Top ten monuments in modern architecture

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Top ten monuments in modern architecture
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Outline

• Introduction
• Part I. Modern Architecture
• Part II. Top ten
• Conclusion
• References

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Introduction

• As the 20th century began modern architects
  believed it was necessary to invent an
  architecture that expressed the spirit of a new
  age and would surpass the styles, materials, and
  technologies of earlier architecture
• Their aesthetic celebrated function in all forms
  of design, household furnishings, ocean liners
  and new flying machines
• Modern architecture also challenged traditional
  ideas about the types of structures suitable for
  architectural design
• Important civic buildings, aristocratic palaces,
  churches, and public institutions had long been
  the mainstay of architectural practices, but
  modernist designers argued that architects should
  design all that was necessary for society, even
  the most humble buildings

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Part I. Modern architecture

• Modern Architecture, the buildings and building
  practices of the late 19th and the 20th centuries
• Modern architects reacted against the
  architecture of the 19th century, which they felt
  borrowed too heavily from the past
• Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia resoundingly
  rejected traditional architecture in his Futurist
  Manifesto of 1914 (Futurism)
• He called for each generation to build its houses
  anew and celebrated glass, steel, and concrete as
  the materials to make this possible
• In the United States Frank Lloyd Wright also
  rejected 19th-century European architecture

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Part I. Modern architecture

• Developments in two materialsiron and
  concreteformed the technological basis for much
  modern architecture
• Steel for construction also became abundantly
  available in the 19th century
• In 1892 French engineer François Hennebique
  combined the strengths of both in a new system of
  construction based on concrete reinforced with
  steel
• His invention made possible previously
  unimaginable effects extremely thin walls with
  large areas of glass
• Architects in Chicago, Illinois, were the first
  to exploit the possibilities offered by the
  elevator in combination with the new steel and
  concrete technologies

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Part I. Modern architecture

• The collective response of a diverse group of
  architects to the reconstruction of the city led
  to the development of the skyscraper
• Architect William Le Baron Jenney devised a
  solution to the problem of fireproof construction
  for tall buildings by substituting steel in the
  structural system for cast iron
• Art Nouveau, which flourished in Europe between
  1890 and 1910, was one of the earliest (and
  shortest-lived) efforts to develop an original
  style for the modern age
• In the three centers of art nouveauBarcelona,
  Spain Brussels, Belgium and Paris,
  Francearchitects struggled to define a style
  with distinctly local characteristics

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Part II. Top ten

• Here are presented 10 of the most famous
  monuments and buildings of the 20th century in
  the West
• Tower Bridge in London, La Defense and Pompidou
  Center in Paris, Sidney Opera House in Australia,
  the Golden Gate in San Francisco, the Empire
  State Building in New York, the Glass pyramid of
  the Louvre, the Arch in Saint Louis, Brasilia and
  the CN Tower in Toronto

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Tower Bridge

• Built between 1886 and 1894, bridge on the Thames
  River in London, near the Tower of London, one of
  the city's principal landmarks
• It was the only movable bridge crossing the
  Thames when it was completed in 1894. Sir Horace
  Jones designed the bridge, and Sir John Wolfe
  Barry built it
• 150,000 vehicles cross it every day. Over 900
  times a year the roadway parts and lifts to let
  tall ships, cruise liners and other large craft
  pass through
• t was a hydraulically operated bridge, using
  steam to power the enormous pumping engines
  since 1976 they have been driven by oil and
  electricity rather than steam

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La Défense

• Modern architectural development to the west of
  central Paris, the largest concentration of tall
  buildings in Europe
• Begun in 1958, the complex consists predominantly
  of office buildings
• Dominating La Défense is the futuristic Grande
  Arche, completed in 1989, by Danish architect
  Johann Otto von Spreckelsen
• An office tower in the shape of an enormous open
  cube 105 m on a side, it echoes in modern
  language the shape of (and is exactly the same
  width as) the famous Arc de Triomphe with which
  it is visibly aligned

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The Centre National d'Art Pompidou

• Museum located in the Beaubourg district of Paris
• President Georges Pompidou conceived (1969) the
  idea
• Completed (1978) by the architects Renzo Piano of
  Italy and Richard Rogers of England and by the
  engineering firm of Ove Arup and Partners of
  England
• External mechanical systems elevators painted
  red escalators in clear plastic tunnels and
  giant tubes for air (painted blue), water
  (green), and electricity (yellow)
• The Center houses the National Museum of Modern
  Art, attracts 25,000 visitors a day and a library

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Sydney Opera House

• Major performing arts center on the harbor in
  Sydney, Australia, regarded as the finest modern
  building in the country completed 1973
• Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who won
  an international competition for the project in
  1956
• Distinctive sail-shaped towers were pronounced
  unbuildable by a British engineering firm,
  redesigned at a lower angle
• Utzon then resigned from the project, and the
  building was completed by the engineering firm in
  1973
• Concert hall, theater for opera and ballet,
  smaller theater for plays, recording hall and
  rehearsal rooms, and movie theater

