Unit Three Summary: Explorations

This unit opens with the world fair in 1851 in the Crystal Palace (London). These world fairs created an opportunity to see the world without leaving home and to open a world of new innovative ideas and share cultural aspects between countries. New products introduced at these fairs are still present in our culture today, including PBR, the zipper, the dishwasher and the ferris wheel. Building structures from world fairs have also endured the test of time and still stand today, such as the Eiffel tower in Paris and the Space Needle in Seattle. These innovative creations of world's fairs have nestled their way into our world views. What would life be like without a dishwasher? What would Paris be without its Eiffel Tower? What started out as a way to impress other countries became an integral part of crafting a modern identity for themselves as a country.

A remnant of the 1889 Paris Exposition

The Arts and Crafts movement was making its entrance around this time with people like William Morris who believed above all in hand crafting and "good design for all." Charles R, Ashbee, a prominent Arts and Crafts designer,  said "we do not reject the machine. We welcome it, but we desire to see it mastered." Their desire for excellence in craft and to make it available to all was a valiant goal, but not very attainable. Hand crafting creates only a limited supply and is expensive to produce.
One designer who can be classified in the Arts and Crafts or free architecture movement is Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's care in the craft of every aspect of his design creation is in alignment with the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, however he did embrace the machine. Wright, of course, had his own Prairie style which focused on a fluid design, the horizontal lines, and the experience of the space. His is also similar to the Baroque style in his "totality of design and experience," from the exterior to the interior to the furniture in the house (Patrick Lucas). Gustav Stickley was similar to Wright in his accordance to the Arts and Crafts philosophy, his horizontal expression, implementation of natural materials, and ability to work across scale.

This is the Wright home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Wright spent a lot of time experimenting on its design.

Overlapping the Arts and Crafts movement was the Art Deco movement, which aimed to represent elegance, glamor, functionality and modernity. An aesthetic design in nature, it is unlike art nouveau structures which are rich in surface decoration, organic curves, and natural motifs. Art deco design is  somewhat geometric and linear in form. Stainless steel, chrome, inlaid wood, and aluminum are materials frequently used in this futuristic style. 

The Chrysler building employs art deco surface ornamentation.

The Art Deco movement was especially strong in Miami

Another prevalent design style of the time was Bauhaus. With faculty such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers, the quest for "good design for all" was reignited. However, this movement opposes the hand crafted strategy of the Arts and Crafts movement and went in a industrial direction. However, some designs, such as the German Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were meant to seem industrial but were nearly entirely hand-crafted. 


In this time several forms of modernism evolve.  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe worked of the idea of a glass box, aspiring to create a form that people could adapt to. This kind of "cookie-cutter" building would be an all-purpose structure that could be modified to accommodate new functions. "Mies achieved an elemental and essential simplicity, fusing classical clarity with industrial production (Roth, 528)." However, the same form and materials are not necessarily appropriate for all climates and purposes. These glass boxes frequently turned into hot boxes in the summer months. 

This is a picture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's German Pavillion, actually designed for a world fair.

Le Corbusier was another important modernism designer. He created five points to follow in his designs: a roof garden to prevent wasting space, an open plan, an open facade, ribbon windows, and stilts. However, in his later work Le Corbusier radically changed his style. "These changes involved the molding of space, but more importantly, they revolved around the change in materials...(Roth, 549)."

This is the Villa Savoye designed by Le Corbusier which follows his five point design system

Expressionalsim was "an architecture that turned away from Cartesian logical analysis in favor of the suggestive and emotive power of architectural form as pure sculpture (Roth, 535)." Instead of the functionality Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier promoted in their designs, these architects cared about what their forms expressed. Expressionalism was a "return to 'commodity, firmness, and delight,' with the emphasis once more on delight (Roth, 539)."


The design evolution continues with Brutalism. Brutalism is when modernism has a bit of an undone, rough edge to it. After the perfectionism that the Arts and Crafts and Internationalist modernists strove for, brutalists began "creating a texture of materials seemingly left 'as found' (Roth, 558)."


Movies around this time had a big impact on the public as they saw glamorous interiors in the cinema. This created a new job market in interior design, mostly made up of women. 


The quest for modern is one that has been going on for centuries, and still continues today. This period is really an exploration in modernism and what is means.


sources: 
Leland Roth's Text book
Francis Ching's Text book
class notes