Abbesses

Red House in Bexleyheath (London) by William Morris and Philip Webb (1859)

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt (1907–08)

Museum-Residence Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves in Lisbon (1904–05)

Decorative stylised lettering – Grave of the Caillat Family in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by Guimard (1899)[170]

Irises and mascaron at the façade of Schichtel building in Strasbourg, France, by Aloys Walter (1905–06)

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, that was popular between 1890 and 1910.

Noodles, Eels, and Salad Oil in Public Derision

While the movement aimed to unify fine and applied arts, its organic forms invited sharp ridicule from contemporary critics. In Belgium, detractors mocked the sinuous, curving aesthetics by referring to them as "Noodle style," "Eel Style," or "Whiplash style." Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, poster art created for everyday food products earned the style the label of salad oil style. These colorful insults highlight the initial public resistance to its fluid departure from rigid classical symmetry.

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Villa Göth (1950) in Kåbo, Uppsala, Sweden. "New Brutalism" was used for the first time to describe this house.

Student dormitory (1971) by Georgi Konstantinovski in Skopje, North Macedonia

The Milwaukee County War Memorial (1957) is an example of the brutalist architecture of Eero Saarinen.

Denys Lasdun's 'ziggurats' (1968), University of East Anglia

The Robarts Library (1974), University of Toronto

Wang Shu's neobrutalist Ningbo Museum (2008)

Brutalist architecture

Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, known for minimalist construction showcasing bare building materials.

A Swedish Villa's Accidental Legacy

The term "new brutalism" originated far from British urban centers inside a Swedish family residence. Swedish architect Hans Asplund coined the term nybrutalism to describe Villa Göth, a modern brick home in Uppsala designed in January 1950 by Bengt Edman and Lennart Holm. Featuring visible I-beams and exposed brick, the house displayed a raw material aesthetic that visiting English architects enthusiastically brought back to the United Kingdom.

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LessayAbbaye3

Portal, Church of Santa Maria, Viu de Llevata, Catalonia, Spain

The basilica of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse is the archetype of large pilgrimage churches, where pilgrims could walk around the church via the transept and the choir chapels.

Germany, Speyer Cathedral

Paired towers such as those of Plankstetten Abbey, are a typical feature of Bavarian and Central European church architecture. (See image of Abbey Church of St James, Lébény, above)

On these mouldings around the portal of Lincoln Cathedral are formal chevron ornament, tongue-poking monsters, vines and figures, and symmetrical motifs.

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semicircular arches that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries.

A Coined Insult Matched to Degenerated Latin

The term "Romanesque" originated as a critical label rather than a term of praise. Archaeologist Charles de Gerville introduced the French term "romane" in an 1818 letter to describe what he viewed as debased Roman architecture. He explicitly drew a parallel to linguistics, comparing the structural decay of classic Roman building methods to the way Romance languages evolved as degenerated Latin.

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Image-Disney Concert Hall by Carol Highsmith edit-2

Olivetti Valentine typewriter (1969) by Ettore Sottsass

Libeskind's Imperial War Museum North in Trafford, Greater Manchester (2002). An archetype of deconstructivist architecture, it comprises three fragmented, intersecting curved volumes, symbolizing the destruction of war.

Günter Domenig' s "Steinhaus" at Lake Ossiach, Austria

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry, in Bilbao, Spain

The McCormick Tribune Campus Center at Chicago's IIT Campus by Rem Koolhaas

Deconstructivism

Deconstructivism is a postmodern architectural movement that appeared in the 1980s, characterized by the impression of fragmentation and an absence of obvious symmetry.

Exposing Structural Bones in a 1969 Typewriter

Before deconstructivism transformed skyline aesthetics, its early structural subversions appeared in industrial product design. Designer Ettore Sottsass embodied this spirit in his 1969 Olivetti Valentine typewriter, which deconstructed the traditional machine housing. By exposing normally hidden internal components and utilizing floating keys with a detached plastic rail, Sottsass challenged conventional object design. This early design experiment demonstrated how functional everyday items could disassemble established formal boundaries.

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Hagia Sophia Mars 2013

Interior of the Basilica of San Vitale from Ravenna (Italy), decorated with elaborate and glamorous mosaics

Hagia Irene is a former Greek Eastern Orthodox Church located in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. It is one of only two Byzantine churches still standing in the city today which were never converted into mosques, as it was used as an arsenal until the 19th century.[8] Today it operates as a museum and concert hall.

The St. George Rotunda; some remains of Serdica can be seen in the foreground

Dome of the Pammakaristos Church, Istanbul

Interior of Saint Sofia Church, Sofia, (6th century)

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, dated from AD 330 until the fall of the empire in 1453 and based on arches, vaults, and domes.

Inverting Sacred Space from Exterior to Interior

Classical antiquity prioritized external monumental design because sacred ceremonies occurred outside the temple structure. The rise of Christian worship fundamentally reversed this focus by bringing the entire congregation inside for religious services. To accommodate these large indoor gatherings, Byzantine architects shifted artistic effort away from outer facades toward opulent interior spaces. The resulting sanctuaries featured magnificent golden mosaics, patterned marble walls, and soaring elevated domes.

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Tempietto del Bramante, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502, by Donato Bramante. This small temple marks the place where St. Peter was crucified.[1]

The Temple of Vesta in Rome was the model for Bramante's Tempietto.[1]

Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice

Palazzo Medici Riccardi by Michelozzo. Florence, 1444

Vestibule of the Laurentian Library

Juleum in Helmstedt, Germany (example of Weser Renaissance)

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the 15th and early 16th centuries, demonstrating a conscious revival of ancient Greek and Roman forms.