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Golden Gate

• Strait in western California, at the entrance to
  San Francisco Bay, separating the bay from the
  Pacific Ocean
• The strait is 8 km long and narrows to 1 km in
  width
• The bridge crosses the strait to connect San
  Francisco, on the south, with Marin County, on
  the north
• The American explorer John Charles Frémont gave
  the strait the name Golden Gate in 1846
• Bridge conceived by Joseph Strauss, assisted by
  Irving morrow inauguration in 1937 painted in
  orange international
• The Golden Gate National Recreation Area,
  established in 1972 by the National Park Service,
  extends north and south of the Golden Gate and
  also includes Alcatraz

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Empire State Building

• New York City, skyscraper located on 5th Avenue
• Tallest building in the world when completed in
  1931 (381 m)
• Because of its elegant stepped design it is often
  still regarded as the ultimate American
  skyscraper
• Designed by the American architectural firm of
  Shreve, Lamb Harmon in a streamlined art deco
  style, the Empire State Building consists of 102
  stories of office space
• A radio and television mast that was added in
  1951
• A model of the building was used in the 1933
  version of the motion picture King Kong, in the
  sequence in which the giant ape clings to its
  upper stories while fighting off squadrons of
  fighter planes

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Glass pyramid of the Louvre

• The Louvre, until 1682 a residence of the kings
  of France, occupies the site of a 13th-century
  fortress
• In 1793 opened as a public museum, and the French
  painter David was appointed head of a commission
  to administer it
• Controversial glass pyramid (completed in 1989)
  at the entrance to the Louvre, a museum in Paris
• New visitor entrance to the Louvre museum
  complex, built by Ieoh Ming Pei, born in Canton,
  China in 1917
• Noted for his unique arrangements of geometric
  shapes, Pei also earned a reputation for his
  creative use of space, surfaces, and materials

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St. Louis

• City in eastern Missouri, extending along the
  west bank of the Mississippi River
• St. Louis is one of the Midwest's principal
  industrial, commercial, educational, and cultural
  centers
• St. Louis was established in 1764 by French fur
  traders and named in honor of Louis IX, a
  13th-century king of France canonized as a saint
• The spectacular Gateway Arch stands at the
  river's edge on the site where St. Louis was
  founded more than two centuries ago
• The 192-m (630-ft) high city landmark, completed
  in 1965

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Brasilia

• In the 1950s Brazilian architects had an
  opportunity to showcase their designs in an
  entirely new capital city
• Brasília developed as a planned city, constructed
  (beginning in 1957) on an uninhabited site to
  replace crowded Rio de Janeiro as the national
  capital
• Planned by Costa and filled with buildings by
  Niemeyer, the city of Brasilia was a lavish
  testimony to Le Corbusiers principles of modern
  architecture and planning
• Costa divided residential zones by class,
  designated a monumental government and business
  center
• The Catedral Metropolitana is one of several
  buildings designed by Brazilian architect Oscar
  Niemeyer in the 1960s for the Brazilian capital

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CN Tower

• At a height of 553.33m, it is the World's Tallest
  Building, an important telecommunications hub,
  and the centre of tourism in Toronto
• Each year, approximately 2 million people visit
  the CN Tower
• The CN Tower was built in 1976 by Canadian
  National (CN) who wanted to demonstrate the
  strength of Canadian industry by building a tower
  taller than any other in the world
• With its microwave receptors at 338 m and 553.33m
  antenna, the CN Tower swiftly solved the
  communication problems
• Dining restaurant is located at 351 m and offers
  guests a complete 360 degree view of the city

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Conclusion

• Deconstructivist architects in the 1980s applied
  their analytical, abstract ideas to the design of
  buildings
• Their work points toward an architecture that
  focuses less on debates among competing movements
  and more on buildings that are economical,
  environmentally responsible, and beautiful
• In Asia, new and taller buildings have been
  built, especially in Malaysia (the Petronas
  Towers in Kuala Lumpur) and in China (Hong Kong
  and Shanghai)
• Completed in 1998, the Petronas Towers, in Kuala
  Lumpur, Malaysia, are the world's tallest
  buildings. Each tower stands 452 m (1,483 ft) tall

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References

• http//www.cntower.ca/faqs/l3_faq_coolstuff_photog
  allery.htm
• http//www.webshots.com/search/search.fcgi?wordsp
  ompidounew1sourcecotopic
• http//www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.
  aspx?refid761595616
• http//www.towerbridge.org.uk/
• http//www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Tower_Brid
  ge.html
• http//www.architectureweek.com/today.html