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1. Crucible of chaos
(1) Melting
phenomenon in Art Nouveau architecture
What kinds of things are the phenomena of
fin de siècle, that is the end of a century?
The phrase end of a century has an immoral image, one that matches the
name degenerate art. It is as if, at the end, all order is destroyed and
power is taken by all kinds of evil.
However, why is it that the end must be evil?
Isn’t there something wrong with this preconception? Is there some
reason that the end does not suit a joyous paradise? In Christianity,
the path to either Heaven or Hell is decided at the final judgment. Even
in Buddhism, there is Nirvana and Hell. This is the meaning from the
viewpoint of religion, and we cannot say that the end is necessarily
always evil for people of modern times.
Unlike the ages that emphasized moral and ethical judgments of
right and wrong, in the ages of modern times scientific analysis has
always been placed ahead of judgments of right and wrong. So what is the
end of the century? Is the end of the century something that can be
studied scientifically? Are there any kinds of mechanisms that give rise
to some kind of end of century phenomena? Speaking tentatively, the end
of the century is something that cannot be explained by simple schemas,
and is a time that is wrapped in complex circumstances.
If we take the 1890s at the end of the 19th
century as an example, styles that were very logically indivisible
appeared in the world of design during this period. In
Art Nouveau means “new art” and Secession means “separatism.”
Both of these featured a departure from previously established concepts
of value, and were not originally envisioned to become mainstream. On
the other hand, academic styles originated from the different
standpoints of the age of nation-states of the 19th century, and were
given the mission of producing a stable and uniform society.
Today, the style which has developed, mainly at the end of the
19th century, echoing up to the beginning of 20th century,
including individualistic American movements is wrapped up in the
worldwide phenomenon of Art Nouveau, which had the feeling of a new
individualistic architectural style at the fringes of the scattered
development of urban culture. It was as if the cities sought to become
separate and free from their nation.
If we look at the glass works of Emile Galle, irrespective of
earthiness of glass as a material, the fantastic microcosms that prompt
dizziness through the vagueness of the workpiece profiles and the
production of transmitted light rely solely on deep sensations developed
in the mind of the individual (Figure I-1). This does not have a lucid
structural theory, but is a world that can only be entered by artists
knowing the mysteries of art.
Even in the world of architecture, there are pieces like the
glass construction of Hector Guimard of melting cylindrical columns as
exemplified by “Castel Beranger” (Fig. I-2). The curved style of Art
Nouveau leapt forward by pursuing new shapes that ignored the forms of
the existing architectural schools. The grammar of ornaments of column,
which had been common sense in architecture, began to be ignored. If the
correct style of grammar was not used during the 19th century, the
architect would be scorned for having no learning, and that led to the
formalization of column decoration. The architectural aesthetics as the
learning of the bourgeois society began to be uprooted in the wake of
Art Nouveau.
Ornaments of column underwent a resurgence following a path from
the awareness of pursuing simplicity that had been the trend in the 18th
century to return to the Greek classic architecture. Finally, during
over 100 years of the 19th century, interest turned into spectacular
baroque, and architectural decorations including columns became complex
and excessive. The Art Nouveau columns of Castel Beranger were created
as even more splendid columns exceeding the elegance of these columns.
In other words, Art Nouveau was something that exhibited the extremes of
complexity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the grammar of ornament in
the 19th century was completely ignored, and the Art Nouveau that marked
the starting point for this trend is not seen as the decadence of the
end but the youthful exuberance of the beginning. Art Nouveau was a
style that formed a turning point between two sets of differing values.
However, complexity came to be renounced at
the beginning of the 20th century, and Art Nouveau which was an extreme
of complexity soon lost its power in the wake of new tendencies. The
actors who play the role at the turning period are sad because they were
shunned by both the past and future and given nothing more than a
temporary period of peculiarity in the pages of history. In order to
assess the true meaning of Art Nouveau, we need to clarify the
mechanisms of the turning of styles, know the ecology of the style, and
demonstrate the large crevice in history brought about by a minor
phenomenon.
The fact that “complex systems” became a big
issue in the 1990s can be thought to be due to the action of the same
mechanisms. Although profound discussion on it is taken and placed at a
later stage of this book, in any case the current boom in oval shapes,
which could be said to be a taste of baroque, is thought to be
overlapped with the neo-baroque of the late 19th century, which was an
overnight phenomenon of Art Nouveau.
