International and Postmodern Style in Achitecture   Term Paper ID:41427 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: This paper provides a comparison and contrast of the International and Postmodern styles in architecture. The design for Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier and the design for the Bilbao Spain Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry are used to compare and contrast the respective architectural style. Paper Introduction: International and Postmodern Style in Architecture Introduction There could be fewer more distinct edifices than the Le Corbusierdesigned Villa Savoye Poissy France and the Guggenheim Museum inBilbao Spain designed by Frank Gehry See Image I Image II The clean simple lines of Corbusier\'s Villa Savoye are characteristic ofthe International Style in architecture versus the whimsical and playfulPostmodern style of Gehry\'s Guggenheim design Though the purity ofCorbusier\'s design is characteristic of the International style of designin architecture Gehry\'s Guggenheim design is much more Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. His VillaSavoye in Poissy France clearly illustrates the use of these elements, butalso Le Corbusier's typical style. Le Corbusier's designs were anti-social in contrast to Gehry'sattention-grabbing, inviting playfulness. As such, this analysis makes clearthat the architectural design of any particular building is often directlyrelated to the values and views of the cultures in which they are created.IMAGES Image I: Villa Savoye, 1929 (Le Corbusier)[pic] Image II: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 1997 (Frank Gehry)[pic]Works Cited"Design, 1925-195 ." Metropolitan Museum of Art. 6 May 2 8. According to one art historian, "Oneof the strongest and most influential reactions against the Art Decomovement cam from the Swiss architect Le Corbusier" (Design, 1925 1). According to Duffy (94), "When the exuberant,sensuous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, was finished in 1997, itsarchitect ascended like a rocket into international celebrity." However,in contrast to Villa Savoye which stands apart from its environment,Gehry's design for the Guggenheim was to fashion a building that resemblesa ship since it sits in a port city on the Atlantic coast. Conclusion The Villa Savoye and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao are characteristicof the International and Postmodern styles of architecture respectively.However, despite their distinctions in style or design, each of thesearchitectural styles arose from cultural influences and attitudes towardarchitecture and the nature and function of edifices. Venturi (15-19) helped develop themain tenets of postmodern architecture that show it distinctions fromInternational design: 1) complexity and contradiction in architecture ispreferable to oversimplification; 2) buildings are formed of many partswhich seem complex observed individually but actually form a holisticunity; 3) architectural designs that are superficially complex do not work;and, 4) contradiction, two seemingly contradictory properties, make goodarchitecture. LeCorbusier's reaction against the ornate and complex designs of Art Decohelped shape the International style. "The Antisocial Urbanism of Le Corbusier." Common Knowledge, Winter 2 7, 13(1), 5 -66.Venturi, Robert. A response tothe formal design of the International style, the Postmodern style ideologywas shaped by architect Robert Venturi. In fact, one of the most characteristic features ofpostmodern architecture is a creative playfulness that often results inwhimsical designs like the Guggenheim. The rise of themachine age and industry helped pave the way for such expressions inarchitecture, including the advent of large sections of preformed concretethat are characteristic of most designs by Le Corbusier, including VillaSavoye. In thissense, Gehry's design fits in with its environment in an organic way, incontrast to Le Corbusier's standing apart from environment. Unlike Le Corbusier's designs which were meant todivide individuals, Gehry's invite individuals to come together in creativeexpression and interaction. "Frank Gehry." Smithsonian, November 2 5, 36(8), 94-96."Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao" (Image). Though the purity ofCorbusier's design is characteristic of the International style of designin architecture, Gehry's Guggenheim design is much more characteristic ofmodern perspectives on architecture and its function and purpose. Monacelli Press, 2 .Richards, Simon. In contrast, modern culture is freer, more expressive on anindividual level, and has shaped a different paradigm of buildings andtheir purpose and design. 6 May 2 8. Ironically, like Le Corbusier, however, Gehryhas been described as "an outsider," but this stems primarily from hisoften over-the-top Postmodern designs (Duffy 96). From the 197 s on, oneart historian notes that a "radically transformed modern design expresseditself through a variety of idioms" based on a new optimism "filled withthe promise of the future" (Design, 195 1). Body In the works of Charles Edouard Jeanneret (better known as "LeCorbusier"), the elements of what is known as the International style inarchitecture are clearly visible. As Duffy (94)notes, "The architect's daring, outside-the-box buildings have revitalizedurban spaces." One similarity between Le Corbusier's design and Gehry's is thatthey are both outcomes that reflect the latest technologies of the time.The increased popularity for using preformed concrete during the twentiethcentury in architecture is clearly evident in Le Corbusier's design fromVilla Savoye. In looking at Frank Gehry's design for the Guggenheim Museum,Bilbao, one can see how the element of playfulness reentered architecturaldesign compared to the formal design of Villa Savoye (See Image II). TheGuggenheim's whimsical nature includes enormous sculpted curves that showhow seemingly disparate elements fit into a holistic unity. In contrast, Gehry's wavy, enormous curves that create theexterior of the Guggenheim show the latest capabilities in computer aideddesign. Le Corbusier's design for VillaSavoye clearly expresses his view that a house is a "machine for living in"and furniture is "domestic equipment" (Design, 1925 1). The titaniumpanels on the outside of the enormous waves reflect and shimmer in the sunin a way that mirrors the scales on the fish that swim nearby. 