ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE & AMERICA: UPTO

1900
 BACKGROUND
•NEO CLASSICISM (1750-1850)
•FRENCH NEOCLASSICISM
•GERMAN NEOCLASSICISM
•NEO CLASSICISM IN THE US

•NEW MATERIALS AND URBAN TYPOLOGIES

•STEEL, CONCRETE, GLASS
•BRIDGES, RAILWAY STATIONS

•CHICAGO SCHOOL
•ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT (1834-1896)
•ART NOUVEAU (1890-1914)
•ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
•EXPRESSIONISM
•CONSTRUCTIVISM
•BAUHAUS
•INTERNATIONAL
•POSTMODERNISM
•DECONTRUCTIVISM
 TIME LINE: High Periods of Styles

DECONSTRUCTIVIS
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POSTMODERNISM

INTERN
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CRAFTS

NEOCLASSICISM

RENAISSANCE BAROQUE
 THE WEST: 1750 TO 1900

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

 THE WEST: 1750 TO 1900
This period was characterized by:
•Colonization of the resource rich East- which was largely consolidated towards 1830s to 50s.
•Break up of the European colonies in the Americas after the American Revolution in 1776 and the Declaration of
Independence.
•Archaeological findings of Pompeii, Knossos- renewed interest in Antiquity.
•French Revolution and rise of Napoleon- unrest in Europe.
•New principals of Equality, Liberty
•Enlightenment
•Population surge in Europe- urbanization- and industrial Revolution.
•New pace of life.
•Innovations
•New materials and techniques
•Accumulation of wealth
•Rise of the US after the Civil War in 1860s

•Architecturally, this period saw the following:

•Revival of the classical Graeco-Roman styles- as a result of the revival of interests in antiquity
•Rise of the engineer, whi experimented with new materials like steel and glass.
•Development of a new language of architecture towards the end of 19 th cent- embracing new materials and rejecting
classical styles.

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

NEO-CLASSICISM
 NEO-CLASSICISM
Visual arts, literature, theatre, music and architecture .

Inspiration from the “classical“ art and culture of ancient Greece and ancient
Rome.

Age of enlightenment (from 1620s to 1780s) : cultural and intellectual forces in

Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism

In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th and up to the 21st
century .

Renaissance view of man – fundamentally good and possessed of an infinite potential for spiritual
and intellectual growth.
Neoclassical view of man : imperfect being, inherently sinful, whose potential was limited.

Symmetry, proportion, unity and harmony in art and architecture as during the renaissance.
Neoclassical works (paintings and sculptures) were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic.

NEOCLASSICISM

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

NEO-CLASSICISM
ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION

ROCOCO NEOCLASSIC

‘The swing ‘ 18th-century painting by jean- ‘Andromache mourning hector’  a 1783 painting

honoré fragonard by jacques-louis david .

• Frothy nature. • Architectural setting

• Playfulness • Sculptural form
• Eroticism • Dense emotions
• Frozen moment • Staged scene
 NEO-CLASSICISM
CLAUDE -NICOLAS LEDOUX & ETENNE LOUIS BOULLEE

•Extreme and visionary forms of French Neo Classicism

•Absolute forms- spheres, cubes, cylinders, pyramids- Platonic ideals
•Source of these forms- nature
•Factory complex of Chaux at Arc-et-Senans
•Radical simplification of forms
•Reduction in ornamentation
•His Architecture of the Revolution : graphic structure and
visionary character- attempts to give forms to the theories and
utopian ideals of the revolution.
Boulle: Design for a Monument for Newton (1784)

Ledoux: Director’s House at Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans Boullée’:Project for a metropolitan cathedral (1780)

 NEO-CLASSICISM
NEO CLASSICISM IN THE US

•1776- Declaration of Independence

•An architectural style suitable for the new nation was needed
•Elaboration of European Classicism
•Two styles developed in the US-
•Federal Style and Greek Revival

FEDERAL STYLE
•Sequence of heterogenous forms- enclosed by rectangles of
various sizes
•These delimit and give form to harmoniously linked spaces
•Charles Bulkfinch, William Thornton
Charles Bulkfinch: Old Connecticut State House, 1796
GREEK REVIVAL
•Closer adhesion to values and expressive and stylistic models of
the Greek civilization
•Stimulated by the archaeological findings in Greece, Italy
•Henry Latrobe-Architectural exactness and stylistic purity
•Bank of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia- Latrobe
•Modelled on Greek Ionic temples
•Central domes, porticoes
•Small details- leaves of corinthian capitals- corn and tobacco used
in place of decanthus leaves

Henry Latrobe: Bank of Pennsylvania

 NEO-CLASSICISM
NEO CLASSICISM IN THE US

CAPITOL BUILDING, WAHINGTON

DC- 1792-1827
•Thornton’s original design- Neo Classical-
Large windows, dominant domes
•It was yet not complete in 1814 when
British burned it
•Latrobe was hired to restore it- mostly
interiors
 NEO-CLASSICISM
NEO CLASSICISM IN THE US
THOMAS JEFFERSON 1769- 1809
Mansion for self- 1769-1772
•Kept adding and making changes- influence from England and France
•Palladio- central plan building and English country homes- monumental and
elegant
•Added functionality to the aesthetics
•Introduced ‘modern’ technical innovations- service elevators
•Became a reference for American classical movement

Virginia State Capitol: 1785-96

•Simplification of French neo-classicism
•Clear indication of what the young Republic wanted to state architecturally
•Influence of Maison Carree

