What is MODERNITY ?

•it means present, or current, implying as its opposite the notion of

earlier, of what is past.
•A second meaning of the word is the new, as opposed to the old.
Birth of Modern Architecture
•New materials, technology & need were
drastically changing the profession of
architecture.
•Breaking free from ancient Greek & Roman
Prototypes (rejection of the traditional
neoclassical architecture)
• The changing face of the growing cityscape.
• The rise of skyscrapers.
•America comes into focus as a budding
center of modern design (Empire State
Building 1931)
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Geometry to live in:
-Victorian homes were bulky &
complicated & Modernist architects
changed all that.
-Gone were the historical ornament
designs. The goal was now ‘simple’ &
clean designs.
- Science & industry was the new
‘religion’. The house became a ‘machine
for living’.
- Rise of an International Style.
-The common characteristics of the
Style includes:
i) a radical simplification of form
ii) a rejection of ornament
iii) adoption of glass, steel &
concrete.
What led to MODERNISM ?
• Population increase

• Industrialization led Urbanization and massive building

exercise

• New materials for building

• World War I (1914-18) & World War II (1939-45)

• World War II and End of Colonialism

• New Typologies – Railway Station, Department Store,

Office, Apartment towers, Factories, Dams and Airports…

• New Clients – Municipalities, cooperatives, institutions,

social groups…
ORIGINS
•The revolution in materials came first, with the use of
 cast iron
 plate glass
 reinforced concrete, to build structures that were stronger, lighter and taller.

•The cast plate glass process was invented in 1848, allowing the manufacture of
very large windows.

• These developments together led to

the first steel-framed skyscraper, the
ten-story Home Insurance
Building in Chicago, built in 1884.

• The iron frame construction of

the Eiffel Tower, then the tallest
structure in the world

The Crystal Palace, 1851 (iron and plate glass construction & metal curtain wall)
NEW MATERIAL AND TECHNOLOGY
 ART AND CRAFT MOVEMENT

• The arts and crafts movement was made up of

English designers and writers who wanted a return to
handcrafted goods instead of mass-produced.

• Artists tried to re-establish the ties between work

and the worker.

• The Arts and Crafts Movement initially developed in

Britain around 1880 and quickly spread across
America and Europe before emerging finally as the
Mingei (Folk Crafts) movement in Japan.

• It established a new set of principles for living and

working.

• It turned the home into a work of art.

• “to re-establish a harmony between architect, designer and craftsman ARTIST AND
and to bring handcraftsmanship to the production of well-designer, ARCHITECTS
affordable, everyday objects.”
• William Morris
• Inspired by socialist principles and led by William Morris, the members • John Ruskin
of the movement used the medieval system of trades and guilds to set • Philip web
up their own companies to sell their goods. Unfortunately, it had the • C r Ashbee
reverse effect and, apart from the wealthy middle classes, hardly anyone
could afford their designs.

• Visually, the style has much in common with its contemporary

nouveau and played a role in the founding of Bauhaus art
it and
modernism. o Social reforms intended o Characteristics
o Principle of art with movement
craft movement
• Honesty • Change in Working • handmade
• Design unity condition • simple forms with little ornamentation
• Joy in labour • Belief in restorative power • beauty of natural materials
• Individualism of craftsmanship • copper and pewter - often with a
• Regionalism (use • Simple life hammered finish
of local material • Art as a way of life • stylised flowers, allegories from the
and crafts Bible and literature, upside down
men) hearts, Celtic motifs
EARLY MODERNISM IN EUROPE
•At the end of the 19th century, a few architects began to challenge the
traditional Neoclassical styles that dominated architecture in Europe and the
United States.