The “century” which forms the basis of the
phrase end of the century is a word that comes from the steps of 100
years in the ano domini, or Christian history. There is no reason that
time should be measured with the decimal system, and indeed the month is
following the duodecimal system. If the centuries were marked off
according to the duodecimal system, then there would be 12 squared,
which is 144 years in a century. However, there is no foundation for the
validity of the duodecimal system, the same as for the decimal system.
Speaking further, there is no reason for the birth of Christ to be the
beginning of the calendar apart from the believers of Christianity. It
was also not an absolute amongst the people of Europe, because it
is known that Revolutionary Calendar was attempted during the French
Revolution.
Thus the word “end of the century” is based
on such a vague idea that this word has no absolute meaning. Certainly,
because the phenomena at the end of the 19th century were decadent and
unique to a period of turning, they give a strong image. However, we
cannot say that the end of the 20th century is exhibiting the same kind
of phenomena. Furthermore we cannot say that there is no cyclic nature
in the history of mankind, on which we discuss in following pages. What
we now require is to clarify as a mechanism the process up to the
occurrence of decadent phenomenon like the end of the century.
(2) Fluctuating curves
Why is it that the colors and shapes of van Gogh, who is known
as an insane artist, continue to capture the eyes and hearts of people?
His representations that directly chase the depths of the psyche are
without peer, and are arts that could not be resisted including by us
Japanese. We know well how he got away from general society and fall
into insanity from his life story. However, is there not a need to try
to examine the mechanisms that gave rise to those paintings with
scientific means?
For example, let us examine the famous painting called “Starry
Night” (1889) kept at the
The bizarre fluctuation of this painting evokes association with
not merely the 1/f undulations, but also in general complex systems in
science today (Fig. I-4). The whorls covering the space link the
mathematics of chaos and fractal dragons with the fluctuating curves of
clouds that trace the mountain range. Many of van Gogh’s other paintings
are known to exhibit this kind of energetic curves.
The dot painting style of Seurat at the end
of the 19th century could be replaced by the rendering technology of
computer graphics that create colors by pixels today. On the other hand,
the painting style of van Gogh that creates energetic curved motifs by
overlapping short arcs can be said to be a dot painting with the
addition of motion. The method that is similar to the optical analysis
of Seurat is filled with artificial life motion by van Gogh.
As van Gogh began his artistic creation basing upon his own
peculiar religious feelings, we find vestiges of medieval religious
paintings with drifting spirits in the whorls floating in the sky. Of
course, he did not necessarily know the mathematics of chaos, and these
whorls exhibit an Expressionism of the unique psyche of van Gogh, which
attempted to show an unknown spiritual existence. Today, thanks to
attempts by scientists to analyze this, the phenomenon of vague energy
and matter has become unknown without being supported by the science of
the eye up to now.
Cezanne attempted to emphasize solids within a landscape, and
abstracted and Expressionism simple solids of buildings with sloping
roofs and pentagonal shapes, and the cubism of Picasso and others
developed from this. This is explained by the rationalistic scientific
psyche exhibited in the age. On the other hand, the scientific psyche of
van Gogh was of a type that did not rely on this type of classical
geometry, and only began to be understood at last by the complex science
of today. Probably simulations of the paintings of van Gogh are possible
to some degree by following fractal geometry, chaos mathematics,
artificial intelligence (AI) programs etc. using a computer.
In this way, the curved style of the end of
the 19th century was not merely the chance product of a single
individual creator, and there was some mechanism at work on some deeper
level. This is also common to the glass works of Garre and the
architectural works of Guimard and Horta, and is thought to represent a
new view on design. The fact that this kind of common phenomenon appears
in a variety of art is an evidence that something occurred deep in the
psyche of the people of this time.
Although the insanity was not as intense as
that of van Gogh, architect Antonio Gaudi lived with a similar psyche
formed from deep religious feelings. It is well known that from 1883
until he died in 1926, he not only worked almost exclusively on the
architectural design of the “Sagrada Familia” church in Barcelona, but
also attempted to realize his own devotions, including gathering funds.
The act of proposing and implementing a large-scale church by a single
architect is inconceivable without deep religious devotion. On the other
hand, in the modern age, this kind of devotion had been seen as a
remnant of the past. Gaudi’s actions must be looked within the context
of the time before modern.
Admirers of Gaudi’s architectural works are not limited to
Christians but also include many Japanese that are based on oriental
ideas even if it has become weak. In this way, the Sagrada Familia
church surpasses the realm of Christian religion and enters into
universality. This universality means not merely the perfection of the
work of an artisan, but also includes the modern sensibility of the age
of Art Nouveau.
