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Outline: Background: Factors Affecting Modern Architecture

The document outlines Lecture Module 2 on Early Modern Architecture, covering definitions, cultural, territorial, and structural transformations that influenced the movement. It highlights key figures such as Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, along with notable architectural concepts like Boullée's expressive architecture and the design of the Newton Memorial. Additionally, it discusses urban planning initiatives by Hausmann and Olmstead, emphasizing the integration of green spaces and innovative city layouts.

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5 views7 pages

Outline: Background: Factors Affecting Modern Architecture

The document outlines Lecture Module 2 on Early Modern Architecture, covering definitions, cultural, territorial, and structural transformations that influenced the movement. It highlights key figures such as Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, along with notable architectural concepts like Boullée's expressive architecture and the design of the Newton Memorial. Additionally, it discusses urban planning initiatives by Hausmann and Olmstead, emphasizing the integration of green spaces and innovative city layouts.

Uploaded by

P Santos
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture Module 2: EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Outline
● Definitions of modern architecture
● Factors affecting early modern architecture
○ Cultural Transformation
○ Territorial Transformation
○ Structural Transformation
● Early 20th century architecture
○ Peter Behrens
○ Walter Gropius
○ Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
○ Le Corbusier

modern architecture

BACKGROUND:
Factors affecting modern architecture

1
Boullée promoted the idea of making architecture expressive of its purpose, a doctrine that his detractors
termed architecture parlante ("talking architecture"), which was an essential element in Beaux-Arts
architectural training in the later 19th century. His style was most notably exemplified in his proposal for a
cenotaph (a funerary monument celebrating a figure interred elsewhere) for the English scientist Isaac
Newton,[1] who 50 years after his death became a symbol of Enlightenment ideas.[1]

The building itself was a 150 m (500 ft) tall sphere, taller than the Great Pyramids of Giza,[1] encompassed by
two large barriers circled by hundreds of cypress trees. The massive, spherical shape of the building was
inspired by Boullée's own study called "theory of bodies" where he claims that the most beautiful and perfect
natural body is the sphere, which is the most prominent element of the Newton Memorial.[2] Though the
structure was never built,[1] Boullée had many ink and wash drawings engraved and circulated widely within
professional circles in 1784.[1]

2
The small sarcophagus for Newton would have been placed at the lower pole of the sphere. The design of the
memorial was intended to create the effect of day and night. The night effect would have occurred when the
sarcophagus is illuminated by the sunlight coming through the holes in the vaulting, giving the illusion of stars
in the night sky. The day effect would have been provided via an armillary sphere hanging in the center that
gives off a mysterious glow. Thus, the use of light in the building's design would have caused the building's
interior to change its appearance.[3]

• Napoleon hired Hausmann


• There were previous planners (Berger) but it didn’t meet Napoleon’s standards
• Rue de Rivoli was the 1st boulevard Hausmann built in Paris

They also built the Bois de Boulogne park (green area on the left), the Bois de Vincennes park containing a zoo
(green area on the right), the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, the Parc Montsouris and dozens of smaller parks and
square

3
General Plan for Riverside (1869), Illinois by Frederick Law Olmstead
Inspired by the winding Des Plaines River, he eschewed a standard city grid, instead creating a series of
curvilinear streets that wound across each other - a pattern that resulted in dozens of tiny triangular mini-
parks.

Garden City Diagram by Ebenezer Howard


His idealised garden city would house 32,000 people on a site of 3,600 ha. Howard's diagrams presented such
a city in a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks, and six radial boulevards, 120 ft (37 m) wide,
extending from the centre. This was published in “To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform”

4
5
Even when working at Behrens office, Mies was obsessed with the idea of glass block towers, but there was no
means to build such in Germany. It was only after the war, in the US that he was able to achieve his dreams of
transparency. Mies had done what Gropius had said was necessary—discovering and perfecting a type that
could be used to the widest degree.

6
Lectures compilation by: LYMartin3.10.202

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