From Bauhaus to Our House: Tom Wolfe contra modernist architecture

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-230
Author(s):  
Anna Maria Karczewska
Keyword(s):  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tom Wolfe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modernist Architecture ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Walter Gropius

In his 1981 book-length essay From Bauhaus To Our House, Tom Wolfe not only presents a compact history of modernist architecture, devoting the pages to masters such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe but also frontally attacks modern architecture and complains that a small group of architects took over control of people’s aesthetic choices. According to Wolfe, modern buildings wrought destruction on American cities, sweeping away their vitality and diversity in favour of the pure, abstract order of towers in a row. Modernist architects, on the other hand, saw the austere buildings of concrete, glass and steel as signposts of a new age, as the physical shelter for a new, utopian society. This article attempts to analyse Tom Wolfe’s selected criticisms of the modernist architecture presented in From Bauhaus to Our House. In order to understand Wolfe’s discontent with modernist architecture’s basic tenets of economic, social, and political conditions that prompted architects to pursue a modernist approach to design will be discussed.

Roche and Dinkeloo's Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-365
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Siry
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Greek Revival ◽  
Modernist Architecture ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe

From 1965 to 1973, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo created the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The center appears to be an essay in mid-twentieth-century modernism, directly expressing its varied interior programs in cubic volumes of limestone walls and reinforced concrete spans for floors and roofs. As Joseph M. Siry demonstrates in Roche and Dinkeloo's Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University: Classical, Vernacular, and Modernist Architecture in the 1960s, the Wesleyan Center for the Arts is a condensation of ideas from its context, including the seventeenth-century regional vernacular and the local Greek revival and contemporaneous modern architecture, including works of Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Kahn. This article broadens both our understanding of the creative process as an integration of multiple sources and our view of modernism's potential to innovate while fittingly engaging with earlier periods without duplicating their historical vocabularies.

scholarly journals Le Corbusier’s Legacy: Modern experimentation in Mario Bonito´s work

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helder Casal Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Rational Design ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Design Issues ◽  
Crystal Palace ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Modernist Architecture ◽  
Just Society

Abstract: This paper investigates the path of third generation Portuguese modern architect, Mário Bonito (1921/1976), in order to understand and clarify his contribution to the maturity process of portuguese modern architecture, that began at the end of the 1940s, strongly influenced by Le Corbusier. Through the understanding of his final academic work, CODA (Competition to Obtain the Architects Diploma), designated Pavilhão das Ilhas Adjacentes, located in Jardim do Palacio Cristal (Crystal Palace Gardens) in Porto, dated 1947/48, we intend to deepen his relationship with the modern premises of corbusier´s architecture, framed by portuguese reality. However Le Corbusier´s legacy in Mario Bonito´s work is not formal but thematic, in understanding the main issues that guide the intent of progressive man in molding a modern and just society. The paper covers themes characteristic to Portuguese modernist architecture such as the dialogue between craftsmanship and technique, compositional rigor and rational design issues resulting from the systematization of the construction processes, with the search for standardization of architectural and constructional elements. This dialogue emphasizes the compromise between tradition and modernity that will be present in all of Mário Bonito´s designed and written work, announcing the experimental temperament and formal coherence of his subsequent works. Resumen: Este artículo investiga el camino de la tercera generación de arquitecto moderno portugués, Mário Bonito (1921/1976), a fin de comprender y aclarar su contribución al proceso de la madurez de la arquitectura moderna portuguesa, que se inició a finales de la década de 1940, fuertemente influenciado por Le Corbusier. A través de la comprensión de su obra académica final, CODA (Concurso para Obtenção do Diploma de Arquitecto), designado Pavilhão das Ilhas Adjacentes, ubicado en Jardim do Palacio de Cristal en Porto, con fecha de 1947 / 48, tenemos la intención de profundizar su relación con las premisas modernas de la arquitectura Corbusiana, encuadradas por la realidad portuguesa. Sin embargo el legado de Le Corbusier en el trabajo de Mario Bonito no es formal, sino temático, en la comprensión de los temas principales que guían la intención del hombre progresista en el moldeo de una sociedad moderna y justa. El artículo abarca temas como el diálogo entre la artesanía y la técnica, el rigor compositivo y problemas de diseño que resulten de la sistematización de los procesos de construcción, con la búsqueda de la normalización de los elementos arquitectónicos y constructivos. Este diálogo enfatiza el compromiso entre la tradición y la modernidad que estará presente en todo trabajo diseñado y escrito de Mario Bonito, anunciando el temperamento experimental y coherencia formal de sus obras posteriores.  Keywords: legacy; Mário Bonito; portuguese architecture; Porto; universality. Palabras clave: legado; Mário Bonito; arquitectura portuguesa; Porto; universalidad. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.1004

