Fantastic architecture (follies)

Airplane Service Station, Knoxville, Tennessee- then	and now…	Big Duck Store, Flanders, New York. 1930.
Bondurant Pharmacy (Lexington), Lexington, Kentucky- built in 1975 in the shape of a giant mortar and pestle.	The Gallon Measure Buchanan, NY	Shell Service Station (Winston-Salem), North Carolina
Wadham’s Oil and Grease Company of Milwaukee Service stations, Wisconsin.	Teapot Dome Service Station, Zillah, Washington	The original Brown Derby in Los Angeles, California, built in 1926
The Longaberger Company headquarters in Newark, Ohio	New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
Fantastic architecture is an American building fad or style designed to catch attention and make a building stand out from the competition. It largely developed in the early 20th Century after the introduction of the car. Examples of fantastic architecture, also known as exotic architecture, include filling and service stations, motels and retail establishments. This architectural style, in some instances, is a lesser quality “built” version of Andy Warhol’s commercial artwork. This style also foreshadowed trends in fast food restaurant design, such as McDonald’s golden arches. These structures take the form of airplanes, tepees, pyramids, castles, and even a mortar & pestle. Where more established architectural styles are integrated into Fantastic architecture, such as the use of a Japanese pagodas, the style is more accurately called Fantastic rather than Japanese due to the juxtaposition of use with style. Wadham’s Oil Company’s pagoda-style filling stations are an example of this. In the study of Art History and Architecture this is related to novelty architecture in which a structure is built in an unusual shape to attract attention and serve as a landmark in this case for product identification. Later McDonald’s exploited a similar shape for the design of their restaurants for the same purpose. In the 1930’s this intent by TEXACO resulted in their hiring the Industrial Designer Walter Dorwin Teague to redesign their service stations into an architectural profile that could be recognized even at a distance. His design however with minimalist lines, lattice fenestration and canopy over the gas pumps and entrance resembling a simplified “porte cochere” were more of a utilitarian nature than one of imaginative associations. However it was indeed a recognizable image for the company which continued to use architectural design as part of their corporate image into the 1960’s which by then utilized an open plan design with rusticated ashlar exterior finish. Teague as well designed the company logo for TEXACO in the 1930’s of the round sign with red star on a field of white and a green “T” for Texas in the center. He also inspired the use of the fireman’s hat as a corporate symbol for their various grades of gasoline such as “Fire Chief”. Examples of Fantastic-style structures Airplane Service Station, Knoxville, Tennessee Airplane Service Station, Paris, Tennessee Big Duck Store, Flanders, New York Bondurant Pharmacy (Lexington), Lexington, Kentucky Cookie Jar House, Glendora, New Jersey. Dutch Mill Filling Station, Heafford Junction, Wisconsin Shell Service Station (Winston-Salem), North Carolina Teapot Dome Service Station, Zillah, Washington Wadham’s Oil and Grease Company of Milwaukee Service stations, Wisconsin. References “Architecture and Landscaping. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture”. Oxford University Press, 1999, 2006. Links Airplane Service Station Website [Wisconsin Fantastic Architecture] Image gallery
Novelty architecture Novelty architecture is a type of architecture in which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes as a novelty, such as advertising, notoriety as a landmark, or simple eccentricity of the owner or architect. Many examples of novelty architecture take the form of buildings that resemble the products sold inside to attract drive-by customers. Others are attractions all by themselves, such as giant animals, fruits, and vegetables, or replicas of famous buildings. And others are merely unusual shapes or made of unusual building materials. Some hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip can be considered novelty architecture, including the pyramid-shaped Luxor Hotel and the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, a building designed to look like the New York City skyline. Novelty architecture is also used extensively in amusement parks such as Disneyland to fit their playful and sometimes retro theme. Programmatic architecture Lucy the Elephant, July 2004 Programmatic (also known as mimetic or mimic) architecture is characterized by constructions in the forms of objects not normally associated with buildings, such as characters, animals, people or household objects. There may be an element of caricature or a cartoonish element associated with the architecture. Lucy the Elephant, an architectural folly in Margate City, New Jersey The Longaberger Company’s head office in Newark, Ohio which is in the form of a giant basket In the 1930s, as automobile travel became popular in the United States, one way of attracting motorists to a diner, coffee shop, or roadside attraction was to build the building in an unusual shape, especially the shape of the things sold there. “Mimic” architecture became a trend, and many roadside coffee shops were built in the shape of giant coffee pots; hot dog stands were built in the shape of giant hot dogs; and fruit stands were built in the shape of oranges or other fruit. Tail o’ the Pup, a hot dog-shaped hot dog stand in Los Angeles, California Brown Derby, a derby-shaped restaurant Bondurant’s Pharmacy, a mortar-and-pestle pharmacy in Lexington, Kentucky Water towers Peachoid water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina Water towers, often a prominent feature in a small town, have often been shaped or decorated to look like everyday objects. Peachoid, a peach-shaped water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. There are other peach-shaped water towers in Perry, Georgia and Clanton, Alabama Teapot water tower in Lindstrom, Minnesota (see Gallery) Corn cob water tower in Rochester, Minnesota (see Gallery) Catsup bottle water tower in Collinsville, Illinois (see Gallery) Paul Bunyan’s Fishing Bobber water tower in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota (see Gallery) Coffee pot water tower in Stanton, Iowa Strawberry water tower in Poteet, Texas Teapot water tower in Kingsburg, California Storage tanks Several breweries and other businesses have designed holding tanks in the shape of giant cans of beer or other containers. “World’s Largest Hormel Chili Can” in Beloit, Wisconsin “World’s Largest Six-Pack” brewery holding tanks in La Crosse, Wisconsin Giant sculptures Cleveland Airport is known for its fanciful giant “paper” aircraft sculptures. Another aspect of novelty architecture is sculptures of ordinary items scaled to enormous size. Various roadside parks and attractions in the U.S. feature giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan and dinosaurs. Louisville Slugger Museum, a building in Louisville, Kentucky that features a giant baseball bat Cleveland Airport, which includes giant “paper” aircraft in one terminal. Cowboy boots at North Star Mall, San Antonio, Texas Nut-shaped sculptures in at least two American cities, Brunswick, Missouri and Seguin, Texas are claimed to be “the world’s largest pecan”. [1] The Brunswick pecan is much larger and heavier, but the Seguin pecan is arguably more realistically rendered. A giant rotating candy bar, reading “Curtiss Baby Ruth” on one side and “Curtis Butterfinger” on the other, at the former Curtiss Candy Company factory in Franklin Park, Illinois, since acquired (and redesigned) by Nestlé. Gigantic baseball paraphernalia and other novelties, such as bats and gloves, team logos, “big apples”, and even supersized Land O’Lakes milk bottles, at various baseball parks including Yankee Stadium, Comerica Park, AT&T Park, Anaheim Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Shea Stadium, and the Metrodome. Googie/populuxe architecture Architecture popular in the 1950s-1960s in southern California and in Florida featured sharp corners, tilted roofs, starburst designs, and fanciful shapes. This came to be known as Googie Doo Wop or populuxe architecture. Other Long-established firms whose features are well-known could still qualify as novelty architecture. A couple of examples would be McDonald’s original golden-arches design, originating in California as many of the novelty designs have; and the self-referencing design of the White Castle restaurants. Deconstructivism Some critics claim that much of today’s contemporary architecture under the guise of Deconstructivism is actually Novelty architecture. Practitioners include leading architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid.
Folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed strictly as a decoration, having none of the usual purposes of housing or sheltering associated with a conventional structure. They originated as decorative accents in parks and estates. “Folly” is used in the sense of fun or light-heartedness, not in the sense of something ill-advised. Characteristics The concept of the folly is somewhat ambiguous, but they generally have the following properties: They are buildings, or parts of buildings. Thus they are distinguished from other garden ornaments such as sculpture. They have no purpose other than as an ornament. Often they have some of the appearance of a building constructed for a particular purpose, but this appearance is a sham. They are purpose-built. Follies are deliberately built as ornaments. They are often eccentric in design or construction. This is not strictly necessary; however, it is common for these structures to call attention to themselves through unusual details or form. There is often an element of fakery in their construction. The canonical example of this is the sham ruin: a folly which pretends to be the remains of an old building but which was in fact constructed in that state. Related types Follies fall within the general realm of fanciful and impractical architecture, and whether a particular structure is a folly is sometimes a matter of opinion. However, there are several types which are related but which can be distinguished from follies. Fantasy and novelty buildings are essentially the converse of follies. Follies often look like real, usable buildings, but never are; novelty buildings are usable, but have fantastic shapes. The many American shops and water towers in the shapes of commonplace items, for example, are not properly follies. Eccentric structures may resemble follies, but the mere presence of eccentricity is not proof that a building is a folly. Many mansions and castles are quite eccentric, but being purpose-built to be used as residences, they are not properly follies. Some structures are popularly referred to as “follies” because they failed to fulfill their intended use. Their design and construction may be foolish, but in the architectural sense, they are not follies. Visionary art structures frequently blur the line between artwork and folly, if only because it is rather often hard to tell what intent the artist had. The word “folly” carries the connotation that there is something frivolous about the builder’s intent, and it is hard to say whether a structure like the Watts Towers was constructed “seriously”. Some works (such as the massive complex by Ferdinand Cheval) are considered as follies because they are in the form of useful buildings, but are plainly constructions of extreme and intentional impracticality. Amusement parks, fairgrounds, and expositions often have fantastical buildings and structures. Some of these are follies, and some are not; the distinction, again, comes in their usage. Shops, restaurants, and other amusements are often housed in strikingly odd and eccentric structures, but these are not follies. On the other hand, fake structures which serve no other purpose than decoration are also common, and these are follies. History Follies began as decorative accents on the great estates of the late 16th and early 17th centuries but they flourished especially in the two centuries which followed. Many estates were blessed with picturesque ruins of monastic houses and (in Italy) Roman villas; others, lacking such buildings, constructed their own sham versions of these romantic structures. Such structures were often dubbed “[name of architect or builder]’s Folly”, after the single individual who commissioned or designed the project. However, very few follies are completely without a practical purpose. Apart from their decorative aspect, many originally had a use which was lost later, such as hunting towers. Follies are misunderstood structures, according to The Folly Fellowship, a charity that exists to celebrate the history and splendour of these often neglected buildings. Follies are often found in parks or large grounds of houses and stately homes. Some were deliberately built to look partially ruined. They were especially popular from the end of the 16th century to the 18th century. Theme parks and world’s fairs have often contained “follies”, although such structures do serve a purpose of attracting people to those parks and fairs. Famine Follies The Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 led to the building of several follies. The society of the day held that reward without labour was misguided. However, to hire the needy for work on useful projects would deprive existing workers of their jobs. Thus, construction projects termed “famine follies” came to be built. These include: roads in the middle of nowhere, between two seemingly random points; screen and estate walls; piers in the middle of bogs; etc.[1]

