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ARCHITECTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Classical Revival Eclecticism Cast Iron Age Industrial-Age Architecture
Week 3, 14.10.2011
WORLD HISTORY
Steel developed U.S. Civil War breaks out Lincoln abolishes slavery Suez Canal built Prussians besiege Paris
Population of Paris hits 2,200,000
First motorcar built
Hitler born
1849 1850 1852 1854 1855 1856-1857 1857 1859-60
The Stone Broker, Courbet
Courbet’s Pavillion of Realism
Red House by Philip Webb (Arts &Crafts)
1860 1861 1862 1863 1869 1871 1873 1874 1876 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1885 1886 1888 1889 1901 1902 1903 1905
Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve (Neo- Renaissance) Houses of Parliment, London (Neo-Gothic) Crystal Palace, First cast-iron and glass structure
The Third Class Carriage by Daumier
Snapshot photography developed Corot Painted Orpheus Leading Eurydice Garnier built Paris Opera (Neo-Baraque) Manet painted Luncheon on the Grass
First color photos appear Impressionists hold first group show
VanGogh begins painting career Manet painted A Bar at the Folies-Bergère Monet settles at Giverny
IMPRESSIONISM
Custer defeated at Little Big Horn, Bell patents telephone Edison invents electric light
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY Smirke finished British Museum
REALISM
Flaubert writes Madame Bovary Mendel begins genetic experiments First oil well drilled, Darwin publishes Origin of Spaces
ART HISTORY 1848
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
Marx and Engels issue Communist Manifesto, Gold discovered in California
First Chicago Skyscraper built Impressionists hold last group show Portable Kodak camera perfected Eiffel Tower built
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Architecture in the nineteenth century: Déjà vu all over again Near the turn of century, architecture branched out into several directions: • the Neo-Classical tradition continued to dominate public buildings like banks , libraries and city halls: Classical Revival (from Greek to Roman) •At the same time, there was new materials, new technology and new needs. New functions required new building forms, like factories railroad stations, department stores. New Materials like cast and wrought iron, plate glass, steel and reinforced concrete became available: Cast Iron Age
Eclecticism •
However, instead of welcoming the possibilities of a new age, and devising forms appropriate to the present, architects retreated to tradition. Only around the end of century, in the upstart city of Chicago, where there was no tradition, did architects produce innovative structures, without referring to the past.
• Classical Revival from Greek to Roman: civic buildings • Gothic Revival : Church, university and domestic architecture •
historicism and eclecticism caused the lack of any originality. In this age, the major thrusts of
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England’s Neo-classic Revival (1800-1830): Rememberance of Things Past “For although it is difficult for man to learn, it is much more difficult for him to forget.” This was a phrase from Viollet-le-Duc who despised Classical affection. Apparently, it was equally difficult to invent new forms, since from 1800 to 1830, the Classical style reigned supreme in both Europe and America.
British Museum, London, By Smirke, 1824-1847
English building is flaunted familiar elements: *coloumns, *rounded arches, *temple fronts, *domes, and *flanking wings. Yet, the combinations often were not purely Greek or Roman, but a generic mishmash called:
Neoclassic Revival. Sir Robert Smirke who designed British Museum is a leading Neoclassic architect.
British Museum, London, By Smirke, 1824-1847
This Greek Revival building has
two projecting wings flanking a central portico unified by a screen of Ionic columns.
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The Reading room of British Museum, A dome, London, by Robert Smirke, 1824-1847
THE CONFUSING MIX OF HISTORICISM AND ECLECTICISM...
Taylorian Institution, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Cockerell, 1839-45
Taylorian Institution, Ashmolean Museum, 1839-45, designed by Cockerell: Cockerell made important archeological discoveries during his grand tour of Greek ruins. He combined elements from classical prototypes of all periods, like a survey course in Classical inspiration. Here, he joined giant ionic columns from Greece, with a baroque broken entablature, and roman arches. The statues atop columns recall Adamesque design, while the Rusticated base suggests Mannerist palazzos of the Renaissance. Neither greek nor roman, it seems to have been constructed by commitee, with a dip of this and a dash of that. Neoclassicism fizzled fast. By the end of the 1830s , English taste shifted toward Gothic.
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Aerial view of Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Cockerell, 1839-45
Model of Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Cockerell, 1839-45
Entrance of Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Cockerell, 1839-45
England’s Gothic Revival (1830-1850): Faith and Fashion For A.W.N. Pugin and John Ruskin, Gothic architecture was equal to an ethical society. It was not a style but a principle, for Pugin. It had rational structural principles, which could be adopted to industrial age construction.
