Secession Building

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Joseph Maria Olbrich

Vienna, Austria

1898

• Gallery for the Vienna succession artists
•  Across from the main plaza, down the street from the established artists' gallery space (Cusner House, 1870s, traditional Roman Style)
• Refuge for art separate from outer city: entrance w/ copper relief and stairs
• added the skylights for the paintings, columns and sphere evoke the conventions of the past without being literal (note flat surfaces, lack of intricate facade, more emphasis on functionality) 
• Similarity to Fischa Von Herla (Catholic Basilica) and archaic greek temple
• Iron dome is open unlike traditional domes
• Plain facade: Manifesto against classicism of Ringstrausse
• Olbrich: Modern style based on function and utility with reconnection to classical past, subjective approach
• Function in arrangement: even, steady light in all exhibition rooms, adjustable partitions for spatial flexibility 

Postal Savings Bank

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Otto Wagner

Vienna, Austria

1904-6

• Wagner: classical geometric styles, emphasize function over form, rationality, modernism must correspond to new materials and new functions, decline in historical styles/romanticism, artists must represent their own era, practicality is beauty ---> Bank broke away from neoclassical/art nouveau of wagner's previous works
• Roman style busts with sans serif type mixes modernity with historicism. 
• Patron was the bank/government/middle class (deposits)
• Central space fully skylit, walls were made of white glass to write on, social metaphor for honesty and transparency 
• Machine-cut bolt heads symbolize function of the building because they look like coins
• Marble steps and alluminum rails indicate gov't building
• Next to Ringstrasse blvd 
• Low maintence cost was key 
• Floorplan evokes cathedral (high central wall, long longitudal axis)

Steiner House

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Adolf Loos

Vienna, Austria

1910

• Loos: fine materials and smooth walls, wanted patrons to decorate themselves, "Ornament and Crime" (anti-secession, distrust the self-conscious artist, style is what the artist doesn't touch)
• Admired english tailoring and American plumbing
• Axis is blocked, so you can't walk through straight (Wanted spatial variation through level and path changes) 
• Fitness to purpose should determine form 
• 3 floors total - only 1 facing street to abide suburb rules
• Stucco facade protects brick roughcast walls, thick outer walls
• Refined and intricate interior with simple exterior
• Carpeting and tapestry to make "warm and livable"
• Curved roof: certainty of form and economy of space
• Fences characteristic of Euro suburbs

Michaelerplatz Building

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Adolf Loos

Vienna, Austria

1910-11

• Redesign of convention
• Blended the facade into the plaza as much as possible, whole facade added facing square
• Separate Forms indicate function- marble for the store, simple residential, apt planter boxes for visual delicacy
• Design before was the Hapsburg monarchy
• Into stone masonry because of his family, the veins of the marble run vertically which makes them more impressive 
• Large windows supposed to evoke the Postal Savings Bank
• 12 x 12 inch window panes inside tailor store creates an intimate setting for customers, English carpentry typical of Loos
• Mix of tradition and modern: collumns support iron beam extending into machine-cut marble

Palais Stoclet

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Joseph Hoffman

Brussles, Belgium 

1905-11

• Semi-public character for entertainment/gallery
• Client: Adolphe Stoclet, engineer, financer
• First room (ante room) was small w/ dark mosaic and low ceiling, then large living room well-lit with high ceiling-- contrast in perception makes the room seem bigger
• Gesamtkunstwerk
• Gold jeweled mosaic of Springtime and Isis and Osiris in dining room
• Hoffman: Aim for modern decorative art, parents in textile industry, Wagner's student, Seccessionist inspired by seccessionist building (broke away from support of academic art)
• Open dome evokes Secession building

A.E.G. Turbine Factory

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Peter Behrens

Berlin, Germany 

1908-10

• Flexible structure, had hinges and latticework to accomodate for dynamic load of cranes
• Neoclassical: temple aura, "worship of power" 
• Symbol of Germany's industrialization reflects power of the state
• Faceted roof resembles a crystal - Beherens' interest
• Steel supports on the outside remenescent of Athenian Parthenon, create illusion of shadow 
• Behrens: Align modernity with monumental architecture, Munich Secession founder, Neoclassical + modernity
• Concrete cladding at corners play no part in stability, windows slant for shadow illusion, cols have hinged pedestals (staple of industry at eye level)
• Context: turbines generate electricity, essential industrial power source
• Celebrate the spirit of the common worker

Fagus Shoe Last Factory

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Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer

Alfeld-an-der Leine, Germany

1911

• Response to Turbine Factory (Beherens' protege), more open plan, less monumentality, windows wrap sharp corners
• Client: Benschiedt, partnership to expand from USA to Germany 
• No visible structural supports  
• Glass: let a lot of light in to improve morale, black glass on steps as a fine material = Social purpose to elevate worker morale via aesthetics. 
• Also a symbol of Germany's industrialization, American influence
• Located next to railroad
• New concept of completely glass facade
• AEG Turbine Factory shadow illusions at corners replaced by reflectivity of glass
• Gropius: Behren's assistant, Factory aesthetic should apply to all modern form, industrial materials, buildings analogous to machinery, no ornament

Centennial [Jahrhundert] Hall

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Max Berg

Present-Day Wroclaw, Poland

Was Breslau (Prussian Region of Silesia)

1910-13

•  Large continuous space w/o support - Royal Albert Hall
• Dome Evokes Pantheon, minimalizes mass of materials over maximum span (tiers and windows), modern element of steel reinforced concrete & concrete butresses 
• Expressionist: dynamic sculptural forms, gothic cathedral influence, spiritual symbolism
• Context: Expressionism involved emotion/spirituality, a utopian search in response to the violence/disillusion of WWI
• Function: Commemorate 100th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat at Battle of Lezpig
• German Nationalist response (hall = sign of people's victory)

Glass Pavillion

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Bruno Taut

Deutscher Werkbund Exhbition, Cologne, Germany

1914

• Function: Advertise steel industry (leftist, industrial)
• Expressionist: colored glass, dynamic sculptural forms, gothic cathedral-like spirit
• Colored glass, mosaic, flowing water to upper dome: transcendent experience, post-WWI utopian proposition
• Architecture used to shape values -> abandon prewar values
• Celebration of industrialization and its progressive capacity for the arts
• Use of glass takes away enclosing character of inside space
• Scheerbart poem "Glass Architecture"

Grosse Schauspielhaus

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Hans Poelzig

North Berlin, Germany 

1918-19

•  Client: Max Reinhardt, was originally a circus
• Symbol of democracy, social institution
• Expressionist: Clored lights, atmosphere of brightness, cave-like cement ceiling, ceiling lightbulbs in star constellations ("organic" architecture)
• Thrust stage to merge with audience, so spectators don't feel like outsiders
• More theaters built b/c of WWI: mobilize collective emotion to escape times of misery

[Second] Goetheanum

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Rudolf Steiner

Dornach, Switzerland

1924-28

•  First Goetheanum destroyed by arson, world center for anthroposophical movement
• Steiner: Expressionist, led Antroposophical movement of Theosophy (concerned with spiritual guidance in human life)
• Site of Swiss battle in 1499
• Pioneering use of cast concrete, free molding, no right angles
• Movement of walls, curving concrete: "breathing"/organic architecture
• Alternative model liberated from traditional constraints
• Theater like event space, stained glass (expressionist)

Amsterdam Stock Exchange

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Hendrik Petrus Berlage 

Amsterdam, Netherlands

1897-1903

• Berlage: No unessential ornament, proportional systems, architecture has a social function to articulate community values, modern style is the direct expression of materials, smooth walls = social eqauality, altruistic 
• Continuous plane
• Context: Located by manmade Damrat Canal, part of central Amsterdam/mercantile district, booming Dutch economy 
• 17th century (Dutch Golden Age) inspired 3 arch entrance, evokes Old Town Hall
• Practical spirit of working class
• Iron parabolas and brick piers support skylights
• Hinged bases for arches inspired by AEG Turbine Factory --> constructional challenges as a decorative motif
• Spatial rhythm, concise plan 
• Ratio of height to base 5-4, Egyptian triangle (Berlage stressed consistent geometry and proportional ratios)
• Presents values in material terms consistent with patrons: brick and granite

Eigen Haard

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Michel de Klerk

Amsterdam, Netherlands

1913 - 1920

• Socialist Housing Society for workers with goals of heightening living conditions and decreasing interest loans
• Influx of industry created a greater demand for housing
• Non-traditional constant roof and uniform windows contrast with bourgoise housing in Amsterdam
• Uniformity = communal purpose
• De Klerk: Importance of individual style (compared to expressionists), appreciation of inhabitant/communal identity 

Truus Shröder House 

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Gerrit Rietveld

Utrecht, Holland

1924-25

• Destijl Aesthetic: counterconstruction (floating planes), asymmetry, primary colors, black and gray, simple geometry, pure abstraction, demphasis on expression of materials (brick underlay hidden), utopian
• Unbounded space continuum, visual dynamism
• Moveable wood partitions for day and sleep
• Corner treatment compared to open air school
• House was a declaration of the independent modern woman, metaphor for upotian societal reform
• Inspired by Theo van Doesburg's House for an Artist and Frank Lloyd Wright
• Neoplasticism: new space forming

