In this class, we survey some of the eclectic styles of the 19th century, with a particular focus on Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

1. Eclecticism in the
19th Century
ARCH 417
CLASS 03

2. agenda 8.31.15
• terminology:
• modern
• modernity
• modernization
• modernism
• eclecticism
• Gothic Revival (neoGothic)
• Neoclassical

3. problem of periodization
• any dividing line is fundamentally arbitrary
• any way of dividing up historical periods has advantages
and disadvantages
• "modern": when does it begin? when does it end?

4. early modern
Renaissance: rediscovery of ancient texts and statues.
Classical revival. The church is challenged.
Printing press opens the age of mass media, rise in
literacy, Reformation, rise of individualism.
Improvements in navigation, invention of longitude,
globalization, colonization.
Intensification of trade, banking, capitalism.

5. Early modern: science emerges from the shadow of religion

6. modern
industrialization/mechanization
urbanization
transportation/mass migrations
social revolutions and rise of democracies
mass media

7. James Watt, steam engine

8. 1968
why '68?
Tet Offensive in Vietnam War
international unrest and protest: Paris, Mexico City,
Prague
assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert
Fitzgerald Kennedy
Apollo 8 to moon and back

9. shift to a planetary consciousness

10. 1959
• Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (founded
in 1928)
• CIAM 1959 was the last congress
• "The present is a moment of crisis, not any longer
because we need modern architecture, but because we
have got it." —J.M. Richards, "The Next Step,?"
Architectural Review 107 (March 1950).
• also: Sputnik, birth control, desegregation, IBM

11. post? late? modern
ongoing globalization
intensification of media
intensification of capitalism
economy of services and signs added to economy of
things
societies of control

12. "The term 'modern architecture' ...can be understood to refer
to all buildings of the modern period regardless of their
ideological basis, or it can be understood more specifically as
an architecture conscious of its own modernity and striving
for change....Already in the early 19th century, there was wide
dissatisfaction with eclecticism among architects, historians,
and critics. This well-documented attitude justifies a history of
modern architecture concerned primarily with reformist,
'avant-garde' tendencies, rather than one that attempts to
deal with the whole of architectural production as if it
operated within a non-ideological, neutral field."
—Alan Colquhoun, Modern
Architecture, p.9

13. eclectic (dictionary
definition)
eclectic late 17th century (as a term in philosophy): from
Greek eklektikos, from eklegein 'pick out', from ek 'out' +
legein 'choose'.
In art history: Johann Joachim Winckelmann (German art
historian and archaeologist), used this word to describe the
Carracci, who created paintings combining classical tradition
with the elements of Renaissance.
In architecture: deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad
and diverse range of sources.

14. Raphael MENGS, Portrait of Johann
Jacob WINCKELMANN, after 1755
Winckelmann used the term
"eclectic" as an insult for a
particular type of Bolognese
painting he disliked.

15. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Histoire de l'art de l'antiquité Leipzig: J. G. I.
Brietkopf, 1781

16. Strawberry Hill
in Twickenham,
London
Horace Walpole
Rebuilt the existing
house in stages starting
in 1749, 1760, 1772 and
1776.
Sparked "Gothic
Revival," one of many
stylistic revivals through
the course of the next
century.

17. Strawberry Hill, exterior, after 2012 restoration. A prime example of Gothic Revival.

18. Strawberry Hill
interior

19. Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion, in
Brighton England. It was
built in three stages,
beginning in 1787. In 1815,
John Nash extended the
building.

20. English fantasy architecture, incorporating elements of Mughal architecture seen in In

21. Royal Pavilion, interior view of banqueting room with motifs borrowed from India.

22. Architectural fantasy based upon elements borrowed from England's colony of India.

23. Schinkel, Neue Wache (New Guardhouse), 1818, in Berlin, Germany
Neoclassicism was another popular style at the tim

24. Schinkel was also capable of building in the neoGothic style, as evidence by this church in
the Friedrichswerder Church, built between 1824 and 1831,

25. Karl Friedrich SCHINKEL, Bauakademie, Berlin,paintedby Eduard Gaertner, 1
The simplified facade that Schinkel designed for this building has been seen a
forerunner of architectural modernism.

26. Aerial view of the Lustgarten (pleasure garden) in Berlin, with the Altes Museum on the

27. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Altes Museum (Old Museum), Berlin, 1830.
A severe and uncompromising neoClassicism.

28. Schinkel, Altes Museum, plan

29. Main staircase in front of the open arcade.

30. View to the exterior from the staircase.

31. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Mies van der Rohe, Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), 1968

32. Mies's glass pavilion viewed from staircase

33. interior, Neue Nationalgalerie

36. English architect Sir David Chipperfield won an international competition to renovate Mies
Chipperfield mounted an exhibition of 144 tree trunks, installed in relationship to
the ceiling grid.

37. Entitled "Sticks and Stones, an Intervention," the exhibition ran for a few months at the e
2014, before the museum closed for the renovation.

38. The renovation began in
2015
and is supposed to be
complete
in 2019.
MORE CHIPPERFIELD:
http://www.davidchipperfield.
co.uk/projects/