What is Modern

1
What is Modern?
The sensibility engendered as a response to the
technological, artistic, cultural upheaval that
is the 20th century. This class is for the period
roughly from 1800 to 1945. What is the
significance of these dates?
2
What is Modern?
Definition of Modernization - In the 20th
century, the social processes that bring this
maelstrom into being, and keep it in a state of
perpetual becoming, have come to be called
"modernization". Definition of Modernism - These
processes have nourished an amazing variety of
visions and ideas that aim to make men and women
the subjects as well as the objects of
modernization, to give them the power to change
the world that is changing them, to make their
way through the maelstrom and make it their own.
Over the past century, these visions and values
have come to be loosely grouped together under
the name of MODERNISM. (from ALL THAT IS SOLD
MELTS INTO AIR. Berman)
3
The Mechanical Paradise
In 1913, the French writer Charles Peguy remarked
that the world has changed less since the time
of Jesus Christ than it has in the last thirty
years. What has our culture lost that the
AVANT-GARDE had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism,
confidence, the belief that there was plenty of
territory to explore, and above all the sense
that ART could find the necessary metaphors by
which a radically changing culture could be
explained to its inhabitants.
4
The Machine in 1889
The machine was thought of as good, strong,
stupid, and obedient. They thought of it as a
giant slave, controlled by REASON in a world of
infinite resources. Only very exceptional sights,
such as a rocket launch can give us anything
resembling the emotion with which our ancestors
contemplated heavy machinery. More and more
people were living in a machine-formed
environment. THE CITY. The TRAIN. Fast Travel
of a Machine on Wheels.
5
(No Transcript)
6
Impressionism
The founders of impressionism were Claude Monet,
Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic
Bazille. The movement lasted from 1867 to 1886
and was thought to have started the modern period
of art. Impressionists painted outdoors (en
plein-air). This was made possible by the
invention of collapsible tin tubes of paint.
7
Claude Monet. Rouen.
8
Claude Monet. Houses of Parliament. 1905
9
Karl Marx observations
"The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly
revolutionizing the instruments of production,
and with them the relations of production, and
with them all the relations of society ...
constant revolutionizing of production,
uninterrupted disturbance of all social
relations, everlasting uncertainty and agitation,
distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier
ones." He goes on ... "All fixed, fast-frozen
relations, with their train of ancient and
venerable prejudices and opinions are swept away,
all new-formed ones become antiquated before they
can ossify. (building programs change before the
building is even designed). ALL THAT IS SOLID
MELTS INTO AIR. , all that is holy is profaned,
and men at last are forced to face ... the real
conditions of their lives and their relations
with their fellow men. "
10
Henri Matisse. La Danse. 1910.
11
Pablo Picasso. Les demoiselles dAvignon. 1907
12
Pablo Picasso. Jeune fille a la mandoline. 1910

13
Will to Change
A common thread (of texts relevant to Modernity)
is that the protagonists are all motivated by a
WILL TO CHANGE. - to TRANSFORM both themselves
and their world and by a terror of
disintegration and disorientation, of life
falling apart. They all know the thrill and the
dread of a world in which all that is solid
melts into air. - Marshall Berman.
14
Authenticity
As mans control of the natural world through
technology intensifies, AUTHENTICITY becomes
more and more of an issue for modern man. It
takes on an ethical imperative. For all of us
MODERNISM IS REALISM (Berman). This is the
world we are living in, like it or not.
ZEITGEIST Spirit of the Age.
15
Contradictions and Complexity
Modern life is inherently plagued by
CONTRADICTIONS Marx. Hence COMPLEXITY. One of
the impulses of early modern architecture was to
try to conceal these contradictory forces.
Robert Venturi. Complexity and Contradiction in
Architecture.
16
3 Phases of Modernity
Phase 1 1600 to 1800 People are just
beginning to experience modern life. They don't
quite know what is starting to hit them
yet. Phase 2 Begins with great revolutionary
wave of 1790s. With the French Revolution and
its reverberations , a great modern public
abruptly and dramatically comes to life. Public
is conscious of living in great upheaval, and
feels as if it has one foot each in a different
world. Phase 3 Begins with 20th century.
Modernization expands to take on the entire
world. Developing world culture of modernism
achieves spectacular triumphs in art and
thought. But, as the modern public expands, it
shatters into a multitude of fragments, speaking
different private languages. The idea of
modernity, conceived in different fragmentary
ways, loses much of its power. It loses its
capacity to give MEANING to peoples lives. We
find ourselves today in a modern age that has
lost touch with the roots of its own modernity.

