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Short Response
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CONTENTS 1. How did industrialization inform ideas about urban planning around the turn of the twentieth century?
Page 3-4
2. In his 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin describes two figures who stand for two opposed positions in the art of the modern world. Who are those figures, and what attitudes do they represent?
Page 5-6
3. How did the study of change in architecture’s formal characteristics lay a basis for the rigorous study of architecture?
Page 7-8
4. In the historiography of modern architecture, the “modern” is said to start in all manner of ways, with different starting points informing broad arguments about the shape and trajectory of modern architecture. With reference to one author of your choosing, what are the origins of architectural modernism?
Page 9-10
5. In 2010, MAXXI (the Museum for 21st-Century Art) in Rome staged an exhibition called “The Architecture you Like,” in which contributors nominated buildings completed in the previous decade that they liked and explained why they liked them. What project have you encountered so far in the course that you have liked? What do you like about it?
Page 11-12
6. How does the definition of architecture (what we think architecture means) change over time? Is it necessary to define what architecture is and what is not? How is this manifest in ideas on culture and cultural change
Page 13-14
7. When Walter Gropius spoke of the architect designing “from the teaspoon to the city,” he was a building on a tradition initiated with the Arts and Crafts movement. What were the key tenets of that movement? And according to whom are they posited as “key”?
Page 15-16
8. What is the point of studying architectural history, now?
Page 17-18
Bibliography & List of Figures (Page 19-21)
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Q1: How did industrialization inform ideas about urban planning around the turn of the twentieth century?
Figure 1
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The sudden and rapid industrialization and population boom have not only altered the lifestyle of the people but also changed the Art, culture and architecture all around the globe. "Baron Georges Haussmann characterized mid-nineteenth-century Paris as ' a great consumer's market, a vast workshop, and an arena of ambitions."(1) The huge density of people migrated from rural to urban cities due to a rise in trade and business which led to an increase in the number of construction of factories and Commercials. The infinite old fabric of the city is cut in pieces by the construction of transportation corridors like roads, railways and bridges, thus dividing the world into two Urban and rural. "The city of process gradually replaced by the city of finite form."(2) Industrialization changed the symmetry and rhythm of the cultural style of the city into scattered conceptual confusion. The Rise of Technical and machine inventions resulted in environmental exploitation. Also this Progressive era saw the growth of iron and glass buildings or skyscrapers, which are built to establish visual power in the urban society. Since nineteenth-century urban planning is pictured as a chaos of overcrowding, lack of open space, disease, pollution, therefore around early twentieth century Utopian socialist and planners had begun planning new cities. In Figure 1, it is seen the style of building built around the nineteenth century which is exposed and engineered detailed with iron and steel, teasing the Architectural Expression and getting rid of decorations and ornamentations. The fabric of the city is divided by transport networks, thus Industrialization marked the birth of Modern Architecture.
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FOOTNOTES 1. William j.r. curtis ,Modern Architecture since 1900 , Industrialization and the city : the skyscraper as type and symbol , 34 (Here Curtis explained how the rise of industrialization changed the urban fabric) 2. William j.r. curtis ,Modern Architecture since 1900 , Industrialization and the city : the skyscraper as type and symbol , 35 (Here Curtis explained how it affected the existing urban plan) KEYWORDS Industrialization, urban, transport, inventions Figure 1: Gustav Eiffel, Eiffel Tower Paris, 1889 William j.r. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Industrialization and the city: the skyscraper as type and symbol, 37
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Q2: In his 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,� Walter Benjamin describes two figures that stand for two opposed positions in the art of the modern world. Who are those figures, and what attitudes do they represent?
Figure 2
Figure 3
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Walter Benjamin in his 1936 essay of “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” narrated how art is being reproduced through various mechanical inventions by men. Mechanical reproduction of art is something new to the modern world like the printing press, lithography followed by photography and film. Benjamin describes and arguments about the aura and authenticity. He said "The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being embedded in the fabric of tradition"(3). Benjamin uses authenticity to interpret aura, and the aura of an object is linked and can be traced back to its space and time. The aura is an effect of a work of art i.e. the originality of the art which cannot be reproduced in any way as many times as it is cloned, since it is embedded in its own set of traditions and location which changed through time and history. Benjamin also states “Thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment."(4) Modernity resulted in the replacement of visual art painting into Film and photography and due to the rise of human consciousness and invention of diverse mechanic inventions, people prefers more photography and film (figure 3: Video-motion of a running horse) than a simple painting that has more originality (figure 2: Depicting famous Belvoir hunt).
