Modern Architecture- Philosophies

1. Bauhaus Movement
2. Expressionism
3. Organic Modernism
4. Functionalism
5. Internationalism
6. Brutalism
7. Minimalism
8. Desert Modernism
9. Structuralism
10.Constructivism
11.Formalism
 Bauhaus Movement
1.Bauhaus Movement:
-Bauhaus means house for building.
-In 1919, Germany was in economic crisis after the war.
-Concerned with social aspects of design.
-New rational social housing for workers.
-Rejected unnecessary architectural elements like cornices, eaves and decorated details.
-Classical architecture in pure basic form without ornamentation.
-Cubical shapes, flat roofs and smooth facades.
-Floors are open and furniture is functional.
-Influenced American architecture.
The Bauhaus Dessau
 Bauhaus Movement
Example 1: Gropius’ House at Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938
- The Gropius
House was the family
residence of noted
architect Walter
Gropius.
- Every aspect of the
house and its
surrounding
landscape was
planned for maximum
efficiency and
simplicity.
- Gropius carefully sited the house to complement its New
England habitat on a rise within an orchard.
 Bauhaus Movement
- Set amid fields, forests, and
farmhouses, the Gropius
House mixes up the
traditional materials of New
England architecture (wood,
brick, and fieldstone) with
industrial materials such as Front View

glass block, acoustic plaster,

and chrome banisters.
- The house structure consists
of a traditional New England
post and beam wooden
frame, sheathed with white
painted tongue and groove
vertical siding.  
  View from side & rear
 Bauhaus Movement
Example 2: Seagram Building, New York, Mies van der Rohe &
Philip Johnson, 1958
• The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located
at 375 Park Avenue, in Midtown
Manhattan, New York City.
• The structure was designed by Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe while the lobby and other
internal aspects were designed by Philip
Johnson. 
• The building stands 515 feet tall with 38
stories, and was completed in 1958. It stands
as one of the finest examples of
the functionalist aesthetic and a masterpiece
of corporate modernism.
• It was designed as the headquarters for the
Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram's &
Sons. 
 Bauhaus Movement
• This structure was built in the International
style, with a characteristic traits was to
express or articulate the structure of
buildings externally.
• Built of a steel frame, from which were
hung non-structural glass walls. 
• American building codes required that
all structural steel be covered in a fireproof
material, usually concrete, because
improperly protected steel columns or
Non-structural
beams may soften and fail in confined fires. bronze-toned I-
• Mies used non-structural bronze-toned I- beams
beams to suggest structure instead.
• These are visible from the outside of the
building, and run vertically, like mullions,
surrounding the large glass windows.

Seagram Building
- windows
 Bauhaus Movement
•The interior was designed to assure
cohesion with the external features,
repeated in the glass and bronze
furnishings and decorative scheme.
•Another interesting feature of the
Seagram Building is the window blinds. As
was common with International style
architects, Mies wanted the building to
have a uniform appearance. One aspect
of a façade which Mies disliked, was the
disordered irregularity when window
blinds are drawn. Inevitably, people using
different windows will draw blinds to
different heights, making the building
appear disorganized. To reduce this
disproportionate appearance, Mies
specified window blinds which only
operated in three positions – fully open,
halfway open/closed, or fully closed. Plan showing the reinforced concrete core
for lateral stiffness
 Expressionism
• Evolved from the work of Avant-Garde
artists and designers in Germany and other
European countries during 20th century.
• Exploration of psychological effects of
form and space created by architects.
• Initiated in Germany, Netherlands, Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Denmark around 1910.
• Key features: distorted shapes for an
emotional effect, fragmented lines, organic
or biomorphic forms, massive sculpted
shapes, extensive use of concrete and
brick, asymmetry, passionate & emotional
forms.
• Adoption of modernist new materials and
unusual massing, new technical
possibilities offered by R.C.C., steel and Walter Gropius's Monument to the
especially glass. March Dead (1921) dedicated to the
• Material and its use to unify elements to memory of nine workers who died in
Weimar designed on the concept of
get the aimed form. original broken-ice slabs.
 Expressionism
• Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single
concept.
• Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as
caves, mountains, lightning, crystal and rock
formations. 
• Utilizes creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
The Einstein Tower is an
astrophysical observatory in
the Albert Einstein Science
Park in Germany built by Erich The Glass Pavilion, built in 1914
Mendelsohn. The exterior and designed by Bruno Taut,
was originally conceived in was a prismatic glass dome
concrete, but due to structure at the Werkbund
construction difficulties with Exhibition. The purpose of the
the complex design and building was to demonstrate the
shortages from the war, much potential of different types of
of the building was actually glass for architecture.
realized in brick, covered with
stucco.
 Expressionism
The form of the TWA Terminal represents a
huge bird in mid-air with its wings spread
ready for landing. "spirit of flight“.
Saarinen's original futuristic design featured
a prominent wing-shaped thin shell
roof over the main terminal (head house),
unusual tube-shaped departure-arrival
corridors originally wrapped in red carpet
and — critical to the spirit of the design —
expansive windows that highlighted
departing and arriving jets.
The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts
centre in Sydney, Australia, conceived and built
by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The Sydney
Opera House is a modern expressionist design,
with a series of large precast concrete
"shells", each composed of sections of
a sphere of 75.2 metres radius, forming the
roofs of the structure, set on a monumental
podium.  The shells are instead precast
concrete panels supported by precast concrete
ribs. Apart from the tile of the shells and the
glass curtain walls of the foyer spaces, the
building's exterior is largely clad with aggregate
panels composed of pink granite.
 Expressionism
The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp completed in 1954, is one of
the finest examples of the architecture of Franco-Swiss architect Le
Corbusier and one of the most important examples of 20th-century religious
architecture. Notre Dame du Haut was thought of as a more extreme design of
Le Corbusier’s late style.
 Expressionism
The chapel is a simple design with two
entrances, a main altar, and three chapels
beneath towers. The structure is made mostly
of concrete and is comparatively small, enclosed
by thick walls, with the upturned roof
supported on columns embedded within the
walls, like a sail billowing in the windy currents
on the hill top.

