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Modern architecture ‘needs no frills’
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THAT modern architecture needs no frills was stressed by Mr. Carl Lindbom on Feb. 9 at a reception given in his honor at the office of Mr. Robert Fan, with whom Mr. Lindbom has gone into partnership. The reception was well attended, and Mr. Lindbom, with the aid of beautifully made models explained the new “International Style of Architecture” of which is he an exponent.
The style, Mr. Lindbom said, is rapidly becoming universal as combining beauty with simplicity, it is sweeping away older, more expensive styles. Early in the 19th and 20th centuries, he went on architecture aimed at the imitation of former periods by the use of “motives and ornaments placed on the body of the buildings without having an inner connection with them.”
On the other hand, Mr. Lindbom does not approve of “Modern Architecture,” which is “not architecture” but contains various experiments in vertical and horizontal expression, shiny metals and various ornaments, all of which are “largely superficial things.”
The international style, however, demonstrates a type, which, not existing for its own sake, is determined by the particular nature of the building it is intended for. For instance, a “talkie” studio, designed by Mr. Lindbom, is roughly in the form of a semi-circle. By the use of this form of construction all supports and beams are done away with, the entire building being executed in concrete and sternly business-like has no external frills.
Another instance is an apartment building, constructed with steel, concrete and glass and so built that each apartment juts out somewhat like a shelf from the main building and being made of steel and concrete requires outward support. Light, air and sunshine thus are able to play upon all three sides of the apartment, no matter in which direction it faces. There are no external frills, none being necessary.
Mr. Lindbom, completing his schooling at the Royal University, Denmark studied architecture at the Royal Art Academies of Copenhagen and Sweden. At one time or another he has been a student of such modern architects as Walter Gropious, Le Corbusier, Lurcat and F. L. Wright.
Some of his works include the Bernheimer Gardens at Santa Monica on the estate of Mr H. C. Cotton; architect of San Clemente City, California, chief designer of the Bennar Berit Temple, which costing G$2,000,000, is exploited as the finest example of Italian architecture in America; the Normandy Village, Hollywood, home of many of the stars; and he has just completed the plans for the first hotel in the international style to be built at Las Vegas, Nevada, which will have a capacity of 1,000 rooms, and will include swimming pools, ballrooms, theater, casino and very extensive grounds and stables.
“New buildings will soon be undertaken,” concluded Mr. Lindbom and he would draw to the attention of financiers the cheapness, simplicity, and beauty of the international style, which would be all they would require for their purposes and more.
— Excerpt from The North-China Herald (February 15, 1933)
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