PIONEERS OF MODERN

ARCHITECTURE
LECTURE 2

Simegn Z. / WSU, 2015

Content

1. Frank Lloyd Wright

(1867-1957)
2. Le Corbusier
(1887-1965)
3. Mies van der Rohe
(1886-1969)
 Frank Lloyd Wright
 Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), American architect, considered one of
the greatest figures of 20th-century architecture.

Principle:
 Through all his designs, he was guided by principles that he termed organic
architecture.
 Every building should relate harmoniously to its natural surroundings and
that a building should not be a static, boxlike enclosure but a dynamic
structure, with open, flowing interior spaces.
 To achieve this organic design, he used geometric units, or modules, that
generated a grid. The first modules were squares, but Wright later used
diamonds, hexagons, and other geometric shapes, upon which he laid a free-
flowing floor plan.
 Another device Wright favored was the cantilever, a long projection (often a
balcony) that was supported at only one end. The grid and the cantilever
freed Wright’s designs from being merely boxes with openings cut into them.
 Works
Prairie Houses
 Experimenting in many styles during the 1890s, Wright proved his mastery
of the architectural ideas of the time.
 He chose to use his principles of organic architecture to develop the prairie
house—a long, low structure that hugged the Midwest prairie.
 A shallow roof emphasized its horizontal lines.
 Wright disliked basements, his earliest independent commission, his buildings
were set firmly on the earth, rather than in it.
 At the approach to the house, Wright reduced space by using an
overhanging roof, side walls, and stairs that bring the person entering closer
to the roof.
 All this compression sets the stage for a dramatic explosion of space as one
finally turns into the living room.
 Wright’s living rooms typically have a height of one-and-a-half or two
stories, but they seem much larger because of the compression experienced
before entering them.
 Wright also designed the furnishings of many of his houses, or he had other
designers create them to his detailed specifications.
Robie house
(1906-1909) on Chicago’s South Side.

 This long, three-story structure stands no taller than the surrounding two-
story houses.
 A roof cantilever extends 6.4 m (21 ft) from the western wall of the

house over a west-facing veranda.

 On the south facade, 14 glass doors open onto a main-floor balcony,
which shades the 10 windows and 4 doors on the ground floor below.
 The house spreads in to landscape
by means of low parapet walls
which integrated the building with
nature.
 At every point the horizontal line is stretched and emphasized,
internally as well as externally.
 The main living level is one long space, divided into living room and
dining room by a freestanding fireplace.
 A shallow roof overhang enables sunlight to enter through the main
floor doors in winter but keeps sunlight out in the hot summer
months.
 Wright used steel beams to have large span living room.
 Cantilevered steel beams create long, uninterrupted spaces that
extend through windows onto porches and balconies, making walls
disappear.
 The bold ground hugging lines are the characteristics of this
building.
 The house is an elongated rectangle that follows the line of street.
 In this building Masses and voids are in equilibrium.
 Wright makes the corners to disappear.
 Wright also integrated the lighting and heating into the ceiling and
floor, and designed nearly all the furniture.
 In the Robbie House, the living room flows into the dining room
 The rich wood molding, ceiling beams, bookshelves, and niches
found throughout the house unify the interior.
 Fireplace breaks horizontality of building with Un-plastered brick .
 A wide chimney cluster rises from the center of the building,
providing a sole vertical element .
Falling water
(1936 Pennsylvania)

 Falling water is considered Wright's masterwork.

 Ironically, the work for which Wright is best known is one of his largest and
least democratic works.
 Cantilevered dramatically over a waterfall in southwest Pennsylvania.
 Falling water is notable for its
relationship with the environment,
it appears to emerge from the
rocks above the waterfall.
 Brings the outdoors inside.
 Not only does the waterfall become part of the house a staircase in the
living room leads down to it.
 The wooded glen that surrounds the house is visible from every room.
 Concrete balconies cantilever at right angles from the house’s vertical stone
core, and a balcony off the main living space extends over the waterfall.
 Corner window without frame at the corner considered invention of Wright.
 Vertical elements such as stairs and
chimneys faced in rough stone and
from a nearby quarry.
 Horizontal windows and projecting
terraces embrace the surrounding
natural scene.
 The layout of the building is broken
down in a series of rooms that intersect
around the central nucleus of the living
room.
Johnson Wax Company
(1930s Racine, Wisconsin)

 It included the company’s Administration Building (1936), an elegant house

for Johnson that has four wings arranged in a pinwheel pattern around a
central core.
 The main office building, an early example of open planning, occupies
the right wing of the building.
 The roof of the Administration Building’s main workroom appears to float
above a forest of tall, tapered columns with broad, flat tops.
 These narrow concrete columns seem to hung down from the circular ceiling
slabs that they in fact support the roof.
 Immediately under the tower is a recreational area and car park.
 Light enters through skylights and long bands of glass tubing.
Guggenheim Museum
(1957-1959) in New York City

