Modernism after 1945

Mavlenkin AlexanderMIIGAiKMoscow

Introduction• For thirty years

after the Second World War the various images of modernity established in the 1920s and 1930s held undisputed sway, though in cases they were now developed and extended by the same architects, including Wright, Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Aalto.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Exterior of the Guggenheim Museum, New York City (des.1942-3; built 1957-60)

New forms – legacy or experiment• The most influential form-

givers in the years immediately after the war were Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe…Mies continued with his chill minimalism in steel and glass, while Corbusier developed a more sensational sculptural style, though generally expressed in the visually unalluring medium of concrete. Frank Lloyd Wright continued to be as prolific as ever…his work – science-fiction kitsch.

Le Corbusier: The chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut at Ronchamp, France, 1950-1955

Mies van der Rohe: Residential buildings on Lake-Shore-Drive 1950-1951

Frank Lloyd Wright: Synagogue BethShalom, Elkins Park, PA, USA, 1959

Mies van der Rohe• He had been appointed

professor of architecture in 1938 in Chicago. His work here celebrated an industrial vocabulary of steel-frame construction with glass and beige brick infill – American I-beam, there were cruciform columns he had used in the 1930s, which played an important visual and structural role.

Mies van der Rohe: IBM Plaza, Chicago, Illinois

Mies van der Rohe: Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1946—1951

Mies van der Rohe: Residential

buildings, USA, Chicago

Le Corbusier• In process of rethought as

a reinforced concrete structure following difficulties in the supply of materials Le Corbusier finally abandoned the smooth machine-wrought surfaces admired between the wars, in place of a deliberately rough finish displaying the impress of the timber planking in which the concrete had been cast…all of it led him to his beton brut (raw or unfaced concrete).

Le Corbusier: Building, Hansa, Berlin

Le Corbusier: The Centre Le Corbusier, art museum, Zürich, Switzerland, 1967

Beton brut appropriately known as New Brutalism• Raw and unfaced concrete

is landmark of this style. But also monumentality without resource to traditional classical vocabulary. The massiveness and near-megalomaniac scale of the Secretariat, the High Court and the Palace of the Assembly (parliament) with their distinctive profiles, especially the shell or parasol roofs of the Assembly, make them effective as sculptural symbols of civic order.

Le Corbusier: the Palace of the Assembly, Chandigarh, India, 1953-1963

Le Corbusier: the High Court , Chandigarh, India, 1953-1963

Le Corbusier: the Secretariat, Chandigarh, India, 1953-1963

Other architects on the same wave• Besides Le Corbusier there

were other architects, who liked raw materials and displayed in their work. Architects such as Peter Smithson in partnership with his wife Alison, their Secondary Modern School at Hunstanton, Norfolk, was the first monument of New Brutalism in England. Mies van der Rohe with his steel frame and brick-panel architecture. The heavy concrete buildings of Sir Denys Lasdun. The extensive work of Sir Leslie Martin in the International Modern Style. And one of the best known architects, who used in his work only natural materials and raw materials Alvar Aalto.

Alvar Aalto: The Nordic House, Reykjavík, 1968

Sir Denys Lasdun: Institute of Education, London, 1970–1976

Peter and Alison Smithson: Secondary Modern School, Hunstanton, Norfolk, 1954

Sir Leslie Martin: Brunswick

Centre, London, 1959

Alvar Aalto• In Finland Alvar Aalto, whom

some have praised for trying to give modern architecture a human face, entered in the 1940s into the most productive phase of his career. This began in 1946 with a residential building for senior students at the Institute, the Baker Dormitory. He used red brick like many old buildings in Boston, Cambridge, Yale and Princeton. It was his first use of red brick in a major urban building. One of his most plastic or neo-Expressionist compositions is the church Vuoksenniska. The plan of the nave comprises three asymmetrical shell forms which, in order to accommodate three different sizes of congregation, can be separated by sliding curved walls.

