Note. When the text of Aesthetics of built form was submitted as part of a PhD thesis in 1996, the Notes were greatly extended. As the reader may prefer to ignore them, they have been collected into separate web pages of which this is one. They are a mixture of: simple page references; additional examples or quotations to justify generalisations; and some afterthoughts.
[7.1] De Zurko on the labels of 'functionalism' and 'fitness for purpose'. (1957), pp.239, 240.
[7.2] In classical times, the study of beauty was concerned more with the 'goodness' or worth of objects than with their visual qualities.
De Zurko (1957), p.15. "As far as we know, the ancient Greeks were the first people to take up the problems of beauty in the spirit of contemplative rationalism. They saw relationships between beauty, the good, the true, and the beautiful … The rationalism of the Greeks, their social, practical view toward art, and their sense of the importance of morality and the fitness of things, had a great influence upon all later philosophy of art, especially during the Classic Revival."
Socrates compared the respective beauties of a dung basket and a golden shield. De Zurko (1957), p.16.
[Socrates] also saw beauty in the fact that a house provides a pleasant retreat and a safe storage for the owner's possessions. De Zurko (157), p.20.
Aristotle recognised a form of beauty which is visible only to the eye of reason because it can see beyond superficial effects into the functional and 'structural' basis of forms.
This is a paraphrase of de Zurko (1957), p.23.
[7.3] References to Vitruvius. English translation by Morgan (1914), p.17, and p.13. It is interesting that the longer and better (and much-ignored) list appears before the shorter and much-quoted one.
[7.4] Saint Augustine reference and quotation. Chapman (1939), p. ix, cited in de Zurko (1957), p.33.
[7.5] Saint Thomas Aquinas quotations. Maritain, J. Art and Scholasticism, with other essays. Trans by J. F. Scanlan. Scribner's, New York, 1930. Cited in de Zurko (1957), pp.39-41.
[7.6] During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, architectural treatises … paid little attention to function. Based on De Zurko (1957), pp.45-6.
[7.7] Alberti's treatise was presented to the Pope in 1452 and printed posthumously in 1485. This account was based on Rykwert's preface to the Tiranti facsimile of the 1755 Leoni edition (recorded in the bibliography as 'Alberti 1485').
The quotations, from the preface of Alberti (1485), are cited in de Zurko (1957), p.47.
Alberti wrote how he had studied the principles of design of many different types of buildings … Alberti (1485), Preface, p. xi.
According to De Zurko there was considerable disparity between Alberti's theory and his buildings (de Zurko 1957, pp.47-9). This is a common occurrence and must have much to do with the problem of finding clients willing to accept buildings which are not in accordance with the fashions of the time.
[7.8] Influence of painters and sculptors on Renaissance architecture.
Collins (1965, p.203) quotes Rondelet as writing in 1789 that the first 'architects' to follow the new fashion of the Renaissance had been painters and draughtsmen, who thus had nothing but decoration in mind. "… The special favour accorded to specialist decorators since this time had caused many architects to abandon the study of planning and especially that of construction, because the latter demanded specialist knowledge." The persistent influence of painting and sculpture on architecture is evident in Ruskin's, Lectures on Architecture and Painting: "No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or a painter, he can only be a builder." (Cited in Knevitt 1985, p.184.) Collins's Chapter 23 is devoted to this theme and on his p.226 he mentions the persistence in schools of architecture of a concept of 'composition' almost identical to that used in painting. For the overwhelming dominance of external form in modern architectural criticism see any journal of architecture.
[7.9] De Zurko calls it a period of moralism, rationalism, and naturalism … De Zurko (1957), title of his Chapter 5.
An admiration of perfection and order; and a strong faith in the beauty of nature. De Zurko (1957), p.75
In influential circles, the ancient view was current … De Zurko (1957), p.76, with reference to Shaftesbury.
After 1700 a new interest emerged … Collins relates this to the development of new concepts in landscape gardening (1965), p.53.
[7.10] Francis Hutcheson reference and quotations: De Zurko (1957), pp.78-83 (main quotation, p.79).
[7.11] Views of Hogarth. De Zurko (1957), pp.90-92.
[7.12] Adam Smith references. De Zurko (1956), pp.94-8. The quotation: "The spectator enters by sympathy …" is Smith's (p.95). The quotation "the appearance of utility bestows beauty on all productions of art …" is de Zurko's (p.94).
[7.13] Loudon quotation. Collins (1965), p.218.
[7.14] The late eighteenth century saw the introduction of the picturesque as an aesthetic category distinct from the sublime and the beautiful.
An example is Price's Essay on the Picturesque (1794), cited in Collins (1965), p58. My statement was based on Collins (1965), Chapter 3 and de Zurko (1957), pp.100, 111, 113 amongst others.
[7.15] … the needs of its occupants, the nature of local materials, skills, and climatic conditions, and … the local topography.
These factors provided the basis for an attempt to do away with the double-symmetry of the classical plan.
One author noted …
This was Humphry Repton (Collins 1965, p.58).