Art Nouveau (1890)

• by Victor Horta in Belgium; it introduced new styles of decoration,

based on vegetal and floral forms.
ART NAUVEAU (1860-1910)
• Art Nouveau is French and means New Art. It is
characterized by its highly decorative style and by
the dedication to natural forms.
• Art Nouveau was popular from about 1880 to
1910 and was an International art movement.
• Siegfried Bing (later called Samuel Bing) was the
founder in 1895 of " La Maison de l'Art Nouveau
" in Paris :
• It was his art gallery and exhibition hall that gave
its name to the famous artistic Style Art
Nouveau.
• The movement was committed to abolishing the
traditional hierarchy of the arts, which viewed so-
called liberal arts, such as painting and sculpture,
as superior to craft-based decorative arts.
• The practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive
good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and
produce genuinely modern design.
 ART NAUVEAU
• It was characterized by an elaborate ornamental
style based on asymmetrical lines, frequently
depicting flowers, leaves, or in the flowing hair
of a female.
• It can be seen most effectively in the decorative
arts, for example interior design, glasswork and
jewelry.
• However, it was also seen posters and
in illustration as well as paintings and
sculptures
certain of the period.
• ArtNouveau did not World War
survive I,
maybe objects.
Nouveau because of the prices for
• With
high the philosophical roots inArt high quality
handicraft, Art Nouveau was nothing for mass
production.
Inspirations

Arts and Crafts Japanese

Movement Art
 ART NAUVEAU
o PRINCIPALS OF
ART NOUVEAU STYLE

• flat, decorative
patterns;
• intertwined
organic forms
such as stems or
flowers;
• an emphasis on handcrafting as opposed to
machine manufacturing;
• the use of new materials;
• and the rejection of traditional styles

o CHARACTERISTICS:

• Asymmetrical shapes
• Extensive use of arches and curved forms
• Curved glass
• Curving, plant-like embellishments
• Mosaics
• Stained glass
CLASSIFICATION:
Pierre Francastel divides Art Nouveau into two main tendencies that could
broadly termed the organic and the rationalist.

Rationalist: Organic:

Mackintosh school
Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain1903
Glasglow, Scotland 1897-1909
-gives precedence to the curved line and floral
-dependent on the straight shapes
line
 CLASSIFICATION:

1. An abstract, structural style with a strong 2. A floral approach focuding

symbolic and dynamic tendency (France on organic plant forms
& Belgium) (Galle, Majorelle, Vallin, gaudi)
(Horta, Guimard, Van de Velde)

Henry Van de Velde’s house Aquarium Pavillion

 CLASSIFICATION:

3. The linear, flat approach, with a heavy 4. A structured, geometric style (Austria &
symbolic element Germany,usa)
(Glasglow group, Mackintosh) (Wagner, olbrich, hoffmann, loos ,sullivan)

Glasgow School of Art Majolikahaus in Vienna

by Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Otto Wagner
CHICAGO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE late 19th century

• Also Known as Commercial style, the Chicago

school was a school of architects active in Chicago at
the turn of the 20th century.

To promote the new technologies of steel-

frame
construction in commercial buildings.

• Architects were encouraged to build higher

structures because of the escalating land prices.
• Isolated supported a skeleton of
footing in masonryiron
encased

• There were:
fireproof floors,
numerous fast elevators and
gas light

• The traditional masonry wall became curtains, full

of glass, supported by the metal skeleton
• The first skyscrapers were born.
INFLUENTIAL ARCHITECTS

Adler Sullivan Le Baron Jenney Burham

 CHARACTERISTICS

• Bold geometric facades pierced with either arched or lintel-type openings.

• The wall surface highlighted with extensive low-relief sculptural ornamentation in
terra cotta.
• Buildings often topped with deep projecting eaves and flat roofs.
• The multi-story office complex highly regimented into specific zones or ground story,
intermediate floors, and the attic or roof.
• Large arched window or Vertical strips of windows
• Decorative band
• Pilaster-like mullions
• Projecting eaves (the under part of a sloping roof overhanging a wall)
• Highly decorated frieze
• Decorated terra cotta spandrels
• Capital of pilaster strips
• Foliated and linear enrichments along jambs or entry .
• much larger windows used - daylight reaching
interior spaces.
• Interior walls became thinner - which
created more usable floor space.
• Sullivan changes that came with the steel frame,
creating a grammar of form for the high rise
(base, shaft, and pediment)

