Walter Gropius : The Bauhaus style

Walter Gropius was a German architect who created innovative designs that involved materials and methods of construction from modern technology available at his time. Gropius theory was that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. Using technology as a basis, he transformed building into a science of precise mathematical calculations. He believed in industrialized and efficient buildings so that his buildings often provided the evidence of standardization, mass production and prefabrication. Gropius also introduced a screen wall system that utilized a structural steel frame to support the floors and which allowed the external glass walls to cover a surface uninterrupted.

Das Bauhaus

Gropius was the founder of the innovative Bauhaus design school in Germany, which the school then became a dominant force in architecture and the applied arts in the 20th century. The design outcomes of the school greatly influenced architecture, design art and new media.

Bauhaus furniture

Bauhaus furniture designed by Mies Van de Rohe for the Barcelona pavilion

All the Bauhaus designs are recognized as innovative and contemporary, which make them classic and last until today. The designs applied the logic where form follows function and less is more. This philosophy resulted in clean, simple and modern design. We can look at these products and surely we will be inspired by the clean and functional characteristics. The design produced in Bauhaus style was frequently used steel, glass, leathers, bent wood and plastic. The colors used are generally black, white, brown, grey and chromium. Sometimes the primary colors of the furniture are used irregularly to emphasize and to give entirely the less dark appearance.

For me Das Bauhaus marked a revolution in design. The “Modern Classics” in architecture, product design and contemporary art have emphasized its great influencing in design for designers nowadays. Therefore, we can say that Walter Gropius was one of the most influential and fascinating architects for the 20th Century.

NJ:::

2010
02/12
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See the Unseen

Mies Van Der Rohe : SEE THE UNSEEN

The Barcelona Pavilion has a fascinating fact about its elements and materials that Mies Van Der Rohe decided to use in the design, especially the effect created by the movement of nature.

The weather conditions and a specific time of the day play an important role in the design and how the interior of the pavilion appears to look. For example when the efficient daylight capacity reached, the steel columns in the pavilion became nearly invisible and the onyx walls became transparent.

The pavilion was constructed during the winter and that the possibility of choosing the marble was limited. A wet marble could break easily during the transportation in the cold weather and the solution to it was to find an available dry material, which later on Mies found the onyx marble blocks and decided to use them.

Onyx is a cryptocrystalline form of quartz. The colors of it range from white to almost every color. Commonly, specimens of onyx available contain bands of colors of white, tan, and brown.

The pavilion’s height derived from the height of two of the onyx blocks stuck on top of each other. From the solution he made with the marble, I recognized that; to design a space, we can either start from the space then begin to bring in an element to it or start from the element and design a space that suits the elements, which I think the second method is not commonly used by me but now I am aware of how the technique could hugely benefit my design.

NJ:::

2010
02/11
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Louis Sullivan : Form follows function

Ornament from Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott Building.the Intertwining vines and leaves combined with crisp geometric shapes and interlaces.

Louis Sullivan is considered America’s first modern architect. Instead of following historic styles, he created original forms and details. Traditional architectural styles were designed for buildings that were wide and consumed greater horizontal spaces, but Louis Sullivan was able to create buildings that were tall. His designs often used stonework walls with terracotta designs, as you can imagine the Intertwining vines and leaves combined with crisp geometric shapes and interlace inspired by his Irish design heritage, that is his style. The work of Louis Sullivan is often associated with the Art Nouveau movement in architecture. His style inspired other architects included Frank Lloyd Wright.

Casting iron and brickwork were often seen in his buildings. He created a distinctive style of ornament that inspired by natural forms. His thought was that the ornament used in the design should derive from nature instead of from classical architecture of the past.

the entrance canopies of the Carson Pirie Scott store

“It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic,
of all things physical and metaphysical,
of all things human and all things super-human,
of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.”

Louis Sullivan devoted his attention to both exteriors and interiors of his buildings. He strongly believed that the exterior of an office building should reflect its interior functions and its interior structure. He created original designs that evolved from the functional requirements of each project, as well as the materials and technologies of the time when the Industrial Revolution started to greatly affect the cities and architectural designs.

NJ::

2010
02/11
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Adolf Loos : Ornament and Crime

Adolf Loos is well known for his leading style of 20th-century modern architecture. In the late 1890s, when Art Nouveau was at its peak, Adolf Loos began his practice in architecture but Loos was not affected by the popular Art Nouveau at all. His famous manifesto; “Ornament and Crime” was clearly shown his thought against the conventional architectural wisdom of the 19th century. He claimed that architecture and the applied arts could do without any ornament.

From the fact that he had lived in the United States made his rationalist design theories were strongly influenced by his stay. He admired American works of engineering. His design often included smooth, minimal decorated wall surface, honest and functional, so-called austere.

After I looked at his style, I am fascinated by the simplicity of his exterior designs; facades, flat roofs, white walls, and horizontal windows without any moldings, together with open plans. The simplicity of it simply caught my eyes and made me wonder what is behind the walls.

The Loohaus

His early work was done in 1898 for the Goldman and Salatsch haberdashery shop in Vienna, where he applied his design principles and undoubtedly illustrated his skill in articulate space design. The building provides four stories of apartments above the business floors. The business floors were originally a gentlemen’s outfitter, but are now a bank.

