Minimalism, functionalism and neo-eclectic Essay

Minimalism, functionalism and neo-eclectic - Essay Example Another important feature was simplicity. Simplicity was introduced to make a structure appear more natural and thus more livable. Smallness and simplicity thus became the core of minimalist aesthetics and have been associated with such important names as Walter Gropius, Alberto Giacometti, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Constantin Brancusi, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Barth has explained the minimalist doctrine in these words: "artistic effect may be enhanced by a radical economy of artistic means, even where such parsimony comprises other values: completeness, for example, or richness or precision of statement". Functionalism as the word suggests is a movement that focused on utility of structures. It was felt that a structure must do what it is intended to do. And while the movement may have suffered from ambiguity, no one can seriously deny the effectives of the basic doctrine of functionalism. Every object must be created to perform that job it is int ended to perform. It was felt that each part of a structure must serve a purpose. It was a rather austere and neutral approach to building as if a work of art was suddenly stripped off its soul. While utility was an important characteristic and one that even modern architects cannot ignore, basic aesthetic values were largely ignored and this gave rise to criticism. It was argued that if utility is taken a bit too far, things other than utility may take a backseat and thus the entire approach suffers. This has been interestingly explained by Pile (1979) in these words: "Simplistic discussions of function in design often lose sight of the complexity of multiple functional requirements that characterize the development of most modern objects. If one supposes that each thing has a function, it can seem that discussions of this matter are pointless. The definition of a chair, after all, requires that any chair can be sat in. Similarly, all knives must cut, airplanes fly, and failure in this kind of primary function dooms an object to total failure and, in all probability, to the junk heap. In practice, every object has, in addition to the obvious primary function, many other subsidiary