History of Architecture - V

Purity and structural honesty of antiquity preferred over ornamentation and exaggeration of Baroque. Representation of ancient Roman monuments in imaginary compositions. Archeological purism and importance of pictorial values in historical settings. Recreation of antique Roman simplicity and splendor for modern living. Study of important palaces and public buildings in Britain and France.

Belief in creation of ‘new’ and ‘ideal’ world through return to fundamentals, ‘true’ and ‘original’ values. Romanticizing elementary geometrical forms with undecorated surfaces. Iron and glass construction for openness and lightness: Art Nouveau. Repetitive, Orthogonal, skeletal systems for horizontal and vertical expansion. Latter attempts to dissociate references to past styles.

Social intentions and search for ideal world. Pluralism in place of past unity of styles. Search for paradigms in historical sources: It return to fundamentals and origins in geometry, nature and paradigms of technology. Expressions of construction and technology. Equating technology and progress with present. Functionalism and functional appropriateness. Thoughts and works of frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Groupies, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn, Dutch De Stijl Italian futurists and Russian Constructivists. International style: Oversimplification of the modern Movement into functional, steel and glass, cubes. Monotonous functionalist abstractions and Modernism as a style. Disenchantment of modern cities and fall of modern Movement.

Post Modern Architecture as a revision of Modern architecture and resistance to functional containers of 60’s. Objective, representational and emphasis on content. Pluralistic and differing trends.

Rooted to place and history. Regards of expression: ornaments, symbolism and context with irony and humour, exemplified through the works of James Stirling, Michael Graves, Charles Moore, ArataIsozaki.

Disregard historical imaginary to recapture ideas for modern architecture of 20’s. Hi-tech metal abstractions of Richard Rogers, Normal Foster, showing structure and equipment as implied ornament. References of Russian Constructivists. The early works of New York Five including later works of RicharMier as complicated, exaggerated and sophisticated revival of the modern grid and Corbusier’s geometry. Synthesis of Hi-Tech and Historicism in the works Aldo Rossi, Mario Botta, Cesar Pelli.

Narrative and representational. Sources in Russian Constructivism. Non perfection in the works of Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, Daniel Libeskind, questioning traditional purity of form, geometry and structure.