ARCHITECTURE
AND PLANNING AFTER INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The
Industrial Revolution in the latter half of the 18th century brought the much
influence to the world. The conspicuous examples that steel and glass by large-scale
production had caused it. However, those "new" architecture brought a
decline of beauty-standard we frequently see in large-scale production.
Moreover, for being piled up the reason that bad working conditions by the
industrialization, William Morris refused
the industrialism and the capitalism, he began the Arts & Crafts Movement pursued their ideal in the Middle
Ages, when he lived in the middle of the 19th century.
The
movement was carried on by the Art
Nouveau, a huge artistic movement centered around France and Belgium.
This movement, means "New Art" in French, distinguished by organic
and sensual curves, disagreed about inorganic matters. The marked example is Le Castel Beranger (H. Guimard).
Furthermore,
some movement in various places could be given definitions of new artistic
movements. The Expressionism in Germany
(the Secession in Wien) or the
Constructivism in Russia had begun because of the same ground refusing
the capitalism and the industrialism, though the backgrounds which have caused
them were different.
The Art Deco in the 1920's was pretty
different from those movements. The Art Deco, given geometric shapes put
straight and curve lines together to prominence, often adopted industrial
matters, metal and glass. That made it possible that the low-priced mass production
imitated their appearances. The Art Deco rely on mass production, spread over
the world. However the geometric shapes in the Art Deco wasn't born from the
pursuit of rationalism and the functionalism, charactaristics of
industrialization, but rather decoration which was equally regarded as most
important by the Art Nouveau.
The
biggest recipient was the industrial power, the United States of America. Chrysler Building（W. Van Alen, Newyork, 1928） is one of the masterpieces
of skyscrapers by the Art Deco.
THREE GREAT MASTERS OF ARCHITECTECTURE.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Le
Corbusier (1887-1965)
Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe (1886-1969).
In
the U.S. where the Art Deco is a general way, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) feared for the
standardization of froms of architecture. Wright thought buildings must be
organic, as accepted the industrialism and the rationalism, often used natural
decorations. He is counted as one of the three great masters of archtiecture in
20th century. former Imperial Hotel
(Inuyama, Aichi, 1922) is his masterpiece of buildings in Japan.
Wright
criticized the Art Deco for an inorganic aspect, but who criticized it for its
decorative aspect was one of the same three great masters, Le Corbusier (1887-1965). His insistence was "a house is a machine to live in",
he ignored the traditional style of architecture and he take rational functions
very serious. His new style of architecture was established by Vill Savoye (Poissy, France, 1928).
Then, the current of the times revolved not around Wright but around Corbusier.
In addition, the piloti was his
creation that liberated architecture from the earth and the tradition.
The
last one of the three great masters was Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969). Mies had the same insistance as Corbusier's
as pursuit of rational functions. However as Corbusier ignored the traditional architecture, Mies
adopted industrial matters for building materials. His buildings mainly
composed by glass and steel was conducted various experiments. By his masterpiece
Farnsworth House (the State of
Illinois, the U.S. 1951), dividing walls were disappeared, excluded the concept
of "room" and made the multipurpose space named "Universal Space". His
achievements, the excluding preconceived ideas and creating coexistence of the
industry and the art, was pretty great.
MODERNISM.
The
pursuit of functionnalism and the fusion of the industry and the art was taken
over and called Modernism.
Specially, glass and steel office buildings like Mies' have spread over the world
against socioeconomic backgrounds.
However,
as Modernism was full of functions, it was reconsiderd in the latter half of
the 1950's, because it was inorganic and uniformed. Then after, for the
architects supported it Corbusier and Miese left this world one by one, the
tendency became decisive.
At
another hand, around the rapid technical innovations, thought called Structure Impressionalism has occured.
The feature was that the structure tying building materials like
"Shell" covered large space and create the space flowing and
energetic.
POST MODERNISM.
In
the 1960's, people resisted against preconceived authorities and ideas in the
whole world, those social backgrounds affected every fields of the art. In the
architecture, it was called Post
Modernism. Post Modernism was out of the pursuit of pure functionalism
as the feature of Modernism, featured various or regionalized forms of
architecture or placing symbols. The reform reached multicolored elements
composed of architecture, not only in the modern architecture. This movement
changed the present state of architecture strongly.
However,
as the end of the structure caused by a cold war vanished the value of
resistance against capitalism, Post Modernism had been forced to decline.
Furthermore, because of the diversification in the information-oriented
society, not only the society of the architecture but that of the general whole
art, have no guidepost on present form.
MODERN
ARCHITECTURE IN JAPAN.
Into
the Meiji era, Japan adopted the Eastern style of architecture. But at last in
the Taisho era, Japan had succeeded to receive the effection of the latest
Easter artistic movement like "the Art Nouveau", they had experiments
of high-class artistic styles, perticulary among young architects.
These
movements of Modernism in Japan was interrupted by the rise of the military and
the ultranationalism from the early Showa perio to the World War Ⅱ. After the war, during the
improvement of Japanese economy in the high economic growth, the architecture
which caused by importing Modernism was activated again by them.
Japan
had also concerned with the world-scaled artistic movement, a shift from
Modernism to Post Modernism. However it was too late in Japan, it have
infiltrated to Japan in 1980's. Tsukuba
Center Building (Tsukuba, Ibaraki 1983) by Arata Isozaki (1931～) was the masterpiece of
the architecture of Post Modernism in Japan.
Modern Architecture
The Industrial Revolution, which began in England at about
1760, made radical changes in every level of civilization all over the world.
The heavy industry growth brought a flood of new building materials, such as
cast iron, steel, and glass, with which architects and engineers devised
structures of unimaginable size, form, and function.
In the
second half of the 19th century dislocations brought about by the Industrial
Revolution started to be overwhelming. Many were frightened by the hideous new
urban districts of factories and workers' housing and the public taste of the
newly rich. Architects were employed to build canals, tunnels, bridges, and
railroad stations.
The Skyscraper which the architect Louis Sullivan designed gave new
meaning to the form of urban commercial buildings. His career evolved with the
so-called Chicago School of Architecture. Their challenge was to build a
skyscraper or high-rise building which was to be facilitated by the
introduction of the electric elevator and massive abundance of steel. They made
a great transition from the masonry walls to the steel frame. The building's
skeleton could be constructed quickly and the rest of the building's remaining
components could be hung on it to complete it, which was a great advantage for
the high-rise buildings on busy city streets. Two of the most famous architects
during the modern period are I.M Pei and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Reinforced
concrete was the
center of attention in France when Augusta Perret's apartment building, the Rue
Franklin, and his Theatre des Champs-Elysees were built in France.
The
Bauhaus school encouraged
the modern movement to move along. It brought together architects, painters,
and designers from many countries to set goals for the visual arts in the
modern age.
International
Style was
started by the Bahaus architects and prevailed after the 1930s. The theory and
practice of this style was introduced in the United States largely because of
Philip C. Johnson's efforts.
Postmodern Architecture started when architects and critics between 1965
and 1980 said that there was no better style than postmodern. Even though
postmodern was not as great as movement, such as modernism, they said that
postmodernists value individuality, ,
complexity, and sometimes even humor.
