Tracing Modernism

Objective:  Trace the development of an idea relating to the emergence of modern architecture.

This blog post will attempt to solve the objective by taking an element in architecture (and depending on your beliefs, this could be anything under the sun) and understanding how it either influenced the progression or how it evolved because of modern architecture.  If we look, industry was shaped and influenced the modernist movement as well as government, art, social conditions, and more.  Here, the focus will be the human mind and the intelligence of people.  This may seem abstract, but it should make more sense if I parallel the human mind with the progression of man and his way of thought.  There is a link between this growth of the intellect, the mind, and how architecture has made this shift into modernism.

Let us start with the Arts and Crafts period in architecture.  The people who claim this period are going against the idea of new technology and industrialization.  They want to cling to the old ways of the handmade and focus on their details.  This is something primal in humans at the time.  It is a call back to the architectural “stone age.”  It was thought that only good work could come from the labors of the body, the skill of the hands, and the talent of the craftsmen.  So it is here where the human mind begins.  It is a new born infant who cannot think for itself and must be cared for.  It can only see what is placed before it.  It sees the superficial beauty in an object.  Delighted in this, the infant seeks more of this from other things.  He relies entirely on his motor skills and not of his brain as it is in the beginning of development.  However, it is only a starting point and not a means to an end.  There is hope for the mind if it is willed to be stronger and challenged by outside forces.  Without them, the infant will remain lame. 

Next we find architecture accepting industry as a new venture in accomplishing a new style.  Still heavy set on ornamentation, it simply uses a new material to relate meaning and purpose to the user.  And as technology advances, so does the ornamentation.  It is no longer blind and make for its own sake.  Inspiration is found in nature and contrasted with its replication in heavy iron.  This turn in architecture is the caveman’s first tool when he realizes how to create with his own mind.  The infant uses a spoon instead of his hands to grab his food.  It understands that things in the world exist for the betterment of his existence.  Still entranced by the pretty things or the ornamentation, he does not care what the spoon means as long as it is both attractive and useful. 

As the infancy years fade, architecture moves into expressing something greater than just the visual.  In Amsterdam, explorations are made into architecture by understanding the function of space and how it can be created through the use of materials.  This is a grand step in the development of modernism.  For once, the focus is on the individual and how he experiences the space not from a visual standpoint but as a user moving through a building.  It is only then that the detail or ornamentation (what is left of it that is) is able to explain how the building works as a whole.  So it is here that the infant has become a toddler, aware of his own space and surroundings.  He is now concerned with where he sleeps, eats, and plays.  He understands that each of these spaces have their purpose.  Given they might have multiple, but the toddler is developing this special relationship in his mind.  He is still distracted by the bright colors that occupy these spaces, but a major transformation has been made in the mind. 

What comes next is a dramatic shift in architecture once again with De Stijl and Futurism.  There is this movement to simply the ornate and move forward in an aggressive and innovative manner.  What had been known in the past was released and made new by industry and the ability of the designer to really question what he was seeing.  Now, next point could be well argued against, but I find the connection intriguing just the same.  Here the toddler is a young school boy.  He was taken from a life of ignorance, bliss, and perfect content in his own little world.  The boy is now violently placed among other boys and girls and forced to learn and understand the world at a most primitive level.  Devoid of all glamour, color, and shine, the basics must be learned before the child can progress.  Now, he has his new tools – a pencil, a protractor, or a crayon perhaps.  These will allow the child to understand what is placed before him, not to question mind you, but to simply understand.  This is because there is something so fundamental about the De Stijl movement for example that says we need to figure out where we are so we can ask questions about where we are going. 

Last is the emergence of the Bauhaus.  It is built on the foundations of the movements that came before it, but there is a sort of refinement about it along with some sense of individualism or at least a communal effort where the individual is acknowledged.  The best way to go about this is to refer to the child as before.  Now in my own experience, I can remember many people around the sixth and seventh grade really start to form a sense of identity.  No longer are children being dressed by their parents nor are they watching every step that they make.  Their minds are changing because they have their own interests and their own tastes.  Therefore, their exterior presence and well as their behavior changes.  Here, architecture is doing the same as the pre-teenager.  It is breaking past the mold of the many to become more expressive.  It may still incorporate a mass of people, but the intentions are different.  It still uses simple materials and a form to bring forth meaning and purpose, but it is an advancement in the mind and how people are viewing society and architecture together.  Finally the mind is able to comprehend that there are direct consequences to its actions for the others around it.

