Architectural Theories \ AREQ 415 \ 1st Sem.

2020-2021

W03: Form Follows What ? :

Modernism in Architecture

Al-Nahrain University-College of engineering- Architectural

engineering.
Course Title: Architectural Theories (2020-2021).
Course Code: AREQ 415
Course Staff: Dr. Alyaa Ahmed (Lecturer).
• Architecture plays an important role, both through aspect and structure, influenced by the
socioeconomic context and also by influencing the human behavior and functionality of the inhabited
urban area.
• At the same time, architectural patterns have developed in time due to the various ideologies and
timeframes, always passing form old to new but regulated by guidelines like: aesthetics, space, cost-
efficiency, economic crisis, functionality, rationality, and others. No matter the scale or time period,
the main qualities of the building (beauty, functionality and durability) have always been taken into
account, eventually opting either to incorporate them all or just to a certain extent.
• If the first part of the history of human civilization is dominated by the firmitas dimension dictated
by the type of building materials or type of representation (the archaic, the Gothic) imposing the
features of firmitas dimension. n the modern and contemporary period once with the diversification
of building materials and in particular the extensive use of reinforced concrete, steel, glass,
aluminum, the utilitas dimension has become dominant, imposing the adaptation of firmitas to its
requirements.
• Any debate on architecture has almost been based on the Vitruvian triad and its three symmetrically
proportioned major dimensions, named differently along the years as features, conditions, properties,
qualities or even demands:
• firmitas, utilitas, venustas (Vitruvius, De Architectura).
• firmness, commodity, delight (Henry Wotton, 1624, p. 201).
• strength, utility and beauty (Joseph Gwilt, 1826).
• durability, convenience and beauty (Morris Hickey Morgan, 1914).
• soundness, utility and attractiveness (Rowland and Howe, 1999).
• strength, function and beauty (Eric Inman Daum, 2009).
The Vitruvian Triad :
• The Roman architect, writer, and engineer Vitruvius
(active during the 1st century BCE) is credited with
being the grandfather of architectural theory. His
work De architectura (commonly known as The Ten
Books of Architecture) is the oldest existing treatise
on architecture, and the only primary source from
classical architecture to have survived into
modernity. His treatise handled everything from how The Vitruvian Triad
the Romans built their cities and decorated their
temples to the philosophy of architecture and the
training of young architects. Vitruvius’ most famous
contribution from De architectura was his answer to
the question: what makes good architecture?
• Vitruvius believed that good architecture satisfies
three fundamental laws:
( firmitas, utlitas, and venustas.)
• His conception of the source of form depends on experiments with
building materials, adaptation and refinement , and also in imitation
of successful shelters.
• The source of form is in the physical world. The timeless principles
in Nature and in the analogy to the human body.
• In his conception, architecture depends on Order, Arrangement,
Eurhythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy. Beauty is produced
by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the
dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other.
The Renaissance Tradition:
• The writing of architectural theory was revived in the
italian renaissance is due to the coincidence that vitruvius
was seen to serve a particular fifteenth-century need,
which was the cultural urge to revive the antique tradition
in architecture.
• When a remarkably complete and pure manuscript text of
de architectura was discovered in the monastic library of
saint-gall (switzerland) in 1414, the feverishly transcribed
chapters were posted book by book to florence, where
they were eagerly awaited by the community of humanist
scholars. From that time vitruvius was regarded as the
presiding spirit of the realm of architecture.
• In florence, of a treatise of similar format, de re
aedificatoria, by leon battista alberti, begun in the 1430s
and labored over for the next two decades.
 Leon Battista Alberti 1404-1472:
• During the Renaissance, the architect and
theorist Leon Battista Alberti expanded
greatly on Vitruvius’ ideas of beauty, Namely
his idea that the architect can change
proportions based on his own judgement rather
than the Platonic laws of the universe - which
Alberti believed had the potential to invoke
aesthetic chaos.) His statements on aesthetics
would lay the foundation for three centuries of
architectural thought. • West-façade of Santa Maria Novella, the
• Alberti believed (following in the footsteps of facade, which was completed in proto-
Plato) that there is a so-called higher reality Renaissance style (1456–70).
to the physical world, which could be • He used classically derived mathematics to
expressed through architecture via revive the spirit of classical age of ancient
Greece. Numerical ratio was the basis of the
the universal laws of mathematics and proportions of all the parts in harmonic
“harmonic” proportions, such as the relationship.
“golden ratio”.
Leon Battista Alberti 1404-1472:
• Albertie lived in a very urban society, and grew to believe that the city was a necessary component
of civilization. For this reason, he argued architecture was among the most notable of art forms. His
