MODERN ARCHITECTURE

You already learned something about modern architecture when you studied the Bauhaus and the architects who emerged from that environment: Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. In this lesson, we'll look especially at the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, who had an enormous impact on American architecture.

OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the effect of Modernism on architecture.

• Explain the Prairie School style.

• Identify elements of Frank Lloyd Wright's style in the Johnson Building.

• Discuss the innovations of Philip Johnson.

VOCABULARY

MODERNISM AND ARCHITECTURE

"Buildings speak – and on topics which can readily be discerned. They speak of democracy or aristocracy, openness or arrogance, welcome or threat, sympathy for the future or a hankering for the past." — Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006).

Modern architecture is characterized by a sleek style that is generally devoid of ornamentation. Materials that were developed during the Industrial Revolution and refined over the years opened up new possibilities for the building of structures.

In 1851, The Crystal Palace was put on display in London, England, to house the Great Exhibition. The building was made of cast iron and glass. The building materials were chosen for the following characteristics:

• strength

• durability

• simplicity

• speed of construction

These were to become hallmarks of modern architecture.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright began his career in Chicago in the firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. There he designed his first building, Unity Chapel. A year later, he went to work for the great architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was a Modernist who believed that form should follow function. In other words, the purpose of the building was the priority when designing it. Sullivan said that American architecture should not follow European traditions. Wright agreed with Sullivan and amended his theory to state that "form and function are one."

Go to this link and read the page on "organic architecture." Take note of Wright's definition of "organic": "The Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright"

While many architects designed huge buildings, Wright designed houses that were built with natural materials and never painted. The homes, which were based on the idea of the horizontal plane, merged into the surrounding environments.

Notice the wide overhangs and the low, almost flat roof of the Robie House in Chicago. You can see how it rises from the earth in a series of flat, horizontal planes.

Prairie Style

His simple homes had neither attics nor basements. The design inspired the Prairie School.

The Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, New York, is said to be the greatest example of Wright’s Prairie Style houses. It is made of brick exterior walls, concrete slabs, and stained glass windows. Notice how the house blends into the landscape.

Wright influenced architects both in the United States and Europe. He was even commissioned to design the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1915.

In 1934, Wright designed a summer home in Pennsylvania. This house became his masterpiece, Fallingwater — the house built on the waterfall.

Wright also designed more modest homes because he hated the "cookie-cutter" houses so prevalent during that time. He thought everyone should be able to have an architect-designed house.

The Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, was completed in 1939. It is the world headquarters and administration building of S.C. Johnson and Son. The building is an example of streamlined design, with no windows, blank façades and a long, low profile. A Life magazine article described the building as like "a woman swimming naked in a stream. Cool, gliding, musical in movement and manner."

Construction was controversial for Wright. For example, columns in the building's Great Workroom—the largest room, often called a cathedral of work—are nine inches in diameter at the bottom and 18 feet at the top, in the shape of broad, circular lily pads. The dimensions didn't meet building codes at the time, and inspectors required that Wright build a test column and load it with 12 tons of material, which was the code. The column was so tough that it didn't collapse until 60 tons had been loaded on it.

Natural light, diffused by a membrane of Pyrex glass tubing that weaves together the circular lily pads, illuminates the Great Workroom.

Go to the link to PBS’s “Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright", click on "Reflections", and listen to the brief quotes by Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam War Memorial) , who said Wright was the most controlling architect she had ever know, and Philip Johnson.

PHILIP JOHNSON (1906-2005)

Another great American of the twentieth century is Philip Johnson who studied philosophy before taking up architecture.

Read the biography of Johnson .

Many modern buildings feature an atrium to create a feeling of light and space. Johnson designed the New York State Theater, which opened in 1964, with a stunning atrium.

Below is Johnson's AT&T Building (now the Sony Building). Its postmodern style, which borrowed from historic styles, set the architectural world spinning.

LET'S REVIEW!

In this lesson you have learned about the following subjects:

• Modern American architecture was exemplified by the simple, organic designs of Frank Lloyd Wright

• Wright has been called the greatest architect of the twentieth century. His houses were characterized by horizontal planes, large overhangs, and low rooflines. His famous design of the Johnson Building featured a forest of mushroom-like pillars, open spaces, and Pyrex tubes.

• Philip Johnson popularized the International Style of sleek glass and steel skyscrapers. He repudiated the ornate decorations of the past, but he was also the one who ushered in the Postmodern era of architecture with his groundbreaking design of the AT&T Building.

Complete the quiz before moving on.