The style of architecture, both in new developments
and existing urban areas, can stir great emotions. Often people make a
distinction between traditionalism and modernism. Under traditionalist
architecture a vast array of architectural styles are included, varying from
historic styles (gothic, baroque and classicism) and historicist styles (revival
styles and some examples of post-modernism) to traditionalist styles
(vernacular architecture, Arts and Crafts and 20th-century
traditionalist design). When people talk about modernism or modern architecture
they generally mean post-war International Style Modernism, but this style is
much broader ranging from, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil and Secession via Art Deco to
Functionalism, Nieuwe Bouwen, New Objectivity and Bauhaus and to Cubist,
Constructivist and Expressionist architecture. To make a distinction between
architecture with ornament (as historic or traditional) and without (as modern)
is a gross misrepresentation; likewise a distinction based on materials
-plaster and concrete versus brick and wood- doesn’t help to distinguish
between the traditional and the modern. The distinction between traditional and
modern is at its core a distinction between a focus on the past and tradition,
and a focus on renewal, technological advancement and the future.
Some typical examples of Historicism from London. On
the right a mansion in Neoclassical style, complete with narrow columns. Columns,
with ornate capitals, can also flank an entrance (left). The ornate housing in
Dutch revival style (middle) combining baroque German architecture with Dutch gables.
The revival styles so typical of Historicism dominates
many 19th century urban quarters. In historic cities these
developments encircle the older urban core (unless there is a river or body of
water on one side). Building height varies according to local building laws,
but are typically 4 to 5 storeys in height with closed frontage along the
roads. These revival styles were often used to discern between functionality
and status of the buildings, e.g. Neoclassicism for a court house, Gothic revival
for the town hall, Byzantine revival for a church, Neo-Baroque for a hotel.
Many of the buildings from this period don’t adhere strictly to a single style
but are an architectural mashup of elements knowns as Eclecticism. Most housing
was built in this Eclectic style. The appearance of such eclectic building can
vary greatly dependant on the country or region. Some postmodern buildings are
also eclectic as they cite elements of several styles. Artistic architecture
like that of Gaudi and Hundertwasser is also eclectic.
A typical residential street in a 19th-century
commercial development with that typical Victorian architecture that is
eclectic in essence. Here brick is combined with moulded stone ornaments, bay
windows and triangular gable ends in an ornamental mashup.
Traditionalist architecture is associated by many with
Arts and Crafts, although some of the exponent of that movement were actually
modern in intention. Traditionalism should be seen as a reaction against
industrialisation and mass production of goods and (building) components and
focusses on traditional artisanal production and often emulates the look and
feel of this by semi-industrial means. Most vernacular architecture is
traditionalist in nature, taking inspiration from historic local architecture
or even examples from further afield. Vernacular architecture became the style
of choice for the Garden City Movement, although beyond Britain the
architecture is often more progressive or even modernist.
A typical vernacular building with -fake-
half-timbering on the protruding storey supported by a window bay (left) as can
be found in many developments that were built as part of the Garden City Movement.
This street in Breda (middle) in Dutch Traditionalist style is much more
austere, as was deemed fitting in the 1950s. Since the 1990s, but especially after
2000 developers have returned to vernacular and traditionalist architecture for
residential buildings as this (right) cottage-type house that references West-Frisian
farms illustrates.
As a reaction to the many revival styles, Traditionalism
appears in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany right at the end of the
nineteenth century. As such this style is contemporary to Jugendstil and early
Modernism. From the 1920 Traditionalism shifts towards “honest architecture” as
a reaction to Functionalism and Expressionism with brickwork, minimal
decorations and natural materials (no visible concrete or steel). This type of
Traditionalism that would last until the end of the 1950s is closely linked to
Rationalism. The style was embraced mainly by conservative politicians. New Urbanism has lead to a -limited- resurgence of traditionalist architecture;
albeit merely traditional in outward appearance, as the construction and
internal workings are thoroughly modern.
New Urbanism has focussed on creating places -which is
positive- and this has often been translated by architects and developers as a
return to traditionalism. On the left some original historic houses in
Geertruidenberg, a former fortified city. On the right the new houses built in
a traditionalist style, in a large development adjacent to the old city, which
also feature Spout Gables.