focus on ancient Greece and Rome led him to study the classical architectural orders.
• His focus was on the art of building, both in terms of single buildings and entire urban spaces. He
explores this through three focuses, based closely on the Vitruvian triad:
• The stability and usefulness of a structure.
• The aesthetic elements of lines, angles, and proportions.
• The elements of beauty and ornamentation.
• In basic terms, a great structure must be stable/useful, aesthetically pleasing, and decorated well,
and each element must work with the others to create a consistent and unified whole. Therefore,
building (and by extension city-planning) required a philosophical mind as well as scientific
precision. His work set practical and pragmatic standards for creating mathematically harmonious
structures. And like the ancient Greeks and Romans, he believed that perfect harmony could be
mathematically deduced, and represented in the proportions of architectural elements in a
structure.
• Alberti’s use of mathematics in art resonated throughout the Renaissance, and his treatment of
perspective and perspective drawing had a huge influence on later artists, namely Leonardo da
Vinci.
Andrea Palladio 1508-1580:
• The Platonic idea of universal beauty as expressed by symmetry and
mathematical proportion and the Vitruvian triad were further
synthesized by Andrea Palladio. Palladio’s emphasis on balance and
symmetry, and his devotion to the historical forms of Greek and
Roman antiquity remain influential in classical architecture to this very
day.
• The palladian villa is A classic case study in architectural problem
solving, balancing economic materials, saving the drama for the
exterior, and emphasizing harmony, symmetry and balance -
making each villa easy to navigate both externally and internally. In
addition, palladio’s use of the grid as A compositional tool was highly
influential to architects ranging from Thomas Jefferson to the
deconstructivist architect Peter Eisenman. Villa Rotunda, c.1592.
• He made the diameter of a building’s columns the heart of his design
schemes. He extrapolated ratios to govern A structure’s composition.
Instead of regarding the column as merely an ornament whose
properties derived from A building’s dimensions, palladio flipped this
formula on its head, making the totality of his structures derive from
their columns’ dimensions.
 The Vitruvian Triad after 1800 :
• It has been argued that the traditional concept of firmitas, utilitas,
and venustas ceased to have any real value after 1800, when engineers began
creating structures that seemed so ostentatiously to defy the stonemasons’ laws of
gravity, when scientific studies were creating more and more doubts as to the
economical, sociological, psychological, acoustical, thermal, or optical
determinants of appropriate spatial accommodation and when beauty was
“altogether in the eye of the beholder.”
• A number of influential theorists after 1750 sought to make modifications to this
traditional triad:
• (1) by giving its components a radically different equilibrium (such as the primacy
given by the 18th-century french architect étienne-louis boullée to the effects of
geometric forms in light or the claim made by jean-nicolas-louis durand that the
fulfillment of function was the sole essence of architectural beauty).
• (2) by adding ethical values (such as ruskin’s “sacrifice” and “obedience”).
• (3) or by introducing new scientific concepts (such as giedion’s “space-time”).
 Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (1760-1834):
• If Claude Perrault was the pioneer in the trend towards anti-Vitruvianism by applying
scientific rationalism to the problem of proportions, then Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand is one
of the most extreme developments of that trend because he sees architecture as a kind of
science. He was the first theorist to assert that architecture need not employ the orders .
• He was a functionalist before his time. He avoids any philosophising or idle speculation and
gets straight to the utilitarian core of architecture: buildings are for providing comfortable
shelter with the least expenditure of labour and capital. Beauty and giving pleasure are
merely side affects of achieving a comfortable shelter and should never be the aim of
architecture. So he reduced architecture to a combinatory art of assembling a finite number
of components into infinite variations of assembled wholes.
• Durand attacked Vitruvius for his emphasis on beauty (venustas) and his illogical story
about the origin of the orders. “What comparison,” asks Durand, “is there between a man’s
body, which varies in width at different heights, and a kind of cylinder with a constant
diameter throughout,” and so he concludes, “Clearly, the proportions of the human body
did not serve, and can never have served, as a model for those of the orders.”
• He think that the necessities are in fact the very essence of architecture and all the classical
columns, entablatures and pediments are superfluous to its function.
• In the extract included below Durand criticizes how architecture is taught as three separate
areas of study – construction, distribution and decoration – because this encourages the
student to prefer one above the others, but to be a successful architect you need to be
equally good at all three.
Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (1760-1834):

