RCHIITECTUR

4CMASH
r^
C •

RSE

LARY FRENCH
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 $14.95
U.S.A.

ARCHITECTURE -A CRASH COURSE

is about the one art form we all have to live

with. You can avoid poetry and paintings and

music, but architecture is always jumping out in

front of you and saying, "Look at me." So, since

we have to put up with this particular kind of

art, why not look with a trained eye?

ARCHITECTURE - A CRASH COURSE IS a guided

tour around the world's architectural heritage,

stopping off to view majestic creations that have

stood the test of time, and awesome disasters

that bombed almost before they were built. This

book tells you how styles developed, why

architects do the things they do, and how the

designers of the present learn (or often don't)

the lessons of the past.

/ 44 pages
5x7 inches

(17.8 x 12.5cm)

400 illustrations

Index
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ARCHITECTURE
A CRASH
COURSE

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ARCHITECTURE
A CRASH
COURSE
HILARY FRENCH

WATSON-GUPTIL1
PI BLK VTIONS

View York

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 First published in the! nited States in 1
<>'>;', h>

Watson-Guptil] Publications, a division of BP1

< ommunications, be, 1515 Broadway. Ne* York. W 10036
Ul rights reserved. No] this book maj
be reproduced or used i irmorb) anj
means — graphic, electronic. hanical including
photocopying, recording. i>r information

permission of the publisher.

Library of ( longress ( latalog ( lard Number: 98-86085

ISBN 0-8230-0976-9

This honk was conceived, designed, and produced by

llll. I\ \ PR] SS I l\ )

2/3 Si Andrews Place

Lewes, Easl Sussex. BN7 11 P

1/7 Director, pi 1 1 R BRIDGET \i in

Designer. IAN] LANAWA1
Editorial Director. SOPHIE COLLINS
( ommissioning Editor \ i\ CROOI
Page layout: ( HRIS i.ww u. I hi in \ \i

Picture research: i i/ i DDISON

Illustrations: KAREN DONN1 LU and i\ w n

Printed inHongKong

1 2 3 •+ 5 6 7 8 9 10/06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98

For my daughter Jessie,

andfor Nicholas.
 HHPHra

Contents
Introduction

Pyramid Power
The Egyptians 14

Temples and Other Erectheions

Creek and Hellenistic 16

Empire Building Mind Your Mannerism

Rome and Byzantium 18 Vignola 34
Palladio
Italian High Renaissance 36
Chateaux and Palais
French Renaissance 38
Gloriana
Tudor and Elizabethan England 40
Heavy Duty The Welsh Wizard
Romanesque and Norman 20 Inigo Jones 42
Reaching for God
Gothic 29

Being God
Gothic 2 24
Into the Eight
Renaissance 26

K The Fabulous Baroque Boys

2 Baroque in Italy

Baroque en Prance
Mansart, he Ian 46
There Is Nothing Eike « Dome Gay hut Not Gaudy
Brunelleschi and Uberti 28 Rococo fS

Perfect Harmony When Is an Architect \o( an \r<-hitc<

Bramante and Peruzzi 30 Sir (

'hristopher II ren 50
Michelangelo English Baroque Revisited
Yes, That Michelangelo 32 Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh, andGibbs

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 Chicago, CBicago
High-Rise Heaven 76
Art Nouveau in Caledonia
Mackintosh 78
Getting Away from It All
Secession 80
Palladia.! Revival
So Long Frank Lloyd Wright
Burlington, Campbell, and Kent 1// A merican Ce/n'n 82
Adam Family Values
Georgian

Manly Virtues
(heck Revival 58.

Oh Those Creeks
Greek Revival 2 60
Aspirations
Gothic Revival
faster. Faster
Italian Futurism 84
Deutscher Werkbund
The [ge of ( oncrete and Glass S6

House Reds
(
Russian 'ons/mcfirism 88

The Iron Age

Iron and Steel 64
The Hard Men
( oncrete Structures 66
Useful and Beautiful Coing Dutch
I/7.V and (rafts 68 De Stijl 90
Home Sweet Home Our House Is a Very Very Very Bauhaus
Domestic Revival Gropius and Co. 92
Follow the Curve The Sage
(
ArtNouveau Le 'orbusier I 94
The Last of the Big Masonry Towers Geometry Rules
I hited States ofAmerica 74 Expressionism 96
Down with Geometry Big in Japan
Organic 98 Japanese Architectun 120
The Living Machine Very Cool
he Coi busier 2 100 Postmodernism 122
A Star Born
Is HiTech
Mies ran der Rohe 102 Rogers and Foster 124

Tecton and After

Modernism in Britain 104
The Northern Light
Aalto 106
International Style
( S Modernism 108

Postmodern Formalism
The New York Fire 126
How Does It Feel?
Sensual Response and Sustainability 12$
Viva Espana
Spanish Regionalism ISO
The Essence of Things
The Jazz Age Minimalism 132
Art Deco 110
Et Tu Brute?
Brut a /ism 112
Serious Structuralists
Order a la (arte ll-f

Glass Menageries
Skyscrapers 116
Bits and Pieces
Be Reasonable
Deconstruction 134
Weorationalists IIS
Building in Cyberspace
Virtual Worlds 136

The Great Eight

&:. . 1 Critic's Choice 138

Techno Speak NO
.» Index 142
Photographic Credits l-n

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 Technical Boxe
Here you will find
Introduction innovations, new
techniques, and
new materials; all

Many histories of architecture hare attempted the things that

the architect to defy

aibw

to explain why
^
buildings look the way they
" c **
the constraints of
' gravity, finance, and,

do. Some are works oj detection, unraveling

the secrets of the past Many are written as

"s/ories" with a

beginning, a middle.

and an end somewhere

in twentieth-century

modernism.
This book is /ess like

an explanation and
more like a description The Erectheion

— a survey oj the past — with no plot and no (421-406 B.C.),

the Acropolis
on

Athens, Greece.
st online. It uses conventional categories and in

stylistic classifications that can be found in histories of art

to sort the architects and rations buildings

into a roughly chronological order. Rather

than including vernacular or
traditional buildings, it is

The stepped pyramid of

Zoser at Saqqara in Egypt.

\H( III I I -.( I I HI - V CRASH COURSE

£<£.
§l§pil

focused on the work of

NAMES ON THE WALL
architects, and includes their
| ]

Information on contemporary architects

theoretical or "unbuilt and their work. This might also include

painters or sculptors working in the some

works, " either writings or
school, or anecdotal information.

drawings. Wherever possible

well-known buildings are
used to illustrate the different styles or categories.

Architecture can be seen as a response to the primary

human need for shelter (and comfort). Different cultures

have all produced different kinds of buildings. Variations in

climate initially, and later in religious beliefs and economic

The church of San Giorgio Maggiore

Biography Boxes in Venice, Italy (designed 1565, built
These feature figures who demand 602-1 by Andrea Palladio.
1 0),
some attention, and couldn't get it in

the main text. It wouldn't do to leave

anyone out — architects can be
famously touchy people.

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 SPOT systems, resulted in different "traditional"
THE
STYLE or vernacular buildings, using the most
These boxes supply you easily available /oral materials. Learning
with the nitty gritty

details so as to

Metabolists from your

tell your (d)out such vernacular architecture and the
Neorationalists, or to
help you spot a Vignola
ritual of everyday life that it houses is a
from 200 yards. Key
elements that define a fundamental part of our understanding of
particular type, the
signature of a particular the human condition.
architect, an approach
or fashion. Architecture can also be many other
things. Architecture as "Art" with a capital
A considers itself to be something more
than mere building. Architecture as history"

illustrates the power of the institutions,

External escalators on
the facade of the CNAC, namely the state, the crown, or the church,
Paris, France (1971-74),
by Piano and Rogers. with their enduring, preserved monuments,

Asides
Here, the author takes
a breather and engages
you with tidbits about
the subject matter
and architects being

discussed. Maybe they

are overrated? Or maybe
their new ideas were,
or are, a revolutionary
mode of architectural

thinking? Read on
and find out.

( li HI. - \ CR \s|i CO I RSI

 their castles, palaces, and
cathedrals. Architecture

might also be physical

proof of scientific
achievement, of
technological p rogress,

with the tallest

buildings and widest
spans. On a domestic

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao,

scale, ordered and
Spain (1 998), by Frank Gehry.
well-serviced living

spaces might be seen as representative of

a highly evolved civilization.
Whatever its cultural claims, most

architectural history tends to deal only

with the visual— that with the way- is,

buildings look — preference in to all

the pragmatic functional issues of

buildings, their construction, or how

they are used. The words and
pictures here can
The Empire State Building
attempt tO evoke in Manhattan, New York
( 1929-31), by Shreve,
What tllC SCnSUal Lamb, and Harman.

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I I
experience might be. To understand even one building fully it

is necessary to learn something of the culture that produced it.

This surrey is only f he first step, encouraging you to recognize

and understand some of the basics

ofform and structure, and of light
and decoration, together with

something of the ideas and

intentions of the people who
designed them.
Radio City Music Hall
in New York; true
Reading architectural history can
1 930s Art Deco.
seem like a catalog of revivals with

occasional startling interruptions as something new appears.

The progression from one style to another can only be a
matter ofguesswork. On one hand, architecture, like any
practical craft, looks to The gallery and
library in NTmes,
the past for tried and France (below right,

1 993), designed by
trusted construction Norman Foster.

methods and familiar

and comfortable imagery; I

on the other, it yearns for

originality, a ud looks to

the future, the daring and

excitement of the new.
12 \K< III I I ( I I HI
While society is now more
complex and expectations
of architecture are
higher, the requirement

remains unchanged; as W. R.
Lethaby said in his book
Architecture, Mysticism and
Myth almost 100 years ago,

"Great art is not a question of J

One Nouveau metro entrances
shapes and appearances of the Art

in Paris, France (1 899-1 904), designed

which may be copied, it is

by Hector Guimard.

fine response to noble requirement; a living architecture is

"
always being hurled forward from change to change.

Architecture belongs to everybody Unlike painting or

music, which can be avoided or denied, the history of

architecture, the enduring remains of the past, is all around

us. Our experience of architecture is of the buildings, the
everyday spaces of towns and cities, that frame the lives oj

ordinary peop le.

HILARY FRENCH
\i{< in 1 1
i ii in \ i ii \-i

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 3 1 OO B.C. Menes 3000-2800 B.C. 2400-2200 B.C.
conquers the Delta Kingdom Canal construction begins The upright weaving
of Lower Egypt and unifies in Egypt; flutes and loom introduced in

the country under one tambourines in use for j\. Egypt, before this, cloth

crown The capital is ceremonial bands had been woven on

established at Memphis. horizontal looms pegged
to the ground.

3400-900 b.c.

Pyramid Power
The Egyptians
The pyramids, gigantic,
anonymous, and impersonal,
were arguably the first
Stepped pyramid examples of monumental
of King Zoser.
architecture. Built in
durable stone to lastforever, they ore
symbolic of tin' importance the Egyptians
placed on the afterlife: the timeless

significance of the soul compared to the

temporary nature oj the body.

The earliest pyramids are stepped, sucb The hypostyle (many-pillared)

the Great Temple of Amman,
hall al

;i- ilif |»\ nun i<l of King Zoser at

Karnak, dating from 1530-323 B.C.
Saqqara. and were superseded h\ tin- later

ones where the stepped construction is KARNAK AND LUXOR

filled in ki give a smooth finish. The highesl Little remains of the buildings of the
i- the |>\ ran i id of ( iheops a i Giza. with two Middle Kingdom. bu1 (lie New Kingdom
burial chambers, a wide gallery, and several ( 1570—1085 b.c.) saw some spectacular
air shafts, temples, generally rectangular temple buildings. \i Karnak and Luxor
in plan, were also buill as permanenl there are vast halls with a multitude o

structures of cut stone with column and p;i|>\ rus columns, and clerestories to

lintel trabeated structures, and columns In lighi in m a high level.

in regular grids. Typically tli<- tops of the

columns (capitals arc carved to look like

palm leaves, imitating simple houses made

of loin- plants, reeds, and canes that are

plentiful along the banks of the Nile River.

I he entrance was through a bastion or

l>\
Ion with battered inclined wall-. \ ia a

courtyard. Often the onl) visible elevation,

the approach was lined with sphinxes.

\ i i: \-n <
2000 B.C. Egyptians 1360-1280 b.c 1 1 90 B.C. Rameses III

invent the shaduf, a device Tutankhamen buried repels the invading Sea
for raising water avoiding in his tomb amid People, marauding bandits \JZ£§.
unpleasant stooping; it's so great splendor from the eastern

good it's still in use today. Mediterranean and

Caspian Sea

The Great Temple al Abu Siinbel has a [

NAMES ON THE WALL j

pylon facade with statues over 65 feel high Uthough little is known about architects at
Many temples of traditional form, such as this period, we know that it was [mhotep,
the temple of Horns at Edfu and the architect and minister o/King Zoser, irhu

temple of Isis at Philae (280-50 B.C.). was responsible far the first known pyramid
survive from the Ptolemaic period, ill Saqqara in Egypt 1/ tribal ion was not
established following the breakup of always so straightforward, however. \u

inscription al Edfu tells us that the plan of

Alexander the Great's empire.
the pyramid at Giza was divinely inspired

But in a nice lirisl. Imhotep was himself

N is for...
laier worshiped as a god in Loner Egypt.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of
In the twentieth century. Egyptian architect
France and first modern demagogue, knew a good
thing when he saw one. Though Egyptian forms Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) has achieved
were known in France before the French Revolution recognition for his work in the revival of
of 1789, Boney discovered the pyramid and the
vernacular building techniques, including
obelisk for himself while on his Egyptian campaign
sun-dried brick, and the use ofpassive
of 1798, and was particularly smitten with the latter

(as monuments embossed or

to himself, naturally, cooling systems, and in his concern for
carved with the ubiquitous "N"s). The new emperor providingfor the poor.
soon graduated to the Imperial Roman style for the

many monuments he would leave around Europe,

and therebyset a standard. Of a kind. The pyramid?

Napoleon would have been interested in the The three famous Fourth Dynasty
glassone erected in the courtyard of the pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, are the
Paris Louvre in 1986 ... finest "true" pyramids.

\li( III ( HI V CRASH COt RSI 15

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I I I I
 800-750 B.C. Ibelliod 750-700 B.C. Bards 580-540 b.c.
and the Odyssey, Greek go professional in Greece Black figure pottery
classics, are written; they may and accompany reaches perfection; most
be by Homer, who may be one themselves on lyres scenes are mythological
or more persons and who may in subject, and some are
or may not have come from pornographic.
Asia Minor

850-297 B.C.

Temples and Other Erectheions

G reek and Hellenistic
The enduring beauty oj ancient Greek buildings is rarely disputed.
They show an assertive simplicity ofform, scale related to human
occupation, and decoration related to material and construction. The
relationship to nature is also of
ureal importance, with buildings
seemingly occurring naturally,
and theaters carved into the
ground. The importance given to
the spaces between the buildings,
such as the agora for civic,
commercial, and philosophical
interchange, implies that social
The Ionic Erectheion (421-406 B.C.) on the
Acropolis replaced the temple of Athena destroyed
structures were as important as
during the Persian invasion. Caryatids support the the physical structures oj the city.
roof over the porch on the south facade.

The surviving -tone buildings use the of columns. I he stonework was often
same trabeated structures that were covered with ;i plaster or stucco, and
used for timber buildings. Earl} painted and gilded with a common color
construction methods — mud-brick walls scheme. Brighl blue was used fortriglyphs
with timber posts to supporl timber lintels and cornice 1 >l« >< k --. red for spaces between

and beams — produced verj simple logical the cornice blocks arid bands, blue with

structures, lor important buildings, such gold stars for the ceiling panels, and uilt

a- temples, ambers were gradually bronze for figures.

replaced with -tone. The classic temples The type of column and frieze used also
vary in size bu1 use the same formal varies. The different styles are known as
elements and arc variations on the basic the Orders. The Doric order, named after
theme of a rectangular enclosed -pace w ith the Dorian people of mainland Greece, is

a colonnaded porch (portico) at one end. the earliest. Columns are chunky, fluted,
I he most complex have several rooms and tapering toward the top, w ith a simple
inside, porches at both end-, and square capital and no base. 1 he Ionic order
ambulatories at the sides with a double row developed in the Vegean Islands and the

I < I (HI - V CRASH CO U RSI

 5

c 387 B.C. Plato founds 350 B.C. The 220-1 80 B.C. The Greeks
the Academy in Athens sculptor Praxiteles introduce town planning, chaotic

where the jeunesse doree of produces the Venus of marketplaces at Ephesus and
Athenian aristocracy learn Cnidus, the first-known Miletus are knocked down and
to philosophize. female nude replaced with serene squares

NAMES ON THE WALL

HELLENISTIC
The Creeks were the originators of the term
The Corinthian order, invented in \ 1 1 1
»
t

"architect " and possibly also the first to

in the fifth century B.C.. with more
apply contractual penalties. I law enacted
flamboyant capitals of curling acanthus
at EpheSUS sidled that if an architect's

'extras" exceeded the contract amount In-

leaves, was little used at the time bul

more than 25%, he was held personally became common much later, in the

liable for them. The Greeks sought Hellenistic period of ALEXANDER nil

eternally ralid rules of form and proportion Great's (356-323 b.c.) empire. The
but were not without their critics. Olympeion (174 B.C.-A.D. 131) is the
Hermogenes. architect and foremost earliest large-scale building using the
Hellenistic architectural theorist, threw a
Corinthian order. Alexander's empire all
tantrum part way through building one
saw more regimented planning in cities,
temple and abandoned the Doric for the
and the introduction of the abstract
Ionic, saying that "the distribution of the
controlling device, the grid. Plans for
trighphs and metopes is troublesome and
inharmonious. " Alexandria. Priene,
Sigh...
and Miletus all If you see
it in) w aj
included attention to
The Greeks continually
coast of A-ia Minor. The column is the construction of
pursued perfection.
generally more slender and finely fluted, vistas and monumental Columns, if perfectly

straight, would appear

has a capital cut from a rectangular block, effects. Military design
to be concave; if the
and i-^ raised on a square base. The capital also developed, with horizontal lines of

i- carved to form volutes on each side. The the construction of stylobates and cornices
were horizontal, they
Doric and Ionic orders were used for most defensive structures
would appear to sag in

of the finesl surviving temples. and fortifications. the middle. So they

developed a system of
optical corrections;

columns generally
bulge outward in the

center to appear straight.

The columns of the

Parthenon also lean
inward about 1 5 inches to

counter the appearance of

falling outward, and the
stylobate gently curves

upward to around 1

inches in the center of

the ends and 28 inches

in the center of the

long sides.

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 a .

44 B.C. Julius Caesar, 30 A.D. Jesus of 330 The Roman emperor

declared a god by his own Nazareth crucified Constantine establishes his
peers, is assassinated by in Jerusalem eastern capital,
his friend Brutus and other Constantinople (later

conspirators on the Ides Byzantium, then Istanbul).

(15th) of March

509 B.C. -A.D. 1200

Empire Building
Koine and Byzantium

Taking overfrom the Etruscans, the

Romans built an empire that started
with a few Italian stales and spread
across most oj Europe la the /res/ and as far as the
Persian Empire in the east. The Romans showed
their domination through extensive lawmaking and
the control ofphysical territory building straight —
roads irrespective of natural
The domed interior .
/ • •

features, and cities planned with

/ i i

of the Hogio Sophia,

Istanbul (a.d. 532-37). ruthless grids.

rphr Roman forum, a rectilinear

Count Your Blessings
A enclosed space containing and Masons recruited in Byzantium by Vladimir I

limiting the movement <>f people, was the brought masonry building techniques and dome
antithesis of ili«- Greek open spaa — forms to Russia.

with variations, but

The pyramidical forms continued
were generally characterized
physical manifestation of the movement by domes, often on very elongated drums of
from democracy to imperium. The massive masonry. The Cathedral of the Intercession,
known as St. Basil's, in Red Square, Moscow, shows
building techniques that enabled the
thesame basic arrangement, with an eight-pointed
Romans to dominate the landscape \\ iih star in plan, a tall central space encircled by an

viaducts. vasl bathhouses, and civic originally open corridor, and domed apses.
The elaborate decorations and exotic onion
buildings were verj different also. \\ here domes were added in the seventeenth century.

the Creeks made use of columns and

beams, the Romans favored walls. Built

from bricks or small pieces of stone, walls EARLY CHRISTIAN, a.d. 200-400
could extend much higher and openings l.arK Christian buildings date from around

could be an) size, \\ iih semicircular arches. \.d. 200 — catacombs, martyria (usually
In conjunction with concrete, massive circular, built to mark sacred sites), and
structures could be achieved. I he Classical meeting houses for worship. Once
orders, with variations, were employed in a ( Ihristianit) was officially recognized as the
decorative fashion, applied to the surface religion of the Roman Empire in \.i). 391
of masonr> walls. the basilica was adopted as the model for

RE - I CRASH COURSE
 410 Rome sacked 425 The Mausoleum of Galla 527 Justinian crowned emperor
by Visigoths; the
last Roman troops x Placidia

dark
is

interior
built in

is
Ravenna;
enlivened by
its of the Eastern

his
Roman Empire, with

empress, an ex-actress called

leave Britain mosaics, showing how far the Theodora, he inaugurates a
Byzantine influence had glittering reign of political

spread westward. triumph, legislative acumen,

and architectural splendor.

NAMES ON THE WALL imported but Eastern influence

//c know a lot about Roman architecture continued. Intellectual achievement

because oj the extensive self-promotional the harmony of proportions, and th<

writings ofone Vitruvius. However, some intricacies of structure were conside

doubts exist as to whether he was himself equal to. if not more important thai
luh Tin >mpei Hadrian, on emotive or sensual qualities. I lagia
the other hand, almost certainly was, Sophia (532-37 B.C.).
although told to "go awayandpaint
built l>\ a Anything
pumpkins " by a jealous older rival, For a Party
mathematician.
Apollonius of Damascus. The removal of As egos and Empire
Anthemios. is the most
[polloniuss head after a second insult put grew apace, so did the
spectacular building. Ii Roman Triumph, most
paid to anyfurther criticism. The Romans
famously awarded to
were responsible for the invention oj
the middle Byzantine
victorious generals
concrete, building bylaws, multiseater period (9th-12th —
returning home for

stadia, and leisure complexes. century) symbolism example, the Arch of

Titus in Rome's Forum,
expressed in paintings
which celebrates and
and mosaics required records the sack of

churches. Originally a meeting hall, it was certain formal Jerusalem by the future
emperor in A.D. 70. But
ideally suited to accommodate a arrangements. The
triumphalism was in full

congregation. Typically rectilineal- in plan cross-in-square plan flow as early as the first

century with
it had a higher central nave lit by became a common B.C.,

temporary arches;
clerestory windows and flanked l>\ type, with a central later, permanent
colonnaded aisles. A curved end (apse). higher dome on a structures feature not

only in Italy, but around

originally the judge's position, formed the
the Roman world, with
place lor the altar. uided by lower one- and three-doored

t domes over examples testifying not

only to the skills of

BYZANTINE, a.d. 400-1200 «»n nil sides.
architects, masons, and
The emperor Constantine left sculptors, but also to

home to the great Roman

establish a new
pastime of blowing
capital at Byzantium rif- one's own trumpet.

(Constantinople) in \.n

330. Classical motifs

and Roman building
techniques were

The Colosseum, Rome

(a.d. 70-82), a typical
Roman amphitheater with

gladiatorial arena.

V)
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I i A HA Mttn :
800 Charlemagne, king 1 066 William the 1 096 The Cluniac orders
of the Franks, is crowned Conqueror seizes the begin to spread rapidly, and
Holy Roman Emperor by English throne and Gregorian chant echoes
the Pope. He unites and introduces the Norman through the new
reforms the Western building style (stone ecclesiastical buildings

Church and imposes the and round arches) appearing all over France
Benedictine Rule

700-1200 /SPOT
Heavy Duty THE
STYLE
Romanesque and Norman The meaning of
Romanesque depends
on where you come
The term Romanesque was coined in the nineteenth from. If those rounded
century to describe buildings that continued Roman arches seem to suggest
clues, think again. The
form and construction. A generalized term, it carers
architectures of the

a long period of time and a wide geographical area. French Channel coast
and of Sicily don't seem
Stocky, chunky, solid, and primitive looking, to have much in

Romanesque buildings are generally recognizable common. One has its

rounded arches, the

by their round arches. Exteriors and interiors are other doesn't, yet the
clearly related It, each other. pundits call both
"Romanesque." Norman
factions held court for
Durham Cathedral
years in both places,
(1093-1 133) has and more besides. And
alternating circular to confuse matters, many
piers with grooved a small church is

decoration. diagnosed with a case

of the Romanesque as
severe as any big
begun l>\ \\ illiam the
cathedral. Keep at it.

( lonqueror, i- i\ pica! of

the exquisite churches

of Normandy. It has two

square towers on the west facade, rounded
arches, and originally a timber roof

construction.
Carolingian architecture is sometimes
distinguished as a separate style from other
Romanesque l»v its geographical location in
France. Germany, and the Netherlands. It

Neither powerful nor dominating, and is named after Charlemagne, the Holy
without the grandeur of Roman Roman Emperor from 800 A.I). He
buildings or the m\ stery of Byzantine promoted a return to Constantine

architecture, although using elements from Christianity with basilican planning but
both, the Romanesque has a picturesque with altered form: prominent towers,
quality much "friendlier" feel. The
and a important ends both east and west, and the
Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen (1060-81). heavy, solid construction typical of the

\ ( ]<
\s|| COI RSE
 I 098 The Cistercian order I 1 39 Alfonso Henriques, I 334 Plague in Constantinople

is founded in Burgundy, count of Portugal, calls himse Genoese traders spread the Black

France. By 1 200 there will be king, and presses English Death westward Monks and town

more than 500 Cistercian crusaders into service to oust dwellers suffer most, living in close

abbeys in Europe. the Moors from Lisbon. proximity, and this era of monastic
buildings comes to an end.

Romanesque. The Palatine chapel at

NAMES ON THE WALL )

Aachen is the most dramatic building of During this period the term "architect " goes
the period. out of common usage in Europe, giving rise

In Italian Romanesque, the picturesque to some bizarre theories about roving guilds
quality is evident; the tower (campanile) is of Masonic masons being responsible for the

detached from the main body of the church dramatic expansion of building activity.

and external arcading is common. Pisa But in a eery real sense God was to blame.
Xererthe/ess. at least one cleric thought
Cathedral (1063-1118: 1261-72) is the
that "the passion for building is a sin:
best known, with its
monastic buildings are being constructed
Anything for a leaning campanile
with the usury ofgreed, lying trickery, and
Quiet Life with arcades at even-
the tricked deceits ofpreachers" (Pierre Le
The rigors of medieval
level, as well as three
monasticism, the Chant re. Paris. J ISO).
magnificence of the more levels of arcades
monastery buildings,
on the facade of the
and the might of the

monastic orders
cathedral itself. the most complete
themselves make a picture of monastery
bizarre combination.
Britain their remains
In
NORMAN building and life in the

have inspired artists of In England the enclosed communities.

every kind. Try to Romanesque is called Castles were also
imagine Wordsworth
Norman, and starts enclosed communities.
without Tintern Abbey,
Turner without Byland, with Westminster Norman castles had
and the eighteenth-
Abbey, built by keeps on a raised
century Picturesque
Movement without
Edward the Confessor mound (motte). often
Fountains, Whitby, or Almost every siuToimded by a moat
Rievaulx. The peace of
cathedral and abbey and an adjoining
these places proclaims
the faith and ability of church was rebuilt at enclosure (bailev).
their builders, and this time and. as will Examples include
conceals three centuries
of conflict between
as the tvpieal the White Tower at

church and state. Romanesque, some London (1086-97)

had variations — Ely and Orion I. Suffolk
lia^ a single west lower. Lincoln has niches (1166-72).
on the facade. \n exception to the usual

timber roof structure, Durham ( lathedral Pisa Cathedral's famous

leaning campanile
(1093-1133) has a rib-vaulted nave,
(1174-1271), with its
which i^ one of the very earliest of such
decorative arcades, is a
sophistication. The ruins of Fountains less robust, finer version

Vbbey in Yorkshire ( 1 157-1200 give of the Romanesque.

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 1 0»6 The First 1137 The flying buttress 1 1 44 Robert de Mont-
Crusade to the Holy is invented The buttresses Saint-Michel describes the
Land sets out Islam carry the weight of the building of Chartres: "... as
and Christianity building structure, enabling if by magic towers rose into

confront each other. walls to be thinner and c the air . . . men and women
windows to be inserted in could be seen ... singing of

them almost at will.

a the miracle of the Lord ..."

1 100- 1250 Marrow bays The famous rose windou

accentuate the is tin' backdrop to the

Reaching for God

od oerticalityof
the towers
statue of the virgin anil
childflanked by angels

Gothic
Gothic cathedrals, with their great
height and multiple flying buttresses,
rise dramatically above the surrounding
landscape, forming intricate openwork
silhouettes against the sky. Inside.
spaces seem similarly detachedfrom the
mere earthly, with the slenderest of
columns rising to impossible heights and
hazy daylightfiltering through stained
glass tracery and clerestory windows. The
Gothic cathedrals represent a synthesis of
Cod. Humanity, and
I

Size
» 1 1 i I «

became a
I Yin Big] Nature the — :

wrnm^^m
harmonious
dominant feature of
Gothic cathedral combination oj religious
building. Amiens
symbolism with the most
(1220-70) was large
enough at more than logical and efficient The main part of the west front of Notre
9,000 square yards to
structures. Dame in Paris was built in 1 220-50.
hold the entire city
population. Strasbourg
(1245-75) was as tall Ihe essence of fill the £ii|>^ (inlill panels). As well as
as a 40-story building.
Beauvais, intended to
T!Gothic building is allow ing greater spans through vastly

be the largest, was ii- structun — the result reduced materia] weight, arches and rib
never completed. mI the combination vaults group all the vertical loads (weight
Building started on
of ll\ ing buttresses, of the building) into single points, so
the choir (158 feet/
48 meters to the vault) pointed arches, and rib columns can be used. Flying buttresses,
in 1220, but byl 284
vaults. I bese elements detached al the end of bridge-like arches.
some of its vaulting had
collapsed. The work together to make take the lateral loads. Solid. Load-bearing
cathedral consists of the a skeletal, cagelike walls arc redundanl and the space between
choir and transepts
structure with only the columns can be filled with window s.
only; the proposed
nave was never built. the ii<'t'<l for verj thin, Similarly, every other element has a useful

lightweighl panels to role to play In what is effectively a linear

- \ < H VSH C01 li>l

 1 1 74 The French 1 1 80 France 1 226 Louis IX (Saint
William of Sens becomes home to the Louis) ascends the throne

supervises the rebuilding first windmill in the Paris and its university

of Canterbury western world. become the center of

Cathedral. He is intellectual Christendom.

severely injured in a fall

from the scaffolding.

Spain
and Gothic cathedrals are not as common in Spain as
structure, the ends are contained
in Northern Europe. Seville Cathedral (1402-1519)
supported at the east end by the apse. is a particularly unusual late Gothic building. It was
like an arch on its side, and at the wesl built on the foundations of a mosque, giving it an
enormous square plan, which was neatly gothicized
end by a pair of square towers that
by doubling up the side aisles. It is a curious mixture
contain entrance porches. The pinnacles, of the Christian and Moorish. The orange tree court,

pointing skyward on the buttresses, add the original forecourt for ritual ablutions, is a curious
entrance space and the bell tower is a converted
weight to tie the buttresses to the ground.
minaret. The famous Mesquita at Cordoba, with
Spites act as landmarks and allow the endless Moorish horseshoe-shaped arches, was
also converted to Christian uses in the thirteenth
sound of bells to be heard far away.
century with the insertion of a Gothic section.

Vaulting. Bridge SYMBOLISM

(hat Cap! The building of identified, carved in the door surrounds,
Rib vaulting was a
the great Gothic and depicted in murals. Forests of tall
dramatic innovation.
With the barrel vaulting cathedrals coincided columns rising up into branches of lib
of the Romanesque and with a change in vaults are an imitation of nature. The
earlier, the wider the
space, the higher the
belief away from transepts, which break up the linearity of

vault, the heavier the blind faith and the nave, provide lateral support and give
load. Vertical load was
away from the it the Latin cross plan. The great interior
carried on continuous
solid walls which had God as an
idea of space contains music and the rising clouds
to become buttressed unknown fearsome of incense. High above the nave, clerestory
to take any increase
force that was windows light the vault of Heaven and
in load. Rib vaulting
removes all the associated with the huge windows of colored glass tell stories
superfluous material
dark and mysterious in light. The individual is recognizably
and weight. Ribs gather
the vertical loads onto
churches. God is insubstantial in relationship to the \;i-i

columns, rather than

walls. The buttresses,
now visibl* — man and complex entity of the cathedral.

is created in his
like an additional row
of columns, are detached image and nature
—the characteristic is hi., kingdom.
flying buttresses. Later,

more ornate vaults

The building tells

were called "fans." the story. No longer

anonymous, the
saints and apostles
can now be

Fan vaulting. The introduction of rib

vaulting meant spaces

became higher and higher.

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 1 202 Mathematician 1291 Clear glass 1 300 Sulfuric acid

Leonardo da Pisa (aka invented in Venice discovered by the modest

Fibonacci) writes Liber The window is born. alchemist known only as

Abaci, introducing arabic False Geber.

numerals to Christendom

SPOT
THE
1200-1450 STYLE
Being God Gothic is probably the
best-known architectural

Gothic 2 style of Europe,

identified with its

cathedrals, their rib

Gothic cathedrals exist in the greatest
vaults and flying

numbers France and England,

in buttresses, their galleries

and large clerestory

^^ The stained-glass
rose window.
though the French cathedral builders
attempted more daring structures
than their English counterparts. They
built much higher naves, often with
windows. But watch
Some

in
of these features
existed before the
other places.
confusing. Pundits
It's
1
out.

200s
so
nod
at the Abbey of St. Denis
several tiers inside; several lerels of as the earliest complete

flying buttresses, and fleches rather than towers over Gothic building, but the
style developed in
the crossing. In plan the French cathedrals include different ways
chevet East ends, usually with radiating chapels. everywhere. In England
look no further than
Canterbury Cathedral,
earliest Gothic building the w c-t Front ha> two
Tin- is
and for a fusion of
rebuilding of the choir of the Abbey square towers and French and German
of Saint Denis near Paris 1-tO). with a circular windows. styles see Cologne
( 1

Cathedral. Tread warily.

seven-bay chevet end. Noire Dame <le Paris The pilgrimage
(1 163) is archetypal French Gothic. It is church at Chartres
enormously high (105 feet/32 meters), 1 194-C.1220) i- the most popular. The
with three levels of Hying buttresses, double west towers and nave are part of an earlier
aisles, and a chevet end with chapels. The (1 135-60) building destroyed l>\ fire. In

order to accommodate large crowds it has

A Chip off the Old Block? huge transepts, including very wide aisles
Visit any of the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe with triple portals at both sides.
and virtually the you see are statues in
first thing
The thirteenth-century Rayonnant style,
niches at the west door, and frequently around the
outside. The themes? Prophets, apostles, and saints developed in France a- a reaction to the
with crisply pleated robes or, for the adventurous,
vast scale of the cathedrals, produced
Bible stories such as Jacob's Dream (on the west
front of Bath Abbey), every scheme arranged to a
much smaller-scale churches. The Sainte
theological plan. Some were even painted. In the Chapelle in Paris (12-t3) is a particularly
thirteenth century, sculpture originally had the status
beautiful ^pace: a simple rectangle with an
of the icing on the cake, the province of a master
craftsman, but by the fifteenth century the gilt had apsidal east end and spectacular stained-
faded a and the sculptor now mingled with
little the glass work intended to be seen close up.
masons as one of the boys.
Externally the small building is covered
with pinnacles and spire-.

24 \IU.IH TE< Tl RE
 —
1381 Wat Tyler and 1 387 German 1 41 5 The Due de Berry

Jack Cade lead the craftsmen rebuild commissions 1 2 castles and

Peasant's Revolt in Milan Cathedral an illustrated book to show

England The class in the Northern them off: Les Ires Riches

system does not budge Gothic style. Heures du Due de Berry

by the Limbourg brother

ENGLAND
The Gothic period covers more than three
NAMES ON THE WALL
centuries and it is usual for the style to be
further divided. In England the period is
Because of the uncertain nature of some
architectural experimentation, many
roughly divided by century, generally
masons were paid handsome retainers
related to the complexity of the tracery.
to maintain their buildings. Some poor
The thirteenth-century "Early English" is
unfortunates found that they would never
sometimes railed "Lancet" to describe the
attend to anything else, giving a whole
simple pointed windows before complex new meaning to "Cot/tie horror. "
The
fracery was established. Canterbury Countess Albereda of Bayeux beheaded
Cathedral's Trinity Chapel is a good her architect so that there could never be

example. Westminster Abbey was largely another castle built to match hers. In

rebuilt between 124-5 and 1269 in the Germany, a knight moved by his faith to

Early English style, with this specific style help build a cathedral was battered to

death with hammers by hard-nosed

used again in the late fourteenth century to
regulars and thrown into the Rhine.
extend the uave. "Decorated is the next

phase, roughly fourteenth century. It is

sometimes called "curvilinear." a> forms

become more complex, freer

flowing, and curvaceous.

Chartres Cathedral
In the last phase, late Gothic or
11 95-1 220) has
"Perpendicular" (roughly fifteenth
spires, not common
in France, on both century), the tracery reverts to more
towers. rectilinear patterns, including multiple

vertical divisions. The Perpendicular i>

peculiar to England. The I lenrv \ II

Chapel at Westminster (
\MY-\) and King's
College Cambridge (1-+40) are the mosl
magnificent examples. The plans are
\ei \ -iinplt — reel align la i' with apsidal
easl ends. But the spaces are dramatic
immensel) tall and II led with lighl

through delicate tracery. In both, the

spectacularly intricate vaulting owes

more to decorative intention than

structural logic.

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 1 403 The City of Venice imposes 1414 The Florentine Med 1418 Henry Vof
quarantine on newcomers in an family become the official England captures Rouen,
attempt to prevent recurrence of the bankers to the papacy. the capital of Normandy.
Black Death that had ravaged Europe

1420-1550 Albert's Palazzo Rucellai,

Florence ( 1 446-5 1 ),
an early
Into the Light example of the use of

ornamental orders on the

Renaissance facade of a domestic building.

What is Renaissance architecture?

The answer depends on how much
<>/ a purist you are. To some if means

buildings from fifteenth- century

Florence right up to the middle of the
Architecture eight ecu ih century, when the style
gets into books
reached France and Austria. For others
it describes only the period up until the mid-
sixteenth century, after which extremes of invention
in Banxpie illusion or conservative Neoclassical
revivalism take over.

