Architecture can be art. The great movements in architecture often have a conceptual ingredient and represent a zeitgeist. Religious architecture often has been designed to invoke trance and awe. Classical styles sampled Greek and Roman elements to lend grandeur and legitimacy.
Sullivan's buildings, derived from classical forms with a base, a rise, and a cap, and ornamented with geometric organic designs, nonetheless set a direction with his maxim "form follows function." Wright was a student of Sullivan and followed with his Mayan period and the Imperial Hotel before his prairie style and site sculptures, like Falling Water.
The Bauhaus, birthed as a response to poverty in Germany to make beautiful inexpensive household items, exited Germany as Hitler rose. The Bauhaus architects in America birthed the ranch house.
The International Style from Germany and France was enabled by new materials, float glass and steel. It represented aspiration and modernism in its minimalism. Of course, every action produces a reaction, postmodern architecture.
Postmodern architecture proposed by Brown and Venturi samples disparate elements into a whole as an affront to modernism. The Portland Building, with many haters, is a key building in postmodern architecture. The City of Portland posed a competition of architects for a building with requirements of footprint, square footage, and cost. Architect Robert Graves won. That year the AIA conference sported many buttons on participants, "I Don't Dig Graves." Amid a great hue and cry against the design, the competition was reopened and Graves won again. Between the program and the budget, Graves had to minimize the size of the windows and design a squat building in mass. The ornamentation, the ribbon near the top, and the colors, the blue base and yellow cladding disguise the mass.
Later came the deconstructionist architecture movement. I once heard Eisenman, an architect and professor, say that the comfort of the building occupants, including their psychological comfort, is not the responsibility of the architect. Personally I enjoy deconstructionist architecture and all the movements above. But deconstructionist architecture has a lot of problems with weather leaks and its long term durability goes against sustainability objectives. Of course, architecture continues to evolve.
Portland is architecture-poor because we are cheap. And today it is Asia with the great budgets and experimental forms. As a fan of Brown and Venturi's Learning From Las Vegas, I'm especially interested in whole-building LED screens.
One of the tools of architects are physical scale models. Today they are supplemented by VR, but there is still a pleasure in models. Allied Works is known for its artistically crafted models. They have a book of them, Case Work.
City of Possibility is a show of architectural models, including city planning models. It was arranged by Oregon architecture schools and collaborators. Curated by Justin Fowler, Elisandra Garcia, Anna Goodman, Randy Gragg, Juan Manuel Heredia, and Will Smith. Many events, some with fees, unfold over the time of the exhibition detailed on their website. January 31 is the public opening. It would be good for parents with family interested in architecture.
City of Possibility, https://cityofpossibility.net/ Opening at the Expensify Building 401 SW 5th and the JK Gill Building 408 SW 5th 6PM-9 Free
