Transcript The Art Nouveau

ROOTS OF MODERN
ARCHITECTURE II
The Arts & Crafts Movement:
In England, there were still men of great
influence who resisted the use of iron in
architecture.
 Such men as John Ruskin and William
Morris set out to rejuvenate art and
architecture by returning to Medieval
conditions...

The Arts & Crafts Movement:
French architects like Viollet - Le - duc
equated iron roofed structures to sheds.
 Products were overly ornamented and
those architects had violent reactions to
this type of construction.

The Arts & Crafts Movement:

The solution that Viollet proposed was to
recapture the romantic world of Medieval
craftsmen
The Arts & Crafts Movement:

The Arts & Crafts Movement, as it is so
called, set out to, and for sixty years,
provide a nostalgic postscript to country
house architecture.
The Red House:

Commissioned by Morris, Philip Web built
the Red House at Bexley Heath in Kent.
The Red House:
The house was to represent a protest
against industrialism through its:
 Informality
 Absence of decoration
 Simple vernacular

The Red House:

The emphasis on basic form, sound
materials and good craftsmanship had
great appeal to architects who in turn
contributed to a poetic phase of European
architecture.
The Art Nouveau:

Country house architecture was an attempt
to move away from Historicism.

The Art Nouveau (New art) was a
refinement of that philosophy
The Art Nouveau:

Appearing in the latter part of the 19th
century, this movement principally began
in the applied arts
The Art Nouveau:

The movement’s main focus comprised of
ornamentation inspired by nature.

This attitude was a departure and a
liberation from historic imitation.
The Art Nouveau:
The favorite ornamental motif were the
sensuous curves found in:
 Natural formas of plants
 The sea
 Flowing hair

The Art Nouveau:
The new expression was found
everywhere:
 Lamps
 Furniture
 Posters and drawings
 Fabrics
 Type faces & trinkets

The Link with Architecture:

This process of stylization placed emphasis
on clarity and purity of line.

This brought about its link with
architecture
Belgium:

Architects Henry Van der Velde and Victor
Horta became the principal proponents of
the Art Nouveau.

Horta experimented with flexible free
curving forms. He applied this technique
to his architecture.
Spain & Gaudi:
Around the same time, Antonio Gaudi
in Barcelona Spain explored similar ideas
in what he called a “biological style”.
 In his Sagrada Familia, Gaudi created
free flowing plastic shapes that appeared
to have been molded out of clay from
almost pure sculpture.

Spain & Gaudi:

Gaudi’s work has frequently been
referred to as “Fantastic Architecture”
Other Architects:
Louis Sullivan in America created not
only new architecture, but used ductile
metal.
 Rennie Makintosh in Scotland was not
influenced by the flexible ornamental
line. His “School of Art” in Glasgow is
an example of a strongly personal and
historically developed structure..

Last thoughts on the Art
Nouveau:
These New expressions of design were the
outward manifestation of the great
dissatisfaction that existed among
designers.
 Historical dressing for a time was a strong
way of representing architecture.

Last thoughts on the Art
Nouveau:
The Industrial Revolution stimulated the
need for a new way to apply architecture.
 It was necessary to purge society from
historical reference with regard to
architecture and give architecture a new
relevance to contemporary technology.

Last thoughts on the Art
Nouveau:

The Art Nouveau was a PROTEST and
not the foundation from which 20th
century architecture was formed.

It left as quickly as it came…….