ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE II : Reyner Banham “The New Brutalism” 1966 Yağmur Bektaş- Ersan Ilktan Peter Reyner Banham, (born March 2, 1922, Norwich, England—died March 19, 1988, London, England), British architectural critic, historian and writer, known for his books Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971) and The New Brutalism, Architectural Press, (1966). ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Peter Reyner Banham, (born March 2, 1922, Norwich, England—died March 19, 1988, London, England), British architectural critic, historian and writer, known for his books Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971) and The New Brutalism, Architectural Press, (1966). Banham saw much of the second world war when he was educated in the Norwich school. In Norwich he started writing reviews or the local paper and in 1949 he began to work in the Caurtauld Institute of Art, supervised by Nikolaus Pevsner. Later, Banham becomes a member of the Independent Group (IG), by the influence of the Smithson’s and the art exhibition “parallel of life and art” (1953), he publishes his book The New Brutalism in 1966. REYNER BANHAM 1 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Nikolaus Pevsner With the lead of Pevsner, Banham started studying the history of modern architecture, starting with Pevsner’s work Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936). This book is important in terms of arranging a progress of “modern design” from William Morris, arts and crafts movement, to Walter Groupies and Bauhaus. In 1952 Banham started his job as an editor in the Architectural Review aside Pevsner and M. J. Richards, who both with entrenched attitudes toward modernism. With his mentor he wrote on Italian futurism, till he began to work on his own ideologies. “Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, (born Jan. 30, 1902, Leipzig, Ger.—died Aug. 18, 1983, London, Eng.), German-born British art historian. He studied at various German universities and taught at Göttingen University (1929–33) before moving to England to escape Nazism. There he taught at the Universities of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. He is best known for his writings on architecture, especially his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74), one of the great achievements of 20th-century art scholarship.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 “Parallel Of Art and Life” Exhibition Rayner Banham was a member of the IG (Independent Group) which was helped to be founded by The Smithsons and other members after Simithsons had maried one year ago in 1949 and later formed a partnership in 1950 and than formed IG in Left and Below; Photographs from the installation of 1952. The other early members include the sculptor the original exhibition. Eduardo Paolozzi, the collage artist Richard Hamilton and the photographer Nigel Henderson. 3 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 With their partnership with the Instıtude of Contemporary Art (ICA) in 1953, they produced an exhibition titled “Paralell of Art and Life” which included 169 images of nonart which are biological artifacts, primitive art and cave paintings, machine parts and structures which reflected the goal of the IG group in defining the “New Brutalism”. This group was thinking different in terms of how the modernisim is concieved in the world of intellectual designers and thinkers in the british community. Therefore their name is the Independent group. 4 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 The ICA press release for the exhibition explained: “In this exhibition an encyclopaedic range of material from past and present is brought together through the medium of the camera which is used as recorder, reporter, and scientific investigator. As recorder of nature objects, works of art, architecture and technics; as reporter of human events the images of which sometimes come to have a power of expression and plastic organisation analogous to the symbol in art; and as scientific investigator extending the visual scale and range, by use of enlargements, X rays, wide angle lens, high speed aerial photography.” (Dated 31 August 1953, Tate Archive.) With their unconventional ways of displaying images, this exhibition suggests a new and more alligned with the Contemporary Movement in which presenting the elements as bare and free which in turn give a sense of Brutalism. 5 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Before this exhibition the IG also produced another exhibition entitled “Study for Paralell of Art and Life” in 1952 which was including Photo-collages of the aritist- photographer Nigel Henderson and the artist Eduardo Paolozzi. In here, the upper row of photographs represent “Life” and the lower row represents “Art”. Below; Photographs from the exhibition of “Study This was an important comparison because Banhams vision was largely influenced by whether the public opinion shape the architecture we had today. The connection of the art produced with the everyday life of the communities pushed his interest towards Pop Art and other mediums of art where the public life of people and the idea of a house is examined. The connection between these two concepts were also a driving force in emerging the movement “New Brutalism” in later stages. 6 “The Golding Lane Housing Scheme” ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966z 1952 “The Golden Lane Project” By Smithsons Alison and Peter Smithson, in the exhibition “Parallel of Art and Life” also proposed the Golding Lane Housing Scheme in which they suggested a free design of urban tower blocks that connect with the use of howering pedestrian streets. This was for the redesign of the destructed districs of London after the World War 2. This aimed to bring human experience to the monumental designs of the CIAM modernist projects. Their Design also boldy opposed Le corbusier’s Housing Blocks whichh according to them, lacked expandibility and Collages and sketches from Alison and Peter Smithson (1952) connection. 7 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Brutalist Architecture Brutalist architecture is a movement developed from the 1950’s to mid-1970’s from the modernist movement. This term comes from the idea of “raw”, contrast to the ornamented Beaux-Arts style, as a choice of material like “raw concrete” used by Le Corbusier. Brutalism was important because it was an economical solution to the urban destruction after World War II. The movement needed a name and with the Smithson’s foundation it was called Brutalism in 1953 while they were describing their house “House in Soho, London”. “In fact, had this been built it would have been the first exponent of the ‘new brutalism’ in England.” - Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson, “House in Soho, London”, Architectural Design, December 1953, 342. 8 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 For the Smithsons brutalism was an approach to “face up to a mass- produced society and drag a rough poetry out of the confused and powerful forces which are at work.” So, they tried to extinguish the Scandinavian modernism and any that are rejected by the brut. Scandinavian design is a design movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism and functionality that emerged in the early 20th century, and which flourished in the 1950s, in the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. "What's The Deal With Scandinavian Furniture?". EMFURN. ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Le Corbusier Le Corbusier’s works are the best examples of ‘new brutalism’ considered his expressionism through the ‘international style’ included the use of monumental shapes and unfinished, béton brüt/ raw, use of concrete models. In contrast to Mies van der Rohe he represents British architects better by not using glass and steel. After the World War II and its destruction, the need of housing was inflated. Le Corbusier was commissioned for a residential house for the people that were dislocated. Unite d’habitation (1952, France) is a postwar work of Le Corbusier’s which expresses the change in his style to greater shapes and aesthetic treatment of beton brut, as well as brutalism. 10 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Brutalism became popular of the word “Brutalism” in 1950’s and Banham’s book The New Brutalism (1966) to identify the emerging style in Europe. Its character is typically modular elements repeating and forming massive, exposed concrete construction or showing brickwork in detail, expressing the functional zones on the plan by external the elevations. Collage by Yağmur&Ersan Collage by Mary Ashcroft 11 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 He mainly focused on the common living spaces as where they come together under a “vertical garden city”. This idea aimed to create a larger volume, organizing the spaces for the inhabitant to live both in private and common spaces. So, unite d’Habitation becomes functionally optimized as a “city within city”. The building is constructed from beton-brut concrete, economical plus during the postwar time in Europe, also expressing the conditions during the war as rough, worn, unforgiven. 12 ARCH222 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE REYNER BANHAM/ THE NEW BRUTALISM 1966 Hunstanton School of Alison & Peter Smithson The Hunstanton School, England, built in 1954 by the Smithson’s is an expression of the New brutalist movement like Le Corbusier’s resident. The conditions in the postwar are reflected with an architectural effect through the building with the material and structural elements used. All the materials remain as they are, including the electrical tubes.