Common to ;ill i> the starting point: il FROM ARTISAN TO PROFESSIONAL

break with the feudal medieval pasl In the past, architects were craftsmen
and a renewed interest in ancient Rome. closelj linked to the construction process,

Early exponents made and often directly involved

careful studies of ancienl Orders is Orders in building. But when the

remains in order to create The Orders of Architecture cultural domination of the
relate to the columns you've
faithful reproductions. Their ( Ihurch and patronage from
seen propping up a building
drawings, printed for the first somewhere between the bank prosperous families gave
time, became ''design guides'
1
and city hall, or in some way to a new atmosphere of
Hollywood epic. These
to the Classical orders. The uprights all have a base, a
interest in the arts, the

work of those who subverted shaft, and c capital (the top design of a building was
bit), all in proportion, and
these rules or strayed too far seen as distinct from h-~
ranging from the dull to the
from the coirect uses of the frankly florid. In order, then: construction. Architects had
orders was labeled with Doric (Greek or Roman, sir? new creative ^tatu>. This
Greek? Without a base, then);
derogatory terms such as intellectual respectability
Ionic, with a base and a scroll

Mannerist. Banxpie. and and Corinthian, with a

capital; was part of a wider

Rococo. Nowadays, such base and a capital showing off movement with die creation
some restrained scroll-work,
labels aie often used
garnished with a little acanthus
of the first Italian academies
descriptively without any salad. Now repeat. in the second half of the
sense of deprecation. sixteenth century.

26
 1 43 1 In France, Joan I 446 In Italy the Renaissance 1506 Pope Julius II lays the

of Arc is burned at the style Brunelleschi founded is foundation stone for St Peter's

stake for witchcraft. taking off; in England the building Basilica in the Vatican, Rome
of the Gothic King's College

Chapel begins.

Vitruvius from the firsl

Putting Things
century B.C. SERLIO'S into Perspecth
[
NAM ES ON THE WALL e
(1475-1554) Leon Battista Alberti
U hen interest was reawakened in Roman Uarchitetettura (c. 1404-72) is a
contender for the title of
construction, architecture was "extinct."
(1537^51) was a Renaissance Man. His
according i<> the sixteenth-century' art
reference manual for architecture works on
historian \a>;iri. who linked Gothic with the "quality, not
architects and builders.
barbarism. Hume held everyone m thrall. quantity" theory (six

Palladio's theoretical designed, three built),

Brunelleschi himself "stood like one
writings, illustrated but treat him gently:
amazed, and seemed to hare lost his irils"
he's a major theorist,
when first he beheld it. Others sought any with examples of his
setting the tone for

opportunity to visit and sketch. Giovan- own works a> well a> centuries of building

Maria Falconetto set off on the 300-mile those of antiquity, with his De Re
Aedificatoria, the first
journeyfrom Verona to Home on the pretext were enormously coherent publication on
ofsetdingan argument about a cornice. influential. They the use of the Classical
orders. When talking of
continued to be a
harmonic proportions,
respected source well or architectural

into the eighteenth perspective, or the

inspired Renaissance
PRINTING century. The only work
use of Roman building
I lit- invention of printing resulted in the using medieval a> well styles, drop Alberti's

name. Pure gold dust.

publication of the lir^t architectural as ancient examples
theories or treatises. Alberti's De Re was Scamozzi s Uidea
[edificatoria (1485) laid down a set of dell\ [rchitettura trinthian
apitals
design rules based on the writings of universale (1(> 1.~>).

Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital,

Florence ( 1 42 -45)
1 — more Tuscan
Romanesque than Antique Roman.

Glazed /

medalli

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 1 450 Florence forms an 1450 Revision of the 1452 Alberti writes

alliance with Milan and calendar commissioned his treatise on architecture ,

Naples ensuring peace and js by Julius Caesar, by now in which he applies

the flourishing of the arts in the inaccurate, is begun It will Pythagorean proportions
three states About the same be 1 582 when it is finally of math and music to

time Alberti invents a device completed and everyone the 3D world.

for measuring wind speed knows what day it is

1420-1500
There Is Nothing Like a Dome
Brunei leschi and Albert
Poucr and influence ruled supreme in
early Renaissance Italy. Gone were the
established hereditary aristocracy. In
came the now-famous Italian families
of merchants, Medici in Florence,
/ isconti and Sforza in Milan. If ith
their new wealth came a new trend —
patronage. It became fashionable to

give money to and artists and the arts

to and churches.
build great palaces
The quality oj building and the
flourishing ofpainting and sculpture
in this period
The octagonal, ribbed
^ attributed tO
dome by Brunelleschi .

surmounting Florence
the put lOlia^
Cathedral (1420-34). of this IICW claSS.

was the time for intellectual and of the great Renaissance domes to complete
It
artistic discovery and development: the church of Santa Maria del liore (1436)

intellectuals were engaged in the search in Florence. I le proposed to build an

for order and meaning; painters discovered octagonal dome over the crossing without
the rules of perspective; sculptors revealed using temporary support. He did it. to

the structures of human anatomy: and universal admiration, by constructing a

architect- defined n«\\ rules of proportion, self-supporting hemispherical dome as

geometry, and symmetry. Innovative and loi mwork. which remained in position

dramatic achievements resulted. inside the octagonal dome.

In addition to experimenting with

BRUNELLESCHI innovative structural techniques, he also

Fitippo Bm \ELLESi m ( 1 377- 1 44( i pushed the limits of accepted knowledge
started hi- career as a goldsmith and in his use of geometry. The old sacristy

sculptor and went on to build the first (1428) in the church of San Lorenzo is one

28 ECTURE - A CRASH COURSI

 I 454-57 Uccello paints hi: 1458 The Turks 1 472 Ivan the Great makes
battle paintings for the Palazzc sack the Acropolis himself Tsar of Russia and marries
Medici He shows space, in Ather the niece of the last Byzantine

perspective, and three- emperor, aiming to make Moscow

dimensionality in a new way. the new Constantinople.

such masterpiece. The design is evolved NAMES ON THE WALL

«

from the overlaying of two spheres of he erii

7The exuberant Renaissance architect
different diameters, one contained within stands in marked contrast to the largely

and one penetrating the exterior of a anonymous craft worker of the Gothic
perfect cube. The dramatic spatial effect is period. Alberti is described as the "first

heightened by the stark contrast between great dilettante architect, "a dabbler who
the white plaster surfaces of the walls and seldom bothered himself with the ad aid
business of building. Rustici was an
the grav stonework. He was inspired by the
eccentricwho kept hedgehogs, froze
twelfth-century Tuscan Romanesque.
mercury, and studied the occult. There was
even mention of a
ALBERTI
woman architect called Everybody
While Brunelleschi based his work on Gaddi in 1423. Her Must get
Romanesque and medieval sources, Leon first name is not Domed
Battista ALBERTI (1404-72), a writer and From Rome's
recorded but she was
Pantheon to the
academic, as well as an architect, drew allegedly competent
Millennium in

inspiration from ancient Rome for his enough to compete London's Greenwich,
with Brunelleschi. domes have been
buildings. His fagade of Santa Maria
big business. They
Novella. Florence (1456), with its scrolls are beasts to build.

masking the existing aisle roof, became a Permanent formwork,

conical timber
much-copied pattern. At the Palazzo
frames, and
Rucellai (1451), a simple three-story form, encircling chains

he applied three levels of Classical have been used in

the most elaborate

orders to decorate the
constructions. The
facade in imitation of outside dome,
whether parachute,
the Colosseum in Rome.
pumpkin, umbrella,
In his last work, the or even onion, is

Church of St. Andrew rarely the same

shape as the inside.
in Manilla (1472),
The space between
lie employed the inner and outer

a Roman dome is often where

the access stairs wind
monumental up to the lantern.

anli io design
a striking
Alberti's facade of
facade thai
Santa Maria Novella,
liareK concealed
Florence (1456), is

the building "separate" from the

behind it building behind.

29
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 1 452 Leonardo da I 453-56 Athens is sacked Greek 1 477 Botticelli paints

Vinci, the Renaissance scholars flee to Italian cities with the perennial favorite

Man par excellence, nothing but their scholarship, which Primavera, and the
is born. they impart to the Italians, and the painter Titian is born.
Renaissance begins.

1500-1530
Perfect Harmony
Bra in a ute and Peruzzi

Harmony, simplicity, and repose

characterized the High Renaissance period
in /IonicWhat better location for a style
based on antiquity than <i cityfulloj
antiquities. In addition, the city was home
to o wealthy papacy keen /<> reassert itselj
in the (nee oj competition from the
Bramanfe's Tempietto in the tranquil courtyard
Protestant movement and new capitalism. of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome (1 502-1 0),

Majestic building projects were an obvious is a diminutive circular temple. The interior is

only 5 feet/4. 5meters diameter.

/neons oj showing who was top don. 1 in

Rags-to-riches Donate Hi: 1/ \ // 1 1 di San Pietro in Montorio 1502 is

1444-1514 was the main ageni considered to be the perfect example of

in recreating historical!) correct Roman I Ugh Renaissance, extending the simple,
buildings. I rom ;i poor background. austere aesthetic thai faithfully follows
Bramante had an innate talenl thai led the rules set dow n l>\ Uberti. The central

him to be described bj Palladioas 'the volume i- enclosed l»\ a Doric colonnade

Srsl who broughl good ;m<l beautiful and entablature faithful to Roman principles,

architecture to light. His rempietto crowned \\ itli a (more ( ihristian) drum and
semicircular dome. I he walls are decorated
Raphael. Mister Perfect. simpl) with niches and pilasters.
As a painter, this north Italian boy set benchmarks I lis big break came with the election
no one could beat for years, and condemned us all
of Pope Julius II. \\ ho asked him to prepare
to Mannerism. His paintings, like The Betrothal of
the Virgin (1 504, Milan) and the frescoes of the designs for the rebuilding of St. Peter's
Stanze (from 1 508) — the rooms in the Vatican he
and the Vatican. Bramante proposed a
decorated for Pope Julius II —are among his best

works. But architecture was in Raphael's blood,

centralized ((week cross) plan, a symbol
though little of his work survives. His interest was of perfection, with a dome the size of the
probably inspired by his appointment as Supervisor
Pantheon's and four smaller domes
of Roman Antiquities (1515), and by the antiquities
around him. It didn't last. In demand everywhere, surrounding it — a symmetrical mass
Raphael just couldn't cope with the Renaissance designed to stand in the center of a vasl
equivalent of executive stress. What a waste.
piazza. But in 1513, Pope Julius died and
everything stopped.
 1 480-90 Navigators, 1537 Andreas 1 543 Copernicus's De
including the Italian Cristoforo Vesalius becomes Revolutionibus Orbium
Columbo, explore the world, Professor of Anatomy Caelestium published,

visiting many places at Padua and human proposing the Sun as

previously known only to dissection is put on the center of the Cosmos

those living there. the syllabus.

NAMES ON THE WALL

PERUZZI
Too Many There seems to be a rule that authoritative
Cooks? Twenty years later
commentators on architectural history must
The architects involved and all the ( Ilassical
hare Kimes beginning
i ii i ill I . II e have
in the building and rules are being
decor of St. Peter's and already encountered Vitruvius. Now we
the Vatican read like
ignored. Repose is
meet Vignola and Vasari. Giorgio
the Renaissance Hall of out; dynamic and Vasari's Lives of the Artists reflects the true
Fame. Bramante,
theatrical effect is in diversity of Renaissance practitioners
Michelangelo,
Raphael, and Bernini II us Mannensl whose skills encompassed architecture,

were only four of the trend is ushered in mathematics, painting, sculpture, and
whiz kids involved.
science. Ciacomo Barozzi da Vignola
Bramante's plan for St.
by Baldassare
produced Regole delle cinque online a
Peter's was the first, Peruzzi (1481-
vast in concept and "hoir-to hook that was hugely popular.
1536). whose finest
revolutionary for its

time: an enormous work is the \ ilia

square hall, with Farnesina (1511).

chapels symmetrically
The plan includes a masterpiece is the Palazzo Massimo alle
placed around it, and a
dome stuck on top, loggia in the center Colonne (1532-36). where Mannerist
resting on gigantic of the garden unorthodoxy is very obvious. Contrary to
arches. Then a problem
arises —the pope dies.
elevation and all the rules, the building is asymmetrical
Funds dry up, and it all principal rooms and follows the curve of the road. The
changes. In 1514
located on the facade similarly flouts convention. In
Raphael takes over,
and goes for a basilica
ground floor rather contrast to a heavily rusticated base with
instead. In 1520 than the first floor. Ionic columns, the upper levels are smooth,
Raphael dies. Peruzzi
Peruzzi s other w nli minimal surface articulation.
takes over, followed by
Sargallo in 1539. Most Michelangelo's dome The Cathedral of St. Peter, Rome, built with its piazza
of the work they do to
137.5 feet/41.9 metei and the Vatican as a monument to papal power
alter Bramante's in diameter
(1 506-1 626), incorporates the work of most of the
original will later be
demolished. major architects from Bramante to Bernini.

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 1 475 In Bruges, William 1 450-1 667 St Peter's in Rome 1 495 Syphilis spreads from

Caxton(c. 1422-91) prints rebuilt Rossellini, Bramante, Raphael, da Naples. French sailors are
the first book in the English Sangallo, Michelangelo, della Porta, held to be to blame

language: Recuyell of the Fontana, Maderno, and Bernini all lend

Historyes of Troye a hand and the result is a combination of

Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque

1530-1570 Big Mike

Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarrotti
beggars description.
Yes, Thai Michelangelo Everything about this

revolutionary, non-
Albertian artist-architect
The Vitruvian rules, followed with such rigor and
was and is larger than
meticulous care by Bramante, were rejected by the life. But the vain

inspired and imaginative M It mi \\ Gl LO (1475-1564)— workaholic painter

we know best for his
poet, painter, sculptor, and great architect. Harmony sculpture and the
Sistine ceiling was a
and repose, the key to the style of ancient civilizations, truly great architect.
were rejected us he reinvented all the rules of Michelangelo
challenged and
composition in pursuit of tension, drama, and an
changed the nature of
assaidt on <dl the senses, not just the eyes. space in architecture,

setting down his ideas

in model form, rather
The Medici famil) than on paper. This
mausoleum in the typically energetic

sacrist) of San output has been

unjustly bypassed in
I ,orenzo, Florence
popular mythology,
( 1521). is ilir earliesl partly because of the
Sistine achievement,
example of the
and perhaps because
revolutionary design l>\
all his architectural

Michelangelo. Both the work was incomplete

at his death; it was
plan arrangement and
finished, in good taste
the use of gra) stone or bad, by others.

and white plaster are

\ci\ similar to the old

sacristy. I>ut the

composition of visual and decorative

elements is wildly unconventional: huge

cornices above the doors seem barel) aide

to support \a>i tabernacles; the group of
figures is 13 feel above the ground,

drawing the eye upward; the columns are

no longer underneath the entablature. The
Despite his great architectural achievements,
wall \> no longer simply a flat surface to
Michelangelo's name is primarily known for his

frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the which decoration has been added — il has
Vatican (1 508-1 2), depicting stories from Genesis. become a sculptural element.
c. 1 550 The Renaissance 1561 Completion of the 1 564 William Shakespeare
flourishes. At the same time onion-domed St Basil's Christopher Marlowe, and

the Italians develop a taste basilica in Moscow, built by Galileo are born; the Roman
for billiards. Ivan the Terrible ( 1 530-84) to Church publishes an index of
celebrate his various victories prohibited books.

WHEN IN ROME
In 1534 Michelangelo undertook his first

commission in Rome — nothing less than to

reorganize the Capitol. The design displays

the same sculptural effects and unusual

elements that characterized his work in
Florence. The square is organized around
a raised oval ground plane —the time first

the oval is used —and the fagades splay

outward, distorting the perspective. In
contrast to the controlled view in the

rectilineal spaces of the Early Renaissance.

the area is intended to be viewed from
different angles, with different perspectives

unfolding as the viewer moves around. The

facades have a "giant order.' with the
Brunelleschi's chapel of San
columns ignoring the floor levels to unify Laurentian
Lorenzo contains the Medici
the elevation —a common feature of family vault, Michelangelo's
Library
The cloister of San
Mannerist architecture earliest architectural piece.
Lorenzo in Florence is the
Michelangelo reverted to Bramante's location of the famous
Laurentian Library
ideas when lie was assigned to the completion of St.
vestibule (1526), the tall,
Peter's in 1546. He square space filled with

demolished most of a cascade of three

NAMES ON THE WALL staircases. Again there

the additions of
are a whole series of
Raphael and Sangallo unorthodox features:
Giulio Romano (1492—1546), apainterand
and continued with consoles that support
architect, took on approach to Mannerism
nothing, aedicules with
thai has been called expressionist, intended to Bramante's original
pilasters tapering at the

involve the visitor in the sensuous experience centralized plan and a bottom, and columns
paired recesses, rather
of the building. His Palazzo del Te in Mont no smaller dome. Much in

like statues in niches. The

(1526-31) is a single-story building with a of Michelangelo's curious and unexpected
courtyard. Thefagades ore revolutionary, w oik is obscured l>\ grabs our attention.
Seriian windows on a flat surface on one side There is no figurative
alterations to the nave
rout rast with solid and heavy rustications on sculpture; the
and the facade architecture itself
the other. The henry Tuscan order is used.
designed l>\ ( 'arlo becomes plastic,
I he interiors feature frescoes of erotic nonfigurative, abstract
MADERNO (1566-
subjects that ore difficult to ignore. sculpture instead.
1629), which were
completed in 1612.

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 1 53 1 The comet known c. 15 50-72 1 566-78 Vignola completes
as "the Great Comet" Benedictine monastery at the Villa Lante at Bagnaia (near
causes consternation; Tivoli is rebuilt as the lavish Viterbo). One of the features of its

one of six to terrify the Villa d'Este with fountains, gardens is a series of water-
world (the new astronomers ornamental lake, cascades, cooled dining tables.
excepted) in the 1530s. water jets, water organ,
grottoes, et al.

1510-1590
Mind Your Mannerism
Vignola
Following in the footsteps of someone as great as
That Cool,
Michelangelo might seem the worst ofjobs for Clear Water
anyone^ but Giacomo B \ROZZl D i VlGNOL i Characteristically the
Romans developed and
proved himself equal
1507-73) to the challenge. He provided the means to
succeeded Michelangelo at St Peter's and as Rome's deliver water across
rough terrain
leading architect He studied painting and to your door ... well,

architecture in Bologna before moving to Rome. almost. Their aqueducts

were arched masonry
where numerous churches and exceptionally
his
structures in stone or

beautiful villas hare been enormously influential. brick, sometimes of

a massive size,

supporting a stone
Villa Giulia
Tli.' channel in which the
1551-55), ImiMi wet stuff flowed.

for Pope Julius ffl is an Spectacular examples

:

are the Pont du Gard

impressive spatial
( 1 st century B.C.) near
composition and an NTmes, France, and
a 2nd century A.D.
important conceptual
aqueduct at Segovia,
development. \\ hile Spain, which still does
Michelangelo sculpted the business for the

locals. It didn't end

wall-. \ ignola sculpted
there: English engineers
volume and -pact'. also constructed

\ ignola - \\ alls aqueducts for barge

transportation during ihe
function both as the
great canal era of the
boundary enclosing eighteenth century.

inner -pact-, and as an

outside space, and the

line between the
interior and the
exterior is blurred.
Villa Giulia is dominated by
Immediately beyond the facade, a
a massive rusticated portal.
relatively austere symmetrical rectangular
The large voussoirs (stones
form, i- an open semicircular courtyard. forming the arch) overlap
The vista i> framed on both sides and the entablature above.

34 \IO III I I ( I NIK - V CRASH C0URS1

 1577 The Church 1573 English architect 1 590-1 600 The theater
of the Redentore is Inigo Jones and Italian with plays by Shakespeare,

commissioned from painter Michelangelo da Jonson, ond Marlowe, is

Palladio to celebrate Caravaggio born. flourishing in London.

the end of a bad

plague in Venice.

Wide nave with

tunnel vault Decorative scrolls The Gesu, Rome, by
roof inu.sk aisle roofs
Vignola (begun 1568) has

a facade designed by
Giacomo della Porta.

closed 1»\ a

semitransparent
loggia that divides the

courtyard in two.
Concealed steps lead
down to a lower level,

and the dark secrets of

the watery nvinphanenni The loggia in the

beneath. The unexpected courtyard of the Villa

Giulia provides
formal arrangement?
shade from me
juxtaposition of straight
Roman sun.

and curved walls, the

hidden spaces suddenly revealed — are all

nan of the unsettling effect of the

succes>ion of -paces.
Vignola's Gesu (1568). built lor the

Society of Jesus, s) mbolized the

[
NAMES ON THE WALL ) reestablishment of Catholicism, and both
it> plan and elevation were much copied, h
Ciacomo della Porta (1533-1602). best
known Udobrandini
i- a combination of Renaissance planning
for the fantastic Villa.

in Frascati. 1598-1603 . followed Vignola (a centralized east end with a domed

as architect at the Gesu, where he designed crossing) and a Latin cross plan with an

thefaqade 1571-84). He also followed exiended nave. In place of side aisles there
Michelangelo at St Peter's (1573-74 and arc chapels opening directly oil the central
completed the dome (1588-90{ and the nave. I he facade i- a basilicas form with
garden facades. Carlo Maderno's task
decorative scrolls reminiscenl <»l Mherti -

when he was appointed to St. Peter's in

Santa Maria Novella.
1003 was to ad<l the by now compulsory
Giorgio I \SAR1 151 1-"-+). a painter
/tare and a new facade. I lis other
and great Ian ol Michelangelo, was
important narks are Santa Susanna
and San \ndrea della Vallee.
involved \\ ith \ ignola and Immanati
en the Villa Giulia. Ili>l lli/i (1560) in

Florence i- based on Michelangelo -

l.aiucntian I .ibrarv

in CRASH ml IM 35
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l l ( l l It I
 1 508 Michelongelo 1511 The text of Vitruvius's 1518 "Cigaritos"-
begins his monumental ancient treatise De Architecture, small cigars from the

work, painting the dedicated to Augustus and in New World —are being
Sistine Chapel ceiling. circulation again since 1414, imported into Europe
is now published (in Latin and by Spanish traders.
later in Italian, French, Spanish)

Andrea Palladio
1540-1380 What a boy. No frills,

no sidelines. Just a

Palladio builder, pure

simple. He
and
learned

Italian Hi^h Renaissance well from Michelangelo,

Raphael, Bernini, and

others, and used his
I nique as the only architect to hare an idiom. avid interest in

Palladianism, named after him, indrea P \LL \DI0 archeology in his

designs, mostly for the

1508-80 has to be one of the best known oj all
better. But while his
architects. His work represents an architecture logical Italian creations are
legendary, Palladio's
in approach and resulting in a calm serenity and a influence elsewhere,
"
practicalfunctionality. "I sefulness, "durability, " and in Britain especially,
could be and was
"beauty" arc the three essentials Palladia advocated, to
revolutionary. It actually

be achieved through the careful application oj the rules changed the landscape.

If Inigo Jones
of composition derivedfrom ancient civilization and (1573-1652) hadn't
based on the lairs of nature: symmetry and harmony. been such a slavish
admirer, and if the

great Kunstftihrer
Palladio has an enormous number of has pilasters paired in
Lord Burlington
buildings of all types to his credit as the coiner bays and (1694-1753) hadn't
well as extensrt e writings, including / i> heavily rusticated. followed suit, the British

country house tradition

quattro libri deW. irchitettura (1570), Both die Palazzo
(and with it Britain's
which became the standard Neoclassical Chiercati (1550). with National Trust) might

reference for centuries after* aid. | li^ first it> two-storj portico, never have existed.
Think about it.

project, won in competition and Palazzo Yalinarana

in 1549. was for the ( 1565), with its giant

remodeling of the Basilica of composite pilasters and superimposed

\ icenza. 1 le enclosed tin- Corinthian columns, include a variety of
existing building within a StUCCO decoration.
The church of San Giorgio
two-storied, colonnaded
Maggiore in Venice stands
screen wall using ihe
reflected in the lagoon. The facade
Serlian windows (renamed :>f Pqlladio's church was completed
Palladian) said to be by Scamozzi in 1602-10.

copied from the Roman

Nave has giant
baths of Diocletian. The order and temple
front pediment
Palazzo Thiene (1542)
 I 530 The Venetian e. 1 550 Gabriele Fallopio 1 565 The first description

Giovanni Spinetti invents of Padua University, discoverer of the pencil is given by the

the spinet, to be played of Fallopian tubes, invents the Swiss Conrad Gesner

in the gracious new condom, to be used as a Pencil drawing

Italian villas means of preventing the becomes widespread
spread of infection.

School's ()u
The growth of the
THE VILLAS Palladio's churches
academy as a teaching
While the palazzos show a Mannerisl are less well known hut institution was a slow
tendency and a variety of design ideas, the none the less beautiful one, and architects
weren't recognized as
numerous \ illa> Palladio designed conform and accomplished works.
a breed apart: they
ni a standard pattern that was both San Giorgio Maggiore. were lumped in with

Functional and flexible. Most, such as Villa Venice ( 1565), is a the painters and
sculptors. The
Poiana, Poiana Maggiore (154 ( )). \ ilia Benedictine church with
breakthrough came in

Pisani. Bagnolo (1544). and Saraceno, a Latin cross plan, side France, in 1 671 where
,

special training for

Firale di Agugliaro (1545), are based aisles, and a retrochoir.
architectural wannabes
around a centralized square plan, have a The simple, austere was provided at the
rectangular salone, and temple front finishes of the interior newly formed
academy. It was a drop
porticoes. Other spaces, such a> stables, are lit by Palladian
in the ocean.
granaries, or tarns, are then arranged
I w i in low s high in the Architectural instruction

symmetrically a> variations on the basic nave. The later tended to stay informal,

largely because the

theme. One of the more unusual, the \ ilia Redentore, Venice
printed sources were
Rotonda, near \ icenza, is a variant that ( 1577). is simpler in few. Throughout
Europe, the eighteenth-
uses a circular domed salone and has a plan, with a single
century Enlightenment
portico on all four facades overlooking the nave and side chapels moved matters

surrounding countryside. and a monks choir forward, and as

academies began to
behind a screen. The
appear, professional
facade, composed with training followed suit.

NAMES ON THE WALL both giant and small

orders, accentuates
Readers needing an aide memoire might
like to know that Palladio's realfamily
the complex
The Villa Rotonda,
name was Gondola. Despite demonstrating Vicenzaf 1552), has
a detailed knowledge ofRoman antiquities composition of dome. a portico on each of
in his hooks, he mode free with Mannerist turrets, and buttresses. the four facades.

detail and misplaced temple-front porticoe:

in Ins own work! The tide ofpublications
ware rise to /ears that originality would he
stultified by obeisance to the past.

Nevertheless, faced with the choice ni one

architectural tome la lake to a desert

island. Martin Briggs thought it would be

Vasari's I ives, not Palladio's < Orders.

\ i i; \- II i ni i;-i

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 a

1517 The portrait of Pope 1 528 In Germany, despite I 550 Viols, recorders,

Leo X by Raphael shows the Renaissance influences, and the lute are essential

pontiff wearing spectacles. Gothic art is going strong. instruments in court and
Glass manufacture (based in Griinewald completes the stately home
Venice and Nuremberg) now Isenheim altarpiece at Colmar
makes many more readers use
eyeglasses

1500-1600
The Palais de Fontainebleau (1 528-40), Seine-
Chateaux and Palais et-Marne, built for Francois I, gains much of its

effect from the reflection in one of its lakes.

French Renaissance
A particularly French version of
Italian Renaissance architecture
was established during the sixteenth
century with the building of
chateaux, many in the Loire Valley,
which iras initially promoted as the
location of Francois I and his court.
The ( hut can du Bury (151 1-24,
destroyed) was the model. Plans
are generally square, with circular lowers (pavilions) at the corners
crowned with conical roofs. The buildings are often only one room
deep, with the principal rooms situated between the courtyard and
the garden, and service spaces adjacent to stableyards or ancillary
courtyards. There is a tendency for facades to be ornate and crowded
with sculpture and earrings, rather than monumental.

The Chateau de Chambord (151 9-47) NAM ES ON THE WALL

is the most spectacular, with all the [

characteristics of a fairy-tale castle. \ (

trance's invasion oj Italy in l-f J-f brought
square building with four round pavilions Renaissance architecture to the attention of
at the corners sits inside a rectangular four- the French court in a way that no simple
towered enceinte surrounded by a moat — lecture tour could. ( olonies of Italian

simple medieval model. The interior is artists resided at Imboise, routs, and
completely symmetrical. It has two axial, Blois. Meanwhile, "master mason" types oj

rectangular vaulted halls making a cross in the medieval periodlike Cities Le Breton
continued to operate, and increasingly
plan, with a fantastic double-helix
established craft dynasties. Responsibility
staircase behind openwork balustrading
for masterpieces such as the Loire chateaux
placed centrally at the intersection. No
is holly contested, and one theory holds
encounter is possible on the staircase;
that the Kinjr (Francois I) duiuiit.
climbers circle each other, ascending and
descending. In the corner on each floor are

\ CR \su coi liM.

 1550 Coal begins to 1 600 By this year, e. 1 61 O The first
replace wood as an William Shakespeare appearance of the violin
industrial fuel. Mines open has written twenty plays, Louis XIII of France has a
at Liege and Newcastle including As You Like It,
group known as the Vingt-
Weapons
main

Gridiron
of war are
industrial product.

to
the and A Midsummer
Night's Dream.
quatre Violins du Roi.
Baroque music gets going.
ft"
Gridlock
identical logis THE LOUVRE AND FONTAINEBLEAU
Town planning really

began in the ancient

comprising salon, bed Francois I was also responsible for starting
world with the simple chamber, and rebuilding work at the Louvre, Paris,
introduction of the
cabinet. Elaborate which was to continue for several
rectilinear grid for

streets. In France, lanterns light the centuries. Pierre LESCOT (1500-78) made
King Henri IV staircases and crowds an important contribution to French
(1553-1610) was
of dormers and tall Classicism with his design for the Cour
more interested in
town planning than chimneys punctuate Carre (1546-51), and Philibert de I'Orme
in building chateaux.
the roof, which can be began designs to connect the Louvre to the
Inspired by Sixtus V's
plan for Rome, he explored via a Palais des Tuileries. Jean Du Cerceav
introduced radial balustraded terrace (c. 1590-c. 1649) is the other
planning with public
below the eaves. important architect, remembered for
squares and "places"
at the street intersections. his ostentatious horseshoe-shaped
The Place des Vosges BLOISAND staircase at the Palais de Fontainebleau.
(originally Place

Royale), which has

CHENONCEAU the largest chateau of them all.

a colonnaded street At the earlier Chateau Philibert de FOrme had considerable

level, was the first
deBlois (1515-24). influence through his writings, Nourelles
such public space,
surrounded by houses. Francois I added a Inrentions (1561) wad Architecture (1567)
Centuries later, Baron wing to the existing — a practical work explaining how to
Haussman (1809-91)
reorganized the streets
medieval castle. The construct a house. Du Cerceau was equally
of Paris, based on the wing is more Italian, influential through his publication Les plus
same ideas. Circular
with loggias based excellents batiments de France (1576-79).
boulevards and
radiating avenues
on Bramante s work
were intended to create at the Vatican.
monumental vistas, as
The Chateau
well as control the
inhabitants. de Chenonceau
(1515-23) has the
square block, four
pavilions, and steeply pitched roofs. The
romantic bridge across the ( !her ( L556-59)
was added later by Philibert DEVOrME
(1510-70) for Diane de Poitiers, the

mistress of Henri II.

The chateau at Azay-le-Rideau

(1519-27), Indre-ef-Loire, was
built for a wealthy bourgeois family
on the banks of the Indre River.

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 —
1 529 Cardinal Wolsey 1 530 England leaves Rome
falls from grace and Henry and the Reformation follows.

VIII takes over his palace at Dissolution of the monasteries

Hampton Court. Wolsey means the poor have no one to

should have known bettei care for them, but the better-off
than to outbuild the king. have stone to build with.

1520-1630
G oriana1 • Strapwork — interlaced
patterns as
Tudor and Elizabethan England or metal,
if

woven
in leather
together !

• Plans and facades are

/ alike the grandeur and austerity ofItalian and French
symmetrical, learned

Renaissance architectures, that of Tudor England was from the Renaissance

buildings in Europe
sail medieval in spirit, with informal planning and
• Decoration is Dutch,
Gothic craftsmanship. But when the wealthy aristocrats with gables and
<m<l the rich merchant bourgeoisie all began to aspire strapwork

• Big windows with

to having a place in the country,
stone mullions and
I her
i in architects heeded the call, and the transoms
Shortages
Renaissance-influenced Elizabethan
Town houses were still

generally timber- mansion started to appear.

framed, often with
"jettied" construction
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH
(the first floor projects

beyond
floor). Little
the ground
Moreton
T
I
be grandest
Tudor house
lampion Court
is During Elizabeth's
and symmetrica] Renaissance
reign, a more geomel
style of
ric

Hall, in Cheshire
Palace (1520), begun planning developed. Facades followed suit,
(1559), and Pitchford,
in Shropshire (1560), by Cardinal Wolsey. hut differed radically from the Italian and
are the best-preserved Henry Vm then French style with the use of Dutch gables
examples of "black and
claimed it for himself and strapwork, and in continuing the
white" Elizabethan
houses. By the end of because ii \v;i^ bigger Perpendicular passion for very large
the sixteenth century,
and better than his windows with masonry mullions and
timber shortages and
consequent price rises
old timber-framed transoms. The principal room was the two-
led to the development palace in Surrey. stor\ great hall, often containing the main
of alternatives. The
Nonsuch. Built in
more economical box
frame with fewer timbers, brick, the house is

or misshapen timbers distinctivel) English,

that previously would
with it> elaborate
have been rejected,

were used with chimneys, stone-

plastering to conceal
mulhoned \\ indows,
the shortcomings.
castellations. and
octagonal towers
nil elements thai were used throughout
the sixteenth century. The great hall has a
fine hammer-beam roof and oriel window.

40 .(: I I Rl. - V CRASH COU RSI

 I 550-87 Burghley House is 1 560s England is c. 1584-89 Sr
built in Cambridgeshire for gripped by a building Walter Raleigh
William Cecil, Elizabeth I's chief boom as the middle attempts to colonize

adviser. Meanwhile, instead of classes emerge. E-shaped part of North America

building her own palaces Elizabeth houses become popular and names Virginia

I sleeps in other people's. after the Virgin Queen

stair. The corridor at Brsl Burghley I louse

floor level connecting (1552-87), in

the rooms widened and ( lanibridgeshire, has

developed info the long the archetypal Tudor

gallery, a space intended "look." with corner

for the display of painting! towcis and square turrets

Longleat, in Wiltshire while Hardwick Mall.

(1567), designed l>\
1*H! in Derbyshire (1590),
Robert SMYTHSOI\ has the facade with the
(1535-1614), is the most windows, giving
earliesl example of the rise to the wry comment
style. The plan, arranged •Hardwick Hall, more
around two inner Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire (1 550- glass than wall.

courtyards, has rigorously 59), a typical Tudor courtier's home, The style continued in
manages to house a long gallery.
symmetrical facades, similar fashion into the
Timber framing is put to ornamental
continuous entablatures, reign of James 1 (1603-
use (some call this early Renaissance)
and pilastered projecting 25). OfnoteareAudley
bays. Wollaton Hall, in Nottingham (1580) End, in Essex (1603), which has rather
also l>\ Smythson, is castlelike, w nli turrets picturesque turrets above an others ise

around a central block containing the very simple, symmetrical facade, and
S] miiietrically planned main hall and Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire (1607),
square towers at each corner. The exterior where the south facade has an arcade on
has straps oik on Dutch gables and the ground floor below the lone gallery.
superimposed Hat pilasters, paired in

various different ways, between continuous Dissolution and

entablatures at each floor level.
other Protestant vires
Henry VIH's lousy love life (the pope wouldn't
grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon)
had one major result, in that he came down in

articulated favor of the Lutheran Reformation in all its austerity.

bars The logical result was that all Roman associations

were out, and so the monastic foundations had to

Wiltshire,
go. In architectural terms the period known as the
Longleat, in
Dissolution of the Monasteries was a collective act
built for Sir John
of unbridled vandalism on the part of a king who
Thynne by Robert
prided himself on his intellect and education. Did
Smythson in the
Henry have a moral point? Were the monasteries
1 570s, has the corrupt? By that time, very likely. But the
requisite long gallery, architectural damage done was horrendous.
grand staircase, and
terraced entrance.

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 1601 Inigo takes 1605 In the year of 1 620 The London Virginia
his first Italian holiday the Gunpowder Plot, Company finances the Pilgri

and comes back full of Inigo designs his first Fathers' first trip to

architectural ideas. masque, an early form Massachusetts and

of pantomime. He can be held responsible foi

introduces Baroque to Thanksgiving turkey dinners

the English stage

1573-1652
SPOT
The Welsh Wizard THE
STYLE
Inigo Jones
Palladian revival is

founded on Hie master's

The severe Classicism of the Italian
own rules of symmetry
Renaissance was introduced to and harmony. Thus we
find regular geometric
England in the early seventeenth
floor plans, often based
cent m\-
by Inigo JO \ ES (1573-1652). around a central square;

temple front porticoes on

In the context of the picturesque Tudor
opposing facades;
Queen's House style then current. Jones's buildings tripartite elevations; and
floor plan.
the tripartite Serlian (or
were a dramatic contrast. Jones had
Palladian) windows.
visited Italy and met Scamozzi, who was responsible Proportion, simplicity,
and
for completing much of Palladia work; Jones
solidity.
's

became an ardent admirer. Is Surveyor to the

kit iii's Works he ween /(>t.~> and 1642, Jones had
t

worked on several prominent buildings, and his stylistic approach

became enormously influential as the basis of the eighteenth- century
Palladian revival.

Jones's masterpiece, the Banqueting CUBES AND SQUARES

House, in London (l()l ( >-22). is clearly I he Queen - 1 louse at Greenwich
Palladian in inspiration. The plan i> (1616-18) is a reinterpretation of a
red a miliar and the volume
i is a double Palladian villa, complete with a loggia at

cube including a gallery. The facade is first-floor level and curved symmetrical
<li\ ided into three; the center w ith flights of steps up to the terrace. Again
protruding half columns and ha conic-, the I symmetry and proportion are paramount:
two sides with flatter pilasters and panels. the hall inside i- a perfect cube.
It has a rusticated base, first-floor \\ indow -

with alternating segmental and triangular

pediments, and top-floor windows with
straight cornices. It is best described in

.lone-'- words, -ollid

The Banqueting House
proporsionable
at Whitehall was the only
according i<> the
building in Jones's plan
miles, masculine for the new palace to

and unaffected/ be completed.

42 \H< III I I.C

 I 632 The painter Van 1 649 Charles I of England 1652 The
Dyck comes to work in is executed; England declares society of Friends

England at the court of a commonwealth, which is set (Quakers) is

up under Oliver Cromwell. founded

s:
Charles I and is soon joined in

by his disciple Peter Lely. England.

Jones's Pupil

Jones was also

responsible for the
original design of

London- first
Roger Pratt

Inigo Jones,
(1620-85),
a talented follower of
was
responsible for setting
the trend for simple
classical houses.
NAMES ON THE WALL

Inigo Jones Senior was a Smithfield cloth

worker who was finedfor had language
]
n
square, at Covent Coleshill House, in

Berkshire (c.1650,
and went bankrupt in 1589. Jones Junior
Garden, with a
demolished 1952), first found renown as an originator oj royal
colonnaded street
was the finest, with a masques. On a second visit to Italy at age
level and giant double square plan
40, he was still sketching the human figure
and tripartite elevations
pilasters above. The more than architectural details. Given this
based on Palladio.
only surviving piece late start, it is clear that many more
is the church of St. buildings have been attributed to him than

Paul, with detail can possibly be his. It is likely that mare

faithful to Vitrnvius. a heavy Tuscan credit should go to his assistants John
portico, and a simple rectangular plan. Webb and Nicholas Stone.

