Residential complex “Robin hood gardens”, London, United Kingdom (1969-1972)

Residential complex “Robin hood gardens” in London — another ambitious social project. To communicate with him the rainbow of hope and its authors are the architects Peter and Alison Smithson, officials, and residents themselves. The story of “Robin hood gardens” shows features of late modernism, in particular, one of its forms called “new brutalism”.

The history of the new brutalism began in 1950-ies, when several young architects who called themselves the “Group of 10” (Team Ten), decided to discuss the mistakes of their predecessors. Members of the group

I wanted to return the city to the people. They were fascinated by the reports on the life and structure of African villages, primitive art, children’s creativity — in short, all that is returned to the natural human relations and the direct perception of life.

The term “new brutalism” comes from the French phrase béton brut — literally “rough, raw concrete.” Brutality talked about the need for the honest use of materials, a true reflection of the design in the structure of the building. Exposed to the harsh gray concrete turned out to be very flexible and effective tool, emphasizing the expressive form of the building and its tectonic framework. The technique, borrowed from the later projects, Le Corbusier, has become a distinctive feature of the new flow.

In the UK the leaders of the new brutalism of Peter and Alison Smithson. In 1952 they published their project “Golden-lane” (“Golden Lane”) — the concept of the street in the air (street in the air), active involvement in the architectural context of the space between the buildings, that is, functions that go beyond architectural form. With streets in the air, the architects tried to repeat the principle of a traditional urban structure of the English suburbs.

In “Robin hood gardens” wide hallways, like a deck, combine the apartment, located in a long residential building. The complex consists of two buildings, between them, is a small man-made hill. Apartments — one or two floors, and on every third floor — large balconies — area, invented for children to play and neighborhood communication.

However, the fascination tectonic effects turned the building into a monolithic closed and inaccessible volume. In this severity, which the architects of the new brutalism seemed to be honesty, and later began to see only the rude. With the end in the UK welfare policy, all talking about the fact that late modernism has caused irreparable damage to English architecture: it ignored the context and did not take into account the urban everyday life. As a result of the demonization of the new brutalism in Britain was demolished a bus station in Northampton, residential complex “HaGaT estate” in London, tower “Queen Elizabeth Square” in Glasgow. The fate of many buildings, including “Robin hood gardens”, is still a subject of debate.

Capsule tower “Nakagin”, Tokyo, Japan (1970-1972)

Perhaps a huge number of fantastic urban projects 1950-60-ies as evidence of the desire as soon as possible to get in the future honored the long suffering and many mistakes. This escapism has become a very fruitful direction of architectural thought.

The architects proceeded from the fact that instead of homo economics, that is, the average modern consumer, must come homo lens — the playing man. The new architecture was not to prejudge the actions, but rather to inspire residents to participate in spontaneous events and actions. The authors of this idea, members of the French “Situationist international”

considered the city as the intersection of varied emotional and play areas. Imagining the city, living according to these laws, the architects wrote megacities, where all circulating at the same pace, and for any auxiliary functions meet the robots. In most of these projects, the city is either elevated above the ground or barely in contact with her. Man, no longer tied to the place of work and is not fettered by social obligations, it remains only to travel, to enjoy, to create.

In a city without a clear plan and functions, the architecture had to be extremely mobile and transformable. Japanese theory of metabolism, which became popular in the late 1950-ies, came very close to destroying this principle of openness of an architectural project. 13-storey tower “Nakagin” architect Kisho Kurokawa are among the few implemented projects metabolites. In fact, it is two concrete core, around which gathered 140 residential capsules. According to the plan capsules are manufactured in the factory and, if necessary, easily replaced (still all the elements of the tower — the original and neither one capsule was added to the project or replaced). Concrete cell measuring 4 by 2.5 meters fixed to the concrete frame by only four bolts. Inside — minimum required situation: a closet, a tiny kitchen, toilet, shower, air conditioning.

Contrary to expectations, most of the capsule is occupied by offices. Live in the container was not very convenient, and “Nakagin” did not become the basis for the development of the city of the future. Giant viewport window is a reminder that, perhaps, in the world of homo lens flat-Shuttle would have been called for, but the realities of the traditional metropolis constraint and austerity soon became a disadvantage. In 2007, the residents voted to demolish the building, but due to active resistance of architectural historians and Curacavi was decided to restrict the reconstruction of the tower.

