La arquitectura moderna , también llamada arquitectura modernista , fue un movimiento y estilo arquitectónico que fue prominente en el siglo XX, entre el Art Déco anterior y los movimientos posmodernos posteriores . La arquitectura moderna se basó en tecnologías de construcción nuevas e innovadoras (en particular el uso de vidrio , acero y hormigón ); el principio funcionalista (es decir, que la forma debe seguir a la función ); una adopción del minimalismo ; y un rechazo del ornamento . [1]
Según Le Corbusier , las raíces del movimiento se encontraban en las obras de Eugène Viollet le duc , [2] mientras que Mies van der Rohe se inspiró fuertemente en Karl Friedrich Schinkel . [3] [4] El movimiento surgió en la primera mitad del siglo XX y se volvió dominante después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la década de 1980, cuando fue reemplazado gradualmente como el estilo principal para edificios institucionales y corporativos por la arquitectura posmoderna . [5]
La arquitectura moderna surgió a finales del siglo XIX a partir de revoluciones en la tecnología, la ingeniería y los materiales de construcción, y del deseo de romper con los estilos arquitectónicos históricos e inventar algo que fuera puramente funcional y nuevo.
La revolución de los materiales llegó primero, con el uso de hierro fundido , paneles de yeso , placas de vidrio y hormigón armado, para construir estructuras más fuertes, ligeras y altas. El proceso de fundición de placas de vidrio se inventó en 1848, lo que permitió la fabricación de ventanas muy grandes. El Crystal Palace de Joseph Paxton en la Gran Exposición de 1851 fue un ejemplo temprano de construcción con hierro y placas de vidrio, seguido en 1864 por el primer muro cortina de vidrio y metal . Estos desarrollos en conjunto llevaron al primer rascacielos con estructura de acero, el Home Insurance Building de diez pisos en Chicago, construido en 1884 por William Le Baron Jenney [6] y basado en las obras de Viollet le Duc.
El industrial francés François Coignet fue el primero en utilizar el hormigón armado con hierro, es decir, el hormigón reforzado con barras de hierro, como técnica para construir edificios. [7] En 1853 Coignet construyó la primera estructura de hormigón armado con hierro, una casa de cuatro plantas en los suburbios de París. [7] Otro paso importante hacia adelante fue la invención del ascensor de seguridad por Elisha Otis , demostrado por primera vez en la exposición del Crystal Palace de Nueva York en 1854, que hizo prácticos los edificios altos de oficinas y apartamentos. [8] Otra tecnología importante para la nueva arquitectura fue la luz eléctrica, que redujo en gran medida el peligro inherente de incendios provocados por el gas en el siglo XIX. [9]
El debut de nuevos materiales y técnicas inspiró a los arquitectos a romper con los modelos neoclásicos y eclécticos que dominaron la arquitectura europea y estadounidense a fines del siglo XIX, en particular el eclecticismo , la arquitectura victoriana y eduardiana y el estilo arquitectónico Beaux-Arts . [10] Esta ruptura con el pasado fue particularmente impulsada por el teórico e historiador de la arquitectura Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . En su libro de 1872 Entretiens sur L'Architecture , instó: "utilizar los medios y el conocimiento que nos brinda nuestro tiempo, sin las tradiciones intermedias que ya no son viables hoy, y de esa manera podemos inaugurar una nueva arquitectura. Para cada función su material; para cada material su forma y su ornamento". [11] Este libro influyó en una generación de arquitectos, incluidos Louis Sullivan , Victor Horta , Hector Guimard y Antoni Gaudí . [12]
A finales del siglo XIX, algunos arquitectos comenzaron a desafiar los estilos tradicionales Beaux Arts y Neoclásico que dominaban la arquitectura en Europa y Estados Unidos. La Escuela de Arte de Glasgow (1896-1899), diseñada por Charles Rennie Mackintosh , tenía una fachada dominada por grandes ventanales verticales. [13] El estilo Art Nouveau fue lanzado en la década de 1890 por Victor Horta en Bélgica y Hector Guimard en Francia; introdujo nuevos estilos de decoración, basados en formas vegetales y florales. En Barcelona, Antonio Gaudí concibió la arquitectura como una forma de escultura; la fachada de la Casa Batlló en Barcelona (1904-1907) no tenía líneas rectas; estaba incrustada con coloridos mosaicos de piedra y azulejos de cerámica. [14]
Los arquitectos también comenzaron a experimentar con nuevos materiales y técnicas, lo que les dio mayor libertad para crear nuevas formas. En 1903-1904 en París Auguste Perret y Henri Sauvage comenzaron a utilizar hormigón armado , anteriormente solo utilizado para estructuras industriales, para construir edificios de apartamentos. [15] El hormigón armado, que podía moldearse en cualquier forma y que podía crear espacios enormes sin la necesidad de pilares de soporte, reemplazó a la piedra y el ladrillo como material principal para los arquitectos modernistas. Los primeros edificios de apartamentos de hormigón de Perret y Sauvage estaban cubiertos con baldosas de cerámica, pero en 1905 Perret construyó el primer estacionamiento de hormigón en 51 rue de Ponthieu en París; aquí el hormigón se dejó desnudo y el espacio entre el hormigón se llenó con ventanas de vidrio. Henri Sauvage agregó otra innovación de construcción en un edificio de apartamentos en Rue Vavin en París (1912-1914); el edificio de hormigón armado era escalonado, con cada piso retraído del piso inferior, creando una serie de terrazas. Entre 1910 y 1913, Auguste Perret construyó el Teatro de los Campos Elíseos , una obra maestra de la construcción en hormigón armado, con bajorrelieves escultóricos Art Déco en la fachada obra de Antoine Bourdelle . Debido a la construcción en hormigón, ninguna columna bloqueaba la visión del escenario por parte de los espectadores. [16]
Otto Wagner , en Viena, fue otro pionero del nuevo estilo. En su libro Moderne Architektur (1895) había pedido un estilo arquitectónico más racionalista, basado en la "vida moderna". [17] Diseñó una estación de metro ornamental estilizada en Karlsplatz en Viena (1888-89), luego una residencia ornamental Art Nouveau , la Casa Majolika (1898), antes de pasar a un estilo mucho más geométrico y simplificado, sin ornamentos, en el Banco Postal de Ahorros de Austria (1904-1906). Wagner declaró su intención de expresar la función del edificio en su exterior. El exterior de hormigón armado estaba cubierto con placas de mármol unidas con pernos de aluminio pulido. El interior era puramente funcional y sobrio, un gran espacio abierto de acero, vidrio y hormigón donde la única decoración era la propia estructura. [18]
El arquitecto vienés Adolf Loos también comenzó a eliminar cualquier adorno de sus edificios. Su Casa Steiner , en Viena (1910), fue un ejemplo de lo que él llamó arquitectura racionalista ; tenía una fachada rectangular de estuco simple con ventanas cuadradas y sin ornamentos. La fama del nuevo movimiento, que se conocería como la Secesión vienesa, se extendió más allá de Austria. Josef Hoffmann , un estudiante de Wagner, construyó un hito de la arquitectura modernista temprana, el Palacio Stoclet , en Bruselas, en 1906-1911. Esta residencia, construida de ladrillo cubierto de mármol noruego, estaba compuesta por bloques geométricos, alas y una torre. Una gran piscina frente a la casa reflejaba sus formas cúbicas. El interior estaba decorado con pinturas de Gustav Klimt y otros artistas, y el arquitecto incluso diseñó ropa para la familia a juego con la arquitectura. [19]
