Futurist Architecture

Futurist architecture From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Perspective drawing from La Città Nuovaby Sant'Elia, 1914. Futurist architecture is an early-20th century form of architecture born in Italy,

characterized by anti-historicism, strong chromaticism, long dynamic lines, suggesting speed, motion, urgency and lyricism: it was part of the Futurism Futurism,, an artistic movement founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Marinetti , who produced its first manifesto, the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909. The movement attracted not only poets, musicians, and artists (such as Umberto Boccioni, Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Balla,Fortunato Depero, Depero, and Enrico Prampolini)) but also a number of architects. A cult of the machine age and even a Prampolini glorification of war  of  war and and violence were among the themes of the Futurists (several prominent futurists were killed after volunteering to fight in World War I) I). The latter  group included the architect Antonio architect  Antonio Sant'Elia, Sant'Elia, who, though building little, translated the futurist vision into an urban form. form .[1] Contents [hide hide]]

1 History of Italian Futurism 2 Art Deco 3 Futurism after World War II o

3.1 Googie architecture

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3.2 Neo-Futurism

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3.3 Post-modern futurism

4 References 5 Sources 6 External references

[edit edit]]History

of Italian Futurism

Lingotto factory in Turin Turin.. With its test track on the roof, was recognized in 1934 as the first futurist invention in architectur e[2]

Heating plant and Main controls cabin atSanta Maria Novella railway station

In 1912, three years after Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto, Antonio Sant'Elia and Mario Chiattone take part to the Nuove Tendenze[3] exhibition in Milano Milano.. In 1914 the group presented their first exposition with a "Message" by b y Sant'Elia, that later, with the contribution of Filippo of  Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Marinetti , became the Manifesto dell’Architettura Futurista ("Manifesto of Futurist Architecture"). Architecture").[2] Also Boccioni unofficially worked on a similar manifesto, but Marinetti preferred Sant'Elia's paper. Later in 1920, another manifesto was written by Virgilio Marchi, Marchi, Manifesto dell’Architettura Futurista– Dinamica ("Manifesto of Dynamic Instinctive Dramatic Futurist  Architecture").  Architecture").[2] Ottorino Aloisio worked in the style established by Marchi, one example being his Casa del Fascio in Asti in Asti..

 Another futurist manifesto related to architecture is the Manifesto dell’Arte Sacra Futurista ("Manifesto of Sacred Futurist Art") by Fillia (Luigi Colombo) [2] and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Marinetti, published in 1931. On 27 January 1934 it was the turn of the Manifesto of Aerial Architecture by Marinetti, Angiolo Marinetti,  Angiolo Mazzoni and Mino Somenzi. Somenzi.[2] Mazzoni had publicly adhered to futurism only the year before. In this paper  the Lingotto factory by Giacomo Matté-Trucco is defined as the first Futurist constructive invention. invention.[2] Mazzoni himself in those years worked on a building considered today a masterpiece[4] of futurist architecture, like the Heating plant and Main controls cabin at Santa Maria Novella railway station, station , in Florence Florence..

[edit edit] Art ]

Deco

Main article: Art article: Art Deco The Art The Art Deco style of architecture with its streamlined forms was regarded as futuristic when it was in style in the 1920s and 1930s. The original name for both early and late Art late Art Deco was Art was Art ModerneModerne--the name "Art Deco" did not come into use until 1968 when the term was invented in a book by Bevis Hillier . The Chrysler Building is a notable example of Art Deco futurist architecture.

[edit edit]]Futurism

after World War II

[edit edit]]Googie architecture Main article: Googie architecture  After World War II, Futurism, considerably weakened, redefines itself thanks to to the enthusiasm towards the Space Age, Age, the Atomic the Atomic Age, Age, the car culture and the wide use of plastic of plastic.. For example, we find this trend in the architecture of  Googies in the 1950s in California California.. Futurism in this case is not a style but an architectural approach rather free and uninhibited, which is why it has been reinterpreted and transformed by generations of architects the following decades, but in general we find that amazing shapes with dynamic lines and sharp contrasts, and the use of technologically advanced materials.

[edit edit]]Neo-Futurism In the 1980s, French architect Denis Laming, Laming, was one of the members of this movement and founder of Neo-Futurism of  Neo-Futurism.. He designed all of the buildings in Futuroscope Futuroscope,, whose Kinemax is the flagship building. building .[5]

[edit edit]]Post-modern futurism

Civil Justice Centre, Manchester (2008) byDenton Corker Marshall, notable for its cantilevers and straight lines.

The San Francisco Marriott Marquis in San Francisco, California, a notable example of postmodern futurism, was designed by the architect Anthony J. Lumsden (1989). It is topped with a jukebox-shaped glass tower.

In popular literature, the term futuristic is often used without much precision to describe an architecture that would have the appearance of the space age as described in works of science fiction or as drawn in science fiction comic strips or comic books. Today it is sometimes confused with blob architecture. The routine use of the term vague and futurism — which rarely has political implications — must be well differentiated from the Futurist movement of the years 1910 –1920. The futurist architecture created since 1960 may be termed post-modern futurism. 

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Le Corbusier  Denis Laming Cesar Pelli Santiago Calatrava

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 Archigram Louis Armet Welton Becket  Arthur Erickson Future Systems Michael Graves Zaha Hadid John Lautner   Anthony J. Lumsden Virgilio Marchi Wayne McAllister  Oscar Niemeyer  William Pereira Tadao Ando Patricio Pouchulu Eero Saarinen 

Library, University of California, Irvine (William Pereira, 1965)

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Theme Building, Los Angeles International Airport (William Pereira,Charles Luckman, Paul Williams, 1961)

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Cathedral of Brasilia(Oscar Niemeyer , 1960)

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McGaugh Hall, University of California, Irvine ( Arthur Erickson, 1991) 

Residential building in Paris, near the Maison de la Radio

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Ferrohouse in Zurich (Justus Dahinden, 1970)

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Graduate Center (classroom building), Oral Roberts University, (Frank Wallace, 1963)

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Portland Building inPortland, Oregon (Michael Graves, 1982)

[edit]References 1. ^ Günter Berghaus (2000). International Futurism in Arts and Literature. Walter  de Gruyter. p. 364. ISBN 3-11-015681-4. 2. ^ a b c d e f Futurist architecture and Angiolo Mazzoni’s manifesto of aerial  architecture, published in VV.AA. Angiolo Mazzoni e l'Architettura Futurista - p.722 3. ^ Literally "New Trends". 4. ^ In 1978, architect Léon Krier described the heating plant as the greatest  masterpiece of Futurist-Constructivist-Modernist architecture. Published in London 1978 - An architecture thesis on Angiolo Mazzoni by Flavio Mangione and Barbara Weiss; Angiolo Mazzoni e l'Architettura Futurista p.45 5. ^ http://laming.fr 

[edit]Sources 

VV.AA. Angiolo Mazzoni e l'Architettura Futurista, Supple

Organic architecture From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which

promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition. Contents [hide]

1 History 2 Notable organic architects 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links

[edit]History

The term organic architecture was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 –1959), though never well articulated by his cryptic style of writing: "So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions

essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or  future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials..." - Frank Lloyd Wright, written in 1954[1] Organic architecture is also translated into the all inclusive nature of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design process. Materials,

motifs, and basic ordering principles continue to repeat themselves throughout the building as a whole. The idea of  organic architecture refers not only to the buildings' literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings' design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism. Geometries throughout Wright’s buildings build a

central mood and theme. Essentially organic architecture is also the literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space. Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature. Other modernist architects in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere held complementary and often competing views of how architecture could best emulate nature. Key figures in the U.S. included Louis Sullivanand Claude Bragdon, while among European modernists Hugo Häring and Hans Scharoun stand out. Following World War II, organic architecture often reflected cybernetic and informatic models of life, as is reflected in the later work of futurist architect Buckminster Fuller .  Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture. These rules are known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. It reads: "Let the design:

be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse. unfold, like an organism, from the seed within. exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again". follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable. satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs. "grow out of the site" and be unique. celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise. express the rhythm of music and the power of dance." [2] Eric Corey Freed takes a more seminal approach in making his description: "Using Nature as our basis for design, a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Most architects design their buildings as a shell and force their  way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of  Nature."[3]  A well known example of organic architecture is Fallingwater , the residence Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Kaufman family in rural Pennsylvania. Wright had many choices to locate a home on this large site, but chose to place the home directly over the waterfall and creek creating a close, yet noisy dialog with the rushing water and the steep site. The horizontal striations of stone masonry with daringcantilevers of colored beige concrete blend with native rock outcroppings and the wooded environment. 

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[edit]Notable 

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organic architects

 Alvar Aalto  Anton Alberts Laurie Baker 

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Claude Bragdon Nari Gandhi  Antoni Gaudi Bruce Goff  Neville Gruzman Hugo Häring Hundertwasser  Kendrick Bangs Kellogg (born 1934) John Lautner  Imre Makovecz Eero Saarinen Hans Scharoun Gustav Stickley Louis Sullivan Rudolf Steiner  Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 –1959) Bruno Zevi Toyo Ito

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Novelty architecture From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2012)

Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, California, built in 1954.

