The Architecture of Art Deco

A movement which started in the beginning of the 20th century at the era of Bauhaus and the International style which both of them left an impact on the architectural world. The Art Deco was not just a movement which effected the architectural world but it left a huge impact on furniture, art and fashion.

The movement started in 1925 in a great exhibition that display Nouveau designs in the french museum ' Le Musee des Arts Decoratifs'.

As a movement the Art Deco was one which displayed  dominance in architecture as the features of it's architectural design showed the importance of the building. The design  of Art Deco was used by big business for their building design as it was ideal to express the wealth and strength of the company by the characteristics of the design such as the vertical geometric shapes which were bold in the design as buildings that started to be designed in the Art Deco style in the cities were more prominent than other ordinary building. A clear example of a dominant building which still dominate the skyline of New York is the Empire State Building.

Empire State Building

Although the different movements of Art Deco, Bauhaus and International Style took place in the same era, the work produced were much different then each other. Bauhaus took a different and more contemporary approach which combined the mass production with contemporary design and introduction of new materials. Art Deco was a movement which its architecture stated dominance with the bulky vertical geometrical shapes combined with decorative ornaments on the top of the building , and the international style took different approach in architectural design and different approach to the construction of buildings.

When it comes to the design of Art Deco, one of the main features of the building which is the windows were built in a continuous horizontal strips of glass almost like the ordinary windows that we find in common buildings. In contrast the this type of window construction, the architects from the International Style were heading to a new approach in design and started to design buildings with large windows like thew were trying to invite the outside inside their home. A key element in design which gave them the chance to do so was their new approach in construction by using pillars inside they managed to reduce the sizes of the wall and enlarge the windows. This feature enabled to create new way of inserting large windows as less supporting walls were needing unlike the construction of Art Deco buildings which needed larger walls to support the structure.

International Style building

Reference:

wenthworth. 2013. wenthworthstudio. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.wentworthstudio.com/historic-styles/art-deco. [Accessed 28 November 13].

Rendy Juster. 2010. Decopix. [ONLINE] Available at: http://decopix.com/about_art_deco_architecture/. [Accessed 28 November 13].