ARCHIST   03

 

“ MANNERIST ARCHITECTURE  ”

 

A Paper On Renaissance Period Architecture

In

Partial Fulfillment

Of the course requirements

In

Architectural History  03

 

Submitted by :

MELLA, DUSTIN

 

Submitted to :

                                                                Arch’t E.A. PUERTO

 

 

Mannerism, in art, a style that developed in Italy in the 16th century and evolved between the High Renaissance and the Baroque. The unrealistic treatment of space, often for dramatic effect; and often a seemingly arbitrary choice of thin, discordant, often acid colors characterize this style. The idiosyncratic use of classical

motifs and design, unnatural proportions and willful stylistic contradiction also highlight this king of style.  The mannerist style in its broadest sense means the use of eccentric and exaggerated modes and style in designing though using some classical aspects. Another fitting description to this said style is that it is the experimentation of classical adaptation in the newly developed style which is bound by contradictions and complexities.. 

 

One of the first applications of Mannerism to the decorative arts and to architecture is seen in the work of Giulio Romano at the Palazzo del Tè, Mantua(1525-1535, Italy.) The handling of decoration and space in Michelangelo's plans for the Laurentian Library (1524-1559, Florence) is also Mannerist in style and concept.

 

Examples of works in the Late renaissance were works like the Palazzo Del Te in Mantua by Giulio Romano, the Il Redentore in Venice and Villa Rotonda (Villa Capra) in Vicenza by Andrea Palladio and the Il Gesu Cathedral (My Jesus) in Rome by Giacomo Da Vignola and Giacomo Della Porta.

 

The Palazzo del Te , designed by Giulio Romano during the bloom of the Late Renaissance architecture was thought to be considered as the best example of a Mannerist architecture. At first glance it would appear to be a recreation of a classical villa with the interior having an open court, large garden and having one of the façade display an ornamental pool and having the southern part of the palazzo as a horse stable. Although the plan might be typical of those villas in the early and high renaissance architecture, the Palazzo Del Te get the distinction of being a part of the late renaissance architecture because of the intricate and radical display of stone-works, difference column size, window arrangement

and size and pilaster locations on its façade. The combines effect of these façade elements give the Palazzo Del Te’s façade a seemingly symmetrical design yet the real features are asymmetrical and gives the façade the ability to surprise the on lookers with its good play and contradiction of light and shadows. In another palazzo, the Palazzo Ducale of the Gonzagas still in Mantua,  Romano executed a more or less the same manner of design and display as that of the one he did on the Palazzo Del Te.

 

            Done with having radical and contradictory elements on the façade, lets go to the contradiction and experimentation of the plan and interior space. A good example of a building for this type of subject is the one done by Andrea Palladio, the Il Redentore in Venice. The plan and interior of this cathedral is an effect of the integration of two building types. In this part Palladio took the interior of the San’t Andrea and the Il Gesu and fused them together. In fusing the to different space Palladio was able to achieve the mixture of a central space and the linearity of the space of a basilica. The effect of this mixture is a space which is more indefinite and bigger in size and looks.

 

            Another good example of Andrea Palladio’s genius is his most famous villa, Villa Rotonda (Villa Capra) located in Vicenza. The said villa is located on top of a hill. Unlike common villas, this villa had a centralized plan and four identical facades and projecting porches. In the plan the fluidity and harmony of Palladio’s design can be very well seen, the beauty of pure and true form with its geometrical plan composed of square, circle and rectangles and, its four symmetrical porticoed facades or faces makes both the plan and face go well and in the end having a very unified looking building serving both function and aesthetic purposes. Palladio himself described the Villa Rotonda as a pure work of art whose only function is to serve as a belvedere. In the Villa Rotonda Palladio not only proved that the Mannerist style is experimental and contradictory but also has the ability to be fluid and united in design and flow. Due to the fame of the Villa Rotonda it has been said that four other variants were made from it.

 

Ending the late renaissance period gave way to two great artist and architects, Giacomo Da Vignola and Giacomo Della Porta and one of their greatest works, the Il Gesu cathedral in Rome. What made this cathedral  stand out as a product of the mannerist “era” was the integration and intelligent play of horizontal straight line with vertical straight line. In this cathedral’s plan there was an integration of an elongated rectangle with a circle. In doing this integration, both architects were trying to integrate spaces in order to come up with a treatment of unity in the interior. Though trying to achieve unity in space the “contradictory” style of the mannerist style of design can be noticed with the great size contrast between the major paces and those minor ones. Not only the interior spaces had great contrast in them but also the building’s façade which happens to have exaggerated sizes of windows, columns and pilasters in order to make a statement for the building.