Houses of Parliament, London ,eclecticism (Neo Gothic), 1839-52, Charles Barry&Pugin
When Houses of Parliament was built along the Thames River, Pugin clothed the plan by Charles Barry in Gothic detail. Although the facade along the river is symmetrical, the silhouttte is completely asymetrical. Pugin was aware of the contrast between Barry’s clear layout and his veneer of medieval ornament. Nonetheless, the whole ensemble from stone carvings, wall paper, umbrella stands, to inkwells and hat racks were designed by Pugin in Gothic style. The Gothic look of this building was so well received that it legitimized the style, which spread throughout England during the first 50 years of Victoria’s reign (1837- 1887).
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House of Lords, interior, Houses of Pariament, London ,eclecticism (Neo Gothic), 1839-52, Charles Barry&Pugin
Pugin designed this interior modeled on Perpendicular Gothic. Although roof trusses are framed in new material of iron, medieaval touches like murals, stained glass, mosaics, gilded (gold) panels, carved wood, and statuary lend a medieval air.
Madeleine church, 1806-1842, eclecticism(Greek Revival)
The Madeleine Church or simply "La Madeleine" is an imponent Roman catholic church that looks like a Roman temple. The Madeleine is built in the NeoClassical style and was inspired by the Maison Carrée at Nîmes, one of the bestpreserved of all Roman temples.
Maison Carrée at Nîmes
•Its fifty-two Corinthian columns, each 20 metres high, are carried around the entire building. •The pediment sculpture of the Last Judgement is by Lemaire, and • The church's bronze doors bear reliefs representing the Ten Commandments. Corinthian column
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Madeleine Church, Interior
The Beaux-Arts Opera House was the epitome of a reactionary style modern architects rejected. With its paired Corintihian coloumns, profusion of sculpture, and ostentatious ornament, it was the biggest and shoviest theater in the world. The Grand Stairway, interior of Opera Building, Paris
The Opera Building of Paris, 1862, Neo-Baroque, Charles Garnier
The Palais Garnier, Opera, Paris, (1825-1898). This masterpiece of BeauxArts or Second Empire style has a Baroque exterior: maximum effect through sculpted mass, rythm of solids and voids, and diverse but unified texture and forms.
The interiors are, for Garnier, a social stage for operagoers. He enlarged lobbies, and corridors to accommodate crowds. “The sparkling light, the resplendent clothes, the smiling, animated faces, the encounters which occur, the greetings exchanged,” he said were all part of the show. The main display case was the soaring flights of stairs, where patrons could regally ascend toward the auditorium→ Garnier’s greatest achievement is
creating this setting for social ceremony.
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Plan, Opéra:
Emperor’s entrance
The Ecolé des Beaux-Arts, where Garnier studied architecture, stressed clear circulation
patterns, and the gradual unfolding of aesthetic experience of a building. Garnier accomplished the latter through a series of low-
ceilinged paths approaching the grand stairs, giving way to the vast
Backstage area
Vestibule Grand Foyer
Stage
Administrative offices
Entrance for those arriving on foot
Stair Hall and Grand Staircase
Auditorium Entrance for those arriving by carriage
space of the stair hall, where the social pageant was at its most intense. His ingenious plan, on a diamond shaped lot, includes different
entrances for assorted operagoers, whether arriving on foot or by carriage, with facilities for season-ticket holders and those purchasing at the box office.
Lined with painted ceilings, colorful marble columns, gilded statuary, and sumptuous chandeliers, the stairway drips with gilt and relief carving. One critic described it as “looking like an overloaded sideboard.” to Garnier, the stairway was the climax of a total theatrical experience orchestrated by the building.
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Sainte Genevieve library, steel, 1838-50, Henri Labrouste
This library was the first high style public building to use iron in a visible and prominent fashion. Labrouste believed the century should develop an architecture for contemporary needs and made of modern material.
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It was designed in Neo-Renaissance style by the architect Henri Labrouste, although its underlying metal structure relates it to cast iron architecture (examples of which are the Eiffel Tower or The Crystal Palace); it was built between 1843 and 1850.
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The library’s plan is simple: a two story rectangle, where the entire upper floor is reading room. 211 barrel vaults are covering the reading room. In the center, there is a row of slender cast-iron columns that divides the room into two naves.
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Both functional arrangement and circulation are clearly expressed in the structure, using new materials without Classical overlay.
Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, Reading Room, 1842-50
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Although trained at the famed Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Henri Labrouste was an opponent of the dominant Neoclassic style. He believed that the century should develop an architecture for contemporary needs and made of contemporary materials. The radical novelty of Labrouste’s design combines a traditional, arcuated, masonry exteriorwith an inteiror like none before it.
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The Renaissance-style facade contains another innovation: in place of decorative stone columns, Labrouste had the names of 810 authors carved in rows of letters, almost like the columns of newspaper.
