High-Tech Architecture

High-tech architecture, which is also known as the Late Modernism or Structural Expressionism, is one of an architectural style which emerged in the 1970s. The various features of the high tech industries were used as a design to build new buildings.

Lots of steels and concrete was being used in this kind of architecture. This kind of architecture appeared to be a bridge between the modern architecture and the post modern architecture. However it is still not known that from where this kind of architecture started and where the post modern architecture ended.

In the year 1980s the high tech architecture started to look different from the post modern architecture. Many of the themes and ideas which originated during the post modern times were added to the high tech architecture.

As you would have experienced the brutalism, I must say that the structural expressionist buildings also revealed the design both inside and outside the house.

If you will look at some of the style’s premier practitioners then you will find that it would definitely include the British architect Norman Foster, whose work has since earned him knighthood, and Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava who is also known for his organic, skeleton-like designs.

Those buildings which have been designed in this style usually consist of a clear glass facade, with the building’s network of support beams exposed behind it. If you will look for the most renowned, the most famous and easily recognized building built in this style then you will definitely come across the I.M. Pei’s Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. The World Trade Center in New York City, although generally considered to be an International Style building, was in principle a Structural Expressionist design due to its load-bearing steel exoskeleton.

Characteristics

Characteristics of high-tech architecture have really not remained unique and have varied somewhat, yet all have emphasized technical elements. They included mostly included the prominent display of the building’s technical and functional components, and also an orderly arrangement and use of pre-fabricated elements. Glass walls and steel frames were also hugely popular.

To swank technical features, they were externalized, often along with load-bearing arrangements. If you want to see an example then I must say that you will not find the more illustrious example than Pompidou Centre. The ventilation ducts are all outstandingly shown on the outer surface. This was a fundamental design, as preceding ventilation ducts would have been a constituent hidden on the inside of the building. The means of admittance to the building is also on the outside, with the large tube allowing visitors to enter the construction.

This kind of architecture are really quiet popular now days and you will definitely find out that they are more powerful as well.