Mies van der Rohe (Emergence to Modernism.)

Life

Mies van der Rohe was born in Germany in 1886 as Maria Ludwig Michael Mies. He was the youngest of five children and attended a Catholic school before receiving vocation training at the Gewerbeschule in Aachen. He started out as a draftsman before breaking off on to create his own architect/interior design empire. He received his first commission for a residential home design while he was still working as a draftmans before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 which put a hold on his career. He served the German military by helping build bridges and roads. After the war, Mies returned home to his wife, Ada Bruhn, whom he married in 1913 and eventually had 3 daughters with, and to his work. It was around the time that Mies added van der Rohe to his name which was an adaptation of his mother's maiden name.
By the 1920s, Mies became the leading architect in Germany and was a member of the radical artistic organization, Novembergruppe, and eventually the Bauhaus movement which was founded by Walter Gropius and embraced socialist ideals as well as a functional philosophy about art and design. Unfortunately, this movement was eventually shut down due to the politically pressure from the Nazis.
Mies died on August 17, 1969 of esophageal cancer in his adopted hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Many of his structures still stand today and are widely visited by admirers who appreciate his design philosophy, "I have tried to make an architecture for a technological society. I wanted to keep everything reasonable and clear--to have an architecture that anybody can do."

Important Works

One of his more influential works was the Barcelona Pavilion which was the display of architecture's modern movement to the world. It was originally named the German Pavilion as it was the face of Germany after World War II and was meant to show the nation's progressively modern culture. His concept for the design was to create a space that was simply a building and nothing more. It was meant to be a place of tranquility and escape from the exposition in which it was placed.

 Another important work of Mies is the Farnsworth house. It was designed by Miesd in 1945 and is a vital part of American iconography. It represents both the International Style of architecture as well the modern movement's desire to juxtapose the sleek, streamline design of Modern structure with the organic environment of surrounding nature.

Modern Applications:

EC:

Otto Wagner (Protomodernism)

Life

Otto Wagner was born in Penzing, Austria on July 13, 1841. He was educated by private tutors and French governesses until the age of nine when he began schooling at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Vienna for two years before beginning boarding school. His mother decided that Wagner was to be trained as a lawyer while in school, however, Wagner hated life at boarding school that at one point, he ran away to Vienna where his mother had to convince him to return. After forcedly completing the humanist education, he studied at the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna where, because of his good reports, was exempt from military service and was able to continue his education at Koenigliche Bauakademie in Berlin. In 1861, Wagner returned home to Vienna and completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1963, Wagner won his first competition (for a casino in the Wiener Stadtpark) and also married his wife, Josefine, with whom he  had three children with. Shortly after his mother's death in 1880, he divorced Josefine and  remarried Louise Stiffel who was 18 years younger than him. With Louise, Wagner had an additional three children.  In 1915, Louise took ill and he began journal entries that would eventually turn into letters that he would sign 'Your Otto' or something similar. After Louise's death, Wagner lived quietly as by then the war made it's way into his studio saying that he was, 'greatly oppressed by the lack of an assistant' and while his son, Otto, was also a professional architect, he was not considered a good assistant as Wagner stated, ' I have never seen anybody with so little artistic flair and with so little taste. This worries me greatly, for what are all my buildings going to look like if it is left to him to complete them.' Wagner died on Aprill 11, 1918 of erysipelas (a bacterial skin infection) and is buried in his family  vault which he had build in the Hietzing Cemetery.

Design Philosophy
In his manifesto that he wrote in 1896 (Modern Architecture), Wagner  expressed his ideal of practical and efficiently designed architecture. I argued that, 'the purpose of beauty was to give artistic expression to function. Extraneous ornament, therefore, was not only impractical and inefficient, it was also decidedly unmodern.' His approach to design was related to that of the Secession (a progressive group of Austrian artists, architects, and designers who pursued artistic rejuvenation). Secessionist architects believed in the idea of Gesamtkunstwertk or the 'total work of art' meaning they believed that all aesthetic elements were subordinated to the whole effect.

Main Works

Pavilion on Karlsplatz
Pavilion on Karlsplatz was built in 1989 in the course of Stadbahn construction. Wagner's design was revolutionary in Art Nouveau architecture which is shown in the many decorative details. Metal and wood were painted green with golds and white marble added throughout the design as well.

Austrian Postal Savings Bank

The Postal Savings Banks is considered a Gesmtkunstwerk  (total work of art) and is believed to perfectly epitomize Wagner's approach to building design. It is seven stories high and occupies an entire city block. The plan is trapezoidal with the rectilinear central block occupying the main banking hall. The frame of the building is steel while the central banking hall isf a glass atrium. In the design, Wagner hoped to maximize efficiency and minimize the amount of daily cleaning and future repairs. This was achieved through selecting materials for the durability as well as their functionality.

 These are just a few of his many works. Here is a link to an article that discusses more of his contributions to architecture:

 https://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/otto-wagner-vienna/

Modern Applications:

Antoni Gaudi (Art Nouveau)

Antoni Gaudi was born on June 25, 1852 in provincial Catalonia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Gaudi showed interest in architecture at an early age and he began schooling in Barcelona in 1870, however, is studies were interrupted by military service and he did not graduate until 1878 from the Provincial School of Architecture. After graduating, Guadi's work was heavily influenced by Victorian design, however, he quickly developed his own style consisting of geometric masses and animated surfaces with patterned brick, stone, and ceramic and floral or reptilian metal work. An example of this style is The salamander in Park Guell:

During his early period, at the Paris World's Fair of 1878, Gaudi displayed a showcase which impressed patron enough to lead to Gaudi's being commissioned on the Guell Palace and Estate in Barcelona. Built between 1886 and 1890, this Palace was completed by the time Gaudi was 38 years old. It was home to the Guell family for twenty years and used as both a home to this family as well as a place for social gatherings and when the Spanish Civil war began it was converted into a Police Station and then later became home to the Theatre Institute.

One of his most famous works was his refurbishment of Casa Batllo in 1904. In his refurbishment, Gaudi added two new story's and designed a new exterior consisting of mosaic fragments of glass and ceramic disks to form a dragons back. The main floor of the building was home to the Batllo family a d it contained the large lounge with views overlooking Passeig De Gracia and is characterized by a long gallery with leaded windows and the woodwork in its interior. As inspiration Gaudi used colors a d shapes found in marine life and spent time on his designs to consider things such as varying window sizes depending on how height the window is from the top of the building to ensure uniform lighting conditions in each room in the building.

After 1910, Gaudi abandoned all of his work to focus on the Sagrada Familia, also known as 'cathedral for the poor,' which he had begun in 1883. For the final 12 years of his life, Guadi's main concentrated mainly on dedicating himself to prayer, long periods of fasting and to the construction of this Cathedral. While this building is now a popular tourist spot in Barcelona, it wasn't always popular with the citizens of the city. In July of 1936, a group of revolutionaries broke into the crypt and destroyed Guadi's original plans, drawings and plaster models. It took 16 years before they were able to piece just the model back together again.

Gaudi worked on this Cathedra until his death on June 10, 1926. He died after getting hit by a trolley car in Barcelona a few weeks before his 74th birthday. He was buried in the chapel of our Lady of Mount Carmel in the crypt of Sagrada Familia. To this day, Sagrada Familia remains unfished and has a projected completion date of 2026, to mark the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

This video shows what the additions that needed to be added to the building before it is considered complete:

Modern Applications of Art Nouveau:

EC: Antoni Gaudi's top 5 works