# International Style

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{{Short description|Modernist architectural style}}
{{other uses|International style (disambiguation){{!}}International style}}
{{Infobox art movement
|name         = International Style architecture
|image        = {{multiple image
| border                          = infobox
| total_width                     = 300
| perrow                          = 2/3/2
| caption_align                   = center
|image1      = Lovell House, Los Angeles, California.JPG
|caption1    = [Lovell House](/source/Lovell_House) in Los Angeles (1927–29), by [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra)
|image2      = VillaSavoye.jpg
|caption2    = [Villa Savoye](/source/Villa_Savoye) in Paris (1928–31), by [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier)
|image3      = EquitableAtlanta.jpg
|caption3    = [Equitable Building](/source/Equitable_Building_(Atlanta)) in Atlanta (1966–68), by [Skidmore, Owings & Merrill](/source/Skidmore%2C_Owings_%26_Merrill)
|image4      = PSFSBuilding1985.jpg
|caption4    = [Loews Philadelphia Hotel](/source/Loews_Philadelphia_Hotel) in Philadelphia (completed 1932), by [George Howe](/source/George_Howe_(architect)) and [William Lescaze](/source/William_Lescaze)
|image5      = NewYorkSeagram 04.30.2008.JPG
|caption5    = [Seagram Building](/source/Seagram_Building) in New York City (1955–58), by [Mies van der Rohe](/source/Mies_van_der_Rohe) 
|image6      = Paimio Sanatorium2.jpg
|caption6    = [Paimio Sanatorium](/source/Paimio_Sanatorium) in Finland, (1929–1930) by [Alvar Aalto](/source/Alvar_Aalto) 
|image7      = Masjid Istiqlal - Panoramio.jpg
|caption7    = [Istiqlal Mosque](/source/Istiqlal_Mosque%2C_Jakarta) in Jakarta (1961–1978), by [Friedrich Silaban](/source/Friedrich_Silaban) 
}}
|alt           = 
|yearsactive   = 1920s–1970s
|location       = Worldwide
|majorfigures = [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe), [Jacobus Oud](/source/Jacobus_Oud), [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier), [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra) and [Philip Johnson](/source/Philip_Johnson).<ref name="Britannica"/>
|influences    = 
|influenced    = 
|commons = yes
}}

The '''International Style''' is a major [architectural style](/source/architectural_style) and movement that began in [western Europe](/source/western_Europe) in the 1920s and dominated [modern architecture](/source/modern_architecture) until the 1970s.<ref name="khantaschen">{{cite book |last=Khan |first=Hasan-Uddin |title=El Estilo Internacional |publisher=[Taschen](/source/Taschen) |year=2009 |isbn=9783836510530 |location=Köln |pages=7–11 |language=es}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=International Style {{!}} Definition, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/International-Style-architecture |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=www.britannica.com }}</ref> It is defined by strict adherence to [functional](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)) and [utilitarian](/source/Form_follows_function) [design](/source/design)s and [construction methods](/source/construction_methods), typically expressed through [minimalism](/source/minimalism).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=International Style 1930 – 1950 {{!}} PHMC > Pennsylvania Architectural Field Guide |url=https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/international.html#:~:text=Pure%20examples%20of%20architect%20designed,principles%20of%20the%20International%20style. |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=www.phmc.state.pa.us}}</ref> The style is characterized by [modular](/source/Modular_building) and [rectilinear](/source/Rectilinear_polygon) forms, [flat surfaces](/source/Plane_(mathematics)) devoid of ornamentation and decoration, open and airy interiors that blend with the exterior, and the use of glass, steel, and concrete.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=International Style {{!}} Definition, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/International-Style-architecture |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=www.britannica.com }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=International Style – Overview |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/international-style/ |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=The Art Story}}</ref>

The International Style is sometimes called '''rationalist architecture''' and the '''modern movement''',<ref name="khantaschen" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Turner |first=Jane |title=The Dictionary of Art. 26 Raphon to Rome, ancient, §II: Architecture |publisher=Grove |year=1996 |isbn=1-884446-00-0 |location=London |page=14}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Poletti |first=Federico |title=El siglo XX. Vanguardias |publisher=Electa |year=2006 |isbn=84-8156-404-4 |location=Milan |page=101 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Baldellou |first1=Miguel Ángel |title=Summa Artis XL: Arquitectura española del siglo XX |last2=Capitel |first2=Antón |publisher=Espasa Calpe |year=1995 |isbn=84-239-5482-X |location=Madrid |page=13 |language=es}}</ref> although the former is mostly used in English to refer specifically to either [Italian rationalism](/source/Rationalism_(architecture)) or the style that developed in 1920s Europe more broadly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Frampton |first=Kenneth |title=Modern Architecture: A Critical History |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2007 |isbn=9780500203958 |location=New York |page=203}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bussagli |first=Marco |title=Atlas ilustrado de la arquitectura |publisher=Susaeta |year=2009 |isbn=978-84-305-4483-7 |location=Madrid |page=176 |language=es}}</ref> In [continental Europe](/source/continental_Europe), this and related styles are variably called [Functionalism](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)), ''[Neue Sachlichkeit](/source/New_Objectivity_(architecture))'' ("New Objectivity"), ''[De Stijl](/source/De_Stijl)'' ("The Style"), and [Rationalism](/source/Rationalism_(architecture)), all of which are contemporaneous movements and styles that share similar principles, origins, and proponents.<ref name="International Style – Overview">{{Cite web |title=International Style – Overview |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/international-style/ |access-date=2024-08-13 |website=The Art Story}}</ref>

Rooted in the [modernism movement](/source/Modernism),<ref name=":2" /> the International Style is closely related to [modern architecture](/source/modern_architecture) and likewise reflects several intersecting developments in culture, politics, and technology in the early 20th century.<ref name=":2" /> After being brought to the United States by European architects in the 1930s, it quickly became an "unofficial" North American style, particularly after World War II.<ref name=":2" /> The International Style reached its height in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was widely adopted worldwide for its practicality and as a symbol of industry, progress, and modernity. The style remained the prevailing design philosophy for urban development and reconstruction into the 1970s, especially in the [Western world](/source/Western_world).<ref name=":0" />

The International Style was one of the first architectural movements to receive critical renown and global popularity.<ref name=":2" /> Regarded as the high point of modernist architecture, it is sometimes described as the "architecture of the modern movement" and credited with "single-handedly transforming the skylines of every major city in the world with its simple cubic forms".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Tate |title=International style |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/i/international-style |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=Tate }}</ref> These qualities provoked negative reactions against the style as monotonous, austere, and incongruent with existing landscapes. This critique was conveyed through various movements such as [postmodernism](/source/Postmodern_architecture), [new classical architecture](/source/new_classical_architecture), and [deconstructivism](/source/deconstructivism).<ref name="International Style – Overview"/>

==Concept and definition==
The term "International Style" was first used in 1932 by the historian [Henry-Russell Hitchcock](/source/Henry-Russell_Hitchcock) and architect [Philip Johnson](/source/Philip_Johnson) to describe a movement among European architects in the 1920s that was distinguished by three key design principles: (1) "Architecture as volume – thin planes or surfaces create the building's form, as opposed to a solid mass"; (2) "Regularity in the facade, as opposed to building symmetry"; and (3) "No applied ornament".<ref>{{cite web |title=International Style |url=https://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/architecture-dictionary/entry/international-style/ |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=www.architecture.org }}</ref>

[[File:Overzicht uiteinde straat eindigend in winkel in de wijk Kiefhoek van J.J.P. Oud - Rotterdam - 20536890 - RCE.jpg|thumb|[Kiefhoek](/source/Kiefhoek) Worker's Housing project, now a Museum, [Rotterdam](/source/Rotterdam), by [Jacobus Oud](/source/Jacobus_Oud) (1930)]]
International style is an ambiguous term; the unity and integrity of this direction is deceptive. Its formal features were revealed differently in different countries. Despite the unconditional commonality, the International Style has never been a single phenomenon.<ref>Frampton K. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.</ref> However, International Style [architecture](/source/architecture) demonstrates a unity of approach and general principles: lightweight structures, skeletal frames, new materials, a modular system, an open plan, and the use of simple geometric shapes.

