The Modern Architecture: Rise and Fall of The Movement
About Modern Architecture
Modern architecture is a movement that emerged in the early twentieth century, from revolutions in technology, engineering and building materials, and from a desire to break away from historical architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new. The movement emerged by the advances in technology created by industrial revolution, meaning that architecture should reflect the spirit of modern age but also had a moral obligation to it. As it response to the condition of modernity, the movement was believed to had the power to transform how people lived, worked and understood and responded to the world around them
The famous figure of this movement was Le Cobusier, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Llyoid Wright, Walter Groupies, Louis Sullivan, etc. The movement was famous for it slogan; Form follow Function, a statement from one of the famous figure of modern architecture movement, Louis Sullivan. The meaning of this slogan is building purpose should be the starting point for it’s design rather than it’s aesthetics.
What We Can Learn From It
Modern Architecture propose the new way of life through industrialized production, modern materials and functional design that architecture could be produced inexpensively. It become available to all, and thus improve the physical, social, moral and aesthetic condition of cities. The modernist believe that through the movement, this could give a better way of life than the previous era because back then only borjouis people could savor the good architecture and wish that this movement will eliminate the social gap in the society.
The unique features and characteristics of modern architecture is ban on all ornament and use of colour. Buildings were to express function and structure, nothing else. Pitched roofs and cornices, for example, were out: ‘they represented the “crowns” of the old nobility, which the bourgeoisie spent most of its time imitating’ (Wolfe, 1981, 23). Flatroofs, with clean right angles to sheer facades, were in: they were ‘pure’ elements.
The Failure of Modern Architecture
The failures of Modern Architecture is caused by the insensitivities and unfulfilled promises of the Modern style that was mentioned before. The justification of ‘cheapness’ from the movement made the architects choose materials that are inexpensive but have poor material quality. This rise a problem where the replacement and repairment part of the building could cost twice than it should be. Modernist principle made the wellbeing of ‘ordinary’ users has often seemed secondary to considerations of the aesthetic code in Modernist buildings (Gans, 1983).
The development of the movement was unbalanced; the first rank architect mainly working on the big project such as school, university, and urban renewal programmes because their work was in demand for prestige corporate buildings by big business while the commercial and residential works was then handed to second-rank architects. This give a ‘gap’ between the two building. The modernism lost much of its sense of social purpose and, with it, almost all of its criteria for quality (Allsopp, 1977; Ravetz, 1980).
The Rise of New Movement; Post- Modern Architecture
Post-Modernist architecture is characterized by the self-conscious and ironic use of historical styles and imagery, an emphasis on the scenographic and the decorative (as opposed to the compositional) properties of the built environment, and a rejection of the social objectives and determinist claims of Modernism (Jencks, 1977; 1983).
The post-modern architecture emerged from the failure of modern architecture to fulfil its Utopian ambitions. This is caused by the social, political and cultural conditions of the people change dynamically over time. In the Venturi cosmology, the people could no longer be thought of in terms of the industrial proletariat, the workers with raised fists. The people were now the ‘middle-middle’ class, as Venturi called them. They lived in suburban developments,like Levittown, shopped at the A & Ρ over in the shopping center, and went to Las Vegas on their vacations. (Wolfe, 1981,109–10).
Due to changing conditions, this has led to a demand for personalized architecture that is more suitable for themselves to life in. In short, ‘The hysteria surrounding the rhetoric of postmodern architectural style masks a more profound logic: that is, the way in which the spatial form of the built environment reflects, and in turn conditions, social relations over time and space’ (Dear, 1986,375).
Reference
Knox PL. The Social Production of the Built Environment Architects, Architecture and the Post-Modern City. Progress in Human Geography. 1987;11(3):354–377. doi:10.1177/030913258701100303
Hopkins, O. (2014). Architectural styles: A visual guide. London: Laurence King.
Rowe, H. A. (2011). “The Rise and Fall of Modernist Architecture.” Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, 3(04). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1687