Contemporary Neoclassical Architecture

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, TN, 2003. David N. Schwarz	Nashville Public Library, Nashville, TN, 2001. Robert AM Stern.	Jacksonville Public Library, Jacksonville,  FL, 2003. Robert AM Stern.
The Maitland Robinson Library at Downing College, designed by Quinlan Terry. 2003.
Neoclassicism today In some rare cases buildings in the United States, such as the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, are still being built in neoclassical style today. In Britain a number of architects are active in the neoclassical style. Two new university Libraries, Quinlan Terry’s Maitland Robinson Library at Downing College and Robert Adam Architects’ Sackler Library illustrate that the approach taken can range from the traditional, in the former case, to the unconventional, in the latter case. The majority of new neoclassical buildings in Britain are private houses. Firms like Francis Johnson & Partners specialise in new country houses. Neoclassical architecture is usually now classed under the umbrella term of “traditional architecture” and is practised by a number of members of the Traditional Architecture Group.
Link- www.ramsa.com

Arcology

The Try2004 Hyperstructure or Megacity as featured on the Discovery Channel’s Extreme Engineering programs.	McMurdo Station of the United States Antarctic Program	Arcosanti, Arizona (see below)
Crystal Island is a proposed arcology project in Moscow, Russia.	ZIGGURAT: proposed Dubai Carbon Neutral Pyramid to House 1 Million	MVRDV, “Dutch Pavilion for Expo 2000”, 2000. A fanciful concept for a self-sufficient building (see below).
Arcology Arcology, from the words “ecology” and “architecture,”[1] is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures, called “arcologies,” would contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities and minimize individual human environmental impact. They are often portrayed as self-contained or economically self-sufficient. The concept has been primarily popularized by architect Paolo Soleri, and appears commonly in science fiction. Eden Project, Cornwall, England Development The term arcology is restricted mainly to theoretical discussions and fictional depictions, such as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Oath of Fealty or as elements in video games, such as SimCity 2000, Escape Velocity Nova, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Call to Power II, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and Mass Effect. The first mention of arcology can be found in HG Wells’ When the Sleeper Wakes, published in 1899. A more in-depth description of arcology’s design principles can be found in “The Last Redoubt” from The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. In it Hodgson envisions structures complete with a full artificial ecology, agriculture, and public transport by mobile roadways. J.G. Ballard wrote a dystopian take on a self contained building which is much like an arcology in his 1975 novel High Rise. Yet another mention of the term can be found in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer. Similar real-world projects Arcosanti is an experimental town under construction in central Arizona. Designed by Paolo Soleri, its primary purpose is to demonstrate principles of arcology. Many cities in the world have proposed projects adhering to the design principles of the arcology concept, like Tokyo, and Dongtan near Shanghai. The first phase of Dongtan is scheduled to open by 2010. Certain cities and urban projects exhibit some characteristics that reflect the design principles of arcology. Pedestrian connection systems, like the +15 system in downtown Calgary, or the Minneapolis Skyway System are examples. They are self-contained apparatuses, with interconnected supermarkets, malls and entertainment complexes. The +15 is the world’s most extensive pedestrian skywalk system with a total length of 16 km (10 miles), and Minneapolis possesses the longest continuous system, with eight miles (13 km) of length. Co-op City in the Bronx, New York City is another example, with many services provided on-site. The Las Vegas Strip exhibits characteristics of arcology inspired design. Most of the major casino resorts are connected by tunnels, footbridges, and monorails. It is possible to travel from Mandalay Bay at the south end of the Strip to the Las Vegas Convention Center, three miles (5 km) to the north, without using streets. In many cases, it is possible to travel between several different casinos without ever going outdoors. The McMurdo Station of the United States Antarctic Program and other scientific research stations on the continent of Antarctica may most closely approximate the popular conception of an arcology as a technologically-advanced, self-sufficient human community. Although by no means entirely self-sufficient (the U.S. Military “Operation Deep Freeze” resupply effort delivers 8 million gallons of fuel and 11 million pounds of supplies and equipment yearly[3]) the base has a very insular character as a necessary shelter and protection from an extremely harsh environment, is geographically isolated from conventional support networks, and must avoid damage to the surrounding Antarctic ecosystem due to international treaty. It generates electricity with its own power plant, grows fruits and vegetables in a hydroponic green house,[4] and provides a full range of living and entertainment amenities. Crystal Island is a proposed arcology project in Moscow, Russia. In 2008 the design firm Timelinks proposed a 2.3 square kilometers 1 million inhabatant carbon-neutral super-structure to be built in Dubai, UAE with many arcology concepts (see Inhabitat » ZIGGURAT: Dubai Carbon Neutral Pyramid will House 1 Millionby Evelyn Lee). In popular culture Novels and comics H.G. Wells’s 1899 tale “When the Sleeper Wakes” describes a rudimentary version of pre-Soleri arcology, having developed from the evolution of transportation. They are hotel-like and dominate the surrounding landscape, having replaced all towns and cities though preserving their names.[5] William Hope Hodgson’s 1912 novel The Night Land features the first example of what we now would call an arcology, though the future Earthlings depicted — millions of years into the future, in fact — have different reasons for building their metallic pyramid.[6] In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s collaboration Oath of Fealty (1982), much of the action is set in and around Todos Santos, an arcology built in a burnt-out section of Los Angeles that has evolved a separate culture from the city around it. Niven also occasionally refers to arcologies in his Known Space series, particularly in the stories involving Gil Hamilton. In the novel The World Inside by Robert Silverberg, everyone lived in ‘Urban Monads’ that were self-contained three kilometer high hyperstructures. People hardly ever departed. In Isaac Asimov’s Robot Series, Earth’s population lives in large hyperstructures simply called Cities. In Asimov’s Empire and the The Foundation series, the capital planet Trantor of the galactic empire is a completely built-up planet, covered in its entirety with tall buildings and subterranean structures. All the remaining cities of the Earth are hyperstructures in Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy. In the Judge Dredd comic stories, originally published in 2000 AD comic, the megalopolis of Mega-City One consists of many hundreds, if not thousands, of City Blocks, in which a citizen can be born, grow, live, and die without ever leaving. William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy features various Arcologies, namely the “projects.” It is a megastructure that has been constructed with electricity, heat, oxygen, and food that it produced. They are also featured in the Bridge Trilogy. David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series depicts a dystopian future Earth in which almost the entire population lives within several hyperstructures that are thousands of feet tall and span entire continents. J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel “High Rise” featured a luxury arcology in which disparity between social classes among the residents eventually led to widespread anarchy and a reversion to primitive archetypes. In Samuel Youd’s 1967-68 trilogy of novels The Tripods, an alien race known as “The Masters” live in three huge domed arcologies built on Earth to use as a base from which to colonise the planet. The structures are made from a golden material, and are capped with a crystal that replicates the atmospheric conditions of The Masters’ home planet. In Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga novels, the inhabitants of the planet Komarr live in arcologies, as the surface of the planet is inhospitable. The James Blish and Normal L. Knight collaboration “A Torrent of Faces”, set in the future where a trillion people inhabit the earth, features several semi-enclosed ‘cities’ – massive buildings big enough to house, entertain and feed hundreds of millions of people, and therefore may be considered arcologies. The city/building of London apparently extends as far as the Cornish coast. Films and television Arcologies are common elements in futuristic anime and manga titles. An example would be the post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk series Appleseed by Masamune Shirow, in which hyperstructures dominate the skyline of the city Olympus. In the 1982 film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, the main offices of the fictional Tyrell Corporation (a Megacorp) resemble a hyperstructure. The Genom Tower arcologies (among other things) in the anime Bubblegum Crisis were partially inspired by the Tyrell hyperstructure; the series also features an underground “Geo City.” In the film Equilibrium, an arcology named Libria is the last human civilization, a society in which peace is kept by the forced administration of an injected liquid drug designed to completely suppress emotions. In the science-fiction movie series The Matrix, the last human city, known as Zion, is a hyperstructure. Due to nuclear scarring of the earth’s surface and atmosphere, the hyperstructure is buried deeply under ground. While ecologically sparse, the habitat’s climate is controlled by complex machinery in the lower levels. The population is in the realm of 200,000. Due to the nature of the aggression from the machines, Zion is an example of a heavily fortified hyperstructure. In the season four finale of the science fiction show Andromeda a large battle takes place in space around an antiquated space hyperstructure known simply as ‘Arcology’. In the episode “11:59” of Star Trek: Voyager’s fifth season (original air date: May 5, 1999), Earth’s first self-contained ecosystem known as “The Millennium Gate” was referenced. Said to be one kilometer tall and began construction in 2001. In a number of movies, most notably the Star Wars prequels, the cities in the more populated worlds have buildings many miles tall, effectively approaching the completely built-over world of Trantor in the classic Isaac Asimov Foundation trilogy. In episode 87 of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, the crew encounter Arkology, a peaceful society that live in a large self sufficient space station that obtains it’s materials from an asteroid. Video games The “Launch Arco”, from SimCity 2000 Will Wright’s