International Style vs Modernism
インターナショナル・スタイル / モダニズム
International Style comes from Modern Architecture and Modernism from Functionalism. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
International Style
Strips ornament and aims at a universal architectural language crossing borders: the box, the free plan, steel, concrete and glass.
Modernism
Replaces ornament with reasoned form and aims at universality.
| International Style | Modernism | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1920s–1960s | 1920s–1970s |
| Family | Modern Architecture | Functionalism |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Rectangular volumes / Glass planes / No ornament / The free plan | Simplification / Clear hierarchy / Function first / Universal forms |
| Best used for | Corporate headquarters and civic buildings that must earn trust through proportion, not ornament. · Long life offices and galleries whose partitions move as programs change. | Building a brand foundation that lasts · A vessel that never gets in the content's way |
| Type | Align sans serif signs to the column grid, flush with the wall. | A sans-serif with few quirks |
| Composition | Carry floors on columns so plan and facade both stay free. | Logical hierarchy and generous white space |
| Material | Steel and concrete frame, white rendered planes, large sheets of glass. | Black and white with a single accent color |
| Caution | A white box alone misses the structure, free plan, industrial materials and social program, and ornament stripped without tuned proportion and detail reads as cheapness, leaving openings with no reason for their position. | Blandness is not universality. Hold clear intent in every ratio and interval. |