Are they really modernist?

As we have rules to follow or at least we have guild lines to guild line, some of us follow it. Some other doesn’t follow it. You know, there are a lot of people who breaks the law and there are a lot of people who follow it. Same as the architects, there are a lot of architects who strict with the way they design or strict with the style. Modern architecture has its own rules and its characteristic. As I wrote earlier in this blog, modernism expresses the unity and equality of people in society. So the context of places, money and fashion don’t have that much different. And one more thing of being modern is not to stick to the past or not stick to the history. This is what probably people in modern era try to express by building their own style by not building it up on the history or classical though. Eventually, some architects decided not to follow the characteristic of modernism and success as modern architects.

Louis Kahn

He was an architect who was trained to be a neo classical architect not to be a modernist. As soon as he graduated, his style became unwanted and rejected by other people. So he had to change how he design and make it become modern. This makes him get his first commission so late in his life. His first commission is Yale Art Gallery at Yale University. Another building is the National Assembly Building. As it is the assembly building, Kahn borrowed this shape from Islamic architecture to symbolize the unity and being importance and sacred. And the whole building is made out of pure geometry which was used in Islamic architecture and Roman architecture. More importantly, his works showed the connection to the surrounded buildings, which are the neo gothic buildings. This shows that he didn’t want to neglect the past or as a designer didn’t have to invented the whole new idea but it can be done by borrowing what is great in the past and adapt it to the period we live in. So Kahn proves to us why we have to learn history.

Yale Art Gallery

Yale Art Gallery: section

National Assembly Building

Alvar Aalto 

Alvar Aalto is a Finish architect whose works are experiments of the way to use local material. He is very localize with material. He try to bring the identity of being nordic out to architecture. However, being localized and identify are not ways of modern architecture. Modern architect neglect context of place and location. But for him, place is so important. But his work is successful as modern architecture. 

So the way these two architects design are not following the way modern architecture is. To follow the style doesn't mean that they will be a great architect. But they being themselves and have their own intention makes them a great architect.