Le Corbusier

was born Charles-Edouard

Jeanneret-Gris in Switzerland on October 6, 1887.
In 1917, he moved to Paris and assumed the
pseudonym Le Corbusier. In his architecture, he
chiefly built with steel and reinforced concrete and
worked with elemental geometric forms. His
designs were inspired by the automobile, and
celebrated modern materials and technologies. Le
Corbusier pioneered modernism in architecture
and laid the foundation for what became
the Bauhaus Movement, or the International Style.
Theories
In his 1923 book Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier described "5 points of
architecture" that became the guiding principles for many of his designs, most
especially Villa Savoye.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Freestanding support pillars

Open floor plan independent from the supports
Vertical facade that is free from the supports
Long horizontal sliding windows
Roof gardens

Buildings and Works

The earlier buildings by Le Corbusier were smooth, white concrete and glass
structures elevated above the ground. He called these works "pure prisms." In the
late 1940s, Le Corbusier turned to a style known as "New Brutalism," which used
rough, heavy forms of stone, concrete, stucco, and glass.

Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, in Ronchamp, France (1954)

Lounge Chair

Petit Confort

The same modernist ideas found in Le Corbusier's architecture were also expressed
in his designs for simple, streamlined furniture. Imitations of Le Corbusier's chromeplated tubular steel chairs are still made today.

1927-1928: Palace for the League of Nations, Geneva

1928-1931: Villa Savoye, Poissy, France

1931-1932: Swiss Building, Cit Universitaire, Paris

1952: The Secretariat at the United Nations Headquarters, New York

Ludwig Mies van der

Rohe
(1886-1969) is regarded as one of the
leading pioneers of Modern Architecture.
Believing that less is more, Mies van der
Rohe designed rational, minimalist
skyscrapers that set the standard for
modernist design. The German born
American architect also served as the last
director of the famous Bauhaus school.
Mies used "modern" materials industrial
steel and glass to create the "bones" of
interiors, while emphasizing open spaces and simplicity.
Buildings and Works

Seagram Building

Lake Shore Drive Towers, Chicago

Barcelona chair and Lounge

Chair

Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois

IIT College of Architecture

Adolf Loos (December

10, 1870-August 23,

1933) was one of the most influential European
architects of the late 19th century and is often noted
for his literary discourse that foreshadowed the
foundations of the entire modernist movement. Adolf
Looss minimalist attitudes are reflected in the works
of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and many other
modernists and led to a fundamental shift in the way
architects perceived ornamentation.

Theories
Through his writings, Loos desired to establish
an intelligent method for designing buildings
supported by pragmatic reasoning. Loos
believed that reason should determine the way
we build, and he opposed the decorative Art
Nouveau movement. As a result, his buildings
were often composed of pure forms and were
justified by their economic practicality and

utilitarian
qualities.
His
theories
on
ornamentation were first revealed in an essay
entitled Ornament and Crime in which he
states The urge to ornament oneself and
everything within reach is the ancestor of
pictorial art. It is the baby talk of paintingthe
evolution of culture marches with the
elimination of ornament from useful objects.

Buildings and Works

Goldman & Salatsch Building

Villa Mller, Prague, Czech Republic

Steiner House, Vienna, Austria

Frank Lloyd Wright

was born on June 8, 1867,

in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He died April 9, 1959. At 91
year old, Frank Lloyd Wright has designed more than 1,100
buildings. Nearly one third of them were designed during
his last decade.
After college, he became chief assistant to architect Louis
Sullivan. Sullivan, who rejected ornate European styles in
favor of a cleaner aesthetic summed up by his maxim
"form follows function," had a profound influence on
Wright, who would eventually carry to completion
Sullivan's dream of defining a uniquely American style of
architecture. Wright then founded his own firm and
developed a style known as the Prairie school, which strove
for an "organic architecture" in designs for homes and
commercial buildings. Wright was also developed the

concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United
States.

Buildings and Works

The Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1935)

William H. Winslow House

Frank Lloyd Wrights home,

Wisconsin

Johnson Wax Headquarters

Charles L. Manson House, Ohio

Bachman Wilson House

In 1943, Wright began a project that consumed the last 16 years of his life
designing the Guggenheim Museum of modern and contemporary art in New York
City