computer game SimCity 2000 allows the construction of four different types of arcologies. More primitive models hold quite a few people in exchange for producing considerable pollution, but later models are denser and cleaner. When 250 of the most advanced model, the “Launch Arco” (pictured), are built, an “exodus sequence” starts in which all Launch Arcos blast into space. This parallels parts of Soleri’s book, in which hyperstructures were shown as being appropriate for environments in space, under the sea, in polar lands, etc. Another Wright game, Spore, features bubbled cities that serve the same function. In Wright’s 1990 SimEarth, “Nanotech Age” cities eventually advance to a mass exodus of the entire sentient species of the planet. Two levels of the computer game Deus Ex: Invisible War posits a futuristic arcology, simply called the Arcology, on the edge of an ancient medina in Cairo. The Domes seen in the 24th century in Chrono Trigger could be considered arcologies. In the computer game Afterlife, the player controlling Heaven and Hell can eventually purchase Love Domes or Omnibulges. Functioning similarly to arcologies, these structures are the remnants of transcended/destroyed Heaven/Hells that are able to hold billions of souls. In the computer game Civilization: Call to Power, the “Arcology Advance,” found in a near future part of the technology list, grants access to the Arcology building, which reduces overcrowding effects in its host city. This is also available in Call to Power II In the computer game Escape Velocity: Nova, many planets that are part of the Auroran Empire have multiple arcologies on them. Many of their populations number in the hundreds of billions. The tutorial in the computer game Dystopia takes place in Yggdrasil’s first arcology. The wholly self-sustained utopian society ‘Rapture’ in the computer and Xbox 360 game BioShock is an underwater example of an arcology. In Mass Effect the Codex explains that Earth is composed mainly of Arcology buildings. In the manga and anime world of BLAME! the plot takes place only in a gigantic megastructure/arcology simply called the City, which is still being expanded by its automatic systems. Role-playing and table-top games In the table-top strategy game Warhammer 40,000, hyperstructures, called “hives,” are extremely common and are the main method of housing large populations. Arcologies are so widespread that some planets, Holy Terra and Mars amongst others, dubbed ‘hive worlds’, are constructed entirely of hyperstructures. Necromunda, an off-shoot game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, involves conflict between rival gangs on the hive world of Necromunda. In the RPG Shadowrun, a number of hyperstructures such as the “Renraku Arcology” exist by 2050, most of which are mega-corporate controlled. A major theme to these is the desire of a large corporation to control every aspect of its employees’ lives. A major meta-plot element was the sealing off of the aforementioned Renraku Arcology in Seattle when the advanced computer control system awakened into a self-aware AI named Deus. In the RPG Trinity, a number of hyperstructures exist, with the largest being that of the New New York Arcology run by the Psi-Order Orgotek. In the RPG Rifts, the capital of the Coalition States is the city of Chi-Town. Chi-town (as well as several other Coalition cities) is considered a “Mega-City”, in that the entire city is housed inside one giant structure, which consists of more than thirty levels, each several stories high, and several sub-levels. The tongue-in-cheek RPG Paranoia primarily takes place in the futuristic and mostly computer controlled arcology Alpha Complex. In R.Talsorian’s follow up to Cyberpunk 2020, Cybergeneration, one of the player archetype Yo-Gangs was called the “Arcorunner”. The character was a child who has grown up in the arcologies, knowing every aspect about them. In WildFire’s CthulhuTech RPG, humanity has been forced to live in fortified arcologies due to attacks from the Old Ones and the Migou. In Mindstorm’s Alpha Omega RPG, the world’s populations have retreated into arcology city-states to protect themselves from the war-torn decimation of the Earth’s surface References ^ Soleri, Paolo (1973), The Bridge Between Matter & Spirit is Matter Becoming Spirit; The Arcology of Paolo Soleri, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, pp. 46, ISBN 9780385023610 ^ British to help China build ‘eco-cities’ | Business | The Observer ^ Modern Marvels: Sub-Zero. The History Channel. ^ Antarctic Hydroponics web site ^ Town In One Building by H.G. Wells from When the Sleeper Wakes ^ Hodgson, William Hope (1912), The Night Land Further reading Soleri, Paolo Arcology: The City in the Image of Man 1969:Cambridge, Massachusetts MIT Press
Dutch Pavilion. Hanover. MVRDV. 2000 Ecology, congestion, population density, the relationship between natural and artificial: these are the themes addressed by MVRDV of Holland in their Dutch Pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hanover. The Dutch Pavilion takes concepts of design and investigation of the city begun in previous years into greater depth and is one of the main emblems of the practice’s great vitality and ability to innovate, qualities its members have demonstrated in addressing the theme of new urban design since the ’90s. Here the architectural idiom acts as a go-between, a filter through which to propose new solutions to the problems of pollution, depletion of natural resources, congestion and liveability in our cities. The pavilion emphasises the relationship between natural and artificial from the formal point of view too, by juxtaposing and overlapping opaque and clear materials, greenery and technology, areas open to the outside and others which are closed off. In this “assemblage” we find the particular vocabulary of MVRDV, which developed building types based on the juxtaposition and combination of different elements in the ’90s and has continued to apply them since. But in Hanover it is the landscape architecture that truly stands out, with its particular function of forging the environment. The pavilion structure is in fact characterised by six different overlapping concepts of landscape. From the ground floor, a “dune landscape” takes us to a “greenhouse landscape”, a space in which nature, and above all agricultural produce, reveal their strong link with life even in today’s high tech world. In the “pot landscape”, large vases contain the roots of trees on the upper level, while screens and digital images express messages in light and colour. “Rain landscape” is dedicated to water, which becomes a screen and a support for audiovisual messages; large tree trunks populate the “forest landscape”, while at the top of the building a “polder landscape” contains large wind vanes and a big green area. The current relevance of the theme of ecology, sustainability and a new relationship with nature is thus conveyed through strongly iconic architecture, becoming the first work to bring MVRDV to the attention of critics the world over. Laura Della Badia Special thanks to http://www.floornature.com/articoli/articolo.php?id=675&sez=3&tit=Dutch-Pavilion.-Hanover.-MVRDV.-2000
Arcosanti Arcosanti panoramaArcosanti is an experimental town that began construction in 1970 in central Arizona, 70 miles (110 km) north of Phoenix, at 34°20′35″N 112°6′6″WCoordinates: 34°20′35″N 112°6′6″W, elevation 3,732 feet (1,130 meters). Architect Paolo Soleri, using a concept he calls arcology (a portmanteau of architecture and ecology), started the town to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact on the earth. Overview Arcosanti is being built on 25 acres (0.1 km²) of a 4,060 acre (16 km²) land preserve, keeping its inhabitants near the natural countryside. The Arcosanti web site describes how an arcology functions in Arcosanti: “The built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. Many systems work together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for lighting, heating and cooling.” Paolo Soleri is the founding architect of Arcosanti. Soleri coined the term Arcology.[1] In an arcology, architecture and ecology come together in the design of the city. The major concepts of an arcology are complexity, miniaturization, and duration. The long-term design of Arcosanti has changed somewhat multiple times since work began. The eventual target population is somewhere between 3,000 and 6,000. The current population generally varies between 70 and 160, depending on the number of students and interns working at the time. Existing structures include a four-story visitors’ center/cafe/gift shop, the bronze-casting apse (quarter-dome) carefully situated to admit maximal winter sun and minimal summer sun, a ceramics apse, two large barrel vaults, a ring of apartment residences and storefronts around an outdoor amphitheatre, a community swimming pool, an office complex, and Soleri’s suite. A two-bedroom “Sky Suite” occupies the highest point in the complex and is available for overnight guests. In Arcosanti, apartments, businesses, production, technology, open space, studios, and educational and cultural events are all accessible, while privacy is paramount in the overall design. Greenhouses are planned to provide gardening space for public and private use, and act as solar collectors for winter heat. Architecturally, Arcosanti is remarkable for its use of tilt-up concrete panels cast in a bed of silt from the local landscape. The silt gives the concrete a unique texture and color, helping the structure to blend with the land. Art is ever-present in the city, with most ceilings having silt-cast art panels embedded on them. All rooftops are accessible, adding another dimension to the city. The intricate, organic design of the city maximizes land use, so the city feels much bigger than it actually is. Similarly, the entire population of the city may be small, but living closely in a dynamic environment increases interactions and bonds, creating abundant stimulus and opportunity. The city serves as an educational complex where workshops and classes are offered. Students from around the world are constructing Arcosanti. In addition, about 50,000 tourists visit Arcosanti each year. Funds to build Arcosanti are raised through the sale of windbells. More funds are raised from workshop tuitions, which people (“workshoppers”) pay for a five-week hands-on experience. Workshoppers, together with the resident construction crew, are the principal means by which Arcosanti is constructed. Jon Jerde acknowledged Paolo Soleri as being one of his influences, and continues to build arcologies throughout the world. Criticism Arcosanti has been criticized for a lack of funding to realize its vision within a practical timeframe. It has been suggested that even if any major discoveries or theories are achieved through the gradual development of the Arcosanti project, there is now no formal structure to gather, record, and disseminate these ideas to interested stakeholders. The internet, however, may be a perfect host for these purposes. Others argue that Arcosanti has succeeded more as an educational project. It has hosted over 6,000 participants over what has been almost 40 years. Each person that participates brings part of their experience home with them and to their communities and professional disciplines, disseminating the principles learned. References ^ Paolo Soleri Biography, Arcosanti.org

