Modern architecture

Modern architecture is a set of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament. The first variants were conceived early in the 20th century. Modern architecture was adopted by many influential architects and architectural educators, however very few "Modern buildings" were built in the first half of the century. It gained popularity after the Second World War and became the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate buildings for three decades.


The exact characteristics and origins of Modern architecture are still open to interpretation and debate

Origins

Some historians see the evolution of Modern architecture as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernity and thus the Enlightenment. The Modern style developed, in their opinion, as a result of social and political revolutionsOthers see Modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments, and it is true that the availability of new building materials such as iron, steel, and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution. In 1796, Shrewsbury mill owner Charles Bage first used his 'fireproof' design, which relied on cast iron and brick with flag stone floors.

Such construction greatly strengthened the structure of mills, which enabled them to accommodate much bigger machines. Due to poor knowledge of iron's properties as a construction material, a number of early mills collapsed. It was not until the early 1830s that Eaton Hodgkinson introduced the section beam, leading to widespread use of iron construction, this kind of austere industrial architecture utterly transformed the landscape of northern Britain, leading to the description of places like Manchester and parts of West Yorkshire as "Dark satanic mills".The Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early example of iron and glass construction; possibly the best example is the development of the tall steel skyscraper in Chicago around 1890 by William Le Baron Jenney and Louis Sullivan. Early structures to employ concrete as the chief means of architectural expression (rather than for purely utilitarian structure) include Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, built in 1906 near Chicago, and Rudolf Steiner's Second Goetheanum, built from 1926 near Basel, Switzerland.Other historians regard Modernism as a matter of taste, a reaction against eclecticism and the lavish stylistic excesses of Victorian Era and Edwardian Art Nouveau. Note that the Russian word for Art Nouveau, "Модерн", and the Spanish word for Art Nouveau, "Modernismo" are cognates of English word "Modern" though they carry different meanings.Whatever the cause, around 1900 a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional precedents (Gothic, for instance) with new technological possibilities.

The work of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago, Victor Horta in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner in Vienna and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new. An early use of the term in print around this time, approaching its later meaning, was in the title of a book by Otto Wagner. A key organization that spans the ideals of the Arts and Crafts and Modernism as it developed in the 1920s was the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) a German association of architects, designers and industrialists. It was founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius. Muthesius was the author of a three-volume "The English House" of 1905, a survey of the practical lessons of the English Arts and Crafts movement and a leading political and cultural commentator, The purpose of the Werkbund was to sponsor the attempt to integrate traditional crafts with the techniques of industrial mass production. The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include Peter Behrens, Theodor Fischer (who served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann and Richard Riemerschmid. Joseph August Lux, an Austrian-born critic, helped formulate its agenda.

Modernism as dominant style

By the 1920s the most important figures in Modern architecture had established their reputations. The big three are commonly recognized as Le Corbusier in France, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany. Mies van der Rohe and Gropius were both directors of the Bauhaus, one of a number of European schools and associations concerned with reconciling craft tradition and industrial technology.Frank Lloyd Wright's career parallels and influences the work of the European modernists, particularly via the Wasmuth Portfolio, but he refused to be categorized with them. Wright was a major influence on both Gropius and van der Rohe, however, as well as on the whole of organic architectureIn 1932 came the important MOMA exhibition, the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture, curated by Philip Johnson. Johnson and collaborator Henry-Russell Hitchcock drew together many distinct threads and trends, identified them as stylistically similar and having a common purpose, and consolidated them into the International style.This was an important turning point.

With World War II the important figures of the Bauhaus fled to the United States, to Chicago, to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and to Black Mountain College. While Modern architectural design never became a dominant style in single-dwelling residential buildings, in institutional and commercial architecture Modernism became the pre-eminent, and in the schools (for leaders of the profession) the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984.Architects who worked in the International style wanted to break with architectural tradition and design simple, unornamented buildings. The most commonly used materials are glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports; floor plans were functional and logical. The style became most evident in the design of skyscrapers. Perhaps its most famous manifestations include the United Nations headquarters (Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard Robertson), the Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and Lever House (Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill), all in New York. A prominent residential example is the Lovell House (Richard Neutra) in Los Angeles.Detractors of the International style claim that its stark, uncompromisingly rectangular geometry is dehumanising.

