Theory of Architecture

Lec.#06

Modernism
In Architecture
(3)
The International Style

▪ Al-Nahrain University. College of Engineering.

▪ Engineering of Architecture.
▪ Course Title: Theory of
Architecture(2024-2025).
▪ Course Code: AREQ 415.
▪ Course Staff: Dr. Alyaa Ahmed (Lecturer).
 Lec
Week No. Topics HW & Quiz Notes

1 1 Introduction: 18 Sep. 2024

2 2 What is Theory? What is Architecture? 25 Sep. 2024
3 3 Paradigm Shifts – Industrial Revolution. HW_01 (All) 2 Oct. 2024
4 4 Modernism in Architecture – 1 HW-02 (3 groups) 9 Oct. 2024
5 5 Modernism in Architecture - 2 HW-02 (4 groups) 16 Oct. 2024
Modernism in Architecture – 3 (International
6 6 HW_03 (All) 23 Oct. 2024
Style)
7 7 Modernism in Architecture - 4 HW-02 (3 groups) 30 Oct. 2024
Course Schedule:

8 8 Modernism in Architecture - 5 6 Nov. 2024

9 9 Mid – Exam (1st ) 13 Nov. 2024
10 10 Late Modernism in Architecture 20 Nov. 2024
11 11 Post-Modernism -1 27 Nov. 2024
12 12 Post-Modernism -2 4 Dec. 2024
13 13 11 Dec. 2024
14 14 Course Paper- Final Discussion 18 Dec. 2024
15 15 25 Dec. 2024
‫‪ :‬اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ ‪International Style‬‬
‫• ﺗﻨﺠﺢ اﻟﻌﻤﺎرة ﺣﯿﻦ ﺗﺮاﻋﻲ اﺧﺘﻼﻓﺎت اﻟﺒﺸﺮ‪ ،‬وﺗﻔﺸﻞ ﺣﯿﻦ ﺗﻠﻌﺐ اﻟﻨﺎظﻢ ﻟﺤﯿﺎﺗﮭﻢ اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﯿﺔ ﻣﮭﻤﺎ ﻛﺎﻧﺖ اﻟﺘﺼﻮرات ﻟﮭﺎ‬
‫ﻣﺜﺎﻟﯿﺔ وﻣﺘﻔﺎﺋﻠﺔ‪ .‬وھﺬا ھﻮ ﺗﻤﺎﻣﺎ ً ﻣﺎ ﺣﺪث ﻟﻠﻌﻤﺎرة اﻟﻄﻮﺑﺎوﯾﺔ اﻟﺘﻲ أﺳﺴﺖ ﻟﮭﺎ ﻣﺠﻤﻮﻋﺔ ‪ CIAM‬ﻋﺎم ‪ 1933‬وﻣﺎ ﺟﺴﺪه‬
‫ﻟﻮﻛﻮرﺑﻮزﯾﯿﮫ ﻓﻲ رؤﯾﺘﮫ ﻟﺘﺨﻄﯿﻂ اﻟﻤﺪن ﻛﻤﺎ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻤﺪﯾﻨﺔ اﻟﻤﺸﻌﺔ ‪ .La ville radieuse‬إذ أراد ﻣﻌﻤﺎرﯾﻮ اﻟﺤﺪاﺛﺔ إﯾﺠﺎد‬
‫ﺑﺪﯾﻞ ﻟﻔﻮﺿﻰ اﻟﻤﺪن اﻷوروﺑﯿﺔ اﻟﺘﻘﻠﯿﺪﯾﺔ ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل ﻧﻤﻮذج ﻟﻠﺘﺨﻄﯿﻂ اﻟﻤﺘﻨﺎظﺮ اﻟﺬي ﯾﻌﺪ ﻓﺼﻞ اﻟﻮظﺎﺋﻒ ﻣﻦ أﺑﺮز ﺳﻤﺎﺗﮫ‪.‬‬
‫• ﻓﻲ ﻋﺎم ‪ ،1933‬أﺑﺤﺮت ﺳﻔﯿﻨﺔ ﻣﻦ ﻣﺪﯾﻨﺔ )ﻣﺎرﺳﯿﻠﯿﺎ( اﻟﻔﺮﻧﺴﯿﺔ إﻟﻰ )أﺛﯿﻨﺎ( ﻓﻲ اﻟﯿﻮﻧﺎن‪ ،‬وﻋﻠﻰ ﻣﺘﻨﮭﺎ أﺷﮭﺮ اﻟﻤﻌﻤﺎرﯾﯿﻦ‬
‫واﻟﻔﻨﺎﻧﯿﻦ اﻟﻌﺼﺮﯾﯿﻦ‪ ،‬ﻣﺜﻞ )إرﻧﻮ ﻏﻮﻟﻔﯿﻨﻐﺮ( ‪) ،Erno Goldfinger‬ﻟﻮ ﻛﻮرﺑﻮزﯾﯿﮫ( ‪) ،Le Corbusier‬أﻟﻔﺎر أﻟﺘﻮ(‬
