Lunes, Oktubre 31, 2011

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Linggo, Oktubre 30, 2011

What is Mid-Century Modern Architecture?

Mid-Century Modern Architecture is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. Mid-century architecture was a development of Frank Lloyd Wright's principles of organic architecture combined with many elements reflected in the International and Bauhaus movements - including the work of Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. Mid-century modernism was much more organic in form and less formal than the International Style. Mid-Century Modern Architecture was frequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism into America's post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windows and open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing the outdoors in. Many Mid-century houses utilized then-groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs, with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residential Mid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style.
Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was the one who brought Mid-Century Modern Architecture ("Eichler Homes") to subdivisions in the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay region of California and select housing developments on the east coast. George Fred Keck, Henry P. Glass and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created Mid-Century Modern residences in the Chicago area. Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House is extremely difficult to heat or cool, while Keck and Keck were pioneers in the incorporation of passive solar features in their houses to compensate for their large glass windows. The characteristics of Mid-Century Modern Architecture was implementing design using the old or antique elements mixing with modern and sleek designs.
Scandinavian design was very influential at this time, with a style characterized by simplicity, democratic design and natural shapes. Glassware (Iittala - Finland), ceramics (Arabia - Finland), tableware (George Jensen - Denmark), lighting, and furniture were some of the genres products were created in.
Furniture

Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen

Grand Prix by Arne Jacobsen

Eames Lounge Chair byCharles and Ray Eames

Diamond chair by Harry Bertoia

Architecture

Main Terminal at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia, by Eero Saarinen

Palacio da Alvorada, byOscar Niemeyer

National Congress of Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer

MIT Chapel by Eero Saarinen

North Christian Church, Columbus, Indiana, US, the final work of Eero Saarinen

Stahl House, designed byPierre Koenig

Helsinki, Finland - University of Technology - Auditorium, by Alvar Aalto.

Hotel Casino de la Selva, Cuernavaca, Mexico, byFélix Candela

Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Designby Carl Maston

The 360 at Founders Plaza in Oklahoma City

Alvar Aalto is thought of “the father of modernism” within his native country, and is more widely considered as one of the great architects of the 20^th century. He created a distinctly Finnish brand of modernism, designing furniture from 1930s and continued to remain popular on both sides of the Atlantic as well as the atomic era. During his heyday, Finnair would delay flights until he had boarded. Not one for excessive modesty, it has been said that Aalto would order his driver to tour around the airport to delay his flights. When you qualify for currency portraiture, you have apparently earned the right to be fashionably late.

It was not always like that for Aalto. Born and raised in central Finland, he grew up in a solidly middle-class home. His father was a land surveyor and his mother ran a post office but she died when Aalto was a child. After graduating from high school, Aalto moved to the city to pursue his education, graduating from the Helsinki University of Technology with a degree in Architecture in 1921. After a short stint in Sweden, he returned to his hometown and he met and married another young architect named Aino Marsio. The couple opened their own architectural practice and worked together until Aino’s untimely death in 1949.

The young Aalto was in the right place and time. Finland had declared independence from Russia only a few years before he graduated from college. The decades that followed presented many opportunities for bright, young architects to take on commissions that would help the country build its national identity. During the 1920s, Aalto took advantage and participated in a number of architectural competitions. These contests led to prominent commissions in Finland and later in America.

The Aaltos moved to Turku, on the coast of south Finland, where they maintained close ties to the new international style of architecture practiced by Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. Among Aalto’s early modernist projects was the Paimio Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. He wanted to design a building that would help patients recover from their illness. His innovation was a cheery building with features conducive to recovery and health. These included sinks designed for silent and splash-less usage, and the birch Paimio armchair, which he hoped would help patients to breathe more easily during the hours of rest. It was made using the wood bending techniques that Aalto invented and even patented.

In addition to commercial buildings, he also designed influential residences. His most famous house, the Villa Mairea, was done for industrialists Harry and Maire Gullichsen, who were friends and supporters. Among its furnishings was the Tea Trolley 900, which Aalto had first exhibited at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. With a practical tile top, wicker basket and oversized wheels, it used Aalto’s characteristic bentwood technology to achieve a modernist take on modern design. The same might be said of the Armchair 400, which reinvented the upholstered lounge chair by cantilevering the seat and back on two bent birch wood arms.

Aalto’s image may have passed from usage in European currency, but his furniture and decorative accessories have left a lasting legacy and are more popular than ever. The company he founded to manufacture his furniture, Artek, still faithfully handcrafts Aalto’s designs, and his glassware is widely available through Iittala.