20 th

Century
Architecture
 Background
• RAPID ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• URBANIZATION INCREASED
• ARCHITECTURE WAS AFFECTED BY
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVENTS
• ADVANCE IN TECHNOLOGY CUES FOR
NEW ARTISTIC FORM, SPACE AND TIME
 History
• The main storyline of architecture in the twentieth story
is that of the development of Modernism, and various
reactions to it. Most of us use the term “modern” to
refer to something that is of its time, and perhaps even
up-to-the-minute and fashionable. But from the 1920s or
so in avant-garde circles, the term “Modern” came to
refer to a particular approach by a group of architects
who sought to cast off historical precedent and
develop something entirely new and different for their
own time. The carnage of World War I having
convinced them that the ways of old Europe were a
failure, Modernist architects saw historical styles—
developed in response to earlier conditions—as
anachronistic, irrelevant, and potentially decadent.
 Architectural Styles
• Art Deco
• Art Nouveau
• Brutalism
• Deconstructivism
• Constructivism
• Modernism
• Organic Architecture
• Structuralism
 Art Deco
• A style that is
purely decorative
popular during
1910-1939
• This style is
elegant,
glamorous,
functional and
modern.
Hector Guimard
Architectural Characteristics:
• Primitive Area
• Machine Age

Example of Structures:

Metropolitan
Theater, Philippines

Architect: Juan M.
Arellano
 New India Assurance Building
Architect: Master, Sarhe and Bhuta, with artistic
designer N. G. Pansare
 Art Nouveau
• Aims to highlight the ornamental value
of curved line, either floral or
geometric.
• Flourished in major European cities
between 1890 and 1914
• French name for “New Style”
Popularized by the famous Maison de l'Art Nouveau,
an art gallery in Paris operated by Siegfried Bing
Features/ Characteristics:
• Assymetrical Shapes
• Extensive use of arches and curved
forms
• Curved glass
• Plant like embellishment
• Mosaics
• Stained Glass
• Floral and Geometric
Example of Structures:

Casa Mila "La Pedrera”

in Barcelona
• Architect: Antoni Gaudi
Built: 1906-1910

• Maison Du Peuple
• Architect: Victor Horta
 Brutalism
• Influenced by ”Raw Art”
• Style exposed rough concrete
and large modernist block forms.
• Style derived from the architecture
of Le Corbusier
Common Features:
• Precast concrete slabs
• Rough unfinished surfaces
• Exposed steel beams
• Massive Sculptural Shapes
Examples of Structures:

University of Pennsylvania
Architect: Louis Kahn

Philippine International
C Convention Centre
Architect: Leandro
Locsin
 Deconstructivism
• It attempts to view
architecture in bits
and pieces ,
unrelated,
disharmonious
abstract and
distorted forms of
buildings.
Conceptualized by
• A style where some
French Philosopher of the elements are
Jacques Derrida in the dislocate and
late 1980s dismantled.
Characteristics/ Features:
• Uses unique forms, harsh angles, and
new materials to create unstable
designs that shock the viewer
Examples of Structures:

Imperial War Museum

• Architect: Daniel Libeskind
• Seattle Central Library
• Architect: Rem Koolhaas

• Guggenheim Museum
• Architect: Frank Gehry
 Constructivism
• combined engineering and
technology with political ideology
• most famous work of constructivist
architecture was never actually built
Characteristics/Features:
• glass and steel
• abstract geometric shapes
• technological details such as
antennae, signs, and projection
screens
Example of Structures:

Russian architect
Vladimir Tatlin
launched the
construction
movement when he
proposed the
futuristic, glass-and-
steel Tatlin's Tower.
 Modernism
• Gained Popularity after the 2nd
World War
• Became the Dominant
Architectural Style for institutional
and corporate building for three
decade.
Characteristics/ Features:
• Principle that the materials and
functional required
• Emphasis on horizontal and vertical
lines
• Rejection of ornamentation
• Form follows Function
• Simplification of Forms
The Big Three:
• Le Corbusier
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Walter Gropius
Example of Structures:

Bauhaus, Germany
Architect: Walter
Gropius

Museum of Modern Art

Architect: Philip
Johnson
 Organic Architecture
• Term of F.L. Wright to describe
his approach to architectural
design
• The buildings and surroundings
become part of a unified,
interrelated composition
inspire by nature
Example of Structure:

Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright
END 