Morris

In 1881, in London, the multi-talented artist, thinker and politician William Morris (1834-1896)
gives a lecture entitled The prospects of Architecture in Civilization. William Morris has been
considered by an important sector of architects, theorists and historians of modern times as one of
the pioneers of what we usually call modern architecture. Reacting to the wave of vulgarity and
aesthetic impoverishment caused by phenomena linked to the first Industrial Revolution, Morris
becomes one of the most powerful voices rising up to demand reforms in depth in everything that
affects the dignity and happiness of all individuals of the new society.
At this conference, Morris provides a definition of the architecture we would like to propose here as
worthy of attention: "The architecture, he explains, includes all consideration of the physical
environment surrounding human life; we cannot stand aside while we are part of civilization,
because architecture is the set of modifications and alterations in the surface of the earth in order to
satisfy any human need, except for the desert. "

This is probably one of the broadest ways of understanding architecture . It is not only about the
building itself but also about the varied world of forms that determines the spaces in which we live.
In other words: for Morris architecture goes from the landscape, when it is the result of the
intervention of the human hand, to the cities and their buildings but also everything that we can find
in these cities and buildings: furniture, machinery, tools, writing, information: all these things
belong to the field of architecture.
Subsequently, this extensive view has used modern notions of design and designer as broader terms
than the notion of architecture. William Morris's ideas were received positively, partly because of
the specific experiences that he and people associated with him developed in the Victorian England.
The word diseo is an anglicized word that comes from the term design. This concept means that in
the formalization of a building or a piece of furniture, the cover of a book or a steam engine,
there is always the same analytical and creative attitude. The English language transforms the
Italian word disegno and applied it to all artistic creation in which the drawing and making a
segnum, a sign, was the substantial procedure to reach the form. Design,as we use it today in many
languages, is all building activity and rationalization of useful forms created to satisfy the
development of human life. It is evident that in the last hundred years, architect and architecture
have expanded and have designed many spaces and objects that are no often considered strictly
architectural.
Successive attempts to create a unique methodology and a unique critical evaluation criteria for the
entire universe of forms around us -Bauhaus, Vuchtemas, Ulm School, Domus Academy, etc.clearly represent how well-considered and well-received are Morris's ideas in modern culture.