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Examining the roots of the myth of the death of Pruitt-IGO, architectural historian Katherine Bristol was trying to prove that the tragedy was caused not so much by architecture as by the circumstances of the construction of this residential district. The budget for the project is constantly decreasing. Originally, Yamasaki planned a combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings. But to increase the number of apartments, the decision was made to construct 33 same 11-story building. Rents in the complex were large enough to contain a multistory building was expensive. Separation of white people and African Americans — it was originally planned that the complex will be divided into two parts, — was abolished, but this only resulted in more segregation: a majority of white tenants moved to other quarters. Part of the planned green areas and playgrounds were never built. In order to save the architects suggested to use the elevators stopping at every floor, residents were forced to descend and ascend in long glass passages, to walk to the apartment or public business units (shared basement, storage room for bicycles, Laundry). The constant attacks and looting occurred here. As a result, Pruitt-IGO was settled, and all the houses were blown up.

The residential district of Bijlmer, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1966-1972)

Join Amsterdam new territory and to build a new residential area, the Bijlmer decided in the 1960s. to get the support of local residents, the mayor wrote an open letter in which he commented on the state of Metropolitan housing: “have you ever Thought sometime about the problems of the 25,000 families who, even by the most conservative estimates, live in unacceptable conditions because their home is, in fact, the slums? <…> Did you know that in the older parts of Amsterdam, about 9,000 homes in which there is only one room where your countrymen live often with his entire family? Did you know that 38 000 inhabitants of Amsterdam live in houses with only two rooms?”

The Gilmer was conceived as a city of the future: spacious, bright, friendly and comfortable, no fumes and soot. Quarters with up to 110 thousand inhabitants, shaped like honeycombs. Between the residential units, there were broad green spaces; sidewalks and roads were designed separately. The apartments in buildings connected long corridors: that was supposed to unite neighbors.

The first inhabitants of the house of Bijlmer seemed real places with spacious apartments (compared to their old housing in the center), Central heating, private bathrooms. But very quickly from the buildings of the future, which were forbidden to settle families with Pets, the Bijlmer became an area with a bad reputation.

The expectation that people will self-organize joint activities in many public areas, has not met expectations. Long unguarded corridors and isolated footpaths created conditions not for companionship, but for the increasing crime. The situation worsened in parallel with the change in the national composition of the inhabitants of the Bijlmer. In the years of reconstruction, the Dutch government invited workers from Turkey, Morocco, and after the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, Surinam and Aruba gained independence, the influx of immigrants increased even more.

The area was isolated from the rest of the city did not have schools and shops in the center were only two buses. The population was much less than expected by developers the average age much higher level of welfare below. Public areas were extensive, however, in the standardized model apartments, residents still lacked personal space. In new giant buildings were destroyed the classical scheme of the neighborhood community and traditional households.

On 4 October 1992, the Bijlmer was wrecked cargo plane “the Boeing‑747” at home decided not to rebuild and carry, shortly thereafter, began a large-scale reconstruction of the area.

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In the early XX century due to the rapid development of construction technologies, new principles of architectural design. Abandoning of traditional features and ornament, the architects focused on the tectonics in terms of functionality and form. It seemed that the new architecture will not only transform the city but will also help to build a new society, making happy thousands of people. Such social engagement and revolutionary paths have become a hallmark of schools and trends, which in the history of architecture unite with the term “modernism”.

Modernists always scolded. First, supporters of conservative, who believed that you can abandon the heritage of classical architecture. Then following modernist generation of architects: after the Second world war, they tried to soften the uncompromising and didactic tone of their teachers. Finally, the architects of the 1960s and ‘ 70s, years — by this time the world is tired of the monotony and uniformity of the international style.

Everything believed modernists questioned: the flight from history, a social experiment, typical residential construction, the self-sufficiency reinforced concrete structures, the enormity of the urban scale. The situation was compounded by the fact that life in new areas was not as happy as dreamed of by their creators. July 15, 1972, in 15 hours 32 minutes when he has blown up the first block of modernist residential district Pruett-Ago in the American city of St. Louis (see below), American architect and critic Charles Jencks stated “death of the new architecture”.

The tools of modernism are still in demand because it is rich, practical and convincing. For example, five projects were the most controversial in his heritage, try to understand if they are bugs modernist architects of the death of their ideas, or about anything else.

“Plan Voisin”, the project of reconstruction of the center of Paris (1925)

In 1920-e years, European architects have experienced a fear of the sprawling cities of the nineteenth century. They seemed close, immersed in the darkness, in the smoke of mills and factories filled with humming transport, the numerous old brick buildings that swallow the crowds. Modernists wanted to clear sick, decaying neighborhoods and create in their place new ones. At the International Congress of modern architecture, the mistakes of the past decided to fix with the functional zoning. His principle was formulated by the architect Le Corbusier: any city should be strictly divided into zones according to the main functions of the policy — production, housing, recreation and transport infrastructure.