The problem of the International Style is that it is not obvious what type of material the term should be applied to: at the same time, there are key monuments of the 20th century (Le Corbusier's [Villa Savoye](/source/Villa_Savoye); Wright's [Fallingwater House](/source/Fallingwater)) and mass-produced architectural products of their time.<ref name= Vas16>[Vasileva, E](/source/Ekaterina_Vasileva_(art_historian)). (2016) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374443683_Vasileva_E_2016_Ideal_and_utilitarian_in_the_international_style_system_subject_and_object_in_the_design_concept_of_the_20th_century_International_Journal_of_Cultural_Research_4_25_72-80 Ideal and utilitarian in the international style system: subject and object in the design concept of the 20th century] // International Journal of Cultural Research,  4 (25), 72–80.</ref> Here it is appropriate to talk about the use of recognizable formal techniques and the creation of a standard architectural product, rather than iconic objects.

thumb|right|Cover of ''The International Style'' (1932, reprinted 1996) by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson
Hitchcock and Johnson's 1932 MoMA exhibition catalog identified the principles of the style. Common characteristics of the International Style include: a radical simplification of form, a rejection of superfluous ornamentation, bold repetition and embracement of sleek glass, steel and efficient concrete as preferred materials. Accents were found to be suitably derived from natural design irregularities, such as the position of doors and fire escapes, stair towers, ventilators and even electric signs.<ref name="momacatalog" />

Further, the transparency of buildings, the honest expression of structure, and acceptance of industrialized mass-production techniques contributed to the International Style's design philosophy. Finally, the [machine aesthetic](/source/machine_aesthetic), and logical design decisions leading to support building function were used by the International Style architect to create buildings reaching beyond [historicism](/source/historicism_(art)). The ideals of the style are commonly summed up in three slogans: [ornament](/source/ornament_(architecture)) is a crime, [truth to materials](/source/truth_to_materials), [form follows function](/source/form_follows_function); and [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier)'s description: "A house is a machine to live in".<ref name= evenson>{{cite book |last=Evenson |first=Norma |title=Le Corbusier: The Machine and the Grand Design |publisher=George Braziller |year=1969 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/lecorbusiermachi00even/page/7 7] |url=https://archive.org/details/lecorbusiermachi00even |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>Le Corbusier (1923), ''Vers une architecture'' (''[Toward an Architecture](/source/Toward_an_Architecture)''; frequently mistranslated as "Towards a New Architecture").</ref>

Phenomena similar in nature also existed in other artistic fields, for example in graphics, such as the [International Typographic Style](/source/International_Typographic_Style) and [Swiss Style](/source/Swiss_Style_(design)).<ref>Hollis, R. (2001). ''Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920–1965''. New Haven: Yale University Press.</ref><ref>[Vasileva, E.](/source/Ekaterina_Vasileva_(art_historian)) (2021) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359508084_Vasileva_E_2021_The_Swiss_Style_It's_Prototypes_Origins_and_the_Regulation_Problem_Terra_Artis_Arts_and_Design_3_84-101 ''The Swiss Style: It's Prototypes, Origins and the Regulation Problem'']. Terra Artis. Arts and Design, '''3''', pp. 84–101.</ref>

The [Getty Research Institute](/source/Getty_Research_Institute) defines it as "the style of architecture that emerged in The Netherlands, France, and Germany after [World War I](/source/World_War_I) and spread throughout the world, becoming the dominant architectural style until the 1970s. The style is characterized by an emphasis on volume over mass, the use of lightweight, mass-produced, industrial materials, rejection of all ornament and colour, repetitive [modular](/source/Modularity) forms, and the use of flat surfaces, typically alternating with areas of glass."<ref>{{cite web |title=International Style (modern European architecture style) |website=Art & Architecture Thesaurus |publisher=Getty Research Institute |url=http://www.getty.edu/vow/AATFullDisplay?find=international+style&logic=AND&note=&page=1&subjectid=300021472 |access-date= 21 April 2025}}</ref> Some researchers consider the International Style as one of the attempts to create an ideal and utilitarian form.<ref name= Vas16/>

==Background==
Around the start of the 20th century, a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional precedents with new social demands and technological possibilities. The work of [Victor Horta](/source/Victor_Horta) and [Henry van de Velde](/source/Henry_van_de_Velde) in [Brussels](/source/Brussels), [Antoni Gaudí](/source/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD) in [Barcelona](/source/Barcelona), [Otto Wagner](/source/Otto_Wagner) in [Vienna](/source/Vienna) and [Charles Rennie Mackintosh](/source/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh) in [Glasgow](/source/Glasgow), among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new. These architects were not considered part of the International Style because they practiced in an "individualistic manner" and seen as the last representatives of [Romanticism](/source/Romanticism).

[[File:2006 JFKennedy FederalBuilding Boston byHighsmith LC 01582v.jpg|thumb|right|The [John F. Kennedy Federal Building](/source/John_F._Kennedy_Federal_Building) designed by Walter Gropius]]
The International Style can be traced to buildings designed by a small group of modernists, the major figures of which include [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe), [Jacobus Oud](/source/Jacobus_Oud), [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier), [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra) and [Philip Johnson](/source/Philip_Johnson).<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/International-Style-architecture|title=International Style {{!}} architecture|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-09-17}}</ref> The International Style of modern architecture emerged principally in Germany and France. This unadorned architecture was constructed with steel, [reinforced concrete](/source/reinforced_concrete), and glass.<ref>{{cite web|title=International Style|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/international-style|publisher=MoMA}}</ref> The founder of the [Bauhaus](/source/Bauhaus) school, [Walter Gropius](/source/Walter_Gropius), along with prominent Bauhaus instructor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, became known for steel frame structures employing glass curtain walls.&nbsp; One of the world's earliest modern buildings where this can be seen is a shoe factory designed by Gropius in 1911 in [Alfeld](/source/Alfeld), Germany, called the [Fagus Works](/source/Fagus_Factory) building.&nbsp;The first building built entirely on Bauhaus design principles was the concrete and steel [Haus am Horn](/source/Haus_am_Horn), built in 1923 in [Weimar](/source/Weimar), Germany, designed by [Georg Muche](/source/Georg_Muche).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/729 |title=Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=8 December 2018}}</ref> The Gropius-designed Bauhaus school building in [Dessau](/source/Dessau) constructed 1925–1926, and the [Harvard Graduate Center](/source/Harvard_Graduate_Center) constructed 1949–1950, exhibit clean lines<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/bauhaus-dessau-building-architecture-design-how-to-visit-masters-house-berlin-a8292851.html|title=How to visit the building at the heart of Germany's Bauhaus movement|publisher=The Independent|access-date=2018-09-19}}</ref> and a "concern for uncluttered interior spaces".<ref name="Britannica" /> [Marcel Breuer](/source/Marcel_Breuer), who after leaving the Bauhaus would later teach alongside Gropius at Harvard, is also an important contributor to the International Style.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2016/june/30/a-movement-in-a-moment-the-international-style/|title=A Movement in a Moment: The International Style|publisher=Phaidon|access-date=2018-09-19}}</ref>

Prior to use of the term 'International Style', some American architects, such as [Louis Sullivan](/source/Louis_Sullivan), [Frank Lloyd Wright](/source/Frank_Lloyd_Wright), and [Irving Gill](/source/Irving_Gill), exemplified qualities of simplification, honesty and clarity.<ref name=Wright>{{Cite book|last=Wright|first=Frank Lloyd|title=Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography|publisher=Pomegranate Communications|year=2005|pages=60–63|isbn=0764932438}}</ref> Wright's [Wasmuth Portfolio](/source/Wasmuth_Portfolio) had been exhibited in Europe and influenced the work of European modernists, and his travels there probably influenced his own work, although he refused to be categorized with them. His buildings of the 1920s and 1930s clearly showed a change in the style of the architect, but in a different direction than the International Style.<ref name=Wright />

[[File:Weissenhof-Luftbild-2004.01.jpg|thumb|right|The [Weissenhof Estate](/source/Weissenhof_Estate), Stuttgart, Germany (1927)]]
In Europe the modern movement in architecture had been called [Functionalism](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)) or Neue Sachlichkeit ([New Objectivity](/source/New_Objectivity_(architecture))), ''L'Esprit Nouveau'', or simply [Modernism](/source/Modern_architecture) and was very much concerned with the coming together of a new architectural form and social reform, creating a more open and transparent society.<ref name="Tournikiotis">Panayotis Tournikiotis, ''The Historiography of Modern Architecture'', MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999 {{ISBN|0-262-70085-9}}</ref> The "International Style", as defined by Hitchcock and Johnson, was shaped by the activities of the [Deutscher Werkbund](/source/Deutscher_Werkbund). Le Corbusier had embraced [Taylorist](/source/Scientific_management) and [Fordist](/source/Fordism) strategies adopted from American industrial models in order to reorganize society. He contributed to a new journal called ''L'Esprit Nouveau'' that advocated the use of modern industrial techniques and strategies to create a higher standard of living on all socio-economic levels. In 1927, one of the first and most defining manifestations of the International Style was the [Weissenhof Estate](/source/Weissenhof_Estate) in [Stuttgart](/source/Stuttgart), overseen by Mies van der Rohe. It was enormously popular, with thousands of daily visitors.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1321/|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|access-date=19 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.weissenhof2002.de/weissenhof.html|title=Siedlungshäuser: Die Häuser der Weissenhofsiedlung|publisher=Weissenhofsiedlung|access-date=10 August 2011}}</ref>

==1932 MoMA exhibition<span class="anchor" id="1932 MOMA exhibition"></span>==
[[File:Philip_Johnson2.jpg|thumb|Philip Johnson co-defined the International Style with [Henry-Russell Hitchcock](/source/Henry-Russell_Hitchcock) as a young college graduate, and later became one of its practitioners.]]

