Architecture from the 20s to 40s in Germany and Portugal

ARCHITECTURE FROM THE 20S TO 40S IN GERMANY AND PORTUGAL

The First Functionalism (or Rationalism)

In the period between the two wars, there was the need to reconstruct Europe, in a simple, inexpensive but worthy way that took people´s needs in account.

Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer built in 1911 the Fagus Factory. Its suspended glass facade and the fact that it was not supported by pillars in the corners attests its uniqueness and made its construction much cheaper than expected. The factory´s workers were then able to perform their tasks in excellent lighting conditions.



Gropius found Bauhaus in the Germain city of Weimar, in 1919. Bauhaus was an innovating art school that had a very strong influence in modern architecture and design.



More famous than Gropius was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, a Swiss/French architect, known as Le Courbusier.



“A arquitectura é o jogo sábio, correcto e magnífico dos volumes reunidos sobre a luz […]; os cubos, os cones, as esferas, os cilindros ou as pirâmides são as grandes formas primárias que a luz tão bem revela; […] É por isso que estas formas são belas, são mesmo as mais belas…”

                                                                                                                                            Le Courbusier



The main characteristics of Rationalism are:

·         Man is the scale for architecture

·         The construction has to be adapted to the function of the building

·         It has to be as practical as a typing machine

·         Simplification of the volumes (regular geometric solids)

·         Lack of decorative elements (plain white walls)

·         Large windows, often continuous

·         Flat roofs

·         Elevation of the building on stilts

 The Second Functionalism (or Organicism)

“Trago-vos uma nova Declaração de Independência […]. Uma arquitectura orgânica significa nem mais nem menos que uma sociedade orgânica. Os ideais orgânicos em arquitectura refutam as regras impostas pelo esteticismo exterior e pelo mero bom gosto, assim como a gente a quem pertencerá esta arquitectura refutará as imposições que estão em desacordo com a natureza e o carácter do Homem”

                                                                                                                     F. L. Wright (London, 1939)

Organicism diverts from Functionalism:

·         It stands for a more human architecture

·         Conceives buildings from the inside

·         Buildings are like living beings

·         The scale is still the human one but also on a spiritual level

·         Buildings mix and are confused with the landscape and Nature

                                                                                             (1st part - vanda pedro)