Modern in a Minute

One of the scariest things a client can say when being asked of their vision for a project is, "well, I want it to be kind of modern."  I guess the layman equivalent would be someone saying, "I want you to make me laugh."  To attempt to get inside a person's head and evaluate what THEY consider funny, is about as likely as guessing what one constitutes as "modern."  I think most often the confusion arises out of the literal definition of modern which is something that is new or in the present.  How can architecture built in the 30's and 50's be considered new?  The word I use when I want to connote something is new is "contemporary."  For me, "modern" imbues an entirely different meaning. 

So to try and dispel any misconceived notions of what modern architecture truly is, I have distilled the entire theory of modern architecture into a 1-minute snippet.  I suppose the next step for our attention-deficit generation is to try and pare it further to 142 characters.  But for now, 1-minute is what I am striving for.  [Note: while many of these principles apply to other disciplines (art, sculpture, politics, etc.) I am principally focused on the specific attributes of architecture]

What is modern?

At the end of the 19th Century, architecture was a formal language of classical expression founded on clear rules of order taken from the Greeks and Romans.  (e.g. the White House the Capitol Building)  Enter 1900 (roughly) and the modern movement.  A few people began to challenge the accepted aesthetic of design and viewed it as fanciful and superfluous.  For this new school, the root of architecture was the post, the beam, and the plane.  If you boiled it down to these component parts, the expression took on a much more clean, simple and organized language.  This stripped and raw aesthetic, along with the advent of industrialization of building materials and construction practices, made mass production and reproduction possible thereby eliminating elitist architecture.  Anyone and everyone was entitled to a building, produced by technologically innovative methods, expressing its function in its form, using materials to their limits (glass, steel, and concrete in particular), and devoid of any unnecessary detail.

This glory period was ultimately short lived.  As the theory took on larger and larger acceptance in practice, whole cities were conceived in the high modern style eliminating specific human characteristics such as scale, individualism, and personal space that were integral to comfort.  It was at this point, in the middle 20th Century that modern was rejected for its ironic lack of functionality and over commodification.  There was a resulting post-modern backlash which I will not get into, but today the principles of modern are back, yet in a more reserved and careful approach. 

In conclusion, when someone says "modern," it means an architecture of simple forms, innovative materials, clean lines, and functionality.  True modern examples in Rochester?  The Mayo Building, the IBM Complex, and the Hilton Building.  Contemporary modern examples in Rochester? The Rochester Art Center, the B'Nai Israel Synagogue, and the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center. 

Modern is not all bad.  Like jokes, some are better than others.  Modern has significantly altered the face of architecture in only 100 years.  In many ways, it has contributed to our built environment in more long term ways than classical architecture ever did.  But like sweets, alcohol, and sex...all are best in moderation.