[7.16] Peter Collins quotation: "Utility and picturesqueness …" Collins (1965), p.58.
[7.17] Another contemporary pointed out …
This was Uvedale Price (Collins 1965, p.58).
[7.18] The idea that characteristics such as irregularity and novelty were good represented a challenge to classical principles of order and formal planning.
See note above concerning double-symmetry.
[7.19] During this period the disciplines of engineering and architecture were starting to follow separate paths.
Based on general reading, examples of which are Collins (1965), Chapter 18, Martienssen (1976), pp.36-50, and Finch (1951), pp. xxi - xxiii, 103-5, 138-9, and 186-7.
Reference to Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. Inspired by De Zurko (1956), p.164.
[7.20] 19C architects considered that a good plan produced a good elevation. Collins (1965, p.232) states that in the early nineteenth century, for architects such as Durand, "one of the problems of the age was to discover how an efficient plan could produce not merely a good elevation but an expressive elevation". (Once again, it is necessary to note that the functionalist's definition of what is a 'good' plan or elevation would be quite different from that of a classicist.) Durand, who was professor at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris from 1795-1830, was enough of a classicist to reject only 'useless' decoration and to retain a respect for the Orders. However he did recognise Utility as the basis of architecture, as its true objective, and as a source of pleasure. It is interesting that he felt it necessary to defend "design for Utility" against the charge that it is the mere satisfaction of personal whim, caprice, or selfishness. It is ironic that this is the most common complaint voiced by engineers against classical and modern architectural styles. Following Hume and Adam Smith, Durand saw Utility as morally good for both public and the individual, and described a functional building as "the true image of our satisfied needs" (de Zurko, 1956, pp.168-170). According to Collins, economy was Durand's key principle, and he wrote that it is "fallacious to assume that Beauty and economy are incompatible … the latter is one of the principle causes of the former." He also stated that "one should not strive to make a building pleasing, since if one concerns oneself solely with the fulfilment of practical requirements, it is impossible that it should not be pleasing. Architects should concern themselves with planning and with nothing else" (Collins, p.25).
Sources concerning the Académie included Middleton (1982) and Drexler (1977). Modernist condemnation is typified by Le Corbusier (1923, p.165-6): "In a great public institution - the Ecole des Beaux Arts - the principals of good planning have been studied, and then as time has gone by, dogmas have been established, and recipes and tricks. A method of teaching useful enough at the beginning has become a dangerous practice. To represent the inner meaning certain hallowed external signs and aspects have been fixed. The plan, which is really a cluster of ideas and of the intention essential to this cluster of ideas, has become a piece of paper on which black marks for walls and lines for axes play at a sort of mosaic on a decorative panel making graphic representations of star-patterns, creating an optical illusion. The most beautiful star becomes the Grand Prix de Rome." Curtis (1987, p.21) writes of Art Nouveau as embodying "a strong reaction against the degraded Beaux-Arts classicism widely practised in the 1870s and 1880s".
[7.21] Reference to Friedrich Weinbrenner. De Zurko (1957), p.190.
[7.22] Support for functionalist positions may be found in the writings of many who are remembered mainly as revivalists. These include Pugin and Ruskin, and the neo-classicist Schinkel.
Pugin wrote in 1836 that "the great test of architectural beauty is fitness of design for the purpose intended" (de Zurko, 1957, p.126). He was concerned for economy in terms of cash expenditure, criticising the contemporary design of railway stations (presumably the facades), stating that by building "exactly what was wanted, in the simplest and most substantial manner - tens of thousands [of Pounds Sterling] could have been saved and grand and durable masses of building produced" (de Zurko, pp.126-7). He also considered that "there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety" and held that "the style of a building should so correspond with use that the spectator may at once perceive the purpose …" This was the reason, he felt, that different nations had produced different styles suited to the local climate, customs, and religion. Propriety was to be achieved when the interior as well as the exterior aspect was illustrative of and in accordance with the purpose (de Zurko, p.125). He considered that the merit of the Picturesque was a result of "the ingenious methods by which the old builders overcame local and constructional difficulties". He believed also that architectural designs should be adapted to the materials in which they are executed, and claimed that the architects of the middle ages "turned the natural properties of the various materials to their fullest account, and made their mechanism a vehicle for their art." To be consistent a style should be generated, not adopted, as the natural and honest way leads to beauty. There should, of course, be no disguise or concealment (de Zurko, p.129).
Although Ruskin lived from 1819 to 1900, de Zurko (pp.131-9) states that most of his important writing appeared prior to 1850. While he denied that the beautiful is the necessarily the useful, he accepted that form should be related to function. However, he adopted a wide definition of function which included religious, moral and ethical objectives. He maintained that in all things the end must be clearly perceived and must govern the means lest "doubtfulness of the one … cause indistinctness of the other". He also held that Art must be subordinate to use. He saw material service as one of the essential functions of art, and Use as the "universal inspiration" and the "universal benediction" of art. De Zurko notes that "he felt that its entire vitality depends on its being either full of truth, or full of use." Like many commentators of the time, Ruskin had an intense admiration for sailing vessels. He also noted that in drinking vessels and vases use may be successfully combined with Beauty. He considered machine-made ornament to be deceitful, but thought that ornament was the extreme grace in language. However, it should not be obtained at cost of purpose, meaning, force, or conciseness. He respected mechanical ingenuity and admired the Crystal Palace, but did not consider it to be art (de Zurko, pp.131-3).