Appropriate for Protestant worship and

to suit the economic constraints of his

client, this structure was defined by Jones The Queen's House, in Greenwich, is plain

as "the handsomest barn in England." and well proportioned. The queen in

question was Queen Anne, although it was

Open loggia completed for Henrietta Maria,
wife of Charles I.

MM m
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 1 595 The Carrocci found 1637 Philosopher 1 646 The English Civil

their painting acodemy and Rene Descartes I

War ends with victory for

inspire a generation of artists (1596-1650) publishes Parliament and for

to work in the Baroque his Discourses on the Puritans.

manner, adding emotion and Method He thinks,

individuality to Clc therefore he is

1620- 1830
The oval dome of
The Fabulous Baroque Boys Borromini's San Carlo alle

Quattro Fontane, Rome.

Baroque in Italy

"Irregular shapes and extravagant

ornamentation is the hopelessly
inadequate definition often used to
describe, in purely visual terms, an
architecture thai has to be experienced to
be believed The Baroque churches oj
Rome, built bypopes competing to have
more and more splendid places of
worship to their names, were everything
that the austere temples oj the
Reformation were not opulent, rich,

dramatic, and exciting. They represent

the ( atholic ( lunch at its most powerful

Lroque churches are filled with a sense THE RIVALS

B: >f movement, full of sensual shapes I w o architects -land out. One Francesco
and curvaceous, sinuous, and serpentine BORROMINI (1599-1677), i- the sensitive

spaces. rhe clearly understandable static soul — a working man and a first-rate

space of the perfect circle, and the craftsman. The <nli*r. Gianlorenzo BERNINI
processional space of the rectilinear nave. (1598-1680), from a wealthy family.
art- replaced !>\ oval plans and walls is self-assured, multitalented, and favored

I
»n net ia i nd with niches and alcoves of all 1>\ wealth} patrons. Neither has much time
shapes and sizes. Facades change from for the other.

convex to concave and back again, their Borroinini started his career as a stone

pilasters now ded together, adding depth cutter ai St. Peter's, where be was eventually
and shadow to the undulating surface. to become Bernini's assistant. Among \\\>

Columns are now into spiral twists, the best work- are two very small churches. Tlu
know n orders are distorted, and the chapel of San ( larlo alle Quattro Fontane
pediments are broken, riotously curved, 1638-46) i- formed from the geometry of
and tilted every which way. Spaces appear interlocking triangles, and ha- several oval

to have been carved from solid shapes. side chapels that somehow seem to merge

\K( llll I ( I I HI .
- V CRASH C
 1 648 In France the 1660 The English 1683 Dutch lens grinder

first of the uprisings monarchy is restored; the Antonie van Leeuwenhoek see

known as the Frondes reign of Charles II opens tiny living beings through his

takes place. the door to theater and microscope

theatricality.

together magically to become the fluid oval

NAMES ON THE WALL

form of the dome above. In San Ivo della The career of Domenico Fontana
Sapienza ( 1642-60), where the chapel is
(1543-1601) Musi rules he importance ofI

Sts1 seen a1 a distance across a courtyard. papal patronage and the unconventional

the dome becomes a spiraling ziggnrat on modus operandi of some popes. Engaged in

the outside. building a chapelfor Cardinal Montalto

One of Bernini 's earliesl commissions

andfinding I lie cardinal's funds suspended.

Fontana deployed 1.000 crowns of his own

was the baldacchino (1623-33) at the
money to complete the task. Soon afterward,
crossing under the dome at St. Peter's.
Montalto became Pope Sixtus V and
With enormous twisted spiral columns,
Fontana s career trajectory was ensured.
sumptuous decoration, and rich materials, it
This same pope was guilty of ransacking
i- somewhat grandiose. His most powerful Home's architectural heritage, and ordered
sculptural work is the Coronaro Chapel in Fontana to concert the ( o/osseum into a
Santa Maria della Vittoria. where he uses woolfactory.
light and false perspective, multicolored
marble, and a theatrical setting to heighten
the eroticism of the
St. Peters limit)
SPOT subject, the ecstasy
THE
STYLE of St. Theresa. In his

Fountain of the Hirers

(16-+8) in the Piazza
• Complex geometries
employing ovals, Navona. one of the
often in plan figures i^ covering his
• Facades that undulate, tact — allegedly so
concave then convex
that he doesn'l have
then back again
to see the facade <»l

• Theatrical illusionistic
the church opposite
devices, false
perspectives in which was designed
trompe I'oeil painting
h\ Borromini.
and in built form,
concealed lighting,

exuberant decoration
Twisted
• Open -topped or
columns
broken pediments,
twisted columns

The baldacchino, or tomb

canopy, under Michelangelo's
dome in St. Peter's, Rome, is

an early work by Bernini.

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 1 605 The Place 1607 Claudia 1610 Galileo
Royale (now Place des Monteverdi discovers (with the
Vosges) in Paris is (1567-1643) aid of his adaptation
completed but traffic writes the first of the new telescope)
circulation is already a real opera; La the moons of Jupiter

growing problem. Favola d'Orfeo. and phases of Venus.

1600-1700
Baroque en France
Mans art, Le Vau
The Baroque in France comprises
thesame formal and decora/ire
elements that are found in Italy —
/;/// a certain French coolness
menus that the extravagant drama
is tempered with n degree of
(
'lassical restraint.

Two figures stand out in ilii- period.

Frangois 1/ 1 MS \/n (
1
-~^
* > c >
— 666) and
1

Louis Lt I \i (1612-70), contemporaries

working under Louis \l\. were responsible Le Vau's chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte,
built for Nicholas Fouquet, Surintendant
for the mosl important buildings of the
des Finances.
French Baroque.
Mansart's Maisons Lafitte (1642-48)
has ova] rooms and ''mansard roofs,"
which were named after him. I be church NAMES ON THE WALL
ofVal-de-Grace, Pari- (1645 . has a
The Hussion tsarina Klizabeth Petrovna
facade in a restrained, earlier Renaissance proved an enlightened architectural patron.
style and a dorm — a recently introduced The ladies of I he French court //ere mod
feature in French buildings. about architecture; Catherine de Medici
Le \an had the peculiarly Baroque and Diane de Poitiers (mistress ofHenri It)

talenl of combining architecture with viedfor supremacy in this as in all things.

sculpture, painting, and decorating to Diane was more successful, as Catherine

was afflicted with "building mania " and

produce some of the mosl flamboyant
"very bad taste. " It was the Marquise de
works of the period. I li- masterpiece is the
Kamhouillet. however, who made the
house at Vaux-le-Vicomte (1657-61). one
enlightened suggestion that * cabinets <lr

of the mo>i brilliant of all French chateaux.

toilettes, safies des bains, and the like.
The house has a rnagnificenl central domed Ought to be near bedrooms instead of
salon on an oval plan, rich decoration by at the other end of i lie garden.
Lebrun (1619-90). and fabulous gardens
laid out l.\ [ndre Le Xmiti: (1613-1700).
 Early I 7Hi-c. Music 1 678 John Bunyan's 1 683 The Ottoman
is for dancing as well as novel Pilgrim's Progress is Turks besiege Vienna but
listening to: rooms need published It is an allegory are repelled They leave
to provide space for up of man's journey through life coffee beans behind and
to 40 musicians as well the Viennese coffee house

as the dancers is born.

Russia
The westernization of Russian architecture usually
Jules II IRDOl TN-MANS \I!T ( 1 646- 708, 1
is

associated with the"Moscow" or "Naryskin"

the great-nephew of Francois) was Baroque of the 680s and 90s: still largely
1

appointed royal architect in 1675 and medieval but with some Classical symmetry and
application of the Classical orders. During the reign
continued Le Van's work at the palace of
of Peter the Great (1 682-1 725), and with the
Versailles in the 1670s. including tin- founding of St. Petersburg (1 703), western

magnificent Calerie des Glaces. The influences increased. Bartolomeo Rastrelli

(1700-71), Empress Elizabeth's architect, was
famous gardens at Versailles, laid ont by
inspired by Versailles but also retained the Russian
Le Notre, allow long vistas as an extension polychromatic decorations.

of the enfilade, the

Les Pautres linear arrangemenl
Antoine Le Pautre of the interior spaces
(1621-81) is another
within the palace.
remarkably inventive
architect of seventeenth- This kind of axial
century France. His
planning with focal
Hotel de Beauvais,
Paris (1652-55), is a
points, radiating
truly ingenious piece \ istas, and
of planning on a
monumental effects
complicated urban site,

jammed in between i- typical of urban

other buildings. He design at the time.
uses a whole variety of
different shapes and
Hardouin-Mansan
configurations to great created the Parisian
effect. He is also known
places Vendome and
for his book Desseins
de plusieurs palais \ ictoires. The chapel
(1652), which features of Les Invalides
engraved designs for
(1680-91) has an
huge and extravagantly
Baroque country oval chancel and a
houses. Le Pautre's dramatic dome with
nephew Pierre
1643-1 71
one <•! the mosl
(c. 6) was
influential in developing extreme of Baroque
the Rococo style of
illusionistic effects.
decoration and was the
leading decorator at Paintings on the
Versailles under outer dome become
Hardouin-Mansart,
\ isible through an
responsible for the
palace's chapel. opening in the inner
Versailles, remodeled for created by Le Vau, although
dome and are lit
Louis XIV, is the best-known later work by Hardouin-
M.t I II I .i 1 1\ l>\ work of the French Baroque. Mansart obscured much of

concealed \\ indo\* s.
The Versailles style was the original vision

\-ll ol li-l
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It (
 1717 In France the 1 730s In England gin- 1 735 Charles Marie de
painter Watteau introduces drinking (an idea fostered la Condamine discovers
the genre of painting by the Dutch) accounts for rubber while in South
known as the fete galante one in seven adult deaths America measuring the
Lightness, elegance, and This state of affairs lasts curvature of the earth.
delight rule the day until a tax is imposed
on gin in 1751

1650- 1790
Gay but not Gaudy
Rococo
Rococo is often used to (/escribe buildings

of the lost pliose oj the Baroque, mainly

in and southern Germany, where
[ustria
Protestantism was slow to fake up such
an ostentatious style. Rococo (/escribes
a land oj decoration: liij.ii/. white, and
The Karlskirche in Vienna
asymmetrical, often with rustic scenes, naturalistic has a variety of borrowed

curves, and shell-like forms. If originated in France Roman elements,

expressively used.
with rocaille, the term for the rocklike encrustations
usedfor grottoes and on fountains. There is also a
spatial complexity usually attributed to the influence of the work
of the Italian Guarino Gl \/,'t\t (1624-83). Guarinis work, with a
compter use of undulating concare and convex forms, is a synthesis
of the geometries ofBorromini and the illusionist ic effects ofBernini,
together with a rich ornamentation of his own.
Oriental i fline

Johann BernhardFlSi HER i<>\ Erl \< ii

1656-1723) was the outstanding figure

of the laic Baroque in central Europe. He

trained in sculpture and studied tin- work-
of Borromini ami Bernini. I Ii- pa— ion for

the oval is evidenl in h- use in his Castle

Vraiiov (1690-94). with its oval windows
and an oval vestibule, and also the ( Ihurch
of the Holy Trinity, in Salzburg (1694),
which has a combination of transverse oval
vestibule leading to a longitudinal oval the building behind it and including two
interior. I ii- besl piece is the Karlskirche in freestanding columns, copied from the
Vienna (1716), where again, oval forms Roman columns of Trajan and Marcus
interlock with a (neck cross plan. The Aurelius, which rise above the facade to

facade i- extraordinar) : much wider than majestically frame the dome.

48 \l<< IIIIICII HI - \ ( H \S RSI

 1 755 Immanuel Kant 1 770 Captain Cook drops 1 783 The Mongolfie

(1724-1 804) takes time off anchor at Botany Bay, as he names brothers take the first

from philosophizing and this bit of coastal Australia Joseph hot-air balloon for

points his great mind skyward Banks, one of his team of scientists, a flight.

He posits the existence of brings back plants for English

conglomerates of stars called galaxies greenhouses.

(galaxy is Greek for Milky Way).

Architecture at
the Crossroads...
Johann Lukas ON HlLDEBRANDT I the Episcopal Palace ...of Europe. Prague's
Rococo legacy is a
(1688-1745) succeeded Fischer von in Wt'irzburg(1730).
major one, and the
Erlach as Court Architect in 1723. His The plan for his hurch Dientzenhoffer family

Upper Belvedere in Vienna (1721-22) has at Vierzenheiligen had a controlling

interest. You may need
a inultitiered Oriental-fashion roof, (1743) uses three toknow that Kilian
common in central Europe. The Duan intersecting ovals Ignaz (1689-1751)

Kinksv Palace in Vienna (1713-16) is along the main axis of was the most famous
member of this tribe, a
typical of his work, with delicate pilasters the nave, two circles at prolific church-builder

rising to great height on the facade, the transepts, and who trained under
Hildebrandt. His love of
together with robust caryatids holding the smaller ovals in the
odd geometric shapes
open pediment over the entrance. aisles. The effect of the (octagons, ellipses) and

undulating surfaces, domes permeated a

huge output, but his
SOUTHERN GERMANY decorated with white
older brother Johann
I mil the sixteenth century, staircases were painted stucco lit by (1663-1 726) was
more restrained (it
usually utilitarian and generally hidden. large windows, is
comes with age). He's
1 [owever, later new types began to appear, dazzling. best known for Schloss

with various landing configurations and Johann Michael Pommersfelden

(1711-18), a richly
open wells. The Baroque staircases of Fischer (1692-1766)
stuccoed, exotically
Johann Balthasar NEl i/i.y.y (1687-1753) was more prolific, mirrored establishment

exploited thi> new-found spatial possibility completing as many as (as only the Rococo
knew how to create).
with fantastic paired sweeping curves, as at 32 churches and 22
abbeys. Still with the
same rich stucco decorations, some of his
buildings display a masterly spatial
complexity. Two of the finest abbey
churches are at Ottobeuren ( 1748-67) and

It's a (.as!
Not a style in its own right, Rococo represents the

riotous tail end of the Baroque period, strangely

confined to a Germanic portion of Europe. Its

influence in France is confined to a certain lightness

and delicacy of form on the exteriors of some
buildings. A very few Rococo interiors are hidden
The Belvedere, Vienna (1 693-1 724), was
away inside English houses, but beyond this, its
built as a summer residence, with a lake and
impact is restricted to the garden, where determined
splendid gardens. This is the Upper Belvedere, investigators may spot garden furniture with
separated from the lower buildings by Chinese, Indian, or Gothic overtones.
magnificent gardens. The house is named after

the belvedere —a lookout tower in the roof.

www.ebook3000.com
 1653 Five- 1658 Faithorne publishes a 1665 Wren comes back
year-old Louis XIV fairly accurate map of London. from Paris full of ideas for city

comes to the Only eight years later the Great designs and plots a rash of
throne in France. Fire of London renders it obsolete rond-points and radiating
Ogilvy, Morden, and Lea's new avenues for London.
map will appear in 1 682.

1600-1750
When Is an Architect
not an Architect?
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir ( hristopher WREN (1632-1723) was a
classicist, mathematician, and astronomer —
and had no education as (ui architect But
he had studied the texts of Uberti, Serlio, .

and Palladia and met Mansart and a very-

old Bernini while in France. So the invitation In Wren's church of St. Stephen Walbrook,
in London (1672-79), diagonal arches cut
to rebuildLondon after the (deal Fire of
across the rectangular grid of columns to
1666 was an inspired piece of visionary form an octagonal base for the

daring on the peat of the City Fathers. hemispherical dome.

itii produced a hold plan to replace St. Stephen, Walbrook (1672-87),

W: he jumble of narrow streets and ha> a rectangular plan, a regular grid of
winding alle) - with a new design of wide Corinthian columns, and an entablature
bulevards radiating from imposing in the form of a Greek cross supporting
squares. However, the reconstruction ;i dome. W ren thought his St. James.
eventually follow ed th«' existing medieval Piccadilly (1683), to he the ideal church—
street pattern. The rebuilding of London a simple rectangular plan with a timber

was rapid and included domestic and barrel—vaulted ceiling. Galleries at each
commercial buildings. 50 city churches, side are an integral part of the composition,
and \\ nn s universally known landmark. forming a Doric base for the Corinthian
St. Paul's Cathedral. order above.
The city churches were remarkable
I toil i iii their form and their Classical ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
appearance. Plans are simple: as Protestant St. Paul's Cathedral (1675-1710) marks a
churches, they had to have large spaces to dramatic move away from the Catholic
accommodate congregational worship and Gothic cathedrals and their intricate
the all-important pulpit. A whole variety of shadowy depths. The clear spaces and
tower- and tall spires allowed them to be clean surfaces are starkly lit with clear
easily identified in the dense urban area of glass in place of the colored glass of the
the city of London. Gothic. The original plan was to have been
 1 660 The I 693 German philosopher 1704-11 The early days of
restoration of the and mathematician Wilhelm English journalism, with the

monarchy, and the Leibnitz (1 646-1 71 6) toys with publishing of the first editions

founding of the the binary system, based on two of the Review (Daniel Defoe),
Royal Society units and operating with the the Tattler (Richard Steele)

Wren is a founding symbols 1 and This is the and the Spectator

member basis of computer language. (Joseph Addison).

a Creek cross with a lengthened west arm.

but the establishment preferred a Latin
NAMES ON THE WALL
cross. The altar is no longer under the
Roger North (1653-1734), lawyer and dome — the pulpit has taken its place
sometime architect, wrote: "lor a profest
at the crossing.
architect is proud, opiniative and
Externally. Wren's original idea was also
troublesome, seldome at hand, and a head
abandoned; a proposed giant order was
workman pretending to the designing part,
replaced by two levels of small columns, a
is full ofpoultry vulgar contrivances;
therefore he your oirne architect, or silt
motif that becomes a useful device as it

Still
"
\nd Vanbrugh lists clients of
continues all around the building. The
William Talman (1650-1719) who sorely upper level becomes a screen to hide the

wished they had done the job themselves: flying buttresses and pitched roofs. The
the Dukes of Devonshire and Kingston. dome is reminiscent of Bramante s

Lords Normanby. Coningsby, and Tempietto. Rome (1502). but at a vast

Portmoor,- Ladv
scale. The most unusual. un-English
"That Miracle of Falkland, and Sir
aspects of the composition are the two
a Youth" John Germaine. I//

Thus said the English

flamboyant towers on the west facade,
had met with nothing
antiquarian John Evelyn more characteristic of late Baroque in
but "relation and
of Sir Christopher
" northern Europe.
Wren, then aged only disappointment.
21 , who ranks as the
most remarkable
architect of any
Wren's masterpiece is St. Paul's Cathedral (1 675-1 71 0)
generation. Wren was
trained as a scientist, Thirty-two radiating buttresses help to bear the weight

and his long life of the central dome, which is crowned by a lantern,

covered an epoch in ball, and cross of enormous weight and

which scientific 366 feet/ 1 1 1.5 meters high.
discoveries paraleled
appalling bloodletting
in the English Civil
War. As a demonstrator
in anatomy at the

College of Surgeons, or
as a highly regarded
geometrician, Wren led
the field. The tremors of
the Restoration and the
Great Fire of London
(1666) followed. St.

Paul's Cathedral was

his big chance to make
his mark. He took it.

www.ebook3000.com
 I 669 Samuel Pepys 1 679 Nicholas 1 690 As an army
writes me last page of his Hawksmoor is engaged by captain, Vanbrugh is
(^ 'm?\<&L
last diary and his coded Wren as his personal clerk arrested in Calais and
record of London life since and is soon working for him spends two years in

1 660, and all the dramas in surveying and design. prison (thought to be
thereof await posterity for spying).

(Pepys dies in 1703.)

1700-1750 Hawksmoor's Easton Neston

(1697-1 702) has unusual
English Baroque Revisited proportions — narrow, elongated
Hawksmoor. Van brush, and Gibbs windows and a one-bay portico.

The great English building projects of the

seventeenth century — St. Paul's
(
Greenwich Hospital, and the
'athedral,
( itv churches were paidfor by taxes —
levied by the ( 'num. The early eighteenth
century brought new money and new
patrons. Businessmen, with income from
exploitation of the colonies, and wealthy
landowners began to build.

The dramatist John I \NBRl GH Seaton Delaval (1720-28), in

1664-1726), with no architectural Northumberland, is unlike anything before

training, became one of the leading it, resembling a massive medieval fortress.
country-house architects of the English Vanbrugh was commissioned by Queen
Baroque st) le. I lis \\ ork uses massive Anne to build the magnificent Blenheim
forms, often grossly proportioned and Palace (1705-24) for the Duke of
heavy looking, unpopular with Classical Marlborough. It is seen as his finest
|niii-i- Inn very powerful and distinctive. achievement, \\ ith a combination of
Castle Howard, in Yorkshire (169^-1712 substantial-looking hold massing of the
bears a resemblance to French central block and wings, contrasting
seventeenth-centurj planning as used at with a varied, picturesque skyline.
Versailles, with a cour d'honneur in front
of the main house flanked l>\ \\ ings.

Internal courtyards, cours anglaises.

house the stables and kitchens. The

grandiose scheme has a dome
and a pedimented front.

Castle Howard, in Yorkshire (1699-1712),

was Sir John Vanbrugh's first architectural

work. A whole village was demolished to

provide the expansive site.

52
 I 698 Howksmoor meets 1 704 John Churchill, Duke The Ascot race
A^k
Vanbrugh, a successful and of Marlborough, trounces the meeting established by
is
*&£•-

dm
i

witty playwright, Whig, French at the battle of Queen Anne, giving

and rowdy member

the Kit-Cat Club,

converts the

architecture
and
latter to
of Blenheim; the nation
rewards him with Blenheim
Palace, built at the

taxpayer's expense
ladies their

opportunity to

extravagant headgear
first

wear
—> :

m
^3K

NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR
Nicholas HAWKSMOOR (1661-1736)
NAMES ON THE WALL
started working in Wren's office at the

age of 18. He assisted Vanbrugh at Castle William Talman (1650-1719 was a

contemporary of Wren. His most important
Howard and
work is Chatsworth House, in Derbyshire
James Gibbs Blenheim Palace.
(1687-96). The westfacade is most
Gibbs (1682-1754) Unlike Wren and
was Hawksmoor's unusual: il has an even number of
Vanbrugh, he didn't
fellow surveyor at the windows, and therefore no focal point a '.

Office of Works. His St. work at anything restrained device to unsettle the viewer.
Mary le Strand
else, but devoted Thomas Archer (c. 1668—1743) built two
(1714-17) is clearly in

the Italian Mannerist

himself to architecture of the best examples ofBaroque style in

style. St. Martin-in-the- from the start, London. St. Paul at Deptford (1712-30)
Fields (1721-26) has a semicircular Doric colonnaded
adopting a rigorous
marks a dramatic
analytical approach, portico, from the roof of which the tower
change of style, with
Palladian elements rises up. The flamboyant St. Paul's in
working with
added to the Roman. Smith Square (1714-28) has fractured
detailed drawings
The tower and steeple pediments, huge Palladian windows, and
are now set back and abstract
four towers like elongated drums with
behind the pedimented
geometries. His best-
portico, a relationship pineapples on top.

that, despite criticism,

known and most
became standard. interesting works are
His name is now given
his six City churches,
to the distinctive,

"rusticated" window built between 1711 Act for Building Fifty New Churches.
surround previously and 1718 during Always based on skillfully designed
used by Palladio at the
Palazzo Thiene (1542).
his appointment as axial plans and employing mass to create

surveyor, under the dramatic effect, all demonstrate an

ingenious combination of Baroque,

Dome on drum Classical, and Gothic elements.

\t St. Mary, in Woolnoth (1716), a solid,

rectilinear, rusticated tower stands apart

from the main space with minim al surface
articulation and tim openings, supporting
two square turrets. Christchurch, Spitalfields

(1723—39 appears less solidrj grounded

with a precariously balanced spire above
a tliin tower. I hi- i- supported oil a porch
using the Palladian motif, on a large scale,

and in three dimensions.

CRASH C0URSI 53
www.ebook3000.com \li< III I I ( I I HI l
 1 688 Polished glass manufactured 1 690 English philosopher 1706 Henry Mil
on industrial scale in France. The new !tK\* John Locke (1 632-1 704) writes invents carriage

technology was already in place in S^ "An Essay Concerning Human springs. Journeys

Monsart's dazzling Galerie des S-r, Understanding ." He claims that around town
Glaces (Hall of Mirrors,) built between the human mind is borti a tabula become much
1 678-84 at Versailles for Louis XIV. rasa, or blank slate, and empirical more comfortable
knowledge is all that we have

1^13 -")()

Palladian Revival
Burlington, Campbell, and Kent

The Palladian revival was also <i revival

England
oj the style of Inigo Jours. In
the style produced numerous domestic
buildings inspired by and largely imitative
of the country houses of Chiswick House, in London, was

Palladio. Grandflights designed by Lord Burlington with

the assistance of William Kent in
oj stepssweep up to highly Italianate style.

pedimented entrances on a
raised main floor, above <i rusticated semibasement
The planning is geometric, repel it ire. and
Palladian house plans symmetrical, with different roof slopes and domes
are typically geometric
gently breaking up the solid mass of the building.

The name of Richard BOYLE BURLINGTON'S BOYS

BURLINGTOS (1694-1753) is Colen Campbell (1 676- H2 ( )) started as

synonymous with the Palladian r«\ ival. An a lawyer before publishing the first volume
amateur architect himself, he \\;i^ of / itruvius Britannicus in 1715. Lord
extremely influential a> a patron. He also Burlington was so impressed with it that

financed publications -i i<li a^ Palladio- lit- fired ( ribbs, who was working with him
drawings of Roman baths and Kent's on Burlington House, and gave the job to
Designs ofInigo Jones. I li- own villa at ( lampbell instead. I lis Men-worth Castle,
Chiswick 1725) was buill in imitation of Kent (1723). i- vet another version of the
Palladio - \ ilia Rotunda to house hi> Villa Rotonda. Houghton Hall, buill for

paintings and books. \t the foot of the the Prime Minister Robert Walpole
entrance stairs are statues of both Palladio (1723). has a central salon and cubic hall
and Inigo Jones. Burlington's rigid taken from Inigo Jones's Queen's House.
adherence to the rules of antiquity and In- The windows have rusticated *Gibbs
imitation of Palladio are evident in his surrounds." which were themselves
other works, such as the ballroom at the already secondhand from Palladio s

Assembly Rooms, York (1731-32). copied Palazzo Thiene, Vicenza (begun in 1542
from the Egyptian Halls of Palladio. but never actually completed).

\H< III I I J It HI - \ i
H \-ll < Ol RSE
 1715 Lancelot 2» !
1 742 Color printing developed in 1 749 Henry Fielding
"Capability" Brown, w_A Japan Kitagawa Utamaro (1 753-1 806) writes his masterpiece,

landscape gardener, born at -X\ becomes the greatest exponent of the Tom Jones, the picaresque

Kirkharle, Northumberland. ukiyo-e (floating world) school of art, adventures of a handsome

He will go on to develop the i which focuses on the pleasures of life. young squire.

capabilities of Blenheim

and Kew.

NAMES ON THE WALL

WUUam Kent (1 685-1 7-t8) was both a
The Palladian composition of a rusticated
landscape gardener and architect.
base, (ij>i>licd classical aiders, and a
discovered by Burlington when he was
balustrade at WOJ level was adapted for
studying painting in Rome (1719). His loan houses (notably in Loudon and Path)
besl work. Holkham Hall (1734), is an along streets, squares, and crescents of the
impressive catalog of elements of new property developers. Based on
Palladianism. antiquity, and lavish Italian Mausart's Place lendome in Paris, whole
Baroque-inspired streets were composed as if they were

Arcadia, Kh? interiors. The plan composed of only one building. The mast
Art into Landscape or has four identical famous examples are in Path: John Wood's
Landscape into Art? Circus (1754) and Royal Crescent
wings arranged
The eighteenth century
(1 767-7.5).
saw The Grand Tour in synunetrically around
swing, and when
full
a central block. His
the English milords

weren't bringing back

last work is the Horse
"cartloads of dead Guards in London
Christs and Madonnas"
(1750-58), which is
from Italia (thank you,
William Hogarth), they very similar to Kent is more important as the originator
took note of the Holkham. of the English landscape garden and the
painting of Nicolas
beginnings of the idea of an architecture
Poussin (1594-1665)
Campbell's Mereworth
and the ex-pastry cook designed as part of a landscape rather than
Castle, Kent, is another
Claude Gellee, or
careful imitation of
a> a feature that dominates \\> environment.
Lorrain (1600-82).
Perfectly arranged Palladio's Villa Rotonda.

landscapes. Palladian
to a T Someone has a
bright idea. Why not
make gardens like the
Pedimented
pictures. Trees. Lakes.
temple front
Temples. Many try, but
porticoes
the acknowledged
garden king is Lancelot
"Capability" Brown
(1716-83), best known
for horticultural

wonders at Blenheim
(1765) and elsewhere.
Would-be initiates

should see Stowe

(Buckinghamshire) and
Stourhead (Wiltshire).

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 I 700s For English and 1717 Handel's Water Music is 1 725 In cities, the sedan
European gentlemen, the first performed on the Thames chair (introduced in the

Grand Tour of cities and River. It was written for Handel's previous century) is now an
archeological sites of fellow German-turned- established and popular
Europe is de rigueur. Englishman, George I. means of transportation for

the wealthy.

Stoned.
Immaculate.
1 ^20- 1795
The Palladian and

Adam Family Values Neoclassical periods

Britain spawned new
in

Georgian townscapes, notable for

the use of stone in their

building. New Georgian

The design ability and business acumen of the Adam Bath and neighboring
family made them highly successful as property Clifton in Bristol are

built with the lovely

developers and interior designers. Between the rigors of golden yellow local

the Palladian revival and the austerity of the Greek stuff; Edinburgh's New
revival, the Adam style much influenced by Italian and — Town is elegantly gray

Roman buildings is less ostentatious, admer, finer, — granite, while

chic is red sandstone.
Midlands

It's all kosher

and more elegant. It is an altogether more delicate Neoclassical. Easy

version ofNeoclassicism. access to materials cut

costs and provided the
elegance desired by
Robert Adam (1728-92) was asKenwood (1767-69), the architects, which
convinced that the architect should Syon House, London marked the locations
for life. Brick? You can't
take responsibility for the design of the (1760-69), andOsterly
get much brickier than
interiors of buildings a- well as the exterior. Park (1701-80). Georgian Bloomsbury.
Consequently, he created interiors that have Kedleston Hall, in But it wasn't a universal
trend, and stone was
an unsurpassed level of complex and Derbyshire (1760-61),
used wherever status
intricate decoration. Drv. white, chalky is a good example of takes a stand, such as

plaster moldings applied to surfaces painted his departure from the Soane's Bank of
England in the 1790s.
in hold colors give otherwise flat surfaces a strictly Palladian. The
richness and depth. Often decorative plan, which was started
patterns described in raised plaster
moldings on the ceiling are repeated \\ o\ en

in carpets on the floor. Spaces are also

richer —extended by niches, alcoves, or rows

of freestanding columns with apses beyond.

Robert Adam had studied architecture
along \\ ith his brothers James (1732-94)
and John (1721-92) in his father's

Edinburgh office. A tour of Europe

( 1 754-58) gave him the opportunity to

study the ancient Roman buildings, after

which he settled in London, where he

worked mostlv on interiors of houses such >: *^~—
\liClHTI.i l I RE - \ <:n \sn coi usi
 1 752 In America, 1 78 1 Uranus discovered by 1 792 France

the practical Benjami William Herschel (1738-1822), declared a republic

Franklin invents the its existence had not been know Louis XV executed in

lightning conductor by ancient civilizations and it 1 793, and many

was named for the ancient aristocratic heads roll

Greek sky god Ouranos. from the guillotine.

by James Paine (1717-S9)—not to

mention previous architects whose plans

had been rejected — is Palladian. very
similar to Holkham Hall, in Norfolk

( 1 734), and the main entrance facade uses

the customary pedimented portico. Other
elements are quite distinctly Roman: the
south facade is modeled on the Arch of
Constantine and fronts a salon with a
Pantheonesque dome.

DOMESTIC PROJECTS The library at Kenwood

Adam designed several terraces of houses, House, London (1767-69), Putting on

is characteristic of Robert the Style
including Charlotte Square in Edinburgh
Adam's interiors. Want a British architect
(179 1-1 807) and Fitzroy Square in
you can call a truly

London. Both have individual houses European figure? Try

designed as part of a whole "palazzo roads from the Strand RobertAdam. His
many achievements
facade with a pedimented center. His at first-floor level, included decor
earliest terrace was the Adelphi (1768-72. above the "rustic developed with what
nowadays would be
demolished 1937). a speculative arched colonnaded
called "a market" in

development that included stables, offices, wharf area at rivet- mind: those who were
and warehouses n> well as residences. Built level. The facade was actively seeking new
forms of Classicism.
on the banks of the Thames, it used the of painted stucco with
Adam's furnishings
sloped ground to advantage for access the usual applied were enormously

decorative motifs and detailed. On the walls

of his rooms,
a giant order of
comfortable pastel
pilasters. The projecl colors, Etruscan motifs;

on the floors, marble;

was a financial
and the fireplaces,
disaster, leaving which bear his name,
Adam without work have mantelpieces
supported on miniature
for several vears.
columns. Outside, the
lovely landscape
gardens of the
The north facade of picturesque. Nothing
could be more pleasing
Kedleston Hall in
to the eye.
Derbyshire, England

(1757-70), designed
a Palladian manner.

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 I

1811 John Nash, recently 1 81 2 The Elgin marbles 1813 In the ballrooms of

married to a lady said to be the are taken to England by c Europe the waltz is being
mistress of the Prince Regent, is Thomas Bruce, the seventh danced by dashing army
commissioned to design Regent's earl of Elgin captains and blushing ladies.

Park, with its terraces, villas, and

picturesque lakes.

1790-1840 Substantial
columns, Doric
Manly Virtues capitals, and //at

Greek R e v i va

Neoclassicism was a definite reaction to the

earlier excesses of Baroque and a/so to the
increasinglyfashionable, picturesque Neo-
Gothic. Both oj these styles looked back to
the past "irheu life was simpler, " Gothic to
the medieval past and Neoclassical right
hack to ancient /tome and Greece. The
earliest, the Greek Doric order, answered the
search for purity; it was the simplest and the
"
most "masculine. Tiro
Sonne's churches Park Crescent, Regents Park, in London
chaps in particular were in
Two London churches in (181 2-22), is a simple semicircular

particular show Soane's

the vanguard: Sir John facade framing Portland Place,
rigorous pursuit of Sonne and John Nash. leading to Regent Street.
purity of form. The west
facade of St. John's has
a pediment and no
Sir. loli 11 Soane's
portico; the piers

flanking the entrance (1753^1837) NAMES ON THE WALL

simply rise up past the architecture has ;i

cornice line to form the

distinct originality.
Humphrey Kepton (1752-1818) followed
base of the square
in the wake oj Lancelot "Capability"
tower. At St. Peter's, I nlike earlier copied
Walworth, the facade
Brown, hut it was he who invented the
"styles" it is l>est
is uninterrupted, with term landscape gardening. He was a
described as an
the Ionic columns of the country gentleman obliged to emu a living
porch recessed. The abstraction of
from his passion for horticulture, ilthough
frieze, with a relief
( Ilassicism. Particular im/ iircr.se lo architectural endeavor, he
Greek key pattern,

continues across, elements are Inn I mi arrangement with Nash whereby

emphasizing the continually developed work of this kind was turned over to him for
horizontality of the
in his work: the <i small percentage commission, \honi two
main space in contrast
to the very fall steeple. spatial potential of hundred gardens mid porks received

\\all> is explored Repton's intention, mid lie was mentioned

byname in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
through multiple
layers and recesses; surfaces are free from
fussy decorations; and an) applied

58
 1814 Gas is used for 1 81 5 At the Battle of 1 820 The Danish physicist

L
public streetlighting for the Waterloo the Duke of Hans Oersted notices that an
first time. Westminster in Wellington's troops rout electric current deflects a

London is now lit up Napoleon's army. compass needle, and

at night. electromagnetism is

discovered.

moldings arc of minima] depth or Shropshire (1806). in an equally

contained within the surface. Daylight is picturesque Italian vernacular style. I li^

manipulated to create dramatic effed and Brighton Pavilion (1802-21) is in an

illusion. In common with architects of the oriental style replete with onion domes and
Baroque, the sensual minarets. His most interesting work, for its

Follies spatial experience is size and ingenuity, is the planning of an

Mock ruins in a country as important as area of London (1811 onward), including
park, intended to
visual harmony and Regents Park and Portland Place. Regent
delight, are the most
straightforward follies. geometric logic. The Street, and down to Carlton House Terrace.
Expensive but fun, and dramatic effects arc taking in All Souls Church at Langham
if you were clever you
might make use of
the result of Place (1822-25). The design of the

them. Grottoes, like the manipulation of terraces that line the park is

one at Stourhead. A
volume and light unadventurous. using a mixture of all the
tower, like that at
Cothele, Devon. But if
lather than form and Neoclassical elements available. The most
you were an eccentric decoration. interesting is Park Crescent at the top of
millionaire with an
interest in architecture
Soane's own house Portland Place, which has the simplest of
like William Beckford in Lincoln's Inn. in facades, with flat stucco work and paired
(1760-1844,) you London (1812). is a Ionic columns, and the boldest form.
might build a Gothic
abbey (1796-1 807) wonderful example of Soane's house at Lincoln's Inn
based on Salisbury his work. On an Fields, in London (1812). The
Cathedral with a
ordinary-sized bay window at first floor level
horrendously high
was originally an open loggia.
tower. It falls (to no terraced house plot.
one's surprise) in 1825 magical spaces
unfold, every wall is

several layers deep,

and a whole forest of lanterns, hidden

above roof level, allow the daylight to

penetrate deep into the plan.

DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION

In contrast t<» Soane's pursuit of
individuality, John \\>n (1752-1835) was
a follower ol fashion who would do
anything in any style, ^sacountrj house
architect be designed Luscombe Castle, in

Devon (1800-04), an asymmetricall)

planned Gothic castle, and Cronkhill. in

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 1751 Denis Diderot I 773 American colonists dump 1781 InYorktown,
(171 3-84) publishes the first cargoes of East India tea into the sea Virginia, General Cornwallis
chunk of his encyclopedia at Boston harbor (the Boston Tea surrenders to George
(from the Greek words Party) in protest against British Washington. The redcoats
meaning general education), monopolies and taxes. are marched away as the
an attempt to summarize military band plays on.

human knowledge

1~ (
)()~ L840
The Top German
Oh Those Greeks Karl Friedrich Schinkel

(1781-1841) was the

Creek Revival 2 greatest architect in

Germany in the
Neoclassical period.
The fashion for reviving primitive Greek architecture
He studied under Gilly
became firmly established in the late eighteenth century, (1772-1800) and
stepped out boldlyfrom became head of the
<u id its British stronghold.
Public Works
"Plain, sturdyand masculine, " with its geometric joints Department in Prussia
1830. He
and absence of decoration, it prodded an alternative to in

completed many
the picturesque Gothic revival, as well as tying in with prestigious public
buldings, especially
contemporary Neoclassicists. in

Berlin, in the Greek

revival style, such as

Thomas JEFFERSOIS 1743-1826), the His design for the the New Guard House
(1816-18) and the
third presidenl of the I oited States, as Virginia State Capitol.
Schauspielhaus
will it- being an economist and educationalist his first Neoclassical (1819-21). The Altes
was a successful and influential architect. building in the U.S., Museum has a mural in

the Doric portico and

He had visited Europe and based hi> work became the model for
an unusual interior that

on drawings in Palladio's Quattro Libri and state architecture to includes a central

dome. Schinkel's most
in Robert Morris's bunk Select [rchitecture. follow. He was involved
exquisite buildings are
in the planning of the Charlottenburg, in

Washington, D.C., and Berlin (1824-25), with

NAMES ON THE WALL perfect geometry of

[ ] the new University of
smooth walls and
"
Virginia (1817). The deeply recessed
James Athenian" Stuart (1713-88)
axial rectilinear lawn. loggias, and in contrast
and Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) are
the asymmetrical
considered to he the instigators of Creek with porticoed villas on
arrangements of two
revivalism in England, following theirfour- the long sides, and the simple, almost bucolic,
buildings, the
year sojourn ill Creece mid the publication principal building at
Charlottenhof(1826)
ofAntiquities of Vthens in 1 762. Sir one end. became the and the Roman
Koliert Smirke (1780-1876) introduced model for university Bathhouse (1833) in

the style with his Covent Garden Theatre campuses.

the park at Potsdam.

