Weißenhofsiedlung Settlement and Loos Methodology

Weißenhofsiedlung Settlement

In an era where society craved for the next “In” thing in art and design, the result became a scattered collage of incomplete and abstract art movements that eventually caved in on themselves; bowing the knee to the Modern architecture we know today. Modern architectures’ predecessors such as: Art Nouveau, Der Stijl, Amsterdam, Arts and Crafts etc. feature elements of design that are unique to them, but often can be seen carried through to current modern architecture. To combat this chaos the German issued Werkbund was implemented as a cultural reform project “Aiming to subsume and transcend the emerging dominant capitalism.” (Adolf) Although it commissioned dozens of famous German architects and designers, its goal was not to create a new set of principles of architecture or aesthetics, but rather to provide the stepping stone of modern architecture to combine mass production techniques into meaningful poetic design. I personally think this was an intelligent idea of the Germans to try and pull the country back together and initiate some sort of systematic idea about new architecture.

Peter Behrens

Diagrammatic Plan of Haus 31 

The German state government issued a design competition in Stuttgart, Germany called Weißenhofsiedlung in 1927. One of the design objectives was to make small residences and push the ideas of modern architecture as well incorporating a “programmatic goal of creating a model for the future living of people in large cities” (Weißen.) One of the architects that was commissioned at Weißenhofsiedlung was Peter Behrens. He is now referred to as the Father of incorporating industry into modern design, a concept that Ruskin followers would be appalled at and could possibly be considered a refinement/readjustment or the next step following the Art Nouveau era. Behrens developed House number thirty-one. It’s interesting to study the floor plans of this multi-apartment small building. He comments that unlike other architects who use the same plan for each level, he decided to offset them and on some upper floors not have a living room space, but rather substitute it with an outdoor terrace. This building in particular demonstrates very well how he experiments with varying wall thicknesses as one moves up the building. The notion I found to be most interesting is how the roof planes juxtapose out on different sides of the building and each level builds as it moves down. For example: the top floor has a (blue) terrace, the terrace now becomes a part of the second floor and its terrace (green) becomes a part of the third floor so you have this progression towards the ground plane. ­

View of Behrens Multi-Level Apartment Building

Victor Bourgeois

Another member of this Werkbund team is Victor Bourgeois who designed house number ten. This is simply a three story single family residence. It seems that most of the Werkbund contestants took some form of grid or structure and would pattern it or offset it slightly so that the grid was still evident, but there was one portion or multiple portions that stood alone to be expressed or somehow compliment the other forms. If you will notice in the diagram the light blue section is shifted down, reminding me of two tectonic plates shifting against each other. There is a reference to the three by three grids in plan, but the wall planes do not follow the grid exactly making me wonder if this is intentional or if Bourgeois just placed them around there where they were convenient. If the grid did fit up perfect would it not cut down on construction cost and labor? Another question comes to mind, were the architects in the Weißenhofsiedlung given a program including exact restroom and appliance dimensions? The reason I bring this up is to say that if they had complete liberty and didn’t have to follow a rigid program then why not move the wall that is one foot away from fitting to the grid over? It is apparent that although it doesn’t fit the grid perfect it does fit rather well to the three vertical rectangles in which I mentioned the shift action previously. The blue section of the plan deals with circulation and main public spaces while the other two (violet and crimson) split the kitchen, restrooms, and sleeping quarters.

Haus 10

Diagrams of House 10 Including "Shift" Idea

Adolf Loos

The infamous Adolf Loss is the wildcard of this exhibition and in all of modern architecture in fact. He was very strongly opinionated in his view on human and social development and evolution as he studied Darwin’s works, and how modern architecture should be dealt with. In interesting fact is that he was originally offered a spot in the Weißenhofsiedlung, but was later denied permission and his site was given to Victor Bourgeois. Although many rising architects including Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier were working on breaking apart the barrier between the outside and interior of a structure and making it one with its surroundings, Loos was strongly opposed to this, almost as much as he was against ornamentation and Art Nouveau and even dedicated a book to it called “Ornament and Crime.” His ideals branched from how he viewed community. The outside of the building reflected the community and public so therefore should reflect the culture and community in its form language and material selection, BUT on  the interior of all of his spaces was where he allowed the richness of the space to be expressed. He preferred showing the natural beauty of materials like marble and other highly polished surfaces included in his design. Loos broke away from the common practice of forcing perspectives on an individual in a space and directing them where to go next as was commonly practiced in Renaissance architecture; playing off the cubist almost 2D aspect. He allowed the owner of the space to fill the space and even included the “Craft” on the inside, but would never allow it on the public side.

