The document provides an overview of the development of modernist architecture in the early 20th century. It discusses key intellectual developments like Einstein's theory of relativity that challenged traditional notions. Artistic movements like De Stijl and the Bauhaus emerged, advocating geometric abstraction and unity of art and technology. The Bauhaus school under Gropius and later Mies van der Rohe promoted craftsmanship and understanding of industry. Rietveld's Schroder House exemplified De Stijl principles through its rigid planes and primary colors.

1. Jordan University of Science and Technology
College of Architecture and Design / Department of Architecture
Arch. 331 Modern Architecture
Instructor: Dr. Raed Al Tal
Summer 2012
The Development of Modernist Architecture
The Early 20th Century

2. The decisive changes that marked the 19th
century:
- Industrialization
- Urbanization
- and, the growth of nationalism and urbanism

3. These changes promoted both elation and anxiety.
The combination of euphoria and alienation that was
the hallmark of the European culture carried through
the next decade
During the first half of the 20th century, the rampant
industrialization matured into international industrial
capitalism, which fueled the rise of consumer
economies

4. Momentous historical events that exacerbated this rather
schizophrenic attitudes:
- World War I
- The Great Depression
- The rise of dictatorship
- World War II
Art and architecture manifested the same conflicted mind
set through the stark contrast of the lofty utopian vision of
artistic groups such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl

5. 20th Century intellectual Developments
New way of thinking including in a wide variety of fields
including science, technology economics and politics
emerged.
These new ideas forced people to revise radically how
they understood their worlds.
Thus, the intellectuals countered 18th and 19th century
assumptions about progress and reason with ideas
challenging traditional notions about the physical
universe, the structure of society and human nature.

6. Modernist artists and architects often acknowledged
the new discoveries and shifting theoretical bases in
their work. Accordingly, much of the history of early
20th century art and architecture is a history of
radical rejection – the rejection of traditional
limitations and definitions both in art, architecture
and the universe .

7. Examples:
Challenging Newtonian Physics: For Isaac Newton the
universe is a huge machine consisting of time, space and
matter. The early twentieth century witnessed an
astounding burst of scientific activities challenging this
model of universe, particularly noteworthy the work of
Albert Eintstien (1879-1955).
In his theory of relativity, he argued that time and space
are not absolute, as postulated in Newtonian physics.
Rather, Eintstein explained, time and space are relative to
the observer and linked with what he called a four
dimensional space continuum. He concluded that matter,
rather than a solid, tangible reality, was actually another
form of energy.

8. Mind over Matter
In the field of thought- philosophy, psychology, and
economic theory – significant challenges to the primacy
of reason and objective reality emerged.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844- 1900), a German intellectual,
rejected the rational. He argued that Western society
was decadent and incapable of any creativity precisely
because of its extensive reliance on reason at the
expense of emotion and passion

9. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He developed the
fundamental principles for what became known
psychoanalysis. And dream analysis “The
Interpretations of Dreams.”
Unconscious conflicts – oppression and creativity
Carl Jung (1875-1961) – personal unconscious and
collective unconscious
Original models and mental constructions

10. De Stijl
A movement established in Holland by a group of
young artists in 1917 and began publishing a
magazine, calling both the movement and the
magazine De Stijl (The Style).
The group was co-founded by the painters Peit
Monderian (1872- 1944) (Theosophy ) and Theo van
Doesburg (1883- 1931)
In addition to promoting utopian ideals, group
members believed in the birth of the new age after the
World War I.
spiritual harmony and order

11. Cool, elegant, rational - Mondrian's horizontals and verticals, his squares
and grids show again and again an artist committed to exploring the
parameters of perception and meaning.
From naturalism to Cubism, to the arrival at a grammar of almost total
abstraction, Mondrian is rightly represented as a essential figure in the
unfolding story of Modernism.

12. 'All the time I'm driven to the spiritual,' he explained.
'Through Theosophy I became aware that art could provide
a transition to the finer regions, which I will call the spiritual
realm.'

13. They felt it was a time to balance between individual
and universal values, when the machine would assure
ease of living. In their first manifesto of De Stijl, they
declared:
“There is an old and a new consciousness of the age.
The old one is directed toward the individual. The new
one is directed to the universal.”

14. They advocated pure abstraction and universality
by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour;
they simplified visual compositions to the vertical
and horizontal directions,
and used only primary colours along with black and
white.
it did not follow the general guidelines of an “ism”
(Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism),

16. This composition, from 1922, is an example of
“neoplasticism” with three primary colors and two
pictorial orientations. The elements are placed in
asymmetrical order and dynamic equilibrium. The
complementary equilibrium allows Mondrian to
archive an “unbalanced equilibrium”.

21. De Stijl Style in Space
Some architects based their designs on Mondarian’s and
De Stijl ideas
Best example is:
The Schroder House in the Netherland , 1924
Designer : Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964)
Reitveld came to the group of the De Stijl as a cabinetmaker
and made De Stijl furnishings throughout his career.