The characteristics of the melting columns
that was shown earlier can be understood here for the Sagrada Familia
church, which is built with stone on the gothic style, as the melting of
entire church building made of stone. The plan type of basilica with a
forest of spires is clearly modeled on the medieval gothic style of
cathedrals. However, the planar outline gives variations to the strange
lines and is already not a true medieval gothic style. The shapes of the
spires are also bulging with splendor and modified to the vague outline
rather than that exhibited by the gothic structural beauty (Fig. I-5).
In Brussels in the same Art Nouveau, Victor Horta designed
progressive facilities for socialism called “houses of the people.” In
such period Gaudi was deeply committed to the ideas of Catholicism and
concentrated on religious architecture as if turning his back on the
modern age. For us in the second half of the 20th century, importance is
placed more on the style of the individual than of the period, and
therefore the feeling of existence of Gaudi has become even stronger.
But Gaudi who was obsessed with the medieval must be thought to be
against the age among contemporaries at the end of the 19th century.
Like the solitary and miserable death of Gaudi, artists that are
filled with genius today are made to feel this degree of weirdness.
However, the lifestyles of van Gogh and Gaudi show that they had a
common personality, and within the society that was rapidly flowing
towards the modern times the shape of the tortured artist must feel some
resistance to the flow within the depths of the psyche. This has the
aspect of the result of the psychological state developed in the age of
the end of the century being wrapped up smoothly within the individual.
Gaudi employed a dome construction in the design proposal of the
“Guell” church by creating a suspended curved surface by hanging a net
and inverting this (Fig. I-6). This highlights the scientific side of
Gaudi in his attempts at rational structural theory. From the standpoint
of modern rationalism that was the mainstream at the beginning of 20th
century, this can certainly be understood as indicating the aspect of
Gaudi as a modern man.
However, for example, the walls that are
wrapped in the weirdness displayed at Casa Mila cannot be said to be
something that can be interpreted using the same scientific theory, and
this is something with a deeper intuitive interpretation. This is said
to behold an organicism exceeding the scientific. However, analogy of
the organs of this living creature when applied to organic objects
displays the limits of the science of the time. It is because that
scientific theory has eventually created automatic machines but
bio-machines are still far-off. The idea of romanticism that exceeds
rationalism exists in organicism, and in its limits, organicism is
irrationalism.
The winding curves at Casa Mila or the
strange curves found at Sagrada Familia church were artistic pieces that
were made from manual work for the architect himself. This can be seen
as a shape that can be explained by fractal geometry or chaos
mathematics from our eyes. The interval of one hundred years has brought
about such a big step of age.
Art Nouveau curves can be thought of as the subject of science.
The chaos of the end of the century should be thought of rather as the
result of logical process following extremely the inclination of the
complexity than some degeneracies ore unknowable chasm.
(3) Collapse and rebirth of
style
The international Art Nouveau movement of the
end of the century flowed into the 20th century, and developed even more
in the first 10 years of the 20th century. In fact, the appearance of
Casa Mila was in 1910. From the Secession of Vienna, the appearance of
the “Post Office Savings Bank” of Otto Wagner, the chapel of Steinhof,
and the Darmstadt Artists Colony Museum of J. M. Olbrich continued even
after 1900.
The curved style of Art Nouveau was eventually passed on to and
expanded by the curved shapes of the German Expressionism in the 1910s.
The intermediary for this was the Belgian designer Henry van de Velde.
At the Cologne Exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work
Federation) held in 1914 just prior to World War I, he exhibited
mysterious playhouse architecture where the edges had been rounded (Fig.
I-7). In the initial proposal where the Art Nouveau inspired curved
motif was placed centrally in the façade design, changes in the
conditions were prompted during the design process and this led to an
unexpected solid curved design.
In this way, Art Nouveau was inherited by Expressionism, opening
a new stage. However, Expressionism also quickly led to a dead end, and
is thought to have disappeared in the middle of the 1920s. There was one
person who knew that Expressionism was the embodiment of a new
complexity standing at the termination of the inclination to the
complexity that had been sought at the end of the 19th century. Although
Expressionism appeared as one of the movements that rejected the 19th
century and embraced the 20th century, this was not discontinuity but
the continuity somewhat like an insect shedding its skin for
metamorphosis.
