Pioneers of Modern Design

Art theories from Morris to Gropius

Thanks to the industrial revolution, new machines allowed manufacturers to launch thousands into the market.
of cheap articles in the same time and at the same cost that were previously required for the production of a single
well-crafted object.
In the Middle Ages, the artist was a craftsman, proud of executing any commission to the fullest.
skill. Morris was the first artist to understand how uncertain and decayed they had become.
social foundations of art during the centuries following the Renaissance, and especially during the years
that followed the Industrial Revolution. He had studied architecture and painting in the circle of the
pre-Raphaelites. In 1857, the idea struck him that before one begins to paint sublime works, a man must
start by living in a suitable environment and having a decent home, with decent chairs and tables. That was the
situation that suddenly awakened his own personal genius: if we cannot buy solid furniture and
decent, let's make it ourselves. In 1861 instead of forming another closed brotherhood of artists,
As the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had been, Morris decided to open a firm, the firm of Morris, Marshall &
Faulkner, Artistic Workers in Painting, Carving, Furniture, and Metals. This fact marks the beginning of a
new era in Western art.
Morris says: 'I don't want art for the few, just as I don't want education for the few or freedom for...
a few.” Morris is the true prophet of the 20th century, the father of the Modern Movement. We owe him
that the home of the common man has once again become an object worthy of thought of the
architect, and a chair, a wallpaper or a glass, an object worthy of the artist's imagination.
The concept that Morris had of art derives from his knowledge of the medieval working conditions.
fully integrates into the "historicism" of the 19th century. Starting from Gothic craftsmanship, it defined
simply to art as "the means by which man expresses his joy in work." The
true art must be 'made by the people and for the people, as a delight for those who create it and for those
he/she takes advantage of it.
Your tasks, the restoration of manual work, are constructive; the essence of your doctrine is destructive. To advocate
by manual labor alone, means advocating for conditions of medieval primitivism and above all,
due to the destruction of all the resources of civilization that were introduced during the Renaissance. No
he was willing to employ none of the post-medieval production methods in his workshops,
The consequence was the high cost of all its production. Only a narrow circle will buy the products of
artisan artist. While Morris wanted an art 'by the people and for the people', he was forced to admit that the
Cheap art is impossible because 'everything costs time, trouble, and reflection.'
The machine was Morris's main enemy. His attitude, of hatred towards modern methods
of production, did not suffer alteration in the majority of its successors. The Arts and Crafts Movement brought a
revival of artistic craftsmanship, not industrial art. We can consider representatives of it to be Walter
Crane and C.R. Ashbee.
Walter Crane was the most popular of his disciples, for him as for Morris, 'the true root and
The foundation of all art lies in the manual skill of the craftsman.
Ashbee was a more original thinker and a more energetic reformer than Crane. The first axiom of his
the last two books on art were that 'modern civilization rests on the machine, and no system for
to favor or subsidize the teaching of the arts that does not recognize it may be good:
The true pioneers of the Modern Movement are those who from the beginning were supporters of
art of the machine. Regarding the ornamentation of the future: "whether we like it or not, the machine and steam power and
electricity surely, will have something to say about the ornamental art of the future," said Lewis F. Day in
1882.
England's activity in the preparation of the Modern Movement came to an end immediately after
from the death of Morris. The initiative then passed to the continent and to the United States, and after a short
interim period, Germany became the center of progress.
The first architects who admired the machine and understood its essential characteristics and its
Consequences of the relationship between architecture and design with ornamentation were two Austrians (Otto
Wagner, Adolf Loos), of the Americans (Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright) and a Belgian (Henry van de Velde).
An English is also added: Oscar Wilde said at a conference in 1882: “All machines can
They are beautiful, even when they are not decorated. Do not try to decorate them.
Sullivan stated as early as 1892 that "ornament is an intellectual luxury, not an essential requirement" and that
it would greatly benefit our aesthetic, if we completely abstained from using ornaments for
a period of years, so that our thinking could focus sharply on production of
"well-formed and elegant buildings in their nakedness." Sullivan was also revolutionary in his art.
ornamental as in the use of simple and smooth surfaces. The decorative motifs of Sullivan belong
to the species known as Art Nouveau.
Van de Velde added: Why should artists who build palaces be more valued than
stone that the artists who build them from metal? Engineers are 'the architects of our time'.
iron, steel, aluminum, cement, celluloid, have predicted a great future.
this future style, "horizontal lines like those that predominated in antiquity, flat roofs, great
simplicity and an active display of the structure and materials.
Adolf Loos wrote his first essays for newspapers and periodicals in 1897 and 1898. Find
Beauty in form instead of making it dependent on ornamentation is the goal that humanity aspires to.
Just a few years later, Sullivan's greatest disciple, Frank Lloyd Wright, admires with
enthusiasm for the new 'simplified and ethereal' rhythm of future buildings, where 'space is more
spacious and its sense capable of penetrating any building, big or small.
Having achieved a broad movement that promoted those new ideas, such is the undeniable merit of the
German architects and writers.
The most important step towards the establishment, beyond individual experiments, of a style.
universally recognized, it was the foundation of the Deutscher Werkbund. It was in the year 1907 when a group of
entrepreneurial manufacturers together with some architects, artists, and writers, set out to found a
new association, called Werkbund, with the aim of 'selecting the best representatives of art, the
industry, trades and commerce, to combine all efforts in favor of high quality in work
industrial and to form a unifying center for all those who can and want to work for a high
quality.
Even when mechanical art was accepted as a means of artistic expression, the side of
artisan work, which would be more important in the future? This problem was clearly raised by the first
once at the annual assembly of the Werkbund in Cologne in 1914. Muthesius advocated for standardization, van de Velde the
individualism.
But the buildings from the same exhibition in Cologne, especially Gropius's model factory, demonstrated
impressively that the future belonged to the ideas of Muthesius and not to those of Van de Velde.
Morris had initiated the movement by reviving craftsmanship as an art worthy of the efforts of the best.
men; pioneers around 1900 had gone beyond, discovering the immense possibilities, still
virgins, of the art of the machine. The synthesis, in creation and in theory, is the work of Walter Gropius. The opening
The new school that combined an art academy and a school of arts and crafts took place in 1919.
Its name was Bauhaus, it was at the same time a laboratory for manual craft and typification; a school and
a workshop.

