Early Modern Architecture - Essay Example

 Early Modern Architecture Early Modern architecture is said to have practically started around the turn of the twentieth century. Its major goal was to come up with a design that reconciled the principles underlying architectural design with the advancement of technology and the modernization of society. Louis I Kahn, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius are among the notable architects who made a great contribution to the development and history of the modernist period. O f all the architects of the modernist period I will be dealing with, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Cohen, 2006). Born in Aachen, Germany in the year 1886, on the month of March 27, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, trained with his father who was a master stonemason until the age of 19 when he decide to relocate and go to Berlin and was lucky to work with Bruno Paul. Bruno Paul was a furniture designer and the art nouveau architect. It didn’t take Ludwieg long before he received his first assignment which was to plan a house for a philosopher by the name Alois Riehl. In the year 1908 Ludwig switched bosses and started working for the architect Peter Behrens. Due to the love and passion Ludwig had for architecture, he studied the architecture of the Prussian Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Frank Lloyd Wright. It wasn’t until the year 1912 that he opened his own office in Berlin and a year later, 1913 he got married. At the opening of his practice in 1912 he adopted his mother’s maiden name, van der rohe. While he was working under Behren, Mies developed a design approach that was basically based on advanced structural techniques and Prussian classicism. While still conducting his discovery on architecture he developed sympathy for the aesthetic credos of both Dutch De Stijl group and Russian Constructivism. He also borrowed from the post and lintel construction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel for his designs in steel and glass. In 1923 Mies worked with a new magazine called G which started that very year in the month of July. His architectural philosophies are greatly recognized and were a major contribution in the late 1920s and 1930s as artistic director of the Werkbund-sponsored Weissenhof project and as a director of the Bauhaus (Cohen, 2006). Mies is famously known for his dictum ‘Less is More’ and he attempted to create neutral, contemplative spaces through an architecture that was based on structural integrity and material honesty. After ages spanning twenty years of his life, Mies was able to eventually achieve his vision of a monumental ‘skin and bone’ architecture. Through his dedication, commitment, passion and hard work his later woks provide a fitting denouement to a life dedicated to the idea of a universal, simplified architecture. After World War 1, he developed interest in the skyscraper which eventually led to him studying it and he designed two innovative and ingenious steel framed towers encased in glass. One of the critically acclaimed skyscrapers was the friedrichstrasse which was designed in 1921 for a competition albeit it was never built but it drew a lot of critical praise and it even foreshadowed his skyscraper designs of the late 40s and 50s. The very same year he designed the friedrichstrasse so did his marriage end and he changed his name. Six years after the fall of his marriage, 1927, Mies designed one of the most famous buildings, the German pavilion at the international exposition in Barcelona. In 1929, this small hall which was popularly referred to as the Barcelona pavilion, was designed with a flat roof which was supported by columns and the pavilions internal walls were made of glass and marble and had the ability to be moved around based on the fact that they did not in any way support the structure. The concept he used was of fluid space with a seamless flow between indoors and outdoors. This concept was further explored in others of his ingenious projects which he designed for decades to come. He later ventured into partnership with Lilly Reich who was his companion and collaborator for over a decade (Cohen, 2006). He also designed the elegant Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic which was completed in 1930. Ludwig was involved in a lot of things that involved architecture and he developed prominence as architectural director of the Werkbund and he organized the influential Weissenhof estate housing exhibition which was a prototype. Architectural association Der Ring was proud to be associated with Mies as one of the founders. He was the director of avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of architecture and he developed and adopted their functionalist application of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects. Mies work gained exposure in the United States when he met New York architect Philip Johnson in 1930, who was able to include several of his projects in MOMA’s first architecture exhibition held in 1932, modern architecture: international exhibition. In the 30’s, his designs were allegedly not built because of the political changes that were overtaking Germany and also due to the fact that there was economic issues. The Bauhaus school was disbanded in 1933 and was eventually shut down because of the pressure from the new Nazi government. He later so it fit to move to the United States and he did this in the year 1937. After his relocation he was fortunate to become the head of the architecture department at the armour institute of technology in Chicago, a post he held from 1938 to 1958. It was later renamed the Illinois Institute of technology. Around the 40’s, he was asked to use knowledge of architecture to design a new campus for the school. In this project he was able to refine his steel and glass style. Ludwig eventually formed a relationship with Chicago artist by the name of Lora Marx and which lasted for the rest of his life. His citizenship was processed in 1944 and he became an American citizen. During this period he was well established professionally