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MODERN

ARCHITECTURE
•is a term given to a number of building styles with similar
characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the
elimination of ornament.

•Modern architecture originated in the United States and


Europe and spread from there to the rest of the world.

•The style was conceived early in the 20th century.


Origin
•The Modern style developed, in their opinion, as a
result of social and political revolutions.

•Others see Modern architecture as primarily driven by


technological and engineering developments, and it is
true that the availability of new building materials
such as iron, steel, concrete and glass drove the
invention of new building techniques as part of the
Industrial Revolution.

•Other historians regard Modernism as a matter of taste,


a reaction against eclecticism and the lavish stylistic
excesses of Victorian Era and Edwardian Art Nouveau.
Melnikov House near Arbat Street
in Moscow by Konstantin Melnikov.

Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, a


well known example of modern
architecture
Modernism as dominant style

By the 1920s the most important figures in


Modern architecture had established their
reputations.

The big three are commonly recognized as:

The 'Glass Palace' (1935) in the Le Corbusier in France, and Ludwig


Netherlands by Frits Peutz,
made purely of concrete, steel
Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius
and glass in Germany.

Mies van der Rohe and Gropius were both


directors of the Bauhaus, one of a number
of European schools and associations
concerned with reconciling craft tradition
and industrial technology.

Marina City (left) and


IBM Plaza (right) in
Chicago.
Characteristics
Modern architecture is usually characterized by:

•a rejection of historical styles as a source of architectural form (historicism)

Hills/DeCaro House by American architect Frank Lloyd


Wright,
•an adoption of the principle that the materials and functional requirements
determine the result (The most commonly used materials are glass for the facade,
steel for exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports; floor
plans were functional and logical)

The Crystal Palace, built entirely of cast iron and


glass, was an early example of modern, functional
architecture. It was designed by architect Sir Joseph
Paxton for the first universal fair, the Great Exhibition of
1851.
Lever House (1951-1952) was one of the
earliest steel and glass office towers and the first
such tower in New York
•an adoption of the machine aesthetic

The Flatiron Building in New York City was once the city’s tallest building at 91 m
(300 ft) tall. Designed by Chicago School architect Daniel Burnham, the triangular
building features a decorative exterior supported by a steel skeleton. The Chicago
School comprised architects from Chicago, Illinois, who built some of the first
skyscrapers in the United States.
•a rejection of ornament

•a simplification of form and


elimination of "unnecessary
detail"

Seagram Building, New York City

German American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the leading architects of the 20th century. His sleek,
unornamented glass-and-steel skyscrapers were especially influential. The 37-storey bronze-and-glass Seagram Building
(1958) in New York City, shown here, displays the simplicity and elegance that are characteristic of his style. The building
was designed in collaboration with architect Philip Johnson.
•an adoption of expressed structure

•Form follows function

Lloyd’s Building, London

Kahn’s Salk Institute Lloyd’s Building in London, England, was designed by


Sir Richard George Rogers and completed in 1986.
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Rogers, a founder of what is known as the “high-tech”
California, was designed by American architect Louis I. style of architecture, left the building’s structural
Kahn and completed in 1965. The complex consists of elements highly visible.
two buildings that house laboratories and offices and
face an open plaza. The plaza and the windows of the
buildings overlook the Pacific Ocean. A channel of
water flows through the plaza toward the ocean.
Modern Architecture

Art Deco | Art Nouveau | Blobitecture | Brutalism |


Constructivism | Critical regionalism | De Stijl |
Deconstructivism | Expressionism | Functionalism |
Futurism | Googie | High-tech | International style |
Jugendstil | Modernisme | New Objectivity |
Organicism | | Postmodernism | Streamline Moderne |
Sustainable architecture

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