HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE V

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE V

UNIT IV
LATER DIRECTIONS

Post WW II developments and spread of international style – Later works of

Corbusier: Brasilia, Unite- Works of later modernists: Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Eero
Saarinen
POST WW II DEVELOPMENTS :-
•The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the postwar economic
boom, the long boom, and the Golden Age of Capitalism, was a period of economic
prosperity in the mid-20th century which occurred, following the end of World War II in
1945, and lasted until the early 1970s.

•During this time there was high worldwide economic growth; Western European and
East Asian countries in particular experienced unusually high and sustained growth,
together with full employment.

•Contrary to early predictions, this high growth also included many countries that had
been devastated by the war, such as Greece , West Germany , France , Japan, and 
Italy.

•In academic literature, the period is frequently and narrowly referred to as the post–
World War II economic boom, though this term can refer to much shorter booms in
particular markets.
POST WW II DEVELOPMENTS :-
Productivity:-
•High productivity growth from before the war continued after the war and until the early
1970s.

•Manufacturing was aided by automation technologies such as feedback controllers,

which appeared in the late 1930s were a fast-growing area of investment following the
war.

•Wholesale and retail trade benefited from the new highway systems, distribution
warehouses and material handling equipment such as forklifts. Oil displaced coal in
many applications, particularly in locomotives and ships.

•In agriculture, the post WW II period saw the widespread introduction of the following:

•Chemical fertilizers

•Tractors

•Combine harvesters

•High yield crop varieties of the Green revolution

•Pesticides
POST WW II DEVELOPMENTS :-
•Leading architects, who by the end of World War II had pretty much been fully captured
by modernism in architecture and urban design and planning.

•were outraged by the prince's unprofessional intervention in their work and practice.

•They had been criticized before; but never by someone whose comments had such
resonance in the public media.

•The architects, to their disgruntlement, were portrayed as arrogant, unresponsive to

what ordinary people wanted, indifferent to their interests

•As they pursued their own visions as to what was appropriate and suitably
contemporary or advanced in the design of major structures and in the shaping of town
and city.

•Ordinary people, it seems, endorsed the prince's taste for more traditional features in
major public buildings and more traditional layouts of towns and cities.
SPREAD OF INTERNATIONAL STYLE :-
In architecture, the term "International Style" describes a type of design that developed
mainly in Germany, Holland and France, during the 1920s, before spreading to America
in the 1930s, where it became the dominant tendency in American architecture during
the middle decades of the 20th century.

It also became the dominant style of 20th century architecture for institutional and
commercial buildings, and even superceded the traditional historical styles for schools
and churches.

(1) Increasing dissatisfaction with building designs that incorporated a mixture of

decorative features from different architectural periods, especially where the resulting
design bore little or no relation to the function of the building.

(2) The need to build large numbers of commercial and civic buildings that served a
rapidly industrializing society.
SPREAD OF INTERNATIONAL STYLE :-
(3) The successful development of new construction techniques involving the use of
steel, reinforced concrete, and glass

(4) A strong desire to create a "modern" style of architecture for "modern man". This
underlined the need for a neutral, functional style, without any of the decorative
features of (say) Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance architecture, all of which
were old-fashioned, if not obsolete.

Characteristics:-

•The typical characteristics of International Style buildings include rectilinear forms;

plane surfaces that are completely devoid of applied ornamentation; and open, even
fluid, interior spaces.

•This early form of minimalism had a distinctively "modern look", reinforced by its use of
modern materials, including glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete
for interior supports and floors.
SPREAD OF INTERNATIONAL STYLE :-
LEADING INTERNATIONAL STYLE ARCHITECTS:-

Pioneer practitioners of the International Style included a group of brilliant and original
architects in the 1920s who went on to achieve enormous influence in their field. These 
figures included Walter Gropius (1883-1969) in Germany, J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) in 
Holland, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in France, and Richard Neutra (1892-1970), 
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), and Philip Johnson (1906-2005) in the 
United States.

DECLINE:-

•By the 1970s, the International Style was so dominant that innovation was dead. Mies
continued to design beautiful buildings, but was copied everywhere.

