Alex Webber
Blog #3
Arch 329
2/23/13
Pre-Modernism
Development in Architecture
Arts & Crafts (1880)
William
Morris and his Arts and Crafts movement was the first of many architectural and
product design styles that resisted the Industrial Revolution and the pressures
of an evolving economy. The ideals were closer to the traditional values that
Morris grew up with like plans with well-defined spaces and showing off a
material’s true nature. Even though Arts and Crafts are known for the
traditional handmade products that are highly detailed and of the upmost skill,
the arts and crafts movement had more than just art and architecture to
provide.
The
greatest contribution that Arts and Crafts may have provided for the new world
economy isn’t a physical product or style, but a method of marketing. William
Morris was a genius in terms of his business sense and advertising his brand of
Arts and Crafts. He formed its ideals in a societal manner, therefore making
his style more than just about design. Arts and Crafts was about taking time
and pleasure in ones work. Dedication to ones craft and improvement of their
skill is what leads to happy workers, but happy people. Morris sold this idea
and understood who is audience was. He wasn’t for the industrialists, he was
for the everyday artisans and aimed to repair the damage the industrial
revolution had done to their lives.
Art Nouveau (1890)
Similarly
to the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau had a deep respect for
ornamentation and the intricacy of design in the late 1800’s. Functionalist and expressive, the Art
Nouveau style designed plans according to function and liked to create strong,
theatrical spaces. Art Nouveau also had a political message like Morris had,
but it was a hybrid of the traditional arts and crafts ideals and the modern
tools of the industrial age.
Art Nouveau
took the first major step towards modernism by accepting the industrial process
for what it is, and using its technology to improve public and private spaces
in higher quantities. They took the delicacy and ornate structure of arts and
crafts to create fluid, plant-like forms out of the new iron works. By using
the repetition of the iron castings, art and decoration could spread at an
exponential rate. Artistic components could now be mass produced and spread all
over the world with a fraction of the time it would take a typical craftsman.
Art Nouveau revolutionized the production of craft in the 20th
century.
Amsterdam School + HP Berlage (1900)
The
Netherlands at the turn of the century was having a very unique architectural
experience. The steps HP Berlage and his Amsterdam school were making on the
journey to modernism are not easy to spot. The Amsterdam school was the first
big movement that took traditional brick and pushed it to its limits. Brick
started to become a plastic or free flowing material now, something that had
not been done at a large scale before. At first glance, Berlage designed
primitive buildings with no exciting or interesting facades that were always
marked by a barbaric tower of some sort. But up close, you can tell how Berlage
and the Amsterdam School were quietly changing architecture.
The
greatest feature that this time period came to offer modernism, was the vast
and monumental interior spaces that steel and ironwork allowed architects to
create. The Mona Lisa of Berlage and his school were the fantastically large
interior courtyards they constructed. Huge spans were now capable so that large
public spaces could move inside, and factories could now become what we think
of today. Large interior spaces changed what could be expected out of
buildings, and how light can be introduced so that all areas of larger
buildings had access to sunlight.
Finally,
Berlage was a pioneer of an important societal progression and how architecture
and other communal arts could lead to a better society. Berlage practiced and believed
in the idea that in order for a civilization to evolve and grow, that all of
the arts must take a step forward in the same direction. Architecture couldn’t
change a country on its own, but it could be a catalyst of other arts to
change. Then when you have multiple arts changing and evolving at once, then a
society can move forward and flourish
De Stjil (1917-31)
Simply
known as “the Grid” to many, De Stjil had perhaps one of the more unique
ideologies of the 20th century. Interior abstraction and the use of
walls, planes and volumes became a major study of De Stjil. As seen in Piet
Mondrian’s paintings, the grid could lead to a new sense of harmony and
collaboration not only in architecture and building plans, but also in artist
collaborating together as a whole. Plans and facades started to become more orthogonal
and flexible in space. Interiors were moldable and plastic so that the user can
shape their own environment. De Stjil brought something entirely new and refreshing
to art that has not been forgotten since.
De Stjil
saw that it was not objects in nature that we should look to for inspiration,
but the placement and arrangement of solids and voids, planes and volumes. De
Stjil was a refreshing new way of understanding art, furniture, plans,
elevations, and our future all together. The qualities that were so strong a
present in De Stjil are seen in modern structures all over the world and are
still used heavily today.
