Journal of Fine Arts

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

ISSN 2637-5885

Myth of International Style: 20th-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

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 21st-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 21st-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 20th-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.

INTRODUCTION vocabulary and adopting sustainability ethos in

lieu of the formal aesthetics and rationality of
This paper devotes equal parts of criticism to International Style architects of the 20th-
fundamental questions on aspects of modernism century?
theories as well as examining the aesthetic
practicality of architectural modernist approaches of  What aspects of structural, forms and materials
International Style for the contemporary and comprise the elements of modernist planned
postmodernist eras. The paper also considers the designs?
significance of core principles of Bauhaus  Despite a fallout in favour in the 21st-century,
minimalism and modernist functionalism practiced how has International Style architectural
by architects Edward Durell Stone, Le Corbusier inspirations enhanced practitioners’ understand-
and those from the Bauhaus School of Architecture ing of climate responsive architecture and
in Germany. The debate of whether an International sustainability?
Style was an apolitical response to the turbulence of
socio-political chaos of the 20th-century will be  What factors give International Style
examined through research and analysis using case contemporary relevance in terms of aesthetics,
studies to compare modernist architecture in the principles and design thinking methods?
United States and Israel will be presented with  Is 20th-century modernist “style” still significant
regards the vernacular approaches of sustain- to architectural design of the 21st-century facing
ability applied by architectural design in the global urbanisation challenges?
21st-century.
By examining literature, the research will share
The research aims to answer several key questions: a breadth of scholarly insights on Le Corbusier‟s
 Are contemporary urban designs shifting principles. Through a case study analysis of
towards vernacularism in architectural American International Style and Bauhaus built

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

heritage in Tel Aviv, the researcher‟s goal is to embellishments, in that sense, International
reframe the historic development of International Style was an appeasement of conservative and
Style architecture through the socio-political progressive value conflicts through bridging
processes of urbanisation, and how this has American vernacularism and European classical
contributed to the creative struggles among architecture [2; 6].
practitioners.
In modernist visions, geometrical layouts of
Significance of Bauhaus Movement housing townships manifest from strict land use
planning regulations. Flat uniformity, seen in
Following the Nazi shutdown of Bauhaus School
the example of the Buffalo News media office
of Art in 1933, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer,
in New York and the International Trade Mart
Herbert Bayer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and
(World Trade Center) in New Orleans, was
others, the leading German educators who brought
designed by preservation-minded architect Edward
fame to the eponymous art school, immigrated to
Durell Stone in the style of New Formalism, to
United States and began practicing in earnest.
disassociate from metal-and-glass works of
It was in the 1932 when the term “International towering mainstream skyscrapers, aiming instead
Style” was born in design fields of architecture for a more “palatable”, eclectic dream of modernist
and various other disciplines [1]. From an aesthetics [7; 8]. International Style further
historical perspective, the Bauhaus design and promoted expressiveness of patented structures by
art school formation is often attributed to direct demonstrating reductive material aesthetics,
threats, suppressions of and encroachments to supporting the exploration of newer, lighter,
socio-political, religious, cultural and social cheaper, pragmatic, less cumbersome construction
freedoms instituted by Adolf Hitler‟s Nazi materials, innovative industrial and automated
powers pre-World War I [2: 4]. techniques [6]. Through the quintessential lens of
major proponents such as MoMA curator (1937-
Finding the heart of a 100-year old art movement in
1941) John McAndrew, the influence of 20th-
the 21st-century involves cross-disciplinary research
century International Style grew into a populist
to uncover fleeting glimpses of the muddied,
movement in the United States, a begotten
evolutionary pathways of art history, art education, triumph for the “New Formalism” approach
cultural and heritage preservation and socio- sans evoking the historicity and socio-politics of
political reconstruction that, ironically, influenced traditional European architecture, expressing in
the growth of anti-Semitism in United States [3]. particular the political activism of German
In attempting to frame an apolitical cultural artists [2; 9; 10].
outlook towards Jews, curators at the New York
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Henry Russell McComas [2] asserts that the conscious
Hitchcock and Philip Johnson published a book adoption of an “apolitical soul” in International
after MoMA‟s landmark exhibition Modern Style art and architecture helped foster German-
Architecture in 1932, acclaiming that 20th-century American relations pre-World War 2 until mid-
American International Style symbolised authentic 1950s. In effect, this became an enabler for large-
modernism principles of flexibility, regularity and scale industrial growth globally. In other North
volume expression [4: 14]. Linear symmetry, European regions, International Style bore Fascist
minimal ornamentation and mass-produced expressions through the works of Italy‟s Giuseppe
industrial designs began shaping the era of Terragni [10; 11]. Architect and modernism
commercial clustering business district skyscrapers advocate from the „New York Five‟ Peter
of glass and steel up until World War II. Eisenman wrote a substantial treatise essaying on
Terragni, including Casa del Fascio in the historic
According to Northeastern University School of border town of Como, the headquarters of the
Architecture professor Mardges Bacon [5], the Fascist Party built in between 1932-1936. For
development of American International Style some critics, Eisenman proved the wrongful
can be attributed to architects and industrial art effects of New Formalism when elements of
practitioners‟ foremost admiration for its radical history are removed or disregarded by newer
legitimacy from preceding 19th-century designs, architectural methodology:
but with removal of the European bias [6].
Through sociocultural movements as Bauhaus, (Casa del Fascio is comprised of) dried up
the creative struggles to find a “voice” and compartments, piazzas and ceremonial sites
“vocabulary” to describe the International Style dated to their architectural elements … ignorant
started with removing spatial rigidity and of the fact that in Como, three monuments, the