New York-New York Hotel & Casino

Novelty architecture is a type of architecture in

which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes as a novelty, such as advertising, notoriety as alandmark, or  simple eccentricity of the owner or architect. Many examples of  novelty architecture take the form of buildings that resemble the products sold inside to attract drive-by customers. Others are attractions all by themselves, such as giant animals, fruits, and vegetables, or replicas of famous buildings. And others are merely unusual shapes or made of unusual building materials. Some hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip can be considered novelty architecture, including the pyramid-shaped Luxor 

Hotel and the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, a building designed to look like the New York City skyline. Since 2010, the resort city of Batumi on Georgia's Black Sea coast has erected many novelty buildings and structures. Novelty architecture is also used extensively in amusement parks such as Disneyland to fit their playful and sometimes retro theme. Contents [hide]

1 Programmatic architecture o

1.1 Water towers

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1.2 Storage tanks

2 Giant sculptures 3 Buildings styled after famous landmarks o

3.1 Casino architecture

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3.2 Batumi, Georgia

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3.3 China

4 Other styles 5 Googie/populuxe architecture 6 Deconstructivism 7 Gallery o

7.1 Novelty statues

8 See also 9 External links 10 References

[edit]Programmatic

architecture

Lucy the Elephant, July 2004

Programmatic (also known as mimetic or mimic) architecture is characterized by constructions in the forms of objects not normally associated with buildings, such as characters, animals, people or household objects. There may be an element of  caricature or a cartoonish element associated with the architecture. Lucy the Elephant, an architectural folly in Margate City, New Jersey The Longaberger Company's head office in Newark, Ohio which is in the form of a giant basket In the 1930s, as automobile travel became popular in the United States, one way of attracting motorists to a diner, coffee shop, or  roadside attraction was to build the building in an unusual shape, especially the shape of the things sold there. "Mimic" architecture became a trend, and many roadside coffee shops were built in the shape of giant coffee pots; hot dog stands were built in the shape of giant hot dogs; and fruit stands were built in the shape of  oranges or other fruit. 

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Tail o' the Pup, a hot dog-shaped hot dog stand in Los Angeles Brown Derby, a derby-shaped restaurant also in Los Angeles Bondurant's Pharmacy, a mortar-and-pestle pharmacy in Lexington, Kentucky Big Apple Restaurant, a 10.7 metres (35 ft) tall apple near Highway 401 in Colborne, Ontario [edit]Water towers 

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Peachoid water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina

Water towers, often a prominent feature in a small town, have often been shaped or decorated to look like everyday objects. Peachoid, a peach-shaped water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. There are other peach-shaped water towers in Byron, Georgia and Clanton, Alabama Coffee pot water tower in Lindstrom, Minnesota (see Gallery) Corn cob water tower in Rochester, Minnesota (see Gallery) Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower in Collinsville, Illinois (see Gallery) Paul Bunyan's Fishing Bobber water tower in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota (see Gallery) Coffee pot water tower in Stanton, Iowa Strawberry water tower in Poteet, Texas Teapot water tower in Kingsburg, California Wine bottle water tower in Rutherglen, Victoria (built in 1900, now dilapidated) [edit]Storage tanks Several breweries and other businesses have designed holding tanks in the shape of giant cans of beer or other containers. 

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"World's Largest Six-Pack" brewery holding tanks in La Crosse, Wisconsin "World's Largest Hormel Chili Can" in Beloit, Wisconsin

[edit]Giant

sculptures

Cleveland Airport is known for its fanciful giant "paper" aircraft sculptures.

 Another aspect of novelty architecture is sculptures of ordinary items scaled to enormous size. 

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Various roadside parks and attractions in the U.S. feature giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan and dinosaurs. Louisville Slugger Museum, a building in Louisville, Kentucky that features a giant baseball bat Cleveland Airport, which includes giant "paper" aircraft in one terminal. Cowboy boots at North Star Mall, San Antonio, Texas Nut-shaped sculptures in at least two American cities, Brunswick, Missouri and Seguin, Texas are claimed to be "the world's largest pecan". [1] The Brunswick pecan is much larger and heavier, but the Seguin pecan is arguably more realistically rendered.  A giant rotating candy bar, reading "Curtiss Baby Ruth" on one side and "Curtis Butterfinger" on the other, at the former Curtiss Candy Company factory in Franklin Park, Illinois, since acquired (and redesigned) by Nestlé. Gigantic baseball paraphernalia and other novelties, such as bats and gloves, team logos, "big apples", and even

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supersized Land O'Lakes milk bottles, at various baseball parks including Yankee Stadium, Comerica Park, AT&T Park, Angel Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, the nowdemolished Shea Stadium and its successor Citi Field, and the Metrodome.  A replica of Stonehenge made with junked cars, Carhenge, located in Alliance, Nebraska.  A giant bottle of  Aji-no-moto is located next to NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) in Bulacan, Philippines. The world's largest tire is displayed along Interstate 94 in Allen Park, Michigan. Giant Coca-Cola bottle atop the Green Monster outfield wall at Fenway Park.

[edit]Buildings

styled after famous landmarks

[edit]Casino architecture

Many casinos are built in a novelty architecture style, designed in they style of famous landmarks around the world. These include: In Las Vegas: New York-New York Hotel and Casino (1997), replicating the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty The Venetian Las Vegas (2003), featuring a replica of St Mark's Campanile and other buildings in Venice, Italy Paris Las Vegas (1999): The front of the hotel suggests the Paris Opera House and the Louvre Luxor Las Vegas (1993), with its main pyramid style tower and within twin 22-story ziggurat towers Excalibur Hotel and Casino (1990), its façade a stylized King  Arthur 's castle (Camelot) In Macau: 

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The Venetian Macao, like its counterpart in Las Vegas, featuring a replica of St Mark's Campanile and other buildings in Venice [edit]Batumi, Georgia Since 2010, the face of the city of  Batumi on Georgia's Black Sea coast has been transformed by the construction of new highrise landmark buildings and the renovation of the Old Town.[1] Many of these constructions are novelty architecture, including: 

Sheraton Hotel, designed in the style of the Great Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt[2]  Alphabet Tower (145 metres (476 ft) high), celebrating Georgian script and writing Piazza, a mixed-used development in the form of an Italian piazza Buildings designed in the style of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Acropolis, and an upside-down White House [edit]China The New South China Mall in Dongguan, China features a 25 metres (82 ft) replica of the Arc de Triomphe,[3] a replica of  Venice's St Mark's bell tower ,[4] a 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) canal with gondolas,[3] and a 553-meter indoor-outdoor roller coaster .[5] 

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[edit]Other

styles

Long-established firms whose features are well-known could still qualify as novelty architecture. A couple of examples would be McDonald's original golden-arches design, originating in California as many of the novelty designs have; and the selfreferencing design of the White Castle restaurants. [edit]Googie/populuxe

architecture

Main article: Googie architecture

 Architecture popular in the 1950s-1960s in southern California and in Florida featured sharp corners, tilted roofs, starburst designs, and fanciful shapes. This came to be known as Googie Doo Wop or  populuxearchitecture. [edit]Deconstructivism

Some critics claim that much of today's contemporary architecture under the guise of Deconstructivism is actually Novelty architecture. Practitioners include leading architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid. [edit]Gallery 

Coffeepot water tower inLindstrom, Minnesota, built in 1902

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Teapot Dome Service Station in Zillah, Washington, built in 1922

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The original Brown Derbyin Los Angeles, California, built in 1926

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The Big Duck in Flanders, New York, built in 1931

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Corn cob water tower inRochester, Minnesota, built in 1931

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Benewah Milk Bottle inSpokane, Washington, built in 1935

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World's Largest Catsup Bottle water tower inCollinsville, Illinois, built in 1949

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Wigwam Motel inHolbrook, Arizona, built in 1950

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The Longaberger Company headquarters inNewark, Ohio

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The Big Chicken inMarietta, Georgia, built in 1963

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Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in Bailey, Colorado, built in 1966

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The Big Pineapple,Nambour, Queensland, Australia, opened in 1971

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UFO-shaped bus station in Kielce, Poland

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Paul Bunyan's Fishing Bobber water tower inPequot Lakes, Minnesota

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The Donut Hole in La Puente, California

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 A 64-foot-tall (20 m) Nehi Bottle located near  Auburn, Alabama (In an area referred to as "The Bottle") was destroyed by fire in 1933.

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Harold's Garage in Spring Hill, Florida, a former Sinclair gas station.

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Mighty Og - Gorilla torso near Harvey, ND. Destroyed by windstorm sometime before June 2005.

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Large barrel shaped bistro and bar located inOkinawa City, Japan

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 At Cabazon Dinosaurs in California, this dinosaur's belly holds a souvenir shop.

