“Form Follows Function”

Principles of Modern Architecture  Modern architecture embraces many ideas, but one is primary: This statement, coined by American architect Louis Sullivan, means that the purpose of a building should dictate its appearance. “Form follows function.”

IIn other words, a post office should not look like a school.  A school should not look like a mall.  A mall should not look like a hospital.

What are characteristics of modern architecture? Extensive use of new building materials, especially steel and glass. The “machine aesthetic,” where buildings tend to resemble – you guessed it – machines. An emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines. Very little ornament OR the shapes of the building itself become the ornament. Simplification of form and elimination of unnecessary detail.

What did buildings look like before modernism?  Many buildings were influenced by classics of architectural history, especially the styles of ancient Greece and Rome. Styles imitating an older period are often indicated by the preface “neo-” as in neoclassical or neo-Baroque or by the word “revival,” as in Renaissance revival, Georgian revival, etc.

One of the buildings most often copied was the Parthenon.  The Parthenon was an ancient Greek temple of the goddess Athena. This is not the Parthenon. (It’s also not ancient, not Greek, and not a temple of Athena.) This is the Parthenon.

 Any guesses about what this building is, when it was built, or where it happens to be located?  Did you guess… P.S. That is what’s meant by “Greek revival” or “neoclassical.” “art museum”… “160 years ago”… and “Nashville, Tennessee”? (If so, you were right.)

Buildings in Famous Styles  Many architects copied famous buildings. For instance, this is the Paris Opera, built in 1875.

Look! It’s the Paris Opera…with a luxury high-rise growing under it!  (By the way, this is not in Paris, not an opera house, and not built in the 19 th century.) (Actually, these are just pricey condos in Summerlin.)

Some architects copied general building styles. This house, for example, is designed in the style of the Italian Renaissance.

 If you guessed, “I bet this wasn’t built in the Renaissance and isn’t Italian,” you are getting really, really good at this architecture stuff. (It’s actually a modern-day home in Newport, Rhode Island.)

Scraping the Sky  Steel changed all that.  Before the latter part of the 19 th century, the height of buildings was pretty seriously limited by the existing technology.  Buildings could only go so high up before the load-bearing capacity of the walls on the lowest levels gave out. This was a problem.

 Steel allowed a light supporting “skeleton” of metal to bear the building’s weight.  Some visionary architects like Louis Sullivan realized that buildings could be made to go  …up.

Photo: Patrick Willet “The skyscraper,” Sullivan wrote, “…must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it…...the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it… …It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing…that from bottom to top …is a unit without a single dissenting line."

 Other architects, like Frank Lloyd Wright, realized that buildings did not have to look as they always had.  Here’s a fairly typical house built in 1909:

Here’s a house Frank Lloyd Wright built that same year: No wonder they thought Wright was nuts.

Some critics accused Modernism of being too cold, too mechanistic, too boxy.  There’s some truth to that. The United Nations building Glass House, designed by Philip Johnson Habitat 67, Canada

…but not always.  Antoni Gaudi, Casa Ballo

Most buildings are still pretty traditional. Where is modern architecture going from here? Some, like the new Brain Institute, are…not so traditional. “Hi. I live in the light stucco house with the red tile roof and desert landscaping. See it?”

Guess we’ll have to see.