From 1851 to Morris and the Arts and Crafts

Around 1850, England was richer than ever, thanks to the drive of industrialists and merchants.
emporium of the world and the paradise of a prosperous bourgeoisie. World exhibitions were organized of
raw materials and technical products. The project was mainly due to the energy of Prince Albert.
Both the attendance and the size of the buildings and the amount of products on display were colossal.
The aesthetic quality of the products was abominable. There were the new railways and the looms.
mechanical, and the most ingenious inventions to facilitate the production of almost all objects that
previously, artisans crafted with so much effort.
Why did the machine have to turn out to be so disastrous for art?
Rationalism (new ways of thinking), experimental science, were the fields that determined
European activity during the Age of Reason.
The transformation of European thought was accompanied and followed by a transformation of ideals.
social sciences. Applied science, understood as a means to govern the world, soon became part of a
program aimed against the classes that had governed during the Middle Ages. Industry meant
bourgeoisie (capitalism), in opposition to the church and the nobility. They had the money with which they...
it enhanced the production of objects. Factories arise where the proletariat (workers) work under the
orders of the bourgeoisie.
The French Revolution swept away the medieval social system. Liberalism (democracy).
The industrial growth that formed a world capable of creating, a century later, the Modern Movement.
The innovations in metallurgy, the invention of the steam engine (J. Watt, 1765), the locomotive (1825), the
mechanical loom (1785, Cartwright). The immediate consequence of that rapid development was a sudden
increase in production. The cities were growing at a terrifying speed, new markets had to be
satisfied, a greater production was demanded.
With the extinction of the medieval craftsman, the shape and appearance of all products were entrusted to the
manufacturer. Designers of some reputation had not entered the industry, artists remained.
sections and the worker did not express opinions on artistic matters.
Liberalism dominated unabated both in philosophy and in industry, and it implied complete freedom.
for the manufacturer to produce any crude imitation, if it could be marketed. And that was quite easy because the
the consumer had no tradition, education, nor available time, and was like the producer, a victim of that
vicious circle.
All these facts and considerations must be taken into account if we are to understand the objects.
exposed in 1851.
 The only essential problem: the indivisible unity of the art of an era is its social system. Only William
Morris noticed this. His restoration of manual work would not have been possible if he had not been a
social reformer as much as a craftsman. He learned to respect the nature of the materials and the
work procedures. Wherever I looked at contemporary industrial art, I saw manufacturers who
they violated this flagrantly. The intense feeling of nature so characteristic of Morris is so
different from the imitation practiced by designers in 1851.
Morris was far from inventing decorative forms just for the sake of inventing that, if he found
models that suited their purposes, however remote they were in space or time, made use of them or
I fell at least under his charm, sometimes unwillingly. This explains why most of the chintzes and
Morris's later wallpapers depend on Gothic models. Morris's designs are clear and sober.
The first result of Morris's teaching was that several young artists, architects, and enthusiasts,
they decided to dedicate their lives to the trades.
In 1859, Morris asked Philip Webb to design a house for him and his wife. As in his designs
decorative, Morris rejected any connection with Italy and the Baroque and aspired to something akin to the late style.
Middle Ages. Webb used some Gothic details, such as the pointed arch and the steep roof. The House
Roja is collectively a building of a surprisingly independent character, with a solid appearance and
spacious. It exposes the red brick of the facades without covering it with plaster, like neoclassical rules
they prescribed.
Webb stands as the most steadfast and vigorous representative of the domestic Renaissance (movement
produced between 1860 and 1900 in urban and rural English architecture.

