THE 3 'ISMS'

(Pictured: the tower in the Economist Group of Buildings, considered the masterpiece of 'Brutalism')

Thanks to the treasure house of architecture and history that is Central London, we can walk from Green Park Station to the Caffè Nero at the foot of the Oxo Tower, and see, close-up, and in detail, examples of each of Modernism, Brutalism and Post-Modernism.

Along the route are the very masterpieces* of the genres. Alison & Peter Smithson’s 1964 Economist Group of Buildings (pictured above), New Zealand House (Robert Matthew, 1959-63), the National Gallery Sainsbury Wing (see below), Terry Farrell’s Embankment Place (1986), and, along the South Bank, multiple masterpieces: the Royal Festival Hall (Robert Matthew and Leslie Martin, 1948-51, altered 1962), the Southbank Centre (1963-8, the LCC Architects’ Department), and The National Theatre and the IBM Marketing Centre (by Denys Lasdun, 1977 and 1983).

When, around 1900, large-scale use of steel, plate glass and reinforced concrete became affordable, it seemed that architects could, at last, design just to meet the functional needs of building users, in the best and most direct way. The French architect and planner Tony Garnier said, in 1901: ‘Truth alone is beautiful’.**

‘Modernism’ was, and still is, architecture using the modern techniques of the day: originally, flat roofs, a complete absence of mouldings, a steel frame or concrete, used to transmit load continuously around and down slabs, columns and cantilevers, and its use inside and outside, without concealment, or decoration, or classical references.

Above all, Modernism used glazing, from floor to ceiling, in some cases completely glazed façades. This removed the boundary between inside and outside, allowing sun, and light and air to flow between them.

Some architects never wavered from that path, including some of the best***, longest-working, and most successful: Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano have consistently produced simple, straightforward buildings, following Modernist principles.

Space-efficient, and cost effective, easy to construct, maintain and re-use, Modernism did very well. Businesses, governments and local authorities loved it. It facilitated huge office buildings and mass social housing estates.

But once wartime struggles were over, and domestic security was assured, cravings emerged: from monarchs, governments, business, and the public, for the things Modernism had forsworn: fashion, colour, familiarity, comfort, entertainment, expression, and even those classical ‘mouldings’.

To respond, but mainly to express their own enthusiasm, some architects turned to the aesthetic, visual and tactile possibilities of concrete (rather than just its structural use), finished in various—expensive—ways: left as-cast from fancy timber shuttering, or, pin- or bush-hammered to expose the fine and stone aggregate respectively.

Poured concrete doesn’t lend itself to intricate detail, or a multitude of shapes, or concealment of utilities, and their designs were at a giant scale, with much repetition, and used exposed services. They seemed to take delight in glorying in the rawness of the material, and in impressing it upon the observer. Even the (unofficial) name of the style seemed intended to discomfit: ‘Brutalism’. Yet some affection for it has grown in the public consciousness.

And when, starting in the 60’s, Modernism, and the flat roof in particular, started to get blamed for social problems, it was also its lack of the familiar shapes and forms of classical architecture that was believed to be part of the problem. ‘Bring back the mouldings!’ people cried.

One architect had already started doing that. In 1964 Robert Venturi, who had studied at the American Academy in Rome, designed a house for his mother Vanna Venturi, in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, combining elements of a traditional settlers’ cottage with a broken pediment and modern strip windows.

This was Post-Modernism, which swept the UK in the 1980’s and 90’s, and was the style Venturi (with his partner Denise Scott-Brown) used in their 1985 competition-winning design for new galleries for Renaissance paintings, at the National Gallery, funded by the Sainsbury Family, and completed in 1991.

Please join me at Green Park Station at noon on Saturday 27th September.

*and other good examples
**in ‘The Builder, lxxx, 1901, p98
***in the opinion of some critics