High-tech
architecture, also known as Structural Expressionism, is an architectural style
that emerged in the 1970s, incorporating elements of high-tech industry and
technology into building design. High-tech architecture appeared as a revamped
modernism, an extension of those previous ideas aided by even more advances in
technological achievements. This category serves as a bridge between modernism
and post-modernism, however there remain grey areas as to where one category
ends and the other begins. In the 1980s, high-tech architecture became more
difficult to distinguish from post-modern architecture. Many of its themes and
ideas were absorbed into the language of the post-modern architectural schools.
Like
Brutalism, Structural Expressionist buildings reveal their structure on the
outside as well as the inside, but with visual emphasis placed on the internal
steel and/or concrete skeletal structure as opposed to exterior concrete walls.
In buildings such as the Pompidou Centre, this idea of revealed structure is
taken to the extreme, with apparently structural components serving little or
no structural role. In this case, the use of "structural" steel is a
stylistic or aesthetic matter.
The
style's premier practitioners include the British architect Norman Foster,
whose work has since earned him knighthood, and Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava,
known for his organic, skeleton-like designs.
Buildings
designed in this style usually consist of a clear glass facade, with the
building's network of support beams exposed behind it. Perhaps the most famous
and easily recognized building built in this style is I.M. Pei's Bank of China
Tower in Hong Kong. The World Trade Center in New York City, although generally
considered to be an International Style building, was technically a Structural
Expressionist design due to its load-bearing steel exoskeleton.
BACKGROUND:-
Ø Buildings in
this architectural style were constructed mainly in Europe and North America.
After the destruction of many historic buildings in Europe during World War II,
repairing them was a difficult matter. Architects had to decide between
replicating the historic elements or replacing it with new modern materials and
aesthetics.
Ø The scientific
and technological advances had a big impact on societies in the 1970s. These
advances set people's minds thinking that much more can be achieved with
advancing technology.
Ø Technological
instruments became a common sight for people at the time because of the use of
ramps, video screens, headphones, and bare scaffolds. These high-tech
constructions became more visible everyday to the average person.
Ø There was a
growing disillusionment with Modern Architecture and progression in that
manner. The realisation of Le Corbusier’s urban development plans, led to
cities of dreadful monotony. Many houses were to made form standardized parts.
This played a large role in the monotony.
Ø The enthusiasm
for economic building led to extremely low quality finishes of the buildings.
Many of the residential estates designed degenerated into slums. As a result
people became disillusioned with this progress and the West began to
acknowledge this failure.
Ø Throughout
Modern Architecture’s development,
society would have become bored of the Modern aesthetic. This is to be expected
given that the Modern buildings were very bland and the novelty of its
aesthetic would wear off. Hi-Tech is a response to this to take Modernist aims
to other extremes and in doing so, it creates a newer aesthetic: boasting the
glamour of greater leaps in technology.
NAME:-
Ø The style got
its name from the book High Tech: The Industrial Style and Source Book for The
Home, written by design journalists Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin and published
in November 1978 by Clarkson N. Potter, New York.
Ø The book,
illustrated with hundreds of photos, showed how designers, architects, and home
owners were appropriating classic industrial objects—library shelving, chemical
glass, metal deck plate, restaurant supply, factory and airport runway light
fixtures, movers' quilts, industrial carpeting etc.—found in industrial
catalogues and putting these to use in residential settings. The foreword to
the book by architect Emilio Ambasz, former curator of design at the Museum of
Modern Art, put the trend in historical context.
Ø As a result of
the publicity and popularity of the book, the decorating style became known as
"High-Tech", and accelerated the entry of the still-obscure term
"high-tech" into everyday language.
Ø In 1979, the term high-tech appeared for the
first time in a New Yorker magazine cartoon showing a woman berating her
husband for not being high-tech enough: "You're middle-, middle-,
middle-tech." After Esquire excerpted Kron and Slesin's book in six installments,
mainstream retailers across the United States, beginning with Macy's New York,
started featuring high-tech decor in windows and in furniture departments. But
credit should go to a shop on 64th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York, Ad
Hoc Housewares, which opened in 1977, for marketing these objects to a
residential audience before anyone else. The book went on to be reprinted in
England, France, and Japan, and like the original, each edition included a
directory of local sources for the objects.The other name,
Late Modernism, came from the fact the many of its principles were an extension of Modernism;
a newer kind.