Truth In Material (Marble)

As a follower of Darwin he believed that Modernism was the next step in the evolutionary process for mankind and that all forms of ornamentation were just superfluous and didn’t aid in the progression of the species. As his ideas of modernism grew and likewise his commissions, architecture historians and other designers recognized that his work was different than other architects like those who participated in Weißenhofsiedlung or Frank Lloyd Wright and found him hard to classify.

As I went back and reviewed some of Loos’s projects I discovered light does play a large role in his work. He often uses mirrors to reflect natural or artificial light throughout his spaces and routinely designs his own light fixtures as seen in Kaernter Bar, the Café Museum in Vienna, and the Michaelerplaztz in Vienna is worth studying.  

As you can see the directions a designer can develop a methodology and a process of designing is infinite. The two designers from the Weißenhofsiedlung Peter Behrens and Victor Bourgeois both found ways to design a residence from a grid or structure and shift that structure or build up to it, and Adolf Loos was independent in that all his residences have a unique distinction between the public outside and the private ornamented interior.

Cafe Museum in Vienna (Custom Light Fixtures)

Works Cited:

Adolf Loos. Academic Lecture Notes. Accessed September 28, 2011. < https://blackboard.bsu.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/2011Fal_ARCH329s002_Combined/08%20Adolf%20Loos.pdf>

De Stijl Architecture. Accessed September 28, 2011. < http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/de-stijl-architecture/>

Flexible Housing. Accessed September 28, 2011. <http://www.afewthoughts.co.uk/flexiblehousing/house.php?house=11>

Kirsch, Karin. The Weissenhofsiedlung: Experimental Housing Built for the Deutscher Werkbund, Stuttgart 1927. Pub. 1992. p. 22-23, 57-60.

Kirsch, Karin. The Weissenhofsiedlung. Pub. 1989. Rizzoli INternational Publications, Inc. p. 88-92, 176-186.

Weißenhofsiedlung (Weissenhof Settlement). Accessed September 28, 2011. < http://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/ENG/sights_attractions/weissenhofsiedlung.htm>

 

Art Nouveau: Life After Death?

Art Nouveau

Aside from the fact that nearly all of the Art Nouveau buildings designed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were destroyed, the spirit of it lives on in the form of modern architecture today. Defined as a transitional phase into modern architecture, the Art Nouveau era capitalized on the idea of new buildings, new ways of art and principles of design, and an escape from the rigid historical boundaries of the past. Modern architects such as: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe, Paul Rudolph, Le Corbusier, etc. wouldn’t have such solid foundations in the Modern way of design if it weren’t for this transitional phase of architecture and for the architects who sought to rise up above the standard, monotone way of design of their day and carve out a new era. Art Nouveau “Represented the last attempt at a sortie on the part of Art imprisoned by technical advance within her ivory tower.” (Benjamin)

Facade of Tassel Mansion

With the development of new mechanical systems and the Industrial Revolution on the rise, the economy prospered all over Europe and America. In this new age where families had more money to spend on homes, they desired more aesthetically pleasing and exotic designs from the architects; another contributing factor to the creation of the Art Nouveau era. Surprisingly to me, the Art Nouveau era started in Belgium of all places and spread to France, Europe, and America. It was later given the nick name of “Jugendstil” which is German for “Young Style”, which was fabricated on signs and buildings across the world to express the freshness of the style.