The exhibition ''Modern Architecture: International Exhibition'' ran from February 9 to March 23, 1932, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in the [Heckscher Building](/source/Crown_Building_(Manhattan)) at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in New York.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2044 | title = Modern Architecture: International Exhibition | publisher = Museum of Modern Art}}</ref> Beyond a foyer and office, the exhibition was divided into six rooms: the "Modern Architects" section began in the entrance room, featuring a model of William Lescaze's Chrystie-Forsyth Street Housing Development in New York. From there visitors moved to the centrally placed Room A, featuring a model of a mid-rise housing development for [Evanston](/source/Evanston%2C_Illinois), Illinois, by Chicago architect brothers [Monroe Bengt Bowman](/source/Monroe_Bengt_Bowman) and [Irving Bowman](/source/Irving_Bowman),<ref>[https://www.artic.edu/research/archival-collections/oral-histories/monroe-bengt-bowman-1901-1994 Monroe Bengt Bowman (1901–1994), Art Institute Chicago]</ref> as well as a model and photos of Walter Gropius's Bauhaus building in Dessau. In the largest exhibition space, Room C, were works by Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, [J. J. P. Oud](/source/J._J._P._Oud) and Frank Lloyd Wright (including a project for a house on the Mesa in Denver, 1932). Room B was a section titled "Housing", presenting "the need for a new domestic environment" as it had been identified by historian and critic [Lewis Mumford](/source/Lewis_Mumford). In Room D were works by Raymond Hood (including "Apartment Tower in the Country" and the [McGraw-Hill Building](/source/330_West_42nd_Street)) and Richard Neutra. In Room E was a section titled "The extent of modern architecture", added at the last minute,<ref name="Riley" /> which included the works of thirty-seven modern architects from fifteen countries who were said to be influenced by the works of Europeans of the 1920s. Among these works was shown Alvar Aalto's Turun Sanomat newspaper offices building in [Turku](/source/Turku), Finland.

After a six-week run in New York City, the exhibition then toured the US – the first such "traveling-exhibition" of architecture in the US – for six years.<ref>[https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606077/index.pdf Baharak Tabibi, ''Exhibitions as the Medium of Architectural Reproduction – "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition"'', Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2005.]</ref>

===Curators===
[MoMA](/source/Museum_of_Modern_Art) director [Alfred H. Barr](/source/Alfred_H._Barr%2C_Jr.) hired architectural historian and critic [Henry-Russell Hitchcock](/source/Henry-Russell_Hitchcock) and [Philip Johnson](/source/Philip_Johnson)<ref name="Riley">Terence Riley, "Portrait of the curator as a young man", in John Elderfield (ed), ''Philip Johnson and the Museum of Modern Art'', Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, pp.35–69</ref> to curate the museum's first architectural exhibition. The three of them toured Europe together in 1929 and had also discussed Hitchcock's book about modern art. By December 1930, the first written proposal for an exhibition of the "new architecture" was set down, yet the first draft of the book was not complete until some months later.

===Publications===
The 1932 exhibition led to two publications by Hitchcock and Johnson:
* The exhibition catalog, "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition"<ref name="momacatalog">{{Cite book | last1 = Hitchcock | first1 = Henry-Russell | last2 = Johnson | first2 = Philip | title = Modern Architecture: International Exhibition | publisher = Museum of Modern Art | year = 1932 | url = https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2044_300061855.pdf}}</ref>
* The book, ''The International Style: Architecture Since 1922'', published by W. W. Norton & Co. in 1932.
**reprinted in 1997 by W. W. Norton & Company<ref name="Hitchcock">Henry Russell Hitchcock, Philip Johnson.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp1Sl8ZNKg4C&pg=PP1&dq ''The International Style'']. W. W. Norton & Co. in 1997. {{ISBN|0-393-31518-5}}</ref>

Previous to the 1932 exhibition and book, Hitchcock had concerned himself with the themes of modern architecture in his 1929 book ''Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration''.

According to [Terence Riley](/source/Terence_Riley_(curator)): "Ironically the (exhibition) catalogue, and to some extent, the book ''The International Style'', published at the same time of the exhibition, have supplanted the actual historical event."<ref>Terence Riley, ''The International Style: Exhibition 15 and The Museum of Modern Art''. New York, Rizzoli, 1992.</ref>

=== Exemplary Uses of the International Style ===
The following architects and buildings were selected by Hitchcock and Johnson for display at the exhibition ''Modern Architecture: International Exhibition'':

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:96%;"
! width="200px"| Architect
! width="280px"| Building
! width="200px"| Location
! width="80px"| Date
|-
| [Jacobus Oud](/source/Jacobus_Oud) || Workers Houses (house blocks [Kiefhoek](/source/Kiefhoek)) || {{flagicon|NLD}} [Rotterdam](/source/Rotterdam), The Netherlands || 1924–1927
|-
| [Otto Eisler](/source/Otto_Eisler) || [https://www.bam.brno.cz/en/object/c049-semi-detached-villa?filter=code Semi-detached Villa] || {{flagicon|CZE}} [Brno](/source/Brno), Czech Republic || 1926–1927
|-valign="top"
| rowspan=3| [Walter Gropius](/source/Walter_Gropius) || [Fagus Factory](/source/Fagus_Factory) || {{flagicon|GER}} [Alfeld](/source/Alfeld), Germany || 1911
|-
| [Bauhaus School](/source/Bauhaus) || {{flagicon|GER}} [Dessau](/source/Dessau), Germany || 1926
|-
| City Employment Office || {{flagicon|GER}} Dessau, Germany || 1928
|-valign="top"
| rowspan=3| [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe) || Apartment House, [Weissenhof Estate](/source/Weissenhof_Estate) || {{flagicon|GER}} [Stuttgart](/source/Stuttgart), Germany || 1927
|-
| [German pavilion](/source/Barcelona_Pavilion) at the [Barcelona Expo](/source/1929_Barcelona_International_Exposition) || {{flagicon|ESP}} [Barcelona](/source/Barcelona), Spain || 1929
|-

|-
| [Villa Tugendhat](/source/Villa_Tugendhat) || {{flagicon|CZE}} Brno, Czech Republic || 1930
|-valign="top"
| rowspan=3| [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier)
| [Villa Stein](/source/Villa_Stein) || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Garches](/source/Garches), France || 1927
|-
| [Villa Savoye](/source/Villa_Savoye) || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Poissy](/source/Poissy), France || 1930
|-
| [Carlos de Beistegui](/source/Carlos_de_Beistegui) Champs-Élysées Penthouse || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Paris](/source/Paris), France || 1931
|-
| [Erich Mendelsohn](/source/Erich_Mendelsohn) || [Schocken Department Store](/source/Schocken_Department_Stores) || {{flagicon|GER}} [Chemnitz](/source/Chemnitz), Germany || 1928–1930
|-
| [Frederick John Kiesler](/source/Frederick_John_Kiesler) || [Film Guild Cinema](/source/Film_Guild_Cinema) || {{flagicon|USA}} [New York City](/source/New_York_City), US || 1929
|-
| [Raymond Hood](/source/Raymond_Hood) || [McGraw-Hill Building](/source/330_West_42nd_Street) || {{flagicon|USA}} New York City, US || 1931
|-
| [George Howe](/source/George_Howe_(architect)) & [William Lescaze](/source/William_Lescaze) || [Loews Philadelphia Hotel](/source/PSFS_Building) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Philadelphia](/source/Philadelphia), US || 1932
|-
| Monroe Bengt Bowman & Irving Bowman || Lux apartment block || {{flagicon|USA}} [Evanston](/source/Evanston%2C_Illinois), US || 1931
|-
| [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra) || [Lovell House](/source/Lovell_House) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), US || 1929
|-
| [Otto Haesler](/source/Otto_Haesler) || Rothenberg Siedlung || {{flagicon|GER}} [Kassel](/source/Kassel), Germany || 1930
|-
| Karl Schneider || Kunstverein || {{flagicon|GER}} [Hamburg](/source/Hamburg), Germany || 1930
|-
| [Alvar Aalto](/source/Alvar_Aalto) || Turun Sanomat building || {{flagicon|FIN}} [Turku](/source/Turku), Finland || 1930
|}

