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The Miller House Midcentury Modern   Richard Neutra highly influenced the customization of the house owners when designing their houses, so much so that it limits the market of future owners because it might not fit their style of life. The owner of this particular house was Mrs. Grace Lewis Miller, between August 1936 and February 1937 Richard Neutra and Grace Miller exchanged over fifty letters which discussed every step of her daily schedule. All her routines and habits are reflected in the house because Neutra listened to all her requirements and suggestions and followed them religiously. The house was tailor made for Grace Miller and her life. The home was made up of two pieces as it was to fit the roles of a winter home and an exercise studio. The budget for the house was merely five thousand dollars, but her requirements were basic so it wasn't a difficult endeavour. Grace Miller requested for the home to match her style as “Miller was a teacher of the Mensendieck Syste...

TWA Terminal  The TWA flight center (the Trans World Flight Center) was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1962 and is a great example of Futurist architecture and modern architecture. The TWA terminal was a major milestone in the improvement and development of air travel. There has always been a feeling of excitement when one is to travel by airplane. Eero Saarinen aimed to capture each and every aspect that makes air travel so sensational, throughout the buildings design to the flight itself. It is as if he wanted a persons experiential journey to begin before they even set foot on the airplane itself. The structure of the building itself becomes symbolic as one would approach this “monument to airline travel”. The large wing-like concrete shell resembles the wings of an airplane. This building is another great example of the implementation of concrete into building designs following World War two. The wing like structure shows just what exactly concrete is capable of. The mat...

TWA Terminal The TWA Terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen was more than just a terminal, it was a testament to aviation at the time. The building itself was designed and built of concrete after the Second World War. In his attempt of the terminal, “Eero Saarinen sought to capture the sensation of flight in all aspects of the building, from a fluid open interior, to the wing-like concrete shell of the roof” (Archdaily). It was after the Second World War that commercial air travel had become available to more than just the higher class people. The design of the terminal came from the Port of New York Authority’s request for a terminal city. This terminal city would require each major airline to operate an individual terminal. Through Port Authority’s request, TWA approached Eero Saarinen as the architect for this project. TWA wanted a terminal that would “provide TWA with advertising, publicity, and attention”, and Saarinen took the public attention very seriously considering the site w...

La Tourette Located in Lyon, France, Sainte Marie de La Tourette (La Tourette) is a Dominican order priory and is a well developed example of brutalist architecture, modern architecture, and the international style. Completed in 1957, La Tourette is the last building that Le Corbusier designed in Europe. The building was designed to be a “self-contained world” for a large community of silent monks. This contained world had a hundred individual living cells for the monks, a communal library, a refectory, a rooftop cloister, a church, and classrooms. All five of Le Corbusier’s self identifiable key elements of architecture (the five points of architecture) are present in the modernist styling of the convent of La Tourette. The ground pilots are the most apparent to the buildings viewer since La Tourette has a very internally developed program. The building site was picked by Le Corbusier, he placed the building on a very downward sloped site to take advantage of the magnificent sce...

Unite D’Habitation by Le Corbusier was located on Boulevard Michelet, Marseille, France. It was the first large scale project he had ever taken part of as the housing became a necessity after World War II. Due to the bombings on France during the second World War, hundreds of families were left homeless. Le Corbusier was tasked with designing a multi-family residential building, and it would be the first of a series that focused on the ideas of community that would come together in a “vertical garden city”. When completed in 1952, the project would house nearly 1,600 residents. At the time, if one was to design for so many people they would stretch the building out but the site was located on a mixed use, modernist, residential high rise neighborhood. Le Corbusier places the communal areas of the project on the roof, these included places to shop and play. The finished roof was a large garden terrace that included a running track, a club, a kindergarten, a gym, and a shallow pool. The...