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

Tower, the Broletto, the Duomo: three periods, architectural styles [5]. His design inspirations
three revolutionary facts, flank one another and are still exemplary studies of environmental
form the northern side of the Piazza del Duomo sustainability characteristics and cultural interpre-
in a superb ensemble [11: 476]. tations of the commonplace aesthetics found in
the vernacular arts (same as other performance
REVIEW OF LITERATURE arts like music, dance and drama), rather than
Perhaps due to the redolence Mediterranean discourses on technical innovation and the value
associations it evoked, modernism as a radical of built installations.
cultural zeitgeist is sometimes given a reframing Le Corbusier distilled his personal conceptual
treatment as a “superficial” form of style by manifesto in the celebrated essay, “Les Cinq
progressive architectural history critics such as Points de l'architecture moderne” (5 Points of
University of Virginia architectural professor New Architecture), through these principles:
John V. Maciuika [12].
 Use of reinforced concrete columns (“les
In an earlier review, Maciuika [13] had theorised on pilotis”) to uplift and bear the load of walls;
the rationalist approaches of pre-Bauhaus architects
like Hermann Muthesius, whose architectural  Free and unrestrained flow of interior space
perspectives coincided with the period of the Third for ground plan (“les toits-jardins”) through
Reich, where Nazi political interventions hindered column-and slab rather than partitioning;
social reformations and building designs were  Separation of exterior from interior façade
treated as showcases of nationalistic pride and (“le plan libre”) providing unencumbered
German engineering excellence even as social panoramic aesthetics of the surroundings;
class struggles against imperialism grew. Maciuika  Horizontal lighting through opening strips or
claims that modernist aesthetics, unlike the purity of ribbon windows (“la fenetre en longueur”)
vernacularism, may even be the “imitation of providing equal lighting while enhancing
artistic sensibilities” [13: 89], rather than actual art landscape visuality; and
itself, historians, acting as guardians of
 Roof gardens or terrace (“la facade libre”) in
architecture‟s evolution and heritage, ask if
flat structures, as protection, promenades,
architecture‟s end purpose is to contest dominant
offering light and spatial ventilation to
authoritative views, rather than to promote
replace a building‟s occupied space.
masterful technical competence and material
knowledge and application to improve human The basis of functionalism, according to Le
connections and relationships through expositions Corbusier, was to ennoble human relationships
on functionality, practicality and aesthetics [4; 9; through spaces: “A house is a machine for living
14]. in” [17]. Beatriz Colomina [18] in her narrative
criticism, Privacy and Publicity, notes how Le
Le Corbusier’s Five Points of Modern
Corbusier used architecture as image perspectives
Architecture
to produce “mediated”, subverted cultural forms by
In post-Bauhaus era, Le Corbusier (Charles- portraying seamless spaces where man, material
ÉdouardJeanneret-Gris) and painter Amédée and machine achieve their highest potential for
Ozenfant, assembled their thoughts and responses social progress. By capturing modernity as
to vernacularism, promoting the concept of utopia juxtaposed through photographic (mechanistic)
on earth through “restoration of the living vision, rather than images derived purely from
environment”, in the 28-volume magazine L’Esprit human eyesight and vision, transient emotions and
Nouveau published between 1920-1925 in the dialectics of time would emerge, as such:
France, which had then not encountered the
Architecture (could be defined) the “masterly,
phenomenal effects of the modernisation
correct and magnificent play of masses brought
revolution, nor found aesthetic styles responding
together in light” [19; 20: 4].
to the rapid development of industrial cities and
planned townships [15; 16: 11]. International Style: Philosophy, Form,
Le Corbusier‟s design principles were theoretically History and Legacy
significant for practitioners working in the 20th- In unifying craftsmanship with various branches
century modernist traditions for its attention to of the arts to serve architecture, the
the spirit of human-nature interactions, synthesising industrialisation of developed northern Europe
industrial materials with authentic, vernacular and North America was factored into modernist
elements of organic forms and stripped-down architectural radicalism throughout early to mid-

