International Style

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International Style architecture
Lovell House, Los Angeles, California.JPG
Lovell House in Los Angeles (1927–29), by Richard Neutra
VillaSavoye.jpg
Villa Savoye in Paris (1928–31), by Le Corbusier
EquitableAtlanta.jpg
Equitable Building in Atlanta (1966–68), by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
PSFSBuilding1985.jpg
Loews Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia (completed 1932), by George Howe and William Lescaze
NewYorkSeagram 04.30.2008.JPG
Seagram Building in New York City (1955–58), by Mies van der Rohe
Paimio Sanatorium2.jpg
Paimio Sanatorium in Finland, (1929–1930) by Alvar Aalto
Grand Istiqlal Mosque.jpg
Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta (completed 1978), by Friedrich Silaban
Years active1920s–1970s
LocationWorldwide

The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. [1] [2] It is defined by strict adherence to functional and utilitarian designs and construction methods, typically expressed through minimalism. [2] [3] The style is characterized by modular and rectilinear forms, flat surfaces devoid of ornamentation and decoration, open and airy interiors that blend with the exterior, and the use of glass, steel, and concrete. [4] [5]

Contents

The International Style is sometimes called rationalist architecture and the modern movement, [1] [6] [7] [8] although the former is mostly used in English to refer specifically to either Italian rationalism or the style that developed in 1920s Europe more broadly. [9] [10] In continental Europe, this and related styles are variably called Functionalism, Neue Sachlichkeit ("New Objectivity"), De Stijl ("The Style"), and Rationalism, all of which are contemporaneous movements and styles that share similar principles, origins, and proponents. [11]

Rooted in the modernism movement, [5] the International Style is closely related to "Modern architecture" and likewise reflects several intersecting developments in culture, politics, and technology in the early 20th century. [5] After being brought to the United States by European architects in the 1930s, it quickly became an "unofficial" North American style, particularly after World War II. [5] The International Style reached its height in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was widely adopted worldwide for its practicality and as a symbol of industry, progress, and modernity. The style remained the prevailing design philosophy for urban development and reconstruction into the 1970s, especially in the Western world. [4]

The International Style was one of the first architectural movements to receive critical renown and global popularity. [5] Regarded as the high point of modernist architecture, it is sometimes described as the "architecture of the modern movement" and credited with "single-handedly transforming the skylines of every major city in the world with its simple cubic forms". [5] [12] The International Style's emphasis on transcending historical and cultural influences, while favoring utility and mass-production methods, made it uniquely versatile in its application; the style was ubiquitous in a wide range of purposes, ranging from social housing and governmental buildings to corporate parks and skyscrapers.

Nevertheless, these same qualities provoked negative reactions against the style as monotonous, austere, and incongruent with existing landscapes; these critiques are conveyed through various movements such as postmodernism, new classical architecture, and deconstructivism. [13]

Postmodern architecture was developed in the 1960s in reaction to the International Style, becoming dominant in the 1980s and 1990s.

Concept and definition

The term "International Style" was first used in 1932 by the historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip Johnson to describe a movement among European architects in the 1920s that was distinguished by three key design principles: (1) "Architecture as volume – thin planes or surfaces create the building’s form, as opposed to a solid mass"; (2) "Regularity in the facade, as opposed to building symmetry"; and (3) "No applied ornament". [14]

Kiefhoek Worker's Housing project, now a Museum,Rotterdam, by Jacobus Oud (1930) Overzicht uiteinde straat eindigend in winkel in de wijk Kiefhoek van J.J.P. Oud - Rotterdam - 20536890 - RCE.jpg
Kiefhoek Worker's Housing project, now a Museum,Rotterdam, by Jacobus Oud (1930)

International style is an ambiguous term; the unity and integrity of this direction is deceptive. Its formal features were revealed differently in different countries. Despite the unconditional commonality, the international style has never been a single phenomenon. [15] However, International Style architecture demonstrates a unity of approach and general principles: lightweight structures, skeletal frames, new materials, a modular system, an open plan, and the use of simple geometric shapes.

The problem of the International Style is that it is not obvious what type of material the term should be applied to: at the same time, there are key monuments of the 20th century (Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye; Wright's Fallingwater House) and mass-produced architectural products of their time. [16] Here it is appropriate to talk about the use of recognizable formal techniques and the creation of a standard architectural product, rather than iconic objects.

