OLA SHAKER
Architect
It took more than 100 years of struggle, experimentation and research for architecture to make a new paradigm in response to the industrial revolution. Engineers were the heroes of that time as steel structures we needed, while architects were only decorators, stuck in the idea of style and eclecticism. Many artists, designers and architects contributed in the process of forming a new wave architecture.
Sullivan was looking for consistency, creating the concept of “Form Follows Function” where coherence between the structure and the appearance exist. Afterwards, architects started looking at the past again, William Moris was intellectual giving the medieval feeling, and with Philip webb medieval style became dynamic.
Later and in the end of the 19th century, they were trying to abandon the eclectic style and this happened by the help of various artists and architects such as Cezanne who was analytical as well as interested in showing wholeness and unity to Picasso and Braque.
Class 5º the long crisis of XIX century
(1894) Guaranty Building - Louis Henry Sullivan [Buffalo, NY]
A paradigm shift in architecture was very much needed after the First World War. This is best presented in the Bauhaus building; built between 1925-26 by Walter Gropius and having all the elements of the new paradigm of modern architecture as well as ignoring the urban morphology of the area. On the contrary, Palazzo Farnese was based on the concept of a typology and is one of the most important examples of architecture responding to the first wave architecture, respecting the concepts of being celebrative, productive, having continuous structure, not open to the city and finally figurative. The first wave architecture was synthetic exactly the opposite to modernist architecture which is fragmented.
Class 6º "Transparency: the catalyst of the architecture of the industrial revolution - The Bauhaus building in Dessau"
Palazzo Farnese - Celebrative
The concept of presenting information in the form of layers was a huge shift in architecture forcing the world to change to be able to cope with this shift. New tools are always the drive for change. To better understand the concept of layers one can take Rome as an example; a city that is formed by various historic layers. In addition, we cannot talk about layers without mentioning the work of three main personnel who helped forming this concept; the lighting field by artist Walter De Maria, where he created abstract layers by a series of points. Architect Peter Eisenman who was experimenting by a series of houses and finally architect & theorist – Bernard Tschumi in parc de la villette competition.
13º Class: "With Layers, a Difference Arrives"
Walter De Maria, The lighting field 1973 ca (cit.)
Unlike Peter Eisnman’s work, the work of Frank Owen Gehry was more of three-dimensional. Frank Gehry he was influenced by his environment and surroundings, which made him an architect of materials. Gehry’s designs follow a number of concepts that are incremental and so much focus on the creation of an overall urban scene. Looking at some of his projects such as Vitra Museum and Bilbao Musem as well as his attitude counting on keywords such as assemblage, Spaziare, cutting, melting, slim and finally to liquefy, we notice that all these concepts contributed in forming a more three dimensional architecture.
18º Class: "Frank ThreeD Gehry"