The painting around 1890

While the English artists were paving the way for a future style in architecture and
design, new pictorial ideals were born and developed on the continent.
Well, Morris turned against the horrors of 1851, the reformers of 1890 against Manet, Renoir, and the
other impressionists. The rebels of 1890 also accused their predecessors of superficiality and of feeling
greater concern for their personal interests than for those of the community, which is the philosophical corollary
of liberalism.
Some characteristics of Impressionism were: 1) the opposition to the academic art of the Salons
officials; 2) the realistic orientation; 3) total disinterest in the subject, preference for the landscape, contempt
due to the custom of the studio of arranging and lighting the models and starting to draw with a stroke to move on
after the chiaroscuro and color; 4) the study of colored shadows and the relationships between colors
complementary.
Morris dreamed of a return to medieval society, to medieval trades and forms; the drivers
from European painting of 1890 fought for something that had never existed before. In general, their style, free from
Any imitation of the era was a style without constraints and without commitments.
The most notable figures were two Frenchmen, Cézanne and Gauguin; a Dutchman, Van Gogh; and a Norwegian,
Munch.
Renoir's aim was to create a clear and harmonious composition and paint it with all his fascination.
atmospheric. Cézanne despised such a superficial attitude, he aims to express the enduring qualities
of objects, it does not care about the individual but speculates on the idea of the Universe.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), his color, above all, is never accidental, never is it just the
reproduction of the nuances observed in nature. We face nature sharply.
as a creative, terrifying, and magnificent force, and not with the changing surface of nature that
the impressionists skillfully portrayed.
Impressionism is only interested in what it can see with its own eyes, and what is behind the
Surface does not matter. It is as materialistic as any Victorian philosopher.
Nature as a universal force against the independence of man is one of the slogans of the new
movement of European painting in 1890. It can mean, as in Gauguin and van Gogh, a return to instinct
and to the free abandonment of oneself, or it can mean, as in Cézanne, a return to the essential principles of
geometry.
The first French posters date from the same years, whose value is based on the opposition of surfaces.
simple and brilliantly multicolored and in the abolition of space (Toulouse-Lautrec).
A conception of the 'theme painting' is one of the aspects that integrate the movement of 1890.
to think of impressionism, we think of landscapes, portraits, and still life, not of religion or
philosophy.
How far do the new trends of the treated painters coincide with the architectural style of
Modern Movement or do they act on them?
They believe in the uninterrupted flat surface; in the rhythmically drawn line, as means more
intense artistic expression. Strong colors and primitive shapes replace the abundance of nuances
delicate; firm compositional schemes. What matters is not a faithful copy of reality but the
expressiveness of design; not the quick observation of natural facts, but their perfect transposition to a
abstract significance plan. Translated to the perspective of the artist this means seriousness, awareness
religious and no longer animated game or craft skill.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau, whose origins can be found in the art of the Pre-Raphaelites, emerged as
consequence of the postulates of the Arts & Crafts movement, founded by William Morris in 1861. In view of
increase in mass production, and the poor quality of the designs and the execution that it entailed,
this movement aimed to recover the designs and the production of good quality. Based on the
the principles of Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau reworked them to create a completely new style that, in
opposition to the eclectic historicism of the Victorian era, did not refer to styles of the past.
It manifested itself in a wide range of artistic forms - architecture, interior design, furniture, posters,
glass, ceramics, textiles, and book illustrations—and was characterized by its tendency to use curved lines and
waving like whips.
From a sociological point of view, Art Nouveau is a new, imposing, complex phenomenon. It occurs in