‫‪ .Alvar Alto‬وﻛﺎﻧﺖ اﻟﻐﺎﯾﺔ إﻋﺪاد ﻣﺆﺗﻤﺮ دوﻟﻲ ﻟﻠﮭﻨﺪﺳﺔ اﻟﻤﻌﻤﺎرﯾﺔ اﻟﺤﺪﯾﺜﺔ‪ ،‬واﻟﻤﻌﺮوف ب )‪International‬‬
‫‪ ،.Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM‬وﻻﻋﺘﻘﺎد أﻋﻀﺎء اﻟﻤﺆﺗﻤﺮ أن اﻟﻤﺪن ﻛﺎﻧﺖ ﻣﺰدﺣﻤﺔ ﻟﻠﻐﺎﯾﺔ‪،‬‬
‫ﺻﺎﺧﺒﺔ‪ ،‬ﻣﻠﻮﺛﺔ وﻓﻮﺿﻮﯾﺔ‪ ،‬ﻓﻘﺪ ﻋﻘﺪوه ﺑﮭﺪف إﻋﺎدة ﺗﺨﻄﯿﻄﮭﺎ‪ ،‬ﻹﯾﻤﺎﻧﮭﻢ ﺑﺈﻣﻜﺎﻧﯿﺔ ﺣﻞ ﺑﻌﺾ ھﺬه اﻟﻤﺸﺎﻛﻞ ﻋﺒﺮ ﻓﺼﻞ‬
‫وظﺎﺋﻒ اﻟﻤﺪﯾﻨﺔ إﻟﻰ ﻣﻨﺎطﻖ ﻣﺤﺪدة ﻟﻺﺳﻜﺎن‪ ،‬اﻟﻌﻤﻞ‪ ،‬اﻟﺘﺮﻓﯿﮫ‪ ،‬وﺣﺮﻛﺔ اﻟﻤﺮور‪.‬‬
‫• ﻗﺪم اﻟﻤﮭﻨﺪﺳﻮن اﻟﻤﻌﻤﺎرﯾﻮن ﺗﺨﻄﯿﻄًﺎ ﻟﻠﻤﺪن اﻟﺠﺪﯾﺪة ﻟﺠﻌﻠﮭﺎ ﺧﻄﯿﺔ‪ ،‬ﻣﻔﺘﻮﺣﺔ‪ ،‬وﻧﻈﯿﻔﺔ‪ ،‬ﺑﺪﻻ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻘﺪﯾﻤﺔ )ﻣﺘﻌﺮﺟﺔ‪،‬‬
‫ﻣﺸﻮھﺔ‪ ،‬وﻋﺸﻮاﺋﯿﺔ( ورأى اﻟﺤﺪاﺛﯿﻮن أن ﻣﺪﻧًﺎ ﻛﮭﺬه ﻗﺎدرةٌ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺗﻮﻓﯿﺮ ظﺮوف أﻛﺜﺮ ﻣﺴﺎواة‪ ،‬ﻣﻔﺘﺮﺿﯿﻦ ﻣﺴﺎﻛﻦ ﺟﻤﯿﻠﺔ‬
‫ﯾﻤﻜﻦ ﻟﻠﺠﻤﯿﻊ ﺗﺤﻤﻞ ﻧﻔﻘﺎﺗﮭﺎ‪ .‬ﻟﻢ ﺗﻜﻦ ﻓﻜﺮة )اﻟﻌﯿﺶ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺴﻤﺎء واﻟﻠﻌﺐ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻷرض( ﻓﻜﺮة ﺟﺪﯾﺪة‪ ،‬إﻻ أﻧﮭﻢ أرادوا أﺧﺬھﺎ‬
‫ت ﻣﻔﺘﻮﺣﺔً‬‫إﻟﻰ أﺑﻌﺪ ﻣﻦ ذﻟﻚ‪ ،‬ﺣﯿﺚ وﺿﻌﻮا اﻟﺸﻘﻖ ﻓﻲ طﻮاﺑﻖ ﻋﺎﻟﯿﺔ اﻻرﺗﻔﺎع‪ ،‬وﺟﻌﻠﻮا اﻟﻄﺎﺑﻖ اﻷرﺿﻲ ﻣﺴﺎﺣﺎ ٍ‬
‫ت ﻟﻠﻤﺸﺎة ﺗﻜﻔﯿﮭﻢ إذ ﺗُﻘﺎد اﻟﺴﯿﺎرات ﻋﻠﻰ طﺮﻗﺎت ﻣﺮﺗﻔﻌﺔ‪،‬‬‫ﯾﺘﺸﺎرﻛﮭﺎ اﻟﻨﺎس وﯾﺘﻌﺎﯾﺸﻮن ﻓﯿﮭﺎ‪ ،‬ﺑﺎﻹﺿﺎﻓﺔ إﻟﻰ ﺧﻠﻖ ﻣﺴﺎﺣﺎ ٍ‬
‫وﻋﺰﻟﻮا اﻟﻤﻨﺎطﻖ اﻟﺴﻜﻨﯿﺔ ﻋﻦ اﻟﺼﻨﺎﻋﯿﺔ واﻟﺘﺴﻮق‪.‬‬
‫•‬
‫‪ :‬اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ ‪International Style‬‬
‫*اﻟﺘﺤﻮل ﻣﻦ اﻟﺤﺠﺮ اﻟﻰ اﻟﺰﺟﺎج‪:‬‬
‫•ﯾﻀﻊ اﻟﻤﻨﻈﺮون ﻣﺆﺷﺮات ﻣﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻧﺘﮭﺎء‬
‫اﻟﻌﻤﺎرة اﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺨﯿﺔ وﺑﺪء اﻟﺤﺪاﺛﺔ‪ ،‬وﯾﻌﺪ ﺻﻌﻮد‬
‫اﻟﺘﻜﻨﻮﻟﻮﺟﯿﺎ إﺣﺪى ھﺬه اﻟﻤﺆﺷﺮات؛ إن ﺗﻄﻮر‬
‫اﻟﺼﻨﺎﻋﺎت اﻟﻤﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ‪ ،‬ﻛﺎﻟﻤﻮاد اﻟﺒﻨﺎﺋﯿﺔ واﻟﺰﺟﺎج ﻣﻦ‬
‫ﺿﻤﻨﮭﺎ‪ ،‬ﺑﺪأ ﺑﺘﻐﯿﯿﺮ ﺷﻜﻞ اﻟﻌﻤﺎرة‪ ،‬وﻣﺜﻞ ظﮭﻮر ﺑﻌﺾ‬
‫اﻟﻤﺒﺎﻧﻲ ﻣﺜﻞ اﻟﻘﺼﺮ اﻟﺒﻠﻮري ﻓﻲ ﻟﻨﺪن ﻋﺎم ‪،1851‬‬
‫ﻟﺤﻈﺔ ﻣﻌﻤﺎرﯾﺔ ﻣﮭﻤﺔ‪ ،‬ﺑﺼﻔﺘﮫ أول ﻣﺒﻨﻰ ﯾﺘﻢ إﻧﺸﺎؤه‬
‫ﻣﻦ اﻟﺰﺟﺎج ﺑﮭﺬا اﻟﺸﻜﻞ‪.‬‬
‫•‬
The Art Deco style :
• It is an American architectural style identified by
its sharp-edged looks and stylized geometrical
decorative details.
• It was (with Art Modern Style) a part of the