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Bono's Orange Stand inFontana, California was used from 1936 to sell California orange juice to hot drivers who all lacked air conditioning at that time . [6][7]

[edit]Novelty statues 

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, Minnesota, erected in 1936

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Dinosaur Park sculpture of a Tyrannosaurus rex inRapid City, South Dakota, opened in 1936

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Ten meter tall statue of Babe the Blue Ox at Trees of Mystery in Klamath, California, erected in 1949

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Golden Driller statue inTulsa, Oklahoma, erected in 1953

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Paul Bunyan statue inPortland, Oregon, erected in 1959

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Johnny Kaw statue inManhattan, Kansas, erected in 1966

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 Apatosaurus statue atNorth Carolina Museum of Life and Science inDurham, North Carolina, erected in 1967

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The Wall Drug dinosaur statue in Wall, South Dakota, erected in the late 1960s

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Paul Bunyan statue in Akeley, Minnesota

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Harvey statue at Harvey Marine in Reedville, Aloha, Oregon

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Blue Whale of Catoosa inCatoosa, Oklahoma

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World's Largest Dinosaur in Drumheller, Alberta,Canada, erected in 2000

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World's Largest Muskellunge in Hayward, Wisconsin at the national freshwater fishing hall of fame.

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Pink Brontosaurus statue on US 19 in Spring Hill, Florida [edit]

 Art Deco From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Art Deco architecture)

 Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building in New York City; designed by William Van Alen; built 1928 –1930.

Terracotta sunburst designabove front doors of the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles; built 1930.

Tamara de Lempicka, "The Musician", 1929 (oil on canvas). Art Deco (/ˌɑr t ˈdɛkoʊ/), or Deco, is an influential visual arts design style which first

appeared in France during the 1920s, flourished internationally during the 30s and 40s, then waned in the post-World War II era.[1] It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized by rich colors, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation. Deco emerged from the Interwar period when rapid industrialization was transforming culture. One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology. This distinguishes Deco from the organic motifs favored by its predecessor  Art Nouveau. Historian Bevis Hillier defined Art Deco as "an assertively modern style...[that] ran to symmetry rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear rather than the curvilinear; it responded to the demands of the machine and of new material...[and] the requirements of mass production." [2] During its heyday Art Deco represented luxury, glamor, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress. Contents [hide]

1 Etymology 2 Origins 3 Attributes

4 Influence 5 Streamline Moderne 6 Surviving examples o

6.1 United States

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6.2 Latin America

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6.3.1 United Kingdom

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6.3.2 Spain

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6.3.3 Germany

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6.3.4 Romania

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6.3.5 Lithuania

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6.3.6 Brussels

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6.5.1 New Zealand

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6.5.2 Australia

6.6 Africa

7 Gallery 8 See also 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External links

[edit]Etymology The first use of the term Art Deco has been attributed to architect Le Corbusier who penned a series of articles in his journal L'Esprit nouveau under the headline 1925  Expo: Arts Déco. He was referring to the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts).[3] The term was used more generally in 1966 when a French exhibition celebrating the 1925 event was held under the title Les Années 25: Art Déco/Bauhaus/Stijl/Esprit  Nouveau.[4] Here the phrase was used to distinguish French decorative crafts of  the Belle Epoque from those of later periods.[3] The term ‘Art Deco’ has since been

applied to a wide variety of works produced during the Interwar period (L'Entre Deux  Guerres), and even to those of the Bauhaus in Germany. However Art Deco originated in France. It has been argued that the term should be applied to French works and those produced in countries directly influenced by France.[5]  Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first book on the subject:  Art Deco of the 20s and  30s.[2] Hillier noted that the term was already being used by art dealers and cites The Times (2 November 1966) and an essay on Les Arts Déco in Elle magazine (November  1967) as examples of prior usage.[6] In 1971 Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts then published a book about it: The World of Art  Deco.[7]

[edit]Origins Joseph Csaky, Deux figures, 1920, relief, limestone, polychrome, 80 cm. Exhibited Léonce Rosenberg, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne (1920), now at Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Holland

Some historians trace Deco's roots to the Universal Exposition of 1900.[8] After this show a group of artists established an informal collective known as La Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorator Artists) to promote French crafts. Among them were Hector Guimard, Eugène Grasset, Raoul Lachenal, Paul Bellot, Maurice Dufrêne, and Emile Decoeur. These artists are said to have influenced the principles of   Art Deco.[9] The Art Deco era is often dated from 1925 when the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was organized to showcase new ideas in applied arts.[3][10][11][12] Yet Deco was heavily influenced by pre-modern art from around the world, and observable at the Musée du Louvre, Musée de l'Homme and the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. During the 1920s affordable travel permitted in situ exposure to other cultures. There was also popular interest in archeology due to excavations at Pompeii, Troy, the tomb of Tutankhamun etc. Artists and designers integrated motifs from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Asia, Mesoamerica, and Oceania with Machine Age elements.[13][14][15][16][17][18] Deco was also influenced by Cubism, Constructivism, Functionalism, Modernism, and Futurism.[15][19]

In 1905, before the onset of Cubism, Eugène Grasset wrote and published Méthode de Composition Ornementale, Éléments Rectilignes[20] within which he systematically explores the decorative (ornamental) aspects of geometric elements, forms, motifs and their variations, in contrast with (and as a departure from) the undulating  Art Nouveaustyle of Hector Guimard, so popular in Paris a few years earlier. Grasset stresses the principle that various simple geometric shapes (e.g., the triangle, the square) are the basis of all compositional arrangements.[21]  At the 1907 Salon d'Automne (Paris) Georges Braque exhibited Viaduc à l'Estaque (a proto-Cubist work), now at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Simultaneously, there was a retrospective exhibition of 56 works by Paul Cézanne, as a tribute to the artist who died in 1906. Cézanne was interested in the simplification of forms to their geometric essentials: the cylinder, the sphere, the cone. Paul Iribe created for the couturier Paul Poiret esthetic designs that shocked the Parisian milieu with its novelty. These illustrations were compiled into an album, Les Robes de Paul Poiret racontée par Paul Iribe, published in 1908.[22]  At the 1910 Salon des Indépendants Jean Metzinger , Henri Le Fauconnier and Robert Delaunay, shown together in Room 18, elaborated upon Cézannian syntax, revealing to the general public for the first time a 'mobile perspective' in their art, soon to become known as Cubism. Several months later the Salon d'Automne saw the invitation of  Munich artists who for several years had been working with simple geometric shapes. Leading up to 1910 and culminating in 1912, the French designers  André Mare and Louis Sue turned towards the quasi-mystical Golden ratio, in accord with Pythagorean and Platonic traditions, giving their works a Cubist sensibility. Between 1910 and 1913, Paris saw the construction of the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées, 15 avenue Montaigne, another sign of the radical aesthetic change experienced by the Parisian milieu of the time. The rigorous composition of its facade, designed by Auguste Perret, is a major example of early Art Deco.[23][24] The building includes an exterior bas relief by Antoine Bourdelle, a dome by Maurice Denis, paintings by Édouard Vuillard and Jacqueline Marval, and a stage curtain design by Ker-Xavier  Roussel. The artists of the Section d'Or exhibited (in 1912) works considerably more accessible to the general public than the analytical cubism of Picasso and Braque. The Cubist vocabulary was poised to attract fashion designers, furniture and interior designers. [25]

These revolutionary changes occurring at the outset of the 20th century are summarized in the 1912 writings of André Vera. Le Nouveau style, published in the  journal L'Art décoratif expressed the rejection of Art Nouveau forms (asymmetric, polychrome and picturesque), and called for simplicité volontaire, symétrie manifeste, l'ordre et l'harmonie; themes that would eventually become ubiquitous within the context of Art Deco.[26] Order, color and geometry: the essence of Art Deco vocabulary was made manifest before 1914. Several years after World War I, in 1927 the Cubists Joseph Csaky, Jacques Lipchitz, Louis Marcoussis, Henri Laurens, the sculptor Gustave Miklos and others collaborated in the decoration of a Studio House, rue Saint-James, Neuilly-sur-Seine, designed by the architect Paul Ruaud, and owned by the French fashion designer Jacques Doucet: also a collector of Post-Impressionist and Cubist paintings (including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which he bought directly from Picasso's studio). Laurens designed the fountain, Csaky designed Doucet's staircase, Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel, Marcoussis made a Cubist rug.[27][28][29][30]

[edit] Attributes Deco emphasizes geometric forms: spheres, polygons, rectangles, trapezoids, zigzags, chevrons, and sunburst motifs. Elements are often arranged in symmetrical patterns. Modern materials such asaluminum, stainless steel, Bakelite, chrome, and plastics are frequently used. Stained glass, inlays, and lacquer are also common. Colors tend to be vivid and high-contrast.[13][14][15][31][32][33]

[edit]Influence  Art Deco was a globally popular style and affected many areas of design. It was used widely in consumer products such as automobiles, furniture, cookware, china, textiles,  jewelry, clocks, and electronic items such as radios, telephones, jukeboxes. It also influenced architecture, interior design, industrial design, fashion, graphic arts, and cinema. During the 1930s Art Deco was used extensively for  public works projects, railway stations,[34] ocean liners (including the Île de France, Queen Mary, Normandie), movie palaces, and amusement parks.

The austerities imposed by World War II caused Art Deco to decline in popularity: it was perceived by some as gaudy and inappropriately luxurious. [citation needed ] A resurgence of  interest began during the 1960s.[11][15][35] Deco continues to inspire designers and is often used in contemporary fashion, jewelry, and toiletries.[36]

Chrysler Airflow sedan; designed by Carl Breer; 1934.

