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.^[1]

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.

In Europe the modern movement in architecture had been called Functionalism or Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), L'Esprit Nouveau, or simply Modernism and was very much concerned with the coming together of a new architectural form and social reform, creating a more open and transparent society.^[3] The English term International Style originated from an exhibition in 1932 titled Modern Architecture: International Exhibition, curated by American architectural historian and critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock and recently graduated Harvard University philosophy student (and later self-taught architect) Philip Johnson. ^[4] Commissioned in 1931 by the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr Jr, this was the first ever architectural exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA. The original exhibition catalogue was then followed up immediately by the book titled The International Style, which was reissued in 1966 with a new foreword by Hitchcock.^[5]

The aesthetics-based definition of The International Style identified, categorized and expanded upon characteristics said to be common toModernism across the world and its stylistic aspects. Hitchcock and Johnson identified three principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, the emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the expulsion of applied ornament. The aim of Hitchcock and Johnson was to define a style that would encapsulate this modern architecture, doing this by the inclusion of specific architects. All the works in the 1932 Museum of Modern Art exhibition were carefully selected, only displaying those that strictly followed these rules. For example, the works of the most prominent "modern" architect in the USA, Frank Lloyd Wright, was included in the exhibition only to provide a contrast to the International Style examples, and his works were not featured at all in the book that followed.^[5]

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, and the 1932 book can be seen as a supplement to the earlier book.^[3] Both books, however, are seen as "operative texts" - in the understanding defined by Italian critic Manfredo Tafuri - in that they were not merely a history but moreover a kind of manifesto proclaiming the birth of a new architecture.^[3]

Many Modernists disliked the term, believing that they had arrived at an approach to architecture that transcended "style", along with any national or regional or continental identity. The British architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner commented: "To me what had been achieved in 1914 was the style of the century. It never occurred to me to look beyond. Here was the one and only style which fitted all those aspects which mattered, aspects of economics and sociology, of materials and function. It seems folly to think that anybody would wish to abandon it."^[6]

1932 MOMA exhibition[edit]

The exhibition Modern Architecture: International Exhibition opened on February 9, 1932, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in the Heckscher Building at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in New York. 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, Illinois, by Chicago architect brothers Monroe Bengt Bowman and Irving Bowman,^[7] 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 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. In Room D were works by Raymond Hood (including "Apartment Tower in the Country" and the McGraw-Hill building) and Richard Neutra. In Room E was a section titled "The extent of modern architecture", added at the last minute,^[4] 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, Finland.

The exhibition is significant for it's focused approach to the architectural exhibition. Highly curated in nature, the 1932 exhibition at was driven by a desire to promote and consolidate the theory of international modernism. As such, the exhibition featured prominently the work of the core of the modernist group. With Van Der Rohe, Corbusier, Oud, and Gropius at the forefront, the intention to solidify a core of ideals was clear. What is also clear is the way that the exhibition avoided reference to other contemporary styles that were exploring the boundaries of architecture at the time including German expressionism and the Organicist movement, popularized in the work of Antonio Gaudi. The significance to this lies in the relative perceived importance of these stylistic camps in the following architectural paradigm; as a result of the 1932 exhibition, the principles of International Modernism rose to the forefront, while other styles became ancillary to the story arc of the development of architectural style and theory.

Curators[edit]

MoMA's then director Alfred H. Bar hired art historians Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock to curate the museum's first architectural exhibition. In 1929, Johnson attended the graduation ceremony of his sister in Wellesley College, where he met Barr, who was teaching a course on modern art. In one month, Barr would be interviewed by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller for the position of the director of the MOMA, set to open its first gallery later that year. Barr added Johnson to MOMA's Junior Advisory Committee.

Hitchcock graduated in 1924 after having completed his undergraduate studies in three years and spending his senior year in architecture. At Harvard, he continued his graduate studies and got his master's degree in 1927.While at Harvard he met and built the relationship with Johnson. After graduation, Johnson traveled to Europe in where he met Hitchcock and the two began an extended tour of the continent.

During this tour, Hitchcock and Johnson met Barr in Hamburg. Barr was traveling with J.B.Neumann, a dealer in modern art with a gallery on East 57th street, and Cary Ross, a young poet and a member of the museum circle. Johnson related that "Alfred is most enthusiastic " about Hitchcock's book about modern art. As the project was in a state of formulation, Barr's reaction was critical. Johnson writes, "the text is getting bigger and bigger in our mind but also more important. We are discussing subjects which lie much nearer to my heart than most of the old ones, such as materials, construction, functionalism, and the fundamental aesthetic, especially of the style." Late August saw another important reference to the book: in explaining the difficulty in obtaining a German publisher Johnson comments that no one wants another book on modern architecture here in Germany...In vain do we explain that there has been no book covering the whole style and nothing but the style. Later there be any question of what exactly "the style" is, Otto Haesler, in responding to Johnson's request for photos, refers to "das Buch-the New International style 1922-1932". This transformation of the "old" book into a "more important" effort indicates that the broad outline of the familiar arguments of "the International Style" were then under discussion. The focused aesthetic arguments of that book are foretold in Johnson's description of the book as being "about the style and nothing but the style." 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.