all European and American countries that had reached a certain level of industrial development,
establishing in them a nearly uniform cultural and customs regime, despite slight variations
locales, and of an explicitly modern and cosmopolitan nature. It is a typically urban phenomenon that arises in
the capitals and it spreads to the provinces. It encompasses the most diverse aspects: the urban planning of entire neighborhoods,
construction in all its types, urban and domestic decoration, figurative and decorative art, the
furniture, the dresses, personal adornment, and the show.
Art Nouveau has certain constant characteristics:
1) the naturalistic theme (flowers and animals);
2) the use of iconic and stylistic motifs, and even typological ones, derived from Japanese art;
3) morphology: linear and chromatic arabesques; preference for rhythms based on curves and their
variants (spiral, volute, etc.) and, in color, by the cool, soft, transparent, assonant inks,
flat areas or striped, iridescent or shaded;
4) the distancing from proportion and symmetrical balance and the search for 'musical' rhythms with
marked developments in height or width and with wavy and sinuous solutions;
5) the evident and constant purpose of communicating through empathy a sense of agility, elasticity, lightness,
youth, optimism.
The diffusion of the essential stile of Art Nouveau is carried out through art magazines and
fashion, trade and its advertising apparatus, world exhibitions, shows.
Seen as a whole, Art Nouveau does not express at all the will to qualify the work of the workers.
(as Morris expected), but the intention to utilize the work of artists within the framework of the economy
capitalist. For this reason, Art Nouveau never had the character of a popular art, but rather that of an art of
elite, almost courtly, whose byproducts are graciously given to the people.
If the long, sensitive curve, the undulating and fluid curve that, intertwining with others, sprouts from the
corners and asymmetrically cover all the usable surfaces can be considered the leitmotif of Art
New, then the first work that can be pointed out is the cover of the book by Arthur H. Marckmurdo.
It usually means a brief but very important decorative trend, the reason is that the new trend
ornamental appeared in paintings, book illustrations, etc., before in the first works of its creators.
These were Louis Sullivan in Chicago and Victor Horta in Brussels.
Sullivan's ornamental ideal was an 'organic decoration, suitable for a structure composed of
broad and solid lines.
Horta is a decorator. His most important ally in the fight for the imposition of the new ornamental style.
it was Henry van de Velde.
The ornament of genuine Art Nouveau is an end in itself, van de Velde's aims to illustrate the
function of the object or part of the object to which it is applied.
Between 1895 and the early years of the 20th century, Art Nouveau was as fashionable in France as in
Belgium.
In exterior architecture, the most notable contribution is linked to its appreciation for iron.
Otto Eckmann and Hermann Obrist are the two most interesting personalities during the years 1895-98.
after that date, the Vienna Secession moved to the forefront. Eckmann devoted himself to design, his style
ornamental is completely different from that of Horta and van de Velde, and yet original and imposing, it is
equally representative of Art Nouveau: again a flat design, with long curves gracefully
intertwined. It does with leaves and stems what went from Velde through abstract art.
The functions of the Arts and Crafts in England and of Art Nouveau on the continent were largely
the same. Both constitute the transitional style between historicism and the Modern Movement. It has the
merit of having restored manual work and applied art. Undoubtedly, the Arts and Crafts, in fighting
for the honesty of work and the simplicity of form, they fought for higher moral values than Art
New. The Arts and Crafts represent a social effort; Art Nouveau is essentially art for art's sake.
same. This is what led to its final failure. However, Art Nouveau emphatically opposed everything
imitation or inspiration from the era. The Arts and Crafts did not do it.
 Art Nouveau played a fundamental role in the development of art history, especially in the
field of architecture. With its rejection of conventional style and its new interpretation of the
relationship between art and industry, the followers of this style paved the way for art and the
contemporary architecture.

