modern architecture

The manufacturing of new building materials, the invention of new construction methods, and the growth of cities inspired an architecture that became known as Modern. It started in the 19^th century, boomed in the 20^th and by the Second World War it was adapted to most architectural designs.

The City of Arts and Sciences ( Ciutat de les arts I les Ciencies ) is an entertainment based cultural and architectural complex in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the most important destinations in Valenica and one of the 12 treasures of Spain. Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela designed it, the project first started construction in 1996 and ended in 1998 with the opening of L’Hemisferic section which to me represents an eye and pointing out that it is a large format of a cinema. It is made of and divided into 7 parts, each having its own way of representing futuristic excellence. They are all grand creating a great sense of scale difference and they emit great intensity to who ever are visiting.

I believe that this city is one of the main tourist attractions in

 Valencia, due to its uniqueness. Each turn in the city is a new experience showing different angles and perspectives in a way which our eyes aren’t used to and this give the whole city its immensity.

   

Philip Johnson – The Glass House

Philip Johnson – The Glass House

The Glass House

The Glass House was an important and influential project for Johnson and for modern architecture. The building has a minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and has effects of transparency and reflection.

The house is an example of early use of industrial materials such as glass and steel in home design.

The total transparency of the glass conveys that there is nothing to hide from the world, this thought reminds me the modern human's will for transparency in all the aspects of life, politically, socially and economically.

Philip Johnson saw himself as defining a new American way of life. Johnson's Glass House in the suburbs brought European modernist ideas, while criticizing the neighbors' big houses which was built in colonial style.

Johnson's house is a total contrast to the atmosphere of hospitality and solidity of American dachas. At that time the houses described the success and the family fortune, and symbolized the American ambition.

In the town where most of the houses announce their presence with picturesque access paths for cars and gabled-fronted, Johnson's Glass House is almost invisible. He hides behind a low fence and a small hill.

First misconception about the Glass houses is that they are designed for exhibitionist. However, when the architect Johnson built his Glass House, the most important thing for him was a panoramic view of 180 degrees of the forest overlooking the house. To keep it, he bought more land.

The Glass House was a place for accommodation to many artists, designers and architects. In my opinion the place shows architecture as an art. Through transparency, people within the space become represented as a display.

This situation makes me think about the question if is it possible to live in a house of glass without any curtains?

I think that in some way this house creates a reality which privacy becomes visible to the public. I guess that in Johnson's case he got fed up at some point and the Glass House was used eventually only for entertaining, and Johnson slept in the Brick House.

The Brick House

Alongside Johnson Glass House he also founded the "Brick house", a building containing two sealed rooms and services. Among them is dug round pool which completes the composition of the site. The Brick house was illuminated only with stars light and has tiny windows. It was used in for intimacy moments with his partner David Whitney. In my opinion, in some way he cheated his acquaintances, and built a bedroom with solid walls and roof folding.

I guess that at the end architecture's main goal is to solve a need. In Johnson's case it was to create a new approach for modern houses and with his inspiration other architectures also solved the issue of privacy.

“Modern Architecture: International Exhibition”

“Modern Architecture: International Exhibition”

First of all, I would say that the "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition" is being in the annals and will stay for centuries. 

In 1932, New York City was already a very influential city in the world, therefore, the out standing exhibition was meant to be there, in the Museum of Modern Art.

The International Exhibition was showing to the world the ambition and also what was America capable of. 

Curated by two American architects and historians, Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock were looking to show off emerging architecture style characterized by geometry and no ornaments, thus called "International Style". 

As Johnson said it was "probably the first fundamentally original and widely distributed style since the Gothic.” 

Besides, I believe that the exhibition gave to the architectural world its rules and principles for the Modern architecture.

Second of all, I would say that the exhibition was designed in a very specific way. 

The design was very clean and geometric, consequently, this is why we could observed only lines and no curves such as with the placement of the Art pieces where they are aligned next to each other. 

Moreover, the tables and stands are rectangles, which actually reminds me of Mies Van Der Rohe's precision and style with the Barcelona Pavilion. 

I believe that the exhibition designer s achieved a very high level of likeness to the "International Style". 

Moreover, even if the pictures are in back and white, I cannot stop myself from thinking and believing that the space would look the same; made out of black and white. However, if colors they are, I would go for the neutral ones such as brown, beige or grey.  

Finally, I am deeply thinking that the International Exhibition was a proof of the United States power but also Open-Mindedness. 

Léa Blanchard

Moller House - Adolf Loos - Myriem Msefer

HofID_04-06-16_AnstassiyaProkofyeva_E-1027

Completed in 1929, the concrete cube is a vision of modern living. Eileen Gray designed the house as a vacation getaway for her, then lover, Romanian architect Jean Badovici. Le Crobusier was Badovici friend and later defended the house by placing his artwork in there. 

E1027 was the first architectural work of the designer Eileen Gray, completed when she was 51 years old. It was a pioneering and accomplished work of the modern movement in architecture, putting into practice ideas that were still new.

The organisation of the house as a whole is then based on her studies of wind and sun, and on its position on a steep slope descending to the sea.

The basic form of the house is a simple cuboid, raised on pillars, but within that she created a series of layers that filter the progression from land side to sea side and from shadows to light. 

She created a number of pieces of loose and built-in furniture for the house and installed others that she had previously designed, always with close attention to their interaction with the senses and the human body. She created a tea trolley with a cork surface, to reduce the rattling of cups, another trolley for taking a gramophone outside, and the E1027 table, whose height can be adjusted to suit different situations.

Le corbusier visited the house couple time when Bodovici and Gray parted and while staying at the house he painted bright murals on its plain white walls, and sometimes painted in the nude. Gray considered it as a vandalism. Because she though that he „painted over“ her work for the sake of jealousy. As he was seeing his own approch in architecture. „Le Corbusier was „seemingly affronted that a woman could create such a fine work of modernism“ so he „asserted his dominion, like a urinating dog, over the territory“„. He built the house next to it and swam in the waters where he later drawned. After his death the the whole area was declared a „Site Moderne,“ Today, E-1027 is recognized as the founding element of this site. Furthermore, Eleen Gray wasnt promoting herself during her professional life as an architect, so for many years historians and journalist assumed that is was work by Le Corbusier. 

Today, E-1027 is after restoration and is open to public and has been preserved thatnks to Le Corbusier`s paintings. 

Farnworth House Modernism Victoire Peron

The Zuyev Worker's Club Victoire Peron constructivism