Welcome to The Modern Age

based on readings from "From Bauhaus To Our House" by Tom Wolfe

After World War I was over, Europeans wanted a new start on things. They talk about "starting from zero" and recreating the world. Walter Gropius, or Silver Prince, founded the Bauhaus School which young architects and artist came to study about "starting from zero."

The Bauhaus was formed having two goals in mind. One being to create for the workers and the other to reject all things bourgeois. But what really defines what is bourgeois and non bourgeois?

The word, bourgeois, means of or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes. In my opinion, what Gropius along with the other architects at that time thought was bourgeois was just about anything that was conventional. Basically, anything that had cornices and high pitched-roof. There were no set-in-stone rules that tell you what is bourgeois and non bourgeois. I think that the word 'bourgeois' had been so refined that it had become too vague.

The newly developed movement was at first defined by the latest theory of what was non bourgeois. New materials were introduced, blending in concrete, steel, wood, glass, and stucco. White, beige, gray, and black were their patriotic colors.

The theories they manifested when constructed, made the buildings nonfunctional even though their aim was to build everything functional. Ornaments and decorations outside of buildings which does not serve any functions were a no- no.

One of the avant-garde for this movement, which became known as the International Style, was Le Corbusier. He strongly believed that this was the coming of the machine age. He designed and built Villa Savoye which defined the new movement. The Villa Savoye followed Le Corbusier's five points which includes:

1. Use of pilotis to raise the buildings above ground and free the space under the building.

2. Free the plan: Using a frame construction to free the plan from load-bearing walls to flow according to function and aesthetics.

3. Free the facade that can become a void, a large window or a thin membrane.

4. Use of horizontal strip windows that let in the most light.

5. The roof garden: switching from pitched roof to a flat roof and using the space as a garden terrace and bringing the landscape into the house.

A topic that could be raised is if Le Corbusier's designs were functional or not. Although his aim, similar to all the rest of Bauhaus, was to design for the workers; it resulted with the workers complaining because it was too machine-like. The workers tried to make the place more comfortable and cozy. And what did Le Corbusier had to say about this? He says that "they had to be reeducated to comprehend the beauty of 'the Radiant City' of the future" (Wolfe 32). In other words, they were too "intellectually undeveloped" to understand. Why would they want to design for the workers if they didn't ask what the workers wanted? Shouldn't the worker's need be one of the most important factor to take into consideration?

The principle of "expressed structure" was also another newly formed theory. The idea was basically to design so that the inner structure will be expressed on the outside of the building. Schroeder House, design by Gerrit Rietveld, was a clear example of this principle. The building's exterior symbolizes the grid and its geometric progression of its plan.

Citation:

Walter Gropius. Photograph. Born Today. Web. .

Wolfe, Tom. From Bauhaus to Our House. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1981. Print.