            It is interesting how the designers of this time attempted to stray away from the classical and Beaux Art approach and yet they still incorporated the concepts of John Ruskin’s Arts and Craft Movement. They claim it to be different and new and yet in most cases, we will take Victor Horta for example, it is just a cluster of multiple historic styles; somewhat hypocritical in my opinion. Something explored much further in this era though, is how they dealt with the facades of the building and how materials inspired and were generators for form in design. Wood, stone, glass, iron all yielded different results.

Interior of Tassel Mansion

            A Belgian man by the name of Victor Horta embodied these approaches to the dime. His compositions were very ornate, exotic, sensuous, and expressive succumbing in the direction of organic, natural forms. An influential composition of his is the Tassel mansion in Brussels constructed in 1895. It is extremely intricate in not only the front façade, but also it carries into the interior with beautiful curvilinear and flower like patterns painted on the wall, structural steel columns that evolve into tree limbs as they reach the ceiling, floor tiles that carry design to other parts of the building, etc. In this project he worked a lot with the grid system and how he split up the main areas of each floor, mainly the ground floor into three sections, placing the openings to each section in a manner to force a perspective that wouldn't be seen otherwise. As mentioned above, he used multiple design styles to create this effect. The following excerpt goes into detail on this matter:

“What Horta managed in the façade of the Tassel House (and what he sustained in the interior as well) was something quite different: a simultaneous abstraction and integration of motifs into a whole that might suggest anything from an Italian palazzo to a modern townhouse to an Egyptian temple, or indeed all of these things – and none of them – at once.” (Victor)

His later work really exemplifies the change to modern architecture. Here is an example of how his work has been watered down, in my opinion, or better said simplified and cleaner; or more Modern in nature.

Brussels Central Station

            Hector Guimard was a man who was inspired by Viollet le Duc and his ideas of architecture tectonics. He integrated new steal production into most of his work often using Ironwork railings, balconies, structural elements as the mode for his organic embellishments. In his work he often paid close attention to detail, a common trait amongst Art Nouveau architects, and expanded on the idea of the “open plan” or “free plan” later implemented in the work of Le Corbusier. As steel and iron became ever abundant at this time his work in the Paris Metro Station flourished. The entrances and exits can still be seen today with natural free-flowing iron structure supporting translucent glass and the popular Art Nouveau text projecting METROPOLITAIN.

Paris Metro Station

Bauhaus in Germany

            Henry van der Velde was a Belgian man of passion. He strived to protect this new Jugendstil from becoming another popular fashion motif, but rather a timeless style of building. To him Art Nouveau wasn’t a fashion; it was a logical form based architecture that demonstrated a modern style that was continually new, separate from the dead classical style of the past.

            Early in his life he worked as a director of design in some school systems in Germany before World War II. Hitler asked him politely to leave the country since he was a Belgian citizen, but before he left he recommended that a colleague of his be promoted to his position. This man was Walter Gropius and later founded the Bauhaus, an influential school of design for crafts and the fine arts that is referenced in modern architecture today. To Velde’s dismay the Art Nouveau era died out around 1920 and “It was seen by contemporaries and even its own exponents as entirely obsolete.” (Walter)

De Boekentoren University Library

            In Velde’s work he worked with carpet and tapestry and other building designs. A famous piece he worked on when he was eighty years of age was the De Boekentoren University Library in Ghent, Belgium. It was a unique design for a library that involved the idea of book towers, the way the simple windows open up to form an undulating plane, and how the height of the building connects the earth and sky in plan view as a Greek cross.

            Needless to say, exploring how these three men affected architecture in such a short time frame deserves notoriety. Along with others from the Jugendstil era, these three architects helped carve the way and make the transition from classic architecture to the new modern style that we know today.

Works Cited:

Walter Benjamin the Birth of Pleinairism from the Spirit of the Interior. Academic Lecture. College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University. Architecture History 329. Accessed 09-15-2011.

Victor Hotta Early Work and Influences. Academic Lecture. College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University. Architecture History 329. Accessed 09-15-2011.

