history of contemporary architecture - 14. Cubism + De Stijl.ppt

MODERNISM :
Cubism
Arch. Dania Abdel-Aziz 1

“The art of painting original arrangements composed of elements taken from
conceived rather than perceived reality”.
Guillaume Apollinaire, The Beginnings of Cubism, 1912
2
Arch. Dania Abdel-Aziz
MODERNISM, Cubism

• The cubist painters rejected the inherited concept that art should copy paste
nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective,
modelling, and foreshortening.
• They wanted instead it emphasize the two-dimentionality of the canvas.
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MODERNISM, Cubism

• They reduced and fractured objects into geometric forms, and then
realigned these within a shallow, relief-like space. They also used
multiple or contrasting vantage points.
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MODERNISM, Cubism
Emanuil Popgenchev | Cubist painter

• The Cubist movement in painting was developed by Pablo picasso and
Georges Barque around 1907 and became a major influence on Western
Art.
• They chose to break down the subjects into a number of facets, showing
several different aspects of one object simultaneously.
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MODERNISM, Cubism
Picasso in 1908 Georges Braque, 1908

6
Georges Braque, 1907-08, The Viaduct at
L'Estaque (Le Viaduc de l'Estaque), oil on
canvas,
Georges Braque, 1908, Maisons et arbre
(Houses at l'Estaque), oil on canvas, 40.5 x
32.5 cm
MODERNISM, Cubism

Cubism:
• It is a reaction against tradition.
• Its influence on architecture was not
direct, but it influenced some architects
like Le Corbusier and other coming
styles like De Stijl and Purism.
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MODERNISM, Cubism

• Abstraction with certain levels that
started from Impressionists, like the
works of Picasso.
• Free Spirit in Architecture, which was
influenced by innovative works of
arts.
• Breaking all the traditional ways of
seeing an object and its representation.
• A new abstract art capable of
expressing the art without a story.
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MODERNISM, Cubism
Woman with Mustard Pot (La Femme
au pot de moutarde), oil on canvas, 73
x 60 cm, Gemeentemuseum, The
Hague.

• It is a new representation of reality and
unfolding of reality.
• Unfolds the object and looks at it from
different angles.
• Representing 3D to 2D unfolds.
• A new conception of space.
• Volumetric and Dynamic architecture.
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MODERNISM, Cubism
Josef Gocar, was on of the
cubism leaders

Influence of Cubism on Architecture
Two phases:
• First: Analytical Cubism (up to 1912), concentrating on geometrical forms
using subdued colors.
• Second: Synthetic Cubism, used more decorative shapes, stencilling,
collage, and brighter colors. It was then that artists such as Picasso and
Braque started to use pieces.
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• Picasso and Braque developed a visual language blending abstraction with
fragments of observed reality, allowing spaces and form to come to new
terms.
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• The neoplastic movement happened in the
1910’s.
• It is the belief that art should not be the
reproduction of real objects, but the
expression of the absolutes of life.
• The artists way of thinking, the only
absolutes of life were vertical and horizontal
lines and the primary colors.
• Neoplastisist only used planar elements and
the colors red, yellow and blue.
• The two main painters of this movements
where Piet Mondrian and Theo van
Doseburg.
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Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow,
1930

• Van Doseburg and Gerrit Rietveld grasped the three-dimentional
implications of geometric abstraction.
• Their paintings were distillations of black, white and primary colors with the
simplest rectangular geometries which made it easier to translate these
shapes into functioning architecture.
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Van Doseburg, Counter
composition XIII, 1929
Van Doseburg,Composition
VII (the three graces). 1917.

• Walls, floor plans, roofs, or
windows have an analogous
formal character to the
elements in the paintings.
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Art into Architecture

• Van Doesburg understood modern
architecture and modern painting as
complementary, arguing that the two
media had something basic in common:
the flat plane.
• He believed that painting could serve as a
laboratory for testing architectural ideas.
• This work in gouache was not intended as
a plan for a specific building but as
abstract explorations of spatial
relationships.
15

• Van Doesburg began with plans for private
houses that he had developed with the
architect Cornelis van Eesteren.
• Then he eliminated the signs of functional
architecture: doors, windows, and roof are
all absent, and no directional cues
distinguish front from back. Instead, the
structure floats freely in space and time.
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17
Theo van doesburg wit Cornelis Van Eesteren. Contra-
Construction project, 1923.

Homework
• https://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/02/05/the-city-as-a-regulated-industry-
cornelis-van-eesteren-and-urban-planning/
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The general aim was not to decorate the modern building with painted murals,
but to treat it as a :
1. An abstract sculpture.
2. Total work of art.
3. An organism of color, form, and intersecting planes.
What’s different:
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Beaux Art Classicism Cubisim
Simple Symmetry. Dynamic, Asymmetrical balance.
Voids set into solid. Tense interaction of forms (out) and
space (in).
Closed forms. Dynamic extensions of colored
planes into the surroundings.