Thomas Jefferson: Virginia State Capitol Thomas Jefferson: Monticello Estate

NEW MATERIALS
 NEW MATERIALS

IRON, GLASS AND THE ENGINEERS

•19th Century- New materials and building techniques
•Industrial scale manufacture of iron and steel alloys- end of 18 th cent and start of 19th cent
•Experiments with new shapes and types of buildings
•Classical forms along with the aesthetics of the new materials and their technical possibilities, created new and
diverse possibilities
•New materials for new spaces and new needs- eg. Green houses, exhibition pavilion, large commercial centres.
•Ductility of metallic framework used to form vast areas of glass.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH NEW

MATERIALS
1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
NEW MATERIALS
•Railway stations- 2 different but complimentary structures: the building with classical citations and the tracks
with the technological expressiveness of the shed roofs.
•Focus of architecture shifts from display and celebrations to those of physical construction led to the birth of a
new professional- the engineer.
•Engineers- structural precision, economy of materials, building around a structural skeleton.
•Terms of theoretical debate changed- no longer around classical orders but seeking to explore expressive
possibilities of different languages.

Mannheim railway station William Henry Barlow , St. Pancras,

London, 1868
 NEW MATERIALS

GALLERIES
•A new urban typology- covered pedestrian
passages lined with storefronts.
•Came into being through initiatives of various
entrepreneurs of Paris in the 1st decade of the 19th
cent.
•Covered by glass panes set in metallic framework.
Illuminated during the night.
•Changed the rules for commercials paces.
•Offered a kind of comfort, anticipated the
department stores and malls.
•GALLERIA VITTORIO EMANUELE, MILAN,
(1865-67)
Giuseppe Mengoni: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 1865-67
•UMBERTO I, NAPLES (1887-90)

Emanuele Rocco : Galleria Umberto I, Naples, 1887-91

 NEW MATERIALS

BRIDGES
Coalbrookdale Bridge over the Severn River in England-
1779, designed by Abraham Darby and John Wilkinson.
•Made entirely of cast iron- first of its kind.
•Revolutionized landscapes and methods of transportation
while also revealing the level of complexity in engineering.

•James Finlay- in 1801 patented a system of trusses to

stiffen the decks of suspension bridges
•1st half of 19th century numerous bridges were built in
England using the technique of suspension bridges. Eg
Union Bridge at Tweed and Clifton Bridge near Bristol

Abraham Darby and John Wilkinson : Coalbrookdale Bridge ,

•Steel tended to replace iron. England, 1779
•Designers concentrated on obtaining lighter structures
using smaller quantities of material but guaranteeing
greater tensile strength and elasticity

James Finlay: Union Bridge at Tweed, England, 1820

 NEW MATERIALS

BRIDGES
Tower Bridge, London, 1886-94
Firth of Forth Bridge, Edinburgh, 1882-89 John Wolfe-Barry and Horace Jones
Sir Benjamin Baker •Movable bridges appeared at the end of the 19th Cent to resolve
•3 giant units supported by pylons over a total length of about 2,500 problems of commercial traffic.
metres •The central structure is a movable raodway that can be raised or
•Visionary and popular work. lowered to permit the passage of ships along the Thames.
•William Morris called it the ‘supremest specimen of all ugliness’

Bridge at Paderno d’Adda, 1887-89

Jules Rothlisberger
•Rectilinear girder supported by a parabolic arch with a span of
150 metres.
CHICAGO SCHOOL
 CHICAGO SCHOOL

Wainwright building St. Louis, USA The Home Insurance Building in Chicago built in 1885

MOVEMENT FIELD OF IMPACT PERIOD ORIGIN/ MAIN CONCEPT PIONEERS/ EXAMPLES

AND EMPHASIS CENTRES MASTERS
CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE- 1870- AMERICA PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS, LOUIS SULLIVAN WAINWRIGHT
SCHOOL SKYSCRAPERS 1910 ENGINEERED STRUCTURES, BUILDING
SKYSCRAPERS, ORNAMENTATION

CHICAGO
SCHOOL

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

 CHICAGO SCHOOL
•1871- City of Chicago -constructed mostly of wood was destroyed
almost exclusively by a great fire.
•The rebuilding of the city in stone and steel marked a revolutionary
turning point in the history of architecture.
•Chicago School- innovations by architects and engineers involved
in the city’s reconstruction.
•Specific problems: insertion of new buildings in what remained of
the urban fabric, the design of structures that would be
technologically trustworthy and resistant to fire; and the design of
forms suitable for the functions of the new buildings, most of them
for the use of service industries.
•William Le Baron Jenney- proposed a new multi-storey building-
the skyscraper. The height made possible by the invention of the
elevator increased exponentially the use of the building lot.
•Metal skeleton framework
•Framework determined the modulation of the exterior.
•Daniel Hudson Burnham- worked on an expressive language for the
large facades of the commercial buildings
•Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan – efforts to elaborate decorative
and structural elements in a new language
 CHICAGO SCHOOL

Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store, Chicago, 1899-

1904
Louis Sullivan
First skyscraper in which the supporting skeleton was left visible
Did not eliminate decorations- used to emphasize the vertical support
elements, the entrances and the outline of the lower floors.
 CHICAGO SCHOOL
Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York, 1895
Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan
Three functional areas: large ground floor access area; the attic
located on the top and the shaft in between with number of floors.
CHICAGO SCHOOL

Reliance Building, Chicago, 1890-95

Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root,
High point of the Chicago School’s ‘structuralist’
current
 CHICAGO SCHOOL
Flatiron Building, New York, 1902
Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root,
22 floors high
Notable for its narrow, triangular shape- dictated by the
plot