Benjamin Paris Capital of the Nineteenth Century. Academic Lecture. College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University. Architecture History 329. Accessed 09-15-2011.

Differing Opinions of True Architecture in the Late 1800's

Hello and welcome to my blog featuring posts and updates of my Architecture History course. I am a junior enrolled in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University. The Architecture History course covers a broad range of historical architects and buildings of the past and how these examples and principles have contributed and continue to shape our current modern way of design. 

     The nature of this blog is meant to be affable yet at the same time serious and informative. The variety of content will be composed of opinion and observation, but more importantly factual material gathered from textbooks, articles, and online sources.

     Today's Blog focuses on the differences and similarities of three historic architects of the late 1800's: 

         John Ruskin, Gottfried Semper, and Viollet le Duc. 

         

John Ruskin had a stronger tie to nature than the other two architects. He grew up in London, England practicing the art of painting and other fine arts. (Arts and Crafts) He was raised as a Christian, which affected his thinking and can be seen as a result in many of his books. After graduating he was given the opportunity to teach the fine arts back at his alma mater, Oxford University. He stayed close to home his entire career really developing his ideas and perception of art in all forms including but not limited to painting and architecture. He felt that it was wrong to cover up a material and hide it, but rather the material was to be presented as itself; after all his volume of “Modern Painters” disputed for ‘Truth in Nature’. This idea carries over into his argument that building restoration “means the most total destruction which a building can suffer: a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered.” (02 Semper)

A Self Portrait by John Ruskin

He really enjoyed gothic architecture and thought it perfectly embodied the art of nature. He further wrote his book “The Seven Lamps of Architecture” which featured these virtues most likely developed from his Christian upbringing: Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. With all this said, Ruskin used his artistic ideologies to start the Arts and Crafts Movement in England as a resistance against the ever-growing use of mechanized goods in England and America. With the Industrial Revolution making its mark on society and architecture “He believed, along with Morris, that handwork and craftsmanship brought dignity to labor” (Arts and Crafts) and machines were diluting this dignity.

Gottfried Semper

Gottfried Semper had a very adventurous life that took him to many places around Europe. He grew up in Hamburg, Germany studying mathematics and wanted to be an engineer, but that fell threw for him. He also decided to join the military, but fled Hamburg to avoid a warrant out for his arrest for a duel that he was in. (02 Semper) He traveled to different parts of Germany and even to Paris learning and cultivating his ideas about society, mathematics, and design. He was involved in archeological digs in Italy and Greece, was part of the Beaux-arts era of architecture and design, and had his own ideas about religion often feeling the church was corrupt. He met up with many of the great minds of the time including Wagner and Charles Darwin.

Dresden Theater

      When he was given the opportunity to design the Hoftheater in Dresden, Germany many commissions opened up to him after that. An interesting fact is that the theater caught fire and burnt down and the people loved it so much that they sent for Semper to come rebuild it. With his warrant still out he sent his son in his place to restore the large opera house.

Curtain Wall Where "Enclosure" Can 
Be Free From Structure

As he began writing books such as his most famous “The Four Elements of Architecture” he brought his knowledge of mathematics to the table. He tried to relate design and style as mathematical formulas assigning different aspects of design such as function, technique, and materials as variables in an equation. He believed that a building should always show its structure. He further took the idea of the primitive hut and expanded it to four parts: The hearth or social outlet, the substructure, the roof, and then the enclosure or walls. His idea that the roof and structure are one continuous element and the enclosure was separate led to   the concept of the Curtain Wall.

Later he found that “architecture everywhere borrowed its types form pre-architectural conditions of human settlement.” When designing he incorporated Polytechnics, where he used multiple styles of architecture from the past in one building. For example, his opera house in Dresden has many elements that reflect work that Palladio did back in the 1500’s.

