Architectural Movements of

the 20th Century

Modernism and its Variations

 Modernism
 Modern architecture is a term applied to a period
in architectural history during the 20th century.
 modernism in architecture is broadly
characterized by simplification of form and
subtraction of ornament from the structure and
theme of the building.
 Common themes of modern

• "Form follows function", meaning that the architecture

should derive directly from its purpose.
• Simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of
"unnecessary detail" Visual expression of structure (as
opposed to the hiding of structural elements)
• The related concept of "Truth to materials", meaning that
the true nature or natural appearance of a material ought
to be seen rather than concealed or altered to represent
something else.
• Use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the
machine aesthetic.
 Evolution of Modern
Architecture

• There are multiple lenses through which the evolution of

modern architecture may be viewed.
• Some historians see it as a social matter, closely tied to
the project of Modernity and thus the Enlightenment.
Modern architecture developed, in their opinion, as a
result of social and political revolutions.
• Others see Modern architecture as primarily driven by
technological and engineering developments.
• Still other historians regard Modernism as a matter of
taste, the lavish stylistic excesses of architecture.
 Modernism

 Modernist architecture emphasizes

function.
 The Modern movement was an attempt
to create a nonhistorical architecture of
functionalism in which a new sense of
space would be created with the help
of modern materials.
 A reaction against the stylistic pluralism
of the 19th century, believing that the
20th century had given birth to modern
man who would need a radically new
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum
kind of architecture. of Art at Cornell University is a
Modernist building by I.M. Pei.
Modernist architecture has
these features:
 Little or no ornamentation
 Factory-made parts
 Man-made materials such as metal
and concrete
 Emphasis on function
 Rebellion against traditional styles
 Architects of the Modernism
 Rem Koolhaas
 I.M. Pei
 Le Corbusier
 Philip Johnson
 Mies van der Rohe
Modernist architecture can express a
number of stylistic ideas, including:

 Structuralism
 Constructivism
 Formalism
 Bauhaus
 The International Style
 De Stijl
 Desert Modernism
 Brutalism
 Minimalism
 Structuralism
 Structuralism is based on the idea that all things are built from a
system of signs and these signs are made up of opposites:
 male/female,
 hot/cold,
 old/young, etc.
 For Structuralists, design is a process of searching for the
relationship between elements.
 Structuralists are also interested in the social structures and mental
processes that contributed to the design.
 Structuralism
 Structuralist architecture will
have a great deal of complexity
within a highly structured
framework.
 For example, a Structuralist
design may consist of cell-like
honeycomb shapes, intersecting
planes, cubed grids, or densely
clustered spaces with
connecting courtyards.
 Architect Peter Eisenman often The Berlin Holocaust Memorial is a
brings a Structuralist approach controversial Structuralist work by
architect Peter Eisenman.
to his works.
 Constructivism
 During the 1920s and early
1930s, a group of avant-garde
architects in Russia launched a
movement to design buildings
for the new socialist regime.
Calling themselves
constructivists, they believed
that design began with
construction. Their buildings
emphasized abstract geometric
shapes and functional machine Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin
parts. launched the constructivist movement
when he proposed the futuristic, glass-
and-steel Tatlin's Tower.
Constructivism

 Constructivist architecture combined

engineering and technology with
political ideology. Constructivist
architects tried to suggest the idea of
humanity's collectivism through the
harmonious arrangement of diverse
structural elements.
 Constructivism
 The most famous work of constructivist architecture
was never actually built. In 1920, Russian architect
Vladimir Tatlin proposed a futuristic monument to
the 3rd International in the city of St. Petersburg
(then known as Petergrado). The unbuilt project,
called Tatlin's Tower, used spiral forms to symbolize
revolution and human interaction. Inside the spirals,
three glass-walled building units - a cube, a
pyramid, and a cylinder - would rotate at different
speeds.
Constructivism
 Soaring 400 meters (about 1,300 feet), Tatlin's
Tower would have been taller than the Eiffel Tower
in Paris. The cost to erect such a building would
have been enormous. But, even though Tatlin's
Tower wasn't built, the plan helped launch the
Constructivist movement. By the late 1920s,
Constructivism had spread outside the USSR. Many
European architects called themselves
constructivists. However, within a few years
Constructivism faded from popularity and was
eclipsed by the Bauhaus movement in Germany.
Constructivist buildings have
many of these features:

