French and German names for a new style around 1900. Especially art nouveau has evolved from decorative and applied art. Samuel Bing opened his art shop "Salon de l'Art Nouveau" in Paris in 1895. The German name is derived from the magazine Die Jugend, edited in Munchen since 1896. In Britain the names art nouveau, modern style or Liberty style are use, after the firm Liberty and Co. te Londen; in Italy Stile Liberty or Stile Floreale, in Austria Sezessionstil, after the Vienese group Sezession. The style is characterised by asymmetry and extravagant, elegant lines. Especially the whiplash motive is very popular. It can be seen as a reaction to emerging mass production, which in the eyes of the supporters had taken away all beauty from objects. When objects were again based on nature, then beauty could again be a part of life. But only when it was applied in all artistic disciplines. In architecture the apllication of iron gave new possiblities for designs of stairwells, facades and balconies. The architects often were also interiour designers. Changes in social and economical conditions after World War I brought Jugendstil to an end.
I
De Stijl is the name of a magazine, founded in 1917 by Theo van Doesburg in Leiden, as a mouthpiece for a group of van painters, architects, sculptors and writers. The Stijl Movement included painters like Piet Mondriaan and Vilmos Huszar, architect J.J.P. Oud and writer A. Kok. They were later joined by architect Gerrit Rietveld, painters Hans Richter and El Lissitzky, architects Cornelis van Eesteren and F. Kiesler, architect G. Schröder-Schräder, painters César Domela and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart and sculptorr Constantin Brancusi, while van Doesburg from 1920 started to write poetry and proze.
The principles binding these artists together can be described as complete abstraction - completely closing out any reference to the perceptible reality - limiting itsefl to the most elementary – straight lines, straigt angles and primary colours, red, yellow and blue and three non primary colours black, grey and white. With these limitations the artists tried to express a universal reality.
Oud's project for a factory in Purmerend (1918), was the first result in architectuur, with Rietvelds chair, soon followed by Oud's housing in Rotterdam; after experiments with designs, jointly by Van Doesburg, Van Eesteren and Rietveld (1923), Rietvelds Schröder-huis in Utrecht was built, as was Van Eesterens design for a house on the river. Van Eesteren also used the Stijl's principles for designing a western extension of the city of Amsterdam.
Functionalism (Het Nieuwe Bouwen)
This term is used in Dutch architectural history between 1925 and 1940, but was never clearly defined. It is not as much a architectural style as more new way of organising construction, meeting new demands for demographic and economic scale. Its supporters held the opinion that traditional construction methods could never keep up with increasing demand for new housing. Functionalism, standardasation and economies of scale were key words. Their solutions were pretty radical. The workers house should no longer be a derivative of the bourgeois villa, but something entirely new. Funtionalists aimed at collective structures, with emphasis on practical lay-outs, comfort and light, in which gardens were traded in for collective facilities like parks, squares and roof gardens. Direct confrontation with the street disappeared and was replaced with a connection with nature and sunlight, by using big windows. Concrete and steel were used to lift the strucures from the ground.
Functionalist architects were mainly influenced by Bauhaus and LeCorbusier united ‘de 8 en Opbouw’ (named after their magazines with those names). Important representatives were. J.A. Brinkman, B. Bijvoet, J. Duiker, L.C. van der Vlugt, W. van Tijen, J.J. van Loghem and J.J.P. Oud.