Viollet le Duc

Viollet le Duc was considered one of the last great theorists. He was influenced by nature and “All products of nature have style since they follow inflexible laws. The form of the bird’s nest or of the flower is determined by organic principles, governed by both the function of the object and the nature of the material from which it is made” (Bersanni 339). Le Duc’s career consisted of several building restorations often imparted by the king of France himself.  Le Duc had the ability to look at the past and figure out what the intent of the designers back then were and take those principles and expand on them with his own ideas. In one of his lectures he gave he said there is no invention “We must necessarily have recourse to the past in order to originate in the present.” (Memory 43) He tried to be very scientific about his work and focused on the tectonics of architecture. He was fascinated by gothic and neo-gothic architecture and believed that it surfaced because of its sturdy structural system to reach higher, rather than its detailed aesthetics.

Carcassonne Fortress (Notice Polychrome)

His work as a restoration architect was rooted in the king Napoleon Bonaparte the Second’s interest in him. The fortress of Carcassonne in France was destroyed during Napoleon the First’s era. Le Duc’s idea of restoration was not to make an exact render of the original structure, but rather take the foundation and build upon it using new materials, principles, and ideas to make it greater than the previous structure. In doing so he had different masonry and roofing material. He used slanted roofs and different spires, only used in the north so the building was out of context with the surrounding southern area.

Pierrefonds Castle

Another work the king had him restore was the castle of Pierrefonds, which was partially destroyed to get revenge on the family there from the king himself. The king wanted it to be restored so that he could use it as his own imperial palace. On this neo-gothic castle he incorporated a lot of polychrome, which simply means color. He was experimenting with using color as a way to decorate a façade rather than detailed ornamentation in normal gothic.

Notice Exposed Iron Supports

Viollet le Duc was very influential and had many people study him as inspiration for their own work, such as his addition of iron into masonry structure and it being exposed instead of hidden, his custom made iron candlesticks in the cathedrals, and Antoni Gaudi studies.

Basilique a Vezelay (Notice Multi-Colored Stone)

These three architects and theorists contributed much to our design profession, the way we begin the process, how we interpret past examples, and if were to practice building restoration. I mention the last point specifically because during their era they implemented the idea that when restoring a building one uses different material or colored masonry units to show the difference between the original and new context.

Although some of them wouldn’t agree on every topic they all agreed on a few. They were influenced by each other with books, by other theorists at the time including Darwin, even musical composers like Wagner. By interpreting architecture and the past they each took their own spin on design and art persuading one another. Each made it their responsibility to contribute books and buildings to society at a time when knowledge was marveled at. Viollet le Duc studied and defined terms in his own dictionary, others were social activists. Some stayed in the same area their whole life taking in what was around them and following the status quo so to speak like John Ruskin while others like Gottfried Semper traveled all over Europe taking in each culture and design principles.

City Of Carcassonne Restored by Viollet le Duc

On the other hand, they didn’t agree on everything. John Ruskin’s ideas about building restoration were very far from le Duc’s. He thought that if a building was destroyed it should be left alone, and not be built up again whether the same or completely different because this wasn’t honest and isn’t the work of the restorer. Not only did they have views on design, but also social issues: Ruskin did not agree with the capitalism movement due to its disregard for failing to realize the complexities of the human, Semper was against the socialistic views of society, etc. Semper and le Duc both agreed that it was wise to look to the past to find inspiration for present design work. All three referred to nature for inspiration.

In conclusion, modern architecture couldn’t have emerged without these ideas and      principles!

Works Cited.

Arts and Crafts Society. http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/jruskin.shtml. Accessed September 4, 2011.

Dictionary of Art Historians. http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/semperg.htm. Accessed September 4, 2011.

Architecture Viollet-le-Duc. Academic Slides. Arch 329. Ball State University. College of Architecture and Planning. Accessed September 5, 2011.

02 Semper and Ruskin. Academic Slides. Arch 329. Ball State University. College of architecture and Planning. Accessed September 5, 2011.

Memory as Construction in Viollet-le-Duc’s Architectural Imagination. Academic Electronic Article. Paroles Gelees Volume 16.2 1998.  Ball State University. College of architecture and Planning. Accessed September 5, 2011.

Bressani. Viollet-le-Duc’s Philosophy of History. Academic Electronic Article. Accessed September 5, 2011.