Le Corbusier once described buildings as "machines for living", but people are not machines and it was suggested that they do not want to live in machine Even Philip Johnson admitted he was "bored with the box." Since the early 1980s many architects have deliberately sought to move away from rectilinear designs, towards more eclectic styles. During the middle of the century, some architects began experimenting in organic forms that they felt were more human and accessible. Mid-century modernism, or organic modernism, was very popular, due to its democratic and playful nature. Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen were two of the most prolific architects and designers in this movement, which has influenced contemporary modernism.Although there is debate as to when and why the decline of the modern movement occurred, criticism of Modern architecture began in the 1960s on the grounds that it was universal, sterile, elitist and lacked meaning. Its approach had become ossified in a "style" that threatened to degenerate into a set of mannerisms.

Siegfried Giedion in the 1961 introduction to his evolving text, Space, Time and Architecture (first written in 1941), could begin "At the moment a certain confusion exists in contemporary architecture, as in painting; a kind of pause, even a kind of exhaustion." At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 1961 symposium discussed the question "Modern Architecture: Death or Metamorphosis?" In New York, the coup d'état appeared to materialize in controversy around the Pan Am Building that loomed over Grand Central Station, taking advantage of the modernist real estate concept of "air rights",In criticism by Ada Louise Huxtable and Douglass Haskell it was seen to "sever" the Park Avenue streetscape and "tarnish" the reputations of its consortium of architects: Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi and the builders Emery Roth & Sons. The rise of postmodernism was attributed to disenchantment with Modern architecture. By the 1980s, postmodern architecture appeared triumphant over modernism; however, postmodern aesthetics lacked traction and by the mid-1990s, a neo-modern (or hypermodern) architecture had once again established international pre-eminence. As part of this revival, much of the criticism of the modernists has been revisited, refuted, and re-evaluated; and a modernistic idiom once again dominates in institutional and commercial contemporary practice, but must now compete with the revival of traditional architectural design in commercial and institutional architecture; residential design continues to be dominated by a traditional aesthetic

At present

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design of modern bridges

Since the mid-1980s the design of bridges has changed quite dramatically with architects becoming more directly involved in the process.Architectural involvement in bridge design has increased significantly in recent years. To some extent this has been due to the influence of bridge designs by architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava. Examples of his work and that of other contemporary innovative bridge designers are given below.

The Felipe II / Bach de Roda Bridge, Barcelona, 1985-87, designed by Santiago Calatrava, uses four tied arches to carry the road deck over a multi-track railway line.Of total length 129m, the 46m main span of the Felipe II / Bach de Roda Bridge, in Barcelona, is 8m above railway tracks and skewed at 30º. Its steel and concrete composite deck is suspended by steel tension rods, at 1.85m centres, from four triangular, welded, box-section steel arches, that rise 10m above the roadway. The two main tied arches and their associated sets of paired tension rods run parallel to the outer kerb lines of the carriageways.

Secondary inclined arches are supported from inclined and moulded concrete stairways that provide direct access to the bridge from the low-level, landscaped parks adjacent to the tracks.

These secondary arches are connected by ribs to the outer face of each main arch, thus providing lateral support.

Situated behind a large building adjacent to the local railway station, La Devesa Bridge, Ripoll, Spain, 1989-91 (Architect/Engineer: Santiago Calatrava) spans the River Ter with a highly elegant example of modern footbridge design. The main supporting arch, inclined at 65º to the horizontal is offset to one side of the deck.

The geometry of La Devesa is influenced by the topography of the site, as the ground is higher on the station side of the river by around 5 metres. Calatrava exploits this difference in level to some advantage, by using a horizontal arch-supported deck of 44m maximum span which continues beyond the centre line of the foundation at the lower bank to give a total length of 65m.

The Alamillo Bridge, Seville, Spain, 1987-92, (Architect/Engineer: Santiago Calatrava) forms a dramatic landmark, pointing the way to the site of the 1992 Seville Exposition. A single inclined pylon removes the need for backstays in the asymmetrical cable-stayed solution.To support the bridge deck a torsionally rigid hexagonal box girder spine 200m long runs along the centre. This carries the pedestrian footway, on its top flange, above the level of the two carriageways that are supported on steel ribs, 12.5m long, cantilevered from the central spine.

