WEEK 10 - Modernism in America (Part One)

Modernism started in Germany and France, and it spread from those countries to many other countries throughout the globe. Travel, journals, books and exhibitions were some of the vehicles that carried the lessons of modernism worldwide. The effects of World War II also contributed to the spread. The war forced Bauhaus to close, and compelled many of the designers to emigrate to Britain, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya, and Japan. Many of the pioneers of modernism, such as Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe, fled from their original countries and ended up in the United States. 

The Unites States was not as affected by the war as many European countries. After the war, many European countries were in a desperate state, and for the years that followed they were still trying to recover from the hit. America, on the other hand, was in good economic shape, and in the years between 1950-1970, it was the world leader economically. 

The 1950's in America was a great time for design. The government encouraged the growth of homeowners by offering subsidies for first-time homeowners. The increase in the amount of homeowners led on an increase in the demand of home furnishings and designers. 

The manufacturing process played a huge role during this period. During the war, it was used by the military for the production of war equipment. However, now it could be applied to furniture-making, and great results were created using molded plywood and molded plastic. 

Historical Examples:

Glass House by Philip Johnson 1949
New Canaan, United States 
Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra 1946
Palm Springs, California, USA
Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright 1935
Pennsylvania, USA

Current Applications:

 

One Step Further...

Richard Joseph Neutra is an Austrian-born American architect, born in 1892, in Vienna. He studies at Vienna University of Technology, with Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner, and at the University of Zurich. He moved to the United States in 1923, and worked for the firm of Holabird and Roche in Chicago and with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. 

Neutra moved to Los Angeles in 1926 and established his own practice. It is there that he designed his most important early work, the Lovell House. This house is stylistically similar to the works of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe in Europe, with glass expanses and cable-suspended balconies. He designed throughout the 1930's in the International Style.

His most memorable works, both designed shortly after World War II, include the Kaufmann Desert House (Palm Springs, CA 1946), and the Tremaine House (Santa Barbara, CA 1947). They are fine examples of the International Style, and are carefully placed in the landscape. 
Tremaine House by Richard Neutra 1947

Landscape around Tremaine House



Comments

  1. amberbuieApril 7, 2018 at 9:37 AM

    Eunice,

    Thank you for sharing the image of The Glass House by Philip Johnson. It is clear that Johnson took inspiration from Mies and his Farnsworth house. This just reiterates that modernism was a vast field and was spreading rapidly.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WEEK 6 - The Emergence of Modernism

Image
Modernism is a design movement that happened between World War I and World War II. After WWI, there was a chance to redesign things and step forward in the future. Although it may seem that Modernism sprung out of nowhere, Art Nouveau, the aesthetic movement, and Prairie Style explored issues that contributed to this movement.  What also contributed to the movement was technological advancement, such as the development of skyscrapers, railroad stations, elevators, moving pictures, automobiles, and photography. Modernism embraced the Industrial Revolution. It relied on the use of machinery and mass production; and the machine itself was a source of design inspiration.  Functionalism is a term used to describe this new way of designing. It is a design philosophy that focuses on designing primarily for the function with no unnecessary ornamentation, and on designs that are easy to produce. The materials used to achieve this were: steel, glass, molded plywood, plastic, and conc...
Read more

WEEK 4 - Protomodernism

Image
Protomodernism is a design style that predicts the Modernism that is to come.  It began in 1959 as yet another movement against the Victorian style, but it used different methods that were unlike the Arts and Crafts Movements or Art Nouveau. Protomodern designers rejected "ornamentation." And although they also used nature as an inspiration, they used forms that were more linear and geometric. In Europe, Germany and Austria were the key players in this movement. In German, there was the Deutscher Werkbund movement, and in Austria, the Vienna Secession.  The Deutcher Werkbund was a German association of designers and artists who embraced the use of the machine. Their goal was to produce high quality design with mass production. So, design professionals and product manufacturers collaborated to improve the German design. This movement inspired the early works of well known Modern designers Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe.   "To secede" means "t...
Read more

WEEK 11 - Modernism in America (Part Two)

Image
[Mid-Century Modernism]   We see the second phase of modernism in the 1950's. In America, this was a period of continued exploration and experimentation, especially in furniture design because of the manufacturing process. This inspired new creative forms, and allowed for the use of a variety of materials, including molded plywood and plastics, metal composites, laminates, resin, and fiberglass.  Mid-century modern architecture was extremely popular on the West Coast. Joseph Eichler was a real estate developer who developed distinctive residential subdivisions of Mid-Century modern style tract housing in California. He and his Eichler Homes, Inc. build around 11,000 single-family homes in Northern California. This style is characterized by flat roofs, angular details, and asymmetric profiles; with great expanses of glass, and wide open floor plans. Also important was the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. This was done not only with expansive walls of g...
Read more