THE OPEN PLAN

The open plan, also known as the free plan, is an architectural term referring to an interior made up of non load-bearing walls dividing spaces. In this design scheme the structural system is separate from that of the interior walls. This allows for a freedom in design without restrictions on structural loads. The structural loads in an open plan are typically transferred down through columns rather than walls. This allows for visual freedom and spacious circulation. 

The first architect that made the open floor plan popular was Le Corbusier in the early 1900s. Le Corbusier made famous his “Five Points of Architecture” and his adoption of the Dom-ino System. The Dom-ino House was his original design in 1914 that featured the open floor plan and exterior skeleton structural system. It was intended for mass residential production as a two story building with six vertical columns holding the steel reinforced concrete slabs. Le Corbusier utilized this system to free the exterior walls to be able to be penetrated with windows able to wrap corners and stretch greater lengths. The Dom-ino system was a model for cheap rapid production for buildings. 

One of Le Corbusier’s projects that best featured the open floor plan was the Villa Savoye Poissy. It featured all five points of architecture, by using the free plan to free up the exterior for long spanning windows and introducing more light into the interior. The open plan was utilized rather than load bearing walls, but by having large openings from room to room.

While Le Corbusier was the first to popularize the open plan, another famous architect that followed in his footsteps was Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. Of MVDR’s work, some his most famous projects that featured the open floor plan was the Barcelona Pavilion, New National Gallery in Berlin, and the Crown Hall building. These projects feature the free plan system allowing for large open expanses. Specifically, the Barcelona Pavilion expresses its open plan with large spans of glass curtain walls opening to the outside blurring the line between inside and out. 

Analyzing Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe’s work comparatively, both of them utilized the open floor plan system. However they each did it in their own way. Mies Van Der Rohe simplified the form and opened up the boundary of the building to be open to the exterior through glass facades. Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye Poissy featured the open floor plan through a variation of methods. He kept the different spaces quite confined yet allowed circulation from one to another to be very easy. While Corbusier might have been the father of the open plan, I believe that Mies Van Der Rohe’s work was more successful.

Hendrik Petrus Berlage

Hendrik Petrus Berlage was born in 1856, in Amsterdam. He studied under Semper during the 1870s and after travelled all of Europe. “In both his writings and architectural practice, Berlage advocated a return to simplicity of form and clarity of structure.” Hendrik Petrus Berlage was one of the most significant European architects before World War I. He was to many considered the father of modern architecture in the Netherlands. 

Hendrik Petrus Berlage influenced many other famous dutch architects including Gerrit Rietvield, Mies van der Rohe, and J.J.P. Oud. Berlage transitioned from the historical styles of the 19th century into a modern style based on new styles and theories. In his early work, his style reflected the Dutch Renaissance, but the later Berlage rejected the historical style and focused on innovative forms. He focused on making the exterior of the building express the function of the interior rather than ornament and decoration. 

    

The building above is Beurs van Berlage. It is in Damrak, which is in the center of Amsterdam. Designed as a commodity exchange, Beurs van Berlage was constructed between 1896 to 1903. It’s influence reached out to many modernist architects of the time, especially functionalists and the Amsterdam School. One of the great innovations of this building was its sweeping planes and open plan. It uses a proportional grid of triangular prisms that correspond with the exterior. 

The career of Berlage can be divided into three different periods: “from 1878 to 1903, his early work through the completion of the Amsterdam Exchange; 1903 to 1919, his mature period through the termination of his work for the Kroller-Muller family; and his late work from 1920 to 1934, when he turns to Cubist forms.” 

This building is one of Berlage’s works called the Gemmentemuseum Den Haag. It is a art museum located in The Hague, Netherlands. Built in 1931, the museum features cubic prisms working together to form geometric forms that contrast historical design. After the 1920s, his work began to favor these forms. The best example of this is Berlage’s first church of christ. 

Much of his work drew inspiration from Gottfried Semper and Viollet-le-duc. “He admired the organic harmony and holistic creativity of great architecture.” Berlage believed that facades should be used to shape useful spaces rather than decorative facades. Berlage was one of the first to declare an appreciation for American architects like Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. These two had a large affect on Berlages use of geometry and form in his designs.

Hendrik Petrus Berlage. (2011). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1.

Russo, F. (1999). A mecca for modernists. Atlantic Monthly (10727825), 283(2), 26-38.

The Men of Restoration in the 19th Century

The methods of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, John Ruskin, and Gottfried Semper all used similar motives to either love or hate in their work. These three men were very important in shaping the early movement of Modern Architecture in the 19th century. Through their practice and theory these men have portrayed unique and contrasting values when it comes to different elements used in Gothic revitalization.

Viollet-le-Duc was a French Gothic Revival Architect who did work on many of the medieval buildings. His motif in restoration was to restore the buildings to their original style through a love of both Gothic architecture and iron. This love of both seemed problematic in his designs, but his restorations later showed entirely new elements added to them that he had felt necessary to the design. Many archaeologists today have criticized his work and questioned whether it was a restoration of and recreation of his own design. After studying the architecture of Paris and restoring many churches and town halls, he was employed to restore the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

This is an image of Sainte- Chapelle after it had been restored.

http://hipparis.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ste-chapelle11.jpg

Contrasting from Viollet-le-Duc, John Ruskin was different in his insights about Gothic Architecture. They both had an adoration for the Gothic style however Ruskin had a strong distaste for the use of iron in his work. Ruskin's main work was The Seven Lamps of Architecture. The Seven Lamps where the principles and reasons of Ruskin's in the Gothic Revival. He believed that these seven lamps where the moral values that formed a connection through religion. Ruskin believed in the nature of the building and upholding its value through the expression of the craftsmen before him. 

This is an image of one of Ruskin's works in Ontario

http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/gothicrevival/Gothott.jpg

The final architect was Gottfried Semper. He was among the most influential architects of this time along with Viollet-le-Duc and Ruskin. He contrasted from other two because of his focus on tectonics and had a hate for both Gothic and iron. He was born in Germany and began by arguing the approach of modern architecture because of his background in industrial art. He was responsible for his writings of Four Elements of Architecture. In these writings he talked about architecture as a reflection of socio-political conditions. Semper had a focus on textiles and the intricacies of the patterns and wanted to implement those into his designs rather than the traditional Gothic style. His work was later criticized for his lack of appreciation towards the Gothic style.

This is an image of Semper's Dresden Opera House.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Semperopera.jpg

With such contrasting styles and views on material and restoration, these men began to form the foundation for modern architectural restoration. Their practices and theories have influenced many and people and still are important to study when looking at Modern Architecture.

Barnes, C. F. (1991). Light, Wind, and Structure: The Mystery of the Master Builders/The Architectural Theory of Viollet-le-Duc: Readings and Commentary (Book). ISIS: Journal Of The History Of Science In Society, 82(4), 732.

Chatterjee, A. (2009). Tectonic into Textile: John Ruskin and His Obsession with the Architectural Surface. Textile: The Journal Of Cloth & Culture, 7(1), 68-97. doi:10.2752/175183509X411771

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (2011). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1.

Gottfried Semper. (2011). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1.

Houze, R. (2006). The Textile as Structural Framework: Gottfried Semper's Bekleidungsprinzip and the Case of Vienna 1900. Textile: The Journal Of Cloth & Culture, 4(3), 292-311.