Myth of International Style: 20 -Century Architectural Modernism and

Journal of Fine Arts

Volume 3, Issue 3, 2020, PP 09-19

ISSN 2637-5885

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 9

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural

Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of Urban Cities

Stephen T.F. Poon*

School of Media, Arts & Design, Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Technology Park

Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

This paper devotes equal parts of criticism to

fundamental questions on aspects of modernism

theories as well as examining the aesthetic

practicality of architectural modernist approaches of

International Style for the contemporary and

postmodernist eras. The paper also considers the

significance of core principles of Bauhaus

minimalism and modernist functionalism practiced

by architects Edward Durell Stone, Le Corbusier

and those from the Bauhaus School of Architecture

in Germany. The debate of whether an International

Style was an apolitical response to the turbulence of

socio-political chaos of the 20

th

-century will be

examined through research and analysis using case

studies to compare modernist architecture in the

United States and Israel will be presented with

regards the vernacular approaches of sustain-

ability applied by architectural design in the

21

st

-century.

The research aims to answer several key questions:

 Are contemporary urban designs shifting

towards vernacularism in architectural

vocabulary and adopting sustainability ethos in

lieu of the formal aesthetics and rationality of

International Style architects of the 20

th

-

century?

 What aspects of structural, forms and materials

comprise the elements of modernist planned

designs?

 Despite a fallout in favour in the 21

st

-century,

how has International Style architectural

inspirations enhanced practitioners’ understand-

ing of climate responsive architecture and

sustainability?

 What factors give International Style

contemporary relevance in terms of aesthetics,

principles and design thinking methods?

 Is 20

th

-century modernist “style” still significant

to architectural design of the 21

st

-century facing

global urbanisation challenges?

By examining literature, the research will share

a breadth of scholarly insights on Le Corbusier‟s

principles. Through a case study analysis of

American International Style and Bauhaus built

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the key question of how modernist architectural principles behind Bauhaus, Le Corbusier

and American International Style movements are viewed in the context of contemporary architectural designs. By

examining literature and perspectives of scholars, the core principles of architectural modernism will be reframed

in the context of 21

st

-century vernacularism approaches such as environmental sustainability. This problem

statements if the aesthetics of formalism and rationality of classical International Style architecture can still be

considered “style” for the 21

st

-century. To understand the subject with regards design structure, forms and

materials, a case study is conducted to compare notable modernist works in urban styles of architecture found in

Tel Aviv and North America. Additionally, the paper questions factors that led to International Style falling out

with contemporary practitioners, and at the same time, how design minimalism enhances understanding of

climate responsive and sustainable architecture. Overall, this analysis finds that 20

th

-century International Style,

driven by socio-political change movements, machine aesthetics and mass production ethos, expressed through

design movements such as Bauhaus, has started to lose its relevancy to urban architects facing social and

environmental pressures of globalisation, although the universal values presented by Le Corbusier’s 5-Point

Principles are still significant in studying the historical and evolutionary aspects of architectural design.

Finally, research suggests that responsiveness to climate elements continue to signify the gainful lessons of

modernist architecture in going forward into the 21

st

-century.

Keywords: modernism, urbanisation, International Style, Bauhaus, Le Corbusier.

Myth of International Style: 20

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-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

10 Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020

heritage in Tel Aviv, the researcher‟s goal is to

reframe the historic development of International

Style architecture through the socio-political

processes of urbanisation, and how this has

contributed to the creative struggles among

practitioners.

Significance of Bauhaus Movement

Following the Nazi shutdown of Bauhaus School

of Art in 1933, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer,

Herbert Bayer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and

others, the leading German educators who brought

fame to the eponymous art school, immigrated to

United States and began practicing in earnest.

It was in the 1932 when the term “International

Style” was born in design fields of architecture

and various other disciplines [1]. From an

historical perspective, the Bauhaus design and

art school formation is often attributed to direct

threats, suppressions of and encroachments to

socio-political, religious, cultural and social

freedoms instituted by Adolf Hitler‟s Nazi

powers pre-World War I [2: 4].