Fantasy Architecture

Section based on exhibition Fantasy Architecture- see link http://www.ngca.co.uk/home/default.asp?id=45 (special thanks).
Image: Peter Cook Design for Sleektower and Veranda Tower, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 1984 Print, coloured (101 x 73.5 cm) RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Stephen Rowland Pierce (1896-1966) Design for postwar reconstruction of the “Metropolis of Britain”, 1942 Brown pen and wash RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Philip Armstrong Tilden (1887-1956) Design for a tower for Selfridge’s department store, Oxford Street, London, 1918 Pen RIBA Library Drawings Collection
Will Alsop The Fourth Grace, 2002 Digital print (dimensions variable) © Alsop Architects Limited. Image by Virtual Artworks.	Alexander Carse (fl.1794-1838) View of the Willow Cathedral, 1792 Watercolour RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects Morecambe Nightview, 1991 Crayon and ink on film (162 x 860 cm) © Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects
Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, Hood & Fouilhoux, and C. Howard Crane Design for International Music Hall and Opera House, Hyde Park Corner, London, c.1935 Interior perspective of Grand Foyer Gouache and gold paint RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Étienne Louis Boullée (1728-1799) Project for a metropolian cathedral in the form of a Greek cross with a domed centre, 1782 Pen and grey wash RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Foreign Office Architects World Trade Centre, New York, 2002 Digital Print (dimensions viable) © Foreign Office Architects
John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906) and Edward Beckitt Lamb (1857-1934) Design for the Imperial Monumental Halls and Tower, Westminster, London, 1904 Watercolour on board RIBA Library Drawings Collection	Softroom Mason Canif, 1997 Digital image © Softroom	FAT (Fashion, Architecture, Taste) Princess Diana Memorial Bridge, London, 1988 Digital Print (dimensions variable) © FAT
Lodon of the “future”.	Cite Industrielle by Garnier, 1908.	Citta Nuova by Sant’Elia, 1914.
Ville Contemporaine by Le Corbusier, 1934.	Walking city by Herron & Harvey, 1963.	Plug-in city by Cook, 1964 & Cook’s Tricking Tower, 1978-79.. These images illustrate Archigram’s two main concepts, expandablity and prefabrication.
Lang’s vision of future in Metropolis.	Le Corb’s Plan Voisin, 1925.	Mies’ glass skyscraper, 1922.
Imagined buildings, structures and schemes – from designs for palaces by medieval masters to futuristic film sets.Featuring the work of visionary figures as diverse as Inigo Jones, Joseph Paxton, Robert Adam, John Soane, Edwin Lutyens, Archigram and Foreign Office Architects, Fantasy Architecture includes a wealth of historical and contemporary drawings. Paintings, models, collage, film and computer renderings of designs for buildings that might have changed our lives, or could still do so, are also presented. An explosion of building activity across Britain has made headlines over the past decade, with lottery-funded projects transforming towns and cities. Architects’ impressions, which herald these projects, have become familiar. Yet these designs for built and un-built projects have been produced for hundreds of years, from ink and wash drawings to the computer animations of today. Many were intended to enthuse and convince clients about real schemes, but some were private fantasies. This exhibition explores how the world might look today had the politics, the economics, the technical possibilities and the tastes of our predecessors been different. Fantasy Architecture is divided into eight sections; Private Worlds, looks at domestic environments, including the architect and design studio Softroom’s 1998 commission for Wallpaper* magazine showing a radical alternative vision of twenty-first century domesticity. Anchor Blocks; F.A.D. Richter & Co., Max Clenndining, Foreign Office Architects, Ernö Goldfinger, Louis Hellman, James Kennedy-Hawkes, Edwin Lutyens, Christopher Nicholson, Ora-Ïto, Eric Parry, John Smythson, Robert Smythson, Softroom, Berthold Lubetkin, Ushida Findlay, Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, Clough Williams-Ellis The Appliance of Science includes designs by the adventurous counter-cultural group Archigram, as well as NASA Ames Research Center’s scheme for a space settlement developed in the 1970s. Alsop Architects, Ove Nyquist Arup, Eduardo Fernando Catalano, James Clephan, Peter Cook, Ronald Aver Duncan, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Stephen Geary, Joseph Hartland, Ron Herron; Archigram, William Low, Greg Lynn; FORM, Virgilio Marchi, NASA Ames Research Center, Raymond McGrath, Nils Norman, Geoff Shearcroft/AOC Megastructure includes Asymptote’s recent design for the New York Virtual Stock Exchange with streams of financial data as a dynamic virtual environment and Joseph Paxton’s 1855 vision for a monumental ten mile Great Victorian Way, combining shops, hotels and restaurants with an elevated railway. Asymptote, Charles Barry, John Belcher, Etienne Louis Boullée, W. Bridges, Peter Cook; Archigram, Constant, Freedom Ship International, Charles Holden, Marshall & Tweedy with Oliver Bernard and Partners, Leslie Martin, Joseph Paxton, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Superstudio Vertical Visions reveals un-built plans for a new World Trade Center by Foster and Partners and a design for a bombastic tower commissioned by Gordon Selfridge in 1918 to perch atop his London department store. Stefan Buzas, Peter Cook, Elgo Plastics Inc., Foster and Partners, MVRDV, Thomas Rickman and Richard Charles Hussey, R. Seifert and Partners, Paolo Soleri, Philip Armstrong Tilden, King Vidor, Wim Wenders, Alfred Waterhouse Past Perfect shows visions of imaginary landscapes and panoramas inspired by legend and archaeological evidence. Robert Adam, The Adventure Company/Wanadoo, Henry Carlton Bradshaw, Henry William Brewer, Alexander Carse, Charles Robert Cockerell, Raymond Erith and Quinlan Terry, Takehiko Nagakura, Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Pastrone, Arthur Beresford Pite, William Walcot, Paul Wegener and Carl Boese City Futures offers a glimpse of things to come in works like Fast Forward, 2001, a film designed to test visual memory of London’s skyline. Michael Anderson, Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects, David Butler, George Dance, Balkrishna V. Doshi, EA Games, Maurice Elvey, Hayes Davidson, Zaha Hadid, Helmut Jacoby, Virgilio Marchi, Eric Mendelsohn, William Cameron Menzies / László Moholy-Nagy, William Noel Moffett, John Buonarotti Papworth, Stephan Rowland Pierce, Gaston Quiribet, Rodney Thomas, Clough Williams-Ellis All the World’s a Stage includes the lavishly ornamented Renaissance set designs of the Galli Bibiena Family and a sketch for a Fun Palace of 1974 by Cedric Price. John Alexander, Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects, Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, Hood & Fouilhoux and C. Howard Crane, Antonio Galli Bibiena, Giovanni Carlo Galli Bibiena, Guiseppe Galli Bibiena, Inigo Jones, Cedric Price In Memoriam, is at once serious and humorous. It includes designs for a Princess Diana Memorial Bridge by FAT as well as Claes Oldenburg’s 1966 maquette for a monument to the mini-skirt. William Chambers, FAT, John Flaxman, Foreign Office Architects, Foster and Partners, Ernö Goldfinger, Francis Goodwin, Thomas Affleck Greeves, Thomas Harrison, Louis Hellman, Hector Horeau, Tom Mellor, Claes Oldenburg, John Pollard Seddon and Edward Beckitt Lamb, John Soan.
With special thanks to http://www.ngca.co.uk/home/default.asp?id=45 Link- http://courses.arch.hku.hk/ComGraphics/02-03/students/ywlam/dissert/all.htm

Metabolist Movement

Japanese Metabolists
Living in a capsule (Akira Shibuya 1966, Youji Watanabe 1967, Kisho Kurokawa 1970-72). The Nakagin Capsule Tower	Kenzo Tange’s classic (and unrealized) Metabolist planning scheme for Tokyo Bay. 1960.	Kiyonoiri Kikutake, Marine City (1958-63).
Western Emulators
Habitat, Montreal Expo, 1967 World’s Fair, Montreal, Quebec (Moshe Safdie, 1967)	Funnel city ‘Intrapolis’ (Walter Jonas 1960)	Space city (Yona Friedman 1959-63)
Yona Friedman	Yona Friedman- proposed building a suspended city in a huge space frame.	Akro-Polis leisure city (Justus Dahinden 1974)
“Urban structures for the future” Justus Dahinden (1971)
Leisure city Kiryat Ono near Tel Aviv (Justus Dahinden 1984)	Overbuilding the city of Ragnitz (Günther Domenig 1963-69) Überbauung Ragnitz-Graz	Swimming Hotel Kairo (Justus Dahinden 1972)
The unity of pop and machine: Archigram
Plug-in-City, Living Pod and Capsule Tower (Peter Cook 1964-66)	Walking City and Instant City (Ron Herron 1964-70)	Trickling Towers and Layer City (Peter Cook 1978-82)
Metabolist MovementIn 1959 a group of Japanese architects and city planners joined forces under the name the Metabolists. Their vision of a city of the future inhabited by a mass society was characterized by large scale, flexible and extensible structures that enable an organic growth process. In their view the traditional laws of form and function were obsolete. They believed that the laws of space and functional transformation held the future for society and culture. Metabolism’s development in Post World War II Japan meant that much of the work produced in the movement is primarily concerned with housing issues. The group’s work is often called technocratic and their designs are described as avant-garde with a rhetorical character. The work of the Metabolists is often comparable to the unbuilt designs of Archigram. The origins of the Metabolist movement lie at the end of the 1950s. After the fall of CIAM, which ceased its operations in 1958, the ideas of Team X were of great influence to young architects around the globe, also influencing young Japanese architects (i.e. Kisho Kurokawa). The World Design Conference of 1960 was to be held in Japan and a group of young Japanese architects were involved with the planning of the conference. Takashi Asada, Kisho Kurokawa, Noboru Kawazoe and Kiyonori Kikutake met and discussed frequently and began to think about the next generation of Japanese architecture. During the conference the Metabolist group presented their first declaration: Metabolism 1960 – a Proposal for a new Urbanism. Contributors to this work were Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Kisho Kurokawa and Kiyoshi Awazu.[2] The idea of Metabolism implemented in modern culture was, besides architectural, also philosophical. The individual members of the group soon went their own way and their designs in the Osaka Exposition of 1970 can be seen as their last work together. Their designs relied heavily on technological advancements and they often consist of adaptable plug-in megastructures. Famous projects included the floating city in the sea (Unabara project), Kiyonari Kikutake’s Marine City, tower city, ocean city, the wall city, the agricultural city and the ‘Helix City’ by Kisho Kurokawa, as well as his Nakagin Capsule Tower. References ^ Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, (Oxford University Press 1980) p.348. ^ Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, (London; Studio Vista , 1977) p.26-27.
Archigram
In a combination of technological belief, architectural extremity, love of pop inspired culture and vision of a technocratic future and desire for social change, archigram dominated the architectural avant garde in the 1960s and early 1970s    The group collaborative efforts produced hilarious, provocative challenges to bauhaus models of architecture, exploding our notion of architectural practice and the limits of reality. It was formated in 1961 by a group of young London architects – Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron and Michael Webb. The unique strength of the working group that became the fulcrum of Archigram was that it was six people with a range of greatly differing perspectives, tastes, skills, age, politics and backgrounds.   Walking City in New York, 1964    one more sketch by architect  Ron Herron, Archigram, of the walking city:   Archigram, was also the name of their famous broadsheet whose title sheet proclaimed that it ‘was founded as an occasional journal/manifesto of dynamic ideas for new architecture.’ The first issue in May 1961 was priced ninepence. By issue 9, in 1970 it was selling over 5000 copies, in many countries. The power of the manifesto, especially in its drawn form, to promote concepts and advance their own and others’ thinking, was crucial in Archigram’s attack on conventional thinking. There are connotations here of the Futurists, the Italian Urbanists, and the Metabolists, of whose work Archigram were aware, as they were of many other architectural influences in the USA, Europe and Japan – notably Buckminster Fuller, Louis Kahn and the Vienna circle. Read more     Plug In City, Mixed media collage by Peter Cook for Archigram. 12 x 18.5 in.       PLUG-IN CITY, © Peter Cook, Archigram    A 3 dimentional model of the PLUG-IN CITY:       Instant City Airships, 1968, Archigram INSTANT CITY, 1970 © Ron Herron, Archigram
Thanks to http://moooonriver.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!F50083AB13224D70!8503.entry

