The Modern

Movement
8. September 2014 - Eli Støa
 Historical and social context
• Background
– Industrialisation, urbanisation, speculation, poor housing conditions
for workers 1860 – 1900
– Housing reform movement
– Garden City movement

• First world war

– Inflation, unemployment, housing shortage

• The second industrial revolution

– )
 The second industrial revolution
• Organisation, management and increasing efficiency of
production processes (Taylorism)

• Division of labor and specialisation

• Private cars

• Electrification of homes

• New consumer commodities

”Ford fixed in our minds the reciprocal concepts of mass
production and mass consumption” (Rowe, 1993:9)
 Norway 1900-1920

•Electric light (1905)

•Bathroom and wc installed at the royal
palace in Kristiania (1906)
•First electric vakuum cleaner, wqshing
machines and refrigerators (ca. 1910)
•Central heating became customary in
middle/upper class villas (1915-20)
•Ca. 10.000 cars in Norge in 1920
•64 % the population live in houses with
electricity (1920) (against 37 % in USA and
17 % in Sweden)
•First deep freezed foods at the marked
(1928)
•First electric stove produced in Norway
(1920-tallet)
 Ideological basis
• Break with history

• A rational approach to architecture

• Social agenda

• Standardisation / mass productio

• n
• Functionalism: a new aesthetic
(After Rowe, 1993)
 «A new era»
”modern man, who no longer dresses in historical garments but
wears modern clothes, … needs a modern (architecture)
appropriate to him and his time”
(W. Gropius in Conrads, 1964:95)

A new comprehension of the home:

From an increasing ’homecentredness’ after industrialisation

… to the avant gardists dissociation with the introversion of the
bourgeouis home sphere’s
Foto: Rolness, 1995
 A new comprehension of the home

• Le Corbusier wanted to replace: “(the) sentimental hysteria

surrounding the cult of the home”, with a more rational
approach to dwellings as “machines for living”

• ”The modernist aesthetic is quite antagonistic to the idea of the

home as a ”refuge of privacy and an assertion of individual – or
family – identity” expressed in the knick knacks on the shelves,
the antimacassars on the airmchairs, the filmy curtains at the
windows, the screen before the fireplace.” (Morley, 2001)
 Other aspects of modernism’s
break with history

• Individual freedom

• A new aesthetic
– «Ornament and Crime» (Adolf Loos, 1910)

• A new comprehension of space

• A new era – a new spirit

– Freedom from history. tradition and place

Adolf Loos: Goldman and Salatsch haberdashery shop in Vienna (1898)

 A rational approach

”Nature was known by its parts, but not as a whole. Similarly,

urban functions could be identified and improved, according to
the management principles of Ford and Taylor, and then
effectively reorganized in time and space”
)
(Rowe, 1993:162
 Rationality

Le Corbusier(1932):
Apartment for 4 people (56
m2) based on ”Biological
unit” (cell) of 14 m2
Christine Frederick used Taylors principles when designing the dwelling in
”Scientific Mangement of the Home” (1912)
 Die Frankfurter Küche

•Designed by Grete Schülte-Lihotsky (1926)

•1,87 x 3,44 m (6 m2).
•Laboratory kitchen, consisting of specialized
prefabricated units
•Work- and place efficient equipment: sink,
foldable ironing table, waste container etc
•Approx. 10 000 such kitchens were installed
in the ‘New Frankfurt’
 ”Die neue sachlichkeit”

•Blocks of flats oriented north-

south in order to have similar and
optimal and similar sunlight
conditions for all
•Rational production
•”Scientific functionalism”

(Ill. T. Brantenberg, 1996)

 Scientific basis for architecture

”Architecture was to have a firm scientific basis, but more than

that, it was to take its inspiration from the rationalism and
experimentation of sciences”
(Rowe, 1993:45)
 Social agenda

• Improved living conditions for the working class

• Universal criteria for housing quality

– Physiological, psychological, social
medicin

• The minimum dwelling: ”wohnung für das existenzminimum”

(CIAM 1929)
 Universal housing norms

• Physiological needs: thermal comfort, light, air, recreation

• Psychological needs: privacy, aesthetics satisfaction,

attending ‘social standards’

• Social medicine: protection against pollution, public security,

crime prevention..
(Rowe, 1993)
 The minimum
house

”…was seen as a social tool

indispensable to the new
era (…) it embodied ”an
appeal for scientific
certainty to overcome
customs of tradition””
(Le Corbusier, 1964 i Rowe, 1993:57)
Standardisation / mass production

