It is not easy to summarize or compare modern and postmodern as they were born during the two most eventful centuries of human history, full of wars, revolutions and new ideas. Therefore modern and post-modern have a great reflection on all these changes which seem to be quite hectic.
Modern art at the beginning of the 20th century tends to get rid of the traditions of the past and step by step creates the idea of clear visions. (Terra Studio, 2012)
In architecture, new trends at the turn of the 19th-20th cc. turned against “historicism”; buildings were designed so that they could meet the demands of the modern society… demands of being practical and useful, lacking traditional decorations which were supposed to be outdated. As early as in 1851, a building in London was erected signposting the way to modern architecture, the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. The Palace was aimed to function as an exhibition hall with a simple of main structure of glass and steel. (Balla, 2000, p.187)
The inside of the Palace shows the main idea of functionalism: pureness and usefulness. What they needed was a huge function hall.
Another great example of modern architecture is the “Bauhaus” in Germany, designed by Walter Gropius in 1926. It became a symbol of modern studies. (Balla, 2000, p.187)
The inventions of the modern industry: such as steel, plate glass and plastic were inserted into the modern designers’ work.
These materials allowed unique buildings to be created, where the walls were not supposed to carry heavy loads any more, and they were the skyscrapers. (All about the skyscrapers, 2012)
The first skyscraper was designed by William le Baron Jenney (1883-1885), the Home Insurance Building in Chicago in 1895.
Shortly after that, dozens of skyscrapers were erected all over in Chicago due to the work of these radical designers. (Balla, 2000 p.188)
In the1930s, a Swiss architect, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) introduced a new idea of “high rise” buildings as a possible solution to the overpopulated cities and became a leading designer of the modern architecture meeting the new challenges of the new world. (Balla, 2000 p.189)
However, all these grey and tall building turned out to be boring for the society, people were hungry for something new, colourful and alive. Functionalism started to harm the historical features and atmosphere of cities.
This hunger for humanism, warmness and liveable environment is reflected in the postmodern architecture.
At the end of 1950s, Le Corbusier designed a chapel in Ronchamp, France, which became a courier of the new trend.
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Some architects believed that they should return to the roots of their national culture, to its basic symbols, using its language of symbolical meanings, e.g. a window refers to human eye in many cultures. (Balla, 2000 p.190)
One of the greatest followers of this postmodern organic architecture is Imre Makovecz.
He designed more than one hundred buildings with different functions using wood-structures, creating warm and environment friendly solutions.
"I believe that the original intention of our architecture was to create an architectural connection between the sky and the earth, a connection which enlightens an expresses man's movement and position, to create a magic, weaving an invisible spell on its surroundings.
We try to summon up the architecture of a mythical era. Our aim is to counteract the subsensible spell of technical civilization using supersensible imaginative power." Imre Makovecz 1985 (zenth, 2012)
Reference list:
Balla G., Martin Annable (2000) A Tudas Faja, Marshall Cavendish Magyarorszag, Budapest, pp189-192
All about the skycrapers, 2012, available at: www.allaboutskyscrapers.com (accessed 22 April 2012)
Taylor, V.E.,Winquist C.E (2001) Encyclopedia of Postmodernism,Routledge, London
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