What is the International Typographic style?

International Style? What is it exactly?

• What is it exactly? Though it has dominated the architecture for the past fifty years, it seems to have fallen into disfavor. What criticisms have been leveled against it? Are they justified? Describe some of the alternatives that have been tried.

• Answer:

  From my recent studies in art history, it is my belief that International style was the premium choice of architecture from the 1920's into the 70's. One of the first art school, the Baus Haus, in Germany prior to WW2, was one of the first to exhibit this style. I'm not sure who the architect was, but the school had emphasis in architecture, and others, of course. Elements of international style are minimal ornamentation. In previous styles of architecture, you had columns, colonnades, intricate crown molding, relief sculptures, everything was just very decorated. This was the "modern" style of building. This was minimalist. The walls were flat, the windows were often very flush with the wall, making them look as if they were an actual part of the wall. The "balconies" didn't have railing, they were just suspended out of the wall as if they were floating, though I can't for the life of me remember what they were called. I believe this would be criticised because it was just so simple. There wasn't a lot of challenge from the architects to build these kinds of buildings, and we of course have much more admiration from older buildings, such as the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, The Vatican, etc. Much older buildings with much more ornamentation. I mean, how did they build such beautiful buildings thousands of years ago, like the Parthenon, with no modern tools like we have? And yet, we can't build that kind of building? er, we don't.... Architecture used to be as much of an art as a painting. Michaelangelo was the architect for much of the Vatican that we know today. People commissioned painters and sculptors to build these buildings because they could make them beautiful. It's the same argument of the modern painters verses the renaissance. Renaissance painters put much skill and training into their paintings, where modern painters put more emphasis on the motif behind the painting. Thus, why we consider a painting of a flat square art. It is art. It just isn't skilled art. It's intentional art.