Finding the heart of a 100-year old art movement in

the 21

st

-century involves cross-disciplinary research

to uncover fleeting glimpses of the muddied,

evolutionary pathways of art history, art education,

cultural and heritage preservation and socio-

political reconstruction that, ironically, influenced

the growth of anti-Semitism in United States [3].

In attempting to frame an apolitical cultural

outlook towards Jews, curators at the New York

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Henry Russell

Hitchcock and Philip Johnson published a book

after MoMA‟s landmark exhibition Modern

Architecture in 1932, acclaiming that 20

th

-century

American International Style symbolised authentic

modernism principles of flexibility, regularity and

volume expression [4: 14]. Linear symmetry,

minimal ornamentation and mass-produced

industrial designs began shaping the era of

commercial clustering business district skyscrapers

of glass and steel up until World War II.

According to Northeastern University School of

Architecture professor Mardges Bacon [5], the

development of American International Style

can be attributed to architects and industrial art

practitioners‟ foremost admiration for its radical

legitimacy from preceding 19

th

-century designs,

but with removal of the European bias [6].

Through sociocultural movements as Bauhaus,

the creative struggles to find a “voice” and

“vocabulary” to describe the International Style

started with removing spatial rigidity and

embellishments, in that sense, International

Style was an appeasement of conservative and

progressive value conflicts through bridging

American vernacularism and European classical

architecture [2; 6].

In modernist visions, geometrical layouts of

housing townships manifest from strict land use

planning regulations. Flat uniformity, seen in

the example of the Buffalo News media office

in New York and the International Trade Mart

(World Trade Center) in New Orleans, was

designed by preservation-minded architect Edward

Durell Stone in the style of New Formalism, to

disassociate from metal-and-glass works of

towering mainstream skyscrapers, aiming instead

for a more “palatable”, eclectic dream of modernist

aesthetics [7; 8]. International Style further

promoted expressiveness of patented structures by

demonstrating reductive material aesthetics,

supporting the exploration of newer, lighter,

cheaper, pragmatic, less cumbersome construction

materials, innovative industrial and automated

techniques [6]. Through the quintessential lens of

major proponents such as MoMA curator (1937-

1941) John McAndrew, the influence of 20

th

-

century International Style grew into a populist

movement in the United States, a begotten

triumph for the “New Formalism” approach

sans evoking the historicity and socio-politics of

traditional European architecture, expressing in

particular the political activism of German

artists [2; 9; 10].

McComas [2] asserts that the conscious

adoption of an “apolitical soul” in International

Style art and architecture helped foster German-

American relations pre-World War 2 until mid-

1950s. In effect, this became an enabler for large-

scale industrial growth globally. In other North

European regions, International Style bore Fascist

expressions through the works of Italy‟s Giuseppe

Terragni [10; 11]. Architect and modernism

advocate from the „New York Five‟ Peter

Eisenman wrote a substantial treatise essaying on

Terragni, including Casa del Fascio in the historic

border town of Como, the headquarters of the

Fascist Party built in between 1932-1936. For

some critics, Eisenman proved the wrongful

effects of New Formalism when elements of

history are removed or disregarded by newer

architectural methodology:

(Casa del Fascio is comprised of) dried up

compartments, piazzas and ceremonial sites

dated to their architectural elements … ignorant

of the fact that in Como, three monuments, the

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 11

Tower, the Broletto, the Duomo: three periods,

three revolutionary facts, flank one another and

form the northern side of the Piazza del Duomo

in a superb ensemble [11: 476].

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Perhaps due to the redolence Mediterranean

associations it evoked, modernism as a radical

cultural zeitgeist is sometimes given a reframing

treatment as a “superficial” form of style by

progressive architectural history critics such as

University of Virginia architectural professor

John V. Maciuika [12].

In an earlier review, Maciuika [13] had theorised on

the rationalist approaches of pre-Bauhaus architects

like Hermann Muthesius, whose architectural

perspectives coincided with the period of the Third

Reich, where Nazi political interventions hindered

social reformations and building designs were

treated as showcases of nationalistic pride and

German engineering excellence even as social

class struggles against imperialism grew. Maciuika

claims that modernist aesthetics, unlike the purity of

vernacularism, may even be the “imitation of

artistic sensibilities” [13: 89], rather than actual art

itself, historians, acting as guardians of

architecture‟s evolution and heritage, ask if

architecture‟s end purpose is to contest dominant

authoritative views, rather than to promote

masterful technical competence and material

knowledge and application to improve human

connections and relationships through expositions

on functionality, practicality and aesthetics [4; 9;

14].

