Modern Architecture: Modernist Buildings

Modern Architecture, Photos, Modernist Design, Projects, Links, Examples, Houses, Pictures

Modern Architecture – 20th Century Design

Modernist Buildings & The International Style: Built Environment News and Images

post updated 5 August 2021

27 Mar 2021
Stop Calling Everything Modern Architecture article posted

e-architect have some classic Modern Buildings online, such as Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat Villa & Barcelona Pavilion, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, housing by Berthold Lubetkin and Le Corbusier’s Ville Savoie.

Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate, London, by architect Neave Brown:
Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate, London
photo © Martin Charles / RIBA Collections

Modernist Building – Latest Additions

21 Aug 2012
Hilversum Town Hall, The Netherlands
Design: Willem Marinus Dudok
Hilversum Town Hall building in the Netherlands
photo © Adrian Welch
Hilversum Town Hall – new photographs

21 Aug 2012
Sanatorium Zonnestraal, Hilversum, The Netherlands
Design: Jan Duiker with Bernard Bijvoet and Jan Gerko Wiebenga
Sanatorium Zonnestraal Hilversum
photo © Adrian Welch
Sanatorium Zonnestraal – new photographs
New photographs of this famous Modernist building that appears in most histories of 20th Century Architecture and the Modern Movement.
The former Zonnestraal Sanatorium is one of the most famous modern monuments in the Netherlands. A master plan was elaborated in 1997 to convert it into a health centre with a combination of (para)medical and recreational functions.

Apr 20, 2012
Martin House Complex, Buffalo, New York, USA
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright Architect
Martin House Complex by Frank Lloyd Wright in Buffalo
photograph : Biff Henrich / courtesy MHRC
Modern Architecture in Buffalo
This is an interesting residential complex designed by one of the most celebrated architects of the 20th Century, Frank Lloyd Wright, between 1903 and 1905. It is the largest of his Prairie houses in the Eastern United States.

Modern Architecture – Major Modernist Buildings

Most of these Modernist buildings exude purity – simple forms, floating planes / cantilevers, white facades, strip windows – typical of Modernist Architecture.

These Modern buildings feature in standard Histories of Architecture Books:

Barcelona Pavilion, Barcleona, Catalonia, Spain
Date built: 1929; reconstructed 1983-86
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect
Barcelona Pavilion Mies van der Rohe building
photograph © Adrian Welch
Barcelona Pavilion – probably the most famous Modern building in the world

Farnsworth House, Illinois, USA
Date built: 1950
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect
Farnsworth House by architect Mies van der Rohe
photo © gm+ad architects
Farnsworth House

Highpoint I, Highgate, London, England, UK
Date built: 1935
Design: Berthold Lubetkin Architect
Highpoint London Modern architecture
photograph © Adrian Welch
Highpoint Buildings – British Modernist Housing

860-880 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Date built: 1951
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect
Lake Shore Drive Towers
photo : William Zbaren
Lake Shore Drive Towers

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, NY, USA
Date built: 1956
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York
photo : Tectonic Photo
Guggenheim Museum New York – organic Modernist architecture

Villa Savoie, Poissy, France
Date built: 1929
Design: Le Corbusier Architect
Villa Savoye Poissy Le Corbusier house France
building image © Rebecca Breun
Villa Savoie by Le Corbusier – famous Modernist architecture

Modernism

Modern Architecture was a product of the mid-20th century. Described as the International Style by Reyner Banham, the Modern style was linked with architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe and prevalent in Europe and USA initially.

Modern Architecture became the equivalent of the Classical Style in the Georgian period, ie the establishment architecture, the status quo.

Since the seventies architecture styles have become more fractured and we have – amongst what could be termed contemporary architects – post-modernists, neo-modernists, deconstructivists, contextualists, expressionists and so on. ‘Contemporary Architects’ suggests a position that is anti-vernacular, comfortable with new materials and non-local materials & forms, using architectural language that is not generally steeped in past typographies or traditions.

Please see our Modern houses page, linked on the left under ‘Relevant Links’

Modernist Architecture – Recent Additions to e-architect

Houses of Sagaponac, Long Island, NY, USA
Bachman Wilson House, NJ
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright
Bachman Wilson House
photo from Brown Harris Stevens
Houses of Sagaponac

Miller House, Indiana, USA
Design: Eero Saarinen architect
Modern Architecture
photograph Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Miller House

Modern Architecture – Key Modernist Buildings

Lawn Road Flats, London, England, UK
Date built: 1934
Design: Wells Coates
Modernist Architecture
photo © Robin Lambert
Isokon : Modern British building – classic white Modernist purity

Tugendhat Villa, Brno, Czech Republic
Date built: 1930
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect
Modern Czech Architecture
picture © AW
Modern Architecture : Tugendhat Villa Brno

Unité d’Habitation building, Berlin, Germany
Date built: 1959
Design: Le Corbusier Architect
Unité d'Habitation Berlin
photo © Isabelle Lomholt
Modern Berlin housing – Modernist design emanating from France

Florida Southern Colleges – Child of the Sun, Florida, USA
Dates built: 1938-59
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright
Annie Pfeiffer Chapel
photo © Robin Hill
Florida Southern Colleges Buildings

Central Beheer office, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Date built: 1972
Design: Herman Hertzberger
Centraal Beheer Apeldoorn Centraal Beheer Apeldoorn
photos © Willem Diepraam

Classic, world-famous office design
Modern office building
photo © Aviodrome Luchtfotografie

V. C. Morris Gift Shop, San Francisco, California, USA
Date built: 1948
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright
Modern shop building
photo from gallery
San Francisco Architecture – more photos

Modern Buildings UK

Bata Shoe Factory building, Tilbury, east London

Design: Vladimir Karfik

Fairydean Stadium, Galashiels, Scotland
Date built: 1965
Peter Womersley, Architect
Gala Fairydean Stadium - Galashiels Building

photo © AJW
Gala Fairydean Stadium – photos added 7 May 2012
This building is designed in a similar architecture style to Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. The raw shuttering of the concrete, the powerful angular forms and the focus on cantilever and buttresses in tension are dominant. The building was controversially listed by Historic Scotland in late 2006.

Labworth Café, Canvey Island

Design: Christiani & Nielsen

Paddington Maintenance Depot, northwest London
Dates built: 1966-68
Design: Bicknell & Hamilton
Modernist railway building

Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Building

Design: Joseph Emberton

Wood House, Shipbourne, Kent

Design: Walter Gropius

More Modern Architecture online soon

Modern Architects

Le Corbusier Show : The Interior of the Cabanon
Cabanon interior
interior photo : Andrea Ferrari
Le Corbusier Exhibition : RIBA, London

Walter Gropius

Louis Kahn

American Le Corbusier building – UN Building New York

Modern Architecture House : Frank Lloyd Wright house
Modern house
photograph © Adrian Welch

Barcelona Pavilion Photos : world-famous Catalan building design by Mies van der Rohe architect

Comments / photos for the Modern Architecture page welcome

Architecture