scholarly journals Cracovian modernists - the 60 ties, 90 ties of the XX century - the returns

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
Jan Wrana
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
International Style ◽  
Modern Style ◽  
Modernist Architecture ◽  
Walter Gropius

The European reaction of the leading architects towards the period of international style, “The idea of style has yet again become up-to-date. The modern style, covering the whole world, is uniform and coherent...” [4], promoted at the exhibition “Modernist architecture” organized in Museum of Art in New York by architects Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philips Johnson, was immediate. The leading European architects: a) Walter Gropius wrote: “The aim of Bauhaus was not to promote one particular style...” [4], b) Le Corbusier formulated “Fundamental principles of aesthetics” [4], c) Bruno Taut wrote: “Five assumptions of new architecture” [4]. The message that “The form follows the function” became the very principle of modernism. The year 1972, when the blocks of flats in St. Louis, US were blown up, and the year of the actual end of the ideology originating from CIAM, is the agreed time marked as the end of modernism. It was a few years after Le Corbusier’s death (1965) - the death of the unchallenged spiritual ideologist of modernism.

scholarly journals On Theory and Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Simpson ◽  
Nikos Salingaros
Keyword(s):  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
International Style ◽  
Walter Gropius

While Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius were indeed enormously influential in shaping modern architecture, noteworthy designs being done today prove that the International Style is no longer dominant.

Duhart, Emilio (1917–2006)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Celedon Forster
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rural Housing ◽  
Architectural Production ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Foreign Ideas ◽  
Walter Gropius

The Chilean architect Emilio Duhart Harosteguy is one of the most recognised modern architects and urban planners in the country. He is especially notable for the period he spent working as assistant for Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann in the States and for Le Corbusier in France, whom he collaborated with in the planning of Chandigarh city in India. While Duhart was born in Temuco, he spent his childhood and primary and secondary education in France. He returned to Santiago and graduated as an architect from the School of Architecture at the Catholic University of Chile in 1941 and continued his studies at Harvard University (Master in Architecture 1942) and the Institutd’Urbanisme Sorbonne (Master in Urban Planning 1952). Duhart’s first commissions were in relation to the Chillán earthquake (1939) reconstruction, and he worked mainly in rural housing as part of the Help and Reconstruction Corporation initiatives (1941). He belonged to a group of architects that went abroad at the time, and he imported foreign ideas and modes of architectural production to Chile; the other two main modes of foreign influence were architectural publications and external visitors to the country. From 1951 he taught at the Catholic University, becoming Director of the Institute of Urbanism, Housing and Planning.

Before and behind the Pioneers of Modern Architecture in Singapore

2017 ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Jiat-Hwee Chang
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Conditions

This article situates the emergence of pioneer modern architects and architecture of Singapore in the longer history of colonial and post-colonial modernities and modernization, and in relation to socio-economic forces of capitalism and socio-political influences of the modern state in both the colonial and post-colonial eras. Rather than understand modern architecture in terms of style, this article goes behind style to explore the social, economic, technological and political conditions of producing modern architecture.