 Its spiraling ramp provides a dramatic setting for art, although critics have
questioned the ramp’s suitability as an exhibition space.
 Wright’s innovative designs and use of materials often drew controversy.
 Builders doubted whether his cantilevers—especially at Fallingwater—
would support their weight. Others questioned the practicality of his
designs, such as that for the Guggenheim.
 Wright’s legacy consists of more than 1,000 designs, nearly half of which
were built. He continued working until his death, two months before his
92nd birthday.
 Architects worldwide now employ grid systems as well as the open type of
floor plan he pioneered.
 The originality of Wright’s designs, his sensitivity to a building’s
surroundings, and his creative use of materials especially concrete and
cement blocks have been widely recognized.
 A number of his buildings are considered national landmarks.
 Le Corbusier
 Le Corbusier, professional name of Charles Édouard Jeanneret
(1887-1965), Swiss-French architect, painter, and writer, who had a
major effect on the development of modern architecture.
 In 1922 he went into partnership in Paris as an architect with his
cousin, the engineer Pierre Jeanneret, and adopted his mother's
maiden name, Le Corbusier.
 While practicing as an architect, Le Corbusier was also active as a
painter and writer. Mostly associated with Amédée Ozenfant in the
school of purism
 In 1920 he founded with Ozenfant the review L'Esprit Nouveau (The
New Spirit), for which he wrote numerous articles to support his
theories on architecture; these theories were developed from 1920
to 1925 and culminated in his concept of the ideal house as “a
machine for living.”
Le Corbusier (Charles Édouard
Jeanneret) (1887-1965)
 “modular theory” a system
of fundamental dimensions,
based on the measurements
of the human body,
designed by Le Corbusier to
create harmonious
proportions.
 “The House is a machine for
living in”
 Le Corbusier
 Essentially a functionalist, he broke with the forms and design of historic
styles, and sought a new 20th-century style to be based on engineering
achievements in bridge building and steamship construction; on modern
materials such as
 ferroconcrete,
 sheet glass, and synthetics; and
 on contemporary needs such as town planning and housing
projects.
 His work did much to bring about general acceptance of the now-common
international style of low-lying, unadorned buildings that depend for
aesthetic effect on simplicity of forms and relation to function.
United Habitation
(1947 -1952, Marseilles)

 This was the project which embodied the modular co-ordination ideas of
Le Corbusier in their most concentrated form.
 This united Habitation was designed with living and social facilities for two
thousand people.
 A revolutionary event, sun space and ground to raise a family privacy, in
silence and in natural surroundings.
 It was designed as one unit of a new type city and contains a street of
shops and social and service accommodation of various kinds, as well as
two-level apartments to house 1,6oo people.
The villa Savoie
(1921 & 1931)

 The villa Savoie at Poissy, is one of Le Corbusier's most classic and

influential buildings, embodying the principle set out by the architect’s
manifesto
 Five points in a new architecture
I. Raised on Pilotis,
II. It is designed on free plan, with a free facad, almost continuous
ribbon windows,
III. Roof garden with a solarium,
IV. On the first floor, the glass walled living area,
V. Wraps in L shape around a terrace,
VI. From ground to roof level winds an entrance ramp.
The Secretariat
(1951-1958, Chandigarh, India)

 The Secretariat and the High Court Buildings in Chandīgarh, India, are a
part of his plan for the entire city.
 The secretariat building is a part of the complex of public buildings,
including an assembly and Law Courts, designed by Le Corbusier for the
new capital he laid out for the state of Punjab
 The 800 ft long raw concrete slab of the secretariat is patterned by its
grid of sun breakers, one of Le Corbusier’s favorite architectural devices.
Ronchamp church, France
(Notre-Dame du Haut, 1950-1955)

 It is the most personal of Le Corbusier’s works; wholly original, since every

form and spatial effect is related to the architect’s concentrated attempt
to achieve a sense of religious dignity and purpose.
 This unusual building is a synthesis of architecture and sculpture. The frame
of the structure is steel and metal mesh, over which concrete was sprayed.
 It is lit by irregular, wedge shaped windows of varying size filled with
colored glass which allow diffused
light to reflect on their sides.
 The roof is slightly raised on metal
supports, creating a thin band of
daylight between it and the top of the
wall.
 Light filters through the rounded half
domed towers and falls on the altars of
the chapel below.
 The design solves the setting problem of
pilgrimage churches, by grouping an
altar and pulpit outside and providing
an outdoor nave for about 12,000
pilgrims at a time.
During the 1920s Le Corbusier, defined five features of modern
architecture:
1. Interior walls arranged freely, without regard to the traditional
demands of structural support;
2. Pilotis, or slender columns that lift the building above the ground;
3. A flat roof to be used as a garden-terrace;
4. External curtain walls that bear no weight, with a free
arrangement of windows or other openings;
5. Ribbon windows, or narrow horizontal bands of glass across the
length of a façade.
 Mies van der Rohe
1.Introduction