For a few years before the creation of the Congress Corbusier presented to the public one of the most ambitious of its projects, the reconstruction plan of Paris. It was presented in the pavilion of the newspaper “Esprit Nouveau” at the International exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts held in Paris in 1925. Corbusier emphasized that architecture and urban design of the new machine age are required to adapt to the needs of the machines to mimic machines. Therefore, for the financing, he turned to three leading engineering companies — “Peugeot”, “Citroen” and “Voisin”

but agreed only with the latter. So the project is called “Plan Voisin”.

Designing the “urban organism adapted to the new conditions of life generated by mechanization”.

Le Corbusier no regrets saying goodbye to the old quarters in Central Paris, on the right Bank of the Seine. Cleared an area of 240 acres he divided into residential and business center. The new area was represented by a regular grid of rectangular blocks (350-400 meters in length). The end-to-end width of the main Avenue was 120 meters (for example, this is the maximum width of the Leningrad Avenue), and crossing its streets, 50 and 80 meters. Most of the territory was occupied by highways, Parking lots, and large parks. In the center of each block stood a cross-shaped 50-story skyscraper. Building construction was given now that load that was previously carried thousands of residential and administrative buildings. Thus Le Corbusier was trying to remove the city from the earth and transferred to heaven.

However, the project proved too expensive and had too many opponents. The defenders of the traditional architectural values set by Le Corbusier the blame uncompromising break with tradition and its own history. The destruction of the past was accompanied by the destruction of all human, and architecture became the architecture for cars.

After the war, the ideas of functional zoning was used less dramatically, but with the same disregard for historical context. Only in the late 1960s — early 1970s, the situation changed. As one of the main critics of modernist urban planning, American journalist and activist Jane Jacobs, cities catastrophically began not to suffice of chaos, in which the focus of social life would rather shop a local dealer or a squat than a specially-designed office or leisure center.

Residential complex “Prut-Ago”, St. Louis, USA (1954-1955)

After the war, the housing problem was the main problem of European, and later American urban planning. Quick recovery (or increase) of the housing was possible only with the help of standard serial production and mass construction of any required norms and standards to calculate the cost of materials and labor. Modernism before the war rejected any kind of traditional facade decoration or ornament which was also very profitable economically.

Monotony and monotony of new residential areas immediately became the subject of public criticism. Psychologists and sociologists have pointed out that the living conditions in new areas impact on health and the human psyche almost worse than the conditions in a stuffy and cramped old quarters, which fought the modernists. People were important insight on your own home an exceptional place that guarantees the safety, reliability, the embodiment of his own “I”. “The contact person with a place and a place with space enclosed in housing”, — wrote in 1951, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Without a unique artistic solution, the diversity of the urban landscape and the topography of the districts, the citizens lost that essential identity.

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Subsequently started heck: Everyday Email writer Arthur Weigall since the tale and Egyptologist authored that a soon after the starting of the grave ate the chicken of Peterson — energy of the Pharaoh’s image. Another explained the puppy Carnarvon died in the same period, in his household property of Highclere (nowadays more recognized for that tv-series “the Abbey Downton”). After researching Carnarvon visitors rapidly linked with one’s demise another — and also the tomb’s problem turned a real possibility. Weigall perished at age 54 in 1934 and was easily contained in sufferers of the tomb’s quantity.

Mediastore around Tutankhamun was because of the proven fact that the journalists for the reason that year wasn’t therefore significantly noisy dialogue subjects. Summer time was, therefore, stingy using the information the tale concerning the player who elevated the gooseberry- Apple, got about the top websites of guides that are top. Additionally, Carnarvon just amplified the race and offered unique privileges to a protection of the starting of the grave the Changing Times paper, which triggered a surprise of protests in the additional journalists. Among the National steamship organizations have actually launched everybody and extra routes to Egypt that the Luxor can be easily got to by vacationers. Consequently, the Peterson was therefore tortured from viewers and the press that trapped the excavation, this 1 day even within the minds of blurted “I desire this grave was never discovered by me!”

Even though that discovered no communications with curses and neither the entrance, the tale gained impetus when he died and extended to operate. Supposed “sufferers of the curse’s number ” differs in the same period; from 22 to 36 people, based on information printed Within The Journal, death’s typical age was 70 years. “Romania”, because they stated, had spread towards the film industry in 1932 arrived the film “the Mummy” using terror movies with Boris Karloff’s primary actor.