En Alemania, un movimiento industrial modernista, el Deutscher Werkbund (Federación Alemana del Trabajo) había sido creado en Múnich en 1907 por Hermann Muthesius , un destacado comentarista arquitectónico. Su objetivo era reunir a diseñadores e industriales, para producir productos bien diseñados y de alta calidad y, en el proceso, inventar un nuevo tipo de arquitectura. [20] La organización originalmente incluía doce arquitectos y doce firmas comerciales, pero se expandió rápidamente. Los arquitectos incluyen a Peter Behrens , Theodor Fischer (quien se desempeñó como su primer presidente), Josef Hoffmann y Richard Riemerschmid . [21] En 1909, Behrens diseñó uno de los primeros y más influyentes edificios industriales de estilo modernista, la fábrica de turbinas AEG , un monumento funcional de acero y hormigón. Entre 1911 y 1913, Adolf Meyer y Walter Gropius , que habían trabajado para Behrens, construyeron otra planta industrial revolucionaria, la fábrica Fagus en Alfeld an der Laine, un edificio sin adornos en el que se exhibían todos los elementos de construcción. El Werkbund organizó una gran exposición de diseño modernista en Colonia apenas unas semanas antes del estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial en agosto de 1914. Para la exposición de Colonia de 1914, Bruno Taut construyó un pabellón de cristal revolucionario. [22]
Frank Lloyd Wright fue un arquitecto estadounidense muy original e independiente que se negó a ser categorizado en ningún movimiento arquitectónico. Al igual que Le Corbusier y Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , no tenía una formación arquitectónica formal. De 1887 a 1893 trabajó en la oficina de Chicago de Louis Sullivan , quien fue pionero en los primeros edificios altos de oficinas con estructura de acero en Chicago, y quien afirmó famosamente que " la forma sigue a la función ". [23] Wright se propuso romper todas las reglas tradicionales. Fue particularmente famoso por sus casas de la pradera , incluida la casa Winslow en River Forest, Illinois (1893-94); la casa Arthur Heurtley (1902) y la casa Robie (1909); residencias extensas y geométricas sin decoración, con fuertes líneas horizontales que parecían crecer desde la tierra y que se hacían eco de los amplios espacios planos de la pradera estadounidense. Su edificio Larkin (1904-1906) en Buffalo, Nueva York , el Templo de Unity (1905) en Oak Park, Illinois y el Templo de Unity tenían formas muy originales y no tenían conexión con precedentes históricos. [24]
A finales del siglo XIX, empezaron a aparecer en Estados Unidos los primeros rascacielos , que fueron una respuesta a la escasez de terrenos y al elevado coste de los inmuebles en el centro de las ciudades estadounidenses de rápido crecimiento, y a la disponibilidad de nuevas tecnologías, entre ellas las estructuras de acero ignífugas y las mejoras en el ascensor de seguridad inventado por Elisha Otis en 1852. El primer «rascacielos» con estructura de acero, el Home Insurance Building de Chicago, tenía diez plantas. Fue diseñado por William Le Baron Jenney en 1883 y durante un breve periodo fue el edificio más alto del mundo. Louis Sullivan construyó otra nueva estructura monumental, el edificio Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company , en el corazón de Chicago entre 1904 y 1906. Aunque estos edificios eran revolucionarios por su estructura de acero y su altura, su decoración se inspiraba en la arquitectura neorrenacentista , neogótica y Beaux-Arts . El edificio Woolworth , diseñado por Cass Gilbert , se terminó de construir en 1912 y fue el edificio más alto del mundo hasta la finalización del edificio Chrysler en 1929. La estructura era puramente moderna, pero su exterior estaba decorado con adornos neogóticos, con contrafuertes decorativos, arcos y agujas, lo que provocó que se le apodara la "Catedral del Comercio". [25]
Después de la Primera Guerra Mundial, comenzó una prolongada lucha entre los arquitectos que favorecían los estilos más tradicionales del neoclasicismo y el estilo arquitectónico Beaux-Arts , y los modernistas, liderados por Le Corbusier y Robert Mallet-Stevens en Francia, Walter Gropius y Ludwig Mies van der Rohe en Alemania, y Konstantin Melnikov en la nueva Unión Soviética , que querían solo formas puras y la eliminación de cualquier decoración. Louis Sullivan popularizó el axioma La forma sigue a la función para enfatizar la importancia de la simplicidad utilitaria en la arquitectura moderna. Los arquitectos del Art Déco como Auguste Perret y Henri Sauvage a menudo hicieron un compromiso entre los dos, combinando formas modernistas y decoración estilizada.
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La figura dominante en el auge del modernismo en Francia fue Charles-Édouard Jeanerette, un arquitecto suizo-francés que en 1920 tomó el nombre de Le Corbusier . En 1920 cofundó una revista llamada ' L'Espirit Nouveau' y promovió enérgicamente una arquitectura funcional, pura y libre de cualquier decoración o asociaciones históricas. También fue un apasionado defensor de un nuevo urbanismo, basado en ciudades planificadas. En 1922 presentó un diseño de una ciudad para tres millones de personas, cuyos habitantes vivían en rascacielos idénticos de sesenta pisos de altura rodeados de parques abiertos. Diseñó casas modulares, que se producirían en masa sobre el mismo plano y se ensamblarían en bloques de apartamentos, vecindarios y ciudades. En 1923 publicó "Hacia una arquitectura", con su famoso lema, "una casa es una máquina para vivir". [26] Promocionó incansablemente sus ideas a través de lemas, artículos, libros, conferencias y participación en Exposiciones.
Para ilustrar sus ideas, en la década de 1920 construyó una serie de casas y villas en París y sus alrededores. Todas ellas fueron construidas según un sistema común, basado en el uso de hormigón armado y de pilonos de hormigón armado en el interior que sostenían la estructura, lo que permitía muros cortina de vidrio en la fachada y plantas abiertas, independientes de la estructura. Siempre eran blancas y no tenían adornos ni decoración en el exterior ni en el interior. La más conocida de estas casas fue la Villa Savoye , construida entre 1928 y 1931 en el suburbio parisino de Poissy . Una elegante caja blanca envuelta con una cinta de ventanas de vidrio alrededor de la fachada, con un espacio habitable que se abría a un jardín interior y al campo alrededor, elevado por una hilera de pilonos blancos en el centro de un gran césped, se convirtió en un icono de la arquitectura modernista. [27]
En Alemania, dos importantes movimientos modernistas aparecieron después de la Primera Guerra Mundial. La Bauhaus fue una escuela fundada en Weimar en 1919 bajo la dirección de Walter Gropius . Gropius era hijo del arquitecto oficial estatal de Berlín, que estudió antes de la guerra con Peter Behrens , y diseñó la fábrica de turbinas modernista Fagus. La Bauhaus fue una fusión de la Academia de Artes de preguerra y la escuela de tecnología. En 1926 se trasladó de Weimar a Dessau; Gropius diseñó la nueva escuela y las residencias de estudiantes en el nuevo estilo modernista puramente funcional que estaba fomentando. La escuela reunió a modernistas de todos los campos; el profesorado incluía a los pintores modernistas Vasily Kandinsky , Joseph Albers y Paul Klee , y al diseñador Marcel Breuer .
Gropius se convirtió en un importante teórico del modernismo, escribiendo La idea y la construcción en 1923. Fue un defensor de la estandarización en la arquitectura y de la construcción en masa de bloques de apartamentos diseñados racionalmente para los trabajadores de las fábricas. En 1928, la empresa Siemens le encargó la construcción de apartamentos para trabajadores en los suburbios de Berlín, y en 1929 propuso la construcción de grupos de esbeltas torres de apartamentos de ocho a diez pisos de altura para los trabajadores.