•As the saying went: "You got off an airplane in the 1970s, and you didn't know where
you were.

•" As a result, many architects felt dissatisfied with the limitations and formulaic
methodology of the International Style.

•They wanted to design buildings with more individual character and with more
decoration.
SPREAD OF INTERNATIONAL STYLE :-
•Modernist International Style architecture had removed all traces of historical designs:
now architects wanted them back.

• All this led to a revolt against modernism and a renewed exploration of how to create
more innovative design and ornamentation.

•As Postmodernism took hold, building designers began creating more imaginative
structures that employed modern building materials and decorative features to produce a
range of novel effects.

•By the late 1970s, modernism and the International Style were finished.
LOUIS KAHN :-
•Louis Kahn was born in Saarama (Saaremaa), Estonia in 1901. His family emigrated to
the U.S. in 1905.

•He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a thorough grounding the Beaux
Art school of architecture.

• During the 1920s and 1930s he worked as a draughtsman and, later, as a head
designer for several Philadelphia-based firms.

•Louis Kahn's works are considered as monumental beyond modernism. Famous for his
meticulously built works, his provocative un built proposals, and his teaching, Kahn was
one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

•He was awarded the AIA Gold Medal and the RIBA Gold Medal. At the time of this
death he was considered by some as "America's foremost living architect."
LOUIS KAHN :-
More Light Matters, after the break…

•As identified by Leonardo da Vinci, we often encounter three types of shadows:

Attached shadow, shading and cast shadow.

•The attached shadow falls on the body itself – like a cantilever roof causing a shadow
on the façade.

•The second type belongs to bright and dark contrasts, which are inherent to the form
and depend only on the source of light, e.g. a ball shaped pavilion, which even under a
cast sky shows a darker zone in the lower part.

•The third, cast shadow, could be the result of a high house generating shadow on the
street due to the projection of the building outline.
LOUIS KAHN :-
•Kahn´s archetypical forms go back to Greek architecture, which he studied in the
1950s: “Greek architecture taught me that the column is where the light is not, and the
space between is where the light is.

•It is a matter of no-light, light, no-light, light. A column and a column brings light

between them. To make a column which grows out of the wall and which makes its own
rhythm of no-light, light, no-light, light: that is the marvel of the artist.”

•“All material in nature, the mountains and the streams and the air and we, are made of
Light which has been spent, and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow, and
the shadow belongs to Light.” For him, light is the maker of material, and material’s
purpose is to cast a shadow.

•“A plan of a building should be read like a harmony of spaces in light. Even a space
intended to be dark should have just enough light from some mysterious opening to tell
us how dark it really is.
LOUIS KAHN :- INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT - AHMEDABAD
•"The organization of the complex, as well as its architecture, reflects the conceptual
organization of learning which is focused on three inevitable components: the school, the
students, and the teachers, which constitute

•'The Indian Institute of Management'...Thus, man's philosophy about his environment is

contained here through the otherwise rarely achieved response between condition of
program and plastic emphasis of the structures;

•the latter extending from the sudden vibration of light on the lowered arches spanning
the concrete cord to the gesture of full arches, and them of the round openings with their
curved shades, all maintained within the strict discipline of construction, spatial
dimensioning, and plan organization.“

•Kahn conceived the Indian Institute of Management as a mixture of austerity and

majesty, including spaces for informal interaction and achieving a balance between
modernism and tradition, which captured the timeless spirit of India.
LOUIS KAHN :- INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT - AHMEDABAD
WALLS DIAGONAL:-
These have been used as a unifying element between the different formal types of
buildings.

Have been used subtly in the four corners of the school building and is the main
organizing principle within the school buildings, residence and staff accommodation and
service.

HALLS:-

Facilities include wide corridors that serve as semi cubiertos transitional spaces in the
complex interaction between teachers, students and visitors.

FEATURES:-

Distinctive features of these buildings include the many square arches and brick
structures on the walls with carved circles.
LOUIS KAHN :- INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT - AHMEDABAD
LOUIS KAHN :- INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT - AHMEDABAD

SPACES:-
•The special social conditions and site determined the organization and layout of spaces.