Hitchcock and Johnson's 1932 MoMA exhibition catalog identified three principles of the style: volume of internal space (as opposed to mass and solidity), flexibility and regularity (liberation from classical symmetry). and the expulsion of applied ornamentation ('artificial accents'). [17]

Cover of The International Style (1932, reprinted 1996) by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson Cover of the 1932 book The International Style.jpg
Cover of The International Style (1932, reprinted 1996) by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson

Common characteristics of the International Style include: a radical simplification of form, a rejection of superfluous ornamentation, bold repetition and embracement of sleek glass, steel and efficient concrete as preferred materials. Accents were found to be suitably derived from natural design irregularities, such as the position of doors and fire escapes, stair towers, ventilators and even electric signs. [17]

Further, the transparency of buildings, construction (called the honest expression of structure), and acceptance of industrialized mass-production techniques contributed to the international style's design philosophy. Finally, the machine aesthetic, and logical design decisions leading to support building function were used by the International architect to create buildings reaching beyond historicism. The ideals of the style are commonly summed up in three slogans: ornament is a crime, truth to materials, form follows function; and Le Corbusier's description: "A house is a machine to live in". [18] [19]

International style is sometimes understood as a general term associated with such architectural phenomena as Brutalist architecture, constructivism, functionalism, and rationalism.

Phenomena similar in nature also existed in other artistic fields, for example in graphics, such as the International Typographic Style and Swiss Style. [20] [21]

The Getty Research Institute defines it as "the style of architecture that emerged in The Netherlands, France, and Germany after World War I and spread throughout the world, becoming the dominant architectural style until the 1970s. The style is characterized by an emphasis on volume over mass, the use of lightweight, mass-produced, industrial materials, rejection of all ornament and colour, repetitive modular forms, and the use of flat surfaces, typically alternating with areas of glass." [22] Some researchers consider the International Style as one of the attempts to create an ideal and utilitarian form. [16]

Background

Around the start of the 20th century, a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional precedents with new social demands and technological possibilities. The work of Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde in Brussels, Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, Otto Wagner in Vienna and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new. These architects were not considered part of the International Style because they practiced in an "individualistic manner" and seen as the last representatives of Romanticism.

The International Style can be traced to buildings designed by a small group of modernists, the major figures of which include Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Jacobus Oud, Le Corbusier, Richard Neutra and Philip Johnson. [23]

The founder of the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius, along with prominent Bauhaus instructor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, became known for steel frame structures employing glass curtain walls.  One of the world's earliest modern buildings where this can be seen is a shoe factory designed by Gropius in 1911 in Alfeld, Germany, called the Fagus Works building. The first building built entirely on Bauhaus design principles was the concrete and steel Haus am Horn, built in 1923 in Weimar, Germany, designed by Georg Muche. [24] The Gropius-designed Bauhaus school building in Dessau, built 1925–26 and the Harvard Graduate Center (Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1949–50) also known as the Gropius Complex, exhibit clean lines [25] and a "concern for uncluttered interior spaces". [23]

Marcel Breuer, a recognized leader in Béton Brut (Brutalist) architecture and notable alumnus of the Bauhaus, [26] who also pioneered the use of plywood and tubular steel in furniture design, [27] and who after leaving the Bauhaus would later teach alongside Gropius at Harvard, is as well an important contributor to Modernism and the International Style. [28]

Prior to use of the term 'International Style', some American architects—such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Irving Gill—exemplified qualities of simplification, honesty and clarity. [29] Frank Lloyd Wright's Wasmuth Portfolio had been exhibited in Europe and influenced the work of European modernists, and his travels there probably influenced his own work, although he refused to be categorized with them. His buildings of the 1920s and 1930s clearly showed a change in the style of the architect, but in a different direction than the International Style. [29]

In Europe the modern movement in architecture had been called Functionalism or Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), L'Esprit Nouveau, or simply Modernism and was very much concerned with the coming together of a new architectural form and social reform, creating a more open and transparent society. [30]

The Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart, Germany (1927) Weissenhof-Luftbild-2004.01.jpg
The Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart, Germany (1927)