Gothic Ribs Powering the First Renaissance Dome

While Brunelleschi's dome for Florence Cathedral is often celebrated as the first building of the Renaissance, its construction relies on Gothic pointed arches and ribs originally planned by Arnolfo. Brunelleschi merged these medieval structural forms with Roman engineering principles observed in ancient ruins. The resulting double-shell brick dome uses eight large outer ribs and sixteen internal ones to hold a herringbone brick shell. This clever hybrid structure bridged ancient Roman design and medieval tradition to cap the cathedral.

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Wells Cathedral West Front Exterior, UK - Diliff

Pointed arches in the 14th-century tower of the church of San Salvador at Teruel in Aragon

Valencia Cathedral (13th–15th c.)

Peterborough Cathedral, retrochoir – intersecting fan vaults

Three-part elevation of Chartres Cathedral, with larger clerestory windows

Palais de la Cité (1119–) and Sainte-Chapelle (1238–48), Paris

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is an architectural style prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, evolving from Romanesque and succeeded by Renaissance architecture.

An Insult Born of Renaissance Snobbery

Renaissance thinkers initially coined the label "Gothic" as a scathing insult rather than a neutral artistic classification. Art historian Giorgio Vasari used the term "barbarous German style" in his 1550 Lives of the Artists to describe pointed medieval buildings. Vasari explicitly attributed these architectural features to the Goths, holding them responsible for destroying ancient Roman structures and erecting inferior replacements.

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The upper white walls and gold panelling of an oval room, curving seamlessly into a domed ceiling adorned with gilded stucco vines and framed oil paintings.

A young woman in a billowing pink dress swings high in a lush, overgrown garden, while a young man hidden in the bushes looks up at her.

The Wieskirche by Dominikus Zimmermann (1745–1754)

Antoine Watteau, The Embarkation for Cythera (1717)

Mezzetin, by Johann Joachim Kaendler, Meissen, c. 1739

Francis Hayman, Dancing Milkmaids, 1735

Rococo

Rococo, also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art, and decoration that combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, and pastel colours.

Hunting Lodges Hiding Halls of Mirrors

Bavarian architecture used simple exteriors to create a surprising contrast with heavily decorated interiors. The pavilion of Amalienburg in Munich, designed by François de Cuvilliés between 1734 and 1739, features an interior Hall of Mirrors crafted by Johann Baptist Zimmermann that is far more elaborate than French Rococo. This dramatic interior hidden behind a modest facade redefined how visitors experienced spatial design.

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Chrysler Building 1 (4684845155)

Secession Building in Vienna by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1897–98)

Primitivist influences – Bust for a shop window, anonymous Belgian artist (c. 1920), painted papier-mâché, private collection, Cologne, Germany

The Hunter by Pierre Le Faguays (1920s)

Vertical and horizontal luminous surfaces – Entrance hall of the Villa Cavrois in Croix, France, by Rob Mallet-Stevens (1932)[108]

Evening coat by Paul Poiret (c. 1912), silk and metal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Art Deco

Art Deco is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s and flourished internationally during the 1920s to early 1930s.

A Style Unnamed for Half a Century

The design style was not called Art Deco during its boom in the 20s. The term first appeared in print in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in The Times. Historian Bevis Hillier then popularized the phrase in 1968 as a broadly applied stylistic label. This decades-long gap highlights how contemporaries viewed the era through disparate regional trends rather than a single unified movement.

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Opera Garnier Grand Escalier

Beaux-Arts building decoration presenting images of the Roman goddesses Pomona and Diana. Note the naturalism of the postures and the channeled rustication of the stonework.

Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees, Stresa, Maggiore Lake

Former Humanities Center of the Spanish National Research Council, Madrid

Buenos Aires House of Culture, Buenos Aires

Colegio Benigno Malo, Cuenca

Beaux-Arts architecture

Beaux-Arts architecture was an academic architectural style taught in Paris from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century, drawing upon French neoclassicism, Renaissance, and Baroque elements.

Novels and Medieval Rebels Breaking Neoclassical Dominance

Four young academy teachers—Joseph-Louis Duc, Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste, and Léon Vaudoyer—rebelled against rigid neoclassicism at the end of the 1820s. They sought an authentic national style by incorporating medieval and Renaissance elements rather than standard Roman models. Their movement gained momentum following the 1831 publication of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, which stirred massive public enthusiasm for Middle Age architecture.

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Norms Restaurants location on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles

Googie-style car wash

Classic Googie sign at Warren, Ohio drive-in

Patio tables at the Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California[24]

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

The Caribbean Motel in Wildwood, New Jersey's Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District

Googie architecture

Googie architecture is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, and the Space Age that originated in Southern California and was popular from roughly 1945 to the early 1970s.

Born from Architectural Ridicule

Architectural editor Douglas Haskell coined the label for the movement after viewing a Hollywood coffee shop, but he did not actually appreciate the aesthetic. In his article, he used the fictional Professor Thrugg's overly effusive praise to mock Googie and lampoon Hollywood. He popularized the name after an article he wrote appeared in a 1952 edition of House and Home magazine. What eventually became the defining title for mid-century modern roadside design actually originated as high-brow architectural satire.

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