Plan of Notre Dame, Ronchamp

Section of Notre Dame, Ronchamp

 Expressionism
In the interior, the spaces left
between the walls and roof and filled
with clerestory windows, as well as
the asymmetric light from the wall
openings, serve to further reinforce
the sacred nature of the space.
The roof structure consists of two
concrete membranes separated by a
space of 6'11", forming a shell which Interior of Notre Dame, Ronchamp
constitutes the roof of the building.
This roof, both insulating and
watertight, is supported by
short struts, which form part of a
vertical surface of concrete covered
with "gunite“.
The vertical elements of the chapel
are surfaced with mortar sprayed on
with a cement gun and then white-
washed - both on the interior and
exterior. Side Elevation of Notre Dame, Ronchamp
 Organic modernism
• Organic buildings are not linear nor rigidly geometric.
• Intention of introducing natural forms created wavy lines and
curved shapes.
• The structure should harmonize with the environment.
• Design evolved in relation with site, building and needs of the
client, eg: the houses in wooded areas had heavy use of wood and
houses in rocky areas were made by using stone.
• The buildings show earthy colors and strong textural effects.
 Functionalism
• Emanated from Chicago School across America & Europe.
• Louis Sullivan- “Form follows Function”
• Functionalism- as design approach
• German school of design Bauhaus was the primary force in
developing modern aesthetics of functionalism.
• Interior program determines the outer form without regard to
traditions, symmetry & decorations.

"The Guggenheim” is a well-known art

museum located in Manhattan, New
York City. Designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright, the cylindrical museum building,
wider at the top than the bottom.  Its
unique ramp gallery extends from just
under the skylight in the ceiling in a
long, continuous spiral along the outer
edges of the building until it reaches the
ground level. 
 Internationalism
• Came from the book published in 1932
called ‘The International Style’ by Henry
Russell Hitchcock & Architect Philip
Johnson.
• Functionalism, modern aesthetics and
minimalism brought international style.
• This style minimizes the complexity and
thickness of non-structural elements
achieving lightness in construction and
appearance.
• Steel and glass used in buildings making
them glazy and flashy in their appearance. Lever House, New York, 1952
• Mainly for office buildings and homes for by Skidmore, Owings and
rich. Merrill
• Spaces enclosed by thin planes, regularity,
dependence on elegance of materials and
pure geometrical cube forms.
 Internationalism
• The United Nations Secretariat Building is a
154 m tall skyscraper and the centerpiece of
the UN Headquarters, located in Manhattan,
New York City. The lot where the building
stands is considered UN territory, although
remains part of the United States. The  39
storied building was designed by the Brazilian
architect Oscar Niemeyer and the
Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier.