Le Corbusier’s Five Points of Modern

Architecture

In post-Bauhaus era, Le Corbusier (Charles-

ÉdouardJeanneret-Gris) and painter Amédée

Ozenfant, assembled their thoughts and responses

to vernacularism, promoting the concept of utopia

on earth through “restoration of the living

environment”, in the 28-volume magazine L’Esprit

Nouveau published between 1920-1925 in

France, which had then not encountered the

phenomenal effects of the modernisation

revolution, nor found aesthetic styles responding

to the rapid development of industrial cities and

planned townships [15; 16: 11].

Le Corbusier‟s design principles were theoretically

significant for practitioners working in the 20

th

-

century modernist traditions for its attention to

the spirit of human-nature interactions, synthesising

industrial materials with authentic, vernacular

elements of organic forms and stripped-down

architectural styles [5]. His design inspirations

are still exemplary studies of environmental

sustainability characteristics and cultural interpre-

tations of the commonplace aesthetics found in

the vernacular arts (same as other performance

arts like music, dance and drama), rather than

discourses on technical innovation and the value

of built installations.

Le Corbusier distilled his personal conceptual

manifesto in the celebrated essay, “Les Cinq

Points de l'architecture moderne” (5 Points of

New Architecture), through these principles:

 Use of reinforced concrete columns (“les

pilotis”) to uplift and bear the load of walls;

 Free and unrestrained flow of interior space

for ground plan (“les toits-jardins”) through

column-and slab rather than partitioning;

 Separation of exterior from interior façade

(“le plan libre”) providing unencumbered

panoramic aesthetics of the surroundings;

 Horizontal lighting through opening strips or

ribbon windows (“la fenetre en longueur”)

providing equal lighting while enhancing

landscape visuality; and

 Roof gardens or terrace (“la facade libre”) in

flat structures, as protection, promenades,

offering light and spatial ventilation to

replace a building‟s occupied space.

The basis of functionalism, according to Le

Corbusier, was to ennoble human relationships

through spaces: “A house is a machine for living

in” [17]. Beatriz Colomina [18] in her narrative

criticism, Privacy and Publicity, notes how Le

Corbusier used architecture as image perspectives

to produce “mediated”, subverted cultural forms by

portraying seamless spaces where man, material

and machine achieve their highest potential for

social progress. By capturing modernity as

juxtaposed through photographic (mechanistic)

vision, rather than images derived purely from

human eyesight and vision, transient emotions and

the dialectics of time would emerge, as such:

Architecture (could be defined) the “masterly,

correct and magnificent play of masses brought

together in light” [19; 20: 4].

International Style: Philosophy, Form,

History and Legacy

In unifying craftsmanship with various branches

of the arts to serve architecture, the

industrialisation of developed northern Europe

and North America was factored into modernist

architectural radicalism throughout early to mid-

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

12 Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020

20

th

-century, through a diversity of dialogues,

pioneering architects looking for qualitative

style expressions to reconcile public taste with

sustainable building performance while seeking

to prescribe functional buildings to address the

lack of space within urban zones [21; 22].

American cultural landscape designers and

architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright believed

that environmentalism of North America‟s 18

th

-

to 19

th

-century Westward Expansion and Romantic

traditional eras to the more mundane domesticity of

planned townships and cities would, could, never

strictly accord with International Style traits, as the

latter involves striving for newer standards of

built engineering and construction techniques to

serve housing needs and city populations that

emerged in rapid tandem.

Today, this philosophical debate of human

“ownership (control, access) of spaces” through

architecture and built techniques, often contradicts

with sustainability and urban planning interests of

local communities rather than social reformation

agendas [22]. University of Illinois architect-

educator Scott Murray [20] urges contemporary

architects to demonstrate collaborative possibilities

with innovative materials by adopting precedent

building tectonics to refocus global environmental

and social agendas into experiential habitats and

spaces. Murray [20] examines the „enclosed-

system‟ principles as applied through material

translucency, where energy-efficient materials such

as glass curtain walls, stacked glass tubes, double

glass skins and other “translucent” techniques are

used in designing buildings ranging from

residential to religious and commercial sites.