<gallery class="center" widths="160" heights="130">
File:VillaSavoye.jpg|[Villa Savoye](/source/Villa_Savoye), Paris, Le Corbusier
File:Dessau Bauhaus-Gebäude asv2024-06 img1.jpg|[Bauhaus School](/source/Bauhaus), Dessau, Walter Gropius
File:Fagus-Werke-01.jpg|[Fagus Factory](/source/Fagus_Factory), [Alfeld](/source/Alfeld), Walter Gropius
File:The Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, 2010.jpg|[German Pavilion](/source/Barcelona_Pavilion), Barcelona, [Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe)
File:Villa Tugendhat, Brno, CZ (2).jpg|[Villa Tugendhat](/source/Villa_Tugendhat), Brno, Mies van der Rohe
File:Rothenberg-Siedlung (4).jpg|Rothenberg Siedlung, Kassel, Otto Haesler
File:Lovell House, Los Angeles, California.JPG|[Lovell House](/source/Lovell_House), Los Angeles, [Rudolph Schindler](/source/Rudolph_Schindler_(architect)) (garden by [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra))
File:Mcgraw-hill-42nd-st 1.jpg|[McGraw-Hill Building](/source/330_West_42nd_Street), New York City, [Raymond Hood](/source/Raymond_Hood)
File:PSFSBuilding1985.jpg|[Loews Philadelphia Hotel](/source/PSFS_Building), Philadelphia, [George Howe](/source/George_Howe_(architect)) and [William Lescaze](/source/William_Lescaze)
File:Turunsanomat.jpg|Turun Sanomat, [Turku](/source/Turku), [Alvar Aalto](/source/Alvar_Aalto)
</gallery>

===Notable omissions===
The exhibition excluded other contemporary styles that were exploring the boundaries of architecture at the time, including: [Art Deco](/source/Art_Deco); German Expressionism, for instance the works of [Hermann Finsterlin](/source/Hermann_Finsterlin); and the [organicist](/source/organic_architecture) movement, popularized in the work of [Antoni Gaudí](/source/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD). As a result of the 1932 exhibition, the principles of the International Style were endorsed, while other styles were classed less significant.

In 1922, the competition for the [Tribune Tower](/source/Tribune_Tower) and its famous [second-place entry by Eliel Saarinen](/source/Eliel_Saarinen's_Tribune_Tower_design) gave some indication of what was to come, though these works would not have been accepted by Hitchcock and Johnson as representing the "International Style". Similarly, Johnson, writing about Joseph Urban's recently completed New School for Social Research in New York, stated: "In the New School we have an anomaly of a building supposed to be in a style of architecture based on the development of the plan from function and facade from plan but which is a formally and pretentiously conceived as a Renaissance palace. Urban's admiration for the New Style is more complete than his understanding."<ref name="Riley" />

California architect [Rudolph Schindler](/source/Rudolph_Schindler_(architect))'s work was not a part of the exhibit, though Schindler had pleaded with Hitchcock and Johnson to be included.<ref>{{cite book|last = Hines|first = Thomas|title = Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 1982|pages = 105|isbn = 0-19-503028-1}}</ref> Then, "[f]or more than 20 years, Schindler had intermittently launched a series of spirited, cantankerous exchanges with the museum."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://schindlerlab.org/history/#_edn2 | title = Not Another International Style Ballyhoo: A Short History of the Schindler House | last = Morgan | first = Susan | date = 2015 | publisher = [MAK Center for Art and Architecture](/source/MAK_Center_for_Art_and_Architecture) }}</ref>

==Before 1932==
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:96%;"
! width="240px"| Architect
! width="240px"| Building
! width="200px"| Location
! width="80px"| Date
|-
| [Johannes Duiker](/source/Johannes_Duiker) and Bernard Bijvoet || [Zonnestraal Sanatorium](/source/Zonnestraal_(estate)) || {{flagicon|NLD}} [Hilversum](/source/Hilversum), Netherlands|| 1926–1928
|-
|-valign="top"
| rowspan=2|  [Robert Mallet-Stevens](/source/Robert_Mallet-Stevens) || [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Immeubles_formant_la_rue_Mallet-Stevens/ houses on Rue Mallet-Stevens] || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Paris](/source/Paris), France || 1927
|-
| [https://www.villa-cavrois.fr/ Villa Cavrois] || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Croix](/source/Croix%2C_Nord), France || 1929
|-
| [Eileen Gray](/source/Eileen_Gray) || [E-1027](/source/E-1027) || {{flagicon|FRA}} [Cap Martin](/source/Cap_Martin), France || 1929
|-
| [Alejandro Bustillo](/source/Alejandro_Bustillo) || House of [Victoria Ocampo](/source/Victoria_Ocampo) || {{flagicon|ARG}} [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), Argentina || 1929
|-
| [Alvar Aalto](/source/Alvar_Aalto) || [Paimio Sanatorium](/source/Paimio_Sanatorium) || {{flagicon|FIN}} [Turku](/source/Turku), Finland || 1930
|-
| [Leendert van der Vlugt](/source/Leendert_van_der_Vlugt) || [Van Nelle Factory](/source/Van_Nelle_Factory) || {{flagicon|NLD}} [Rotterdam, Netherlands](/source/Rotterdam) || 1926–1930
|-
| [Joseph Emberton](/source/Joseph_Emberton) || [Royal Corinthian Yacht Club](/source/Royal_Corinthian_Yacht_Club) || {{flagicon|UK}} [Essex](/source/Essex), England || 1931
|}

==1932–1944==
[[File:Glaspaleis front-east.jpg|thumb|The [Glass Palace](/source/Glaspaleis), [Heerlen](/source/Heerlen), Netherlands, [Frits Peutz](/source/Frits_Peutz) (1935)]]

The gradual rise of the [Nazi](/source/Nazi) regime in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, and the Nazis' rejection of modern architecture, meant that an entire generation of avant-gardist architects, many of them Jews, were forced out of continental Europe. Some, such as Mendelsohn, found shelter in England, while a considerable number of the Jewish architects made their way to [Palestine](/source/Mandatory_Palestine), and others to the US. However, American anti-Communist politics after the war and Philip Johnson's influential rejection of [functionalism](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)) have tended to mask the fact that many of the important architects, including contributors to the original Weissenhof project, fled to the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union). This group also tended to be far more concerned with functionalism and its social agenda. [Bruno Taut](/source/Bruno_Taut), [Mart Stam](/source/Mart_Stam), the second Bauhaus director [Hannes Meyer](/source/Hannes_Meyer), [Ernst May](/source/Ernst_May) and other important figures of the International Style went to the Soviet Union in 1930 to undertake huge, ambitious, idealistic urban planning projects, building entire cities from scratch. In 1936, when Stalin ordered them out of the country, many of these architects became stateless and sought refuge elsewhere; for example, Ernst May moved to Kenya.<ref>Claudia Quiring, Wolfgang Voigt, Peter Cachola Schmal, Eckhard Herrel (eds), ''Ernst May 1886–1970'', Munich, Prestel, 2011.</ref>

[[File:Dizengoff Square Tel Aviv3.jpg|thumb|[Dizengoff Circle](/source/Dizengoff_Circle), [White City](/source/White_City_(Tel_Aviv)), Tel Aviv, by [Genia Averbuch](/source/Genia_Averbuch) (1934)]]