17
Utopian Socialism - Charles Fourier
18
Phalanstery (1808)
19
Phalanstery Red Bank
20
Brook Farm (1841)
21
Godin Familistere (1848)
22
Jeremy Bentham - Utilitarianism
23
Panopticism
24
Piranesi
25
Carceri (Prison) drawings.
26
Piranesi. Sketch of Ruins at Paestum.
27
Piranesi. Sketch
28
John Soane
29
John Soane. John Soane House.
30
John Soane. Stables
31
Progression of Thought (Theory) leading for
formulation of Theory of Types.
Claude Perrault Abbe de Cordemoy Jacques
Francois Blondel .. All the different kinds of
production which belong to architecture should
carry the imprint of the particular intention of
each building, each should possess a character
which determines the general form and which
declares the building for what it is -
Blondel J.N.L. Durand (student of Blondel)
Durand was also a student of Boullee. Quatremere
de Quincy - first formal explication of TYPE
(1825)
32
Cordemoy
Ornamentation had to be subject to propriety.
Argued that many buildings required no ornament
at all. Adolf Loos ornament is crime.
33
Abbe Laugier / Soufflot
Abbe Laugier Reinterpreted Cordemoy to posit a
universal natural architecture.
(Romanticism) The primordial Primitive Hut He
asserted this primal form as the basis for a sort
of classicized Gothic architecture in which there
would be neither arches nor pilasters nor
pedestals, and where interstices between columns
would be as fully glazed as possible. Soufflot
realized this vision in his church of Ste
Genevieve in Paris (now called Pantheon).
34
Primitive Hut according to Abbe Laugier.
35
Soufflot Ste. Genevieve Church (Paris)
36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
Visions of Utopia
For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life
is planted, the time to come is prepared,
plenteousness is made ready, a city is builded,
and rest is allowed, yea perfect goodness and
wisdom. The root of evil is sealed up from you,
weakness and the moth is hid from you, and
corruption is fled into hell to be forgotten.
Sorrows are passed, and in the end is shewed the
treasure of immortality. -2 Esdras 8 52-54
41
Thomas More. Utopia. 1516
42
Sforzinda. Filarete. 1460
43
Palma Nova. Scamozzi
44
Timaeus. Plato. 360 B.C. Describes Utopia of
Atlantis
45
Babylon. Tower of Babel. A Fallen City.
Dystopia
46
Francesco di Giorgio. Perspective of a Square.

47
Bramante Tempietto.
48
(No Transcript)
49
3 Visionary Architects Ledoux, Boullee,
LequeuPalaces for the People
50
Boullee. Cenotaph for Newton. 1784
51
Isaac Newton
52
Cenotaph for Newton (1784) Boullee. Project.
Interior.
53
Cenotaph for Newton (1784) Boullee. Project.
Exterior.
54
The Sublime. World Trade Center. Temporary
Monument.
55
Boullee Bibliotheque Nationale Interior
56
Boullee Bibliotheque Nationale Exterior
57
Boullee Opera au Carousel
58
Arc de Triomphe (1836) Paris
59
Ledoux Salt Works at Chaux
60
Ledoux Directors House
61
Ledoux Entry Portico
62
Ledoux Gardeners House
63
Ledoux Waterworks Directors House
64
Le Pavilion de la Villette (1785-1789)
65
(No Transcript)
66
(No Transcript)
67
Brothel at Chaux
68
(No Transcript)
69
Michael Graves influence of Ledoux
70
Lequeu
71
(No Transcript)
72
Durand
Jean-nicolas-louis Durand, reduced Boullees
ideas to a system of BUILDING TYPOLOGY. Set out
in his Precis des lecons a LEcole Polytechnique
(1802-09) Napoleonic empire needed facilities to
run its government, needed them fast, cheap, and
standardized. Durand set up a system whereby
modular parts could be assembled into different
configurations to create these various building
types. That type of thought still goes on
today, for example the GAP has a prototype
design that they use for all stores, which are
then adapted to specific locations as required.
73
(No Transcript)
74
Schinkel Altes Museum Berlin
75
(No Transcript)
76
(No Transcript)
77
(No Transcript)