Mientras Gropius trabajaba en la Bauhaus, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe lideró el movimiento arquitectónico modernista en Berlín. Inspirado por el movimiento De Stijl en los Países Bajos, construyó grupos de casas de verano de hormigón y propuso un proyecto para una torre de oficinas de cristal. Se convirtió en vicepresidente del Werkbund alemán y se convirtió en el jefe de la Bauhaus de 1930 a 1933, proponiendo una amplia variedad de planes modernistas para la reconstrucción urbana. Su obra modernista más famosa fue el pabellón alemán para la exposición internacional de 1929 en Barcelona. Era una obra de modernismo puro, con paredes de vidrio y hormigón y líneas limpias y horizontales. Aunque era solo una estructura temporal y fue derribada en 1930, se convirtió, junto con la Villa Savoye de Le Corbusier , en uno de los hitos más conocidos de la arquitectura modernista. Una versión reconstruida ahora se encuentra en el sitio original en Barcelona. [28]
Cuando los nazis llegaron al poder en Alemania, consideraron la Bauhaus como un campo de entrenamiento para comunistas y cerraron la escuela en 1933. Gropius abandonó Alemania y se fue a Inglaterra, luego a los Estados Unidos, donde él y Marcel Breuer se unieron a la facultad de la Escuela de Diseño de la Universidad de Harvard y se convirtieron en los maestros de una generación de arquitectos estadounidenses de posguerra. En 1937, Mies van der Rohe también se mudó a los Estados Unidos; se convirtió en uno de los diseñadores más famosos de rascacielos estadounidenses de posguerra. [28]
El expresionismo , que apareció en Alemania entre 1910 y 1925, fue un contramovimiento contra la arquitectura estrictamente funcional de la Bauhaus y el Werkbund. Sus defensores, entre ellos Bruno Taut , Hans Poelzig , Fritz Hoger y Erich Mendelsohn , querían crear una arquitectura que fuera poética, expresiva y optimista. Muchos arquitectos expresionistas habían luchado en la Primera Guerra Mundial y sus experiencias, combinadas con la agitación política y la agitación social que siguieron a la Revolución alemana de 1919, dieron como resultado una perspectiva utópica y una agenda socialista romántica. [29] Las condiciones económicas limitaron severamente el número de encargos construidos entre 1914 y mediados de la década de 1920, [30] Como resultado, muchos de los proyectos expresionistas más innovadores, incluida la Arquitectura alpina de Bruno Taut y los Formspiels de Hermann Finsterlin , se quedaron en el papel. La escenografía para teatro y cine proporcionó otra salida para la imaginación expresionista [31] y proporcionó ingresos complementarios a los diseñadores que intentaban desafiar las convenciones en un clima económico difícil. Un tipo particular, que utiliza ladrillos para crear sus formas (en lugar de hormigón) se conoce como expresionismo de ladrillos .
Erich Mendelsohn (a quien no le gustaba el término expresionismo para su obra) comenzó su carrera diseñando iglesias, silos y fábricas que eran muy imaginativas, pero, por falta de recursos, nunca se construyeron. En 1920, finalmente pudo construir una de sus obras en la ciudad de Potsdam; un observatorio y centro de investigación llamado Einsteinium , llamado así en homenaje a Albert Einstein . Se suponía que se construiría de hormigón armado, pero debido a problemas técnicos finalmente se construyó con materiales tradicionales cubiertos con yeso. Su forma escultórica, muy diferente de las austeras formas rectangulares de la Bauhaus, primero le valió encargos para construir cines y tiendas minoristas en Stuttgart, Núremberg y Berlín. Su Mossehaus en Berlín fue un modelo temprano para el estilo modernista aerodinámico . Su Columbushaus en Potsdamer Platz en Berlín (1931) fue un prototipo para los edificios de oficinas modernistas que vinieron después. (Fue derribado en 1957, porque estaba en la zona entre Berlín Este y Berlín Oeste, donde se construyó el Muro de Berlín .) Tras el ascenso de los nazis al poder, se trasladó a Inglaterra (1933), y luego a los Estados Unidos (1941). [32]
Fritz Höger fue otro notable arquitecto expresionista de la época. Su Chilehaus fue construido como sede de una compañía naviera y se basó en un barco de vapor gigante, un edificio triangular con una proa muy puntiaguda. Fue construido con ladrillo oscuro y utilizó pilares externos para expresar su estructura vertical. Su decoración externa tomó prestado de las catedrales góticas, al igual que sus arcadas internas. Hans Poelzig fue otro notable arquitecto expresionista. En 1919 construyó el Großes Schauspielhaus , un inmenso teatro en Berlín, con capacidad para cinco mil espectadores para el empresario teatral Max Reinhardt . Presentaba formas alargadas como estalagmitas colgando de su gigantesca cúpula y luces en enormes columnas en su vestíbulo. También construyó el edificio IG Farben , una enorme sede corporativa, ahora el edificio principal de la Universidad Goethe en Frankfurt. Bruno Taut se especializó en la construcción de complejos de apartamentos a gran escala para berlineses de clase trabajadora. Construyó doce mil unidades individuales, a veces en edificios con formas inusuales, como una herradura gigante. A diferencia de la mayoría de los otros modernistas, utilizó colores exteriores brillantes para dar más vida a sus edificios. El uso de ladrillos oscuros en los proyectos alemanes le dio a ese estilo particular un nombre, Expresionismo de ladrillo . [33]
El filósofo, arquitecto y crítico social austríaco Rudolf Steiner también se alejó lo más posible de las formas arquitectónicas tradicionales. Su Segundo Goetheanum , construido a partir de 1926 cerca de Basilea ( Suiza) y la Einsteinturm de Mendelsohn en Potsdam (Alemania) no se basaron en modelos tradicionales y tenían formas completamente originales.
Después de la Revolución rusa de 1917, los artistas y arquitectos de vanguardia rusos comenzaron a buscar un nuevo estilo soviético que pudiera reemplazar al neoclasicismo tradicional. Los nuevos movimientos arquitectónicos estaban estrechamente vinculados con los movimientos literarios y artísticos de la época, el futurismo del poeta Vladimir Mayakovskiy , el suprematismo del pintor Kasimir Malevich y el rayonismo colorido del pintor Mikhail Larionov . El diseño más sorprendente que surgió fue la torre propuesta por el pintor y escultor Vladimir Tatlin para la reunión de Moscú de la Tercera Internacional Comunista en 1920: propuso dos torres entrelazadas de metal de cuatrocientos metros de altura, con cuatro volúmenes geométricos suspendidos de cables. El movimiento de la arquitectura constructivista rusa fue lanzado en 1921 por un grupo de artistas liderados por Aleksandr Rodchenko . Su manifiesto proclamaba que su objetivo era encontrar la "expresión comunista de las estructuras materiales". Los arquitectos soviéticos comenzaron a construir clubes de trabajadores, casas de apartamentos comunales y cocinas comunales para alimentar a barrios enteros. [34]
Uno de los primeros arquitectos constructivistas destacados que surgieron en Moscú fue Konstantin Melnikov , que fundó varios clubes de trabajadores, incluido el Club de Trabajadores Rusakov (1928), y su propia casa, la Casa Melnikov (1929), cerca de la calle Arbat en Moscú. Melnikov viajó a París en 1925, donde construyó el Pabellón Soviético para la Exposición Internacional de Artes Decorativas e Industriales Modernas de París en 1925; era una construcción vertical altamente geométrica de vidrio y acero atravesada por una escalera diagonal y coronada con una hoz y un martillo. El grupo líder de arquitectos constructivistas, encabezado por los hermanos Vesnin y Moisei Ginzburg , publicaba la revista 'Arquitectura contemporánea'. Este grupo creó varios proyectos constructivistas importantes a raíz del Primer Plan Quinquenal, incluida la colosal Central Hidroeléctrica del Dnieper (1932), e intentó iniciar la estandarización de los bloques de viviendas con el edificio Narkomfin de Ginzburg . Numerosos arquitectos del período presoviético también adoptaron el estilo constructivista. El ejemplo más famoso fue el Mausoleo de Lenin en Moscú (1924), obra de Alexey Shchusev (1924) [35]
Los principales centros de la arquitectura constructivista fueron Moscú y Leningrado; sin embargo, durante la industrialización se levantaron muchos edificios constructivistas en ciudades de provincia. Los centros industriales regionales, como Ekaterimburgo , Járkov o Ivánovo , fueron reconstruidos al estilo constructivista; algunas ciudades, como Magnitogorsk o Zaporizhia , fueron reconstruidas de nuevo (las llamadas socgorod , o "ciudades socialistas").