There are openings between the ribs to separate the carriageway decks and the main spine beam thus allowing the twin stay cables to be attached at low level to both sides of the box spine and light to penetrate through the deck. More transparency is achieved by cutting away a triangular section of each rib web adjacent to the box spine, thus separating completely the tension and compression zones of the cantilevers. A tie element within the box spine joins the tensile flanges of the ribs and the compressive flanges are connected by the lower flange of the box girder.

South Quay Footbridge, Canary Wharf, London (Architect: Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Engineer: Jan Bobrowski and Partners) was the winning entry in a competition for the design of an opening bridge to span West India Dock between South Quay and Heron Quays in London's Docklands. It was completed and opened in May 1997.The competition brief for this 170m long footbridge across West India Dock specified that one part should be permanent and the other temporary and capable of relocation to a position about 100m to the east. It also had to incorporate an opening for the passage of small boats and be capable of being shortened to accommodate a proposed future narrowing of the dock.

The solution adopted complied with both present and future requirements. It features a bridge deck of variable width, having an 'S' shape in plan and being curved in elevation. This is split into two identical lengths, one of which is fixed and the other a swing bridge. Each half of the bridge is cantilevered from the side of a 914mm diameter tubular edge beam which is, in turn, suspended by 75mm diameter cable stays from a 32m high raking and tapered elliptical steel pylon.

The opening section rotates on a bearing located at the pylon base. In the initial configuration the bridges span diagonally across the dock, with the southern half opening. However, eventually the northern section will be relocated and the southern section will be swung into a new alignment.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Gateshead, which is currently under construction (Architect: Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Engineer: Gifford and Partners) was the winning entry in a 1997 competition for a major new crossing over the Tyne.

The Millennium Bridge, which is promoted by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, will form a link between the newly developed Newcastle Quayside and the new Visual Arts Centre at the Baltic Flour Mills and the Northern Regional Music Centre currently under development in East Gateshead. The bridge consists essentially of two arches of 100m span. One arch is inclined slightly from the vertical and the other, which is almost horizontal, forms the curved bridge deck that is suspended from it. Both arches have a common springing point on which they pivot, allowing the bridge deck to be raised by the action of a series of hydraulic rams. In the open position the cables joining the two arches lie horizontally, leaving a clearance of 25m for the passage of boats on the River Tyne (ref. Curran). This configuration complies very well with the competition brief, which required a clear channel for shipping and a low level crossing for pedestrians and cyclists to be provided.

The bridge spans between new islands, formed from caissons that run parallel to the quaysides.The design received a Royal Academy AJ/Bovis Grand Award in1997.

Corporation Street Footbridge, Manchester (Architect: Hodder Associates, Engineer: Ove Arup and Partners) represents an interesting and innovative solution for a short span pedestrian bridge linking two buildings. The bridge deck is supported by and enclosed in a horizontal hyperboloid glazed tube.Contextually Corporation Street is canyon like and is a significant, linear north-south route through the City culminating with the civic space of Albert Square.

The footbridge takes the form of a hyperbolic parabloid of revolution and appears as a lightweight glazed membrane stretched across the street. Its transparency is heightened by the arch, which permits uninterrupted aspects and whose symmetry optically redresses the change in level of the boardwalk which threads through from side to side. Outside the membrane are 18 straight stainless steel cables and compression members which spiral in an alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise direction."

Oracle Bridge, completed in autumn 1999, consists of two separate 20m span box girder pedestrian bridges across the River Kennet in Reading (Architect and Engineer: Whitby Bird and Partners)."These two bridges over the River Kennet were the subject of a design competition. Our winning entry took a holistic design approach to the site, seeking to create a new civic space embraced by the bridges.

Terraced seating, performance spaces and a canopy have also been designed, forming a public arena in the centre of the new Oracle shopping development in Reading.The original purpose of the bridges was to provide access across the river between the shops on either side. Our bridges do more than this, forming the boundary of the civic space that crosses the river.

Seating on the curved bridge provides an alternative view of the performance space and encourages pedestrians to enjoy the river.Both bridges are formed from sealed box girders, employing a single tube on one side.

The handrail uses tensioned wires with feature lighting set into the standards."