The Raiffeisen Bank or the Looshaus building was the result of an architectural competition arranged by Leopold Goldman and Emanuel Aufricht. The building would sit directly across from the Imperial Palace home to Franz Josef who was the Emperor of Austria at the time. The imperial house, also known as the Hofburg was a building of baroque style which has highly ornamental. The Looshaus building completely ignored the history of the surrounding area. It was an early modern building that rejected the ornamental style of the Hofburg across the city square. The building was split into two distinctive halves in which one housed the public, while the other housed the private. The bottom half housed the public program and this half would amplify ornament. The upper half of the building would house the private program but this half was plain, there was no ornament in the residential half. Instead the top half of the building focuses on juxtaposing solid and void. This distinct separation ...

Falling water was designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was designed as a weekend home for the family of Edgar J Kaufmann Sr. The house was built in the mountains of Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The design of Falling water was designed to be elevated over the waterfall on the site. It was constructed out of sandstone from the surrounding area as well as other materials quarried from the site. The family originally wanted the house to overlook the waterfall on site but Wright wanted the waterfall to be more than just a view, instead he proposed the building would sit on top of the waterfall. By doing so the waterfall would become part of the Kaufmann’s daily lives. The flowing of the water would be heard twenty four seven in the house allowing the presence of nature to be heard at any point of time in the house. The house’s design is a series of strong vertical and horizontal lines creating terraces that appear to be floating by cantilevering over one another. One way in whic...

The Emperor of Austria, Franz Josef, was merely the age of twenty seven at the time when he decided to expand the city of Vienna, and in order to do so he held an international contest that was announced on the 30th of January in order to decide who would expand the inner city. Two architects came in first place and worked together in order to complete the Vienna Opera House, the first of the two was August Sicard von Sicardsburg, he designed the structure of the opera house. The second architect was Eduard van der Null, who designed the interior of the building. The construction began in 1861 and finished in 1869. This would be the first opera built in Vienna and although there were two architects working on the project, neither of the two architects survived to see the opening of the opera house. Eduard van der Null committed suicide and August Sicard von Sicardsburg died of a stroke soon after. The original structure of the building has been preserved since 1869. This original facad...

Ronchamp Notre Dame du Haut (Ronchamp) is a Roman Catholic chapel in Ronchamp, France. Designed by Le Corbusier. Built in 1955, Ronchamp is a great and important example of modern architecture. It is a twelfth century example of both Franco-Swiss and religious architecture. Unlike many of other Le Corbusier’s designs which are orthogonal, functional, box like structures, Ronchamp comes across as an irregular piece. The building itself stylistically becomes very interesting and complex with many different architectural design elements coming together to create this almost sculptural like structure, when in fact the buildings program is relatively simple only containing two entrances, three chapels, and an alter. Le Corbusier imagined the spaces within the building as “meditative and reflective in purpose”. This was encouraged through the buildings natural lighting design. “Random” placement of windows all over the buildings facade are tapered into the wall cavities in order to amp...

Falling Water Falling Water is located in Pennsylvania and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1964, Falling water is an excellent example of organic/modern architecture. This residence was designed for the Kaufmann family after the son developed a friendship with Frank Lloyd Wright while attending his school. The family imagined a home facing the waterfall so that they could view it every day. However, Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned the house integrating with the waterfall itself. He planned on doing this by placing the house onto of the waterfall in order to have it become a part of the Kaufmann family’s lives. Wright always had a great admiration for Japanese architecture which had a strong belief in strengthening the harmony between man and nature. By placing the building on top of the waterfall, it becomes dominant in the house through sound and feeling rather than sight. The waterfall is constantly crashing just below the summer home, echoing the sound througho...

Unite d’Habitation Unite d’Habitation is a residential housing complex located in Marseille, France designed by Le Corbusier and is a great example of Brutalist Architecture. The building was completed in 1952 and contained 337 housing units amongst 18 floors holding over 1600 residents. The building was designed to accommodate those who lost their homes during World War two. The material choice of this building was very important to the design, it was built with reinforced beton-brut concrete (rough cast concrete), the material was relatively cheap in post-war Europe and reflected the character of life following World War two, rough, worn, as well as unforgiving. Before Unite d’Habitation Le Corbusier had not designed on a large building scale. So, he sought out to see if he could implement his five points of architecture into the design. He used pilots to lift the building and allow a public flow on the ground floor level incorporating his idea of the “free plan”. Le Corbusier ...

