Modernism Presentation:INTRO: • ‘Modernism’: is a global movement in society, the arts and culture from the early decades of the

20th century to align with the experience and values of modern industrial life. • It’s more complex and nuanced - many different branches globally. For example The

International Style, Cubism, Bauhaus, Brutalism, Futurism, Constructivism… • However there were common themes established within these, which brought them together.

Some of these we’ll discuss now.

NO ORNAMENTATION: • One of the biggest features of modernism is a lack of ornaments / decoration. • A rejection of the past and previous movements e.g. arts & craft and art nouveau. • Seen as unnecessary and went against the mantra of ‘form follows function’. • Inspired Adolf Loos, to write an essay in 1913 called ‘Ornament and Crime’. • He describes ornamented objects as ‘immoral’ or ‘degenerates’, aiming to suppress modern

society. • It was a crime and a waste to decorate objects that would only go out of style. • A great example is the Isokon Flats in North London. • A Grade I listed building and one of first in UK to be designed in International style - by Wells

Coates. • Aiming to be an experiment in new ways of cost effective, communal, urban living and the

centre of the London avant-garde. • Features all white walls, an external staircase and no ornament or decoration. But not clinical

looking, which is shows it is building of this style. • Comparable to the Bauhaus school. Jack Pritchard worked with Le Corbusier in his Isokon

furniture company - buildings influences are with well-known modernist ‘greats’. • Many other famous architectural examples, like the Villa Stein De Monzie. • Principle included in furniture too e.g. Marcel Breuer’s 1936 Stacking chair, Leonard Thoday’s

1932 Dressing table. • The 1929 Chaise Longue designed by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand.

Working on the same project is encouraged as replicates socialist utopian ideal. • Note the lack of ornament went with the other features of movement e.g. weightlessness. • Decor would weigh objects down and hard to imagine pretty flowers pasted onto anything

aiming to look industrial or technologically advanced.

UTOPIA: • Modernism embraced a utopian outlook from its inception, it was vague, arbitrary, and often self-

referential. But it expressed the longing for an alternative – any alternative (for better or worse), as long it was total.

• Modernist longed to transcend the limitations of a capitalist status quo and foster the longing for a liberating alternative.

• Modernism at the barricades – Stephen eric bronner Pg 26 – 27 • The Barbican is a residential estate, built as the symbol of utopia and change, public wishes for

change in the post war period. Primarily the bourgeoises (middle class); Barbican’s target audience. Does not represent the working class.

• Ww2, repressed -> build new start • The towering walls represent fortification, giving a feeling of security and secureness. passer by

unable to distinguish its proper entrance. Giving an idea of exclusivity. Furthered by medieval castle defence motifs like gaps in the wall for arrows.

• Talk about texture of walls, reference to the old London city wall the site is built upon. With hammered concrete, blends in elements of medieval with the new contempered socialist architecture.

• Gloominess of the brutalism design, using vegetation to brighten the atmosphere. Years pass as moss start to take over, and overgrowth of certain areas. Nature’s return to the ruins.

• Elevated walk ways providing multi-dimensional aspect, a microcosm within the city of London. These walkways act as the transportation lines through the complex.

• The integrated civil system of cinema, gallery, and schools. Idea of exclusivity. Everything that is essential is self-contained, no need to go beyond the walls of the barbican.

• Utopia in design is more easily seen in architecture and overall interiors, less in individual pieces of furniture.

�1 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:• Some good examples of this are Miles Van Der Rohe’s interior and exterior designs of The Villa

Tugendhat and Barcelona Pavilion. You can see a clear lack or ornament here too, especially in the Barcelona Pavilion, he lets the raw materials and stones speak for themselves.

WEIGHTLESSNESS: • Gallery: WHITE CUBE galleries, talking about the overall structure of the building. • The roof above entrance of the gallery, which just seems like a block stuck on to the wall

(comparison to the lovell beach house) • Modernist, how they wanted to use different materials within the exterior of the buildings. E.g.

glass (white cube door) • The huge transparent glass door, visually seems empty. In reality it’s a heavy door but

psychologically it doesn’t look heavy at all. • Interior of the white cube • The organised lightings on the ceiling • The small multiple cut outs instead of a huge solid layer • The diffused lights • Furniture: About the Wassily chair- a chair which seems like its elevated (held up by loads of

metal rods • Inspired by the frame of a bicycle and influenced by the constructivist theories of the De Stjil

movement • Technology involved in the bent plywood chair • Architecture: Harder to achieve weightlessness in architecture but it is still possible. • Villa savoye and the lovell beach house • Designers/architects of the two buildings/ • Le Corbusier (5 points for modern architecture) • Pilotis – Replacement of supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the

structural load is the basis of the new aesthetic. The free designing of the ground plan—the absence of supporting walls—means the house is unrestrained in its internal use.

INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY: • The building structures: The viability of the construction of a large office building on a severely

constrained site depended on the resolution of a number of significant structural problems. • The cores and stairs are stabilised by the building frame and, due to the revealing nature of the

glazing, the structural detailing makes a significant contribution to the architecture. Details include pre-tensioned stair flights to stabilise the supporting columns and pre-tensioned rods acting as glazing mullions.

• At 88 Wood Street, the outcome is a building that many people consider to be one of the better office buildings in London The design was begun in the headed 'bubble years of the late 1980s with Japanese client (Dhawan) planning permission was granted in 1992.

• Before the early90s recession hit When the client returned it was withal brief for a building of 24,000 sq.. lettable space within the same building geometry. Four extra looms were cleverly insinuated by means of reducing the worthiness and partly by moving air conditioning plant tithe basement.

• Its triple-glazed façade is formed of single panels of highly transparent float glass. The inner faces of the external panes have a low emissivity coating which further reduces solar gain, while the cavity between the double glazed units and the third panel is fitted with motorised, integral horizontal blinds with perforated slats.

• There is no manual override. The cavity housing the blinds is also used to extract unwanted solar gain in hot weather, drawing it into the ceiling and expelling it.

• Modernism building method: Construction began again in 1995 withdrawal taking nine of the floors and now requiring a large service pavilion to be provided on the south side of the building-a 'blind building that subsequently had to begazed and converted when Diana decided not to move in after all.

• When completed at the end of 1999, the building comprised three terrace blocks rising in steps from 8 to18 stores, arranged to fit a difficult site geometry and "serviced by six perimeter access cores.

• In a smaller scale lots of new technology was used to mass produce furniture too. For example Christian Dell’s Bauhaus desk lamp and Bruni Pollock’s stacking chair.

�2 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:• Also Marcel Breuer’s Long Chair was inspired by Le Corbusier’s Chaise Longue design shown

earlier. Designers like Breuer copied and made variations to influential products multiple times in mass production.

CONCLUSION: • There are a countless number of examples of modernism. • All designers have a shared vision of utopian purity - designs would no longer go quickly in

and out of fashion and would enhance lives using modernist principles. • Everyday people couldn’t always appreciate their vision /purpose and would appropriate them. • So often modernism failed to get everyone to grasp new way of life. • Plus the harshness of modernist Philosophers rules contributed to its rejection and rise of

Postmodernism. • Ultimately the movement brought massive change to the arts and society, many of its principles

still being used.

DEFINITIONS - MODERNISM: A cultural and artistic movement in rejection of the past. Artists would use new imagery, materials and techniques to create work that better showcased the realities and desires of modern society. It had a tendency in favour of abstraction and an emphasis on materials and processes. Also driven by various social and political agendas. Often they were utopian and associated with ideal visions of human life, society and a belief in progress.

ORNAMENTAION: Is decorative elements added to something to enhance its appearance. A lack or ornament is strongly associated with Modernism and Adolf Loos essay - ‘Ornament and Crime’.

UTOPIA: A modern imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. So giving everyone a better life.

WEIGHTLESSNESS: Design that provides a level of lightness, that seems to defy gravity or lifted/ elevated off the ground. Most commonly associated Le Corbusier’s 5 Points for Modernist Architecture.

TECHNOLOGY & MASS PRODUCTION: Many technologic advances happened in the early 20th century. In design technology was used aimed to push the past further away and focus on future techniques for betters ways of living. Mass production provided the socialist ideal that ‘things’ would be easily available for everyone and wouldn’t go out of style.

POSTMODERNISM: Is a mid-late 20th-century movement in the art and design, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterised by the mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories/ dogmas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: • Curtis, J.R. 1982, Modern Architecture since 1900. Third edition, Phaidon. New York, USA • Loos, A. 1913, Ornament and Crime. Steiner House. Vienna, Austria • Corbusier, L. 1923, Vers Une Architecture. Flammarion. Paris, France. • Forty, A. 1992, Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750. James & Hudson. New Delhi,

India • Frampton, K. 1992, Modern Architecture: a Critical History. Third edition. James & Hudson. New

Delhi, India• Bronner, S. E. 2012, Modernism at the Barricades: Aesthetics, Politics, Utopia. Columbia

University Press. USA

�3 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:PHOTO REFERENCES: Ornament and crime cover: Loos, A. 1913, Ornament and Crime. Steiner House. Title Page. Vienna, Austria

Poignant Quotes: • “I have made the following discovery and I pass it on to the world: The evolution of culture is

synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects.“ • “Every age had its style, is our age alone to be refused a style? By style, people meant

ornament…We have outgrown ornament; we have fought our way through to freedom from ornament.”

