'Moderne' and `Modernistic'

By the mid 1930s the International Style was in full swing, but it was too revolutionary and austere to attract most of the British public. They wanted something showier and more exotic, especially for commercial buildings like factories, cinemas, and holiday-spirited seaside architecture; and they found it in the `moderne' and `modernistic' styles with their mixture of ingredients, often part-Egyptian, part-classical and part-modern. Thomas Wallis's Hoover factory, a classical composition with exotic decoration, is compared with the Le Corbusier Modernist style, which entirely rejects ornamentation. Seaside architecture is illustrated in Blackpool and Frinton, from fairground moderne to buildings by Joseph Emberton and Oliver Hill, which merge into the International Style proper.

© 1998-2008 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.