Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Italian Rationalism: A strict frontal grid whose bays are equal and whose voids are not, so that the rhythm is regular and the reading is not.
- Type
- Set in Italian Rationalism's manner (A geometric sans set to the same module as the bays, with the leading derived from the same proportion.), and let Stripped Classicism's lettering (Incised roman capitals, widely spaced, centred on the axis and stated once only.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Italian Rationalism's material (White render against polished marble and plate glass, with reveals deep enough to cast a real shadow line.); bring in exactly one thing from Stripped Classicism (Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Italian Rationalism Keeping the white box and dropping the proportion: without the underlying ratios it is generic modernism, and the whole argument of these buildings was that the ratios were still present.
- Stripped Classicism Reaching for it because it looks austere and expensive: the symmetry and the blank wall make a claim of authority whether or not you intended one.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Italian Rationalism (Style, 1926–1943) and its accent from Stripped Classicism (Style, 1920s–1950s). Structural cues: White volumes and a regular rhythm of bays; Deep overhangs and bands of shadow; Marble set against glass; Classical proportion, translated. Accent cues, used sparingly: The rhythm of columns stripped of ornament; A strong axis and symmetry; Smooth planes of stone; Walls without large openings. Composition: A strict frontal grid whose bays are equal and whose voids are not, so that the rhythm is regular and the reading is not.. Type and lettering: A geometric sans set to the same module as the bays, with the leading derived from the same proportion.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface.. Mood: Trust, Luxury, Technology, Calm. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Italian Rationalism 1926–1943 / Style / Modern Architecture
An Italian movement that set out to make the abstraction of modern architecture and the classicism of the Mediterranean hold at the same time. What looks like a white box is in fact carrying ancient proportion in the rhythm of its bays, the depth of its overhangs and the planes of its marble. A textbook for refusing to set the modern against the traditional.
- Stripped Classicism 1920s–1950s / Style / Modern Architecture
The manner of government and memorial building in which classical architecture is shorn of ornament, leaving only proportion, axis and the rhythm of the columns. That it still reads as classical without ornament made it a cheap means of speaking authority. Important as a case in which the minimal and the intimidating live together.
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