The Industrial revolution of the 18th century sparked a beginning to an era of great confusion of identity in terms of political powers, economic progress, and also in architecture itself. The countless reformations, revolutions, and drastic shifts in European countries such as the French revolution left our ancestors clue-less of what is standing ahead. Initiated in early 19th century, people began pursuing for discovery of a clear identity. Thus began a period of experimentation, an eclectic mix of old and new components. Refusing to plunge entirely in to the traps of rapid technological advancement, the 19th century architecture acts as a buffer zone, the transition in to a new era, a period of self discovery and great confusion. As technology advances, buildings began performing contemporary functions, while built in classical form. The contradiction between the function of the building and its style began to take shape. The period is sometimes refereed to as Eclecticism, which originated from the Greeks as : "choosing according to quality."
Contrasts, 1841 by A.W. Pugin, was one of the most influential collection of illustrations conveying the superiority of Gothic Ornaments over pure-neoclassicism. Pugin believed that the pure forms of neo classical architecture proved too banal and uninteresting, reducing the richness of European cities. He proposed "Contrasts" to replace Gothic style with clean neo-classicism as it proves more rich and interesting. The Struggle between the pro-classic and the pro-gothic began forming adding on to the already confusing era.
Another approach by the"Art Nouvea" movement took a different approach to Pugins solution. Followin the great turmoils of Europe, they insist that people take a step back, refusing to accept the technological advancements of the industrial revolution, and return closer to our origins : nature. The use of ornaments by Art-Novea movement focused on imitations of organic forms extracted directly from natural elements.
In the period of Eclecticism, clients would hire architects to design buildings in their own style of preference. Factories, Libraries, and Commercial buildings are built in their own perfected style. For example, A client might as an architect to built his building in Gothic style and ornamentation while it is adjacent to a neoclassical commercial building.Thomas Leverton Donaldson, a architectur professor of London University once said in 1842 : "there is no style which does not have its particular beauties; there is no fixed style now prevalent; we are wandering in a labyrinth of experiments."
When everyone tries to express their identity in different directions, collective identity is lost, thus resulting in a confusing state of experimentation where there are numerous solutions to exploit, try and findout. Buildings of this era are mainly up to the owners preference, and how they want to contradictorily fit their contemporary functions in to a borrowed style of architecture. Its a mess.
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