Modernist Functionality and Sustainability in

Postmodern Culture

Did modernist forms attempt to build sustainably?

This question was raised by Thwaites et al [23] in

Urban Sustainability Through Environmental

Design, on what contemporary designers and

architects would consider to be “the chain than links

together conventional modernism with its pretended

postmodernist alternatives in a single chorus”. The

answer seems to lie somewhere in acknowledging

the differences between the formal aesthetics

training of architectural designers today,

compared to those who were subject to neo-

historical developments of the previous era:

(Without the historical contexts of conditions that

produce human art and design) … We have

symbolic celebrations of technology without

connection to anything but the celebration itself …

living in (today’s postmodern societies) with

their reductive and mechanistic conceptions.

(…) Is that all? [23: 51].

In studying the underlying basis of sustainability

in modernism, some researchers deconstruct

why the 20

th

-century spirit of individual “heroism”

fell out of favour in the antecedent century.

Modernist character, posited on fragmentation

of societies by Marxist social reactionaries, was

identified by past artists and designers through

their informal aesthetics educational background,

and expressed mostly in and through works that

challenged avant-gardism and urged for rationality,

social order and complexity [3: 29; 24]. The

principles of “space and people-conscious”

urbanisme disciples including Le Corbusier and

Mies van der Rohe drove art and architectural

responses towards formalism and urbanisation.

Other researchers contradict these beliefs, and state

that functionalism has moved into an apparent

“aesthetic intrusion” today, a continual chaotic

response going forward, reflecting Thwaites et

alargument that the scale of sustainability planning

of modern cities and towns have inevitably

brought about “the dawn of the anti-heroic

counter revolution” [23: 51].

The next section will provide a short summary

of the case study analysis used for this paper,

with an examination of examples of classical

European modernist architectural design

elements of Bauhaus and Le Corbusier‟s 5-Point

Principles, in a comparative study research of

International Style as expressed by American

urban architects of the 20

th

-century.

EVALUATION OF THE CASE STUDY

To understand the issue of whether International

Style could stand apart from its myth as an

expression of “nostalgic reassurance” of European

imperialism, a case study is presented in the

following section of this paper, to critically analyse

American architectural heritage and Bauhaus

20

th

-century modernism heritage characteristics

in Tel Aviv.

Characteristics of Bauhaus and International

Style in Tel Aviv

With over 4,000 buildings standing today as

living legacy of the German Jewish migrant

community, Tel Aviv is described as the “New

York of Israel”, populated by over 3 million, an

UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bauhaus

architectural modernism [25]. Tel Aviv has

produced a rarefied expression of International

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 13

Style architecture in a symbolic unification of

Bauhaus modernism with vernacular characteristics

of the early 20

th

-century, borrowing (and at the

same time, subverting) elements of an architectural

movement that had spread from Germany to

North America [25].

While acclaimed to be an urban lifestyle hub

today, Tel Aviv has not lost its heritage identity

representing International Style planning

ingenuity through a Garden City master plan

concept with functional, innovative, climate-

responsive and inclusive elements of tradition

and culture for its evolving social needs [26].

Since its founding in 1909, Tel Aviv‟s “White

City” moniker has been a literal symbol of the

purity of vernacular aesthetics. Architecturally,

it was conceptualised to be a cultural capital and

commercial centre by its British founding fathers.

Led by urban planner Patrick Geddes, the tactic

positions its regional growth based on broader

socio-political goals via the creation of “Neue

Menschen” (The New People) of Jewish descent

[27]. Arieh Sharon, Samuel Mistskin, Shlomo

Bernstein and Erich Mendelsohn were the leading

past architects who changed public landscapes

through their urbanisation visions [27: 48]. Bauhaus

trained; their return to Israel brought new

inspirations through heritage preservation

commissions and projects in planning, designing

and constructing public spaces from pavilions to

kibbutzims (communal centres).

