Man and His Individual Creativity:

Architecture at the Beginning of

the 20th Century
Prepared by:
Suliva, Mikaela
Tan, Lester
Te, Stephen Jason
Villar, Daryll Louise
Frank Lloyd Wright
An American architect, interior designer,
writer, and educator, who designed more
than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were
completed. Wright believed in designing
structures that were in harmony with
humanity and its environment, a
philosophy he called organic architecture.

• Organic relationship between the structure and

the site
• Hearth should be the core of a house
• Extensive use of cantilevered balconies and
roofs
• Most famous homes-Robie House and
Fallingwater
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Robie House, Chicago,
Illinois, 1907-1909.
"natural" Architecture
 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Kaufmann House
(Fallingwater), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939.
 Art Nouveau
-Extensive use of plant-like imagery

CASA BATTLÓ. BARCELONA,

SPAIN.
Also known as the House of
Bones, Casa Battló was
remodeled in 1904 by famed
architect Antoni Gaudí. It’s
defined as an example of Art
Nouveau architecture (or its
Spanish term Modernisme) in
a broad sense, with its curving
facade and use of glass and
ironwork.
 Tassel House by Victor Horta
Floors, walls, and stairs decorated with plant motifs
Metal columns and railings have plant-like designs
 Casa Mila by Antonio Gaudi
Influenced by cliff and sands of Spanish coast
Undulating facade, use of plant-like designs
 De Stijl
• Developed in Holland in 1920s
• Sleek appearance devoid of
embellishments
•Flat planes, basic geometric shapes,
straight lines
•Efficient designs; functional furniture
 Schroder House by Gerrit Rietveld
Use of basic shapes and colors-rectangles,
primary colors
Similar to Mondrian paintings
 The Bauhaus

Key Points
School of art and architecture from 1919-
1933
Taught modern concepts of design
Curriculum combined art, crafts, and
architecture
Principles taught at Bauhaus inspired
International Style
WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, the Bauhaus,
Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926.
Famous section of the Bauhaus
Example of modern architecture
Extensive use of windows to provide natural light and
air
Moveable interior walls; flexible space
 The International Style

Based upon Mies van der Rohe's principle:

"Less is more."
Architecture should be practical and
functional; no unnecessary exterior
decoration
Use modern materials and support
methods-glass, steel, and cantilevers
Le Corbusier-Villa Savoye; home should be a
"machine for living;" basic geometric shapes and flat
planes.
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE and PHILIP JOHNSON,
Seagram Building, New York, 1956-1958.
 Post-Modern Architecture
(1980s)

Critical of Modernist architecture; too

impersonal and sterile"Less is a bore"
Architecture should consider an area's
history and diversity
Very eclectic-borrows from a number of
style
Pompidou Centre by Piano and Rogers--
exposes the structure's interior supports
Portland Building by Michael Graves-uses
different shapes, colors, and materials on building's
surface
AT&T Building by Philip Johnson-combines elements of
International Style (sleek lines; efficient use of space,
minimal surface decoration) with such classical
elements as large round arch and pediment
 Deconstructivist Architecture

Emphasizes the instability of life and society-no

universal concepts and ideas
Uses unique forms, harsh angles, and new
materials to create unstable designs that shock the
viewer
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank
Gehry
Titanium surface-light, strong, highly reflective
Futurist appearance-swooping, sharp angles
Asymmetrical composition-lacks balance and order
associated with Modernism
 Dictum of Modern Architecture

• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe:

“Less is more.”
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building,
New York, 1954-58
 Robert Venturi

“Less is a bore.” (1966)

 Charles Jencks
• Postmodern architecture is
characterized by a "double coding":
two or more styles which co-exist in
contradiction and/or self-mockery.
• http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-postmodern.htm
 Postmodern architecture
• Sense of "anything goes": Forms filled
with humor, irony, ambiguity, contradiction
• Juxtaposition of styles: Blend of traditional,
contemporary, and newly-invented forms
• Exaggerated or abstract traditional
detailing
 Postmodern Features
• Clash of scales
Postmodern architecture often includes elements that are clearly out
of scale with the rest of the building.

This is most obvious where the building borrows from other styles.
The mixing of large and small classical orders, the distortion and
exaggeration of motifs, can make a building seem dramatic and grand.

Architects also played with scale to introduce surprise and a sense of

fun.

• http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/architecture/style_level3.p
hp?id=256&parent=260&area=0
Les Espaces d’Abraxas,
France, 1979-82
 Postmodern Features
• Thin façades
Some Postmodern buildings have thin fronts that are clearly distinct
from the rest of the building.

In some cases the thinness is exaggerated as a visual joke. For

example, the facade may dissolve into the windows at the side of the
building.

On other buildings, the façades are treated as little more than

billboards or stage backdrops. This allowed architects greater freedom
of expression in the design of the building front.

• http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/architecture/style_level4.p
hp?id=256&parent=260&object=213&area=0&ext=.swf
China Wharf, London, 1986-88
 Postmodern Features
• Classical references
Postmodern buildings often used elements of classical architecture.

In most cases the use is decorative not structural. Nor is it 'correct'.

Postmodern architects did not follow the strict principles of the
classical style. For example, they deliberately combined and
exaggerated columns, arches and rough masonry. They took elements
from Greek temples and applied them to buildings that had entirely
modern functions.

The effect is often quirky and playful.

• http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/architecture/style_level4.p
hp?id=256&parent=260&object=214&area=0&ext=.swf
Kengo Kuma,
M2
Tokyo, 1991
Kengo Kuma,
M2
Tokyo, 1991
Kengo Kuma, Doric
Tokyo, 1991
Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Royal Saltworks, 1774-79
Director’s House
 Robert Venturi
• In favor of messy vitality in architecture
• Believed in aesthetic ambiguity and
visual tension
• Postmodern vision: “both-and” rather
than “either-or”
• A conventional building
Venturi, Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, 1962
Venturi, Gordon Wu Hall, Butler College,
Princeton University Princeton, NJ 1980
• Michael Graves
Public Services Building, Portland, Oregon, 1980-82
Michael Graves
Humana Building (Louisville)
1986
The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia
Disney Center
MICHAEL GRAVES, Walt Disney
World, Swan Hotel, Florida, 1987
MICHAEL GRAVES, Walt Disney World, Swan Hotel,
Florida, 1987
MICHAEL GRAVES,Walt Disney World-Dolphin
Hotel
•Philip Johnson
P. Johnson & J Burgee: AT&T
Building, NYC, 1979-84
Philip Johnson
and John Burgee:
PPG Place,
Pittsburgh, PA
1979-84
Philip Johnson and John
Burgee: PPG Place,
Pittsburgh, PA 1979-84
P. Johnson & J
Burgee: International
Place, Boston, 1985
•Charles Moore
Charles Moore, Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, USA, 1976-79
Charles Moore, Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans,
USA, 1976-79
•Frank Gehry
Gehry, Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein,
Germany, 1987 to 1989
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao,
Spain, 1997
Gehry, Experience Music Project, at Seattle, Washington,
1999 to 2000
•I. M. Pei
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and metal pyramid designed
by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei, surrounded by three
smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard of the Louvre Palace in
Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the
Louvre Museum.
•Las Vegas
 High-tech
• Exposed structure
• Glass
• Tension structures