The picture book published by Bruno Taut
titled “Der Weltbaumeister” (1920) showed the existence of this
emergence (*1). This was the story of the destruction of old
architectural styles and the birth of new architectural styles, and was
formed as a storyboard. As the act opens, gothic spires extend out one
after another from below. The structures of the over-extended gothic
cathedrals finally were unable to withstand their own weight and began
to collapse, falling down in a scattered heap of stones. Up to this
scene, there has been destruction reaching the stage of chaos (Fig.
I-8).
Now the destruction scatters dust through space much like the
big bang. Next, in the weightlessness of space, the dust begins to
gradually gather together, giving birth to a new star. Rain finally
falls on the star, which begins to overflow with vegetation. There
begins something to grow out from beneath the earth, and this is a
crystal house made of glass (Fig. I-9). This was the thing that sparked
the idea of the “Glass House” pavilion shaped like an onion head that
Taut himself designed for the Cologne Exhibition of the German Worker
Union in 1914.
The
first half of a scene of a mock complex of gothic cathedral is best
thought of as a symbol of the abundance of the neo-baroque period at the
end of the 19th century. The glass structure was thus the Expressionism
that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Although this also
had gothic style fittings, these resembled a Gaudi-styled Art Nouveau
flavor of gothic. The perimeter was enclosed by components resembling a
flying buttress, and vegetation-like curved surfaces could already be
seen here that were no different from the organic form of the life-like
Sagrada Familia.
From the end of the 19th century to the start
of the 20th century, the mark known as gothic played a large role.
Although it is known that the art historian Wilhelm Worringer
established a new research method to explain historical styles from a
deep level of psychology with the publishing of a book titled
“Abstraction and Empathy” (1908), this material took the form of
explaining that the vertical axis of gothic style was empathy. In the
same way as paintings were abstracted in post-impressionism,
architectural style began to be understood in terms of abstraction
rather than the details of artisans.
The gothic age did not seek the realism of
the Greek sculptures. Rather than accurately rendering the bulges of
naked sinew and skin, gestures filled with sorrow or religious devotion
were the ideal sculptured art, and deformed profiles were preferred.
Expressionism that are overly realistic did not transmit the inner
psyche. This was because the choice of an indistinct silhouette was
effective for correctly reading the beliefs. Although the religious
devotion of Gaudi was embodied by the undulating stone surface of the
Sagrada Familia itself, the wavering heart at the back must be noticed
without the eye being captured by the mysterious walls where the thing
that is rendered cannot be understood.
The German word “Zeitgeist” (the spirit of
the age) became a buzzword at the start of the 20th century. This word
came to be viewed as a symbol for the time and came to be used in the
English language as a loanword. The vertical style of gothic was an
Expressionism of the Zeitgeist of the people of the middle ages, and
there were arguments over what kind of Zeitgeist should be held for the
people of the 20th century in the same way. It was the age when the
spirit, something abstract in the depths of the psyche, was asked for.
Taut thought that the gothic spirit appears
more clearly after extinguishing the detailed decorations of the gothic
cathedrals, and brought about the appearance of the abstract glass
gothic. Immediately after the World War I, he called on architects and
artists and promoted a Utopian movement. As a standard for this, he
suggested the gothic cathedral that was constructed from hard work and
hope for a secure society by the medieval artisans. Taut borrowed the
shape of the gothic cathedral as a monument that joined the strength and
psyche of people. There was Taut who was an architectural theoretician
of reformative social democracy, called also as an syndicalist (trade
unionist).
The symbol of the gothic cathedral of Taut
morphed into the declaration to establish the Bauhaus of Walter Gropius,
and is well known to have been Expressionism in the frontispiece of the
gothic cathedral drawn in the cubism style and Expressionism style by
Lyonel Feininger (1919) (Fig. I-10). The declaration to establish the
Bauhaus was written as follows.
“Let us together dream of, conceive, and
build the new structure of the future, … that will climb up towards the
heaven as a crystal symbol for the new coming belief out of the millions
of hands of artisans. (*2)”
This was the desire to newly create and change the classical
gothic cathedral as a symbolic monument that was suitable for the age of
mass society. It pursued the same plot as the drama of destruction and
rebirth proposed by Taut. However, this was not actually done to give
birth to new and changed structures, but was supposed to bring together
a new Zeitgeist of the time and give birth to a new and changed society.
The architectural style was nothing more than a symbol of society.
