MODERN
STYLES
In the first decades of the 20th century, some architects began
designing buildings in styles that bore no reference to prior
historical architectural styles. The earliest of these, the
Craftsman and the Prairie School styles, looked to other areas
of inspiration than the past for stylistic ideas. With the Prairie
School style in particular, there was intent to have architecture
fit more into the rhythm of the surrounding natural landscape.
As the century progressed, modernism took hold, first with the
International style and then with later variations. In the Craftsman,
Prairie, and modernist styles, the pure expression of materials,
without unnecessary ornamentation, was the dominant design feature.
CRAFTSMAN AND CRAFTSMAN BUNGALOW
(1905 - 1930)
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The Craftsman
style grew out of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, which
had an emphasis on natural materials and a high level of craftsmanship.
The style is generally characterized by: low-pitched roofs with
deep overhanging eaves, exposed rafter ends, decorative brackets
or knee braces under shallow gable roofs, dormers, and a deep
front porch. Windows are frequently double hung sash with three
panes in the upper sash and one in the lower. Craftsman detailing
was frequently combined with the bungalow form, and Craftsman
Bungalows, inspired by the work of California architects Greene
and Greene, were widely published in architectural journals
and popular home magazines of the day. Plans were often included
in articles about the style, and the Craftsman Bungalow became
one of the most popular house styles during the teens and twenties.
Although they were built into the 1920s, Craftsman homes were
particularly popular between 1901 and 1916, when the architect
and furniture maker Gustav Stickley published his magazine,
The Craftsman.
PRAIRIE SCHOOL
(1900 - 1920)
The Prairie
School style of architecture is frequently regarded as America's
first indigenous residential architectural style. It takes inspiration
not from historical precedents but from the Midwest's most characteristic
natural feature, the prairie. Hence, the horizontality of the
Midwest landscape is emphatically expressed in Prairie houses.
Identifying features of Prairie School architecture include
low-pitched roofs with wide overhangs, flat stucco or brick
wall treatment, casement windows (frequently leaded) clustered
in horizontal bands, and brick detailing in geometric patterns.
Prairie School buildings generally have a massive quality, as
if rooted to the earth.
ART MODERNE
(1920 - 1940)
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In the
1920s and 30s, Art Deco and Art Moderne achieved great popularity
as modern architectural styles. Although somewhat different
in their overall appearance, both styles share stripped down
forms and geometric-based ornament.
Common characteristics are: horizontal orientation rounded edges,
corner windows, and glass block walls
INTERNATIONAL STYLE
(1925-present)
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The International
Style was originally developed in Europe in the 1910s and 1920s
by: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Some of the practitioners of the style emigrated to the United
States and to Chicago, carrying with them the functional approach
to architecture that was practiced at the Bauhaus, Gropius'
school of modern design. Gropius, who settled near Boston, Mies
van der Rohe, who practiced in Chicago, and Richard Neutra,
who worked in California, began a modernist tradition that influenced
the work of countless other architects whose designs regularly
won awards and were featured as Architectural Record houses
of the year. International Style residential architecture is
characterized by: flat roofs, planar wall surfaces, and a lack
of any applied ornamentation. These homes are generally low
in profile but may stand two or even three stories, are asymmetrical
and geometric in form, and often incorporate a considerable
amount of glass in their designs. They are elegant in their
attention to proportion and detailing.
CONTEMPORARY
(1940's - Present)
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The term
Contemporary is somewhat imprecise, but for that reason has
been used to classify a style dating from the mid-1940s and
later that incorporates some of the tenets of modernism, but
often with less rectangular form and occasionally with some
ornament.
