Variations in Modern

Architectue
1908: Cubism
1920s: Expressionism and Neo-expressionism
1920s: Constructivism
1920s: Bauhaus
1920s: De Stijl

1930s: Functionalism

1940s: Minimalism

1950s: International
1950s: Desert or Mid century Modern

1960s: Structuralism
1960s: Metabolism

1970s: High-Tech
1970s: Brutalism
1970s: Organic
1970s: Postmodernism

1980s: Deconstructivism
1990s and 21st Century Parametricism
Style:
Expressionism
Evolution:
Avant Garde
Key features:
Exhibits some of the qualities of the original movement such as; distortion, fragmentation
or the communication of violent or overstressed emotion.
Include the use of distorted shapes, fragmented lines, organic or biomorphic forms, massive
sculpted shapes, extensive use of concrete and brick, and lack of symmetry.
Neo-expressionism built upon expressionist ideas. Architects in the 1950s and 1960s
designed buildings that expressed their feelings about the surrounding landscape.
Sculptural forms suggested rocks and mountains. Organic and Brutalist architecture is
sometimes described as Neo-expressionist
Architects:
Gunther Domenig, Hans Scharoun, Rudolf Steiner, Bruno Taut, Erich Mendelsohn, the
early works of Walter Gropius, and Eero Saarinen.
Expressionism
Einstein Tower Observatory,
Potsdam, Germany, 1920
Erich Mendelsohn
“the mystique around
Einstein's universe”
Bauhaus
The Gropius House, 1938,
Lincoln, Massachusetts,
Modern Bauhaus.
Style:
Cubism/Cubist
Evolution:
Destijl and cubism
Key features:
expressive plasticity, Dynamism, pyramids, cubes and prisms, positioning and comparison
of sloping surfaces, mainly triangular, sculptural facades in crystal-like protruding
elements, similar to the so-called diamond faceting or even cells that resemble late gothic
architecture.
all surfaces of the facades, including pediments and attic windows, have their form. Grills,
as well as other architectural ornaments, acquire three-dimensional shapes. Besides this,
new forms of windows and doors, for example, hexagonal windows were created.
Architects:
Le Corbusier, Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Piet Mondrian, André Mare, Josef Gočár.
Cubism
House of the Black Madonna in Prague,
built by Josef Gočár in 1912
A cubist house in Prague,1914
De Stijl Style
Rietveld Schröder House,
Utrecht, Netherlands, 1924
Style:
Constructivism
Evolution:
Avant Garde Architects
Key features:
Flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced
technology and engineering.Their buildings emphasized abstract geometric shapes and
functional machine parts. Constructivist buildings are characterized by a sense of
movement and abstract geometric shapes; technological details such as antennae,
signs, and projection screens; and machine-made building parts primarily of glass and
steel
Architects:
Vladimir Tatlin, Konstantin Melnikov, Nikolai Milyutin, Aleksandr Vesnin, Leonid
Vesnin, Viktor Vesnin, El Lissitzky, Vladimir Krinsky, and Iakov Chernikhov.
Constructivism
Constructivist Model of
Tatlin's Tower (left) by
Vladimir Tatlin and Sketch of
Skyscraper on Strastnoy
Boulevard in Moscow (right)
by El Lissitzky
Symbolised revolution and
dialectic
Communist social purpose
Style:
Functionalism
Evolution:
Modernist Architecture
Key features:
If form follows function, functionalist architecture will take many forms…
"honest" approaches, functional efficiency, buildings are used and the types of materials
available should determine the design.
Architects:
Louis Sullivan, Louis Kahn, Bauhuas, Le corbusier, Hannes Meyer, Hans Wittwer
Functionalism
Oslo City Hall, Norway,
Venue for Nobel Peace Prize
Ceremony
Arnstein Arneberg and
Magnus Pousson
Functionalism
The Yale Center for
British Art
Architect Louis I. Kahn
Functionalism
Villa Tugendhat ADGB Trade Union School
Architect: Ludwig Mies van Architect: Hannes Meyer;
der Rohe Hans Wittwer
Style:
Minimslism
Evolution:
Modernist Architecture, De Stijl
Key features:
Open floor plans with few if any interior walls; emphasis on the outline or frame of the
structure; incorporating negative spaces around the structure as part of the overall
design; using lighting to dramatize geometric lines and planes; and stripping the
building of all but the most essential elements — after the anti-ornamentation beliefs .
…straight lines and rectangular shapes
Architects:
Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Yoshio Taniguchi, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, John
Pawson Alberto Campo Baeza and Richard Gluckman.
Minimalism
Barragan House, Mexico
City, Mexico, 1948,
Luis Barragán.
Style:
International Style
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture, Desert Modernism, Midcentury Modernism, Bauhaus
Key features:
Bauhaus-like architecture in the United States. American International style buildings
tend to be geometric, monolithic skyscrapers with these typical features: a rectangular
solid with six sides (including ground floor) and a flat roof; a curtain wall (exterior
siding) completely of glass; no ornamentation; and stone, steel, glass construction
materials

