Early International Style
General
• Develops in 1920s in Europe; sources
include commercial building, and Chicago School
• Named in 1932: exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York --
“The International Style”
• Leading architects: Walter Gropius, LeCorbusier, Mies van der Rohe
First buildings
• W. Gropius: Bauhaus, Dessau, 1926
• LeCorbusier: Villa Savoye, near Paris, 1929
• Mies van der Rohe: Barcelona Pavilion, Spain, 1929
• G. Howe & Wm. Lescaze: PSFS Building, Philadelphica, 1930
Style and Ideology
• Modernist
• Anti-Historicist
• Anti-Ornament
• Functionalist
• Celebrates technology
• Exclusivist
Goals
• Universal Style
• Universal space
• Utopian Society
Mies van der Rohe
– selected quotes
• “Architecture is the will of an epoch
translated into space.”
• “Less is More”
• “God is in the details”
• “True architecture is always objective and is the expression of the
inner structure of our time, from which it stems.”
• "Technology is far more than a method, it is a world in itself. As a
method it is superior in almost every respect....Whenever technology
reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture. It is
true that architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity
is in the realm of significance."
Style Definition
The International Style is the purest and most minimal form of
modernism. It originated in a number of movements from Germany and The
Netherlands in the 1920s, especially the Bauhaus but also influenced by
de Stijl and the German Werkbund. Its designs are generally simple
prismatic shapes, with flat roofs and uniform arrangements of windows in
bands or grids.
The most common materials in
International Style buildings are glass, steel, aluminum, concrete, and
sometimes brick infill. Plaster, travertine marble, and polished stone
are common on the interiors.
The leader of the Bauhaus School and a
founder of the International Style was the architect Walter Gropius.
Another Bauhaus architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the most famous
and influential figure in the movement. The Finnish architect Alvar
Aalto another famous and original contributor to this style.
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