As an Art form testifying Man's culture, I have always had a specific interest in architecture. Yet, the 20thcentury architectural forms remained mostly under the spell of the more basic geometrical shapes, hardly seeming to be able to transcend this given sphere. Other forms of art had already found a new identity like Picasso, or Vasarely in painting, Miró, or Dubuffet in sculpture.
There existed a few precursors of course, who seemed to announce the upcoming of a new trend of concepts.
At an early stage, the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) might well be regarded as the first to announce the new trend of architecture. One of his famed edifices, the Barcelona Sagrada Familia is still in the process of construction. It is significant that Dan Brown's latest bestseller, 'Origin', uses in parallel both the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum and the Barcelona controversial church.
Another 20thcentury precursor may have been the Dane Jørn Utzon, who designed the Sydney Opera House (1973). This is in keeping with a Scandinavian spirit, inspired by the Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen(1910-1961): the Gateway Arch of St.Louis, Missouri (1965), or Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C.(1962).
Le Corbusier's Chapel of Ronchamp, France (1955), Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum of New York (1959), or Oscar Niemeyer's Cathedral of Brasilia (1970) are few exceptions among the other more cubic works of art of the same architects. I.M. Pei and the Louvre Pyramid (1989) in Paris, was probably also looking to go beyond the barrier of pure geometry.
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| Niemeyer - Brasilia Cathedral (C.S) |
One of the main arguments is that these architects were still limited by the technical limits of construction. Once the handicap was finally resolved due to the new advancements made by technology, it gave more freedom to the new generation to conceive a totally new generation of buildings. And this came at the turn of the century, marking a new millennium.
The upcoming new forms of architecture have now come a long way from their former uninspiring cubic shapes. Here is a quick list of some of the contemporary amazing new frontiers:
-Frank Gehry (b.1929), a Canadian-born American best known for his design of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in Spain (1997), has also created unusual buildings such as the Dancing House, in Prague (1996), the Disney Concert Hall, in L.A. (2003), the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris (2006), the Biomuseo of Panama City (2014).
-Norman Foster (b.1935), a British architect, who conceived the Millau Viaduct in France (2004), the New York's Hearst Tower (2006), the Apple Park of Cupertino, in California (2017).
-Jean Nouvel (b.1949), a French architect also gives in to new structures: the Agbar Tower, in Barcelona (1999), the Culture and Convention Centre, in Lucerne (2000), the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris (2006), the Louvre of Abu Dhabi (2017).
There are a few other modern masters in the art of building among which one woman, the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid (1950-2016).
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| Museum collage: Arles (Luma), Doha (The Islamic Museum of Art & the Natl. Museum of Qatar) |
The reflexion made above was prompted by a recent trip I made last April 2019 between Bangkok, Doha and Arles, France. As a matter of fact, these three mentioned cities belong to the spheres of the new architecture concepts.
In Bangkok, I am facing two rather unusual buildings: the G-Tower and the Unilever Building. With the exception of the newly opened MahaNakhon Tower, designed by a young German architect, Ole Scheeren (b.1971), the Thai capital has remained out of the scope from the prominent major architects, at least for the time being.
On the other hand, the historic city of Arles, in Provence, is the site of the nearly finished new Frank Gehry's Luma-Arles Tower.
On my way back, I made a stopover in Doha, specifically to see the new National Museum of Qatar by Jean Nouvel and opened on 29 March 2019. (There will be an upcoming specific article written on the Blog). But since it was also nearby on the Corniche, I went back to see the Museum of Islamic Art designed by I.M Pei (2008), another modern masterpiece.
Indeed, the new designs of Architecture have gone a long way since the early stage of modern postwar architectural concepts.
Christian Sorand
Links:
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| Gaudi - Sagra Familia |
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| Le Corbusier - Ronchamp Chapel |
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| Foster- Millau Viaduct |
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| Nouvel - Abu Dhabi Louvre |
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| Saarinen-Gateway Arch |
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| Jørn Utzon-Sydney Opera House |
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| Gehry- Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. |
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| Gehry-Disney Concert Hall |
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