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

20th-century, through a diversity of dialogues, living in (today’s postmodern societies) with

pioneering architects looking for qualitative their reductive and mechanistic conceptions.
style expressions to reconcile public taste with (…) Is that all? [23: 51].
sustainable building performance while seeking
In studying the underlying basis of sustainability
to prescribe functional buildings to address the
in modernism, some researchers deconstruct
lack of space within urban zones [21; 22].
why the 20th-century spirit of individual “heroism”
American cultural landscape designers and fell out of favour in the antecedent century.
architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright believed Modernist character, posited on fragmentation
that environmentalism of North America‟s 18th- of societies by Marxist social reactionaries, was
to 19th-century Westward Expansion and Romantic identified by past artists and designers through
traditional eras to the more mundane domesticity of their informal aesthetics educational background,
planned townships and cities would, could, never and expressed mostly in and through works that
strictly accord with International Style traits, as the challenged avant-gardism and urged for rationality,
latter involves striving for newer standards of social order and complexity [3: 29; 24]. The
built engineering and construction techniques to principles of “space and people-conscious”
serve housing needs and city populations that urbanisme disciples including Le Corbusier and
emerged in rapid tandem. Mies van der Rohe drove art and architectural
Today, this philosophical debate of human responses towards formalism and urbanisation.
“ownership (control, access) of spaces” through Other researchers contradict these beliefs, and state
architecture and built techniques, often contradicts that functionalism has moved into an apparent
with sustainability and urban planning interests of “aesthetic intrusion” today, a continual chaotic
local communities rather than social reformation response going forward, reflecting Thwaites et
agendas [22]. University of Illinois architect- alargument that the scale of sustainability planning
educator Scott Murray [20] urges contemporary of modern cities and towns have inevitably
architects to demonstrate collaborative possibilities brought about “the dawn of the anti-heroic
with innovative materials by adopting precedent counter revolution” [23: 51].
building tectonics to refocus global environmental
and social agendas into experiential habitats and The next section will provide a short summary
spaces. Murray [20] examines the „enclosed- of the case study analysis used for this paper,
system‟ principles as applied through material with an examination of examples of classical
translucency, where energy-efficient materials such European modernist architectural design
as glass curtain walls, stacked glass tubes, double elements of Bauhaus and Le Corbusier‟s 5-Point
glass skins and other “translucent” techniques are Principles, in a comparative study research of
used in designing buildings ranging from International Style as expressed by American
residential to religious and commercial sites. urban architects of the 20th-century.
Modernist Functionality and Sustainability in EVALUATION OF THE CASE STUDY
Postmodern Culture To understand the issue of whether International
Did modernist forms attempt to build sustainably? Style could stand apart from its myth as an
This question was raised by Thwaites et al [23] in expression of “nostalgic reassurance” of European
Urban Sustainability Through Environmental imperialism, a case study is presented in the
Design, on what contemporary designers and following section of this paper, to critically analyse
architects would consider to be “the chain than links American architectural heritage and Bauhaus
together conventional modernism with its pretended 20th-century modernism heritage characteristics
postmodernist alternatives in a single chorus”. The in Tel Aviv.
answer seems to lie somewhere in acknowledging Characteristics of Bauhaus and International
the differences between the formal aesthetics Style in Tel Aviv
training of architectural designers today,
With over 4,000 buildings standing today as
compared to those who were subject to neo-
living legacy of the German Jewish migrant
historical developments of the previous era:
community, Tel Aviv is described as the “New
(Without the historical contexts of conditions that York of Israel”, populated by over 3 million, an
produce human art and design) … We have UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bauhaus
symbolic celebrations of technology without architectural modernism [25]. Tel Aviv has
connection to anything but the celebration itself … produced a rarefied expression of International