(1808, demolished), the Just Creek Doric

Benjamin Henry
buildii g in London. This successful
L [TR0BE (1764-1820) had worked in
architect's best-known building is the
England for Cockerell as an architect
British Museum. London (1823-47), with
its huge scide and imposing Creek maimer.
and for Smeaton as an engineer before
emigrating to the U.S. and working for
Jefferson. His Bank of Pennsylvania

\K( III I I ( II Rl - \ i RASH CO! RSI

 1 783 The British 1 787 The United States 1 789 An overtaxed
recognize American introduces the currency of bourgeoisie and disgruntled

independence in the the dollar. Coinage is peasantry form an unlikely

Treaty of Paris, and minted in 1792. alliance and instigate the

the Revolutionary French Revolution Three

War ends years later France is

declared a republic

(1799-1801) and the Water Works (1800) While most of Boullee's work remained
in Philadelphia established the Greek revival on paper. Ledoux's was built. The
in the U.S. Baltimore Cathedral (1804-18), Barriere de la Villette ( 1785-89), one
probably influenced by Soane's work, is his of the remaining toll gates to Paris, is in

best. It has a shallow dome, an elongated the pure form of a Greek cross and cylinde
nave, and line vaulting. intended to communicate the dominance
and affluence of the city. The saltworks al

FRANCE Arc-et-Senans (1775-79)

The work of Etienne-Louis BOUUJE is the only built part of his visionary

(1728 -99) and Claude-Nicolas LEDOl X city of Chaux, and has some unusual
(1736-1806) takes Neoclassicism to its combinations of classical motifs.
extreme. Fascinating in its combination of Unfluted Greek Doric columns of
logic, it couples the simple forms of pure chunky proportions stand at the entrance-
geometries with an emotive expressionism. a massive arch leading to

Boullee's proposed monument for Isaac a grottolike tunnel.

Newton (1784), a vast. -+92 feet/150 The Crocks

meter-high sphere rising from a drum that
The University of Virginia in Scotland
(1817), Thomas Jefferson. William Henry Playfair
symbolizes the heavens, demonstrates his
Each building was a (1790-1857), with
belief that architecture should express Classical copy as an Thomas Hamilton
character and magic as well as reason. example to the students.
(1784-1858), led

the Greek revival in

eps emphas Edinburgh. The Ionic

focalpoint National Gallery of

Scotland (1850) and
the Doric Royal Scottish

Academy (1 822) are

Playfair's best-known
works. Alexander
"Greek" Thomson
(18 17-75), working
30 years later, built

several enchanting
churches in Glasgow,
combining the purity

of form and absence

of decoration with an
intriguing originality

of composition. The
Caledonia Road
Church (1856) has an
immaculate Ionic portico

on top of a solid base.

www.ebook3000.com
 1 829 An instrument from 1 837 In France the 1 840s Gaslight is

China known as the sheng Commission for Historic now found in all the

is introduced to Vienna. In Monuments is created, with a better city houses.

English-speaking countries mission to restore medieval

it will soon be known as the buildings, despite opposition

mouth organ from the Neoclassicists

1800~1 (
)()()

Aspirations
Gothic Revival
The picturesque skyline and the
pointed arches, steeples, and
pinnacles of the Palace of
Westminster represented a
triumph for the Neo-Gothic over
the Neoclassical when it was built
Barry's Westminster New Palace, London (1 836-68)
in the middle of the nineteenth — the Houses of Parliament to you and me — is the

century, [rchitects and patrons first significant Gothic Revival building. The authentic
by Gothic detail was provided A.W.N. Pugin.
until then hud been preoccupied with
the Neoclassical style, which was firmly established as appropriate for
important institutions, dot hie was acceptable for religious buildings.

A
Great
lire in

I [all.
1834 destroyed the medieval
Palace of Westminster, except for the
For the replacement palace
buildings, it w;i^ decided to choose Gothic
rather than the prevailing fashionable
Neoclassical, to be more in keeping with
the remaining medieval buildings. The
plans of Charles B 1////1 (1785-1860), a
confirmed Neoclassicist, were accepted
and [ugustusWelbyPucm (1812-52)
provided the Gothic influence. Barry s plan
was along ( !lassical lines with symmetrical
facades: the Gothic embellishments — the
pointed arches andfieches (spires) — wen-
added by Pugin, a devout Catholic who
saw a dired connection between religious
faith and the Gothic cathedrals, more
Tl „... .
„„_„-., particularly the most elaborate "second
I he Kijksmuseum, Amsterdam (o/Z-od), by
1
'

Petrus Cuijpers, is a Dutch version of secular Gothic

pointed" style of the thirteenth mid
with steeply pitched roofs and rib vaulting. fourteenth centuries.

II I II HI - \CH\!
1 843 Pugin takes to 1 848 The Pre-Raphaelite 1881 The world has its first

striding around the Brotherhood is founded in electric tram, which operates

coastal town of Ramsgate England, with a mission to in Berlin.

nA.
in eccentric sailor's restore the purity of fifteenth-

costume and long boots, century Italian work to

looking out to sea. contemporary painting

[
NAMES ON THE WALL ]
PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED
Structural analysis by the French theorist
Tin- Gothic revival had already begun ti

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc fashionable at the end of the eighteenth

/ s 14—79 . in Dictionnaire Raisonne de century. \ [orace Walpole

['Architecture Francaise (1854-68), had hi> house True Principals

demonstrated that Gothic architecture was Strawberry I lill rebuilt Augustus Pugin and
John Ruskin (1819-
rational, constructed in a logical way, in in eclectic Gothic style
1900) were the leading
accordance with the natural laws oj
(1749-76). But it was lights in art and
structures and gravity. In a Utter work. architecture in Victorian
the Palace of
Entretdens, //> made comparisons with, the England. Pugin's
Westminster thai Catholic passion for the
contemporary skeleton structures developed
confirmed that the new Gothic has already
along rational lines by engineers. Viollet-le-

Duc was responsible for reinstating the

Gothic — the Gothic been mentioned. He
widely credited with
is

statues of the "Kings ofjudah unci Israel" revival — had at last having been the
linchpin of the Gothic
on the facade ofNotre Dame in Paris: they been accepted for
revival. As for Ruskin,
ire re destroyed in 1793 in the belief that secular buildings.
this weirdo had a claw-
they represented the French monarchy Other notable Gothic like grip on the art of
his day. In The Seven
revival buildings in
Lamps of Architecture
Sir George Gilbert Scott's St. Pancras Station Britain include the (1849), he declared for
building, with its hotel (1 865-71 is one of
),
Midland Hotel (1865), Sacrifice, Truth, Power,
London's High Victorian Gothic glories. Beauty, Life, Memory,
shielding St. Pancras
and Obedience ("we
from view, and want no new style ...
Steeply pitched roof
is broken with ( rlasgox* I oiversirj the forms of architecture

pointed dormers already known are

(1866-^1). both by Sii
good enough for us").

George GILBERT St oil But in his later book, The

Stones of Venice
(1811-78), and tin-
(1851-53), this manic-
Law Courts, London depressive talked up the

(1866-85), by G. K Venetian Gothic style

and the earliest English

Street (1824-81). In
decorated style. Small
Europe, the I louses of wonder that British

Parliament in Budapes building was such

a mess.
1883-1901) l>\ Imre
Steindl (1839-1902
w a- lniili in imitation

of the Palace of Westminster and the

Rijksmuseum in Vmsterdam 1877 l.\

Petrus CVUPERS 1827-1921 isanotlu

example <•! the st) le.

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 1 777-79 The first iron bridge 1 782 The improved steam 1818 John Nash
is built at Coalbrookdale. It was engine is patented by James uses cast iron in the

designed by Abraham Watt. The water wheel of human construction of the

Darby, the first person history is at last effectively Royal Pavilion at
to use coke instead replaced and the Industrial Brighton.
of charcoal for Revolution is poised to begin.

producing cast iron

Steel-framed
1830-1000 Modernism
Steel frames were a key
The Iron Age breakthrough
Modernism.
for British

Felix

Iron and Steel Smuely (1902-59), a

Hungarian emigre

Architects, being as they engineer, was an

were preoccupied with style,
important figure in the
were slow to grasp the possibilities offered by new development of steel

structures in Britain. The

building techniques. It was engineers, excited by the
De la Warr pavilion, in
potential of iron and steel, who first developed Bexhill-on-Sea(1935),
designed by Erich
structural uses for the new materials. Joseph Paxton's
Mendelsohn (1887-
( fystul Palace was the turning point that aroused 1953) and Serge
Chermayeff (1900-)
architectural interest in these materials.
was one of the earliest

welded-steel-frame

Built to bouse the Greal Exhibition of bridge building as wel structures to be built.

1851 in Hyde Park, Loudon, the as production of rails,

( i \ stal Palace took jusl nine months to which were also the
erect. Ii was pioneering in ii^ use of iron first source of I-beams used in buildings.

and was assembled on the site from a series Thomas TELFORD (1757-1834) was
of prefabricated panels. Built around the lir>t to build arched bridges in cast

existing trees, it was enormous, measuring iron, a material that works well in

-+10 \ 197 feet/125 \ 60 meters in plan compression. Wrought iron, which works
and 72 feet/22 meters in better in tension, he

height. The structure's used for the chains

Dove! spatial effeel was on the suspension
heightened b\ it^ almost bridge over the
complete transparency. Menai Straits (1819).

Robert Stephenson s

BUILDING BRIDGES Britannia railroad

( n^\ iron had firsl been bridge, also across

used structurally in the Menai (1850),

1~T-T( )
England in for a used an innovative
bridge at ( loalbrookdale, system of box girders
;b well as for bridges in made of wrought iron.

the I S. and in France.

London's Crystal Palace was built
The intense competition
for the Great Exhibition of 1 851
between the aew railroad and destroyed by fire in 1 936.
companies spurred

64
 1819-25 The 1 825 England becomes the first country 1 842 The first modern
building of the Menai to have a railroad, with the opening of anesthetic (ether) is used by

Straits suspension the Stockton-to-Darlington line. Crawford Long for the

bridge, by Telford, removal of a tumor in the neck

which has a span of a patient (in the United

of 530 feet. States of America).

NAMES ON THE WALL ]

The youngest, laziest, but (i/so best trained

of three Cubiti brothers. Lewis was

assisted in his Kings Cross designs by
middle brother Joseph. The eldest.

Thomas, was the first of a new breed of

building contractor. Employing craftsmen

of all kinds on a permanent basis, he

undertook building work on a scale
previously unknown and developed land on
his own account. Interested in smoke.

sewage, parks, and public amenities, he

The lofty transparent ( 1 845-47), designed by
(dso served as guarantorfor that other
enclosure of the Palm Decimus Burton and Richard
constructional tour de force, the (deal
House at the Royal Botanic Taylor, can only hint at the
Exhibition of /So J. when support for it
Gardens, Kew, in London interior of the Crystal Palace.
bewan to wobble.

and Huston (1840). Kings Cross, London

(1850). is an exception. Designed by Lewi'
BUT IS IT ARCHITECTURE? Cubitt, it has a simple brick structure
Iron was first used for warehouses, with two semicircular arches following the
factories, and market halls, new line of the train sheds behind. The only
building types in the nineteenth century, revivalist concession is the Italianate lower

and it was some time before it was used

for conventional buildings. Train sheds Class houses, etc
at railroad termini produced some of Continuing in the ground-breaking mold of the
and
the mosl daring structures — dramatic Crystal Palace, to demonstrate a nation's pride
identity and to demonstrate skill and prowess in

spaces with huge spans, tall slender construction and engineering, exhibition pavilions
have continued to produce some great architectural
columns, and elaborate ironwork. The
and technological achievements. The Paris Exhibition
railroad companies' lack of confidence in
of 889 saw both the widest span and the tallest
1

the esthetic qualit) of Mich adventurous structure of the time. The Galerie des Machines
with huge portal frames hinged at the base and the
structures meant that man) <>f these
apex, had the widest span at 394 feet/ 1 20 meters.
"utilitarian spaces were concealed, (inline The tallest was the Eiffel Tower, still standing on axis

Tudor, and Creek revival ticket halls. with the buildings at the Trocadero, left from the
Exhibition of 1 878. Both Victor Contamin and
hotels, and facades shielded the iron
Gustave Eiffel were heavily criticized by others who
structures from public \ iew a- at thought their daring steel constructions foolhardy

Paddington (1852), St. Pancras (1865).

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 s

1 849 Reinforced 1 883 The grandly 1 905 In the year of Perret's

concrete is invented by a named Louis-Marie-Hilaire first important building (apartments
French engineer, Joseph Bernigaud de Chardonnet near the Trocadero, Paris),

Monier( 1823-1 906). perfects the manufacture of Gaudi is starting the Casa
artificial silk, and names it Mila apartment buildings,
rayon (as in rayon de Barcelona (1905- 10).
lumiere, ray of light)

1850-1950
The Hard Men
C o ii rete St r u
<• <• ( u re

Reinforced concrete, which has

had such dramatic effect on
and esthetics
structure, form, in

the twentieth century, has its roots

in the nineteenth century, and its
development was closely linked with
The flats at 25b rue Franklin, Paris (1 903),
developments in steel technology. one of Auguste Perret's first works.

Cloncrete started to be used again in monolithic joints, enabling large-scale

Aihe late eighteenth century in France, framed structures to be built. The name of

and l»\ the mid-nineteenth century it was Francois I lennebique rapidly became
routinely used in foundations and floors. synonymous with reinforced concrete
( Mm nit — ;i mixture of sand, stones, building w ork all over Europe.
and wilier — work.- well in compression
it can support heavy vertical loads
Experimentation with cast iron and then [
NAM ES ON THE WALL
later steel bars resulted in a material that
Tony Gamier graduatedfrom the Ecole
work- well in compression and in tension, (les Beaux- \i is. winning the Prix de Ronn
with the added advantage of being fibre in 1899. Instead of sketching antiquities,
resistant. I he sewers designed l>\ Frangois Gamier spent his time there working on

CoiGNET 1814-88) for Haussmann's Paris his Cite Industrielle. Published in 1917,

were among the first experiments to try out it was one nf the earliest examples <>l city

the potential of the new technology. planning with fully thought-out zoning,
but was also intended to be constructed
primarily in concrete. The absolute
MAKING THE CONNECTION
geometric simplicity of many of his
The real breakthrough came when
proposed buildings prefigures the
Frangois lli.wi.nioi i. (1842-1921), little white boxes so beloved of
another Frenchman, solved the problem Vfodem inurement architects.
of joints between columns and beams by

using round reinforcing bars that could

be benl and lionked together to form

K \>ll CO I RSE
 1 925 At the trend-setting Paris 1936 The Spanish 1947
Exhibition of Decorative Arts the Civil War breaks out. Television sets

flavor of the day is things simple appear in

and plain. Designs are geometrical, more affluent

cubist, or abstract, stylized homes.

developments of floral art nouveau

Slim and Elegant

Felix Candela
August Perret the facade, a pragmatic response to gain
(1910- ), a concrete
engineer working in
(1874-1954) was one more floor space by putting the obligator)
Mexico, is a key figure of the first architects "rear courtyard" at the front, adds to
in the development of
to employ an all- the "Gothic impression created by
graceful, thin-skinned
concrete shell structures concrete structure. In the tall articulated form.
using hyberbolic his apartment block By the first decades of the twentieth
paraboloids; the first
on the rue Franklin in century, frame structures of reinforced
was the Cosmic Ray
building (1951), with Paris (1903), the concrete had become standard. Future
a roof as thin as % of
framed construction is developments were in refinements of shape
an inch. Constructed

using straight shutter

made visible on and surface texture and in other structural
boards, it has delicate the fagade with forms like the hyperbolic paraboloids of
curving shapes that are
infill of either Freysinet s (1879-1962) airship hangars
relatively simple and
economical to produce. windows or or the thin-skin shell structures of Perluigi
Working with different
panels of Nervi (1891-1971). The most important
architects, Candela is
ceramic aspect of monolithic framed construction
known best for the
Olympic Stadium in Jl tiling. The to the early modern architects was the
Mexico City (1968) edgv of floor
possibility of eantilevering the
and the church
of Santa Maria slabs away from the columns to allow fully
Miraculosa, glazed facades.
Mexico City (1954)

All Modern Conveniences

From 1 860 to 1 890 Britain went through huge
technological and social changes. Acts of

parliament heralded slum destruction and a greater

emphasis on public health, but buildings themselves

reflected all sorts of new ideas... A contemporary

Londoner might reflect "We've had Sir Joseph
Bazalgette's (1819-91) sewerage system for the

whole of London since the mid-1 860s. That lavatory

was fitted as standard some time after 1 880.
Lighting? We used gas for years (our stupid
neighbors used it for ages), but when we saw
electric light at the Savoy in 1 881 I told the

memsahib we had to have it whatever the cost. I

know that the Sassoon and Rothschild houses in

Brighton installed their own generators. And when

we're at the club and a little the worse for wear,
how do you think we climb all those stairs? We
don't. We use those nice American lifts, or
elevators, which have been just the thing since the
1 860s. Pretty soon we'll buy one for the house as
"
well

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 1865 The world's first 1 876 At the Centennial 1881 William Morris t% <4?«»V*
political socialist party is Show at Philadelphia is a establishes his wallpaper >•'/.
->."*
officially born in Germany display of Shaker furniture, and carpet factory in Merton.
— the Social Democratic and the fashion has been The wool is washed in the fel
Labor Party growing ever since Wandle River before being v- r
1
)
'^
dyed with Morris's own
dyes and by his own hand.
7r n

1860-1900
Useful and Beautiful
Arts and ('rafts

The Arts and (raffs movement

developed in England in the kite

nineteenth century as a reaction

against the arrival <>j machine-
made mass production
techniques, the results of
which were shoddy and ugly.
Its intention was to revive
The Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent,
craftsmanship generally and in
was built by Philip Webb for William
Morris in 1 859-60 in an eclectic architecture to promote traditional
and informal Gothic design. building techniques using locid materials.

William Morris (1834-96 . the i work, thai labor should he a pleasurable

influential figure in the movement. activity. I le thought that mass production
\\;i- ;i designer, a lecturer a socialist, and produced ugly goods, and in separating
a promoter <>f vernacular architecture. the maker from the product of his labor,

\n. for Morris, was pan of lifi — not the created a w ant -dependent working class.
domain of the rich elite: "I do not wain H\ the 1890s. the movement had spread
art for a lew any more than education for to Europe and North America.
a lew or freedom for a lew." Frustrated One of the mosl influential buildings was
l>\ the difficulty in obtaining good-qualit] Red I louse at Bexleyheath (1859),
well-designed products, in 1861 Morriss< designed lor Morris l>\ his architect and
up bis own company. Morris. Marshall an friend Philip Webb (1831-1915). \\n\

Faulkner lain Morris and do.). His I louse is an asymmetrical, free-plan

designs lor wallpapers and fabric composition, buill in red brick (hence its

an- often highly colored and intricately name), with half-hipped roofs and rustic

decorated, featuring birds and flowers. tiles — very different from the fashionable
I lis call lor heiier design and handicraft white-stuccoed '
Italianate villas. Morris
was influenced l>\ die \\ ritings of Rusk-in went to town on the interior, reworking
and 1 1
i
-> belief thai quality came from the ever) thing thoroughly — the wall hangings,
relationship between a craftsman and his furniture, and stained-glass wirfdows.

\ ( K \ > 1 1 ( (II U-l

 1 884 In Chicago, the 1871 -9$ A string of comic 1 897 Marconi uses
first skyscraper is built: the operettas by Gilbert the librettist and kites and balloons to keep
Home Assurance Building the composer Sullivan is performed to his receiver aerials aloft,

by Jenney and Mundie enthusiastic audiences at the D'Oyly and wireless communication

Carte Theatre, Sadlers Wells, London. is demonstrated on

Salisbury Plain.

NAMES ON THE WALL laterj dopted the "Queen \ime

T
style, the

Sir Edward Burne-.Tones (1833-98) quint* ssential English >i\ le, in a series of

is probably best known because of his Lond< n town houses: Hat red brick, staggered
associations with the Pre-Raphaelite stone quoins, and
Brethren. His rise from freelance illustrator hi| )|)C( I tools HeyJ What D'You
to a Baronetcy was not uncommon among a revival of mid- Think You're Doing?
his lutec circle, hut in this context we have The Victorians also faced
seventeenth centun
problems of conservation.
to see him us a mi ioc topes/ ry artist for
brick buildings, After all, acid rain was
Monis & ( o. Not what you >/ call the there even they didn't
reminiscenl of Dutch if

hest draftsman >>/ his ecu. Burne-Jones know what it was called,
architecture. This and most of the medieval
remains famous for his dull, "greenery-

ya/lcry" imitations of Botticelli. Like

work previewed the buildings they knew were
in states of considerable
him or lout he him. he's still around. Art> and ( Malts he
disrepair. So disrepaired,
later adopted. in fact, that contemporaries

New Scotland Yson were conserving on a wing

and a prayer. Sir George
DUTCH DOMESTICITY (1887-90), built of Gilbert Scott 8 11-78),
(1

Richard Norman Sn i //
( 1 83 1-1912) red brick with stone architect of churches,
railroad stations, and civic
represents the other strand of English dressings, and
and government buildings,
country-house architecture of the period. elaborated with was one of the worst of

I li- early work is in the picturesque Gothic distinctive circular these well-meaning offenders:
in his hands old buildings
revival style. Leyswood, in Sussex (1868). turrets, corbelled ou1
just lost all their je ne sais
and ( Iragside, in Northumberland ( 1870), al die corners, was hi quoi beneath a veil of

are in a romantic. "old English* stvle. He first public building. Victorian bilge. So, the
Society for the Preservation
of Ancient Buildings was
formed in 1 877, under the
influence of (you guessed)
Morris, to try and stop the
rot. Definitely a good
move, and inextricably
associated with the Arts
and Crafts Movement.

Bedford Park, in Chiswick,

London, was a pioneering and

influential "Queen Anne"style
suburb of the 1 870s and 1 880s,
with houses, an inn, clubhouse,

church, and studios designed

by a number of major architects

as an "esthetic Elysium."

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 1 886 American Charles Hall 1 888 George Eastman 1 889 In Paris, the Eiffel

(1863- 19 14) and French metallurgist (1854-1932) invents the Tower is erected as a
Paul Heroult (1 863-1 91 4) perfect the Kodak camera. Home temporary structure (amid
way of making aluminum using an movies are born great protest) to
electric current passed through a demonstrate the latest

solution of aluminum oxide. Aluminum building technology.

becomes a cheap structural material

Late 1
c
> 1 1 1 Century [ NAM ES ON THE WALL

Home Sweet Home George

his fault.
Edmund
Ij
Street (1824-81).
he hadn't been SO successful
It's all

I) «mest c i Revival dud opened an architectural practice in

Oxford in Is52. he probably wouldn't hare
The German architectural //icon's/ I /dined \loriis and Webb. But lie did both,
Hermann Muthesius, in his book and as far as hose two are concerned I the

The English House remarked

(1904), rest is history. Street studied under Sir

thai there teas "nothing as unique George Gilbert Scott . and traveled widely

(Spain, Germany, and Italy), so it's not

and outstanding in English architecture
" especially surprising that his use of the
OS the development of the house. Col hie— the style day— has
of the
\cch it eels in England as in Europe European leanings. Following many
saw the necessity for a unique, important church commissions, his

regional, or national style as an important competition design for the

Royal Courts ofJustice of 1874-82
alternative to the tide of revivalism
was completed by his son. Street was a
and historicism. The vernacular great borrower ofstyles (even though they
traditions oj the coin/fry house. were all medieval), and happily talked
together with the irts and (rafts up the idea of movingfreely within them.

principles, was a way to achieve this.

The \ ernacular tradition of building is

related to physical conditions (climate.

landscape, and local materials) and the

complex social structures of late Victorian

England. This is exemplified in the work

o£C.F. 1. V0YSE1 (1857-1941), a leading
proponent of the Arts and Crafts domestic
revival in England and a prolific builder of

hous< :s. I lis country houses are distinctive:

long and low with horizontal window--.
steeply pitched roofs, and white-painted,
rough-finished plaster walls. The Orchard.
in Chorley Wood (1899). is a typical
Annesley Lodge, in London (1 896),
example. His interiors, with white paneling
wirh its buttresses, white pebble-dashed walls,
and long, red tiled roof, has all the elements that and delicate colors, have come
typify Voysey's domestic style. to represent a "feminine, cozy image.

\m 1 1 ri i:c 1 1 hi \ ( H \-ll < 01 RSI

 1 900 Pierre Bonnord I 900 Sigmund Freud 1920 Radio

(
1867-1 947) and Edouord brings out Tifie broadcasting
Vuillard (1868-1940) Interpretation of Dreams, begins on a reguk

begin to record the based on his clinical basis in the US

beauties of domestic life; experience in Vienna
they form what is known
as the Intimiste school

No Pictures
PASSING ON THE MESSAGE and Crafts — the first
Pleasel
W. R. Lethaby
// Uliam Richard Lull Wl ( 1
857- 1 93 1 school to include (1857-1931) formed
completed very few buildings, but they are workshops for teaching the Art Workers' Guild

in 1 884. He wanted
immensely important. The church of All crafts. Lethal)} -
to bring all kinds of
Saint- in BrockhamptOD (1900-02) i> one influence a> a scholar craftsmen together who
of the mosl original buildings of it> time, and a teacher has been did not call themselves
institutionalized, and
and other buildings include Avon Tyrrell, wide-reaching. His
their initial membership
in Hampshire (1891). and Melsetter History of. Architecture included a mixed group
of imaginative bodies
House. in Orkney (1898). Lethaby was the (1898) is confirmation
called The Fifteen. The
first director of the Central School of Arts of the Arts and ( Irafts AWG saw themselves
principles that as the custodians of
taste ...but they didn't
Sir l.dw ard Lutyen "design... i> a>
want to talk about their
Influenced by Shaw and V /ebb,
Edward Sir mulling compared "Great and Improving
Lutyens (1869-1944) des gned some of the on Behalf
to workmanship and Efforts of
best-known English country r houses in a style
Society." Strange!
and Cral ts movement. For
linked to the Arts "design should not be
Because of this the Arts
example, he created Dean ery Garde at Sonning, a matter of scholarship. and Crafts Exhibition
in (1899-1902) and Munstead Wood
Berkshire Society was formed to
knowledge of historical
atGodalming, in Surrey, f Dr Gertrude Jekyll. He hold the exhibitions
went on to design commer cial buildings in London, styles, but a response the AWG didn't want!
such as the Midland Bank headquarters (1924-39) r
to immediate ueeds. Both organizations
and Britannic House (192( )-24), as well as the plan would clash with a
for New Delhi. Another Ar ts and Crafts exponent Ira, lU, new tendency in
was Hugh Mackay Baillie Scott (1865-1 945), thatch design, Art Nouveau,
who was interested in soci alist ideas for alternative a story that unfolds
forms of dwelling, collectiv e living arrangements, biomorphically
Local slanc
and alternatives to the fam ily house, especially elsewhere.
as women became more if idependent. At
Hampstead Garden Subur d in London,
he designed Waterlow Co urt, an M
apartment building for

single women that

operated on a
collective basis, with

a shared kitchen and

laundry and rooms
arranged around a
closed quadrangle
for exercising.

All Saints, Lethaby 's

church at Brockhampton,

was built in true Arts

and Crafts manner.

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 — —
1895 The Studio 1 895 A shop named "Art

magazine holds a Nouveau" opens in Pari

competition for the design aiming to sell objects

of the "Ideal Coal Scuttle." of completely modern,

One of the entrants is nonimitative design.

M. H. Baillie Scott.

1890-1905
Follow the Curve
Art Nouveau
1/7 Nouveau originated in two-
dimensional graphic and textile
design in the 1880s and spread to
furniture and architecture in the
1890s. In common with the irts

and Crafts movement, I// Nouveau

rejected historicism and adopted ideas

of tenth to materials and the value oj

craftsmanship.
SPOT
THE However, while
STYLE irts and (
'rafts

tended to look
• Decorative surfaces hack to a medieval The entrance to the Porte Dauphine
ceramic tiling, often metro station in Paris (c. 1 900) is
past as its model,
highly colorful, typical of the arresting Art Nouveau
especially with stylized \rl Wouveau looked designs of Hector Guimard.
plant forms in long
droopy curves
forward to the potential

• Forms are likely to

oj new building technologies and wealth made
be asymmetrical possible through the use of new production techniques.
• Use of Neo-
Romanesque arches or
very flat arches The "New Free r
\n Nouveau's association with the
Stvle >ased
\n applied arts and tin de siecle decadence,
together with its obvious glamorizing
and inspired intent, has led to its often being dismissed

by nature was by theorists and historians as mererj

associated with decoration. In fact, the long, languorous
youth, freedom, and purity. It spread curves and slender stalks of An Nouveau
across mosl of Europe, known l>\ differe were ideally suited to the new metal-
names Jugendstil in German and Stile working technologies and were
Liberie in Italian — hut it remains most able to exploit the potential of materials
closely associated with Belgium and such as wrought iron in a simultaneous
France. ;i- Ait Nouveau. expression of structure and de< oration.

(il RSI
 1895-1 900 Victor Horta, 1 900 German physicist

a Belgian baron, is building the Max Planck proposes the theory

Hotel Solvay and Van Eetvelde that energy is "composed" of

house in Brussels, replete with indivisible units, and the

sinuous, flowing linear decoration Quantum Theory — and

using stylized plant forms. modern physics — born
is

NAMES ON THE WALL Baron Victor HORTA's (1861-1947)

Arthur Heygale Mackmurdo Maisondu Peuple in Brussels (1896) is

(1851-1942) is credited with the first important both in terms of its constructioi

1/7 Wouveau curves on book covers for his and as a new building type. It was one of ;

Wrens City churches /7SWJ and Century- series of "people s buildings, run l>\

Guild 1882). Odon Leehner 1845-1914) workers cooperatives, which were

built the Postal Savings Bank. Budapest new
introduced in L894 after the Socialist
(1899-1902), with decorative Dutch gables
party gained seats in Parliament for the
and vernacular motifs. Henri van de Velde
lir>t time. The plan followed the contours
(1 863—1957) become o successful designer
of the site, and an ingenious section, whicl
under the influence of Huskin
included a double
and Morris, designing his first house in

1892. He become director of the School staircase, contained all Fin de Siecle
the supporting service Literally "the end of
of \rts
. and ( 'rafts in Her/in.
a century." The end of
spaces. Smaller room- at
J the nineteenth century,
lower levels supported to be precise, but in

VIVE LA FRANCE the large, light, and airy reality a historical

expression so loaded
Hector GuiMARD (1867-1942) based space of the main with meanings that a
his work on three principle- drawn from meeting hall which rose definition is virtually

the "hiu book 'of naiiut — logic, harmony. three stories above the
impossible. Use
siecle to describe the
fin de

and sentiment — and was critical of those hir.l >or level. Inside paintings of Edvard

\\ ho used Art Nouveau motifs to ornament hem ting hall the (loot Munch (Norwegian,
i.i
i v 1863-1944) or
basic structures. Sloped, the root
Gustav Klimt
His metro undulated, and (Hungarian, 1 862-
stations in Paris cantilevered 1918) or movements
like German
I
1899-1904) l
I
.1
talconies
.. ..: .

Expressionism,
are perfect leaned over from and you're dead
right. To talk of
examples of his inclined walls.
anxiety, of androgyny,
principles: of anarchy, of

< unilinear Richard Wagner

emphasis (German, 1813-83)
structural
or Oscar Wilde (Irish,

honesty, the 1854-1900), will stir

The Art Nouveau
things up. The start?
decorative interior of Baron
The 1 890s. The end?
element—the Horta 's private house
4 August 1914, when
in Brussels is one of
ixpressionol turning back became
the earliest of the a forlorn hope.
jentimenl is ai
genre. The innovative
ategral pari o Horta later became
the compositii a Classicist.

M RASH COT RSI 73

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 1 869 The Suez Canal is 1 873 Cable cars 1 884 Cocaine,
opened, halving the time of (the world's first before its addictive

the journey from Britain to streetcars) are properties are

India The engineer is the introduced in the streets recognized, is used

French Ferdinand de Lesseps of San Francisco. for the first local

anesthetic — for

an eye operation.

1875-1910
The Last of the Big Masonry Towers
United States o f A m e r i «• a

Henry Hobson RICH \RDSOh (1838-86) is credited

with bringing to an end [mericas continuing uncritical
reproduction of miscellaneous European styles (Neo-
Greekj Neo-Palladian, etc.) and inspiring an original
Roman inspiration [merican style that was to lead to the development
the Pantheon.
of the skyscraper. I lis buildings are massive and
solid,with simple strongforms that give a feeling of
robustness and reliability. Some critics referred to Blackboard

his work as "masndme" in appearance. tZI?uL«i.(iBOi-

75) was unusual in his
time. As a student, he
caused consternation
Richardson studied in Paris al the AMERICAN REVIVAL
among his masters with
Ecoledes Beaux-Arts (1859-62) While the influence of his reconstructions of

and then worked in the atelier of I lenri the originality and antiquity that dared
to suggest that those
Labrouste. I le built some private houses rationality of
sparkling white stone
that appear forward-looking in Itoih an Richardson s work can buildings had actually

and irregular been painted in garish

original use of material be clearly seen in the
colors, and used not for
forms. I li- real influence is through his development of the religious purpose but
commercial buildings — down-to-earth, work of the ( Ihicago for more utilitarian,

vulgar activities. His

functional places such as railroad School and in emerging
St. Genevieve Library
stations, warehouses, and libraries. Modernism, bis work was one of the earliest

The Marshall Field Wholesale Building w as also the starting public buildings to use
exposed cast-iron
in Chicago (1885) isthemosl important point for the very
structures, shocking
of these buildings. Seven stories high, different approach his contemporaries, who
considered the material
it did not make full use of the Latest of the revivalists of
most unsuitable.
si eel -frame technology bul was instead American colonial
constructed of solid, richly textured, architecture, besl

Load-bearing masonry with wide, arched represented by the practice of Charles

openings. There was an absence of any Mi Kim (1847-1909), William Mead
applied surface decoration and an (1 846-1 928). and Stanford II urn.

uncompromising clarity of line thai Was (1853-1906). Their work follow. Bean
typical of the new rationalist approach. \w- symmetrical planning bul is much

74 \ n ( 1 1 II \ ( K\-\\ i
01 RSI
 1895 The first moving 1 896 Adolf Loos settle 1 898 The Paris Metro,
pictures screened in in Vienna, where he meets linking the city via

Paris by the Lumiere the Secessionist painters underground railroad

brothers. It is a gripping They do not get on. lines, is opened
movie of workers
leaving a factory.

The cinema is bori

more adventurous, drawing on a whole

variety of different European precedents NAMES ON THE WALL
[ ]

—Moorish towers from Spain and the

Pantheon or Roman baths — depending Architectural passions: II. II. Richardson
on the use of the building. The practice influenced both Stanford White o/McKim,
produced an enormous number of Mead, and White and J. W. Knot of

important public buildings, including

Burnham and Wool. Both Richardson and
White are described in biographies as "ban
the Boston Public Library (1887), with
vivants, " with II hite mysteriously described
a facade copied almost directly from "
as "exuberant in other ways as well.
Labronste's St. Genevieve Library in Paris.
Daniel Burnham is quoted as saying:
In New York Citv their masterpiece, the
"Make no little plans; they hare m> magic
Pennsylvania Railroad Station (1904. to stir men S bland.
"
II liile Ins team built

demolished 1963). was both a spectacular skyscrapers and the at hers built domestic

monument to the success of the railroad architecture and public buildings, II lute

company and a utilitarian service. must hare made same BIG plans: lie was
Esthetically, it combined both the shot dead at a theater rehearsal in l
l )0(>.

excitement of the future, with its

innovative steel and glass roof over the

Boston Public Library by McKim, Mead,
concourse, and the reassurance of the past,
and White ( 1 887-93) is a restrained,
with its heavy masonry facade based on academic design, copied from Labrouste's
the ancient Roman baths of Caracalla. of St. Genevieve Library in Paris.

\Ml oi K-l
www.ebook3000.com \ u
t t
 1 866 Alfred Nobel (of
Nobel Prize fame)
dynamite From now on
invents

unwanted buildings can

1870

now by
in the
Chicago, with
population of 300,000,
its

is

far the largest city

American West.
1 884
Waterman
eponymous
Lewis Edson

patents the

pen
fountain pen.
:
i

/If

be destroyed at a stroke

mi (v

Going Up!
1875-1910 Iron and steel framing
was a useful, all-around

Chicago. Chicago medium, brilliantly

adapted in Britain
H igh - Ri s e Ilea v e n during the railroad
boom, and eventually
Soon after the destitution of the great fire
of 1871 imitated and extended
in France and the U.S.
and the period of depression that followed, Chicago was ...but not without a

expanding again. Building development was rapid, and struggle with the stone-
loving purists. New
as space became more difficult to find and laud values York's Haughwout
rose, pressure increased to fulfill the demands of Building was completed
in 1857, becoming the
commerce for yet more space. Taller buildings first iron-framed multi-

were the inevitable result. story structure to be

served by one of
Elisha Graves Otis's

The common element in this group of as they were soon to (181 1-61) passenger
Hard
commercial l>nildin<_r > i> the use of a lie know ii. were -lill elevators. to

new and radical invention — a steel skelel perhaps onl) I •> storie
believe these
tested only in
were
854.
—
1

structun ami. more importantly, the high, and il w a- to lie Otis's vertical spring-

loaded ratchets soon

expression of ill structure i the xtei nearly another 30
faced stiff competition
<>f the buildings These firsl ikva ape years before the real from abroad, but
competition to build without his completely
Originally- the building
liml a projecting cornice reliable product, the
Louis Sullivan's Schlesinger- higher -till started in
skyscraper would
Mayer Slore (now Carson earnest, and the next have been positively
Pirie Scott and Co.),
earthbound for years.
wave of tall buildings
k\ Chicago ( 1 899-1 904), has
S^\ white terracotta panels that
was to appear.

