Modern in architecture

Modern (the international name is “Art Nouveau”) is a historical style that emerged at the end of the 19th century; it is characterized by capricious, changeable forms, bizarre lines, the principle of asymmetry and free planning, symbolism, new technical and constructive tools for creating unusual, emphatically individualized buildings.

Features of modern:

⦁ General striving for aestheticization;

⦁ Beauty cult. Beauty as a religion. Beauty will save the world;

⦁ Accessibility of beauty. Combination of elite and mass architecture within one style;

• Anti-industry, flight from civilization;

⦁ Escape from the present – the cult of the past and disappointment in the future;

⦁ Striving for integrity. Synthesis of arts;

⦁ Vitalism – animating objects of the visible world;

⦁ Interest in natural forms;

⦁ Decoration, use of ornaments;

⦁ Lack of architectural traditions in any particular national architecture; Modern was in a certain way the first international style;

⦁ Rejection of tectonic decor. The use of overtly decorative elements;

⦁ New materials and technologies. Replenishment of the arsenal of architectural and artistic means with new materials, in particular, metal. Glass acquired a new role in the architecture of Art Nouveau;

• The design is no longer hiding and it is beginning to be seen as aesthetic in itself;

⦁ Stylization, archaic and national and other stylistic bases;

⦁ Functionality and practicality combined with artistic features. Modernity showed the architectural and compositional possibilities of the new functional organization of the building’s interior, highlighting the requirements for comfort;

⦁ Contacts of cultures. Cultural borrowing:

1) Dialogue with the art of the East: Japan, China, India, Iran.

2) Dialogue with ancient cultures: Ancient Egypt, antiquity, Byzantine aesthetics, motives of fiery Gothic;

⦁ The silhouette of Art Nouveau buildings is often dynamic due to the introduction, asymmetry, steep gable ends, ragged pediments, pinnacles, tower ledges with hipped or domed ends (traditionally, these towers have staircases built into them), forging crowning the ridge of the roof;

⦁ Bay windows and balconies are widely used, and the design of steel balconies, open stairs and other elements made of bent metal rods gets the characteristic outlines of a “whip blow”, a bent stem;

⦁ Interest in colour. Polychromy begins to play an important role in architecture;

⦁ Favorite modern colours are light yellow, blue-blue, lilac, brown.

Modern in Britain

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Features:

1. Modern in the interpretation of Mackintosh is more restrained;
2. Plastic lines were strictly controlled;
3. Geometry of pure forms. The correct geometric shapes largely anticipated the rectangular functionality of 20th-century modernism;
4. The method of “overflowing space” (dismemberment of the internal space by low partitions that do not reach the ceiling) creates a kind of spatial effect (Cranston cafe in Glasgow);
5. The most famous building – Art School in Glasgow in 1907 – 1909:

1) Complete rejection of symmetry;

2) Using the contrast of smooth curved lines of the fence and vertical divisions of the facade;

3) The use of huge window openings with reinforced concrete sashes;

4) The use of wrought iron in the curls of the window consoles;

Modern in Belgium

Adriaen van de Velde

Features:

1. The first practical expression of the artistic credo was the house-workshop, which he built for himself in 1896.
2. Departing from the canons of classicism, A. van de Velde used in it the technique of an English cottage, unusual for Belgium, and applied a free layout.
3. The interior is designed in a new style of art nouveau, starting with furniture and fittings, thereby achieving the integrity of the structure.

Victor Horta

Features:

1. Restless rhythm, intricately curved, elastic lines enliven architectural forms, details are found in the ornament.
2. Lines of decor echo the elements of building structures.
3. Great importance is given to stairs, which are often used as compositional points of the entire room. They are made of high-strength iron, characterized by the flexibility of their shapes and decorative patterns.
4. In the mansion Tassel, Horta first applied the curly line characteristic of his later works.
5. Orderless facades. The metal frames of the large bay windows, which seemed to merge with the facade;
6. A completely new compositional solution of plans and interiors;
7. Increased requirements for comfort;

Art Nouveau in France.

Hector Guimard

Features:

1. Characterized by biosimilar, floral forms.
2. A combination of decorative and constructive elements, very lightweight, repeating the organic forms of glass and metal pavilions.
3. Among the structures, the most famous are the entrances to the Paris Metro (1899 – 1904). In these small, lightweight pavilions of metal and glass, the combination of structural and decorative elements was more organic than in large buildings;

Vienna Secession

Features:

⦁ The advantage was given to structural straight lines over moody Art Nouveau lines;

⦁ Use of strict and contrasting forms;

⦁ The first architectural structure of the Austrian Art Nouveau – the exhibition building of the Secession in Vienna, designed by J.M. Olbrich (1898 – 1899). The composition of the main building combines several volumes and ends with a transparent ball formed by leaves made of metal.

Otto Wagner.

Features:

1. The purpose of the building is of paramount importance, not the adaptation of the interior to a predetermined external shape.
2. Practical and beautiful.
3. Human needs determine the development of structures.
4. New artistic expression is determined by new needs and designs.
5. The use of a complex glass cover, the middle elevated part of which is based on trusses in the form of gently sloping arches, supported by thin metal supports, the side parts are flat (the buildings of the Post Office and Savings Banks in Vienna (1906), created a free, perfectly illuminated space corresponding to the functional purpose of the building.

Modern in Spain

Antoni Gaudí

Features:

1. Imitation of natural forms in their structures, imitating complex configurations and lines inherent in a rock, tree, shell;
2. The works of Gaudí are individual;
3. Gaudí’s structures are contextual: they take into account the architectural environment before the original design was changed in order to integrate them with the environment;
4. Gaudí’s buildings are full of hidden meaning, spiritualized, metaphorical, pictorial;
5. Structures are subject to interaction, communication with people;
6. Gaudí’s work is eclectic – he develops the traditions of Gothic and Baroque, symbolically of fine architecture.