Design and Modernism

Le Corbusier Contextualised

Andrea Peach

A Great epoch has begun.

There exists a new spirit.

Towards a New Architecture

Le Corbusier 1927

Modernism

Dominant ideology throughout western industrialised world in art, design and architecture for most of the twentieth century

19th century: Ornament & Decoration …

If we challenge the past we shall learn that ‘styles’ no longer exist for us, that a style belonging to our own period has come about; and there has been a Revolution.

Towards a New Architecture

Le Corbusier 1927

Die Wohnung Stuttgart 1927

Adolf Loos 1928

Essay on Ornament and Crime:

Evolution is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of everyday use

Adolf Loos 1928

Steiner House Vienna, Austria

Le Corbusier

Cook House, Paris, 1926

A house has to fulfill two purposes. First it is a machine for living in , that is, a machine to provide us with efficient help for speed and accuracy in our work, a diligent and helpful machine which should satisfy all our physical needs: comfort. But it should also be a place conducive to meditation, and lastly, a beautiful place, bringing much needed tranquility to the mind.

1923

Machine Art exhibition at Museum of Modern Art in New York 1934 The beauty of machine art is in part the abstract beauty of straight lines and circles made into actual tangible surfaces and solids by means of lathes, rulers and squares

Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which rolls on towards its destined ends, has furnished us with new tools adapted to this new epoch, animated by the new spirit.

Le Corbusier - Towards a

New Architecture

Russian Constructivist printed textile c 1920

Le Corbusier 1929

Metal plays the same part in furniture as cement has done in architecture. It is a revolution.

The machinery of Society, profoundly out of gear, oscillates between an amelioration, of historical importance, and a catastrophe.

Le Corbusier - Towards a New Architecture

If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead concepts in regard to the house, and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view, we shall arrive at the ‘ House Machine ’ Le Corbusier

Villa Savoye

1928-31

We must create the mass-production spirit. The spirit of constructing mass-production houses. The spirit of living in mass-production houses. The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses.

Le Corbusier

Unit é d ’

Habitation, Marseilles 1947-52

It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of to-day: architecture or revolution Le Corbusier

Unit é d ’

Habitation, Marseilles 1947-52

Weissenhof Seidlung, Stuttgart 1927 Mies van der Rohe Walter Gropius / Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer 1931 This metal furniture is intended to be nothing but a necessary apparatus for contemporary life

Modernist Design

Objects should be:

• Simple, honest and direct • Well adapted to their purpose • No ornament

Modernist Design

•

Standardised

• Machine-made • Reasonably priced • Expressive of their structure and

materials

Marcel Breuer 1926

Nesting Tables Germany Nickel-plated steel and lacquered wood

Mies van der Rohe 1927

Cantilever Chair Germany Chrome-plated tubular steel, oil cloth

1946

“Here is gay, sparkling furniture that brings new beauty and charm into your kitchen … it’s the kind that seems to stay new looking indefinitely” Howell ‘Chromasteel’ USA

Greta von Nessen 1952

‘Anywhere lamp’ Germany Aluminum and enameled metal

2008 …

Ocean - Bianco Table / Gamma Chairs - chromed tubular steel frame

Modernism

A term used to refer to the principle that nothing is included in a design

that does not enhance the object’s purpose

Marianne Brandt 1924

Tea infuser Germany, Bauhaus

Metal is cold and brutally hard... It gives no comfort to the eye John Gloag 1929

“Modern carpet designs may provide endless entertainment for your friends” Heath Robinson 1936

“De Staalstoelophoon” 1934

The end of modernism…?

The Titanic Photomontage Stanley Tigerman, 1978, USA

Alessandro Mendini 1978

1925 “Redesign of Modern Movement Chairs” Wassily by Breuer, Italy

The end of modernism ... ?

Le Corbusier

Books: Marcus, G. Functionalist Design – An Ongoing History, Prestel, 1995 Weston, C. Modernism, Phaidon, London, 2001 Wilk, C (ed). Modernism – Designing a New W orld - 1914-1939, V&A Publications, London, 2006 Websites: From Here to Modernity – Open University Website detailing story of modern movement and architecture: www.open2.net/mo dernity/ The Le Corbusier Foundation: http://www.fondationlecorbusier.asso.fr/fondationlc_us.htm