AIMS:-
Ø High-tech
architecture was, in some ways, a response to growing disillusionment with
modern architecture. The realization of Le Corbusier's urban development plans
led to cities with monotonous and standardized buildings.
Ø As it was said,
the enthusiasm for economic building led to extremely low-quality finishes,
with subsequent degradation countering a now-waning aesthetic novelty.
High-tech architecture created a new aesthetic in contrast with standard modern
architecture. In the book High Tech: The
Industrial Style and Source Book for The Home, when discussing the high-tech
aesthetic, the authors emphasized using elements "your parents might find
insulting".
Ø This humor so aptly demonstrates the
rebellious attitude.
Kron and Slesin
further explain the term "high-tech" as one being used in
architectural circles to describe an increasing number of residences and public
buildings with a "nuts-and-bolts, exposed-pipes, technological look".There is no need
to look further than Rogers's Pompidou Centre for an example of this. This
highlights the one of the aims of high-tech architecture, to boast the
technical elements of the building by externalizing them.
Ø The technical
aspects create the building's aesthetic.For interior
design there was a trend of using formerly industrial appliances as household
objects, e.g. chemical beakers as vases for flowers. This was because of an aim
to use an industrial aesthetic. This was assisted by the conversion of former
industrial spaces into residential spaces. High-tech architecture aimed to give
everything an industrial appearance.
Ø Another aspect
to the aims of high-tech architecture was that of a renewed belief in the power
of technology to improve the world.
Ø This is
especially evident in Kenzo Tange's plans for technically sophisticated
buildings in Japan's post-war boom in the 1960's, but few of these plans
actually became buildings. High-tech architecture aimed to achieve a new
industrial aesthetic, spurred on by the renewed faith in the progression of
technology.
Ø But however
prominent the industrial look appeared, the functional element of modern
architecture was very much retained. The pieces still served a purpose in the
building's function. The function of the building was also aimed as not being
set. This dynamic property means that a building should be a
"catalyst", the "technical services are provided but do not become
set."
CHARACTERISTICS:-
Ø Characteristics
of High Tech Architecture varied somewhat. They included the prominent display
of the building's technical and functional components, an orderly arrangement
of and the use of pre fabricated elements. Glass walls and steel frames were
immensely popular. These traits combined created the industrial aesthetic.
Ø To boast
technical features they would be externalised, often along with the load
bearing structures on outside. There can be no more illustrious example than
Roger’s Pompidou Centre. The ventilation
ducts are all prominently shown on the outside. This is radical, as previous
ventilation ducts would have been a component hidden on the inside of the
building. The means of access to the building is also on the outside, with the
large tube allowing visitors to enter the building.
Ø The orderly and
logical fashion in which High Tech buildings are designed to keep to their
functional essence is demonstrated in the Norman Foster’s Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank HQ. Besides the technology being the overriding feature of the
building, its design is very much functionally orientated. The large interior
open space and the easy access to all floors very much enhance the function of
being a bank. Also the elements of the buildings are very neatly composed to
achieve optimal orderliness in order to logically solve the problem of the
needs of a bank. This can be seen in the levels structure and the escalators.
Ø Another
characteristic involved using industrial objects out of its industrial context
for example “factory lights for a living room” .
Ø The High Tech
buildings make persistent use of glass curtain walls and steel structure. It is
greatly indebted to Modern Architecture for this and Mies van der Rohe’s
corporate buildings. The SOM Sears Tower demonstrates that with glass walls and
skeleton pipe structure of steel, a very tall building can be built.
Ø High Tech
architecture developed a technical language, free of historicist ornaments
likes it predecessor, Modern Architecture. An example of this is the Žižkov Television
Tower, Prague. From afar the unconventional structure looks like a rocket
launching pad. This takes inspiration from the technical advancements of the
age.
Ø Many High Tech
buildings meant their purposes to be dynamic. This could best be explained by
Günther Behnisch and Frei Otto’s Olympic Stadium in Munich. This structure made
sport in the open possible and is meant to be used for many purposes.
Originally an abandoned airfield it now became a Sport stadium, for various disciplines.Overall, the characteristic
traits of High Tech architecture varied somewhat, yet all deal with the
adoration of all technical elements.