El estilo cayó notablemente en desgracia en la década de 1930, reemplazado por los estilos nacionalistas más grandiosos que favorecía Stalin. Los arquitectos constructivistas e incluso Le Corbusier proyectaron el nuevo Palacio de los Soviets entre 1931 y 1933, pero el ganador fue un edificio estalinista temprano en el estilo denominado posconstructivismo . El último gran edificio constructivista ruso, de Boris Iofan , fue construido para la Exposición Universal de París (1937), donde se enfrentó al pabellón de la Alemania nazi del arquitecto de Hitler, Albert Speer . [36]
La Nueva Objetividad (en alemán Neue Sachlichkeit, a veces también traducida como Nueva Sobriedad) es un nombre que se da a menudo a la arquitectura moderna que surgió en Europa, principalmente en la Europa de habla alemana, en los años 1920 y 1930. También se la suele llamar Neues Bauen (Nueva Construcción). La Nueva Objetividad tuvo lugar en muchas ciudades alemanas en ese período, por ejemplo en Frankfurt con su proyecto Neues Frankfurt .
A finales de la década de 1920, el modernismo se había convertido en un movimiento importante en Europa. La arquitectura, que anteriormente había sido predominantemente nacional, comenzó a internacionalizarse. Los arquitectos viajaron, se conocieron y compartieron ideas. Varios modernistas, incluido Le Corbusier , habían participado en el concurso para la sede de la Sociedad de Naciones en 1927. Ese mismo año, el Werkbund alemán organizó una exposición arquitectónica en el Weissenhof Estate de Stuttgart . Diecisiete arquitectos modernistas destacados de Europa fueron invitados a diseñar veintiuna casas; Le Corbusier y Ludwig Mies van der Rohe desempeñaron un papel importante. En 1927, Le Corbusier, Pierre Chareau y otros propusieron la fundación de una conferencia internacional para establecer las bases de un estilo común. La primera reunión del Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne o Congresos Internacionales de Arquitectos Modernos (CIAM), se celebró en un castillo en el lago Leman en Suiza del 26 al 28 de junio de 1928. Entre los asistentes se encontraban Le Corbusier, Robert Mallet-Stevens , Auguste Perret , Pierre Chareau y Tony Garnier de Francia; Victor Bourgeois de Bélgica; Walter Gropius , Erich Mendelsohn , Ernst May y Ludwig Mies van der Rohe de Alemania; Josef Frank de Austria; Mart Stam y Gerrit Rietveld de los Países Bajos, y Adolf Loos de Checoslovaquia. Se invitó a asistir a una delegación de arquitectos soviéticos, pero no pudieron obtener visados. Los miembros posteriores incluyeron a Josep Lluís Sert de España y Alvar Aalto de Finlandia. No asistió nadie de los Estados Unidos. Una segunda reunión fue organizada en 1930 en Bruselas por Victor Bourgeois sobre el tema "Métodos racionales para grupos de viviendas". En 1932 se programó una tercera reunión, sobre “La ciudad funcional”, en Moscú, pero se canceló en el último momento. En su lugar, los delegados celebraron su reunión en un crucero que viajaba entre Marsella y Atenas. A bordo, redactaron juntos un texto sobre cómo debían organizarse las ciudades modernas. El texto, llamado Carta de AtenasEl CIAM, después de una considerable edición por parte de Corbusier y otros, fue finalmente publicado en 1957 y se convirtió en un texto influyente para los urbanistas de los años 1950 y 1960. El grupo se reunió una vez más en París en 1937 para discutir la vivienda pública y estaba previsto que se reuniera en los Estados Unidos en 1939, pero la reunión se canceló debido a la guerra. El legado del CIAM fue un estilo y una doctrina más o menos comunes que ayudaron a definir la arquitectura moderna en Europa y los Estados Unidos después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. [37]
El estilo arquitectónico Art Déco (llamado Style Moderne en Francia) era moderno, pero no modernista; tenía muchas características del modernismo, incluido el uso de hormigón armado, vidrio, acero, cromo, y rechazaba los modelos históricos tradicionales, como el estilo Beaux-Arts y el neoclasicismo ; pero, a diferencia de los estilos modernistas de Le Corbusier y Mies van der Rohe, hizo un uso pródigo de la decoración y el color. Se deleitaba con los símbolos de la modernidad: relámpagos, amaneceres y zigzags. El Art Déco había comenzado en Francia antes de la Primera Guerra Mundial y se extendió por Europa; en las décadas de 1920 y 1930 se convirtió en un estilo muy popular en Estados Unidos, Sudamérica, India, China, Australia y Japón. En Europa, el Art Déco fue particularmente popular para los grandes almacenes y los cines. El estilo alcanzó su apogeo en Europa en la Exposición Internacional de Artes Decorativas e Industriales Modernas de 1925, que presentó pabellones art déco y decoración de veinte países. Sólo dos pabellones eran puramente modernistas: el pabellón Esprit Nouveau de Le Corbusier, que representaba su idea de una unidad de vivienda producida en masa, y el pabellón de la URSS, de Konstantin Melnikov en un estilo extravagantemente futurista . [38]
Los monumentos franceses posteriores en estilo Art Déco incluyeron el cine Grand Rex en París, los grandes almacenes La Samaritaine de Henri Sauvage (1926-28) y el edificio del Consejo Social y Económico de París (1937-38) de Auguste Perret , y el Palacio de Tokio y el Palacio de Chaillot , ambos construidos por colectivos de arquitectos para la Exposición Internacional de Artes y Técnicas en la Vida Moderna de París de 1937. [39]
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, an exuberant American variant of Art Deco appeared in the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center in New York City, and Guardian Building in Detroit. The first skyscrapers in Chicago and New York had been designed in a neo-gothic or neoclassical style, but these buildings were very different; they combined modern materials and technology (stainless steel, concrete, aluminum, chrome-plated steel) with Art Deco geometry; stylized zig-zags, lightning flashes, fountains, sunrises, and, at the top of the Chrysler building, Art Deco "gargoyles" in the form of stainless steel radiator ornaments. The interiors of these new buildings, sometimes termed Cathedrals of Commerce", were lavishly decorated in bright contrasting colors, with geometric patterns variously influenced by Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, African textile patterns, and European cathedrals, Frank Lloyd Wright himself experimented with Mayan Revival, in the concrete cube-based Ennis House of 1924 in Los Angeles. The style appeared in the late 1920s and 1930s in all major American cities. The style was used most often in office buildings, but it also appeared in the enormous movie palaces that were built in large cities when sound films were introduced.[40]
The beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 brought an end to lavishly decorated Art Deco architecture and a temporary halt to the construction of new skyscrapers. It also brought in a new style, called "Streamline Moderne" or sometimes just Streamline. This style, sometimes modeled after for the form of ocean liners, featured rounded corners, strong horizontal lines, and often nautical features, such as superstructures and steel railings. It was associated with modernity and especially with transportation; the style was often used for new airport terminals, train and bus stations, and for gas stations and diners built along the growing American highway system. In the 1930s the style was used not only in buildings, but in railroad locomotives, and even refrigerators and vacuum cleaners. It both borrowed from industrial design and influenced it.[41]
In the United States, the Great Depression led to a new style for government buildings, sometimes called PWA Moderne, for the Public Works Administration, which launched gigantic construction programs in the U.S. to stimulate employment. It was essentially classical architecture stripped of ornament, and was employed in state and federal buildings, from post offices to the largest office building in the world at that time, Pentagon (1941–43), begun just before the United States entered the Second World War.[42]
During the 1920s and 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright resolutely refused to associate himself with any architectural movements. He considered his architecture to be entirely unique and his own. Between 1916 and 1922, he broke away from his earlier prairie house style and worked instead on houses decorated with textured blocks of cement; this became known as his "Mayan style", after the pyramids of the ancient Mayan civilization. He experimented for a time with modular mass-produced housing. He identified his architecture as "Usonian", a combination of USA, "utopian" and "organic social order". His business was severely affected by the beginning of the Great Depression that began in 1929; he had fewer wealthy clients who wanted to experiment. Between 1928 and 1935, he built only two buildings: a hotel near Chandler, Arizona, and the most famous of all his residences, Fallingwater (1934–37), a vacation house in Pennsylvania for Edgar J. Kaufman. Fallingwater is a remarkable structure of concrete slabs suspended over a waterfall, perfectly uniting architecture and nature.[43]
The Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler designed what could be called the first house in the modern style in 1922, the Schindler house. Schindler also contributed to American modernism with his design for the Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach. The Austrian architect Richard Neutra moved to the United States in 1923, worked for a short time with Frank Lloyd Wright, also quickly became a force in American architecture through his modernist design for the same client, the Lovell Health House in Los Angeles. Neutra's most notable architectural work was the Kaufmann Desert House in 1946, and he designed hundreds of further projects.[44]