6 May 2 8. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2 2."Villa Savoye," (Image). http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dsgn2/hd_dsgn2.htm, 1-2."Design, 195 -1975." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Insteadof a ground floor terrace, the flat roof top serves as the terrace andgarden area which once more is removed from nature or ready social access.Even Le Corbusier's designs for urban spaces featured few alleys or streetsto connect shops and cafes and other shops that invited socializing werefew and far between, separated by large, uninviting concrete structures.Richards (51) maintains that the ideology underlying Le Corbusier's use ofInternational style was characteristic of a breed of individuals during theera, "Le Corbusier was a deeply unhappy man, a vagabond, rootless, single,and lonely, who as a consequence loathed human society." Surely raisingone's home on stilts and moving the garden to the roof shows thisalienation from others in design. Richards (5 ) maintains that LeCorbusier's antisocial concept of social planning "condemned any socialaspect of architectural planning." Instead, the raised columns on VillaSavoye serve more as a barrier to socialization than inducement. Villa Savoye demonstrates LeCorbusier's typical style of raising a building on stilts, add a free-flowing floor plan, create walls independent of the structure, and add ahorizontal strip of windows (Villa 1). In contrast to the alienating style of Le Corbusier, Gehry's designshave been called "quirky, accidental, and absurd" in their effort to "uniteexpressive form and utilitarian function" (Duffy 95). Thisanalysis will compare and contrast the two designs in order to illustratethis argument. As Jencks (328) maintains of LeCorbusier's structure, they stand "awkwardly and heroically apart fromnature much as a Greek temple proclaiming man's loneliness and independencefrom the cosmos." Part of this loneliness stems from the lost generationera after WWI that questioned Godhead and man's relationship to it. The simplification and purity of designs associated with theInternational style is in contrast to the playful and complexcontradictions often witnessed in Postmodern architecture. 8117 International and Postmodern Style in Architecture Introduction There could be fewer more distinct edifices than the Le Corbusierdesigned Villa Savoye (1927), Poissy, France, and the Guggenheim Museum inBilbao, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry (1997) (See Image I & Image II).The clean, simple lines of Corbusier's Villa Savoye are characteristic ofthe International Style in architecture, versus the whimsical and playfulPostmodern style of Gehry's Guggenheim design. The simple purity of less is more characteristicin International style has been replaced in Postmodern design by Venturi'spostmodern manifesto that "less is a bore" when it comes to architecturaldesign (Venturi 17). Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, (2nd edit.). http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dsgn3/hd_dsgn3.htm, 1-2.Duffy, Robert. Jencks (327) arguesthat the International style and LeCorbusier's designs were a direct resultof a desire for greater "truth and purity" in society and subsequently,architecture. In many ways the International style evolved as a response to theornate and showy designs of Art Deco. It would have been impossible for architects of Le Corbusier's erato have executed such computer generated designs. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cambridge2 .com/galler y/images/P4 314378.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cambridge2 .com/gallery/h tml/P4 314378.html&h=1 7&w=143&sz=56&tbnid=XIcgDUFlcGoJ:&tbnh=1 7&tbnw= 143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvilla%2Bsavoye&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum =1&ct=image&cd=2 Le Corbusier and the Continual Revolution in American Architecture. 6 May 2 8. In contrast to LeCorbusier's uninviting and alienating designs, Gehry's design for theGuggenheim has attracted millions of visitors to the city and museum inaddition to spawning a wave of creative expression in museum design theworld over (Duffy 95). http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://updatecenter.britannica.com/ eb/image%3FbinaryId%3D72 32%26rendTypeId%3D4&imgrefurl=http://updatecen ter.britannica.com/art%253FassemblyId%253D73 77%26type%253DA&h=87&w=133 &sz=22&tbnid=LnVdAMCCEGYJ:&tbnh=87&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguggenhe im%2Bmuseum%2Bbilbao&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1Jencks, Charles. The designrevolutionized architecture. Le Corbusier's works often demonstrateenormous scale, rely on significant use of preformed concrete, and exhibita purity that are all elements of the International style. Gehry's futuristic design forthe Guggenheim demonstrates this expression and ideology. A conclusion will address how culture continues to impactdesign style in architecture. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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