INTERNATIONAL STYLE

The International Style was born in western Europe in the 1920s and 1930s from the innovative work of noted architects Le Corbusier in France, and Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe in Germany.

Striving to create a new modern form and functional theory of architecture, these architects abandoned tradition to create a pared down, unornamented style that emphasised geometric shapes, viewing it as architecture for the modern age.

Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham-on-crouch, Essex

With the appearance of the bridge of a modern ship breaking through the seawall, the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club was designed by architect Joseph Emberton, considered one of Britain's most significant modernist architect during the inter-war period.

It is a steel framed structure of 3 storeys carried on a reinforced concrete platform on piles rising from the river bed. The south front has continuous glazing and cantilevered balconies with iron railings, offering wide panoramic views across the River Crouch.

Built in 1931, it is now grade II* listed.

**The Quay, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, CM0 8AX.**

Isokon Flats, Lawn Road, Hampstead

The clean white modernist lines of the Grade 1 listed Lawn Road Flats / Isokon Flats.

This pioneering modern apartment block was designed by architect Wells Coates and opened in 1934 as an experiment in new ways of urban minimalist living. Most of the flats had very small kitchens as there was a large communal kitchen for the preparation of meals, connected to the residential floors via a dumb waiter. Services, including laundry and shoe-shining, were provided on site. It was once home to Agatha Christie, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Walter Gropius.

**Isokon Flats, Lawn Road, Hampstead, London NW3 2XD**

**Isokon Flats, Lawn Road, Hampstead NW3**

Sun House, Amersham, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

One of four speculative reinforced concrete houses built against the hillside, designed by architect Aymas D Connell (of Connell and Ward) for Mr C de Peyer.

1934. Grade 2 listed

**Sun House, 8 Highover Park, Amersham, Buckinghamshire HP7 0BN**

Genesta Road, Plumstead

A mid terrace house designed by Berthold Lubetkin and completed in 1934. This set of four terrace homes were one of the first attempts at redesigning a traditional English house with the benefits of concrete construction and off street parking.

Concrete party walls and an intermediate column are articulated with a horizontal concrete window band at first floor living room level. The ‘cyma’ or double curvature bedroom balconies at second floor are typical characteristics of Lubetkin's work.

de la warr pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea

A seafront public building initiated by the town’s socialist mayor -Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr and designed by architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, leading figures of the modern movement. The programme specified an entertainment hall, restaurant, reading room and lounge to a budget of £80,000

The building was constructed and opened in 1935 and was awarded Grade 1 listed building status in 1986.

After an extensive restoration exercise in 2005 the pavilion reopened as a contemporary arts centre.

**De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN40 1DP**

THE PIONEER CENTRE, PECKHAM SE15

The Pioneer Health Centre was opened in Peckham in south east London in 1926 by Dr George Scott Williamson and Dr Innes Hope Pearse. Known as the ‘Peckham Experiment’, they sought to observe families in a typically diverse metropolitan community setting and to monitor the factors that contributed to human health.. The first phase of the project closed in 1929, but funding was then sought to build a larger centre that was more suitably designed for purpose. In 1935 the project moved to its new home - a purpose-built Modern building on St Mary’s Road.

Designed by Sir Owen Williams, he moved away from the traditional lines dominating medical buildings and used the latest structural techniques that could help further bold new social experiments by creating a large open space that allowed the Centre’s doctors to properly observe the members. At the centre of the building is a large swimming pool, surrounded by rooms with large areas of glazing that allowed plenty of natural light into the building.. Originally some of these windows retractable and could be fully opened to circulate fresh air into the building.

Since its innovative approach did not fit well with the newly formed National Health Service the building closed in 1950 and it later transferred to council ownership, operating as a leisure centre and Southwark Adult Education Institute.

Listed grade 2* in 1972, the building was sold In the 1990’s and converted into apartments.

**The Pioneer Centre, Frobisher Place, St Mary Road, Peckham, London SE15 2EE**

Kent House, Ferdinand Street, Chalk FarM

An early example of the Modern Movement’s commitment to social housing, designed by Connell Ward & Lucas in 1935. The commission came from the St Pancras Home Improvement Society for two blocks of rent subsidised flats for families of low incomes.

Externally the blocks were originally rendered pink and the balconies a bright Constructivist red.

Grade II listed.

**Kent House, Ferdinand Street, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8ET**

embassy court, KING'S ROAD, brighton

Wells Coates’ Embassy Court, 1935, stands on the border of Brighton and Hove. An L-shaped 12 storey apartment block with a curved corner and strong horizontal banding with almost continuous glazing.

Now grade 2* listed.

**Embassy Court, King’s Road, Brighton BN1 2PY**

Park Avenue, Ruislip, Middlesex

One of a group of three semi-detached houses completed in 1935 by architects Connell, Ward & Lucus. The severity of form is crisply Teutonic, with a Bauhaus-like balcony acting as a screen to a full height windows to the first floor bedroom.

The distinctive glazed staircase on the left projects out at right angles to the plan and is encased in a glass tower that leads to the roof terrace. Whilst it would have provided plenty of natural light into the hall and corridors, at the time this transparent design produced a scandalised reaction as the occupants could be seen by all and sundry wearing only their night clothes. A central modesty screen has since been added!

**97 Park Avenue, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 7UL**

Six Pillars, sydenham hill

Six Pillars presents a stylish intruder amid the Victorian villas of Sydenham Hill and is a good example of residential modernist architecture in London.

It was designed by Tecton partner Val Harding and completed in 1935 for the Rev Leakey, headmaster of nearby Dulwich College Preparatory School.

With a geometric interconnection of curves and rectangles, it is distinctively Corbusian in appearance, with its six pilotis supporting a concrete white-painted exterior and strip windows to the street front.

Now listed Grade II*.

**Six Pillars, Sydenham Hill, London SE26 6RT**

THE ROUND HOUSE, FRINTON-ON-SEA, CO13

The Frinton Park Estate was developed from 1934 onwards and was intended as a planned residential township. It was never fully realised due to lack of public support for flat- roofed modernist houses. Now interspersed with other buildings, the estate still retains the largest group of Modern Movement houses in the country.

Recently renovated, this building was the former estate and sales office design by Oliver Hill circa 1935. It demonstrated a strong architectural statement with the striking use of the circular plan, projecting 'skirt' and the position of the building as a focal point of the model estate.

Grade II listed.

**The Round House, 7 Cliff Way, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex CO13 9NL**

OSLO COurt, ST JOHN’S WOOD, NW8

Designed between 1937-38 by by Robert Atkinson and now Grade 2 listed. Its a 7 storey, long L-plan International Modern block, planned in depth on a narrow site between Charlbert and Culworth Streets with narrow 2-bay ends to Prince Albert Road and Regent’s Park to the south, as seen here.

The block is built of reinforced concrete and brick infill and cladding with a flat terrace roof. There are Crittal metal casements, bent around the corner on the Prince Albert Road end.

**Oslo Court, Charlbert Street, St Johns Wood, London NW8 7EN**

Pullman CourT, Streatham hill SW2

In 1936 Fredrick Gibberd, a very young architect at the time (he was 23!), was given the commission and freedom to capture the spirit of International Modernist Style with Pullman Court, an apartment block for the young professional classes.