• Lever House, designed by Skidmore, Owings

and Merrill, which is 94 m tall building and
located  in New York City, is a seminal glass-
box skyscraper built in the International
style according to the design principles
of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Completed in
1952, it was the second curtain United Nations Secretariat
wall skyscraper in New York City after Building , Manhattan, New
the United Nations Secretariat Building. York City
 Brutalism
• Rugged reinforced concrete construction
towards the end of late modernism led to this
term.
• Bulky, harsh concrete structures with
unfinished surfaces.
• Buildings constructed of prefabricated and
mass produced concrete components.
• Flourished between 1950’s to 1970’s.
• Low-cost functional buildings like government
buildings, low-cost housing and shopping
buildings.
• Brutalist buildings feature striking, repetitive,
angular geometries, typically linear, blockish,
fortress like with predominance of concrete.
• Buildings externally show structural materials,
forms and services.
• Also use of bricks, glass, steel, rough stone. Residential tower designed by
Brazilian architect Paulo
Mendes da Rocha
 Brutalism

Marcel Breuer's Whitney Museum, New York

Le Corbusier’s Unite’d Habitation at

Marseilles, France
 Minimalism
• Trend in design & architecture
towards simplicity, clean surfaces,
reduction, minimizing the elements
to lines and planes.
• Buildings emphasized by use of
texture, bright colors & diffused
light like in De stijl.
• “Less is more” by Mies van der
Rohe.
• Emphasis on outline frame of the
structure, internal walls eliminated, Home and Studio of Luis Barragan,
use of lighting to effect lines & Mexico, 1947
planes, spaces around the structure
also designed, open kitchen, fire
place, etc.
 Minimalism

Residence by Tadao Ando

Church of Light by Tadao Ando

 Desert Modernism
• Adopted to warm climate and arid terrain of south California.
• International style varied and adopted to the region.
• Linear & rectangular forms, open floor plans, expansive glass walls,
windows and rooflines and wide overhangs.
• Steel, plastic, wood and
stone elements.
• Outdoor living spaces
linked to overall design,
landscaping with raw
desert elements and
regional plants.
 Structuralism
• Architects organised buildings and cities on the basis of core structural aspects like
communication routes, streets and squares. Hence, ideal buildings and cities
should be visualised as a mix up of roads, corridors, underground tracks, foot
bridges, escalators, stairs and elevators being presented by their materials, size
and colour.
• Structuralism focuses on the process of searching for relationship between
elements.
• The design consists of cell-like honeycomb shapes, cubed grids, intersecting
planes, densely clustered spaces.
A memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust,
designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro
Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site
covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a
grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are designed to
produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole
sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that
has lost touch with human reason. The design represents a
radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial,
partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. However,
observers have noted the memorial's resemblance to a
cemetery.
 Structuralism
The transformation from a centralized city into a liner city as in Kenzo Tange's project
where communities and smaller towns would settle along a main axis appears as a
very obvious and useful solution for Tokyo.
Therefore, to think about the Tokyo of tomorrow
as a linear system with many smaller centres and
people living along the axis working for
decentralized firms without loosing the
opportunity for physical interaction is a very
reasonable conclusion to the problem. Tokyo is
lucky to be located next to a bay that allows for a
linear expansion.

1) The connection between Tokyo and the

proposed linear expansion: The first step in
creating the civic axis is the construction of a
cycle transportation system in a height of 40
meters above existing Tokyo that only touches
the ground at points of interchanges. This system
connects to all major highways and railroads.
Plan of Tokyo Bay, Kenzo Tange
 Structuralism
2) The traffic circulation system is detached from the ground and suggests a strong separation
between traffic and pedestrians. It is designed to carry up to 5,000,000 people daily. The grid on
which the street system is based on consists of squares with side length of one kilometer. The
system allows for a step by step expansion from Tokyo to the other side of Tokyo bay. Public
buildings are located between the two parallel highways while residential areas are attached
from the outside.

3) The business buildings are also detached from the ground and sit on so called "cores" that
are organized on a grid consisting of squares with side length of 200 meters. The height of the
core's ranges among 150 and 200 meters and leaves approximately 40 meters open space
below the buildings.
4) The residential buildings are attached to the civic axis through a perpendicular street system.
Like leaves of a tree the residential area seems to grow away from the civic axis. The buildings
reside on huge platforms on the water and propose the old relationship between the
population of Tokyo and the sea. The buildings appear random in size and position but alike in
shape.
Structuralism
 Constructivism
• In 1920-30, a group of Avant-garde Russian architects launched a
design movement for the socialist regime calling themselves as
Constructivists. They believed that any design fulfills only with
construction.
• Abstract geometrical and
machine shapes are
aspired. Le Corbusier’s
designs had profound effect
in Constructivism.
• Constructivist architect
Vladimir Tatlin proposed a
futuristic tower with a
height of 400m made of a
spiral frame outside and
glass walled units inside a
cube, a pyramid and a
cylinder.
 Formalism
• Formalism emphasises form. The visual form of the building
separates from its internal functional aspects and creates shapes
on monumental scale. Lines and geometric shapes predominate in
Formalist architecture.
 Formalism
• Formalism emphasises form. The visual form of the building
separates from its internal functional aspects and creates shapes
on monumental scale. Lines and geometric shapes predominate in
Formalist architecture.