Neo-Rationalism

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL TRENDS & THEORIES IN ARCHITECTURE

Aveek Ghosh
15001506002
M.Arch
Sem-I
 Rationalism
 In architecture, rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from
Italy in the 1920s-1930s. Vitruvius had already established in his work De
Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally.

 This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of
the Renaissance. Progressive art theory of the 18th-century opposed the Baroque use
of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason.

 Twentieth-century rationalism derived less from a special, unified theoretical work than
from a common belief that the most varied problems posed by the real world could be
resolved by reason. In that respect it represented a reaction to historicism and a contrast
to Art Nouveau and Expressionism

Neo-Rationalism
 Contextualism

 American-Postmodernism
 European-Contextualism/Neo-rationalism
 Protest against functionalism & modernity.
 Attempt to restore the craft of architecture to its position as the only valid object of architectural study.
 Restoring not in american context.
 An analysis of the rules & the forms of city building.
 Don’t go against their past-European & respect the value.
 Can’t look at a plot in isolation.
 Importance on city grid, open spaces in a bigger setting.
 Macro-vision
 Knowledge of city-planning.
 Emergence of the city based morphology.
 A new rationalist movement inspired by both the enlightment & 20th century rationalists.
 City as a place of collective memory.

Neo-Rationalism
 Early Emergence
 Italian movement, also called Tendenza, of the 1960s and 1970s. Opposed to the dogmas of International
Modernism and to the prevalent tendency to treat architecture only as a commodity, it stressed the
autonomy of architecture and the need to redefine it in terms of types with rules for the rational
combination of all its elements.

 Rejecting the notion that architecture ends and begins in technology, it insisted on the social and cultural
importance of existing urban structures, and reasserted that the huge vocabulary of historical forms was a
fecund source for fertile creation.

Neo-Rationalism

 In the late 1960s, a new rationalist movement emerged in architecture, claiming inspiration from both the
Enlightenment and early-20th century rationalists. Like the earlier rationalists, the movement, known as the
Tendenza, was centered in Italy. Practitioners include Carlo Aymonino (1926-2010),Aldo Rossi (1931–97),
and Giorgio Grassi.

 The Italian design magazine Casabella featured the work of these architects and theorists. The work of
architectural historian Manfredo Tafuri influenced the movement, and the University Iuav of Venice emerged
as a center of the Tendenza after Tafuri became chair of Architecture History in 1968.A Tendenza exhibition
was organized for the 1973 Milan Triennale.

Neo-Rationalism
Towards Neo-Rationalism
 Rossi's book L'architettura della città, published in 1966, and translated into English as The Architecture of the
City in 1982, explored several of the ideas that inform Neo-rationalism. In seeking to develop an
understanding of the city beyond simple functionalism, Rossi revives the idea of typology, following from
Quatremère de Quincy, as a method for understanding buildings, as well as the larger city. He also writes of
the importance of monuments as expressions of the collective memory of the city, and the idea of place as
an expression of both physical reality and history.

 Architects such as Leon Krier, Maurice Culot, and Demetri Porphyrios took Rossi's ideas to their logical
conclusion with a revival of Classical Architecture and Traditional Urbanism. Krier's witty critique of
Modernism, often in the form of cartoons, and Porphyrios's well crafted philosophical arguments, such as
"Classicism is not a Style", won over a small but talented group of architects to the classical point of view.
Organizations such as the Traditional Architecture Group at the RIBA, and the Institute of Classical
Architecture attest to their growing number, but mask the Rationalist origins.

 In Germany, Oswald Mathias Ungers became the leading practitioner of German rationalism from the mid-
1960s.Ungers influenced a younger generation of German architects, including Hans Kollhoff, Max Dudler,
and Christoph Mäckler.

Neo-Rationalism
 Aldo Rossi
 Aldo Rossi, (born May 3, 1931, Milan, Italy—died September 4, 1997, Milan), Italian architect and
theoretician who advocated the use of a limited range of building types and concern for the context in
which a building is constructed.This postmodern approach, known as neorationalism, represents a
reinvigoration of austere classicism. In addition to his built work, he is known for his writings, numerous
drawings and paintings, and designs for furniture and other objects.

 Rossi received a degree in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic in 1959. He began a nine-year
collaboration with the Italian architectural magazineCasabella-Continuità in 1955, and in 1959 he opened an
architectural office in Milan. During the early 1960s he began his lifelong career as a teacher, working for a
time at the Polytechnic of Milan and the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice (IUAV).

 In 1966 Rossi published his seminal publication L’architettura della città (The Architecture of the City), which
quickly established him as a leading international theoretician. In the text he argued that, over the course of
history, architecture has developed certain continuous forms and ideas, to the point that these are standard
types in the collective memory that move beyond the scope of style and trends. To Rossi the modern city is
an “artifact” of these architectural constants. Rather than disrupt this fabric with shockingly new,
individualistic architecture, Rossi maintained that architects must respect the context of a city and its
architecture and tap into these common types.

Neo-Rationalism
Characteristics
 This position is called neorationalist, since it updates the ideas of the Italian rationalist architects of the
1920s and ’30s, who also favoured a limited range of building types.

