modern architecture

New architectural style that emerged in many Western countries in the decade after World War I. It was based on the “rational” use of modern materials, the principles of functionalist planning, and the rejection of historical precedent and ornament. This style has been generally designated as modern, although the labels International style, Neue Sachlichkeit, and functionalism have also been used.

Development of the Style

Since the mid-19th cent. there had been repeated attempts to assimilate modern technology in practice and theory and to formulate a modern style of architecture suitable to its age. A functionalist approach eventually replaced the formerly eclectic approach to design. Technical progress in the use of iron and glass made possible the construction of Sir Joseph Paxton's celebrated crystal palace in London (1851), in which a remarkable delicacy was achieved. In the ensuing years iron, steel, and glass enabled architects and engineers to enclose the vast interior spaces of train sheds, department stores, and market halls, but often the structural forms were clothed with irrelevant ornament.

As late as 1889 the exposed, iron skeleton of the newly erected Eiffel Tower in Paris was met with public outrage. In Chicago, William Le Baron Jenney pioneered the use of a complete steel skeleton for the urban skyscraper in his Home Insurance Building (1883–85). His contemporary, Louis Henry Sullivan, first articulated the theory of functionalism
, which he demonstrated in his numerous commercial designs. In addition, experiments in concrete construction were being carried out in France by François Hennebique and Auguste Perret, and in the United States by Ernest Ransome.

As a result of these advances, the formal conception of architecture was also undergoing a profound transformation. Frank Lloyd Wright, a pupil of Sullivan, experimented with the interpenetration of interior and exterior spaces in his residential designs. In Holland, where Wright's work was widely admired, the architects of de Stijl sought to organize building elements into new combinations of overlapping and hovering rectangular planes.

Form and Materials

By 1920 there was an increasingly wide understanding that building forms must be determined by their functions and materials if they were to achieve intrinsic significance or beauty in contemporary terms, without resorting to traditional ornament. Instead of viewing a building as a heavy mass made of ponderous materials, the leading innovators of modern architecture considered it as a volume of space enclosed by light, thin curtain walls and resting on slender piers. The visual aesthetic of modern architecture was largely inspired by the machine and by abstract painting and sculpture.

In giving form and coherence to modern architecture, Le Corbusier's book Vers une architecture (1923, tr. 1927) played an important role, as did the writings of the Dutch architect J. J. P. Oud and the German architect Walter Gropius, who also headed the bauhauss in Dessau. Other early leaders of the modern movement included Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and Ernst May in Germany and Raymond Hood, Albert Kahn, Richard J. Neutra, William Lescaze, and George Howe in the United States.

In 1932 the label “International style” was applied to modern architecture by the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, anticipating its growing acceptance around the world. The United States became a stronghold of modern architecture after the emigration of Gropius, Mies, and Breuer from Germany during the 1930s. By the mid-20th cent. modern architecture had become an effective instrument for dealing with the increasingly complex building needs of a global society. Large architectural firms such as Harrison and Abramovitz and Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill did much to popularize modern architecture around the world after World War II.

At the same time new technological developments continued to influence architects' designs, particularly in the realm of prefabricated construction, as seen in the works of R. Buckminster Fuller and Moshe Safdie. The development of sophisticated air conditioning and heating systems also allowed modern architecture to spread from the temperate climates of Europe and North America to countries with extremely varied weather conditions

Architecture knowledge

If you are a new architect or a semi architect, this blog may help you to know more about architecture. This blog contains elementary architecture knowledges, which can help to know more about world of architecture. I am very pleased that i can help you.

Definition of Architecture

Architecture can be used to mean :

1. As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures by a person, primarily done to provide socially purposefull shelter. a wider definition often includes the design of the total built environtment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding man made landscape to the micro level of architectural or construction details and sometimes furniture.
2. As a proffesion, architecture is the role of those persons or machines providing architectural services.
3. As a documentation, usually based on drawings, architecture defines the structure and behavior of a building or any other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.

Theory of Architecture

The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is De Architectura, by the roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century. A good building should satisfy the three principles of good building, they are firmitatis, utilitatis, and venustatis. Which translates as-

• firmitatis means the durability of a building - it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
• utilitatis means the functions of a building - it should be useful and function well for the people using it.
• venustatis means the beauty of a building - it should suit to its circles, delight people, and sometimes can be use as an icon of an era.

according to vitruvius, architect should fulfil each of these three attributes as well as possible.

Work of an Architect

The role of an architect is central to the design and implementation of the environtment in which people live. In order to obtain the skills and knowledge reguired to design, plan, and oversee a diverse range of projects, architects must go through extensive formal education, coupled with a requisite amount of professional practice.

The work of an architect is drawing upon mathematics, science, art, technology, social sciences, politics and history, and is often governed by the architect's personal approach of philosophy.

Vitruvius, the earliest known architectural theorist, states:

"Architecture is a science, arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning: by the help of which a judgement is formed of those works which are the result of other arts."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture