SUPERmoon over Los Angeles

after Rodin's 'Kiss'

los egyptos

If the Modern architectural movement is defined by reduced rational forms and innovations in building technologies, then perhaps Le Corbusier and others were really not really the first to be a man “living within his time”. A loose study of ancient Egyptian pyramids demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians, circa 2500 BC, were well aware of what it meant to “be modern”.
 
The power of the simplified form can be seen in a comparison between the Pyramid of Djoser constructed in 2611 BCE with Sneferu’s Red Pyramid finished around 2550 BCE. The Pyramid at Djoser is a stepped pyramid. Formally it functions through five horizontal bands that through repetition of dark and light contrast carry the eye from earth to sky. Each band serves as a step in a ladder as the eye ascends to the point on high. No doubt it invokes a sense of power and awe, but it does this in a stepped manner.
 

The Red Pyramid however ascends to its peak in one single plane. . There are no visual stepping stones, no place of rest. Light that strikes the pyramid offers one single smooth gradient unto the heavens. Formally it is simpler than the stepped pyramid; however the resulting effect has a far greater impact and inspires a stronger sense of awe.
 

The purification of an abstract geometric form is connected to technological developments as well. The apparent discovery of the angle of repose can be seen in the Pyramid at Meidum and the Bent Pyramid. To build at too steep an angle would result in structural failure. The Red Pyramid was then laid out at a relatively low angle of 43 degrees and successfully reaches its peak with one single slope.
 

The Modern architectural movement of the early twentieth century was no doubt a radical shift in the way in which people built. Primarily through developments of building technologies (steel) their pursuit of reduced rational forms was achieved. If we were however to take those same defining characteristics and apply them to the ancient Egyptian civilization, then perhaps they were as much “of their time” as the traditional “Modernist” was of theirs.

The Interior verse the Exterior verse the In-Between of the Glass Shutter House by Shigeru Ban

Fashionistas

As Adolf Loos states in his Principles of Cladding,”...the great architect….first of all gets a feeling for the effect he wants to produce, and then sees in his minds eye the room he wants to create.” This produced spatial effect is architecture. In architecture there are generally no set rules other than the physical laws of the universe. However, as architecture is generally more associated with the subjective world of art, than the objective world of science, these “produced effects” become highly contentious and debatable. At the root of it is a discourse over style, both personal and generational.

This “produced effect”, or architecture, is generally dictated by two factors: programmatic needs and technological limitations. However, within this lies the stylistic response. Style becomes something of an aesthetic watermark not only of that architect, but of that moment in time. General patterns and trends realized in architecture project the styles and fashions of the architect and of the time.

For Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier, they had very specific ideas of how those spatial effects ought to be produced. Through writing essays/manifestos they very specifically expressed a code to follow on the manner in which architecture ought to be expressed. For them, it was of the utmost importance; to be modern. The cubist revolution had been underway since really the beginning of the century. The advent of steel and reinforced concrete made possible new spatial effects. Loos and Le Corbusier had a radical new concept that sought to design volumes and not masses.

But there was something more. It was a crusade against useless ornament and applied decoration, stylistic signatures grossly exploited by the then popular Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Loos and Le Corbusier sought to maintain the purity of materials; cladding that relates to structure, concrete that is seen as concrete.

The names of Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier would become synonymous with the international style of architecture. Through their manifestos they aimed to define a set of aesthetic rules pertaining to the production of spatial effects that would outlast their day. No doubt they went on to create very beautiful spaces. Inevitably however, their rules and principles would become a type of dogma. Their radicalism would become mainstream. Then time goes on; populations and technologies evolve. Their “present” becomes “past”, and there principles in turn provide the stylistic fodder for a new generation of architects to react against.

_the glass shutter house by shigeru ban