“Facade follows function” is not exactly a relying cry for modern architects, but Labrouste anticipated Postmodernism by
adorning his building with text to declare its purpose.
Pennsylvania Station, New York, by McKim, Mead & White, 1902-10
• Penn Station is the project in which McKim, Mead and White combined Neo Classicism with 20th century. • Three porticos, connected by wings, were linked by repetitive columns. The waiting room roof can be seen in the background. • The building was functionally superb, expressing its purpose through modern materials and clear forms. • The exterior was pure NeoClassical, covering two city blocks . The Portico and Facade of an Elaborate Neo-Classical Building Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778/Italian) Pen & ink
Flat (or hipped) Roof
Symmetrical Massing
Parapet Wall Cornice Attached Collonade
Corner Plasters Stone Body
Stone Banding Stone Base
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Detail of Neoclassical Portico
Interior view from the concourse level
At the concourse level, modern engineering reigned. Glazed vaults of exposed steel coloumns, steel arches, and glass were purely utilitarian to cover the tracks.
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To convey the dignity of a major portal to New York City, its waiting room was modeled on Roman baths, increased 20 percent in size.
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The Waiting Room
OLD AND NEW COLLIDE... The two faces of New York’s Pennsylvania Station show extremes of style as architecture approaced to a turning point. The waiting room, an inspring public space, is modeled on the Roman Baths, while the soaring concourse reinterprets ancient arches and columns in modern materials and engineering. Concourse
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The Cast-Iron Age •
The second direction that architecture branched out near the turn of century was due to industrial structures. They were not considered as “architecture,” but they heralded a future era of metal frame, rather than masonry, support — the shape of things to come.
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Throughout the nineteenth century, the most progressive buildings were for transport and industry, created by enginerrs in a simple, functional style, out of iron and glass.
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If the challenge of the century was to develop a contemporary style: then London’s Crystal Palace showed the way.
This exposition hall was created to display the wonders of Victorian technology.
It was an oversized greenhouse, devoid of historical ornament. The building showed the aesthetic possibilities of a cast-iron framework.
Its designer, Sir Joseph Paxton was not an architect, but a builder of greenhouses. When Prince Albert decided to house the first World’s Fair in London for show off, there was a limited time for construction, and it was impossible to built one with ordinary building techniques. Only a prefabricated shell could be built in this short period and Paxton is the perfect figure for the task.
Joseph Paxton, The London Crystal Palace, 1854
In six months, identical modular cast iron columns and beams were manufactured. They were shipped to Hyde Park, and mounted with standardized panes.
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The iron and glass structure was designed as a huge conservatory, covering 21 acres, and enclosing all the trees already on site. For the first time, the volume enclosed surpassed the mass of the building— more a bubble, than a box. Interior space, flooded with light, seemed infinite, the structure itself almost weightless.
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Crystal-palace interior , 1854, Joseph Paxton Revivalist architects harsly criticized Crystal Palace. For them “such a building of untraditional materials, without historical details or mass, was not a real building but a lattice sheathed in glass, more like a railroad shed or bridge. That is why, the revolutionary construction did not influence orthodox buildings of the day. But, it certainly is a forerunner for 20th century glass, curtain-wall skyscrapers. Paris World Fair, 1825
Industrial-Age Architecture The structure that proved what a steel skeleton could accomplish was the Eiffel tower. The tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel, a bridge engineer.
Tower’s silhouette is a direct expression of its structure. Four wide footed piers are stabilized by two platforms. The only non-structural element is the grillwork arches linking the bases, added by Eiffel, to give the appearance of buttresses and reassure visitors that the novel structure was safe.
The tower is still considered as a triumph of modern engineering. The Eiffel tower flaunted its iron-and-steel skeleton, devoid of allusions to past architectural styles. Eiffel Tower, 1887-1889, Eiffel
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The Brooklyn Bridge (1883) introduced a heroic new scale to the urban world. Triumph of engineering for that day. The first wire suspension bridge, it was the longest bridge in the world when completed. The granite towers designed with pointed arches, like in Gothic style and the pure structure of bridge together represented a unity of old and new.
An significant building constructed for the fair was the Galerie des machines (1889), designed by architect Ferdinand Dutert and engineer Victor Contamin. It was reused at the exposition of 1900 and then destroyed in 1910. At 111 meters, the Galerie (or "Machinery Hall") spanned the longest interior space in the world at the time, using a system of hinged arches (like a series of bridge spans placed not end-to-end but parallel) made of steel or iron. The choice of construction material is controversial; the building was designed to be built with steel but was actually constructed in iron. Galerie des Machines, cast-iron(makine teshir salonu) 1889, François Dutert
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Galerie des Machines, cast-iron(makine teshir salonu) 1889, François Dutert
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