Modernist Architecture and Design in Europe

From the urban skyline to the domestic interior, modernism in Europe presented a utopian vision of how the built environment could be transformed, raising living standards for the masses and elevating human consciousness to a higher intellectual and moral plane. The period from the French Revolution to the First World War was a time of disorientating upheaval. The rise of industry disrupted seemingly eternal patterns of human existence. Within the parameters of modernism, many creative disciplines sought to represent the disorientation and alienation arising from this state of flux. In architecture and design, however, the singular objective was to fashion order from the chaos. This essay examines the development of modernist architecture and design in Europe by identifying its key principles and charting its chronological and geographical variations.