Russian Constructivism/Supermatism (1920-1930’s)
After the First
World War, Russians began to notice the power they had just by their mass of
people. The Russians began to develop a crowd-based attitude to not only their
revolution, but also the art and architecture that would tell the world that
Russia is apart of the modern world. They designed and built monumental
structures meant to house 15,000 people at the same time. Propaganda posters
started showing the colossal power Russia had in its grasp and started to
design building to reflect that. With a country full of hundreds of thousands
of poor and hungry citizens, this new Russian image would include all of them
in the formation of Russia’s new world order.
Imposing
posters with power and demanding images lead to a Supermatistic way of life
where everything new in Russia had to huge and monumental. The individual was
no longer important, just the crowd and the scale of there new found power.
Russia was frightening the world quickly, and everyone began to take notice.
The massive public structures, functional without and decoration would become
the icon of communism for the next several decades.
Futurism + Italy (1909-16)
Inspired by
Filippo Tommaso’s influential writing on how Italy must look to the future for
their designs, Italian Futurism was shock to European style. Futurism took out
all of the ornamentation and traditional thinking of space, color, and function
and replaced it with a raw, bare, and violently colored picture. Italy no
longer needed to design with the Renaissance in the minds; they had to accept
the future and all the materials as well. Steel, concrete, and glass become
major building components of new Futuristic buildings. The innovations made in
these material fields lead to the notion that buildings didn’t have to be
static and reflections of ancient Rome. Houses could move and building could
become steamships in their own way. That radical new approach is how the modern
designer changes an countries identity and even global architecture forever.
Bauhaus (1920-36)
Walter
Gropius may have been one of the greatest architectural and design based minds
that the 20th century had ever seen. His Bauhaus had altered design
and arts and a whole forever and is still doing that till this day. The release
from ornamentation and collectivist idea that art and design belong under the
same roof has been copied a thousand times over. Gropius and his Bauhaus say
that a community of designing minds can create a brilliant atmosphere for
growth and change. Architecture was to be the sum of all the progress made from
theater to furniture design.
Architecture
was the highest form of art and beauty according to Gropius, and every detail
in the building was the architect’s responsibility. From door handles to new
curtain wall systems, Gropius became the master of design. The Bauhaus movement
saw the flaws of the past and criticized them in his structures by replacing
ornamentation with functionality. Bauhaus no longer wanted to cover up the
connections, steel, or concrete and instead wanted to emphasize their
structural importance by giving them visual real estate. Half the beauty of
Bauhaus was that it removed all things “beautiful” and left the critical
components.
Perhaps the
most influential style of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Bauhaus was the
Mecca of modern design in the 20’s-30’s. This school alone may have affected
modernism more that all of the previous styles. Even though Bauhaus ideals were
not as popular in the private sector, the amount it achieved in one school was
more monumental the any Russian Constructivist building. Bauhaus changed the
design world for better and for always and was the foundation for a new modern
style to evolve.
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Kendra. Decorative Arts: Arts and
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Porcelains and PeacocksWeb. 23 Feb 2013.
Chan , Kelly. Learning to Live with Visionary Architecture. 2012. Blouin Art InfoWeb. 23 Feb 2013.
<http://blogs.artinfo.com/objectlessons/2012/12/08/learning-to-live-with-visionary-architecture/>.
Crouwel, J. Amsterdam School. 2007. Tippin' the Scales, Bijenkorf. Web. 23 Feb 2013. <http://tippinthescales.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/amsterdam-school/>.
Guimard,
Hector. Metro Station
Chardon-Lagache. 2003. n.p.
Web. 23 Feb 2013.
<http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/html/PC1913208.html>.
Mondrian,
Piet. Art Nowa. 2012. BlogspotWeb. 23 Feb 2013.
<http://karolisbikinas.blogspot.com/2012/02/piet-mondrian.html>.
Vockler, Kris. Bridging Modern Art, Graphic Design, and Glass Interior
Design. 2010. idc
coatingsWeb. 23 Feb 2013. <http://www.icdcoatings.com/2011/07/bridging-modern-art-graphic-design-and-glass-interior-design/>.
