The Modern Movement

The proponents of the Modern Movement in architecture considered that, compared with the historical styles that it replaced, Modernist architecture more accurately reflected the functional spirit of twentieth-century technology and was better suited to the newest building methods. It is ironic, then, that the Movement fostered at odds with the way buildings were really built.

The tenacious adherence of Modernist architects and critics to this ideology was in part responsible for the Movement’s decline. Originating in the 1920s as a marginal, almost bohemian art movement, the Modern Movement was never very popular with the public, but this very lack of popular support produced in Modernist architects a drawn to only those features of their work that were “Modern”; other aspects were conveniently ignored.

The decline of the Modern Movement later in the twentieth century occurred partly as a result of Modernist architects’ ignorance of building methods, and partly because Modernist architects were reluctant to admit that their concerns were chiefly aesthetic. Moreover, the building industry was evolving in a direction Modernists had not anticipated: it could only be accomplished at considerable cost—hence the well-founded reputation of Modern architecture as prohibitively expensive.

As Postmodern architects recognized, the need to expose structural elements imposed unnecessary limitations on building design. The unwillingness of architects of the Modern Movement to abandon their ideals interest in the Modern Movement.