The Elements Of Modern Architecture Understanding Contemporary Buildings
Brandi Wendelberger
This ambitious publication, now revised and expanded, analyzes what makes buildings meaningful and enduring. Organized chronologically, influential buildings from the past seven decades are presented along with detailed consideration of their key characteristics: site and surrounding, space and massing, details and ornamentation, and fenestration and natural light. The wide-ranging case studies cover everything from residences to opera houses and include sites from every continent. The Elements of Modern Architecture reflects on why each building is a memorable contribution to the field of architecture based on its innovative forms, inventive construction, and/or exemplary responses to climate, surroundings, local traditions, and culture.
In an age where computer imagery has become commonplace, the over 2,500 painstakingly hand-drawn images presented in this book help readers return to the core values of understanding memorable architecture: looking with the eyes, engaging through direct physical experience, and questioning how the design responds to place, people, and construction.
Dr. Antony Radford is an urban designer and emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Adelaide, Australia. His recent books include Understanding Sustainable Architecture and Digital Design: A Critical Introduction.
This ambitious book is aimed at a new generation of architects who take technology for granted but seek to understand the principles of what makes a building meaningful and enduring. Fifty buildings by the best-known and -recognized modern architects, from Aalto to Gehry, from Le Corbusier to Hadid, are represented in illustrations that explore all facets of the buildings creation. Starting from its site, each building is analysed through its surroundings, use of natural light, volumes and massing; its programme and circulation; its details, fenestration and ornamentation, taking the reader straight to the heart and mind of the architect. Targeted at rising students and architects who seek to create architecture that transcends digital tools and techniques, The Elements of Modern Architecture is an essential reference and inspiration for many generations to come.
Contemporary architecture is a popular design aesthetic for many reasons. Not only does the bright, airy feel of a contemporary space establish a sense of comfort and serenity, but forgoes the unnecessary detail that can so often date a home beyond its years.
There is, however, more thought and planning that goes into contemporary residential architecture than you might think. Below is a look at what contemporary architecture actually means, plus five characteristics to consider when designing your home.
Modern architecture refers to homes built in the specific time period between the early 1900s through the 1950s. As such, mid-century modern is another term that is often used to describe this design aesthetic.
Many of the elements of modern architecture are still very popular today. Therefore, there is naturally a fair amount of overlap in the approach to both modern and contemporary design. Below is a look at some of the defining characteristics of contemporary residential architecture and how they are leveraged in homes to stunning effect.
Contemporary homes typically opt to create large open spaces rather than smaller closed off rooms. This use of an open floor plan in common areas like kitchen, living, and dining areas serves to create one large space that feels lighter and brighter as opposed to individual rooms which can often feel small and dark.
When designing a custom contemporary home, planning an open living space is one of the first considerations that often comes into play. And, in cases when an existing home is being renovated to become more contemporary, special care is taken in revising the space to create an open floor plan.
A simple material palette is another hallmark of contemporary residential design. In order to create a home that feels timeless, employing a simple material palette on both the interior and exterior of the home establishes a sense of simplicity that will stand the test of time.
On the interior of the home, this can often include neutral paint colors and natural materials such as wood and stone. Contemporary exteriors must also take into account the durability of the materials and how they will age after years of exposure to the elements. For this reason, residential architects will often purposely choose materials that age beautifully, including different types of wood, stone, and metal cladding.
Residential projects often come with restraints or requirements aside from the physical structure of the home as well. For instance, each homeowner has a unique set of needs that their house must fulfill, such as the need to accommodate more than one generation living under the same roof. In this case, the architect will need to think creatively to design the program of the house to address this requirement.
This resource page is the first of a series on relevant topics in building science. It is aimed at explaining the key concepts involved in building science, as well as the relationship of this discipline to the architecture / engineering / construction (AEC) industry. It focuses on the systems approach to building technology and the utility of building science to advance the high-performance building agenda.
It should be recognized that prior to the introduction of the systems approach to the discipline of building science, most of research and practice dealt with construction materials and components. The consideration of the entire building system, or in some instances sub-systems, did not emerge until the limits of a less holistic approach became painfully obvious in the form of building defects and failures.
Building science is a field of knowledge that draws upon physics, chemistry, engineering, architecture, and the life sciences. Understanding the physical behavior of the building as a system and how this impacts energy efficiency, durability, comfort and indoor air quality is essential to innovating high-performance buildings. Modern building science attempts to work with models of the building as a system, and to apply empirical techniques to the effective solution of design problems.
Neil Hutcheon, the famous Canadian building scientist, defined building science as "a term now widely used, for want of a better one, to describe the growing body of knowledge about the relevant physical science and its application."i
The disciplinary involvement in contemporary building science ranges from the physical and engineering sciences, to economics, political science, behavioral sciences, life sciences, and architecture.ii
The importance of contemporary building science is often fully appreciated after the occurrence of building performance problems, or worse, after failures, rather than at the planning and design stage of building projects. For this reason, contemporary building science has taken on greater importance in response to an increasing trend of innovative departures from traditional building practices based on successful past precedents.
Innovation is not a trial and error process that relies on gradually refining past precedents. It is usually a significant departure from normative practices and relies on the scientific method to advance its agenda. Modern building science, as it is known today, was born of innovation - more correctly, because of the large number of failures encountered when building designers attempted to innovate without applying building science principles. There was no need for building science when only successful precedents were copied and handed down from one generation to the next, but there was also no advancement toward high-performance buildings within traditional building practices.
Modern systems theory is an expansive body of knowledge with many branches. It is not possible to deal with the full range of theories within these resource pages, but consider these concepts of a system.iii
Systems theory, at its fundamental level, is a belief that the world is made up of set(s) of interacting components, and that those sets of interacting components have properties, when viewed as a whole, that do not exist within any of the smaller units. [Allen 1996]
Systems thinking is an important part of building science because it helps simplify problems by classifying them according to common types. There exist millions of buildings and their diversity would be overwhelming were it not for the systems approach. This approach is derived from general systems theory and the basic characteristics common to all systems are important to keep in mind when applying building science.
Each of the above characteristics vary in importance, depending on the type of building being designed and its intended use. Building science specialization is often needed to deal with particular aspects of these characteristics (e.g., energy modeling, flood proofing, durability, indoor air quality, blast resistance, etc.). But in all cases, the fundamental understanding of how these characteristics interact may be derived from the building as a system model.
The building as a system concept is a relatively new development in building science. It resulted directly from the introduction of a systems approach, to building science practice, starting in the 1960s. As innovation increasingly became the means to achieving new forms of architectural expression in the 20th century, analysis and review of building failures indicated that traditional approaches to design were inadequate. This was due to inappropriate adaptations of successful past precedents, or an unknowingly narrow analysis at the building component level for radical departures from technical norms. In both cases the behavior of the whole system was not considered.
Returning to the highly specialized nature of contemporary building science, it is recognized that a large number of materials, components, equipment, and assemblies must be properly integrated to achieve a high-performance building. At the same time, it must be appreciated that most performance problems involve the building enclosure, which also represents the primary passive environmental control system. In view of these considerations, this Resource Page is largely focused on the building science underlying building enclosures and how they are influenced by climate and weather. A comprehensive listing of design parameters may be found in the Resource Page on Building Enclosure Design Principles and Strategies.
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