Modern Architecture

Modern architecture can be looked at in two ways. First, as the architecture of today, defining how we lead our everyday lives in modern times. Secondly, as the visions and ideals that the architects of yesterday envisioned for modern society. Either way, it is arguably more relevant today than it ever was.

What is modern architecture?

Modern architecture, or modernistic architecture, is architecture defined by the use of innovative and new construction technologies, especially the use of steel, reinforced concrete, and glass. The central idea in modern architecture is that form should follow function and embrace minimalism. There is also a clear rejection of ornament in modernistic architecture.

Modern architecture became dominant after the 2nd World War when it was taken as the main style for corporate and institutional buildings.

Home Insurance cao 10 tầng – Chicago, Hoa Kỳ
Kiến trúc sư: William Le Baron Jenney
Ảnh: Skyscraper Center

Toà Woolworth – New York, Hoa Kỳ
Kiến trúc sư: Cass Gilbert
Ảnh: Wikipedia Commons

Origins of modern architecture

The modern architecture movement started at the end of the 19th century. During this period, there was a revolution of technology, building materials, and engineering. The building construction industry moved away from traditional architectural styles to invent something functional and new. Modern architecture then first embraced the use of plate glass, cast iron and reinforced concrete in building stronger taller and lighter structures.

The first skyscraper appeared in the US as a quick response to land shortages and the exorbitant cost of construction in the fast-growing American cities, and new technology like the use of fireproof steel frames and safety elevators invented by Elisha Otis. The ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the steel-framed skyscraper designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1883.

Louis Sullivan constructed other monumental structure at the heart of Chicago between 1904-06. This early building however borrowed decoration styles from Neo-Gothic, Neo-renaissance and Beaux-Arts architecture.

Later, The Woolworth Building, designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1912, became the world’s tallest building until The Chrysler Building was built in 1929.

Two factors led to the rapid rise of modern architecture during this period. First, the industrial demands during World War II resulted in the shortage of building materials like steel, which lead to the adoption of new materials like aluminum. Second, there was unparalleled destruction during the war, and buildings needed to be reconstructed.

The use of prefabricated buildings was largely expanded during the war and postwar period for government and military buildings. Radical experimental houses like the Lustron house and Dymaxion House were also witnessed between 1947-1950.

Thành phố Le Havre, Pháp
Ảnh: Erik Levilly

Ảnh: Alamy

The government financed enormous construction projects during the postwar period to cover for the housing shortages. These projects were carried out in cities and suburbs where land was available. For example, the Le Havre city center was one of the biggest reconstruction projects carried out after being destroyed by the Germans. A pioneer in the use of prefabricated materials and reinforced concrete, Architect Auguste Perret, built an entirely new center in the city. In 2005 UNESCO declared Auguste’s rebuilt a site for World Heritage.

In the US, most of the German Bauhaus Movement leaders created new homes after relocating there. Their newly created homes played a huge role in American Modern architecture development.

12 Important Modernist Styles Explained

Early-Century Styles

Bauhaus

Derived from the German for “Construction House,” The Bauhaus originated as a German school for architecture and the arts founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. As well as being a template for many architectural schools that followed, the institution gave its name to a distinctive style characterized by an emphasis on function, little ornamentation, and a fusion of balanced forms and abstract shapes.

Dessau Bauhaus / Walter Gropius.
Image: Thomas Lewandovski

De Stijl

Founded in 1917, De Stijl (Dutch for “The Style”) originated in the Netherlands, and is considered to have peaked between 1917 and 1931. Characteristics of the style include the reduction of design to essential forms and colors, with simple horizontal and vertical elements, and the use of black, white, and primary colors. The style is also synonymous with the De Stijl journal published by Dutch designer Theo van Doesburg at the time, which championed the style.

Café L’Aubette/ Theo van Doesburg.
Image: Courtesy of Wikimedia user Claude Truong-Ngoc

Constructivism

While the Bauhaus and De Stijl styles developed in 1920s Western Europe, Constructivism emerged in the Soviet Union. Constructivism combined technological innovation with a Russian Futurist influence, resulting in stylistically abstract geometric masses. The style fell out of favor in the early 1930s. Well-known Russian constructivist architects include El Lissitzky and Vladimir Tatlin, though both are most recognized by their proposals and unbuilt work.

