Modern architecture began in the early 20th century as architects sought to reconcile design principles with advancing technology and modernization. Key characteristics included simplification of forms, expression of structure, and use of industrial materials. Important early figures included Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. The Bauhaus school, founded in 1919, promoted rational design and the International Style spread its influence globally after World War 2. Regional styles also emerged, like Desert Modernism in the American Southwest, characterized by expansive glass and integration with the natural landscape.

1. INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
BEFORE 1947

2. MODERN ARCHITECTURE
•Modern architecture is generally characterized
by simplification of form and creation of ornament
from the structure and theme of the building.
•In a broader sense, modern architecture began
at the turn of the 20th century with efforts to
reconcile the principles underlying architectural
design with rapid technological advancement and
the modernization of society.
•The concept of modernism would be a central
theme in these efforts. Gaining popularity after the
Second World War, architectural modernism was
adopted by many influential architects and
architectural educators, and continues as a
dominant architectural style for institutional and
corporate buildings into the 21st century.
Modernism eventually generated reactions, most
notably Postmodernism which sought to preserve
pre-modern elements.
Rockefeller Center
Ne York, 1930-40
Shreve, Lamb &
Harmon:
Empire State Building
New York, 1931, 1250'
ht.

3. Notable architects important to the history and development of the modernist
movement include Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le
Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius and Louis I Kahn.
Characteristics
The Salk Institute complex in
La Jolla, California, by
architect Louis Kahn.
•the notion that "Form follows
function”, a dictum originally
expressed by Frank Lloyd Wright's
early mentor Louis Sullivan, meaning
that the result of design should derive
directly from its purpose
•simplicity and clarity of forms and
elimination of "unnecessary detail"
visual expression of structure.
•the related concept of "Truth to
materials", meaning that the true
nature or natural appearance of a
material ought to be seen rather than
concealed or altered to represent
something else.
•use of industrially-produced
materials; adoption of the
machine aesthetic
particularly in International Style
modernism, a visual emphasis
on horizontal and vertical lines

4. Origins and early history
The Crystal Palace, 1851, was one of
the first buildings to have vast amounts
of glass supported by structural metal,
foreshadowing trends in Modernist
architecture.(by Joseph Paxton)
•There are multiple lenses through
which the evolution of modern
architecture may be viewed.
•Some historians see it as a social
matter, closely tied to the project of
Modernity and thus the Enlightenment.
Modern architecture developed, in their
opinion, as a result of social and
political revolutions.[
•Others see Modern architecture as
primarily driven by technological and
engineering developments.
•Still other historians regard Modernism
as a matter of taste, a reaction against
eclecticism and the lavish stylistic
excesses of Victorian and Edwardian
architecture.
•With the Industrial
Revolution, the availability
of newly-available
building materials such as
iron, steel, and sheet
glass drove the invention
of new building
techniques.

5. •example of iron and glass construction, followed in 1864 by the first glass
and metal curtain wall. A further development was that of the steel-framed
skyscraper in Chicago around 1890 by William Le Baron Jenney and Louis
Sullivan.
•Around 1900 a number of architects and designers around the world
began developing new solutions to integrate traditional precedents
(classicism or Gothic, for instance) with new technological possibilities.
• The work of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago, Victor
Horta in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner and the Vienna
Secession in Austria, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among
many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new.
The work of some of these were a part of what is broadly categorized as Art
Nouveau

6. Expressionism and Neo-expressionism
•The Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm) in Potsdam is
an Expressionist work by architect Erich
Mendelsohn, 1920.
Expressionism evolved from the work of avant
garde artists and designers in Germany and other
European countries during the first decades of
the twentieth century. Key features of
Expressionism are:
•distorted shapes
•fragmented lines
•organic or biomorphic forms
•massive sculpted shapes
•extensive use of concrete and brick
lack of symmetry
•many fanciful works rendered on paper but never
built

7. Expressionist and Neo-
expressionist Architects
•Gunther Domenig
•Hans Scharoun
•Rudolf Steiner
•Bruno Taut
•Erich Mendelsohn
•Walter Gropius(early works)
•Eero Saarinen
Constructivism
Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin launched
the constructivist movement when he
proposed the futuristic, glass-and-steel
Tatlin's Tower
This model of Tatlin's Tower was
part of the 2008 exhibit, "From
Russia," at the Royal Academy of
Arts in London.

8. •During the 1920s and early 1930s, a group of avant-garde architects in Russia
launched a movement to design buildings for the new socialist regime.
•Calling themselves constructivists, they believed that design began with
construction.
•Their buildings emphasized abstract geometric shapes and functional
machine parts.
•The most famous work of constructivist architecture was never actually built.
In 1920, Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin proposed a futuristic monument to
the 3rd International in the city of St. Petersburg (then known as Petergrado).
The unbuilt project, called Tatlin's Tower, used spiral forms to symbolize
revolution and human interaction. Inside the spirals, three glass-walled
building units - a cube, a pyramid, and a cylinder - would rotate at different
speeds.
•Soaring 400 meters (about 1,300 feet), Tatlin's Tower would have been taller
than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The cost to erect such a building would have
been enormous. But, even though Tatlin's Tower wasn't built, the plan helped
launch the Constructivist movement. By the late 1920s, Constructivism had
spread outside the USSR. Many European architects called themselves
constructivists. However, within a few years Constructivism faded from
popularity and was eclipsed by the Bauhaus movement in Germany.