•With the location given to the three main parts of the whole school, the residence of
students and teachers houses managed to maximize the airflow and thereby improve
ventilation.

•The intense light and heat were attenuated by covered walkways, light boxes and
interior courtyards. All these elements are integrated in the whole plastically.
LOUIS KAHN :- SALK INSTITUTE -  CALIFORNIA
•"In the laboratories the vertical ducts of the Richards Building have been turned on their
sides, housed in the hollows of spanning box girders and vented from huge hoods at the
flanks of the building.

•The pre-cast units of structure have thus continued to become larger as the crane can
lift them. Order, once an affair of repetitive crystals for Kahn, is now felt in grand
components, space-making themselves....

•All utilities are now directly channeled through the structure,...(the result being that)
'served' spaces, and 'servant' spaces are entirely integrated,...this 'meaningful order'
was almost instantly arrived at in Kahn's design."
LOUIS KAHN :- SALK INSTITUTE -  CALIFORNIA
•The buildings each have six stories, with the first three floors containing
laboratories and the last three with utilities.

•These spaces are connected to protruding towers that contain spaces for individual
studies linked with bridges.

•The towers at the east end of the buildings contain heating, ventilating, and other
support systems while at the west end the towers are six floors of offices that all face the
Pacific ocean, providing a warm tranquil setting for concentration.

•The separation of the laboratories and the individual study spaces was intended by
Kahn, establishing the different activities.

•The materials that make up the Salk Institute consist of concrete, teak, lead, glass, and
steel.
LOUIS KAHN :- SALK INSTITUTE -  CALIFORNIA
LOUIS KAHN :- SALK INSTITUTE -  CALIFORNIA
LOUIS KAHN :- ESHERICK HOUSE.,  PENNSYLVANIA
•"Kahn built relatively few houses. In each there seems to be a larger-scale building
trying to escape from the confines of the client's budget.

•In the Esherick House, the inherent monumentality of the plan is diminished by the fact
that the major living spaces are surrounded by very thick walls.

•In the double-height living room, the fireplace wall is literally deep.

•The opposite wall in plan also has a fireplace used in the bathroom, but the wall is
thicker containing a zone of servant spaces, kitchen, bathrooms, closets which are not
part of the axial symmetry of the two major living spaces..

•The two window walls are also thick but these frame walls with alcoves or niches
between the casements.
LOUIS KAHN :- ESHERICK HOUSE.,  PENNSYLVANIA
•The most intricate planning occurs on the first floor where the sliding doors between the
gallery and bedroom, and then between bedroom and bathroom, suggest a flow of space
from void to room to altar.“

•Kahn often divided his buildings into what he called served spaces (primary areas) and
servant spaces (corridors, bathrooms, etc.) The Esherick house is organized into four
alternating served and servant spaces, which in this case are parallel two-story strips
that run the full width of the house between front to back.

•The most prominent served space is the two-story living room that occupies all of the
house to the right of the front door.

•Most of its front wall is occupied by a built-in bookcase (Margaret Esherick was a
bookseller)that reaches up to the horizontal window at the second story. The side wall
contains a deep fireplace.
LOUIS KAHN :- ESHERICK HOUSE.,  PENNSYLVANIA
LOUIS KAHN :- ESHERICK HOUSE.,  PENNSYLVANIA
LOUIS KAHN :- ESHERICK HOUSE.,  PENNSYLVANIA

"House of Dark Stucco, stained natural wood reveals for windows. The building 
will not look flat. The deep reveal of windows, entrance alcoves and 2nd floor 
lower porches will give it an alive look at all times. The 2 parts of the building 
divided by the alcoves should offer subtle silhouette."
PAUL RUDOLPH :-
•Paul Marvin Rudolph (October 23, 1918 – August 8, 1997) was an
American architect and the Chair of Yale University's Department of Architecture for six
years, known for his use of concrete and highly complex floor plans.

•His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building (A&A Building), a
spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure.

