The contribution of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright designed on extraordinary house in Pennsylvania on a side of a waterfall which the stream flows at 1298 feet above the sea level and suddenly breaks to fall at 30 feet. The house is known as Falling Water, it redefined the relationship between man, architecture and nature. This house was built as a weekend home for owners Mr. Edgar Kaufmann, his wife and their son. Frank Lloyd Wright made friends with this family throughout there son because he was studying at his school. The water fall had been the family´s resting point for 15 years and when they commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house they pictured one across from the waterfall so they could have the waterfall as their view. He designed the house with the waterfall itself, placing it right on top of it to make it a part of the Kaufmann´s lives.

Frank was inspired from the Japanese architecture it was even important for this house, along with almost his work. The house was built in that place so it would continue with the surrounding. The breaking water could constantly be heard throughout the entire house.

Falling Water

Interior 

Falling Water Blue Prints

Le Corbusier 

Le Corbusier believed that the correct application of modern materials and building methods could  help better living conditions, and have a better quality of life for the residents of crowded cities.

Le Corbusier´s grand idea didn´t stop at the sixtieth floor, his goal was to build an entire city, usually after demolishing the existing one. Several urban development, including the capital city of Brazil and the Barbican Estate in London have been designed constructed using Le Corbusier´s theories, there was an ultimate success of these development.

Le Corbusier was fascinated with proportional systems such as the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Series. The Golden Section as its relates to the human body and the result is architecture and furniture that feel comfortable. 

Although he was very talented with his work not all of his things were good for example demolishing the centre of Paris, replacing it with a grid of sixty story tower block.

The  LC4 Chaise Lounge is a very comfortable and when you sit on it you think that it had been sculpted to fit your back precisely. It is still in production by Iconic Interiors.

LC3 Le Grand Confort Arm Chair - Le Corbusier

The Crypt, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral - Le Corbusier

Heydar Aliyev culture Centre Azerbaijan - Zaha Hadid  

I think that Zaha Hadid took her inspiration from Le Corbusier´s work and moved on with her designs. 

Referencing :

AD. 2008. Fallingwater House. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/60022/ad-classics-fallingwater-frank-lloyd-wright/. [Accessed 23 December 13].

Mark Holdsworth. 2002. Iconic Interiors home. [ONLINE] Available at: http://iconicinteriors.com/designer_furniture/category/chaise_longues/le_corbusier_lc04_chaise_longue/#.Ur7rPpE7Yuk. [Accessed 23 December 13].

Design Boom. 2012. zaha hadid heydar aliyev. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/zaha-hadid-heydar-aliyev-cultural-center-shapes-azerbaijan/. [Accessed 23 December 13].

Red, Yellow and Blue

De Stijl 

People assume that the periodical´s name De Stijl was taken from the writings of the German architect Gottfried Semper. In reality it meant Dutch for the style. It was founded by Theo Van Doesburg in 1917 and published in Leyden until 1932. They www publishing a journal every month so they show them the range of artist to who were concerned with a new art : painters, sculptors, architects, urban planners, typographers, interior designers and decorative artists, musicians, poet and dramatists. They were searching for a new imagery that was characterised by the elementary components of the primary colours, rectangular forms, flatness and  only straight line that represented the sprit of the times. They were not using figurative design which reflected the new industrial society. The people had felt that the new style had connection with Cubism, they also belched that the movement had become obscured by more fashionable aesthetic principles. 

Many contribution were by architects, including J.J.P.Oud, Jan Wills, Gerrit Rietveld and Robert Van´t Hof, Piet Modrian was responsible for around 70% of the contents of these issues. De Stijl gave Mondrian the opportunity to published the aesthetic theories that he held attempted to articulate from 1909, the later impression that he and De Stijl were synonymous results from his huge contribution to these issues. 

Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld was an architect and furniture designer. He started working in his father furniture workshop at the age of 12, he started to work with a draughtsman for C.J Begeer a jeweller in Utrecht from 1906 to 1911. He even took evening classes in drawing and the study of ornamentation at Kunstindustrieel Onderwijs der Vereeniging in Utrecht. Bart Vander leak was of great importance for Rietveld´s development in his work. He learnt of recent national and international trends in architecture and the applied arts. 

Gerrit Rietveld

Red Blue chair (1923)

Dining chair designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1919)

Rietveld Schröder House 

The Rietveld Schröder house in Utrecht was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs Trus Schroder-Schrader and her three children. She commissioned the house to be designed preferably with no walls. Rietveld sketched the designs for Schroder, she 

wanted a  connection with the inside and the outside. She lived in the house for 60 years.