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–

Interested In;
1969))a German-American architect ,
along with Walter Gropius and Le  Extreme clarity and simplicity
Corbusier, is widely regarded as one
of the pioneering masters of modern and a new architectural
architecture.
language
Despite having no architectural training,
his influence can be seen in cities all
over the world. He created an
 Architecture should
influential 20th century architectural communicate the meaning and
style, stated with extreme clarity and
simplicity and a new architectural
significance of the culture in
language that could be used to which it exists
represent the new era of technology
and production. He adopted the idea
that architecture should communicated
 High level of abstraction
the meaning and significance of the
culture in which it exists .Mies'
architecture was created at a high level
of abstraction.
1.Introduction
Mies sought to create free and  to create free and open spaces, enclosed within a
open spaces, enclosed within a
structural order with minimal structural order with minimal presence.
presence. His famous phrase
“less is more” perfectly captured
his steadfast devotion to pure  In search for rational solutions
Modernist design, and
encapsulated the Modernists’
search for rational solutions to
 His ideas were from the basic principle of
the complicated problems of
urban existence.
construction
Meis has evolved his ideas from
the basic principle of
construction: hence the form of
his building is the expression of
their structure.
1.Introduction
In his search for the perfect form, Mies  Mies van der Rohe offered in his buildings
van der Rohe offered in his buildings
open, flexible space suitable for different
uses. Although each was for a particular open, flexible space
purpose, often the final form is a neutral-
looking box that expresses nothing of the
particular function. So there was nothing
to differentiate commercial office blocks  The final form is a neutral-looking box that
from residential apartments other than the
curtains in the latter. So keen was Mies to
preserve the pristine rhythms of his expresses nothing of the particular function
façades that at Lake Shore Drive
apartments, Chicago, 1950, he tried to
prevent residents from putting up curtains!
 Mies van der Rohe’s designs appear to be a
Mies van der Rohe’s designs appear to
be a good illustration of for the idea of
honesty in the building , good illustration of for the idea of honesty in
but owing to fire regulations, the structural
frames of his buildings were usually clad
and not quite as openly expressed. At the the building.
Lake Shore Drive apartments non-
structural I beams are attached to the
façade at regular intervals almost like
decoration to give a bold vertical rhythm.
Famous phrase of Mies
“Less is more” and
“God is in the
details.”
“Architecture is the will of
the age conceived in
spatial terms“

“Create form out of the

nature of the task with
the means of our time."
 German Pavilion
(1929)

German Pavilion
German Pavilion, 1929 designed by  Structure was more of a hybrid style
Mies van der Rohe, was the German
Pavilion for the 1929 International
Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. The
 Planes also acted as supports
design was predicated on an absolute
distinction between structure and  An ideal zone of tranquility for the weary visitor
enclosure—a regular grid of cruciform
steel columns interspersed by freely
spaced planes .The structure was more  Characterized by Free flow of spaces.
of a hybrid style, some of these
planes also acted as supports. Mies
wanted this building to become "an  The building offers multiple views
ideal zone of tranquility" for the
weary visitor, who should be invited
into the pavilion on the way to the
next attraction. He chose the place
where these optical effects would
have the strongest impact; the building
offers multiple views of the sculpture
.The building characterized by Free
flow of spaces
German Pavilion
German Pavilion
 The wall was designed to be part of space
rather than enclose it.

 The walls of glass direct the flow of visitors

through the building.

 The roof defines the space below it.

 There are no rooms in the ordinary sense

rather a series of planes arranged in
space, defining a group of interrelated
areas.

 There is no one obvious path and it is

dominated by non-directional spaces
German Chair
 New National Gallery
(1965-1968, Berlin)

New National Gallery

New National Galerie, Berlin,
1965-68 is Considered as
one of the most perfect  The most perfect statements of his architectural
statements of his architectural
approach, the upper pavilion approach
is a precise composition of
monumental steel columns and  Simple square box is a powerful expression of
a cantilevered (overhanging)
roof plane with a glass Meis’s ideas about flexible interior space
enclosure. The simple square
box is a powerful expression  Interior space defined by transparent walls
of his ideas about flexible
interior space, defined by
transparent walls and
supported by an external
structural frame.
New National Gallery
 Crown Hall, illinois Institute of Technology
(1956, Chicago)

Crown Hall
 characterized by an aesthetic of industrial
This building characterized by
an aesthetic of industrial simplicity,
simplicity, with clearly
articulated exposed steel frame  free flowing interior of the upper level.
construction. The steel frame is in
filled with large sheets of glass
of varying qualities of  The aesthetic is achieved by strong contrast of
transparency, resulting in a light
and delicate steel and glass Glass and steel.
facade wrapping the open plan,
free flowing interior of the
upper level.

The aesthetic is achieved by

strong contrast of Glass and
steel.
Crown Hall
 Seagram Building
(1958)

Seagram Building  Creation of plaza paved in granite and

The space between the avenue furnished
serves as the pretext for the
creation of plaza paved in  The buildings of skin and bones.
granite and furnished with plants
and pools of water. It took a lot
of effort to make skyscrapers like
the Seagram building look
uncomplicated, and the forest of
inferior imitations which sprang
up across the globe in the 1960s
and 1970s did much to
undermine Modernism’s
reputation. He called the building
“The buildings of skin and bones”
.
Seagram Building