The New St. Peter’s Basilica The New St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City was designed as a three aisles Latin cross containing a dome at the intersection which is located over the high alter that shelters the shrine to St.Peter the apostle. The original idea of the church came from Pope Nicholas V when the walls of the old St. Peter's basilica were found covered in dust. Upon the discovery in 1492, the Pope ordered Bernardo Rossellino to construct a new apse. The construction came to a halt when the Pope died. The responsibility later fell to Paul II. Paul II entrusted the project to Giuliano da Sangallo in 1470. It wasn't until 1506 that the first stone of the new basilica was laid. The new basilica was designed to form a Greek Cross, but under the switches in control, the Greek cross evolved into a Latin cross with three aisles separated by pillars. "After the sack of Rome in 1527, Paul III (1534–49) entrusted the undertaking to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger,...

Phalanstère A Phalanstère was a type of building designed for a self contained utopian community, it ideally consisted of 500-1200 people working for a mutual benefit, and was developed in the early nineteenth century by a man named Charles Fourier. Fourier was a French socialist who wanted to develop an architectural system based off of principles of sexual liberation, co-operative organization, women’s liberation, and human interaction. He envisioned a U-shaped building with wings on either side of the structure, large meeting rooms, private rooms and gardens. Fourier was not a fan of industrialization and free market, he felt that it developed workers exploration. Fourier wanted “to return to the land and agriculture and he proposed the creation of an ideal community called phalanstère .” The idea behind his proposal was that members would receive shares in relation with the production they provided to the community, and it would be ruler in a democratic way. More activity ...

Altes Museum The Altes Museum is located in Berlin, Germany built between 1823 and 1830, it was  designed by an architect named Karl Friedrich Schinkel, "the site required a very monumental building. Therefore I preferred one giant order rather than two individual expressions for the two main stories....The building surrounded on all sides by the Ionic entablature or the Ionic columnar hall, with Ionic pilasters at the four corners, forms a simple yet grand main structure into which the two floors are inserted in a subordinate manner”. The building was originally built as a place for the Prussian royal family (or just Berlin in general) to store their art collection but served as a contemporary art museum under the GDR (German Democratic Republic) as well. The building became a key example in the development of museum typologies. Before this building came about, the architectural elements in this structure were only really used (reserved for) buildings of more importance su...

Buckingham Palace The Neoclassical movement emerged as a revival of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The movement came across as a kind of “back to the basics” mindset throughout European countries such as France, Italy, and Germany. Before the movement, Baroque architecture was in high demand. Big ornamental, unnecessarily decorated interiors and exteriors of buildings were popping up all over Europe. However, Baroque architecture never really appealed to the United Kingdom, so Neoclassicism in England was a bit different throughout the rest of Europe. In England, the revival of Greek and Roman architecture resulted in many governmental buildings resembling big temple like structures. The United Kingdom has always had a habit of wanting to be the best of the best. One of the most successful places full of rich beautiful architecture was the Roman Empire. The United Kingdom thought that, they could in fact be the new modern Roman Empire by implementing their architectural i...

Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans was the first real accomplishment of industrial architecture. It was built and designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. His idea behind his design was, “Harmony of the surroundings and the symbolic found in the composition of the ensemble was aimed to shape a society that elevates the soul of its people, creating virtue and collective happiness, while maintaining work as the ultimate value at the centre.” Construction started in 1775 during the reign of Louis XVI The complex was active for at least 1200 years (1780-1962).  The complex takes on the shape of a semi circle and was designed in a way to organize work and ultimately the production. The industrial complex includes eleven buildings, five workshops and housing units for workers all organized in a semi circle layout around the House of the Director. When Claude Nicolas Ledoux was captured and taken prisoner during the revolution, he spent his time envision...