Modernism has its roots in some strains of Neoclassicism
and Biedermeier. Biedermeier -essentially a Neoclassical style- focussed mainly
on functionality, clean lines, minimal ornamentation and the spatial character
of the architectural intervention. The interiors of this period are often more
decorative and far less austere. Yet the train of thought started with Biedermeier
evolved into both Jugendstil - Art Nouveau and Functionalist Modernism. The Art
Nouveau / New Art Movement started in the late 19th century and was
concerned with combining a more intuitive poetic approach to design with
technological advances. Jugendstil is the German variant. Some Arts and Crafts
is in essence New Art. After 1915 the style was superseded by the Art Deco, a
fully modern style that embraced industrial design and translated this into
decorative architecture.
In Kiel near Antwerp several large Art Deco blocks
were built in the 1920s and ‘30s. These sculptural volumes rely on cubist shapeliness
combined with almost graphic outlines and accents. This is modern and
decorative architecture.
Modernism in architecture and design stemmed from
changing attitudes and revolutionary changes in poetry and music. The aesthetic
was heavily influenced by art, especially graphic design and painting. This is evident
in The Style (in Dutch: De Stijl), in
Futurism and in Cubism. Modernism starts around 1900 in the Netherlands,
Scandinavia and Germany with expressive experiments and buildings stripped of
all ornament but treated as a sculptural mass. This fits with the contemporary tendency
in art toward abstraction. Modern architecture revolves around the use of new
construction methods, new materials and serial production. The use of concrete
and steel for the construction of buildings, even when they have an exterior in
a traditionalist or even historicist style makes it modern architecture. Also the
treatment of building masses in some Jugendstil – Secession buildings pre-empts
cubist architecture.
Viennese Secession was a modernist break away from
historicism and classicism in the Arts. The construction methods are modern and
the decor ranges from Avant Garde to naturalistic. Secession is the variant of
Jugendstil in Vienna. In the middle the beautiful Secession Exhibition Hall (completed
in 1898) by Olbrich. On the left Mojolikahaus (1899), an apartment building
named for the majolica tiles with floral decorations that adorn the facade. It
was designed by Otto Wagner. The Austrian Postal Savings Bank (1906) is another
example of his work. This building uses reinforced structural concrete and has
a facade made up of square marble panels attached to the structure with metal
bolts that form a regular decorative pattern.
Modernism as a movement starts with the Deutscher
Werkbund, founded by Hermann Muthesius in 1907. As a distinct and self-aware
style of architecture and design, Modernism presents itself in many guises from
about 1915 in Germany, Austria and The Low Countries. Apart from some
experimental and individual exponents of Modernism, the style gravitated around
a cubist treatment of building mass and was known in the Netherlands and
Germany as Nieuwe Bouwen / Neues Bauen
-the new (way of) building. In English these buildings are known as New
Objectivity, Bauhaus or International Modern; all are however specific strains
of the style. Modernism is characterised by a focus on transparency, light, air
and space within and around buildings. The closed urban block was replaced by
the open block and housing in parallel rows (strokenbouw or Zeilenbau). Other characteristics are functionality (the
architecture is determined by the materials used and way these combine within a
construction), symmetry and repetition, use of colour as an organic expression
of shape, improvement of housing (and through that improvement in quality of
living) and the separation of functions but a mix of housing types and thus of
social classes.
Two moderns buildings in the International Style by
Renaat Braem. These buildings form a modernist extension to the Tuinwijk
Boterlaar in Deurne (Antwerp). The first houses of this social housing
development were completed in 1957. The tentative approach of Braem, so eloquently
shown in his pavilion, shines through in these blocks.
For practical reasons the distinction between
traditional and modern works, as long as we add the historic architecture
category. Despite Postmodernism -which I see as an eclectic exponent of
modernism- contemporary architecture still is either modern or traditional in
approach. The use of new materials and the exploration of the possibilities of
new constructions for a different design and aesthetic so typical of many
award-winning architecture is still modernist in its core. In contrast there is
also a tendency towards retro-styles where classic Dutch Gables, 1930
architecture or Art Deco are references for new buildings. True historicism isn’t
often found, except for some Postmodern architecture that incorporates historic
element to create a certain visual effect (for instance the Inverdan Project in
Zaandam). Some classic modern architecture is also being reinvented as
contemporary architecture. This is sometimes known as New-Modernist
architecture.
Two examples of New-Modernism. On the left a colourful
and cubist redevelopment of a former sink estate. The colours were chosen to
reference the many Moroccan residents that (used to) live here, before
gentrification by redevelopment. This shapely house in brick (right) clearly
references early modernist examples that explored curtain glass walls to
connect inside and out.
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