Student Lounge

October 26, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

How can such a simple style be so incredibly evocative and poetic? The International Style, when successfully expressed, defied design expectations of how form and surface should be to usher in grand yet subtle new concepts in design expressions. An awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping example of the International Style is The Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. The open-plan structure is cleverly composed of a series of vertical and horizontal planes. This design technique provokes the viewer to move through the zones. 

I believe he thoughtfully considered circulation and how to encourage an active spatial experience. When we aren’t provided with al...Read More

October 19, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

In his 1908 treatise “Ornament and Crime,” architect and design theorist Adolf Loos equates ornamentation to disease and all decoration childish and “degenerate.” So began the 20th century and its march toward modernism and its militant mantra “form follows function.” Ornamentation in the 19th-century had gotten so out of hand, many architects and critics felt that only a correction to the other extreme felt right.

Why such a violent reaction? The Industrial Revolution wreaked havoc on European societ...Read More

October 16, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

The big question we've been dealing with, in our readings of design theory, is "what's the suitable style for our time?" The answer varies, of course, but two issues always seem to come up: first, how do we balance manmade and machine production; and second, what do we do about ornament? Should we be inspired by machines or be wary of them? Should we embrace ornament or reject it?

Reading works like ...Read More

October 12, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

On Friday, we discussed two early modernist architects: Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. Looking ahead to contemporary design, what can present-day architects and designers learn from them? Why or how are their principles still important to architects and designers today?



Frank Lloyd Wright noted that people did not care what their environment was like as long as it was fashionable, warm, dry, and the neighbors was good. He describes these environments as compartment-like boxes with openings for air and entry. Wright had his own set of rules regarding architecture: it starts with a building; it should have as few rooms as possible to meet the requirements for living; openings...Read More

October 9, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Moving into the 20th century, theory gets closer to home -- or, at least, to ideas that design students relate to more easily. Now we're reading some of Frank Lloyd Wright's talks In The Cause of Architecture, and Le Corbusier's Vers Une Architecture. Both of these architects put forth theories that were critical to the development of modernism. Despite Wright's oversize ego and scandalous behaviour, his words show a healthy dose of good common sense. And Corbusier's mistranslated Towards a New Arc...Read More