The 1937 Paris International Exposition in Paris effectively marked the end of the Art Deco, and of pre-war architectural styles. Most of the pavilions were in a neoclassical Deco style, with colonnades and sculptural decoration. The pavilions of Nazi Germany, designed by Albert Speer, in a German neoclassical style topped by eagle and swastika, faced the pavilion of the Soviet Union, topped by enormous statues of a worker and a peasant carrying a hammer and sickle. As to the modernists, Le Corbusier was practically, but not quite invisible at the Exposition; he participated in the Pavilion des temps nouveaux, but focused mainly on his painting.[45] The one modernist who did attract attention was a collaborator of Le Corbusier, Josep Lluis Sert, the Spanish architect, whose pavilion of the Second Spanish Republic was pure modernist glass and steel box. Inside it displayed the most modernist work of the Exposition, the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. The original building was destroyed after the Exposition, but it was recreated in 1992 in Barcelona.
The rise of nationalism in the 1930s was reflected in the Fascist architecture of Italy, and Nazi architecture of Germany, based on classical styles and designed to express power and grandeur. The Nazi architecture, much of it designed by Albert Speer, was intended to awe the spectators by its huge scale. Adolf Hitler intended to turn Berlin into the capital of Europe, grander than Rome or Paris. The Nazis closed the Bauhaus, and the most prominent modern architects soon departed for Britain or the United States. In Italy, Benito Mussolini wished to present himself as the heir to the glory and empire of ancient Rome.[46] Mussolini's government was not as hostile to modernism as The Nazis; the spirit of Italian Rationalism of the 1920s continued, with the work of architect Giuseppe Terragni. His Casa del Fascio in Como, headquarters of the local Fascist party, was a perfectly modernist building, with geometric proportions (33.2 meters long by 16.6 meters high), a clean façade of marble, and a Renaissance-inspired interior courtyard. Opposed to Terragni was Marcello Piacitini, a proponent of monumental fascist architecture, who rebuilt the University of Rome, and designed the Italian pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition, and planned a grand reconstruction of Rome on the fascist model.[47]
The 1939 New York World's Fair marked a turning point in architecture between Art Deco and modern architecture. The theme of the Fair was the World of Tomorrow, and its symbols were the purely geometric trylon and periphery sculpture. It had many monuments to Art Deco, such as the Ford Pavilion in the Streamline Moderne style, but also included the new International Style that would replace Art Deco as the dominant style after the War. The Pavilions of Finland, by Alvar Aalto, of Sweden by Sven Markelius, and of Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, looked forward to a new style. They became leaders in the postwar modernist movement.[48]
World War II (1939–1945) and its aftermath was a major factor in driving innovation in building technology, and in turn, architectural possibilities.[42][49] The wartime industrial demands resulted in shortages of steel and other building materials, leading to the adoption of new materials, such as aluminum, The war and postwar period brought greatly expanded use of prefabricated building; largely for the military and government. The semi-circular metal Nissen hut of World War I was revived as the Quonset hut. The years immediately after the war saw the development of radical experimental houses, including the enameled-steel Lustron house (1947–1950), and Buckminster Fuller's experimental aluminum Dymaxion House.[49][50]
The unprecedented destruction caused by the war was another factor in the rise of modern architecture. Large parts of major cities, from Berlin, Tokyo, and Dresden to Rotterdam and east London; all the port cities of France, particularly Le Havre, Brest, Marseille, Cherbourg had been destroyed by bombing. In the United States, little civilian construction had been done since the 1920s; housing was needed for millions of American soldiers returning from the war. The postwar housing shortages in Europe and the United States led to the design and construction of enormous government-financed housing projects, usually in run-down center of American cities, and in the suburbs of Paris and other European cities, where land was available,
One of the largest reconstruction projects was that of the city center of Le Havre, destroyed by the Germans and by Allied bombing in 1944; 133 hectares of buildings in the center were flattened, destroying 12,500 buildings and leaving 40,000 persons homeless. The architect Auguste Perret, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete and prefabricated materials, designed and built an entirely new center to the city, with apartment blocks, cultural, commercial, and government buildings. He restored historic monuments when possible, and built a new church, St. Joseph, with a lighthouse-like tower in the center to inspire hope. His rebuilt city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.[51]
Shortly after the War, the French architect Le Corbusier, who was nearly sixty years old and had not constructed a building in ten years, was commissioned by the French government to construct a new apartment block in Marseille. He called it Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, but it more popularly took the name of the Cité Radieuse (and later "Cité du Fada" "City of the crazy one" in Marseille French), after his book about futuristic urban planning. Following his doctrines of design, the building had a concrete frame raised up above the street on pylons. It contained 337 duplex apartment units, fit into the framework like pieces of a puzzle. Each unit had two levels and a small terrace. Interior "streets" had shops, a nursery school, and other serves, and the flat terrace roof had a running track, ventilation ducts, and a small theater. Le Corbusier designed furniture, carpets, and lamps to go with the building, all purely functional; the only decoration was a choice of interior colors that Le Corbusier gave to residents. Unité d'Habitation became a prototype for similar buildings in other cities, both in France and Germany. Combined with his equally radical organic design for the Chapel of Notre-Dame du-Haut at Ronchamp, this work propelled Corbusier in the first rank of postwar modern architects.[52]
In the early 1950s, Michel Écochard, director of urban planning under the French Protectorate in Morocco, commissioned GAMMA (Groupe des Architectes Modernes Marocains)—which initially included the architects Elie Azagury, George Candillis, Alexis Josic and Shadrach Woods—to design housing in the Hay Mohammedi neighborhood of Casablanca that provided a "culturally specific living tissue" for laborers and migrants from the countryside.[53] Sémiramis, Nid d’Abeille (Honeycomb), and Carrières Centrales were some of the first examples of this Vernacular Modernism.[54]
At the 1953 Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), ATBAT-Afrique—the Africa branch of Atelier des Bâtisseurs founded in 1947 by figures including Le Corbusier, Vladimir Bodiansky, and André Wogenscky—prepared a study of Casablanca's bidonvilles entitled "Habitat for the Greatest Number".[55] The presenters, Georges Candilis and Michel Ecochard, argued—against doctrine—that architects must consider local culture and climate in their designs.[56][53][57] This generated great debate among modernist architects around the world and eventually provoked a schism and the creation of Team 10.[56][58][59] Ecochard's 8x8 meter model at Carrières Centrales earned him recognition as a pioneer in the architecture of collective housing,[60][61] though his Moroccan colleague Elie Azagury was critical of him for serving as a tool of the French colonial regime and for ignoring the economic and social necessity that Moroccans live in higher density vertical housing.[62]
Late modernist architecture is generally understood to include buildings designed (1968–1980) with exceptions. Modernist architecture includes the buildings designed between 1945 and the 1960s. The late modernist style is characterized by bold shapes and sharp corners, slightly more defined than Brutalist architecture.[63]
The International Style of architecture had appeared in Europe, particularly in the Bauhaus movement, in the late 1920s. In 1932 it was recognized and given a name at an Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City organized by architect Philip Johnson and architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Between 1937 and 1941, following the rise Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, most of the leaders of the German Bauhaus movement found a new home in the United States, and played an important part in the development of American modern architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright was eighty years old in 1947; he had been present at the beginning of American modernism, and though he refused to accept that he belonged to any movement, continued to play a leading role almost to its end. One of his most original late projects was the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, begun in 1941 and completed in 1943. He designed nine new buildings in a style that he described as "The Child of the Sun". He wrote that he wanted the campus to "grow out of the ground and into the light, a child of the sun".