• “I don’t accept the objection that ornament heightens a cultivated person’s joy in life, don’t accept the objection contained in the words: ‘But if the ornament is beautiful!’ Ornament does not heighten my joy in life or the joy in the life of any cultivated person.”

• “…not only is ornament produced by criminals but also a crime is committed through the fact that ornament inflicts serious injury on people’s health, on the national budget and hence on cultural evolution.”

László Moholy-Nagy, (1922). K VII, Oil paint and graphite on canvas, Tate, London [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/moholy-nagy-k-vii-t00432}

�4 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Villa Stein de Monzie: Laurent. D Ruamps. 2010, Villa Stein-de-Monzie (les terrasses), Photograph. Flikr [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruamps/4666031185}

Architect: Le Corbusier Location: Garches, Paris, France. 1926-28

Marcel Breuer 1936 stacking chair: Sloane, A & Woodhouse, R. 20??, STACKING CHAIR, MARCEL BREUER, ISOKON LTD, U.K., 1936, Photograph. abelsloane1934 [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {http://abelsloane1934.com/products/stacking-chair-marcel-breuer-isokon-ltd-u-k-1936/}

Materials: Birch plywood, afromosia veneer

�5 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Leonard Thoday’s 1932 Dressing table: Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 20??, Model MW 198: Dressing Table, Photograph. V&A [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O370233/model-mw-1987-dressing-table-thoday-leonard/}

Materials: Bent chromed tubular steel & glass.

The 1929 Chaise Longue by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 20??, Chaise Longue, Photograph. V&A [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O34133/chaise-longue-le-corbusier/}

Materials: Chrome-plated tubular steel, painted sheet metal, metal springs, rubber & horse-hide upholstery

�6 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Roman London Wall Wreckage English Heritage, London, 1995. HISTORY OF LONDON WALL, Photograph. EnglishHeritage [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/london-wall/History/}

Tokyo in the Aftermath of American Bombing, 1945 Mondadori Via GettyImages ,1945. A snapshot of Tokyo near-flattened by American bombing, which was carried out on the evening of March 9, 1945, during World War II, Photograph. GettyImages [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3681094/Changing-skylines-Incredible-aerial-images-world-s-major-cities-transformed-past-100-years.html}

�7 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Barcelona Pavilion, Mies Van Der Rohe. 1929 Koffler, L. 2017, MIES VAN DER ROHE'S BARCELONA PAVILION, Photograph. VisualHouse [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://visualhouse.co/journalpost/mies-van-der-rohes-barcelona-pavilion/}

�8 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:The Villa Tugendhat, by Mies Van Der Rohe 1928 Židlický, D. (2010). Vila Tugendhat, Photograph. TugendhatEU [Accessed: 21 February 2019], {http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/photogallery/photogallery-2010.html}

The Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier 1931 Bengtsson, A. (2016).Villa Savoye Poissey, Photograph. Flikr [Accessed 21 February 2019], {https://www.flickr.com/photos/barracuda666/28140122884/in/photostream/}

�9 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:The Lovell Beach House, Rudolph Schindler 1926 Bradshaw, J (2011). Lovell Beach House, CAD. Weebly [Accessed 21 February 2019], {http://jasonbradshaw.weebly.com/uploads/9/7/6/7/9767876/6341102_orig.jpg}

Gerald Summers, Bent Plywood Chair 1934 Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 20??, Armchair, Photograph. V&A [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O130191/armchair-summers-gerald/}

�10 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Marcel Breuer, B3 Wassily Chair 1926 Knoll, USA. 2019, Wassily Chair. Photograph, Knoll {Accessed 21/02/2019], {https://www.knoll.com/product/wassily-chair} ‘Inspired by the frame of a bicycle and influenced by the constructivist theories of the De Stjil Movement'

Marcel Breuer, Lounge Chair 1936 Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 20??, Long Chair, Photograph. V&A [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O22774/long-chair-reclining-chair-breuer-marcel-lajos/}

Laminated birch frame, with bent plywood seat/back

�11 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou

Modernism Presentation:Rondella Desk Lamp by Christian Dell 1929Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 20??, Dell-Lampe Type K, Photograph. V&A [Accessed: 21/02/2019], {http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120888/dell-lampe-type-k-desk-lamp-dell-christian/}

Bruni Pollock Stacking Chair, Model RP6 1931RetroStudio, Netherlands. 2019, BRUNO POLLOCK "STACKING CHAIRS". Photograph, RetroStudio {Accessed 21/02/2019], {https://www.retrostudio.nl/en/sold-chairs/1179-bruno-pollock-stacking-chairs.html}

�12 Finbar, Soomin, Kevin, Guanjiazhou