Le Corbusier’s Domino-structure (1914)

Standardisation / mass production

Le Corbusiers Citrohan module (1920)

Standardisation / mass production

Le Corbusiers Citrohan module (1920)

 Standardisation / mass production

”Quartier Modernes Fruges”, Pessac, Le Corbusier (1923)

 Standardisation / mass production

”Quartier Modernes Fruges”, Pessac, Le Corbusier (1923)

 Functionalism – a new aesthetic
”Man snakket om en ny tidsånd, og funksjonalismen passet inn i
lengselen etter å virkeliggjøre ”drømmen om det gode liv”. Som en
reaksjon på første verdenskrigs kaos, kunne den forenklede rene stilen
tilby en etterlengtet orden. Idealet var klare arkitektoniske rammer med
praktisk, funksjonell form, og et interiør med møbler som formalt var i
harmoni med huset”
(Findal, 2007:24)
)

«One talked about a new era and a new spirit, and functionalism fitted well into
the yearning to fulfill «the dream of the good life». As a reaction of the
first ww’s chaos, the simplified, clean style could offer a longed for order.
The ideal was clear, functional architecture, and an interior where the
furniture was in harmony with the house»
(Findal, 2007:24)
 Functionalism – a new aesthetic

”De fysiske omgivelsenes presise, enhetlige form

understøttet ideene om en moderne måte å leve på, og var et
uttrykk for ”hverdagens vidunderlighet””
(Findal, 2007:24)

«The presise, uniform aesthetics supported the ideas of a modern

way of life, and was an expression of the «woderful everyday
life»»
(Findal, 2007:24)
 Le Corbusier and Pierre
Jeanneret: Villa La Roche,
Paris 1925

(Foto: Findal, 2007)

Foto: Davies, 2006
Foto: Findal, 2007
Foto: Findal, 2007
Foto: Davies, 2006
 The functionalist doctrine

4 elements:
• Integrity and usability of materials

• Expression of new construction technology and production

methods

• Efficient use and organising of buildings

• Propagation of a new spatial order – free from references

to the past
(Rowe, 1993:43)
 ..a new spatiality

• Adolf Loos: a new open and vertical organisation in which the

rooms were connected by a centrally located staircase
•
• Le Corbusier: ”promenade architecturale” – an architectural
walk through the house, ”det å kunne bevege seg opp gjennom
etasjene, ha skiftende utsyn og innblikk i husets forskjellige
sone”
«to be able to move between the various floors, having
shifting views and glimpses of the different zones in the
house» (Findal, 2007:28)
A. Loos: Moller Haus, Wien, 1928
Plan 1.etg

A. Loos: Moller Haus, Wien, 1928

(Siktlinjer og foto: Colomina, 2005)

A. Loos: Müller house,
Prague (1930)

Fotos: Colomina, 2005 og Davies, 2006

 A new aesthetic

• the inherent logic of new materials and construction

techniques
•
• avoid all unnecessary and superficial elements (absence of
decoration)
•
• Simple lines, primary colors, clear geometrical forms –
contrast to the surrounding nature (abstraction)
 Le Corbusier’s five
principles for a new
architecture

• Pilotis

• Roof terrasses

• Open plans

• Open fasades

• Horisontal window
bands
…made possible by help av new construction
techniques

Villa Tugendhat, Brno (1928-30)

Mies van der Rohe
Foto: Davies, 2006
 Cases - modernism

Kiefhoek (1925-30) Rotterdam Villa Savoye (1929), Poissy Farnsworth house (1945-51), Illinois
Ark: J.J.P Oud (City architect) Le Corbusier Mies van der Rohe

Römerstadt (1927-28), Frankfurt-am-main

Onkel Toms Hütte (1929-31) Berlin, Bellavista (1934),
Ark: Ernst May (byplansjef) m fl
Bruno Taut et al Klampenborg, Arne Jacobsen
 Questions for discussion

• What are the typical modernist elements of the project?

• Which of these elements are still relevant (valid?) in the
architectural debate today?
• Are there some elements that are not particularly modern?
• What are the main qualities of the project – as you see it?
• What were the main qualities at the time it was built?
• Are there any problematic aspects of this project – as you see
it?