Modern Movement in architecture in the early
20th century, a conscious and intentional break
with past revival precedents in architecture, in an
effort to embody the ideas of the modern age.
• The Art Deco style first gained public attention in
1922 in a design competition for the Chicago
Tribune Headquarters.
• Art Deco buildings have a sleek, linear
appearance with stylized, often geometric
ornamentation. And also feature distinctive
smooth finish building materials such as stucco,
concrete block, glazed brick or mosaic tile. Chrysler Building, New York City.
By: William Van Alen. 1930.
Chicago’s Tribune Tower Competition-
1922
• In 1922, on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the
powerful publisher of the Chicago Tribune (Colonel R.
McCormick) announced an international competition
for a new downtown headquarters.
• the Tribune Tower competition was unique for its
global influence on the future of the field. the
results—published widely—produced a ripple effect
which influenced different schools of thought
competing to define the look of the “Modern Age”.
• Most American entries understood the profitability of
the site and maximized the amount of rentable
office space in their designs. Many of the European
entries, sacrificed business practicality for a more
monumental form.
• The winners, Hood and Howells, proposed the Gothic
tower, balanced the vertical spirit of US commerce with
Gothic flourishes from French tradition. Tribune Tower /Chicago,
1925.
several other entries
resonated with later
generations. Eliel
Saarinen’s design, a
runner up, heavily
influenced several
North American
skyscrapers built as
late as the 1990s.
Chicago’s Tribune
Tower Competition
A proposal by Austrian architect
Adolf Loos to turn the building into
an enormous Doric column,
playing on the “columns” that
compose a newspaper, went on to
inspire Postmodernist architects
with its readymade look and its
Re-Imagining Chicago’s Tribune Tower Competition - 1980