 Rossi was also sometimes classified simply as a postmodernist because he rejected aspects of Modernism
and utilized aspects of historical styles.

 The complex nature of Rossi’s ideas meant that throughout the 1960s and ’70s he was more a theoretician
and teacher than an architect of built works. Indeed, he spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s teaching
at universities in the United States, including Yale and Cornell.

 Krier brothers revived classical architecture & traditional urbanism.

 From ‘space’ to ‘place’.

 Whatever space & time mean, place & occasion mean more.

 Multivalent Architecture-Multi-dimensional, architecture for multiple roles.

 Locale & its tradition-All form including urban form is perceived culturally.
Neo-Rationalism
Aldo Rossi, Leon Krier & others
 Celebration of urban elements:-

a. Circus
b. Monument
c. Piazza
d. Square
e. Street
Léon Krier(1946-present) Aldo Rossi(1931-97)

 The repository of the collective memory of man.

 Architecture-advocating return to forms derived from the urban landscape of the traditional European City.
 Emphasis on public realm.
 Architects such as Leon Krier, Maurice Culot, and Demetri Porphyrios took Rossi's ideas to their logical
conclusion with a revival of Classical Architecture and Traditional Urbanism. Krier's witty critique of
Modernism, often in the form of cartoons, and Porphyrios's well crafted philosophical arguments, such as
"Classicism is not a Style", won over a small but talented group of architects to the classical point of view.

Neo-Rationalism
Aurora House, Turin(Office Building)

Neo-Rationalism
Bonnefanten Museum, Netherlands

Neo-Rationalism
Bonnefanten Museum
 The Bonnefanten Museum is a museum of fine art in Maastricht, Netherlands.
 Featuring the famous monumental stairs that leads to the exhibition rooms, its undisputed
highlight is the cupola; the distinctive tower on the banks of the Maas. Rossi regarded the
museum as a 'viewing factory'.
 Most of the public areas are situated on the ground floor: the entrance hall, museum shop, auditorium, café
and tower room. The museum galleries are higher up; collection on the first floor and temporary
exhibitions on the second and third floors. At the top of the central wing is a 'print room'. The exhibition
space totals over 4,000 m².

Neo-Rationalism
Bonnefanten Museum
 The building is constructed of traditional materials, like brick, natural stone and zinc, around a skeleton of
concrete and steel. Indoors, the floors are mainly made of keruing wood. However, the most natural factor
of all is the daylight, as the central staircase is actually a covered street, where you feel almost as if you were
outdoors.
 The lighting effect is provided by the contrast between open and shut that dominates the building.
 The façades at the front and sides are shut, and the façades of the central wing, which forms the axis of the
building, are open.

Neo-Rationalism
Krier Brothers
 Léon Krier (born 7 April 1946 in Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) is an architect, architectural
theorist and urban planner. He is a representative of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture.
 Krier abandoned in 1968 his architectural studies at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, after only one
year, to work in the office of architect James Stirling in London, UK. After working for Stirling for three
years, Krier then spent 20 years in England practicing and teaching at the Architectural
Association and Royal College of Art. In this period, Krier's statement: “I am an architect, because I don’t
build”,[2] became a famous expression of his uncompromising anti-modernist attitude.
 Selection of manifesto texts by Léon Krier
• The idea of reconstruction
• Critique of zoning
• Town and country
• Critique of the mega structural city
• Critique of industrialization
• Urban components
• The city within the city – Les Quartiers
• The size of a city
• Critique of Modernisms
• Organic versus mechanical composition
• Names and nicknames

Neo-Rationalism
India-Neo Rationalism

Reintroduction of historical reference.

Reinterpretation of the past largely within the framework of the abstract.
Taking cognizance of the locale, cultural ethos, topography.

Neo-Rationalism
Charles Correa-Towards Rationality

Creation of architecture rooted in the indigenous context.

Architecture that belongs to the place where it is being built.
Open to sky places
Response to living pattern
Response to climate
Response to rituals, myths & beliefs.
Visually evocative approach.
Never reduced to a matter of just clothing the building.

Neo-Rationalism
CIDADE de GOA, Dona Paula, Goa
 Built from massing in response to the Portuguese colonial architecture.
 Recalling the Mediterranean.
 Painting to recall local tradition of events.

 Built in 1982 to a design concept by one of India’s leading architects, Charles Correa, Cidade emerges from
a hill overlooking the bay like a quaint, ochre-splashed Portuguese hamlet. It was a concept that earned
international acclaim for its creator due to its innovative interplay of space and light as seen in the cluster-
style courtyards, rooms and overhanging balconies along with the exuberant use of colour in its “trompe
l’oeil” murals and painted facades.

Interiors of the resort Cidade de Goa, Goa. External terraces and balconies

Neo-Rationalism
Khan, Hasan-Uddin, ed. "Cidade de Goa." In Charles Correa,
96-103. Singapore: Concept Media Ltd., 1987

Neo-Rationalism
Cidade de Goa-Charles Correa sketches

Neo-Rationalism
Murals & painted facades, CIDADE de GOA

Neo-Rationalism
British Council, New Delhi
 Corner plot.
 Islamic char-bagh.
 India represented in a giant banyan tree.
 Europe represented via an icon in granite marble.
 Recalling the interface between India & Britain over centuries.