Formalist Architecture

Formalism or formalization is the activity or its product which rigorously follows a set/system of rules previously defined and usually known.
Musée du Louvre, Paris, I. M. Pei, 1989	La Pyramide Inversée, Paris, I. M. Pei, 1989	Danteum, Rome, Italy; Giuseppe Terragni 1937
Falk house, Hardwick, VT. Peter Eisenman, 1969	Snyderman House, Michael Graves	Palace of the Assembly, Chandigarh, India; Le Corbusier, 1953-1963
The Bank of China Tower, 1990, by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Ieoh Ming Pei As the name suggests, Formalism emphasizes form. The architect is interested in visual relationships between the building parts and the work as a whole. Shape, often on a monumental scale, is the focus of attention. Lines and rigid geometric shapes predominate in Formalist architecture. It represents a break from pure Functionism, and a renewed interest in monumental qualities and an interest in form for expressive purposes. Eero Saarinen was a major proponent of Formalism. You will find Formalism in many Modernist buildings, especially in Bauhaus and International Style architecture. Architect I.M. Pei has often been praised for the “elegant formalism” of his works.
Following with special thanks to http://www.thearchitectpainter.com/
MOVE + MEANING1   What is formalism?I have been thinking about this question since reading the special issue of ANY (7/8) on Colin Rowe, especially because I think of myself, at least on one level, as a formalist. But clearly there is disagreement and uncertainty today as to what formalism is, and the opinion of its relevance to an advanced architecture tends to be alternately noncommittal or pejorative. Moreover, there is obviously no consensus as to whether Rowe himself is a formalist. Peggy Deamer, who alone mentions the Russian formalists, comes closest to defining formalism in suprapersonal terms. These terms are relevant, though I would argue with some of the finer points of her explanation that seem to imply that strange-making, or defamiliarization, is more a psychological phenomenon than a formal one. As Victor Erlich points out in his classic study Russian Formalism: Theory and Doctrine, the Russian Formalists believed that “before trying to explain anything, one should find out what it is.” And if this has a tautological ring to it, it is also rather nicely consistent with Rowe’s dedication to the idea of the scholar-as-detective, which Paulette Singley recalls in her fascinating article in the same issue. Anyway (as I believe Colin Rowe would say), I appreciate being provoked into re/investigating this question. An important source for the definition of formalism is Rosalind Krauss’s brilliant essay in Houses of Cards, “Death of a Hermeneutic Phantom: Materialization of the Sign in the work of Peter Eisenman.” The essay firmly convinces the reader of five things: (1) 20th-century formalism had its origin in literary theory, specifically Russian formalism; (2) 20th-century formalism was therefore inextricably linked at its point of origin to the avant-garde, namely modernism; (3) 20th-century formalism was the “strategic conversion of transparency into opacity” (the former related to everything that was not art and the latter to everything that was) and relied on a taxonomy of devices for defamiliarizing the artistic object; (4) Rowe, who stressed that architecture is a form of text and concerned himself (with Robert Slutsky) with the issue of false versus a true transparency, is a formalist/modernist; (5) given this and given the fact that Eisenman’s House I and House II are paradigmatic examples of 20th-century formalism in architecture, formalism can’t be all bad. Moreover, Krauss’s identification of the transition from formalism to structuralism in Eisenman’s work—”the dispersal of unities into a field of differences”—is significant, for it introduces the question: Irrespective of what formalism may actually turn out to be, once we do find out what it is, is it still relevant? That is, if “post-formalism” is now in, isn’t formalism out? Can formalism really function today as an operative intellectual construct for an advanced architecture? I think yes. If, as Alan Colquhoun writes, “the problem of architecture is part of a larger problem involving the whole notion of art,” then the potential for meaningful formalist research in architecture is inexhaustible. It addresses the timeless problem of form and content—or, as is suggested by the chess analogy that fascinated both Victor Shklovsky and Ferdinand Saussure, the problem of move and meaning. Her, it is clear that the Russians working during the cultural upheaval of 1910s, whose principal organization was Opojaz (The Society for the Investigation of Literature), reinvented the nature of this relationship. Shklovsky’s attempt to define a non-objective literature in terms of devices and techniques applied to materials (which he initiated the same year, 1915, as Malevich’s revolutionary exhibition of non-objective paintings and publication of his manifesto “Living in a Non-Objective World”) has come down to us as a dilemma of the unity versus the separability of form and content. Is form content?  Do the elements of content have an independent existence, exempt from the adopted laws of aesthetic structure? Is there content—in Mondrian painting, for example—that sustains what might be called the “truth” of the aesthetic object (so as to different it from a forgery), but that is categorically invisible? Though Shklovsky tried to expose the fallacy of the notion of separable content, he was tripped up by the double problem of philosophical and semantic complexities and ultimately failed in his attempt to articulate a cogent, mature position on the issue. He thus made it possible to consider the problem of the unity of form and content under the rubric of formalism in two very different ways. As Erlich write: “Was he implying that all that matters in art is form, or was he simply saying that everything in the work of art is necessarily formed, i.e., organized for an esthetic purpose?” I am currently more interested in the latter proposition—but, to the degree that the architectural equivalent of forgery is avoided; I do not reject the validity of the former. I am also trying to sort out the degree to which my acceptance of this formalist position is really at odds with Meyer Schapiro’s counter-argument against the unity of form and content. In “On Perfection, Coherence, and unity of Form and Content,” Schapiro wrote: “In practice, form and content are separable for the artist who, in advance of the work, possesses a form in the habit of his style that is available to many contents and a conception of a subject or theme rich in meaning and open to varied treatment. In the process of realization these separable components of his project are made to interact, and in the finished work there arise unique qualities, both of form and meaning, as the offspring of this interaction, with many accords but also with qualities distinctive for each.” All architecture seems to be a conscious or unconscious commentary on this larger problem of art. So though it is popular idea that formalism is to poetics as syntax is to meaning (see Mario Gandelsonas in ANY), I am persuaded by the Russians that not only syntax simply one of the devices of art, but that formalism is not situated on one side of the virgule in the form/content, move/meaning dialect. Rather, the dialect is at the very center of formalism’s philosophical construct. I have begun to sort out formalism’s identity and relevance in the following way: as it has a descended from the post-cubist contemplations of the Russian literary avant-garde, formalism is not a sterile aesthetic purism, a narrowly focused, perhaps even formulaic, obsessions with syntax or composition. Nor is it a simplistic “art for art’s sake” doctrine that promotes form over content, or even simply form as content. Instead, it is a far more serious, multivalent, and equivocal proposition. If it centers on three major ideas—devices, conventions and density (opacity)—and if its goal is toward art as strange-making, which involves a formal procedure whereby the object is transferred to a sphere of new perception, then it asks us to consider the possibility of an architecture whose aim, like poetry, is “to make perceptible the texture of the world in all aspects,” as Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum asserted. And if poetry is “a complex transaction involving the semantic and morphological, as well as the phonetic, levels of language,” as mature Russian formalism ultimately concluded, if the aesthetic dimension of art lies not in the absence of meaning but in multiplicity/density of meanings, then this recognition is still important for the contemplation of an advanced, poetic architecture today. Moreover, the degree to which architecture of such multivalent density is realized raises the critical distinction between the visible and the visual. I would argue that the interrelation of the visible (the aesthetic) and the invisible (the poetic) constitutes the visual, and that formalism, therefore, ultimately addresses the problem of vision. As such, it questions what the critical intelligent eye sees. Mondrian and other De Stijl artists understood vision to be first, both optical and plastic (the latter refers to seeing underlying relations or abstraction), and second, the intellectual “seeing” of nonaesthetic ideas. This complex network of visible /invisible interrelationship calls to mind Rosalind Krauss’s image of “the infrastructure of vision.” Thus I would hold that an architecture may be said to be part of a 20th-century formalist enterprise to the degree that (1) the techniques and devices of the visible, as applied to materials (both two-dimensional graphic notations and three-dimensional constructions) comprise a rigorous suprapersonal system; (2) the result is an architectural object that is strange with respect to everyday building (if not also with respect to the current advanced style); (3) this strange-making comprises a dense “infrastructure of vision.” In other words, modern formalism, dialectical in nature because it includes the problem of form/content, move/meaning, is an unfamiliar nexus of the aesthetic/poetic (morphologic/semantic) that operates at a heightened order of difficulty and multivalence and is ruled by the adopted conventions (i.e. the suprapersonal system) of aesthetic structure. Perhaps 20th-century formalism is found somewhere in the visual infrastructure established by four familiar architectural paradigms: Le Corbusier’s Villa de Monzie at Garches, Giuseppe Terragni’s Danteum, Eisenman’s House I [and/or House II], and Michael Grave’s Snyderman House [as well as/better yet: Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Assembly at Chandigarh]. And though we will soon move into the 21st century, we are far from exhausting the lessons of these and similar formalist/modernist models.     1. Villa de Monzie/Stein, Garches, France; Le Corbusier, 1927 [For additional images click here]   2. Danteum, Rome, Italy; Giuseppe Terragni 1937 [For additional images click here]   3. House I, Barenholtz Pavilion, Princeton, NJ; Peter Eisenman, 1967   4. House II, Falk House, Hardwick, Connecticut; Peter Eisenman, 1969   5. Snyderman House, Michael Graves,     6. Palace of the Assembly, Chandigarh, India; Le Corbusier, 1953-1963 [For additional images click here]     QUESTION: Is this an example of 20th-century Move|Meaning-formalism? 7. Casa Mila (La Pedrera), Barcelona, Spain; Antonio Gaudi, 1905-1910 (see Barcelona: TRIALECTIONS: GAUDI, MIES & MEIER)
Special thanks to http://www.thearchitectpainter.com/