FOOTNOTES 3. Walter Benjamin , The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936 , Illuminations , 217 , IV (Benjamin was comparing magician and surgeon) 4. Walter Benjamin , The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936 , Illuminations , 227 , XI (He describes about how tradition changes from time to time along with art) KEYWORDS: Art, aura, authenticity, tradition, human Figure 2: Henry Thomas Alken, The Belvoir Hunt: Full Cry 1830-40 Figure 3: Eadweard Muybridge, Horse in Motion 1870-1880
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Q3: How did the study of change in architecture’s formal characteristics lay a basis for the rigorous study of architecture?
Figure 4
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Architectural characteristics changed through time and space. Around the 15th century, architects and archeologists measured and documented the classical contemporary architecture and city plans. "In his treatise Ordonnance des cinq especes de colones selon la methode des Anciens (1683), Perrault proposed a new system of rules for the architectural orders based on mean measurements of empirically derived proportions, heights, circumferences, and other data "(5) Architecture study is a reference of art, culture and traditions of a specific time and surrounding. "The dome of Brunelleschi, unquestionably, by its audacity and grandeur, the effective starting point of the Renaissance, was indeed a great triumph of engineering skill; but it involved no fundamental principle which was not already displayed in the dome of Pisa or the Baptistery of Florence."(6) Architectural style changed through time like Roman, Gothic and Renaissance Architecture, where studying characteristics and elements of these architecture styles tell us the way of life and consciousness during that period of time. Due to the industrial revolution and rise of Human consciousness, the architectural characteristics changed from romanticism to more advanced engineered and mechanical interventions. Figure 4 First Edition of “Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce” portraits the study of architecture during ancient Greece, a model for the development of French neo-classical architecture. Le Roy, a leading French architect of his time spent four years to document, study and measure the architectural elements and its principles of beauty of old monuments , buildings , sites and city plans.
FOOTNOTES 5.
Andrew Leach , What is Architectural History ?, Architecture and empirical knowledge , 28 (Here Andrew explained how architecture of the past is studied and documented the culture and traditions of a space) 6. Geoffrey Scott, Architecture of Humanism ,1914 , Renaissance architecture , 28 (Geoffrey explained the conceptions during the Renaissance architecture) KEYWORDS: Culture, architecture, characteristics, culture Figure 4: Vue d'un temple de Pola en Istrie LE ROY, JULIEN DAVID. 1728-1803. Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce. Paris and Amsterdam: H. L. Guerin, L.F. Delatour, Jean-Luc Nyon and Jean Neaulme, 1758
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Q4: In the historiography of modern architecture, the “modern� is said to start in all manner of ways, with different starting points informing broad arguments about the shape and trajectory of modern architecture. With reference to one author of your choosing, what are the origins of architectural modernism?
Figure 5
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"The architecture of the modern world, to an extent hardly paralleled in other periods or cultures can be seen as the symbolic representation of ideological and political change. Ideas created buildings and ideas destroyed them"(7)(Figure 5). With reference to Kenneth Frampton, Modernism emerged out due to two similar yet different possibilities, one is the "rise of human consciousness" and another is the "ability of man to control nature". Around the 18th century, the architects and artists used to follow the culture and obey its principles in matters of building ornamentation, planning and architecture style. Architecture during the time of Romanticism portraits art, culture, traditions, and emotions of that period. Due to an increase in the development of communication and ideology, the old city fabric is transformed by technical and mechanical interventions that were well planned with networks of road and railways. The new industrial buildings challenged the ornamented classical buildings of the renaissance architecture style. The contemporary buildings replaced with bare wrought iron and glass structures which led to a clear division of labor into architects and constructors. This shift is the origin of Architectural Modernism. (Figure 5)It is seen Baron Haussmann's workmen demolishing Ledoux's Barriere de I'Etoitle, 1860. Due to this industrialization and rise in idealism Baron Haussmann carried out an urban renewal plan of the city of Paris which led to the demolition of neighborhoods marked the rise of Modernism.
