Man and the New Society:

The International Style and

Modernism
Cuaresma, Reje A.
Evangelista, Jessa May S.
Trinidad, Thomas Dave L.
Velicaria, Kathleen Mae R.
Yano, Einnor L.
MAJOR INFLUENCES

 Geographical
International Style, architectural style that developed in Europe and the United
States in the 1920s and ’30s and became the dominant tendency in Western
architecture during the middle decades of the 20th century.
MAJOR INFLUENCES

 Historical
By the 1970s, the International Style was so dominant that innovation was dead.
Mies continued to design beautiful buildings, but was copied everywhere. As the
saying went: "You got off an airplane in the 1970s, and you didn't know where you
were." As a result, many architects felt dissatisfied with the limitations and formulaic
methodology of the International Style. They wanted to design buildings with more
individual character and with more decoration. Modernist International Style
architecture had removed all traces of historical designs: now architects wanted
them back. All this led to a revolt against modernism and a renewed exploration of
how to create more innovative design and ornamentation. As Postmodernism took
hold, building designers began creating more imaginative structures that
employed modern building materials and decorative features to produce a range
of novel effects. By the late 1970s, modernism and the International Style were
finished.
NOTABLE FEATURES

 Architectural Character
The most common characteristics of International Style buildings are rectilinear
forms; light, taut plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of
applied ornamentation and decoration; open interior spaces; and a visually
weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction.

 Methods of Construction and Building Materials

Glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete,
are the characteristic materials of construction.
FAMOUS STRUCTURES

 Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany (1925-

26) Walter Gropius
Home to the state-supported school
for the applied arts, the Bauhaus was
founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter
Gropius, but moved to Dessau in 1925
when political conditions in the latter
became more favorable to its left-
leaning educational climate. Gropius
designed the school's new permanent
home along with the faculty
residences nearby that same year.
FAMOUS STRUCTURES

 Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France (1929-

31) Le Corbusier
The Villa Savoye is the last of Le Corbusier's
houses that he designed during the 1920s, and
fittingly is considered the summation of his "Five
Points of a New Architecture" elucidated in his
treatise Vers une architecture (1923).
The pilotis, or thin point-support columns, are
arranged in a near-perfect grid that provides
the architect almost complete freedom in the
designs of both the floor plan and the
facades. The second floor, the main living
space, is characterized by the ribbon windows
that provide unencumbered views of the
landscape - fostering the strong connection
between nature and the machine - and it is
crowned by a roof terrace.
FAMOUS STRUCTURES

 German Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain (1929)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich
Mies and Lilly Reich together designed the
German Pavilion for the 1929 World's Fair in
Barcelona - a structure which now ranks
among the most significant temporary
structures ever built, particularly for an
international exposition. Demolished after the
fair, it was reconstructed in 1986 using the
original plans, now in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. It
constitutes Mies' most succinct statement in
the reduction of a building to the minimal
requirements to define space: a handful of
columns elevated on a platform juxtaposed
with asymmetrically-arranged opaque and
transparent wall planes, supporting a flat roof.
FAMOUS STRUCTURES

 The Seagram Building is a

skyscraper, located at 375 Park
Avenue, between 52nd Street and
53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan,
New York City. The integral plaza,
building, stone faced lobby and
distinctive glass and bronze exterior
were designed by German-
American architect Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe.
FAMOUS STRUCTURES

 Sainte Marie de La Tourette is a

Dominican Order priory, located on
a hillside near Lyon, France
designed by the architect Le
Corbusier, the architect’s final and
most important building. The design
of the building begun in May 1953
and completed in 1961.
TERMINOLOGIES

 INTERNATIONAL STYLE - The term international style was first used in 1932 to
describe architects associated with the modern movement whose designs
shared similar visual qualities – being mostly rectilinear, undecorated,
asymmetrical and white
 A curtain wall is defined as thin, usually aluminum-framed wall, containing
in-fills of glass, metal panels, or thin stone.
 Cantilever - A projecting bracket used for carrying the cornice or
extended eaves of a building
 Band/ribbon: One of a horizontal series of three windows or more,
separated only by mullions, that form a horizontal band across the facade
of a building In the US, most commonly found in buildings erected after
1900.
REFERENCES

 https://www.britannica.com/art/International-Style-architecture
 https://www.theartstory.org/movement/international-style/
 http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/international-style.htm