New Humanism

New Humanism

House of the Future

Palladian architecture

Exhibition – Parallel of Life and Art

CIAM and Team X

CIAM – Basic Principles/ Ideologies

The idea of Modern arch – link between architecture and economicsEconomic efficiency – not max. production but min. working effortNeed for economic efficiency – impoverished economyMost efficient method of production – rationalisation and standardisation

Rationalisation and standardisation react in 3 fold manner: a) demand arch. Conceptions leading to simplification of working methods on the site and factory b)building industry – less skilled force; more specialised labour c)consumer/ customer – revised reduced needs maximum satisfaction of greatest number

1928 CIAM – signed by 24 architectsEmphasised ‘building’ rather than ‘architecture’

BASIC IDEA – increasing housing production and superseding the ‘craft era’.

CIAM – 3 stages of development

i)1928 – 33

1929 – Congress 1Minimum building standards

1930 – Congress 2Optimum height and block spacingMost efficient use of land and material

1933-47Dominated by CorbusierConsciously shifted emphasis to town planning

CIAM IV – most comprehensive from urbanistic standpoint

The Functional City

The Athens Charter

Less practical but more visionary

Third and final stage of CIAM

CIAM VI – attempted to transcend the abstract sterility of ‘functional city’

But no indication that they were realistically capable

New affiliates – younger generation

DisillusionmentRestlessness

DECISIVE SPLIT – CIAM IX

-instead of alternative set of abstractions, searched for structural principles of Urban growth

DISSATISFACTION WITH MODIFIED FUNTIONALISM AND IDEALISM OF CORBUSIER

Responded to the simplistic model with a more complex pattern

Dwelling – greenWorking – redCultivating body and mind yellowCirculation - blue

Critical drive – To find a more precise relationship between ‘physical form’ and ‘socio pshycological’ need

Subject matter of CIAM X

Last meeting – Team X

Epitaph of CIAM written by Corbusier

Unite de habitation – Athens charter in practise

Corbusier hated the street

Urban re - identification grid of the Smithsons with street as a substantial component

Doorn manifesto

Alison and Peter Smithson

About them:

-English architects

-met while studying – married in 1949, established their own practice in 1950

What they were known for:

-Deliberate lack of refinement as an opposition to high modernism

-Leaders of New Brutalism

-Social and anthropological underpinnings

-Streets in the sky

-Oppositions against simplified and reductive Urbanist traditions

-Revolt against CIAM

Built projects:

•Smithdon High School, Hunstanton, Norfolk (1949–1954)•The House of the Future exhibition (at the 1956 Ideal Home Show)•Sugden House, Watford•The Economist Building, Piccadilly, London (1959–1965)•Garden building, St Hilda's College, Oxford (1968)•Private house extension for Lord Kennet, Bayswater, London, 1968•Robin Hood Gardens housing complex, Poplar, East London (1969–1972)•Buildings at the University of Bath, including the School of Architecture and Building Engineering (1988)•The last project the Cantilever-Chair Museum of the Bauhaus design company TECTA in Lauenfoerde / Germany

Unfortunately, Robin Hood Gardens suffered from high costs associated with the system selected and high levels of crime, all of which undermined the architects' vision of streets in the sky and their architectural reputation. With the exception of their work at Bath, they designed no further public buildings in Britain, relying instead mainly on private overseas commissions and Peter Smithson’s writing and teaching (he was a visiting professor at Bath from 1978 to 1990, and also a unit master at the Architectural Association School of Architecture).

Unbuilt projects:

Coventry Cathedral unsuccessful competition entry, 1951Golden Lane Estate unsuccessful competition entry, 1952Sheffield University, unsuccessful competition entryBritish Embassy, Brasília, Competition winning design, unbuilt due to financial constraints, 1961

Golden Lane housing project

•1952•London – bombed area reconstruction•IDEA – high density , low budget – need not result in poor quality of life•Brief – greatest possible number in terms of variety

•3 levels of streets in the air•Each level - deck•Each deck – 90 families – one social entity•Streets in the air – safe streets•All front doors open to deck – all backyards linked to deck

•Always changing backyarddead wall effect gone

Form and tectonics –Le Corbusier’s Unite d’ Habitation

But streets in the air – Sociological interpretation

Housing can multiply to form network over existing city

Wide open space near the street

2 spacious courtyards at the back

Modest community center and playground

11 storeys – 9 accessible by 3 streets in the air, 2 from ground levelConsn – 2 wings at right angles to rect block, or central block and 4 wings