The Building as a
Machine
Since
the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800’s, the machine has become a part of
our everyday lives. It helps us produce goods, power factories and automobiles,
and yes, we even live in them. Our built environment is mechanical, the design
of which operates to meet the occupants needs just as a machine functions to
complete a task like a car engine that utilizes the natural energy in oil to
move a car forward. The form of such an engine was designed to power a car as efficiently
as possible. The form of an engine’s design is founded in the needs of its
functions. This idea forms one of the cornerstones of modern architecture, form
follows function. The building’s form is designed as a machine that meets the
needs of the clients or occupants. While this idea was solidified with the
onset of Modernism and the works of Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le
Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright, it’s beginnings can be linked back to the theories
of Viollet Le Duc. From him, the idea has been tested and molded throughout
many of the movements that build toward modernism.
The Industrial
Revolution brought on drastic changes in the cultural environment. Two
differing perspectives can be seen from the aftermath of the industrial revolution,
those who praised the efficiency of the factory and the machine and those who
resisted its disastrous effects on the individual craftsman. It’s potential for
progress. The first perspectives beginnings can be followed with the spread of
Viollet Le Duc’s theories that architecture can be described through rational
logic. He sought to explain the evolution of architectural intent as it is
related to building form. He brought in the use of new materials from
industrial production, like steel to create a different framework in which the
building can be designed. His influence was picked up in the Art Nouveau
movement at the turn of the century. Like Le Duc, This movement and particularly Henry
Clemens Van de Velde, sought to organize their structures based on its
functions and material properties such as the structure. This again, is similar
to the functional design of a machine based on its material properties. An
engine is built of metal because of the repetitive motion and heat produced.
One could not easily build an engine out of wood or concrete. The continuing rise of industry provided them
with new technologies. They experimented further with the use of new,
industrially produced materials such as iron. Their materials, while man made,
were inspired from natural forms to express the essence of the form itself. Art
Nouveau also impacted Adolf Loos’s ideas on the organic expression of
materials, that materials should be used to express their nature.
On the other
side, many individuals saw the negative impacts of booming industry. Craft had
been taken out of the picture. The Arts and Crafts movement found solace in the
hand made. Their focus was on natural materials and craftsman. William Morris and the Art’s and Crafts
movement, while opposed to modern industrialization had a major influence on future
movements and architects including the Bauhaus and Walter Gropius whose ideas
concerned the reintegration of art and
craft that transformed the design process to allow for mechanization. The Art’s
and Craft’s movement was short lived, but it’s influence helped shaped the
direction of movements to follow.
During this same
period, a few other notable architects were beginning to formulate ideas that
would lead to the building designed as a machine. Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the
father of Dutch architecture and similar to the parallel Art Nouveau,
structured and constructed works informed by the material usage. In Vienna, Adolf Loos also contributed to the
growing industrial climate in architecture. He was one of the first to reject
ornamentation to focus on simplistic forms. Like an engine, based in
efficiency, he believed that ornamentation was a waste of resources, money, and
time. Both of these architects had a major influence in the transition to
Futurism, Expressionism, Destijl, and eventually the Bauhous.
Based on the works of Berlage and Art Nouveau,
the Expressionism movement in Amsterdam and thus the Amsterdam School practiced
architecture of community, designs that brought focus to the individual part or
occupant. They used plans based around the structural layout combining man made
(steel) and natural materials giving form to their structure based on the needs
and functions of the community. Similarly, the Destijl movement designed
architecture for the community but instead saw the machine as a resource for
uniform production. The ideas of community and manufactured materials began to
take form in the Futurist movement. Like the Destijl, Futurists saw that
production and technology could be integrated into the built environment and
inform design decisions. Later, Russian Constructivists built on the Futurist
influence. They combined ideas from Destijl and the newly opened Bauhaus and
experimented with how technology and engineering could be combined to create a
built form. Just like as the Industrial Revolution progressed and machines and
technology became more efficient, building technologies were being combined
with engineering practices to create spaces that functioned as efficiently as
the machines produced on an assembly line.
As all of these movements collaborated ideas throughout the 1920’s, another architect began solidifying his own. Walter Gropius began designing a school that would combine the formulating ideas into a unified example of modernism. The Bauhaus was truly a machine. In order to do so, Gropius took ideas and theories from many of the preceding movements. For example, the school was designed to incorporate the differing functions in the arts. Keeping true to the woes of the Arts and Crafts, he unified art and craft into one school of thought using production as a means to meet the buildings functional and spatial needs. By separating the building skin from its structure, he highlighted materials, showing how the “machine” was put together. Like the Expressionist, he wanted to describe how the function of the spaces informed the structure. He incorporated the Russian Constructivist ideas, abandoning tradition, he created a communal building, one that was self-sufficient, that had all the needs of a community, or a student body in this case. He utilized the means of production, showing how new materials could be incorporated and could be seen as artistic elements rather than obtrusive and ugly elements. Gropius was not the only one who began to combine such new ideas. The 1930’s and 40’s saw a growth of architectural greats such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright who also build off of the accumulated theories and movements. They truly created buildings based on functional needs. They created machines. Their work and that of many others provided the backbone of a new movement, Modernism, based in the simplicity of form that is founded in the function, in a sense, machines.
The International Style, or Modernism influenced the
architectural climate for many years to come. The ideas and theories developed
are thought and practiced throughout all contemporary architecture. The idea of
the build environment as a machine, pioneered by Modernist in the early 19th
century has become an important concept in so many building that followed, like
----. Today, you can’t take an architectural class without hearing and using
the concept of form over function. It is now apart of our architectural
language and has become the basis for modern design. Designing for function
resembles the design of the machine. Buildings function as machines. They make
our lives easier, more economical, and if designed properly more enjoyable.