Jerusalem architect-author-Sharon Rotbard [26]

found that among migrant residents, buildings

and spatial designs were external articulation of

their European ancestral and narrative memories.

According to Reisner-Cook [28: 162], social and

religious issues were indeed important to Zionist

migrants who relocated from Krakow to Tel Aviv

in the 1950s; nevertheless, seeing their new lives

expressed “geometrically” took away a sense of

local presence, with residential projects

mirroring Biblical, Davidian references through

the heavy use of walls in blue, red and gold.

A century later in 2019, Tel Aviv‟s political

orientation may be critically viewed through the

lens of postmodernism, and questions of the

“black chaos” against the enforced urban

planning of the White City is being raised, even

as exhaustive restoration works denotative of

architectural heritage style of 1920s until 1940

continue unabated [16; 29]. In fact, artefacts

and cultural vestiges of middle-class Europe

appeared in Tel Aviv homes, including the

frills-free Bauhaus art influences which crept

fortuitously into a 20-year span of the

cosmopolitan‟s built structures and landscaping

history, at a time when a lack of prevailing

Palestinian Arab identification and tight budgetary

considerations was to determine Tel Aviv‟s

adoption of formalism as its main architectural

ethos [16; 30].

Adaptation to Vernacularism and Climactic

Conditions

Tel Aviv sought functional architectural and

construction solutions in facing rapid shifts of

its economic fortunes up until 1970s, through

city planning projects symbolising Jewish

ideologies while portraying an image of “white”

success, from boxy small windows set in expansive

walls to whitewashed concrete terraces [25]. The

modest yet energetic typology of utopia in a

Mediterranean-inspired wasteland brought together

vistas of seafronts, gardens and parks that were

adaptable to the region‟s extreme climate [25]. In

terms of sustainability, the notion of balancing

heritage with urban growth seems essentially sound.

However, as some experts have recently pointed

out, an International Style heritage enclave did not

always ensure long term site and building

maintenance [29]; particularly if the aesthetics of

“style” itself stagnates and other (vested) political

interests take over. Anat Geva [31] published a

study of Tel Aviv‟s “style” indicators (metrics)

using academic journals and papers keyword search

in architectural design bulletins. Geva [31] found

that “sustainability” in Tel Aviv‟s cultural heritage

enclave was indicated by the value of its old

buildings; social and economic sustainability

being the unfortunate missing factors.

Figure1. Flat rooftops of Tel Aviv apartment buildings

Trim columns, flat roofs, ribbon windows and

shadowy entrances intermingled to create

cooling microclimates [16]. Flat rooftops

offered common spaces for social interaction

between house tenants residing within two- and

three-bedroom apartments (Figure 1).

Myth of International Style: 20

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-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

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14 Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020

Figure2. Wide cornered balconies in Tel Aviv

While European International style enthused

about large windows, recessive facades and

deep shaded walls for hanging balcony features

adjusts for local climate conditions, while

graceful gardens and breezy plazas are part of

the modest, regulated landscapes to cancel out

Tel Aviv‟s daytime heat and glare [26]. Long

narrow balconies with wide corners are a

sustainable demonstration of ecologically bare

construction finish using reinforced concrete filled

with silicate blocks and concrete (Figure 2).

Whitewashing is a crucial passive cooling measure,

along with shading devices on windows and roofs

which provide cross ventilation to open floor plans,

deflecting heat, removing excess moisture within,

while protecting from direct glare of the sun

[32].

Windows of its traditional residential quarters

are muted wraparounds for corners and curves,

ensuring local glass were used sparingly. Balcony

railings accentuate the slim-line profile of ribbon

windows. Horizontal „ribbon‟ windows adapted to

local conditions: incisions shaded by deep

balconies or slim cantilevers. Ventilation wells

and air conditioning systems were centralised to

minimise space uptake [33].

The role of balconies in Tel Aviv architectural

heritage is explored by Aronis [34], who found

in a study that shaded balconies are both

demarcated private spaces and areas where

social lifestyles are fostered. Instead of the

stolidity of concrete, the membranous walls of

many Tel Aviv apartments integrate rooms

seamlessly, symbolising intentional mingling,

yet formed a practical “curtain” that separates

occupants for functional privacy [26]. This

adaptive luminosity suggests that while walls

are treated as curtains that shift directions even

in formal cubistic layouts, strict rationalistic

design features are dismissable in the name of a

more harmonising cultural milieu [30; 32].

