Modern architecture

Modern architecture refers to a movement in architecture that lasted throughout much of the twentieth century. Beginning in Europe in the early 1900s, modern techniques and ideals quickly spread to the United States and other countries, where they became highly influential in art and architecture. Modern architecture reflects a sharp turn away from thousands of years of architectural tradition. Modern architects embrace newer materials and technologies such as steel, glass, and concrete. They also attempt to reduce decoration and use geometry to maximize the functionality of the building.

Modern techniques and designs contributed greatly to the look of towns and cities around the world. However, many people have criticized this movement for placing functionality over human needs, beauty, and tradition. Some of the most influential modern architects were Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (also known as Le Corbusier), Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Sullivan. Although the modern movement peaked in the mid-1900s and was mostly over by the twenty-first century, the works of modern architects are still widely used and studied.

Background

Architecture is a field relating mainly to the design, creation, modification, and conservation of buildings. Many architects are also involved in planning towns and determining the best uses for land. Architects around the world use skills in artistic and practical design techniques, economic management, construction supervision, and modeling and drawing to create buildings both large and small. Many people consider architecture a science, an art form, and a business.

Many architects have become celebrated figures. Legendary architects have created buildings that harmoniously merge the human and natural worlds, add beauty to unlikely places, enhance cultures and memorialize traditions, and provide people with safe and pleasant places to live and work.

Most of history's most successful architects have embraced three main ideals: firmness, commodity, and delight. Firmness refers to the strength and durability of the completed building. Commodity refers to the ability of the building to fulfill its intended function, such as housing families, offering goods for sale, or containing a public meeting area. Delight refers to the spiritual uplifting of people who use or see the building, who will ideally find it pleasing, interesting, and beautiful.

Architecture is an ancient occupation. Even the earliest humans practiced some primitive forms of architecture, mainly in simple lean-tos and other short-term shelters, often made of branches, leaves, or mud. Archaeologists do not know much about architecture in the earliest days, since its components were mostly organic materials that rotted away and left few, if any, traces.

The rise of villages and cities, however, led to more substantial permanent houses and other buildings. True cities began to develop around 8000 BCE. By the time of ancient Greece and Rome, architects were designing complex communities and thousands of buildings made of strong, durable materials such as stone. At this time, the science of architecture developed quickly, and architects began adding art to their work. Buildings could now be for beauty as well as for necessity.

The incorporation of art and new technologies into architecture led to a fast development of different and widely varying styles. These styles could be dictated by cultural norms and traditions or the practical demands of the environment. Material use, building location, structure, and decorative techniques varied between continents, countries, and cultures. Groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas developed extensive architectural programs.

Historians view architecture, like other arts, as falling into different categories. These categories may be called styles, schools, or movements. They may be given names that reflect their time period, location of primary importance, or the most common or notable features of their work.

Following the Renaissance, a time of great cultural rebirth in Europe, architecture became a highly refined art. Professional architects designed buildings of towering grandeur and intricate detail. In the following centuries, new styles emerged. Some, such as baroque, were inspired by religious ideals. Others, such as the neo-Palladianism and neo-classicism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were inspired by the styles of ancient Greece and Rome.

The twentieth century brought untold changes to the world, and architecture was not exempted. Architects now had access to advanced technologies, abundant materials, and a wealth of tradition to study and revise. They also faced new concerns of the modern world, such as urbanization, overcrowding, and disillusionment. Many of these architects would invent new styles meant to best harmonize with the realities of modern life. Some of their work would help to define a new style known as modern architecture.

Overview

Around the turn of the twentieth century, many architects began to distance themselves from past styles that highlighted the ornate and celebrated ancient traditions. These architects wanted to develop drastically new styles that better matched the enormous worldwide changes, both positive and negative, and mind-sets of their era.

These architects would pioneer a movement called modern architecture. Modern, as the title of the architectural movement, refers to a specific style of design based on the principles of modernist art. Some modern architecture has been standing for more than a century.

The first truly modern architecture began in Europe in the first decades of the century. Its European pioneers included Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Eliel Saarinen. These architects first began to abandon existing designs and construction techniques in favor of new materials, technologies, shapes, and decorations.

By the 1920s, architects in the United States and other areas became aware of their work and their new innovations. Newcomers to the style embraced it and began using and developing it and merging it into existing artistic trends. Many architecture historians place the beginning of the modern movement as a worldwide phenomenon around 1925. Modern architecture became even more popular and more widespread in the coming decades. Helping this growth was the arrival in the United States of many talented European architects fleeing the growing dangers in Europe preceding World War II (1939–1945).