This link shows and explain more from the inside of the house. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyZZktZgaml

Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch pioneer of abstract art, who developed from early landscape picture of geometric abstract work. He was born in Amsterdam Academy (1892-1904) and he was a part-time painter with Simon Mans. They painted landscapes in the Hague School tradition. He started work in 1908 and joined the Theosophic Organisation in 1909. The First one-man exhibition with C.R.H Spoor and Jan Sluyters at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam ,1909. When he was living in Paris he was inspired by Cubism. He carried the point of abstraction and when he returned in Holland in 1914 he evolved a more simplified abstract style which he called Neo-Plasticism. The three primary colours were allowed and black grid with horizontal and vertical lines on a white background it was linked to Van Doesburg in the De Stijl movement (1917-1923).

  Piet Mondrian - Gray Tree 1911 early experimentation with Cubism 

Pablo Picasso - Three Women (1907-08)

Pablo Picasso - Woman’s Head Fernande sculpture (1909)

This clothing are inspired from the De Stijl movement. 

In the De Stijl Movement there was the First World War and in that time Holland was Neutral.

Referencing : 

The Sapphire Theme. 2009. Sneakerboxxes. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sneakerboxxes.wordpress.com. [Accessed 23 December 13].

The Museum of Modern Art. 2013. Art Thems. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10199. [Accessed 23 December 13].

Rietveld Schroder House. 2008. ArchDaily . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/99698/ad-classics-rietveld-schroder-house-gerrit-rietveld/schroder7/. [Accessed 23 December 13].

Lisa Thatcher . 2012. Line over Form. [ONLINE] Available at: http://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/piet-mondrian-line-over-form/. [Accessed 23 December 13].

wp. 2011. Pablo Picasso-House-on-the-Hill-Horta-de-Ebro. [ONLINE] Available at: http://livelearnloveleave.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/13.PabloPicasso-Houses-on-the-Hill-Horta-de-Ebro-1909.jpg. [Accessed 23 December 13].

The Tear Drop

Streamlining 

When the human started to discover speed he was trying to improve more in hydrodynamic and aerodynamic. Designers started to use the tear drop shape. This was very popular in the 1930´s but its used know a day for purposes not for eye pleasing only. Designers were using the same shapes for everything example vacuum cleaner, lamps, pencil sharpeners, cars, trains, etc …

They also had fixed prices to the products.. Even the advertising was changing by doing posters of the product. They weren´t inventing new stuff the were adopting the product to the streaming effect (tear drop effect). The product were coming in different colours this even helped the growing of economy (market).

This also happened because of the Great depression (1929) the governments wanted the designers to design new things so the economy will get back on it feet.

Audi s1 

The Audi s1 had a bubble shape so it had less friction with air.

Henry Dreyfuss (1904 – 1972)

‘Model 150′ vacuum cleaner, 1935, for Hoover

Henry Drefuss

Steam iron, 1948, for General Electric Co.

Henry Dreyfuss

J-3a New York Central´s premier train

 Henry Dreyfuss

Top 10 fastest train in the world 

These are product that were modified so they could be in the market at that time.

Raymond  Loewly pencil sharpener

Walter Dorwin Teague, Desk Lamp model 114

Here we can see how streamlining is used now a days, actually not all things need to be improved like this chair but that the style comes in. 

Ross Lovegrove, Go Chair 1999

Scott Patt, Athletic Shoes Air Max Contact, 2001

BMW i8 (2013-14)

Lamborghini Veneno (2013)

At the streamlining  effect on moving transport by using less fuel and improved in speed.

Now a days automobiles, aeroplanes etc.. are being perfected by wind tunnel experimentation. Technology is helping by even using computer simulations.

Referencing :

Joa 2. 2007. Daily Icon. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailyicon.net/2008/09/icon-streamline-iron-by-henry-dreyfuss/. [Accessed 17 December 13].

TIM BOUCKLEY . 2010. TIM BOUCKLEY . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.timbouckley.com/news/?p=299. [Accessed 17 December 13].

Richard Leonard´s. 2003. New York Central System . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/nyc5446_rdl.htm. [Accessed 17 December 13].

StudyBlue . 2013. final . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/final/deck/6678247. [Accessed 17 December 13].

Egodesign. 2013. Egodesign. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.egodesign.ca/en/article_print.php?article_id=85. [Accessed 17 December 13].

vwvortex. 2011. the volkwagen enthusiast website . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vwvortex.com/news/volkswagen-news/volkswagen-group-at-2013geneva-auto-show/attachment/lamborghini-veneno-004/. [Accessed 17 December 13].

Beginning of the 20 century

Peter Behrens & AEG 

Peter Behrens born 14 April (1868) in Hamburg and died in Berlin 27 February (1940). Peter Behrens was a founder of modern objective industrial architecture and modern industrial design. When he was still young he was a painter and after he became an Art Nouveau designer. He studied at art school in Karlsruhe, Dusseldorf and Munich.