In Taut’s “Der Weltbaumeister”, two stars
born in the midst of the darkness of space are drawn as becoming
mutually entangled like in a dance, and this exhibited the organic
motion like an image of chaos drawn together by an attractor (Fig. I-11,
12). Although the fragments of rock that lose their mutual relationship
after a brief collapse become chaotic as an aggregation of simple dust,
it showed the organic chaos like the phenomenon of life. The evocative
forms of Expressionism are generally interpreted as the manifestation of
an inner desire seeking for an outlet under gloomy societal conditions,
and the organic personality of the phenomenon of life is expected to be
seen to exist here. In other words, this could be said to be organic
chaosism.
The prosperity of the later part of the 19th
century caused the transformation into conditions of an overabundance of
buildings through eclecticism and neo-baroque, and these could not
withstand their own weight, leading to self-destruction and an inorganic
chaos like a heap of rubbish.
Then organic chaos appears again giving birth to a new life. The
phenomenon from the end of a century to the beginning of a century is
this kind of drama of destruction and rebirth. It was the phenomena that
separate the trends of the major ages, equivalent to the drama of
destruction and rebirth like the transition from the late gothic to the
start of the renaissance or that from the late baroque to neoclassicism.
Art Nouveau and Expressionism, which seem temporary phenomena were not
merely random fashions, but were the footprints of the competitive
development of the chaos phenomenon that took the opportunity of the
strategic point in history.
(*1) Bruno
Taut, "Der Weltbaumeister", Hagen, 1920.
(*2) Toshimasa
Sugimoto, “Bauhaus”, (Japanese) Kajima Shuppankai, Tokyo, 1979, p.41.
2. Recurrence
to classicism and abstract geometry
(1) From Art
Nouveau to neoclassicism
The transition of Art Nouveau to
Expressionism was a steady process of development on the themes of
complexity and chaos from the stage of the excessive style decorations
of neo-baroque to the vegetation-like two-dimensional curved style and
then to a three-dimensional curved style. This transition process is
nothing more than displaying one side of the period from the end of the
19th century to the start of the 20th century. This was destined rapidly
to reach the extremes of chaos, and eventually end in the midst of
narcissism. Therefore, a new vessel was prepared for the people who
dislike a sinking ship.
This was a rejection from the roots of the theme of complexity,
and strove to take a theme aspiring for simplicity. If we look back in
history, the transitions from late gothic to early renaissance and from
late baroque to neoclassicism are actually the same phenomenon of a
switch from the theme of complexity to the theme of simplicity. The
start of the 20th century was a schism of ages. On one hand, the flow to
art nouveau was preceded by attempts to expand to even further
dimensions, while on the other hand, there was a departure from that
flow.
Ten years after the passing of the end of the
century was a time that could not be categorized neatly using a single
word. This was a time where the remnants of Art Nouveau and the leading
edge of modernism that followed the 1910s were separately and
independently active. This can be said to be a period where two styles
competed and ran in parallel while grasping an entanglement of
complexity and simplicity.
The key person of this period was Peter Behrens who turned from
Art Nouveau to neoclassicism.
In the 1890s, he excelled at floral curved motifs as a painter
of Jugendstil, the German version of Art Nouveau. He was perhaps also
influenced by Ukiyoe, and also created unique block prints. He was given
the opportunity to design his own residence in
From around 1904, he completely discarded the curves of Art
Nouveau and replaced the tenets of clear-cut vertical and horizontal
lines with geometrical volume. Why this change occurred was not clearly
stated. Although something clearly came up at a deep level of his
consciousness, the about-face was decisive. The interior design of the
restaurant “Jungbrunnen” at the
This change cannot be seen merely as a
personal episode. The reason is that actions of Behrens after this
became a vehicle that led the 20th century. In 1907, the major
electrical corporation AEG invited him to
The “AEG Turbine Factory” (1910) designed by Behrens is famous
as an epoch-making structure in the history of modern architecture (Fig.
I-15). This gave the architecture of the factory, which was a simple
work hall, the external appearance of a temple, and gave it the status
of a legitimate building. When we speak of a temple-like appearance,
this was not like rows of stone-created columns like in the Greek style,
but replaced with I-shape cross-sectional steel beams that gave the
certification representing a new aesthetic to the steel skeleton.
Instead of the pediment of a triangular gabled roof in the front, the
pediment displayed the multi-angular arch roof shape of the steel
skeleton as is with rounded bands.