He completed several notable projects in the 1940s, including the Johnson Wax Headquarters and the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma (1956). The building is unusual that it is supported by its central core of four elevator shafts; the rest of the building is cantilevered to this core, like the branches of a tree. Wright originally planned the structure for an apartment building in New York City. That project was cancelled because of the Great Depression, and he adapted the design for an oil pipeline and equipment company in Oklahoma. He wrote that in New York City his building would have been lost in a forest of tall buildings, but that in Oklahoma it stood alone. The design is asymmetrical; each side is different.
In 1943 he was commissioned by the art collector Solomon R. Guggenheim to design a museum for his collection of modern art. His design was entirely original; a bowl-shaped building with a spiral ramp inside that led museum visitors on an upward tour of the art of the 20th century. Work began in 1946 but it was not completed until 1959, the year that he died.[48]
Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, moved to England in 1934 and spent three years there before being invited to the United States by Walter Hudnut of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Gropius became the head of the architecture faculty. Marcel Breuer, who had worked with him at the Bauhaus, joined him and opened an office in Cambridge. The fame of Gropius and Breuer attracted many students, who themselves became famous architects, including Ieoh Ming Pei and Philip Johnson. They did not receive an important commission until 1941, when they designed housing for workers in Kensington, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh., In 1945 Gropius and Breuer associated with a group of younger architects under the name TAC (The Architects Collaborative). Their notable works included the building of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1956–57), and the headquarters of Pan American Airways in New York (1958–63).[64]
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe described his architecture with the famous saying, "Less is more". As the director of the school of architecture of what is now called the Illinois Institute of Technology from 1939 to 1956, Mies (as he was commonly known) made Chicago the leading city for American modernism in the postwar years. He constructed new buildings for the Institute in modernist style, two high-rise apartment buildings on Lakeshore Drive (1948–51), which became models for high-rises across the country. Other major works included Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1945–1951), a simple horizontal glass box that had an enormous influence on American residential architecture. The Chicago Convention Center (1952–54) and Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1950–56), and The Seagram Building in New York City (1954–58) also set a new standard for purity and elegance. Based on granite pillars, the smooth glass and steel walls were given a touch of color by the use of bronze-toned I-beams in the structure. He returned to Germany in 1962–68 to build the new Nationalgallerie in Berlin. His students and followers included Philip Johnson, and Eero Saarinen, whose work was substantially influenced by his ideas.[65]
Influential residential architects in the new style in the United States included Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames. The most celebrated work of the Eames was Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California, (1949) Charles Eames in collaboration with Eero Saarinen It is composed of two structures, an architects residence and his studio, joined in the form of an L. The house, influenced by Japanese architecture, is made of translucent and transparent panels organized in simple volumes, often using natural materials, supported on a steel framework. The frame of the house was assembled in sixteen hours by five workmen. He brightened up his buildings with panels of pure colors.[66]
Richard Neutra continued to build influential houses in Los Angeles, using the theme of the simple box. Many of these houses erased the line distinction between indoor and outdoor spaces with walls of plate glass.[67] Neutra's Constance Perkins House in Pasadena, California (1962) was re-examination of the modest single-family dwelling. It was built of inexpensive material–wood, plaster, and glass–and completed at a cost of just under $18,000. Neutra scaled the house to the physical dimensions of its owner, a small woman. It features a reflecting pool which meanders under of the glass walls of the house. One of Neutra's most unusual buildings was Shepherd's Grove in Garden Grove, California, which featured an adjoining parking lot where worshippers could follow the service without leaving their cars.
Many of the notable modern buildings in the postwar years were produced by two architectural mega-agencies, which brought together large teams of designers for very complex projects. The firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was founded in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and joined in 1939 by engineer John Merrill, It soon went under the name of SOM. Its first big project was Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the gigantic government installation that produced plutonium for the first nuclear weapons. In 1964 the firm had eighteen "partner-owners", 54 "associate participants, "and 750 architects, technicians, designers, decorators, and landscape architects. Their style was largely inspired by the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and their buildings soon had a large place in the New York skyline, including the Manhattan House (1950–51), Lever House (1951–52) and the Manufacturers Trust Company Building (1954). Later buildings by the firm include Beinecke Library at Yale University (1963), the Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower in Chicago (1973) and One World Trade Center in New York City (2013), which replaced the building destroyed in the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001.[68]
Wallace Harrison played a major part in the modern architectural history of New York; as the architectural advisor of the Rockefeller Family, he helped design Rockefeller Center, the major Art Deco architectural project of the 1930s. He was supervising architect for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and, with his partner Max Abramowitz, was the builder and chief architect of the headquarters of the United Nations; Harrison headed a committee of international architects, which included Oscar Niemeyer (who produced the original plan approved by the committee) and Le Corbusier. Other landmark New York buildings designed by Harrison and his firm included Metropolitan Opera House, the master plan for Lincoln Center, and John F. Kennedy International Airport.[69]
Philip Johnson (1906–2005) was one of the youngest and last major figures in American modern architecture. He trained at Harvard with Walter Gropius, then was director of the department of architecture and modern design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1946 to 1954. In 1947, he published a book about Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and in 1953 designed his own residence, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut in a style modeled after Mies's Farnsworth House. Beginning in 1955 he began to go in his own direction, moving gradually toward expressionism with designs that increasingly departed from the orthodoxies of modern architecture. His final and decisive break with modern architecture was the AT&T Building (later known as the Sony Tower), and now the 550 Madison Avenue in New York City, (1979) an essentially modernist skyscraper completely altered by the addition of broken pediment with a circular opening. This building is generally considered to mark the beginning of Postmodern architecture in the United States.[69]
Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was the son of Eliel Saarinen, the most famous Finnish architect of the Art Nouveau period, who emigrated to the United States in 1923, when Eero was thirteen. He studied art and sculpture at the academy where his father taught, and then at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Academy in Paris before studying architecture at Yale University. His architectural designs were more like enormous pieces of sculpture than traditional modern buildings; he broke away from the elegant boxes inspired by Mies van der Rohe and used instead sweeping curves and parabolas, like the wings of birds. In 1948 he conceived the idea of a monument in St. Louis, Missouri in the form of a parabolic arch 192 meters high, made of stainless steel (1948). He then designed the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan (1949–55), a glass modernist box in the style of Mies van der Rohe, followed by the IBM Research Center in Yorktown, Virginia (1957–61). His next works were a major departure in style; he produced a particularly striking sculptural design for the Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Connecticut (1956–59, an ice skiing rink with a parabolic roof suspended from cables, which served as a preliminary model for next and most famous work, the TWA Terminal at JFK airport in New York (1956–1962). His declared intention was to design a building that was distinctive and memorable, and also one that would capture the particular excitement of passengers before a journey. The structure is separated into four white concrete parabolic vaults, which together resemble a bird on the ground perched for flight. Each of the four curving roof vaults has two sides attached to columns in a Y form just outside the structure. One of the angles of each shell is lightly raised, and the other is attached to the center of the structure. The roof is connected with the ground by curtain walls of glass. All of the details inside the building, including the benches, counters, escalators, and clocks, were designed in the same style.[70]