Structuralist Architecture

European Space Centre ESTEC, restaurant conference-hall library, in Noordwijk by Aldo van Eyck and Hannie van Eyck, 1989	Press Center in Kofu (Kenzo Tange 1967)	Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth by Louis Kahn 1972
Habitat, Montreal Expo, 1967 World’s Fair, Montreal, Quebec (Moshe Safdie, 1967)	Urban district Oude Haven in Rotterdam (Piet Blom 1985)	Salk Institute in La Jolla California (Louis Kahn 1965)
Urban Planning
Barcelona (Gridiron Plan)	Amsterdam (Basic structure: U-shape)	Venice (Basic structure: S-shape)
Structuralism (architecture) Diagoon Experimental Housing (participation) in Delft by Herman Hertzberger 1971 Structuralism as a movement in architecture and urban planning evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to CIAM-Functionalism (Rationalism), which had led to a sterile expression of urban planning that ignored the identity of the inhabitants and urban forms. Two different manifestations of Structuralist architecture exist. Sometimes these occur in combination with each other. On the one hand, there is the “Aesthetics of Number” (comparable to cellular tissue), and on the other hand, the “Architecture of Lively Variety” (the result of user participation in housing). The concept of an “Aesthetics of Number” (Aldo van Eyck) can also be described as “Spatial Configurations in Architecture”; and the “Architecture of Lively Variety” (N. John Habraken) as “Architecture of Diversity” or “Pluralistic Architecture”. Structuralism in a general sense is a mode of thought of the 20th century, which came about in different places, at different times and in different fields. It can also be found in linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, art and architecture. Origins Structuralism in architecture and urban planning had its origins in the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) after World War II. Between 1928 and 1959, the CIAM was an important platform for the discussion of architecture and urbanism. Various groups with often conflicting views were active in this organization; for example, members with a scientific approach to architecture without aesthetic premises (Rationalists), members who regarded architecture as an art form (Le Corbusier), members who were proponents of high- or low-rise building (Ernst May), members supporting a course of reform after World War II (Team 10), members of the old guard and so on. Individual members of the small splinter group Team 10 laid the foundations for Structuralism. The influence of this team was later interpreted by second generation protagonist Herman Hertzberger when he said: “I am a product of Team 10.” As a group, Team 10 was active from 1953 onwards, and two different movements emerged from it: the New Brutalism of the English members (Alison and Peter Smithson) and the Structuralism of the Dutch members (Aldo van Eyck and Jacob Bakema). Outside Team 10, other ideas developed that furthered the Structuralist movement – influenced by the concepts of Louis Kahn in the United States, Kenzo Tange in Japan and N. John Habraken in the Netherlands (with his theory of user participation in housing). Herman Hertzberger and Lucien Kroll made important architectural contributions in the field of participation. In this context, Hertzberger made the following statement: “In Structuralism, one differentiates between a structure with a long life cycle and infills with shorter life cycles.” In 1960, the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange designed his well-known Tokyo Bay Plan. Reflecting later on the initial phase of that project, he said: “It was, I believe, around 1959 or at the beginning of the sixties that I began to think about what I was later to call Structuralism”, (cited in Plan 2/1982, Amsterdam). Tange also wrote the article “Function, Structure and Symbol, 1966”, in which he describes the transition from a functional to a structural approach in thinking. Tange considers the period from 1920 to 1960 under the heading of “Functionalism” and the time from 1960 onwards under the heading of “Structuralism”. Le Corbusier created several early projects and built prototypes in a Structuralist mode, some of them dating back to the 1920s. Although he was criticized by the members of Team 10 in the 1950s for certain aspects of his work (urban concept without a “sense of place” and the dark interior streets of the Unité), they nevertheless acknowledged him as a great model and creative personality in architecture and art. Manifesto One of the most influential manifestos for the Structuralist movement was compiled by Aldo van Eyck in the architectural magazine Forum 7/1959. It was drawn up as the programme for the International Congress of Architects in Otterlo in 1959. The central aspect of this issue of Forum was a frontal attack on the Dutch representatives of CIAM-Rationalism who were responsible for the reconstruction work after World War II, (for tactical reasons, planners like van Tijen, van Eesteren, Merkelbach and others were not mentioned). The magazine contains many examples of and statements in favour of a more human form of urban planning. This congress in 1959 marks the official start of Structuralism, although earlier projects and buildings did exist. Only since 1969 has the term “Structuralism” been used in publications in relation to architecture. Otterlo Congress, Participants Some of the presentations and discussions that took place during the Otterlo Congress in 1959 are seen as the beginning of Structuralism in architecture and urbanism. These presentations had an international influence. In the book “CIAM ’59 in Otterlo”, the names of the 43 participating architects are listed: L. Miquel, Alger / Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam / José A. Coderch, Barcelona / Wendell Lovett, Bellevue-Washington / Werner Rausch, Berlin / W. van der Meeren, Bruxelles / Ch. Polonyi, Budapest / M. Siegler, Genf / P. Waltenspuhl, Genf / Hubert Hoffmann, Graz / Chr. Fahrenholz, Hamburg / Alison Smithson, London / Peter Smithson, London / Giancarlo de Carlo, Milano / Ignazio Gardella, Milano / Vico Magistretti, Milano / Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Milano / Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Montreal / Daniel van Ginkel, Montreal / Callebout, Nieuport / Geir Grung, Oslo / A. Korsmo, Oslo / Georges Candilis, Paris / Alexis Josic, Paris / André Wogenscky, Paris / Shadrach Woods, Paris / Louis Kahn, Philadelphia / Viana de Lima, Porto / F. Tavora, Porto / Jacob B. Bakema, Rotterdam / Herman Haan, Rotterdam / J.M. Stokla, Rotterdam / John Voelcker, Staplehurst / Ralph Erskine, Stockholm / Kenzo Tange, Tokyo / T. Moe, Trondheim / Oskar Hansen, Warszawa / Zofia Hansen, Warszawa / Jerzy Soltan, Warszawa / Fred Freyler, Wien / Eduard F. Sekler, Wien / Radovan Niksic, Zagreb / Alfred Roth, Zurich Theoretical Origins Built structures corresponding in form to social structures, according to Team 10 (Working group for the investigation of interrelationships between social and built structures) . The archetypical behaviour of man as the origin of architecture (cf. Anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss). Different Rationalist architects had contacts with groups of the Russian Avant-Garde after World War I. They believed in the idea that man and society could be manipulated. Coherence, growth and change on all levels of the urban structure. The concept of a sense of place. Tokens of identification (identifying devices). Articulation of the built volume. Polyvalent form and individual interpretations (compare the concept of langue et parole by Ferdinand de Saussure). User participation in housing. Integration of “high” and “low” culture in architecture (fine architecture and everyday forms of building). Pluralistic architecture. Manhattan (Gridiron Plan) Housing Estates, Buildings and Projects Atelier 5: Halen housing estate near Bern, 1961 Jacob Bakema et al.: New Rotterdam districts, Pendrecht project 1949, Alexanderpolder projects 1953 and 1956 Piet Blom: Kasbah housing estate Hengelo, 1973 / Urban district Oude Haven Rotterdam, 1985 Candilis Josic & Woods: Free University Berlin, 1963-73 Giancarlo De Carlo: Student housing Collegio del Colle Urbino, 1966 Adriaan Geuze et al.: New urban district Borneo-Sporenburg Scheepstimmermanstraat Amsterdam, 2000 (participation) Herman Hertzberger: Centraal Beheer office building Apeldoorn, 1972 (participation, inside) / Diagoon, eight experimental houses Delft, 1971 (participation) Louis Kahn: Jewish Community Center Trenton, project 1954 / Kimbell Art Museum Fort Worth, 1972 Lucien Kroll: Students’ Centre St. Lambrechts-Woluwe Brussels, 1976 (participation) Le Corbusier: Perspective drawing of new city district Fort l’Empereur Algiers, project 1934 (participation) / Weekend house Paris, 1935 Moshe Safdie: Habitat ’67 housing estate, World Exposition, Montréal, 1967 Alison and Peter Smithson: Golden Lane housing estate London, project 1952 / Hierarchy of Association, urban-planning scheme 1953 Kenzo Tange: Tokyo Bay Plan, project 1960 / Press Centre Kofu, 1967 Aldo van Eyck: Orphanage Amsterdam, 1960 / European Space Research and Technology Centre ESTEC, restaurant conference-hall library, Noordwijk, 1989 Jan Verhoeven et al.: Housing estate in Berkel-Rodenrijs near Rotterdam, 1973 Stefan Wewerka: New city district Ruhwald Berlin, project 1965 Bibliography Michael Hecker, Structurel-Structural”, Structuralist Theory in Architecture and Urbanism 1959-75, thesis Stuttgart University of Technology 2007. Tom Avermaete, “Another Modern: The Post-war Architecture and Urbanism of Candilis-Josic-Woods”, Rotterdam 2005. Max Risselada and Dirk van den Heuvel, “Team 10 – In Search of a Utopia of the Present”, Rotterdam 2005. Francis Strauven, “Aldo van Eyck – The Shape of Relativity”, Amsterdam 1998. Wim van Heuvel, “Structuralism in Dutch Architecture”, Rotterdam 1992. Arnulf Lüchinger, “Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning”, Stuttgart 1980. Herman Hertzberger, “Lessons in Architecture”, No.1 Rotterdam 1991, No.2 Rotterdam 1999. Kenzo Tange, “Function, Structure and Symbol, 1966”, in: Udo Kultermann, “Kenzo Tange”, Zurich 1970. N. John Habraken, “Supports – An Alternative to Mass Housing”, London 1972. (“De Dragers en de Mensen”, Amsterdam 1961.) Oscar Newman, “CIAM ’59 in Otterlo”, London and New York 1961. Aldo van Eyck, “Het Verhaal van een Andere Gedachte” (The Story of Another Idea), in: Forum 7/1959, Amsterdam and Hilversum. Editorial team for the magazine Forum 7/1959-3/1963 and July/1967: Aldo van Eyck, Herman Hertzberger, Jacob Bakema a.o.

