17th 18th 19th 20thCentury ArchitectureGeorge Bernard Shaw, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”

17th Century Architecture: Le Grand Siècle Baroque

Italy: ornate, and fraught with emotional appeal.French and British: spectacular size and effect; arrogance and might; reinforced an absolutist political agenda; two dimensional not sculptural; government formulated conventions, comme il faut, “which could be used by all operators” this led to an official style that conveyed permanence and incited envy.

Versailles Palace, Andre Le Notre, Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Charles Le Brun, Robert de Cotte, Ange-Janques Bagriel, 1661 to 1774, France

"When you arrive at Versailles, from the courtyard side you see a wretched, top-heavy building, with a facade seven windows long, surrounded with everything which the imgination could conceive in the way of bad taste. When you see it from the garden side, you see an immense palace whose defects are more than compensated by beauties."— Voltaire

http://youtu.be/852eroBwDrA

The Louvre:East Façade designed by Claude Perrault, and Louis Le Vau, 1667-1670Formality and dignityFaçade is monotonous Majestic dimensionsRegular rhythm, Rarity of ornamentDesigned by a committeeExpressive of authoritarian power

18th and 19th Century Context: Architects were slight of soul300 years of homogeneous architectureDuring the 17th Century buildings were monolithic 18th and 19th Centuries building were multilithic The age of Revolutions: American, French, and IndustrialSocial Order shifted to urban societyMass ProductionAge of Revision for ArchitectureNo unifying authority or standardsRevival modes, only signature style - pastiche of the pastRecycled a bewildering variety of stylesChaotic, besot with traditionsScience and Social innovations flourished

18th Century a New PluralismMishmash of reason and romancePre Industrial life ruled by church as monarchy disintegratedArchitects snatched Greek, Gothic, Chinese, Moorish, and Hindu stylesEnglish were the first to leave Baroque, Catholic, and overblown architectureEnglish style modeled 18th Century reverence for reason (austere style during the Victorian Age.Late Century encouraged a revival of Medieval styleLandscapes were designed to offer pensive and inspiring thought and replaced geometric gardensNo coherent style

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). 16th-century Italian architect Inspired by ancient Rome and ancient Greek. British designers used his stylePlain exteriors based on rules of proportion. Interiors were richly decorated.Became fashionable from about 1715 to 1760Highly symmetrical. Symmetry and balance implemented by Greco-RomanPediments over doors, windows, mirrors, fireplaces Palladian objects follow architectural elements Scallop shells are a typical motif in Greek and Roman art. The shell is a symbol of the Roman goddess Venus, who was born of the sea, from a shell.

Andrea Palladio, Villa Almerico-Capra, or Villa Capra, The Rotunda, Begun 1550 Completed after Palladio's death by Vincenzo Scamozzi

England’s Battle of the Styles Neo Palladianism: First English addition of Palladio’s book, 1715Took over England from 1720-1760“Five orders of columns”

Tuscan Doric Ionic Corinthian Composite

Richard Boyle and William Kent, Chiswick House, 1725

Kent and Burlington,

Holkum Concert Hall, Norfolk,

United Kingdom,, 1734

Robert Adam (1728-1792) Scottish designerIncreased the true knowledge of Roman Architecture.He refused to be a slave to the dictates of stylebooks.“A Latitude in this respect is often productive of great novelty, variety, and beauty.”

Robert Adam, remodel, Syon Park, Middlesex, UK, 1762-1769

Robert Adam, interior design of Syon House, 1762-1769

Picturesque Architecture:John Nash ( 1752-1835)

Designed buildings in every possible styleThatched cottages; Gothic castles; Neoclassical; Italian villas; East Indian pavilions; Chinese PagodasTheatrical; irregular plans; eye- catching; with historic allusions.Took Picturesque from country estates into urban termsUsed stucco; cast ironSculpted buildings more than constructed themCreated lively urban scenery with furbelows and statuary

John Nash, Ionic Park Crescent, Regents Park, London, 1806, 1819–21

John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton, Sussex, England, 1815-1821

Banqueting Room, The Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Sir John Soane:Reduced Classical structure and ornament to rudimentary formsCombined multiple levels, top lighting, mirrors to blur divisions between areas, fragmenting and overlapping planesDomed Canopy ceilingsTop-lit ceiling and balanced over simple corner supportsWork is an eclectic synthesis of historical stylesPicturesque departure into personal optical agenda.

Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 1808-1812

Sketch of a room in Soane’s museum. Where are his unique features?

Late 18th Century France:Done with the frivolous RococoEnlightenment stress on clarity and reasonEmbraced Neoclassic purity“Neoclassicism…makes plagiarists of its architects” John RuskinDomes and apsesRigid symmetry; balance; rectangular simplicity.Post and lintel structure; load bearing columnsFaçades with a deemphasized center; unbroken entablatures; straight colonnades. Rationality combined to produce clean, crisp, flat lines.

Jacques, Germain Soufflot, Pantheon, Ste. Genevieve, Paris, 1757-1790

Claude Nicolas Ledoux, 1736-1806Self proclaimed “Prophet of revolutionary architecture”Radical designsSimple; consciously primitive componentsOriginalityProposed an entire ideal city that was never builtArdent experimentalistTransformed Classical vocabulary to express new functionsExploited effects of light and shadow; geometry and texture

Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, Director’s House, La Saline, Arc-et-Senans, 1779

Column detail

Colonial ArchitectureBenjamin Franklin, “It appears that our people are not deficient in genius.”Two styles prevailed: Georgian 1700-1776:•Simple, two story boxes, •Symmetrical doors and windows, •Pediment over the door,•Cupola •Balustrade on roof with wooden railing to form a terrace or “Captain’s Walk” Federal 1776-1830Box like structures with brick or clapboard sidingInteriors based on Robert Adam of EnglandElegant molding

Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1759

Charles Bullfinch, Harrison Gray Otis House, Boston, Massachusetts, 1795-1796

Interior

Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville,

Virginia, west façade,

19th Century:Europe and America replayed Classical architecture in churches, universities, and civic buildings.Copy cat era, no originality.Despite scientific triumphs, industrial revolution, transportation, communication, building technology, cast and wrought iron, plate glass, rivets, steel, reinforced concrete. London grew from 1 million in 1800 to 3 million in 1900New York from 63,800 to 2.8 millionNew functions required new building designs for factories, railroad stations, department stores, office buildings.Economies boomedProgress surged

Sir Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, London, 1850-1851

John Ruskin-”a cucumber frame.”A.W.N. Pugin “a crystal humbug” and “a glass monster”

Exhibit Hall

19th Century Architecture

“Is this epoch, so fertile in discoveries, so abounding in vital force, to transmit to posterity nothing better in art than imitations?”“Although it is difficult for man to learn, it is much more difficult for him to forget.” Architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

Only in Chicago, where there were not links to the past did architects produce innovative structures

Cockerell, Taylorian Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1839-1845

Bexley Heath, Red House, Kent, UK, 1859-1860William Morris-Arts and Craft period

http://www.chicline.com/Paris-Opera-Garnier-photos-slideshow.php.

Daniel Burnham and John Root, Reliance Building, Chicago, Illinois, 1890-1895

Louise Sullivan: Father of Modern Architecture,Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York, 1895-1895

“Whatever is beautiful rests on the foundation of the necessary.”

20th Century:From 1900-1960 the idea of the NEW; parse and squareComplete break from past stylesIndustrial aesthetic triumphedHistory and ornament were goneAfter 1960 a return to the pastQuest for noveltyGlobal, multicultural societyNew styles: High-Tech; Deconstructivism, Neo-Modernism, Art Deco; Art Nouveau

Antoni Gaudí, Casa Mila, Barcelona, 1905-1910

“Everything comes out of nature. Anything created by human beings is already there.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVKU3ErrGM

Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater House, Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1937-1939

German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with the American Philip Johnson 1954-1958. Located at Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Sts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXv-DK1Bj_M&NR=1

Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House, 1908-1909

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France,1929-30.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Solomon r. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1943-1959

Staircase detail

Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 1997

Cesar Pelli,Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1998