Influencing Frank Lloyd Wright

How has Frank Lloyd Wright’s work developed over time to express a 19^th Century architecture? 

Let us first address this question by stating that Frank Lloyd Wright lived from 1867-1959, so he was a very late 19th / early 20^th century architect.  Never-the-less, he was influenced by the Art Nouveau period and even previous European architects.  But when saying that Wright expressed a style of architecture, it should be said that he created a truly American style of architecture.  Given one of his prime goals was to fit within the context of the landscape.  It would not take much to imagine that had FLW started in Switzerland for example, he would have created what would become a Swiss architecture.   Having absorbed European influences and designing in the United States, Wright’s work grew into something that would be looked upon as the forefront of architecture.  And that front would be the American Prairie Style.

Start at the Winslow House (1893) in River Forest Illinois.  Here, Wright could really experiment with the American dwelling.  The house would be his canvas while the flat Midwestern plains would be his backdrop.  Many of the features of this house attempt to push the visual height of the two-story house down toward the ground.  The long strips of masonry, the wide Roman bricks, and the short low pitched roof act together to achieve this language.  So, FLW was trying to make his building something more than just a stand-alone object.  This was one of the first attempts to really bring nature and an emotional quality to the home.  Being one of the first works, there are still signs of the Art Nouveau ideals.  Floral designs and highly decorative structure pieces highlight certain moments in this house.  Some influences from Ruskin can be seen here as well.  There is honesty in the materials.  Nothing is covered up or painted in a way that suggests the object is something it is not.  Wright allows the materials to speak for themselves as an emotional response to the site.  As his designs progressed, so did the depth and meaning of these relationships. 

Winslow House (source: franklloydwrighttour.com)

(source: steinerag.com)

A few years later, Wright would design the Heurtley House which was one of the first true Prairie designs.  Here, the influence of Ruskin can really be seen in the idea of craft.  This time it is not the craft of the builder or stone mason but that of the architect.  The little details become important to the total work.  The details and spaces they form create a story and an emotional experience as the user moves through the entire space. 

Heurtley House (source:  designwire.interiordesigns.net)

It is also here that the ideas of Semper (1803-1879) come into play.  Whereas before the plan had been adopted after the form of the house, the Heurtley House and the like after it contained a unification of envelope, plan, and function.  Wright took the four key principles (the hearth, platform, roof, and enclosure) and allowed them to blend in one language.  As seen in the Robbie House, the roof extends to such depths that it becomes the enclosure for outdoor space.  He also really takes Semper’s “formula” into the design as well.  Wright understood the site beautifully at Falling Water while going so deep that he wanted certain personal emotions brought from even the dinnerware.  This is where there seems to be the noticeable clash of influences from Ruskin and Semper.  Material and craft were so important as it can be clearly seen how Wright put his hand on every square inch of his designs. 

The Hearth (source:  decoratinglflair.com)

Falling Water (source: wright-house.com)

Robbie House (source:  wikipedia.com)

There should be one more point made about materiality that puts Wright in his time and sets him apart from that of Ruskin.  Ruskin believed that modern technology was the end of architecture and it would destroy craft.  Wright did believe in honesty in materials.  He rejected the Ecole de Beaux Arts, which seems to say that did not believe in ornamentation for its own sake, but rather as a function of the work.  He also understood that modern technology would allow him to achieve his larger goals.  It would be steel that would create Wright’s iconic cantilevers.  Though it might have been a slight crutch, steel would allow him to create the from that matched the Prairie Style as a concept.  It brought it to a reality.   

One more point does have to be made on Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie Style.  The detail that he uses is not exactly ornate but it is meaningful and well as beyond iconic.  His ornamentation takes real ideas and real objects, like trees for example and translates them into a figurative form or a style of abstraction.  Clearly this comes from the de Stjil movement which takes these large ideas and breaks them down into a single visual moment.  It becomes a way for Wright to add logic to his ornamentation opposed to random and excessive detail.  

Window Designs (source:  cassbeth.com)