Knowra International Style International Style An architectural style that emphasizes functional planning, simple geometric volumes, and minimal ornament. Its buildings commonly use steel or reinforced-concrete frames, glass curtain walls, and open plans.
Curtain wall : A non-load-bearing exterior wall attached to a building’s structural frame. Glass curtain walls made the style’s smooth, uninterrupted façades possible.
Villa Savoye : A 1929 modernist house in Poissy, France, designed by Le Corbusier. Its pilotis, ribbon windows, roof garden, and open plan distill the style’s principles.
Bauhaus : A German art and design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. Its teaching joined modern materials, functional design, and architecture.
Le Corbusier : A Swiss-French architect, designer, and theorist who helped shape modern architecture. His houses and writings articulated principles closely associated with the style.
Art Deco : A decorative design movement characterized by geometric patterns, rich materials, and streamlined forms. Its ornament and surface richness contrast with the style’s stated restraint.
Pilotis : Columns that lift a building above ground level, leaving the space beneath open. Pilotis separate the building’s structure from its ground-level enclosure.
Bauhaus Building : A school building in Dessau, Germany, designed by Walter Gropius and completed in 1926. Its glass curtain wall and asymmetrical composition helped establish modernist architecture’s visual language.
Deutscher Werkbund : A German association founded in 1907 to improve design through cooperation between artists and industry. Its reform movement helped prepare the ground for modernist architecture.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe : A German-American architect known for precise structural expression and minimalist design. His steel-and-glass buildings became influential models of the style.
Brutalism : A postwar architectural movement marked by massive forms and exposed concrete. Brutalism shares modernist roots but favors weight and material roughness over visual lightness.
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