High tech architecture
High-tech architecture (also: late modern architecture or structural expressionism ) is a technically determined architectural trend that emerged in the 1970s. When new technologies such as structural steel came into question for construction at the time, new design and form-finding processes were developed. To this day, the buildings of high-tech architecture use novel materials from high-tech industry or high technology and are characterized by future-oriented design, in which a lot of glass and steel is used.
Buildings of this architectural style were mostly built in North America and Europe . The high-tech architecture is deeply associated with the so-called Chicago School that emerged after World War II . The models were z. For example, the skyscrapers by Mies van der Rohe such as the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments and engineering buildings from the 19th century (e.g. by Wladimir Grigorjewitsch Schuchow ).
Characteristic
Use of high-tech
In the early 1970s, hollow structural steel sections could be used as a building material for the first time , so there was a lot of experimentation with this material at the time. Hence, most of the early examples of high-tech architecture used exposed structural steel as the material of choice.
In the meantime, high-tech materials from aviation , aerospace or energy technology are being integrated and ecological solutions are being worked out with scientists - such as for the Reichstag dome in Berlin by Norman Foster . Controllable facades also play a role in ventilating large glass buildings (for example at the debis house in Berlin). For the membrane and outer shell, models from the animal kingdom were used, such as the structure of the dolphin skin .
Use of prefabricated components
For buildings of high-tech architecture, components and entire building systems are industrially prefabricated on the basis of modern technologies with precision engineering in a simple aesthetic in order to then assemble them on the building. Industrial production methods with glass, metal or plastic are preferred - as "clean" building materials. With the high-tech architecture, interchangeable modules were used for the first time during construction (“plug-in elements”) in order to reduce the maintenance effort for wearing parts .
Presentation of the technology
As with brutalism , high-tech architecture emphasizes the structure of the building. But in contrast to the emphasis on concrete outer walls in brutalism, glass facades and steel structures are typical features of high-tech buildings. This has its roots in modern architecture and was influenced by Mies van der Rohe's skyscrapers - for example the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago . The Willis Tower by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , built in 1974 as the Sears Tower, showed that very tall buildings can be built from glass facades and a skeleton structure.
The technology that is in a building is deliberately presented in the high-tech architecture. Technical elements as well as constructional details are particularly emphasized - for example by the visual highlighting of technical and functional components of a building (sometimes also by oversizing them).
In high-tech architecture, for example, the inner steel or concrete structures as well as the technical equipment are exposed in order to make them optically the focus. The fascination for technology led to the aestheticization of the technical construction types - for example in the form of visible supporting structures and supply systems. With this in mind, monumental “building machines” such as the Lloyds Building in London (1979–1984) were created (see picture). The most famous example of this is the Center Pompidou (1971–1977). Here the idea of the exposed structure is taken to extremes - with seemingly structural components that play little or no role in the structure. In this case, the use of structural steel serves a stylistic or aesthetic purpose. The pipes for the ventilation system are also clearly visible on the outside of the building. This was a radical design as such systems used to be hidden in the building. The access routes have also been highlighted and run in separate tubes (see picture).
The systematic and consistent way in which buildings are designed in high-tech architectural style in order to preserve their functional essence is also evident in the HSBC Main Building (Hong Kong) by Norman Foster (see picture).
High-tech architecture and landscape architecture
There are also buildings of high-tech architecture that particularly respond to the landscape and integrate local references. A prominent example of this is the Munich Olympic Park from 1972: The first drafts already showed that organic shapes dominate here, which blend gently into the terrain. On the disused airfield in the north of Munich , the Behnisch & Partner office, in cooperation with a landscape architect, developed a site in which landscape and architecture flow into one another to enable “sport in the green”. For this purpose, a lake was created, thousands of trees planted, functionally important parts of the building relocated underground and sports facilities embedded in hollows (see picture).
In order to blur the transition between inside and outside, permeable scaffolding structures were designed. In cooperation with the architect Frei Otto , transparent, large-area roofs were created that were stretched over the systems like nets. They let the daylight shine through and at the same time offer protection from bad weather. The Olympic facilities in Munich's Olympic Park are therefore a special form of high-tech architecture, in which the landscape and organic architectural forms are harmoniously combined with high-tech elements.
background
Scientific and technological advances had a major impact on industrialized nations in the 1970s. The space race reached its climax in 1969 with the moon landing . At the same time there was rapid military development. These advances made many people believe that much more could be achieved through technological advancement. Technical devices became commonplace through the use of screens, headphones, etc.
It was therefore only logical that architects also began to integrate high-tech into their designs in order to find an architectural answer to the technologicalization of the industrialized countries. With its approach, high-tech architecture renewed belief in progress and in the ability of technology to make the world better. This is particularly evident in Kenzo Tange's plans for technically sophisticated buildings in Japan during the post-war boom of the 1960s - although few of these designs were actually implemented.