[edit]Streamline

Moderne

Main article: Streamline Moderne  A style related to Art Deco is Streamline Moderne (or Streamline) which emerged during the 1930s. Streamline was influenced by modern aerodynamic principles developed for aviation and ballistics to reduce air friction at high velocities. Designers applied these principles to cars, trains, ships, and even objects not intended to move such as refrigerators, gas pumps, and buildings.[14] One of the first production vehicles in this style was the Chrysler Airflow of 1933. It was unsuccessful commercially but the beauty and functionality of its design set a precedent.[37] Streamlining quickly influenced automotive design and evolved the rectangular "horseless carriage" into sleek vehicles with aerodynamic lines, symmetry, and V-shapes. These designs continued to be popular after World War II.[38][39][40]

Bullocks Wilshire, Los Angeles,John and Donald Parkinson, 1929

Cochise County Courthouse doors, Bisbee, Arizona, 1931. Architect: Roy W. Place

[edit]Surviving

examples

[edit]United States The U.S. has many examples of art-deco architecture. New York, Chicago, and Detroit have many art deco buildings: The famous skyscrapers are the best-known, but notable art deco buildings can be found in various neighborhoods. Detroit's many examples of  art-deco architecture include the Fisher and Guardian Buildings both of which are now National Historic Landmarks. Los Angeles, California, also has much art-deco architecture, in particular along Wilshire Boulevard, a main thoroughfare that experienced a period of intense construction activity during the 1920s. Notable

examples include the Bullocks Wilshire building and the Pellissier Building and Wiltern Theatre, built in 1929 and 1931 respectively. Both buildings exper ienced recent restoration.[41][42] Miami Beach, Florida, has a large collection of art-deco buildings, with some thirty blocks of hotels and apartment houses dating from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1979, theMiami Beach Architectural District [43] was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearly all the buildings have been restored and painted in their original pastel colors.[44]  Art deco was popular during the later years of the movie palace era of theatre construction. Excellent examples of art deco theatres, such as the Fargo Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota still exist throughout the United States. Fair Park, located in Dallas, Texas, is a large collection of art deco structures. Much of  the art deco heritage of Tulsa, Oklahoma remains from that city's oil boom days.[45]Houston, Texas has some buildings surviving, such as the Houston City Hall, the JPMorgan Chase Building, Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, and the 1940 Air Terminal Museum.[46] In Beaumont, the Jefferson County Courthouse, Kyle Building and the First National Bank Building are some of the few art deco buildings still in the city. Hoover Dam is a somewhat unusual example of art deco design. Many dam guides state that the design was to be Gothic Revival, including the installation of gargoyles with water shooting out of their mouths. [citation needed ] The recently opened Smith Center in Downtown Las Vegas incorporates many design elements from Hoover Dam and, therefore, is a contemporary example of the use of art deco design elements. Kansas City is home to the Kansas City Power and Light Building, which was completed in 1931. This building is a good example of the Great Depression and its effect on art deco construction. Original plans were for a twin tower to be built next to it on its west side. However, it was never built due to financial constraints. As a result, the 476-foot (145 m) tower has a bare west side, with no windows. Other examples of art deco buildings in Kansas City include Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City), the Jackson County Courthouse (Kansas City, Missouri), Kansas City City Hall; and 909 Walnut. Minneapolis has the Foshay Tower , which was finished in 1929. The building was built right before the Great Depression and is one of, if not the only obelisk shaped office building in the world. Minneapolis also has the Rand Tower and the Wells Fargo Center , an example of modern art deco architecture. Neighboring St. Paul has the First National Bank Building and the Saint Paul City Hall. The city of Rochester, Minnesota houses

the Plummer Building, the original building for the world-famous Mayo Clinic, which was built in 1927. Cincinnati, Ohio, houses the Cincinnati Union Terminal, an art-deco-style passenger  railroad station that began operation in 1933. After the decline of railroad travel, most of  the building was converted to other uses. It now serves as the Cincinnati Museum Center, which serves more than one million visitors per year and is the 17th most visited museum in the United States.[47][48] Cincinnati is also home to the Carew Tower , a 49story art deco skyscraper built in 1931. In 2005, the largest residential restoration project in the country and the largest collection of art deco buildings in New Jersey began at the 14-acre (57,000 m 2) site of  the former Jersey City Medical Center . The conversion of the national historic site to a residential enclave had as of 2009 been completed on three of the several buildings on the site. Flint, Michigan is also home to The Paterson Building. The Paterson Building has extensive art deco throughout the interior and exterior. More pictures of the Paterson Building can be found at [1].

[edit]Latin America

Kavanagh building, Buenos Aires. 1934 design by Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos, Luis María de la Torre

Some of the finest surviving examples of art deco art and architecture are found in Cuba, especially in Havana. The Bacardi Building is noted for its particular art deco style.[49] The style is expressed by the architecture of residences, businesses, hotels, and many pieces of decorative art, furniture, and utensils in public buildings, as well as in private homes.[2]  Another country with many examples of art deco architecture is Brazil, especially in Porto Alegre, Goiânia and cities like Cipó (Bahia), Iraí (Rio Grande do Sul) and Rio de Janeiro, especially in Copacabana. Also in the Brazil's north-east  – notably in cities such as Campina Grande in the state of Paraíba – there are art deco buildings which have been termed "Sertanejo Art Deco" because of their peculiar architectural features.[50] The reason for the style being so widespread in Brazil is its coincidence with the fast growth and radical economic changes of the country during the 1930s. In Santiago, Chile, the Hotel Carrera (no longer a hotel) is a very fine example of art deco architecture. Art deco buildings are also numerous in Montevideo, Uruguay, including the Palacio Salvo, which was South America's tallest building when it was built in the late 1920s. Another example of art deco in Latin America is the Edificio El Moro in Mexico which has the Loteria Nacional nowadays, it was also the biggest building of  Mexico City at the time it was completed

Edificio El Moro, Mexico City. 1945 design by Manuel Ortiz Monasterio, Bernardo Calderón, Luis Ávila and José Antonio Cuevas

In Argentina, architect Alejandro Virasoro introduced art deco in 1926 and developed the use of reinforced concrete, with the Banco El Hogar Argentino and the Casa del Teatro (both in Buenos Aires) being his most important works. The Kavanagh building (1934), by Sánchez, Lagos and de la Torre, was the tallest reinforced concrete structure at its time, and a notable example of late art deco style. In the Buenos Aires Province, architect Francisco Salamone designed cemetery portals, city halls and slaughterhouses commissioned by the provincial government in the 1930s; his designs combined art deco with futurism. In Rosario, Santa Fe, the Palacio Minetti is the most representative art deco piece.

[edit]Europe [edit]United Kingdom

Former Express Building (1939) in Manchester, designed by Sir  Owen Williams.

During the 1930s, art deco had a noticeable effect on house design in the United Kingdom,[15] as well as the design of various public buildings.[11] Straight, white-rendered house frontages rising to flat roofs, sharply geometric door surrounds and tall windows, as well as convex-curved metal corner windows, were all characteristic of that period.[35][51][52] In London, the former  Arsenal Stadium has the famous East Stand facade. It remains at the Arsenal football club's old home at Highbury, London Borough of Islington, which was vacated in the summer of 2006. Opened in October 1936, the structure now has Grade II listed status and has been converted into apartments. William Bennie, the organizer of the project, famously used the art deco style in the final design which was considered one of the most opulent and impressive stands of world football. The London Underground is also famous for many examples of art deco architecture .[53] Du Cane Court, in Balham, south-west London, is a good example of the art deco style. It was

reckoned to be possibly the largest block of privately owned apartments under one roof  in Britain at the time it was built, and the first to employ pre-stressed concrete. It has a grand reception area and is surrounded by Japanese-style gardens; and it has had many famous residents, especially from the performing arts.

[edit]Spain Valencia was built profusely in art deco style during the period of economic bounty between wars in which Spain remained neutral. Particularly remarkable are the famous bath house Las Arenas, the building hosting the rectorship of the University of  Valencia and the cinemas Rialto (currently the Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana), Capitol (reconverted into an office building) and Metropol.

[edit]Germany

The "Rudolf Mosse Publishing House" altered by Erich Mendelsohn in 1923. Jerusalemer St., Berlin

In Germany two variations of art deco flourished in the 1920s and 30s: The Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) employed the same curving horizontal lines and nautical motifs that are known as Streamline Moderne in the Anglophone world. While Neue Sachlichkeit was rather austere and reduced (eventually merging with the Bauhaus style),Expressionist architecture came up with a more emotional use of  shapes, colours and textures, partly reinterpreting shapes from the Germany and Baltic Brick Gothic style. Notable examples are Erich Mendelsohn's Mossehaus and Schaubühne theater in Berlin, Fritz Höger 's Chilehaus in Hamburg and his Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin, the Anzeiger Tower in Hannover and the Borsig Tower in Berlin. Art deco architecture

was revived in the late-20th century by architects like Hans Kollhoff (see his tower  onPotsdamer Platz), Jan Kleihues and Tobias Nöfer.