Louis Kahn (1901–74) was another American architect who moved away from the Mies van der Rohe model of the glass box, and other dogmas of the prevailing international style. He borrowed from a wide variety of styles, and idioms, including neoclassicism. He was a professor of architecture at Yale University from 1947 to 1957, where his students included Eero Saarinen. From 1957 until his death he was a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. His work and ideas influenced Philip Johnson, Minoru Yamasaki, and Edward Durell Stone as they moved toward a more neoclassical style. Unlike Mies, he did not try to make his buildings look light; he constructed mainly with concrete and brick, and made his buildings look monumental and solid. He drew from a wide variety of different sources; the towers of Richards Medical Research Laboratories were inspired by the architecture of the Renaissance towns he had seen in Italy as a resident architect at the American Academy in Rome in 1950. Notable buildings by Kahn in the United States include the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York (1962); and the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (1966–72). Following the example of Le Corbusier and his design of the government buildings in Chandigarh, the capital city of the Haryana & Punjab State of India, Kahn designed the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1962–74), when that country won independence from Pakistan. It was Kahn's last work.[71]
I. M. Pei (1917–2019) was a major figure in late modernism and the debut of Post-modern architecture. He was born in China and educated in the United States, studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While the architecture school there still trained in the Beaux-Arts architecture style, Pei discovered the writings of Le Corbusier, and a two-day visit by Le Corbusier to the campus in 1935 had a major impact on Pei's ideas of architecture. In the late 1930s, he moved to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and became deeply involved in Modernism.[72] After the war he worked on large projects for the New York real estate developer William Zeckendorf, before breaking away and starting his own firm. One of the first buildings his own firm designed was the Green Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While the clean modernist façade was admired, the building developed an unexpected problem; it created a wind tunnel effect, and in strong winds the doors could not be opened. Pei was forced to construct a tunnel so visitors could enter the building during high winds.
Between 1963 and 1967 Pei designed the Mesa Laboratory for the National Center for Atmospheric Research outside Boulder, Colorado, in an open area at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The project differed from Pei's earlier urban work; it would rest in an open area in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. His design was a striking departure from traditional modernism; it looked as if it were carved out of the side of the mountain.[73]
In the late modernist area, art museums bypassed skyscrapers as the most prestigious architectural projects; they offered greater possibilities for innovation in form and more visibility. Pei established himself with his design for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1973), which was praised for its imaginative use of a small space, and its respect for the landscape and other buildings around it. This led to the commission for one of the most important museum projects of the period, the new East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, completed in 1978, and to another of Pei's most famous projects, the pyramid at the entrance of Louvre Museum in Paris (1983–89). Pei chose the pyramid as the form that best harmonized with the Renaissance and neoclassical forms of the historic Louvre, as well as for its associations with Napoleon and the Battle of the Pyramids. Each face of the pyramid is supported by 128 beams of stainless steel, supporting 675 panels of glass, each 2.9 by 1.9 meters (9 ft 6 in by 6 ft 3 in).[74]
In 1955, employed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), he began working in Chicago. He was made a partner in 1966. He worked the rest of his life side by side with Architect Bruce Graham.[75] Khan introduced design methods and concepts for efficient use of material in building architecture. His first building to employ the tube structure was the Chestnut De-Witt apartment building.[76] During the 1960s and 1970s, he became noted for his designs for Chicago's 100-story John Hancock Center, which was the first building to use the trussed-tube design, and 110-story Sears Tower, since renamed Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, which was the first building to use the framed-tube design.
He believed that engineers needed a broader perspective on life, saying, "The technical man must not be lost in his own technology; he must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people." Khan's personal papers, most of which were in his office at the time of his death, are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Fazlur Khan Collection includes manuscripts, sketches, audio cassette tapes, slides and other materials regarding his work.
Khan's seminal work of developing tall building structural systems are still used today as the starting point when considering design options for tall buildings. Tube structures have since been used in many skyscrapers, including the construction of the World Trade Center, Aon Centre, Petronas Towers, Jin Mao Building, Bank of China Tower and most other buildings in excess of 40 stories constructed since the 1960s. The strong influence of tube structure design is also evident in the world's current tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. According to Stephen Bayley of The Daily Telegraph:
Khan invented a new way of building tall. ... So Fazlur Khan created the unconventional skyscraper. Reversing the logic of the steel frame, he decided that the building's external envelope could – given enough trussing, framing and bracing – be the structure itself. This made buildings even lighter. The "bundled tube" meant buildings no longer need be boxlike in appearance: they could become sculpture. Khan's amazing insight – he was name-checked by Obama in his Cairo University speech last year – changed both the economics and the morphology of supertall buildings. And it made Burj Khalifa possible: proportionately, Burj employs perhaps half the steel that conservatively supports the Empire State Building. ... Burj Khalifa is the ultimate expression of his audacious, lightweight design philosophy.[77]
In the United States, Minoru Yamasaki found major independent success in implementing unique engineering solutions to then-complicated problems, including the space that elevator shafts took up on each floor, and dealing with his personal fear of heights. During this period, he created a number of office buildings which led to his innovative design of the 1,360 ft (410 m) towers of the World Trade Center in 1964, which began construction 21 March 1966.[78] The first of the towers was finished in 1970.[79] Many of his buildings feature superficial details inspired by the pointed arches of Gothic architecture, and make use of extremely narrow vertical windows. This narrow-windowed style arose from his own personal fear of heights.[80] One particular design challenge of the World Trade Center's design related to the efficacy of the elevator system, which was unique in the world. Yamasaki integrated the fastest elevators at the time, running at 1,700 feet per minute. Instead of placing a large traditional elevator shaft in the core of each tower, Yamasaki created the Twin Towers' "Skylobby" system. The Skylobby design created three separate, connected elevator systems which would serve different segments of the building, depending on which floor was chosen, saving approximately 70% of the space used for a traditional shaft. The space saved was then used for office space.[81] In addition to these accomplishments, he had also designed the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project, the largest ever housing project built in the United States, which was fully torn down in 1976 due to bad market conditions and the decrepit state of the buildings themselves. Separately, he had also designed the Century Plaza Towers and One Woodward Avenue, among 63 other projects he had developed during his career.
In France, Le Corbusier remained the most prominent architect, though he built few buildings there. His most prominent late work was the convent of Sainte Marie de La Tourette in Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle. The Convent, built of raw concrete, was austere and without ornament, inspired by the medieval monasteries he had visited on his first trip to Italy.[82]
In Britain, the major figures in modernism included Wells Coates (1895–1958), FRS Yorke (1906–1962), James Stirling (1926–1992) and Denys Lasdun (1914–2001). Lasdun's best-known work is the Royal National Theatre (1967–1976) on the south bank of the Thames. Its raw concrete and blockish form offended British traditionalists; Charles III, King of the U.K compared it with a nuclear power station.
In Belgium, a major figure was Charles Vandenhove (born 1927) who constructed an important series of buildings for the University Hospital Center in Liège. His later work ventured into colorful rethinking of historical styles, such as Palladian architecture.[83]
In Finland, the most influential architect was Alvar Aalto, who adapted his version of modernism to the Nordic landscape, light, and materials, particularly the use of wood. After World War II, he taught architecture in the United States. In Denmark, Arne Jacobsen was the best-known of the modernists, who designed furniture as well as carefully proportioned buildings.
