, concrete, and steel building with a new veneer for the
modern age.

KENZO TANGE
“"Architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart, but even then,
basic forms, spaces and appearances must be logical. Creative work is expressed in our
time as a union of technology and humanity”.

• 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.
• Kenzo Tange was a Japanese architect , Teacher, writer, urban planner.
• He was one of the most significant architects of 20th century ,combining traditional
Japanese styles with modernism.
• Tange was also an influential Patron of the structuralist movement called
Metabolist movement.
• His early works influenced by Le Corbusier ,was a master in the use of exposed
reinforced concrete.
• Tange demonstrated that a unique regionalism could be developed, and recognized,
within the circumstance of international style.
• Kenzo Tange’s work marked a revived awareness of Japanese architectural traditions
expressed through contemporary interpretation of architectural form.
• Most of these early structures were conventional rectangular forms using
light steel frames.
• Tange’s work during the 1960s took more boldly dramatic forms with the use of
reinforced concrete and innovative engineering.
• 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.
 He was pioneer of movement known as “METABOLISM”.
 The word Metabolism describes the process of maintaining living cells.
 Young Japanese architects after World War II used this word to describe their beliefs
about how buildings and cities should be designed, emulating a living being.
 Metabolist architects and designers believed that “cities and buildings are not static
entities, but are ever-changing.”
 His vision for cities of future inhabited by a mass society were characterized by a large
scale, flexible and expandable structures that evoked the process of the organic growth.
 . Many Metabolists had studied under Kenzo Tange at Tokyo University's Tange
Laboratory.

• 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 Fuji TV Building, Tokyo

The Fuji TV Building is one of the most bizarre buildings in Japan.

The ultra-futuristic building was designed by the architect Kenzo Tange and completed in
1997.
It serves as the corporate headquarters of the Fuji Television Network and houses
several studios.
The 25-storey building consist of two towers connected by three enclosed
pedestrian bridges, called ‘sky corridors’ which are supported by four steel columns.
The corridors help to strengthen the overall structure, making it highly earthquake
resistant.
The centrepiece of the building is the titanium silver bal, serve which measures 32 m in
diameter, and weighs 1,350 tons.
Inside the ball is an observation platform which is open to the public, offering
unobstructed views of Tokyo and Mount Fuji.
The studios inside both towers are insulated against the noise from the
surrounding transport infrastructure and radio waves from ships passing in and out of the
bay area.
Olympic Arena - YOYOGI NATIONAL GYMNASIUM, TOKYO
• The most famous work by kenzo tange.
• Built for the Olympics in 1964.
• It is comprised of two buildings.
• Inspired by the skyline of the Colosseum in Rome.
• The gymnasium has a capacity of approximately 16,000 & smaller building can
accommodate up 5,300 people.
• Plan resembles a snail.
• Its aerodynamic monumental and suggestive design became an icon of the Japanese
capital and a benchmark in the Metabolist movement distancing himself from the
international style.
• Infact ,despite their monumental size, they give the impression that the park itself,
emphasizing its relationship with the surrounding environment.
• 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 enamelled 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.
 He visited several medieval Gothic examples. "After experiencing their heaven-aspiring
grandeur and ineffably mystical spaces," he says, "I began to imagine new spaces, and
wanted to create them by means of modern technology.“
 Following his term “metabolism”, designed the cathedral as a living entity that should
transcend beyond the borders of Japan to become an architecture used for all peoples,
combining technology and humanity, rising above the mundane
 On a concrete base shaped like a Latin cross walls rise high reaffirming the design of the
plant and which are deployed eight hyperbolic parables that support the roof of the
cathedral and leading to four main facades. The structure consists of eight curved panels
together and upright almost vertically.
 The roof, windows with skylights, a large cross shape and is the only place where the
temple receives natural light, while it extends to the ends of the cross, reaching the
ground as skirts, design that is appreciated better from the outside.
 The exterior surfaces of the cathedral are lined with sheets of galvanized aluminum and
stainless steel frames and supported by iron bolts, while the back wall of reinforced
concrete to be in sight, feature the works of the architect.
 Metabolism was a post-war Japanese architectural movement that fused ideas
about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth that began
in Japan around 1960.
 The word metabolism describes the process of maintaining living cells.
 Young Japanese architects after World War II used this word to describe their beliefs
about how buildings and cities should be designed, emulating a living being.
 Members of the group include: Kiyoshi Awazu, Noboru Kawazoe, Kiyonori
Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, and Kenzō Tange.
 They wrote a short book in English and Japanese called "The proposals for a New
Urbanism" for the World Design Conference in 1960.
 Many Metabolist projects or designs were very large city plans called megastructures.
 The members thought of cities as living things that changed over long periods of time.
Metabolically designed architecture is built around a spine-like infrastructure with
prefabricated, replaceable cell-like parts—easily attached and readily removable when
their lifespan is over.
 These architects were interested in building housing for large numbers of people.
 They often planned buildings that could be changed.
 One example is the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kurokawa (1972). Each apartment was a
rectangular block with one round window.
 These blocks could be added, moved, or removed as needed. It was a "plug-in building".
 Architect Kurokawa planned for new, better capsules to be added to replace old ones.

Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo.