1916-1926
Modernist theories & dogma
Le Corbusier


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golden section
domino system
french purism
l'esprit nouveu
four types of buildings
"vers une architecture"
five points of architecture
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Le Corbusier, modernist, purist and prolific architect, painter and writer, wouldn't had been where he was in his career if not for the 'tour' around Europe  in his early years. They lasted from 1907 to 1912, when Charles Edouard Jeannerct (his original name) was 20-25 years old. Corbusier's travels took him to Italy, Vienna, Munich (where he worked in Peter Behrens office), and Paris (where he took up an apprenticeship to Auguste Perret, a father of reinforced concrete construction). They concluded with a Voyage d'Orient: to Eastern Europe, Balkans, Turkey and culminated in a visit to Acropolis. 
As an architect, Le Corbusier was largely auto-didact, and in this journey he taught himself a lot what was later the foundation for his practice. Through research of architecture, drawing of buildings and making scrumptious notes he gathered a base of knowledge which shaped his critical thinking. These notebooks were published in 1965; the story starts with the central character defined as having something missing whether he, recognizes it or not. Thus the hero sets off in quest for what is missing, and it is this quest that propels the narrative forward. Defined as a rite of passage, the journey becomes a testing ground full of tension and struggles in which the hero is transformed and finally achieves a new status. (Short analysis of Le Corbusier's book by M. Christine Boyer here http://www.design.upenn.edu/arch/news/Human_Settlements/primitive.html).


Great influence on Corbusier's work had studies of Parthenon and the Golden Ratio.

Also called divine proportion, is when the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is = the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one:

Golden ratio (φ) is a mathematical constant and equals:



Golden proportion is believed to be the most aesthetically pleasing and harmonious, so many artists and architects apply it their work in a principle of a golden rectangle, spiral or triangle:

Golden proportion is closely related to Fibonacci's numbers, where every number is a sum of two previous number in the sequence:

The ratio of what each number is to the next one, is approximately φ (13/8, 34/21, etc).

They appear everywhere in Nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple; from the geometry of the DNA molecule (and the human body) to the physiology of animals.

Le Corbusier in his "Vers une Architecture" (1923) discusses the Golden Section as natural rhythm, inborn to every human organism . However, he does not yet recommend concrete proportions, but only to use tracés regulateurs, measure-rulers, to control the geometrical organisation of design, always façades in his examples.

Later, Le Corbusier developed a scale of proportions which he called Le Modulor, based on a human body whose height is divided in golden section commencing at the navel. From Golden Section of the total height (considered to be 1829mm) and height of the navel results a sequence of measures from 27 cm to 226 cm (and then much more) in steps of 27 and 16.

Explanation of Le Corbusier's Modulor here: http://archididac.com/

Le Corbusier's use of the Golden Section begins by 1927 at the Villa Stein in Garches, whose rectangular proportion in ground plan and elevation, as also the inner structure of the ground plan, approximately show the Golden Section. 

Le Corbusier himself called his Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1945-52) a demonstration of his Modulor system.

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1916-1924
Modernist factions


de stijl [nl]
bauhaus [de]
purism [fr]
constructivism [ru]
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Rodchenko

Out of all artistic movements in the first decades of 20th century, I find the processes in Russia  the most exciting. 
After WW1 and 1917 October revolution, Russia's political and social structure changes drastically. In this turmoil of events Constructivism sprouts out of Futurist roots, rejecting the idea of "art just for arts sake" in favour of art with social purposes. As well as other parallel avant-garde movements - Rationalism and Suprematism - Constructivism centers around Vkhutemas (Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow), where such artists as Alexander Rodchenko, Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, Liubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova teach. The school has a basic program compulsory to all students (not unlike Bauhaus), consisting of teachings about:

• the maximal influence of color
• form through color 
• color in space
• color on the plane
• construction
• simultaneity of form and color
• volume in space
• history of the Western arts
• tutelage.

 In 1920 the First Working Group of Constructivists arrive at a definition of Constructivism as
"the combination of faktura: the particular material properties of the object, and tektonika, its spatial presence". 
They work on three dimensional designs, as well as on graphic design. 

A.Rodchenko, Construction 2

Naum Gabo, Column

Sternberg Brothers, Apparatus 

V.Tatlin, Monument to 3rd Inernational

Inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky's words "the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes", constructivists participate in public life throughout; they also work closely with Bolshevik government on propaganda posters, street festivals and decorations. 

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with Red Wedge,1919

All art in Soviet Union is to serve the socialist idea - paintings, posters, performances, buildings - all has to be brought to the masses. The Revolution makes new demands on processes of building and presses for new mass housing, new official buildings, new towns an development of the old. At 1919 Congress of the Communist Party Lenin initiates a new policy for better living conditions, educational facilities, including easy access to artistic treasures. Alexander Vesnin, one of Constructivists leaders, calls architects to 'enter into actual life, work in order to organise life, remember that the architect is the shaper of life; he is the appointed builder of socialism'. However, in 1932 Joseph Stalin promulgates the decree "On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations", making Socialist Realism a state policy. It rejects the non-representative forms of art, because they 'are not understood by the proletariat' (therefore couldn't be used by the state for propaganda). Form and content are often limited, with erotic, religious, abstract, surrealist and expressionist art being forbidden. Form, including internal dialogue, stream of consciousness, nonsense, free-form association and cut-up are also disallowed. Social Realism pushes out these "decadent" art styles, such as Impressionism, Cubism (which existed before revoliuton, so were accounted as 'bourgeois") and Constructivism.The latter is alive for two more year, but then also succumbs.

Example of socialist realism

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This idea of creating a completely new society with new values, where everybody works for a common benefit, a new mechanised life of progress was utopian, but after the October revolution, majority of the people sincerely believed it. And I find it amazing how so many people, especially artists, collectively worked towards this better world, and so strongly held on to this ideal, and were so clear on their agenda what they wanted to create. I admire such passion and effort to change the world. Compared to the creative process I go through, it must  differ quite a lot. Especially in my current project, I design not to express my ideals, morals and values,  but to create a temporary physical and emotional experience, hardly planning that it will change somebody's life.
Or should I, as a designer, take a responsibility of making a world a better place?

1908-1916
Werkbund
Futurism


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industrialisation
deutscher werkbund
dutch expressionism (wendigen)
german expressionism
futurism+constructivism
DADA
WW1
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Werkbund
1907 Hermann Muthesius, Peter Behrens and other sympathetic designers and manufactures form Deutscher Werkbund("German products association"). Their motto: "From sofa cushions to city-building".


In the same year AEG hires P.Behrens to design their corporate identity (he was responsible for all aspects of design, from letterhead and electric light fixtures, to production facilities); he is now considered the first industrial designer.
P.Behrens, poster for AEG

Peter Behrens was a teacher and employer of such great to be architects as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.


In part as an oppositionary reaction to Werkbund, German Expressionism movement appeared: anti-rationalistic, emotional, concerned both with form and utopianism. Central to it was Paul Sheerbart's writing and his vision of glass/crystaline architecture. In 1914 Werkbund exhibition in Cologne, Bruno Taut's pavillion was presented, embodying Sheerbart's thoughts. Erich Mendelsohn offered another approach to expressionist architecture in his Einstein Tower:

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1909 Filippo Marinetti publishes Futurist manifesto.


I find futurists' passion for speed, machinery, violence, youth, technology rather fascinating; especially the aesthetics of a machine, they so heartly advocated: precision, function, movement, productivity. As I admire Arthur Ganson's machines, their sole purpose of existence being to be a machine and perform the function:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/arthur_ganson_makes_moving_sculpture.html
The fascination of machines comes when they start displaying human features, e.g. Edward Ihnatowicz's SAM sculpture (video here: http://cyberdesign.ning.com/video/2052966:Video:49)
I want to create this effect as well, so I am putting artificial lungs into my installation - a hoover motor, to make my creature breathe.
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I also find Futurism's effect on music to be very interesting.
In 1913 Luigi Russolo (painter and self-taught musician) writes The Art of Noises. It classified "noise-sound" into six groups:

• Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
• Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
• Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
• Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Humming, Crackling, Rubbing
• Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
• Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs

L.Russolo and his brother Antonio used instruments they called "intonarumori", which were acoustic noise generators that permitted the performer to create and control the dynamics and pitch of several different types of noises. 

Intonarumori

Almost like primitive indigenous tribal music of simple rhythms and noises, worshipping spirits of the nature, gods of earth, sun and water, futurist music celebrates the Machine, its coveyer belts, cogwheels, screws and engines.
Some of Luigi Russolo music here: http://www.ubu.com/sound/russolo_l.html

1905-1908
Adolf Loos
Frank Lloyd Wright




ornament&crime
raumplan
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usonian
prairie style
organic architecture
hemicycle designs
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Adolf Loos (1870-1933) criticised Viennese Secession for its overabundant ornamentation, advocating simplicity as a sign of spiritual strength, maturity and advanced culture. From his Ornament&Crime, 1908:


"... the evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects."


Loos buildings' facades do not give out what is going inside. Neither his 'woman with no eyebrows', Goldman and Salatsch building announced that it was a tailoring shop back in 1912, nor (never built) Josephine Baker's house reveals intimacy of actresses private life.
Josephine Baker's house, 1927

The interior spaces of his buildings were composed according to Raumplan - architectural thought, embodying Loos' understanding of economy and functionality. It rests on the stepped heights of the individual rooms according to their function and symbolic importance. As Loos explains it himself:

"My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me, there is no ground floor, first floor etc.... For me, there are only contiguous, continual spaces, rooms, anterooms, terraces etc. Storeys merge and spaces relate to each other. Every space requires a different height: the dining room is surely higher than the pantry, thus the ceilings are set at different levels. To join these spaces in such a way that the rise and fall are not only unobservable but also practical."

