The document critiques modern architecture, highlighting significant failures of iconic structures and the disconnect between architects and the public. It argues for the importance of criticism in architecture, noting how many famous buildings, despite their accolades, have serious design flaws and fail to meet the needs of occupants. Overall, the text emphasizes the necessity for sensitivity to users, site conditions, and history in architectural practice.

1. CRITICIZING
ARCHITECTURE
NIDHITHIGALE
T.Y. B.ARCH

2. • Conceptually it defines the house as a
mechanized entity.
– Pilotis
– Flat RoofTerrace
– Open Plan
– RibbonWindows
– Free Facade
VILLA SAVOYE BY LE CORBUSIER

3. • It had a roof that leaked everywhere.
• It had a skylight that made a terrible noise,
preventing the occupants from sleeping.
• It felt cold and damp.
• It suffered from substantial heat-loss due to
large glazing (that Le Corbusier loved, and
included it in his ‘Five Points for
Architecture’).
• And of course, did not make its
occupants happy to live in it.
OTHER SIDE OFVILLA SAVOYE

4. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT SAYS..
“ITS JUST A BOX ON STILTS
AND A CHILDISH ATTEMPT TO
MAKE BUILDINGGS RESEMBLE
STEAMSHIPS, FLYING MACHINE
OR LOCOMOTIVE.”

5. IS
CRITICISM
IMPOTANT?
• The disciple of architecture is Plural and Diverse.
• In architecture, everyone’s a critic.
WE KNOWTHAT LESS IS NOT MORE ,
LESS IS SIMPLY LESS!
-Dr. Edith Farnsworth
(Owner of Farnsworth House)
Less is a bore.- RobertVenturi

6. IS
CRITICISM
IMPOTANT?
• Architecture has become insensitive to users, to
site conditions and to history.
Michael Lee-Chin Crystal inToronto, Canada.
By Daniel Libeskind
(First architect to win the Hiroshima Art Prize,
awarded to an artist whose work promotes
international understanding and peace)

7. IS
CRITICISM
IMPOTANT?
• Architecture is suffering crisis of confidence.
"yes, roofs in modern architecture leak,
but so what, we're experimenting!" and
"good architecture is really for its rich
clients, who cares about everyone else's
opinion."
-AARON BETSKY-

8. IS
CRITICISM
IMPOTANT?
• ARCHITECTURE IS ON LIFE-SUPPORT,TAKING ITS
LAST BREATH.
• SOYES! CRITICISM IS IMPORTANT.

9. NEED OF
CRITICISM
• ARCHITECTURE HAS FLATLY DISMISSEDTHE
GENERAL PUBLIC’STAKE ON OUR WORK,
EVENASWETALKABOUT MAKINGTHAT WORK
MORE RELEVANTWITHWORTHY IDEAS LIKE
SUSTAINABILITYAND SMART GROWTH.
Make It Right Houses in New Orleans.

10. NEED OF
CRITICISM
• We need to criticize buildings in modern architecture
because
1. The Buildings are built as signature of the architect.
2. They are built without consultation.
3. They are not used.
Weatherhead School of Management,
by Frank Gehry
Farnsworth House
by MiesVan Der Rohe
Falling waters
By Frank Lloyd wright

11. ROLE OF
CRITICS
• ADA HUXTABLE (First Pulitzer Prize for criticism
winner)
She has made people pay attention. She has made people
care. She has made architecture matter in our culture in a
way that it did not before her time.
“ Even though I wished for her attention, I was scared of it.”
Says Frank Gehry .
• ROBERTVENTURI (Author of Complexity and
Contradiction in Architecture)
He helped to shape the way that architects, planners and
students experience and think about architecture.

12. WHAT IS
HAPPENING IN
MODERN
ARCHITECTURE?
• Out of scale and proportion.
• Not relevant to the everyday lives of most people.
• One of the arguments that modern architects use is
that "traditional" architecture is too cluttered, too ugly,
too busy, and just plain boring.
Louis Sullivan’s
The Wainwright
Building
MiesVan Der Rohe’s
Seagram Building

13. MODERN
ARCHITECTURE
• Giant office buildings with huge floorplates, non-
operable windows, and huge dependence on passive
energy measures.

14. MODERN
ARCHITECTURE
• The problem isn’t the infinitesimal buildings created by
celebrity architects, but rather the distorting
influencethese projects have had on the values
and ambitions of the profession’s middle ranks.
Pompidou Center, Paris
Renzo Piano
Science Center , Gujrat
SMC

15. MODERN ARCHITECTURE
• The centrality of architecture’s utility can only be
abandoned at the expense of architecture itself.
• Which is to say, the fit of form and function will always
remain critical but the actual relationship between
generative strategies and outcomes becomes the
base of criticism.

16. WHAT ARE MODERN ARCHITECTS DOING ?
• We’re attempting to sell the public buildings and
neighborhoods they don’t particularly want and in a
language they don’t understand.

17. CRITICISING MODERN ARCHITECTURE
FALLINGWATER BY FRANK LLOYDWRIGHT
Achievements –
• Wright's "most beautiful job“ – Time Magazine
• Designated a National Historic Landmark in
1966.
• In 1991, members of the American Institute of
Architects “Best all-time work of American
architecture"

18. FAILURES OF FALLINGWATER
• Cracks appeared on the parapets
• Overloading the beams - slab to sag
more than should have been expected
• two subordinate overhangs fail
• Cantilevers fell and rose in response to temperature
changes affecting the materials.
• Roofs leak
• MR. KAUFFMAN AND FAMILY
NEVER LIVED INTHE HOUSE.

19. FRANSWORTH HOUSE BY MIESVAN DER ROHE
• The poor energy efficiency
• Lack of traditional warmth and
coziness
• Not livable
• The owner herself was never
happy with the house and
never lived in it.

20. WALKIETALKIE BUILDING BY RAFAELVINOLY

21. FAILURES OF WALKIETALKIE BUILDING
• Cars melted by sunlight reflected from the Walkie
Talkie
• Architect RafaelVinoly designed the building,
knowing that the concave on the south side would
have this problem.

22. ACHIEVEMENTS
– Dominates the skyline of Mumbai.
– World's most expensive home .
ANTILIA , INDIA BY PERKINS AND WILL
The family does not live in the house because it
is not built according to Vastu Shastra
FAILURES

23. DISNEY CONCERT HOUSE BY GRANK GEHRY
The use of wavy bits of metal has affected
the interior as well as the exterior
temperature around the building.

24. Chandigarh , India by Le Corbusier
• Devoid of any sensibility to India's
climate or culture.

25. FAILURES
• Derived from Mies van der Rohe’s
Farnsworth house.
• But still lacked the intellectual
detailing done by Mies van der
Rohe.
GLASS HOUSE BY PHILLIP JOHNSON

26. WEATHERHEAD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT,
BY FRANK GEHRY
• There is nothing going for this building.
• A square box is placed into the environment
where it doesn’t fit.
• It has the traditional flat roof (it snows in
Cleveland)
• Gehry trademark – wavy bits of metal.
• The windows don’t open.

27. CONCLUSION
ALLTHAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD!

28. THANK YOU.

29. BIBLIOGRAPH
Y
• Articles
– Architecture continues to Implode -Justin Shubow
– IsArchitectural Criticism Important? – Domus
– NewYork times versus Architecture - Aaron Betsky
– How to rebuilt Architecture - Steven Bingler and Martian
Pederson .
– The Role of Criticism – Michael Sorkin
– Modern Architecture gone terribly wrong
• Books
– Complexity and contradiction in Architecture – Robert
Venturi.
• Google