Blog #3

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 20^th 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 20^th 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 20^th 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.

Bauhaus Art Poster. 2010. Deviant ArtWeb. 23 Feb 2013. <http://blueberrylife.deviantart.com/art/bauhaus-art-poster-155400604>.

Boutell, Kendra. Decorative Arts: Arts and Crafts Movement. 2010. 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/>.