modernist architecture

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modernist architecture & intro to postmodernism type index

HELVETICA F U T U R A The Helvetica typeface is used in the body paragraphs in this booklet. It is recognized throughout the world.

It’s been used for every typographic project imaginable, not just because it is on virtually every computer. The font is ubiquitous because it works so well.

Futura is used throughout this booklet as the heading and subheading. First presented by the Bauer Type Foundry in 1928, Futura is also considered the major typeface development to come out of the Constructivist orientation of the Bauhaus movement in Germany.

The story of Helvetica began in the fall of 1956 in the small Swiss town of Münchenstein. This is where Eduard Hoffmann, managing director of the Haas Type Foundry, commissioned Max Miedinger to draw a typeface that would unseat a popular family offered by one his company’s competitors.

Paul Renner sketched the original drawings and based them loosely on the simple forms of circle, triangle and square. The Bauer office assisted into a sturdy, functioning type family, and over time, Renner made changes to make the Futura fonts even more easier to read. Its long ascenders and descenders benefit from generous line spacing. The range of weights and styles make it a versatile family.

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Helvetica is used as the body paragraphs throughout this booklet. Futura is used as the heading and subheading throughout this booklet.

CONTENTS 4

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DE STIJL BAUHAUS INTERNATIONAL POSTMODERN

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De STIJL Helvetica is the perfect typeface to use in body paragraphs. 8 pt.

Helvetica is the perfect typeface to use in body paragraphs. 7 pt .

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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Helvetica Bold 9 pt.

Helvetica is the perfect typeface to use in body paragraphs. 9 pt.

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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Helvetica Regular 9 pt.

In the early 1920’s a group of artists and architects that were influenced by some of the ideas of DaDa, formed a movement called De Stijl. DaDa was an artistic and literary movement that began in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Their idea was based on a Utopian philosophical approach to aesthetics, centered in a publication called de Stijl, which showed their ideas and designs. Architect Theo van Doesburg became the founder of the publication and leader of the group.

The initial source of their ideas came from DaDa notions about dispensing with the pretentious elitist design aesthetics of the pre war era. Some of the early work of American Frank Lloyd Wright, which had been published in Europe in 1910, influenced their notions about form. Japanese sources were also of significance, though these ideas may have been derived through the work of architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

The philosophy was based on pure functionalism combined with grid composition. Severe and doctrinaire insistence on the rectilinearity of the planes seem to slide across one another like sliding panels. All surface decoration except color was to be eliminated. The only pure primary hues, plus black and white.

The most important thing about this group was their ideas since many of their designs were not built. One important exception is Gerrit Rietveld’s Schroeder House, which is the most complete embodiment of the de Stijl aesthetic. Not only the house, but also the furnishings and decoration were planned by Rietveld. In spite of the apparently small output of this group, they would be very influential on design styles and aesthetics.

The Rietveld Schröderhuis in Utrecht is an icon of the Modern Movement in architecture and an outstanding expression of human creative genius in its purity of ideas and concepts as developed by the De Stijl movement.

WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE

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Futura is ideal for larger usages like headlines and pull out quotes.

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We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation.

WALTER GROPIUS

FOUNDER OF THE BAUHAUS

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AUHAUS The Bauhaus school was established in 1919 in Dessau, Germany by a group of architects, engineers, and artists led by Walter Gropius. The ideals of this group were social and political as well as aesthetic. They sought solutions for the problems faced by the working classes in the depression years of Post World War I Germany. Their concerns included urban planning, housing, and the development of high-quality, utilitarian mass production of consumer goods.

A unique feature of their program was the combination of handicraft and industrial production methods. Crafts were thought to be the necessary first step in the training of engineers, industrial designers and architects. In this movement, they differed from the theoreticians of the Arts and Crafts movement, who strictly resisted the use of industrial machinery. Yet, the Bauhaus designers shared the Arts and Crafts belief of the hand crafts.

The design style of the Bauhaus group owed a great deal to the de Stijl group, some of whom joined the

school as teachers. The idea of form follows function was also emphasized, showcase the honest and direct use of materials as the most functional way to design. The result was spare, rectilinear forms. For example, the structural components of steel, glass, concrete, and other industrial materials were to be used directly and honestly, without imitative form.

The Bauhaus style and their teaching methods would become influential in the teaching of design throughout the US and Europe, since the teachers emigrated to other universities and art and design schools in other countries when the Bauhaus was closed by Nazi Germany in 1933. By the outbreak of World War II most were in the United States teaching in major institutions, where they would influence a whole generation of artists and designers. To this day, Bauhaus methods strongly influence the teaching of design in many school. MIAD is a school that also follows the Bauhaus principals.

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IN TER NA TIO N AL Both Helvetica and Futura makes any layout look clean and modern.

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LESS IS MORE

MIES VAN DER ROHE

As the World War came to a closing, Architecture style broadened into what became known as the international modern style. This movement used pure form and honest use of materials continued to define architecture and interior design following World War II. However, some designers began to explore the broader structural design potential of industrial materials, and broke with the strict rectilinear forms of the pre-war era. Among the architects associated with the international style are Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Eero Saarinen, and Marcel Breuer.

International Style is characterized as follows: 1. Increasing dissatisfaction with building designs that incorporated a mixture of ornamentative decorative features from previous and different architectural periods, especially where the resulting design bore little or no relation to the function of the building; 2. The need to build large numbers of commercial and civic buildings that served a rapidly industrializing society; 3. The successful development of new construction techniques involving the use of steel, reinforced concrete, and glass; and 4. A strong desire to create a “modern” style of architecture for “modern man”. This underlined the need for a neutral, functional style, without any of the decorative features of them reminding of the past.

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O T S P

C R A

Postmodern architecture began as an International style, which are generally cited being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the 1970’s. The architecture has often been described as neo-eclectic, where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the sleek unornamented modern styles. Postmodernists may regard many previous modern buildings as soulless and bland, overly simplistic and abstract. As a result, these styles are replaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space around. Architects have rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of elements and forms that have been abandoned by modernism.

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