New space

In 1924 van Doesburg published his “De Stijl” architecture manifest, where exposed the new concepts of modern design termed by him as Neo-Plasticism. In this manifest van Doesburg showed that the times are changing. Buildings should not be based on any historical style. The new architecture should be elemental, functional and economical. Statues and corbels replaced by bare steel beams and glass panels. According to author

“These elements – such as function, mass, surface, time, space, light, color, material, etc –are plastic.”

http://arc.housing.salle.url.edu/sdr/private/entregas/7ad5ed29fd74fa50619887262769229a.swf

Pure elemental forms are not obstructed by old norms and definitions of beauty. The buildings and the structure itself are not defined by concrete from the beginning. The availability of the new materials for construction caused huge development of creativity. The wall doesn’t have to be the load-bearing, solid wall anymore, and the window become wall. The inside and the outside merge into one space.

“The new architecture has disrupted the wall and, in so doing, destroyed the division between inside and outside”

Contra-Construction Project, Axonometric, van Doesburg, 1923

One of the well-known model of van Doesburg is Contra-Construction Project Axonometric. It is an interesting two-dimensional representation of a project of a private home. Van Doesburg did not contain clear designation of floors and windows. The outline of the house can be seen with the essence of De Stijl. There are large open spaces in the design which is consistent with the idea of keeping the new architecture open.

“The new architecture is open.  The whole consists of a single space, which is subdivided according to functional requirements.”

Opening spaces in close connected with development of the new building system. First samples of the new structure encouraged by Doesburg was made few decades before his statements in De Stijl. In the 1870s took place the introduction of the structural steel. It caused the technical innovations and initiated production of the skeletal-frame concept in the 1880s. Engineers and architects got aware of the potential of replacing the very thick, heavy load-bearing walls of the masonry system with lighter, thinner construction of the skeletal frame. Architects and engineers were experimenting with shape combinations that produced the most efficient columns, girder, beams, ect. Wide flange shapes in common use today.

Turning Torso, S. Calatrava, 2005

“Walls are no longer load-bearing; they have been reduced to points of support”

The skeletal and skin system might be compared to the human body, which has a rigid bony skeleton to support its basic frame and a more fragile skin for sheathing. We find it in modern skyscrapers, with their steel frames (skeletons) supporting the structure and a sheathing (skin) of glass or some other light material. Also, most houses today are built with a skeleton of wood beams nailed together, topped with a sheathing of light wood boards, shingles, aluminum siding.