Characteristics of American Architectural

Modernism

According to Judith Pearlman, documentary

producer of award-winning Bauhaus in America

[35], the Utopian ideals of Bauhaus are an

historical record of a transformative vision to

unify visual arts and crafts with industrial planning

and mass-production techniques, resulting in a

“people society”, rather than a “thing society”, the

outcomes and experiences interweaving into the

lives of locals for whom the design of everyday

objects, communities, social neighbourhoods

and experiences are invented [35].

Edward Durell Stone and Frank Lloyd Wright

were the leading American architects who

schematically endorsed historicity in their practices,

to express a distinctive pride of place over buildings

and landmarks, as clearly as Bauhaus had imbued

architecture with timeless and universal values [36;

37]. While Wright (1867-1959) personified the

rugged, organic, minimalist elegance which marked

1930s‟ progressive American architecture, Edward

Durell Stone (1902-1978) appropriated only certain

recognisable aspects of International Style in his

commercial and cultural works ranging from

exhibition pavilions, embassy buildings, hotel

lobbies, museums and theatres, to a university

law school [20: 43-47; 38; 39].

Many researchers believe that Stone‟s conscious

rebellion towards European modernism arose

from a more optimistic, Romantic-era view towards

preservation. The ultra-modern design for MoMA

headquarters in New York solidified his credibility

in 1939, yet he did not feel the need to follow the

strictest European modernist canons [40]. Criticised

for doing a backflip to conservatism as mid-20

th

-

century arrived, Stone countered by saying that

instead of heterogynous “ice-cage glittering

facades” of steel and aluminium which many

city buildings had then embraced, embellishments

of luxury such as white marble, opaque glass and

black granite reflected taste and thoughtfulness in

„ornamental functionalism‟ [41; 42]. Despite

flagging endorsements from the American

architectural community in later years, Stone‟s

legendary stature was nevertheless affirmed by

the multiple honorary degrees and lifetime

awards from prominent leagues [43].

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 15

Mandel House: Icon of American International

Style

Figure3. Living room of Mandel House

An example of Stone‟s functionalist approach is

seen in the Mandel House in Westchester County,

New York, designed and built for architect Richard

H. Mandel (1933-1935) as a pioneering showcase

of American International Style that integrates

design efficiency with spatial elegance. With

stuccoed concrete walls bathed in pristine white,

Mandel House incorporates a recessed basement

that fell naturally along the sloping contours of a

site overlooking a former reservoir. An asymme-

trical lightness offsets its commanding vista of

woodlands from within stylish interiors (Figure 3).

There is podium featuring cork flooring, heating

and furniture that fills space intentionally to

appear compact and purposeful. Le Corbusier‟s

brise-soleil (Figure 4) sunlight deflection strategy is

achieved through curvilinear punctured openings in

the exterior building design, using concrete blocks

which provide a heightened sense of expanse and

sophistication, characteristic of the optimism and

inventiveness of International Style New

Formalism, directly influenced by Le Corbusier.

Figure4. Exterior of Mandel House

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

American International Style architecture

differentiates from the European (and particularly,

German) traditional concept of abstract express-

ionism, by avoiding rigidity which obviates

distinguishable features”, states Alfred Barr, Jr.,

MoMA founding director [44]. Le Corbusier [19],

in viewing architecture‟s embodiment and

extension of machines and systems, the spirit of

20

th

-century modernism point to spatial designing

with emphasis on functionalism, cost-

consciousness, material-consciousness and space-

consciousness, efficiency was the result of the

pragmatic intermingling of social and industrial

heritage. The application of Le Corbusier‟s

architectural vision also did not necessarily aim

to demonstrate environmental aesthetics and

inventiveness; instead, financial prudence and

individualism were prized by many leading

Bauhaus-inspired architects.