Modern architecture was a broad movement that lasted for several generations. It varied significantly between time periods, areas, artists, and projects. In general, however, modern architecture shares several common features. One of the most fundamental features is the use of updated construction technologies. Whereas past architecture relied on wood, stone, and plaster, modern architecture employed more steel, concrete, and glass. These materials proved as strong as or stronger than traditional materials, but they were much less expensive and difficult to work with.

In addition, modern architecture rejects many of the ideas of the past, such as ornate decorative touches such as arches and columns. Instead, modern architecture favors simple, if sometimes unusual, shapes with few distracting details. It emphasizes function (the intended use of the space) over form (physical beauty and intricacy).

Modern styles of building also embrace the idea of open spaces. Many top modern architects designed building interiors in large open blocks rather than dividing the available space into separate rooms such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and so on. These architects felt that open spaces allowed life to flow more naturally and help to bring people together. Building owners and users were left to customize these structures to their own purposes. One by-product of the modern era is the cubicle, a small square of moveable dividers used to separate workers in many large office buildings.

Architectural historians identify many smaller styles as being part of the overall modern movement. The three main related styles are art deco, art moderne, and international. All of these styles began in Europe and crossed into the United States and other areas around the 1920s.

Art deco was characterized by sleek, smooth, sharp designs with some ornamentation. It led to art moderne, which used many similar structures, but in an even simpler, sparser, and less decorated way. The international style followed and further increased the push for complete simplicity and plain, undecorated geometry. International-style buildings were generally boxy and reflected a purely practical need for living and working spaces for common people. Many cities of the twenty-first century are full of skyscrapers and other office buildings in the stark international style.

In the United States, modern styles also merged with some existing architectural styles such as the tradition-inspired arts and crafts style and ranch style. It also influenced and helped inspire other styles of art and architecture, including the brutalist, Googie, and new formalist styles. The overall process led to an array of different architectural expressions with fundamentally similar modern traits.

The European pioneers of modern architecture remain some of the most famous practitioners of the movement. However, American architects made lasting impressions as well. Among these were Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and Philip Johnson. They helped create many uniquely American offshoots of modern architecture such as the commercial, prairie, bungalow, and Sullivanesque styles of building design and construction.

Frank Lloyd Wright in particular gained fame for his modern creations. Many historians consider him the greatest American architect of all time. Born in Wisconsin in 1867, Wright studied architecture and honed his skills and developed new theories throughout the late 1800s. By the 1910s, he was creating extensive public works using his ideas and inspirations from Europe. His work won increasing acclaim, and he toured, wrote, and lectured on architecture and its underlying art and philosophy.

Before his death in 1959, Wright had designed at least 1,114 works, 532 of which were ultimately completed. Some of these works have captured the attention and imagination of people around the world. Perhaps the most famous is known as Fallingwater, a uniquely geometric home he designed and built around an active natural waterfall in western Pennsylvania. Since the 1960s, Fallingwater has been open to the public and has been a destination for millions of tourists, researchers, and students.

One of the most famous examples of modern architecture in Europe is the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany. Designed in the 1920s by architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus was intended as a school for members of the construction industries. It demonstrated many of the modern principles that would inform the creation of skyscrapers and other superstructures meant for business and education. The Bauhaus used strict angles and asymmetrical design, hundreds of windows, and large open rooms. Gropius was so influential in architecture that his work became known as the Bauhaus style.

Despite the huge influence of modern architecture, many people have criticized the movement for a variety of reasons. The main concern is that modern ideas seem to emphasize function over human needs and comforts. Many modern-based city blocks lack natural areas or commons where people can meet and relax. Large modern buildings, with their reliance on metal and glass, may appear cold and imposing rather than pleasant and welcoming. Modern interiors with their wide-open spaces may be difficult to clean and may restrict the privacy of residents.

Just as the exact beginning date of the modern movement cannot be certainly identified, the end of the movement is equally uncertain. The movement peaked in the early and middle of the twentieth century. However, it remained an influential factor in art and architecture well into the later decades of the century. Towns and cities around the world are full of examples of modern architecture.

The legacy of modern architecture is uncertain. Subsequent architects have dealt with complaints against the modern movement by modifying its designs and techniques to keep the spaciousness and simplicity without sacrificing convenience, comfort, and privacy. Although many agencies that protect historical buildings consider modern works too recent to be protected, other groups focus on the buildings' cultural importance and seek to maintain and enjoy the buildings and their artistic importance.

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