Architecture And Design Of The Modern Era

For a great many years, architecture has been a breaking point for different artisticeras in history. Some of the most famous “works of art” have been chapels, temples, and tombs. Among the most dominant and influential eras of great architecture are the sophisticated, stoic Greeco-Roman periods and the more mystical, elemental Japanese eras. These two very distinct and very different eras have more in common than you may realize.

Architecture is a physical manifestation of the needs and aspirations of a society and is determined by few factors – context, climate, environment, and socio-cultural aspects of a place or a region. It includes not only monumental and professionally designed monuments but also quaint residential structures built by craftsmen and lay people for their own use. It includes the interrelationships of the built and open spaces within the larger landscape. (Tipnis, 2012)

“Architecture should not be seen as representing a magical transition from the worldly to the heavenly, as had been implied by the Baroque Style, but rather as a medium that told nothing less than the story of the “origins” of mankind.” (Ching 610)

“The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built” (Frank Lloyd Wright). Throughout the centuries, architecture has fascinated everyone. History is inscribed in buildings and they can express the political and economic power of a nation. Although time has gone by, buildings have not. You can still idolize ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture and see how the events that occurred at that time influenced them.

The ingeniousness and beauty of Roman architecture has not been lost on us in the 2000 years since it was built. Even today, we still marvel at what incredible builders the Romans were, and at the sheer scale and integrity of many of their projects. It is hard to argue that today’s architecture will maintain the same lasting grandeur as that which the Romans built. If we can still respect and admire the grandeur of Rome as it was in it’s day, one can only imagine how much of an influence people of the time felt, due to the incredible innovations that the Romans brought to the new regions of their empire. In fact, it is because of the superior engineering skills and architectural ideas possessed by the Romans, and respected by others,

Architecture should be nurturing, responsive and alive, dynamically shifting spatial balances, organically expressive forms, subtly luminous colors and biologically healthy. To achieve such life-enhancing architecture, it has to address all the body senses simultaneously and fuse our image of self with experience of the world. By strengthening our sense of self and reality, architecture serves its all-important function of accommodation and

Kahn states that the materials we now use in architecture are known for their strength, not their meaningful use of form. The use of steel and concrete confront us; their characteristics must be in harmony with the spaces that want to be and evoke what spaces can be. A space in

Dr. O’Rourke began her presentation by telling us that “To understand what a building is communicating we also must look at it like we look at a painting.” This presents an initial point of view that differs from the normal perspectives from which buildings are viewed, such as the utilitarian or the engineering

Architecture is a medium to give creativity and phantasy full scope. Different styles are contained and combined in sometimes only one building. To trace the origin of Europe’s architecture, on have to look in times before Christ. What is proved is the use of columns and stonework in cultures like the Egyptian, which might have influenced the Greek’s culture, who subsequent spread their style in Europe. Therefore Europe gained the most diverse styles and eras whereas American architecture had a modest beginning. It started with the Native American architecture. After Christopher Columbus found the North American continent, colonist, during the great colonial times, fought the Indian Americans and demolished not only their architecture but also

The significant buildings, landscapes, and sites of the Modern movement are some of the most important architectural, social, and cultural resources of the past 50 years and are among the most underappreciated and vulnerable aspects of our nation’s heritage.

The architectural legacy of the past is one full of astonishing, miraculously constructed buildings and urban spaces. Great books on architectural history and its dissemination can be found everywhere, and history of architecture courses offered to students are a reflection of our continuous amazement with architectural principles and manifestations all around the world. It interests us to see what civilizations of the past established. This is very well reflected in Frank

The significance of earlier architecture is that the buildings by nature are impersonal works of entire eras (Rohe, 245). These buildings are pure representatives of the earlier epochs that symbolize the culture and style of the era. “All building art arises out of its own epoch and can only manifest itself in addressing vital tasks with the means of its own time” (245). The romance and traditions of past epochs have become meaningless in the modern age. For example, symbolism through grand embellishments which were once the noblest function of fine art and consider great components of architecture have become tasteless (Gropius, 49). “Modern building art refuses to play a mere decorative role in our life” and want to leave the aesthetic traditions of the past (Rohe, 241). Therefore, in

Modern architecture was produced during a period of transformation broadly categorized as modernity. Modernity should not be equipped with the social, political, economic, and technological transformation which began in the seventeenth century and continued well into the twentieth century. Rather, it must be understood at the attitudes towards whose changes. Modernity has been variously described as: a slow transformation and re-evaluation of our relationship with the past; a complete break from the past; a celebration of the chaos brought about by technological changes in industry, transportation and communication; a loss of tradition and home; a project of modernization and progress towards a better world; and a permanent state of transformation and change. Modern architecture is defined as a term used to describe simplified and unornamented building styles of the late 19th and 20th century, as a reaction towards the design of excesses to the design excesses of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Qualities of this style consist of being inspired by the machine aesthetics. In other words letting the materials and structuring help determine the form and define the building according to its functional requirements and materials to be used. Clean and simplified forms were preferred and all unnecessary details were banished. An example of modern architecture can be explained and seen by Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station built in 1990. Constructed as a closure at the end of a

This reading has introduced me to various factors in architecture regarding what it represents and should be in society through Louis Sullivan’s words.

Architecture can be viewed with two different types of properties. Properties that can be seen like shapes, their composition, the spaces they create and, the colours and textures that make up their appearance. These properties are considered to be visual while other properties are considered to be abstract. These properties can only be described using words; the meanings behind the architecture and the stories that can be told about it. The context, its cultural background and its function also affects how we view architecture. The question is, what