Formalism architecture

Author: Wang Jianghua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: Formalist aesthetics has had a profound impact on modern art, including architecture. From the early pure and abstract architectural styles of the De Stijl and Constructivist movements, to Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe's minimalist works and the "International Style," to later movements like the "White Painters," modern architects tended to view architecture as a supersocial, transcendent, self-sufficient, and purely abstract formal structure. This book explores in depth, from the perspective of modern aesthetics and literary theory, the intrinsic theoretical roots of the transformation and development of architectural forms in the Modernist architectural movement. Formalist literary theory originated in the first decade of the 20th century. This literary trend not only greatly influenced the abstract, non-representational modern art movement but also directly contributed to the emergence and development of structuralism and semiotic aesthetics, while guiding modern architecture toward a path of formal self-awareness. The article subsequently discusses the "formal structure" literary theory that traces from "Russian Formalism" to "French Structuralism" to "American Semiotics." Finally, it introduces the shift and expression in contemporary architectural aesthetics and the tendencies of formal aesthetics in contemporary Chinese architecture.