•In his designs, Rudolph synthesizes the Modernist ideas of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd
Wright, and Louis I. Kahn.

•He uses sweeping monolithic forms and intricate interior spaces to create a powerful
sculptural quality.

•Rudolph has displayed an interest in the problems of urban design and completed a
succession of unexecuted projects.
PAUL RUDOLPH :-
•Preoccupied with the notion of an industrialized "plug-in" city, he has devised schemes
in which mobile residence pods are plugged into a steel frame which connects to
mechanical and electrical services.

•Rudolph's work exhibits a highly personal and uncompromising style.

• Although his works qualify as part of the Modern Movement, he has questioned the
validity of the movement's precepts in his later works.

•Using concrete to yield a front facade that is readable even from a distance, Rudolph
explores the separation of interior and exterior spaces as the framework exhibited is
independent of the structure behind it.

•Although detached from the program of the house, the rectangles and squares of the
orthogonal facade occasionally relate interior rooms at various levels by the formation of
sun screens, making the design both visually stimulating and functional.
PAUL RUDOLPH :- ART AND ARCHITECTURE BUILDING., NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
•"The dramatic entrance to the building is up a narrow flight of steps that penetrate
deeply into the mass of the main volume, between it and the main vertical circulation
tower.

•Future extension of the building will simply connect to this. The strong vertical striations
of the corduroy-textured surfaces are obtained by pouring concrete into vertically-ribbed
wood forms, that are then stripped away, and concrete edges hand-hammered to expose
the aggregate.

•This has become Rudolph's favorite treatment for exposed concrete surfaces, because,
apart from being an interesting surface, it controls staining and minimizes the effect of
discoloration inherent in concrete.

• Art works, restrained use of lively colors— mainly orange—and cleverly built-in
furnishings enhance the architecture, which is intended 'to excite and challenge the
occupants,'
PAUL RUDOLPH :- ART AND ARCHITECTURE BUILDING., NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

•"Thirty-seven changes of level

accommodate functional and
circulation areas, and since
walls are de-emphasized these
levels are defined principally by
floor and ceiling planes.

•Rudolph, like [Louis I. Kahn], is

concerned with the method and
drama of natural lighting.

•This has clearly been an

important factor in the design of
the building, as it contributes to
the changing character and
psychological implication of
space.
PAUL RUDOLPH :- ART AND ARCHITECTURE BUILDING., NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
•"Internally the building is
organized around a central core
space defined by four large
concrete slab columns that,
similar to the external towers, are
hollow to accommodate
mechanical services.

• On two sunken levels, sculpture

and basic design studios encircle
a central auditorium, the
approach to which is rather
torturous and obscure.

• At street level, the library

occupies a single story side.
Above this, with the possibility of
looking down into the reading
area, is a two-story central
exhibition hall, with administrative
offices on its mezzanine, and a
central, sunken jury pit.
PAUL RUDOLPH :- ART AND ARCHITECTURE BUILDING., NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

"External forces dictated 
that this building turn the 
corner and relate to the 
modern building opposite 
as well as suggest that it 
belongs to Yale University. 
The internal forces 
demanded an environment 
suitable for ever varying 
activities which will be 
given form and coherence 
by the defined spaces 
within. As the years go by, it 
is hoped other interests and 
activities will take place 
within the spaces, but the 
space itself will remain."
PAUL RUDOLPH :- WALKER GUEST HOUSE., FLORIDA

"Two bays on each side of this guest cottage are filled with pivoting panels which
function as

1 the enclosing wall,

2 the ventilating element,
3 the shading device,
4 the hurricane shelter.

The third bay is filled with glass, to admit light and splendid views. When the panels are
closed, the pavilion is snug and cave-like, when open the space psychologically changes
and one is virtually in the landscape."
PAUL RUDOLPH :- WALKER GUEST HOUSE., FLORIDA
PAUL RUDOLPH :- WALKER GUEST HOUSE., FLORIDA
•As can be seen in the Walker Guest House, Paul Rudolph’s modernist architecture is
characterized by a particular attention to climate and terrain.

