architecture

1. 1
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 materials—iron and concrete—
formed 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 nouveau—Barcelona, Spain;
Brussels, Belgium; and Paris, France—architects 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
Corbusier’s 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