• Spatial conception of architecture.
• Which was influenced by Wright’s concern with the spatial character and the
vocabulary of hovering and intersecting planes..
• But with no ornamentation ...
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Influence of Wright fusion of planes + Monderian abstaction = Villa at huis ter
heidi of 1916 by rob Vant’s Hoff
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• Flat roofs.
• Overhanging.
• Formed from simple
rectangles.
• Made from reinforced
concrete.
• Intersected planes.
• Controlled asymmetry.
• Rectilinear grids.
• Extending horizontal and
sliding volumes.
Bonus

De Stijl (The Style)

De Stijl (Reitveld, Mondarian):
• This style appeared in architecture, painting, and sculpture.
• Began in 1917 by a group of artists in Holland.
• “balance between individual and universal values”.
• It means the style that aimed to create a style that represents its
contemporary time and new society, new religion. Where the new
religion is the Science, and the Machine was worshipped and
abstracted with a spiritual discipline.
• Previous arts made the craftsman a machine, while the machine has
liberated the artists.
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• De Stijl (Reitveld, Mondarian):
• It had some futurist ideas: Forms
appropriate to social emancipation of the
post war era (Integration of Art and Life).
• It meant a style for all society “Universal
Style” with simple geometric forms having a
universal application (Geometric Forms /
“Purity” and Simplicity).
• Allowed space and form to come in the
new term.
24

• Building was treated as a work of art and its Components included:
• Controlled and dynamic asymmetry.
• Contrast.
• Intersecting planes.
• Free and floating spaces by breaking the barriers between the inside and
outside.
• It was influenced by Cubism and Purism: 3D abstraction equivalent to
Monderian 2D’s.
• Cantilevered planes, intersecting vertical and horizontal planes that can extend
to infinity.
• In Holland in 1917 it included the painters, designers, sculptures, and furniture
with abstraction and rectangular influences.
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• By 1920 De stijl had succeed in drawing together devices of abstract art and
fusing them with a multi-layered content including:
• Futurist ideals.
• Mondrian spiritualism.
• Gropius drive towards simple and typical forms.
• Purism symbolic forms (but with no curves).
• Wright spatial configuration.
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Café De Unie, in Rotterdam (1925)
Architects: J. J. Pieter Oud and
Doesburg.
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Café De Unie, in Rotterdam (1925)
Architects: J. J. Pieter Oud and
Doesburg.

– Examples:
• Reitveld: Reitveld House (1924):
 He tried to find a functional use of
abstract and simple drawings and its
equivalent from the 2D drawings of
Mondarian to a 3D dimension in
architecture.
 A new concept of space.
 He had a Spa Chair suggesting:
» A floating elements forming unlimited
space.
» Functional representation of 2D
drawings.
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Gerrit Rietveld

• Rietveld was a furniture maker and
architect.
• Schroder House combines
geometric forms and primary colors
with black, white, grey.
• simple, open spaces .
• furniture designed by Rietveld.
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Garrit Rietveld, Schroder
House (Utrecht, Holland)
1924
De Stijl - Gerrit Rietveld

Early De stijl works
• First: Rietveld’s red/blue chair design, 1917-1918.
• It tried to make functioning equivalent in three dimensions to a rectilinear
abstract painting.
31

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Rietveld received some stimulus from Wright’s earlier furniture designs with
their:
• Pedigree in Art’s and crafts ideals.
• Machine cut wood.
• Japanese simplicity.
Rietveld’s red/blue chair joints
Wright, Robie house chairs

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Garrit Rietveld, Schroder House
(Utrecht, Holland) 1924

• Rectangular smooth shapes.
• Free plan.
• Economic house.
• Masses.
• Un-decorative.
• Dynamic.
• Asymmetry (no single axis).
• Intersecting planes.
• Details.
• Bright primary colors.
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Garrit Rietveld, Schroder House
(Utrecht, Holland) 1924
The only building to have been
created completely according to De
Stjil principles.

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Garrit Rietveld, Schroder House (Utrecht,
Holland) 1924
Gerrit Rietveld
Planes are articulated by:
• Thin lines of window mullions.
• Balcony railings.
• Attached struts.

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Garrit Rietveld, Schroder
House (Utrecht, Holland) 1924
Gerrit Rietveld
• Interiors continue the same
aesthetic themes.
• Details of glass stair casing are
integrated with the building
overall style and proportions.

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Gerrit Rietveld

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First floor Plan, open panels. First floor Plan, closed panels.
Ground floor Plan.
• Convertible plan: usable in either form, open or subdivided. This was
achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels.
Gerrit Rietveld

De Stijl stylistic principles and the striving principles towards a
Gesamatkunstwerk (total work of art) have made the ideas of De Stijl one
of the most influential architecture movements in 20th century.
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• Influence the Bauhaus style and
the international style, as well as
clothing and interior design.
• De Stijl influence on architecture
remained considerable, long after
1931.
• Meis van der Rohe was among
the most important proponents of
its ideas.
40

– Parallel to this in the U.S.A.:
• Open plan.
• Functionalist plan.
• Asymmetrical Plans.
• Use of Bricks and Shingle out of wood for pitched roofs.
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End of Social Reforms

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