Transcript Modern Architecture - Ms. Burke's Site of Fun!

“Form Follows Function”
Principles of Modern Architecture

Modern architecture embraces many
ideas, but one is primary:
“Form follows function.”
This statement, coined by American
architect Louis Sullivan, means that the
purpose of a building should dictate its
appearance.

In other words, a post office should not
look like a school.

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A school should not look like a mall.
A mall should not look like a hospital.
What are characteristics of modern
architecture?
Extensive use of new building materials, especially
steel and glass.
The “machine aesthetic,” where buildings tend to
resemble – you guessed it – machines.
An emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines.
Very little ornament OR the shapes of the building itself
become the ornament.
Simplification of form and
elimination of unnecessary detail.
What did buildings look like
before modernism?

Many buildings were influenced by classics
of architectural history, especially the styles
of ancient Greece and Rome.
Styles imitating an older period are often
indicated by the preface “neo-” as in
neoclassical or neo-Baroque or by the word
“revival,” as in Renaissance revival, Georgian
revival, etc.
OneThis
of the
buildings
most
often
is the
not
the Parthenon.
Parthenon
.
copied was the Parthenon.
(It’s also not
ancient, not Greek, and not a temple of Athena.)

The Parthenon was an ancient Greek temple of the goddess
Athena.

Any guesses about what this building is,
when it was built, or where it happens to
be located?
(If so, you were right.)

Did you guess…
“art museum”…
“160 years ago”… and
“Nashville, Tennessee”?
P.S. That is what’s meant by
“Greek revival” or
“neoclassical.”
Buildings in Famous Styles

Many architects copied
famous buildings.
copied
copied
For instance, this is the Paris Opera, built in 1875.
Look! It’s the Paris Opera…with a
luxury high-rise growing under it!

(By the way, this is not in Paris, not an opera house, and not
built in the 19th century.)
(Actually, these are just pricey condos in Summerlin.)
Some architects copied general building
styles. This house, for example, is designed
in the style of the Italian Renaissance.

If you guessed, “I bet this wasn’t built in
the Renaissance and isn’t Italian,” you
are getting really, really good at this
architecture stuff.
(It’s actually a modern-day home
in Newport, Rhode Island.)
Scraping the Sky
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Before the latter part of the 19th century, the height of
buildings was pretty seriously limited by the existing
technology.
Buildings could only go so high up before the
load-bearing capacity of the walls on the
lowest levels gave out. This was a problem.

Steel changed all that.

Steel allowed a light supporting “skeleton”
of metal to bear the building’s weight.

Some visionary architects like Louis
Sullivan realized that buildings could be
made to go

…up.
“The skyscraper,” Sullivan wrote,
“…must be tall, every inch of it tall.
The force and power of altitude must
be in it…
...the glory and pride of exaltation
must be in it…
…It must be every inch a proud and
soaring thing…that from bottom to top …is
a unit without a single dissenting line."
Photo: Patrick Willet

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Other architects, like Frank Lloyd
Here’s a fairly typical house built in
Wright, realized that buildings did not
1909:
have to look as they always had.
Here’s a house Frank Lloyd
Wright built that same year:
No wonder they thought Wright was nuts.
Some critics accused Modernism
of being too cold, too
mechanistic, too boxy.
Glass House, designed by Philip Johnson
The United Nations building

There’s some truth to that.
Habitat 67, Canada
…but not always.

Antoni Gaudi, Casa Ballo
“Hi. I live in the light stucco house with the red
tile roof
and desert
landscaping.
See
it?” here?
Where
is modern
architecture
going
from
Most buildings are still pretty traditional.
Some, like the new Brain Institute,
are…not so traditional.
Guess we’ll have to see.