After a six week run in New York City, the exhibition then toured the USA - the first such “traveling-exhibition” of architecture in the US - for six years.^[8] As it is stated by Riley, in his 1992 book The International Style: Exhibition 15 and The Museum of Modern Art: "(I)ronically 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."^[9] Through 1932 MOMA exhibition and its careful selection of international architects, curators Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock would guide the direction of Modern architecture, introducing the elements of their International style to architectural dialogue among architects and the general public. The exhibit Modern architecture would become synonymous with the use of steel and steel and reinforced concrete, uninterrupted interior spaces and simple geometric forms.

The following architects and buildings were selected by Hitchcock and Johnson for display at the exhibition Modern Architecture: International Exhibition:

Architect	Building	Location	Date
Jacobus Oud	Workers Houses (house blocks Kiefhoek)	Rotterdam, The Netherlands	1924–1927
Otto Eisler	Double House	Brno, Czechoslovakia	1926
Walter Gropius	Bauhaus School	Dessau, Germany	1926
Walter Gropius	City Employment Office	Dessau, Germany	1928
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Apartment House, Weissenhof Estate	Stuttgart, Germany	1927
	German pavilion at the Barcelona Expo	Barcelona, Spain	1929
	Tugendhat House	Brno, Czechoslovakia	1930
Le Corbusier (Pierre Jeanneret)	Villa Stein	Garches, France	1927
	Villa Savoye	Poissy-Sur-Seine, France	1930
	Carlos de Beistegui Champs-Élysées Penthouse	Paris, France	1931
Erich Mendelsohn	Schocken Department Store	Chemnitz, Germany	1928–1930
Frederick John Kiesler	Film Guild Cinema	New York City, USA	1929
Raymond Hood	McGraw-Hill building	New York City, USA	1931
George Howe & William Lescaze	PSFS Building	Philadelphia, USA	1932
Monroe Bengt Bowman & Irving Bowman	Lux apartment block	Evanston, USA	1931
Richard Neutra	Lovell House	Los Angeles, USA	1929
Otto Haesler	Rothenberg Siedlung	Kassel, Germany	1930
Karl Schneider	Kunstverein	Hamburg, Germany	1930
Alvar Aalto	Turun Sanomat building	Turku, Finland	1930

Buildings featured in the 1932 MOMA exhibition

Villa Savoye, Paris, Le Corbusier
Bauhaus, Dessau, Walter Gropius
Fagus Factory, Alfeld, Walter Gropius
Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, Mies van der Rohe
Villa Tugendhat, Brno, Mies van der Rohe
Kiefhoek housing, Rotterdam, J.J.P. Oud
Rothenberg Siedlung, Kassel, Otto Haesler
Lovell House, Los Angeles,Richard Neutra
Mcgraw-Hill building, New York,Raymond Hood
PSFS Building, Philadelphia,George Howe and William Lescaze
Turun Sanomat, Turku, Alvar Aalto

Other major examples of International Style architecture[edit]

Architect	Building	Location	Date
Eileen Gray	E-1027	Cap Martin, France	1929
Alvar Aalto	Paimio Sanatorium	Turku, Finland	1930
Leendert van der Vlugt	Van Nelle Factory	Rotterdam	1926–1930
Joseph Emberton	Royal Corinthian Yacht Club	Essex	1931
Ove Arup	Labworth Café	Essex	1932–1933
Leendert van der Vlugt	Sonneveld House	Rotterdam	1932–1933
Frits Peutz	Glaspaleis	Heerlen	1933
Oscar Stonorov and Alfred Kastner	Carl Mackley Houses	Philadelphia	1933–1934
Edvin Engström	Södra Ängby	Stockholm, Sweden	1933–1939
Neil & Hurd	Ravelston Garden	Edinburgh, Scotland	1936
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Farnsworth House	Illinois	1945–1951
	Illinois Institute of Technology campus (including S. R. Crown Hall)	Chicago	1945–1960
	860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments	Chicago	1949
Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Harrison & Abramovitz	United Nations Building	New York City	1950s
Michael Scott	Busaras	Dublin, Ireland	1945–1953
Kemp, Bunch & Jackson	Aetna Building	Jacksonville	1955
Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch	City Hall, Hong Kong	Victoria City, Hong Kong	1956
John Bland	Old City Hall	Ottawa	1958
Emery Roth & Sons	10 Lafayette Square	Buffalo, New York,	1958-1959
Kelly & Gruzen	High School of Graphic Communication Arts	Manhattan, New York City	1959
Stanley Roscoe	Hamilton City Hall	Hamilton	1960
John Lautner	Chemosphere	Los Angeles	1960
I. M. Pei	Place Ville-Marie	Montreal	1962
Charles Luckman	Prudential Tower	Boston	1964
George Dahl	Elm Place	Dallas	1965
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Toronto-Dominion Centre	Toronto	1967
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Westmount Square	Montreal	1967
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill	Equitable Building	Atlanta	1968
Hermann Henselmann et al.	Berlin TV Tower	Berlin	1969
Michael Manser	Capel Manor House	Horsmonden	1971
Campeau Corporation	Place de Ville	Ottawa	1967–1972
Crang & Boake	Hudson's Bay Centre	Toronto	1974
Pedro Moctezuma Díaz Infante	Torre Ejecutiva Pemex	Mexico City	1982