FOOTNOTES 7.
Kenneth Frampton , Modern Architecture a critical history , Introduction , 7 (Here Frampton explained how Baron Haussmann’s led to demolition of neighborhoods marked the rise of Modernism.)
KEYWORDS: Culture, architecture, modernism, industrialization. Figure 5: Haussmann's workmen demolishing Ledoux's Barriere de I'Etoitle, 1860 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture a critical history, Introduction, 7
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Q5: In 2010, MAXXI (the Museum for 21st-Century Art) in Rome staged an exhibition called “The Architecture you Like,� in which contributors nominated buildings completed in the previous decade that they liked and explained why they liked them. What project have you encountered so far in the course that you have liked? What do you like about it?
Figure 6
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I would have encountered "Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright", 1908-1910 where Frank Lloyd Wright reconsidered the prairie style of housing. According to Lloyd, the prairie has its own beauty and we should embrace this natural beauty. "Hence, gently sloping roofs, low proportions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavy-set chimneys and sheltering overhangs, low terraces and outreaching walls sequestering private gardens."(8) The interesting thing about Robie house is that it has a clear division between public and private spaces, with overlapping floors and enormous cantilever over the porch that stretched 10’ feet outwards giving the outdoors a closer. The way Lloyd designed the visual privacy, where the residents can see their neighbors but the neighbors can't. The planning of the house also ensured the health and wellbeing of the residents using maximum daylights and ventilation, thus designing the warm interiors perfect for living comfortably. By 1905 "Its expression constantly oscillated between two poles, one rambling, asymmetric and picturesque in Avery Coonley House of 1908 and the compact, gridded, symmetrical and architectonic as displayed in the masterly Robie house 1908-09"(9) (Figure 6). The Pure form of structure, symmetry and mature approach to design is one of the key interesting factors for choosing this project, the way he blended outdoor indoor, nature and interior with a sense of comfort and privacy is very interesting. It is also Sustainable in its own form i.e. using the right amount of openings, shadings, orientation, sunlight and air, which are very important factors in modern architecture, that challenge many buildings around that time.
FOOTNOTES 8. 9.
Arch daily , Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright (Here the planning of the house is explained in a very detailed way) Kenneth Frampton , Modern Architecture a critical history , Frank Lloyd Wright and the myth of Prairie , 62
KEYWORDS: Symmetry, space, structure, indoor, outdoor Figure 6: Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Residential House Storrer, William Allin. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog. 3rd ed. London, 1979. Print.
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Q6: How does the definition efinition of architecture (what we think architecture means) change over time? Is it necessary to define what architecture is and what is not?? How is this manifest in ideas on culture and cultural change?
Figure 7
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The definition of architecture changed over time starting from Stonehenge to Renaissance to Modern Architecture. Architecture is an art form that reflects the existing culture and traditions of that particular period of time. In the book of what is "Architectural history by Andrew he approached the organization of past of architectural history in six different ways that are style and period, biography, geography and culture, type, technique, and theme and analogy."(10) According to me these are the key factors that shaped and changed the definition of architecture through ages and centuries. During the Renaissance, various art and painting portrayed a series of conceptual and cultural myths and stories which in turn help us to understand the ideology and thought process of the people and artists around that time. History of Art overlaps with the history of Architectural style. Then gradually due to industrial revolution and technological inventions Architectural concepts changed which in turn change the lifestyle of the people. Therefore, it is very necessary to define Architecture because it reflects the way of living, culture and traditions of humans. The culture of each society is identified by the features and characteristics of architecture surrounding it. Culture promotes architectural identity like “In the Renaissance the imagination came first, and where it existed it never failed to find materials for its expression"(11). The architecture displayed the expressions of the artists and architects, similarly due to the rise in modernism and human consciousness architects move on to much mature and formal style rather than excessive ornamentation. Thus Architecture is the key to manifest culture and cultural change. (figure7)
FOOTNOTES 10. Andrew Leach , What is Architectural History ?, Organizing the Past , Approach , 44 (Here Andrew explained how understanding the architecture of the past is organized in terms of various categories) 11. Geoffrey Scott, Architecture of Humanism ,1914 , Renaissance architecture , 31 (Geoffrey explained the conceptions during the Renaissance architecture) KEYWORDS: Culture, architecture, art, society, traditions, renaissance, history Figure 7: View of the Parthenon ruins, Athens, 1758 (How culture change can change the architecture of time and space) Vue d'un temple de Pola en Istrie, oĂš de La Porte de la citadelle d'Athene - Julien-David Le Roy (1724 - 1803)
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Q7: When Walter Gropius spoke of the architect designing “from the teaspoon to the city,” he was a building on a tradition initiated with the Arts and Crafts movement. What were the key tenets of that movement? And according to whom o are they posited as “key”?
