Theory of Architecture
Chronological Background
Chapter 1: Lecture -3
Prepared by: Inst. Betelhem.D ,
Course Number : Arch4202
Course Title: Theory of architecture
The turn of the 20th
Century
Lec 02: ASTU, Adama: Jan 11
2023
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines
In 1889 Camillo Sitte published City Planning According to Artistic
Principles which was not exactly a criticism of architectural form but
an aesthetic criticism.
Also on the topic of artistic notions with regard to urbanism was Louis
Sullivan's The “Tall Office Building Artistically Considered” of 1896.
In this essay, Sullivan penned his famous alliterative adage "form ever
follows function"; A phrase that was to be later adopted as a central
tenet of Modern architectural theory.
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines - Louis Henry Sullivan
• In 1896, Sullivan wrote:
"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of
all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human, and
all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head,
of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its
expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law."
Theory of Architecture
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines - Louis Henry Sullivan
• "Form follows function" would become one of the
prevailing tenets of modern architects. Sullivan attributed the
concept to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.
• This credo, which placed the demands of practical use
above aesthetics, later would be taken by influential
designers to imply that decorative elements, which architects
call "ornament", were superfluous in modern buildings, but
Sullivan neither thought nor designed along such dogmatic
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines - Louis Henry Sullivan
Sullivan’s architecture characteristic elements are:
• While his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal masses,
he often punctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush Art
Nouveau or Celtic Revival decorations
• Buildings usually casted in iron or terra cotta
• Ranging from organic forms, such as vines and ivy, to more geometric
designs and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage.
• Massive, semi-circular arch
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines - Louis Henry Sullivan
• The basic idea of Sullivan (form follows function) create the
“minimalism” than the rejection of ornament.
• It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became
dominant after WW-II until the 1980s, when it was
gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and
corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.
The turn of the 20th
Century
The basic doctrines - Louis Henry Sullivan
Ornaments of Transportation building at
Chicago - 1894
Prudential building at Buffalo - 1894
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Industrial Revolution
The field of architecture has experienced such massive
economic disruptions before.
The modern profession emerged during the First Industrial
Revolution in the 19th century, as the mechanization of
manual labor led to the need for new types of buildings, and
as technology allowed us to build larger and taller.
The turn of the 20th
The Industrial Revolution
Century
Industrial revolution changed everything and including architecture
as well. Industrial revolution really affected on architecture.
There was no need of fancy architecture anymore. People started
design more industrial type, which is more useful rather than
Gothic buildings.
Producing of iron influenced on architecture. One of great
examples of architecture of industrial period is Crystal Palace by J.
Paxton (1850-1851), made of glass and cast iron.
Theory of Architecture
The turn of the 20th
TheCentury
Industrial Revolution
Crystal Palace by J. Paxton - 1851
Theory of Architecture
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Industrial Revolution
Forged iron and milled steel began to replace wood, brick and
stone as primary materials for large buildings.
This change is encapsulated in the Eiffel Tower built in 1889.
Standing on four huge arched legs, the iron lattice tower rises
narrowly to just over 305 m high.
The turn of the 20th
CenturySchool
The Chicago
• So far as Modern architecture is concerned, in Chicago the
greatest number of significant buildings represented a
continuous and unbroken development in high-rise building
architecture.
• Chicago grew faster than any other city in the 19th century,
and produced a large number of important architects whose
work during the 1880s and 1890s is usually known as the
Chicago School.
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Chicago School
• Louis Sullivan was the most important of these, but
William Le Baron Jenney can be regarded as the father
of the Chicago School.
• Others as Daniel Burnham, John Wellborn Root,
Martin Roche and William Holabird made up the next
generation of Chicago architects.
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Chicago School
• James Bogardus (1800-74) was an inventor, who called
himself an “architect in iron”. In 1848 he was the first in
America, who supported the external walls of his New York
cast-iron factory with pre-fabricated cast iron columns and
beams, and filled the space between them with huge
windows.
• It was a new technique, the skeleton building, which really
characterized the revolution in high-rise building in Chicago
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Chicago School
• The Auditorium Building in Chigago, completed in 1889,
marked the beginning of the career of Louis Henri Sullivan.
• In 1879, William Le Baron Jenney built the first Leiter
Building, using pure skeleton building techniques, with cast
iron columns as supports inside.
Theory of Architecture
The turn of the 20th
Century
The Chicago School
In 1889, Jenney built the enormous second Leiter Building in
Chicago.
The turn of the 20th Century
The Chicago School
• The Monadnock Block was
built in Chicago by Daniel
Burnham and John Wellborn
Root using the traditional
structural technique of load
bearing walls.
