EXPRESSIONISM: AS AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

According to Cambridge Dictionary, Expressionism is: a style of art, music, or writing, found especially in the 1900s, that expresses extreme feelings1. However, a wider definition would show that expressionism reached almost every visual and performance art as well as architecture; its roots go back before the 1900’s to include work of artists like El Greco, and architects like Antonio Gaudi, and extend to present; it expresses a diverse scope of ideas not only extreme feelings. This thesis discusses the significance of Expressionism forms and philosophy in inspiring contemporary architecture, which is overlooked for decades. The research presents a historical review of the development of the expressionist architecture before the First World War illustrating the wide range of ideas and influences it reflects, followed by analytical study of the directions expressionist architecture developed after the First World War that cover the experiments in crystalline forms; the organic architecture; and the Bauhaus abstract expressionism. The study proceeds in a comparative analysis between the forms and philosophy of expressionists’ architecture and some work of the contemporary architects like; Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, and Santiago Calatrava to show their continuity with expressionists’ forms and ideas and the way in which they are developed away from the political and economic restrictions the expressionist’s architecture experienced. Furthermore, the study illustrates the way in which ideas similar to that of the expressionists’ stimulated collaboration of architecture and industry, in Gehry’s use of customized digital fabrication, in Bilbao Guggenheim Museum; and in Calatrava’s development of kinetic systems to reach a real movement in his buildings.