building-a-day

a brief look at one building-a-day

[building-a-day]

Weissenhofseidlung, Stuttgart, curated by Mies Van De Rohe, c.1927

Designed during the Deutsche Werkbund. Represented the social and economic changed post WWI. Combined 17 architects from around Europe. Masters such as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius worked on this project. 

[building-a-day]

Bauhaus, Dessau, Walter Gropius, c.1925

Gropius was currently director of the Bauhaus. This was the second Bauhaus school. Rational De Stijl composition. Appears to float due to the setback at the bottom and the white band. Curtain hangs from above and is attached to each floor. The possibilities of photography are important to the design. It is more important to design the building as a whole. 

[building-a-day]

USSR Pavilion, Paris, Konstantin Melnikov, c.1925

Designed for the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs. Prefabricated and painted soviet red. Celebration of a secular society. The interlocking roof canopies was complimented by the kiosks designed in the same style around Paris at the time. 

[building-a-day]

Casa del Fascio, Como, Giuseppe Terragni, c.1932-36

There were Fascist headquarters built in every main city in Italy. Giuseppe experiments with the Palazzo form. Modern technology incorporated such as automatic doors. The architectural effect of the facade is experienced through the contrast between the voids and the frame. Experimentation with the ideas of enclosure and support through the large voids and frame. 

[building-a-day]

Palazzo Della Civiltà Italiana, Rome, Guerrini, Padula and Romano, c. 1942

Built during the Fascist movement. There were many buildings constructed during the time to achieve a new image for Rome. These abstracted, imposing structures that were perfectly symmetrical was part of the fascist image.

[building-a-day]

Italian Pavilion, Brussels, Adalberto Libera and Mario De Renzi, c. 1935

Designed for International Exposition in Brussels. The building has a strong political influence as it was constructed during the Fascist period in Italy. The architects were influenced by Futurist ideas.

[building-a-day]

Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, India, Edwin Lutyens, c.1912-31

References ancient Greek and Roman architecture as well as incorporating the local Indian architecture. The Indian elements included are the the cchajja which is a protruding eave that create strong shadows and shields from heavy rain, the columns were in the Delhi order - which used combines acanthus leaves and Indian bells. The large  dome that is the central focus of the structure combines the Pantheon in Rome and the Buddhist Stupa. The classical elements have been simplified and stripped back in a modernist approach. Lutyens also designed the private gardens at the rear end of the building. The building is now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan and houses the President of India.

[building-a-day]

Tigbourne Court, Surrey, Edwin Lutyens, c.1899

It is a heavy masonry triple gabled roof structure that looks back to the English vernacular. The facade is mostly a place surface, however the ornament is part of the structure - with the concave brick facade. Divided into a public front and a private back, which was a way of designing social housing. The landscape around the building was perceived as a series of rooms with each side of the building having different access routes and landscaping. There is a use of levels to affect the way people interact with the building.

[building-a-day]

Fagus Factory, Alfeld, Germany, Walter Gropius, c. 1911

Utilizes a curtain wall system, which was very new at the time. The building has a reinforced concrete system inside which allows for the free light steel frame curtain wall. Is a rejection of past ideas as it does not reference the classical style of building, however it does look to the work of other modernists. The use of glass curtain walls on the main facade create views and vistas for the factory workers was a social move forward as well as an architectural one.

[building-a-day]

All Saints Church, Margaret Street, William Butterfield, c. 1859

William Butterfield was influenced by AWN Pugin. Designed in the Gothic Revival style. Was very interested in polychromatic bricks as can be seen in the All Saints Church. Utilizes horizontal banding, like natural contours. In the 1850s the brick tax was abolished and therefore he was able to purse this interest in brick work.

[building-a-day]

Euston Station, Philip Hardwick, London, c. 1851

The Euston Station entrance, design during the Greek Revival period is influenced by the Propylaeum on the acropolis. The Propylaeum is a series of temple forms on the way to the acropolis. Philip Hardwick uses this entry form on the entrance to the railway station and it is also known as the Euston Arch. It is designed in the Doric order and is the largest Doric propylaeum built. 

[building-a-day]

 Mereworth Castle, Colen Campbell, Kent, c. 1723

Colen Campbell critiques the modelling/sculptural view of architecture. He designs featured walls with windows punctured into them, instead of elaborate pilasters. With the Palladian designed houses, you can insert and remove elements while still maintaining the Palladian quality. Mereworth Castle is greatly influenced by Palladios design. The structure it is most remnant of is the Villa Rotunda as they are both four way symmetrical designs. They are similar in terms of the basic geometries and ratios. However Mereworth Castle is larger than Villa Rotunda. 

It is currently owned by Mahdi Al-Tajir, the former United Arab Emirates  ambassador to the United Kingdom.

[building-a-day]

Coalbrookedale Bridge, possibly by Adam Darby, England, 1775-79

T F Pritchard designed a bridge based on curved cast iron bridges that are originally derived from the timber bridge model. In Adam Darby designs there was a steeper arch and slots that fit into each other. This was the first vehicular iron bridge in the western world. Build to withstand large compression but is weak in tension though. In the stone bridges prior to this, the circles at the edges served to relieve the pressure on the structure in floods as the bridge would not have to bear all the force. However in this case, they have no structural purpose and are present purely for aesthetic purposes as a remnant to the bridges before it.

[building-a-day]

Majolica House, Otto Wagner, Vienna, c. 1898

Flat building with textile tiled-faced facade. Strong graphic sensibility during the Art Nouveau. Moving from the tactile to the optical in terms of the ornament on the structure which is a key point in modernity. Steel frame building with the tiled facade creating a curtain wall. Named after the tin glazed pottery technique 'Majolica'. The ground level is used for shops and the rest of the structure is residential apartments. 

[building-a-day]

Benyon, Marshall & Bage Flax Mill, Charles Bage, Shrewsbury, c. 1797.

Typical cotton mill is 4-5 stories high. Cotton mill produces fine spores and were very susceptible to fire.  For the first time the beams and the columns were built from cast iron. Timber beams still ran along with it but they were plastered to reduce fire exposure. Brick arches were also plastered for protection. U-shaped columns so that the machinery shafts could pass through it. External walls were masonry with brick arches and wrought iron window frames.

Highly influential on the steel frame buildings that followed it.

[building-a-day]

Post Office Savings Bank, Otto Wagner, Vienna, c. 1904-12

Revolutionary design construction and materials. Resembles a large paneled box and has a machined aesthetic. Polished marble sheets fixed to a frame with aluminium rivets. Aluminium was new material being used at the time and Wagner exposed it to give the building a modern industrial aesthetic.  Consciously shows that the surface is applied by exposing the rivets and bolts. Deep building with atrium spaces in the center with glazed skylight roofs to let light in and heated concrete floors that were quite modern for the time.

Wagner had control over the entire building as he designed the light fittings, air vents. Embellished graphic decorative manner. Winged victory statue at the top corners emphasise the Hungarian power.   

[building-a-day]

The Secession Building,  Joseph Maria Olbrich, Vienna, c. 1897-98 

Joseph Olbrich designed the Secession Building with decoration by the artist Klimpt. Colloquially known as the 'Golden Cabbage'. Applied ornament that is flattened as just surface ornamentation that does not look at traditional architectural past where ornamentation was sculpted. Angular walls holding up the ‘golden cabbage’. Begins a new stylistic phase in which there is a shift towards looking at natural forms. There is a focus on individual imagination and ideas. The forms are new and signify nothing from the past. They speak to the individual identity instead of historical sources. In the context of the time it towered over the flat landscape. It was a building that housed exhibitions of new forward thinking artists.