'^L^'V follow the steel structure. Louis Si i.i.n i \

1856-1924) isthemosl important of

ilic designers. Credited as the originator of

the phrase "form follows I minimi." he Wa-

com inced that a logical starting point was a

necessity for art. Early examples <>l hi- work

are thetWainwright Building in St. Louis

(18 ()0) and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo

[18* »+/.')!. In both of these buildings, while

the steel structure itself i- not actually

visible, the rhythm of the framed

construction and organization of the spaces
within are expressed on the exterior of the
 1 890 At Wounded Knee 350 1891 Published novels 1 897 America's
Sioux are massacred and the include Jess of the D'Urbervilles John Philip Sousa
wiping out of Native Americans by Thomas Hardy ( 1
840-1 928), writes the ever-popular

is almost complete and The Picture of Dorian Cray, "Stars and Stripes

by Oscar Wilde (1 854-1 900) Forever" Marine

band march

NAMES ON THE WALL

soaring vertical framing, and the horizontal

Haifa dozen stories up. pollution and Qoor slabs are fully expressed. The mosl

wind make opening windows a had idea. accomplished, however, is Sullivan s ( larson

I solution was arrived at by Dr. Willis PirieSeotl Store (1899-1904), where the
Haviland Carrier, who had to control rigorous expression of the new technolog) is

temperature and humidity in a Brooklyn finally achieved in a style that for the first

printing works. His rind. Stuart \\.

time, is completely independent from the
Cramer, patented a system in 1906 and
past. Sullivan's use of surface decoration is
coined the term "air conditioning. The
sometimes considered contradictory to this
(
'arrier (
'orporation continued to refer to
rational approach, although he employs
their system as "maumade ireather" until
only contemporary Art Nouveau stylization
1933. Their 1938 Conduit Weathermastei
enabled the later development of open I natural forms of plants and Qowers

plan offices, a feature of the 1950s. an abstraction that can be compared to

he spatial abstraction of his facades.

Burnham and Root s best-known
edifice. The composition of the building, and possibly the most
facades still refers to the past: a popular skyscraper, is the I latiron

( llassical image with a rusticated in New York !ity, the tallesl building
(

base at street level and an attic in me world at the time of its

housing industrial equipment. ) construction in 1902. Qnaverj
The facades are constructed in l'|||'l||'l| prominent and dramatic ^it » ai the

load-bearing masonry with a l|h'l||l triangular intersection of Broadway

decorated frieze that includes lltM and Fifth Avenue, it has all the
hull s-eye windows and
I'lih.V
1

recognizable characteristics mi
;i projecting cornice. of the ( IbicagO School. Il i>

The Reliance Building 2 1 stories high, with the

(1895) by David Burnham ic^i steel framing -~\ stem

1845-1912) and JohnRooi but clad more
(1850-91) is the earliesl conservative!} with

example of the fully fledg< limes! 'and

steel-frame tall building
thai is uoi then dressed u]

in masonr) clothing. The

base ;iikI attic arc now
Burnham and Root took
barer} visibleasthe
Chicago School buildings
middle /ouc of the cellula to New York with the

structure of the offices, tin Flatiron Building of 1902

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 — ——
1883 Robert Louis 1 888 James Keir Hardie 1901 Hubert Cecil

§
Stevenson (1850-94) (1856-1 91 5) founds the Booth (1871-1955) invents
writes Treasure Island, Scottish Labour Party; in the that wonderful machine
(fie ultimate ripping yarn same year, he suffers electoral the vacuum cleaner.

defeat at Mid Lanark as the

first Labour candidate .

Some You Win.

Some Von Lose
Mackintosh had the
unique distinction of

Art Nouveau in Caledonia being better known

Europe than on his
in

own
Macki ntosh turf. His work was not
well received in Britain,

but the Austrian

Solid, square, severe, and austere; Secessionists lapped it

oriel windows, massive chimneys, up. Though he became

a partner in the firm of
and hollered trolls. Charles Rennie Honeyman and Keppie
M \( kl\ TOSH 'S (1868-1928) work has (1904), Mackintosh
seems to have had a
similar characteristics la lhai of I he problem with humans:
Secessionists in iustria, where it his work was great
but he couldn't handle
was exhibited in 1900. Through people. He dumped
/he or/ magazine The Studio (1893) architecture (1913)

Mackintosh west
and devoted his time
builf the
Mackintosh became an inspiration to painting, living in
wing of the Glasgow
to Josef Hoffmann and other 1/7 various British and
School of Art, housing
continental locations.
the library, in 1 907-9. Nouveau exponents in Europe. He never looked back,
never got rich, and
died at a young age.
a bitch?
Tbe characteristics of the <\ oh ing Scottish baroi ial Ain't life

'modern* -i\ le in Europe are also architectur<

typical of the Scoiti>li Tower houses, the vernacular tyj IIIK'll

subjecl of a paper given by Mackintosh to sketched l>\ Mackintosh. This was ;i

ilit- Glasgow Architectural Association on rational style with in;i>si\r stone walls

thai were structural, insulating, and

Call me Mr. Plain. defensive against high winds, with
Mackintosh Furniture small windows n> prevent excessive heat
Charles Rennie Mackintosh's furniture was delicate
In-,-, and steeply pitched roofs and
in all its phases, even at its trademark whitest.
Though his early work used ornamentation on that overhanging eaves to deal with wet and
famous pure white ground, as time went by his style
snowy weather. Mackintosh's (onus.
became less fussy. Though the idea of "purity" is

something associated with later periods of art and

evocative of dramatic el i male and wild.

design, Mackintosh led the pack by a long shot in uncultivated landscapes, together with
this respect, largely because of his ideas of
his delicate graphics, were perceived
proportion: geometrical in his famous Glasgow
School of Art, elongated and purely wooden, and l>\ exponents of \n Nouveau as a part
in certain commissions what one critic called of their organic and aaturalistic
antipretty. This might have been promising had
tendency allied to the Arts and Crafts
Mackintosh not thrown in the towel. But there

you go. Movement rather than to any modernist

or industrial approach.

u \-n < mi ii-

 1 904 Scottish dramatist 1 907 William Thomson, first Baron 1915 John Buchan
James Matthew Barrie Kelvin, dies. A brilliant mathematician and ( 1 875-1 940 ) writes the spy

(1860-1 937) writes Peter physicist, he had put forward the concept thriller The 39 Steps, featuring

Pan. A statue of the of absolute zero (a state in which there is the intrepid Richard Hannay
eponymous lost boy is put no energy in a gas, liquid, or solid). The dicing with death amid the

up in London's Kensington Kelvin scale of absolute temperature was banks and braes of Scotland
Gardens eight years later named after him.

I BELONG TO GLASGOW
Mackintosh designed interiors

for many Glasgow tea rooms,

the fashionable, airy

alternative to the dark and
smoke-filled pubs. The
Buchanan Street tea room
(1897) was stenciled with
elongated figures reminiscent
of the work of Klimt.
Mackintosh s work
combines the rationalist ideas

of construction with individual

artistic expression. Space is

given priority for the first

time. At Hill House (1903) in

Helensburgh, the importance of the design The curving glass and Street (1 904), typify

metalwork in the Willow Mackintosh's elegant

Tea Rooms, Sauciehall interior work in Glasgow.

NAMES ON THE WALL ] of the interior space can be seen clearly

— the spaces appear as carved out from

Franci sNewberrj {director. Glasgow
the inside, and great care is taken over the
School if \rt) brought Mackintosh,
relationships between rooms and views <>ni
Herbei I McNair, <uid Frances and
across the landscape. Rather llian the form
Marga *el IVIaeDonakl together because he
of the building dictating the space inside
had no iced a similarity in their work. Is

and (Neoclassical), the exterior form is a

"TheFt tin" they exhibited at the \rls

( rafts 1 Exhibition Society's exhibit ion in result ol the process ol internal spatial

1896, rhere the reputation for ireirdness composition (modern).

of the ii ifluential Beardsley-Wilde circle Mackintosh won (he contract to design his
appeal d to hare rubbed off on them. best-known and mostaccomplished work, the
earning them another name. "The Spooks"
•

Glasgow School of \rt. in 1896. The

I journ ahsi writing in 1897 had to
handling of the complex relationship
reassw readers that the sisters irere
between internal spaces and volumes
"cheer) d. healthy girls, "showing
and the exterior form, the control of the
no sign of morbid olisessimi.
(h.Nlighling. an.hhe buildings relationship

to the siic. sel it apart from am other

construction of this date.

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 1 895 The first-ever 1898 The Finnish 1 899 Ernst Ludwig, Grand
X ray is taken, showing composer Sibelius, Duke of Hesse, admires Olbrich's

the ringed hand of Bertha funded by tfie Finnish Secession Building for the new
Roentgen Her husbond, state, begins to write group of artists so much that he
Wilhelm, has discovered the first of his nine brings him to Darmstadt to found

electromagnetic radiation. symphonies an artists' colony where artists

can build their own houses.

1840-1920 Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the

revolutionary Secession Building in

Getting Away from It All Vienna (1 897-98) as an exhibition hall

for the works of the progressive painters of

Secession the day. The building made his reputation.

"Nothing that is not practical

can be beautiful" was the
uncompromising statement
of iustria s most progressive
archil vet. Otto Wagner
(1841-1918), at the end of the
nineteenth century. In his inaugural
led inc. at the Imperial icademyoj
(
\rt in Vienna in ls )-f (subsequently
published as Moderne Architektur^,
he also called far an cud to the continuing reworking of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century "styles" and demanded that a young generation of
architects develop a neir architecture. They must reject the past, reject

historicis/n. and look Jar inspiration to "modern life" and

"the new requirements of our tune. SPOT
THE
STYLE
Wagner started out working in different building
Architects of the Vienna

a clearly Neoclassical sty le and materials exposed for Secessionist group were
looking to develop a style
continued in ili«' \rt Nouveau stylein the the lir>t time. We arc
that was not copied from
train stations he designed for the Vienna invited to see that the historical precedent.

Stadtbahn (1894-1901). He achieved a materials of both the Usefulness was their

starting point. Buildings

level of success thai earned him the walls anjl floors and of
had to be practical,

commission to replan the city <>f \ ienna and w aterproonng and which led them to

structure can be develop distinctive

an appointment to teach at the Academy. In
facades using glazed
\\\> later work we can see a clearer considered part of the tiles, ceramics, and stone
demonstration of \\\> principles. Rather than sensual experience ol cladding panels, which
could be easily washed
the use of the sy mmetricaJ compositions ol a building.
down and would not
Neoclassicism. together with i
i
-> extensive Otto Wagner's most discolor as brick and
vocabulary of can ings and molding to important building i> stone buildings did in the

soot and grime of turn-

decorate the facades thai cover and conceal the Post Office Savings
of-the-century-cities.

the structures beneath, we start to see the Bank in Vienna (1906).

\ I i: \-n ( 01 n-l
 I 899 Such is the headache I 900 Freud's 1919 In Russia, revolution
caused by the confusion of Interpretation of Drea holds sway In Britain, Lady
styles and ideas in the art world based on his clinical Astor becomes the first

that the German firm Bayer work in Vienna, is female Member of

A. G. markets the first aspirin first published, and Parliament.
tablets to help everyone cope. shocks everyone.

The Studio
This art journal exerted
The exterior NAMES ON THE WALL
a powerful influence
over design practice cladding is of
Wagner was not alone in his Call lo do
at this time — for marble slabs fixed
away with the decorative in favor of a
instance, bringing
visibly with new .rationalist
Mackintosh's work to architecture. Henri van
the attention of Austrian aluminum bolts:
I de Velde (1863-1957) led a campaign in
architects. M. H. Baillie
inside, a glazed Belgium lo purify the formal language of
Scott was introduced to
medieval furnishings
barrel -vaulted roof architecture in his books Deblaimenl < I An
through its illustration of covers the main (1S94) am/ Why Should Artists Who Build
a Burne-Jones tapestry; Palaco in Stone Rank Any Higher Than
hall. An effortless
the Grand Duke of
Who
elegance
Artists Build Them in Metal? (1901).
Hesse discovered is achieved
In the I '.S., Louis Sullivan, in Ornament
Baillie Scott's work with a simple.
through The Studio in Architecture (1892), said. "It would be
straightforward,
and commissioned greatlyfor our aesthetic good, if we should
him to work on the and efficient design.
refrain entirelyfrom the use of ornament for
Palace of Darmstadt.
Among Wagner's a period ofyears, in order that our thought
most well-known might concentrate acutely upon the
pupils an- the Vienna Secessionists Joseph production of buildings well formed
Maria OLBRICH 1867- 1008) (
and comely in the nude"
and Josef HOFFMANh
(18^0-1050). The work of

the group is characterized

by use of cubic forms and lemonstrated the new
attention to the quality of approach. The form is

materials, though there is of a square and solid

still an affinity with tase. i
'
smooth.
the \rt Nouveau unclutti
of France and
Belgium. The
Secession Building
byOlbrich
established his
reputation mid

Otto Wagner's church

of St. Leopold (1904-7),
known as "am Steinhof,"

has facades clad with

marble slabs visibly fixed

with aluminum bolts.

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 1879 Edison perfects 1905-6 In Chicago, 1910 Frenchmc i Georges
the electric lightbulb and the first public building in Claude develops
a crowd of 3,000 people gather reinforced concrete is neon light, and
on New Year's Eve for the first constructed, by Frank advertising signs

display of public streetlighting.

The modern world is taking off.

Lloyd Wright himselt

— Unity Temple, in
are set to

be part of
Ce<m&\
Oak Park. city buildings.

1
(
>()()~ 1940
So Long. Frank Lloyd Wright
An American Genius
The l/V.v and (
'rafts Movement had
declined in England by 1900 but continued
in Germany and in the ( .S. for another 20
years, /rank Lloyd II RIGHT (1867-1959),
one of [merica s most famous architects,
was a founding member of the ( "hicago irts
and ( rafts Society, which was set u/> in 1897.
He workedfor Louis Sullivan before starting
in independent practice. \n unlikely

New York's Guggenheim Museum [merican hero. Wright had a reputation

(begun 1946, completed 1959) for being arrogant and difficult with
famous for curving profile
colleagues, and assistants.
is its
clients,
and interior spiral ramp.

Wright'searl) buildings
w ere large suburban

houses. In contrasl to European

architects exploring ideas

of minimum housing and

inexpensive workers housing.
\\ right's houses are luxurious.
The Prairie Style houses, as the)

arc known. ha\ e a distinctly

horizontal character — lorn: and

low. The) arc open plan. \\ iih

big fireplaces, and have -hallow

pitched roofs and overhanging
eaves. The Robie House 1909) u
( Ihicago is the last <>f the -eric-.

Falling Water, Pennsylvania (1 936-37),

has a sloping woodland site with a river

running through it.

 1 9 1 4-1 8 The First World War 1943 Albert 1957 The first

devastates France, Belgium and the Hoffman discovers "manned" journey

lowlands of northwest Europe. The the hallucinogen LSD. into space is made
human cost is tremendous; the war by a Russian dog,
decimates the male population of Laika, in the

the countries that were involved. spacecraft Sputnik II

INTERNATIONAL SCENE
\\ right's early work in the Arts and drafts
style was of interesl to European architects,

notablv the Dutch such as Hendrik

Berl \ge (1856-1934). By the 1930s
Wright's work was seen as part of the
International Style, both in form and
material innovation. Falling Water, the
house in Bear Hun. Pennsylvania
(1936-37), is

a composition of
A Busy Life
Wright led an cantilevered concrete
extraordinary life. He slabs; the Johnson
was Sullivan's most
\\ ax administration
important pupil,
anticipated many of Le building in Racine, The influential Robie House, Chicago
Corbusier's ideas, and W isconsin ( 1 909) marks the climax of Wright's
influenced the Dutch De Prairie Style houses, which have terraces
Stijl movement as well as
(1936-39), is buili
merging into gardens, projecting roofs,
Walter Gropius. He with the recently
and rooms running into one another.
sympathized with much
developed reinforced
Arts and Crafts thinking

but wrote The Art and concrete mushroom

Craft of the Machine to columns.
challenge William NAMES ON THE WALL
Morris's aversion to

technology. He lived NEW YORK CITY

m Europe, lolhiml.
Of all the countries I
until age 90 and was \\ right's mosl especially the expressionist \msterdam
married four times.
interesting building. School, was most receptive i<> Frank Lloyd
unlike anything Wrights architecture. Work by Jan W il>

earlier, is the and Kol> van CHoff directly reflects his

Solomon R. influence, while established architects like

Guggenheim Museum in New York City. II. P. Berlage (1856-1934) and De Stijl

\\ right's expressionistic form has a direct

activists like .1. .1. P. Oud / 590-/965 wen
keen /<> spread the WrighHan message.
relationship with the interior. \n inverted
Wrights designs appeared in Wendingen
conical spiraling ramp wraps itself around
the journal of/he [msterdam School and
an <
>|
»< 1 1 atrium. The continuously sloping
their 1925 special edition was regarded by
Hour and the continuously curved vertical
Wright as the best ograph of his
wall makes visitors self-aware; there is

no static space in the museum, the

perception i-- one of coin in nun-, movement

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i; \-n ( ot ii>i
 — 9 1

1916 Giorgio de Chirico 191 5-1 8 Carl Jung 1 921 Luigi Pirandello's

(1888-1978) produces a and Alfred Adler defect new play, Six Characters

typical painting The from under Freud's in Search of an Author, is

Disquieting Muses —with "umbrella," believing performed. No one knows

dreamlike distortions of there is more to who is who and what is what.
Classical building elements. life than sex.

Tu tur is mo e
Fuse is mo
L 909- 191
Futurism is one of the

Faster. Faster most fascinating areas

in twentieth-century art

Italian Futurism and architecture. It

comprised desire for

artistic change
There work to
is little built Speed was the obsession
combined
of the Futurists.
exemplify the Futurist Movement, with a large slice of
real anarchy, plus a
[rchitecture is represented declared need to

principallyby hundreds of drawings by the Italian "cleanse" one's own

society. It's all bombast,
architects Antonio S \ r'/:u (1888- 1916) and his I 1

but too close to our

friend Mario ( III TTOh E 1 391-1957) I own time for comfort.

Architecture was, like
film, comparatively low
on the Futurist agenda.
But from where we
Like man) other architects of their newspaper in Paris.
stand, even though
generation arid-- Europe, they were It stated. "\\c affirm
none of Sant'Elia's
fascinated l>\ the possibilities offered 1>\ that the worlds castles in the air were

niw technologies, and were ready ever built, his scheme

to magnificence has
for "The New City" (La
reject the |>a»t in favor of a radical been enriched l>\ a Cittd Nuova) is a
new architecture, fheir drawings show new beauty: the beauty foretaste of Fritz Lang's

r movie Metropolis, itself

perspectives of a world unknown at the of speed. Further
a prototype of Ridley
beginning of the century — cities <»n a manifestos elaborated on Scott's Blade Runner.

massive scale \\ iih multilevel roadways an uncompromising call Pre-1914 Futurismo did
not make it to the
an<l ziggurat forms Leading to slender for a complete break Armistice, but its chief
towers pointing toward dir sky. The with the |>a>i polemicist, Marinetti,
did, with nearly every
images have a romantic quality; dir\ and the need in find
other involved artist.
present a Utopian vision thai has expression for society s
Their varying

persuaded mam architects since that the new concern — peed. associations with
Mussolini and Fascism
world of new technology, of high-speed Architecture was
were a combination of
circulation, and new metropolitan established in the bad news and bathos.
landscapes can be exciting. manifesto with a
contribution from
MANIFESTOS Sant'Elia in l
(
)l4. following an exhibition <>l

The Futurist Movement, which included his work with the Nuove Tendenze group of
r
artists from different disciplines, wa- artists in Milan. The *Messaggio of Nuove
led by Filippo Tommaso M \i:i\ij 1 Tendenze called for an architecture that
(1876-1944). The first manifesto rejected ornament and bistoricisl form
was published in 1909, mthefigarv "w here we see the lightness and proud

84 (II HI - i CRASH COURSI

1 922 James Joyce's 1 927 Al Jolson's golden 1932 In the United States

Ulysses is published. voice is heard in The Jazz 16 million people are

Consciousness streams Singer, the movie that unemployed They and their

ushers in the talkies dependents represent about

quarter of the nation

slenderness of girders, the slightness of

NAMES ON THE WALL reinforced concrete . . . aping the solidity of

marble, which instead should be
The Futurists were the punk rockers of the meaningful and refined, ilbvlh
early purl oj the century: provgcative
world of machines,
performance urlisls who issued manifestos
new technologies, and
on a vast range ofsubjects, including one Rationalism
new materials. A modern program,
on smells. Uthough not many objects were
based on Futurism, was
produced, there were few aspects of design,
set up in Italy in 1926
INFLUENCES
or indeed contemporary life, on which the by Gruppo 7. The most
Futurists didn't hare a policy. Ciacomo Sant l.lia and the important member was
Bulla'* writing on Antineutral Clothing'
' sculptor Boccioni Giuseppe Terragni
(1904-43), who
called for garments that could be dynamic. (1882— 19 16) were founded it together with
aggressive, amazing, phosphorescent, and both killed in 1916. LuigiFigini (1903-84),
decorated with electric lishtbulbs.
and it seems that Gino Pollini (1903-),
and Marcello Piacentini
Futurism died with (1881-1960). Notable
them. No further buildings are Olivetti's
headquarters at Ivrea
Futurist works were
(1948-50), and the
produced, and Church of Madonna
exhibitions that dei Poveri in Milan
(1952-56).
followed continued
Terragni built the Casa
to show the del Fascio (local Fascist
party headquarters) in
same drawings.
1932-36. Allied to
Nevertheless, Fascism, the movement
Futurism and the was short-lived. The
overbearing
principles it
monumentality of the
expounded have bee buildings for the 1942
ol enormous Expo, EUR Rome, are a
bleak reminder.
influence. Its formal
influence has been

traced through
( lonstructivism and
the rational architec of the modi
mn\ ement. but. moi iportantly, il sth
basis l«'i a technological determinism
The most detailed of Sant'Elia's drawings
of La Citta Nuova, 1914. The skyscrapers,
expounded b\ such innovators as

high-density, and high-level circulation Buckminster Fuller, Renzo Piano, and il

have all become part of town planning. avant-garde English group ^rchigram.

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 1 908 Henry Ford devis* 1908 A 1913 Stravinsky's Rife of
assembly line for the mass meteor collides with Spring is performed for the first

production of motor herd of reindeer and time, by the Diaghilev

cars Working on th devastates part of central Company, in the newly built
line is here to stay, Siberia, proving that the Champs-Elysees Theater, Paris.

and where do machine can't

art or craft fit in? solve everything.

Crystal Clear
Together with
1
(
)(r~ 1939
concrete the exciting

Dent srher Werkbund new material at the

beginning of the
The Age of Concrete and (ilass twentieth century was
glass. The most
obvious development
The Dei 1 schcr Werkbund (German Work
1 I nion) was was fully glazed
set up in /'sot by a group of like-minded architects, walls. Developments
in concrete framing
artists, and industrialists,
systems that allowed
[rchitect members, who floor slabs to be

included Peter B EHRE VS

cantilevered also
allowed facades to

(1868-1940), Walter be free of the

structure. They could

GROPIl S (1883-1969), and become lighter and
Bruno T\i T (1880-1938), more transparent. The
experience of the
slimed // illiam 1 orris s 1
spaces created by
disdain for the shoddy such large areas of
glazing was also very
nature of mass-produced different, affecting

goods and materials. daylight and shadow

For Peter Behrens, the Age of the Machine and the endless
needed good, honest buildings for its
However, unlike the possibilities of vistas

industries. The AEG Turbine Factory \rls and ( 'rafts both inside and out.

in Berlin ( 1 909) is an early example

movement, they accepted
of an industrial esthetic.
industrialization as necessary to progress.
So they set out to improve standards through cooperation with
industrialists by means of education and design developments.

T was
nw
olveoul ofth
n<> partii

objects ai
Mar visual
d building

new null dsof

Bruno Taut
Bruno Taut conceived of a future architecture in

Utopian Socialist terms, which became fused with

production, and the use of new materials a layer of mysticism. Only architecture, he believed,
could reawaken the spiritual life of the people.He
and techniques. I lie Werkbund - annual
described his Glass Pavilion for the 1914 Cologne
publication included works from diverse exhibition as a "mere exhibition building." But his

fields of handicrafts, applied arts, graphic application of color, light, and water created effects

that Postmodernists would be proud of.

design, and painting, and the) continued

to promote art-industry cooperation. There

was still nonetheless the conflict between
the desire for handcrafted work and the
affordabilit) of mass production.

\lii III I l i
l I in
 1 916
prints
The Daily News
an interview with the
president of the Arts

Crafts Exhibition Society

and
m 1917
is

power
waged

in
While war
in

the Bolsheviks seize

Russia
Europe
1919 Mussolini founds

the Italian Fascist party

and wearing black

and funny pants becomes
shirts

under the heading "British a feature of Italian

Plan to Beat the Germans political life

—The Jam-Pot Beautiful".

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (""names on the wall

]

The first Werkbund Exhibition, in 1014 The 1914 Werkbund Exhibition was
in Cologne, included Bruno Taut's glass conceived as a tour de force for the body
pavilion, which explored the l hul hod been inspired by the British Irts

unconventional use of a material that was dud Crofts guild revival and now boasted a

to become the mainstay of the modern vigorous membership of oca- a thousand,

movement in architecture. Walter Gropius, and a/i ambitious touring exhibition

program. Yet the ornaments l Ik it raged
with idol/ MEYER (1881-1929). designed
back and forth in its wake nearlyfinished it
the Werkbund administrative offices,
off! Hermann Muthesius (author ofDas
which have staircases contained within
Englische HausJ putforward ten
curved glass towers that allow views into
propositions with the aim <>/ clarifying
the whole height of the stairwell, and the groups aims, and got ten counter-
changing views to the outside. propositions back from the Belgian Henri
van de Velde. The debate over
Walter Gropius worked in Peter Behrens's office
standardization versus creativity survived
for several years before setting up on his own.
With Adolf Meyer he designed the
the war and rumbled on into the 1950s.

Fagus Factory at Alfeld an der Leine

in 191 1, a prototype of
International Modernism.
The interest in new materials and
techniques led to an exploration of their
potential for new forms and spaces. This
"expressionism resulted in distinctive and
original buildings, often for industrial use.

with no historical models. The architecture

of Peter Behrens's AEG Turbine factory

(1908-09) i.^ an expression of the power of
electricity. Hans Poelzig's (1869-1936)
water lower and exhibition hall at Po/nan
(1910) is far removed Iron, the regularitj

of Classicism and the picturesque quality

of Gothic. The work i> liighh subjective.

hold, and experimental.

The Jahrhunderthalle (1913) in Breslau
(now Wroclaw Poland), designed b) Max
BERG 1870-1947). isthemosl innovative.
using reinforced concrete for its huge
dome. 213 feet/65 meters in diameter.

www.ebook3000.com
 1911 Sergei 1 9 1 6- 1 9 A group of 1 924 The death of Lenin creates
Diaghilev Hungarians who fled to a great building opportunity for

(1872-1929), Vienna after the Hungarian Alexei Shchusev, creator of New

establishes the revolution failed publish the Moscow. Lenin's mausoleum, a
Ballets Russes in magazine MA (Today) pyramidal composition topped with
France dedicated to modern art and a pastiche Classical temple, is built

architecture

1920- 1935
House Reds
Russian Con s true tiyi s in
Russian ( 'onstructiuism em raced (>

the ideas of industrial production

wholeheartedly. The buildings
and projects are machinelike:
constructedfrom machine-made
standard components, planned
methodically according to use.
and extended to include the new
technological paraphernalia of
sinus, searchlights, projection
and radio antennae. The
screens,
drawings a/so hare a mechanistic
feel, using block-printing
TaHin's tower, designed and oufdo
techniques, in sharp contrast in River the Eiffel

1 91 9 as a monument to the Tower, with its spiraling

to the handcrafted iralercolor Third International but never openwork girders and
drawings oj contemporaries. built, was to span the Neva revolving, suspended halls.

T\ru\
Welcome to the Machine The tower built 1>\ Vladimir

Architecture and industrial production only

1885-1953) as a model for

combined at the end of the nineteenth century, when a proposed l,000foot/300-meter building.
theorists argued that Germany (yes, again) might
known
is the most wider} Constructivisl
begin to compete with the world market if their

national products were of exceptional quality. But

work, [ts il\ namic shape of a Logarithmic,

first their applied arts had to improve. The Deutscher spiraling. canted conical web evokes a
Werkbund was the firs* step. Founded in 907 in 1
science-fiction-inspired excitement of
Munich, was an association of artists, architects,
it

manufacturers, and writers. had great influence on

It
intelligent machines, speed, and the
early industrial design. In time the Werkbund's potential energy of electricity. I he various
standpoint became obscured by the interests of
-pace- were to be contained within three
others, including many of the De Stijl group, Le

Corbusier, and then the Bauhaus itself, ultimate art- pure shapes, a cube, a pyramid, and a
house of the early-twentieth century. Industry and
cylinder suspended within the structure.
design finally enter a new phase.
Each was to revolve at different speeds
and at different intervals — a visible

VRCHITECTURI \ ( li \-ll ( 01 RSI

 1 920-33 In the 1921 The Soviet 1 925 Sergei Eisenstein's

United States Prohibition composer Sergei Prokofiev blockbuster Socialist movie

fails to stop a lor of (1891-1955) composes Battleship Potemkin creates

people from drinking the opera The Love for a cinematic stir

and having a good time Three Oranges.

demonstration of time through BACK IN THE USSR

movement within the exposed structure. The new Socialism was <le\ eloping patterns
Unfortunately the building never saw the of new social structures and institutions,

light of day. Tatlin started out a> a painter prompting architectural research on town
and was also highly regarded as a sculptoi planning and communal housing. Moisei
and theater designer, often working with Ginzberg's Narkomfin housing block in

found objects. Moscow C C

(1 )2 )) has shared spaces and
Hello Russia! Konstantin different-sized apartments, a style to be
Let's Get Real! MELNIKOl taken up later by the .Modernists. The most
The Russian Revolution
had a major effect on
(1890-1974) was the radical town planner was NicolaiMlLYl 1 1\

all branches of the first of the Russian ( 1889-1942), who proposed a form of
visual arts, and the
Constructivists to continuous linear development. New towns
story is immensely
complicated. However,
achieve recognition are organized in parallel narrow strips in a
it's safe to say that, when he built the logical order to separate residential areas
of all the arts,
graphic design and
Russian pavilion from industrial — railroad and industry,

propaganda made the «1 Paris for the followed by green belt and highway,
biggest strides. Artists 1 925 Exposition followed by housing and park adjacent to
like Molevich (1878- T , ,

moci jtj- Internationale des farmland. The linear development simply

1935) and Tatlin

(1885-1953) and even Arts Decoratifs et continued to grow as necessary along the
Chagall (1887-1985)
Industriels Modernes. lines of the rail and road, including any
might have held center
stage for a moment,
His projects existing towns along ii> path.
with the general demonstrate a
idea of showing the
highly
L
individual,
harmony in the new
progressive approach. [
NAM ES ON THE WALL
socialist order, but it

didn't lost. Lenin \t the Ru>ako\

mistrusted culture as
Within the Constructivist movement, but
, v - , .
/ ,. ,

lL , Workers (.nil)
in contrast to the rationalist approach,
an avenue to the hearts

of the people. Wriggle (1927) in Moscow. a second group more interested in the
though they did,
the plan is triangular abstract ideas ofpainters such as Kasimir
Russian artists and
architects found
in shape With Malevich and I.I Lissitsky was formed,
little sympathy in auditorium-- at each led by the Vesnin brothers. Uexander,
Communism from Victor, and Leonid. Their design for the
of the three levels.
that point on.
Leningradskaya Pravda (l ()'2l) illustrates
I he top auditorium
all the concerns of the group, incorporating
i- \ Lsible on ihc
the romantic machinelike esthetic with
facade, di\ ided into three solid forms
a sedate, rectilinear, almost abstract
forcefully thrusting out, cantilevered
flat elevation.
between the circulation areas, which rise

vertically, clad \\ iih transparent glazing.

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 —
1915 1915 J. J. P. Oud (architect; 1 920s Stravinsky,
El Lissitzky Theo van Doesburg (painter), Schoenberg, and Bartok
brings Russian and Gerrit Rietveld (cabinet all take pains to shatter

Modernism
the West
to

)KT> maker) meet and discuss

mutual regard for Cubism
their the conventional

notions of

and
harmony
tonality in music.

1910-1920 A Many-Sided
Going Dutch Affair:
For
Cubism
Cubism read Pablo
De Stijl Picasso (Spanish, 1881
-1973), Georges
Braque (French, 1882
Cubism new "way of
in art, the
-1963), Fernand Leger
seeing? meant objects and spaces (French, 1881-1955),
and Juan Gris (Spanish,
could be represented without using
1887-1927). Cubism
Renaissance perspective systems. was an art revolution;

architectural
Science that wires us knowledge its

manifestations were
Matisse invented the and analysis of the elements means only just appearing.
term "Cubism."
Convinced
we don 7 hare to see hem from one I
that there

must be a way of
viewpoint In architecture the "modern" position is representing space that
didn't relate to the
an important beginning, separating visual elements
Renaissance, Picasso
and ideas from conventional representation. decided to attempt a
portrayal of three
dimensions on a two-
dimensional plane
I Idlhuiil. in reaction to the quaint 1924 in collaboration
In (the picture surface).

sculptural and picturesque work of the with the client, the The painting that

Amsterdam School, the De Siijl movement interior designer Truus evolved was Les

Demoiselles a" Avignon

was about objecth in. The use of Schrader Schroeder. It
(1907; Museum of

naturalistic forms was rejected in favor of >h> on a |)lol of land at Modern Art, New
York). Picasso kept it a
an abstract language composed of straight the end of a suburban
lines, primary colors and black, whin-, and terract — a diminutive
secret until he plucked

up sufficient courage to

gray. The paintings of Piet Mondrian. one 3-D Mondrian show it to Braque.
Imagine the scene
of the founding members of the group, are painting, more like a
and Braque's undeleted
universally recognizable. In architecture, piece of furniture than expletives. Yes, Cubist

and planes art was bought, but not

lines intersect, suggesting a habitable building.
in galleries: privately.
continuity of space rather than enclosing I he materials used And if you can imitate

boundaries. I luis ter Heide in I trechl and the standards the lingo, then you can
cash in. Revolt, yes.
(1916) by Rob van t'HOFF (1887-1979 of workmanship
Hugely important, yes.
clearly shows these ideas expressed with employed are But open to dilution,

vertical glazing disappearing into irrelevant to the work. oh yes, and it changed
the face of art as well.
the oversailing root planes. Nothing is machine-
The most explicit architectural finished, nothing i>

expression of De Stijl is a house in Utrechl handcrafted, there are

Imilt by Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) in no inhered joints, no

\iu III I I
t li It I \ I
I! \-ll (
 924

O 929 /m^ 1931

I In America the 1 In the Soviet The painters Piet

first quick-frozen peas are Union the dreams of 0**^* Mondrian and Theo van
available commercially, the revolutionists are 1 Doesburg are among the
tfianks to Mr. Clarence turning sour Trotsky founding members of the artists'

Birdseye Even food is sent into exile. group Abstraction-Creation, bent

becomes abstract on working in an ahistorical,

nonfigurative modern style.

turned moldings. no skillful can ings.

Everything is made specially for tlii-

NAMES ON THE WALL
I

r /// Hungary there was a similar literary

hut ii could have been
There .are no exotic
made by you oi
materials, no wan
and artistic inurement also associated stones, oo poUshed marble, no rich
with Cubism through the periodicals
brickwork or polished wood grain . \ll

Ten Iction), 1915-16, andMa (Today), the surfaces arc paint; the different
1916-21. Farkas Molnar's (1897-1945) Form
colors of paint. i.-^ apparenl hut
Red ( /the House (1921) was an early
insubstantial. Each of
exploration of these new ideas. I Czech
the dr\ ations. with De Stijl
Cubist movement grew up around
a combination of
Movement
a publication. I meleky Mesicnik,y?wn Theo Van Doesburg
and plans showed projecting and
191 1 . Building types (1883-1 931) was the
no change, only the addition ofjutting, receding planes and spokesman for the De
Stijl group of artists.
angled decorative elements to the facades, lines, appears frail
Originally a painter, he
like the fractured paintings ofBraque and intangible. wanted to expand two-
or Picasso. Examples are Josef Choehol's The architecture dimensional paintings

1880—1956 apartment building in into something spatial.

is the experience
The basic theory of the
Prague 1913 .

of the space. group, the Neo-

Plasticism of Mondrian,
The Schroeder House,
was based on
Utrecht (1924)— planes mathematical theory to

of primary colors, reduce 3-D volumes to

tuig
ml endless space, and 2-D plans, and was
almost ephemeral forms. published in the first

issue of their journal De

Stijl in 1917.
J J. P. Oud(1890-
1963) was an active
member of the group
and his Cafe de Unie in
;
Rotterdam (1924/5) is

pure De Stijl. Oud fell

out with the purist

principles of Van
Doesburg and moved
on to more
straightforward
modernism.

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 i

1919 The first 1 920s The Deutsche 1922-31 The Russian

commercial airline Mark collapses and Constructivist painter, designer,

service is put into buildings can't be built. typographer, and architect

operation between This gives everyone more El Lissitsky is living in the West
London and Paris time to design them and and communicating excitedly

formulate their theories with both Bauhaus and

the De Stijl people.

1919-1933
Our House Is a Very Very Very Bauhaus
Gropi us and Co.
"
The Bauhaus, "I louse ofBuilding, was named by
Waller GrOPH S 1883-1969) in 1919, when he took
over the directorship of the School of irts <ui<l
Crafts a I Weimar. Gropius had succeeded one of
the Werkbund pioneers, Henri \ DE VELDE i I

(1863-1957),and work produced by the school

was clearly inspired by the ideas of William
Mollis. Over a short period, under the
directorship of Gropius, and subsequently
//amies Mi )i.n (1889-1954), the work coming
from the school evolvedfrom a nostalgic
craft-based type to
Dramatically cantilevered '
. . ....
f "<' "Ifictional clean
balconies on Gropius's new
school for the Bauhaus I i IK'S HOW SMIOHMIIOIIS
1925-6).
1

with the Bauhaus name.

The aim of the Bauhaus school was
"to collect all artistic <r<aii\ il\ into a
f NAM ES ON THE WALL
imiiv to reunite all artistic disciplines ...

into ;i nrw architecture." In line \\ ith the I hn-in a his time in England Gropius worked
iriil, E. .Maxwell Fry (1899-1987), famous
changing methods of production, teaching
for the pioneering Sun House, Hampstead,
methods were also changing. Work \\;i-
London (1934-35). Maxwell Fry was
caiiicd out in team-, collectively, and in
involved with the Modern Irchiteclure
workshops rather than the traditional
Research Croup (MARS), founded in 1933
studios or ateliers led l>\ "masters." There
alongside Other Modernists such as
was also a common foundation course for Berthokl I ubetkin. Wells Conies, nnd
-tin lent- of all disciplines, basic courses (hi- \ fu p. They were interested in
in form, color, and materials, which were introducing European rationalist theories

taughl b) artists including painter- such to England. Their most controversial

;i- l';nil K3ee, Wassirj Kandinsky. and project proposed reconstructing London on
a linear plan.
Johannes Itten. Later, industrial

< !- lti i was taughl to students.

 1 924 Schoenberg 1 926 In Britain a general strike 1929-31 Le

producesl 2-tone music rallies to support the miners, who Corbusier builds hi:

During a performance, have been locked out after ultramodern Villa

the conductor stops disputing changes to Savoye at Poissy.

the music and tells the working hours and pay

audience not to hiss.