The change of tenets of Behrens gave
geometrical forms to all shapes. Although he had the ability to design
the freely curving surfaces of Art Nouveau, his intention of
self-restraint was solid. In particular, the tensile relationship
between columns and beams that referenced the styles of classical
However, this did not initially focus only on Greek and Roman
classical styles, but also used Romanesque styles. This was not simply a
variation of the style, but was because the architectural style of the
Romanesque period was often based on geometrical order. Romanesque was
the first complete style after the great migration and settling of the
Germanic people in Europe, and it held a unique structural spirit that
the Germanic people are thought to have held dear even before the
migration period. This preferred rectangles and continuity, and the
building of the whole by combining several basic solid elements such as
wood block construction, as exemplified by St. Michael’s church in
In other words, Behrens returned to the roots of the structural
spirit of the Germanic people, and caused the rebirth of a geometrical
sprit. If we say this, then although it will probably sound like nothing
more than a problem of ethnicity, this kind of structural spirit of
origins often arises throughout history, and gives birth to a breath of
fresh air in the period. This was apparent in both the northern
renaissance, and the neoclassicism of
In the “Kunos mansion” that Gropius
contributed as an office worker, there were significant aspects that are
thought to be this kind of Germanic geometry (Fig. I-16). The external
appearance is formed from a simple single parallelepiped, with a
cylindrical stairwell incorporated in the middle of the front face. The
basement is packed with rubble and the eaves molding is clearly defined,
and although it is like the simplification of renaissance architecture,
detailed style decorations cannot be seen. The external appearance
features a continuity of sharp virtually square windows cut into
undecorated white walls.
Gropius eventually realized the new
architectural style of a four-dimensional style in the design of the
“German Worker Unit Cologne Exhibition Model Office and Factory” (1914),
which fitted all glass-walled cylindrical stairwells on the right and
left ends of the parallelepiped main room with transparency, allowing
people ascending or descending the stairs to be visible (Fig. I-17).
Thus, the Expressionism with the cylindrical stairwell gained from the
Kuno mansion was utilized here. If we go back, Romanesque churches often
featured two or four cylindrical towers arranged in pairs and were
created with a unique appearance of wood paneling, and although only
weakly, the vestiges here emphasize the well-spring of the Germanic
structural style.
The philosopher Ernst Cassirer attempted to
explain the structure of the psyche of German people by the style of
“freedom and form” (*1). If the conversion of Behrens from Art Nouveau
curves to neoclassical geometry is understood by the former representing
the aspect of freedom and the latter representing the aspect of form,
then the German people have two spirits that can be Expressionism in a
single person. For example, as can be seen in the designs of Kenzo Tange
which exhibit, on the one hand, the dynamic curving shape of the Yoyogi
Olympic Gymnasium, and on the other hand, the geometrical beauty of
Within the flow of a period of
development from fragments and Art Nouveau to Expressionism and the
development of aspiring towards the neoclassical geometry that was a
rejection of fragments and Art Nouveau, Behrens was sensitive to the
transitions in the world of structure, and utilized the power of the
shapes that symbolize the zeitgeist in response to the changes in
society. As an artistic advisor in a large corporation, the industrial
design of factory design, worker collective accommodation design, and
fan and lighting design opened new areas of activity for artists while
he bestowed aesthetic honor upon the modern society. His conversion from
individualistic and free hand operations of Art Nouveau to the design of
geometrical systems in the spaces requested by society was ultimately
the demand of the times, and Behrens focused himself on the style of the
age and the society even more than an individual style.
(2) Cult of Greece and
inclination to simplicity
The post-modernism of the 1970s to 1980s had the fashion of
incorporating Doric columns, etc. into new designs. Among this, in the
competition for the “
Thus, the Loos of the time was a person who
was a perfect stranger to the pleasures of the post-modern styles. The
Doric column is not a sensuously enjoyable thing, but is selected as the
result of strenuous architectural theory. For Loos, classical
“If looked at it like this, it is clear that without exception,
the successful architects are not the most flattering to the period, but
are the people who stick to a classical standpoint without worrying
about the view of other people. … Therefore, some degree of eccentricity
is natural and required. That degree, both presently, and (…) in the
future, is without doubt classical
Based on this belief, although Loos had examples of large
columnar Roman monuments such as the pillars of Emperor Trajan of
classical Rome, there were no examples of Greece, and somebody must
realize this somewhere at some time. The Chicago Tribune was for this
reason, and employed a Greek column in order to best Expressionism the
commemoration of architectural style.