Brutalist Architecture

Unité d’Habitation de Marseille (Cité Radieuse), Marseille, France (Le Corbusier, 1952)	Unité d’Habitation- roof terrace and nursery.	Unité d’Habitation- the famous brise soleil.
Yale Art & Architecture Building, New Haven, Connecticut (Paul Rudolph, 1963)	Habitat, Montreal Expo, 1967 World’s Fair, Montreal, Quebec (Moshe Safdie, 1967)	Orange County Government Center, Goshen, New York (Paul Rudolph, 1967)
AT&T Long Lines Building, New York, NY (John Carl Warnecke, 1974)	Smithdon High School (formerly Hunstanton Secondary Modern School), Norfolk, England (Peter and Alison Smithson, 1954)	Sainte Marie de La Tourette, Lyon, France (Le Corbusier, 1960)
Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, NH. Louis I. Kahn, 1972.	Falk house, Hardwick, VT. Peter Eisenman, 1969	Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Le Corbusier, 1962)
Boston City Hall, part of Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts (Gerhardt Kallmann and N. Michael McKinnell, 1969)	Council House, Perth, Western Australia (Howlett and Bailey Architects, 1962)	Knights of Columbus Building, New Haven, CT. Roche & Dinkeloo, 1965
Park Hill (detail), Sheffield. Lynn, Smith 1961	Walter Netsch designed the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago	Ryerson University Library in downtown Toronto Canada.
The Aula of Delft University in The Netherlands.	The Barco Law Building at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.	The UCSD’s Geisel Library is one of the most famous examples of brutalist architecture, and has been featured in a number of science fiction movies.
Bio-Chemistry and Microbiology Building, Sydney University	Sydney Masonic Center	The Math and Computer Science Building at the University of Waterloo in Canada
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Campus Center, as designed by Paul Rudolph	Robarts Library at the University of Toronto St. George Campus in downtown Toronto.	The Leeds International Pool, built in 1967, designed by disgraced British architect John Poulson.
The Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, designed in the late 1960s by Walter Netsch.	Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Kenzo Tange, 1961.	Kenzo Tange’s National Gymnasium
Brutalist architecture The term Brutalist Architecture originates from the French béton brut, or “raw concrete”, a term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material. The Brutalist style of architecture spawned from the modernist architectural movement and which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s. In 1954, the English architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term, but it gained currency when the British architectural critic Reyner Banham used it in the title of his 1966 book, “The New Brutalism”, to identify the emerging style. Style Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and where concrete is used often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting. Although concrete is the material most widely associated with Brutalist architecture, not all Brutalist buildings are formed from concrete. Instead, a building may achieve its Brutalist quality through a rough, blocky appearance, and the expression of its structural materials, forms, and (in some cases) services on its exterior. For example, many of Alison and Peter Smithson’s private houses are built from brick. Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabion (also known as trapion). Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism, International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism and Deconstructivism. Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building’s functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the building. In the Boston City Hall (illustration left), designed in 1962, strikingly different and projected portions of the building indicate the special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such as the mayor’s office or the city council chambers. From another perspective of this theme, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the facility’s water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominently placed and visible tower. Brutalism as an architectural style also was associated with a social utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. Critics argue that this abstract nature of Brutalism makes the style unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being integrating and protective, as its proponents intended. Brutalism also is criticised as disregarding the social, historic, and architectural environment of its surroundings, making the introduction of such structures in existing developed areas appear starkly out of place and alien. The failure of positive communities to form early on in some Brutalist structures, possibly due to the larger processes of urban decay that set in after World War II (especially in the United Kingdom), led to the combined unpopularity of both the ideology and the architectural style. The architectural style known as Brutalism and the architectural and urban theory known as New Brutalism may be regarded as two different movements, although the terms are often used interchangeably. The New Brutalism of the English members of Team 10, Alison and Peter Smithson, is more related to the theoretical reform of the CIAM (in architecture and urbanism) than to “béton brut”. Reyner Banham formulated this difference in the title of his book: “The New Brutalism – Ethic or Aesthetic?” The best known early Brutalist architecture is the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, in particular his Unité d’Habitation (1952) and the 1953 Secretariat Building in Chandigarh, India. History Brutalism gained considerable momentum in Great Britain during the middle twentieth century, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the ‘honesty’, the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style. Combined with the socially progressive intentions behind Brutalist “streets in the sky” housings such as Corbusier’s Unité, Brutalism was promoted as a positive option for forward-moving, modern urban housing. In practice, however, many of the buildings built in this style lacked many of the community-serving features of Corbusier’s vision, and instead, developed into claustrophobic, crime-ridden tenements. Robin Hood Gardens is a particularly notorious example, although the worst of its problems have been overcome in recent years. Some such buildings took decades to develop into positive communities. The rough coolness of concrete lost its appeal under a damp and gray northern sky, and its fortress-like material, touted as vandal-proof, soon proved vulnerable to spray-can graffiti. Campus Brutalism In the late 1960s, many campuses in North America were undergoing expansions and, as a result, there are a significant number of Brutalist buildings at American and Canadian universities, beginning with Paul Rudolph’s 1958 Yale Art and Architecture Building. Rudolph’s design for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is an example of an entire campus designed from scratch in the Brutalist style. Likewise, architect Walter Netsch designed the entire University of Illinois-Chicago Circle Campus (now the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago) under a single, unified brutalist design. The original “inner ring” of buildings at the University of California, Irvine was designed by a team of architects led by William Pereira in what he called a “California Brutalist” style.[2] Examples outside of the U.S. include McLennan Library, Burnside Hall and the Stephen Leacock building at McGill University in Montreal, the South Building at University of Toronto at Mississauga, Robarts Library at the University of Toronto, significant parts of York University in Toronto, the Aula of Delft University in The Netherlands (1966), Rand Afrikaans University (1967) in Johannesburg, South Africa. In New Zealand the University of Canterbury. In the United Kingdom, the Charles Wilson Building of the University of Leicester, Churchill College, Cambridge (1962-8) and Dunelm House, University of Durham (1965), the University of York (1963), Oberlin College Mudd Library are all notable examples. Criticism and reception Brutalism has some severe critics, one of the most famous being Charles, Prince of Wales, whose speeches and writings on architecture have excoriated Brutalism, calling many of the structures “piles of concrete”. “You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe,” said Prince Charles at the Corporation of London Planning and Communication Committee’s annual dinner at Mansion House in December 1987. “When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble.”[3] Much of the criticism comes not only from the designs of the buildings, but also from the fact that concrete façades don’t age well in a damp, cloudy maritime climate such as that of northwestern Europe, becoming streaked with water stains and sometimes, even with moss and lichens. At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, to the hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late 1970s. This led to the development of Alexander’s A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building. The current Fodor’s guide to London mentions the former Home Office building at 50 Queen Anne’s Gate as “hulking.” Because the style is essentially that of poured concrete, it tends to be inexpensive to build and maintain, but very difficult to modify. In recent years, the bad memories of under-served Brutalist community structures have led to their demolition in communities eager to make way for newer, more traditionally-oriented community structures. Despite a nascent modernist appreciation movement, and the identified success that some of this style’s offspring have had, many others have been or are, slated to be demolished. The architecture column of Private Eye, “Nooks and Corners”, began life as “Nooks and Corners of the New Barbarism”, with “new Barbarism” clearly intended as a reference to “new Brutalism”.[citation needed] The column sometimes is skeptical about modern architecture in general, but over the course of some four decades, has been uniformly, vehemently, critical of Brutalism, especially in government-sponsored projects.[citation needed] Resurgence Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely given way to Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced an updating of sorts in recent years. Many of the rougher aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. Many modernist architects such as Steven Ehrlich, Ricardo Legorreta, and Gin Wong have been doing just that in many of their recent projects. The firm of Victor Gruen and Associates has revamped the style for the many courthouse buildings it has been contracted to design. Architects from Latin America have been reviving the style on a smaller scale in recent years. Brutalism has recently experienced a major revival in Israel, due to the perceived sense of strength and security the style creates. With the development of LiTraCon—a form of translucent concrete—a new Brutalist movement may be on the horizon. Even in Britain, where the style was most prevalent, and later most reviled, a number of buildings recently (as of 2006) have appeared in an updated Brutalist style, including deRijke Marsh Morgan’s 1 Centaur Street in Lambeth, London, and Elder & Cannon’s The Icon in Glasgow in Scotland. The 2005 Stirling Prize shortlist contained a number of buildings (most notably Zaha Hadid’s BMW factory and the eventual winner, Enric Miralles’ Scottish Parliament Building) featuring significant amounts of exposed concrete, something that would have been regarded as aesthetically unacceptable when the prize was inaugurated nine years previously. There also has been a reappraisal of first-generation Brutalist architecture and a growing appreciation that dislike of the buildings often stems from poor maintenance and social problems resulting from poor management, rather than the designs. In 2005 the British television channel Channel 4 ran a documentary, I Love Carbuncles, which placed the U.K.’s Brutalist legacy in a more positive light. Some Brutalist buildings have been granted listed status as historic and others, such as Gillespie, Kidd and Coia’s St. Peter’s Seminary, named by Prospect magazine’s survey of architects as Scotland’s greatest post-war building, have been the subject of conservation campaigns. The Twentieth Century Society (headed, ironically, by Gavin Stamp, Private Eye’s “Nooks & Corners” columnist ‘Piloti’) has campaigned against the demolition of buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car Park. Figures Architects associated with the Brutalist style include Ernő Goldfinger, husband-and-wife pairing Alison and Peter Smithson, and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun. Outside of Britain, Louis Kahn’s government buildings in Asia and John Andrews’s government and institutional structures in Australia exhibit the creative height of the style. Paul Rudolph is another noted Brutalist, as is Ralph Rapson both from the United States. Marcel Breuer was known for his “soft” approach to the style, often using curves rather than corners. More recent Modernists such as I.M. Pei and Tadao Ando also have designed notable Brutalist works. In Brazil, the style is associated with the Paulista School and is evident in the works of Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006). References Romy Golan, Historian of the Immediate Future: Reyner Banham – Book Review, The Art Bulletin, June 2003. Accessed online at FindArticles 23 October 2006. Notes ^ Golan 2003, p.3. ^ “Anteater Chronicles: William Pereria, Architect”. University of California, Irvine Library (2006). ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2004/may/17/architecture.regeneration LinksOntario Architecture: Brutalism From Here to Modernity includes many Brutalist examples Sarah J. Duncan photos of brutalist structures Tate Gallery Glossary entry for “Brutalism” Brutalist Architecture photo pool at flickr Paul Rudolph photo pool at flickr

Mid-century modern

The Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, designed by William L. Pereira.	The Concourse building, in Singapore, designed by Paul Rudolph	Diamond Chair, by Harry Bertoia
Stahl House, designed by Pierre Koenig	Helsinki, Finland – University of Technology – Auditorium-Alvar Aalto.	Main Terminal at Dulles Airport in Washington DC, by Eero Saarinen.
Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre, in London.	Facades from Bangkok, Thailand.
Bonneville Salt Flats Rest Stop Shelter- very impressive uncredited shelters at the rest area next to the (also striking) salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake.
Austin, Texas
Mid-Century modern Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes pre- and post- second world war developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. Mid-century architecture was a further development of Frank Lloyd Wright’s principles of organic architecture combined with many elements reflected in the International and Bauhaus movements. Mid-century modernism, however, was much more organic in form and less formal than the International Style. Scandinavian designers and architects were very influential at this time, with a style characterized by simplicity, democratic design and natural shapes. Like many of Wright’s designs, Mid-Century architecture was frequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism into America’s post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windows and open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing the outdoors in. Many Mid-century homes utilized then groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residential Mid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style. Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was instrumental in bringing Mid-Century Modern architecture to subdivisions in California and select housing developments on the east coast. Well-known designers of the mid-century modern era Alvar Aalto, Al Beadle, Harry Bertoia, Chris Choate, Thomas Scott Dean, Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood, Mendel Glickman, Max Gottschalk, Ralph Haver, Edith Heath, Arne Jacobsen, A. Quincy Jones, Finn Juhl, Louis Kahn, Poul Kjaerholm, Pierre Koenig, Denys Lasdun, John Lautner, Cliff May, Paul McCobb, John Randal McDonald, George Nelson, Richard Neutra, Isamu Noguchi, William Pereira, Warren Platner, Harvey Probber, Jens Risom, Paul Rudolph, Eero Saarinen, Rudolf Schindler, Avriel Shull, Richard Schultz, Alison and Peter Smithson, Raphael Soriano, Ole Wanscher, Hans Wegner, Donald Wexler, Russel Wright, and Eva Zeisel.

