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Styles and Movements

International Style

Early Modern Movement Architecture

The name given by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, in the 1932 Museum of Modern Art exhibition and book, to the shared language of the new European architecture: volume rather than mass, regularity rather than symmetry, and no applied ornament. After the Second World War it became the default dress of the corporate office tower, the glass and steel box seen in every city.

Facts
Period
from 1932 1
The naming exhibition, Modern Architecture: International Exhibition, opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in February 1932; the buildings it gathered dated from the previous decade.
Period
to 1970 2
Marks when the style's dominance of modern architecture gave way to postmodern and other critical reactions; some International Style buildings continued to be designed after this point.
Origin Region
Europe, named in New York 1
International Style
Filter Results1 entry
Connections

Associated With

Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Influenced

Miesian architecture is generally treated as a personal strand within the International Style Mies helped define.

New Formalism emerged in the 1950s and 1960s partly as a reaction against the unornamented starkness of International Style modernism.

Supermodernism, a term coined by Hans Ibelings, describes a globalized late-20th-century continuation of International Style modernism.

Influenced By

The 1932 exhibition's name for the shared language of the European modern movement.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Prairie School, Styles and Movements

Why this is disputed. Wright's 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio reached European architects including early modernists, and historians widely note the connection, but how much it actually shaped International Style design as opposed to running in parallel with independent European developments is genuinely argued rather than settled.

Source Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Official Site

Notable Examples

Source A. Conger Goodyear House (Wikipedia)
Source Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm (Wikidata)

A defining International Style pavilion.

A canonical International Style residence.

A canonical International Style residence.

Source Kaufmann Desert House - Wikipedia
Source Le Corbusier (Wikipedia)
Source Lever House (Wikipedia)
Source Lovell House - Wikipedia
Source Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: 28 Liberty Street
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Source Stahl House - Wikipedia
Source Torre Latinoamericana (Wikipedia)
Source Villa Cavrois (Wikipedia)
Source Villa Noailles (Wikipedia)
Source Villa Paul Poiret (Wikipedia)

A canonical work of the 1932 exhibition's International Style and of the wider modern movement.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Source Walter Gropius (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Willis Tower
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
  • britannica.com/art/International-Style-architecture, lead definition
    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.
  • Notable Examples: Villa Savoye
  • Notable Examples: Seagram Building
  • Influenced By: Modernist Architecture
  • Associated With: The International Style Named
View the Source
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Style_(architecture), lead paragraph
Quote, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Style_(architecture), lead paragraph
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.
View the Source
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Official Site
Frank Lloyd Wright FoundationInfluenced By: Prairie SchoolView the Source
Walter Gropius (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Walter Gropius, intro: "a leading proponent of the International Style"View the Source
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, pioneer of modern/International Style architecture, Bauhaus directorView the Source
Le Corbusier (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Le Corbusier, co-founder of the International Style with Gropius/MiesView the Source
Wikipedia: Willis Tower
WikipediaNotable Examples: Willis Tower, infobox architectural_style field: InternationalView the Source
Wikipedia: 28 Liberty Street
Notable Examples: One Chase Manhattan Plaza, infobox architectural_style field: InternationalView the Source
Kaufmann Desert House - Wikipedia
Notable Examples: Kaufmann Desert House, infobox architectural_style field: International StyleView the Source
Villa Noailles (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Villa Noailles, infobox architectural_style field: International styleView the Source
Villa Cavrois (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Villa Cavrois, infobox architectural_style field: International styleView the Source
Villa Paul Poiret (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: Villa Paul Poiret, infobox architectural_style field: International styleView the Source
Lovell House - Wikipedia
Notable Examples: Lovell House, Infobox, architecture
Quote, Notable Examples: Lovell House, Infobox, architecture
architecture: International style
View the Source
Stahl House - Wikipedia
Notable Examples: Stahl House, Infobox, architecture
Quote, Notable Examples: Stahl House, Infobox, architecture
architecture: International
View the Source
A. Conger Goodyear House (Wikipedia)
Notable Examples: A. Conger Goodyear House, Infobox, architecture
Quote, Notable Examples: A. Conger Goodyear House, Infobox, architecture
architecture: International Style
View the Source
Lever House (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationNotable Examples: Lever House, Introduction
Quote, Notable Examples: Lever House, Introduction
Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the International Style, a 20th-century modern architectural style.
View the Source
Torre Latinoamericana (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationNotable Examples: Torre Latinoamericana, Wikipedia categories
Quote, Notable Examples: Torre Latinoamericana, Wikipedia categories
Category:International Style architecture
View the Source
Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm (Wikidata)
Wikimedia FoundationNotable Examples: Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm, Wikidata P149
Quote, Notable Examples: Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm, Wikidata P149
architectural style: International Style
View the Source
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