• reimagining the competition has become something of a tradition in its own right. In
1980, the Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman organized a winking do-over of the
original contest. In a volume called Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune Tower
Competition, he published the original designs alongside new drawings by the likes
of Frank Gehry, Alison and Peter Smithson, Bernard Tschumi, and Tadao Ando.
 The 2017 Binnial in Chiago :”Make New History”

• The 2017 Biennial in Chicago, entitled Make New History, follows in

Stanley Tigerman’s footsteps by introducing a new generation of Tribune
Towers that connect the groundbreaking dreams of the past with the
most pressing issues of today. Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and
Mark Lee have asked emerging practices from around the world to turn
one of the Chicago Cultural Center’s grandest spaces into the “Vertical
City” display: a lofty grid of imaginative towers representing a new
generation of “late entries.”
International Style ‫ اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ‬:
• the term "International Style" describes an architecture that developed mainly in
Germany, Holland and France, during the 1920s, before spreading to America in the
1930s, and became the dominant tendency during the middle decades of the 20th
century. The International Style was especially suited to skyscraper architecture, where
its sleek "modern" look, absence of decoration and use of steel and glass. It also became
the dominant style of 20th century architecture for institutional and commercial
buildings, and even superseded the traditional historical styles.
• The phrase "International Style" was first coined in 1932 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock
(1903-1987) and Philip Johnson (1906-2005), in literature for their show "International
Exhibition of Modern Architecture" (1932), held at the Museum of Modern Art, New
York.
• The aim of the show was to explain and promote what they considered to be an
exemplary "modern" style of architecture. All the buildings showcased were European,
with only two American structures.
• The exhibition included US practitioners (Richard Neutra) and referenced the work of F.
L. Wright, with the creations of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, L. Mies van der Rohe.
International Style ‫ اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ‬:
The International Style
Started: 1914
Ended: 1970
International Style ‫ اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ‬:
• the International Style emerged in Europe partly as a response to the
cataclysm of World War I and related events. Its use in postwar housing
gave it renown as a symbol of social and industrial progress.
• In the face of opposition from totalitarian regimes in the 1930s, many of
the International Style's European proponents resettled in the United
States, where economic expansion after World War II allowed it to flourish,
particularly in skyscraper construction.
• the growth of rapid postwar intercontinental communication, allowed it to
become a truly global architecture.
• But: the inability of the International Style's supporters to solve social
problems as its founders had hoped, coupled with its rigid formal
monotony, prompted many architects in the 1960s to seek new design
directions that reflected an increasingly diverse, commercialized, and
post-industrial society.
International Style – The Idea of Style/Styles:
• “In the conflict that obtains between the
two elements of construction, solidity and
open space, everything seems to show
that the principle of free spaces will
prevail, that the palaces and houses of the
future will be flooded with air and light.”
(Salomon Reinach, APOLLO, 1904)
In (THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE-1932)
International Style :
• Hitchcock and Johnson, in The International Style; architecture since
1922, published in 1932, explicitly set out a series of aesthetic
principles for a modernist style of architecture which they contrast
with both the individualistic styles of the previous century and the
“functionalism” of some early 20th century work.
• Three principles define the aesthetics of the international modernist
style:
• firstly: “architecture as volume”, in contrast to an architecture of
“mass” or “static solidity”.
• secondly: “regularity”, where an aesthetic ordering emphasises the
underlying regularity of the structural grid, characterised as per se
economical in nature.
• thirdly: “the avoidance of arbitrary applied decoration”.
International Style – The Idea of Style/Styles:
• In the middle of the eighteenth century there have been recurrent attempts
to impose a controlling style in architecture such as the earlier epochs of
the past. The two chief of these were:
▪ The Classical Revival.
▪ The Mediaeval Revival.
• Out of the difficulties of reconciling either sort of revivalism with the new
needs and the new methods of construction of the day grew the stylistic
confusion of the last hundred years. The revived "styles" were but a
decorative garment to architecture, not the interior principles according to
which it lived and grew.
• The nineteenth century failed to create a style of architecture because it
was unable to achieve a general discipline of structure and of design in the
terms of the day.
International Style in America: Second Chicago School
• In the 1930s, with the emigration of intellectual leaders like Gropius and
Mies van der Rohe with other Bauhaus modernists like Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
(1895-1946), the International Style spread from Germany and France to
North America, Scandinavia and Britain.
•In America:
• With Mies and the Second Chicago School, including Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill and brilliant structural engineers like Fazlur Khan (1929-82), the
clean, streamlined, geometric attributes of the International Style came to
dominate the skyscraper architecture during the 1950s and 1960s, in an era
when corporate modernism and cost-benefit analysis were high fashion.
• Thus the International Style provided the aesthetic rationale for the
inexpensively surfaced tower buildings during this period.
International Style – a 1932 MoMA exhibition:
• Johnson wrote :
• “There exists in the important countries of the world today a new
architecture,”.
• “The reality of the International Style has not yet been brought home to the
general public in America. This is due partly to its newness, but also because
of its international character; few persons have had the opportunity of
gaining a comprehensive view of the style in its entirety.”
• "The International Style is probably the first fundamentally original and
widely distributed style since the Gothic,”.
• “Today the style has passed beyond the experimental stage. In almost every
civilized country in the world it is reaching its full stride.”
International Style - Origins and Development:
International Style - Origins and Development:
International Style - Characteristics:
• The International Style is often thought of as the "architecture of the
machine age," .
•The typical characteristics of International Style architecture:
▪ rectilinear forms.
▪ light, taut plane surfaces that devoid of applied ornamentation.
▪ open, even fluid, interior spaces.
▪ a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever
construction.
▪ the characteristic materials of construction : glass and steel with usually less
visible reinforced concrete.
International Style – Decline:
• By the 1970s, the International Style was so dominant that innovation was
dead.
• Mies continued to design beautiful buildings, but was copied everywhere.
• As the saying went: "You got off an airplane in the 1970s, and you didn't
know where you were."
• Many architects felt dissatisfied with the limitations and formulaic
methodology of the International Style. They wanted to design buildings
with more individual character and with more decoration.
• Modernist International Style architecture had removed all traces of
historical designs: now architects wanted them back.
• All this led to a revolt against modernism and a renewed exploration of
how to create more innovative design and ornamentation. By the late
1970s, modernism and the International Style were (finished).
International Style – Decline:
• By the 1950s its formal aspects had become nearly synonymous with the
term "modern architecture." But it promoted a troubling universality when
applied too frequently as a cure-all to social and economic problems,
revealing the limitations of architecture as a genuine political and cultural
force.
• the abandonment of the human scale in favor of isolated structures set in
parklike surroundings and accessible largely by automobile transportation
also discouraged the building of communities and neighborhoods in favor of
the isolation of entire sectors of urban populations within towers.
• These effects were famously and meticulously chronicled in Jane Jacobs'
critique The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961).
International Style – Pioneers:
•Pioneer architects of the International Style:
▪ Walter Gropius (1883-1969) in Germany.
▪ J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) in Holland.
▪ Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in France.
▪ Richard Neutra (1892-1970).
▪ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).
▪ Philip Johnson (1906-2005) in the United States.
International Style – Examples:
Whitney Museum of American Art.
New York (1966) - Marcel Breuer,

