From Bauhaus to Our House - Part Two

The twentieth century, which came to be called the American century, was the period of time when America became the richest and wealthiest nation in the world. The architecture reigning at this time, worker housing, was not as the concept may intend made for workers – on the contrary – this was a style that served the purpose in the richer families because this type of furniture etcetera was seen as a symbol of wealth and privilege. This International Style was also extremely uncomfortable, and became known simply as modern architecture’ (p68). With time this style developed into what we today call minimalism, and Philip Johnson was the biggest inspiration to this movement with his guide lines ‘less is more’ and ‘my architecture is almost nothing’ – minimalism (p75).

Another early architect in America who executed this type of architecture was Edward Durell Stone. He later developed his style to a more luxurious kind of design. Morris Lapidus and John Portman worked hard to capture this American wealthy era that followed the Second World War, and their work became very big and important for the nation.

In 1966 a new way was approached within architecture by Robert Venturi. Instead of the earlier famous expression ‘less is more’, Venturi said ‘less is bore’ and he wanted to replace the minimalistic traces and replaced these ideas with ‘messiness’ and ‘hybrid’ elements, he preferred ‘complexity and contradiction in architecture’ (p107). He also praised the pop artists of his time, as he saw them bringing back some kind of a connection between art and popular culture.

After the massive recession in the 1970s, the business structure of America got broken down, and the building boom that swept over the country during the 1960s met a hard time as architects and similar employees lost their jobs and projects.

Following this period the Rationalists were born, led by Aldo Rossi, Ricardo Bofill, Leon and Robert Krier. They believed that the true and pure way of modernism was to go back to first principles (p127). Towards the end of the 1970s a new type of architecture was developed, where the two different types of modern architecture were combined to a single entity.

Like I mentioned in my previous post about the same book, I found it complicated, but also stuffed with lots of information that is very meaty to take in when you, like me, have no previous knowledge about the subject. Reading this book gave me a bit more insight in architecture and how it has come to form, especially, America. My interest in architecture has not really grown, but I would like to think that it is always a good thing to know a little about a lot when you are a journalist so that you have got an overall picture of what is going on around you. Hopefully this topic will get clearer to me once we are having lectures and seminars concerning architecture, Tom Wolfe and his literature.

Starting from Zero! as Gropius would have said

Tom Wolfe is probably one of the biggest journalists from our time, who is most famous for his very controversial bestselling books Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, The Painted Word and the book I have been asked to read for my journalism course; From Bauhaus to Our House which discusses the world of American architecture, especially after the First World War. It addresses the way architects, such as Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus school in Germany, Weimar), influenced Modern Architecture; this from the new concept - 'Art and Technology - a new unity' - that he 'dreamed up'. Bauhaus was more than just a school, it was a commune, a spiritual movement, a radical approach to art and a philosophical centre. The young American architects roamed through Europe on a pilgrimage during the years after the First World War, and they changed the way architecture had been approached to, and put a modern twist to it that still exist in European cities nowadays.



Within the Bauhaus community different experiments took place, as long as they were pure and clean, so for example, for a period of time no other food than pure vegetarian meals, were served. Also, when working with materials and such it was supposed to be as natural and pure as possible. The brotherhood of man (because they were true socialists) also agreed to pure, straight angles in architecture, flat roofs and no nobility crowns on top of the houses, this was a symbol of the nonbourgeois architecture. But, this was not, as we all can imagine, not a very functional solution since it is raining and snowing quite a bit in Europe.

After this 'The International Style' followed, which was one of the most influential documents written in the history of colonial complex (p.37). It was written by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson and they aimed to introduce, with help of this document and photographs that followed with it, the work of Gropius (The Silver Prince) in New York. The American pride of the 20th century within architecture was the skyscraper, and Wolfe talks about them very unimpressed as 'empty, zigzag trimmings' - even though they are actually quite functional... In Europe artists and architects began moving towards a new era, the avant-garde. With this the European modernism followed in arts, and the Museum of Modern Art opened as this concept was established.

As the Nazi's rose in Germany, just before the Second World War, Gropius fled from Germany, via Britain, to the United States and made the head of the school of architecture at Harvard. A New Bauhaus was opened, and over time the ways of teaching architecture changed to become more similar to the ways it was taught in Europe. In the 1940's the first American Art compound was established, and Arnold Schönberg - the white god of European music - arrived as a refugee. With these important persons influencing the teaching processes, Harvard transformed and everyone, and everything started from zero.

Finally, with these movements, a new architecture started to become recognised in America - which came straight in from Germany, Holland and France. With the depression going on, the architecture business wasn't doing too well and new buildings were basically not set up, which made the European model (to start from zero) easier to adapt to. In the late 40's, early 50's a new fashion arrived in America, as the inventor Buckminster Fuller created 'large structures with light surfaces out of machine-made materials' (p.56). Yale became the future vision of the rich people's kids. Straight lines, beige colours and blank walls were found within architecture, because of Kahn.

This book, From Bauhaus to Our House, consists of a lot of weird concepts and words that I do not know of, which made the reading experience very tough to deal with - but on the other hand I have learnt so many new things that I would most likely not have if not reading this book. Art and technology as concepts have never really been very fascinating, as I am more interested in sports and music, action based concepts where I can express my emotions more directly. I guess the beauty of art and technology is the absolute opposite, very timid and subtle, but the passion for it expressed in the same way from the people who feel emotionally connected with these concepts.