Figure 8
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Around 1919, Walter Gropius became involved with many other groups key to the early Bauhaus idea: the Novembergruppe of expressionist artists and architects. Bauhaus was the only influential modernist art school of the 20th century that initiated teaching and to the relationship between art, society, and technology gradually it had a major impact in Europe and the United States. "The key tenets of the movement are: It aimed at reuniting the design and art , culture and traditions under one roof , Influenced by the 19th and early-20th-century the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as Art Nouveau including the Jugendstil and Vienna Secession. Starting from the renaissance architecture to modern architecture, all the elements, hierarchy, design , interior styles, textiles, paintings, sculptures were deeply studied and practiced. Product Design was also encouraged starting from furniture to utensils. (12) The Bauhaus teaching style led to rethinking of Fine arts and Visual Arts." "The idea of explosive design haunts the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the legacy of Walter Gropius and his concept of “total architecture,” in which the architect is authorized to design everything, from the teaspoon to the city."(13)The collaborative organization of the Bauhaus movement to produce as an collaborative to singular experience where designers were eager to place the architect at the center of the process exploding architecture to all over the world.(figure 8)Paul Klee was one of the most talented artists during the Bauhaus movement.
FOOTNOTES 12. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/bauhaus/ (Explaining the Bauhaus Movement) 13. Harvard Design Magazine, (Whatever Happened to Total Design? Mark Wigley ) http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/5/whatever-happened-to-total-design KEYWORDS: Bauhaus, architecture, art, culture, design. Figure 8: Red Balloon (1922) Artist: Paul Klee (subconscious-based surrealism and energetic abstract expressionism)
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Q7: When Walter Gropius spoke of the architect designing “from the teaspoon to the city,” he was a building on a tradition initiated with the Arts and Crafts movement. What were the key tenets of that movement? And according to whom o are they posited as “key”?
Figure 9
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Studying history of Architecture is very important in present-day, because it helps us to understand the way of thought process and ideologies, that differ from different periods of time staring from Egyptian pyramids to St. Peter's Basilica. Architecture not only portraits the culture of the people during that time but also it tells us how Architecture evolved structurally from construction details to materials to building skin and facade elements etc. History reveals the Vernacular architecture styles of the past and how it changed due to changes in climate and temperature. Every architectural elements have a story behind it for example, the gargoyles, rose windows, the aqueducts, etc. The study of architectural history is important because it allows one to make more sense of the current world of architecture, it also allows one to exercise their critical thinking how materials and techniques changed through time and what is the reason behind it. According to Mr. Jason Dibbs, “Architecture History is very important to understand the romanticism of that age and how it evolved through time, It is very essential to understand how people materialize in the past. Architecture history is the link between past present and even the future." (14) According to Arianna Brambilla, “Architecture History is very important to understand what is actually present and what we need to do to, if we are continuing construction without knowing what is present, there's no point. Architecture history helps us to learn the basic Architecture principles which are essential for Sustainable Architecture.” (15) (Figure 9)The planning of St. Peter's Square and the construction of St. Peter's Basilica dome is one of the very important in history of Architecture that marked the start of new era in Architecture.
