“Pioneers of Modern Architecture: Importance of their contribution in the development of 20th Century Architecture”

Modernism roughly spans the time between World War I and the early 1970s. In regards to architecture, this particular movement or style is characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. Intrigued by the emerging technologies of the day, they mostly used concrete, glass, or steel in their revolutionary creations. They eschewed ornament, rejecting what they saw as the frivolous strokes of Victorian and art nouveau styles. At the same time new technological developments continued to influence architects' designs, such as the development of complex air conditioning and heating systems allowed modern architectures to spread from the temperate climates of Europe and North America to countries with extremely varied weather conditions such as India, as seen in the National Assembly Building in Dacca Bangladesh by Louis Kahn.
Instead of viewing a building as a heavy mass made of ponderous materials, the leading pioneers of modern architecture considered it as a volume of space enclosed by light, thin curtain walls and resting on slender piers. The visual aesthetic of modern architecture was largely inspired by the machine and by abstract painting and sculpture. Since World War II, modern architecture has admitted a certain amount of free play in buildings of various designs. In all, the required

methodology of architecture is less forbidding than it was earlier in history. More adjustment is being made to accommodate differences of climate, materials, and social habits of people in different parts of the world.
Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most influential and important pioneers of Modern Architecture, is most famous for the prairie style of architecture. After Frank Lloyd Wright’s exploration of the something had never been made before, he began the 20th Century by transforming architecture into a modern language with new styles. The more avant-garde architects and designers in the Midwest followed Wright's lead as well as the latest currents flowing out of Europe to create a new direction for architecture: the Prairie School. Primarily used in suburban houses, the Prairie style challenged the rigid demarcation of rooms by eliminating wall partitions to let the living spaces flow together seamlessly. Carpets, textiles and art glass shared similar motifs and color was limited to muted earth tones instead of the riotous palettes and clashing styles of fashionable upscale houses. The building materials were limited to those found in the immediate area; brick, if the earth yielded clay; stone, if the ground was rocky; and natural, not painted wood, from nearby trees. These elements, used logically in order to produce an architecture that can combine with the environment beautifully, became one definition of his new concept, 'Organic Architecture.'
Fallingwater(aKa Kauffman’s House) is considered Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous work, and one of the most significant and famous examples of American architecture and also of Organic Architecture. It was built for Edgar J. Kauffman, a Pittsburgh department store owner between 1936 and 1939 as a vacation home. It is located in Bear Run, in the Laurel Highlands area of western Pennsylvania. Responding to the geological strata of the site, his masklike tower of stacked shale stone seemingly held aloft three cantilevered levels hovering over Bear Run, a tiny river that exploded into a graceful waterfall on the Kaufmann's favorite parcel of land. He expressed the rocky site by metaphorically lifting the stones out of the riverbed to create the interior floor planes, using the largest rock, the Kaufmann's choice spot to

sunbathe, as the hearthstone for the living room fireplace. The entrance drive leads to the main living room, which extends in different directions in the ground floor. A staircase leads directly to the waterfall. The bedroom on the second floor opens to the terrace. The second floor is much smaller than the first and has only one bedroom with an adjoining roof terrace. All the three floor plans form a pattern in such a way that they are arranged round the single vertical element, which is the natural stone tower-the staircase. And instead of orienting the structure to face the falls, Wright floated the entire structure over the falls, merging the house inseparably into the natural landscape.

Besides had been a great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright had also influenced and inspired numbers of architects. Mies Van Der Rohe, a German architect, who was also a pioneer of modern architecture, had been influenced heavily by Frank Lloyd Wright’s works. After 1923, Mies’s style shifted, and he came heavily under the influence of Dutch neo-plasticism and Russian suprematism. The former influence, along with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, drove Mies to experiment with independent walls and ceilings arranged in an open, pin-wheeling manner as demonstrated by the open floor plans of the American Prairie Style work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Mies Van Der Rohe started to consider the reduction and abstraction of these elements into dynamic and contrapuntal compositions of pure shapes in space. After years of experiment, he created an influential 20th century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity as his very famous quote “Less is More”.

H. Lange House, an architecture that can easily traced some Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence on Mies Van Der Rohe, such as the use of rectangular forms which create a sense of open space, and also emphasize on horizontal elements. The Haus Lange House was built between 1928 and 1930 in the Bauhaus style, constructed mainly by bricks with the faced and steels with the structure. It shows characteristics of both traditional architecture and avant-gardist ambitions. Its brick facades are a reference to the crafts – Mies was a trained mason. In contrast, the outside walls of the rectangular structure that have been divested of their supportive function through the use of a skeleton construction highlight the interest that he had in advanced building concepts. The houses have now been renewed and converted into a museum for Contemporary art. Besides these weekend houses or apartments, there were also many different kinds of revolutionary architectures were produced during the modern movement in 20th century with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. Louis Kahn was trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition at the University of Pennsylvania under Paul P. Cret and he worked at Cret's office in 1929-30. In the 1930s and 40s he came close to the radical ideas of Buckminster Fuller and Frederick Kiesler. He defined space by means of masonry masses and a lucid structure laid out in geometric, formal schemes and axial layouts with a strong processional character of space and images, an approach that derives from the Beaux-Arts tradition. Louis Kahn also uses light as a key factor when designing a structure. A center for biological research, the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, found by the biologist Jonas Salk, keeps site context as an important aspect by angling each part of the towers toward the Pacific Ocean in forty-five degree geometry. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the greatest architecture built during the modern movement by Louis Kahn.

In 1962, Louis Kahn designed the National Assembly Building in Dacca Bangladesh (1962-74) as a dense, multilayered, concentric agglomeration of walled spaces clustered around the central Assembly Chamber: press offices, secondary meeting hallls, and a mosque (slightly off-axis to face Mecca). In contrast to those glass-made skyscrapers in other cities of the world, the National Assembly Building in Dacca Bangladesh is built mainly with reinforced concrete to emphasize the sense of massive and rugged. It is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world. It houses all parliamentary activities of Bangladesh.