A Brief Study On The Architectural Theories And Design Of Augustus Pugin And Their Influence On Late Nineteenth Century British Architecture

The research on Augustus Pugin, father of functionalism, qualified though, also one of the un-acquainted among the first generation of19th century Great Britain architects, is to apprehendand interpret the nature of Arts and Crafts Movement and its source, the Gothic Revival, bothacknowledged as the pre-performance of European Modern design revolution. The research in-cluded the study on Pugin’s architectural theories, his practice as an architect and his influenceon later British architects.The scientific architectural theories of Pugin consist of functionalism and material rationalism,both engendered by his suspect of formalism design in Georgian Period. Pugin’s functionalismcould be comprehended as the rule of “layout generating fa ade”, while his materialrationalism requires the respect for the physical features of construction material, and theexploration of its capabilities of tectonic composition.Functionalism and material rationalism, the dual cores of Pugin’s partly French-originatedtheories, gradually helped to set up a new and unprecedented perspective of architecturaljudgment in empiricism Britain, which put the end to the novelty of Neo-Classicism andRomanticism of Georgian Era, and to the further extent, redirected Great Britain design topragmatic Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts Movement.A breakthrough in Pugin’s practicing, his small detached houses as the modern architecturaltype in particular, both comes from the demand of burgeoning bourgeois of ever rising culturalself-identity, and his flexible application of his academic learning on his design. Pugin’shouses built by denuded material, relieved from artificiality, with the “renaissance” ofMedieval English Hall altogether regenerated a new type, which was vastly adopted by hissuccessors, thus prevailed in later19th century Great Britain.