Assembled buildings resulting from various horizontal and vertical combinations from
Durand’s Précis of the Lectures on Architecture showing how it is possible make an
endless range of different buildings from a limited number of building blocks.
Eugène-E. Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879):
• He was the real father of the theory of modern architecture, and the most
comprehensive and systematic of all the importantly influential theorists writing
since Alberti. In addition to theory for the production of new buildings, Violletle-
Duc was among the first to devise a concerted doctrine for architectural
restoration.
• He saw the historical traditions of architecture as having created rational solutions
to design problems, not compositions prompted primarily by aesthetic
impulses.Hence, for him, there was no need to evaluate the beauty of a building
as an independent quality; beauty was simply the outcome of a rational analysis.
• So it is, then, that in his theoretical writing critical evaluation was addressed first
to the interrelationship of the functional program and the structural design. The
style of a design was thus interpreted as the by-product of this relationship. Style,
he held, is something a completely rational scheme achieves by virtue of its
correspondence to the needs of the project. The historical styles, on the other
hand, are simply artificial intellectual constructs devised after the fact for
purposes of formal classification.
Eugène-E. Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879):

Viollet-le-Duc’s plan
of a Roman bath.

Viollet-le-Duc’s
Viollet-le-Duc’s structural isometric view of a Viollet-le-Duc’s structural
diagram of a Greek Doric French Renaissance diagram of a Gothic
temple. chateau . cathedral.
The Vitruvian Triad
in Architectural Theory :
Classical Architecture Post-Renaissance Architecture
16th Century 18th Century

Commodity
Structural
Sacred
(Architecture) ‫ماليزيا‬-‫ لودولي‬-‫لوجيه‬
Arbitrary
Ordinary
Delight Firmness ‫ لودو‬- ‫بوليه‬
Positive
Formal

‫اعتبارات ثالثية العمل المعماري‬ ‫اعتبارات ثنائية العمل المعماري‬ ‫احادية العمل المعماري‬
Vitruvius C. Perrault Structural or formal
 ‫? ‪Form Follows What‬‬

‫‪Science‬‬ ‫‪Art‬‬

‫العمارة من الفنون‬ ‫العمارة من الفنون‬

‫التطبيقية‬ ‫الجميلة‬

‫التوجه التجريدي‬ ‫التوجه العضوي‬

‫التيار العقالني‬ ‫التيار الرومانسي‬

‫(الجوانب التحليلية)‬ ‫(الجوانب التعبيرية)‬
 Sculptural Intellectual
(perceptual)
(conceptual) Form

Architectural Formative
Form Idea
Geometric Spatial Structural
Structural
(Spatial)
(functional) Form Form
abstract