Returning to the middle of the 18th century, there was a
resurgence of Greek style as an ideal architecture. At that time, the
architectural styles of the late baroque and rococo, which were
overflowing with decoration were in fashion, and the new efforts in
preference of Greek style both waved the flag of “simplicity,” while
severely criticizing the fashions of the time and the baroque style of
Michelangelo (*3). This highlighted the origin of Greek inspired
architecture, and thereafter the architecture degenerated by the
imagination of unnecessary and excessive decorations. The idealization
of
The behavior of Loos also took in the same features. In the
beginning of the 20th century, Loos again attempted to restore the
strict theory of neoclassicism of the 18th century. Doric style was the
oldest even among the three Greek orders, and because it was thought to
represent the origin, Doric style was needed over Ionic or Corinthian.
Therefore, the trouble of using classical
Greek style in the modern age of the 20th century was unavoidably viewed
as anachronism from a third party viewpoint. Although classical
restoration has a particular meaning, a mechanism exists more than the
simple reference to historical treasures. One is re-confirming the pure
principles at the starting point by tracing back to the source, and
another is finding eternal principles that outlive time.
Since the time of enlightenment of the 18th century, in place of
the previous dogma of the church and commands of dukes, scientific
rationalism was thought to be the principle on which society was built.
In order to secure that rationalism, both the indication of the source
and demonstration of eternal invariance had a role. Bringing forth a
challenge to the classics is an important means for explaining modern
rationalism. Although at a glance there is a mismatch between retracing
the past and the modern existence, there is actually a tight connection
in the background. The neoclassicism of the 18th century that studied
Greek temples in detail as the ideal architecture actually meant to open
up the age of the modern by this kind of mechanism.
Loos’s proposal of a Doric column-style high-rise building had a
link to the aspirations to the future of modernism. However, the thing
that was the most effective in this kind of logic was the single digits
in the 1900s. With the rapid changes in architectural styles, by 1922
when the
Although
Loos harshly condemned this kind of architectural style with an
excess of decoration as an act resembling a “criminal.” The Doric
column-style high-rise building was proposed based on the idea of
ensuring the monumentality while simplifying by removing the
subconscious decorations. However, the theory of that simplification was
undertaken by the next generation of Gropius and others. Therefore, the
thing that was useful in the cutting edge purity of Loos’s theory was
only in the time of the single digits of the 1900s. In fact, Loos’s
speaking and writing activities started in the 1890s and extended into
the 1900s. In 1910, he built virtually undecorated urban architecture
that attracted a scandal and was later known as “Looshaus” in
Michaelerplatz in
One method of information aesthetics related to computer
technology reproduces forms on a display and the amount of information
is determined by the amount of data required for this. Structures of
pyramids and pure parallelepipeds have a small amount of information. In
a three-dimensional coordinate system, a line is created simply using
the XYZ coordinates of two points and the command to join them.
Rectangular planes consist of four coordinates and four lines, and a
specification of the front and back of the closed surface.
Parallelepipeds are formed from six surfaces. With only this amount of
information, volume can be reproduced.
However, as detailed decorations are added, solid information
needs to be defined for each of the small shapes and the amount of
information increases in a burst. A large amount of computer operating
time is also required for the reproduction. The neo-gothic architecture
of Hood, etc. would require a massive amount of information. Of course,
the cost is not necessarily directly influenced by the magnitude of the
amount of information. Pyramids which are notable for the small amount
of information also invite feelings. Loos who advocated removing
unnecessary decoration could also be said to be reducing the amount of
information. The clear adversity that arose between the aspiration for
complexity and simplicity can also be understood from the viewpoint of
modern information aesthetics.
“Economy” was one of the big themes of
neoclassicism of the 18th century. The meaning of this word at that time
can be understood more easily if interpreted as thriftiness rather than
economics. This economic concept gave birth to standards in
architectural design of it being acceptable to remove decorations if
there was a shortage of funds and leave plain walls exposed. In fact,
against the background that emphasized heavy architectural styles with
little decoration as shown by the architect C. N. Ledoux around the
French Revolution, architectural styles are used that omit decoration in
local architecture that does not specialize in elegance.
Loos used his residence in
If there were no decorations, the cheap architecture had no
splendor. Loos had aimed to give a sense of proportion to the
undecorated structures as learned from classical architecture, and in
fact, the undecorated structure like Steiner House has hidden horizontal
and vertical regulating lines and has beauty of proportion in the forms
of windows.
(3) Abstract classicism
The
The architects of modernism were proponents
of a break from history and aimed to create completely new shapes by
aspiring not to find models in history. However, things did not proceed
so easily. Colin Rowe clarified that the designs of Le Corbusier had
roots in the Palladio Villa architecture of the 16th century (*4). Thus,
although Gropius and Mies relied heavily on architect K. F. Schiknel who
left many structures in
It is also not widely known that from the 1910s to the 1920s,
they Expressionism a large change in style. As described earlier, the
1900s was the time of 20th century neoclassicism by Loss and Behrens,
and both Gropius and Mies learnt the practical details of architecture
during this period. Thus, their time started from the 1910s. These two
who had been taught by Behrens obviously threw themselves into the flow
not from Art Nouveau to Expressionism, but the flow to neoclassicism.
