MODERN 1900 - 1950

The Modern Movement

In the architecture of the Modern movement form follows function. The result was simple blocks of unadorned building and this became known as the International Style. Windows tended to be horizontally divided with curved panes, roofs were flat and walls plain and smooth rendered.

Some housing was built in this style with long horizontal metal windows, flat roofs and white painted, smooth rendered walls but they were not popular with home owners. Le Corbusier, an influential Swiss architect, declared ‘a house is a machine for living in’. Internally the design was also functional with little ornamentation and mostly an open plan layout which was not suited to the living arrangements of many families in the 1930s.