Schinkel, generally recognised as a leading Neo-classical architect, maintained in 1831 that there should be an "organic" connection between the facade of a building and its interior volume, and that, without a truly satisfactory expression of purpose, a completely satisfactory building cannot be created (de Zurko, p.198). There was a definite trend in interest away from formalist concepts of beauty, and it was generally accepted that "the most powerful emotions were due not to beauty but to the sublime and the picturesque".
[7.23] Horatio Greenough … is considered to have inspired the architect Louis Sullivan, renowned for his dictum "form follows function".
The architectural critic Peter Blake attributed this saying to Sullivan's assistant Adler (Blake 1960, p.77). However in Blake (1977), p.16, he wrote "nobody is quite certain who first proclaimed" this dictum, but "most historians think it was Horatio Greenough".
[7.24] References to Horatio Greenough and quotations "the majesty of the essential …" etc. De Zurko (1957), pp.217-26.
[7.25] James Fergusson quotation "Of those arts …": De Zurko (1957), p144.
Fergusson in 1849 identified three categories of beauty: the technic, the aesthetic, and the phonetic. Technic, or mechanical, beauty he considered to be the same as "perfection", and believed that it needs a trained eye to appreciate it. Thus the sailor recognises the beauty of superior ships, the jockey sees the beauty of superior horses, and the "mechanic" sees the beauty of a superior machine. The ordinary person cannot appreciate the subtle qualities involved and cannot make the distinction between the ordinary and the superior. However, Fergusson still defined architecture as "nothing more nor less than the art of ornamental and ornamented construction", and saw Ornament as distinguishing architecture from "mere building", just as it distinguished the gentleman's coach from the dray. (De Zurko, 1957, pp.144-8.)
[7.26] Challenge to the "pernicious" Italian Renaissance idea that architecture was one of the three arts of design, along with painting and sculpture.
This was made by J. L. Petit in the 1860s (Collins, 1965, p122).
[7.27] The work of engineers was by no means universally admired. Collins states that the theory that form follows function was hotly contested by those who believed that function followed form, as many do today (Collins, 1965, p.155). He adds that there were "… numerous popular criticisms levelled against the engineers' own work on aesthetic grounds" and considers that "few engineers rose to the challenge offered by the aesthetic problems of bridge design …" Even Fergusson wrote in 1849 that scarcely one of the many viaducts, bridges and railway stations then being erected had attempted more than "merely to effect the useful purpose for which it was designed, with sufficient durability and the least possible expense." He admitted that they had unrivalled magnitude and magnificence, and that it was just this mundane attitude of their designers that was the reason that their work had escaped from affectation, and servility to "archaeology", but he claimed that the engineers were neglecting the "vast opportunity afforded for artistic treatment" (Collins, p.191).
[7.28] The Rationalist outlook was prevalent in France during the latter half of the eighteenth century and throughout most of the nineteenth. According to Collins (1965, p.191) the best definition of this school was given by César Daly who wrote in 1864 that their aim was to reconcile modern architecture with modern science and industry. The Rationalists saw this as an interim measure, because once their aim had been achieved, there would be a need to turn to the more elevated task of accomplishing "the alliance of architecture and sentiment". Despite their fundamental classicism, the French Rationalists turned their attention to the paradigm offered by Gothic architecture, especially the "economy and virtuosity" of Gothic vaulting. Thus Soufflot, who designed the Neo-classicist Pantheon in Paris (1755 - c.1792), admired the slenderness and lightness of Gothic construction, but tried to emulate it within the bounds of Classic form. Collins continues, "Rationalism did not mean for him (nor has it ever meant for any reputable theorist of this school) the type of structural economy expressed by adopting naively elemental shapes and constructing them out of cheap materials; it simply meant limiting aesthetic effects to those which logically followed from the nature of the structural components, and designing these components in accordance with rational criteria." (Collins, 1965, p.199.) Nevertheless, the French Academy of Architecture in 1845 declared there was only one natural means for society to be artistically productive and that was to be of its own time, to live with the ideas of its own century, and to appropriate all the elements of civilisation to be found within its grasp, as, for example, "by collecting from the past and the present all elements which can serve a useful purpose" (Collins, p.209). This apparently strange combination of the Zeitgeist with Eclecticism may be interpreted as a thoroughly pragmatic approach to design.
[7.29] The 'Chicago School' and the factors governing the design of city buildings.
At the time of writing illustrations of the buildings of the Chicago School were available in Hitchcock (1971) pp.339-50, Bach (1980), or Zukowsky (1987).