The Avant-Garde Monument

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Sascha Bru
Keyword(s):  
Avant Garde ◽  
Robert Smithson ◽  
Salvador Dali ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Man Ray ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe ◽  
Walter Gropius ◽  
First World

Abstract This article homes in on monuments designed by proponents of the historical or classic avant-gardes. After the First World War, monuments by, among others, Kurt Schwitters and Johannes Baader, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, Vladimir Tatlin and El Lissitzky, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí, began to articulate a new function for the genre of the monument: no longer was it to commemorate the past, but to memorialize the present and time to come. This new architecture of memory also led to an expansion of the genre, which in the hands of avant-gardists further came to include temporary pavilions. Paying attention to theoretical writings on the monument, among others, by László Moholy-Nagy, Siegfried Giedion and Robert Smithson, the article concludes by referencing more recent experimentation in monument design by artists such as Flavin, Oldenburg and Hirschhorn, arguing that a comprehensive history of the avant-garde monument is long overdue.

Gropius and the Teddy Bear: a tale of two factories

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-356
Author(s):  
Brenda Vale ◽  
Robert Vale
Keyword(s):  
Modern Architecture ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Curtain Wall ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Teddy Bear ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Unesco World Heritage Site ◽  
History Of ◽  
Double Skin

The architecturally radical Steiff teddy bear factory in Giengen, Germany is a three storey, double skin glass curtain wall building with a steel frame, built in 1903. It is almost unknown in architectural history. On the other hand the loadbearing brick Fagus factory built in 1911 to a design by Gropius and Meyer, in spite of its nineteenth century technology, has become a hallowed icon of modern architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The article discusses the contested history of both buildings and offers some suggestions as to why one became famous and the other did not. It also discusses the equally contested history of the teddy bear, showing that in both cases, history tends to ignore facts in favour of good stories.

An Army of Soldiers or a Meadow

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity D. Scott
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Museum Of Modern Art ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philip Johnson ◽  
American Consumer ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe

An Army of Soldiers or a Meadow: The Seagram Building and the "Art of Modern Architecture" focuses on the New York headquarters of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons (1954–58), designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in association with Philip Johnson. Drawing upon archival documents and the history of the building's design and reception, Felicity D. Scott demonstrates the participation of the tower and its plaza in an important transformation of modern architecture—usually identified as the rise of Postmodernism. She closely analyzes the shifting assessment of a key interpreter of the building, Arthur Drexler (of New York's Museum of Modern Art) and carefully tracks the construction and reception of the landmark building's image within American consumer culture. Although Mies demanded that art grow out of the immanent forces of its time, he was ultimately sorrowful that cultural and economic forces made his design vocabulary the lingua franca of postwar commercial architecture. The author situates this landmark building in a manner that complicates our reading of its importance both to the field of architectural history and to the career of Mies van der Rohe.

scholarly journals Reconsidering Emil Kaufmann’s Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier

2014 ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Macarena de la Vega
Keyword(s):  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
New Science ◽  
Previous Generation ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Architecture

El objetivo de este ensayo es re-abrir y re-leer Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier de Emil Kaufmann. A pesar de que Panayotis Tournikiotis y Anthony Vidler lo incluyeran en sus respectivos discursos sobre la historiografía de la arquitectura moderna, se  propone reconsiderar a su autor como un historiador pionero de la Ilustración. Tres ideas: el único protagonista del libro es Claude-Nicolas Ledoux; la arquitectura en torno a 1800 necesitaba una reevaluación; y la obra de Kaufmann se  enmarca en un tiempo de búsqueda de una nueva ciencia del arte y una nueva historia de la arquitectura. Kaufmann es una figura de transición entre una generación previa de historiadores del arte que establecieron conceptos y principios fundamentales, y otros de su misma generación que se  embarcaron en la tarea de considerar la arquitectura moderna como objeto de una investigación histórica. Abstract The aim of this essay is to re-open and re-read the content of Emil Kaufmann’s Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier. Even though Panayotis Tournikiotis and Anthony Vidler included it in their discussions of the historiography of modern architecture, this investigation recommends a needed reconsideration of Emil  Kaufmann as a pioneer historian of the Age of Reason. Three ideas can be highlighted: first, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux is the main character of Kaufmann’s discourse; second, the architecture around 1800 needed a reevaluation; and third, his  work takes place in a time of searching for a new science of art and for a new history of architecture. To sum up, it can be  concluded that Kaufmann is a transitional figure between a previous generation of art historians who established   fundamental concepts and principles; and others of his own generation who embarked on the hard task of considering modern architecture as a subject of historical research.

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