THE MODERN PERIOD

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THE MODERN PERIOD
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Claude Perrault Destabilizing the canonical
nature of Classical architecture. What style to
build with? The various interpretations of the
Classical Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Gothic, and
little later Oriental. The division of
enlightenment thoughts into rationalism and
romanticism. Laugiers rationalism and seeking
the essential aspects of architecture from
nature. Soufflots interpretation of the ideas of
Laugier reductive and sparse. Palladian Revival
and Neo-Classicism Interpretive revival of
classical architecture, and the picturesque
treatment. Piranesi and his archaeological
fantasies. Romantic Classicism The expressive
architecture of Boullee and Ledoux. Durand, and
the systematization of architecture, and its
reduction into elementary units, and
multiple combinations. Structural Rationalism or
Classicism The rational ideas of Viollet le
Duc. The new engineering constructions using
ironwork and glass by Paxton, Eiffel and
Labrouste. Structural Classicism and Romantic
Classicism.
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Global Transformations
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Global Transformations Since the 18th century,
Colonialism, Modernization and Westernization
became terms of global scope. Colonialism and
Modernism related in an oppositional
way. Colonialism as constructor of boundaries
(East/West). Modernism as eliminator of
boundaries idea of one world and
universality. But both colonialism and modernism
are monolithic constructs, utilizing a global
system (East/West, Tradition/Modernity). What is
modernity and modernism? Modernity as a critical,
self-reflective attitude and practice with
universal aspirations. Westernization is the
complex relationship of acceptance of and
resistance to of European ideas and practices in
non-European territories and cultures.
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Political and Social Transformations
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Political and Social Transformations The
structure of globalized power creates new social
and political institutions and deeply affects all
aspects of social life. Dwindling power of
feudalism. Globalized trade structure (with
centers in London and Paris). Rise of
middle-class. Rise of new mercantile and
professional class (the intellectual
class). Marginalizing of traditional groups and
practices. Systematization and homogenization of
education. Urban centralization and
industrialization, and rush to cities. New
arrangements in national, ethnic and racial
identities. Rupture and collapse of traditional
hierarchies. Notions of secularism, humanism,
individualism and egalitarianism enshrined.
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Psychological Transformations
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Psychological Transformations New tensions in
human experience triggered by a set of
dualities. Rational consciousness/Mythological
consciousness Scientism/Archaicism History/Myth
different sense of time Desacralization/Sacrali
ty and loss of center secularism Individual
Identity/Familial-Communal Identity
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Territorial Transformations
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Territorial Transformations Modern
nation-states and articulation of new
identities. Construction of nation and notion
of political nation. Architecture and
Nation-Building. Art and architecture as sites
of nationalist discourse.
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Cultural Transformations
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Cultural Transformations New relationships
between human and nature, and the ideals upon
which architecture will be conceived and
created. Baroque interpenetration of the human
and nature. Picturesque distinctiveness between
the human and nature. Technological changes led
to new infrastructure and to exploitation of an
increased productive capacity. Change in human
consciousness yielded new categories of
knowledge. Antiquity, classical world and thus
history re-assessed. The first as the finest
(Laugier) versus the idea of progressive
development. The architectural bifurcation
between an expressiveness based on character and
content (Romantic Classicism), and structural and
constructional clarity (Structural Classicism).
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Urban Transformations
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Urban Transformations Unprecedented and
monumental changes to the city and human
settlements. The total transformation of the
finite, traditional city. Industrial and
technological achievements affect urban
conditions (such as innovations in machinery,
metallurgy and industrial production). Rapidly
growing industrial population leading to
large-scale human uprooting and migration. New
transportation systems ushered by the
railway. Speed and movement glorified. Finite
city transformed into open and expanding city
with burgeoning suburbs. Concentrated cities
harboring human suffering and disaster leading to
first planning laws and practices. Social and
political need for planned housing. Visionary
and utopian plans for future communities Robert
Owens New Lanark (1815), Charles Fouriers
Phalanestere (1829), J.-P. Godins Familestere
(1859). Rebuilding the existing city Baron
Haussmann in Paris. A New Urbanism
Suburbanization, Garden City and new visions
for the city.
Cultural Transformations
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Technological Transformations
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Technological Transformations New materials,
products, processes, and methods radically
alter how buildings are to be conceived and
made. Various forms of iron and glass, and
reinforced concrete introduced. Innovative
engineering structures from Joseph Paxtons
Crystal Palace to Robert Maillarts
bridges. Much of these innovative materials and
methods enter the language and practice of
architecture.