The rise of the School owed much to the devastating Chicago fire of 1871. Many architects moved to the city because of the opportunities afforded by rebuilding. Demand for space in the new central business district was great and provided the incentive to build high. The development of the steel-making process, the marketing of standard steel sections for use in buildings, and the introduction of the Otis elevator provided the necessary means. A brief account is to be found in Hart et al (1978, p.12) and a more extensive account is provided by Zukowsky (1987).
Developers demands.
A contemporary critic reported that he asked "one of the successful architects of Chicago" what would happen if he "sacrificed a storey" to the "assumed exigencies of architecture", as tended to happen in New York. The reply was "Why, the word would be passed and we would never get another [job] to do". Another architect said "I get from my engineer a statement of the minimum thickness of the steel post and its enclosure of terra cotta. Then I establish the minimum depth of floor beam and the minimum height of the sill from the floor to accommodate what must go between them. These are the data of my design." (Schuyler, 1896, p.381.) Schuyler went on to list specific cases in which the client had had a direct influence on the nature of the facade, usually in the direction of austerity.
Characteristics of Chicago architects (Ecole des Beaux Arts etc).
Examples are H.H.Richardson, B.Maybeck, and C.H.McKim (cited in Watkin 1986, pp.453, 495, and 457 respectively); and Richard Morris Hunt, cited in O'Gorman (1973), p.23. Furness worked under Hunt in his early days. Sullivan spent a year working in Paris, although he did not attend the academy.
Rundbogenstil
Examples may be found in Hitchcock (1971), pp.55-6 and 330-2, and in his Figures 199, 200, 202, 204.
The wide 'Chicago window'.
Examples were to be found in Hitchcock (1971) pp.336-50, especially pp.346 and 347; Hart et al (1978), p.12; and Zukowsky (1987).
[7.30] The development of an interest in ugliness and deformity in art and architecture.
Brolin maintains that this was due to a desire on the part of artists, cast in the romantic mould, to break free from the stranglehold of middle-class 'good taste' which had been imposed on them by the economics of the mass production market of an industrialised era. Their only recourse was to overthrow the entire intellectual edifice of aesthetic theory (Brolin 1985, pp.6-11, especially p.11). Ligo finds the reason for the rejection of aesthetic criteria in the abandonment of Eclecticism, and the new wave of Realism in literature, inspired by authors such as Dickens and Hugo, which led to the idea that Ugliness could have moral value (Ligo 1984, p.15). Collins (1965) treats this subject in his pp.244-8. He notes that in contemporary literature there was "a feeling for the artistic virtues of ugliness, and a hyper-sensitivity to the importance of sincerity …" (p.244). Whereas architects who subscribed to the principle of Eclecticism had chosen historically ill-assorted elements because they were, as Collins puts it, "functionally appropriate", architects like Furness chose them "simply because they produced visually exciting and novel compositions".
"Dread of beauty": Collins (1965), p.245. This expression was used in an editorial in The Ecclesiologist.
These charges are now laid by classicists against functionalists and modernists.
An example is Krier's comment that his adversary Mr. Davey "is afraid of pleasure, beauty and order …" (AOBF, Chapter 6, p.186).
[7.31] Peter Collins sees this phase as having provided an important opportunity … Collins (1965), p.247.
[Collins] compares this movement with that of the Brutalists of the 1950s … Collins (1965), p.248.
In a chapter devoted to the relationship between gastronomy and the appreciation of architecture, an analogy frequently drawn by classicists, Collins states that "The standards of gastronomy have been unchanged for two centuries and are uncontested … The standards of architecture might also be uncontested if romantic influences had not, for two centuries, vitiated its theoretical basis, and spread the germs of its debilitating criteria like phylloxera throughout the Western world. It is no co-incidence that Anglo-Saxon cooking is proverbially bad, for bad food and bad architecture both derive from the same philosophical disease. This disease is, quite simply, Romanticism, or the refusal to accept the fact that, in the highest art, sensation must be subordinate to reason." Presumably, the last phrase does not mean that Collins would like to see engineering logic applied to the design of built form! Collins (1965), pp.169-70.
[7.32] Wölfflin, Schmarsow, and von Hildebrand. Zucker (1951, p.9) quotes a number of their original works. Those which relate specifically to architecture are difficult to locate. The more general works, which are well-known in English, include Wölfflin's Principles of art history, Dover, New York, 1960, and von Hildebrand's The problem of form in painting and sculpture, UMI, Ann Arbor, 1978.
[7.33] Zucker references and quotation "The least important part …": Zucker (1951), p.9.
Wölfflin also saw a style as an expression of the Lebensgefühl of an epoch. On the same page, Zucker comments that "this concept of a common denominator of all vital expression of a period did not enter the consciousness of the first generation of twentieth century German architects. The awakening functionalism considered only the mechanistic behaviour pattern and tried to create the most efficient frame and organisation for it." Zucker adds that while, for the German theorists, psychological and physiological reactions provoked by a work of art were the decisive factor, "the least important part of Schmarsow's theory, namely the influence of purpose and function on form, was the one accepted by architects at the beginning of the century. However, the architects were satisfied if the purpose was functionally expressed in the layout and from there transferred to the facade."