Architects:
Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Mies Vander Rohe(Sea gram Building), Walter
Gropius(PanAm Bldg), Philip Johnson, Wallace Harrison
International Style
United Nations Secretariat
Building, 1952, International
Style
Le Corbusier, Oscar
Niemeyer, and Wallace
Harrison
Style:
Desert Style
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture, International Style, Bauhaus
Key features:
warm climate and arid terrain. expansive glass walls and windows; dramatic roof lines
with wide overhangs; open floor plans with outdoor living spaces ; and a combination
of modern (steel and plastic) and traditional (wood and stone) building materials.
architecture of the very rich.
This style of architecture evolved throughout the U.S. to become the more affordable
Mid-century Modern
Architects:
William F. Cody, Albert Frey, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, E. Stewart Williams, and
Donald Wexler
Desert or Mid century
Modern
The Kaufmann Desert
House, Palm Springs,
California, 1946,
Richard Neutra
Style:
Structuralism
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture
Key features:
Based on built from a system of signs and these signs are made up of opposites:
male/female, hot/cold, old/young, etc.; design is a process of searching for the
relationship between elements; interested in the social structures and mental processes
that contributed to the design.
Have a great deal of complexity within a highly structured framework. For example, a
Structuralist design may consist of cell-like honeycomb shapes, intersecting planes,
cubed grids, or densely clustered spaces with connecting courtyards.
Architects:
Peter Eisenman
Structuralism
Berlin Holocaust
Memorial, Peter
Eisenman, 2005
Style:
Metabolism
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture
Key features:
Metabolism is a type of organic architecture characterized by recycling and
prefabrication; expansion and contraction based on need; modular, replaceable units
(cells or pods) attached to a core infrastructure; and sustainability. It is a philosophy of
organic urban design, that structures must act like living creatures within an
environment that naturally changes and evolves.
Architects:
Kisho Kurukawa
Metabolism
Nakagin Capsule Tower,
Tokyo, Japan, 1972,
Kisho Kurokawa.
Style:
High-Tech Style
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture
Key features:
High-tech buildings are often called machine-like. Steel, aluminum, and glass combine
with brightly colored braces, girders, and beams. Many of the building parts are
prefabricated in a factory and assembled on site. The support beams, duct work, and
other functional elements are placed on the exterior of the building, where they become
the focus of attention. The interior spaces are open and adaptable for many uses.
Architects:
Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, I. M Pie
High-Tech
Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris, France, 1977
Richard Rogers, Renzo
Piano, and Gianfranco
Franchini
Style:
Brutalism
Evolution/associated styles:
Modernist Architecture, Bauhaus Movement
Key features:
Common features include precast concrete slabs, rough, unfinished surfaces, exposed steel
beams, and massive, sculptural shapes.
.
Architects: Le Corbusier, Mies Vander Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Brutalism
Hubert H. Humphrey
Building, Washington,
D.C., Marcel Breuer, 1977
Organic
The Sydney Opera House,
Australia, 1973, Jørn
Utzon.
Post Modernism
AT&T Headquarters
(SONY Building), New
York City, Philip Johnson,
1984.
Deconstructivism
Seattle Public Library,
2004, Washington State,
Rem Koolhaas and Joshua
Prince-Ramus
Post Modernism
AT&T Headquarters
(SONY Building), New
York City, Philip Johnson,
1984.
Parametricism
Heydar Aliyev Centre,
Baku, Azerbaijan, 2012,
Zaha Hadid.
 Biomimicry
Responsive façade :
Esplanade Theatre

Termite mound’s ventilation

structure:
Eastgate Centre in
Zimbabwe
Biomimicry
Beijing National Stadium, inspired by
bird’s nest
Norman Foster’s Gherkin Tower (2003)
inspired by the Venus Flower Basket
Sponge.
Biomimicry
The Sagrada
Família church by Antoni
Gaudi inspired by
canopies of Trees
BAUHAUS
1919 - 1933
• Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined
crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized
and taught.

• Architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919.

• Bauhaus manifesto: “Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of
the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity
and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like
the crystal symbol of a new faith.”

• They studied all forms of media—painting, sculpture, weaving, furniture design,

typography, bookbinding, carpentry, and metalwork—although architecture wasn’t
added to the curriculum until 1927.

• “An object is defined by its nature,” Gropius once stated. The resulting aesthetic was
one that was simple, austere, efficient. The style became synonymous with modernity.
• The Bauhaus school was forced from Weimar by the extreme right and moved to Dessau,
an industrial city, in 1925

• Gropius left the school in 1928 and passed the torch to architect Hannes Meyer.

• Meyer resigned from his post in 1930.

• He was replaced by Mies van der Rohe, who placed a greater emphasis on architecture in
the school’s curriculum

• In 1932, National Socialists voted to close the Bauhaus in Dessau.

• Mies van der Rohe moved the school to Berlin, operating out of a former factory building.
But he, too, began facing pressure from the Nazis and closed the school entirely in 1933.

• Bauhaus school was short lived, closing after 14 years of operation (from 1919-1933).
• During the years surrounding World War II, many of the Bauhaus instructors fled
Germany, and many of them came to the United States, where they continued to
espouse the school’s teachings and philosophies.

• The school was the subject a major Bauhaus exhibition at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York in 1938, Bauhaus 1919-28.

• Gropius began teaching at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.

• Mies van der Rohe designed the campus of and taught at what is now called the
Illinois Institute of Technology

• The Bauhaus would eventually influence other architectural movements, including

Midcentury Modern and the International Style.
Walter Gropius designed his house in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1938.
S.R. Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology was designed by Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1956.
• Walter Gropius was one of the designers of the MetLife Building
(originally called the PanAm Building) in New York City. The 59-
story skyscraper was completed in 1963..

• The Seagram Building in New York City, with its distinctive glass
and bronze exterior, was designed by Mies van der Rohe and
completed in 1958.
In 1945, Mies van der Rohe designed the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. It is now a National Trust Historic Site.
Brno Chair by Mies van der Rohe

Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer

Wardrobe on Rollers by Josef Pohl

Baby cradle by Peter Keler

Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

Nesting Tables by Josef Albers

MT8 Lamp by William

Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob
Jucker