[edit]Romania  As a result of the inter-war period of rapid development, cities in Romania have numerous art deco buildings, including government buildings, hotels, and private houses. The best representative in this regard is the capital, Bucharest, which, despite the widespread destruction of its architecture during Communist times, still has many art deco examples, both on its main boulevards and in the lesser known parts of the city.[54][55][56] Ploieşti also has many art deco houses.[57]

[edit]Lithuania Like Romania, Lithuania too had a booming Inter-War industrial boom. One city in particular, Kaunas, primarily grew. This resulted in the rapid modernization of the city. At this time it became the temporary capital of Lithuania. Many buildings around the city were built in the Bauhaus style. Vytautas the Great War Museum, built in 1936, is a large museum located downtown in Kaunas, along with the Central Post Building and the Pienocentras HQ Building (1934) are the three most prominent art deco structures in the city. Today many of theses buildings still stand, apartment complexes and large government buildings alike survive from this time, even through the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Kaunas.

[edit]Brussels One of the largest art deco buildings in Western Europe is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg, Brussels. In 1925, architect Albert van Huffel won the Grand Prize for Architecture with his scale model of the basilica at the Exposition Internationale des  Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.[58]

[edit]Asia

New India Assurance Building,Mumbai, India: Master, Sarhe and Bhuta, with N.G. Parsare, 1936

Mumbai has the second largest number of art deco buildings after Miami .[59] In Indonesia, the largest stock of Dutch East Indies-era buildings is found in the large cities of Java. Bandung has one of the largest remaining collections of 1920s art deco buildings in the world,[60] including those by several Dutch architects and planners, notably Albert Aalbers's DENIS bank (1936) in Braga Street and the renovated Savoy Homann Hotel (1939). Others were Thomas Karsten, Henri Maclaine Pont, J Gerber  and C.P.W. Schoemaker . The Sociëteit Concordia (now Merdeka Building) is a historic building in Bandung designed by Van Galen Last and C.P. Wolff Schoemaker. In Jakarta, surviving art deco buildings include the Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij building (1929), now the Museum Bank Mandiri, by J. de Bryun, A. P. Smiths, and C. Van de Linde; the Jakarta Kota Station (1929) designed by Frans Johan Louwrens Ghijsels, and the Metropole Cinema in Menteng. In China, at least sixty buildings designed by Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec survive in downtown Shanghai of which many are art deco .[61] In Japan, the 1933 residence of Prince Asaka in Tokyo is an art-deco house turned museum. In the Philippines, art deco buildings are found mostly in Manila, Iloilo City, and Sariaya. The best examples of these are the older buildings of the Far Eastern University and the Manila Metropolitan Theater , which are both in Manila.

Examples of art deco architecture in Malaysia include the Central Market and the Coliseum Cinema in Kuala Lumpur , and the Standard Chartered Building and the OCBC Bank Building in George Town, Penang.

[edit]Oceania [edit]New Zealand The town of Napier , New Zealand, was rebuilt in the art deco style after being largely razed by the Hawke's Bay earthquake of 3 February 1931 and is the world's most consistently art deco city. Although a few art deco buildings were replaced with contemporary structures during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, most of the centre remained intact long enough to become recognized as architecturally unique, and from the 1990s onwards had been protected and restored. As of 2007, Napier has been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the first cultural site in New Zealand to be nominated.[62][63]  According to the World Heritage Trust, when Napier is compared to the other cites noted for their art deco architecture, such as Miami Beach, Santa Barbara, Bandung in Indonesia (planned originally as the future capital of Java), and  Asmara inEritrea (built by the Italians as a model colonial city), "none... surpass Napier  in style and coherence.[64] Hastings was also rebuilt in art deco style after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, and many fine art deco buildings survive. Wellington has retained a sizeable number of art deco buildings, in spite of constant post-World War II development.[65]

Former Russell Street Police Headquarters, 1940-43, Melbourne, Australia

[edit]Australia

See also: List of Art Deco buildings in Sydney , List of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne, List of Art Deco buildings in Tasmania, and List of Art Deco buildings in Perth  Australia also has many surviving examples of art deco architecture. Among the most notable are Sydney's ANZAC War Memorial, 'mini-skyscrapers', such as theGrace Building (Sydney) and the Manchester Unity Building (Melbourne) featuring purely decorative towers to circumvent the height restriction laws of the time; the AWA Tower in Sydney, consists of a radio transmission tower atop a 15-story building; and the former Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne, with its main multi-storey brick building designed by architect Percy Edgar Everett, reminiscent of the design of  the Empire State Building. In St Kilda, Victoria, the Palais and the Astor theatres are considered some of the finest surviving art deco buildings in Australia, while many rural towns such as Wagga Wagga, Albury and Griffith also have significant amounts of art deco buildings and homes.

Cinema Impero, built in 1937, Asmara,Eritrea

[edit]Africa  Africa's most celebrated examples of art deco were built in Eritrea during Italian rule. Many buildings survive in Asmara, the capital, and elsewhere.  Also there are many buildings in downtown Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital. During Portuguese colonial rule in Angola and Mozambique, a large number of buildings were erected especially in the capital cities of  Luanda and Maputo. Cities in South  Africa also contain examples of art-deco design such as the City Hall, inBenoni, Gauteng, constructed in 1937. There are a few art deco buildings in Egypt, one of the

most famous being the former Cadillac dealership in downtown Cairoand Casa d'Italia in Port Said (1936)— designed by the famous Italian architect Clemente Busiri Vici.

[edit]Gallery 

RCA, now GE Building, 30 Rockefeller Center , under construction, 1933

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1931 Philips radio, model 930A

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Ralph Stackpole's sculpture group over the door of the San Francisco Stock Exchange; (Timothy L. Pflueger , 1930)

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Pennsylvania RR's S-1locomotive, designed byRaymond Loewy, at the1939 New York World's Fair 

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Municipal Auditorium of Kansas City, Missouri: Hoit Price & Barnes, and Gentry, Voskamp & Neville, 1935

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U.S. Works Progress Administration poster, John Wagner, artist, ca. 1940

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"Beau Brownie" camera,Walter Dorwin Teague1930 design for Eastman Kodak

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Former Teatro Eden, now Aparthotel Vip Eden in Lisbon, Portugal: Cassiano Branco and Carlo Florencio Dias, 1931

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1937 Cord automobilemodel 812, designed in 1935 by Gordon M. Buehrig and staff 

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Delano Hotel, 1947 (Robert Swartburg) and National Hotel, 1940 (Roy F. France), Collins Ave.,Miami Beach

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Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Federico Mariscal, completed 1934

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Wall sculpture, Nix Federal Building, Philadelphia, byEdmond Amateis, 1937

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Wisdom, with Light and Sound , 30 Rockefeller Center , NYC: Lee Lawrie, 1933

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Women's Smoking Room at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. Timothy L. Pflueger , architect, 1931

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Century Theatre, modern building in historic downtown, Ventura, California, 1998

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U.S. postage stamp commemorating the 1939 New York World's Fair , 1939

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"Rytm" (Rhythm), byHenryk Kuna in Skaryszewski Park,Warsaw, Poland, 1925

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Disused Snowdon Theatre, Montreal, Canada. Opened 1937, closed 1984. Daniel J. Crighton, architect

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Union Terminal inCincinnati, Ohio; Paul Philippe Cret, Alfred T. Fellheimer , Steward Wagner, Roland Wank, 1933

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Lobby, Empire State Building, New York City.William F. Lamb, opened 1 May 1931

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Federal Art Project poster promoting milk drinking in Cleveland, Ohio, 1940

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Bas-relief from the Polish Parliament building inWarsaw, Poland

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Interior drawing, Eaton's College Street department store, Toronto, Canada

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Niagara Mohawk Building,Syracuse, New York

Fantastic architecture From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may  be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Fantastic architecture is an architectural style featuring attention

grabbing buildings. Such buildings can be considered as works of  art, and are normally built purely for the amusement of its owner. Fantastic architecture should not be confused with Novelty architecture. While both styles have unusual, attention-grabbing designs, novelty architecture is meant to be an advertisement for  the business inside, such as buildings with a giant donut on the roof . Fantastic architecture, on the other hand, servers no other  purpose than the personal amusement of its builder. [edit]Examples 

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of Fantastic-style structures

Martin Castle Neuschwanstein Castle Sauer Buildings Historic District by Frederick C. Sauer ,  Aspinwall, Pennsylvania Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, Watts district of Los Angeles, California

[edit]

Contemporary architecture From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Contemporary architecture is, in broad terms,

the architecture of the present day. The term contemporary architecture is also applied to a range of  styles of recently built structures and space which are optimized for current use. [edit]Topics

in contemporary architecture

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Blobitecture Computer aided design Critical Regionalism Digital architecture Digital morphogenesis Deconstructivism Sustainable design Futurist architecture High-tech architecture Modern architecture Neomodern architecture Novelty architecture Postmodernism Conceptual architecture Neoclassicism Nanoarchitecture

[edit]Gallery 

Sydney Opera House byJørn Utzon, Sydney, Australia

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National Grand Theatre byPaul Andreu, Beijing,China

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Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry,Bilbao, Spain

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 Auditorio de Tenerife bySantiago Calatrava,Canary Islands, Spain

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30 St Mary Axe by Norman Foster , London, United Kingdom