[7.34] … remnants of classic and Gothic rationalism lingered, influencing even the "factory aesthetic" of the Germans …
After the First World War, this brief effluence of a truly functionalist approach to built form seems to have come to an end as the artistic inclinations of the leading modernist architects came to the fore. See Zucker (1951), p.10, bottom of col. 1 "The Werkbund Exhibition …" onwards. Although Behrens had designed a series of factories which lacked the rustication and classical pediment of his Turbinenfabrik, these had little impact on the architectural world (Banham 1960, pp.83-4).
Signal gantries.
On p.64, Curtis (1987) writes "Indeed, engineering aesthetics was a topic of recurrent interest to the Deutscher Werkbund, and it was not unusual for debates to be held concerning the relative aesthetic value of one signal gantry over another".
The Deutscher Werkbund.
Comments on the Werkbund were based on general reading including brief introductions in Banham (1960), pp.68-78, Curtis (1987), Chap. 5, Lampugnani (1986), Frampton (1980), pp.109-115, and a copy of Deutscher Werkbund (1913). See also the Hermann Muthesius quotation below.
[7.35] This early, more convincing, functionalism was soon overshadowed by a curious fascination with 'the machine' which was perceived to have mystical qualities, and yet express the 'cold rationality' of its designer. The most extreme advocates of this viewpoint were the Futurists.
These are my quotation marks for terms which recurred (and recur) frequently. For the Futurists, see the note above.
Bruno Taut asserted that "an artist needs to be cold in our century - as cold as steel and glass".
The source of this quotation could not be traced in 1994/5.
[7.36] … the relative practicalities of the CLASP system …
Condensation of the text prior to publication has made this passage read as 'faint praise'. There was no intention to disparage the CLASP system.
Brutalism, the Metabolists, and Archigram.
The main sources on these movements were: for Brutalism, Banham (1966); for Metabolism, Bognar (1985) pp.122-49, and Kurokawa (1977); and for Archigram, Cook (1972).
[7.37] A similar range of approaches exists amongst designers currently grouped by critics under the label of 'High-Tech'.
There is no doubt that Renzo Piano is sincere in his search for genuinely high-tech solutions to problems. The late Peter Rice was equally committed, arguing that the current high cost of high-tech was due to low production runs and that if industry could be convinced to adopt new techniques they would become economic on a large scale (private conversation 1988). Richard Rogers and Norman Foster have a sincere belief, although its results seem tempered by their artistic drives. On the other hand it seems apparent that many medium-rank architects borrow elements of the high-tech style without any real commitment to the principles which gave rise to them.
[7.38] Otto Wagner quotation. See Smith (1979) citing Pevsner (1975), p.32. A photograph of the Vienna Postal Savings Bank may be found in Brolin (1985), p.252.
[7.39] Adolf Loos quotation "Each material …": Zucker (1951), p.10.
[Loos's] views on ornament did not prevent him from giving a special place to the concept of art in the traditional sense …
Loos was reacting against Art Nouveau and associated styles (Frampton 1980, p.90). He declared that "everything which serves a purpose must be excluded from the realm of art", and felt that Art was suitable only for Monuments and Tombs (Zucker 1951, p.10).
[7.40] Hermann Muthesius quotation "a good deal of engineering structures …": Deutsche Werkbund (1913), p.30. A loose translation of the whole passage is: "The development of engineering structures to date - which has occurred independently, without the cosmetic work of architects - shows us that a clarification in the direction of pure form has already taken place. A great number of engineering works - bridges, railway stations, lighthouses, silos - are aesthetically pleasing. This is equally true whether here, the aesthetic sensitivity of the designer has unconsciously entered into his thinking and governed his calculations, or there, an engineer has consciously struggled to attain good form and has achieved his goal."
"Die bisherige Entwicklung der Ingenieurbauten, wie sie aus sich selbst heraus, d. h. ohne die falsche Maskierungsarbeit des Architekten, erfolgt ist, beweist uns übrigens auch, daß eine Klärung nach der guten Form hin bereits stattgefunden hat. Eine große Anzahl von Ingenieurwerken, Brücken, Bahnhofshallen, Leuchttürmen, Silobauten wirken ästhetisch gut, gleichgültig, ob hier das Schönheitsgefühl der Erbauer unbewußt mitgesprochen und sich über den Rechenstab hinaus Geltung verschafft, oder ob der eine oder der andere Ingenieur bewußt um die gute Form gerungen und sie erreicht hat."