The [White City](/source/White_City_(Tel_Aviv)) of [Tel Aviv](/source/Tel_Aviv) is a collection of over 4,000 buildings built in the International Style in the 1930s. Many Jewish architects who had studied at the German [Bauhaus](/source/Bauhaus) school designed significant buildings here.<ref>Ina Rottscheidt, Kate Bowen, [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4139253,00.html ''Jewish refugees put their own twist on Bauhaus homes in Israel''], Deutsche Welle, 1 April 2009</ref> A large proportion of the buildings built in the International Style can be found in the area planned by [Patrick Geddes](/source/Patrick_Geddes), north of Tel Aviv's main historical commercial center.<ref>''The New York Times''. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/middleeast/18telaviv.html?scp=1&sq=patrick+geddes++tel+aviv&st=nyt "A City Reinvents Itself Beyond Conflict"]. Accessed 25 February 2010.</ref> In 1994, [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO) proclaimed the White City a [World Heritage Site](/source/World_Heritage_Site), describing the city as "a synthesis of outstanding significance of the various trends of the Modern Movement in architecture and town planning in the early part of the 20th century".<ref name="Unesco">{{citation |publisher=Unesco |series=World Heritage Centre |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1096 |title=White City of Tel-Aviv – the Modern Movement |access-date=2009-09-14}}</ref> In 1996, Tel Aviv's White City was [listed](/source/1996_World_Monuments_Watch_List_of_Most_Endangered_Sites) as a [World Monuments Fund](/source/World_Monuments_Fund) endangered site.<ref>[World Monuments Fund](/source/World_Monuments_Fund), [http://www.wmf.org/watch_past.html ''World Monuments Watch 1996–2006''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928211806/http://wmf.org/watch_past.html |date=2009-09-28 }}, retrieved 16 September 2009</ref>

[[File:Edificio Kavanagh (gevaert).jpg|thumb|upright|The [Kavanagh Building](/source/Kavanagh_Building) in [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), by Sánchez, Lagos & de la Torre (1936)]]

The [residential area](/source/residential_area) of [Södra Ängby](/source/S%C3%B6dra_%C3%84ngby) in western [Stockholm](/source/Stockholm), Sweden, blended an international or [functionalist](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)) style with [garden city](/source/Garden_city_movement) ideals. Encompassing more than 500 buildings, most of them designed by Edvin Engström, it remains the largest coherent functionalist or "International Style" [villa](/source/villa) area in Sweden and possibly the world, still well-preserved more than a half-century after its construction in 1933–40 and protected as a [national cultural heritage](/source/listed_buildings_in_Sweden).

[Zlín](/source/Zl%C3%ADn) is a city in the Czech Republic which was in the 1930s completely reconstructed on principles of functionalism. In that time the city was a headquarters of [Bata Shoes](/source/Bata_Shoes) company and Tomáš Baťa initiated a complex reconstruction of the city which was inspired by functionalism and the [Garden city movement](/source/Garden_city_movement). [Tomas Bata Memorial](/source/Tomas_Bata_Memorial) is the most valuable monument of the [Zlín](/source/Zl%C3%ADn_Region) [functionalism](/source/Functionalism_(architecture)). It is a modern paraphrase of the constructions of high gothic style period: the supporting system and colourful stained glass and the reinforced concrete skeleton and glass.

With the rise of Nazism, a number of key European modern architects fled to the US. When [Walter Gropius](/source/Walter_Gropius) and [Marcel Breuer](/source/Marcel_Breuer) fled Germany they both arrived at the [Harvard Graduate School of Design](/source/Harvard_Graduate_School_of_Design), in an excellent position to extend their influence and promote the [Bauhaus](/source/Bauhaus) as the primary source of architectural modernism. When Mies fled in 1938, he first fled to England, but on emigrating to the US he went to Chicago, founded the Second School of Chicago at [IIT](/source/Illinois_Institute_of_Technology) and solidified his reputation as a prototypical modern architect.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:96%;"
! width="240px"| Architect
! width="240px"| Building
! width="200px"| Location
! width="80px"| Date
|-
| [Ove Arup](/source/Ove_Arup) || [Labworth Café](/source/Labworth_Caf%C3%A9) || {{flagicon|UK}} [Essex](/source/Essex), England || 1932–1933
|-
| Jorge Kálnay || [Luna Park](/source/Estadio_Luna_Park) || {{flagicon|ARG}} [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), Argentina || 1932 
|-
| [Leendert van der Vlugt](/source/Leendert_van_der_Vlugt) || Sonneveld House || {{flagicon|NLD}} [Rotterdam, Netherlands](/source/Rotterdam) || 1932–1933
|-
| Carlos Ramos || [Radio Pavilion of the Oncology Institute](/source/Portuguese_Oncology_Institute) || {{flagicon|POR}} [Lisbon](/source/Lisbon), Portugal || 1933
|-
| [Hans Scharoun](/source/Hans_Scharoun) || Schminke House || {{flagicon|GER}} [Löbau](/source/L%C3%B6bau), Germany || 1933
|-
| [Frits Peutz](/source/Frits_Peutz) || [Glaspaleis](/source/Glaspaleis) || {{flagicon|NLD}} [Heerlen](/source/Heerlen), Netherlands || 1933
|-
|[František Lydie Gahura](/source/Franti%C5%A1ek_Lydie_Gahura)
|[Tomas Bata Memorial](/source/Tomas_Bata_Memorial)
|{{Flagicon|Czech Republic}} [Zlín](/source/Zl%C3%ADn), Czech Republic
|1933
|-
| [Oscar Stonorov](/source/Oscar_Stonorov) and Alfred Kastner || [Carl Mackley Houses](/source/Carl_Mackley_Houses) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Philadelphia](/source/Philadelphia), US || 1933–1934
|-
| Edvin Engström || [Södra Ängby](/source/S%C3%B6dra_%C3%84ngby) || {{flagicon|SWE}} [Stockholm](/source/Stockholm), Sweden || 1933–1939
|-
| [Genia Averbuch](/source/Genia_Averbuch) || [Dizengoff Square](/source/Dizengoff_Square) || {{flagicon|ISR}} [Tel Aviv](/source/Tel_Aviv), Israel || 1934–1938
|-
| [Dov Karmi](/source/Dov_Karmi) || [Max-Liebling House](/source/Max-Liebling_House) || {{flagicon|ISR}} Tel Aviv, Israel || 1936
|-
| Yehuda Lulka || Thermometer House || {{flagicon|ISR}} Tel Aviv, Israel || 1935
|-
| [Erich Mendelsohn](/source/Erich_Mendelsohn) || [Weizmann House](/source/Weizmann_House) || {{flagicon|ISR}} [Rehovot](/source/Rehovot), Israel || 1936
|-
| [Wells Coates](/source/Wells_Coates) || [Isokon building](/source/Isokon_building) || {{flagicon|UK}} [London](/source/London), England || 1934 
|-
| [Berthold Lubetkin](/source/Berthold_Lubetkin) || [Highpoint I](/source/Highpoint_I) || {{flagicon|UK}} London, England || 1935
|-
| [Maxwell Fry](/source/Maxwell_Fry) || Sun House || {{flagicon|UK}} London, England || 1935
|-
| Neil & Hurd || [Ravelston Garden](/source/Ravelston_Garden) || {{flagicon|UK}} [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh), Scotland || 1936 
|-
| Sánchez, Lagos & de la Torre || [Kavanagh Building](/source/Kavanagh_Building) || {{flagicon|ARG}} [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), Argentina || 1936 
|-
| [Paul Thiry](/source/Paul_Thiry_(architect)) || Thiry House<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woodbridge |first1=Sally B. and Roger Montgomery |title=A Guide to Architecture in Washington State |date=1980 |publisher=University of Washington Press |location=Seattle |isbn=0-295-95761-1 |page=86}}</ref> || {{flagicon|USA}} [Seattle, Washington](/source/Seattle%2C_Washington), US || 1936
|-
| [Walter Gropius](/source/Walter_Gropius) || [Gropius House](/source/Gropius_House) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Lincoln, Massachusetts](/source/Lincoln%2C_Massachusetts), US || 1937–1938
|-
| Hamilton Beatty and Allen Strang || [Willard and Fern Tompkins House](/source/Willard_and_Fern_Tompkins_House) || {{flagicon|USA}} Monona, Wisconsin, US || 1937
|-
| William {{Proper name|Ganster}} and [William Pereira](/source/William_Pereira) || Lake County Tuberculosis Sanatorium ||{{flagicon|USA}} [Waukegan, Illinois](/source/Waukegan%2C_Illinois), US || 1938–1939
|}

