The International Style

The International Style is an architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s in the formative decades of modern architecture with an emphasis on form and aesthetics.

The term "International Style" was first used in an exhibition in 1932 by Hitchcock and Johnson.

Some of the most common characteristics of International Style in buildings are said to be forms, light, plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of and applied ornamentation and decoration. Some of the most common matierals were used are glass and steel they are the common characteristic materials of the construction.

 

 

 

This early form of minimalism had a "modern look", reinforced by its use of modern materials, including glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for interior floor and support.

 

Gropius and Mies were two of the best known for their structures of glass curtain walls spanning steel girders that was form the skeleton of the building. Some of the Gropius’s work are the Fagus Works (Alfeld-an-der-Leine, Germany; 1911), the Bauhaus (Dessau, Germany; 1925–26), and the Graduate Center at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1949–50) which show his concern for interior space. Mies van der Rohe with his followers in the United States who did much to unroll the International.
 

 

 

Between the 1970s some architects had began to chafe at the limitations in the International Style. The quality of the glass and steel boxes that embodied the style by then appeared stultifying. The final result was a responce against modernist architecture and exploration of the probability of innovative decoration and design. Schools that were built at the mid century between 1950 show the fundamental design principles of the International style. While the International style was coming popular in Europe for the residential design in the 1920s-30s, was less commonly used for houses in the United States.

Architects began imaginative structures that used modern building materials and decorative elements to create a variety of novel effect. This movement had became prominent in the late 1970s and early ’80s and became known as postmodernism.

Wealthy people of the avant guarde in architecture commissioned  architects to design International style homes, but that style was not much embraced for ordinary working class house construction in the USA. However, then the design principles of the International style of functionality had opened floor plans that could be seen in the homes that developed in the post WWII years.

 

 

Referencing

International style - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2015. International style - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_style. [Accessed 4 January 2015].

International style - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2015. International style - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/international%20style. [Accessed 4 January 2015].

International style - definition of International style by The Free Dictionary. 2015. International style - definition of International style by The Free Dictionary. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/International+style. [Accessed 5 January 2015].