The "International Style", as defined by Hitchcock and Johnson, had developed in 1920s Western Europe, shaped by the activities of the Dutch De Stijl movement, Le Corbusier, and the Deutscher Werkbund and the Bauhaus. Le Corbusier had embraced Taylorist and Fordist strategies adopted from American industrial models in order to reorganize society. He contributed to a new journal called L'Esprit Nouveau that advocated the use of modern industrial techniques and strategies to create a higher standard of living on all socio-economic levels. In 1927, one of the first and most defining manifestations of the International Style was the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, overseen by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was enormously popular, with thousands of daily visitors. [31] [32]

1932 MoMA exhibition

Philip Johnson co-defined the International Style with Henry-Russell Hitchcock as a young college graduate, and later became one of its practitioners. Philip Johnson2.jpg
Philip Johnson co-defined the International Style with Henry-Russell Hitchcock as a young college graduate, and later became one of its practitioners.

The exhibition Modern Architecture: International Exhibition ran from February 9 to March 23, 1932, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in the Heckscher Building at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in New York. [33] Beyond a foyer and office, the exhibition was divided into six rooms: the "Modern Architects" section began in the entrance room, featuring a model of William Lescaze's Chrystie-Forsyth Street Housing Development in New York. From there visitors moved to the centrally placed Room A, featuring a model of a mid-rise housing development for Evanston, Illinois, by Chicago architect brothers Monroe Bengt Bowman and Irving Bowman, [34] as well as a model and photos of Walter Gropius's Bauhaus building in Dessau. In the largest exhibition space, Room C, were works by Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, J. J. P. Oud and Frank Lloyd Wright (including a project for a house on the Mesa in Denver, 1932). Room B was a section titled "Housing", presenting "the need for a new domestic environment" as it had been identified by historian and critic Lewis Mumford. In Room D were works by Raymond Hood (including "Apartment Tower in the Country" and the McGraw-Hill Building) and Richard Neutra. In Room E was a section titled "The extent of modern architecture", added at the last minute, [35] which included the works of thirty-seven modern architects from fifteen countries who were said to be influenced by the works of Europeans of the 1920s. Among these works was shown Alvar Aalto's Turun Sanomat newspaper offices building in Turku, Finland.

After a six-week run in New York City, the exhibition then toured the US – the first such "traveling-exhibition" of architecture in the US – for six years. [36]

Curators

MoMA director Alfred H. Barr hired architectural historian and critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson [35] to curate the museum's first architectural exhibition. The three of them toured Europe together in 1929 and had also discussed Hitchcock's book about modern art. By December 1930, the first written proposal for an exhibition of the "new architecture" was set down, yet the first draft of the book was not complete until some months later.

Publications

The 1932 exhibition led to two publications by Hitchcock and Johnson:

Previous to the 1932 exhibition and book, Hitchcock had concerned himself with the themes of modern architecture in his 1929 book Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration.

According to Terence Riley: "Ironically the (exhibition) catalogue, and to some extent, the book The International Style, published at the same time of the exhibition, have supplanted the actual historical event." [38]

Exemplary Uses of the International Style

The following architects and buildings were selected by Hitchcock and Johnson for display at the exhibition Modern Architecture: International Exhibition:

ArchitectBuildingLocationDate
Jacobus Oud Workers Houses (house blocks Kiefhoek) Flag of the Netherlands.svg Rotterdam, The Netherlands1924–1927
Otto Eisler Semi-detached Villa Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Brno, Czech Republic1926–1927
Walter Gropius Fagus Factory Flag of Germany.svg Alfeld, Germany1911
Bauhaus School Flag of Germany.svg Dessau, Germany1926
City Employment Office Flag of Germany.svg Dessau, Germany1928
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Apartment House, Weissenhof Estate Flag of Germany.svg Stuttgart, Germany1927
German pavilion at the Barcelona Expo Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona, Spain1929
Villa Tugendhat Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Brno, Czech Republic1930
Le Corbusier Villa Stein Flag of France.svg Garches, France1927
Villa Savoye Flag of France.svg Poissy, France1930
Carlos de Beistegui Champs-Élysées Penthouse Flag of France.svg Paris, France1931
Erich Mendelsohn Schocken Department Store Flag of Germany.svg Chemnitz, Germany1928–1930
Frederick John Kiesler Film Guild Cinema Flag of the United States.svg New York City, US1929
Raymond Hood McGraw-Hill Building Flag of the United States.svg New York City, US1931
George Howe & William Lescaze Loews Philadelphia Hotel Flag of the United States.svg Philadelphia, US1932
Monroe Bengt Bowman & Irving BowmanLux apartment block Flag of the United States.svg Evanston, US1931
Richard Neutra Lovell House Flag of the United States.svg Los Angeles, US1929
Otto Haesler Rothenberg Siedlung Flag of Germany.svg Kassel, Germany1930
Karl SchneiderKunstverein Flag of Germany.svg Hamburg, Germany1930
Alvar Aalto Turun Sanomat building Flag of Finland.svg Turku, Finland1930