22. His architecture carries the same spirit into a larger
integrated whole and perfectly expresses van Doesburg’s
definition of De Stijl architecture:
The new architecture is anti-cubic, i.e, it does not
strive to contain the different functional space sells in a
single closed cube, but it throws the functional space (as
well as canopy planes, balcony volumes, etc.) out from the
centre of the cube, so that height, width, and depth plus
time become a completely new plastic expression in open
spaces…. The plastic architect…. Has no construct in the
new field, time-space

23. "...We didn't avoid older styles because they were ugly, or because
we couldn't reproduce them, but because our own times demanded
their own form, I mean, their own manifestation. It was of course
extremely difficult to achieve all this in spite of the building regulations
and that's why the interior of the downstairs part of the house is
somewhat traditional, I mean with fixed walls. But upstairs we simply
called it and 'attic' and that's where we actually made the house we
wanted."
—Gerrit Rietveld. from Paul Overy, Lenneke B‫ں‬ller, Frank den Oudsten,
Bertus Mulder. The Rietveld Schroder House. p73

24. The Schroder House in the Netherland , 1924
Designer : Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964)

25. no attempt to relate to its neighbouring buildings

28. The foundations and the balconies were the only parts of the building that were
made out of concrete.
The walls were made of brick and plaster.
The window frames and doors were made from wood as well as the floors, which
were supported by wooden beams. To support the building, steel girders with wire
mesh were used.

29. This was the first modern, open-plan house.
Upstairs, it has one large space that can be divided
by screens. The colors of the facade emphasis the
structure and relate it to work by the Dutch abstract
painter Piet Mondrian.
The main living rooms are on the second floor, with
more private rooms on the ground floors

30. The main living rooms are on the second floor, with
more private rooms on the ground floors
Exterior free floating walls
Rectangular planes seem to slide across each
others making this structure a kind of three
dimensional projection of the rigid but carefully
proportioned flat planes in Monderian’s paintings.

34. Inside there is no static accumulation of rooms, but a dynamic,
changeable open zone.

36. Mrs Schröder, however, felt that as living space it should be usable
in either form, open or subdivided.
This was achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels.

37. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

40. Interior Rietveld Schroder House
Utrecht, Netherlands 1924

43. The Bauhaus
progressive thought
The social dimension of the Bauhaus agenda in its adherence to the
socialist principles

44. The Bauhaus
Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
Developed in Germany a particular vision of “total
architecture”
Walter Gropius, Scope of Total Architecture, 1956
He made this concept the foundation of his work and
a work of generation of pupils under his influence at
a school called the Bauhaus
1919 Gropius was appointed as the director of the
Weimer School of Arts and Crafts in Germany.
Gropius renamed it into Staatliche Baushaus roughly
( State School of Building) and refer to it as Bauhaus

45. Gropius developed an extensive curriculum based
on certain principles:
First, the importance of strong basic design
(including principles of composition, two and three
dimensionality, and color theory), and
craftsmanship as fundamental to good art and
architecture; to achieve this integration of art and
craft, both art and craft, both a technical instructor
and a “teacher of form- an artist – taught in each
department

46. Second, Gropius promoted the unity of art,
architecture, and design.
He said: “Architects, painters, and sculptors must
recognize a new composite character of a building
as entity.”

47. Third, Gropius emphasized thorough knowledge of
machine age technologies and materials. He felt that
to produce truly successful designs, the artist-
architect-craft person had to understand industry
and mass production – synthesis between design
and production

48. Bauhaus like De Stijl was found on utopian principles
“Together let us conceive and create new building of the
future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and
painting in one unity and which will rise one day toward
heaven from the hands of a million workers like a crystal
symbol of the a new faith.”

49. Gropius listed the Bauhaus’ goals clearly:
- A decidedly positive attitude to the living environment
of vehicles and machines
- The organic shaping of things in an accordance with
their own current laws avoiding all romantic
embellishment and whimsy
- Restriction of basic forms and colors to what a typical
and universally intelligible
- Simplicity in complexity, economy in the use of space,
materials , time, and money.

50. 1925-1926

65. Gropius House · Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1937
He taught at Harvard, the economy of form

66. With Marcel Breuer.
exterior prefabricated spiral staircase,
glass block,
painted brick
free standing wall defines terrace

84. The steel spiral stair
By Marcel Breuer

85. Marcel Breuer, Chair Tubular
steel has lots of qualities;
it is affordable for the masses,
avant-gard and progressive thought
hygienic and provides comfort without the need for springs
to be introduced.
Leather or cloth support
Breuer considered all of his designs to be essential for
modern living.
Artistic , practical and social, perfect for the mass production

86. Marcel Breuer, Chair Tubular

87. “Less is More”

88. In 1928, Gropius left the Bauhaus and architect Ludwig
Mies Van Der Rohe (1886-1969) took the directorship of
the Bauhaus, moving the school to Berlin
His motto is “ Less is More” - the International Style –
calling his architecture “ skin and bones”
Example ; his glass model for a skyscraper, 1922

89. glass model for a skyscraper, 1922

90. -three irregularly shaped towers flow outward from
a central court designed to hold a lobby
-wholly transparent
-The primer walls reveal the regular horizontal
pattering of the cantilevered floor planes and their
thin vertical supporting elements
-The bold use of glass sheathing

91. 860-880 Lake Shore Drive 1949–1951.

92. Seagram Building Mies van der Rohe; (with Philip Johnson),
New York City, 1957.

93. Mies-Barcelona-Chair-and-Ottoman

94. In 1933 Bauhaus was closed by Hitler

95. Bauhaus Break Up (Again)