Speculate. To speculate is to look back upon, to reflect on. The Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines speculate as “to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively.” During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, designers expressed a time of speculation. The Modern movement brought about the deciphering of designers as to what constitutes modern design; even today, what is seen as modern design is not a clear cut definition, the speculation on what modern design was continues to be inconclusive. Modern design reflected on the art forms of the time and attempted to reinvent those concepts into architectural forms. “Modernism is the umbrella name for a bewildering number of movements- Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, Serialism, Surrealism… (Weston)” Designers reflected and pondered, or speculated on these movements and in turn introduced them into the design world architecturally as well. I chose to draw spectacles because you use them in the aid of viewing something to review on and dwell on, much like the term speculate.
Compose. To compose is to create a whole by putting together smaller parts. Because of the inspirations from art in design, the buildings of the modern time were composed in a new way. “The Modern movement stripped away unnecessary ornament from the interior (Massey 63).” The interior of the structures were composed of the basics, simplicity was valued during modern design. Structures were composed of manufactured consumer goods, the ideas of rationalization and standardization, and democratic forms of design. (Massey 63). Also, during the time of modern design, the idea of compose was taken literally; there were consumer goods which were to be composed, or put together after the purchase. This brought about the idea of parts creating a whole. The whole idea of composing is creating a whole out of certain parts. The Modern movement and modern design were composed differently, yet they both were created from the Industrial movement and expressed the value of flattening art and surface treatment.
Energize. The twentieth century was an energized time period in the design world. The modern design brought radical design changes and challenges to known rules of design. Le Corbusier was a strong example of a designer who energized, or fed to the power of the design world. Le Corbusier, through his Five Points of New Architecture, declared “a new beginning through a re-formulation of the roots of architecture (Weston 94).” Weston declares that “Le Corbusier offers a machine-age structure and the promise of new freedoms in arranging both plans and facades…” Such declarations and ideas geared towards new designs brought a new jolt into the design world. Modernism energized the design world and became a form of design of its own; a development from the claimed rut that the previous century had been in, imitating ancient forms.
Shape. Modern design took on the idea of shape in a new way; the design took shape on more literally. Post-impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism brought about the flattening of space to the surface, changing from attempts of creating 3-D to creating 2-D. Designers were intrigued by these art forms and began incorporating them into design. Destijl expressed his designs by creating them to be abstract down to the basics. This reinforces the idea that in interior became simplified, with less ornament. Machine age and technology brought about the desire to emulate those successes in the design world; in turn came the structures with industrial aesthetic. These structures emphasized line, geometric patterns, dramatic angles, fluidity… Le Corbusier began using pilotis to create the sense of the building being raised off of the ground in order to “emphasized the cubic nature of the building (Weston 9).” This reinforces his values placed on the shape of the structure coming forth as strong and important. Le Corbusier shows that shape is important when revealing space. When looking at structures from modern design, the first thing that occurs in my mind is the simplicity and the presence of shape in the space. Space is valued and that is expressed through simplicity, space is then emphasized through the use of shape. The idea of incorporating shape into the structure relates to the art nouveau form as well with the use of continuous line throughout the space.
Stretch. The concept of stretching was expressed from the eighteenth century into the nineteenth and twentieth. Vertically, the design world stretched as a result of the incorporation of the skyscraper. What once may have been a horizontally elongated structure has now become a roughly small horizontal stretched to an extreme vertical. Looking at the New York skyscrapers it looks as though a small, roughly square structure was pinched and pulled vertically stretching the structure to new heights. Soon after the physical stretching of structures, the stretching of design ideals developed. The ideas to which designs were based around became reflective of the society; designers stretched their design concepts to reveal certain aspects in society. The machine brought about designs, the car brought about designs, and the human body as well brought about designs in Gaudi’s case. Designers were stretching their thinking caps, stretching the design world and what was seen as acceptable and ideal forms of inspiration. The idea of space was also taken to new lengths. Le Corbusier inspired the stretch of the design world, like mentioned before. Roth, on page 530 says Le Corbusier expressed “urgency of completely reshaping modern architecture.” Roth is providing to the audience the realities of ways in which the designer stretched the rules of design to form a new modern form of architecture. One of his 5 points of architecture was the use of pilotis, or columns to “raise the house of the ground, freeing the site for the circulation of people and cars (Weston 9).” This radical stretch of what was known later brought about the literal stretching of metal when constructing chairs that appear to be weightless or floating: like the potato chip chair.
The week of action verbs was interesting for me; I love looking at modern architecture, often more so than classical forms. I find the structures so pleasing to my eye and I admire the way in which they do incorporate space and place emphasis on space in the structure. I found it interesting that designers began to think deeper than delight of the structure and put more thought into the details of the building in other aspects. The delight of the space came out of the evidence of thorough thought in creating the space; the space itself becomes the ornament. I enjoyed reading Weston’s introduction, I felt that he was easier to read and kept my attention more so than the other books in the class. I also appreciated seeing how art was even further incorporated into design, to the point that it was basically it’s entire inspiration.
Le Corbusier’s Five Points of New Architecture: (Weston)
1. Use of Columns or Pilotis
2. Flat roof as a roof-garden.
3. Free plan- exploiting freedom created by structural frame
4. Free façade- glazing, infilling, or omitting non-load-bearing external walls
5. Long horizontal window
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