 Glass and steel

 Machine-made building parts
 Technological details such as
antennae, signs, and projection
screens
 Abstract geometric shapes
 A sense of movement
Constructivist Architects:
 Vladimir Tatlin
 Konstantin Melnikov
 Nikolai Milyutin
 Aleksandr Vesnin
 Leonid Vesnin
 Viktor Vesnin
 El Lissitzky
 Vladimir Krinsky
 Iakov Chernikhov
 Formalism
 As the name suggests, Formalism
emphasizes form. The architect is
interested in visual relationships
between the building parts and the work
as a whole. Shape, often on a
monumental scale, is the focus of
attention. Lines and rigid geometric
shapes predominate in Formalist
architecture. You will find Formalism in
many Modernist buildings, especially in
Bauhaus and International Style
architecture. Architect I.M. Pei has often
been praised for the "elegant formalism" Architect I.M. Pei has been praised
of his works. for the "elegant formalism" of his
Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong.
 Bauhaus
 Bauhaus is a German expression meaning
house for building. In 1919, the economy in
Germany was collapsing after a crushing
war. Architect Walter Gropius was appointed
to head a new institution that would help
rebuild the country and form a new social
order. Called the Bauhaus, the Institution
called for a new "rational" social housing for
the workers. Bauhaus architects rejected
historical details such as cornices, eaves,
and decorative details. They wanted to use
principles of Classical architecture in their
most pure form: without ornamentation of
Architect Walter Gropius used
any kind. Bauhaus ideas when he built his
monochrome home in Lincoln,
Massachusetts.
Bauhaus
 Bauhaus buildings have flat roofs, smooth facades,
and cubic shapes. Colors are white, gray, beige, or
black. Floor plans are open and furniture is
functional.
 The Bauhaus school disbanded when the Nazis
rose to power. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, and other Bauhaus leaders migrated to the
United States. The term International Style was
applied to the American form of Bauhaus
architecture.
Examples of Bauhaus and
the International Style:
 The Seagram Building
 The Gropius House
 The Farnsworth House
 Philip Johnson's Glass House
 The Transco Building by Philip Johnson
 United Nations Headquarters by Le Corbusier
 The Miller House by Richard Neutra
 The Lovell House by Richard Neutra
 The Bauhaus Building in Dessau, Germany
 Furniture by Bauhaus Architects
Architects Inspired by the
Bauhaus Movement
 Walter Gropius
 Le Corbusier
 Richard Neutra
 Philip Johnson
 Mies van der Rohe
 Marcel Breuer
 International Style
 Timeline: 1920-1930
 Place: United States
 Cause: identification and categorization of
characteristics common to Modernism across the world
and its stylistic aspects.
 Principles:
 the expression of volume rather than mass,
 the emphasis on balance rather than preconceived
symmetry, and
 the expulsion of applied ornament.
 International Style
 International Style is a term often used to describe Bauhaus
architecture in the United States.
 Emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of
Modern architecture.
 The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell
and Philip Johnson. The International Style, that identified,
categorized and expanded upon characteristics common to
Modernism across the world and its stylistic aspects.
 The authors identified three principles:
 the expression of volume rather than mass, the emphasis on
balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the expulsion
of applied ornament.
 International Style
 The International Style is the favored architecture for
office buildings, and is also found in upscale homes.
 By the mid-twentieth century, many variations of the
International Style had evolved.
 In southern California and the American Southwest,
architects adapted the International Style to the warm
climate and arid terrain, creating an elegant yet informal
style known as Desert Modernism.
 Example:
 One of the most famous
examples of the International
Style is the United Nations
Secretariat building,
 originally designed by an
international team of
architects including
Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, and Wallace Harrison.
 The smooth glass-sided slab, one of the first uses of curtain-wall
cladding on a tall building, dominates New York's skyline along the
East River.
 The United Nations Secretariat building was completed in 1952 and
renovated in 2012.
 De Stijl
 Timeline: 1917-1932
Place: The Netherlands
Cause: Response to World War-I destruction and
the loss of individualism
Principles:
 "Abstraction,
 precision,
 geometry,
 Also known as: Neo-Plasticism
 De Stijl
 De Stijl proposed
 ultimate simplicity and abstraction,
 both in architecture and painting,
 by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines
and
 rectangular forms.
 formal vocabulary was limited to the primary
colours, red, yellow, and blue, and three primary
values, black, white, and grey.
 De Stijl
 The works avoided symmetry and attained
aesthetic balance by the use of opposition.
 In many of the group's three-dimensional works,
vertical and horizontal lines are positioned in
layers or planes that do not intersect, thereby
allowing each element to exist independently
and unobstructed by other elements.
 Examples:
 This feature can be found in the Rietveld Schröder House
and the Red and Blue Chair.