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

Style architecture in a symbolic unification of fortuitously into a 20-year span of the

Bauhaus modernism with vernacular characteristics cosmopolitan‟s built structures and landscaping
of the early 20th-century, borrowing (and at the history, at a time when a lack of prevailing
same time, subverting) elements of an architectural Palestinian Arab identification and tight budgetary
movement that had spread from Germany to considerations was to determine Tel Aviv‟s
North America [25]. adoption of formalism as its main architectural
ethos [16; 30].
While acclaimed to be an urban lifestyle hub
today, Tel Aviv has not lost its heritage identity Adaptation to Vernacularism and Climactic
representing International Style planning Conditions
ingenuity through a Garden City master plan
Tel Aviv sought functional architectural and
concept with functional, innovative, climate-
construction solutions in facing rapid shifts of
responsive and inclusive elements of tradition
its economic fortunes up until 1970s, through
and culture for its evolving social needs [26].
city planning projects symbolising Jewish
Since its founding in 1909, Tel Aviv‟s “White ideologies while portraying an image of “white”
City” moniker has been a literal symbol of the success, from boxy small windows set in expansive
purity of vernacular aesthetics. Architecturally, walls to whitewashed concrete terraces [25]. The
it was conceptualised to be a cultural capital and modest yet energetic typology of utopia in a
commercial centre by its British founding fathers. Mediterranean-inspired wasteland brought together
Led by urban planner Patrick Geddes, the tactic vistas of seafronts, gardens and parks that were
positions its regional growth based on broader adaptable to the region‟s extreme climate [25]. In
socio-political goals via the creation of “Neue terms of sustainability, the notion of balancing
Menschen” (The New People) of Jewish descent heritage with urban growth seems essentially sound.
[27]. Arieh Sharon, Samuel Mistskin, Shlomo However, as some experts have recently pointed
Bernstein and Erich Mendelsohn were the leading out, an International Style heritage enclave did not
past architects who changed public landscapes always ensure long term site and building
through their urbanisation visions [27: 48]. Bauhaus maintenance [29]; particularly if the aesthetics of
trained; their return to Israel brought new “style” itself stagnates and other (vested) political
inspirations through heritage preservation interests take over. Anat Geva [31] published a
commissions and projects in planning, designing study of Tel Aviv‟s “style” indicators (metrics)
and constructing public spaces from pavilions to using academic journals and papers keyword search
kibbutzims (communal centres). in architectural design bulletins. Geva [31] found
that “sustainability” in Tel Aviv‟s cultural heritage
Jerusalem architect-author-Sharon Rotbard [26]
enclave was indicated by the value of its old
found that among migrant residents, buildings
buildings; social and economic sustainability
and spatial designs were external articulation of
being the unfortunate missing factors.
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
Figure1. Flat rooftops of Tel Aviv apartment buildings
planning of the White City is being raised, even
as exhaustive restoration works denotative of Trim columns, flat roofs, ribbon windows and
architectural heritage style of 1920s until 1940 shadowy entrances intermingled to create
continue unabated [16; 29]. In fact, artefacts cooling microclimates [16]. Flat rooftops
and cultural vestiges of middle-class Europe offered common spaces for social interaction
appeared in Tel Aviv homes, including the between house tenants residing within two- and
frills-free Bauhaus art influences which crept three-bedroom apartments (Figure 1).

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

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
Figure2. Wide cornered balconies in Tel Aviv
and experiences are invented [35].
While European International style enthused
about large windows, recessive facades and Edward Durell Stone and Frank Lloyd Wright
deep shaded walls for hanging balcony features were the leading American architects who
adjusts for local climate conditions, while schematically endorsed historicity in their practices,
graceful gardens and breezy plazas are part of to express a distinctive pride of place over buildings
the modest, regulated landscapes to cancel out and landmarks, as clearly as Bauhaus had imbued
Tel Aviv‟s daytime heat and glare [26]. Long architecture with timeless and universal values [36;
narrow balconies with wide corners are a 37]. While Wright (1867-1959) personified the
sustainable demonstration of ecologically bare rugged, organic, minimalist elegance which marked
construction finish using reinforced concrete filled 1930s‟ progressive American architecture, Edward
with silicate blocks and concrete (Figure 2). Durell Stone (1902-1978) appropriated only certain
Whitewashing is a crucial passive cooling measure, recognisable aspects of International Style in his
along with shading devices on windows and roofs commercial and cultural works ranging from
which provide cross ventilation to open floor plans, exhibition pavilions, embassy buildings, hotel
deflecting heat, removing excess moisture within, lobbies, museums and theatres, to a university
while protecting from direct glare of the sun law school [20: 43-47; 38; 39].
[32]. Many researchers believe that Stone‟s conscious
Windows of its traditional residential quarters rebellion towards European modernism arose
are muted wraparounds for corners and curves, from a more optimistic, Romantic-era view towards
ensuring local glass were used sparingly. Balcony preservation. The ultra-modern design for MoMA
railings accentuate the slim-line profile of ribbon headquarters in New York solidified his credibility
windows. Horizontal „ribbon‟ windows adapted to in 1939, yet he did not feel the need to follow the
local conditions: incisions shaded by deep strictest European modernist canons [40]. Criticised
balconies or slim cantilevers. Ventilation wells for doing a backflip to conservatism as mid-20th-
and air conditioning systems were centralised to century arrived, Stone countered by saying that
minimise space uptake [33]. instead of heterogynous “ice-cage glittering
The role of balconies in Tel Aviv architectural facades” of steel and aluminium which many
heritage is explored by Aronis [34], who found city buildings had then embraced, embellishments
in a study that shaded balconies are both of luxury such as white marble, opaque glass and
demarcated private spaces and areas where black granite reflected taste and thoughtfulness in
social lifestyles are fostered. Instead of the „ornamental functionalism‟ [41; 42]. Despite
stolidity of concrete, the membranous walls of flagging endorsements from the American
many Tel Aviv apartments integrate rooms architectural community in later years, Stone‟s
seamlessly, symbolising intentional mingling, legendary stature was nevertheless affirmed by
yet formed a practical “curtain” that separates the multiple honorary degrees and lifetime
occupants for functional privacy [26]. This awards from prominent leagues [43].