Based on common thoughts, it had been the starting of Tutankhamen’s grave designated the start of the stories concerning the courses which are capitalized Hollywood and by science-fiction authors. Nevertheless, this clarification with which informed Europeans through the first half of the twentieth-century for that astonishing preparedness spread amazing tales about mummies. Actually, it had been because of the fact that a dreadful story of ancient curses and mummies was the area of the well-known orientalist tradition for over a hundred years.

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Members of the Dutch group “Style” that included the architect Gerrit, Gerrit Rietveld, was convinced that “universal harmony” must be translated into abstract, shapes painted in the primary colors of the spectrum. Abstract compositions are transferred into a three-dimensional reality of the interior, inspired by Rietveld on the first sketches of furniture. Usually as an example of this experiment remember the “Red-blue chair,” 1917 standing later in the house Trus Schroeder. However, in design history, he is remembered rather as an ingenious study, while indeed a popular target, launched, was the Zigzag chair, designed for Department store Metz & Co. Leather bar several years thinking about how to make the seat functional, and ergonomic, and cheap to manufacture. In 1927, the brothers Bodo and Heinz Rasch came up with their Sitzgeiststuhl — chair schematically reproduces the shape of the human body while sitting. Essentially Zigzag — his-optimized, more minimalistic version. The design is composed of four flat wooden panels (backrest, seat support, the base) connected at an angle using the simplest of grooves and trapezoidal protrusions. Zigzag became the prototype of many similar objects, including the Panton Chair by Verner Panton and Z-SAG Zaha Hadid.

“Historically and practically the main problem in the design of the furniture — coupling between the vertical and horizontal parts. A chair leg — the younger sister of the architectural column.” The author of these words, Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in the 1930-ies a revolution in the technology of furniture production. As a constructive solution to the connection problem, he suggested curvilinear elements: gently curved detail of the contours were moved into a vertical position. To realize such a reception was only possible with metal tubes, as did Mies van der Rohe or Le Corbusier. Aalto worked with wood and with traditional Finnish birch veneer.

At that time, the production of furniture made of bent plywood was a very difficult process. Bend the supporting part of the chair to an angle of 90 degrees was impossible in the bending place definitely had a crack. Together with an employee of the factory Huonekalu-a Rakennustyötehdas Korhonen Otto Aalto has developed a complex system of cuts and internal reinforcement and gluing. Processing technology of plywood, patented Aalto in 1933, was tested on the furniture for the tuberculosis sanatorium in patio and was later used in many other subjects, in particular, stool Stool 60. If this Paimio chair was still on the metal base, then in 1933 there was a version on three curved wooden legs. The production of new, practical, easily stackable stools (as well as all other items designed by Aalto) later took the company Artek, founded by the architect and his friends in 1935.

In 1960 in Copenhagen was opened SAS hotel, designed by the classic Danish modernist Arne Jacobsen. He began his career in the 1920-ies, participated in the famous Exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts in Paris in 1925. After the war, Jacobsen has had an enormous influence on the development of Scandinavian design, consistently embodying its distinctive qualities — practicality, ergonomics and understated elegance. World fame came to him after the construction of the SAS, for which he not only designed the building but also designed all interior solutions. Furniture, lighting, textiles, Cutlery, every detail has been created based on his sketches. Today, after numerous renovations, the hotel had only one room with original equipment, Dating from the time of opening (No. 606). But the Egg and Swan chairs are still in different colors and upholsteries. Over these objects, the architect worked together with the Hungarian sculptor sander Paesi. In search of the perfect forms, Paesi and Jacobsen have created dozens of test models of chairs. The architect joked that while he was traveling from the capital to the factory and back, he managed to demolish six costumes and change three cars.

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The name of the Austrian architect Josef Hoffman is associated with the history of the Vienna secession and art Nouveau. In 1903, with the support of the industrialist Fritz Warendorfer he founded the Vienna workshops, combining artists, artisans and entrepreneurs: this cooperation was to stimulate creative experiment, to bring the daily life of the visually stunning and thoughtful things. In the production of the Wiener werkstätte felt the impact of the arts and crafts and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The ancient East and even Japanese art. If the architectural projects of Hoffman are the perfect example of European modernism, they invented things anticipated the start of the era of functional design. The Kubus armchair, created in 1910 for the International exhibition in Buenos Aires, for his time, clear and incredibly simple. Wooden frame and padded cubes, leather cushions obviously did not require any additional decorations. The motif of the square is a favorite and the most recognizable acceptance of the architect, for which he is often called the “Hoffman square” (Quadratl-Hoffman).

The famous expression Corbusier’s “machine for living” — the quintessence of the General attitude of the era of the 1920s, when everything is new, metal, shiny, machine, meet the requirements of modernity and progress was invested with the properties of an aesthetic object. Purist austerity advocated by Le Corbusier, at the same time demanded the emasculation of the medical office and simplicity of the monastic cells. Although in reality was a symptom of an aristocratic and inaccessible luxury. The first pieces of furniture designed by Le Corbusier together with the designer and architect Charlotte Perlin appeared simultaneously with the villas that he built for his friends. It happened with a series LC (the name comes from the initials of the architect), presented in 1929, at the Autumn art salon in Paris. Stand Le Corbusier has called “Equipment for living”, and the most notable piece, a chaise lounge chair LC4, the architect called “a machine for relaxation”.

The first sample of the lounger was created in 1928 for the library at Villa Barbara and Henry Church near Paris. A year later, a slightly amended version appeared in the banker’s house Raul Roche. The design was a metal profile coated with a thin leather mattress and is equipped with a roller. In those years, in the Paris newspaper often came across an ad anatomical adjustable seat, Dr. Pasco. Perian and Corbusier partly borrowed his idea of creating a chair, which takes virtually any slope.

The Director of a furniture company Knoll Albert Pfeiffer once said that the success of Mies van der Rohe coincided with the beginning of his collaboration with artist and designer Lilly Reich. With Reich, he had some of the furniture. In 1928-1929 Reich and van der Rohe worked on the project of the pavilion of the Weimar Republic at the world exhibition in Barcelona and the Villa of Greta and Fritz Tugendhat in Brno (Czech Republic). For these interiors were created by the eponymous series Barcelona chair Brno chair and the Tugendhat can be visited.

The project of the pavilion in Barcelona was intended to symbolize the prosperity of the young Republic and despite the brevity of the decisions was the personification of the “Golden twenties” of the German state. The thin smooth walls of gray marble, a soft glow of Golden onyx, a dark mirror of the pool behind the glass partition, and as if outside time, frozen above the water, the figure of “Morning” by Georg Kolbe. In this space, it is hard to make something prosaic commonplace, in particular, required for the pavilion furniture, but the light leather seats and clear the table does not distort the General mood. From slightly curved X-shaped metal legs borrowed from the curule chairs of the chair, or sell curls, a Roman patrician. According to custom, wore them for the highest members of the magistrates — the consuls and praetors. Roman monumentality was ideologically close to the new order, which opened to the global architecture Mies van der Rohe in the late 1920-ies.

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Theory morphism became very important to the work of Le Corbusier, which was inspired by the image of Orpheus, who served the Sun–Apollo. The opposition “darkness — light” for decades was one of the main themes in his works. Engineering, he counted all the possible dramatic effects of the movement of light during the day inside and outside the building. Light often corrected by changing the shape of window openings or corner of the window-frame, painting in carefully chosen shades of those planes which were caught during the day sunlight. Le Corbusier wrote that “the sun is a blessing from God, sent to man, so he could reach the joy of earthly existence, to find the lost Paradise.” From Apollinaire:

What can be stronger

And nobler these lines?

It’s like the light is calling to light from the shadows of the misty,

As we read of Hermes Trismegistus.

“Art and scholasticism” by Jacques Maritain

The name of Jan Marinus Granpre-Moliere today is known except that only historian of architecture. But in 1920-40-ies it was one of the most influential architects in the Netherlands. Granpre-Moliere taught at Delft technical University and formulated the main points of the program of Dutch traditionalism. Unlike the functionalists, who believed that the architecture of the XX century needs to speak a new language, to master advanced technology and to design cities of the future, the traditionalists believed that the main tool for creating the ideal world — the achievements of the Golden age of Dutch architecture, adaptation techniques of the late middle Ages and the XVI–XVIII centuries.

The aesthetic concept Granpre-Moliere does not offer blind copying or imitation. A recent convert to Catholicism, he was inspired by the monograph of the philosopher Jacques Maritain, “Art and scholasticism”. In this work, almost every paragraph is encouraged to continually search algorithm of purity, clarity and a shrewd order. The rationalistic aesthetics of Maritain, originating in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, assumed that the comprehension is possible through a wonderful intellectual, transcendental contemplation. Consequently, the Supreme truth was unchanging laws of harmony, the ideal numerical embodiment in architecture.

This sacred mathematical code Granpre-Moliere was looking for in his works. It is no coincidence that his projects are exclusively reserved: decorative elements to a minimum, uncluttered facades and decor miser inferior to a generalized and clear composition, monumentality of the interior space. Even in secular buildings, the layout of which was not due to the peculiarities of the Liturgy, Granpre-Moliere creates a special atmosphere of meditative calm and spiritual greatness.

“Plants as inventors” Raoul Heinrich France and “Beauty of forms in nature” by Ernst Haeckel

Edith Farnsworth, for which Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the “Glasshouse”, once discussed with the architect the work of the Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin schrödinger “What is life from the perspective of physics?”. MIS exclaimed: “This material too… what schrödinger thinks I’ll sit, look at snowflakes or crystals of salt on the dining table and remain satisfied? I need to know what to expect after death!” Farnsworth confused: MIS seemed to her a rational person — and suddenly such metaphysical reasoning. Metaphysics, however, does not contradict the fact that throughout his life van der Rohe, searched for in scientific works the answers to the questions that arose during the creative process.

Its library has collected about 40 books by the Austrian microbiologist Raoul Heinrich France, including the famous monograph “Plants as inventors” (1920). At the time this work became so popular among German architects, many researchers referred to the experiments of the Bauhaus and European functionalism “biocentrism constructivism” — a trend in architecture inspired by biology. France studied the German biologist Ernst Haeckel, the author of a collection of lithographs “the Beauty of forms in nature” (1904). In this book, for many architects inspiration, Haeckel wrote about the diversity of natural forms on the example of radiolarians. France spoke about the importance of the process of formation.

In his books Mies van der Rohe learned a simple and important idea: the better the natural form, the idea of the flows inherent in a natural body function. Or Vice versa. The rationalization was a proven way to create harmony in nature. And this principle was literally asking for it in the architectural practice, and the abstract geometry of the international style it seemed the perfect embodiment. The hostility of the new architecture to any parts that seemed superfluous, came from a desire absolute purification of art and the creative control. Here is the formula of van der Rohe: “Less is more”.

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American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, an author of building Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in new York, left an exceptionally rich architectural heritage. However, often his name is associated with the “Prairie architecture” — direction, popular in the United States at the turn of XIX and XX centuries. A low oblong building like growing out of endless expanses of the North American plains. Apart from nature, on this architectural school was influenced by the romantic idea 1880-90-ies, who came to America from Europe.

In the library of Wright was kept the famous edition of the poems of the English artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti was published in 1886 in two volumes in dark brown cover with gold lettering. Rossetti is the founder of the “Brotherhood of pre-Raphaelites” returning to the origins of the sincere art of the Early Italian Renaissance in contrast to the rigid academicism — admired heroic restraint and sublime simplicity of medieval images. Appeal to past eras meant a return to Christian values of the middle Ages.

These ideas were picked up by the Movement of arts and crafts, United in 1880-ies the British artists, architects, and philosophers. To save traditional crafts from a mass production factory, all around, the leaders of the movement — artists William Morris, Walter crane, Arthur McMurdo — he called for honesty, clarification of art. These ideas were close and Wright. At this time, visiting him often came Charles Robert Ashby English architect, a member of the Movement of arts and crafts. Friends Wright and Elbert Hubbard — one of the main popularizers of the ideas of Morris and a founder of the Roycroft art of the commune (in 1904-1905 Wright designed in Buffalo the home of his sister, Mary).

While Chicago was a city of skyscrapers, Wright was passionate about finding unexpected spatial and decorative solutions. The free internal layout allows to create a dynamic composition; the use of local materials (local wood, limestone, sand) — textured expressive techniques. Wright carefully selected for its Bureau, carpenters, masons, glass art, specialises in metal processing, acquiring the ability to monitor all parts of the architectural project and creating the perfect artwork. Contemporaries recalled how Wright got irritated working on the project of the building for the Larkin soap company: “these clerks” allowed me to order some items of interior decoration and equipment, in violation of its General plan, if we’re dealing with “another one of their factory buildings.”

“Thus spoke Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzsche

German architect Peter Behrens historians call the founder of modern architecture. In his workshop at the beginning of career worked and Le Corbusier, and Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe. Sam Behrens started his career in 1890-ies — the heyday of art Nouveau.

Like many other architects of the secession, Peter Behrens was influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, especially his novel “thus spoke Zarathustra. A book for all and none for whom”, published in 1883-1885 years. In addition to General reflections about the nature of artistic will and creativity, attention Behrens drew the image of the Holy light, a symbol of the vital transformation that gives life. As the source of this light was meant crystal — the personification of strength and absolute power. In the novel, Nietzsche mentions the dialogue of the coal and the diamond, alluding to this state required to convert to a new life. “Why so hard! once said charcoal to diamond. <…> — Why so soft? <…> But if you don’t want to be fatal and inflexible — how can you ever with me — to win?”