Engineering and architecture in the 19th century

The Modern Movement did not grow from a single root. One of its essential sources was William Morris and
the Arts and Crafts; another was Art Nouveau. The works of the engineers of the 19th century constitute its third.
source, as powerful as the other two.
The architecture of 19th-century engineering was largely based on the development of iron, first
as cast iron, then as wrought iron, later as steel.
Nevertheless, while these iron elements remained inside, they could barely reach the...
awareness of a generation of architects so concerned with facades as those from the mid-twentieth century
XIX. The admission of iron in the facade of utilitarian buildings was due to America.
When iron columns appear in churches and public buildings, it can generally be said that the
material was not chosen for visual reasons, but practical ones. In this, once again, England took the
vanguard
The Brighton Pavilion, where the main staircase is made entirely of iron, was built in 1815 and 1818-21,
important dates as it can be seen that they mark the first appearance of iron in connection with the
royalty.
The first example of the use of metal with glass in a dome was the Halles au Blé in Paris, designed in 1809.
and built in 1811. This achieved a uniform natural lighting inside the building that, on the other hand,
way, it could not have been obtained. At the same time, greenhouse designers began to
understand the advantages of glass vaults.
With them, the stage was set for the appearance of the Crystal Palace in 1851, the venue of the first
from the international exhibitions, a profession of faith in iron. Iron and glass constitute obvious advantages in
the construction of terminals and railway stations, two types of buildings to which the fabulous growth of
population in the cities at the beginning of the 19th century and the increasing exchange of materials and products between
Factories and cities came to the forefront of interest.
What made Paxton's building the most outstanding example of iron and glass architecture.
the mid-19th century was, its enormous size (555m.) in length and the total absence of other materials.
the fact that the Crystal Palace was rebuilt in 1854 proves the new beauty of metal and the
glass had won the enthusiasm of progressive Victorians and the general public. "It can be considered
inaugurated a new architectural style as extraordinary as any of its predecessors.
Iron made its appearance in architecture as a well-regarded structural material to be used but not
to be exposed. When it appeared on the exterior of buildings with a meaning beyond the ornamental,
its function was also largely utilitarian. Iron was not generally chosen for interiors of
buildings due to the particular acceptance it was subject to. Only occasionally was it achieved with it a
aesthetically elevated standard.
The only engineer who has remained famous is Gustave Eiffel, and in this case, it is the name of a work.
the one who made him immortal. Eiffel built the Eiffel Tower for the same International Exhibition of 1889. The
The irresistible effect of the Eiffel Tower depends on its height of 300 m and the elegance of its curved silhouette.
it would not have been erected, nor would it have transformed into the idol of the Parisians and visitors
foreigners if by then, 1890, steel had not been firmly established.
All we need to say about the prehistory of the skyscraper is that high-rise office buildings do not
they were possible before the advent of the elevator (1852) and more particularly of the electric elevator
(invented by Siemens in 1880).
From 1900 onwards, concrete became a serious competitor to iron.
Ruskin, Morris and their supporters hated the machine and consequently the new steel architecture and
glass. The reasons for this frantic disdain were, above all, of an aesthetic nature; those of Morris were
entirely social. Morris could not appreciate the positive possibilities of the new materials because
he was too intensely worried about the negative consequences of the industrial revolution. He saw
only what had been destroyed: the craftsmanship and pleasurable work.
The engineers, for their part, were too absorbed in their exciting discoveries to
to realize the state of social discontent that was accumulating around them and to listen to the voice of
Morris alert. The Arts and Crafts maintained their retroactive attitude and indifference towards engineers.
regarding art as such.
The leaders of Art Nouveau embraced the new gospel of artistic humility preached by Morris, but
at the same time they accepted our new era as the era of the machine.

