Late Modernism
Ar Hena Tiwari
Jan-July 2016, GCAD Sonipat
Late Modernism, also known as High-tech
architecture or Structural Expressionism, is
an architectural style that emerged in the 1970s,
incorporating elements of high-tech industry and
technology into building design.
High-tech architecture appeared as an extension
of previous ideas which were helped by even more
technological advances.
LECTURE V INTRODUCTION
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It served as a bridge between modernism
and post-modernism.
In the 1980s, high-tech architecture became more
difficult to distinguish from post-modern
architecture. Some of its themes and ideas were
later absorbed into the style of Neo-Futurism art
and architectural movement.
There were some gray areas as to where one
LECTURE V
category ends and the other begins.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Like Brutalism, Late Modernism buildings revealed
their structure on the outside as well as the inside,
but with visual emphasis placed on the internal
steel and concrete skeleton structure as opposed
to exterior concrete walls.
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
For eg. in buildings such as the Pompidou
Centre, this idea of revealed structure is taken to
the extreme, with apparently structural
components serving little or no structural role.
In this case, the use of "structural" steel is a
stylistic or aesthetic matter.
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
The style's premier practitioners included:
Colombian architect Bruce Graham and Bangladeshi
architect Fazlur Rahman Khan for the John Hancock
Centre, Willis Tower and Onterie Center.
British architects Sir Norman Foster, Sir Richard
Rogers
Italian architect Renzo Piano.
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, known for his
organic, skeleton-like designs.
LECTURE V
ARCHITECTS
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It evolved from inadequacy of Modernism.
Desperately to come out of the constraints of
Modernism.
The public was once again acknowledged as a
participant of architecture, whose voice cannot be
ignored.
Was determined not to be boring like modernism
and made a conscious effort to be interesting
LECTURE V always.
EVOLUTION
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Horizontally oriented
Ribbon windows
Dramatic sculptural conception of building’s volumes
No ornamentation
Decorative use of functional features .
Flat roofs.
RCC was out of favor.
Steel and glass were disassociated with their
CHARACTERSTIC
LECTURE V international style.
S
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It was a pragmatic and technocratic architecture.
It drew its inspirations from the highest
achievements of Modernism.
Represented by: Sculptural Form.
Extreme Articulation.
Was functionalist.
Modernist features were glass blocks, and belt
courses.
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It was an exaggerated distorted version of
Modernism.
Excessive repetition via offsetting of building
planes.
Use of metal and glass curtain walls firmly links
it.
LECTURE V Built forms isolated from the modernist box to
take newer forms.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
EXAMPLES
Philip Johnson and
John Burgee
Modernist box ceased
to be a box.
It is cut, opened up,
splayed and repeated.
LECTURE V National commercial centre, Jeddah (1979-
84)
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Change in geometry provides
interest.
Machine like finish.
Absence of scaling devices
creates hallucination.
LECTURE V Lipstick Building, Manhattan, New
York
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
James Sterling
Imagery was slick.
Surfaces looked slippery
and wet casting an
hypnotic effect.
LECTURE V University of Leicester Engineering Building,
1964
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Nature is architecture’s best teacher.
“The Innermost Being of Architecture”.
Additive Architecture.
Modest to monumental. Jorn Utzon
Nordic Sensibility.
Influenced by the architecture of the ancient
Mayan civilisation, as well as the Islamic world,
LECTURE V China and Japan.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
An influential American architect.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Attended the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, New
York, and then studied at Harvard University as an
undergraduate, where he focused on history
and philosophy.
Promotion of the International style and, later, for
his role in defining postmodernist architecture.
LECTURE V PHILIP JOHNSON
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It was designed by Philip Johnson as his own
residence.
An important and influential project for Johnson
and for modern architecture.
Building is an essay in minimal structure,
geometry, proportion, and the effects of
transparency and reflection.
House is an example of early use of industrial
materials such as glass and steel in home design.
LECTURE V Glass house
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Building is 56 feet (17 m) long, 32 feet (9.8 m)
wide and 10½ feet (3.2 m) high.
The kitchen, dining and sleeping areas were all in
one glass-enclosed room, which Johnson initially
lived in, together with the brick guest house
Exterior sides of the Glass House are charcoal-
painted steel and glass
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Areas of gravel or grass, trees grouped in what
Johnson called outdoor "vestibules“
Rectangularity of the Glass House itself is
complemented with a circular brick fireplace.
The Brick House, also rectangular, faces the
Glass House, but a nearby concrete
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
LECTURE V CENTRE POMPIDOU (POMPIDOU CENTER)
PARIS,FRANCE.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Flexible envelope
Simple Geometric Form
Open Piazza
Steel Structure
Exterior Mechanical
Building Circulation
LECTURE V Themes of the design
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Land area 2 hectares (5 acres)
Floor area 103,305 m2
Superstructure 7 levels
42 m (Rue Beaubourg side), 45.5 m
Height
(Piazza side)
Length 166 m
Width 60 m
Infrastructure 3 levels
Depth: 18 m; Length: 180 m; Width:
Dimensions
110 m
LECTURE V BUILDING SPECIFICATIONS
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Earthworks 300,000 m3
Reinforced concrete 50,000 m3
Metal framework 15,000 tonnes of steel
Façades, glass
11,000 m2
surfaces
LECTURE V OpaqueMATERIALS
surfaces USED
7,000 m2
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
It is a complex building in Paris.
It was designed in the style of high-tech
architecture by the architectural team of Richard
Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco
Franchini.
It houses the Public Information Library, a vast
public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne,
which is the largest museum for modern art in
LECTURE V Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and
acoustic research.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
The project was awarded to the team in
an architectural design competition and it was the
first time in France that international architects
were allowed to participate.
World-renowned architects Oscar Niemeyer, Jean
Prouvé and Philip Johnson made up the jury which
LECTURE V would select one design out of the 681 entries.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
Initially, all of the functional structural elements of
the building were colour-coded: green pipes
are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate
control, electrical wires are encased in yellow,
and circulation elements and devices for safety
like fire extinguishers are red.
LECTURE V The Centre was completed in 1977.
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
LECTURE V
Ar. Hena Tiwari,
GCAD, Jan-July 2016