Context

The Architectural Form

as an integration of the Five concepts
 Modernism
Modern Movement In Architecture
‫‪Modernism - Form Follows Function :‬‬
‫تتغير العمارة تبعا لتغير الفكر االنساني وتطوره‪ ،‬فانتقلت من عمارة بدائية تقي االنسان من قوى الطبيعة وصوال‬ ‫•‬
‫لعمارة تحتوي على معانٍ ومضامين اخرى‪ .‬وهذا ما يدعوه (توماس كوهن) بالمفهوم الحاكم‪ ،‬وهو « اطار‬
‫مرجعي يوجه الفكر والممارسة لمجتمع معين في حقبة معينة‪ ،‬ليكون هو االداة االدراكية لهذا المجتمع‪».‬‬
‫القيم المكونة للمفاهيم الحاكمة هي (الثوابت العقائدية‪ ،‬االساطير‪ ،‬الدين‪ ،‬االيديولوجيا)‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫االيديولوجيا هي‪ :‬نتاج الفكر االنساني القائم على انجاز علمي او فلسفي‪ ،‬تتحول بدورها الى نظريات واستنتاجات‬ ‫•‬
‫تسيطر على الفكر في حقبة معينة‪ ،‬كالذي حدث في عصر النهضة وبدايات القرن ‪ ،18‬والقرن ‪ .20‬فمثال‪:‬‬
‫الحضارة االغريقية – سيطرة الفلسفة‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫الحضارة الرومانية – سيطرة االسطورة – ثم الرؤى الشخصية – ثم الدين‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫الحضارة المسيحية واالسالمية – سيطرة الدين – ثم االسطورة – ثم الرؤى الشخصية‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫وعليه يمكن النظر الى (الحداثة) على انها أسلوب لعصر معين‪ ،‬من حيث كونها تمثل ‪:‬‬ ‫•‬
‫اهدافها ‪:‬‬
‫• التجديد والتحديث‪.‬‬ ‫• الشكل العام الفكار المجتمع في تلك الفترة‪.‬‬
‫• دراسة النفس االنسانية بوسائل فنية وعلمية جديدة‪.‬‬ ‫• خالصة تجارب ووجهات نظر كانت سائدة حينها‪.‬‬
‫• االلتحاق بالزمن المعاصر‪.‬‬ ‫• حقبة تاريخية مهمة‪.‬‬
 ‫المستقبل بوصفه بعد ًا وهدفاً جديدا‬
‫• لم تكن الحداثة مجرد مصطلح يصف وضع اجتماعي او سياسي او تاريخي جديد‪ ،‬بل نمط فكري وحضاري قائم على معارضة كل ماهو‬
‫تقليدي من مواقف ونظريات‪ .‬قد ظهرت اولى معالم التحديث اواخر القرن ‪ 18‬في اوربا وتحديدا في بريطانيا‪ ،‬بقيام الثورة الصناعية‬
‫نتيجة النهضة العلميّة الشاملة التي اجتاحت أوروبا‪ .‬فقد جددت هذه الثورة من سبل التفكير والعمل من خالل االتجاه نحو اإلنتاج باستخدام‬
‫الا من اإلنتاج باالعتماد على العمل اليدوي لإلنسان‪ .‬وظهر ذلك بوضوح في توظيف هذا التطور في صناعة‬ ‫اآلالت الصناعيّة ال ُم َؤتمتة َبد ٍ‬
‫الحديد والصب وفي تشييد الجسور‪.‬‬
‫• يصف (الجادرجي) فترة النهضة والثورة الصناعية بانها المرحلة الرابعة في مسار تطور العمارة‪ .‬تبدا مع عمارة عصر النهضة في‬
‫أوروبا‪ ،‬التي ظهرت بفعل عوامل متعددة اهمها ‪ :‬تفرد االنسان المصنع‪ ،‬وابعاده عن المرجعية المشتركة‪ .‬وهو ما جعل مخيلة الفرد حرة‬
‫من االلتزام بالثقافات المشتركة السائدة‪ ،‬ما مهد لظهور عمارة الحداثة‪ .‬كما ويصف الجادرجي اواخر القرن ‪ 18‬بالثورة الصناعية االولى‬
‫والتي تحقق فيها تصنيع الحديد الصب وتم بناء محطات القطارات والبيوت الزجاجية‪ .‬ثم توسعت تقنية المكننة في النصف الثاني من‬
‫القرن ‪( 19‬الثورة الصناعية الثانية)فشيد حتى بلغ االمر ذروته مع اقامة معرض القصر البلوري في لندن عام ‪ .1851‬فضال عن الكثير‬
‫من صاالت العرض الكبرى ومحطات القطارات وغيرها من المنشات التي جاءت تلبية للحاجات الجديدة‪ ،‬ولتتأسس اولى المبادئ‬
‫التكوينية لعمارة الحداثة‪.‬‬