9. Hammer and Sickle Architectural
Fantasy by Yakov Chernikhov, 1933
Tatlin's Tower, 1919
El Lissitzky,
Wolkenbügel, 1925

10. Constructivist buildings have many of these features:
•Glass and steel
•Machine-made building parts
•Technological details such as antennae, signs, and projection screens
•Abstract geometric shapes
•A sense of movement
Constructivist Architects:
Vladimir Tatlin
Konstantin Melnikov
Nikolai Milyutin
Aleksandr Vesnin and his brothers Leonid and Victor Vesnin
El Lissitzky
Vladimir Krinsky
Iakov Chernikhov

11. Bauhaus
Architect Walter Gropius used Bauhaus ideas when he built his monochrome
home in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
•Bauhaus is a German expression
meaning house for building.
•In 1919, the economy in Germany was
collapsing after a crushing war.
• Architect Walter Gropius was appointed
to head a new institution that would help
rebuild the country and form a new social
order.
•Called the Bauhaus, the Institution called
for a new "rational" social housing for the
workers.
•Bauhaus architects rejected "bourgeois"
details such as cornices, eaves, and
decorative details. They wanted to use
principles of Classical architecture in their
most pure form: without ornamentation of
any kind.
The Bauhaus Gropius House in
Lincoln, Massachusetts

12. •Bauhaus buildings have flat roofs, smooth facades, and cubic shapes.
Colors are white, gray, beige, or black. Floor plans are open and furniture is
functional.
•The Bauhaus school disbanded when the Nazis rose to power. Walter
Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and other Bauhaus leaders migrated to
the United States. The term International Style was applied to the American
form of Bauhaus architecture.
examples of Bauhaus and the International Style:
The Seagram Building
The Gropius House
The Farnsworth House
Philip Johnson's Glass House
The Transco Building by Philip Johnson
United Nations Headquarters by Le Corbusier
The Miller House by Richard Neutra
The Lovell House by Richard Neutra
The Bauhaus Building in Dessau, Germany
Furniture by Bauhaus Architects

13. Architects Inspired by the Bauhaus Movement
Walter Gropius
Le Corbusier
Richard Neutra
Philip Johnson
Mies van der Rohe
Marcel Breuer
The Bauhaus Building by
Walter Gropius
Built 1925–1926

14. Seagram building started in 1947
and completed in 1954
The Farnsworth House
1946 to 1950
United Nations Secretariat Building
1947-1952

15. International Style
Le Corbusier's United Nations Secretariat building
in New York is a famous example of the
International Style.
United Nations Secretariat Building
1947-1952
•International Style is a term often used to
describe Bauhaus architecture in the United
States.
• The name came from the book The
International Style by historian and critic
Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip
Johnson.
•The book was published in 1932 in
conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York.
•The term is again used in a later book,
International Architecture, by Walter Gropius.
•While German Bauhaus
architecture had been
concerned with the social
aspects of design, America's
International Style became a
symbolism of Capitalism: The
International Style is the
favored architecture for office
buildings, and is also found in
upscale homes built for the
rich.

16. Desert Modernism
Architects in southern California and
the American Southwest adapted
ideas from the European Bauhaus
movement to the warm climate and
arid terrain.
Kaufmann House in Palm Springs,
California. 1946. Richard Neutra,
architect.
•Desert Modernism was a mid-
twentieth century approach to
modernism that capitalized on the
sunny skies and warm climate of
southern California and American
Southwest.
•With expansive glass and
streamlined styling, Desert
Modernism was an regional
approach to International Style
architecture.
•Rocks, trees, and other landscape
features were often incorporated into
the design.

17. Grace Lewis Miller House in Palm Springs,
California. 1937. Richard Neutra, architect.
Characteristics of Desert Modernism:
•Expansive glass walls and windows
•Dramatic rooflines
•Wide overhangs
•Steel and plastic combined with wood
and stone
•Open floor plans
•Outdoor living spaces incorporated into
the overall design
Architects Associated With
Desert Modernism:
•William F. Cody
•Albert Frey
•John Lautner
•Richard Neutra
•Donald Wexler
•E. Stewart Williams

18. examples of Desert Modernism:
•Kaufmann House (shown above) in Palm Springs, California. 1946.
Richard Neutra, architect.
•Grace Lewis Miller House in Palm Springs, California. 1937. Richard
Neutra, architect.
•Edris House in Palm Springs, California. 1954. E. Stewart Williams,
architect.
•Frey II House in Palm Springs, California. 1963. Albert Frey, architect.
•The Bob Hope House in Palm Springs, California. 1979. John Lautner,
architect.
•Loewy House in Palm Springs California. 1946. Albert Frey, architect.
•The Arthur Elrod House in Palm Springs, California. 1968. John
Lautner, architect.
•Tramway Upper Station in Palm Springs, California. 1963. E. Stewart
Williams, architect.
•Palm Springs Desert Museum (now the Palm Springs Art Museum).
1976. E. Stewart Williams, architect.

19. Organic Architecture
The term organic architecture was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–
1959),
•Organic architecture is a philosophy of
architecture which promotes harmony
between human habitation and the
natural world through design approaches
so sympathetic and well integrated with
its site that buildings, furnishings, and
surroundings become part of a unified,
interrelated composition.
•Organic architecture is also translated
into the all inclusive nature of Frank Lloyd
Wright’s design process. Materials,
motifs, and basic ordering principles
continue to repeat themselves throughout
the building as a whole. The idea of
organic architecture refers not only to the
buildings' literal relationship to the natural
surroundings, but how the buildings'
design is carefully thought about as if it
were a unified organism
Falling water, 1935

20. Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the
design of organic architecture. These rules are known as the Gaia Charter
for organic architecture and design. It reads:
"Let the design:
•be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse.
•unfold, like an organism, from the seed within.
•exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again".
•follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable.
•satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs.
•"grow out of the site" and be unique.
•celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise.
•express the rhythm of music and the power of dance."[2]