Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
6
1918 to Present
Introduction
This period has witnessed remarkable developments and scientific achieve-
ments providing fresh approaches to architecture that utilise new construc-
tional materials and methods so creating styles of their time. This has partly
resulted from the collaboration of architects and engineers in resolving build-
ing problems. Previously:
Designers who thought in terms of technology became the engineers; those who
thought in terms of academic aesthetic formulae became the architects, and no
love was lost between what soon became the two opposed modes of thought.
(Penoyre and Ryan, 1958, 155)
Their collaboration and the new technology they had (and continue to have)
allowed them to break away from applied period styles that had become the
accepted meaning of architecture, as Penoyre and Ryan continue:
… these men reverted to first principles and a dogmatic adherence to the func-
tionalist ideal, believing that if a thing was truly fitted to its purpose it must neces-
sarily be beautiful.
A new philosophical background underpinned architecture of the twentieth
and early twenty-first century, and thereby the new breed of craftsmen, with
an emphasis on putting forms into shape. It can be argued that this movement
re-vitalised architecture, producing our modern streetscapes, but overlooked
principles of form, proportion, and texture, was the result of a singular con-
centration on functionalism. Traditional materials such as brick, stone, and
timber, continued to be used, but usually with different applications, and in
conjunction with new materials - plastics, rubber, and aluminium - alongside
steel and concrete.
These materials were produced in whole or part in highly automated fac-
tories. Their individual properties were better understood and their perform-
ances under loading and climate calculated so that no more material than
necessary was used. This final point is of significance, as it led to standardisa-
tion that is normal today. The consequence of all this was, and remains, the
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