The Western World: Early 20th century to the contemporary era

History of Architecture -VI 6th Semester

 The International Style is the name of a is said to
have emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, was first
defined by Americans Henry-Russell Hitchcock and
Philip Johnson in 1932.
 After the International Exhibition of Modern
Architecture in the Museum of Modern Art (New
York), these two drew together many distinct threads
and trends in architecture, identified them as
stylistically similar and having a common purpose,
and consolidated them into this style.
 This style emphasised more on architectural style,
form and aesthetics than the social aspects of
the modern movement as emphasised in Europe.
 Rectilinear forms
 Light, taut plane surfaces that have been
completely stripped of applied ornamentation
and decoration
 Open interior spaces
 All facade angles of 90 degrees
 Windows running in broken horizontal rows
forming a grid
 A visually weightless quality engendered by
the use of cantilever construction.
 Glass and steel, in combination with usually
less visible reinforced concrete
 Glass for the facade (usually a curtain wall)
 Steel for exterior support, and concrete for the
floors and interior supports
 Floor plans were functional and logical

 The style became evident only after the

World War II and mostly in the design of
skyscrapers
 The United Nations headquarters (Le
Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard
Robertson), the Seagram Building and
the Toronto-Dominion Centre (Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe), and Lever House (Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill) are some famous examples
• Originally designed by an
international team of
architects including Le
Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer,
and Wallace Harrison
• The smooth glass-sided slab,
one of the first uses of curtain-
wall cladding on a tall
building
• Outer structure was designed
by Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe while the lobby and
other internal aspects
by Philip Johnson
• Most expensive skyscraper
of its time
• Built of a steel frame, from
which non-structural glass
walls were hung- express
or articulate the structure of
buildings externally
• Lever House, designed
by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie
de Blois (design coordinator)
of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
• It was the second curtain
wall skyscraper in New York City
after the United Nations
Secretariat Building
• Featured a 24-story blue-green
heat-resistant glass and stainless
steel curtain-wall -- completely
sealed with no operating windows
• Consists of six towers and a
pavilion covered in bronze-tinted
glass and black painted steel
• Originally designed by Rohe, it
follows his theme of the darkly
coloured, rigidly ordered, steel
and glass edifice set in an open
plaza
• Around 21,000 people work in the
complex, making it the largest in
Canada
• Formerly the Transco Tower,
the Williams Tower in
Houston, Texas is one of the
world's tallest buildings .
• Architect: Philip Johnson
and John Burgee
• The building was built to
function as two separate
towers stacked directly on
top of one another, one
comprising the first forty
floors and the other the
forty-first to sixty-fourth
• 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

• However, the stark, unornamented appearance

of the International Style met with
contemporaneous criticism in the latter half of
the 20th Century