Architect Drawings : A Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects Through History

CHAPTER 6
EARLY MODERN (1910–1930)
This period, approximately 1910 to 1930, was architecturally very fertile in anticipation of the modernist
movement. The relatively small and localized movements of expressionism, futurism/Nuove
Tendenze, the Amsterdam School and De Stijl, the Bauhaus, and constructivism each contributed to
the roots of modernism in Europe. Although many of the included architects lived and practiced well
into the twentieth century, their architectural legacies have been identified with this era and these
movements. Their sketches are indicative of these associations, and more specifically the sketches’ techniques
were infused with ideology in anticipation of modernism. They advocated destruction of
the ruling class and the tight control of the academy, as was evidenced by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
The world was enjoying the benefits of the Industrial Revolution and found hope in the power of the
machine. Early modern architects encouraged a departure from the past and traditional architecture,
encouraging a near total abandonment of ornament. All were utopian and idealistic, promoting architecture
as a vehicle to advance a new social agenda. Some may even be viewed as revolutionary, placing
their faith in the worker and supporting the craftsman, and the replacement of established
conventions. Whether because of ideology or political/economic circumstances, as a whole they built
little. Each of these groups depended on visual communication to disseminate their movement’s ideology.
They used media to assist in the conception of new approaches to architectural design. These
drawings and sketches could represent an idealistic future in the case of Antonio Sant’Elia’s Città
Nuova, whose sleek, dynamic images of industrial architecture spoke of a mechanized future. Sketches
by Erich Mendelsohn embrace the fast lines and movement of the machine age by describing a plasticity
of materials. Gustave Eiffel explored innovative uses for steel and glass, designing bridges and
temporary structures. Michel de Klerk and Gerrit Rietveld, the most successful in seeing architecture
through to construction, exercised extreme control over their images. Their sketches revealed the
considered use of media to explore form and articulate details. El Lissitzky and Vladimir Tatlin moved
easily between art and architecture, thereby enhancing their sketching skills. Julia Morgan, with her
extensive practice, found the need to conceptualize through quick sketches and rely on her employees
to translate her ideas into construction drawings. In contrast, Hermann Finsterlin chose sketches as a
means to explore and disseminate theories of expressionism, using sketches as polemical dialogue. To
elaborate on the uses of sketches by these architects it is important to place them in the context of their
belief systems.
Expressionism in architecture grew out of the art movement of the same name in Germany. The
major players included the architects Hans Poelzig, Peter Behrens, Max and Bruno Taut, Walter
Gropius, and Hermann Finsterlin. Active in the years following World War I, they embraced utopian
ideals with mysticism. They proposed architecture as ‘a total work of art;’ manipulating forms sculpturally
and drawing upon human senses (Pehnt, 1973, p. 19). This reliance on emotions found
metaphors in cave and mountain designs. Many of their beliefs were represented by a crystal; it was
transparent and evoked concepts of stars and light. Accordingly, these architects began a series of
communications and created a theoretical dialogue called the Gläserne Kette, or glass chain (Pehnt,
1973). They felt that expressionism was a new method of communication rather than a distinct style
(Borsi and Konig, 1967). The economic depression following the war led to a period of limited construction.
This situation, paired with a belief in the spiritual nature of the creative act, produced a
large amount of theoretical images which might be referred to as paper architecture (Pehnt, 1985). This
architecture, primarily ‘built’ on paper, was less concerned with function than with architectural
form (Pehnt, 1985). These drawings and sketches often exhibited fluid expressions of amoebic shapes,
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