Theory and Philosophy of Modern Architecture

Architectural Theories in America in the 19th Century

Contents

• Context of early Modern Architecture in America • The search for new style versus eclectic

historicism • Organic view of architecture• Functionalism

– National Romantic Functionalism

– Pragmatic-Structural Functionalism

• The architects and theorists in the period

Context of Theory of Early Modern Architecture in America

• The first treatise on architecture published in America appeared in 1775, but it was copies or adaptations of works from England.

• The features are the applications of European form from stone to wood context.

• The search for new style versus eclecticism—The expression of the new democracy

• The Chicago School

Development of Theories and Styles

• Organic View of Architecture

• Functionalism – National Romantic Functionalism – Pragmatic-Structural Functionalism

• Invasion of Beaux-Arts Style

The Architects and Theorists

• Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) • Asher Benjamin (1773-1845) • Horatio Greenough (1805-52) • Architecture of the Communal Living or Religious

Sects • Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924) • Dankma Adler (1844-?)• John Wellborn Root (1850-91)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) (the fourth president of America)

• Studying books on architecture rather than observing actual buildings

• Left no formal treatise but isolated statements in autobiography, letters and notes

• Quest for a symbolic American style and found answer in Roman and Palladian models that influenced the country

• Rome-inspired Classicism for public buildings and the Palladian tradition for private house

• Favor cubic architecture– reduction of architecture to basic geometric forms

The Rotunda, University of Virginia

Plan of the Rotunda, UVA

Asher Benjamin (1773-1845)

• The Country Builder’s Assistant (1979)– the first book on architecture by an American

• The American Builder’s Companion (1806) • European design books were useless for American

needs. • “American-ness meant making European models

simpler and cheaper, especially in the use of the Orders.”

Asher Benjamin (1773-1845)

• Even the purity of the Orders did not need to be completely respected.

• The Orders could have slimmer proportions than the Classic for private houses, to lighten their heavy parts, and lessen the expense both of labor and materials.

• Reduction of building costs is one of the prime considerations.

• Oppose the invention of new (fancy) order—can only spoil the work, and no reduction of the expense has been effected.

Asher’s Order

Horatio Greenough (1805-52)

• A sculptor with Italian influences• USA is to form a new style of architecture.• Modern [new] architecture had abandoned the great

principles of the past; the new style would have to be founded on an immediate return to the laws of nature.

• Led to observation of animals’ skeletons and skins. (Later architecture as skeleton became basis for functionalist theory of architecture)

• Rejected all arbitrary laws of proportion and arbitrary laws of taste: organic beauty could be found only in the system of nature

• Architecture with principles of shipbuilding. (Later Corbu compared automobile and Greek temple)

Organic Architecture:

• Starting from the interior lay-out, as the nucleus of a building and planning outward.

• The lay-out and linking of the rooms needed to be apparent from the outside.

• Relationship between building-site and interior-exterior, is what gives the building character and expression.

• Meet the wants of occupants, or as monumental– expressive of the sympathies, belief and taste of the population, expression of either individual or collective needs.

Organic Architecture:

• Machine, each individual must be formed with reference to the abstract type of its species.

• Create a new national style of architecture that ran parallel to Nature

• Evolve an artistic dogma based on natural sciences. (Nature is the sum of its functions)

• All his criteria revolve around the concept of function; the aesthetic and moral aspect.

Cubic Plan VS Organic Plan

Architecture of the Communal Living or

Religious Sects Shakers• Right angle as the basis of planning (even path, meat

or bread cutting), • Buildings as the expressions of identified needs,

economically and almost without ornament. • Art as traditionally understood was regarded as

absurdity. • Beauty is derived from simplicity and functionality. Mormon• Remained closer to American vernacular.

Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924)

• 1856 Born in Boston, Massachusetts• 1872-73 Attend architectural course at MIT (not

finished)• 1874 Study at Ecole de Beaux-Arts (but he was against

Beaux-Arts style in America)

• 1881 partnership with Dankmar Adler (Adler and Sullivan 1880-95)

• 1895-1927 Practiced alone (not much information)

• 1924 Died in a hotel room

Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924)

Selected Essays

• Kindergarten Chats (1901-02) in book (1934) –Form follows functions

• Ornament in Architecture (1892)• The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered

(1896)

Functionalism and Organic

• At Adler and Sullivan, Sullivan designed façades and ornaments, Adler managed the firm.