Although modernist styles bore the symbolic

essence that residential buildings and living spaces

are meant to embody [45], the notion of industrial

spaces can be early observed in weaving through

the interstitial spaces and typology of built designs

found in Tel Aviv city, with harmonising

proportions of its urban spirit expressed through

gardens, parks, historical and heritage sites, even

while it continues to grow into a world-class city

[46]. The mosaic of architectural adaptations to

local climactic elements is visible in Tel Aviv

Bauhaus elements.

To historian Mark LeVine [47], urban

architecture in neighbouring Jaffa and Tel Aviv

seem to highlight the ways Palestinian Arabs

and Jews struggled to live together in townships

that separated and compartmentalised them

through their fundamental ideological differences.

Nevertheless, the formalism principles of geometric

layouts established by International Style architects

shows adaptiveness to characteristics of vernacu-

larism in the urbanisation of Palestine and

Jerusalem, this view of resolving sociocultural

conflicts through space concurs with heritage

researcher Alona Nitzan-Shiftan [48; 49] from the

Israel Institute of Technology, whose research

examines seven decades of Jerusalem‟s develop-

ment as the Holy City of God, after the Palestinian

British Mandate halted in 1947 and impacted on

urban planning such as transportation and public

housing.

Jerusalem‟s 1968 master plan, although heavily

criticised for a lack of thematic core, was part of

its “civic beautification” to perpetuate the

Myth of International Style: 20

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-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

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16 Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020

Zionist vision of a sacred city through

“architectures of unilateral unification” [48]. In

her book Seizing Jerusalem, Nitzan-Shiftan [49]

explains the rationale of Tel Aviv‟s post-colonial

master plan, where emotionally aesthetical elements

such as gardens, recreational parks and religious

precincts enable continuity of work to preserve holy

sites such as Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount and

Dome of the Rock. At the same time, the

metropolitan flavours of a charismatic urban centre

capture the soul of its living culture, subverting

visions of the dramatic „purification‟ of Jew society

from non-Jews from ethnically segregated (Lewis

Mumford calls “over-compartmentalised”)

models of residential living [48; 50].

Ironically, while Tel Aviv faces economic

unease due to tensions in neighbouring Syria

and Iraq, the historical preservation efforts has

pushed up prices of apartment and office

remodelling and other commercial and private

building renovations in recent years [25; 51].

First in the neighbouring village of Jaffa, and

later in Tel Aviv, the modernist legacy formed

the backstory of an ambitious laboratory

programme by Israel to “fill the cultural vacuum”

[52: 360] and transform displaced Palestinian Arab

society through establishing a distinct vision

modelled to bring peace and prosperity in the

Promised Land, despite segregated spaces amid

socio-political and socioeconomic upheavals

[26; 47; 49; 52; 53; 54].

American International Style, on the other hand,

consciously rebelled and broke away from

European functionalism with vigour, through a

more subtle fusion accomplishment in material

and spatial design concepts pioneered by Le

Corbusier in France.

Scholars explore the dynamics of “transnational-

lism” to challenge Euro-centric ideologies of

enforced social relations and cultural identities

through urban planning and spatial designing.

Advocacy for a less-formal construction design

has been echoing throughout the postmodern

age, where architectural preservation is viewed as

part of the globalisation controversy of “restoring

vs. retrofitting”. For instance, the famously

described 12-storey “lollipop building”, 2

Columbus Circle at the intersection of downtown

Manhattan, New York, built in 1964 and redesigned

with retrofitting in 2006 by Allied Works

Architecture under Brad Cloepfil, it has become the

permanent home of New York‟s Museum of Arts

and Design (MAD), after it reopened to the

public in 2008 [55].

The rationalisms of American International

Style, Bauhaus and Le Corbusier‟s architectural

concepts continue to be the subject of evocative

discussions in the 21

st

-century among research

scholars, practitioners and self-styled experts

[16; 4]. One such latter architect, Steven Holl,

wrote in his monograph Urbanisms [56: 291]

that subjective, sensorial perceptions of

materiality and spatiality can be achieved,

intertwined and celebrated through exploring

porosity of light and landscape fusion for urban

zones. Holl‟s notion of spatial transience aligns

with Le Corbusier‟s trajectory of pioneering

contribution to urbanism. As architectural

historian at The University of Zurich, Stanislaus

von Moos [17: 207] quotes:

“… tangible objects in our surroundings

[environment] serve as the starting points of

poetry”.