The Architects' Collaborative

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Gropius

left Germany, as did many other Modernist

THE LEADER OF THE GANG architects. After a period in England, in 1937
Walter Gropius was the mosl important Gropius went to the U.S. where he was Chair of th
Department of Architecture at Harvard University.
architect of the Bauhaus and one of the Still committed to the important idea of teamwork,
mosl important figures in twentieth- he formed The Architects Collaborative, working
alongside a group of much younger colleagues.
century architecture. He wa? commissione<
They designed several
to design the new buildings when the notable buildings, including
Bau ha us
school moved to Desman, and the workshop the Harvard Graduate Center
1 950) and, after Gropius The design school
block is a model for Bauhaus modernism. (

par excellence, a
returned to Germany, the
It has mushroom columns supporting Berlin Interbau housing block Renaissance studio

957), with dramatically of the 1920s, and the

cantilevered concrete floor slab-: the (1 its

curved balconied facade, set only school in Europe

space? are enclosed by a three-story-high teaching industrial
above an open ground floor.

da-- wall. design. At its height,

the staff roster was like

A- well as his investigations into
a roll-call of the very

the uses of new materials — glas- and apartment design- were best in Modernism,

concrete —Gropius was also involved evolved as a rational including Johannes

(1888-1967), main
Itten

with spatial and sociological aspect- of response to the need for mover and king of color

developing modernism. His project for a fresh air, daylight, open theory, Paul Klee

(1879-1940), Wassily
Total Theater (1920) was exhibited in -pace-, and so <>n. The
Kandinsky(1866-
Pari- in 1930 but was unfortunately never results at Siemenstadl 1 944), Marcel Breuer

realized. The theater was to have had an (192 ()) are five-story (1902-81), Josef
Albers (1888-1976),
interior -pace that could be modified as block- orientated
and Lionel Feininger

proscenium, circus, or amphitheater north —louth with (1871-1956). Hannes

kind- of performance. planted parklike spaces Meyer intended to shift

for different
the school's emphasis
Gropius - housing projects evolved from between: tlii- became away from esfheticism
a concern with the social need- of people the model for many to social issues, "the

needs of the people

living in ever denser urban area-. I li- similar projects to come.
instead of the
needs of luxury."

The Graduate Center at

Harvard University,

Cambridge, Massachusetts,
was built by Gropius and
his associates in 1 949-50

93
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 "

1 909 Chorles-Edouard Jeanneret 1 928 By a happy 1 929 The Wall Street

is working for Perret in Paris accident, Alexander crash ruins fortunes
when Bakelite comes on Fleming (1881-1955) overnight as the stock
the market — in the first discovers penicillin. market suddenly
commercial use of plastic realizes it's all on paper
the synthetic polymer is

used for electric plugs

1 88^~ 1965 The Villa Savoye, Poissy, France

(1928-30) has its main rooms
The Sage on the first floor, which is raised

on pilotis (those posts on the

Le Corbusier 1
left).

Modernism was not /its/ another style, a different

est belie: il rejected the whole notion oj "styles"
and proposed a new way of thinking. In a fast-
moving modern should be society, architecture
concerned with the machine culture: a culture oj
Ionic, of efficiency and purpose. Modern architecture has therefore

evolved, atjirst tentatively, alongside developments in construction

technologies and experiments into the uses oj different materials.

Le Count SIER
i(( Ik tries h lam in I
In 1923 he published Vers une
Architecture, a stridenl manifesto for a

.It \\\t tit i. 1887-1965) new architecture thai used examples of

w as an architect of ocean liners, airplanes, and car- to

exceptional brilliance. support his arguments for Logical design.

_. . I le \\ orked for Behrens Fundamental to the new architecture
Domino House
(1914-15) in Berlin and higuste was the use of a framed structure,
Perrel in France. settling permanently in developed with vertical columns
Paris. His earl) works have all the modern supporting horizontal floor slabs.
characteristics of the Bauhaus "style" of ( lorbusier formalized the theory thai

Cropius — white plane- and cubic forms. evolved through a series of practical

projects, naming ii the "5 points.

CIVM Columns [pilotis] on individual
European architects interested in the new foundations raise the house above ground
architecture came together in 1928 to form CIAM
level; flal roofs can be used as roof
(Congres International d'Architecture Moderne). Its

stated aim was "action to drag architecture from gardens or terraces. as useful space and
the academic impasse and to place it in its proper
insulation: without the constraints of
social and economic milieu." Originally intended

as an informal gathering of creative individuals,

supporting the upper floors, walls can be
it became enormously influential as a forum anywhere, allowing a free (or open) plan:
for discussion and dissemination of ideas
long windows stretch full length between
and information. It continued for around
30 years, before a new generation of the vertical columns, allowing daylighl
radicals, known as Team X, replaced it.
and fresh air to flood into the spaces.

the \ice facade can be composed

 1 930 Amy Johnson 1947 The end of the Raj. 1952 The malarial
flies solo from London India gains independence. mosquito is at last

to Australia, taking Soon Le Corbusier will be pronounced extinguished in

19.5 days. working in Chandigarh Ceylon (Sri Lanka) after a

seven-year struggle with DDT.

Big Building
Le Corbusier developed
a particular kind of
A People Person
formal composition for Le Corbusier's architectural and town planning
independent of main
larger buildings. The schemes had people in mind from an early stage.
structure. In 1904 he met Tony Gamier (1869-1948),
Pavilion Suisse at the

Cite Universitaire in famous for his ideas for a Cite Industrielle, which

Paris, the Cite de were known to Le Corbusier circa 1904, published

HOUSES
Refuge in Paris, and the in 1917, and therefore predated Futurism by at

Centrosoyus in Moscow Villa Savoye (1928-30) least five years. Garnier's giant scheme involved the

all show similar ideas: and Maison La Roche use of concrete and lots of glass. Le Corbusier

small repetitive spaces, married Garnier's ideas to the concept of human

(1
(
)23) are examples
the bedrooms or offices solitude within a larger living organism: the

arranged in an orderly of a type that have commune. In 1 923 he published his views on a

up a satisfactory partnership between form and the

fashion, stacked in
become monuments to
slab block and carefully intellect in a book Vers une Architecture (Toward
Modernism. Lofty Architecture). His ideas for universal cities, with
dimensioned to allow
light to enter correctly. double- or triple-height high-rises centrally and symmetrically located, are
At ground level, not dissimilar to those behind much new town
spaces would appear
spacious, curved, and planning today.

independent shapes alongside more

contain entrance customary ceiling
lobbies and communal
heights. Conventional
facilities. Circulation
areas are used to corridors have been interaction with the main spaces of die
articulate the main replaced with ramps, house. All rooms are rilled with daylight.
forms. The whole is a
visible expression of
bridges, and galleries. and dramatic shafts of sunlight enter IV

what is contained with in. Movement from one carefully placed windows. Exterior spaces

space to the next allows around the building are as much a part of
the composition as

the interior spaces,

with outside views

carefully framed.

These "machines
r
for living in have
the spatial

richness and
luxury Le
Corbusier
intended for
all dwellings.

The church of Notre Dame-

du Haut, Ronchamp
(1950-54), a much later

work, shows the refinement

of his ideas.

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 1914 Bruno Taut, who has 1916 Einstein publishes
^e 1916 In Zurich
Utopian views about modern his Theory of General Hans Arp and Tristan

architecture and is keen to use Relativity, but during Tzara form the antiort
all the latest technology, designs World War I Dadaist movement
the House of Glass for the no one takes"
Werkbund's Cologne exhibition much notice

Better Laic than

Never
architecture the term
1920- I960 In

expressionism exists in a

Expressionism kind of time-warp after

fine art predecessor.
its

Natural Generations Architecture acknowledges

the prewar frisson of this

new tendency, but tends

The architecture oj the Werkbundat the beginning of to reserve its applause for

the twentieth century is clearly linked to the post-191 8 wunderkinder.

development of Modernism — -front (tropins and The semiabstractions of

Art Nouveau are a kind
Meyer's modelfactory at [Ifeld an derLeine and of launchpad, from which
flights of fancy take the
Gropiuss more Bauhaus. I loirerer. not all
In the
curious around the creations

architects followed this line. The Expressionist ideas of of Antoni Gaudi (we meet
him some nice
later),
Bruno T\l I (1880-1938) and Hans POELHG (1869-1936) Amsterdam housing estates,
presented an alternative to the easily adopted Copenhagen's Gruntvig
Church (Klint, 1913-26),
formalism dial resulted in International Modernism, and thence to Mendelsohn's
with lis pure geometries and rational planning. concrete with attitude.

oppositions al the Werkbund. Noting the

same division in I lolland. he described

the work of Berlage and Michel de Klerk

in Amsterdam a^ ^visionarj I m it with no
)
ol.jermilv' ail<lare|,ilerlmel>v.|..l.l Ou<|

iii Rotterdam as Afunctional without

sensibility/ Neither extreme was satisfactory,

and Mendelsohn worked 10 achieve a

s) nthesis of both:

the rational and Functional together with

The interior of Berlin's concert hall, the the expressive or dynamic. His 1
(
>_!1 Mat
Philharmonie (1956-63), shows Hans Luckenwalde highly articulated,
factory ai is

Scharoun's distinctive geometry.

having a long, low production area with

Expressionism - icon is the Einstein undulating, multiple pitched roofs juxtaposed

'lowci in Potsdam buill l>\ Erich w nli ;i smooth-faced, tall. Qat-roofed and

Mendelsohj\ 1887-1953) in 1920. The angular cubic block. Mendelsohn s later

building i- conceived as a sculptural object: work increasing!) used pure geometries bul

;i plastic and naturalistic Form, curvaceous retained characteristicall) confident:

;iinl unlike any pure geometrical shape. sweeping curves in plan. hea\ y powerful

Mendelsohn was concerned about the polar horizontals, and extensive glazing.

\l<( HIT I ( I l HI \ 1 I! \-ll ( Ol li-

 1918 In England 1915 Czech writer Franz 1 932 The splitting of an M
women are at last given Kafka's short story "The atom creates energy for th

the vote, but they have to Metamorphosis" is first time in a laboratory at

be over 30 to exercise it published. Expressionism Cambridge University. A

is in the Zeitgeist. clean, energetic future

seems in the cards.

f NAMES ON THE WALL 1

THE UTOPIAN
\s a young architect and a member /// the 1990s, the Expressionist approach

of the "Glass Cham (the group of 14 might seem to he the normal one Concern
for site specificity" and knowledge oj the
architects launched l>\ Bruno lam for
brief (through increased awareness of user
the exchange of ideas), Hans Si n \ROL \

groups^ to define the architecture is

(
1893-1 9^2) produced some of the most
becoming more usual. Examples arc Hollo
enduring visionary >ketche> of the time
Wilson's Minister Library, where the mass
— dreamlike images of a I topian future.
of the building is divided to retain rieirs of
During the l-930s and 40s. Scharoun's existing buildings: traditional materials
work was limited to private houses. related to the surroundings are used, and
All show an originality of form and the plan is organized according to the
asymmetrical composition related to movements ofpeople using the building.

the specifics of a particular site. Glen Murcutt's (1936- ) work in lustralia

is another good example oj a contemporary

In the 1950s and 60s. lie had the
Modernist approach in response to
opportunity to build a series of larger
particular climate, culture, and tradition.
buildings. The Philharmonic ami the
National Library in Berlin areboth
enormously important, with an
inventiveness ami originality thai
remain individual
Neither conform- to
to Scharoi
am
iiaioiui.
^ The importance of the individual, whether

recognizable formal focusing on the orchestra or in the library

geometry or any type looking at a hook, is as much a pari of the

the experiential total architecture as the shared spaces ol

quality is paramount |n\ ers and entrance halls.

Erich Mendelsohn's
1%.
Scharoun
Einstein Tower
(1920) has the sculptural
at Potsdam
J* During the Nazi period
1930s and 40s, Scharoun's
in the

quality of his early

work was limited to building
Expressionist work (much
private houses. These show a
of which was on paper) development of his ideas about
in the years after architecture's relationship to the
World War I landscape, with carefully designed
external spaces and gardens. He
also produced a great deal of
drawings during this period, ideas
that would be used for later projects.

97
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 —
1 928 Bubblegum 1 932 Alvar Aalto invents 1 957-58 Scientists
makes its debut. Perhaps curved plywood furniture, of many nations get
it helps Bucky Fuller to which comes in handy for together to study the
dream up his geodesic his undulating Finnish earth in International

domes for chewing it in. Pavilion at the Paris Geophysical Year.

Exhibition of 1937.

1920-1970
Down with Geometry
Organic
"Organic architecture" is o
You don't find straight
term loosely applied to lines in nature.

anything thatisn't composed

ofpure geometric forms, but looks as if it

could be natural. Its roots ore in the late
nineteenth-century search by architects
The TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport, for on alternative to the endless copying
New York, by Eero Saarinen 956-
of other styles. Nature offered a variety of
( 1

62), uses naturalistic forms that are

suggestive of flight.
forms as inspiration, particularly curves.

flamboyant and Oooh Those —

As with
;m emphasis on
i-
Expressionisl architecture, there
the specifics of assertive stag antlers.
Wavy Lines!
Art Nouveau's wavy
climate and topograph) in determining Haring's Gerkau
tendrils ensured that
relationship with the landscape. The idea I arm (1924) has most experimental
u architecture was
of being in harmon) with nature has barns and buildings
moving away from
been an important consideration lor many for animals laid out the rectilinear by
Modernisl architects — Sullivan. Aalto. without reference 1 906, ably assisted
by developments
and Scharoun, for example, though to any geometry
in concrete and
their approach is related to process (the or >\ mmetry. cantilevering, which
evolution of form in response to a series Others discussed allowed new art forms

into building projects.

of issues related to the brief, the site, and in this context are
For great concrete, Pier
anticipated use) rather than a direct \ isual Eero S i \/u\i:\ LuigiNervi (1891-
979) the best. His
interpretation of ^natural-looking forms. (1910-61), whose 1 is

Ortobello airplane
TWA terminal at
hangars (1936
NATURAL HARMONY New York's Kennedy onward) are merely
indicative of the kind of
For HugoHAMNG (1882-1958), the Airport (1002).
rib vaulting the Romans
natural world legitimized the concerns looks like a bird in would have died for,

of architects like Mendelsohn about the flight, and./o/// and his sports stadia,

including that for the

apparent opposition of the rational and I T/.<>\ (191 8-) those
1960 Rome Olympics
the allusive. Nature has room for both Sydney Opera I louse ... well, bella is simply
an inadequate term.
efficienl forms, such a> the streamlined (begun 1957), has
greyhound dog breed, as well as shell-like forms.
 1959 The 1961 The Berlin 1 962 New Wave
hovercraft is Wall is constructed, cinema is hitting the

demonstrated. It dividing the city of screens This year

can move over Berlin between West Antonioni's L'Aventura

land or water. and East Germany. is released.

I NAMES ON THE WALL I

applications. The nave inside the larkaset

Hermann Finsterlin (1887-1973)
Mortuary Chapel could he the ribcage of a
built nothing but was the creator of an
huge animal: the entrance to the church at
influential architecture offantasy. He wrote
Siofok (1086- ( )0) looks like the face of an
prolifically of a world of organic form in

which man's frozen creative energies would inquisitive owl. All his buildings have
be restimulated by the I nirer.se. In 1919 he rough timber shingles resembling crocodile
spotted a forthcoming exhibition in a skins or scaly fish. The
newspaper used wrap his sausages and That's A
to forms, developed
Good Idea
was pleasantly surprised by the interest
primarily through the
The craving for
taken in his work. special edition oj the
I

roof, are supposedlv weirdness in the late

Expressionist periodical \\ endingen 1 970s brought the
symbolic of a
followed. I lis sketches seemed so far beyond crazy world of Bruce
primitive Hungarian Goff( 1904-82) to
realization that he gained respect as an
culture: most look like notice. His houses
abstract theorist.
employ a range of
upturned hoats. His
different geometries and
work has been materials individually

criticized for colluding tailored to clients, who

are included, rashly, in
(
Iii t he l
(
) )0s the term "organic" has with the romanticized
the design process. His
become popular again. Ii has been used for version of Hungary's inventive ways of

promoted by the looking at how we live

the architecture of the Hungarian Imre past,
have resulted in such
MAKOVEC (1935- ). who achieved politics of the new oddities as the Dace
international recognition for his pavilion capitalism in an House in Oklahoma,
with vast cylindrical
al the Seville Expo of 1
(
>
(
>2. Makovec's attempt to eradicate
cupboards on the
buildings are visuall) anthropomorphic, Internationa] facades apparently for

generally using timber in all its different .Modernism, with its practical storage. Yeah,

Bruce, thanks very

Socialist overtones.
The great sails of the Sydney much.
Opera House, designed by
Jorn Utzon and completed
in 1973.

The mulls all

Imre the

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 —
91 9 1928 John 939-45
^£-
1 Le Corbusier and LogieBaird 1 World War II;
j^ s
*
the artist Amedee Ozenfant (1888- 1946) invents a blitzkrieg and bombing bring 0* * ^
(1886-1966) publish the scanning device that devastation to cities all over f ^tf**^***

*9|
book Purist Manifesto will become the Europe; when the war is over "?*3£sS£#**
after Cubism. television — the eye in there will be a pressing need KA.& .*. •
»•*"*

the corner of the room for housing

Housing Estates
1920- i
(
ro English
Suburbs began
Garden
to

The Living Machine appear

late 1
in London
870s, reaching
in the

e Corbusier 2 their apotheosis in

Hampsfead Garden

/. / ( On m SIER was very much involved

Suburb (begun by

I with twentieth-century Modernisms

Unwin in

domestic and public

1906), where

greatest project — the provision of housing

planning blended
harmoniously. Postwar

for everyone. I socially motivated project, slum-clearance projects

seized the opportunity
it developedfrom the slum-clearance to build apartment
programs of overcrowded nineteenth- buildings to rehouse
the dispossessed, and
century cities, started in earnest after
Robert Matthew's
World War I. and became a pressing political issue horrible Roehampton
Estate in London
after the band) damage of 11 arid War II. It was (1958) followed
a/so part of (lie changing aspect of architectural Corbusier closely.
However, Roehampton
production. Modernism, within the confe.it of
showed how this idea
mass production, meant less expensive and could go wrong.

mare efficient production of housingfor nil.

Li orbusier
pursued the same ideas as
- mass-housing projects
his

imli\ idual houses in terms of the

importance <>l space and light, and also

re-examined the \\n\ we inhabil our homes

ina changing society. I he outcome oi all

his idea- was the I nite <l I labitation in

Marseilles 1947-52 : a suburban town of

1,800 inhabitants all \\ iihin one building. The Unites make optimum use
of flat roofs for recreation space.
I he \a-i concrete building, which has been
likened to an ocean liner by main critics, is the width of the building to alio* sun

raised up on gianl pilotis i<» lei the enter hoih morning and evening. The
landscape continue underneath. Ii has a includes shops, hairdressers, laundry,
roof terrace that, like the deck of a ship. nurserj all the facilities normal to a

ha- vasl funnellike chimneys ami a pool small town, as well a> the apartments.
lor children. The apartments, on i\\ <» levels \ successful '

"type, several more wen

duplex . are ingeniously organized across I mill in I ranee and Germany

\ < I! \-ll (dl RSE

1 947 Buckminster Fuller ( 1 895- 1951 Mies van der Rohe 1 953 Spray-can

1 983) invents the geodesic dome; designs Chicago's Lake Shore mechanism devised by
50,000 are built in the next 30 years.. Drive apartment buildings, while Robert H. Abplanalp; it

Frank Lloyd Wright is putting the becomes very easy to apply

finishing touches to the Friedman graffiti to concrete walls.

House in Pleasantville, NY.

(lit roll an House

r //

imp
would
iron
NAMES ON THE WALL

be impossible

(acknowledging the input o/Ebenezer

to talk

igpro
about
in trillion!
in the 1950s, where
outdoor access
spaces were grouped
together to promote
Le Corbusier saw
designs for housing
as part of designs for
towns, and vice versa.
The Citrohan House
(1924) featured two
Howard, a British office worker who neighborliness. load-bearing walls and

conceived the no/ion of the planned garden Powell and Moya's a double-height living

space with a double-

city after a stay in the I .>'.. and strayed Churchill Gardens in
height terrace outside.
architectural opinion through the force of London (1947-60) The unit could be used
his convictions and his commonsense include some in a terrace of houses
approai h. Although Oen had pan! or as a duplex in a
particularly elegant multistory block. The
tribute to the charms of the English house.
examples of slab house was exhibited at
there was a suspicion thai it was the Paris Exhibition in
blocks. The
progressing the garden city idea faster than 1925 as the Pavilion de
we could. British Prime Minister Lloyd apartments, in nine- I'Esprit Nouveau.
story-high blocks, are It included a tree
George sent a mission to investigate in
growing through
1919. The term has been absorbed by most accessed in pairs from
the roof and an
other European languages. There are cite- independent stairways exhibition space.

jardins, Gartenstadten, and ( uidad-jardin encased in glass. se1

out there in abundance.

at right angles to the

main structure. The Hat roofs have terraces

in the corners, and circular forms and

BUILDING BLOCKS railings recall the "ship

Man) oilier architects had the esthetic of ( lorbusier's Unites.

opportunity to desion public

using schemes, and developed The roofline of the
new patterns of dwelling in Unite d'Habitation

displays huge
response to changing patten
funnellike chimneys,
in society. Sir Denys L iSDl \
and is an area
(1914- ) evolved a Muster* hi
for recreation.

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 1900-1913 Cubism, 1913 Poet Guillaume 1 924 At its new
Fouvism, Futurism, and the Apollinaire(1880-1918) headquarters in Dessau,
beginnings of Expressionism presides over the Surrealist under the directorship of
ore all flourishing in the world movement, and is to be seer Gropius, the Bauhaus
of European painting, while walking his pet lobster concentrates purposefully
Impressionism and along the Paris boulevards on architecture and
Synthesism are still on the go industrial design.

Heat-proofgla&
1918-1960
A Star Is Born
Mies van dcr Rohe
*7 don l want to be interesting; I want to

be good." Ludwig \lu S VAI\ DER Rohe

1886-1969), quoted above, managed
both. Building throughout the first half
of the twentieth century in Europe and
in the I ,S., Mies was responsible Im-
probably I lie most -feted building of the
Modem movement, the German Pavilion
at theBarcelona Exhibition of 1929. I lis

famous diet mil "less is more" eon be

clearly seen in the severe outward
simplicity of his buildings, which
New York's glass-wrapped Seagram
understates /lie elegance and Building ( 1 954-58) by Ludwig Mies van
the subtle proportions. der Rohe and Philip Johnson was a new
architectural symbol when it was built.

The German Pavilion is a developmenl It Ain't

Mies
What You
to direct the
Do...
Bauhaus
of hi- earlier De >tijl work in it> It fell to in its last

incarnation, from 1930-33, during the transit

painterl) approach to the use of detached
from Dessau to Berlin. Though Mies was wonderfully
planes and lines to articulate space and pragmatic, effectively changing the Bauhaus into an
architectural institution, waiving many educational
ini|)l\ enclosure. It goes further, with its

use of exquisite material — marble, onyx.

requirements
finally in the
to keep the place going, he
face of Nazi intransigence. They
failed

saw it

ilia-*-, steel — proof thai architecture can as a hotbed of "cultural Bolshevism." Nevertheless,
Mies was happy enough to enter competitions for
have a vitality, a monumental quality
Nazi architectural commissions, and solicited votes
through materia] presence. The building i> for the party, along with the conductorPurtwangler

small in -rale, single-story, and forms a and the sculptor Barlach. When he finally did leave
Germany for America it was for a well-paid job in
simple rectangle in plan. The horizontal Chicago: he didn't see himself as a political

plane <»i the roof slab is supported on a refugee, but simply as an architect who had to

make a living. He did. While he was no Nazi

regular grid <>f columns with the walls
supporter, he was most definitely an opportunist,
appearing a- il randomly placed as and as such — both at the time, and with hindsight
perfecl entities, separate elements —a figure occasionally without principle.

independent of the structure.

\l!i III I I < I I 1(1 .

- V CRASH COURSE
 1 933 Merian C. Cooper 1 961 The Russian Yuri Gagarin 1963 President

produces King Kong, a film becomes the first man to travel in John F. Kennedy is

starring a giant ape and the space. He orbits the world just shot and killed.

actress Fay Wray. once at a height of 1 88 miles Everyone over the

in a time of 90 minutes. age of 1 5 will forever

remember where
they were that day

AIRBORNE
Two oilier buildings from a later period.
f NAM ES ON THE WALL
The Farnsworth House, Piano, Illinois

( 1 950). and the New National Gallery, Three moments ill a career: in .
1927Mies
Berlin (1962-08). demonstrate Mies's
van der Kohc organized I he exhibition Die
Wbhnung, which showcased the best
continuing commitment to the same ideas.
Modem movement thinking on the problem
The Farnsworth House takes the idea of
of social housing provision. In 1946 Knoll
the horizontal plane to its extreme. In this
Associates began promoting furniture
single-story building, the floor slab is
designs from leading Europeans. Mies
raised on columns but just enough so that granted production rights of his classic
it appears to be floating. This effect of 1920s oeuvre to knoll. In the same period
detachment, of complete separation from skyscrapers became increasingly cost-

Structure, is enhanced by the slabs being effective and corporate clients rushed to

attached to the sides of the columns. incest. The gleaming glass towers conceived

The gallery in Berlin has clear glass of as an embodiment of a social vision were
finally built, but as monuments to capital.
walls all around, allowing an uninterrupted
view of the underside of the dominating
A Late Starter
roof slab, which seems to hover above the Mies wasn't trained as
supporting columns. In contrast to GLASS HOUSES an architect. He
learned his skills from
the light, airy, spacious, open feeling Mies eventually built
his father, who was a
of the ground level, the basement level his skyscrapers. The master mason, and

contains a walled garden, an enclosed. apprenticed himself to

Seagram Building.
a furniture designer,
secluded, and secret space. New York (1954-58, Bruno Paul, before
Berlin's New National Gallery which engineering and with Philip C. working in the offices of
the architect Peter
( 1 962-68) is a logical architecture work together: Johnson) is an office
Behrens. After a few
continuation of Mies's style, in simple and elegant.
tower of sheer bronze. years there, he worked

raised above a wide on his own ommissions,

which are mainly
plaza. The quality
rather romantic and
of the materials and Neoclassical in style; it

perfection,.!' the wasn't until the end of

World War I that he
detailing i^ more became active in the
powerful than an\ Modern movement.

elaboration of form or
decoration. The I .ake
Shore Drive apartment -.Chicago
(1950-51), are a suca ssfulapplicati riof
the same ideas to resid mtial develop

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 1953-54 In Britain
1 954 John Cage 1954 In Britain,

the term "brutalism" is

introduces minimalism to wartime food
coined for the new music as his "4' 33" " rationing comes to

concrete architecture ("Four Minutes, Thirty- an end People are <-

where ducts and all are three Seconds") silently free to indulge the

on show hits the scene in the culinary passions.

concert hall

1930s Simple, nriil The Penguin Pool (1935) at the

/'/"" Royal Zoological Society (London
Tec ton and After x
Zoo) was designed by Lubetkin
and Lindsey Drake.
Modernism in Britain

The development oj Modernism

in Britain is associated with the
arrival <>/ a number <>/ influential
European architects en ionic for
the States. Gropius, Breuer,
Chermayeff, and Mendelsohn
all completed building projects
during I heir briej sojourns in
England before going /<> the I S.

Brrlhnhl I J III lkl\ 1901-90), 8 Russian, GOOD HEALTH

~.mI., I in London in 1931 andwasa Tecton built several other extremerj
Founding member of Hecton, important Modern buildings. The Finsbury
.1 group <»l architects dedicated i<> the Health Centre, London (1938-39), useda
development <>l Modernism. Tecton's best mural and a series of architectural sketches
known work is the Penguin Pool ;it London io inform the public <>l the benefits of fresh

Zoo. I lii- project was an opportunity t<> aic. daylight, and sunshine. The building
;i|t|il\ scientific, analytical methods t<> itself, a crisp and white curving form
design: the architecture could provide for with glass block walls, is thus symbolic of
actual needs rather than exisl as ;i the new imperatives toward health and
romanticized simulation of a natural habitat. fitness currenl at die time
I he resulting building i- ;i paragon of
Modernism. Thin, curving walls form an
elliptical enclosure containing the pool,
which is embellished with the sinuous
curves of two interlocking spiraling ramps.
I he concrete was the thinnesl seen al the

time, and the completely unsupported

ramps seem to defj r
i_ ra\ ii\. I he
continuous curves of the ramps. -tr|>>.

;hmI pool mean there is uninterrupted

activity as the penguins move around.

104 \ Id III I I
i
I I lil ~ A CRASH COl'RSl
 1954-58 Pier Luigi Nervi 1956 Britain 1 957 The USSR
working on the design of the introduces a Clean launches the first earth

UNESCO building in Paris- Air Act, after smog satellites, Sputnik I and
all made of concrete. kills several thousand Sputnik II. The first USA
in one London winter. satellite, Explorer /, is

launched in 1958.

Two notable London buildings in the

The Festival of Britain
functionalist Modernist style are the Daily
The Festival of Britain in 1 95 1 involved a whole
Express building on Fleet Street 1933), series of exhibitions and buildings to house them.

by Ellis and ( lark, and the Peter Jones One was the Royal Festival Hall, a truly modern
building. The dark, enclosed space of the concert
department -nuc in Sloane Square ( 1936). hall is raised up on columns in the center of the

by Slater. Moberly. Reillyand Crabtree. The building, quite separate from the foyer spaces that
continue all around and underneath. The RFH was
key icon of 1930s British Modernism is the
the first in a whole series of buildings to house the
De I ;i Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea by arts on London's South Bank. Almost all are

Mendelsohn and Chermayeff (1935). with exceptionally good pieces, such as the Hayward
Gallery (1 964, by the LCC Architect's Department)
ii~ expressed horizontality and cubic shape
and the National Theatre (1967-77) by
articulated with curved glazed stairwells. Denys Lasdun, where foyer spaces mingle

Only the more progressive of British pleasantly with the banks of the Thames River.

The same vocabulary based on ideals of early

architects adopted Modernism. Others Modernism are also seen in Congress House
were ^lill steeped in the Neoclassical and (1953-60) by David du R. Aberdeen. Cleverly
planned on a tight urban site, it has a central
aeo-< k)tbic. Tecton's Hats in Highgate,
courtyard that allows and
London — High Point I and II — follow all Le
light into the offices

meeting rooms. The floor of the courtyard is the

Corbusier's principles, but mos1 housing glazed roof of the conference hall below.

built in the 1930s only picked up Ion mil

aspects such a> geometric shapes and while
walls. \rt Deco sunbursts were common on
gates and doors, but steeply pitched roofs,

quirky gables, and cramped plans showed

the favored Gothic inspiration.

[
NAMES ON THE WALL ]
Erich Mendelsohn and residents with their design

Serge Chermayeff must for the De La Warr Pavilion Marcel Breuer (1902-81, stopped in
have shocked the town's at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.
Englandfor two years on his inn from
Hungary to the I ,S. I lis name is still most
commonly associated with I lie chair in
tubular steel, designed while In- was m
(//nine nj /he Bauhaus Joinery and cabinet-
making workshops in the early l')20s.
Russian-born Serge Chermayeff 1900-
worked with Mendelsohn in England before
emigrating in /he I ,S. in I'J-fO. where he
worked primarily as a teacher.

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 \

1917 When Aalto I 927 Oil is

is 1 1 Finland gains discovered in Iraq,

independence leading to the

from Russia development of
the Middle East

1920- 1
(
><>(>

The North cm- ii Light

Aalto
9
llvar LiLT0 S 1898-1976 recognition as
jxiri oj ///c architectural avant-garde dales
jrom 1929 after his work with Erik
Bryggman on the Turku 700th anniversary
and his participation in the
exhibition
(I \M meeting. I he best example of his
early work is the Paimio Sanatorium 1929), The intimately scaled 1 949-52 when the

civic center at architect returned

built iu reinforced concrete, with flat white
Sdyndtsalo was built to Finland after
walls and strip windows. It has all the coal by Alvar Aalto in working in the U.S.

elegance <>l the best Modernist works.

A lio - later \\<>i

ausual.
architects in the postwar period, he
I
k- are

ike man) other modern

\ isualrj \ ei

moved
NAMES ON THE WALL

;iw ;i\ from i In' international image of I he most important Swedish architect

1930s Modernism to investigate other is Gunnar Erik tsplund (1885-1940).

Hi designed Stockholm City Library
materials and the specifics of location
run js . Stockholm Exhibition
1 1 ni i tie a building to the landscape. I le
Building 1930), and Goteborg '/'nun
used timber and brick construction rather
1 1, ill 1934-37). Sigurd Lewerentz
ili, in the c xete and steel common!) /ss.>- 1975j developed a less "functional*
associated with European Modernism. and more poetic minimalism, seen in his
\\ hen ( .«
1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 \ and France were churches <il Skarpnack (
(l )(>0) and Klippan
developing a steel industry and precasl (I9(>3). Ralph Krskine (1914-) is famous
concrete production. Finland with its vasl for the Byker Wallpublic housing scheme in

natural timber -.(mice- developed the mass \ewcastle (1969—75), which involved
design consultation with the inhabitants.
production of plywoods and lamina in I

timber beams. The rules <»l Modernism

rigorously applied allowed \alio to develop the 1939 \<\\ York World's Fair, raised

projects in relation n» ilir specifics of the \alio - international profile, leading to a

geography, culture, and building traditions visiting professorship (1940-48) al the

of his Dative Finland. Two pavilions, one Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

for ili<- 1937 Paris Exposition and <»n«- for While there he designed Baker I louse

106 \ lit III I I < M XI K CRASH COIR!

 1 956 Ingmar Bergman': 1971 The pocket
film The Seventh Seal calculator now comes into

brings to cinema the use. The first model weighs

classic Modernism of a hefty 2.5 pounds.
Scandinavian design.

A Man of
Many Talents The Vuoksenniska Church
(1947) on the at Imatra
Aalto is as well known
for his bent-plywood Charles River. (1952) has a clever plan with sliding
furniture (from 1932) Two significant partitions that allows the main nave space
as for his architecture.
buildings from to be extended or reduced along its length
Why? Because he
humanized it. No among Aalto's to accommodate varying sizes of
tubular Bauhaus steel later works give a congregations. The main roof is divided into
here, thanks: only the
real McCoy. And he
good illustration three vaults following these divisions, lifted

kept the wood coming. of his originality above the surrounding solid walls to provide
A stacking three-legged
and individual clerestory glazing. The entrance and other
stool that most of us
couldn't put a name approach. As ancillary spaces are grouped at the side.

to is in regular use part of his plan The church has a tall slender tower close
-

today, after its first

for Saynatsalo, to the pine trees among which it stands.
appearance at the

1937 Paris Expo. a new town for

Aalto's sensitivity is
3,000 people,
commonly noted, and The Paimio Sanatorium period, which were to
Aalto designed
commentators also
( 1 929-33) is one of many of become classics of
point to the excellence the town hall and Reinfo
Aalto's buildings of this modern architecture.
of the work by his wife,
library (1950).
Aino, which gets lost in

the haze surrounding These comprised

their joint distribution small-scale
venture, Artek. In
brick buildings,
Alvar's architecture
brick and timber grouped around
mix coherently, an open
with consistent
understatement. Easy
courtyard
to forget and easy to planted with
accept, Aalto's work in
grass, directly
architecture and design
helped Scandinavian accessible, via
style to attain the wide steps, from
position it enjoys today.
the marketplace.
The informal
arrangement
and small, almost

domestic scale is

a deliberate contrast to the idea of town

hall as imposing monument. The
architecture of Saynatsalo is not a symbol
of the council's power. bu1 a symbol of
democracy, a truly public space

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 —
1912 1917 Marcel 1919 Walter
Cellophone is Duchamp(1887- Gropius takes over
monufoctured 1 968) "finds." the school of arts and
and marketed signs, and exhibits crafts at Weimar and
for the first time. his

It is
Fountain

a urinal
I famously renames
the Bauhaus

SPOT
it

THE
1
(
)i2(N~ 1930s STYLE
International Style "The International Style"

U.S. Modernism suggests that the idea of

"style" so hated by many
could be "the frame for
I lie International Style: r\rchitecture since 1
(
>l2l2 was potential growth." The
first published in 1932 in conjunction with an exhibition "fundamental" principles
are few and broad
at the Museum oj Modern 1// in Vew York. Written by volume rather than
Philip .urn \S0\ and critic 190&- (iiid the historian mass; regularity rather
than axial symmetry;
Henry-Russell Hitchcock, it included work by architects and proscription of

such as Gropius, l.c ( orbusier, Rietveld, and Mies ran arbitrary applied
decoration used to
dec Rohe and was instrumental in introducing he I
illustrate the emphasis
new I .ur<>i>c<in architecture to the .S. I on surface material.

T
works
hr book sets oul the esthetic

principles of the
in illustrate
-i\ le using
various points, and
l»nili

n reads almosi as a design guide. The

principles enumerated arc ^volume (space
enclosed l>\ iliin planes) rather than mass:

regularity a- opposed to s) mmetr) elegant ;

materials; technical perfection, and fine

proportions in place of applied ornament/

The style is characterized b) white llai

wall- w uli no extra applied decoration,

severely cubic forms, large areas
i
il glazing, ami open planning.

THE PEOPLE'S ARCHITECTURE

I Inn \ -Russell I litchcock had previously

used the nun 'International" in the I .S..

in distinguish certain works from

' Alodrrn" architecture or "'the new
tradition,'" which, according to his
The German Pavilion for the 1 929
International Exhibition in Barcelona,
anal) sis. ^till showed e\ idence of a

designed by Mies van der Rohe. continuity with the |>a-a — thai is to say. a

108 \ in III I I
i I I HI V CRASH COI If-
 1925 The Beaux-Arts- 1 927 In Paris, Adolf 1938-42 J.J.P. Oud
style Vanderbilt Mansion i Loos builds a completely 1 1 llll abandons the severe tenets of

New York, so recently

1T# unornamented house using De Stijl for a more playful style

a flagship for American

Classicism a

is
la

demolished.
so old-fashioned.
Francaise,

It was
cube shapes for the arch-

Dadaist Tristan Tzara.

3 in the Shell Building at The

Hague. This style

nickname "Beton-Rococo."
earns the

concern with mass and ornament though NAMES ON THE WALL

perhaps with sonic simplification. The
\ln\l Vs Machine Art exhibition of 1934
Internationa] Style had no continuity with was organized by Philip Johnson to

the architectural past or with history. sho modern mass-produced woods

-P
avoided decoration altogether, and placed and new materials. Johnson s first

emphasis on space and plane architectural work to achieve critical

rather than mass. acclaim was his Mew < anaan home (1949).
Inspired by Mies van der Rohe, was a
The term had been used by Europeans it

cube with glazed walls. Johnson did not

in the context of the Socialisl and
constrain himself to a Modernist esthetic,
Bolshevik Internationals who saw I and 30 years later his advocacy helped
architecture as a fundamental part of the
Michael Graves win the competition for
forming of a new social order.
a new city administration building in
"International represented an ideal of Portland. Oregon, a commission that
widening communities and an end of signaled Postmodernism s absorption into
nationalism. The style had developed imerica s architectural mainstream.
through different building types but was
especially associated with research into

new kinds of housing where the functional

and social aspects of the design were of major achievement of the 20th century.'' Its

major importance. In the hands of the continued development in the U.S. has been
Americans it became a formula for an mainly in the development of office

esthetic style not concerned with anything buildings, where form is a pari of corporate

other than form. Twenty years later. identity and buildings are representative of
however. I litchcock wrote that the successful capitalism: ironic for a style that
International Style had been "probably the was originally motivated bv social concerns.