•Built in 1952, the house remains an example of both the modernist architecture
movement as well as a very specific approach to sustainable design.

•Using only standard, locally sourced materials, the Walker Guest House pays respect to
its environmental context of southwest Florida.

•Large windows and screens on all four sides of the house allow air to flow throughout
the dwelling, removing the need for air-conditioning whilst simultaneously providing
generous views out towards the landscape.

•One of the more whimsical components of the cottage are the series of ropes and
pulleys, counterbalanced by large red concrete balls, that control the external window
shades.
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 neofuturistic style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching
structural curves or machine-like rationalism.

•After a year in art school, he decided to become an architect instead. Much of his work
shows a relation to sculpture.

•Saarinen developed a remarkable range which depended on color, form and materials.

• Saarinen showed a marked dependence on innovative structures and sculptural forms,

but not at the cost of pragmatic considerations.

•He easily moved back and forth between the International Style and Expressionism,
utilizing a vocabulary of curves and cantilevered forms.
EERO SAARINEN :-
•After working with his father on a number of projects, Eero Saarinen had a chance to
express his own philosophy when he entered the 1947 architectural competition for
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

•He carefully studied the site and its surroundings to ensure that the design
encompassed the whole environment.

•His opinion was that, "...all parts of an architectural composition must be parts of the
same form-world." The Arch was to rise majestically from a small forest set on the edge
of the great river.

•Saarinen considered it to be perfect in its form and its symbolism.

•As his designs show, Eero Saarinen was a man of vision. He died of a brain tumor in
1961 at the age of 51, and is buried in Michigan. Though his life was tragically cut short,
his vision lives on through the structures that he created.
EERO SAARINEN :- THE GATEWAY ARCH
•The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) tall monument in St. Louis, in the U.S.
state of Missouri.

•Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a flattened catenary arch, it is the tallest
man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, Missouri's tallest accessible building,
and the world's tallest arch.

•Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States,it is the

centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and has become an
internationally famous symbol of St. Louis.

•Plated with stainless steel, the arch is an inverted catenary curve that rises 630 feet
high and spans 630 feet from end to end.

•A passenger train climbs the wall of the arch to an observation deck, which provides
panoramic views to the east and west.
EERO SAARINEN :- THE GATEWAY ARCH
•Designed for storm-readiness, the arch was made to sway in high winds. Deep concrete
foundations, sinking 60 feet below the ground, stabilizes the enormous arch.

• Location
•The St. Louis Arch is located on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown St.
Louis, Missouri. It is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which also
includes the Museum of Westward Expansion and the Old Courthouse where the Dred
Scott case was decided.

•Gateway to the West

•The arch was chosen as a symbol of the Gateway of the West. At the time
when westward exploration was in full swing, St. Louis was a key starting location due to
its size and position. The Arch was designed as a monument to the westward expansion
of the United States.
EERO SAARINEN :- DULLES AIRPORT
•"Set on a huge (10,000 acre), flat site, this is a highly distinctive building with
colonnades of tipped and tapered columns on its two long facades, a gracefully curving
roof hung between them, and a pagoda-like control tower nearby.

•Mobile lounges are used to carry passengers from the terminal to their planes.“

•The Dulles terminal has two floors; the first for departing passengers, ticketing and
concessions, and the other for arriving passengers, baggage claim, and ground
transportation.

•One of the key moments of innovation in this terminal was the employment of new
transport vehicles known as mobile lounges, which resembled a sort of giant luxury bus
and carried up to ninety people from the terminal to their plane.
EERO SAARINEN :- DULLES AIRPORT
EERO SAARINEN :- DULLES AIRPORT
EERO SAARINEN :- DULLES AIRPORT
•From the ramp, departing passengers go through ticketing to the runway side where
they would find gates to take them to the mobile lounge.

•This inclusion of the mobile lounge led to a revolutionary approach to airport movement,
allowing the design of Dulles to do away with the multitude of gates that cluttered most
terminals before it.

•In attempts to allow more space between the front of the building and the ticket
counters, the main terminal was reconfigured and additions were made to both ends,
doubling the structure’s length.