Lake Shore Drive, 1949-51 .

Mies van der Rohe.
 : ‫ اھﻢ ﻣﺼﺎدر اﻟﻤﺤﺎﺿﺮة‬-
.2002 ،‫ اﻟﻤﺆﺳﺴﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﻟﻠﺪراﺳﺎت واﻟﻨﺸﺮ‬،‫ ﺷﯿﺮﯾﻦ ﺷﯿﺮزاد‬،‫ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻤﺤﺎﻓﻈﺔ واﻟﺘﺠﺪﯾﺪ‬: ‫• اﻻﺳﻠﻮب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻌﻤﺎرة‬
. https://www.twentytwo-group.org/documents/73 ،‫• ﻓﺸﻞ اﻟﻄﻮﺑﺎوﯾﺔ اﻟﺘﻲ اﻗﺘﺮﺣﺘﮭﺎ ﻋﻤﺎرة اﻟﺤﺪاﺛﺔ‬
• International Style of Modern Architecture: Origins, Development, Characteristics (c.1920-70); in
(American Architecture Series, International Style, Modern Architectural Design).
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/international-style.htm
• A Movement in a Moment: The International Style: Discover how a 1932 MoMA exhibition helped
introduce the entire world to the joys of modern architecture.
https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2016/june/30/a-movement-in-a-moment-the-i
nternational-style/
• H.R. Hitchcock & P. Johnson , 1932, THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE., W. W. Norton & Company; Revised
ed. Edition, 1997.
• Summary of The International Style, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/international-style/ .