The steel concrete construction provides wide structural spans with flexible space use. The facade of the lower stories is quite lavish, chiefly through the rich, green Greek marble.

Despite the simplicity of his exteriors, Loos’ interiors were decorated comfortably, using beautiful materials and elegant details. The interiors on the business floors are luxurious through the richness of their materials, contrasting a modern minimalism in the detailing.

To conclude, Loos proposed a strict functionalism, which in turn derived from the rationalism of Otto Wagner and from the theories of the great German architect Gottfred Semper. At the same time Loos also retained the respect for ancient architecture; which expressed in the regular use of classical architectural elements in his architectural designs. His writings and architectural works provided great inspiration to the architects of the following generation.

2010
02/11
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Art Nouveau : The new decorative style

At the end of the nineteenth century, there was an invention of a new decorative style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America, Art Nouveau.

The Art Nouveau style first appeared in the early 1880s and was gone during the period of the First World War. The style could be seen around urban cities, on public buildings and advertisements, as well as inside private homes. It was, I would say, the first style that garnished the cities with the art of the new decorative styles inspired by botanical world rather than the existing ideas in the past.

Art Nouveau was in many ways response to the major changes caused by the fast urban growth and technological developments that happened as the Industrial revolution began. Although the style was invented in the age of industrial revolution, the principle of Art Nouveau still required quality goods and well craftsmanship. Many architects, artists and designers were excited about the technologies and the wider range of materials they could use in their designs. However, some of the others were appreciating the past and the unique skills of handcrafting.

Japanese Tausu covered in Shagreen, influeced by funiture design from France during the time of Art Nouveau

I have a chance to work with an interior designer who has an interest in Art Nouveau. Most of the design involved the touch of luxurious textures, bronzed casting and lacquer works. He designed the stunning Japanese Tansu covered in shagreen, which influenced by the furniture design during the time of Art Nouveau.

I have been inspired by the designer’s works and now I can feel that I am having a deeper interest in textures and materials.

NJ:::

2010
02/11
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Villa Savoye; Le Corbusier

Villa Savoye; Le Corbusier

Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier was constructed in 1929 – 1931. The villa shows his famous five points of modern architecture, which are :

1. Supporting the structure by pilotis (reinforced concrete stilts)

By lifting the structure off the ground, it simply removed any obstructions from ground level.

2. A free façade (Non-load bearing walls)

The columns were placed in the house behind the façade so the facade was not supporting the building but only acted as the skin of the building.

3. Open plan interior

Reinforced concrete in the house provides a free plan so that the floor space could be arranged freely into rooms without having to consider the supporting wall.

4. Ribbon window

The horizontal stripe window maximized the capacity of light entered the building.

5. Roof garden

The flat roof gave an extra function as a rooftop garden to the building. The idea of having green space on top of the house was to substitute the loss in greenery on the ground that was covered by the building.

The five points I mentioned above served Le Corbusier’s thought of blending in the house into the nature around it.

Movement through space


The Le Corbusier designed Villa Savoye to have its own ability to direct visitors through the “restricted route” as to see the complete view of the location.

As you can see from the drawing above, the movement as you walk through the building will allow you to go through open and close spaces. The volume of space is constantly changing and it is in a way, giving you to choose the way of going up the second floor, either by spiral staircase or by long the ramp.

In project 2A, I am planning the reed bed-like system to purify water in the Fleet sewage before it goes out to the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge. The current position of my project is mainly dealing with the volume of the space and how elements travel through a space with a specific route.

Just like Villa Savoye, as you enter the main entrance, the road direct you to travel pass specific angles to view the surrounded scenery of the house and the way you walk into the house and up the floors was also specifically planned.

NJ::

2010
02/04
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Positive and Negative space.

De Stijl’s House
Positive and Negative space

I used to think; to create an individual space, a wall would be an ideal element to do that.

In my recent project about the Fleet River, I went to my site several times. I went there during daytime and nighttime and I realized that the level of light at specific times could create the differences in atmospheres, the light posts on the dark street shone the beam of light on the road, created a space for the man who decided to stop there and talked on the phone. The front door of busy Starbucks during the day turned into a bedroom for the homeless to sleep under the shade of the roof at night.

Photo taken near the Fleet Street: the bright spot on the dark night.

From what I observed on the site those days, I then got very interested in how the lightness and the darkness can do to a space. “Space within space” can simply produce using one of the simplest design elements, Light.

As in the lecture on 20th January 2010, I saw a photo of De Stijl’s House, which was taken at night when the light in the house was on. The photo gives a very different effect to the surroundings and the house itself. When I saw the comparison of the photos of the same house taken in the natural light, and another one taken in the artificial light, what was used to be positive during the day became negative at night and what surprised me was the hidden layers of the space started to appear. I began to see the complexity of the space in the house.


The picture above is the front cover of the first issue of de Stijl magazine, he created the front cover using black ink printed on a paper, formed a sense of negative and positive space used in the cover design.


NJ:::

2010
02/01
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