modernist architecture

Question 1

villa savoye features

Answer 1

modern country house
- free plan with flexible interior divisions and walls, as enabled by reinforced concrete pilotis
- flat roof terrace with solerian, inspired by large ship structures
- ground floor has space outside it between building and supportive pilotis, functions as garage
- curved glass wall on the ground floor
- first floor cantilevered and with a ribbon window
- monochrome white
- built in furniture/cupboards
- spiral staircase and ramp
- handrails trace the lines of energy up the staircase
- ramp has windows to let light flow in, and continues from ground floor to roof
- interior walls do not reflect those below them

Question 2

villa savoye context

Answer 2

• a machine for living in
• le corbusier’s five points of a new architecture
• commissioned by wealthy savoyes, with little requests other than space for cars, an extra bedroom and a caretaker’s lodge
• utopian ideas promoting huygens, health and daylight
• bauhaus school by walter gropius promoting the combination of art and utility

Question 3

salvation army hostel features

Answer 3

• ferroconcrete pilotis
• curtain wall of glass, ribbon window
• no applied ornament
• open driveway going under main building
• long and thin rectilinear slab or six stories and attic stories with flat roof above
• windows cannot be opened- double glazing, with air pumped through

Question 4

salvation army refuge context

Answer 4

• commissioned by wealthy philanthropist singer for poor and destitute residents being supported by the salvation army
• mass production for the urban masses
• practical and functional
• utopian and authoritarian attitude to housing design

Question 5

fagus factory features

Answer 5

• factory building with a flat roof, curtain wall of glass bays, metal panels concealing floor slabs
• brick battered piers
• entrance block of channeled masonry
• concealed cantilevers beads supporting corners and staircases

Question 6

fagus factory context

Answer 6

commissioned by karl benscheidt, factory owner and founder, for shoe lasts
- gropius had worked with peter behrens on aeg turbine factory which was more classical and less ‘light’
- design for benefit of the workers, consumers and society
- rejection of vernacular traditions

Question 7

schroder house features

Answer 7

• small two storied home
• composition of abstract rectilinear planes and cubic shoes with cantilevers projecting roofs and balconies
• no ornamentation
• horizontal and vertical
• white, grey, and primary colours
• asymmetrical with free plan- upper floor is open plan
• flexible living space- sliding and revolving panels enabling changeable room configurations
• space saving devices like in built kitchen and warbrodes
• modern skeletal construction without load bearing walls
• steel girders with mesh, supporting the building
• walls made of brick and plaster, floors of wood supported by wooden beams, window frames and doors made of wood

Question 8

schroder house context

Answer 8

• commissioned by Truus Schroder-Schrader, wanted a house for her and her three children, that would encourage them to live unconventionally
• cheap, could be mass producible
• de stijl- the style- pure abstraction, no need to refer to things beyond themselves, universal language of geometry and colour, universal appeal through simplicity and purity of elements

Question 9

modernism aims

Answer 9

• functionalism
• utopia
• appearance of modernity
• new materials

Question 10

le corbusier’s five points

Answer 10

• free plan
• free facade
• fenestration/ ribbon windows
• flat roof
• pilotti

Question 11

modernist materials

Answer 11

ferroconcrete- concrete reinforced with iron

skeletal structures taking the load off walls, allowing

curtain walls

fenestration

ribbon windows