Peter Behrens was a co-founder of the AEG. The aims they had were to standardise and rationalise form for machine production. They wanted to produce Machine made / mass produced goods of good quality similar to that of craftsman and affordable by the working class.

Peter Behrens was appointed artistic director for AEG (manufacture of electrical machines) 

Peter Behrens

AEG Company 

Electric Fan designed and manufactured by AEG

Plate designed by Peter Behrens (1901)

Peter Behrens for AEG Electric Kettle (1908-1909)

Peter Behrens designed an electric kettle which only the ergonomic shape was change to nowadays kettle. Now a days the electric kettle can consume less energy as they are manufactured more energy saving as the Peter Behrens had design in the AEG (1908-1909).

Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld was an architect and furniture designer. He started working in his father furniture workshop at the age of 12, he started to work with a draughtsman for C.J Begeer a jeweller in Utrecht from 1906 to 1911. He even took evening classes in drawing and the study of ornamentation at Kunstindustrieel Onderwijs der Vereeniging in Utrecht. Bart Vander leak was of great importance for Rietveld´s development in his work. He learnt of recent national and international trends in architecture and the applied arts. 

Red and Blue Chair (1923)

Zigzag chair (1932-34)

Sideboard (1919) 

As we can see in Gerrit Rietveld work that Art Nouveau have part from the curves and wipe lash in the furniture and interior design were getting more geometric and simple. 

Even other artists started to use more geometric forms in there painting. Such as Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla .

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space', (1913) bronze by Umberto Boccioni

Carlo Carra

Abstract Speed + Sound - Giacomo Balla  

Referencing :

Cristian Valbuena. 2012. Artnapper. [ONLINE] Available at: http://artsnapper.com/giacomo-balla-adopts-the-futurism-style/. [Accessed 11 December 13].

The Museum of modern art. 2012. The collection . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=4044. [Accessed 11 December 13].

Artfinding . 2006. Artfindings. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artfinding.com/Auction/Peter-behrens-1868-1940-amp;-aeg-ventilateur-circa-1908-base-tronconique-en-fonte-laquee-noi/4481.html. [Accessed 11 December 13].

TlB. 2010. Tool box. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tlbox.com/category/appliances/small-appliances/electric-kettles/. [Accessed 11 December 13].

Končal, P. 2010. Peter Behrens . [ONLINE] Available at: http://designhistoryresearch.wordpress.com/category/peter-behrens/. [Accessed 11 December 13].

Alvar and I. 2011. From our 50′s couch. [ONLINE] Available at: http://alvarandi.wordpress.com/2011/01/. [Accessed 11 December 13].

Few Steps To Modernism

Few steps to modernism

During the 1920s and 1930s the skyscraper became a potent an uniquely American symbol of modernity. The penthouse apartment in Manhattan was a success and the outline of the New York skyline was recognisable worldwide. It showed strength, power, faith in the future, and rejection of the constraints of the past.

The early few skyscrapers were commercial buildings built between 1884 and 1939, in the American cities of Chicago and New York. The Traditional building in United States were made up of low-rise buildings. This happened with the economic growth after the Civil War it increased with use of Urban land.

The skyscrapers were helped by the use of technology by constructing with fire proofed iron-framed structures with deep foundations, electricity even improved this further by having electric lightings and elevators. The first skyscrapers was 138 foot (42m) Tall Home Insurance Building (1884). 

They burst rapidly and by the 1888 they were being called skyscrapers.

The iconic  Flatiron Building, New York.

                              

The Chrysler building in New York is 

1,046 feet (319 m). This was build in the Art Deco era, this skyscraper is also inspired by the step pyramids.

It is mostly inspired by the Gothic Revival building and the Egyptian pyramids.  The Egyptian used falcons in there paintings and buildings. 

Egyptian falcon

Gothic Revival building

Todays photo of New York bird eye view

The skyscraper was an influence to other designers as we can see here a book case ´Skyscraper` Paul.T.Frankl (American, Vienna 1886 - 1958) Los Angeles California 

(1902- 1905)

Paul.T.Frankl (1902- 1905)

Peter Van Beckum (2013)

Referencing :

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.. 2000. Met Museum of Art LogoThe Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/482533. [Accessed 07 December 13].

jennyp12. 2011. Venustatis, Firmitatis, Utilitatis. [ONLINE] Available at: http://jennyp12.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/gothic-architecture/. [Accessed 07 December 13].

GoddessGift. 2001. Egyptian Gods and Heroes. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.goddessgift.net/gods-and-heroes-egyptian-statues-wall-reliefs.html. [Accessed 07 December 13].

Peter Van Beckum . 2010. PETER VAN BECKUMFURNITURE MAKER. [ONLINE] Available at: http://petervanbeckum.blogspot.com. [Accessed 07 December 13].

ziggy sipz. 2009. foto community . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.fotocommunity.com/pc/pc/display/19635654. [Accessed 09 December 13].