 Council headquarters also including a library, an auditorium, and an art gallery. The building is set in a series
of landscaped gardens and loggias, each symbolic of India's Hindu, Muslim and European past.

Neo-Rationalism
British Council, New Delhi

Neo-Rationalism
British Council, New Delhi
 The iconic building in New Delhi has been designed by renowned architect Charles Correa and was
opened in 1993 displaying a unique mural by Howard Hodgkin on the façade symbolising the banyan tree –
an enduring image of India -- along with a sculpture by Stephen Cox in the Charbagh called the Descent of
the Ganges.

Neo-Rationalism
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
 Bharat Bhavan is an autonomous multi-arts
complex and museum in the state of
capital Bhopal, established and funded by
theGovernment of Madhya Pradesh.

 Opened in 1982, facing the Upper Lake, Bhopal, it

houses an art gallery, a fine art workshops, an
open-air amphitheatre, a studio theatre, an
auditorium, a museum tribal and folk art, libraries
of Indian poetry, classical music as well as folk
music.

Neo-Rationalism
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
 The complex was aimed to create a space for
interaction between people involved in the
literary field, visual arts and theatre artistes,thus
complex by noted architect, Charles Correa was
devised like a campus,and incorporated
structures on cascading levels around terraced
gardens leading down to the Upper Lake,
Bhopal (now renamed Bhojtal).

 The building was highlighted by concrete domes

and exposed brickwork, and was designed to
merge into the surrounding landscape of slopping
rocks. The building is today seen as an important Bharat Bhavan overlooking the Upper Lake, Bhopal.
example of modern Indian architecture.

Neo-Rationalism
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal

Neo-Rationalism
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
 The complex includes an art gallery of Indian painting and sculpture, a fine art workshop, an open-air
amphitheatre (Bahirang), a studio theatre (Abhirang), an auditorium (Antarang), a museum tribal and folk art,
libraries of Indian poetry, classical music as well as folk music.
 Besides this, Bhavan also hosts various artists and writers under its artist-in-residence program at the
"Ashram". Over the years, it has also become a popular tourist attraction.

 Some of the wings include:

 Roopankar - Museum of Fine Art: Gallery of contemporary folk and tribal art, and a modern art gallery.
Graphic art Work Shop, and Ceramics art workshop
 Rangmandal - theatre repertory
 Vagarth - Center of Indian poetry, library, archive, and translation centre
 Anhad - A library of Classical and Folk music, audio and video archives, organizes dance recitals and classical
music series like, Parampara, Saptak
 Chhavi - Center of Classical Cinema
 Nirala Srijanpeeth - the chair for creative writing, founded by the Government of Madhya Pradesh

Neo-Rationalism
 IUCCA, PUNE
 The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) is located in the University
of Pune campus next to the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, which operates the Giant Metrewave
Radio Telescope.
 IUCAA has a campus designed by Indian architect Charles Correa.
 Representation of the cosmos.
 Social imagery through courts, frames etc.
 We can see the playful nature of building as soon as we march towards it. it has three main courtyards
flanked by the various functions and two main roads passing toward its periphery which marks the
importance of this building.

Neo-Rationalism
IUCCA, PUNE
 Both the entrance of the building is very dramatic, which is unique. The entrance, through which we
entered, was flanked by double layer of wall supporting the dome at its top symbolizing entrance. This dome
was painted black from within, representing black sky of night with many punctures of different sizes which
allowed the flow of light through the point marking the exact positions of stars in pune on a particular day.
 All the colors use inside and outside the building was chosen from the shades found from the elements of
our Space and the Milky Way.
 Charles Correa use to sit with many scientists and researchers from Bangalore for hours discussing various
aspects about the nature which resulted in this wonderful creation.
 Second entrance which is exactly opposite in direction to first one is marked by two concrete pillars and
the three layered atone cladded wall, which merges with the clear sky at the top.

Neo-Rationalism
References
 Aldo Rossi- Architect & Theorist. The dilemmas of architecture after Modernism by Justyna Wojtas
Swoszowska.
 Aldo Rossi - The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi & Peter Eisenman.
 archnet.org/authorities/9/sites/4961
 ebuild.in/bharat-bhavan-bhopal
 ebuild.in/iucaa-charles-correa-associates
 www.iucaa.ernet.in/~library/photogal/building/plan.htm
 www.charlescorrea.net/
 www.britishcouncil.in/about/what
 www.cidadedegoa.com/profile_history.php
 www.arcop.co.in/pdf/3/cidade%20hotel%20goa.PDF
 http://architectureandurbanism.blogspot.in/2013/03/aldo-rossi-architecture-of-city-1966.html
 Class notes by Prof. (Dr). Jyoti Pandey Sharma

Neo-Rationalism
 Thank You !

Neo-Rationalism