History of American Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History of American Architecture - Essay ExampleAfter World War II the demeanor manifested itself in clean-lined, apparent glass skyscrapers and mass housing projects. Modernist architects of the early and mid-twentieth century were politically idealistic and radical. Their architecture expressed their faith that modern-dayisation and progress would bring a wear out world.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 close to 1900. Around 1900, a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate traditional precedents with new technological possibilities. By the 1940s these styles had been amalgamated 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. Some histor ians catch up with the growth of modern architecture as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernity and hence to the Enlightenment, a result of social and political revolutions. Others see modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments, and its plainly true that the availability of new building materials such as iron, steel, concrete and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution. By the 1920s the most important figures in modern architecture had established their reputations. In 1932, the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture, curated by Philip Johnson and collaborator Henry-Russell Hitchcock drew together many distinct threads and trends, identified them as stylistically similar and having a common purpose, and consolidated them into the International Style. This was an important turning point. With World War II the important figures of the Bauhaus fled to the United Sta tes, to Chicago, to the Harvard Graduate teach of Design, and to Black Mountain College. Modernism became the pre-eminent, and then the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984. Modernist architecture became popular, because the ideal of progress was so widespread during the mid-twentieth century. Its glistering glass, steel, and concrete buildings helped to spread the faith that technology and planning could heal the sick, replace the slums with hygienic housing projects, and create affluence for all.What is Post-ModernismPostmodern architecture is an international style whose first examples are generally cited as being from the 1950s, and continues to influence present-day architecture. Postmodernity in architecture is generally thought to be heralded by the spend of wit, ornament and reference to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. As with many cultural movements, some of postmodernisms most pronounced and s eeable ideas can be seen in architecture. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist movement are replaced by