Monday, 16 January 2012

Modern architecture

PERIOD OF POPULARITY:  1940s – 1970s (mostly 1950s – 1970s for office towers and other high rises).

IDENTIFYING FEATURES: Modern structural principles and materials: concrete, glass, and steel are the most common; occasionally reveals skeleton-frame construction, exposing its structure; rejected non-essential decoration; ribbon windows and corner windows are a hallmark of the style; bands of glass are as important as bands of “curtain wall”; balance and regularity admired and fostered; flat roof, without ledge. Often with thin, metal mullions and smooth spandrel panels separating large, single-pane windows between floors. High-rise buildings are boxy and completely devoid of ornamentation or other stylistic features other than the sleek appearance of steel, glass, and plastic. Hence the term, “anonymous glass box”.

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