Notable omissions

The exhibition excluded other contemporary styles that were exploring the boundaries of architecture at the time, including: Art Deco; German Expressionism, for instance the works of Hermann Finsterlin; and the organicist movement, popularized in the work of Antoni Gaudí. As a result of the 1932 exhibition, the principles of the International Style were endorsed, while other styles were classed less significant.

In 1922, the competition for the Tribune Tower and its famous second-place entry by Eliel Saarinen gave some indication of what was to come, though these works would not have been accepted by Hitchcock and Johnson as representing the "International Style". Similarly, Johnson, writing about Joseph Urban's recently completed New School for Social Research in New York, stated: "In the New School we have an anomaly of a building supposed to be in a style of architecture based on the development of the plan from function and facade from plan but which is a formally and pretentiously conceived as a Renaissance palace. Urban's admiration for the New Style is more complete than his understanding." [35]

California architect Rudolph Schindler's work was not a part of the exhibit, though Schindler had pleaded with Hitchcock and Johnson to be included. [39] Then, "[f]or more than 20 years, Schindler had intermittently launched a series of spirited, cantankerous exchanges with the museum." [40]

Before 1932

ArchitectBuildingLocationDate
Johannes Duiker and Bernard Bijvoet Zonnestraal Sanatorium Flag of the Netherlands.svg Hilversum, Netherlands1926–1928
Robert Mallet-Stevens houses on Rue Mallet-Stevens Flag of France.svg Paris, France1927
Villa Cavrois Flag of France.svg Croix, France1929
Eileen Gray E-1027 Flag of France.svg Cap Martin, France1929
Alejandro Bustillo House of Victoria Ocampo Flag of Argentina.svg Buenos Aires, Argentina1929
Alvar Aalto Paimio Sanatorium Flag of Finland.svg Turku, Finland1930
Leendert van der Vlugt Van Nelle Factory Flag of the Netherlands.svg Rotterdam, Netherlands 1926–1930
Joseph Emberton Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Essex, England1931

1932–1944

The Glass Palace, Heerlen, Netherlands, Frits Peutz (1935). Glaspaleis front-east.jpg
The Glass Palace, Heerlen, Netherlands, Frits Peutz (1935).

The gradual rise of the Nazi regime in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, and the Nazis' rejection of modern architecture, meant that an entire generation of avant-gardist architects, many of them Jews, were forced out of continental Europe. Some, such as Mendelsohn, found shelter in England, while a considerable number of the Jewish architects made their way to Palestine, and others to the US. However, American anti-Communist politics after the war and Philip Johnson's influential rejection of functionalism have tended to mask the fact that many of the important architects, including contributors to the original Weissenhof project, fled to the Soviet Union. This group also tended to be far more concerned with functionalism and its social agenda. Bruno Taut, Mart Stam, the second Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, Ernst May and other important figures of the International Style went to the Soviet Union in 1930 to undertake huge, ambitious, idealistic urban planning projects, building entire cities from scratch. In 1936, when Stalin ordered them out of the country, many of these architects became stateless and sought refuge elsewhere; for example, Ernst May moved to Kenya. [41]

Dizengoff Circle, White City, Tel Aviv, by Genia Averbuch, 1934 Dizengoff Square Tel Aviv3.jpg
Dizengoff Circle, White City, Tel Aviv, by Genia Averbuch, 1934

The White City of Tel Aviv is a collection of over 4,000 buildings built in the International Style in the 1930s. Many Jewish architects who had studied at the German Bauhaus school designed significant buildings here. [42] A large proportion of the buildings built in the International Style can be found in the area planned by Patrick Geddes, north of Tel Aviv's main historical commercial center. [43] In 1994, UNESCO proclaimed the White City a World Heritage Site, describing the city as "a synthesis of outstanding significance of the various trends of the Modern Movement in architecture and town planning in the early part of the 20th century". [44] In 1996, Tel Aviv's White City was listed as a World Monuments Fund endangered site. [45]

The Kavanagh Building in Buenos Aires, by Sanchez, Lagos & de la Torre (1936). Edificio Kavanagh (gevaert).jpg
The Kavanagh Building in Buenos Aires, by Sánchez, Lagos & de la Torre (1936).

The residential area of Södra Ängby in western Stockholm, Sweden, blended an international or functionalist style with garden city ideals. Encompassing more than 500 buildings, most of them designed by Edvin Engström, it remains the largest coherent functionalist or "International Style" villa area in Sweden and possibly the world, still well-preserved more than a half-century after its construction in 1933–40 and protected as a national cultural heritage.

Zlín is a city in the Czech Republic which was in the 1930s completely reconstructed on principles of functionalism. In that time the city was a headquarters of Bata Shoes company and Tomáš Baťa initiated a complex reconstruction of the city which was inspired by functionalism and the Garden city movement. Tomas Bata Memorial is the most valuable monument of the Zlín functionalism. It is a modern paraphrase of the constructions of high gothic style period: the supporting system and colourful stained glass and the reinforced concrete skeleton and glass.

With the rise of Nazism, a number of key European modern architects fled to the US. When Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer fled Germany they both arrived at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in an excellent position to extend their influence and promote the Bauhaus as the primary source of architectural modernism. When Mies fled in 1938, he first fled to England, but on emigrating to the US he went to Chicago, founded the Second School of Chicago at IIT and solidified his reputation as a prototypical modern architect.

ArchitectBuildingLocationDate
Ove Arup Labworth Café Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Essex, England1932–1933
Jorge Kálnay Luna Park Flag of Argentina.svg Buenos Aires, Argentina 1932
Leendert van der Vlugt Sonneveld House Flag of the Netherlands.svg Rotterdam, Netherlands 1932–1933
Carlos Ramos Radio Pavilion of the Oncology Institute Flag of Portugal.svg Lisbon, Portugal 1933
Hans Scharoun Schminke House Flag of Germany.svg Löbau, Germany1933
Frits Peutz Glaspaleis Flag of the Netherlands.svg Heerlen, Netherlands1933
František Lydie Gahura Tomas Bata Memorial Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Zlín, Czech Republic 1933
Oscar Stonorov and Alfred Kastner Carl Mackley Houses Flag of the United States.svg Philadelphia, US1933–1934
Edvin Engström Södra Ängby Flag of Sweden.svg Stockholm, Sweden1933–1939
Genia Averbuch Dizengoff Square Flag of Israel.svg Tel Aviv, Israel1934–1938
Dov Karmi Max-Liebling House Flag of Israel.svg Tel Aviv, Israel1936
Yehuda LulkaThermometer House Flag of Israel.svg Tel Aviv, Israel1935
Erich Mendelsohn Weizmann House Flag of Israel.svg Rehovot, Israel1936
Wells Coates Isokon building Flag of the United Kingdom.svg London, England 1934
Berthold Lubetkin Highpoint I Flag of the United Kingdom.svg London, England1935
Maxwell Fry Sun House Flag of the United Kingdom.svg London, England1935
Neil & Hurd Ravelston Garden Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Edinburgh, Scotland 1936
Sánchez, Lagos & de la Torre Kavanagh Building Flag of Argentina.svg Buenos Aires, Argentina 1936
Paul Thiry Thiry House [46] Flag of the United States.svg Seattle, Washington, US1936
Walter Gropius Gropius House Flag of the United States.svg Lincoln, Massachusetts, US1937–1938
Hamilton Beatty and Allen Strang Willard and Fern Tompkins House Flag of the United States.svg Monona, Wisconsin, US1937
William Ganster and William Pereira Lake County Tuberculosis Sanatorium Flag of the United States.svg Waukegan, Illinois, US1938–1939

1945–present

Seagram Building, New York, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1958) NewYorkSeagram 04.30.2008.JPG
Seagram Building, New York, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1958)
Tower C of Place de Ville Place de Ville C.JPG
Tower C of Place de Ville

After World War II, the International Style matured; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (later renamed HOK) and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) perfected the corporate practice, and it became the dominant approach for decades in the US and Canada. Beginning with the initial technical and formal inventions of 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago, its most famous examples include the United Nations headquarters, the Lever House, the Seagram Building in New York City, and the campus of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto. Further examples can be found in mid-century institutional buildings throughout North America and the "corporate architecture" spread from there, especially to Europe.

In Canada, this period coincided with a major building boom and few restrictions on massive building projects. International Style skyscrapers came to dominate many of Canada's major cities, especially Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, and Toronto. While these glass boxes were at first unique and interesting, the idea was soon repeated to the point of ubiquity. A typical example is the development of so-called Place de Ville, a conglomeration of three glass skyscrapers in downtown Ottawa, where the plans of the property developer Robert Campeau in the mid-1960s and early 1970s—in the words of historian Robert W. Collier, were "forceful and abrasive[;] he was not well-loved at City Hall"—had no regard for existing city plans, and "built with contempt for the existing city and for city responsibilities in the key areas of transportation and land use". [47] Architects attempted to put new twists into such towers, such as the Toronto City Hall by Finnish architect Viljo Revell. By the late 1970s a backlash was under way against modernism—prominent anti-modernists such as Jane Jacobs and George Baird were partly based in Toronto.

The typical International Style or "corporate architecture" high-rise usually consists of the following:

  1. Square or rectangular footprint
  2. Simple cubic "extruded rectangle" form
  3. Windows running in broken horizontal rows forming a grid
  4. All facade angles are 90 degrees.[ citation needed ]

In 2000 UNESCO proclaimed University City of Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela, as a World Heritage Site, describing it as "a masterpiece of modern city planning, architecture and art, created by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and a group of distinguished avant-garde artists".[ citation needed ]

In June 2007 UNESCO proclaimed Ciudad Universitaria of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), in Mexico City, a World Heritage Site due to its relevance and contribution in terms of international style movement. It was designed in the late 1940s and built in the mid-1950s based upon a masterplan created by architect Enrique del Moral. His original idea was enriched by other students, teachers, and diverse professionals of several disciplines. The university houses murals by Diego Rivera, Juan O'Gorman and others. The university also features Olympic Stadium (1968). In his first years of practice, Pritzker Prize winner and Mexican architect Luis Barragán designed buildings in the International Style. But later he evolved to a more traditional local architecture. Other notable Mexican architects of the International Style or modern period are Carlos Obregón Santacilia, Augusto H. Alvarez, Mario Pani, Federico Mariscal  [ es ], Vladimir Kaspé, Enrique del Moral, Juan Sordo Madaleno, Max Cetto, among many others.

In Brazil Oscar Niemeyer proposed a more organic and sensual [48] International Style. He designed the political landmarks (headquarters of the three state powers) of the new, planned capital Brasília. The masterplan for the city was proposed by Lúcio Costa.

ArchitectBuildingLocationDate
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Illinois Institute of Technology campus (including S. R. Crown Hall) Flag of the United States.svg Chicago, US1945–1960
860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Flag of the United States.svg Chicago, US1949
Pietro Belluschi Commonwealth Building Flag of the United States.svg Portland, Oregon, US1948
Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Harrison & Abramovitz Headquarters of the United Nations Flag of the United States.svg New York City, US1950s
Michael Scott Busaras Flag of Ireland.svg Dublin, Ireland1945–1953
Kemp, Bunch & Jackson Eight Forty One Flag of the United States.svg Jacksonville, US1955
Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch City Hall, Hong Kong Flag of Hong Kong.svg Victoria City, Hong Kong 1956
Alberto Belgrano Blanco, José A. Hortal and Marcelo Martínez de Hoz Alas Building Flag of Argentina.svg Buenos Aires, Argentina 1957
John Bland Old City Hall Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Ottawa, Canada1958
Emery Roth & Sons 10 Lafayette Square Flag of the United States.svg Buffalo, New York, US1958–1959
Kelly & Gruzen High School of Graphic Communication Arts Flag of the United States.svg Manhattan, New York City, US1959
Arne Jacobsen SAS Royal Hotel Flag of Denmark.svg Copenhagen, Denmark 1958–60
Stanley Roscoe Hamilton City Hall Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Hamilton, Canada1960
John Lautner Chemosphere Flag of the United States.svg Los Angeles, US1960
Carlos Arguelles Philamlife Building Flag of the Philippines.svg Manila, Philippines1961
I. M. Pei Place Ville-Marie Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Montreal, Canada1962
Charles Luckman Prudential Tower Flag of the United States.svg Boston, US1964
Carlos Arguelles Philippine National Bank Head Office (Escolta) Flag of the Philippines.svg Manila, Philippines1965-2015 [49]
George Dahl First National Bank Tower Flag of the United States.svg Dallas, US1965
Abugov & Sunderland CN Tower Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Edmonton, Canada1966
Various architects Montreal Metro, initial network Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Montreal, Canada1966
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Toronto-Dominion Centre Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Toronto, Canada1967
Westmount Square Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Montreal, Canada1967
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Equitable Building Flag of the United States.svg Atlanta, US1968
Hermann Henselmann et al. Berlin TV Tower Flag of Germany.svg Berlin, Germany1969
Michael Manser Capel Manor House Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Horsmonden, UK1971
Campeau Corporation Place de Ville Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Ottawa, Canada1967–1972
Arthur C.F. Lau Stelco Tower Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Hamilton, Canada1973
Crang & Boake Hudson's Bay Centre Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Toronto, Canada1974
Jerzy Skrzypczak Chałubińskiego 8 Flag of Poland.svg Warsaw, Poland 1975–1978
Friedrich Silaban Borobudur Hotel