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

Mandel House: Icon of American International ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Style
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
20th-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
Figure3. Living room of Mandel House inventiveness; instead, financial prudence and
individualism were prized by many leading
An example of Stone‟s functionalist approach is
Bauhaus-inspired architects.
seen in the Mandel House in Westchester County,
New York, designed and built for architect Richard Although modernist styles bore the symbolic
H. Mandel (1933-1935) as a pioneering showcase essence that residential buildings and living spaces
of American International Style that integrates are meant to embody [45], the notion of industrial
design efficiency with spatial elegance. With spaces can be early observed in weaving through
stuccoed concrete walls bathed in pristine white, the interstitial spaces and typology of built designs
Mandel House incorporates a recessed basement found in Tel Aviv city, with harmonising
that fell naturally along the sloping contours of a proportions of its urban spirit expressed through
site overlooking a former reservoir. An asymme- gardens, parks, historical and heritage sites, even
trical lightness offsets its commanding vista of while it continues to grow into a world-class city
woodlands from within stylish interiors (Figure 3). [46]. The mosaic of architectural adaptations to
There is podium featuring cork flooring, heating local climactic elements is visible in Tel Aviv
and furniture that fills space intentionally to Bauhaus elements.
appear compact and purposeful. Le Corbusier‟s
To historian Mark LeVine [47], urban
brise-soleil (Figure 4) sunlight deflection strategy is
architecture in neighbouring Jaffa and Tel Aviv
achieved through curvilinear punctured openings in
seem to highlight the ways Palestinian Arabs
the exterior building design, using concrete blocks
and Jews struggled to live together in townships
which provide a heightened sense of expanse and
that separated and compartmentalised them
sophistication, characteristic of the optimism and
through their fundamental ideological differences.
inventiveness of International Style New
Nevertheless, the formalism principles of geometric
Formalism, directly influenced by Le Corbusier.
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
Figure4. Exterior of Mandel House its “civic beautification” to perpetuate the

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Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

Zionist vision of a sacred city through The rationalisms of American International