Alvar Aalto: the Baker Dormitory, MIT, Cambridge, 1947-49

Alvar Aalto: church Vuoksenniska, Imatra, Finland, 1955-58, section, model

Alvar Aalto: The church Vuoksenniska, Imatra, Finland, 1955-58

1960s and 1970s• In the 1960s and 1970s the

modern movement entered a Mannerist phase characterized by the playful use of elements previously taken with deadly seriousness. One of the most celebrated examples of late modernism is the Pompidou Centre, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The ideology of modernism, with its emphasis on the truthful approach to structure. The British architect Nicholas Grimshaw designed the Stock Exchange and Communications Centre, Berlin, as an example of what he called democratic openness and transparency. Avoiding a tower block, Grimshaw’s building recalls a metallic vertebrate with its back of nine steel arches. Foster, Rogers and Grimshaw were key figures in that time.

Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers : the Pompidou Centre, Paris, France, 1971 - 1977

Nicholas Grimshaw: 125 Park Road, London, 1968

Walter Gropius• He was key figure at sources of

Modernism. Gropius established Bauhaus like school (and also style) and then became its director 1919-1928. Then he worked in America, where he established “The Architects Collaborative, Inc.” which resulted in Graduate Center der Harvard University in Cambridge. In 1950s he returned to Berlin and received the title of Doctor of Free University of Berlin. His contribution to architecture can not be assessed, but his credo (intention is not to introduce students to a style but to a method of approach) is a guide for many architect schools all over the world.

Walter Gropius: Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926

Walter Gropius: Story Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 1950

Walter Gropius: the Fagus Factory, Alfeld an der Leine, Germany, 1910-11

Oscar Niemeyer• Architect-legend for all

contemporary architects. He established Brazilian National School of Contemporary Architecture. His career was growing up from 40s, it was period of Brazilian Modernism. First project in this style was Ministry of Education and Health. It was the first state-sponsored modernist skyscraper in the world, of a much larger scale than anything Le Corbusier had built until then. Brazilian Modernism employed local materials and techniques, like the azulejos linked to the Portuguese tradition; the revolutionized Corbusian brises-soleil, made adjustable and related to the Moorish shading devices of colonial architecture. His creation so extensively that we can talk about it for hours and hours.

Oscar Niemeyer: Edifício Copan, São Paulo, 1953-66

Oscar Niemeyer: the Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1936

Oscar Niemeyer: Palácio da Agricultura, 1950

Norman Foster• Recognizably late modern

in a different way are the buildings in England of this architect, example Willis-Faber and Dumas head office. This has a huge undulating façade entirely of bronze-tinted glass, which reflects surrounding buildings by day but is transparent when its interiors are illuminated at dusk. He established Team 4. Team 4 quickly earned a reputation for high-tech industrial design. His creation based on architecture of Russian architect Shuhov.

Norman Foster: Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, England, 1970, daylight

Norman Foster: Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, England, 1970, night

• Norman Foster: The HSBC Building, Hong Kong, 1980

Hans Scharoun• Man who was the one of

pioneers of ‘organic’ architecture. He was responsible for Philharmonie, the hall for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a late example of Expressionist or ‘organic’ architecture. The façade of the Philharmonic Concert Halls was provided with a cladding of gold-anodized aluminum plates; originally it was a white and ocher painted concrete facade.

Hans Scharoun: Philharmonic concert hall, Berlin, 1957-1963

• Hans Scharoun: Orplid-Hochhaus, Böblingen, Germany, 1967Hans Scharoun: Haus

Schminke, Germany, 1933

Main Architectural Terms• chill minimalism• reinforced concrete• steel-frame construction• beige brick infill• cruciform columns• smooth machine-wrought

surfaces• raw or unfaced concrete• parasol roofs• shell roofs• civic order• raw materials• steel frame• brick-panel architecture

• natural materials• red brick• nave• asymmetrical shell• sliding curved walls• metallic vertebrate• nine steel arches• scale• Azulejos• Corbusian brises-soleil• undulating façade• bronze-tinted glass• gold-anodized aluminum plates• ocher painted concrete façade

Resources• A History of Western Architecture (David Watkin)

Sources• Google pictures• Wikipedia• Wikipedia/wiki/Walter_Gropius• smallbay.ru/architec091.html• arx.novosibdom.ru/node/476• http://www.archandarch.ru/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Niemeyer• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Scharoun• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Norman_Foster,_Baron_Foster_of_Thames_Bank

MIIGAiK Honor Statement• This review was solely written by me. In no way

have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy any result in my being dismissed from Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.

Signed: Mavlenkin Alexander 27 March 2014