Blog 4

Le Corbusier defined modern architecture through his residential designs by utilizing his own set of fundamental rules that he thought were important. Le Corbusier used a modular system for proportioning spaces based on the golden ratio or the Vitruvius man. Corbusier also utilized a basic five points of architecture which could be seen throughout his works. The first point being his use of pilotis, these large load bearing columns took weight off walls inside the building allowing for complete manipulation of the free floor plan, they also captured his belief in future urbanism where buildings would be constructed above circulation. His second point of architecture was a concept of a free or open floor plan, because no walls were load bearing walls could be placed according to space design rather than being dictated by the structure. Three is similar to point two, a concept of a free façade, just like a free floor plan exterior walls were not dictated by structure. The free façade is best seen utilized in the placement of his signature long sliding windows. The fourth point was the idea of using green roofs in order to counter the land lost due to the buildings footprint. Le Corbusiers major works of residential architecture were the Villa Savoye, Maison La Roche, Maison Citrohan, and Maison Ozenfant.

Maison Citrohan - vam.ac.uk

Villa Savoye - paperlandmarks.com

Maison Ozenfant - sandiego.edu

Alvar Aalto was a Nordic architect who influence modern architecture, especially in the field of residential design. Aalto has an idea of incorporating nature into his designs, referencing the relationship between buildings and the natural environment. Aalto utilized natural forms in some of his works, one of which was the Baker House for MIT. He used natural materials and inventive structural systems in his designs to make them stand out. The best example of his residential design would be for his summer home, named the experimental house. In that house he would design over fifty brick laying patterns and encouraged overgrowth of plants from the surrounding area.  His major works were the Experimental house, The Baker house, and his design of Saynatzalo Town Hall.

Experimental house - blogspot.com

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe explored the use of traditionally industrial materials in home design as well as his other buildings. This use of materials was a signature of Mies Van der Rohe, one of the best examples of which being in his design of the Farnsworth house. The Farnsworth house was unique because of its industrial nature that maintained a constant connection to nature due to its lack of opaque walls. Perhaps the reason for the success was his simplistic expression of industrial elements as ornament. The Barcelona pavilion which was a temporary structure, utilized raw materials which gave character to the spaces inside. Another successful work was the Villa Tugendhat. In the design of the villa he used a free floor plan strategy which allowed for the entertainment of large numbers of guests in the home. The definition of the spaces is unique because of its ability to define smaller spaces within, without major elements obstructing the sanctity of the space.

Tugendhat House - nytimes.com

Farnsworth House - blogspot.com

Blog 3 Adolf Loos in comparison to Le Corbusier

The works of Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier both considered to be pioneers into the modern movement in Germany like most situations have their own sets of similarities and differences. In this comparison I looked at the Villa Muller by Adolf Loos and the Weissenholf Estates Haus's designed by Le Corbusier.

Villa Muller {Source: Galinksy.com}

Weissenhof Estates {Source: Panaramio.com}

Both architects shared elements of minimalism in their designs. Adolf Loos rejected the context of the Villa Muller and focused on the interior, therefore the exterior of the house was minimal with only a few windows breaking up the otherwise solid surface. The interior of the housed would often stay relatively tradition but the forms changed to suit Loos's vision of Raumplan. Le Corbusier used the concept of less is more a little bit more thurougly than Loos in the sense that it would be carried throughout his design. 

Villa Muller {Source: Galinsky.com}

Weissenhof Estate Haus 1 Floor Plans{Source: Weissenhol Museum}

When configuring the layout of their designs both architects used separate approaches. Because of Loos's Raumplan technique, which associated spacial planning between specified spaces and their connections rather than floor, the designed plan of the building would often have complexities. These complexities sometimes consisted level changes from space to space to differentiate each space. Le Corbusier worked with mostly flowing floor plans with minimalist forms intersecting and defining each space.

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The Forerunners of Modern Architecture

            Although art nouveau was a short lived movement in the architecture world its influence is something that cannot be ignored. The roles of Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Henry Van der Velde were essential, by playing of their knowledge or art, history, materials, and industrial techniques these men helped shaped much of the architectural style we are familiar with today.

            Possibly one of the most influential of the three Victor Horta, is considered by some to be a founding member or modern architecture. Victor was inspired by the artist of the times such as Monet and Cèzanne, whose works consisted of mostly paintings reinterpreted through paint on canvas. Despite his education of architecture Victor rejected historical precedents and also embraced new materials such as iron and new forms of glass. One of his greatest works and most influential works was his exocution of the Hotel Tassel.

Hotel Tassel - Deviantart.com

This building was filled with organic ornamentation, these linear floral elements painted on in a way that made the building seem alive almost as if it were filled with living plants. This building was also one of the first, if not the first, to introduce an open floor plan design, in which one space flowed from one to the next. This established the importance of ornamentation and floor planning in a building, establishing its importance to the Art Nouveau movement.

Despite having a great role in the introduction of Art Nouveau Victor Horta eventually abandoned his new found style, in favor of a more rationalized geometrical design form, although he still continued his exploration of the open floor plan.

