Icons of modern architecture

Charlotte Baden-Powell, Architect, on 14 February 2002

Lunchtime Lecture

Charlotte Baden-Powell trained at The Architectural Association and worked for British Rail before joining a private practice and then setting up on her own. She is the author of The Architect's Pocketbook.

Modern architecture dates back to the beginning of the 20th century and was preceded by such innovative buildings as Paxton's Crystal Palace and McIntosh's Glasgow School of Art. It developed because new materials and methods of construction became available; architects were tired of neo-Georgian and classical designs being used inappropriately for commercial buildings; and there was a demand for new houses, which should be of better design than those existing.

There was considerable antagonism to modern designs at first, which was not surprising considering their totally different appearance to the `conventional' buildings of that time. They were based on the epigram "Form should follow function" and undecorated surfaces abounded.

Designs in the `New Plasticism' style, which required straight lines, only three primary colours (plus black, white and grey) and asymmetry were introduced in both architecture, led by Le Corbusier, Mies van de Rohe and Alvan Aarto in Europe, and painting, for example, by Mondrian. In America, Frank Lloyd Wright built two houses, in 1901 and 1909, which introduced the modern style in America.

The speaker then showed numerous slides of modern buildings that could be acknowledged as icons of the movement from Erik Mendelssohn's `Einstein's Tower' observatory in Potsdam, designed in 1921 through to the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum of 1997 and the Eden Project's geodesic domes. She commented on the features of each building and its place in the chronology.

Several `old favourites' were missing, which she explained was because she did not consider them iconic, however interesting they were at the time they were built. Gropius and the Bauhaus school, and skyscrapers were examples of such omissions.

The audience of about 50 people was very appreciative of the speaker's informative talk and excellent slides.

Donald Lovell