To keep pace with population explosion and to provide each and every one with a space to live in, the style of modern architecture was adopted.
The technique adopts the form of simplification and eliminates the ornament form of building styles. This style of conserving space was conceptualized in the early 1920s.
Modern architecture was followed by many powerful architects and architectural pedagogues. But this method gained its popularity only after the Second World War and now it is the dominant architectural style.
The method of modern architecture owes its popularity to three greats namely Le Corbusier of France together with L.M van der Rohe and Walter Gropius of Germany. L.M van der Rohe and Gropius were the managers of schools in Europe which was related with harmonising craft and tradition in addition to industrial technology.
Architects involved in international style adopted the style of simple design and unornamented buildings to accommodate maximum living space within minimum dimensions.
Materials used were glass, steel and concrete. The plans for the flooring were functional and also logical, a style adopted in the planning of skyscrapers.
Modern architecture key principles include:
• Materials and functional needs determine the design
• Artistic designs finalised by machines.
• Ornamentation being completely rejected.
• Adoption of simple forms
• Deletion of unneeded details.
• Expressed structure adoption
• Function precedes form.
Disparagers consider the modern style of architecture as deprivation. Le Corbusier had once said that buildings were machines and human life did not require machines to live in.
Philip Johnson accepted that he was no more interested with the thing called box. Early 80s saw many architects intentionally divert from rectilinear patterns and adopt eclectic styles.
The organic form became popular because of its playful nature. This movement owes its credit to the two prolific architects Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen. This movement has aided in influencing the present-day modernization which prevails even today as modern architecture.
Modern architecture has indeed gone a long way and its influence in the lives of people around the world is something that can never be denied. Though there are some critics who believe that modern architecture is just a fad, a great majority however believes otherwise. In fact, modern architecture has pierced into the society where critics dwell.
Modern architecture? A beast you cannot live or love without.
