Design and Modernism

Le Corbusier
Contextualised
Andrea Peach
A Great epoch has begun.

There exists a new spirit.

Towards a New Architecture

Le Corbusier 1927
Modernism

Dominant ideology throughout

western industrialised world in art,
design and architecture for most of
the twentieth century
19th century: Ornament & Decoration …
If we challenge the past we shall learn
that ‘styles’ no longer exist for us, that
a style belonging to our own period has
come about; and there has been a
Revolution.

Towards a New Architecture

Le Corbusier 1927
Die Wohnung Stuttgart 1927
Adolf Loos 1928
Essay on Ornament and Crime:

Evolution is synonymous with the

removal of ornament from
objects of everyday use
Adolf Loos 1928

Steiner House - Vienna, Austria

 A house has to fulfill two
purposes. First it is a machine
for living in, that is, a machine
to provide us with efficient help
for speed and accuracy in our
work, a diligent and helpful
machine which should satisfy
all our physical needs: comfort.
But it should also be a place
conducive to meditation, and
lastly, a beautiful place,
Le Corbusier bringing much needed
Cook House, Paris, 1926 tranquility to the mind.

1923
Machine Art exhibition at Museum
of Modern Art in New York 1934

The beauty of machine

art is in part the abstract
beauty of straight lines
and circles made into
actual tangible surfaces
and solids by means of
lathes, rulers and
squares
Industry, overwhelming
us like a flood which rolls
on towards its destined
ends, has furnished us
with new tools adapted to
this new epoch, animated
by the new spirit.

Le Corbusier - Towards a
New Architecture
Russian Constructivist
printed textile c 1920
Le Corbusier 1929

Metal plays the same part in furniture as

cement has done in architecture.
It is a revolution.
The machinery of Society, profoundly out of
gear, oscillates between an amelioration, of
historical importance, and a catastrophe.
Le Corbusier - Towards a New Architecture
If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead
concepts in regard to the house, and look at the
question from a critical and objective point of view,
we shall arrive at the
‘House Machine’

Le Corbusier
Villa Savoye
1928-31
We must create the mass-production spirit.
The spirit of constructing mass-production houses.
The spirit of living in mass-production houses.
The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses.

Le Corbusier
Unité d’Habitation,
Marseilles
1947-52
It is a question of building which is at the root of
the social unrest of to-day:
architecture or revolution

Le Corbusier
Unité d’Habitation,
Marseilles
1947-52
Weissenhof Seidlung, Stuttgart 1927

Walter Gropius / Marcel Breuer

Mies van der Rohe

Marcel Breuer 1931

This metal furniture is intended to be nothing

but a necessary apparatus for contemporary life
Modernist Design

Objects should be:

• Simple, honest and direct

• Well adapted to their purpose

• No ornament
Modernist Design
• Standardised
• Machine-made

• Reasonably priced

• Expressive of their structure and

materials
Marcel Breuer 1926
Nesting Tables
Germany

Nickel-plated steel and lacquered wood

Mies van der Rohe 1927
Cantilever Chair
Germany

Chrome-plated tubular steel, oil cloth

 1946
“Here is gay,
sparkling furniture
that brings new
beauty and charm
into your kitchen …
it’s the kind that
seems to stay new
looking
indefinitely”

Howell ‘Chromasteel’ USA

Greta von Nessen 1952
‘Anywhere lamp’
Germany

Aluminum and enameled metal

 2008 …

Ocean - Bianco Table / Gamma Chairs - chromed tubular steel frame

Modernism

A term used to refer to the principle

that nothing is included in a design
that does not enhance the
object’s purpose
Marianne Brandt 1924

Tea infuser
Germany, Bauhaus
Metal is cold and brutally hard...
It gives no comfort to the eye

John Gloag 1929

“Modern carpet
designs may provide
endless entertainment
for your friends”

Heath Robinson 1936

“De Staalstoelophoon”
1934
The end of modernism…?

The Titanic - Photomontage

Stanley Tigerman, 1978, USA
Alessandro Mendini 1978

1925

“Redesign of Modern Movement Chairs”

Wassily by Breuer, Italy
The end of modernism ... ?
 Le Corbusier
Books:
Marcus, G. Functionalist Design – An Ongoing History, Prestel, 1995

Weston, C. Modernism, Phaidon, London, 2001

Wilk, C (ed). Modernism – Designing a New World - 1914-1939, V&A

Publications, London, 2006

Websites:
From Here to Modernity – Open University Website detailing story of
modern movement and architecture:
www.open2.net/modernity/

The Le Corbusier Foundation:

http://www.fondationlecorbusier.asso.fr/fondationlc_us.htm