← Design Styles & Movements
International Style
DESIGN STYLES & MOVEMENTSintermediate
Definition
A term coined in 1932 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson to describe a globally emerging form of modern architecture characterised by volume over mass, regularity, and the rejection of applied ornament. The style was defined by its abstraction, white surfaces, flat roofs, and horizontal ribbon windows.
Example
The Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe (1929) — rebuilt in 1986 — is a defining example: pure geometric planes of marble, glass, and steel with no applied ornament.
Key Figures
- — Mies van der Rohe — Farnsworth House
- — Le Corbusier — Unité d'Habitation
- — Walter Gropius — Harvard Graduate Centre