PART 2 Exam Modern Architecture Essay

Question 1

The Robie House

Answer 1

Frank Lloyd Wright
1908-10
‘regionalist’ approach, focusing on the full picture of the architecture, about its surroundings, making everything flow
Wright uses cantilevers and overhanging roofs to create a feeling of flow and energy, of the architecture being at on with nature.
‘The Prairie Style’ of which Robie was the first, a style which aimed to encompass the American landscape and accentuate it.
Made up of horizontal lines, and simplicity, Wright’s ‘organic architecture’ theory manifested in the Robie House, Chicago

Question 2

Reasons modernist architecture/modernist thought came about and what it meant

Answer 2

• critiquing historicism and eclecticism, wanted own unique style for the modern era.
• embracing new materials (steel, aluminium, glass, concrete etc.)
• rejection of superfluous, decoration/ornamentation
• moving towards functionality/rationalism, wanted architecture to be practical for living conditions

Question 3

Le Corbusier quotes

Answer 3

• “The “styles” are a lie.”
• “a new epoch is replacing a dying one.”
• “We have acquired a taste for fresh air and clear daylight.”
• “Architecture is stifled by custom”
• “A house is a machine for living in”

Question 4

Museum of Modern Literature

Answer 4

David Chipperfield
Marbach Germany
2002-6
Uses historical motifs with a modern outlook, recreates the historical pillars more practically
Very streamlined, still appreciating the old style because it works very well

Question 5

Halle Town Hall

Answer 5

Example of eclecticism
Architects often found eclecticism very unsatisfying
Merging of styles
1891-94

Question 6

AEG Turbine Factory

Answer 6

Peter Behrens
1908
Very controversial design, bringing in a focus on industrialisation
Using new materials but using historical features such as rustikation, pillars, entablateur
Bringing together modernism and industrialism, especially due to its function (turbine factory)

Question 7

Cloud Hanger

Answer 7

El Lizzitsky
Plans, competition for new national styles
A suggestion of innovative architecture but was rejected

Question 8

Bauhaus (founding)

Answer 8

Walter Gropius 1919
Cathedral of Socialism a woodcut, all about social and political change.
Architecture/Design had to keep up with the changes.
Bauhaus an academy for arts from 1919-33 in Germany
Famous for its new slick approach to design

Question 9

Bauhaus Main Building

Answer 9

Dessau 1925
Whole side of the builing made of glass, new way of building, utilising new materials in innovative ways,
Typeface very famous, designers often linked to socialism

Question 10

Barcelona Pavillion

Answer 10

Mies Van de Rohe 1929
no function, more space for design.
Use of horizontal lines, seemingly impossible structures and nature as a guide
Very organic, similar to Wright’s theories.
New materials, no ornamentation, marble, mirrors, simplicity to creat unity and ambience, a flow of energy

Question 11

Le Corbusier’s ‘Five Points towards new Architecture’

Answer 11

-pilotis
-free facade
-ribbon windows
-free plan
-roof garden
Encouraged people to be outside and with nature, architecture was for maximising living conditions and creating the best lifestyle
Would lift buildings off the ground and use the space underneath for garage or something, replace the space on the roof with a rooftop garden which was advised to be used for exercising etc.
Very white and sanitary, spacious and airy.