In 1902 Behrens creates a binding of a copy of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and prepares the exhibition of the German pavilion at the International exhibition of modern decorative art in Turin. The entire lobby of the pavilion was designed by Behrens as a paraphrase of the last Chapter of the novel called “the Sign”, in which Zarathustra, shining out of the cave. The hall resembled a dark cold cave with stalactites. And only in the upper part of the arch was set a stained glass window through which the room was pouring the day cleansing light.

A year before the Turin exhibition, 15 may 1901 in Darmstadt inaugurated the artists’ colony. The culmination of the opening ceremony called “the Sign” was the release of the Golden portal of the actor in the costume of a prophet, revealing to the audience a secret sign — great crystal or gemstone (Edelstein). The poster Behrens depicted a priestess with a crystal in his hands. In interior design you can also notice a ceremonial figure, bearing crystals. Later Behrens continued to use images of crystal and lights, gradually turning them into more geometrical ornamental motifs.

The Writings Of Guillaume Apollinaire

In 1919 the architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (not yet who took the pseudonym Le Corbusier) and the painter amédée the Ozanfanom begin publishing the journal L’esprit nouveau. “A new spirit” — a program of art and life of the coming machine age. The title of the journal and Ozanfanom Jeanneret borrowed from Guillaume Apollinaire. November 26, 1917, the poet gave a lecture “the New spirit and the poets” — “L’esprit nouveau et des poètes”. The text of the speech was published a year later when Apollinaire had died.

The works of Apollinaire gave a full theoretical justification of the new trends in art. In the “Artists-Cubists” he formulates the main principles of artistic creativity — the need for clarity and unification of visual and acoustic phenomena of the modern world. A perfect symbol of creative ways to Apollinaire was the tragic fate of the mythical singer and musician Orpheus. Speaking about the work of his friend the artist Hubert Robert Delaunay, Apollinaire uses the term “morphism”. First and foremost is the theoretical concept of Apollinaire, in which he drew attention to the alternative possibility of displaying the visible world: “New artists attacked the geometry, the science of space in the Euclidean sense, comprehending the fourth dimension”.

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Library of Congress

The custom of decorating the Church calendar, carved in stone, existed from the first centuries of Christianity. Each sign of the zodiac corresponded to a specific month, and each month one or another type of agricultural work. Almost all calendar cycles began with January and zodiac signs of Aquarius, exactly corresponding to each month. January for medieval man, as to a modern person, — a month, mostly busy with holidays and recreation. February is always marked by the resumption of fieldwork, July is harvest time, etc. A famous medieval English poem, where each month is associated with a particular type of work — he repeats the sculptural story:

January — the fire here warms my hands;

February — and again with a shovel on the ground went;

March is the time of planting had arrived;

April birdsong that I listen to stuck;

May — like a bird on a branch I am light and happy;

June — a piece of weeds at dawn wonderful;

July — the movement of a scythe;

August — preparing animal feed;

September — my flail on the grain passes monotonously;

October — planting will provide food for the whole year;

November — and in Martin’s day the pig will be slaughtered;

December — winter Christmas eve mugs wine

All of this for service to our God-given.

The calendar is a circle of time which repeats while the world exists, that is, until the final judgment.

Art and science

The seven liberal arts were divided into Trivium and stadium. The Trivium consisted, as we would now say, the Humanities: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. Stadium included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Philosophy, regarded as a divine science, were not included among the seven liberal arts. She stood at the head of all doctrines: only after mastering all seven arts, it was possible to comprehend the philosophy. Each discipline was the highest achievement of the human mind. Science was depicted as stately and serious virgins, holding in their hand’s various attributes. For example, the Grammar had to hold the rod Geometry — the compass and straightedge, and sitting on the bench, the Music — the hammer that she was hit multiple balls.

Gargoyles and other animals

Demons and monsters, as a rule, occupy the upper part of the Cathedral. Gargoyles adorning the gutters, and various unnamed monsters sit on the buttresses and crowned with towers. These fantastic creatures — the fruit of popular imagination. Unlike the greater part of the statues, they don’t broadcast the message: a medieval painter, permanently bound Canon, gave the rein to their imagination.

The Cathedral as the book

Gothic cathedrals were called the Bible for the illiterate. Looking at the sculpture, the common people learned about the Christian teachings. One of the Fathers of the Church, Gregory the Great, even insisted on the need to resort to images for the education of illiterate. And St. Bonaventure talked about the importance of the visual image: “They [images] win the ignorance of the simpletons, the inertia of the senses, and weakness of memory”.

