DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45213#0106
102
Form of buildings and new architectural style
With its simple forms and absence of decoration, the new style in domestic architecture that
emerged after World War I was ideal for the anonymous consumer and the sequential manufactur-
ing of houses. The object's form was not regarded as autonomous but was postulated to reflect
consumer needs as well as the properties of the materials and technologies employed in its produc-
tion. Such at least were the objectives self-declared by European avant-garde architects who called
themselves Functionalists.251 However, the declared pursuit of pure function was not always consis-
tent with their own works often displaying a "surplus" of aesthetic concerns.252
Le Corbusier played an instrumental role in promoting this new style, or - as Szczesny Rutkows-
ki calls it - "New Spirit", by publishing programmatic texts against traditional forms first in L'Esprit
Nouveau and then in his seminal collection of essays Vers une architecture.253 "Mass and surface are
the elements by which architecture manifests itself. Mass and surface are determined by the plan"
- he wrote.254 Le Corbusier's powerful personality contributed to the profound influence his views
exerted upon his contemporaries although he would later reject as erroneous, some of the ideas he
had so resolutely promoted.
Two principal sources of inspiration for the new style can be identified: one was the idea of des-
ignating certain areas of the living space for specific functions, the other was formed by contempo-
rary developments in the fine arts, first of all Suprematism. Not only did the building's walls enclose
within their interiors that what could be seen from the outside, they also created an autonomous
composition of masses and planes. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld's famed detached house in Utrecht exem-
plifies this approach to architectural form. It has been composed of juxtaposed geometric shapes en-
livened with large expanses of glass, multi-plane flat roofs and balconies of concrete slabs supported
on thin metal beams that seem suspended in the air. Its colour design has been inspired by works of
Piet Mondrian and other members of De Stijl or the Bauhaus circle. It is an autonomous composition
of colourful lines and planes with black and white complementing the three primary colours: yellow,
red, and blue. The interwar period has been often called the "time of primary colours" and in the
1920's Holland became a laboratory for testing new architecture and new aesthetics.
251 Szczqsny RUTKOWSKI, op.cit., p. 78. The emerging of a new architectural style was "the doubtless influenced of engineers constructing,
logically and with simplicity, monumental steamers, grain elevators, bridges, cars, and airplanes, completely free of style embellishments and
still imposing luxury and elegance." The author is right in noticing that the sources of the new style in engineered structures where function
was defined by form points to the influence of the Cubists and Abstractionists who "portray beauty through the play of masses and values"
as well as by the Philanthropist and architects whose attitudes and social concerns were on alleviating acute postwar housing shortages and
the sequential production of comfortable housing. As the predecessor of the New Spirit Rutkowski points to Frank Loyd Wright, August Perret,
Tonny Garnier, Peter Behrens, Hans Poelzig and Hendrik Petrus Berlage.
252 Jadwiga StAWINSKA, op.cit., precisely points to these inconsistencies.
253 Szczgsny RUTKOWSKI, op.cit., p.78-79. Le Corbusier writes that to lie is immoral and deadly. He considers style as a lie and insists that archi¬
tecture is not style, it is like a feather pinned to a woman's head sometimes - but not always - it decorates.
254 Ibidem, p.80.
Form of buildings and new architectural style
With its simple forms and absence of decoration, the new style in domestic architecture that
emerged after World War I was ideal for the anonymous consumer and the sequential manufactur-
ing of houses. The object's form was not regarded as autonomous but was postulated to reflect
consumer needs as well as the properties of the materials and technologies employed in its produc-
tion. Such at least were the objectives self-declared by European avant-garde architects who called
themselves Functionalists.251 However, the declared pursuit of pure function was not always consis-
tent with their own works often displaying a "surplus" of aesthetic concerns.252
Le Corbusier played an instrumental role in promoting this new style, or - as Szczesny Rutkows-
ki calls it - "New Spirit", by publishing programmatic texts against traditional forms first in L'Esprit
Nouveau and then in his seminal collection of essays Vers une architecture.253 "Mass and surface are
the elements by which architecture manifests itself. Mass and surface are determined by the plan"
- he wrote.254 Le Corbusier's powerful personality contributed to the profound influence his views
exerted upon his contemporaries although he would later reject as erroneous, some of the ideas he
had so resolutely promoted.
Two principal sources of inspiration for the new style can be identified: one was the idea of des-
ignating certain areas of the living space for specific functions, the other was formed by contempo-
rary developments in the fine arts, first of all Suprematism. Not only did the building's walls enclose
within their interiors that what could be seen from the outside, they also created an autonomous
composition of masses and planes. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld's famed detached house in Utrecht exem-
plifies this approach to architectural form. It has been composed of juxtaposed geometric shapes en-
livened with large expanses of glass, multi-plane flat roofs and balconies of concrete slabs supported
on thin metal beams that seem suspended in the air. Its colour design has been inspired by works of
Piet Mondrian and other members of De Stijl or the Bauhaus circle. It is an autonomous composition
of colourful lines and planes with black and white complementing the three primary colours: yellow,
red, and blue. The interwar period has been often called the "time of primary colours" and in the
1920's Holland became a laboratory for testing new architecture and new aesthetics.
251 Szczqsny RUTKOWSKI, op.cit., p. 78. The emerging of a new architectural style was "the doubtless influenced of engineers constructing,
logically and with simplicity, monumental steamers, grain elevators, bridges, cars, and airplanes, completely free of style embellishments and
still imposing luxury and elegance." The author is right in noticing that the sources of the new style in engineered structures where function
was defined by form points to the influence of the Cubists and Abstractionists who "portray beauty through the play of masses and values"
as well as by the Philanthropist and architects whose attitudes and social concerns were on alleviating acute postwar housing shortages and
the sequential production of comfortable housing. As the predecessor of the New Spirit Rutkowski points to Frank Loyd Wright, August Perret,
Tonny Garnier, Peter Behrens, Hans Poelzig and Hendrik Petrus Berlage.
252 Jadwiga StAWINSKA, op.cit., precisely points to these inconsistencies.
253 Szczgsny RUTKOWSKI, op.cit., p.78-79. Le Corbusier writes that to lie is immoral and deadly. He considers style as a lie and insists that archi¬
tecture is not style, it is like a feather pinned to a woman's head sometimes - but not always - it decorates.
254 Ibidem, p.80.