The new school at

Dessau (1926),
designed by Gropius,
was used to illustrate

"a more extended

articulation with more
emphasis on the
organic relation

between the parts."

TOP
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 1925 Gramophone 1 926 Poetic. Modernist I 927 The horrible
records bring the new versions of the classics are automobile death of
jazz music into pouring from the pen of avant-garde dancer
every home Jean Cocteau Isadora Duncan shocks
^
contemporary art lovers.

;
"
I": I
«
»
;

The Jazz Age

Art l)t»ro

1/7 Deco was the popular

version of the cool
sophistication and
austerity of curly 1930s
Modernism. Buildings havi
the same basically simple Many influences came to bear on the style that

produced buildings such as Radio City Music Hall

cubic forms relying on a
at Rockefeller Center, New York.
juxtaposition of horizontal
and vertical elements to create dramatic effect The various
colonies are usually articulated with "setback stepped form.'

Instead "I continuing the w a- a Founding llir

Sisters \n-
historicist/modernist debate. of the I niondes Artistes
Doing It...
\n Deco accepted the n«\\
Some people call
Modernes \\ ho promoted
technologies, embraced the Art Deco effeminate the st) le in Europe.
because was taken
it
Bauhaus philosophy, and In the I S.. w here there was
into the women's realm
employed a rich variety of of fashion fabrics. less reluctance n> embrace
machine-inspired geometric Undeniably, the 1920s new technologies, the *jazz
was the first age of
decoration. Immenseh popular,
female emancipation.
era -aw the second \\ ave of
the -i\ le spread to fashion, In European art -k\ scrapers thai \\ ere

furniture, and graphics and schools, many women -\ mbolic of the importanl
became first-class
included influences from all are*
citizens by virtue of the
new wealth) patrons; the l>iii

ol popular culture: streamlining quality of their work. corporations. Raymond

They were also good
inspired l»\ the automobile, Hood's (1881-1934)
at putting on the style.
faceted and refracted images Cropped hair, flat McGraw-Hill Building in New
from the cinema, and the chests, slimline dresses: York 1929) and the Empire
this androgynous look
i li\ thms ol jazz music. Stan- Building l>\ Shreve,
can be seen as a
I be st) le. and its name, manifestation of Art I aiiih. and I laiinon ( 1
(
>
3 I

originated in Paris at the 1

() 2"> Deco itself. Think of it
are examples <»! the new i\ pe.
as an all-around culture
Exposition des Vrts Decoratifs and see how high
The most famous is the
I In. Iii-in. U Modernes. Robert and low you can go. Chrysler Building {1929) by
\l \i 1 1 t-Steiens 1 886- 1'H-Y William I i\ l/./.\ (1882-1954).
 1 920s The word 1 929 The Museum
"flapper" is coined to of Modern Art opens

describe the modern young in New York.

women of the 1 920s, with
their bobbed hair and
unconventional ways.

\X ith its homage to the automobile — its

sparkling beaten metal doors, stainless

steel panels, and gargoyles modeled on
radiator caps — it has become the icon of
Art Deco style.
Rockefeller Outer introduced significau

new urban design ideas. Set back from the

streets, in the middle
Out of Egypt of the development.
Ancient Egypt was a which covers three
major inspiration for
city blocks, the offices
Art Deco, especially in

the U.S. The idea is are grouped into the

understandable if we slenderest, soaring
just glance at the Nile
Valley: the pyramids,
RCA building. The Rockefeller Center's central skyscraper, the RCA
the columns at Luxor, street leyel provides, (now GE) Building (1 934) is 70 storeys high. In the

the richly encrusted foreground is Paul Manship's statue of Prometheus.

for the first time,
tombs of the Pharoahs,
the painted colors public open spaces and a shopping mall. Inside. Radio City
of Egypt. When Music Hall is the epitome of 1930s
Tutankhamen's tomb
The Empire
opulence, its exotic timber veneers, bold
was discovered in
State Building
1923 a whole new patterns, reflective mirrors, and
1929-31) has come
repertoire came into
to symbolize
polished metalwork glittering in the
play. Buildings abound

in U.S. cities with this Manhattan. skillfully subtle lighting.

kind of decoration,
but it would be hard
to identify specific

sources. There are |

NAMES ON THE WALL j

some truly Egyptian

objects, mostly
The Hoover factor)- (Western Avenue,
decorative, like the London) brWallis, Gilbert and Partners
mythical beasts
(1932-3S) must stand here for all
that decorate the
the glorious I rt Deco factor) frontages,
entrance lobbies
and upper limits of
many of which are now demolished, that
American towers. sprang up along main roads in the south of
England in the 1920s and 1930s. With
its classically inclined facade, brilliant

colors, and slarhursl entrance, it

exudes confidence — a fitting place

to make new goods for a new age.

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 1956 Popart 1955 The world of 1 955 Concrete hits music.
emerges on the youth is jumping and Musique concrete, with its

scene, with a blend jiving to Bill Haley's "Rock recorded mix of musical
of commercial images Around the Clock." C . and natural sounds,
and intellectual makes performances and
take-off points. performers redundant.

SPOT \
THE
1950s STYIE
Et Tu Brute? • Use of concrete as a
Brutal ism modeling material to

form different shapes

The expression "New Brutalism originated in •Surface texturing of

concrete showing
Britain in 1954 and was attributed to Uison and method of construction
Peter SMITHSQI\ b. 1928 and 1923), who, like many • Severe, unflinching

other young architects in Europe, were frustrated monumentality of

forms
by the problems ofgetting work in a profession
• Honest expression
dominated by the established older generation. The of materials and
term referred, perhaps mockingly, l<> the puritanical
approach of a younger generation committed to the
extreme Modernist principles of the risible, honest
expression oj struct ores <aid materials.

New uses for old

concrete mixers.

The Smithsons' High

School at Hunstanton, in

Norfolk, was inspired

by the work for MIT by

Mies van der Rohe.

Hunstanton School in Morfolk participation in groups such as Team \

(1949-54) is the original British within CIAM. and the Independent Croup
Brutalis! building. Here the Smithsons Of their buill work The Economist
took their ideas of truth to materials to Building, London (
(1 )(>-f). is an innovative
the extreme. The) exposed not only the composition for a city block, and Robin
)~1
materials of construction bul also ili<- I lood (.aniens. London ( \
i
'l). a good
services: the |>i|>r>. conduits, and fixing: example of public housing based on
They have had enormous influence Corbusian principles of maisonettes
both through their buddings and b) and streets in the air.

112 MO II i M 111 t CRASH COl'R!

 1957 The Beat 1 959-63 The British architects 1 962 The first

Generation is making Stirling and Gowan are at their communications satellite,

its voice heard. Jack most politely brutal in their design Telstar, is launched by the

Kerouac's On the Road for the Department of Engineering U.S., and has a song
is published. at Leicester University. named after it by
The Tornados.

EUROPEAN BRUTES thicknesses to form curves and slopes.

The other use of the term Brutalism is Moreover, its surface could take on any

derived from the French beton brut. number of textures, mirroring the surface

literally translated as unfinished or raw- of the "shutter, the formwork of wood or

concrete. In contrast to the prim, cool cubic metal into which the concrete was poured.
forms of 1930s Modernism that exploited Several of Le Corbusier's buildings fall

the monolithic qualities of concrete to into this category, reflecting his move away
make precise, white, machinelike planes from the rationalist formalism of early
and surfaces, by the late 1940s and 1950s Modernism. The Unite d'Habitation at

architects were Marseilles, the culmination of Le

Brutalism beginning to Corbusier's ambition to reinvent the idea of
The term Brutalism experiment with the a town or suburb within one structure, was
encapsulates just a
"plastic" properties realized in concrete. The basic structure,
moment rather than a
movement: a short-lived of concrete. With including the enormous angled pilotis that
period when the frank
adequate steel rein- hold it above ground, is formed of concrete
expression of concrete
monumentality was
forcement, it could cast in situ. The knots in the wood used to

deemed both needful be poured on site make the shutters are clearly visible.
and desirable. The use
into any shape giving a surreal texture to the surface.
of a brutalist esthetic on
London's South Bank and in variable
seems ironic when it is

remembered that the

Festival of Britain,

which had previously

occupied the site, was
intended to mark an
emphatic end to

wartime drabness. The

uninviting walkways
and gray spaces are
now generally deemed
to be unsuccessful, but
never mind, Denys
Lasdun's National
Theatre really does look
lovely lit up at night.

The exterior of the

Hayward Gallery, London

(1 964), has a combination

of precast and in-situ

concrete surfaces.

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 . 1

1953 The theory of plate 1 956 The neutrino (a particli 1 958 French anthropologist
tectonics is developed Six large with no electric charge and no, Claude Levi-Strauss (1 908-90)
plates and a number of small or very little, mass) is finally writes Structural Anthropology,

ones fit neatly together to form detected in solar radiation. developing his theory of
Earth's crust Volcanoes Physicists had been trying to Structuralism, which

and earthquakes occur along pin it down since its existence suggests a universal structure
the "joints" of the plates. was surmised in 1931 common to all societies.

Dutch Treat
1950-1970 Hertzberger's Centraal
Beheer in Apeldoorn
Serious Structuralists has been identified as
one of the seminal
Order a la Carte office buildings of the

twentieth century, and

humanize
[ccording to the Structuralists, Modern movement his ability to

by fragmenting large
architecture is too bland, ill-defined spatially, interior spaces is

equally evident
neutral, and difficult to inhabit. Expressionism or in the

the opposite — too

Vredenburg Music
Formalism is subjective, emotive, Center. There have
been comments on
and idiosyncratic. Hie Structuralists proposed
Hertzberger's slightly
something between the two: an intelligible surprising but
intentionally antielitist
complexity. 1 nonhierarchical Structural"
use of mundane
framework provides the order within which industrial materials like

concrete blocks, which

there is some flexibility, allowins individual choice.
have a tendency to

attract graffiti. But, hey,

Centraal Beheer offices,
the same critic asserts
Apeldoorn, Netherlands
that Hertzberger's built
(Herman Hertzberger),
forms are strongly
provides user-friendly defined and robust
spaces for staff both enough to take it!

externally and internally.

The movement is largely limited to

I lolland and to architects such as Udo

I i \ EYCK (
(
)1<°>- ). Herman HERTZBERGER
{VY.V1- ). and Piet BLOM (1934- ). although
the basic idea, to include individual variety

and complexity within a structured or

ordered framework, can he identified in the

work of other modern architects. Between

1959 and 1963 Aldo Van Eyck, with
I [ertzberger and Joseph Bakema. edited the

journal Forum, an important mouthpiece for

the movement. Both Van Eyck and Bakema
were members of Team X who had
challenged the authority and relevance of
CIAM in 1956., the end of its second period
of great influence.
 —
1 966 Mile. Ravpoux, a portrait 1 969 British chemist 1974 The U.S.

by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh UiA-l"00 Dorothy Hodgkin moon program ends,

(1853-90), sells for 150,000 (b. 1910) works out and scientific resources

guineas ($441 ,000.00) at Christie the three-dimensional are diverted to

in London. structure of the tiny environmental research.

insulin molecule.

The Kunsthal in Rotterdam

( 1 992) —a square crossed

by inclined ramps — by the

supercool Office for

Metropolitan Architecture.

STRUCTURALIST STRUCTURES the image of a Mexican Indian village. The

The Apeldoorn offices of the Centraal Municipal Orphanage (1958-60) by Aldo
Beheer by I [ertzberger (1968-74), Van Eyck was conceived as a small city
based on the idea of office as community with different-sized buildings. Piet Blom's
are modeled on a cell-like honeycomb "Kasbah housing scheme in Hengelo
structure. All the (1965-73) and
interior spaces What Is It? t Speelhuis
arc only partially Structuralism, a movement in human sciences, community cente
originated with the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure
enclosed, -till visibly
857-1913), who said language
and housing in
(1 that is a
pari of the whole structure, "a system of signification" or "code," that Helmond
holds meaning only in relation to itself. The
the excitement of (1975-78) show
anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-90)
lab\ rinthine space a development
extended the idea to include all cultural processes.
Without die fear of Ahistorical, basic structures underlie the of Structuralism
architectural process in the same way; design is
being lost. The in town planning
merely a process of searching for them.
exterior i> unusual fo w ith denser)
*offices
r
— a jumble clustered houses
of small cubes jostled and free-flow ing
together, more like open spaces.

u -

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\ < \ 1 1 (
 I 938 Mies von der 1 948 In Britain the first 1 950 Jackson Pollock is

Rohe becomes professor National Health Service making his mark with his

of architecture in Chicago comes into being It offers Abstract Expressionist drip

and infuses students with no cure for the shock of paintings to hang on the

Modernist ideas the new clean new walls.

1930-2000 Building
tapers as

Glass Menageries
Skyscrapers
Tall buildings defy" stylistic classification, is a type,
they are usually glass-skinned and air-conditioned —
familiar blandforms in cities all over the world.
frequently only noticeable as they assume, if but
"
briefly, the title oj "tallest building in the world.
Si/tec the early tall buildings oj the (
'hicago
School and the 1930s in the I .S.,few hare
provoked the same excitement as the Empire
State Budding or achieved the same
tectonic quality as Mies s Seagram Building.

1<>"
New
L ;ver I louse
which organizes
glass-skinned slab
in

sel
ili«'
Yoi k

offi<

back from the

into a

street
After

the
25 years
building skyscrapers

Chicago
of

firm

Skidmore, Owings,
and raised above ;i two-storj podium. 1 1 ;
—
and Merrill were sti

been imitated by many. \\- architects. innovating, as at the

Louis SKIDMORE [1897-1962). Vathaniel John Hancock Center,

Chicago, 1 970.
OwiNGS 1903-84 . and John MERRILL
1896-1975 . wlm wen- uniquely lit, nidi.

organized on ;i commercial model known cross-bra

/unlit
,i- S( >\l. established their reputation with
ilii- building. Since the firm s development
nl sophisticated steel-framing techniques.
SOM lia> completed man) more, including
the John Hancock Center in Chicago
1970), which wasthefirsl to include
differenl uses in one tower, and the
Sears rower 1974), al l,500feel tall.

I he World trade Center in New York

(1974) b 5 Winoru VAMASAKl 1912- has
two identical towers, square in plan and
beautifully proportioned. I he facades.

I 16 i h: - \ i h \>ii <
 1 952 To coincide with the 1956 While architecture 1957 After Jack

explosion of office buildings is clean and crisp, John Kerouac's On the Road is
American cities, the U.S. tests Osborne's Look Back in published, the word
the first H bomb. The Anger characters are "beatnik" enters the

mushroom-cloud generation still sitting around in language and the Beat

wonders what to make of it. old-fashioned kitchens. movement spreads to Paris.

The Tallest? Not Quite.

It had to come. The tallest buildings in the world seem
unusually, are structural with wide, closely
to have been designed by one man, Cesar Pelli
spaced mullions, which give an appearance (b.1926), whose twin skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur
of solidity and dramatically reflect the sun. are now counted higher than his unlovely, vertical,

800-foot stainless-steel-clad obelisk at London's

Their precarious siting on the very edge of
Canary Wharf, the tallest in Britain, and the second
Manhattan Island has unfortunately been tallest in Europe. The title of "tallest building in the

obscured by the collection of mediocre world" changes periodically, and because of the
skyscraper mentality the title seems to have mostly
Postmodern buildings that now fills the
stayed in the U.S. At 985 feet the Eiffel Tower is puny
reclaimed land at their base. (The stone compared with the Empire State Building: not the first

to head heavenward at ,250 feet. As for Yamasaki's

removed for the very deep foundations was 1

World Trade Center towers (1 ,350 feet), they have

used to build extra land around the island.) long been surpassed. And of course there are other
contenders — the tallest business center, bank,

residential building, and so

NEW DEVELOPMENTS on. From ground level they
The skyscraper is still fertile territory for
Going
all look fabulous; from nine
Underground
technological research. In a proposal for a floors up in Manhattan
From the perspective of
some of them look plain
tall building in Shanghai. China. Kenneth the late twentieth
stupendous. It's part of a
Yeang has suggested reductions in energy mystique that stretches from
century we should also
mention the
Asia to California.
consumption. With the skyscraper's sealed development of Earth
skin, an air-conditioned interior would scrapers. By the mid-
1980s, 5,000
seem inevitable. However, a
American families were
double-layered facade allows living at least partially

different parts to be opened underground, and there

were 27 subterranean
during different seasons for
schools in Oklahoma.
ventilation and heat control. Excavating makes

"Sky courts, several stories good sense where

weather conditions
high and planted with trees,
are severe, land is

oxygenate the air. The design precious, or planning

controls are extreme.
for this complex multilavered
The British architect
facade is not just a response Arthur Quarmby
to functional requirements or inhabits an earth-
sheltered building in
climatic controls, but is
Yorkshire (completed
also an attempt to c\ oke 1975). There hasn't

memories of exactly been a rush

( Ihinese tradition.
to follow, but as

the environment
Yamasaki's World Trade
deteriorates, more of
Center, New York, with its
us will be joining the
smooth twin towers, perhaps tunneling ecoactivists.
marks the summit of his work.

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 1 966 Floods ravage 1 967 Robert Venturi 1 968 Troubled times
northern Italy; priceless art publishes Complexity and the assassination of the

treasures destroyed in Contradiction ... and the civil rights crusader

Florence and Venice first discovery is made of Martin Luther King,
pulsating stars, or pulsars while campaigning for

racial equality in the

deep South.

1966
Be Reasonable
Neorationalists

The intellectual principles oj Neorationalism are

a combination ofRenaissance theories and early
twentieth-century ideas of reason and logic. Beauty
is a result oj order, truth, and reason, not Baroque
illusion or Expressionist symbolism. Architecture,
OS a science, has its own natural lairs, which can
be recoveredfrom analysis oj the sprawling city
as the physical embodiment of history, and
buildings as a series oj archetypes.

O. M.Ungers's drawing
Thi^ contemporary movement is
for the Frankfurt Trade
associated primarily with Italian and Fair Hall gateway.

German architects, UdoRossi 1931-) is

the principal advocate. I le published lii^

theory Uarchitettura delta cilia in l

(
'()(». NAMES ON THE WALL
followed l»\ [rehitettura razionale (with
Rossi's Architecture of the Cit) and Jane
other contributors) in 1973. Opposed to
Jacobs's Death and LifeofGreal Americai
x
the false embalniing process of historical Cities (1961) emphasized the lived
restoration. Iii> buildings are carefully experience of urban spaces and the

considered in the context of the importance of diversity in the city's fabric.

surrounding structures of the cit) They gave weight to arguments for

to create a new circumstance. rehabilitation rather than redevelopment

of declining building stock. J. P. Kleihues

fought for the iltbau (rehabilitation)
THEATER OF LIFE
section of the l )77
(
III 1 project in Berlin,
I he residential development in the
which better respected the economic needs
Gallaretese Quarter in Milan (1969-78) is
(aid esthetic icislies ofBerliners. What
a hold composition with a facade that i>
does it say about architecture and ego
almosl completely open. w iih arcades at that the iltbau projects went strangely
street level and loggias and courts above. unreported in the architectural press?

allow inn direct physical contact between

residents and shoppers in the adjacent

 I 969 DDT was 1971-76 Aldo Rossi 1973 East and West Germany
not the answer designs his masterwork, establish diplomatic relations for

to agriculture's prayers. a cemetery at Modena; the first time since partition.

In the U.S. the toxic building will

substance is banned. not begin until 1980.

street market. In constantly in his works, including

Excuse Me, Dr.
Gropius...Can his primary school his many drawings.
We Have a Few building in Falgano In Germany the Neorationalist
Words?
Olana (1972) there movement is represented by 0. M. I
T
NOERS
Neorationalism really
dishes Gropius. His
are other clues to (1920- )../. P. KLEIHUES (1933- ). and the
Bauhaus ideology what Rossi calls "the KRIER brothers. Leon (1946- ) and Robert
rejected historical
theater of life" that (1938-). Under the directorship of
architecture, and
replaced it with a have a reading in Kleilmes, the Berlin IBA offered an
total emphasis on two directions. The opportunity to implement urban ideas
the individual's

imagination. Not that

courtyard steps are on a large scale. The exhibition uses a

imagination's bad, but also the seats for the catalog of rational typologies or archetypes
your brain goes funny if
school photographs: to describe the different projects, such as
you do too much. Three
influential books a huge clock tells the "coiner house/ "row house, "gateway
published between present time but also buildings," or "urban villa/' On
1961 and 1969
refers to the time of Friedrichstrasse an "open block plan'' has
independently
challenged Onkel childhood; the books eight "urban villas,'' based on an
Walter. Two that contain eighteenth-century model. The "villas."
Americans —Jane knowledge are designed by Rossi, Grassi, and Hollein. are
Jacobs and Robert
Venturi —and an contained within the actually small apartment buildings and are
Egyptian, Hassan
cylindrical form of all the same basic size and shape. Green
Fathy, criticized the

architecture of glass,
the library, which is spaces and buildings are all treated as
steel, and concrete contained within the separate parts that make up the whole.
from their own
internal courtyard
vantage points (New
York, Princeton, and of the school, the
Cairo). They broadly playground for
disavowed impersonal
high-rises, and
the children. The
advocated forms of theatrical idea
architecture that
were truly vernacular,
— the reciprocity
in which people
between the audience
(remember them?) thai watches and that
and the function and
at the same time is
purpose of specific
buildings were watched — appears
actually taken into

consideration.
Odd, that.
Aldo Rossi's drawing of the

Teatro del Mondo, Venice

(1979), which floated
temporarily on the lagoon.

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 1 920 Promodernist 1 923 An earthquake 1952-55 The birth control

students at Tolcyo in Kanto leaves Frank pill is discovered; it is soon

Imperial University Lloyd Wright's Imperial to change the lives of

rebel and form the Hotel standing and women in the Western world

Japanese Secession proves the strength

of steel and concrete.

Too Main People

During the late 1 960s,
light began to dawn

Big in Japan in some areas that

certain places on this

.1 apanese Architecture damaged little orb

were facing serious
overpopulation,
Modern Japanese culture has had a great influence especially in some
(hi contemporary Western architecture. Frank Lloyd American, and several
Japanese, cities. The
II right built thejuygaken Kindergarten (1 )2I) and the C
problem still remains.
Imperial Hotel in Tokyo 1922), and Bruno Taut wrote However, the American
moon landing of July
about Japanese culture and architecture. The history 1968 caught some
oj the growth oj Modernism in Japan is similar to that people's imagination
sufficiently powerfully
in Europe and North imerica. The earliest modern
to allow them to
buildings started to appear, as an alternative to fantasize about the
colonization of the
traditional building, in the 1920s. By the 1930s a solar system. Yes,

cull for a Japanese national style had resulted in it's an old chestnut

a hybrid — hare classical joints with curved roofs (remember those

1950s bubble-gum
imitating traditional timber construction. cards?), but with the
recent (1998)

Tokyo's

Capsule Tower,
in 1
Nogakin

972, shows
built
Hi-tech
adaptability K
vociferous
•nzo

.(1913-
TANGE
)

in lii>
was
announcement
concerning water on
the moon, you can
bet the space architects
Kurokawa's Metabolist are sharpening their
criticism of both
theories in action. pencils ... they may
nostalgic historicism
even be drawing as
and boring you read this.

international
The capsult Modernism, stating
isthe key
"onlv the beautiful can
be functional/ I [is work uses symbolic
form based on Japanese tradition.
combined with modern technology. He
was recognized as an important figure
in the Modern movemenl when In- was
in\ ited to present lii- \\ inning entry for
the Hiroshima Peace Center (1949-56)
at the 1951 CIAM. Later projects
continued to develop urban core
-\ -it-iii- and the idea of components.
 )

1958-61 KunioMaekawa, 1 959 Alain Resnais's film 1 966 Already a well-

former collaborator of Le Hiroshima Mon Amour (made known designer, Mary

Corbusier, builds the Municipal
in France and Japan)
French actress falling
tells

in
of

love
a Quant brings her most

famous creation,
«3
Assembly Hall in Tokyo in the
with a Japanese architect. the miniskirt, to
platform -on -stilts style
the world of fashion.

METABOLISM
I ader Tange's direction, the Metabolisl
group had great influence on architectural
production and theory during the l
(
)60s
and early l
c
)7()s. primarily in establishing
the importance, especially in urban

situations, of the relationship between

the public realm and private spaces. The
Nagakin Capsule lower in Tokyo (1972).
by Noria ki ROK I/' l (1934- ). shows a
culmination of these ideas and is typical

of the futuristic and science-fictionlike

imagery of his work. The tower stands as

part of the infrastructure of the city. Living
units are mass-produced, minimal "pods,"
or "capsules, clustered around it.

Kidosaki House, Tokyo, by

AN OUTDOOR LIVING ROOM Tadeo Ando. This architect

Indigestible:
In a series of wonderful houses
helped to revolutionize Metabolism
the Japanese house. There's a bizarre
and chapels built during the 1
(
)8()
poetry in the idea that
Tadeo Indo (1941- the nation that gave us

established himself as everything from the

bullet train to the
an accomplished NAMES ON THE WALL
direness of the manga
architect, rejecting comic could also give
Charlotte Perriand accepted an invitation
us an architecture so
Metabolism and In spend lime in Japan advising on design futuristic that it

returning to Le policy in re/a/ion to export goods in 1940. eventually faded into

Corbusier, Louis A i//\ One of the seemingly unlikely outcomes of the wallpaper. At the

root of Japanese
(1901-74), and early this venture was a version of the iconic
Metabolism was the
Modernism for Modernist tubular steel chaise-longue built concept that, like skin,

inspiration. Spaces using bamboo! During the 1970s, Japanese architecture could

architecture was dominated by architects change and be

and forms have ;i
replaced. That's why
such as Arata Isozaki (1931- ) and
simple purity evolved the tower-and-pod idea
Kazuo Shinohara (1925- ), both with a was so important for its
iu relation to the
more Postmodern approach <>/ success. The austere
landscape. The "pods" were usually
Meomannerist (distract compositions.
poured concrete and cubic /onus, typified by
clustered around a
semicircular
central building.
he uses is
gigantic scale.
beautifully detailed. MMMMJ

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 1 972 The American 1973 Chinese- iy/* ineuoatamer
president, Richard Nixon, American actor Bruce Lee C? Part II, directed by Francis Ford
^jtib
visits China and Russia In starts a martial arts craze C^jJ^^^^ Coppola, wins the Academy
^^^^J^^^^
this year, he is re-elected with his kung fu films, such jt^^^^K Award for Best Picture 4^HI
in a landslide victory as Enter the Dragon

1972- 1
(
>
(
M) Classical (-ish)
\mmetrical dream topping

Very Cool
I'osi modern ism
The specific task of the architect.
(
according to 'harles Jencks in his

I <anguage Postmodern Architecture <>l

7977 is "seeing that the environment

.

is sensual, humorous, surprising, <ui<l

coded as a readable te.it. " The way

to achieve this iras to abandon the
universal notions oj Modernism derived
from functionalism and rationalism.
Postmodernism embraces an
architecture that is clearly derived
from the familiar, the historical, and the
vernacular. The result is an ambiguous,
"
and often ironic, "radical eclecticism.
Overall symmetry and uniformity of

The recipe: take easily recognizable elements is mixed with a jovial reference to

Classical devices in Philip Johnson and

bits of buildings (which are often
John Burgee's AT & T Building, New York.
( lussicul from a whole variety oj

I
daces and eras, and reuse them at will.

Philip JOHNSOA 1906- ,

who began l.\ Robert Venturi
promoting the Internationa] Style in the Robert Venturi (1925-) provided the theoretical
basis for Postmodernism with his books Complexity
1930s, became one i»! the leaders of
and Contradiction in Architecture (1 966) and
Postmodernism 40 years later. His \ I & I Learning from Las Vegas with Denise Scott-Brown
and Steven Izenour, published in 1972. Against the
Building in Neii York 197&-S3, with John
purity and simplicity of International Style, he
Burgee is most often n~""l to illustrate iln-
argued for "complexity" and "ambiguity." To Mies's

style: ;t modern -k\ scraper \\ iili ;i |>i iii< i|»;il statement "less is more," he replied, "less is a bore."
From small projects, his built work has recently
facade of ( ilassical s) nunetrj and
grown to include prestigious projects such as the
composition. [Tie arched, senucircular extension to the National Gallery in London's

centra] entrance i~ flanked by smaller Trafalgar Square (1986).

i)|><'iiiii!_r -. The framed structure i> disguised

 1975 An estimated 1 976 Rioting against 1 977 Scientists in

40 million women are apartheid in the black Britain researching

now taking the Pill. townships of South viruses discover

Africa spreads their genetic structure.

across the country.

by masonry in imitation of Classical Bofill's earlier work,

Postmodern
stonework. At the top an attic story is with the Taller de definitions
crowned with a jokey oversized pediment Arquitectura group in The following
rules apply.
with an open top. Spain, was much more
1 . Postmodern
interesting. A large- buildings borrow styles

FUN, FUN, FUN scale housing project in from the past,

sometimes without any
Criticism of Modernism for its blandness, Barcelona, Walden
functional purpose.
anonymity, and bogus functionalism had Seven (1970-75), uses 2. Concrete is used

increased both in the U.S. and in Europe, industrial forms and a much less visibly in

Postmodern buildings,
especially following problems with social more romantic imagery
which are decorated
housing schemes. Postmodernism, with its — half-built or half- with many different

materials. (British
legible, familiar forms, was expected to ruined. With no rules,
readers, look no further
provide a workable alternative. Ricardo no expanded theory, than the poor old Tate
Bonn's (1939-) housing schemes in France, and a reliance on Gallery, with its

Postmodern Turner
such as Les Arcades du Lac St. Quentin-en- commercialism and
wing. Ugh.)
Yvelines (1972-75) and Les Espaces taste, Postmodernism 3. Glass is still used

d' Abraxas Mame-La-Vallee (1978-83), has been condemned as plentifully. See every
city in the world for its
employ monmnental forms, which Bofill mere kitsch by
misuse in Postmodern
believes promote a sense of intimacy and European architects structures.

collective identity7 . The facades are composed favoring other 4. Motifs — references
to the past, rather than
of simplified concrete versions of Classical developments styles —are often

carved motifs, with bizarre alterations. within Modernism. incorporated into

Postmodern designs.
Thus, the Washington,
D.C., Holocaust
Museum refers to

Auschwitz. Sir Edwin

Lutyens, great builder

of the Indian Raj and of

imaginary Britain, is a
favorite source. See just

how wide your

borrowing can be?

Les Espaces d'Abraxas

(1978-83), Bofill's

attempt to transform the

Classical orders to a

contemporary language.

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 1 969 The Amer.can Neil 1 974 The extraordinary 1 980s International film

Armstrong becomes the Pompidou Centre goes up festivals foster art movies.
first man on the moon in Paris, and is a great Foster and Rogers are able
This leads indirectly to conversation piece to watch Kurosawa's action-
aluminum foil and Teflon pocked Seven Samurai
appearing in all

our kitchens

I 980s
Hi-Tech
Rogers and Poster
Buildings that look like machinery, with hard, shun: metallic surfaces.
industrial elements like gantries and walkways, and moving parts, ace
described as I h- lech. Structures are often exposed. Overallforms <ui<l

shapes of different elements ace not

notably differentfrom those seen in other
modern buildings, hut the palette of
materials includes those associated with
other technologies like industrial
l>coductiou or aerospace
research. I h- lech s
Future >\ N<rm>
reliance on only the The family house
designed 1993/4
visual means is
in

by Future Systems Pan

Crescent wing of the Samsbury often considered a Kaplicky and Amanda
Centre for the Visual Arts, Levete) can only be
sell-conscious stylizat ion.
Norwich, by Norman Foster. described as out of the
ordinary. Apart from
solid walls, the rest is in
of HiTech
The lei is the ( NA< Putting all the
glass, the north side,
< entre National d \m el Culture, structures and sen ices facing the street, in

translucent blocks, the

Imi in. i K the < entre Pompidou in Paris on the outside of a
south, garden side,
1974 . designed bj Renzo Piaxo 1937- building achieved this:
inclined and
and Sir Richard Rogers 1933- . iht- interna] space can transparent to let in the

sun. The materials and

Escalators in curved ula-- tubes climb ill l>c adapted to suit am
finishes are crisp and
five stories, precariously cantilevered on kind of temporal*) sharp, with aluminum

the outside of the glass facade between exhibition. Rogers stairs and white
ceramic floor tiles
the huge steel girders <>l iln- structure. developed ilii- model.
adding to the

Inside, the ground floor is all husde and in w hich the display <>l ephemeral qualities of

and structure lightness and fragility.

I > 1 1
- 1 1
«
- . with bookshops and ticket sales sen ices

and temporal } exhibitions forming an -

is of fundamental
extension of the piazza outside: beyond, importance, with such
there i- emptiness. Flexibility — the abilh buildings as Lloyds Bank Building
to change internal layouts of room — wa (1979-84) and the Channel 4 offices

mi important concern during the 1970s. (1990) both :

in London.
 I 980 John Lennon, I 980 The "extinct" 1 980s Yuppies (Young
former member of The coelacanth is found alive Urban Professionals)

Beatles, is shot dead by and well, 600 feet / become the symbol of a

a psychopath outside his 1 80 meters below money-making decade.

home in New York. the sea surface.

Get on the right

(rack, baby
Another important
In 1960 six young
Cook early Hi-Tech
architects, Peter
[
NAMES ON THE WALL ]

(1936- ), Ron Herron building is the

(1930- ), Michael The work ofBritish husbctnd-and-wife
Sainsbury Centre for
Webb (1 937-), David
the Visual Aits in
leant Alison and Peter Smithson should
Greene (1 937-),
Warren Chalk 927-),
be mentioned in t/ii.s context They showed
(1
Norwich (1977) 11
and Dennis Crompton their design for a "House of the Future at
935-) formed
by Rogers s
(1
the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in
Archigram — literally, contemporary and
London in 1956. The exhibit predicted a
"architecture in
one-time colleague.
drawing." They are future with mass-produced accommodation
advocates of the Sir Norman FOSTER units and sophisticated household
new technology's (1035- ). In a less technology including remote control.
expendability in
flamboyant vein, then microwave ovens, and. best of all, a
building and interior

design. The first is the Financial Times portable electrostatic dust collector that
exhibition of their work Print Works. London would operate independently of human
"Living City" was in
intervention throughout the house.
1 963 at London's
(1988), by Nicholas
Institute of Grimshah (1939- ),

Contemporary Arts.
where the moving
Archigram
revolutionized British print machinery is

architectural thinking visible through the ORIGINS

before the group
glazed facade. The origins of Hi-Tech can be linked
dispersed in 1970.
to the work of the American Richard
The Lloyds Building in

London (1979-84) by Bt ckmnster Fuller, (1895-1983), and

Richard Rogers. to the group of English architects called
Archigram. Buckminster Fuller built little.

but his ideas had enormous influence

through his teaching. Projects for a
Dymaxion (dynamic and maximum
efficiency) House (1927) and for ;i

Dymaxion Three-wheeled Auto (1933),

were a real attempt to cast off the history
and esthetics of convention to deal \\ itli

production only in the modern context.

He went on to develop geodesic domes,
which were similarly ahistorical, using

a standardized kii of parts. The hot-know

dome is the U.S. Pavilion built
for Expo '67. held in Montreal.

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 1 \

1 968 British government 1 969 Ludwig Mies van I 969 An avant-garde

abandons £55 million plan der Rohe, doyen of the art movement, Land Art,

for London's third airport af Bauhaus, dies. is committed to making art

Stansted in Essex; but plans will out of elements of nature,

be back on Sir Norman Foster's such as earth and rocks

drawing board before the
end of the millennium

1968- (
)
( ).~> |
NAMES ON THE WALL )

Postmodern James Stirling (1926-94), latterly

Sir James, retained a capacity to mystify

-

Formal ism throughout his career: Pioneering I li- Tech

The New York I i \ e buildings such as the Engineering Faculty

hi Leicester I niversity underperformed in

I lie work of I lie \co-( orbusiun a variety of ways, including baking the
occupants; low-cost housing in Runcorn
Mew York Five was first exhibited
intended in make tenants feel valued
at the Museum of Modern 1/7 in attracted the derisory label of washing-
New York in 1969. Their early machine houses: and the Weue
works, the "white" houses, imitate Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart left architectural

t he form oj International Style commentators weeping in its wake,

unable to decide whether or not Stirling
buildings, with simple volumes
Imd sold nut to Postmodernism.
and white, flat surfaces. The
concrete was replaced with the
"traditional timberframes and
Drawing on Italian Rationalism. Peter
boarding oj imerican houses. Eisi WAN's (1
(
W2- ) earl) work is

The North Carolina IBM preoccupied with meaning in form. I [is

Building by Gwathmey contempt for the idea that architecture

Siegel has an air of
should be merely "functional* is clear in
Postmodern Modernism.
hi- series of houses. \\ hich he aumbers as il

Regular
proportions^ l naaorned,
thc\ are an works. Number VI, the Frank
flat surfaces. House (1972). hits ;i staircase thai cannol

be climbed, thai lead- nowhere. Michael

Graves's (1934-) concern with form has
developed a\\a\ from the Rationalist view
low ard the more obvious Postmodern
neohistoricism. as seen in the Public

Services Building in Portland, Oregon.

diaries (,'n \i inn) (
{
YM\- ). in practice

since I
(
H1 with Robert SlEGEL, has designed
numerous private houses, including liis own
ai Amagansetl in Vw York's Long Island

1965-67), as well as public buildings such

as (fie Easl ( lampus of Columbia University
in Vw York City (1981).

126 \U< III I I .( I I HI - A CR \s|| ( Ol RSE

 1 973 In Vietnam, the U.S. 1977 The film 1 980 The New York
government hoists the white flag Saturday Night Fever Five(aka "the Whites")
and a cease-fire is agreed upon hits the screen. John disband.
on January 28; the last American Travolta becomes
troops leave on March 29. an overnight icon
America loses its first war abroad. in a white suit.

SITE
The library and art The multidisciplinary group SITE (Sculpture In

gallery at NTmes, France, The Environment) was set up by the sculptor James
by Norman Foster, is Wines (1932-), with the intention to move away
ghbors with a from "functionalism" toward a unity with art. It is

bestknown for a series of supermarkets for the

Roman temple.
BEST chain in the U.S., all of which deliberately
disrupt in a jokey way. The Peeling Project in

Richmond, Virginia (1971-72), has brickwork

peeling away from the elevation. The Tilt

Showroom in Towson (1 976-78) has the whole

facade lifted at a rakish angle above the ground.