On the other hand, the medieval Cathedral — a Bible for literacy: this Scripture, carved in stone, and you can read it in different ways. In medieval theology was a widespread theory of multiplicity of meanings of the biblical text. According to her, any text of Scripture, besides the literal interpretation, has at least several more deep and subtle layers of meaning. The sculptural image, as the sacred text, has many meanings; the congregation could interpret them in different ways, depending on their social status and level of education. So, in the calendar cycle, the farmer learned the usual circle rural works, the cleric connected each month with some event in the earthly life of Christ, and University Professor, peering at the simple image of workers, peasants, thinking that a year consists of four seasons and twelve months, is the image of Christ and the Church, whose members are the four evangelists and the twelve apostles.

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Four surfaces as well as their significance

The Cathedral’s making searching to East from West, and each aspect has its meaning that is emblematic. The act is created like a world of night and chilly, a metaphor of the previous Testament. Sunlit and vibrant, South act signifies the Brand New Testament. Within the Northwest more often than not portrayed the view that is final: the environment sunlight illuminates the world’s scary picture yesterday. East act — chapels —’s overhead represents everlasting existence and answer.

Ancient theologians constantly stressed the significance of the right-side and also the selection in accordance with the remaining. In the right-hand of the Instructor, Peter portrayed for instance. Likewise, the wall compared to bottom’s upper part.

Figurines

The facades each are decorated with several statues. Statues are observed within the tympanum sites, about the Main line, the hills, and archivist. Designs could be within the buttresses’ markets and in the eaves. The characters of the aged and New Testament, allegories of benefits and addictions, the personifications of the seven liberal-arts, indicators of the astrology, pictures of projects and moments of agricultural function, the reps of flora and wildlife and exactly what was, or must have recognized concerning the world and guy is devote it. About the act can also be typical to determine wooden curved gallery, the kings’ therefore — named Gallery. It is sometimes situated in Notre-Dame, as above the sites de London, occasionally within the screen flower, as within Chartres’ Cathedral. The sculptures’ size depends towards the audience, area, and placement within the hierarchical program on their closeness.

The Cathedral’s Developed act

The very first fraction of the XIII century in Western Europe is promoting something of submission of sculptural pictures about the American wall of the Cathedral (it had been first utilized on the act of Notre-Dame Cathedral). Within the Central’s tympanum the final view is depicted by website. The archivolt is 24 parents of the Apocalypse, and purchases of angels. Hills of the portal — six. The apostles turned about the Main anchor to the sculpture of Jesus. System, showing the portals’ statue, more often than not produced in the shape of designs that were gnarled, and these secondary characters each are correlated using the primary. The apostles trod underneath the toes of his persecutors: St. Peter stands in the system, showing the Emperor Nero and also the Aegeatos is dominated by the Andrew. Occasionally the system discusses the function within the life in Cathedral Balaam’s number is on his butt.

Between your horizontal and Main sites, the buttresses are occasionally positioned allegorical numbers of Synagogue and Chapel. Symbolizes the Brand New Testament. The top of the Church in the triumphal advertising and also her fingers the chalice. The Synagogue’s number is damaged and curved, such as the team of the advertising in her hand that is left. Right she attempts to acquire the pills of the Agreement (two rock foundations which, based on the Bible, were written the five rules), and shuts her eyes bandage, addressing the denial by Jews of Jesus, and therefore the Brand New Testament. They declined to understand for that reason impaired and the reality. Towards the left of the website that is primary, you can observe the coronation of the Mary’s picture. The Main anchor is embellished using the toddler in her hands using the number of our woman. Another website, often focused on among the saints that were nearby. Therefore, within the tympanum of Amiens Cathedral’s best website exhibits St Firmin initial Bishop of Amiens. About the lateral’s hills sites are figurines of saints adored in an area that is specific.

Ancient theologians continuously received Characteristics between your New and aged Testament. the twelve and also the twelve patriarchs prophets. The Testament that is aged matches towards the News’s twelve apostles, and opposite the four excellent prophets — Isaiah, Daniel Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are positioned pictures of the four evangelists.

Benefits and sins

Based on the ancient Religious world view within the individual spirit originates a continuing battle between benefits and addictions. The person is sinful but could be preserved, top life and a virtuous. About the surfaces of the cathedrals of advantage, the sins, the addictions are offered as allegorical numbers that display what tool to select for this battle to ultimately be preserved and accomplish the Empire of Paradise and what individuals must combat.

Was handed a location that was moderate — at eye-level. A believer remember and might study. Benefits are portrayed together using the addictions: near Wish Frustration is seen by us and Humility can overcomes just Satisfaction.

Diary

About the archivist, jambs and curved pillars typical to determine pictures of the diary rounds and personifications of the seven liberal-arts (as in the Center ages named technology, as trained in colleges).

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