Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Chicago School: Repeat a three-part window unit between continuous vertical piers and floor bands
- Type
- Set in Chicago School's manner (Align signage with entrances and floors rather than covering the facade with a billboard), and let International Style's lettering (Align sans serif signs to the column grid, flush with the wall) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Chicago School's material (Combine broad glass panes, pale ceramic cladding and dark metal, concentrating detail at the street entrance); bring in exactly one thing from International Style (Steel and concrete frame, white rendered planes, large sheets of glass).
- Colour
- Build on #E4DCCB, #83969A, #3C4141 and admit one accent from #eeece5, #9ca3a5, #252729.
Where they fight
- Chicago School and International Style both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Chicago School Not every glazed grid is Chicago School. Keep the early commercial tradition distinct from the later Second Chicago School and from the Chicago Imagists in painting.
- International Style 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.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Chicago School (style, 1880s–early 1900s) and their accent from International Style (style, 1920s–1960s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Chicago School exists for: explaining early high-rise architecture through the relationship between windows and structure, or organising a commercial front through daylight, repetition and a distinct entrance. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Chicago School - A wide fixed window between two narrower opening windows - A repeated grid of piers and floor bands - Projecting window bays and large glazed areas - Pale terracotta or stone with ornament concentrated near entrances Composition: Repeat a three-part window unit between continuous vertical piers and floor bands. Type and lettering: Align signage with entrances and floors rather than covering the facade with a billboard. ## Accent comes from International Style, used sparingly - Rectangular volumes - Glass planes - No ornament - The free plan Let one material quality come from it: Steel and concrete frame, white rendered planes, large sheets of glass. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #E4DCCB, carry the structure in #83969A and #3C4141, and let a single accent come from #9ca3a5. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, calm, futurity. ## Where they fight - Chicago School and International Style both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Chicago School: Not every glazed grid is Chicago School. Keep the early commercial tradition distinct from the later Second Chicago School and from the Chicago Imagists in painting. - International Style: 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. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Chicago School 1880s–early 1900s / Style / Modern Architecture
A language of late-nineteenth-century commercial high-rises in Chicago, making repeated floors and large windows legible on the facade. Chicago windows combine a broad fixed pane with narrower opening panes. Terracotta and concentrated entrance ornament coexist with this regular structure, distinguishing it from the later International Style.
- International Style 1920s–1960s / Style / Modern Architecture
Strips ornament and aims at a universal architectural language crossing borders: the box, the free plan, steel, concrete and glass.
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