Modern Architecture Quiz Answers.

1. Give 5 definitions of Modern Architecture

a) Use of poured concrete and exposed steel
b) Openness of glass and steel skeletal side walls
c) No ornament but monumental block like forms
d) Plate glass and glass bricks
e) Disappearance of load bearing walls permitted a freer flowing structure

6. Who was one of the architects to influence Gropius early in his career?

Peter Behrens

7. Name one building by Behrens

AEG Turbine Factory1909-10

7. Name one influential building by Perret

Rue Franklin flats 1902

8. What was Gropius’ first building+ date

Fagus Factory 1911

9. How did he answer the call for an attractive façade?

projected steel skeleton, which pulled the function of support to the inside, thereby making
possible a broad dissolution of the exterior envelope into glass walls; the idea of the 'curtain
wall' was at this point first expressed in a consistent manner."

10. Give three aims of The Bauhaus in 1919

a) to "rescue all of the arts from the isolation in which each then found itself," (Whitford)

b) to elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps, teapots, etc., to the same level enjoyed by
fine arts, painting, sculpting

c) to maintain contact with the leaders of industry and craft in an attempt to eventually gain
independence from government support by selling designs to industry

13. Who illustrated the Manifesto of the Bauhaus and what with?

Feininger Woodcut

14. Give one quote from the Manifesto

The ultimate aim of all creative activity is the building,”

15. Why did the Bauhaus have to move from Weimar? Give 4 reasons

November Revolution Luxembourg and Liebnecht killed

• newly established Communist Party.
• Seizure of power by workers in Russia
• Weimar became vulnerable

20. Name one influential article by Gropius

"The development of Modern Industrial Architecture" in 1913

21.What was Gropius’ ideology

Big issue see notes..aware of social conditions “truth to materials”

attempted to bridge the gap between business, technology, and the imagination of a creative
designer.

22. How big was the Dessau Bauhaus?

42,445 [cubic yards] (32,450 [cubic meters])

23. How much did it cost to build?

902,500 marks.

24. Who taught there?

Klee, Kandinsky, Itten

25. what was crucial to their teaching?

Craftsmanship and design

26. What was so innovative about the building? (4 things)

a) the abolition of the separating function of the wall.

b) steel or concrete framework.
c) glass is assuming an ever greater structural importance
d) the possibility of turning the top of the house to practical account as a sun loggia, open-air
gymnasium, or children's playground

30. Note 3 of the structural problems of Gropius’ House

a) The house was built with steel frame sash windows which did not contain sill flashing; the
lack of sill flashing led to deterioration of some framing elements and interior finishes caused
from water penetration.
b) Interior problems consisted of deteriorated and damp plaster at the window soffits, jambs
and sills, and window frame corrosion distressing the plate glass.

c) Exterior problems consisted of corroded sashes, cracked, peeling and damp glazing, and
frame seals.
33. Name 3 of Le Corbusier aims.

a) Classical order of pure forms

b) The supremacy of function over aesthetic considerations

 c) Rational organisation

34. Give one way he achieved this.

Reinforced concrete frames allowed free planning of interior and exterior walls and
liberal use of glass.

35. Which 2 influential books did he write?

a) L’Esprit Nouveau 1920-25

b) Vers une Architecture 1923

37. Given a career question which 3 buildings of Gropius would you choose?

a) Villa Savoye 1929-30

b) Unité D’Habitation Marseilles 1947-52

c) Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp 1950-54

40. What was innovative about Villa Savoye ? Name 11 innovations.

a) modular design -- the result of Corbu's researches into mathematics,

architecture (the golden section), and human proportion
b) "pilotis" -- the house is raised on stilts to separate it from the earth,
and to use the land efficiently. These also suggest a modernized
classicism.
c) no historical ornament
d) abstract sculptural design
e) pure colour -- white on the outside, a colour with associations of
newness, purity, simplicity, and health (Le Corbusier earlier wrote a
book entitled, When the Cathedrals were White), and planes of subtle
color in the interior living areas
f) a very open interior plan
g) dynamic , non-traditional transitions between floors -- spiral
staircases and ramps
h) built-in furniture
i) ribbon windows (echoing industrial architecture, but also providing
openness and light)
j) roof garden, with both plantings and architectural (sculptural) shapes
k) integral garage (the curve of the ground floor of the house is based on
the turning radius of the 1927 Citroen)
 51. Name 3 innovations of Unité D’Habitation
a) The giant, twelve-story apartment block for 1.600 people is the late modern counterpart of
the mass housing schemes of the 1920s, similarly built to alleviate a severe postwar housing
shortage.

b) Although the program of the building is elaborate, structurally it is simple: a rectilinear

ferroconcrete grid, into which are slotted precast individual apartment units, like 'bottles into
a wine rack' as the architect put it.

c) Through ingenious planning, twenty-three different apartment configurations were

provided to acccommodate single persons and families as large as ten, nearly all with
double-height living rooms and the deep balconies that form the major external feature."

54. Name 4 innovations of the Ronchamp Church

a) dark roof with complex curvature floats over curving walls made of two reinforced
concrete membranes. This roof is supported by reinforced concrete struts which also serve to
strengthen the massive wall of local stone spray-coated with 'Gunnire'. A small gap which
separates the shell of the roof from the outer walls makes the curvilinear surface of the roof
seem to float above the interior, while the curved shape of the walls creates secondary spaces
which are used as smaller chapels.

b) The southern "wall of light" is pierced by a multiplicity of irregular openings containing

stained glass, filling the interior with coloured light. A ray of light penetrates through the
junction between walls and roof; and 3 towers transmit light down from above into the
chapel.

c) A place for private prayer, holding only 50 people, and the main chapel is enlarged on the
east side by an exterior altar for the use of pilgrims.

d) The floor plan follows the natural slope of the terrain down towards the altar.
e)
58. Give 9 reasons why the Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie House was
innovative?

a) asymmetrical
b) horizontal relation to ground
c) unified interpenetrating interior spaces, ‘screen walls
d) overhanging roofs
e) set back walls
f) use of elongated Roman bricks
g) leaded windows
h) central chimney
i) bolted steel beams (for him to see neighbours without being seen)

67. Give the main innovation of the Johnson Wax building.

Lily pad capitals

68. Why was Falling Water innovative? Give 14 reasons.

 a) glass, metal, reinforced concrete
b) wood flooring, natural materials
c) modernist idiom as no ornamentation
d) crisp geometric forms
e) structural techniques exploited to link exterior with interior and to achieve spatial
effects
f) natural densely wooded valley
g) exposed rock
h) fusion with nature’an extension of the cliff’
i) stepped terraces echo strata of rocky ledges
j) cave like
k) ‘human tenure on this earth…indicative of freedom’
l) interior rough stone walls and stone flagged floors
m) contrast of vertical chimney
n) no main entrance

82. Describe the Guggenheim in 12 ways

a) Commissioned by Solomon R Guggenheim to house a collection of art.

b) Innovatory solution to non domestic building
c) Two distinct blocks linked by sweeping horizontal band
d) Spatial sequence goes from low entrance bto high unitary toplit special spaceof
communal area
e) Symbolism of light from above
f) Sense of inner sanctume sealed off from the world
g) Internal space composed of interpenetrating horizontal layers of cantilevered
projections
h) Organic whole and total work of Art… (Bauhaus comparison)
i) ‘let the room inside be the architecture outside’
j) spiral ramptapering outwards interior counter-curve of stair/lift well
k) poured reinforced concrete-white painteinterior contains pond and plants
l) ‘a quiet unbroken wave’