• Aimed to make architecture that fitted its functions, based on well defined utilitarian needs.

• The concept of function is central for Sullivan. He sees all form of life as expressions of function, and each function creates its own form.

• The function of a building must determine its organization and form.

• The form would grow naturally out of the need and express it—form follows function.

Organic Expression

• Outward appearances resemble inner purposes.• Good architecture must correspond to its function

and express it in its appearance, as a whole and in detail—then it will be organic.

• A social root of function—democracy is a function seeking expression in organized social form. (The form American architecture will mean American life)

About Form and Function

• Form is everything in an object or a man. It is an essence, a being, or a physical meaning of the thing.

• Function is not only the usage, but also psychological and social meaning including inspiration, the need to express and other desires.

• Natural, social and intellectual factors, the sum of human needs, constitute the function, which determine the form of a building. (the technical, constructional aspect remain in the background.)

• Form express human functions and needs, not structural laws.

About Ornament

• A building can make its effect through mass and proportion alone, without ornament: ornament is an intellectual luxury, not a necessity.

• Ornament adds individuality to the building. • In organic terms, ornament is not interchangeable

between buildings and almost cannot be taken out without losing the significant characteristic.

• It needs to be a part of the building like an organ that grows out of a body.

System of Ornament

The Tall Office Building Artistically

Considered (1896) • Office is a solution of modern functions (business,

technology, etc.) • Conditions and Treatments

– 1st floor, mechanical basement—hiding – 2nd floor, main store business—wide opening – 3rd floor, large business office—similar to 2nd fl, but

less emphasized– 4th floor typical office (small unit)—typical individual

cells – 5th or the attic, mechanical—broad wall (ending)

Wainwright Building Floor Plans

1st Floor Plan6th Floor Plan

Wainwright Building,

St. Louis

Theory of True Prototype of Tall Building

• Three Parts—Base, Shaft and Capital • Like Classic Column • The beauty of all things in three parts (days,

human figure, etc.)

• Tall building must not display all the styles

Three Parts

Important Works

• Carson Pirie Scott Store, Chicago.

• Wainwright Building, St. Louis

• Getty Tomb, Chicago

• Auditorium Building, Chicago

• Auditorium Theater

High Rise Buildings

Carson Pirie Scott Store, Chicago

Getty Tomb, Chicago

Auditorium Building, Chicago

Auditorium Theater

Dankma Adler

• More modern, pragmatic and technological than Sullivan.

• Form and style will be founded upon the discovery of the materials (steel pillar, steel beam, clear sheet of plate glass, electric light and mechanical ventilation). All devoted to the service of functions or wants created by the greater intensity of modern life.

• Infilling and cladding as artistic treatments.

John Wellborn Root (1850-91)

• Similar to Adler• Ornament must be subordinate to the construction

of a building, and visible construction and decorative elements must not be confused.

• Decoration must not conceal construction. • Like nature, large forms tend to be monochrome,

smaller forms to be polychrome. • Sequence Function-Ornament-Style led Root to

the understanding of typology as the solution to a given problem in architecture.

The End of 19th Century

• After the Chicago World’s Fair of 1983, the Chicago School is defeated by the invasion of the historicism of Beaux-Arts architecture from the World’s Fair.

• Sullivan and Root are among the most incisive thinkers on architecture in America at the end of 19th century.

• Their impacts were short-lived and confined to the Mid-West where the rest of the country were dominated by the European historicism styles.

Conclusion

• Organic View of Architecture• The principles and styles developed from

National Romantic to Pragmatic-Structural Functionalism

• Reductionist view became apparent• From Jefferson, Greenough to Sullivan, the

meanings of form and function were more complex and probably more abstract (Form is also essence or being; and function includes psychological and social needs)

Conclusion

• After Sullivan, definitions of form and function became narrow. – Form physical mass;

– function the use and specific purpose.

• Technological view became dominant • Functionalism became skeleton and skin holding

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