‫• ان ظهور الحركات العلمية واالستكشافية قادت االنسان نحو طرق جديدة لفهم العالم من حوله‪ ،‬وهو ما وصف بانه (( ثورة مفاهيمية‬
‫كبرى ))‪ .‬فقد تغيرت النظرة الكونية من النظرة الستاتيكية الى الميكانيكية بتاثير فيزياء نيوتن‪ .‬ويقوم الفهم الميكانيكي للعالم على الهندسة‬
‫والرياضيات‪.‬‬
‫• فكانت الحداثة فكرعلميا عمليا عقالنيا‪ ،‬تستند مبادؤه على التقدم العلمي والتطور الصناعي وما رافق ذلك من تحوالت اجتماعية‬
‫واقتصادية وسياسية‪.‬‬
 ‫البحث عن القوة الشكلية للتفصيل العماري بأكبر قدر من الكفاءة و االقتصاد‬
‫ومن اهم تداعيات ذلك على العمارة ‪:‬‬ ‫•‬
‫تغير العالقات االنتاجية وانفصال المعماري عن عملية التصنيع‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫قطع الصلة مع الماضي والتاريخ‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫اهمال الزخرفة والتزيين تماما‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫التاكيد على دور العمارة ضمن مجتمع حر وديموقراطي‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫كان لذلك كله تاثيره في ان يتبع الشكل العماري الوظيفية ‪ Functionalism‬كمنهج براغماتي مثالي لبناء عالم‬ ‫•‬
‫جديد‪ .‬وبذلك اصبح الشكل العماري تابعا لمتطلبات الوظيفة والمادة واالنشاء‪ ،‬وهو ما نتج عنه تغير في مفاهيم‬
‫الفضاء والكتلة والجدار‪:‬‬
‫اشكال عالية االختزالية‪ ،‬غير مرتبطة بمرجع‪ ،‬ارتبط فيها الجمال مع المالءمة‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫عمارة احادية المعنى‪ ،‬وذات اشارة مباشرة‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫فقدان الوظيفة االجتماعية للذات االنسانية‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫التاكيد على التطبيق وليس التنظير فقط‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫التعبير عن جماليات الماكنة‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫االهتمام بدور الوظيفة والمنشأ في ابداع الشكل من خالل تبني المنطق العقلي ‪ /‬االداتي‪.‬‬ ‫•‬
‫كل ذلك جعل من الشكل الحداثوي ‪ :‬شكال عماريا مقيسا‪ ،‬يتحدد باللغة الداخلية للمبنى من حيث المتطلبات الوظيفية‬ ‫•‬
‫واالنشائية‪ .‬يفتقد لتنوع التكوين والتشكيل‪ ،‬غير مرتبط مع البيئة الثقافية والموروث‪ ،‬معتمد على استعارة الماكنة‪.‬‬
Modernism’s
Architects
Views :
 ‫تغير مفهوم الشكل العماري‬
‫• االهتمام بعملية انتاج الشكل وليس الناتج النهائي ‪Process X Form .‬‬
‫• رفض دور التاريخ في تاسيس القرار التصميمي‪.‬‬
‫• تبني المنهج العقالني ‪ :‬التحليل العلمي – التقييس ‪ – Standardization‬االنتاج الكمي ‪Mass-‬‬
‫‪ –Production‬الوظيفية‪.‬‬
‫• من اهم العوامل التي ساهمت في بلورة فكر الحداثة في العمارة ‪:‬‬
‫• الثورة الصناعية والقصر البلوري‪.‬‬
‫• مؤتمر ‪ CIAM‬عام ‪.1928‬‬
‫• مدرسة شيكاغو عام ‪.1880‬‬
‫• مدرسة الباهاوس ‪ Bauhaus‬عام ‪.1919‬‬
 ‫‪ -‬مصادر مهمة ‪:‬‬

‫• االسلوب العالمي في العمارة ‪ :‬بين المحافظة والتجديد‪ ،‬شيرين شيرزاد‪ ،‬المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر‪.2002 ،‬‬
‫والمنظر والمعلّم‪ :‬في مراحل ُّ‬
‫تطور العمارة [‪ ، ]2‬رهيف فياض‪ ،‬موقع االخبار (الثالثاء ‪ 2‬نيسان‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫• رفعة الجادرجي المعمار‬
‫‪ ،)2019‬رابط المقال‪.https://al-akhbar.com/Literature_Arts/268665 :‬‬