• Journal of architectural history
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• v.9 no.2 s.23
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• pp.85-100
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• 2000

This paper is a study of the Beaux-Arts discipline of architecture, as it was established during the late nineteenth century in America. It focuses on trio particular modes of vision and representation that were at the heart of the discipline. The paper argues that Beaux Arts vision was centered on what may be called 'planar vision'; a mode of seeing through which the multiple aspects of the architectural design imbedded in the plan were read and re-interpreted. Similarly Beaux-Arts training in drawing required its student to draw within the multiple layers of historical traces; the new design being in effect a new layer placed on often unseen traces of monumental precedent. The theoretical basis of this practice was not based on history but on the concept of composition. Composition, in the French tradition was regarded more a matter of practice than theory. The Anglo-American discourse on composition, on the other hand, formed a body of theoretical literature based on formalist assumptions. There was, however, a fundamental gap between these formalist theories of composition and the 'layered' modes of vision and drawing involved in the design process. This practice leaned more on the modern romantic notion of 'intuition' for its theoretical basis, once again forming an immanent conflict with the mimetic practice of classical and historical architecture. The paper draws a picture of a discipline centered on a 'theory of the plan,' a potentially modern discipline integrated with classical forms and details. It was clearly effective as a practice. However, structured by conflicts between theory and practice, history and form, mimesis and intuition, the Beaux-Arts was unable to defend itself at the philosophical and theoretical level the modernists engaged their attacks on this system. At the same time, the paper poses the question of how different modern architecture is from this system. Is not the 'theory of plan,' in its many transformations and guises, still the central discipline of twentieth century modern architecture, and is it not structured by basically the same kind of conflicts and paradox that were immanent to the Beaux-Arts system.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.205-215
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• 2010

The professional alliance between disciplines of architecture and furniture design in the interwar years as displayed in the prominent architectural exhibitions of the era is interesting in the context of professionalization of American architecture. The way furniture design gradually became part of the architectural shows not only reflected but provided the practical field in which the architectural institution sought, under the new social order since the mid 1910s, a new professional cast-departing from the former milieu in the realm of high-art by the Beaux-Arts Movement. Exhibitions held by the Architectural League of New York in the 1920s revealed that the early impetus for reformation toward efficiency had been subsumed by the system of Beaux-Arts. By contrast, "The Architect and the Industrial Arts" show of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which the most prominent architects of the era exercised their professional expertise in the design of "Moderne Style" interior furnishings, clearly shows how architects, in the milieu of expanding commercial market, sought to align their profession as industrial designers.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.23-30
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• 2008

This thesis aims to analyze the visual perceptual effects drawn by 'axial composition and divergence' and to interpret the architecture of Kahn in respect of 'axial composition and divergence'. Axial composition of the form, the location of the entrance and divergence of internal movement were checked up about 53 works by extracting parti which is basic element of spatial composition. The 3D modeling simulation was performed for the selected 10 works in order to analyze the visual perceptual effect due to divergence of the internal movement. The reaction of the observer's actions and visual perception by 'axial composition and divergence' is presented in the following steps. 1. Divergence of the entrance/a panorama of expanding planes. 2. Divergence of internal movement/The process of perception of visual rotation and central spatial form. 'Perceptive form' created by 'divergence' is the result of diverse and flexible series of processes which must be experienced in person in order to reach the space as a room with a definite domain and center.