Rietveld Schröder House designed by

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888 - 1964) Red and Blue Chair.
designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917
 De Stijl
 De Stijl was influenced by Cubist painting as well as by the
mysticism and the ideas about "ideal" geometric forms
(such as the "perfect straight line“)
 The works of De Stijl have influence the Bauhaus style and
the international style of architecture as well as clothing
and interior design.
 However, it did not follow the general guidelines of an “ism”
(Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism),
 nor did it adhere to the principles of art schools like the
Bauhaus; it was a collective project, a joint enterprise.
 Desert Modernism
 Timeline: 1930-1960

 Place: Southern California and American Southwest

 Cause: Regional approach to International Style

architecture.

Principles:
 Rocks, trees, and other landscape features were often
incorporated into the design.
Characteristics:

 Expansive glass walls and windows

 Dramatic rooflines
 Wide overhangs
 Steel and plastic combined with wood and
stone
 Open floor plans
 Outdoor living spaces incorporated into the
overall design
 Architects Associated With :

 William F. Cody
 Albert Frey
 John Lautner
 Richard Neutra
 Donald Wexler
 E. Stewart Williams Kaufmann House in Palm Springs,
California. 1946. Richard Neutra, architect.
 Brutalism
 Timeline: 1950-Mid-70s

 Place: France
Cause: United’ Habitation in Marseilles constructed in 1952
and arguably the first Brutalist project.

 Principles: typically very linear, fortress like and

blockish, often with a predominance of concrete
construction.
Explanation:
 Looking back to the 1950s and 60s many of the
new public buildings that were commissioned in the
UK were designed in the Brutalist style. The
authorities had to rebuild a war-ravaged Britain
quickly and to a restricted budget. They wanted a
solution that looked modern and forward-thinking
and that fitted with the excitement that followed the
initial post-war depression. The New Brutalism
pioneered in France by Le Corbusier was the
answer.
 Characteristics
 striking repetitive angular geometries, and,
 where concrete is used, often revealing the texture of the
wooden forms used for the in-situ casting.
 Although concrete is the material most widely associated with
Brutalist architecture, not all Brutalist buildings are formed from
concrete.
 Instead, a building may achieve its Brutalist quality through a
rough, blocky appearance, and
 the expression of its structural materials, forms, and
 (in some cases) services on its exterior.
 Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel,
rough-hewn stone, and gabions.
 Brutalist Architects:
 Le Corbusier
 Ernő Goldfinger,
 Alison and Peter Smithson,
 Richard Seifert,
 Basil Spence,
 John Bancroft
Boston City Hall (Gerhardt Kallmann and N. Michael McKinnell, 1969). The
structure illustrates typical (but not necessary) Brutalist characteristics such
as top-heavy massing, the use of slender base supports, and the sculptural
use of raw concrete.
 Minimalism
 Timeline: 1920-till date

 Causes:
Less is more.
 inspiration from the simplicity of traditional Japanese

architecture.
 De Stijl. Valuing simplicity and abstraction,

 Principles: a design stripped down to only its

essential elements.
Characteristics:
 Buildings are stripped of all but the most essential
elements
 Emphasis is placed on the outline, or frame, of the
structure.
 Interior walls are eliminated
 Floor plans are open
 Lighting is used to dramatize lines and planes
 The negative spaces around the structure are part
of the overall design
The Minimalist home of Mexican architect Luis Barragán is reduced to dramatically
lit lines and planes.
Architects known for Minimalist
designs include:
 Tadao Ando
 Luis Barragan
 Yoshio Taniguchi
 Richard Gluckman