FOOTNOTES 14. Inspiring Words from Mr. Jason Dibbs (shared by Andrew Leach in Canvas) 15. Inspiring Words from Arianna Brambilla (shared by Andrew Leach in Canvas) KEYWORDS: Architecture, art, culture, design, technologies, history Figure 9: St. Peter's Square is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City
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Bibliography 1. William j.r. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Industrialization and the city: the skyscraper as type and symbol, 34 (Here Curtis explained how the rise of industrialization changed the urban fabric). 2. William j.r. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Industrialization and the city: the skyscraper as type and symbol, 35 (Here Curtis explained how it affected the existing urban plan). 3. Walter Benjamin, the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936, Illuminations, 217, IV (Benjamin was comparing magician and surgeon). 4. Walter Benjamin, the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936, Illuminations, 227, XI (He describes about how tradition changes from time to time along with art. 5. Andrew Leach, What is Architectural History?, Architecture and empirical knowledge, 28 (Here Andrew explained how architecture of the past is studied and documented the culture and traditions of a space). 6. Geoffrey Scott, Architecture of Humanism, 1914, Renaissance architecture, 28 (Geoffrey explained the conceptions during the Renaissance architecture). 7. Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture a critical history, Introduction, 7 (Here Frampton explained how Baron Haussmann’s led to demolition of neighborhoods marked the rise of Modernism.) 8. Arch daily , Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright (Here the planning of the house is explained in a very detailed way) 9. Kenneth Frampton , Modern Architecture a critical history , Frank Lloyd Wright and the myth of Prairie , 62 10. Andrew Leach , What is Architectural History ?, Organizing the Past , Approach , 44 understanding the architecture of the past is organized in terms of various categories)
(Here Andrew explained how
11. Geoffrey Scott, Architecture of Humanism ,1914 , Renaissance architecture , 31 (Geoffrey explained the conceptions during the Renaissance architecture) 20
12. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/bauhaus/ (Explaining the Bauhaus Movement) 13. Harvard Design Magazine, Whatever Happened to Total Design? Mark Wigley (http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/5/whatever-happened-to-total-design) 14. Inspiring Words from Mr. Jason Dibbs (shared by Andrew Leach in Canvas) 15. Inspiring Words from Arianna Brambilla (shared by Andrew Leach in Canvas) List of Figures
Figure 1: Gustav Eiffel, Eiffel Tower Paris, 1889 William j.r. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Industrialization and the city: the skyscraper as type and symbol, 37
Figure 2: Henry Thomas Alken, The Belvoir Hunt: Full Cry 1830-40 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge)
Figure 3: Eadweard Muybridge, Horse in Motion 1870-1880 (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alken-the-belvoir-hunt-full-cry-t02354)
Figure 4: Vue d'un temple de Pola en Istrie LE ROY, JULIEN DAVID. 1728-1803. Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce. Paris and Amsterdam: H. L. Guerin, L.F. Delatour, Jean-Luc Nyon and Jean Neaulme, 1758 (//www.bonhams.com/auctions/25263/lot/252/?category=list) (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vue_d%27un_temple_de_Pola_en_Istrie_-_Le_Roy_Julien_David_-_1770.jpg)
Figure 5: Haussmann's workmen demolishing Ledoux's Barriere de I'Etoitle, 1860 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture a critical history, Introduction, 7
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Figure 6: Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Residential House Storrer, William Allin. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog. 3rd ed. London, 1979. Print. (https://www.archdaily.com/60246/ad-classics-frederick-c-robie-house-frank-lloyd-wright)
Figure 7: View of the Parthenon ruins, Athens, 1758 (How culture change can change the architecture of time and space) Vue d'un temple de Pola en Istrie, où de La Porte de la citadelle d'Athene - Julien-David Le Roy (1724 - 1803) (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V%C3%BCe_des_ruines_des_Propyl%C3%A9es,_o%C3%B9_de_la_Porte_de_la_ citadelle_d%27Athene_-_Le_Roy_Julien_David_-_1770.jpg)
Figure 8: Red Balloon (1922) Artist: Paul Klee (subconscious-based surrealism and energetic abstract expressionism) (https://www.theartstory.org/movement/bauhaus/artworks/#pnt_1)
Figure 9: St. Peter's Square is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City (https://www.pope2you.net/when-was-the-vatican-declared-a-country/)
Thank you
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