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MIT Simmons Hall bySteven Holl, Cambridge,United States

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Ratner Athletic Center byCésar Pelli, Chicago,United States [edit]

Contemporary architecture is definable broadly as the building style of the present day. Examples do not necessarily have similar or easily recognizable features, however, because the "style" is really quite varied and has a number of different influences. Even though a precise definition of the term is difficult to articulate, contemporary homes typically include an irregular or unusually shaped frame, an open floor plan, oversized windows, and the use of "green" and repurposed components. Such homes also often have an organic design, fitting into the surrounding space and meeting an immediate need in the area. Prominent contemporary architects include Frank Gehry, who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; John Andrews, who designed the CN Tower in Montreal; and Jean Nouvel, who designed the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

Contemporary vs. Modern Architecture  Although people sometimes use the terms "contemporary" and "modern" architectureinterchangeably, they technically are not synonymous. Modern architecture refers to the building style of the early to mid-20th century. It featured clean lines with an emphasis on function. Some people viewed the elements that characterized modern architecture as too cold and impersonal. This belief lead to the creation of the contemporary style as is recognized today. Like the modern style, it connects indoor and outdoor spaces, but it adds some personal touches and warmth throughout the living space. The use of natural light also plays a big role, so large and expansive windows are a common and easily recognized feature of such homes.  AdChoices A r c h i t e c t u r a l   Save up to 60% on print sub. Digital only edition $49. Record 

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Green Architecture Green building is also a strong component of the contemporary style.  Architects place more emphasis on energy efficiency and use sustainable, natural, and recycled materials to create eco-friendly houses. It's not unusual for builders to thoughtfully integrate these homes into their natural surroundings. People sometimes refer to this practice as organic architecture. The connection extends from the outdoor landscape to the indoor  environment. Outside, local plants may be used to decorate the surroundings, or the house may be designed around a prominent natural feature. Living roofs, in which plants are used as roofing materials to increase energy efficiency, are also becoming popular. Inside, natural materials like bamboo flooring and granite countertops are common.

Reusing Materials Contemporary architecture often seeks to take old buildings and structures and reuse them in innovative and fresh ways. This might mean a simple redesigning of interior furnishings, or it might entail extensive renovations that dramatically change the look, layout, or function of the space. For this reason, the style often ties easily to work by previous architects and

designers, especially since it often uses fairly traditional materials, such as steel and concrete.

Computer Aided Design  Architects and designers often rely heavily on computers as they create their finished product. This allows professionals to produce results that are incredibly precise, durable, artistic, and efficient. Computers also play a role in ensuring the designs are safe and preventing injuries during the construction process. Another major benefit is that they shorten the time it takes to create a structure.

Need as a Driving Force Whereas desire for particular aesthetic elements typically drove previous styles, need is the primary driving element behind contemporary architecture. Increases in population, along with a reduction of funds and some resources, are forcing communities to explore different means of building and organizing space. One way of defining the style, therefore, is by identifying the structures or designs that meet some pressing need in the immediate surrounding area. The size or use of a given structure by itself does not determine whether an architectural design accurately can fall under  the contemporary classification. Skyscrapers in cities are known for leaning toward this style, for example, and may cover dozens of floors and a huge amount of space. Residential homes can also have a contemporary appearance and feel, however. The style appears in both rural and urban neighborhoods.

Contemporary Chic  A closely related concept is contemporary chic. Better known in relation to personal appearance, particularly hair, clothing and accessories, this idea relates to things that are fashionable yet still highly comfortable and functional. Architecture in this style is both useful and artistic enough to set trends.

Related Styles

Over time, contemporary architecture has developed several offshoots, each with its own characteristics, including postmodernism, neomodernism, and deconstructivism, among others. Postmodern and neomodern architecture returned to the use of ornaments on the facade of  building. Deconstructivism developed from postmodernism and is characterized by ideas of fragmentation.  AdChoices Design /  Build  Modern  M a s t er s A r t  

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Minimalism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the concept in the arts. For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where

the work is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject throu gh eliminating all non-essential forms,

features or concepts. Minimalism is any design or style in which the simplest and fewest elements are used to create the maximum effect.  As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post –World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism, and is often interpreted as a r eaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postminimal art practices. The terms have expanded to encompass a movement in music which features repetition and iteration, as in the compositions of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams. Minimalist compositions are sometimes known as systems music.The term "minimalist" is often applied colloquially to designate anything which is spare or stripped to its essentials. It has also been used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver , and even the automobile designs of Colin Chapman. The word was first used in English in the early 20th century to describe the Mensheviks.[1][vague] Contents [hide]

1 Minimalist design 2 Minimalist architecture and space o

2.1 Concepts and design elements

o

2.2 Influences from Japanese tradition

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2.3 Minimalist architects and their works

3 Minimal art, minimalism in visual art 4 Literary minimalism 5 Minimal music 6 See also 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 External links

[edit]Minimalist

design

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed.

(May 2011)

The reconstruction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion in Barcelona

The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture. In addition, the work of De Stijl artists is a major source of reference for this kind of  work. De Stijl expanded the ideas that could be expressed by using basic elements such as lines and planes organized in very particular manners.  Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto "Less is more" to describe his aesthetic tactic of  arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity, by enlisting every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes (such as designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom). Designer  Buckminster  Fuller adopted the engineer's goal of "Doing more with less", but his concerns were oriented towards technology and engineering rather than aesthetics. A similar sentiment was industrial designer  Dieter Rams' motto, "Less but better" adapted from Mies. The structure uses relatively simple elegant designs; ornamentations are quality rather than quantity [dubious – discuss]. The structure's beauty is also determined by playing with lighting, using the basic geometric shapes as outlines, using only a single shape or a small number  of like shapes for components for design unity, using tasteful non-fussy bright color combinations, usually natural textures and colors, and clean and f ine finishes. Using sometimes the beauty of natural patterns on stone cladding and real wood encapsulated within ordered simplified structures, and real metal producing a simplified but prestigious architecture and interior design. May use color brightness balance and contrast between surface colors to improve visual aesthetics. The structure would usually have industrial and space age style utilities (lamps, stoves, stairs, technology, etc.), neat and straight components (like walls or stairs) that appear to be machined with equipment, flat or nearly f lat roofs, pleasing negative spaces, and large windows to let in lots of sunlight. This and science fiction may have contributed to the late twentieth century futuristic architecture design, and modern home decor. Modern minimalist home architecture with its unnecessary internal walls removed probably have led to the popularity of the open plan kitchen and living room style.

 Another modern master who exemplifies reductivist ideas is Luis Barragán. In minimalism, the architectural designers pay special attention to the connection between perfect planes, elegant lighting, and careful consideration of the void spaces left by the removal of three-dimensional shapes from an architectural design. The more attractive looking minimalist home designs are not truly minimalist, because these use more expensive building materials and finishes, and are relatively larger. Contemporary architects working in this tradition include John Pawson, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Álvaro Siza Vieira, Tadao Ando, Alberto Campo Baeza, Yoshio Taniguchi, Peter Zumthor , Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Vincent Van Duysen, Claudio Silvestrin, Michael Gabellini, and Richard Gluckman.[2]

[edit]Minimalist

architecture and space

The term ‘minimalism’ is a trend from early 19th century and gradually became an important movement in

response to the over decorated design of the previous period. Minimalist architecture became popular in the late 1980s in London and New York,[3] where architects and fashion designers worked together in the boutiques to achieve simplicity, using white elements, cold lighting, large space with minimum objects and furniture. Minimalist architecture simplifies living space to reveal the essential quality of buildings and conveys simplicity in attitudes toward life. It is highly inspired from the Japanese traditional design and the concept of Zen philosophy.[citation needed ]

[edit]Concepts and design elements The concept of minimalist architecture is to strip everything down to its essential quality and achieve simplicity.[4] The idea is not completely without ornamentation,[5] but that all parts, details and joinery are considered as reduced to a stage where no one can remove anything further to improve the design.[6] The considerations for ‘essences’ are light, form, detail of material, space, place and human

condition.[7] Minimalist architects not only consider the physical qualities of the building. Moreover, they look deeply into the spiritual dimension and the invisible, by listening to the figure and paying attention to the details, people, space, nature and materials.[8] Which reveals the abstract quality of something that is invisible and search for the essence from those invisible qualities. Such as natural light, sky, earth and air. In addition, they open up dialogue with the surrounding environment to decide the most essential materials for the construction and create relationships between buildings and sites.[5] In minimalist architecture, design elements convey the message of simplicity. The basic geometric forms, elements without decoration, simple materials and the repetitions of structures represent a sense of order and essential quality.[9]The movement of natural light in buildings reveals simple and clean spaces . [7] In late 19th century as the arts and crafts movement began to be popular in Britain, people valued the attitude of ‘truth to materials’, with respect to the profound and innate characteristics of materials.