[7.41] Gropius quotation: The quotation is on pp.21-2 of Gropius, W. (1913). Die Entwicklung moderner Industriebaukunst: pp.17-22. in Die Kunst in Industrie und Handel. Jahrbuch des deutschen Werkbundes, Diederichs, Jena. A loose translation is: "… in the motherland of industry, in America, have arisen enormous buildings whose untold majesty exceeds that of our best German buildings of similar type. The grain silos of Canada and South America, the coal bunkers of the leading railroads, and the newest factory buildings of the North American industrial trusts, can bear comparison, in their monumental power, with the buildings of ancient Egypt."
"… im Mutterlande der Industrie, in Amerika, sind industrielle Grosbauten entstanden, deren ungekannte Majestät auch unsere besten deutschen Bauten dieser Gattung überragt. Die Getreidesilos von Kanada und Südamerika, die Kohlensilos der großen Eisenbahnlinien und die modernsten Werkhallen der nordamerikanischen Industrietrusts halten in ihrer monumentalen Gewalt des Eindrucks fast einen Vergleich mit den Bauten des alten ägyptens aus."
[7.42] Severini quotation. Banham (1960), p.152.
[7.43] A book became "a machine for reading", or "a machine to think with". A painting was "a machine for moving us", and a house was a "machine for living in". Jencks (1973), p.32.
[7.44] Banham notes Le Corbusier's two themes. Banham (1960), p.223.
[7.45] Le Corbusier quotations:
the works of engineers "can bring those of us who have something of the poet in us to the very extreme of enthusiasm and emotion": Banham (1960), p.250. (An extract from Le Corbusier 1971).
"not in pursuit of an architectural idea …": From Le Corbusier (1923), cited in Banham (1960), p.225.
"If we forget for a moment …": From Le Corbusier (1923), cited in Banham (1960), p.242.
"Architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs …": From Le Corbusier (1923), cited in Banham (1960), p.226.
"lesson of Rome, pure creation of the mind": I have been unable to trace this 'quotation' in 1994/5. I may have confused two chapter headings which appear in Le Corbusier (1923): 'The lesson of Rome' and 'Architecture, pure creation of the mind'. The point that Corbusier could admire classical architecture is valid, since the second of these chapters is a detailed analysis of the architectonic qualities of the Parthenon.
"Past, present and future …": From Le Corbusier (1923), cited in Banham (1960), p.259.
[7.46] Mies van der Rohe quotations:
"The office building is a house of work …" Frampton (1980), p.232.
"Skyscrapers reveal their bold structural pattern during construction …": Banham (1960), p.268.
glass cladding "imposes new solutions": Banham (1960), p.268.
"Greek temples, Roman basilicas, and medieval cathedrals …": Banham (1960), p.271.
"We refuse to recognise problems of form …": Banham (1960), p.271.
the "problems of building": Banham (1960), p.271.
"only where it is left to itself …" and "Whenever technology reaches its real fulfilment …": Frampton (1980), p.232.
[7.47] For the concept of form-type or objet-type see e.g. Banham (1960) pp.205-13, and 221 and Nervi (1965), p.186.
[7.48] Banham [and Collins] share the view that art rather than engineering was the driving force behind the concept.
Reyner Banham wrote: The arguments which led up to the concept of the objet-type or objet-standard were a fusion of Futurist, Cubist, and Classicising themes. (p. 209.)
Banham quoted Ozenfant and Jeanneret writing in La Peinture Moderne sometime after World War 1 "Purism has brought to light the Law of Mechanical Selection … objects tend toward a type that is determined by the evolution of forms between the ideal of maximum utility, and the satisfaction of the necessities of economical manufacture, which conforms inevitably to the laws of nature." (1960, p. 211.) [In the book I wrongly ascribed this second quotation to Banham himself.]
[7.49] Peter Collins quotations: "classical notion of standardisation" and "a notion (so often and so paradoxically rejected …)". Collins (1965), p.230.
[7.50] Collins quotation: "In architecture, surfaces were left completely unmodulated …" Collins (1965), p.278.
[7.51] Corbusier's definition of 'pure art'. Le Corbusier (1923), p.132, cited in Collins (1965), p.278. The full quotation is "Art, in a highly cultivated country, finds its means of expression in pure art, a concentrated thing free from all utilitarian motives - painting, literature, music".
[7.52] J.J.P. Oud quotation "generally too heterogeneous …". Banham (1960), p.159.
[7.53] Robin Boyd on leaking roofs, less-than-pristine surfaces: (1965), p.29.
[7.54] Reyner Banham quotation: "the pre-war Futurist attitude …" Banham (1960), p.152 .