and he designed one of his most famous buildings. It was a small weekend retreat outside Chicago which was a transparent box and framed by eight exterior steel columns. The Farnsworth house is said to be one of the very few radically minimalist houses ever designed and this is because it’s an interior, a single room, is subdivided by partitions and completely enclosed in glass (Cohen, 2006). He based many of his own architectural theories and principles on his own personal re-combination of ideas developed by other people who were designers and thinkers and had pondered the flaws of the traditional styles which were very common to avant-garde architects of the day. Art movements and designs of the day was what influenced Mies’ modernistic thinking. This can be clearly seen when he adopted theoretical ideas such as the aestethic credos of Russian constructivism with their ideology of efficient sculptural constructions by use of modern industrial materials. He enjoyed the use of pure use of color, clean lines, simple rectilinear and planar forms and the extension of space around and beyond interior walls expounded by the Dutch De stijl group. To be precise, the distinct articulation of parts and layering of functional sub-spaces within an overall space as expressed by Gerrit Rietveld had an appeal to Mies (Cohen, 2006). The concept he had of open, flexible space on a much larger scale was continually developed throughout the 50’s and in the year 1953, he developed the convention hall, and it can only be described innovative the structural system that spanned large distances. It was during this period that he figured that he wanted to build a glass skyscraper hence it became a dream and the twin towers in Chicago were completed in 1951 and this wasn’t the last of it as there followed other high-rises in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Toronto and culminating in 1954 with the seagram building in New York, which was acclaimed and hailed as a masterpiece of skyscraper design. In 1959, due to his exemplary work he achieved the ‘orden pour le merite’ (Germany) and in 1963 the presidential medal of freedom in the USA. It wasn’t until 1962 when his career became full circle and was invited to design the new national gallery in Berlin. His long-held vision of an exposed steel structure that directly connected interior space to the landscape was achieved with the design of this building. In the year 1958, Ludwig Rohe, designed what is most often regarded as the pinnacle of the modernist high rise architecture, the Seagram Building in New York City. The designing of this building was made possible by the daughter of the client, Phyllis Bronfman Lambert, who it should be noted that she is architecture and has become a noted architectural figure in her own right. The growing power of the corporation, see the Seagram building as an icon, that defining institution of the 20th century. Mies also designed two buildings for the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and as additions to the Caroline Weiss law building. He was commissioned by the MFAH in the year 1953 to design and create a master plan for the institution in which he designed two additions to the building. These two additions were the Cullinan Hall and the Brown Pavilion which were completed in the years 1958 and 1974 respectively. This design that Meis used is renowned and given as an example of international style and they are one of the only two Mies designed museums in the world. Modernism is also referred to as international style due to the simple fact that the buildings have the ability to be placed in any urban landscape worldwide and it is defined in three major elements which are: volume vs. mass, minimal applied exterior ornamentation, regularity vs. symmetry. The element of volume vs. mass is expressed in modernist buildings in that they typically have a ground level lobby that is both recessed from the street and transparent. Due to this factor the buildings are given a sense of being lifted from the ground. The second element is the minimally applied exterior ornamentation. A great number of buildings before the modernist period have classically influenced ornamentation such as columns and friezes. But with time and the coming up of modernist buildings this look disappeared giving way to modernism which emphasized a machine made look. Though it should be noted that modernist buildings are not always devoid of exterior ornamentation and a good example of an exception is the inland steel building in Chicago which is clad with ornamental stainless steel as a way of reflecting the name of the developer. Lastly the element of regularity vs. symmetry shows that with modernism, symmetry basically gives way to regularity, which is evident in the regular lines of windows. Ludwig created an influential twentieth century architectural style that was stated with high levels of simplicity and clarity. His buildings unlike in the traditional period were made from modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He was ambitious and thus he pursued a lifelong mission to design a new architectural language that would have the ability to represent a new era of technology and production. Just as the gothic architecture was expressive and in harmony in the era of spiritualism so did Mies want to create a design that was in harmony with his epoch. It is seen that he applied a disciplined design process that used rational thought to achieve his spiritual goals. He believed that the arrangement and configuration of every architectural element must contribute to a unified expression. Miles was self educated and he painstakingly studied the great philosophers and thinkers past and present so that he had the ability to understand the essential qualities and character of the technological times he lived in. His buildings have the tendency to seem very simple and direct when viewed in person but every aspect of his design and architecture from overall concept to the smallest detail, supports his effort to express modern age. Ludwig died in Chicago on August 17, 1969. Bibliography Read More