Indeed, a sense of poetic surrealism, the term

used by Kenneth Frampton to describe Le

Corbusier‟s vernacularism approach, is fine-

tuned through his “pilotis” principle of lifting

structures away from the ground, a spatial

optimisation strategy enabling the building to be

a veritable machine controlled by man [17; 57].

Additionally, sustainable urbanisation requires a

careful balance of projects that focus on the

nurture, restoration and enhancement of native

riparian growth (flora and fauna species) through

landscape management, a challenging task due to

surrounding encroachment issues [58].

Due to uncertainties surrounding large-scale

projects that may or may no longer sustain or

preserve surrounding nature, the style ideals of

functionalism and formalism are neither practical

nor viable in facing the realities of intense

globalisation and rapid sprawl of cities and

townscapes. It can be asserted that Bauhaus

modernism’s principles of symmetrical linearity,

purity and eclectic qualities of order and rationality

DO NOT qualify it as a “style”. The mythification

of those attributes do not account for sociocultural

fusions of languages, religions, worldviews and

political awareness which form the chaotic

identities of cities today, just as it did in 1930s Israel

and 1950s North America. Findings signify that

postmodern paradigms would be a more relevant

framework to characterise the continuity of

communities through the interstices of

sustainable urbanisation and economic growth.

Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of

Urban Cities

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 17

CONCLUSIONS

Modernity and heritage preservation are opposing

ideological principles found in architecture and

architectural elements. Design principles of Le

Corbusier‟s 5-Point fundamentals of modernism

versus International style, when assessed for

creativity, inventiveness and innovativeness,

would depend on the outlook of urban planners

and costs involvement, before the results of

sustainable urban planning policies can be

measured and calculated to grow cities sustainably

and conserve important cultural heritage features in

the long run. Nevertheless, it is our belief that

restoration of urban spaces can combine industrial

and modern art, and creative ways sought to

overcome the legal and economic constraints that

often make conservation less than ideal for building

owners. In that regard, we should dispel the myth

of International Style as the end outcome of urban

growth; it is a means to the end.

The content analysis demonstrates several key

discourses for this “radical” shift. This paper

has revealed the relevance of International Style

in emphasising art historians‟ insights on socio-

political inspirations in the complex transitioning of

architectural design for the globalisation of

societies. In sum, the utilitarian philosophy of

Bauhaus aesthetics may be identified from its

cultural historicity and socio-political significance.

However, Bauhaus prescriptions to take modern

urban architecture to its greatest possible limits does

not fit every culture, or every episodic era of

development, and indeed loses its primacy with

today‟s urban sprawls cutting through socio-

demographic borders [26: 56-63]. International

Style, in contrast, shows a more revolutionary

trajectory of ideals through its emphasis on

structural integrity, formalism, purity, lightness,

spatial volume and linearity rather than mass

(weight) and curves [12; 13].

In the process, the researcher also found a lack

of rationales to urge for International Style

formalism approaches on cities undergoing rapid

urbanisation. A gap in theorising exists, as the

inherent characteristics of modern cities must factor

in challenges of preserving and championing

vernacular heritage today, while prioritising and

reconciling environmental interests over urbani-

sation growth policies. Dialogues on this issue are

fragmented at best, depending on the vested

socio-political interests of nations, states,

regions and communities.

For the unprecedented issues of global population

and housing explosion amidst transnational

migratory flows today, it would be a myth to

describe any universal influence on architectural

design as a coherent “International Style” as such.

Research, however, suggests that the character of

21

st

-century architecture should closer reflect Le

Corbusier‟s 5-Point Principles, with an

aesthetically recognisable approach in construction.

More importantly for long term sustainability of

cities, spatial development must realise “people-

conscious” principles where modernity is

dignified, healthy community living celebrated,

new technologies optimised and heritage

conservation approaches sought out to resolve

pertinent issues for urbanist dreams of

expansion to be fulfilled.

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Mandel_House.jpg

Citation: Stephen T.F. Poon, “Myth of International Style: 20

th

-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus

Design in Modernisation of Urban Cities”, Journal of Fine Arts, 3(3), 2020, pp. 09-19.

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