England from 1890 to 1914

 By the end of the 80s, Morris was the leader in design and Norman Shaw in architecture. Before the birth of Art
At least one of the English architects had ventured into an original and natural style.
highly stimulating. This was Annesley Voysey whose designs were a source of inspiration for the Art
New.
Realism was inadequate for decoration; he felt inclined to admit plants and animals into the
designs, on the condition that they were "reduced to mere symbols". Comparing these papers or fabrics
with Morris's Honeysuckle, the decisive step taken from the historicism of the 19th century towards a new
young and bright world.
In a fact that in Europe the introduction of Impressionism and the new decorative style in its two
forms – Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau – took place simultaneously.
European architects fully appreciated the innovative work carried out by the architects and artists.
English in the form (and not in the decoration) of the objects. In the small everyday objects designed
Through Voysey, one can appreciate simplicity; its charm lies in the purity and grace of its forms. Trends
of "return to fundamentals" and "back to nature".
Between 1890 and 1900 we find exactly the same contrast in English printing. The Kelmscott
The Morris Press produced pages whose effects are based on medieval decorations. The Dove Press of
Walker, founded in 1900, solidifies plain and unadorned types.
Regarding design and decoration, the first appearance of the Glasgow School at an exhibition in
Vienna was a revelation.
The center of the group was Charles Rennie Mackintosh. When he was still not 25 years old, he was chosen to design
the new building for the Glasgow Art School, 1898-99. not a single one of its elements is inspired by styles of
era. The front is extremely simple and almost austere with its bold uniform windowing. None
curve was allowed in the elongated windows of the ground floor offices and in the tall windows of the
second floor studies; uninterrupted vertical lines also dominate the front gate of the
building, countered only by a few Art Nouveau ornaments. The same contrast exists between the
the rigidity of the second-floor windows and the strange metal rods that are resting at their base. This row of
metal lines reveals one of the most important qualities of Mackintosh: his deep sensitivity to the
spatial values. In all the major works of the same, there is the same transparency of space.
pure.
The layout of this building is clear and precise and shows, under another light, the architect's interest in space.
rare interest among Art Nouveau artists. The synthesis of their style was Britain's legacy to the nascent
Modern Movement.
During the second half of the 19th century, England was at the forefront of land planning.
especially from green areas, called garden cities or garden suburbs.

The Modern Movement before 1914

In the 15 years preceding World War I, the most advanced countries were the
United States, France, Germany, and Austria.
France's contribution to the Modern Movement before the war is solely due to the work
of two architects: Auguste Perret and Tony Garnier. The most distinctive feature in the work of both is that they were
the first to use concrete both for the interior and the exterior of their buildings, without disguising the
specific characteristics of the material and without trying to adapt it to the spirit of past styles.
Although Garnier did not completely abandon decoration, his attitude was truly
contemporary. She advocated for a linear layout of the city instead of concentric, for a sensible grouping
from industries, offices, and housing, as well as open spaces that were sufficient.
The American pioneers of the Modern Movement were Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. The latter had
begun to revolutionize the concept of the private house. Around 1900, the sense of composition
Wright's three-dimensional version took the step towards maturity. There is no longer any violent delimitation between the
interior and exterior space. By 1904, no other architect had come so close to today's style with
their buildings.
In Germany, in 1900, it was almost completely dominated by Art Nouveau and delighted in a
extravagant decoration.
Josef Maria Olbrich was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession, a group that developed Art.
Austrian new style that later marked the path from linear decoration to a more architectural style.
Other architects were Joseph Hoffmann, August Endell.
Even recognizing the international unity of the new style, one must not forget that in the elegance of
Hoffmann, in the clarity of Pret, in the expansive horizontality and comfortable solidity of Wright, or in the
uncompromising simplicity of Gropius, the national characteristics are highly represented.
Among the German architects responsible for the dissemination of the new style, Peter Behrens was the most
important. He started as a painter and before arriving at architecture, he faced the moral reform of the arts.
applied. The applied arts, when Behrens started, meant Art Nouveau. The most important building
what design before the war was for A.E.G., one of the large German electricity companies, whose
Director Jordan had appointed him architect and advisor. In 1909, he built the turbine factory, perhaps the
the most beautiful industrial building of all built up to that date. The iron skeleton is
clearly exposed, wide glass panels perfectly spaced replace the side walls,
Meanwhile, at the corners, the stone emphasizes the weight and power of the colossal volume. This design has nothing in
common with the current factories of that time. It is the same sobriety in limiting the design to simple forms.
geometric, and the same beauty of proportions, that delight us in the buildings of Behrens.
Finish the review now that we have arrived at the work of Walter Gropius. His first buildings mark the
complete maturation of the style of our century. Gropius worked for some time at Peter's studio
Behrens (1907-10). In 1911 he was commissioned to build the Fagus factory in Alfeld. The structure
important is reduced to narrow strips of steel. In the corners, there is no support, the measurement
the balance between verticals and horizontals characteristic of Behrens has been abandoned; an impulsive
The horizontal movement of great energy dominates the composition.
Another very important quality of Gropius' building is that, thanks to the new treatment of glass and of
steel, the usual and clear separation between outside and inside disappears.
There was an ambition that drove them to cover ever greater spaces with their steel structures and
concrete, and to minimize the weight of the walls and the roof.