 

The Late renaissance was in deed a sort of experimental stage for most architects in those times and I believe it open the eyes and minds of most succeeding architects and builders that there is such a thing as an own style and that not only classical designs and methods of design are appealing to all people. For me, this was an eye-opener era in architectural design.

 

 

 

 

 

ARCHIST   03

 

“THE GENIUS THAT IS GUARINI  ”

 

A Paper On Baroque Architecture

In

Partial Fulfillment

Of the course requirements

In

Architectural History  03

 

Submitted by :

MELLA, DUSTIN

 

Submitted to :

Arch’t E.A. PUERTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guarini, Guarino born in the year 1624 and died at an age of 59 was an Italian

 

baroque architect who was known for the complex, dynamic and inventive designs of

 

his buildings. He spent most of his life in Turin, giving him the chance to be “known”

 

in the place and landing him architectural jobs designing and redesigning buildings

 

around the area. The Church of San Lorenzo (1668-87), located in Turin, north of Italy,

 

is often regarded as his masterpiece. This church has an octagonal floor plan composed

 

of four different spaces : a narthex which was as wide as the church, a central nave, an

 

oval-shaped choir, and a vault behind the choir. What makes this church unique from

 

other churches was the imaginative way the dome above the nave was supported by,

 

then a revolutionary and impossible rib construction. A series of piers and columns rise

 

to support the complex dome composed of 16 intersecting ribs, and the delicately

 

interlaced vaults are pierced with windows. Guarini also redesigned the Cappella della

 

Santa Sindone ( Chapel of the Holy Shroud), built from 1667-94 on a circular plan,

 

with a conical dome trellised in a complex octagonal arrangement of flattened

 

(segmental) arches honeycombed by small round windows. Guarini's several palaces

 

were also notable for their exuberantly undulating facades. His architectural fantasies

were highly influential on later European baroque, particularly in Spain, Portugal,

 

Bavaria, and Austria.

 

 

            Although a man and an architect born in the era where in Baroque architecture

 

was at its peak and fame, Guarini looked back years before… to the Gothic

 

architecture, for his inspiration in terms of aesthetic development and  constructive

 

development as an ideal approach in dealing with a architectural space and design.

 

Guarini also loved how the great architects in the Gothic period of architecture

 

discovered and braved to shift to a more unique yet considered barbaric, unorthodox,

 

different  and untraditional way of design at that time. In the San Lorenzo church in

 

Turin, Guarini used the concept and idea of Gothic architecture which was the good

 

play of light and shadows.    Not only the use of lights and shadows made this church

 

Gothic inspired but also the uniqueness of the ribs supporting the heavy dome. Like the

 

gothic architects, Guarini also wanted to be famous and unique from other architects in

 

his era so that’s why he exhausted all technical possibilities and resources in his time in

 

order to materialize his very ambitious dome support. What can make this building pass

 

as a Gothic inspired architecture is its uniqueness which can be seen in more ways than

 

one and its use of light as a main factor in defining the interior space. The flooding of

 

light was achieved by Guarini by using a dome topped with a cupola with numerous

 

large windows on its side in order to catch and let in great amount of light like how the

 

Gothic buildings did. With the use of this light , the then relatively small space now

 

looked larger and more vast.

 

 

 

 

 

ARCHIST   03

 

“ MODERN ARCHITECTURE THROUGH THE EYES

OF

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ”

 

A Paper On Modern Architecture

In

Partial Fulfillment

Of the course requirements

In

Architectural History  03

 

Submitted by :

MELLA, DUSTIN

 

Submitted to :

Arch’t E.A. PUERTO

 

23 May 2003

 

 

▪ Brief Background of the Architect

 

Wright, Frank Lloyd (1867-1959), was an American architect, who was a pioneer in the modern style. He is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century architecture.

 

Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 having plans to take up architecture as his course for he knew that designing was one of his forte and developed talent. The university, at that time, offered no courses in his chosen field, however, and he matriculated in civil engineering in order to gain knowledge of a field “near” architecture and he gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction project at the university. In 1887 he left school and went to Chicago, where he became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan. One of the partners of this company, an American architect, Louis Sullivan, influenced Wright a lot in terms of his design and workmanship. In 1893 Wright left the firm to establish his own office in Chicago.

