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International Style (architecture)

The International Style is the name of a major architectural style that is said to have emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of modern architecture, as first defined by Americans Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932, with an emphasis more on architectural style, form and aesthetics than the social aspects of the modern movement as emphasised in Europe. The term "International Style" first came into use via a 1932 exhibition curated by Hitchcock and Johnson, Modern Architecture: International Exhibition, which declared and labelled the architecture of the early 20th century as the "International Style". The most common characteristics of International Style buildings are said to be: i. rectilinear forms; ii. light, taut plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of applied ornamentation and decoration; iii. open interior spaces; iv. a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction. Glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete, are the characteristic materials of the construction.

With the surge in the growth in cities in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly after World War II, the International Style provided an easily achievable style option for vast-scale urban development projects, "cities within cities", intended to maximise the amount of floor space for a given site, while attempting to convince local planners, politicians and the general public that the development would bring much-needed wealth to the city while, on the other hand, rejecting the proposal would lead to the development being taken to a different, competing city.

International style

International style may refer to:

  • International Style, a term used in ballroom dancing
  • International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture
  • International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art
  • International Typographic Style, a Switzerland-based graphic design movement
  • International fashion, clothing styles across the world

Usage examples of "international style".

Marco said, and walked off through the slightly shabby, dated International Style spaces of the Asuncibn international airport.

Marco said, and walked off through the slightly shabby, dated International Style spaces of the Asuncion international airport.

Her house was International style, modern and starkly simplistic with a horizontal frontage of large windows supported by ground-floor piers, bringing to mind a ship with an open lower deck.

At that time we lived in an apartment block on the edge of Hampstead Heath which was called Isopod One and had been designed in the international style, along socialist principles, by a famous architecture collective called the Isopod.