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Adolf Loos was greatly influenced by American architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan in his essay Ornament in Architecture (1892) was talking about very similar ideas to what Loos later did:

"I shall say that it would be greatly for our esthetic good if we should refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a period of years, in order that our thought might concentrate acutely upon the production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude."

Sullivan's National Farmers' Bank, 1908 

Brief as it was, Louis Sullivan's career profoundly influenced another great architect - Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).

"It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law."

This Sullivan's thought also widely reflects in Wrights practice.
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Characteristics of F.L.Wright's architecture:


> Prairie style - houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces, low-pitched roof, overhanging eaves, central chimney and clerestory windows.

The Frederic C. Robie House in Chicago, 1909

> Usonian style - (abbrev. for United States of North America) grew out of prairie style. Democratic, distinctly American style that was affordable for the "common people". Houses had no attics, no basements, and little ornamentation; usually were small, one-story structures set on concrete slabs with piping for radiant heat beneath.

Zimmerman House, 1950s

> Organic architecture - every building should grow naturally from its environment, and spaces be integrated into a unified whole. From An Organic Architecture, 1939, by Frank Lloyd Wright:

"So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no 'traditions' essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but - instead - exalting the simple laws of common sense - or of super-sense if you prefer - determining form by way of the nature of materials..."

Taliesan West school, Arizona, 1937

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I find my current project to reverberate Wright's thoughts about organic building - architecture fit into its environment, using materials that are characteristic to the site. My installation will be made out of black liquid latex, blending into car park full of car wheels dressed in black vulcanized rubber tyres. The skin of the object will grow on plastic bags and bin liners, that are so often thrown away and lie about in the car park as well Hyde park above.

1900-1905

Art Nouveau

Jugendstil

embelishments
floral&animalistic forms
sinuous lines
flowing compositions
organic elements
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Art Nouveau arose during the La Belle Epoque (about 1880 to 1905). This era was named so in retrospect, when it began to be considered a "golden age" for the upper classes, as peace prevailed among the major powers of Europe, new technologies improved lives that were unclouded by income tax, and cheap coal and cheap labour fueled lavish lifestyles. This abundance had to find its way to architectural expression, and it did - through Stile-Floreale, as it was called in Italy.


I would ascribe Jugendstil to a feminine tradition of architecture, as a highly decorative style, of sinuous lines and forms. Of course, gender in architecture is a debatable subject, but I think we can assign building styles to one of the two groups - male and female, according to the core qualities of proportions, symmetry, linearity and decorative elements. As Jacques-Francois Blondel discusses architectural femininity in his Course of Architecture (year 1771) essay:

"One calls architecture feminine in those cases in which the expression displays the proportions of the Ionic order, where the expression is more naive, more charming, less robust than that of the Doric order. 

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Once again, taken in a bad sense, one again calls architecture feminine when, instead of indicating some rectilinear body (as the style of architeture will be solid), it offers some fore-buildings composed of sinuous parts. The building will thus display an uncertainty in the masses and in the details that one intends to admire, and for this reason feminine architecture must be rejected in all  military monuments, in all the edifices raised to the glorey of heroes, for princely lodgings, etc."

p.197-198 ("Architectural Theory Vol.1" by Harry Francis Mallgrave)

I find it very interesting where Blondel names the possible usage of feminine architecture:


"But it can be applied suitably to the exterior decoration of a country pleasure house, of a petit Trianon, in the interiors of queen's apartments, in those of an empress, in baths, fountains, and other edifices consecrated to maritime or terrestrial divinities, of which one has derived the dedication from sacred or profane history."


A quality of architecture relating to religion or promiscuity, having a certain morality and emotional baggage, apparently is a female quality. Thus, with intention to arouse one's feelings and to overwhelm, ornaments, decoration, sensuality are used in buildings. Whereas, to consider the opposite, rationalism, control, emotionlessness would be definitely a masculine quality. Function and clean forms would define a male style.

Feminine tradition would include such styles as Ionic order, Gothic, late Baroque, Rococo, Picturesque, Arts&Crafts movement, etc. Male tradition would be Doric order, Romanian style, Classicism, Modernism, Constructivism, etc.

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If I had to classify my current project in platform 4,it  would belong to the female tradition (if installations can be classified under architectural terms), thus in some way relating to Jugendstil. Not in Rococo type abundance of ornaments, but the piece I am making draws from animalistic behaviour, instincts, organic forms; it has floral characteristics, and is more of a plant than a piece of furniture. In terms of its appearance, its skin's texture, almost textile-like process of production it comes closer to Arts&Crafts manual craftmanship philosophy rather than mass production that fathers of Modernism propagated.


skin detail of my installation

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I believe Art Nouveau was a very successful style for illustration and fine art - theatralic, intrinsic, sensual. I'm especially fond of Aubrey Beardsley, not only as an artist, but as writer as well. His Story of Venus and Tannhauser is a wonderful book, with an enchanting manner of speech, so graceful and seductive.