Modern Architecture

Modern architecture is a term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose around 1900. By the 1940s these styles had been consolidated and identified as the International Style and became the dominant architectural style, particularly for institutional and corporate building, for several decades in the twentieth century.

Le Corbusier was the pioneer of this style and eventually laid the foundation for Bauhaus. The earlier buildings by Le Corbusier were smooth, white concrete and glass structures elevated above the ground. He called these works "Pure Prisms." In the late 1940s, Le Corbusier turned to a style known as "New Brutalism," which used rough, heavy forms of stone, concrete, stucco, and glass.