Open Air School

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Johannes Duiker 

Amsterdam, Holland 

1928-30

•  Duiker: balance utility and formal obligation, form = function, pragmatic and material systems, buildings represent social purpose, science over art of building, NOT DeStijl 
• Built for children to prevent pulmonary illness
• Unite school with city through large windows, creating openness
• Corners treated similar to Schroder house 
• Historical context: designed to prevent and combat the widespread rise of tuberculosis pre-WWII

Van Nelle Factory

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Johannes Brinkman

Rotterdam, Holland

1926-30

• Open Air School equivalent for industrial architecture
• American influence (use of steel and glass)
• Mushroom collumns thin out on higher levels
• Geometrically simple: influence of Russian Constructivists

USSR Pavilion

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Konstantin Melnikov

Paris, France

1925

• Symbol for functional architecture and new spirit, object = purpose
• Worker's Reading Room is opposite of Louvre Dept Store Pavilion and bourgoise convention: no decadent upholstry/decor
• Factory similiarty
• CCCP (USSR) Lattice tower: Constructivist goal to communicate images and values of revolution, ppl needed political monument in turbulent times)
• Timber, iron too expensive (mechanist facade derived from older wood craft, economic collapse and shortage of steel)
• Collective building: stairs slice through middle
• Constructivist aesthetic: acute angles to convey dynamism, angular overhead planes 

Narkomfin Apartments

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Mosei Ginzburg

Moscow, Russia

1928-30

•  F-Type unit for communal living, no corridors
• Light access from east and west
• Problem of living unit = problem of community
• Brick under stucco
• Context: private property and estates abolished (turned into parks) --> demand for housing 
• Constructivist aesthetic: geometrically simple, abstraction and industrial forms (reinforced concrete framing), link between communist idealogy and space (plan for communal dining hall)

Rusakov [Tram] Workers' Club

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Konstantin Melnikov

Moscow, Russia 

1927-28

•  Billboard-like emblems at street face (Russian Constructivist purpose was to convey revolutionary values to change collective behavior)
• Brick at back view, where conventional offices are located
• 3 cantelevered auditoriums, can be used separately, 1000+ seating combined
• Style of labor/freedom, not "luxury or oppression"
• Constructivist Aesthetic: acutely angled cantalevers, "tensed muscle" form to convey fxn, industrial influences paired with abstract geometry

Bauhaus

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Gropius & Adolph Meyer

Dessau, Germany 

1925-26

• First modern work of institutional architecture
• Purpose: education of fine and applied art, break barrier between artist and craftsman, equip students with ability to shape own vision and create forms symbolic of the world
• Meaning of bauhaus: desire to return to wholesome art of building
• Factory-like, located in open green field
• Floor Plan: Asymmetrical, Spatious, workshops on main floor, elevated admin offices, back has communal space, rear studios for students ---> equilibrium, rhythmic, practical
• Continuous plane through precise glass fitting
• Recessed dark ground level accents white cantalever for floating/radiant effect
• Gropius: No superfluous ornament, utilize new materials (glass, steel, concrete), clear and organic structure (high glass reveals inside) adapted to world of machines
• All caps sans serif on first visible wall (South end) to address Dessau (state-funded project, skepticism)
• High glass reveals structure

Einstein Tower

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Erich Mendelsohn 

Postdam, Germany

1917-21 

• Client: Astrophysicist Erwin Findlay Freundlich, who was friends with Einstein
• Sketch inspired by Theory of Relativity, symbol of "mass activated by energy"
• Expressionist
• Curved linear forms, no right angles inside
• Concrete base, observatory shell brick w/ stucco 

Schocken Department Store 

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Erich Mendelsohn

Chemnitz, Germany

1928-29

• Fine materials: oak window frames, travertine stone
• Warehouse-like floor naturally lit to view textile products
• Reversal of color/lighting during day/night
• Large dept store chain, quality at lowest prices
• "Medieval" surrounding styles

Simple geometry

Acute angles to convey dynamism

Link between ideology and visual style

abstract forms + industrial forms

mechanist influence

DeStijl Aesthetic

1920s-30s

pure abstraction, simple geometry

asymmetry

primary colors, black and gray

demphasis on expression of materials

neoplasticism: shaping of space as the primary concern

continuity of space inside and out

counterconstruction: floating planes, defy gravity

Utopian, metaphor for societal reform