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 New Formalism: Raise one rectangular volume on a base and organise its approach and colonnade symmetrically
- Type
- Set in New Formalism's manner (Place a modest, orderly title on the main axis and relate its spacing to the columns), and let Stripped Classicism's lettering (Incised roman capitals, widely spaced, centred on the axis and stated once only) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in New Formalism's material (Combine pale smooth stone or concrete, slender screens and a restrained reflective surface); bring in exactly one thing from Stripped Classicism (Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface).
- Colour
- Build on #E3E0D6, #7B9B9C, #38484A and admit one accent from #e5e4e3, #7e8992, #2a2a2a.
Where they fight
- New Formalism and Stripped Classicism both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- New Formalism Symmetry alone is insufficient. Look for classical order translated into modern construction, and distinguish this architecture from pre-war Stripped Classicism and the literary movement of the same name.
- Stripped Classicism Reaching for it because it looks austere and expensive: the symmetry and the blank wall make a claim of authority whether or not you intended one.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from New Formalism (style, 1955–1975) and their accent from Stripped Classicism (style, 1920s–1950s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing New Formalism exists for: giving a cultural or ceremonial space a formal approach and colonnaded front, or creating a monumental exhibition entrance through an axis, repetition and patterned screens. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from New Formalism - A symmetrical single volume on a raised base - Repeated slender columns or arches - A broad flat roof over geometric screens - Smooth stone or concrete with sculptural thin structures Composition: Raise one rectangular volume on a base and organise its approach and colonnade symmetrically. Type and lettering: Place a modest, orderly title on the main axis and relate its spacing to the columns. ## Accent comes from Stripped Classicism, used sparingly - The rhythm of columns stripped of ornament - A strong axis and symmetry - Smooth planes of stone - Walls without large openings Let one material quality come from it: Large ashlar limestone or granite, honed flat, with joints fine enough that the wall reads as one continuous surface. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #E3E0D6, carry the structure in #7B9B9C and #38484A, and let a single accent come from #7e8992. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, luxury, calm. ## Where they fight - New Formalism and Stripped Classicism both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - New Formalism: Symmetry alone is insufficient. Look for classical order translated into modern construction, and distinguish this architecture from pre-war Stripped Classicism and the literary movement of the same name. - Stripped Classicism: Reaching for it because it looks austere and expensive: the symmetry and the blank wall make a claim of authority whether or not you intended one. ## 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
- New Formalism 1955–1975 / Style / Modern Architecture
An American architectural style of the mid-1950s through the 1970s that recast classical order in modern structures. Symmetrical masses, colonnades, raised bases and patterned screens make ceremonial fronts for civic and commercial buildings. Its monumentality comes from modern proportions and repeated slender forms rather than a literal reconstruction of an ancient order.
- Stripped Classicism 1920s–1950s / Style / Modern Architecture
The manner of government and memorial building in which classical architecture is shorn of ornament, leaving only proportion, axis and the rhythm of the columns. That it still reads as classical without ornament made it a cheap means of speaking authority. Important as a case in which the minimal and the intimidating live together.
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