Architecture and Art: Art influence in the modern world

Architecture and Art: Art Influence in the Modern World is the eighth article of a series of articles about the art dimension in architecture. This article analyzes the role of art and its influence on architecture in the modern world. The influence of art in terms of elements of design and principles of art on the function design, and form design. And how artwork of architecture affects the development and the invention of new structural systems. Adding to that how did art people affect architects in the modern world in terms of thinking, innovation, and work?

Function design in architecture, In the previous article I have analyzed the role of art in the evolution of function in architecture. In the old times for example in the Middle East and specifically in Mesopotamia, Persia, and Byzantine architecture function had certain characteristics. The characteristics follow the type of building designed like religious, commercial, public, and private villas and homes. Villas and homes in all these countries mentioned include the use of local materials that influence the room’s layout and spaces.

The environment shaped the function to have an inward-looking layout (having a courtyard). The plan shape follows the courtyard perimeter, and all rooms open to it or have an arcade or corridor leading to the other spaces. The art influence did not exist but only in the decoration of the exterior and interior. See Figure 1.

 In the Greek, Roman, Christian, and Renaissance periods, the functional design was different. Painters, sculptors, and master-builders followed either the empirical formula built by them, or the principles of design and treaties written by painters and sculptors. See Figure 2

In the modern world and after the establishment of academic teaching architects followed principles of design in many cases and types of buildings design. In general, most of the building’s function design did not follow the principles of design in exact words. Function design of any type of building follows the artistic taste of the architect in charge without following principles like symmetry, harmony, and others. Function design in architecture was as we could say from symmetry to undefined rules of design. Figure 3 shows the undefined rules of design in modern houses.   

Religious architecture in the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance periods followed the principles written by these country’s painters, sculptors, and engineers like Vitruvius. These buildings due to the rules set out by painters, sculptors, and engineers followed rigid functional design principles like symmetry, harmony, and dominance. And definitely fulfilling the requirements of the function relationships of conducting the warship activity. See Figure 4, St Peter Basilica by Micheal Anglo, Rome.

In the modern world architects and architecture fulfilled the functional relationships of doing the Christian prayers in church design. Architects in the modern world do not follow the rigid principles of design, though there are few, but undefined sets of rules built by the architect himself. The functional layout might in many cases follow a certain shape to reflect the external form. See Figure 5

The public and commercial buildings follow the same analysis as the public building and commercial building design followed the same principles of design in function and form. In modern days the design of public buildings and commercial buildings fulfills the functional requirements and the taste and rules that an architect employs in his practice.

In the modern world architects like painters and sculptors in the ancient world like Greece, Italy, France, and many European countries set out rules for themselves. A group of architects set certain architectural functional rules like the open plan system, open and strip windows, and limited internal walls, necessary for the safety of the building. The group invented the international style See Figure 6.

Architects as an example from the USA set rules for the functional design of their architecture. The rules set out the integration of architecture with the site in terms of geography, environment, material of building, and cultural identity. The organic style of architecture operated in the late 70s see Figure 7.

Art influenced form creation differently. Painters and sculptors reflected the function design to the form of the building. The process of reflecting plans to elevations made architecture identical and integrated in function and form. The architecture came in a form of rigid form as the painter and sculptor rigidly reflected the principles of design.

Many schools appeared and the inventors set out rules and principles for the form design of architecture. Schools in the 18^th century appeared in Italy and France including Neoclassicism-Eclecticism-art Nouveau. In the 19^th century in Italy and Germany including Art Deco, Bauhaus, De Stijl. An event in the USA and specifically Chicago in the 18^th century where a fire started and burned all the wooden structure buildings. This disaster led the public sector to change regulations. Specialists in architecture directed to the use of steel structure and terra-cotta cladding. The term used for the invention of this style and school is Chicago school.

Architects in the modern world have invented functional rules and principles which were coupled with a full architectural style. As in modern architecture, the architect invented the open window façade, the raised floor, the roof garden, and the building raised by a series of columns See Figure 8.

Not far from the modern architecture principles the organic architecture, the international style, the deconstruction style, and the post-modern architecture.

Architects in the modern world exceeded the innovation efforts of the old-time painters and sculptors. They set out and built a whole set of rules and principles to guide the full architectural design of various types of buildings and functions. The architects took the lead as the previous in defining the approach, method, and process of architecture design not only as schools but as individual architects.

Architects work and building design influenced the selection and the construction method of the building. For every new innovative form of a building, a full study and analysis are presented to the architect by the engineers to judge its feasibility and practicality. Architects themselves participated in developing new structural systems to fit the new innovative form design. Buckminster Fuller invented a structural steel system to build and construct steel domes.

Many competitions in the world are held and architects present innovative ideas related to the concept design of the project. The cultural context of the place of the building in many cases influences the project concept design. For example, the Yoyogi National Gymnasium project led to the idea of combining cable structure and concrete structure, see Figure 9, 10. Architects by inventing new forms led the way for the engineers to invent, develop, and combine new structural systems like the one in the Bilbao Museum.

In the modern world, architects set out not only schools of architecture but also personal rules and principles of architectural design. These are the rules and principles that guide architects in designing the function and form of the building. They are related to functional relationships and school and personal vision about the form of architecture. The principles and elements of design in art continue as the base of designing a building, façade, landscape, and urban space. Architects use nowadays these principles, or they may divert from them to design a building. They focus on the rules and principles of designing the functional relationships and form elements relationships of the building set out by them.