• Burnham and Root also
designed their masterpiece in
Early 20th Century
Early 20th
Century
Pre-modern theory
Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th
century from revolutions in technology, engineering and
building materials, and from a desire to break away from
historical architectural styles and to invent something
that was purely functional and new.
Early 20th
Century
Pre-modern theory
Pre-Modern American Architecture. ... “If skyscrapers and
machine-made materials define "modernity" in architecture,
that modernity was made possible through an evolution of
building materials and techniques, and the integration of
several building traditions into one larger American one”
Early 20th
Century
Pre-modern theory
• Ebenezer Howard, founded the garden city movement in 1898.
• This movement aimed to form communities with architecture
in the Arts and Crafts style at Letch worth and Welwyn Garden
City and popularized the style as domestic architecture.
Early 20th
Antoni Gaudì, was a Century
Catalan architect known as the greatest
exponent of “Catalan Modernism”, but his works go beyond
any one style or classification.
Gaudí studied organic and anarchic geometric forms of nature
thoroughly, searching for a way to give expression to these
forms in architecture.
He created a new architectural language that influenced
several later architects as F. L. Wright and S. Calatrava.
Early 20th
Century
Antoni Gaudì
Sagrada Familia,
Barcelona, 1882-2010
Early 20th
Century
Antoni Gaudì
Casa Batlò – Barcelona,
1906
Art Deco
Early 20th
Century
The Art Deco Style began in Europe in the early years of the
20th century, with the waning of Art Nouveau. The term "Art
Deco" was taken from the Exposition Internationale des Arts
Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a world’s fair held in Paris
in 1925.
The organic and flowing forms that define Art Nouveau were
a clear response to desire to break free from rigid classical
and hierarchical structures, whereas the bolder and
streamlined designs of Art Deco reflect the glamorization of
Early 20th
Century
Art Nouveau is the decorative one.
Art Deco is sleeker
Art Deco rejected many traditional classical influences in favor
of more streamlined geometric forms and metallic color.
The Art Deco style influenced all areas of design, because
it was the first style of interior decoration to spotlight new
technologies and materials.
Early 20th
Century
Art Deco
Art Deco can be linked to the Impressionism, the art wave of the
time mostly developed in Paris by artists as Degas, Renoir,
Monet, Cézanne.
Early
Art Deco 20th
Century
The use of harder, metallic materials was chosen to
celebrate the machine age. These materials reflected the
dawning modern age that was ushered in after the end of the
First War World.
The innovative combinations of these materials created
contrasts that were very popular at the time (for example the
mixing together of highly polished wood and black lacquer
with satin and furs).
Early 20th
Century
Art Nouveau/Deco
Casa Ferrario by Ernesto Pirovano
Milano (I) – 1902
Portone Liberty by Alessandro Poberai
Trieste (I) – 1905
Early 20th
Century
Art Nouveau/Deco
Macy’s mall in New York
USA
TIFFANY
STYLE
Early 20th
Art Deco
Century
Art Deco design represented modernism turned into fashion.
Art Deco is characterized by vertical emphasis and the use of
new materials like chrome, stainless steel, and opaque plate
glass.
Designs are geometric and use shapes like pyramids, chevrons
or zigzags, and lightning bolts.
Buildings sometimes include stylized figures of waterfalls,
sunrises and mythological figures
Early 20th
Century
Art Deco
SPANISH
MODERNISMO
Casa Milà by A. Gaudì Barcelona, 1912
Railway station by A.I. Prieto Bilbao,
1870
Early 20th
Century
Art Deco
Chrysler bld by W. Allen – NY city, 1930
Early 20th
Italian Rationalist
Century
Architecture
• Rationalism in architecture refers to the use of symmetry and
mathematically and geometrically defined structures with low
ornamentation.
• In architecture, rationalism is an architectural current which
mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s.
Early 20th
Century
Italian Rationalist
Architecture
• Italian Rationalism is an architectural trend based on the
principles of functionalism, according to which the appearance
of a building must clearly reflect the purpose for which it is
created.
Casa de Fascio by Arnaldo Fuzzi
Predappio, 1934-37
Early 20th
Italian
CenturyRationalist
Architecture
Casa de Fascio by Giuseppe Terragni
Como, 1936
Early 20th
Italian Rationalist
Century
Architecture
Kinder Garden Sant’Elia (homage to Antonio Sant’Elia) by
Giuseppe Terragni - Como, 1937
Early 20th
Century
Italian Rationalist
Architecture
Cinema Impero by Mario Messina – Asmara, 1937
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