[10]

Minimalist architects humbly

'listen to figure,' seeking essence and simplicity by rediscovering the valuable qualities in s imple and common materials.[8]

[edit]Influences from Japanese tradition See also: Japanese architecture The idea of simplicity appears in many cultures, especially the Japanese traditional culture of Zen Philosophy. Japanese manipulate the Zen culture into aesthetic and design elements for their buildings.[11]This idea of  architecture has influenced Western Society, especially in America since the mid 18th century . [12] Moreover, it inspired the minimalist architecture in the 19th century.[6] Zen concepts of simplicity transmit the ideas of freedom and essence of living.[6] Simplicity is not only aesthetic value, it has a moral perception that looks into the nature of truth and reveals the inner qualities of materials and objects for the essence.[13] For example, the sand garden in Ryoanji temple demonstrates the concepts of  simplicity and the essentiality from the considered setting of a few stones and a huge empty space . [14] The Japanese aesthetic principle of Ma refers to empty or open space. That removes all the unnecessary internal walls and opens up the space between interior and the exterior. Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by the design element of Japanese sliding door that allows to bring the exterior to the interior . [15] The emptiness of  spatial arrangement is another idea that reduces everything down to the most essential quality. [16] The Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-sabi values the quality of simple and plain objects .[17] It appreciates the absence of unnecessary features to view life in quietness and reveals the most innate character of  materials.[18] For example, the Japanese flora art, also k nown as Ikebana has the meaning of let flower express itself. People cut off the branches, leaves and blossoms from the plants and only retain the essential part from the plant. Which conveys the idea of essential quality and innate character in nature. [19]

[edit]Minimalist architects and their works The Japanese minimalist architect, Tadao Ando conveys the Japanese traditional spirit and his own perception of nature in his works. His design c oncepts are materials, pure geometry and nature. He normally uses concrete or natural wood and basic s tructural form to achieve austerity and rays of light in space. He also sets up dialogue between the site and nature to create relationship and order with the buildings. [20] Ando’s works and the translation of Japanese aesthetic principles are highly influential on Japanese architecture . [21] In Vitra Conference Pavilion, Weil am Rhein, 1993, the concepts are to bring together the relationships between building, human movement, site and nature. Which as one main point of minimalism ideology that establish dialogue between the building and site. The building uses the simple forms of circle and rectangle to contrast the filled and void space of the interior and nature. In the foyer, there is a large landscape window that

looks out to the exterior. This achieves the simple and silence of architecture and enhances the light, wind, time and nature in space.[22] John Pawson is a British minimalist architect, his design concepts are soul, light and order. He believes that though reduced clutter and simplification of the interior to a point that gets beyond the idea of essential quality, there is a sense of clarity and richness of simplicity instead of emptiness. The materials in his design reveal the perception toward space, surface and volume. Moreover, he likes to use natural materials because of their  aliveness, sense of depth and quality of individual. He is also attracted by the important influences from Japanese Zen Philosophy.[23] Calvin Klein Madison Avenue, New York, 1995- 96, is a boutique that conveys Calvin Klein’s ideas of fashion. John Pawson’s interior design concepts for this project are to create simple, peaceful and orderly spatial

arrangements. He used stone floors and white walls to achieve simplicity and harmony for space. He also emphasises reduction and eliminates the visual distortions, such as the air conditioning and lamps to achieve a sense of purity for interior .[24]  Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect and describes his work as essential architecture. He values the concepts of light, idea and space. Light is essential and achieves the relationship between inhabitants and the building. Ideas are to meet the function and context of space, forms and construction. Space is shaped by the minimal geometric forms to avoid decoration that is not essential .[25] Gasper House, Zahora, 1992 is a residence that client requested to be independent. High walls create the enclosed space and the stone floors used in house and courtyard show the continuality of interior and exterior. The white colour of the walls reveals the simplicity and unity of the building. The feature of the structure make lines to form the continuously horizontal house, therefore natural light projects horizontally through the building.[26]

Barnett Newman, Voice of Fire, 1967, National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa

Tony Smith, Free Ride, 1962, 6'8 x 6'8 x 6'8

[edit]Minimal

art, minimalism in visual art

Main article: Minimalism (visual arts)

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, Oil on Canvas, State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. 10 , 1939-42, oil on canvas, 80 x 73 cm, private collection.

Minimalism in visual art, generally referred to as "minimal art", literalist art [27] and ABC Ar t [28] emerged in New York in the early 1960s. Initially minimal art appeared in New York in the 60s as new and older artists moved toward geometric abstraction; exploring via painting in the cases of  Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Al Held, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Ryman and others; and sculpture in the works of various artists including David Smith, Anthony Caro, Tony Smith, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin,Donald Judd and others. Judd's sculpture was showcased in 1964 at the Green Gallery in Manhattan as were Flavin's first fluorescent light works, while other leading Manhattan galleries like the Leo Castelli Gallery and the Pace Gallery also began to showcase artists focused on geometric abstraction. In addition there were two s eminal and influential museum exhibitions: Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculpture' shown from April 27 - June 12, 1966

at the Jewish Museum in New York, York, organized by the museum's Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Kynaston McShine [29] [30] and Systemic Painting, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum curated by Lawrence  Alloway also in 1966 that showcased Geometric abstraction in the American art world via Shaped canvas,, Color Field, canvas Field, and Hard-edge painting. painting. [31] [32]In the wake of those exhibitions and a few others the art movement called minimal art emerged. art emerged. In a more broad and general sense, one finds European roots of minimalism in the geometric abstractions of  painters associated with the Bauhaus Bauhaus,, in the works of Kazimir of  Kazimir Malevich, Malevich, Piet Mondrian and other artists associated with the De Stijl movement, and the Russian Constructivist movement, and in the work of the Romanian sculptor  Constantin Brâncuşi. [33] [34] Minimal art is also inspired in part by the paintings of  Barnett Newman,, Ad Reinhardt, Newman Reinhardt, Josef Albers, Albers, and the works of artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso, Picasso, Marcel Duchamp,, Giorgio Morandi, Duchamp Morandi, and others. Minimalism was also a reaction against the painterly subjectivity of  Abstract Expressionism that had been dominant in the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s.

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 Artist and critic Thomas Lawson noted in his 1977 catalog essay Last Exit: Painting, minimalism did not reject Clement Greenberg' Greenberg's claims about modernist painting's

[36]

reduction to surface and materials so much

as take his claims literally. According to Lawson minimalism was the result, even though the term "minimalism" was not generally embraced by the artists associated with it, and many practitioners of art designated minimalist by critics did not identify it as a movement as such. Also taking exception to this claim was Clement Greenberg himself; in his 1978 postscript to his essay Modernist Painting he Painting he disavowed this incorrect interpretation of what he said; Greenberg wrote: There have been some further constructions of what I wrote that go over into p reposterousness: That I regard  flatness and the inclosing of flatness not just as the limiting conditions of pictorial art, but as criteria of aesthetic  quality in pictorial art; that the further a work advances the self-definition of an art, the better that work is bound  to be. The philosopher or art historian who can envision me -- or anyone at all -- arriving at aesthetic judgments in this way reads shockingly more into himself or herself than into my article.

[36]

In contrast to the previous decade's more subjective Abstract subjective Abstract Expressionists, Expressionists, with the exceptions of Barnett of  Barnett Newman and Ad and Ad Reinhardt; Reinhardt; minimalists were also influenced by composers John Cage and LaMonte Young, Young, poet William Carlos Williams, Williams , and the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted. They very explicitly stated that their art was not about self-expression, unlike the previous decade's more subjective philosophy about art making theirs was 'objective'. In general, Minimalism's features included geometric geometric,, often cubic forms purged of  much metaphor , equality of parts, repetition repetition,, neutral surfaces, and industrial materials. Robert Morris, Morris, an influential theorist and artist, wrote a three part essay, "Notes on Sculpture 1-3", originally published across three issues of  Artforum  Artforum in 1966. In these essays, Morris attempted to define a conceptual framework and formal elements for himself and one that would embrace the practices of his contemporaries. These essays paid great attention to the idea of the gestalt - "parts... bound together in such a way that they