•The mass production of

steel

• This new way of

constructing
buildings, so-called
"column-frame”
construction
Monumental Architecture
The term "monumental architecture" refers to large human-
made structures of stone or earth which are used as public
buildings or communal spaces, as opposed to everyday
private residences. Examples include pyramids, large tombs,
and burial mounds, plazas, platform mounds, temples and
churches, palaces and elite residences, 
astronomical observatories, and erected groups of standing
stones.
EXPRESSIONISM
Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that
developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century
in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that
especially developed and dominated in Germany. The style was
characterized by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials,
formal innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes
inspired by natural biomorphic forms, sometimes by the new
technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick,
steel and especially glass.
1.1 HISTORY OF REINFORCED CONCRETE A French gardener by name Joseph Monier
first invented the reinforced concrete in the year 1849. If not for this reinforced
concrete most of the modern buildings would not have been standing today.
Reinforced concrete can be used to produce frames, columns, foundation, beams etc.
Reinforcement material used should have excellent bonding characteristic, high
tensile strength and good thermal compatibility. Reinforcement requires that there
shall be smooth transmission of load from the concrete to the interface between
concrete and reinforcement material and then on to reinforcement material. Thus the
concrete and the material reinforced shall have the same strain. 1.1.1 Steel
Reinforced Concrete The steel bars are reinforced into the concrete. The bars have a
rough, corrugated surface thus allowing better bonding with steel rebars the concrete
gets extra tensile strength. The compression strength, bending also show marked
improvement thermal expansion characteristic of steel rebars and concrete shall
match. The rebar shall have cross sectional are equal to 1% for slabs and beams, this
can be 6% in case of columns (www.wikipedia.com). The concrete has alkaline nature,
this forms a passivating film around the bars thereby protecting it from corrosion.
This passivating film will not form in 2 neutral or acidic condition. Carbonation of
concrete takes place along with chloride absorption resulting in failure of steel rebar.
By comparing the tension capacity of steel bars and concrete + steel reinforcements
the reinforced concrete can be called as under reinforced (tensile capacity of bars in
less than concrete + bar) it is over reinforced (tensile capacity of steel is greater than
concrete + steel tensile strength. The over reinforced fails without giving prior
warning and under reinforced fails but gives a deformation warning before it fails.
Therefore it is better to consider an under reinforced concrete.
CONTEXT AND CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Lack of ornament: Decorative mouldings and elaborate trim are eliminated or greatly
simplified, giving way to a clean aesthetic where materials meet in simple, well-executed
joints.

Emphasis of rectangular forms and horizontal and vertical lines: Shapes of houses are based
boxes, or linked boxes. Materials are often used in well-defined planes and vertical forms
juxtaposed against horizontal elements for dramatic effect.

Low, horizontal massing, flat roofs, emphasis on horizontal planes and broad roof
overhangs: Modern homes tend to be on generous sites, and thus many, but not all, have to
have meandering one-story plans. Many examples hug the ground and appear of the site, not
in contrast to it.

Use of modern materials and systems: Steel columns are used in exposed applications,
concrete block is used as a finished material, concrete floors are stained and exposed, long-
span steel trusses permit open column-free spaces, and radiant heating systems enhance
human comfort.

Use of traditional materials in new ways: Materials such as wood, brick and stone are used in
simplified ways reflecting a modern aesthetic. Traditional clapboard siding are replaced with
simple vertical board cladding used in large, smooth planes. Brick and stonework are simple,
unornamented, and used in rectilinear masses and planes.
CONTEXT AND CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Emphasis on honesty of materials: Wood is often stained rather than painted to express its
natural character. In many cases exterior wood is also stained so that the texture and
character of the wood can be expressed.

Relationship between interior spaces and sites: Use of large expanses of glass in effect
brings the building’s site into the building, taking advantage of dramatic views and natural
landscaping.

Emphasis on open, flowing interior spaces: Living spaces are no longer defined by walls,
doors and hallways. Living, dining and kitchen spaces tend to flow together as part of one
contiguous interior space, reflecting a more casual and relaxed way of life.

Generous use of glass and natural light: Windows are no longer portholes to the outside,
but large expanses of floor to ceiling glass providing dramatic views and introducing natural
light deep into the interior of homes.

Use of sun and shading to enhance human comfort: The best modern homes are efficient.
They are oriented to take advantage of nature’s forces to provide passive solar heating in the
winter, while long overhangs and recessed openings provide shading to keep homes cool in
the summer.