The ‘Modernity’ of the ‘Old’
‘Modern’ has always been a word hard to define. In architectural terms, defining modernity has been an issue that troubled a number generations before the arrival of rapid technological advancement and the modernization of our society which began at the turn of the 20th century. Still, however, in the 21st century, it is widely accepted that establishing what is ‘modern’ can be truly objective.
As happens with other professions, a common element between different generations of architects has been that there always existed architects who were ahead of their time and had challenged the aesthetic preconceptions of their era by means of their pioneering works, which ultimately established ‘modern’ trends. Since the 1930s we have examples such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, as well as our contemporaries, such as Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando.
The Unité d'Habitation, a modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso.
Charles-Edouard Jeanneret was among the most influential architects in the modern architectural era and understanding of his work is fundamental in understanding what is now considered ‘modern’ architecture. The nicknamed “Le Corbusier” saw internal space and volume as a big cube and divided it up horizontally and vertically. His aim was to provide better living conditions by analyzing the needs of the residents in crowded cities. One of his most revolutionary buildings, and unlike anything the architect had done before, is the Unite d’Habitation (Habitation Unit) in Marseille, built in 1946-52; a mass housing project that perfectly embodies his idea that ‘architecture is the play of volumes brought together in light’. His work with concrete, although aesthetically controversial, is unboundedly a cornerstone in ‘modern’ architectural history. A deeper insight into Roman architecture, however, reveals that even Le Corbusier’s creations are the ancestors of Roman concrete constructions such as the Pantheon in Rome.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Source: wikicommons
His life was a drama, his career, a miracle. In his life he faced turmoil, especially the murder of his wife and her children in his Taliesin studio, in his career he gave birth to the most remarkable buildings, greatly attached to the natural environment by promoting organic architecture. That was Frank Lloyd Wright, born in 1867. This was the man who designed ‘Fallingwater’ in 1935-37, a masterpiece not only of his times but for the contemporary world as well. Unlike Le Corbusier, Lloyd followed the pattern of opening corners, making spaces flow into each other, thus changing forever the concept of a house as a “collection of boxes”; an architectural practice that continues to this day and is incorrectly considered a ‘contemporary’ idea.
Similar to Lloyd was Oscar Niemeyer who once said that what attracts him is the “free and sensual curve – the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman”. Modern technological advancements have made the visions of post-modern architects such as Zaha Hadid possible. Based on a similar thought pattern as Niemeyer, Hadid’s almost spaceship-like constructions (considered by many to be the pinnacle of ‘modern architecture’) are not all that contemporary in vision.
The 'Church Of The Light' is the Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church's main chapel. It was built in 1989, in the city of Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture. This building is one of the most famous designs of Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
The “Church of Light” is among the most famous buildings by contemporary Japanese architect Tadao Ando. It maintains the ultimate sacred environment thus being the perfect building for the purpose that it serves. Simple-cut lines and smooth, bare concrete command awe, in a building that is obviously contemporary but traces its architectural roots to the more primitive concrete experimentations of Le Corbusier in the 1940s.
The study of the above architects and the eras during which they reached their career peak draws us to the conclusion that ‘modern’ does not necessarily mean ‘contemporary’. The history of architecture has shown that we often tend to characterize buildings as ‘modern’ depending on when they were completed. It is a cliché and a mistake to neglect the fact that others, in the past, have worked on similar designs or might have created the basis for what contemporary architects build. In the 21st century we consider ‘modern’ the pattern of simple lines and geometrical architecture, whereas a look into the Greek and Roman architecture reveals that our ‘modernity’ is derived from their constructs.
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