==1945–present==
[[File:NewYorkSeagram 04.30.2008.JPG|right|thumb|[Seagram Building](/source/Seagram_Building), New York, [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe) (1958)]]
[[File:Place de Ville C.JPG|thumb|Tower C of [Place de Ville](/source/Place_de_Ville) ]]

After World War II, the International Style matured; [Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum](/source/Hellmuth%2C_Obata_%26_Kassabaum) (later renamed [HOK](/source/HOK_(firm))) and [Skidmore, Owings & Merrill](/source/Skidmore%2C_Owings_%26_Merrill) (SOM) perfected the corporate practice, and it became the dominant approach for decades in the US and Canada. Beginning with the initial technical and formal inventions of [860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments](/source/860-880_Lake_Shore_Drive_Apartments) in Chicago, its most famous examples include the [United Nations headquarters](/source/United_Nations_headquarters), the [Lever House](/source/Lever_House), the [Seagram Building](/source/Seagram_Building) in [New York City](/source/New_York_City), and the campus of the [United States Air Force Academy](/source/United_States_Air_Force_Academy) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as the [Toronto-Dominion Centre](/source/Toronto-Dominion_Centre) in [Toronto](/source/Toronto). Further examples can be found in mid-century institutional buildings throughout North America and the "corporate architecture" spread from there, especially to Europe.

In [Canada](/source/Architecture_of_Canada), this period coincided with a major building boom and few restrictions on massive building projects. International Style skyscrapers came to dominate many of Canada's major cities, especially [Ottawa](/source/Ottawa), [Montreal](/source/Montreal), [Vancouver](/source/Vancouver), [Calgary](/source/Calgary), [Edmonton](/source/Edmonton), [Hamilton](/source/Hamilton%2C_Ontario), and [Toronto](/source/Architecture_of_Toronto). While these glass boxes were at first unique and interesting, the idea was soon repeated to the point of ubiquity. A typical example is the development of so-called [Place de Ville](/source/Place_de_Ville), a conglomeration of three glass skyscrapers in downtown Ottawa, where the plans of the property developer [Robert Campeau](/source/Robert_Campeau) in the mid-1960s and early 1970s—in the words of historian Robert W. Collier, were "forceful and abrasive[;] he was not well-loved at City Hall"—had no regard for existing city plans, and "built with contempt for the existing city and for city responsibilities in the key areas of transportation and land use".<ref name="Collier">Robert W. Collier, ''Contemporary Cathedrals – Large scale developments in Canadian cities'', Harvest House, Montreal, 1975.</ref> Architects attempted to put new twists into such towers, such as the [Toronto City Hall](/source/Toronto_City_Hall) by Finnish architect [Viljo Revell](/source/Viljo_Revell). By the late 1970s a backlash was under way against modernism—prominent anti-modernists such as [Jane Jacobs](/source/Jane_Jacobs) and [George Baird](/source/George_Baird_(architect)) were partly based in Toronto.

The typical International Style or "corporate architecture" high-rise usually consists of the following:
# Square or rectangular footprint
# Simple cubic "extruded rectangle" form
# Windows running in broken horizontal rows forming a grid
# All facade angles are 90 degrees.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

In 2000 [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO) proclaimed [University City of Caracas](/source/University_City_of_Caracas) in [Caracas](/source/Caracas), Venezuela, as a [World Heritage Site](/source/World_Heritage_Site), describing it as "a masterpiece of modern city planning, architecture and art, created by the Venezuelan architect [Carlos Raúl Villanueva](/source/Carlos_Ra%C3%BAl_Villanueva) and a group of distinguished avant-garde artists".{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}

In June 2007 UNESCO proclaimed [Ciudad Universitaria](/source/University_City_of_Mexico) of the [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México](/source/Universidad_Nacional_Aut%C3%B3noma_de_M%C3%A9xico) (UNAM), in [Mexico City](/source/Mexico_City), a World Heritage Site due to its relevance and contribution in terms of international style movement. It was designed in the late 1940s and built in the mid-1950s based upon a masterplan created by architect [Enrique del Moral](/source/Enrique_del_Moral). His original idea was enriched by other students, teachers, and diverse professionals of several disciplines. The university houses [mural](/source/mural)s by [Diego Rivera](/source/Diego_Rivera), [Juan O'Gorman](/source/Juan_O'Gorman) and others. The university also features Olympic Stadium (1968). In his first years of practice, [Pritzker Prize](/source/Pritzker_Prize) winner and Mexican architect [Luis Barragán](/source/Luis_Barrag%C3%A1n) designed buildings in the International Style. But later he evolved to a more traditional local architecture. Other notable Mexican architects of the International Style or modern period are [Carlos Obregón Santacilia](/source/Carlos_Obreg%C3%B3n_Santacilia), [Augusto H. Alvarez](/source/Augusto_H._Alvarez), [Mario Pani](/source/Mario_Pani), {{Ill|Federico Ernesto Mariscal Piña|lt=Federico Mariscal|es}}, [Vladimir Kaspé](/source/Vladimir_Kasp%C3%A9), [Enrique del Moral](/source/Enrique_del_Moral), [Juan Sordo Madaleno](/source/Juan_Sordo_Madaleno), [Max Cetto](/source/Max_Cetto), among many others.

In Brazil [Oscar Niemeyer](/source/Oscar_Niemeyer) proposed a more organic and sensual<ref>{{cite book |last=Botey |first=Josep |title=Oscar Niemeyer |publisher=Gustavo Gili |location=Barcelona |year=1996 |isbn=8425215765}}</ref> International Style. He designed the political landmarks (headquarters of the three state powers) of the new, planned capital [Brasília](/source/Bras%C3%ADlia). The masterplan for the city was proposed by [Lúcio Costa](/source/L%C3%BAcio_Costa).