 

 

 

 

 

▪Organic Architecture As A Principle In Design

 

Wright created the philosophy of “organic architecture,” the central principle of which maintains that the building should be developed out of its natural surroundings and in that matter merge with it. Wright himself exhibited bold originality in his designs for both private and public structures and rebelled against the ornate neoclassic and Victorian styles favored by conventional architects at that time. He believed that the architectural form must ultimately be determined in each case by the particular function of the building, its environment, and the type of materials employed in the structure. Among his fundamental contributions to the world of architecture was the use of various building materials for their natural colors and textures, as well as for their structural characteristics. Most of his interiors emphasize the sense of spaciousness, which derives from open planning with one room flowing into another. This concept was particularly evident in his early single-family houses, the so-called prairie houses, among them the Martin House (1904) in Buffalo, New York; the Coonley House (1908) in Riverside, Illinois; and the Robie House (1909) in Chicago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

▪New Techniques in Design and Construction

 

Wright initiated many new techniques, such as the use of pre-cast concrete blocks reinforced by steel rods. Wright also introduced numerous innovations, including air conditioning, indirect lighting, and panel heating. The Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York, which he designed in 1904, was the first office building to utilize air conditioning, double-glass windows, all-glass doors, and metal furniture. Among his remarkable engineering feats was the design of the huge Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, constructed to withstand earthquakes. To obtain the required flexibility, he employed cantilever construction with a foundation floating on a bed of soft mud. The building was completed in 1922, and it suffered no damage in the disastrous earthquake that occurred in the following year.

 

Throughout his career, architects who were more conventional than Wright opposed his unorthodox methods. Beset with personal difficulties and professional antagonisms, he passed a year of self-imposed exile (1909-10) in Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

▪The Frank Lloyd Wright We All Came To Know

 Upon his return from his self-inflicted exile, he established in Taliesin, the home and school he built for himself near Spring Green, Wisconsin, he began anew on a career of ever-widening achievements. Among his later works are the Millard House (1923) in Pasadena, California; the Kaufmann House (1937), called “Falling Water” in Bear Run, Pennsylvania; the Johnson Wax Company Administration Building (1939) in Racine, Wisconsin; the First Unitarian Church (1947) in Madison, Wisconsin; the V. C. Morris gift shop (1950) in San Francisco; and the Price Tower (1953), a skyscraper in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 1959 he completed the curvilinear Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

 

▪Famous Works

Wright’s principle and concept of “organic architecture” was most seen and witnessed in his work on the the Kaufmann House “Falling Water”, in Bear Run Pennsylvania. The house’s exterior was based on the “massing of the Mayan pyramids on the exterior façade is designed using minimal decorations giving it a very simple and flat look with fine lines, enabling it to merge well with the surrounding waterfalls. Majority of the building materials were reinforced concrete, steel and glass. The very good play of these materials gave the house a “lighter” look as if it were floating atop the rocks and water and enabled Wright to incorporate the principles of the “International Style”.  Another project which gained him the much deserved recognition was the Johnson Wax Company Building in Racine, Wisconsin. The building, though cannot be well considered merged with the rest of the buildings abounding it, had its own sense of style which can best be seen in the buildings interior. It was the basic structural element designed by Wright himself, a slender, tapered concrete mushroom-shaped column, which was probably derived from the Minoan column of ancient Crete. This structural element even caused a stir among the engineers who were battling if the column would be able to bear the excess weight it would be required to carry. Wright did the loading-test himself and the result “stupefied” the engineers. Wright’s idea of space can also be witnessed with the over-head natural lighting system which lit the whole of the lobby and entrance hall. The “International Style” was again incorporated in the buildings exterior by using flat and simple solid lines, this time composed mostly of bricks and glass and the ends were rounded instead of the conventional sharply angled ones. Last and what is considered best of his works is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The spiral design of the main display area of the museum is the highlight of this building. The inverted cone designed structured is lit from above with an impressive skylight which enables light to go through reaching the lowest level. Exterior can be described as a merger of two geometric shapes, a rectangle and an inverted cone topped with a dome. The façade is of reinforced concrete clad with white paint giving the building a very modern and unique look, imaginative in everyway and angle, truly a work of art in architecture. This was how Frank Lloyd Wright viewed architecture, an very intelligent way of combining logic and artistry resulting to great works, works worthy to be remembered.