The needs of a complex, modern urbanized society and the availability of new materials and structural methods have made a new architecture necessary. Wright spoke in terms of the union of nature and man that could be realized through organic architecture. Gropius and Corbusier were exponents of the international style and its emphasis on building for the machine age. Louis Sullivan's thoughts led to reevaluation of architectural forms in relation to human activities and to a reexamination of basic architectural methods and purposes. The criterion for a building is no longer what it looks like, but how well it fulfills its purpose, as well as the drive and power of technology. Gropius started with the open box as the basic unit of space, varied by its volume and grouped several in a related pattern of cubes. Between the parallel slabs hang the glass curtain walls that bear no structural weight. The transparency permits detail such as the spiral staircase and the skeletal structure of the interior, to remain open and visible from the exterior. Gropius achieved the architectural equivalent of the cubist painters. As a result, this became the beginning of the new industrial design. Le Corbusier thought of a house as a machine to live in. For him, architecture was the masterly play of masses brought together in light. Cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, pyramids, for him are the primary forms that reveal themselves in the sun and shadow, while Wright's building express harmony with nature. |