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:96%;"
! width="200px"| Architect
! width="280px"| Building
! width="200px"| Location
! width="80px"| Date
|-
| rowspan=2| [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe) || [Illinois Institute of Technology](/source/Illinois_Institute_of_Technology) campus (including [S. R. Crown Hall](/source/S._R._Crown_Hall)) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Chicago](/source/Chicago), US || 1945–1960
|-
| [860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments](/source/860%E2%80%93880_Lake_Shore_Drive_Apartments) || {{flagicon|USA}} Chicago, US || 1949
|-
| [Pietro Belluschi](/source/Pietro_Belluschi) || [Commonwealth Building](/source/Commonwealth_Building_(Portland%2C_Oregon)) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Portland, Oregon](/source/Portland%2C_Oregon), US || 1948
|-
| Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Harrison & Abramovitz|| [Headquarters of the United Nations](/source/Headquarters_of_the_United_Nations) || {{flagicon|USA}} [New York City](/source/New_York_City), US || 1950s
|-
| [Michael Scott](/source/Michael_Scott_(architect)) || [Busaras](/source/Busaras) || {{flagicon|IRL}} [Dublin](/source/Dublin), Ireland || 1945–1953
|-
| [Kemp, Bunch & Jackson](/source/KBJ_Architects) || [Eight Forty One](/source/Eight_Forty_One) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Jacksonville](/source/Jacksonville), US || 1955
|-
| Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch || [City Hall, Hong Kong](/source/City_Hall%2C_Hong_Kong) || {{flagicon|HKG}} [Central](/source/Central%2C_Hong_Kong), [Hong Kong](/source/Hong_Kong), China || 1956
|-
| Alberto Belgrano Blanco, José A. Hortal and Marcelo Martínez de Hoz || [Alas Building](/source/Alas_Building) || {{flagicon|ARG}} [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), Argentina || 1957
|-
| [John Bland](/source/John_Bland_(architect)) || [Old City Hall](/source/Old_City_Hall_(Ottawa)) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Ottawa](/source/Ottawa), Canada || 1958
|-
| [Emery Roth & Sons](/source/Emery_Roth_%26_Sons) || [10 Lafayette Square](/source/10_Lafayette_Square) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Buffalo, New York](/source/Buffalo%2C_New_York), US || 1958–1959
|-
| Kelly & Gruzen || [High School of Graphic Communication Arts](/source/High_School_of_Graphic_Communication_Arts) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Manhattan](/source/Manhattan), New York City, US || 1959
|-
| [Arne Jacobsen](/source/Arne_Jacobsen) || [SAS Royal Hotel](/source/Radisson_SAS_Royal_Hotel%2C_Copenhagen) || {{flagicon|DEN}} [Copenhagen](/source/Copenhagen), Denmark || 1958–60
|-
| Stanley Roscoe || [Hamilton City Hall](/source/Hamilton_City_Hall) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Hamilton](/source/Hamilton%2C_Ontario), Canada || 1960
|-
| [John Lautner](/source/John_Lautner) || [Chemosphere](/source/Chemosphere) || {{flagicon|USA}} Los Angeles, US || 1960
|-
| [Carlos Arguelles](/source/Carlos_Arguelles) || [Philamlife Building](/source/Philamlife_Theater) || {{flagicon|PHL}} Manila, Philippines || 1961
|-
| [I. M. Pei](/source/I._M._Pei) || [Place Ville-Marie](/source/Place_Ville-Marie) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Montreal](/source/Montreal), Canada || 1962
|-Major
| [Charles Luckman](/source/Charles_Luckman) || [Prudential Tower](/source/Prudential_Tower) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Boston](/source/Boston), US || 1964
|-valign="top"
| [Carlos Arguelles](/source/Carlos_Arguelles) || [Philippine National Bank](/source/Philippine_National_Bank) Head Office (Escolta)|| {{flagicon|PHL}} Manila, Philippines || 1965-2015 <ref name="pnb.com.ph_escolta_HQ_demolished">{{cite web | url=https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/220218/experts-condemn-pnb-building-demolition-laugh-off-eraps-claim-that-structure-is-unsafe/ | title=Experts condemn PNB building demolition, laugh off Erap's claim that structure is unsafe | date=24 January 2016 }}</ref>
|-
| [George Dahl](/source/George_Dahl) || [First National Bank Tower](/source/The_Drever) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Dallas](/source/Dallas), US || 1965
|-
|Abugov & Sunderland
|[CN Tower](/source/CN_Tower_(Edmonton))
|{{Flagicon|CAN}} [Edmonton](/source/Edmonton), Canada
|1966
|-
|Various architects
|[Montreal Metro](/source/Montreal_Metro), initial network
|{{Flagicon|CAN}} [Montreal](/source/Montreal), Canada
|1966
|-
| rowspan=2| [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe) || [Toronto-Dominion Centre](/source/Toronto-Dominion_Centre) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Toronto](/source/Toronto), Canada || 1967
|-
| [Westmount Square](/source/Westmount_Square) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Montreal](/source/Montreal), Canada || 1967
|-
| [Skidmore, Owings & Merrill](/source/Skidmore%2C_Owings_%26_Merrill) || [Equitable Building](/source/Equitable_Building_(Atlanta)) || {{flagicon|USA}} [Atlanta](/source/Atlanta), US || 1968
|-
| [Hermann Henselmann](/source/Hermann_Henselmann) et al. || [Berlin TV Tower](/source/Fernsehturm_Berlin) || {{flagicon|GER}} [Berlin](/source/Berlin), Germany || 1969
|-
| [Michael Manser](/source/Michael_Manser) || [Capel Manor House](/source/Capel_Manor_House) || {{flagicon|UK}} [Horsmonden](/source/Horsmonden), UK || 1971
|-
| [Campeau Corporation](/source/Campeau_Corporation) || [Place de Ville](/source/Place_de_Ville) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Ottawa](/source/Ottawa), Canada || 1967–1972
|-
| [Arthur C.F. Lau](/source/Arthur_C.F._Lau) || [Stelco Tower](/source/Stelco_Tower) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Hamilton](/source/Hamilton%2C_Ontario), Canada || 1973
|-
| Crang & Boake || [Hudson's Bay Centre](/source/Hudson's_Bay_Centre) || {{flagicon|CAN}} [Toronto](/source/Toronto), Canada || 1974
|-
|Jerzy Skrzypczak
|[Chałubińskiego 8](/source/Cha%C5%82ubi%C5%84skiego_8)
|{{Flagicon|POL}} [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw), Poland
|1975–1978
|-
|rowspan=2|[Friedrich Silaban](/source/Friedrich_Silaban)
|[Borobudur Hotel](/source/Borobudur_Hotel)||
{{Flagicon|INA}} [Jakarta](/source/Jakarta), Indonesia
||1974
|-
|[Istiqlal Mosque](/source/Istiqlal_Mosque%2C_Jakarta)||{{flagicon|INA}} Jakarta, Indonesia||1978
|-
| Pedro Moctezuma Díaz Infante || [Torre Ejecutiva Pemex](/source/Torre_Ejecutiva_Pemex) || {{flagicon|MEX}} [Mexico City](/source/Mexico_City), Mexico || 1982
|}

==Criticism==
In 1930, [Frank Lloyd Wright](/source/Frank_Lloyd_Wright) wrote: "Human houses should not be like boxes, blazing in the sun, nor should we outrage the Machine by trying to make dwelling-places too complementary to Machinery."<ref>{{Citation | title = Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930 | isbn = 978-0691129372 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U2m-aIT_xUsC&pg=PA65| last1 = Wright | first1 = Frank Lloyd | year = 2008 | publisher = Princeton University Press }}</ref>{{relevance|date=May 2026}}

In [Elizabeth Gordon](/source/Elizabeth_Gordon_(editor))'s well-known 1953 essay, "The Threat to the Next America", she criticized the style as non-practical, citing many instances where "glass houses" are too hot in summer and too cold in winter, empty, take away private space, lack beauty and generally are not livable. Moreover, she accused this style's proponents of taking away a sense of beauty from people and thus covertly pushing for a totalitarian society.<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Elizabeth | title = The Threat to the Next America
 | journal = House Beautiful | issue = April 1953 | pages = 126–130 }}</ref>

In 1966, architect [Robert Venturi](/source/Robert_Venturi) published ''Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture'',<ref>{{cite book | last = Venturi | first = Robert | title = Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture | publisher = Museum of Modern Art | date = 1966 | url = https://monoskop.org/images/2/2f/Venturi_Robert_Complexity_and_Contradiction_in_Architecture_2nd_ed.pdf |via=Monoskop | access-date = 2017-11-18 | archive-date = 2016-08-10 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810140319/https://monoskop.org/images/2/2f/Venturi_Robert_Complexity_and_Contradiction_in_Architecture_2nd_ed.pdf
 | url-status = dead
 }}</ref> essentially a book-length critique of the International Style. Architectural historian [Vincent Scully](/source/Vincent_Scully) regarded Venturi's book as 'probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier's ''[Vers une Architecture](/source/Toward_an_Architecture)''.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/reviews/complexity-and-contradiction-changed-how-we-look-at-think-and-talk-about-architecture/10015872.article | title = Complexity and Contradiction changed how we look at, think and talk about architecture | last = Stierli | first = Martino  | date = December 22, 2016  | magazine = Architectural Review |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200522081750/https://www.architectural-review.com/rethink/reviews/complexity-and-contradiction-changed-how-we-look-at-think-and-talk-about-architecture/10015872.article |archive-date= May 22, 2020 }}</ref> It helped to define [postmodernism](/source/Postmodern_architecture).

Best-selling American author [Tom Wolfe](/source/Tom_Wolfe) wrote a book-length critique, ''[From Bauhaus to Our House](/source/From_Bauhaus_to_Our_House)'', portraying the style as elitist.

One of the supposed strengths of the International Style has been said to be that the design solutions were indifferent to location, site, and climate; the solutions were supposed to be universally applicable; the style made no reference to local history or national vernacular. This was soon identified as one of the style's primary weaknesses.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/international-style.htm | title=International Style of Modern Architecture: Origins, Characteristics |website=Visual Arts Encyclopedia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210164009/http://visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/international-style.htm |archive-date= Dec 10, 2023 }}</ref>

In 2006, [Hugh Pearman](/source/Hugh_Pearman_(architecture_critic)), the British architectural critic of ''[The Times](/source/The_Times)'', observed that those using the style today are simply "another species of [revivalist](/source/revivalism_(architecture))", noting the irony.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite web |url=http://hughpearman.com/modernism-or-should-that-be-modernwasm/ |title= Modernism – or should that be Modernwasm?<!-- Bot generated title --> |date=1 Apr 2006 |website=Hugh Pearman |access-date=2014-04-02 |archive-date=2020-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200106060515/http://hughpearman.com/modernism-or-should-that-be-modernwasm/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The negative reaction to internationalist modernism has been linked to public antipathy to overall development.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0DE1E3DF937A25752C1A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all#  Herbert Muschamp, "Fear, Hope and the Changing of the Guard", ''New York Times'', November 14, 1993, accessed February 17, 2008.] ("the preservation movement ... was a tool directed against real estate development, but inevitably it was turned against architecture. Its particular target was modern architecture").</ref><ref>[http://www.ffwdweekly.com/Issues/2005/0331/in.html R. Jobst, ''Charm is not an antiquated notion'', FFWD Weekly: March 31, 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603061301/http://ffwdweekly.com/Issues/2005/0331/in.html |date=June 3, 2008 }} ("At the root of the public's apprehension about new development is that we've been getting screwed for 60 years by brutal, soulless and downright crappy architecture that arrogantly dismisses the human requirement for beauty")</ref>

