University of the Philippines Liberal Arts Building - Caesar Concio

Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Building, Pasay City

Federico Ilustre, Quezon Memorial Monument, Quezon City, Philippines
Leandro Locsin, Church of the Holy Sacri ce, Quezon City, Philippines
Dominador Lugtu, Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Philippines
Jose Maria Zaragoza, Meralco Building, Quezon City, Philippines
Mañosa Brothers, San Miguel Corporation Headquarters Building, Pasig
Cesar Concio, Insular Life Building, Makati, Philippines,
Leandro Locsin, Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, Manila, Philippines,
CHURCH OF THE RISEN LORD, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Ceasar
Concio, 1954

SOVIET UNION

In 1919, Vladimir Tatlin proposed the Monument to the Third International, a 400-meter tall
structure symbolizing the revolution, featuring a dynamic design with a cube, pyramid, and
cylinder that rotated at di erent speeds for various governmental agencies. This kinetic
composition embodied the spirit of Constructivist architecture, which aimed to merge abstract
art with building design, re ecting the revolutionary ideals of a new Communist society.
Constructivist architects, such as Konstantin Melnikov and Moisei Ginzburg, sought to
in uence society through their designs. Melnikov's workers' clubs served as centers for
proletarian culture, while Ginzburg's Narkom n Communal House emphasized communal
living. However, divisions emerged within the movement, notably between ASNOVA and OSA,
regarding the balance between expression and functionality.
By 1929, the All-Union Society of Proletarian Architects (VOPRA) criticized Constructivism for
its perceived abstraction, leading to the adoption of socialist realism as the o cial architectural
style by the mid-1930s. This shift prioritized clarity and accessibility in design, moving away
from avant-garde ideas.
The 1934 Palace of the Soviets competition exempli ed this transition, culminating in Boris
Iofan's design, which emphasized traditional monumental elements rather than Constructivist
abstraction. Subsequent projects, like Moscow's subway stations and the Moscow State
University, re ected a Stalinist aesthetic focused on grandeur and symbolism, distinct from
Western modernist approaches. After Stalin's death in 1953, architects began to explore new
design strategies beyond the constraints of socialist realism.

INTERNATIONAL STYLE OR. INTERNATIONAL MODERNISM

The International Style emerged largely as a result of four factors that confronted architects at
the beginning of the 20th century: (1) Increasing dissatisfaction with building designs that
incorporated a mixture of decorative features from di erent architectural periods, especially
where the resulting design bore little or no relation to the function of the building; (2) The need
to build large numbers of commercial and civic buildings that served a rapidly industrializing
society; (3) The successful development of new construction techniques involving the use of
steel, reinforced concrete, and glass; and (4) A strong desire to create a "modern" style of
architecture for "modern man". This underlined the need for a neutral, functional style, without
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 any of the decorative features of (say) Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance architecture, all of
which were old-fashioned, if not obsolete.

These three factors led architects to seek an honest, economical, and utilitarian style of
architecture that could make use of the new building methods and materials being developed,
while still satisfying aesthetic taste. Technology was a critical factor here; the new availability of
cheap iron and steel, together with the discovery in the late 1880s and 1890s of the steel
skeleton structure, made the traditional brick and stone building techniques obsolete. In
addition, architects began using steel-reinforced concrete for oors and other secondary
support elements, and fenestrating the exteriors of buildings with glass. The resulting austere
and disciplined architecture was thus formed according to the principle that modern buildings
should re ect a clear harmony between appearance, function, and technology.

The typical characteristics of International Style buildings include rectilinear forms; plane
surfaces that are completely devoid of applied ornamentation; and open, even uid, interior
spaces. This early form of minimalism had a distinctively "modern look", reinforced by its use
of modern materials, including glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for
interior supports and oors.

The phrase "International Style" was rst coined in 1932 by curators Henry-Russell Hitchcock
(1903-1987) and Philip Johnson (1906-2005), in literature for their show "International
Exhibition of Modern Architecture" (1932), held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The
aim of the show was to explain and promote what they considered to be an exemplary
"modern" style of architecture. As it was, all but two of the buildings showcased were
European. The only American structures on display were Lovell House, LA (1929), by Richard
Neutra; and the Film Guild Cinema, NYC (1929), designed by Frederick John Kiesler
(1890-1965).

