Modernism - Breaking boundaries

Otto Wagner, Austrian Architect

Modernism is an artistic and cultural movement that flourished in the first decades of the 20th century, about the time of World War I. Modernist artists believed that the traditional social, religious, and political order had broken down. They saw themselves as the avant grade, radical pioneers — cut from bourgeois values, and disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles. Thus, they sought stylistic innovations that could express new realities in an efficient way. The term Modernism is applied to a wide range of experimental trends including symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.

Modernism reflects a cultural crisis starting a new horizon toward human possibilities. It adopted experimentation, especially manipulation of form, and the conception that knowledge is not absolute. It is associated with the function of buildings, approached from an analytical viewpoint, a rational use of materials, the elimination of ornament and decoration, and openness to structural innovation. The steel-and-glass buildings of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier embodied this style. In the mid-to-late 20th century this style manifested itself in clean-lined, unadorned glass skyscrapers and mass housing projects.

Otto Wagner, Villa Wagner I, Vienna

Seagram Building in New York City

In architecture, the great Otto Wagner may be considered the father of modernism. By mid-1890s, he had designed several buildings in what became known as the Vienna Secession style. Beginning in 1898, with his designs of Vienna Metro stations, his style became floral and Art Nouveau, with decoration by Koloman Moser. His later works, 1906 until his death in 1918, had geometric forms and minimal ornament, clearly expressing their function. They are considered predecessors to modern architecture.

Synagoge Rumbach utca

Modernist style emphasizes function and a streamlined form over ornamentation and usually involves sharp, clean lines. The ornamental characteristic of Art Nouveau, its smooth asymmetrical line, often taking the form of flower stalks and buds, vine tendrils, insect wings, and sinuous natural objects; the line may be elegant and graceful.

What I learned from Modernism is that, there are no rules or such for us to say what is Modernism in architecture in contrast to others like romanticism or neoclassic architecture.

"Something impractical cannot be beautiful."

- Otto Wagner

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