In the preface to the fourth edition of his book ''Modern Architecture: A Critical History'' (2007), [Kenneth Frampton](/source/Kenneth_Frampton) argued that there had been a "disturbing Eurocentric bias" in histories of modern architecture. This "Eurocentrism" included the US.<ref>[Kenneth Frampton](/source/Kenneth_Frampton), ''Modern Architecture: A Critical History'', London, Thames and Hudson, 2007.</ref>

==Architects==
{{Div col|colwidth=12em}}
* [Alvar Aalto](/source/Alvar_Aalto)
* [Max Abramovitz](/source/Max_Abramovitz)
* [Luis Barragán](/source/Luis_Barrag%C3%A1n)
* [Welton Becket](/source/Welton_Becket)
* [Pietro Belluschi](/source/Pietro_Belluschi)
* [Geoffrey Bazeley](/source/Geoffrey_Bazeley)
* [Max Bill](/source/Max_Bill)
* [Marcel Breuer](/source/Marcel_Breuer)
* [Roberto Burle Marx](/source/Roberto_Burle_Marx)
* [Gordon Bunshaft](/source/Gordon_Bunshaft)
* [Natalie de Blois](/source/Natalie_de_Blois)
* [Henry N. Cobb](/source/Henry_N._Cobb)
* [George Dahl](/source/George_Dahl)
* [Sir Frederick Gibberd](/source/Sir_Frederick_Gibberd)
* [Charles and Ray Eames](/source/Charles_and_Ray_Eames)
* [Otto Eisler](/source/Otto_Eisler)
* [Joseph Emberton](/source/Joseph_Emberton)
* [Bohuslav Fuchs](/source/Bohuslav_Fuchs)
* [Paul Furiet](/source/Paul_Furiet)
* [Heydar Ghiai](/source/Heydar_Ghiai)
* [Landis Gores](/source/Landis_Gores)
* [Bruce Graham](/source/Bruce_Graham)
* [Eileen Gray](/source/Eileen_Gray)
* [Walter Gropius](/source/Walter_Gropius)
* [Otto Haesler](/source/Otto_Haesler)
* [Arieh El-Hanani](/source/Arieh_El-Hanani)
* [Wallace Harrison](/source/Wallace_Harrison)
* [Hermann Henselmann](/source/Hermann_Henselmann)
* [Raymond Hood](/source/Raymond_Hood)
* [George Howe](/source/George_Howe_(architect))
* [Muzharul Islam](/source/Muzharul_Islam)
* [Arne Jacobsen](/source/Arne_Jacobsen)
* [Marcel Janco](/source/Marcel_Janco)
* [John M. Johansen](/source/John_M._Johansen)
* [Philip Johnson](/source/Philip_Johnson)
* [Roger Johnson](/source/Roger_Kirk_Johnson)
* [Louis Kahn](/source/Louis_Kahn)
* [Dov Karmi](/source/Dov_Karmi)
* [Oskar Kaufmann](/source/Oskar_Kaufmann)
* [Richard Kauffmann](/source/Richard_Kauffmann)
* [Fazlur Khan](/source/Fazlur_Khan)
* [Frederick John Kiesler](/source/Frederick_John_Kiesler)
* [Friedrich Silaban](/source/Friedrich_Silaban)
* [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier)
* [William Lescaze](/source/William_Lescaze)
* [Charles Luckman](/source/Charles_Luckman)
* [Yehuda Magidovitch](/source/Yehuda_Magidovitch)
* [Michael Manser](/source/Michael_Manser)
* [Alfred Mansfeld](/source/Alfred_Mansfeld)
* [Erich Mendelsohn](/source/Erich_Mendelsohn)
* [John O. Merrill](/source/John_O._Merrill)
* [Hannes Meyer](/source/Hannes_Meyer)
* [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe](/source/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe)
* [Richard Neutra](/source/Richard_Neutra)
* [Oscar Niemeyer](/source/Oscar_Niemeyer)
* [Eliot Noyes](/source/Eliot_Noyes)
* [Gyo Obata](/source/Gyo_Obata)
* [Jacobus Oud](/source/Jacobus_Oud)
* [Nathaniel A. Owings](/source/Nathaniel_A._Owings)
* [Mario Pani](/source/Mario_Pani)
* [I. M. Pei](/source/I._M._Pei)
* [Frits Peutz](/source/Frits_Peutz)
* [Ernst Plischke](/source/Ernst_Plischke)
* [Ralph Rapson](/source/Ralph_Rapson)
* [Zeev Rechter](/source/Zeev_Rechter)
* [Viljo Revell](/source/Viljo_Revell)
* [Gerrit Rietveld](/source/Gerrit_Rietveld)
* [Carl Rubin](/source/Carl_Rubin_(architect))
* [Eero Saarinen](/source/Eero_Saarinen)
* [Rudolph Schindler](/source/Rudolph_Schindler_(architect))
* [Michael Scott](/source/Michael_Scott_(architect))
* [Arieh Sharon](/source/Arieh_Sharon)
* [Louis Skidmore](/source/Louis_Skidmore)
* [Ben-Ami Shulman](/source/Ben-Ami_Shulman)
* [Jerzy Sołtan](/source/Jerzy_So%C5%82tan)
* [Raphael Soriano](/source/Raphael_Soriano)
* [Edward Durell Stone](/source/Edward_Durell_Stone)
* [Paul Thiry](/source/Paul_Thiry_(architect))
* [Carlos Raúl Villanueva](/source/Carlos_Ra%C3%BAl_Villanueva)
* [Leendert van der Vlugt](/source/Leendert_van_der_Vlugt)
* [Munio Weinraub](/source/Munio_Weinraub)
* [Lloyd Wright](/source/Lloyd_Wright)
* [Minoru Yamasaki](/source/Minoru_Yamasaki)
* [The Architects Collaborative](/source/The_Architects_Collaborative)
* [Toyo Ito](/source/Toyo_Ito)
{{Div col end}}

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Critical regionalism}}
* {{annotated link|Expressionist architecture}}
* {{annotated link|Functionalism (architecture)}}
* {{annotated link|High-tech architecture}}
* {{annotated link|International Typographic Style}}
* {{annotated link|Modern architecture}}
* {{annotated link|Northwest Regional style}}
* {{annotated link|Organic architecture}}
* {{annotated link|Swiss Style (design)}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Boness, Stefan. ''Tel Aviv: The White City'', Jovis, Berlin 2012, {{ISBN|978-3-939633-75-4}}
* Elderfield, John (ed.). ''Philip Johnson and the Museum of Modern Art'', Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998
* Gössel, Gabriel. ''Functional Architecture. Funktionale Architektur. Le Style International. 1925–1940'', Taschen, Berlin, 1990
* Riley, Terence. ''The International Style: Exhibition 15 and The Museum of Modern Art'', Rizzoli, New York, 1992
* Tabibi, Baharak [https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606077/index.pdf ''Exhibitions as the Medium of Architectural Reproduction – "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition"''], Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2005
* [Vasileva E](/source/Ekaterina_Vasileva_(art_historian)). (2016) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374443683_Vasileva_E_2016_Ideal_and_utilitarian_in_the_international_style_system_subject_and_object_in_the_design_concept_of_the_20th_century_International_Journal_of_Cultural_Research_4_25_72-80 Ideal and utilitarian in the international style system: subject and object in the design concept of the 20th century] // International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (25), 72–80.

==External links==
{{Commons category|International style}}
* [https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/how-chicago-sparked-international-style-of-architecture-in-america "How Chicago Sparked the International Style of Architecture in America"]. ''[Architectural Digest](/source/Architectural_Digest)''.

{{Modern architecture}}
{{Archhistory}}
{{Architecture in the United States}}

Category:International Style architecture
I
Category:20th-century architectural styles
Category:Architectural design
International Exhibition of Modern Architecture

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [International Style](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Style) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Style?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
