(In this unit we pushed to create a name/style for ourselves and that is what the photo represents)
The final unit embraced the idea of exploring the world, but
through the trade and other movements we as Americans realized that we lacked a
defining style. We began our unit with
the extravagant world's fair that was the first industrial showcase for
entrepreneurs and innovators. The first
fair was in Paris and it showcased everything from food to trees. An exhibition building is built each time the
fair is coming, but it is not a permanent building, it will later be knocked
down within a few years. Since the world
was now in an industrial state one of the main attractions was the new
materials that were being manufactured.
As the fair informed the public of the new materials many people became
consumed in the idea of the industrial world except one group of pure craft
lovers. The arts and crafts movement was
full of craftsmen who felt like manufactured products were not as carefully
crafted. As time passed many of the anti-industrialists
movements had passed, but their belief in substance over surface is still a
contributing factor in design today. As
many movements began to flourish the realization that America still lacked an
original architectectural style began to weigh heavily on the minds of the
people.
We were still a very undefined
country and the hunt for our style had all types of designers and architects in
a frenzy to establish a portion of it.
The big cities of Chicago and New York were some of the focal areas and
with there not being much room in these cities and with the cost of land; we
decided the best solution would be to build up.
This great idea began the race for skyscrapers and through the world's
fair a new object had been created, the elevator. We now had the ability to build as high as
physics would allow us to. We had
created a signature style for the big cities, but one man wanted to establish a
style for the people. Frank Lloyd Wright
began to create neighborhoods in Chicago and later branched off to different
states and did smaller projects there.
His homes still stand all over the country capturing the homes of the
everyday Americans and later he began to show America what the world had to
offer in the home market. However, we
still felt as if America had not caught up with the European’s glorious
architecture and a new rebellious genre of architecture was formed. If the belief is that the Renaissance is
thinking in the box and Baroque is thinking outside the box then modernism
would be like lighting the entire box on fire and creating something with the
ashes.
Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe dominated the different types of modernism, but a key concept that will
always encompass this genre is commodity, firmness, and delight. People were designing in such an abstract
manner that they no longer cared about the functionality of the building,
beauty was the main priority. We were
being selfish and with that it made us come back to grounds with what our style
really was. However, even at the end of
this unit we have realized that the modernism movement is still in full gear
and we still face the same issue of functionality that the designers did at
that time as well. Today we take commodity,
firmness, and delight in mind as a priority, because we realized all the harm
we were causing to the world so since then we have just become more cautious.
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