The debut of Gropius in the 1910s was spectacular, but Mies was somewhat
slower perhaps due to the
depth of his thoughts.
At the architecture office of Behrens, Mies was given the
responsibility of designing the “German Embassy” built in
The eye-catching style of this weight
developed into the “Bismarck Monument” submitted by Mies in 1910 as a
member of the Behrens office, and his unique style became clear (Fig.
I-20). Although the proposal was for a huge platform to be built on a
plateau beside the
After this, Mies moved to
Mies was raised as the son of a stone mason, and is thought to
have been familiar with stone materials as a child. In the 1910s before
he had been influenced by modernism, he searched for conventional design
motifs. The neoclassicism of the 18th and 19th centuries faithfully
followed the Greek forms on one hand, and were relatively symbolic of
their representation of the strength held by columns and beams on the
other. For example, structures like the Villette gate of Ledoux (Paris)
used unsophisticated structural forms with almost no classical
decorations as is for architectural Expressionism. The
In the case of Gropius, he inherited the
clear-cut geometry used in the
Furthermore, the farmhouse for two families
(Janikow, 1906) designed by the 23-year old Gropius immediately before
he entered Behrens office had already well displayed the heart of
Gropius. The outlines were symmetric, with eight vertically tall windows
arranged along the first floor, and two second floor windows each
arranged to match these on the left and right. The left and right ends
held a fireplace, chimney, and entrance. This showed similarities to the
undecorated walls of Loss and orderly window placement (Fig. I-21). The
symmetric and ordered design of the window placement had a pediment
added to the 1914 Dahlberg warehouse structure and showed a Behrens-like
templar motif.
Then, in 1914, Gropius and Meyer arrived at the epoch-making
work of the model office and factory using large glass panes, exhibited
at the Cologne Exhibit of the German Worker Union. This has come to be
seen as leading each of the modernist architecture style that was to
follow, and if we forget to interpret it from the viewpoint of the
1920s, the extension of that tradition emphasizes neoclassicism.
The model factory had a facade outline that
was pentagonal shaped with rounded corners, and was a rationalization of
the AEG Turbine Factory of Behrens that was rooted in classical temples.
On the other hand, the model office was formed from a simple
parallelepiped resembling the farmhouse
for two families at Janikow, with protrusions on the left and right
sides of the main face and orderly division of the brick walls. On the
other hand, the reverse side had an array of columns on the first floor
and full-pane glass on the second floor divided orderly by steel. Apart
from the array of columns, almost no classical style decorations can be
seen, and the external appearance is divided by the clearly modernist
horizontal and vertical lines.
The revival of classicism in the 1900s gave rise to abstract
shapes as neoclassicism without the classical decorations by Mies and
Gropius in this way. Although this is certainly influenced by the shapes
that predicted the 1920s, the symmetry, facade division, and column
array motif of premodernism remain as elements, and show a transitional
personality.
Although Art Nouveau and Expressionism developed with the free
feeling of searching for undiscovered forms, the trend of the formal
beauty of neoclassicism sought an abstentious simplicity. By the
forefront of the two flows of the early 20th century, the 19th century
rapidly receded into the past. The means for handling the main turning
of the ages and the motion of that mechanism is clear: Pursuit of an
abundance of total freedom or the return to transparent formal beauty by
decreasing the amount of information. Although either path was possible,
a feature of this time was the incompatibility between these two paths.
(*1)
Ernst Cassirer, “Freiheit und Form”,
Japanese translation by Hajime Nakano, Minerva-Shobo, Tokyo, 1972.
(*2)
Adolf Loos, “Ornament und Verbrechen”, Japanese translation by Tetsuo
Itoh, Chuou-kouron-Bijutushuppan, Tokyo, 1987, pp.48-49.
(*3) Toshimasa
Sugimoto, “German Neoclassicism Architecture”, (Japanese) ,
Chuou-kouron-Bijutushuppan, Tokyo, 1996, pp.31f.
(*4) Colin
Rowe, “The
Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays”,
Japanese translation by Toyo Ito and Yasumitsu Matsnaga, Shokokusha,
Tokyo, 1981, chapter 1.
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