Modern Architecture

9 Pages 2163 Words

Defining Modern Architecture

Modernism in architecture can be defined by many historians and architects differently with varying dates of its origin. It can be described as a culmination of movements such as, De Stijl, Art Nouveau, different schools such as the Bauhaus, and the many individuals who aspire to create new architecture. This new architecture would carry meaning and order and hopefully a solution to the future of architecture. Individuals such as, Le Corbusier, and Hitchcock and Johnson played an important role in the shaping of the definition of modern architecture and its direction world wide.
Philip Johnson and Russell Hitchcock believe the contemporary style of today owes a lot to the structural development of the use of metal. They state that, “the Crystal Palace at the London Exposition of 1851, Paxton’s magnificent iron and glass construction, has far more in common with the architecture of our day than with that of its own.” [H&J, 39] New construction methods were being invented but were not necessarily playing a role in the art of architecture in its early stages. Ferroconcrete, what we call “reinforced concrete” was invented in 1849, “yet it was at least fifty years before it first began to play a considerable part in architectural construction.” [H&J, 39]
Although technological innovations are part of the new architecture, Hitchcock and Johnson also address its other counter parts, such as functionalism. With functionalism comes the question of aesthetics, but the idea of functionalism can have a broad definition. Supporters of the Classical Revival and the Medieval Revival in the nineteenth century could easily defend their practice by functionalist arguments, such as in the example of, “both Greek and Gothic architecture, for in the temple as well as in the cathedral the aesthetic expression is based on structure and function.” [H&J, 51] Unfortunately function touches on the ...