            Hector Guimard was a French architect who looked up to Victor Horta, especially his design of the Hotel Tassel. Because of this Hector adopted the practice of floral “whiplash” ornamentation. His work at the Castel Beranger expressed this but also showed his education of the architect Viollet -le-Duc. He addressed relationships between the geometrical old style of design to the new Art Nouveau movent, placing floral ornamentation on steel doors and other decorative areas, as well as some structural elements.

            One of Hector’s greatest achievements was his exploration into world of what would now be considered Industrial Design. This goal was to introduce distinct architectural elements, such as iron fencing to manufacturing techniques for large scale production and distribution. This would eventually become his downfall because his products remained beyond a considerate price range for the general public, highly limiting its use. The styles or Art Nouveau also changed so frequently that by the time items were prepare they were no longer in style. It is difficult to see the works of Hector Guimard but one of his few works that remain are the entrances to the Paris metro systems. 

Paris Metro Entrance Railing - slrobertson.com

His introduction of industrial design helped influence the way that modern architects would consider elements within their design, such as the design of specific pieces of furniture to complete a building’s design, making it part of the overall design.

Henry Van der Velder was an interior designer and an industrial designer who changed the way in which architects address the design of a building. Due to his lack of a formal education in architecture, Henry would view a design as though it were a piece of furniture. By doing this he would have considered the whole greater than its parts. This influenced the role of industrial elements of a building and how the effect the overall design of a structure.

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As visionaries in their own time as well as the forerunners of modern design styles Ruskin, Viollet-le-Duc and Semper established ideals and practiced not seen before in their era. All three men had elements of their theories that sometimes coincided with one another as well as diverged greatly. Some of the strongest theories that affected their work were the way they looked at the past, how they approach their individual works, and the practice of building restoration.

            The way in which today’s architects approach their projects can be traced back to the practices of at least one of the three men. Each looked at the past a different way but none the less looked at the past as precedents. Viollet-le-Duc would use his knowledge in a three step process components being his memory, reasoning and imagination. He looked to the past in a way that allowed him to take things apart, whether that was part of a gothic church then analytically reasoning why it was designing in such a way and then using his imagination to piece them together. The most important part of which being his imagination which was described as having both an “passive” and an “active” (Memory as Construction in Viollet-le-Duc’s Architectural Imagination, pg.43-44), The active imagination uses passive memories picked up over time to make sense of, and make reason out of something new or unusual. This methodology is used when le-Duc would design using new materials such as iron in his works.

            The past was approached by Ruskin was more of a preservationist when it came to using history and aged French gothic architecture as his resource. Ruskin views on past are best described by the way he views building restoration. He believed that by repairing an old structure you destroy some of the elements that make the buildings sanctity. Another way of looking at works of the past would be in the technique in which Semper would examine works of the past. In his writings Semper broke down classical architecture into four elements the hearth, the substructure or platform, the roof, and the enclosure (On Martin Fröhlich’s Gottfried Semper, pg.2-3). In this manner Semper breaks down a structure into its bare minimal parts in a way, this also shows how in a way any structure can relate back to structures built by our ancestors in the form of tents and huts. This strategy can be seen in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, where as the most important part of his residential designs is the hearth or the fire place, the platform is expressed in the manner of which the homes are in relation to the street. The Robie house is built in a manner that places it above the street on a platform of sorts, also the roof is a very dominant expression on the home and being that it is prairie style is drawn out long due to the horizontality of the home.

The enclosure is thought of as the textiles that make up the envelope of the home structure. Once again F.L. Wright expanded upon the idea and created his textile blocks of the Ennis house. All three architects despite having their different methodologies of looking at the past can still be unified however in their reasoning. They all looked back to find out why buildings were designed in the manner in which they were and in the context, in a sense taking them apart and discovering why gothic architecture was as beautiful as it was.

            In regards to utilitarianism, construction methodology and reconstruction each architect once again had their own opinions and techniques that they used in their design. Ruskin viewed architecture as a value of its parts, where as he held the craftsmanship of the construction in higher esteem than the work of the building designer. Semper had a more scientific way about his work, he created a formula for which to engage in his design Y=F{x,y,z…}. The formula is based around a central relic that a building is created upon (Value-Y), an example of this being the alter of a church which would be considered a sacred item. The values F{x,y,z…} represent the function and the summary of each component and its relationship to the relic. Viollet-le-Duc was more interested in using his knowledge of history to set up his designs for the future, this means that he was much more interested in new technologies than his other two comrades. In his works he utilized iron which was a new building material at the time in conjunction with techniques of the past to create metaphors and to create opportunities. During le-Duc’s reconstruction projects he believed that a building should be returned the state of its origin, perhaps in a better state than it previously was brand new. This might mean the use of new materials in old structures or the use of gothic arches in buildings that there would normally be none. He was also more of a utilitarian in his structural practices recognizing the most efficient practices of the past and using them in his restoration projects.

Parts to a whole (Viollet-le-duc analytical sketch)

          

  Although each architect had their own beliefs and practices they all had one thing in common, which was the shaping for works of the future. The way that these architects conducted themselves affected modern design, as seen in some of their predecessors such as Louis Sullivan and F.L. Wright. It is difficult to understand them in the beginning, but once you start to look at their works and realize how they have applied their ideas into practice.