Flag of Indonesia.svg Jakarta, Indonesia

1974
Istiqlal Mosque Flag of Indonesia.svg Jakarta, Indonesia1978
Pedro Moctezuma Díaz Infante Torre Ejecutiva Pemex Flag of Mexico.svg Mexico City, Mexico 1982

Criticism

In 1930, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote: "Human houses should not be like boxes, blazing in the sun, nor should we outrage the Machine by trying to make dwelling-places too complementary to Machinery." [50]

In Elizabeth Gordon's well-known 1953 essay, "The Threat to the Next America", she criticized the style as non-practical, citing many instances where "glass houses" are too hot in summer and too cold in winter, empty, take away private space, lack beauty and generally are not livable. Moreover, she accused this style's proponents of taking away a sense of beauty from people and thus covertly pushing for a totalitarian society. [51]

In 1966, architect Robert Venturi published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, [52] essentially a book-length critique of the International Style. Architectural historian Vincent Scully regarded Venturi's book as 'probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier's Vers une Architecture . [53] It helped to define postmodernism.

Best-selling American author Tom Wolfe wrote a book-length critique, From Bauhaus to Our House , portraying the style as elitist.

One of the supposed strengths of the International Style has been said to be that the design solutions were indifferent to location, site, and climate; the solutions were supposed to be universally applicable; the style made no reference to local history or national vernacular. This was soon identified as one of the style's primary weaknesses. [54]

In 2006, Hugh Pearman, the British architectural critic of The Times , observed that those using the style today are simply "another species of revivalist", noting the irony. [55] The negative reaction to internationalist modernism has been linked to public antipathy to overall development. [56] [57]

In the preface to the fourth edition of his book Modern Architecture: A Critical History (2007), Kenneth Frampton argued that there had been a "disturbing Eurocentric bias" in histories of modern architecture. This "Eurocentrism" included the US. [58]

Architects

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts. The school became famous for its approach to design, which attempted to unify individual artistic vision with the principles of mass production and emphasis on function. Along with the doctrine of functionalism, the Bauhaus initiated the conceptual understanding of architecture and design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Mies van der Rohe</span> German-American architect (1886–1969)

Ludwig Mies van derRohe was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Gropius</span> German-American architect (1883–1969)

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German-born architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar and taught there for several years, becoming known as a leading proponent of the International Style. Gropius emigrated from Germany to England in 1934 and from England to the United States in 1937, where he spent much of the rest of his life teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In the United States he worked on several projects with Marcel Breuer and with the firm The Architects Collaborative, of which he was a founding partner. In 1959, he won the AIA Gold Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern architecture</span> 20th century movement and style

Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, was an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction ; the principle functionalism ; an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Functionalism (architecture)</span> Principle that defines a type of architecture

In architecture, functionalism is the principle that buildings should be designed based solely on their purpose and function. An international functionalist architecture movement emerged in the wake of World War I, as part of the wave of Modernism. Its ideas were largely inspired by a desire to build a new and better world for the people, as broadly and strongly expressed by the social and political movements of Europe after the extremely devastating world war. In this respect, functionalist architecture is often linked with the ideas of socialism and modern humanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Breuer</span> Hungarian-American architect and designer (1902–1981)

Marcel Lajos Breuer was a Hungarian-German modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944.

