“Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field. The jury acknowledged the ‘persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation’ as qualities abundant in Nouvel’s work.”, quoted from the jury citation, on the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The French architect, Jean Nouvel (1945 - ), set up his own firm in 1975. He was became well-known of his innovative techniques, the use of modern materials, and brilliantly letting the site, its intended usage, cultural background, and other factors dictate the
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He is a key figure for young architects. Le Corbusier who was an artist that attended Arts Decoratis at La Chaux-de-Fonds, where he learnt the art of engraving and enameling watch faces, learning in his shadow of his father in his early education. Then under the guidance of his master, L'Eplattenier, he learnt about art history, drawing and the naturalist artistic of art nouveau. L'Eplattenier is a great initiator and enlighteners of Le Corbusier's architecture, he insisted that every students of him to study about architecture and even arranged for Corbusier's first order working on local projects. After designing his first house, Le Corbusier started on his career in architecture. From his touring trip, he explored architectural discoveries. He noticed the importance of the distinction between large shared spaces and individual compartmentalized spaces. This influenced his design approach in his residential building, and became very much dominant in modern architecture. In addition, the classical proportion from Renaissance architecture can be seen from his work. He emphasized on the geometric forms and the exploit of landscape as an architectural tool. Le Corbusier is advocated for the return to order in architecture. In his book, " Toward an architecture", he placed aphoristic arguments while promoting and exploring the concept of modern architecture. The publication has had an eternal effect on the architectural profession, serving as the manifesto for a creation of architect, and a significant piece of architectural theory. Le Corbusier's new style of functionalism began to theorize on structural frame, explored a new system called " Domino Frame", suggesting a standardization in architecture and industrialization
By giving the biographies of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, Hines does nothing to remedy his aimless writing. He writes that Neutra had a variety of experience as an archi...
Gehry draws his inspiration from famous paintings such as the Madonna and Child which he qualifies as a “strategy for architecture” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 42) and which he used as an inspiration for a project in Mexico . Through his interpretation of the paintings and artwork, Gehry looked for a new kind of architecture. His search for a new type of architecture culminated in 1978 with his own house in Santa Monica. What was once a traditional Californian house would be redesigned to become one of the most important and revolutionary designs of the 20th century, giving Gehry international prestige and fame. Frank Gehry’s “Own House” uses a mixture of corrugated metal, plywood, chain link and asphalt to construct a new envelope for an existing typical Californian house. This house has been inspired by Joseph Cornell, Ed Moses and Bob Rauschenberg. Gehry comments on his house by saying that there was something “magical” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) about it. He admits having “followed the end of his [my] nose” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) when it came to constructing the “new” house, which led Arthur Drexler, former Director...
“The architect’s role and their intellectual responsibility is to fight to maintain their vision and little bits get chopped off all the time, but if they’re only little bits, it’s not too bad.’’
Using the quote by Habermas as a starting point, select up to two buildings designed in the twentieth century and examine what ‘sudden, shocking encounters’ they have encountered, or created. Analyse the building’s meanings as a demonstration of an avant-garde, or potentially arriere-garde, position.
First and foremost are the architectural elements. These encompass the structural components that Chareau uses to emphasize the current site’s condition, the regularity of the grid used, the characteristics of the materials, the spatial alignment of the program, and so forth. The Maison de Verre would not have been designed the same way if it had been erected elsewhere. The same design principles would have been apparent, but there were extenuating circumstances that the client and the architect encountered at the site. The clients, Dr. and Mrs. Dalsace, inherited the building and the surrounding property from her father, and had the sole intention of tearing down the existing building and resurrecting a new, modern structure that would showcase Chareau’s furniture designs. (Vellay 63). The only thing stopping them was an elderly woman who lived on the second floor of the existing building who refused to leave her apartment (Frampto...
Thomas Herzog was born in during World War 2 (1941), in Munich, Germany. In 1965 he completed his diploma for architecture at the Technische Universität München (University of München) and in 1973 he became Germany’s youngest professor of architecture at the age of thirty-two. He is now known famously for his work on eco-tech architecture.
Historically speaking, there have been many famous architects that have struggled with finding a ratio between aesthetics and functionalism. Le Corbusier is a good example ...
Modernists longed to recreate the world through new ideas and contemporary techniques to design structurally and provide unprecedented buildings. Architecture took a turn and progressed from total works of art to industrialization during the 20th century. Advancement with technology due to the machine age brought new materials and new tools. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the many architects of this time to not only envision new structural systems, but was able to apply modern style concepts to numerous designs throughout his career. Through the design of the New National Gallery, Mies van der Rohe achieved an unprecedented modern language of architecture with the focus on light, transparency and organization of space to utilize all structural qualities, as well as the relationship to nature through designing from the inside out.
People are made of complexities and contradictions. Venturi recognized that buildings should be complex and complicated, too. He theorized and built buildings inspired by this principle, and succeeded because of his emphasis on individual experience and the interaction between humanity and architectural forms. In pursuit of this goal, his pluralist and revolutionary style of architecture embraced difference and ambiguity and rejected the rigid rules of modernism. While undoubtedly influenced by Venturi’s ideas, later postmodern architects failed to live up to his principles by forming their own inflexible rules and not concentrating on the human experience with buildings.
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
In the process of development of human society, architecture and culture are inseparable. Cuthbert (1985) indicates that architecture, with its unique art form, expresses the level of human culture in different historical stages, as well as the yearning towards the future. According to his article, it can be said that architecture has become one of the physical means for human to change the world and to conquer the nature. Consequently, architecture has been an important component of human civilization. Since 1980s when China started the opening and reforming policy, a variety of architectural ideas, schools and styles have sprung up. Accompanying with a momentum of...
In his book, Precisions on the Present State of Architecture, Le Corbusier breaks down the construction of the modern house. Following functionalist ideals, he states, “There is really not a square centimeter lost here; and that’s not a small job!” (Le Corbusier 130). This idea of making the most of every centimeter ties back to functionalist thought. In Le Corbusier’s house, there is no excess space, no grandiose rooms or decoration, and no elements that are not essential for living. Each centimeter has a purpose. Later in the passage, Le Corbusier proclaims, “Monsieur will have his cell, Madame also, Mademoiselle also. Each of these cells has floors and a ceiling carried by freestanding independent columns” (130). By reducing each room to simply a cell, Le Corbusier removes the excess of a dwelling; the inhabitants do not have designated rooms or spaces, but cells. Evoking ideas of prison cells, the rooms described by Corbusier appear only large enough to sleep. There will be few extravagancies. Combining the two quotes, functionalisms influence on Corbusier’s planning and thought become strikingly
A teacher of design and history theory of architecture, Mary McLeod examines and builds an argument about what constitutes ‘otherness’ in the discipline of architecture at a time of flux in her 1996 work Every day and Other Spaces. Other can be defined as a new architecture. She starts with the underlying claim that the idea of other is greater than just doing differently. Most that advocate this idea are broken into two categories, those that side with the theorist Jacques Derrida (deconstructivists) and with Michael Foucault (heterotopia.) The political and culture implication and role remained vastly unknown at the time. This is one question put forth by McLeod, followed by the discussion of the notion of ‘everyday life’ and several other
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
The works of Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Antoine Predock shows a high level of honour and truthfulness. These architects were concrete revolutionalists, they partially over-turned the concepts of ‘purism’, ‘less is more’ and functionalism with the plastic freedom made possible by reinforced concrete.