Surname
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The high-tech architecture takes its name from the book "High Tech: The Industrial Style and Source Book for The Home" by the design journalists Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin , published by Clarkson N. Potter Verlag (New York) in November 1978 has been published. The book, which was illustrated with hundreds of photos, shows how designers, architects and builders related classic industrial objects - library shelves , glass appliances , metal cover plates, restaurant equipment, factory lights and signal lights from runways, industrial carpeting, etc. They were selected from industrial catalogs for the apartments. The foreword of the book comes from the architect Emilio Ambasz - once curator of the design department of the Museum of Modern Art . Ambasz places the trend in the historical context.
Due to the fame and popularity of the book, this furnishing style became known as "high-tech" and pushed the use of the still unclear term "high-tech" in everyday language. In 1979 the term high-tech first appeared in a cartoon by the New Yorker when a woman scolded her husband for not being high-tech enough: “You're middle-, middle-, middle-tech.” After the Esquire Wrapping Kron and Slesin's book into six training series, retailers across the United States began adding high-tech décor to their window and furniture departments. The book was reprinted in England , France and Japan and, as in the original edition, each edition included a directory of local sources for the items depicted.
aims
High-tech architecture was in some ways a response to the growing disenchantment with modern architecture . The desire for inexpensive real estate led more and more often to inferior designs, loss of quality and a less aesthetic appearance in buildings of modern architecture. The high-tech architecture created a new aesthetic that contrasted with the average modern architecture. When high-tech aesthetics are discussed in the book High Tech: The Industrial Style and Source Book for The Home , the authors emphasize that components are used that their own parents would probably find impossible. This pointed remark illustrates the rebellious attitude behind it.
Kron and Slesin further explain that the term "high-tech" is used in architecture circles to have a name for the increasing number of residential and public buildings that have been designed in a practical manner - with exposed pipes and a technological look ("nuts- and bolts, exposed pipes, technological look ”). The Center Pompidou is a good example of this, as it highlights one of the central intentions of high-tech architecture: it shows off the technical elements of the building by exposing them. The technical aspects thus create the aesthetics of the building.
The high-tech architecture aims to give everything an industrial feel. In interior design, the trend arose to use industrial objects in the living area, such as beakers as flower vases. This trend towards industrial aesthetics was promoted by converting industrial space into living space.
No matter how dominant the industrial look appears in buildings, the principle of functionality (a legacy of modern architecture) has essentially always been adhered to. The components actually always serve a purpose. At the same time, however, the type of use of the building should not be specified: a building should provide all the technical services that are necessary for a diverse, open use ( “technical services are provided but do not become set” ).
Differentiation from other architectural styles
The high-tech architecture brought modern architecture up to date: It expanded the earlier ideas of modern architecture with even more sophisticated technological achievements. This architectural style therefore also serves as a bridge between modern architecture and postmodern architecture - but there are also gray areas in which one category ends and the other begins. In the 1980s it became increasingly difficult to distinguish between high-tech architecture and postmodern architecture, as many of the leitmotifs and ideas of high-tech architecture were integrated into the formal language of postmodern architecture schools.
Criticism of the high-tech architecture
Early high-tech buildings from the 1970s are referred to by historian Reyner Banham as “service sheds” because, in addition to the structure of the building, they also reveal the systems, lines and pipes of the building services.
Famous representatives
Important representatives of this style include British architects such as Norman Foster (* 1935), Richard Rogers (* 1933) or Michael Hopkins (* 1935), the American architect Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), the Italian architect Renzo Piano ( * 1937), the Japanese architect Toyo Ito (* 1941), the French architect Jean Nouvel (* 1945), the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (* 1944) and the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (* 1951), who for his functional, organic -futuristic designs is known.
Examples
Early examples of high-tech architecture include: E.g. the John Hancock Center ( Chicago ) by Fazlur Khan (1969), the World Trade Center ( New York City ) by Minoru Yamasaki (1971) (destroyed on September 11, 2001 ) or the Center Georges Pompidou ( Paris ) by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers (1977). The debis house on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin was built in the 1990s . In the new millennium, high-rise buildings such as 30 St. Mary Ax ( London ) by Norman Foster (2003), Torre Agbar ( Barcelona ) by Jean Nouvel (2005), the Hearst Tower (New York City) by Norman Foster (2004) or Senedd stand out ( Cardiff Bay ) by Richard Rogers (2006).
literature
- Joan Kron, Suzanne Slesin: High-tech: the industrial style and source book for the home. CN Potter (Distributed by Crown Publishers), 1978, ISBN 0-517-53262-X .
- Hi-Tec Architecture. Daab-Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86654-020-0 . (English)
- Colin Davies: High Tech Architecture. Thames & Hudson, 1989, ISBN 0-500-27534-3 . (English)
- Arian Mostaedi: Sustainable Architecture: High-tech Houses. Links International, Barcelona 2003, ISBN 84-89861-79-X . (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e high-tech architecture at www.schuelerlexikon.de
- ↑ a b high-tech architecture at www.wissen-digital.de
- ↑ a b c high-tech architecture at www.wissen.de
- ↑ High-tech architecture on www.schuelerlexikon.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ high-tech architecture (section on hubert-brune.de)
- ↑ a b c d e Joan Kron, Suzanne Slesin: High-tech: the industrial style and source book for the home. CN Potter (Distributed by Crown Publishers), 1978, ISBN 0-517-53262-X .