Albert Frey was a Swiss-born architect who established a style of modernist architecture centered on Palm Springs, California, United States, that came to be known as "desert modernism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-century modern</span> Architectural, interior, product, and graphic design of the mid-20th century

Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 1970 during the United States's post-World War II period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mart Stam</span> Dutch architect, urban planner and furniture designer

Mart Stam was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century European architecture, including the invention of the cantilever chair, teaching at the Bauhaus, contributions to the Weissenhof Estate, the Van Nelle Factory,, buildings for Ernst May's New Frankfurt housing estates, followed by work in the USSR with the idealistic May Brigade, to teaching positions in Amsterdam and post-war East Germany. Upon return to the Netherlands he contributed to postwar reconstruction and finally retired,, in Switzerland, where he died.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. J. P. Oud</span> Dutch architect (1890–1963)

Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud was a Dutch architect. His fame began as a follower of the De Stijl movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karel Teige</span> Czech artist (1900–1951)

Karel Teige was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the Devětsil (Butterbur) movement in the 1920s and also worked as an editor and graphic designer for Devětsil's monthly magazine ReD. One of his major works on architecture theory is The Minimum Dwelling (1932).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expressionist architecture</span> Architectural style

Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany. Brick Expressionism is a special variant of this movement in western and northern Germany, as well as in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weissenhof Estate</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The Weissenhof Estate is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, efficient, and good-quality housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliot Noyes</span> American architect

Eliot Fette Noyes was an American architect and industrial designer, who worked on projects for IBM, most notably the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, California. Noyes was also a pioneer in development of comprehensive corporate-wide design programs that integrated design strategy and business strategy. Noyes worked on corporate imagery for IBM, Mobil Oil, Cummins Engine and Westinghouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern furniture</span> Furniture designed from the 19th century to the present day

Modern furniture refers to furniture produced from the late 19th century through the present that is influenced by modernism. Post-World War II ideals of cutting excess, commodification, and practicality of materials in design heavily influenced the aesthetic of the furniture. It was a tremendous departure from all furniture design that had gone before it. There was an opposition to the decorative arts, which included Art Nouveau, Neoclassical, and Victorian styles. Dark or gilded carved wood and richly patterned fabrics gave way to the glittering simplicity and geometry of polished metal. The forms of furniture evolved from visually heavy to visually light. This shift from decorative to minimalist principles of design can be attributed to the introduction of new technology, changes in philosophy, and the influences of the principles of architecture. As Philip Johnson, the founder of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art articulates:

"Today industrial design is functionally motivated and follows the same principles as modern architecture: machine-like simplicity, smoothness of surface, avoidance of ornament ... It is perhaps the most fundamental contrast between the two periods of design that in 1900 the Decorative Arts possessed ..."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Objectivity (architecture)</span> Architecture movement in (mainly German-speaking) Europe

The New Objectivity is a name often given to the Modern architecture that emerged in Europe, primarily German-speaking Europe, in the 1920s and 30s. It is also frequently called Neues Bauen. The New Objectivity remodeled many German cities in this period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal modernism</span>

Federal modernism is an architectural style which emerged in the twentieth century encompassing various styles of modern architecture used in the design of federal buildings in the United States. Federal buildings in this style shunned ornamentation, focusing instead on functional efficiency and low costs. There is no universally accepted start date for federal modernism, with some early variants of modernism emerging as early as the 1920s, but the term is most often associated with the buildings built by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in the 1950s through 1970s. Prominent architects associated with federal modernism include Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, and Victor Lundy. Federal modernism has been criticized by some architects and politicians such as Donald Trump, either because they believe it lacks "authority" or due to a perceived lack of beauty.

The Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art was formed in Meriden, Connecticut, as part of the Miller Company. The collection was formed by then CEO Burton Tremaine Sr. and his wife, Miller Co. art director Emily Hall Tremaine in 1945. Works from the collection were featured in the Painting Toward Architecture exhibition, putting forth post-WWII art, design and architecture crossovers, originating at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, and traveling to 28 additional venues in 1947–1952 across the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau</span> Joint World Heritage Site in Germany

Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau are World Heritage Sites in Germany, comprising six separate sites which are associated with the Bauhaus art school. It was designated in 1996 with four initial sites, and in 2017 two further sites were added.

Arthur Justin Drexler was an American museum curator and director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for 35 years.

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Further reading