In Italy, the most prominent modernist was Gio Ponti, who worked often with the structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, a specialist in reinforced concrete. Nervi created concrete beams of exceptional length, twenty-five meters, which allowed greater flexibility in forms and greater heights. Their best-known design was the Pirelli Building in Milan (1958–1960), which for decades was the tallest building in Italy.[84]
The most famous Spanish modernist was the Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert, who worked with great success in Spain, France, and the United States. In his early career, he worked for a time under Le Corbusier, and designed the Spanish pavilion for the 1937 Paris Exposition. His notable later work included the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Provence, France (1964), and the Harvard Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as Dean of Architecture at the Harvard School of Design.
Notable German modernists included Johannes Krahn, who played an important part in rebuilding German cities after World War II, and built several important museums and churches, notably St. Martin, Idstein, which artfully combined stone masonry, concrete, and glass. Leading Austrian architects of the style included Gustav Peichl, whose later works included the Art and Exhibition Center of the German Federal Republic in Bonn, Germany (1989).
Tropical Modernism, or Tropical Modern is a style of architecture that merges modernist architecture principles with tropical vernacular traditions, emerging in the mid-20th century. The term is used to describe modernist architecture in various regions of the world, including Latin America, Asia and Africa, as detailed below. Architects adapted to local conditions by using features which encouraged protection from harsh sunlight (such as solar shading) and encouraged the flow of cooling breezes through buildings (through narrow corridors).[85] Some contend that the style originated in the 'hot, humid conditions' of West Africa in the 1940s.[86] Typical features include geometric screens. Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, of the Architectural Association architecture school in London, UK, made important contributions to research and practice in the Tropical Modernism style, after founding the School of Tropical Study at the AA. Speaking about the adoption of modernism in post-independence Ghana, Professor Ola Ukuku, states that ‘those involved in developing Tropical Modernism were actually operating as agents of the colonies at the time’.[87]
Architectural historians sometimes label Latin American modernism as "tropical modernism". This reflects architects who adapted modernism to the tropical climate as well as the sociopolitical contexts of Latin America.[88]
Brazil became a showcase of modern architecture in the late 1930s through the work of Lúcio Costa (1902–1998) and Oscar Niemeyer (1907–2012). Costa had the lead and Niemeyer collaborated on the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1936–43) and the Brazilian pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Following the war, Niemeyer, along with Le Corbusier, conceived the form of the United Nations Headquarters constructed by Walter Harrison.
Lúcio Costa also had overall responsibility for the plan of the most audacious modernist project in Brazil; the creation of new capital, Brasília, constructed between 1956 and 1961. Costa made the general plan, laid out in the form of a cross, with the major government buildings in the center. Niemeyer was responsible for designing the government buildings, including the palace of the President;the National Assembly, composed of two towers for the two branches of the legislature and two meeting halls, one with a cupola and other with an inverted cupola. Niemeyer also built the cathedral, eighteen ministries, and giant blocks of housing, each designed for three thousand residents, each with its own school, shops, and chapel. Modernism was employed both as an architectural principle and as a guideline for organizing society, as explored in The Modernist City.[89]
Following a military coup d'état in Brazil in 1964, Niemeyer moved to France, where he designed the modernist headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris (1965–1980), a miniature of his United Nations plan.[90]
Mexico also had a prominent modernist movement. Important figures included Félix Candela, born in Spain, who emigrated to Mexico in 1939; he specialized in concrete structures in unusual parabolic forms. Another important figure was Mario Pani, who designed the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City (1949), and the Torre Insignia (1988); Pani was also instrumental in the construction of the new University of Mexico City in the 1950s, alongside Juan O'Gorman, Eugenio Peschard, and Enrique del Moral. The Torre Latinoamericana, designed by Augusto H. Alvarez, was one of the earliest modernist skyscrapers in Mexico City (1956); it successfully withstood the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which destroyed many other buildings in the city center. Pedro Ramirez Vasquez and Rafael Mijares designed the Olympic Stadium for the 1968 Olympics, and Antoni Peyri and Candela designed the Palace of Sports. Luis Barragan was another influential figure in Mexican modernism; his raw concrete residence and studio in Mexico City looks like a blockhouse on the outside, while inside it features great simplicity in form, pure colors, abundant natural light, and, one of is signatures, a stairway without a railing. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1980, and the house was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.[91]
Japan, like Europe, had an enormous shortage of housing after the war, due to the bombing of many cities. 4.2 million housing units needed to be replaced. Japanese architects combined both traditional and modern styles and techniques. One of the foremost Japanese modernists was Kunio Maekawa (1905–1986), who had worked for Le Corbusier in Paris until 1930. His own house in Tokyo was an early landmark of Japanese modernism, combining traditional style with ideas he acquired working with Le Corbusier. His notable buildings include concert halls in Tokyo and Kyoto and the International House of Japan in Tokyo, all in the pure modernist style.
Kenzo Tange (1913–2005) worked in the studio of Kunio Maekawa from 1938 until 1945 before opening his own architectural firm. His first major commission was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum . He designed many notable office buildings and cultural centers. office buildings, as well as the Yoyogi National Gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The gymnasium, built of concrete, features a roof suspended over the stadium on steel cables.
The Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918–2008) worked briefly with Alvar Aalto, studied the work of Le Corbusier, and traveled to the United States to meet Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1957 he designed one of the most recognizable modernist buildings in the world; the Sydney Opera House. He is known for the sculptural qualities of his buildings, and their relationship with the landscape. The five concrete shells of the structure resemble seashells by the beach. Begun in 1957, the project encountered considerable technical difficulties making the shells and getting the acoustics right. Utzon resigned in 1966, and the opera house was not finished until 1973, ten years after its scheduled completion.[92]
In India, modernist architecture was promoted by the postcolonial state under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, most notably by inviting Le Corbusier to design the city of Chandigarh.[85] Although Nehru advocated for young Indians to be part of Le Corbuiser's design team in order to refine their skills whilst building their city, the team included only one female Indian architect, Eulie Chowdhury.[85] Important Indian modernist architects also include BV Doshi, Charles Correa, Raj Rewal, Achyut Kanvinde, and Habib Rahman.[citation needed] Much discussion around modernist architecture took place in the journal MARG.[citation needed] In Sri Lanka, Geoffrey Bawa pioneered Tropical Modernism.[93] Minnette De Silva was an important Sri Lankan modernist architect.[citation needed]
Post independence architecture in Pakistan is a blend of Islamic and modern styles of architecture with influences from Mughal, indo-Islamic and international architectural designs. The 1960s and 1970s was a period of architectural Significance. Jinnah's Mausoleum, Minar e Pakistan, Bab e Khyber, Islamic summit minar and the Faisal mosque date from this time.
Modernist architecture in Ghana is also considered part of Tropical Modernism.[85][87]
Some notable modernist architects in Morocco were Elie Azagury and Jean-François Zevaco.[53]
Asmara, capitol of Eritrea, is well known for its modernist architecture dating from the period of Italian colonization.[94][95]
Several works or collections of modern architecture have been designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. In addition to the early experiments associated with Art Nouveau, these include a number of the structures mentioned above in this article: the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, the Bauhaus structures in Weimar, Dessau, and Bernau, the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, the White City of Tel Aviv, the city of Asmara, the city of Brasília, the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM in Mexico City and the University City of Caracas in Venezuela, the Sydney Opera House, and the Centennial Hall in Wrocław, along with select works from Le Corbursier and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Private organizations such as Docomomo International, the World Monuments Fund, and the Recent Past Preservation Network are working to safeguard and document imperiled Modern architecture. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund launched Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program. The organization MAMMA. is working to document and preserve modernist architecture in Morocco.[96]
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