Leading International Style Architects

Walter Gropius (1883-1969) in Germany,
J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) in Holland,
- Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, co-founder of the De Stijl movement with Theo van
Doesburg (1883-1931), helped to bring more rounded and owing geometric shapes to the
movement. As the housing architect in Rotterdam, he designed numerous apartment blocks
with a sober but functional austerity. Later examples of his elegant and geometrical
International Style included the Bio-Children's Convalescent Home (1960) near Arnhem.
Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in France
- Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret), one of the greatest architects of the 20th century,
simpli ed architecture down to its main functional features: window, ramp, stair and column.
He was also especially concerned to maximize the entry of light into a building by replacing
load-bearing walls in its facade. His somewhat utopian designs, often characterized by the
heavy use of reinforced pre-cast concrete, paved the way for Brutalism, a super-functional
style of urban and campus architecture which has not aged well. Among his best-known works
in the International Style is the Villa Savoye (1929-30) Poissy-sur-Seine, France; the Semi-
Detached House (1927) Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart; and Unite d'Habitation (1958) Interbau
Fair, Berlin.
Richard Neutra (1892-1970),
In the United States, he had a strong in uence on architecture, particularly in California. In
1922 he came to America, where he worked brie y for Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) at
Taliesin and for Holabird and Roche in Chicago, an experience that formed the subject of his
rst book, Wie Baut Amerikal, published in Stuttgart in 1927. His design for the Lovell (Health)
House (1929), Los Angeles, with balconies suspended by steel cables from the roof frame,
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 was, in retrospect, one of the most important works of his career. The open-web skeleton was
transported to the steep hillside by truck. When the house was featured in Neutra's second
book, Amerika, published in Vienna in 1930, he was hailed as a technological wizard. He
returned to Europe in 1930 and was asked to lecture at the Bauhaus and in Japan. Neutra's
architecture was usually rectangular and straight-lined, unmistakably man-made, yet always
sensitive to the site. The years before World War II saw the completion of the Beard House
(1934), Altadena, and the country house for Joseph von Sternberg (1935), San Fernando Valley:
both made from the latest prefabricated steel sandwich panels. His later public buildings never
gained the recognition of his earlier domestic designs.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), and
Philip Johnson (1906-2005) in the United States
Johnson has had a profound impact on American architects for more than six decades. In the
1930s as an architectural historian, he helped introduce modern architecture - the glass box -
to America with a book and exhibit on the International Style at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York, where he was director of the architecture department. In the 1940s Johnson the
historian became Johnson the architect, and built what is perhaps the country's most famous
modern house, the Glass House (1949), his own residence in New Canaan, Connecticut. In the
1950s he collaborated with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on the design of the landmark Seagram
Building (1954—58) in New York. However, just as the International Style was reaching its
zenith, Johnson began to speak out against its purist aesthetic. "You cannot not know history,"
he told students at Yale University, who had been taught by their devout modernist instructors
to ignore the past. In the 1960s he began to invest his modern buildings with historical
references, as with the Ottoman Empire-inspired Museum for Pre-Columbian Art (1963) at
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC. In the 1970s and 1980s the man who introduced the glass
box became the one to break it, with his IDS Tower (1972) Minneapolis, noted for its distinctive
stepbacks, or "zogs"; and his AT&T Building in Manhattan (1984) (now the Sony Building),
famous for its neo-Georgian pediment (Chippendale top), which contradicted every precept of
the International Style. Johnson's move away from the International Style brought professional
respectability to Postmodernism.

many architects felt dissatis ed with the limitations and formulaic methodology of the
International Style. They wanted to design buildings with more individual character and with
more decoration. Modernist International Style architecture had removed all traces of historical
designs: now architects wanted them back. All this led to a revolt against modernism and a
renewed exploration of how to create more innovative design and ornamentation. As
Postmodernism took hold, building designers began creating more imaginative structures that
employed modern building materials and decorative features to produce a range of novel
e ects. By the late 1970s, modernism and the International Style were nished.

The Fagus Factory (1911-25) Alfeld on the Leine (Gropius)

- The Bauhaus School Building (1925) at Dessau (Gropius)
- Lovell House (1929) Los Angeles (Neutra)
- Villa Savoye (1929-30) Poissy-sur-Seine (Le Corbusier)
- Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1948-51) Chicago (Mies van der Rohe)
- The Graduate Center (1950) Harvard University (Gropius)
- Seagram Building (1954-58) New York (Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson)
- Inland Steel Building (1957) Chicago (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
- Bio-Children's Convalescent Home (1960) Arnhem (Oud)
- Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower (1967-91) Toronto (Mies van der Rohe)
- Lake Point Tower (1968), Chicago (George Schipporeit and John Heinrich)
- John Hancock Center (1969) Chicago (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
- IBM Building (1971) (now 330 North Wabash) New York (Mies van der Rohe)
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- Sears/Willis Tower (1974) Chicago (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
REFERENCES:
International Style of Modern Architecture: Origins, Characteristics. n.d. http://www.visual-arts-
cork.com/architecture/international-style.htm.