create a maximum resistance to perceptual separation." Morris later described an art represented by a "marked lateral spread and no regularized units or symmetrical intervals..." in "Notes on Sculpture 4: Beyond Objects", originally published in Artforum in Artforum,, 1969, continuing to say that "indeterminacy of arrangement of parts is a literal aspect of the physical existence of the thing." The general shift in theory of which this essay is an expression suggests the transitions into what would later be referred to as  postminimalism  postminimalism.. One of the first artists specifically associated with minimalism was the painter, Frank Stella, Stella, four of whose early "black paintings" were included in the 1959 show, 16 Americans, Americans, organized by Dorothy Miller at Miller at the Museum of  Modern Art in New York. The width of the stripes in Frank Stellas's black paintings were often determined by the dimensions of the lumber used for stretchers, visible as the depth of the painting when viewed from the side, used to construct the supportive chassis upo n which the canvas was stretched. The decisions about structures on the front surface of the canvas were therefore not entirely subjective, but pre-c onditioned by a "given" feature of the physical construction of the support. In the s how catalog, Carl Andre noted, "Art excludes the unnecessary. Frank Stella has found it necessary to paint stripes stripes.. There is nothing else in his painting." These reductive works were in sharp s harp contrast to the energy-filled and apparently highly subjective and emotionally-charged paintings of Willem of Willem de Kooning or Franz or Franz Kline and, in terms of precedent among the previous generation of abstract expressionists, leaned more toward the less gestural, often somber, color  field paintings of Barnett of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. Rothko. Although Stella received immediate attention from the MoMA show, artists including Kenneth Noland, Noland, Gene Davis, Davis,Robert Motherwell and Robert Ryman had also begun to explore stripes, monochromatic and Hard-edge formats from the late 50s through the 1960s .[37] Because of a tendency in minimal art to exclude the pictorial, illusionistic and fictive in favor of the literal, there was a movement away from painterly and toward sculptural concer ns. Donald Judd had started as a painter, and ended as a creator of objects. His seminal essay, "Specific Objects" (published in Arts Yearbook 8, 1965), was a touchstone of theory for the f ormation of minimalist aesthetics. In this essay, Judd found a starting point for a new territory for American art, and a simultaneous rejection of residual inherited European artistic values. He pointed to evidence of this development in the works of an array of artists active in New York at the time, including Jasper Johns, Johns, Dan Flavin and Lee Bontecou. Bontecou. Of "preliminary" importance for Judd was the work of George of George Earl Ortman, Ortman,[38] who had concretized and distilled painting's forms into blunt, tough, philosophically charged geometries. These Specific Objects inhabited a space not then comfortably classifiable as either  painting or sculpture. That the categorical identity of such objects was itself in qu estion, and that they avoided easy association with well-worn and over-familiar conventions, was a part of their value for Judd. This movement was heavily criticised by modernist formalist art critics and historians. Some critics thought minimal art represented a misunderstanding of the modern dialectic of painting and sculpture as defined by critic Clement Greenberg, Greenberg, arguably the dominant American critic of painting in the period leading up to the 1960s. The most notable critique of minimalism was produced by Michael Fried, Fried, a formalist critic, who objected to the work on the basis of its "theatricality". In Art In  Art and Objecthood (published in Artforum in June 1967) he Objecthood (published in Artforum

declared that the minimal work of art, particularly minimal sculpture, was based on an engagement with the physicality of the spectator. He argued that work like Robert Morris's transformed the act of viewing into a type of spectacle of spectacle,, in which the artifice of the act observation observationand and the viewer's participation in the work were unveiled. Fried saw this displacement of the viewer's experience from an a esthetic engagement within, to an event outside of the artwork as a failure of minimal art. Fried's essay was immediately challenged by postminimalist and earth artist Robert Smithson in a letter to the editor in the October issue of  Artforum.  Artforum. Smithson stated the following: "What Fried fears most is the consciousness of what he is doing--namely being himself theatrical." In addition to the already mentioned Robert Morris, Morris, Frank Stella, Stella, Carl Andre, Andre, Robert Ryman and Donald Judd other minimal artists include: Robert Mangold, Mangold, Larry Bell, Bell, Dan Flavin, Flavin, Sol LeWitt, LeWitt, Brice Marden, Marden Agnes  ,Agnes Martin,, Jo Baer , John McCracken, Martin McCracken, Ad Reinhardt, Reinhardt, Fred Sandback, Sandback, Richard Serra, Serra, Tony Smith, Smith, Patricia Johanson,, Blinky Palermo and Anne Johanson and Anne Truitt. Truitt.  Ad Reinhardt, Reinhardt, actually an artist of the Abstract the  Abstract Expressionist generation, but one whose reductive nearly allblack paintings seemed to anticipate minimalism, had this to say about the value of a reductive approach to art: The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is less. Less is more. The eye is a menace to clear sight. The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature . [39] Reinhardt's remark directly addresses and contradicts Hans Hofmann' Hofmann's regard for nature as the source of his own abstract expressionist paintings. In a famous exchange between Hofmann and Jackson Pollock as told by Lee Krasner in Krasner in an interview with Dorothy Strickler (1964-11-02) Strickler  (1964-11-02) for the Smithsonian Institution Archives Institution  Archives of   American Art. Art. [40] In Krasner's words, "When I brought Hofmann up to meet Pollock and see his work which was before we moved here, Hofmann’s reaction was — one of the questions he asked Jackson was, do you work from nature? There were no still lifes around or models around and Jackson’s answer was, I am nature.  And Hofmann’s reply was, Ah, but if you

work by heart, you will repeat yourself. To which Jackson did not reply at all." The meeting between Pollock and Hofmann took place in 1942.

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[edit edit]]Literary minimalism Literary minimalism is characterized by an economy with words and a focus on surface description. Minimalist authors eschew adverbs and prefer allowing context to dictate meaning. Readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a s tory, to "choose sides" based on oblique hints and innuendo, rather than reacting to directions from the author. The characters in minimalist stories and novels tend to be unexceptional. unexceptional.[citation needed ] Some 1940s-era crime fiction of writers such as James M. Cain and Jim Thompson adopted a stripped-down, words ] matter-of-fact prose style to considerable effect; some classify this prose style as minimalism. [weasel words]

 Another strand of literary minimalism arose in response to the Metafiction trend of the 1960s and early 1970s (John Barth, Robert Coover , and William H. Gass). These writers were also spare with prose and kept a psychological distance from their subject matter.[citation needed ] Minimalist authors, or those who are identified with minimalism during certain periods of their writing careers, include the following: Raymond Carver , Ann Beattie, Bret Easton Ellis, Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, K. J. Stevens, Amy Hempel, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff , Grace Paley, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Robison, Frederick Barthelme, Richard Ford, Patrick Holland and Alicia Erian.[citation needed ]  American poets such as Stephen Crane, William Carlos Williams, early Ezra Pound, Robert Creeley, Robert Grenier , and Aram Saroyan are sometimes identified with their  minimalist style. The term "minimalism" is also sometimes associated with the briefest of poetic genres, haiku, which originated in Japan but has been domesticated in English literature by poets such as Nick Virgilio, Raymond Roseliep, and George Swede.[citation needed ]

The Irish author Samuel Beckett is also known for his minimalist plays and prose, as is the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse.[citation needed ] In his novel The Easy Chain, author  Evan Dara includes a 60-page section written in the style of musical minimalism, in particular inspired by composer  Steve Reich. Intending to represent the psychological state (agitation) of the novel's main character, the section's successive lines of text are built on repetitive and developing phrases.[citation needed ]

Project in Detail Edificio Corporativo Darcons CategoryOffice LocationDelicias / Chihuahua, Mexico  ArchitectArquitectura en Proceso, Chihuahua / Chihuahua, Mexico WAF Entry2008

CaptionFirst floor plan level +10.40 Photograph by

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The site is located at a suburban lot of a middle size city in northern Mexico. As one drives towards it and away from de city, the building appears aligned with the road as an arched gate of a medieval town: looking through it one gets the scenery of the rural fields that surround the city.

The building was conceived as a frame that captures part of the landscape and at the s ame time defines a plane that divides the intercity from the suburbs. The skin of the building plays a dual role: on one hand it is the transparent material that allows the view through it, and on the other h and, it is the opaque continuous skin that defines the shape of the frame and protects the interior from solar irradiance. This skin was manipulated in order  to differentiate the public space from the internal activities of the company: the main reception and the costumer  rooms are outside the envelope raised above the ground as a Piano Nobile and organized as self defined entities. The operation space is contained within the envelope and flows throughout the building in a three dimensional open plan that honors the hierarchical organization of the company. In o rder to solve the continuity of the circulation the mass of the building was divided in various transversal slices, each presenting an intentionally different profile and two of them defining the geometry of the north and south elevations. The sequential juncture of all the slices creates deviations and convergences between the internal operational route and the external costumer route. The geometry of the volume is shaped according to a juxtaposition of three rotated orthogonal axis structures. This was primarily done in an effort to recrea te the space complexity produced by a urban grid designed in the style of the 18th century. The west elevation a lso benefits from the rotated planes by casting shades onto itself  and minimizing direct sun exposure. The rule was meant to be broken at the main entrance where the opaque skin suddenly s ifts direction to frame a cantilevered volume that flies above the portico. This creates a gesture of urban scale to emphasize the hierarchy of the entrance and contain the atrium of the building prior to the stair flight.

Lead Architect Arquitectura en Proceso

Chihuahua / Chihuahua Mexico

moshe safdie: music conservatorium at monash university, australia

3

oct 29, 2012 first image

'music conservatorium' by safdie architects, melbourne, australia image © safdie architects

marking their first project in australia, american firm safdie architect's 'music conservatorium' on monash university's campus will add a vivacious new center of music and culture extending to the greater melbourne area. the project can be considered in two parts: the reception and lobby space between two mirrored concave precast concrete walls with a large full-height atrium, houses the jazz club, cafe, restaurant, department offices, support spaces, forty individual practice rooms and recording studios. large steel trusses and glass surfaces create an elevated transparent space that invites visitors inside in a semi -public area. the 500-seat recital hall boasts a more vertical language, composed of curved solid forms that control the levels of light in the performing areas and multipurpose auditorium. the exterior contains a green landscape with an amphitheater connected to monash walk, a large promenade where most pedestrians circulate.

curved shell of the theater  image © safdie architects

transparent lobby and reception facing monash walk image © safdie architects

central atrium image © safdie architects

recital room image © safdie architects

 jazz club/cafe image © safdie architects

recording studio image © safdie architects