[7.55] Commentators opposed to the modern movement now argue that its propagandists distorted current events and rewrote history …
At the time of writing, this complaint was directed mostly at the critics Giedion and Hitchcock. As Banham puts it (1960, p.309), Giedion's Bauen in Frankreich (1928) compared nineteenth century engineered buildings with those of the Modern Movement in the twenties, and gave an impression of direct descent which completely omitted "the artistic turmoil" of Cubism, Futurism and other movements in Art. The claim of the Modernists that theirs was a functionalist architecture was so effective that even their enemies believed it. Curtis (1987, pp.242-3) gives an account of the famous debate in which Blomfield, the architect of the facades on Regent Street, London, defended the traditionalist position against the threat of barbarism. Curtis goes on to describe Hitchcock, Pevsner, and Giedion as "the early mythographers of the modern movement". Jencks cannot be described as totally "opposed to the Modern Movement", but he is highly critical of many aspects of it (see Jencks 1987). In Jencks and Chaitkin (1988, p.16) he states: "In 1966 I wrote an article History as Myth which argued that the major architectural historians of this century - Siegfried Giedion, Nikolaus Pevsner, Bruno Zevi, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Vincent Scully, Reyner Banham, etc. - wrote a type of history that was necessarily biased towards the values they were promoting …" 'History as Myth' was published in Jencks and Baird (1969), pp.245-65.
[7.56] In the 1930s, the ideals of the modern movement were under attack from political elements, as well as from the 'aesthetic establishment' in Germany, Russia, and Italy.
See Notes to Chapter 6, relating to architecture and politics.
Banham suggests that apologists for the movement made a conscious decision to fight on a narrow front … Banham (1960), p.321, cited in Ligo (1984), p.16.
It has also been suggested that architects were keen to place their theory "on a firm foundation" for commercial reasons.
The source of this statement could not be traced in 1994/5 but is thought to have been Banham. The suggestion was that each of the masters of the modern movement, although subscribing to a philosophy which argued that there was a single universally applicable architecture moving towards unchanging forms, had found it necessary for commercial reasons to adopt a sort of 'product differentiation' so as to distinguish his work clearly from that of the others.
(Practising architects sometimes admit that they use the language of theorists only when they need to impress clients and convince them to accept a design arrived at by intuition.)
Personal communication from a practising architect in Melbourne.
… a few architects were genuine absolutists …
Hannes Meyer, who took over the Bauhaus from 1928 to 1930 denounced all types of sensuality as "a formalism unsuited to scientific socialism". Cited in Jencks (1973), p.87.
[7.57] Many of the technical problems affecting modern architecture are listed in Scott (1976). After referring to problems encountered in a building constructed in the 1930s he continues "… I began to realise that, if this sort of failure can occur to such substantial traditional structures, built by highly skilled craftsmen, then in 15 or 20 years' time we could expect some very serious problems indeed with many of the major buildings constructed since the war using modern building techniques." The problems mentioned include leaking flat roofs, failure of concrete containing high-alumina cement, susceptibility to fire, and poor structural detailing leading to collapse. A very common problem was poor detailing of cladding. Reinforced concrete building frames shorten due to concrete shrinkage and creep, while brick walls expand. If allowance is not made for relative movement, cladding will buckle and in the worst case fall off. See Engineering News Record (ENR), 13 May 1982, p.108. On the architectural side, a spate of books appeared in the 1970s attacking the "failure" of modern architecture: Allsopp (1974), Blake (1974), Brolin (1976), and MacEwen (1974). Although technical problems were mentioned, the main charge brought by these authors was a lack of provision for the "quality of life" of the inhabitants and users of buildings. The most spectacular example was the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis which, when constructed was awarded an international prize for architecture, but in use became a centre of crime. The authorities decided to demolish a number of blocks to reduce the density of housing, and photographs of their demolition by explosives in 1972 formed a potent image (Jencks, 1984, p.9). Demolition of such housing blocks by explosives, after being condemned for social or technical reasons, has become commonplace in recent years.
[7.58] Lift shafts, stair towers, and exhaust stacks were emphasised to enliven the form and "break the box".
This statement seems to have been based on general reading, an example being Brolin (1985), p.259. I do not know whence I obtained the expression "break the box".
As Brolin expressed it (1985, p.262) "buildings were pushed and pulled, bent and twisted, cut and pasted into all manner of 'interesting' shapes".
Both Ligo and Brolin note how articulation of volumes as employed in the Bauhaus Buildings (Fig. 5.4, AOBF) and the Richards Medical Centre (Fig. 10.29, TAISD) came to be seen as functional in itself. See also Ligo (1984), p.26 and Brolin (1985), p.259.
[7.59] John Johansen likened the planning of his Clark University Library to an electronic circuit layout and a critic described it as looking like "the back of a washing machine".
This is another mystery. The electronic circuit analogy appears in Suckle (1980), p.70. The specific reference to a "washing machine" could not be traced in 1994/5. The nearest reference found occurs in the anonymous introduction to an article in Architectural Forum, January 1966, pp.64-7, entitled 'John M. Johansen Declares Himself'. The author states: "His latest project … looks like a giant machine …" This article was cited by Abercrombie (1984, p.144) who also quotes Johansen as saying that the library looks "… like the rear, not the tidy front, of a Xerox copier, with the components and their connections rigged on a structural chassis and exposed".
[7.60] The fact that structure was now concealed behind the curtain wall led to a renewal of interest in expressing it despite the wall … Ligo (1984), p.26.
Artistically contrived forms of sun-shading were similarly justified.
