F U T U R I S M, this great word that no matter from where you are, makes you think about something that belongs to “ tomorrow “. Everything started though in the XX century with Ferruccio Busoni’s essays, where he expressed his passion for speed, technology and violence. The plane, car and industrial city became futurists’ favorite and outlined human’s glory over nature. Later, architects like Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos started the first sketches of their Citta Nuova, the new city, that became the symbol of a new era.
Since then, the value of the architecture relies only in the original disposal of the primary materials violently colored. The massive, heroic constructions define the industrial expressionism. Futurists’ vision consisted in an extremely industrialized and mechanical city, like a net of interconnected buildings, a purely urban universe, alive and dynamic. Their tools and symbol to capture everything were the sky-scrapers, as a proof to industrial science greatness.
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| https://www.pinterest.com/pin/464715255277334089/ |
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They were able to “ dream “ so big and sketch the cities so different from how they were before because they acted as there was no tradition on their shoulders. Elisa Franco from the Spanish course also spotted this idea: “ es necesario empezar a replantear la arquitectura desde cero, ya que en el momento que ésta rompe con la tradición no hay nada más que hacer; y el hecho de haber perdido el sentido de la monumentalidad les hace llegar a una nueva conclusión: Plantean un nuevo modelo de ciudad”. Their new city has to most of all be f u n c t i o n a l , with a swiss watch precision, it has to push the boundaries of science and technology.
An interesting detail about their conception was their conclusion that humans and obviously the human mind is in a continuous change, it evolves and it is reshaped by conceptions, new ideas, evolution of psychology etc. Thus, they don’t accept the idea that a building or a city is something static. They believe that these elements have to metamorphose in detail and match with the new shape that humans’ mind is. Furthermore, they see the city as a human body or a car, a complex system that relies on i n t e r c o n n e c t i o n s . A system where every single tiny part is important and in absence of which the system is prone to malfunction, a chain where every piece has the space to get redefined and occupy as much space as needed without compromising the outer shape, elements that have the freedom to experiment and evolve, but still achieve the same functions and aim the same result. As an analogy, the following is a good projection of their ideas.
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| https://www.pinterest.com/pin/139541288424366762/ |
From this metaphor we can conclude that the buildings become versatile dots that occupy a certain space at a certain time in the city, from which one can trace lines to interconnect them, lines that became the symbol for the relationships established between the edifices. This idea of a city seen as a net is also present in futurist mentalities and the following images would be close to their vision :
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| http://technicity.osu.edu/share-a-photo-that-shows-the-use-of-a-specific-type-of-technology-that-you-support-in-technicity/archived |
They enjoyed VIOLENCE of shapes, v e l o c i t y of movement, massive multiplication, impressive high silhouettes and they were showing everything with pride, not only in the shapes, but also in the materials chosen. They played a lot with mirror and glass. Why? Because everybody knows what are their properties: to create an incredible game of multiplication, distortion, reflection, refraction, amplification of the perspective, inversion. They could make the contours of their building vanish and create the effect of “ hide and seek “: they created a shape that was not very visible, but was playing a huge impact acting as a magnifier and multiplier for the environment. All this illusion game would create more speed, would bring more violence to the city, more confusion and divisions. Almost like a disease that makes the body cells react against to the organism and then multiplying till the whole system becomes infected and collapses. A building becomes a particle that keeps reshaping and spreading into million pieces until it fills the entire space. A closer look in the materials, more towards painting and photography really, is reflected in Maura McDonnell’s document (http://dahphd.ie/mauramcdonnell/dah/futurism-movement-and-sensation/ ), where she wonders “ how was something so ephemeral and invisible to the eye as speed to be rendered in painting? Something invisible but felt?
In the two painting manifestos and in particular the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, added to the futurist list of statements is the celebration of science – ‘victorious science’. Science could reveal what was hidden in nature and to our vision, x-rays had penetrated the ‘opacity’ and materiality of the body. Chronophotography and the time-lapse photography of Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey had provided a means of analysing and seeing movement via an image by breaking down movement into a sequence of superimposed images, emulated then in futurist painting.”
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Giacomo Balla, Speed of a Motorcycle, 1913, Oil on Canvas
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The aim of the futurists is to make the decoration vanish and give space to a FUNCTIONAL and dynamic base that completely fulfill a human’s need. This idea is also reflected in Laura Prats, a Spanish course student’s document : “Lo decorativo tiene que desaparecer, ser abolido, hacer que no sea una copia del pasado, aplicar destreza técnica y científica. La transformación será el final de la arquitectura monumental y podremos empezar a construir los nuevos cimientos de la nueva ciudad”. Moreover, the human becomes the base and the human mind becomes the tool that creates the city, in relationship with it’s emerging needs. As an example, I think that the following images express this idea.
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As a conclusion, although the entire system of ideas that composes the term FUTURISM is really wide and deep, but the feelings of revolt, rebellion, strike, opposition, aggressiveness and progress could be highlighted more genuine only by quoting from the architects: “We feel that we are no longer part of the people from the cathedrals, the palaces and the court halls are, but the people of the great hotels, the railway stations, the immense streets, the huge ports, covered markets […]., We have to invent and build the futuristic city […]. “(quoted. according to Conrad, p 32.34). “- Beauty, it is only available in a fight. One work without an aggressive character can not be identified as a masterpiece […] We will destroy the museums, libraries and academies of every kind … […] we will sing for those.. […] the tide of revolutions […] -. “(quoted. according to Marinetti, S. 19:28)
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