Yekaterinburg, Russia
Image: Denis Esakov

Expressionism

The biomorphic, organic, emotional forms which defined the Expressionist style stood in contrast to the clean, linear definitions of Bauhaus architecture, despite their coexistence between 1910 and 1930. Derived from German Dutch, Austrian, Czech, and Danish Avante Garde, Expressionism explored new technical possibilities which emerged from the mass production of steel, brick, and glass, while also evoking unusual massings and utopian visions.

Grundtvig’s Church / Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint.
Image: Courtesy of Flickr user Flemming Ibsen

Mid-Century Styles

Functionalism

Functionalism is based on the principle that the design of a building should reflect its purpose and function. Emerging from the aftermath of the First World War, the style is associated with ideas of socialism and modern humanism. As the style developed through the 1930s, notably Germany, Poland, USSR, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia, the central idea of “form follows function” was infused with the idea of using architecture as a means to physically create a better life for citizens.

Renovation of a Functionalist Villa “Indian Ship” / Idhea. Image: BoysPlayNice

Minimalism

Minimalism evolved from the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements of the 1920s, and emphasized the use of simple design elements without ornamentation or decoration. Popularized by architects such as Mies van der Rohe, the style proposed that deriving a design to its base essentials reveals its true essence. Features of the style include pure geometric forms, plain materials, repetition, and clean lines.

Barcelona Pavilion / Mies van der Rohe.
Image: Gili Merin

International Style

The International Style was coined in 1932 by curators Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock at the Modern Architecture International Exhibition. An evolution of early Modernist principles in Europe, the International Style describes the era where European Modernism spread throughout the world, notably the United States. Characterized by simple geometry and a lack of ornamentation, the style was appropriated in the United States characterized by monolithic skyscrapers with curtain walling, flat roofs, and ubiquitous glazing.

Villa Savoye / Le Corbusier
Image: Flickr

Metabolism

Metabolism was a post-war Japanese movement that infused megastructures with organic biological growth. Influenced by Marxist theories and biological processes, a group of young designers including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki published their Metabolism manifesto in 1960, giving the style significant public attention. Characteristics include modularity, prefabrication, adaptability, and strong core infrastructures.

Nagakin Capsule Tower / Kisho Kurokawa.
Image: Arcspace

Brutalism

Brutalism emerged in the 1950s, coined by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson. derived from the ‘Béton brut’ (raw concrete) first associated with Le Corbusier, the style is characterized by monolithic forms, rigid geometric styles, and unusual shapes. Brutalist buildings, often government projects, educational buildings, or high-rise apartments, are typically clad in rough unfinished concrete.

The Barbican Estate / Chamerlin, Powell and Bon Architects.
Image: Joas Souza

Late-Century Styles

Chủ nghĩa hậu hiện đại (Postmodernism)

By the midpoint of the twentieth century, the clean lines of the International Style and the stripped utilitarianism of functionalism were becoming increasingly common in American and European cities. Created out of a wholesale rethink of core modernist values, Postmodern architecture came as part of a philosophical shift that was just as all-encompassing as the Modernism it sought to replace; aiming to revive historical or traditional ideas and bring a more contextual approach to design.

The Portland Building / Michael Graves.
Image: Steve Morgan via Wikimedia Commons

High-Tech

High-tech architecture, also referred to as Structural Expressionism, was a late modern style merging technology and building design. Using advances in material and technology, the style emphasized transparency in design and construction, communicating the structure and function of the building through exposed elements. Characteristics include overhanging floors, a lack of internal structural walls, exposed servicing, and adaptable spaces.

Centre Georges Pompidou / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Richard Rogers.
Image: conservapedia.com

Deconstrutivism

Derived from postmodernism, Deconstructivism is characterized by an absence of harmony, continuity, or symmetry in buildings. Deconstructivism often manipulates the surface skin of a structure, creating non-rectilinear shapes that distort and dislocate elements, hence evoking notions of unpredictability and controlled chaos. The style came to prominence in the 1980s.

Vitra Design Museum / Gehry Partners.
Image: Liao Yusheng