The most prolific of the five is Richard

i//.//./r (193-t-).Aswellas
numerous individual houses
and housing projects, he Richard Meier's

has completed public Douglas House at

Harbor Springs,
buildings such as the
Michigan.
Museum of Applied Art in

Frankfurt-am-Main visibly uses the same

(1979-80) and the Getty form as the structure
Museum in Los Angeles opposite, the Maison
(1984). The most Carree. one of Europe's
interesting of the five is best preserved Roman
John HEJDUK (1929- ). He temples. Meanwhile,
has a far more experimental his design for London's
approach, as shown by his third airport, at
alterations to the Cooper Stansted(l ( K)2).isa
I iiion School in New York (1975) and his simple rectangle in plan and puts all the
BA housing in Berlin. workings of the building at low level

from the paraphernalia of ductwork

EUROPE pipes, the simple roof, supported on
Earrj Norman Foster buildings are alwa) s grid of blanching tree-like columns.
classified \\ ith the I h-Tech style of Sir allows the concourse to be filled with
Richard Rogers. I [owever. Foster's more natural daylight. Glazed walls afford
recenl work is harder to classify. The librar\ views to the airfield and aircraft taki
and an gallery at Vines in France (1993) off and landing.

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 i

1 960 Psychiatry has its 1 970s Jamaican 1 989 Leon Krier is

movencks too R D Laing reggae music becomes chosen to plan the Prince

publishes The Dmded Self popular in Britain One of Wales's rather sinister

and soon has a big following of its leading exponent^ model villoge, Poundbury,
is Bob Marley in Dorchester. Dorset

1990s The canopied stand at

Lords Cricket Ground
How Does It Feel? in London by Sir Michael
and Hopkins.
Sensual Response and Sustainability Patti

/ he way we perceive a place is not

fust a visual experience. The form
of the building is important hut the
textures, smells, and sounds play an
equal or greater role. The combination
of these
sensory experiences the — way
woodfeels to the touch and the
resonance <>i ourfootsteps as we walk
across the polished timber floor — are
<i major part of our reading of a place.
This concern for the sensual quality
of the materials (a phenomenological
appraisal rather than a stylistic classification), together with recent
concerns for sustainability and disdain for increasing globalization,
has inspired different architectures in response to specific locations and
and gives us another way
el i mates, to look at buildings.

make continuity
T Sir Michael //"/'A/\ laying technique which
s
li<' recent \\ oris <>l

1935- . who was associated with Hi possible without the expansion joints of
Tech m the 1970s and earl) 80s. is no* modern brickwork. In the interior, curved
ven different. The Mound Stand at Lords and polished \>\\ wood, the material of
( Iricket ( Ground m I .ondon 1
'
l
''<~
In ml\ so man> musical instruments. i-> used
rooted in the ground \\ iih load-bearing for seats and balustrades.
l»i i< k colonnades. |>li\ sicalh ;m<l

metaphorical!) rises up through enclosed FUKSAS

levels to open up again beneath light whin In France the work of the Italian architect
fabric canopies. I k»- so man) umbrellas WassimiHano FUKSAS shows the same
that rumc dim on a wel «l;i\ at ili»' game. consideration for location and for
More recendy. the Glyndebourne Opera materiality. In the densely populated

House 1994 usesbricks thelocal Bastille ana dI Paris, the Rue d- ( iandie

i n;i n -rial and mortar \\ itli traditional Sports Center l

(,,,
-r fills a ragged site

12» \m III I I '

I I It I \ ( It \~ll ( Ol It-
 I 990 The Hubble space 1 990s New Age beliefs
telescope detects a huge and alternative health

storm system on Saturn. practices become popular.

Astronomers name it the

Great White Spot.

[ NAM ES ON THE WALL roofs. The Maison

Bark To the
In the postwar period, Italy made a name des Arts at Michel Drawing Board
for the successful refurbishment of museum de Montaigne With the end of the
millennium in sight,
spaces, requiring acnle sensitivity to University in
architects and planners
materials and sensory awareness. Bordeaux (1997). remain incapable of
Carlo Scarpa's work on the medieval also by Fuksas. again agreement on concepts
Castelvecchio in Verona exemplifies this like "quality of life" and
uses metal: this time
"the ecostructure,"
success. His skillful deployment of space,
the green color of though all pay these
deft manipulation of light, and thoughtful
oxidized copper issues lip service. The
placement of objects have created a place first has vainly eluded
covers the whole
in which past and present coexist capture through time,
facade. Shutters while the second is in
graciously, providing the visitor with
contained within the danger of becoming
occasional drama and the delight
extinct. So, while the
of beautifully executed details. skin modulate the architects are busily

surface, which is trying to soothe the

senses in larger
interrupted by two
building schemes,
with a series of interlinked volumes. The vertical slots of glass they must also now
main structures are of raw concrete, with and a window accommodate pressure
from other directions,
the sports hall wall exposed with a series of running in a deep cut
by incorporating
blind windows —recalling a familiar view all the way around it. degradables into

of empty buildings in a city. The facade is

construction. Come
back, Metabolism!
clad with zinc panels that follow gentle
Harmo Consider, please:
curves, reminiscent of so many Mansard with ea just what is a
buildin
"caring" building?
Can architecture ever
be truly "green?" What
restraints are we willing

to impose on ourselves
so that we can get "the
balance" right? And
whose balance are
we talking about?

The rocket is counting

down. Now, how shall

we wreck the Moon?

The new opera house

at Glyndebourne,
Sussex, is at home in

its peaceful setting.

129
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 1

1 89S America comes to 1936 The Spanish 1 939 Franco's

blows witfi Spain over Civil War begins. Franco government is recognized
Cuba, and destroys the is appointed Chief of by Britain, France, and
Spanish Manila He USA. The Spanish

L
fleet at State. takes control of the

the government in I 939 Civil War comes to an end

1970-1990
Viva Espaiia
Spanish Regionalism
"(
'ritical regionalism is Kenneth
I rampton s description <>j the
development ofModernism in response to
different physical and cultural contexts.
Spain, following redemocratization,
the introduction of legal protection for
historic buildings, the staging oj Expo
in Seville in 1992 and the Olympic dames
in Barcelona, has had the opportunity
fit reassert a cultural presence in The arches of the airport buildings in Seville

by Jose Rafael Moneo are characteristically

Europe with major new buildings.
Moorish features.

GLORIOUS GAUDI
T
Osaka
he architecture
verj different from the previous one in

in 1970, with
at the Seville

its Metabolists,
Expo was
Mosl of the work of Spain
archited intoniGAl i>i
s

(1852-1926)
best-known
is in

Vrchigram. and pneumatic structures. In Barcelona. The straighl line belongs to

many exhibits, a concern for lii-l<»r\ and men. the curved one to God — his own
cultural identity was expressed through a assertion — i^ probably the besl explanation
specific materiality and formal metaphor. of \\\> work. In |
> 1 1-> 1 1 1 1 of \\\> vision, his

\~ will ;i- the Expo site. >«\ ill<- has a new buildings demonstrate a unique and
airporl l>\ Jose Rafael MONEO (1
( )3<)- ) and original use of materials and forms, a

a new railroad station l»\ \ntonio ( HI / rejection of rigid geometry to determine

and [ntonio Ortiz. Moth buildings have form, and an inspired decorative ability.
solid masonry forms with arched The complexity and individuality of bis

structures, reminiscenl of Moorish work, with no precedent and no imitators,

buildings, in pale terracotta colors. has meant a problem for historians looking

Buildings in the old industrial Tor li nk ^ between the |>a>t and the future.

areas of Barcelona have been inventively In the context of \n Nouveau, he is rated

restored. Lapena and lorn- Workshops as a genius, the only one employing a
and Josep Lluis Mateos sports hall three-dimensional version of a style often
both occupy redundant factories. criticized for ii^ superficiality, Relying

\l(( Ml I I
( I I 1:1 I! \-ll i ol RSI
 —
1 960$ Cheap 1 976 Spain gives up I 992 The Olympic

Rights to Europe make control of a former Games are held in

foreign sun accessible

to many
becomes
people; Spain

the number
colonial area

Sahara
is
—and
the

the territory

divided between
Spain. Athletes havi

to contend with high

temperatures.
0%^"0
_
^J ^^^^
—
one destination. Morocco and Mauritania.

Four Peaks
Gaudi's Sagrada NAMES ON THE WALL I

heavily on hand labor

Familia church (begun
1884) is his
and craftw ork. his
Other examples oflocational sensitivity-
masterpiece, featuring work is also linked include Alvaro Siza's Center/or
four 350-foot towers
to the Arts and Crafts Contemporary Galician \rt in Santiago
that are as much a
representation of Movement in England de Compostela (1993). Antoine Predoek's
regional Art Nouveau and the Romantic Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State
as they are an outright I University (19S9). and Ricardo
wonder of the
Modernisme in Spain.
Legorreta's Museum of Contemporary
architectural world. The Naturalistic or organic
walls and roof are of a Art in Monterey (1992). Siza uses granite,
inspiration is evident
thin brickwork bright uliite marble, and stucco interiors
construction and the
but there are also
to relate the site to the local built
main nave space has similarities, in the
environment, Predock chairs inspiration
inclined columns. If
depth and layering from local Spanish and Indian tradi/nns.
Gaudi hadn't been hit

by a tram, he might of the surfaces, with while Legorreta scales up a traditional

have taught the the rich geometric courtyard house. Predock even managed
Postmodernists a thing
carvings of the to build with integrity in his Las Vegas
or two about invention,
the use of the past, and Moorish palaces Library and Discovery Museum (1990)!
of materials.
in southern Spain.

The facade of the Nativity

(1893-1903), Church of the

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona,

Something: Old. Something; New
Spain's a great symbol of
by Gaudi. He began work on
the wonder and caprice of
the church in 1 884, and the
architecture. Given the
building is still unfinished.
remains of Moorish
influence, the country's

Elongated,
architecture has changed in

openwork response to economics.

spires Conserve the medieval for

locals and tourists alike, but The appeal of the

flaunt the modern, with Moorish inheritance.
cheap concrete hotels

scarring miles of coastline. Nevertheless, the early

1990s chalked up notable successes in Spanish
architecture, especiallyin Seville and in Barcelona

in time for the '92 Olympic Games. The Olympic

Stadium itself (Gregotti with Correa & Mila)

surreally transformed a pre-existing 1929 structure
the Olympic villages were horrible, but new town
planning detail was better. Now, with the bubble
burst, the Spanish are preserving and remodeling
their older buildings. Hardly new, but fresh ideas
can be usefully based on earlier statements.

I Kl - \ ( H \sl

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 i

191 2 The term 1 954 Anthony Caro 1 964 Modern art is in

Minimalist comes into use begins to teach at St flight from interpretation,

in politics first The Russian Martin's School of Art in and the critic Susan
revolutionary Minimolists London; the cult of Sontag's writing is the

favor immediate post- the impersonal grips a" topic of conversation at

revolutionary democracy generation of sculptors intellectual dinner parties

i960- 1997
The Essence of Filings
M i ii i in a I ism

Freedom from clutter, from the distinction of trivia, allows

concentration on the fundamental — the important qualities
of form, of space, and of material. Here, beauty is not found
in unnecessary adornment and distracting embellishment,
hut in the refinement of the essential heart oj a building,
the truly minimal Simplicity and emptiness characterize
such Minimalist architecture, recalling a monastic restraint.

pure and simple

The work ol designers, according to the

Minimalist architect JohnPAWSON* is EdouardoSoi i\l)i Mm n i ( 91

to "clear up the chaotic world. This has five years working for UvaroSlZA (1933-
been a concern since the late nineteenth Portugal s best-known modern architect.

century. Inn has become more pressing as whose work combines a Rationalisl

response to the "avalanche <>f approach with a Mediterranean starkness.

consumerism/ The photographs in Souta De Moura works with simple forms
Pawson's book Minimum (
1
(
)
(
)(>) provide and elegant detailing combined with the
an eloquent argument, taiong ili»' images
are monasteries and convents,
including Le Corbusier's Dominican friar)

ofSainte Marie-de-la-Tourette 1957-60)

and the ( listercian Romanesque
abbe) al I *e I horonet. Paw son s

Neuendorf house in Majorca 1989) uses

the simple geometr) <>l a cube, and
the ochei coloring unites the building

with its setting.

The Neuendorf house (1 989) in

Majorca by Silvestrin & Pawson is

a perfect complement
to its hot, dry setting. An air of

intellectual repose is created

by its confident forms.

132 ARCHITECTURE - A CRASH (

 1 969 At an ICA I 970s Minimalism is 1 980s Minimalist
exhibition subtitled Live in big in art with pared- theories of interior design

Your Head, Michael Craig- down, nonreferential have a minimal impact

Martin's 4 Identical Boxes paintings and sculpture. as sales of Austrian fi^-S
with Lids Reversed, is blinds soar.

not misdescribed.

Honest to
Goodness:
earthy richness of Jacques HERZOG (1950- ) and Pierre De
Shaker Furniture
The Shakers are a natural materials MEL RON (1950- ) have developed their
religious sect, founded closely related to the purist approach during the last twenty
in England in the mid-
traditional buildings of years, through a whole variety of
1 700s. Strongest in the

U.S., especially during Portugal. The market different projects. The private collector's
the 1 840s, the Shakers building in Braga gallery in Munich (1991-92) (with Mario
became and remain
famous for the
(1980-84) and the Meier) is a simple, freestanding, two-
functional simplicity of Cultural Center in story rectangular block. Ingeniously dug
their furniture, usually
Oporto (1981-88) into the ground, all that is visible of the
of seasoned wood,
smooth, with minimal both employ empty "ground"' floor are the clerestory windows
fittings, sturdy but calm spatial simplicity and all around. Clerestory windows on the
and capacious. The
subtle natural upper level leave the solid band of
ideals behind their

craftsmanship? Beauty materials. Typical of plvwood cladding suspended. The glass

rests in utility and every Souta De Moura's varies from opaque to reflective
force evolves a form.
And for those clinging
houses, the Bom Jesus and back, depending on the light and
to the Postmodern House in Braga the seasons. In 1996 they won the
canon, hear this: "We (1989-9-t) simply competition for the extension to
have a right to improve
the inventions of
juxtaposes "a stone London s Tate Gallerv of Modern Art
man, but not to cube . . . and a in the Bankside Power Station (1955)
vainglory or anything
concrete cube.^ designed by Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott.
superfluous." Right on,
Brothers and Sisters. The Swiss architects

Simple,
NAMES ON THE WALL
geometric
shapes
Arguably the first European architect to

articulate an esthetic of minimalism teas

the Austrian Adolf Loos (1870-1933).

He wrote numerous articles and essays,
including Ornament and Crime in 190$.
In this he lambasted historicism and
"
labeled the urge to decorate "a pathology.
He built sereral houses, including one in

Paris for the Dadaist Tristan Tzara (1926).

where he used beautifully simple forms.

cleverly manipulated spaces, a total

lack oj ornament, and exquisite materials.

ARCHITECT!
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 —
1965 In the (black-and- 1 967 Jacques Derrida 1972 The Tate Gallery
white) him Alphaville (
"there is nothing outside acquires Equivalent VIII by
Jean-Luc Godard refuses the text") publishes Carl Andre (made in 1 966)
to follow cinematic no less than It is a pile of bricks He is an
convention: "a film is three books, all
artist The press and public
just a —pure
film illusion
"
disseminating the are duly outraged
critical theory of Deconsfructionism

1980-2000
Bits and Pieces
Deconstruction
Deconstruction (or Deconstructivism) is "pari <>/ <i research into the
dissolving limits oj architecture, "according to Bernard Tschumis words oi
the 198S First International Symposium on Deconstruction in London. Ii
"
is lookingfor "the between.
[ccordingto ///<• imerican
architect Peter Eisenman, of the
some symposium, architects
who "fracture" are merely
illustrative; they are not
challenging any preconceptions.
The ideas ore borrowedfrom the
work oj French philosopher
Jacques Diiuud i.

The "building" at the Pare de la

Villette in Paris by Bernard Tschumi

has something of an early Russian
Cincinnati (1989-96), Frank 0. Gehry is

Constructivist look. dismissive: "The besl thing aboul Peter s

buildings is the insane spaces lie ends up

While ill'- theory, the m-w \\ a\ of wit 1 1 . All thai other stuff, the philosophy
seeing, l"i architects and andalL is just bullshit as far

academics maj !»«• viewed as a decadence, as I in concerned.

ii more importantly offered an alternative
influence i<> the increasing banalitj of LA FOLIE
Postmodern formalism. I he resulting The garden foil) returns to ii> French
buddings actually seem to In the word roots in Bernard Tschumi's Deconstructivist

dismantled, fractured disassemblages, with work, Pare de la Villette in Paris (1984-89).

do visual logic, oo attempt al harmonious Sitting ai the intersections of a 328 \ 328 foot

composition of facades. in> pragmatic (100 x 100 meter) square grid, and
reason. For Eisenman tlii- can !>•• seen as a interrupted l>\ existing buildings and the

development from bis abstract Formalism overlaying of pure polygons and meandering
of the 1970s. In a critique <>l Eisenman's pathways, the folie, like Eisenman's houses.
r
Vronoff Center al the I niversitt of contains "ideas," not "functions.

\l<< MM I
i
I I HI V CRASH COI
 —
1987 Gorbachev 1 988 In Romania 1 990 Nelson Mandela

announces glasnost villlages are physically is freed; Winnie Mandela

not deconstruction but deconstructed and villagers is charged with assault on
reconstruction. forcibly rehoused in urban four black youths.

apartment blocks.

Say What?
It's been said that

Deconstruction "...has
f NAM ES ON THE WALL
Daniel Libeskind's an austere sound to it

which makes it some

major building is the Peter Eisenman sees architecture as the sort of sign in our timid
Jewish Museum means by which we should be shocked out and disabused times."

(1997), an extension He Yep, and like

of complacency at our routine existence.
Postmodernism, with or
to the Berlin Museum. inserts awkwardness and ambiguity into
without a hyphen, it's

Referred to as the built environment to open our eyes. In

just as hard to define.

"between the lines

House n (for Suzanne and Richard Jacques Derrida
Frankj one must turn sideways to enter a (1930-) would have
by Libeskind, the Deconstruction allow
door, duck to descend the staircase, and
form and spatial you to ignore the
negotiate dinnertime conversations
boundaries keeping
organization of the
around an intruding column. Perhaps certain disciplines
building are derived apart. So now you
unsurprisingly, Eisenman is more active
from the history of the can play baseball
as a polemicist than as an architect.
and cricket in the same
German- Jewish
game. Talk architecture
relationship in Berlin. and Oreo cookies. Just

The zigzag plan look at the structure!

The finish! The texture!
represents the continuity of history. The And because the
overlaid straight line becomes invisible language of

where it crosses the zigzag —representative Deconstruction

vague and contorted,
is so

of absence. Recently Libeskind has won you can confuse

Frank O. Gehry's museum everyone by meaning
the competition for the extension to the
for the German company something but implying
Victoria and Albert Museum in London
White plastered
—a similarly Deconstructivist proposal Vitra.

walls contrast with roofs

something
eh? For some reason
else. Cool,

that has sparked controversy. clad in titanium zinc. this confusing business
is called discourse,

Abstract forms presumably to indicate

the breadth of intellect

required to cope with it.

To be fair, the
opportunity to move
freely and make
unusual connections
can be interesting when
used safely, but

discourse? Don't
bother: call a spade
a spade instead.

verall harmony
(composition

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 1982 IBM morkets the 1985 The British 1 989 The launching of the
world's first laser printers, Antarctic Survey detects Galileo space probe, which will

which put the message a hole in the ozone layer, send back the first-ever pictures

swiftly and (relatively) explaining why male of an asteroid (1991). Most

silentfy on paper architects have given up architectural historians are not

wearing suits and ties. sure what an asteroid is.

I990~to date
Building in Cyberspace
Virtual Worlds

The space created by our computers, NAM ES ON THE WALL

[

((in exist anywhere and is not bound

*
1 make conceptual architecture ... /// our
by any physical or cultural conic. if.
office we don I make the drawings first; the
[ccording to Michael Benedict in
first two weeks we have discussions ... If we
( 1\ berspace: Firsl Steps (l () ()l), could say in words what we wanted to
the "coiicrclizuliun oj the world moke, then the project irould in fuel

" On
we dream and think in. the already be finished ... the oilier hand
"
"rctiuc for our consciousness. . . . the most irritating thing in my view is to

talk too much about architecture, because

call be whatever we want ii to be.
words hare u very arbitrary relationship
II if It the right software and some with architecture. )<>u need to forget the
keyboard skills, anyone can make a words because the architecture will say it
'

com/i/efe escape from the "real with other menus. '".Iran Nouvel. 1993.

world info media-land. If is hard to

imagine a world where the tangible,
sensual experience is replaced by
fhoimiif. a world where the bodvis redundant

Ironically, the nen generation of

buildings, which rel) on computers

to ai<l design, have an extremely highly

developed sense of the physical. The new
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Spain

1997 . I.n Frank 0. Ciuin (1929- uses

computer technology i«> make such surreal

spaces, such stuff of dreams, "real." With

no architectural paradigms. ( lehrj -

buildings are difficult to describe. I he

sparkling metallic surface of the titanium
cladding panels, and the building s

relationship to the edge of the river, mean

it has been likened to a great ocean liner.

136 ARCHITECTURE - A CRASH C0URS1

 —
1 988 Architecture meets 1997 Dolly the sheep 2000 In Greenwich,
physics with the naming of is cloned. Some wonder London, Lord Rogers

a newly isolated carbon if she will turn out to be a oversees the opening

molecule — the wolf in sheep's cloning. of the controversial

buckminsterfullerene Millennium Dome;

or buckyball with what's inside?

geodesic dome structure

Shunning the now- The new Guggenheim

Museum at Bilbao, by
commonplace software based
Frank Gehry, has a
on pure geometries of the
surreal uniqueness.
Renaissance. Gehry designed
ihe museum with software
developed for the aerospace Looking after
industry, which is based not 01
Number One
Back to the future. Will
form but on surface. Mechanic
constant improvements
technology that made repetitk in computer graphics,
information control (the
cheap is replaced by electronic
Internet), and bulletins
technology: laser surveying an on the general health of
cutting equipment, and bar artificial intelligence

(getting better as you

coding of each piece all handled
read this) finally reduce
by i lie computer, mean the the need to sustain a
unique is just as economical to produce It could be argued truly habitable home
environment to
a- a -ci ies. Internally there is a logical that Bilbao achieves
secondary status? One
arrangement of different-sized galleries, the ahistorical sincerely hopes not, or

white-painted boxes
which are able to accommodate a wide functional aims of the
1
will be back in fashion.
variety of artists works. These galleries Modernist project by What all of this might
are connected to a pivotal atrium rising employing electronic just reintroduce is the
concept of the unique.
up majestically through the whole technology and
All those years ago

m
height of the building. breaking down the William Morris was the

form into primary craftsman's champion,

but the new defenders
elements in Cubist
of the faith will be the
fashion. Spatiallv it architects and
offers a subjective manufacturers who can
design and build to
physical experience order, using any
— open-ended spaces, number of basic

templates that can be

blurred edges, and
articulated by a
unexpected places. computer to suit the

client. Away with the

Looks like o
suburban home;
computer
welcome to your own,
game setting
unique home, all of it

prefabricated. Why
Future Systems Footbridge exist in someone
at Canary Wharf, London else's concept?
Docklands, is designed
by Jan Kaplicky.

Ill \ Mi \>ll (.()

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The Great Eight
To make a listing of the greatest buildings in history is an
impossible /ask. But it's a good after-dinner game toplayjbr
the newly architecture-literate. The eight selected here would
at least give a good basis for discussion.

THE PANTHEON, ROME, A.D. C. 120

HADRIAN
This giant rotunda, 141 feel 43 meters in

diameter and 141 feel 43 meters high, is an

amazing piece ol i
onstmction. Vpparentiy - i 1 1
1
j >
I*
-.

the wall supporting the vast dome zigzags around

niches, effectively forming buttresses, and the
spring I ii if inside is .< whole one-third of the heigh)
lower iliiin the outside. I be concrete dome is

coffered to reduce the weight. Ul of this is clever,

Inn the \;i-i emptiness of the interior volume, lit

The Pantheon in Rome, a building
only l>\ tin- day light through the circular opening that combines simplicity with a

,ii the top of die dome, -nil rates as one ol monumental impressiveness.

architectures most dramatic experiences

THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS,

PRAGUE, 1928-33 REGENTS PARK, 1960
JOZE PLECNIK (1872-1957) DENYS LASDUN (1914- )

\n eleganl simphcirj of form and composition^ The Royal ( lollege <>f l'li\ sicians is ;i perfect

a basihcarj rectangular l»l<»<k with clerestory example ol modem anhilerime . I lie varion-

windows houses ili<- main nave space with a volumes of the building bousing the differenl
single, full-width tower <>n the west elevation. a< ii\ iiif- of the college are described l>\ a range

Behind the liiiL'f circular glass clockfaces. ol structures and materials. Dark blue earthy
a long, -low ramp zigzags up to the bells ;it the bricks meander over the sunken conference

top of ilif tower. I h<- simple forms are room, and part of the public space of the
embellished \\ iili stj li/f<l Classical motifs ;m<l building. \ slim white -bib raised high n|> on
the large, window If-- areas of wall leaning ;i- if to slender columns contains the library, the

yield u|> the interior are patterned with protruding permanent element of the college. Only
bricks thai distort the perspective. Plecnik studied narrow -lii window- in the extreme corners allow

under Wagner in \ ienna, and much of lii- most views oni across the park. The heart of the
notable work i- in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the building i- empty apart from the staircast — the

former \ ugoslavia. where die nationalist place for the procession to pass, the ritual of

culture favored his brand of regionalism. access to the profession.

138 \ < H \-ll ( Ol RSE

THE MULLER HOUSE, VIENNA, 1930 THE FORD FOUNDATION OFFICES,
ADOLF LOOS (1870-1933) NEW YORK, 1963-68
The cubic, rectilinear, austere exterior of the KEVIN ROCHE (1922- )

Midler I louse in Prague offers little clue to the AND JOHN DINKELOO (1918-81)
intriguing spaces of the interior. The introverted, Both of these worked for Fero Saarinen and took
intimate spaces are interconnected —the over the office on his death in 1961. The Ford
Raumplan — and seem as if carved out of a solid Foundation has a sensual tactile presence, with
form. Loos is an important for liis extensive rusty Cor-ten steel and pink granite juxtaposed
writings as for his built works: his major essay, with delicately detailed filigree air grilles,

published in 1908. is Ornament and Crime, one balustrades, and concealed lights in brass. The
of architecture's most influential works. covered courtyard, the threshold to New York's

42d Street, is a veritable oasis of dense greenerv.

THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN
ART,NEW YORK, 1963-66 NOTRE-DAME-DU-HAUT, RONCHAMP,
MARCEL BREUER (1902-81) 1950-54
Leaving his native Hungary behind. Breuer was LE CORBUSIER (1887-1965)
one of the first generation of Batthaus students. The chapel at Ronchamp. a highly specific

moving from painting to furniture and taking building created in response to a particular
over furniture before moving on to architecture. program for a particular location, shows a
He eventuallv joined Gropius as an associate refinement of the ideas in Le Corbusier's
professor at Harvard, following work earlier work. Functional planning is combined
in London for F. R. S. York and a short period in with sculptural, curving concrete work to

Berlin. The robust and strongly articulated form some of his most beautiful spaces.
forms and rich textures of raw materials at
the Whitney are tvpical of Breuer.s work.
The chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamps,
France, shows the features of Le Corbusier's later
THE KIMBELL ART MUSEUM,
style in the expressive sweeping curves of the
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, 1966-72
concrete roof and tower.
LOUIS KAHN (1901-74)
The Kimbell galleries in Fort Worth. Texas,

consisl of ;i series of majestic vaults thai ^fulfilled

[Kahn s] greatest dream, defining spaces through

the unification of light and structure."
\ series of little courtyards open to (he sky
interrupt the rigorous alignment of the vaults.

Kahn - work Stands alone: i( has been linked

to Brutalism due to hi- use of raw materials, a
ruggedness of form and monumentality. ami
the >kilful manipulation of natural light.

I lis work i- also linked to (hat of tli.'

Neorationalists through their shared

interest in elementary forms ami archetypes.

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Techno Speak
1 selection of useful terms to help you through the maze

AEDICULE COFFER
Sometimes called a tabernacle. \ Recessed squares or other geometric shapes in

niche or a « indo* framed w ttfa the soffits of arches, domes, vaults, or ceilings.
( llassical columns and entablature. COLONETTE
AMBULATORY Little column, such as around windows.
'In- passage or cloister around the
I

CONSOLE
eastendofacAurchrjehindthealtar.
The term used for the brackel thai projects to

APSE hold u|) die weight of ;i cornice or something

The usualh semicircular termination similar. \\ hen supporting a cornice above a

a church or chapel sanctuary. doorway usually called an ancone.

ARCHEFORM CORTILE
From archetype, ii i- used to mean tfa ieinal Internal courtyard usually

model or essential or underlying forn surrounded l>\ a colonnadi

BAROQUE ENCEINTE
I ..in- Renaissance architecture, starting in Ital) \ 1 1 1 i I i i < i tx term for the

l""ili centun . characterized \<\ disregard for grounds of ih«' fortress or

the (
Lassical language or the order-. Flambo] anl castle enclosed by a wall or ditch; the enclosure.
.mi I dS i i.i die term comes from jewelry; ENTABLATURE
Baroco, meaning rough, unrefined stones. I he cornice, frieze, and architrave,
BAS-RELIEF making up the area above the columns
( ,n \ mi: in Ion rebel mi ;i II, h background. in the ( lassical orders.

CABINET EXPRESSIONIST
French, literall] closet or cabinet. Common!] Architecture that is nol imitative of a pasl style,

used for k cabinet de toilettes, the toilet. and thai is more than a utilitarian provision for

need: a building thai describes or expresses

CARYATID
oilier qualities.
( olumn in the shape of ;i female figure.
FLECHE
CHEVET
(from French lor arrow}. \ thin spire, usually of
Typical in French Gothic cathedrals, an apse « iili

Limber, rising from a root'.

ambulatory and radiating chapels.

CLERESTORY GEODESIC
\ -pace frame of hexagonal shapes
I he upper l«\ «l of the central pari
forming a dome.
of a church with window- above
the level of the aisles' roofs. Non HAMMER BEAM
commonl] used to describe Roof timber configuration where there
window- in high level. i- no oilier supporl across the space.

140 \H< III I EC I MO - \ ( H \-ll (,(H RSE

 -r~ =f

LOGGIA PORTICO
A room thai is open on one side (< more). The entrance ha pot with roof
often with column-. A kind of op* balcony supported on column- on at leasl one side,

recessed into the facade. usually on three sides.

MANNERIST QUOIN
Applied to Renaissance architecture that From the French w [ corner. I sually

subvened the rule- of Classicism. dressed -tones of al ine -ize. laid at the
coi tier- of buildings.
METOPE
Space between two txiglyphs in Doric REREDOS
entablature: it ma\ In- carved or left plain. The ornamental screen he d the altar.
often in caned wood.
NYMPHAEUM
Running water, greenery, and RETROCHOIR
statuary —a temple of nymphs In an importai lurch the space

—a place for pleasure. behind the ma

ORIEL WINDOW RUSTICATION
\ window that projects Large masonry block- often with variety of
from the surface of the rough-textured surface and deep joints, usually

facade, projecting out on at the lower level of Renaissance buildings.

masonry. In modern domestii Rusticated block- are sometimes used
building, a bay window. on columns and also faked in stucco.

PEDIMENT SERLIAN WINDOW

In Classical architecture tin- triangular bit of A key element in Palladio's work, it i- more
wall with -loping cornice, above the entablature. usually called a Palladian or Venetian window. A
In Renaissance architecture, the same triangular window (or archway sometime-) with a central

piece, but also in semicircular form or with arched opening flanked by two square openings.
broken or open cornice- on any roof end.
TRABEATED
or above a window or portico. In Gothic
Structure of posts (columns)
architecture, the gable end.
and beams, in the manner of Greek
PIANO NOBILE buildings. The PP < if a

I he principal floor, a raised ground floor over a employing

basemenl or lir-t floor. It usually ha- a higher
TRIGLYPH
ceiling than other floors.
Block on Doric entablature separating the
PILASTER metopes. Two vertical grooves called gl\ phs in

Rectangular projection from the surface; the middle and half glyphs al the edges. Withou
as if a column i- embedded in the wall. th.' half glyph- it is called a diglyph.

PILOTI VOLUTE
Column- at ground-floor li -up The spiraling scrolle< d of the Ionic capital.
me building above. ZIGGURAT
PNEUMATIC I rom Mesopotamian tei i,.le-. used to describe
I I.N .11 stepping up and inward in p\ ramidical form.

\iii mi 1
1
i
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 1

Index
Coignet, F., 66 I [ardouin-Mansart, J.. -+7

constructivism, 88-9 Marina. H., 98

Cruz, A.. 130 Hawksmoor. Y. ">•'!

Cubitt, L.. .1. and T., 64, 65 Hellenistic, 10-17

Cuijpers. P., 62, 63 I tennebique, I .. <>()

Hermogenes, 17
Aalto. A.. 98, 106-7 De Siijl movement, (
>0-1 1 lertzberger, II.. 1 14—15
\«lain. R., 56-7 Deconstructionism, 134—5 Herzog, .1.. 188
AJberti, L. B., 27, 29 Deutscher Werkbund, 86-8 Hi-tech, 12-t-.".. 120-^
\.mI«». I.. 121 Dientzenhoffer, K. I.. 49 Hiderbrandt, .1. L., 40
\ivlirr. P. 53 Dinkeloo, J., 139 Hitchcock, H.R., 108-0
\.t Deco, 105, I 10-1 I Doesburg, I. van, (
»1 Hoffmann, .1.. 81
\n Nouveau 72-3, 78-9, 130 Donatello. 35 Hopkins, Sir M. and P.. 128
tosand Crafts, 68-71 Du Cerceau, J., 39 Ilorta, Baron V.. 78
Howard. E., 101
Baroque, 44- (
>. 52-3, 58-9 Eisenman, I'.. 126, 134
Barry. C, 62 expressionism, 96-7 International Style, 108-0
Bauhaus, 92-3, 94, 102 Eyck, \. van. 1 14-15
Behrens, l».. 86-7 Jefferson, Pres. P. 60
Berlage, II. P., 83 Fischer, .1. M. 48-40 Jenks, C, 122
Bernini, C, 31-2, 36, 44-5, Fischer von Erlach. .1. B. 48 Johnson, P.. 108-0. 122
48, .".()
Foster, Si. Y. 12.".. 12" Jones. I.. 42-8
Blom, P., 114-15 Fuksas, \l.. 128
BofiU, R., 123 Futurism, <".-+-.">
Kahn, L., 139
Borromini, P.. 44—5 Kent, W.. .")4

Boullee, P. -P.. 61 Gamier, T., 00 Kleihues, .1. P. 110

Bra. name. I).. 30-1, 32, 33. Gaudi, V. 130-1 and R., IP*
kricr. L.
8 (
>. 51 Gehry, I. ().. 136-7 Kurakawa, K.. 121
Breuer. M, 139 Georgian, 56-7
Brunelleschi. I
'.. 2" -0. 33
7

Gibbs, .1.. 53 Labrouste, II.. 74

Brutalism, 112-13 Gilben Scott. Sir G., 62, 63. Lasdun, Sir I).. 101. 1:58
Buckminster Fuller. R.. 12-"). 69 Latrobe, B. II.. 60-1
137 Gilbert, W.. Ill P.- Corbusier, 94-5, 100-1.
Burlington, Lord R. Boyle, 54 (..mIhc 22-25, (.2-:; 112-18. 180
~"
Burnham, I). 75. Greek, 16-17. 2(>. 58-6 Le Notre, A.. 40
Byzantine, 18-10. 20. 2 (
»
Grimshaw, Y. 12.") Le Pa. .tie. \. and P.,
4"
Gropius, W.. 86-7, 02-:-!. Le Nan. P.. 40
Campbell, C. 54, 55 104-.-). 110 Lechner, ().. "8
Candela, K. 67 Guarini, 48 (... Ledoux, C.-N., 61
Chiattone, \l.. 84-5 Guimard, II. "2-8 Lescot, P.. 39
( IWI. 94, 106, 1 12. 11-f. Gwathmev. C. 120 Lethaby, W. R.. 71
120-1 Libeskind. I).. 18.")

142 \ in mil i
\ i
i: \-n . hi i;-i
Loos. A.. 133. 139 Paine. J., 56-7 Street. G. E., 03. 70
7

L'Orme, P. de, 39 Palladia. rism, 3(>-~ .

54-^5 Structuralism, I 14-5
Lubetkin, B.. 104 Palladio, A.. T.. 36-7 Smart. .1. A.. 00
Lutyens. Sir E.. 71 Pawson, .1. 132 Sullivan. P.. 76-7, 08
Perret, A..67
McKim, C. "4-."> Perriand, C, 121 Tahnan. \Y.. 53
Mackintosh. C. R.. 78-9 Peruzzi, B.. 31 Tange, K.. 120-1
Maderno. 33 C., Piano. B.. 12-f Tallin. V., 88-0
Makovec, 99 I.. Pleenik. .1.. 138 Taut. B., 86-7, 96-7, 120
Mansart, R, 46 Poelzig, II.. 87. 0(> Tecton, 104-5
Marinetti. F. T.. 84 Postmodernism, 122-8. 120 Telford, 64 P.

Mead, 74-5
W.. Prat.. B.. 43 Terragni, 85 (i..

Meier. R.. lT I Pugin, A. W.. 02 Tschumi, B., 134

Melnikov, K.. 89 .

Mendelsohn, E., 96-7 Renaissance, 26 —13 I ngers, 0. M., 119

Merrill. J.. IK) Richardson, II. II.. 74 I ./.,... .1.. 08,

Meuro... P. de. 133 Rietveld. (,.. 90

Vlever. \.. 87 Roche, K.. 139 Vanbrugh, .1..
.">2

Mever. II.. 92 Rococo, 48-9 Vasari, G., 35

Michelangelo, 32-3, 35 Rogers, Sir B.. 12-f Velde, II. van de. 73, 02
Mies van der Rohe, I... 102-'} Romanesque. 18-19, 20-21. Venturi, B.. 122
\iiiiuii... \.. <*;<)
Vesnin, A.. V. and P.. 89
Minimalism. 132-3 Boot. .1. W.. 75, 77 Vimiola. B. da. 34-5
Modern Regionalism. 130-1 Rossi, \.. 118,-1') Vitruvius, 19, 27
Modernism. 104-5 B..>ki... .1.. 63 Voysey, C. I. A.. 70
Moneo. .1. R., 130
Morris. W . 68 Saarinen. P.. 98 Wagner, 0, 8,0-1
Muthesius, II.. "0 Sant'Elia, A.. 8,-+-.") Wei. I,. 68 P..

Scarpa, C, 120 \\ l.iie.74-5 S..

Nash. J..
.")<",-'»
Scharoun, IL 97. 98 Wren. SirC. 50-1
N'eo-Gothic. 58-9. 62-3. 10.") Secessionism, 80-1 Wright. I. I... 82-3, 1 20
-
Neo-Rationalism. 18-10 1 SerUo, 2
Neorlassicism. 56-61. 74-5 Shaw. B. N.. 69 Vamasaki. M.. I l(»

Nervi. I... 98 Si/a Vieira, V. 181. 132

Neumann. B.. 49 .1. Skidmore, I... 11(>
-
7
Norman. 20-21 skyscrapers, T *)- ". I I (>

Sn.irke. Sir B.. ()()

Olbrich. I. M.. Ill Smythson. B.. -+I

Organic. 98-9 Soane. Sir J., 58-9

Ortiz. V. 130 Souta de Moura, E.. 182-8
Oud. I I P..
(
»l Steindl. I.. <>8

Owines. N.. I 16 Stirling. Si. .1.. I2<>

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