“architectures of unilateral unification” [48]. In Style, Bauhaus and Le Corbusier‟s architectural
her book Seizing Jerusalem, Nitzan-Shiftan [49] concepts continue to be the subject of evocative
explains the rationale of Tel Aviv‟s post-colonial discussions in the 21st-century among research
master plan, where emotionally aesthetical elements scholars, practitioners and self-styled experts
such as gardens, recreational parks and religious [16; 4]. One such latter architect, Steven Holl,
precincts enable continuity of work to preserve holy wrote in his monograph Urbanisms [56: 291]
sites such as Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount and that subjective, sensorial perceptions of
Dome of the Rock. At the same time, the materiality and spatiality can be achieved,
metropolitan flavours of a charismatic urban centre
intertwined and celebrated through exploring
capture the soul of its living culture, subverting
porosity of light and landscape fusion for urban
visions of the dramatic „purification‟ of Jew society
zones. Holl‟s notion of spatial transience aligns
from non-Jews from ethnically segregated (Lewis
Mumford calls “over-compartmentalised”) with Le Corbusier‟s trajectory of pioneering
models of residential living [48; 50]. contribution to urbanism. As architectural
historian at The University of Zurich, Stanislaus
Ironically, while Tel Aviv faces economic von Moos [17: 207] quotes:
unease due to tensions in neighbouring Syria
and Iraq, the historical preservation efforts has “… tangible objects in our surroundings
pushed up prices of apartment and office [environment] serve as the starting points of
remodelling and other commercial and private poetry”.
building renovations in recent years [25; 51]. Indeed, a sense of poetic surrealism, the term
First in the neighbouring village of Jaffa, and
used by Kenneth Frampton to describe Le
later in Tel Aviv, the modernist legacy formed
the backstory of an ambitious laboratory Corbusier‟s vernacularism approach, is fine-
programme by Israel to “fill the cultural vacuum” tuned through his “pilotis” principle of lifting
[52: 360] and transform displaced Palestinian Arab structures away from the ground, a spatial
society through establishing a distinct vision optimisation strategy enabling the building to be
modelled to bring peace and prosperity in the a veritable machine controlled by man [17; 57].
Promised Land, despite segregated spaces amid Additionally, sustainable urbanisation requires a
socio-political and socioeconomic upheavals careful balance of projects that focus on the
[26; 47; 49; 52; 53; 54]. nurture, restoration and enhancement of native
American International Style, on the other hand, riparian growth (flora and fauna species) through
consciously rebelled and broke away from landscape management, a challenging task due to
European functionalism with vigour, through a surrounding encroachment issues [58].
more subtle fusion accomplishment in material Due to uncertainties surrounding large-scale
and spatial design concepts pioneered by Le projects that may or may no longer sustain or
Corbusier in France.
preserve surrounding nature, the style ideals of
Scholars explore the dynamics of “transnational- functionalism and formalism are neither practical
lism” to challenge Euro-centric ideologies of nor viable in facing the realities of intense
enforced social relations and cultural identities globalisation and rapid sprawl of cities and
through urban planning and spatial designing. townscapes. It can be asserted that Bauhaus
Advocacy for a less-formal construction design modernism’s principles of symmetrical linearity,
has been echoing throughout the postmodern purity and eclectic qualities of order and rationality
age, where architectural preservation is viewed as DO NOT qualify it as a “style”. The mythification
part of the globalisation controversy of “restoring of those attributes do not account for sociocultural
vs. retrofitting”. For instance, the famously
fusions of languages, religions, worldviews and
described 12-storey “lollipop building”, 2
political awareness which form the chaotic
Columbus Circle at the intersection of downtown
Manhattan, New York, built in 1964 and redesigned identities of cities today, just as it did in 1930s Israel
with retrofitting in 2006 by Allied Works and 1950s North America. Findings signify that
Architecture under Brad Cloepfil, it has become the postmodern paradigms would be a more relevant
permanent home of New York‟s Museum of Arts framework to characterise the continuity of
and Design (MAD), after it reopened to the communities through the interstices of
public in 2008 [55]. sustainable urbanisation and economic growth.

16 Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020

Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus Design in Modernisation of
Urban Cities

CONCLUSIONS migratory flows today, it would be a myth to

describe any universal influence on architectural
Modernity and heritage preservation are opposing design as a coherent “International Style” as such.
ideological principles found in architecture and Research, however, suggests that the character of
architectural elements. Design principles of Le 21st-century architecture should closer reflect Le
Corbusier‟s 5-Point fundamentals of modernism Corbusier‟s 5-Point Principles, with an
versus International style, when assessed for aesthetically recognisable approach in construction.
creativity, inventiveness and innovativeness, More importantly for long term sustainability of
would depend on the outlook of urban planners cities, spatial development must realise “people-
and costs involvement, before the results of conscious” principles where modernity is
sustainable urban planning policies can be dignified, healthy community living celebrated,
measured and calculated to grow cities sustainably new technologies optimised and heritage
and conserve important cultural heritage features in
conservation approaches sought out to resolve
the long run. Nevertheless, it is our belief that
pertinent issues for urbanist dreams of
restoration of urban spaces can combine industrial expansion to be fulfilled.
and modern art, and creative ways sought to
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Citation: Stephen T.F. Poon, “Myth of International Style: 20th-Century Architectural Modernism and Bauhaus
Design in Modernisation of Urban Cities”, Journal of Fine Arts, 3(3), 2020, pp. 09-19.
Copyright: © 2020 Stephen T.F. Poon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I3 ● 2020 19