See Corbusier's Millowner's Association Building, Ahmedabad, India (Sharp 1972, p.197). Also Boyd 1965, p.81 and Jencks (1984), p.82.
[7.61] Eric de Maré's photographs. See Maré, E. de (1961) and (1973).
[7.62] … individual engineers … singled out for praise by the architectural critics. At the time of writings sources on these engineers were: Cottam, D. Sir Owen Williams 1890-1969. Architectural Association, London, 1986; Billington (1979) (for Maillart); Torroja (1958a and 1958b); Nervi (1956) and (1965a); Blaser (1989) (for Calatrava). (Calatrava studied architecture before proceeding to engineering.)
[7.63] A "passion for thinness" - Billington (1977a1), p.50.
[7.64] Other designers who have attracted critical attention have been preoccupied with the industrialisation of building.
Those acclaimed by the critics include the French designer Jean Prouvé (Huber and Steinegger, 1971, and Russell 1981) and Renzo Piano (Donin 1982, Piano 1984).
[7.65] There was also a drive to produce mass housing in precast concrete.
These developments were covered in Russell (1981) and Morris (1978).
[7.66] Faults which gave system-building and functionalism a bad name.
In the drive to re-build and develop after the Second World War, techniques such as precast construction, infill cladding, and the use of high-sulphate cement were employed on a scale not previously experienced. Often, personnel involved in design and construction did not fully understand them. The resulting problems are exemplified in tower blocks which have suffered from deterioration of materials, falling cladding, and progressive collapse. Reyner Banham suggested that modernism means for many people "the freedom to live in a house designed as if houses had just been invented". This pithy expression was taken up by Peter Collins in his attack on the "cult of sincerity" in built form.
Banham's remark is cited in Collins (1965), p.253. Collins gives no source, but states that Banham is referring to the consequences of the demand for 'sincerity'. See also the Note above referring to faults of contemporary buildings.
[7.67] Camden Town Community Centre. This project is discussed in Lyall (1980), p.108 and briefly in Jencks and Chaitkin (1988), pp.90-1.
[7.68] Sources concerning Metabolism included Bognar (1985) pp.122-49, and Kurokawa (1977).
Sources on Archigram included Cook (1972) and Jencks (1973).
[7.69] If manufacturers would only … tool up … components would be produced economically.
Both Renzo Piano and Peter Rice have expressed this view. (Piano in a talk delivered at the Conference on Lightweight Structures in Architecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1986, and Rice in a private conversation in 1988). According to Fuller-enthusiasts, his Dymaxion house project had to be abandoned because industrialists were too short-sighted to invest the $10 million at post-war values that would be required even for soft-tooling. See Kenner,H. Bucky: a guided tour of Buckminster Fuller, William Morrow, New York, 1973, p.208, and Marks and Fuller (1960) pp.19-22. A more important factor was probably that the industrialists were not convinced that people would buy these dwellings and call them 'home'. The more conventional mass-produced 'mobile home' has had considerable success (see below).
[7.70] Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower is featured in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, October 1980 pp.74-7, in Suckle (1980), p.40ff, and in Klotz (1986), pp.178ff. The Sony tower (Fig.7.6, p.212, AOBF) is featured in Jencks and Chaitkin (1988), pp.25-7 and in Suzuki et al (1985), pp.116-7.
[7.71] The success of the mobile home. See Russell (1981), Chapter 5.3, pp.175-184.
[7.72] Charles Jencks quotation: "Brutalism tries to face up to a mass-production society …" Jencks (1973), p.257.
[7.73] Risebero comment on the Engineering Faculty Building at Leicester University. Risebero (1982), p.228.
[7.74] Others see 'function' of some sort expressed in the saw-tooth glazing of the drawing offices, the elevated water tank, and the now traditional wedge of the lecture theatre.
Examples include Curtis (1987), p.322 and Jencks (1973), pp.263-4.
[7.75] Considerable recognition has been given to the engineers involved in these developments such as Ted Happold, Peter Rice, and Anthony Hunt.
Not much of this had been committed to print by the time AOBF was written. Cook (1983) briefly mentions Happold, Hunt, and Rice, and also Frank Newby. In 1983 also, the Architect's Journal devoted a special issue entitled 'Organic Mechanic' to engineering in architecture, including articles on Peter Rice and Ted Happold. Happold was also featured in the RIBA Journal for February 1983. Articles post-dating publication of AOBF include obituaries of Peter Rice in Progressive Architecture for December 1992 (p.84) and Architectural Review for 10 January 1993. An article in Architecture d'Aujourd'hui no.267 February 1990, pp.114-40 included Rice, Newby, and Hunt. Anthony Hunt was featured in Techniques et Architecture No.356, 1984 October/November, pp.128-38 and in the Architects' Journal v.197 No.16, 21 April 1993, pp.36-7.
More recently, Thomas Telford Books, the imprint of the Insitution of Civil Engineers has produced its series on The Engineer's Contribution to Contemporary Architecture; though in this case the recognition comes from fellow engineers, rather than architects.
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