The International Style

The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany (1927)	The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany (1930)	Glaspaleis (1933), Heerlen (by Frits Peutz), a celebration of transparency, in Heerlen, The Netherlands (1935)
Villa Savoye (1929), Poissy-sur-Seine, France, by Le Corbusier	Royal Corinthian Yacht Club (1931), by Joseph Emberton.	Södra Ängby (1933-1939), Stockholm, Sweden
Labworth Café (1932-33), by Ove Arup.	Carl Mackley Houses (1933-1934), Philadelphia, by Oscar Stonorov and Alfred Kastner	E-1027 (1929), Cap Martin, France, by Eileen Gray
Toronto-Dominion Centre (1967), Toronto, by Mies van der Rohe	The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building	Thermometer house, White City of Tel Aviv
The International style was a major architectural style of the 1920s and 1930s. The term usually refers to the buildings and architects of the formative decades of Modernism, before World War II. The term had its origin from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson written to record the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1932 which identified, categorised and expanded upon characteristics common to Modernism across the world. As a result, the focus was more on the stylistic aspects of Modernism. Hitchcock’s and Johnson’s aims were to define a style of the time, which would encapsulate this modern architecture. They identified three different principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, balance rather than preconceived symmetry and the expulsion of applied ornament. All the works which were displayed as part of the exhibition were carefully selected, as only works which strictly followed the set of rules were displayed. Previous uses of the term in the same context can be attributed to Walter Gropius in Internationale Architektur, and Ludwig Hilberseimer in Internationale neue Baukunst. Europe Around 1900 a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional precedents with new social demands and technological possibilities. The work of Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner in Vienna and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new. The international style as such blossomed in 1920s Western Europe. Researchers find significant contemporary common ground among the Dutch de Stijl movement, the work of visionary French/Swiss architect Le Corbusier, and various German efforts to industrialize craft traditions, which resulted in the formation of the Deutscher Werkbund, large civic worker-housing projects in Frankfurt and Stuttgart, and, most famously, the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was one of a number of European schools and associations concerned with reconciling craft tradition and industrial technology. By the 1920s the most important figures in modern architecture had established their reputations. The big three are commonly recognized as Le Corbusier in France, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany. The common characteristics are easy to identify: a radical simplification of form, a rejection of ornament, adoption of glass, steel and concrete as preferred materials, the transparency of buildings and, thus, the construction (called the honest expression of structure), acceptance of industrialized mass-production techniques and the machine aesthetic, acceptance of the automobile, design decisions that logically support the function of the building, and a vague but exciting sense of the future. The ideals of the style are commonly summed up in four slogans: ornament is a crime, truth to materials, form follows function, and Le Corbusier’s description of houses as “machines for living”. In 1927, one of the first and most defining manifestations of the International Style was the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, built as a component of the exhibition “Die Wohnung,” organized by the Deutscher Werkbund, and overseen by Mies van der Rohe. The fifteen contributing architects included Mies, and other names most associated with the movement: Peter Behrens, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, J.J.P. Oud, Mart Stam, and Bruno Taut. The exhibition was enormously popular, with thousands of daily visitors trooping through the houses. The town of Portolago (now Lakki) in the Greek Dodecanese island of Leros represents some of the most interesting urban planning from the fascist regime in the Dodecanese; an extraordinary example of city takeover in the International style known as Italian rationalist. The symbolism of the shapes is reflected with exemplary effectiveness in the buildings of Lakki: the administration building, the metaphysical tower of the market, the cinema-theatre, the Hotel Roma (now Hotel Leros), the church of San Francesco and the hospital are fine examples of the style. Many of its ideas and ideals were formalized by the 1928 Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne. Helsinki University of Technology auditorium, built from red brick, by Alvar Aalto United States Rudolf Schindler’s Lovell Beach House in Los Angeles, California (1926) The same striving towards simplification, honesty and clarity are identifiable in US architects of the same period, notably in the work of Louis Sullivan in Chicago, and the west-coast residences of Irving Gill. Frank Lloyd Wright’s career in the 1900s and 1910s parallels and influences the work of the European modernists, particularly via the Wasmuth Portfolio, but he refused to be categorized with them. In 1922, the competition for the Tribune Tower and its famous second-place entry by Eliel Saarinen gave a clear indication of what was to come. The term International Style came from the 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by Philip Johnson, and from the title of the exhibition catalog for that exhibit, written by Johnson and Henry Russell Hitchcock. It addressed building from 1922 through 1932. Johnson named, codified, promoted and subtly re-defined the whole movement by his inclusion of certain architects, and his description of their motives and values. Perhaps the masterstroke was the name, and the positioning of this style as one that transcended any national or regional or continental identity. Johnson also defined the modern movement as an aesthetic style, rather than a matter of political statement. This was a departure from the functionalist principles of some of the original Weissenhof architects, particularly the Dutch, and especially J.J.P. Oud, with whom Johnson maintained a prickly correspondence on the topic. The gradual rise of the National Socialist regime in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, and the Nazi’s rejection of modern architecture, meant that an entire generation of architects were forced out of Europe. When Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer fled Germany, they both arrived at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in an excellent position to extend their influence and promote the Bauhaus as the primary source of architectural modernism. When Mies fled in 1936, he came to Chicago, and solidified his reputation as the prototypical modern architect. Hickory Cluster townhouses, Reston, Virginia, designed by Charles M. Goodman, circa 1964 After World War II, the International Style matured into modernism, HOK and SOM perfected the corporate practice, and it became the dominant approach for decades. Perhaps its most famous/notorious manifestations include the United Nations headquarters and the Seagram Building in New York. The typical International Style high-rise usually consists of the following: Square or rectangular footprint  Simple cubic “extruded rectangle” form  Windows running in broken horizontal rows forming a grid  All facade angles are 90 degrees.  Israel, Tel Aviv- white city Tel Aviv has the largest concentration in the world of buildings built in the “International Style”. This style was brought to Tel Aviv in the beginning of the 1930s by European graduates of European architecture schools. Their source of inspiration was the modern architecture movement dominant in Europe in the 1920s.The main principles of the modern movement are – architecture is an expression of volume and not mass, asymmetrical composition and regular repetition instead of classic symmetry, avoidance of all decorations that do not have a useful purpose. The modern style, functional, simple and free of decorations, was seen as the most fitting for a young, rapidly growing city. The European International Style went through local changes in Israel thanks to continuous open discussions among architects. This created a building style which was a combination of modern movement principles and an integration of cultures and influences of daily reality such as: Climate problems, stringent building laws, technological knowledge and production methods that existed at the time. International Style buildings are usually 2 – 4 floors, built as a single building on a plot of land and covered with light colored plaster. The buildings were used in most cases as residential structures and often built for public uses. A large percentage of the buildings built in this style in the city can be found in the area planned by Patrick Geddes, north of the city’s main historical commercial center.The combination of modern architecture and advanced city planning created in this part of the city a built area of unique quality known as the “White City (Tel Aviv)”, . As a result of an unexpected large wave of immigration from Germany in the 1930s, the city went through a period of intensive development in a short period of time leading to the creation of a critical mass of buildings in the International Style. Two thousand seven hundred buildings were constructed in this style between the years 1931 – 1937. Today Tel Aviv has within its borders more than 4,000 buildings in the International Style built between the years 1931 – 1956. The majority of these buildings are located between Allenby Street in the south, Begin Road and Ibn Gvirol Street in the east, the Yarkon River in the north and the sea in the west. Approximately 1,100 of these buildings are intended for preservation in various city plans. Elsewhere One of the strengths of the International Style was that the design solutions were indifferent to location, site, and climate. This was one of the reasons it was called ‘international’; the style made no reference to local history or national vernacular. They were the same buildings around the world. (Later this was identified as one of the style’s primary weaknesses.) American anti-Communist politics after the war, and Philip Johnson’s influential rejection of functionalism, have tended to mask the fact that many of the important contributors to the original Weissenhof project fled to the east. This group also tended to be far more concerned with functionalism. Bruno Taut, Mart Stam, the second Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, Ernst May and other important figures of the International Style went to the Soviet Union in 1930 to undertake huge, ambitious, idealistic urban planning projects, building entire cities from scratch. This Soviet effort was doomed to failure, and these architects became stateless persons in 1936 when Stalin ordered them out of the country and Hitler wouldn’t allow them back into Germany. In the late 1930s this group, and their students, were dispersed to Turkey, France, Mexico, Kenya and India, adding up to a truly international influence. In July, 2003, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, proclaimed The White City of Tel Aviv as a World Cultural Heritage site, describing the City as “a synthesis of outstanding significance of the various trends of the Modern Movement in architecture and town planning in the early part of the 20th century.” Criticism of International style The stark, unornamented appearance of the International style met with contemporaneous criticism and continues to be criticized today by many. Especially in larger and more public buildings, the style is commonly subject to disparagement as ugly, inhuman, sterile, and elitist. Such criticism gained momentum in the latter half of the 20th Century, from academics such as Hugo Kükelhaus to best-selling American author Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House, and contributed to the rise of such counter-movements as postmodernism. The negative reaction to internationalist modernism has been linked to public antipathy to development overall. International style today Although it was conceived as a movement that transcended style, the International Style was largely superseded in the era of Postmodern architecture that started in the 1960s. In 2006, Hugh Pearlman, the architectural critic of The Times, observed that those using the style today are simply “another species of revivalist,” noting the irony. Architects The former office of the Oranje Nassau Mijnen, Dirk Roosenburg, 1928, one of the earlist buildings in International style in Heerlen The former Hema in Heerlen, Dirk Brouwer, 1939, one of the last buildings in International style in Heerlen Walter Gropius  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe  Alvar Aalto  Le Corbusier  Philip Johnson  Rudolf Schindler  Richard Neutra  Welton Becket  Louis Kahn  Oscar Niemeyer  Charles M. Goodman  Frits Peutz  Dirk Roosenburg  Dirk Brouwer  Important buildings in the 1932 MOMA exhibition Alvar Aalto: Turun Sanomat building, Turku, Finland 1930 Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret: Stein house, Garches, Near St. Cloud 1928 Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret: Villa Savoye, Poissy-Sur-Seine 1930 Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret: De Beistegui Pent House, Champs-Élysées, Paris 1931 Otto Eisler: Double House, Brno, Czechoslovakia 1926 Walter Gropius: Bauhaus School, Dessau, Germany 1926 Walter Gropius: City Employment Office, Dessau, Germany 1928 Erich Mendelsohn: Schocken Department Store, Chemnitz, Germany 1928-1930 Mies Van Der Rohe: Apartment House, Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgart 1927 Mies Van Der Rohe: German pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition, Spain 1929 Mies Van Der Rohe: Tugendhat House, Brno, Czechoslovakia 1930 Jacobus Oud: Workers Houses,(Seidlung, Kiefhoek), Hook of Holland 1924-1927 Karl Schneider: Kunstverein, Humburg, Germany 1930 Examples of International Style architecture One Wilshire, Los Angeles  Villa Savoye (1929), Poissy-sur-Seine, France (by Le Corbusier)  Hickory Cluster townhouses, Reston, Virginia  Glaspaleis (1933), Heerlen (by Frits Peutz)  Monseigneur Laurentius Schrijnen Retratiehuis (1932), Heerlen (by Frits Peutz)  Former office Oranje Nassaumijnen (1928), Heerlen (by Dirk Roosenburg) References ^ Henry Russell Hitchcock, Philip Johnson. The International Style. W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. ISBN 0393315185 ^ Panayotis Tournikiotis. The Historiography of Modern Architecture. MIT Press, 1999. ISBN 0262700859 ^ a b Gabion: Modernism – or should that be Modernwasm? ^ UNESCO. White City of Tel-Aviv — the Modern Movement. Accessed 3 November 2007. ^ Philip S. Gutis, It’s Ugly, And So Is The Fight To Save It, New York Times, February 7, 1987, accessed 02-17-2008 ^ E.g., C. Thau & K. Vindum, Jacobsen, 2002, ISBN 87-7407-230-8, at 65 (referring to reaction to internationalism as “A Horror of the Traceless, Inhuman Industrial Look”) ^ A History of Architecture, New Internationalist issue 202 – December 1989 ^ T. Wolfe, From Bauhaus to Our House, Farrar Straus Giroux (1981) ISBN-13: 9780374158927 ISBN 0374158924 ^ Herbert Muschamp, Fear, Hope and the Changing of the Guard, New York Times, November 14, 1993, accessed 02-17-2008 (“the preservation movement . . . was a tool directed against real estate development, but inevitably it was turned against architecture. Its particular target was modern architecture”) ^ R. Jobst, Charm is not an antiquated notion, FFWD Weekly: March 31, 2005 (“At the root of the public’s apprehension about new development is that we’ve been getting screwed for 60 years by brutal, soulless and downright crappy architecture that arrogantly dismisses the human requirement for beauty”)