Post-war Buildings Design, English Modernist Architecture Photos, Modern Houses in England Images

Post-war Buildings: Architecture

Modernist Architecture – 20th Century Built Environment + The International Style

post updated 28 March 2024

What’s the best post-war building?

There are about half a million listed buildings in England – but only a tiny fraction were built since 1945. Normally, a building has to be 30 years old to be considered for listing and it was actually 1987 before the first post-war building gained protection, reports the BBC.

High & Over by Connell and Thomson:

photo : Morley von Sternberg

Post-war Architecture

From large public buildings to sprawling private homes of concrete and glass, English Heritage is celebrating post-war era architecture with its exhibition Brutal and Beautiful: Saving the 20th Century. Take a look at some of the striking images featured, with curator Elain Harwood.

Post-war Buildings film – link

Brutal and Beautiful: Saving the 20th Century is open until 24 November 2013 at Wellington Arch in central London.

e-architect have some classic Modern Buildings online, such as Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat Villa & Barcelona Pavilion, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, housing by Berthold Lubetkin and Le Corbusier’s Ville Savoie.

Another UK Post-war Buildings film link:

Coming to Terms with Modern Times: English architecture in the post-war era – Simon Thurley:
Film on YouTube

Published on 5 Apr 2013
The Second World War intensified and magnified debates that had been current amongst architects since 1914. It also marks a fault line in English architectural history. Architects, supported by politicians, decisively moved away from tradition and sought to create a new language of architecture. Some loved it, but unfortunately the public grew to hate it.

Another UK Post-war Architecture film link:

Brutal & Beautiful: What is Brutalism?

Published on 25 Nov 2013
The Brutal and Beautiful exhibition takes its name from the term “New Brutalism,” a style coined by English architects Alison and Peter Smithson in 1953, “their phrase stood not for chunky concrete but for the use of natural materials honestly expressed, as was first seen in Derek Sugden’s house in Watford.” This short film also features the Grade *II listed Balfron Tower in London, designed by Ernő Goldfinger.

Modern Architecture – Major Modernist Buildings

Most of these Modern buildings exude purity – simple forms, floating planes / cantilevers, white facades, strip windows – typical of Modernist Architecture.

These Modern buildings feature in standard Histories of Architecture Books, alphabetical:

Barcelona Pavilion, Spain
1929; reconstructed 1983-86
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect

photograph © Adrian Welch
Barcelona Pavilion – probably the most famous Modern building in the world

Farnsworth House, Illinois, USA
1950
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect

photo © gm+ad architects
Farnsworth House

Florida Southern Colleges – Child of the Sun, Florida, USA
1959
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright

photograph © Robin Hill
Child of the Sun Buildings

High & Over, Amersham, England
1931
Design: Connell and Thomson / Architect: Amyas Connell

photo : Morley von Sternberg
Modern English house – one of the first Modern houses in England

Highpoint I, Highgate, London, UK
1935
Design: Berthold Lubetkin Architect

photograph © Adrian Welch
Modernist Housing : Highpoint Buildings

Hilversum Town Hall, The Netherlands
1931
Design: Willem Marinus Dudok

photo © Adrian Welch
Hilversum Town Hall Building

860-880 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, USA
1951
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect

photo : William Zbaren
Lake Shore Drive Towers

Lawn Road Flats, London, UK
1934
Design: Wells Coates

photograph © Adrian Welch
Isokon : Modern British building – classic white Modernist purity

Martin House Complex, Buffalo, USA
1905
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright Architect

photograph : Biff Henrich / courtesy MHRC
Modern Building in Buffalo
This is an interesting residential complex designed by one of the most celebrated architects of the 20th Century, Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the largest of his Prairie houses in the Eastern United States.

Miller House, Indiana, USA
1953
Design: Eero Saarinen architect

photograph Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Miller House

Sanatorium Zonnestraal, Hilversum, The Netherlands
Design: Jan Duiker with Bernard Bijvoet and Jan Gerko Wiebenga

photo © Adrian Welch
Sanatorium Zonnestraal
This famous Modernist building appears in most histories of 20th Century Architecture and the Modern Movement.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1956
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright

picture : David M. Heald, © SRGF, New York
Guggenheim Museum New York – organic Modernist architecture

Tugendhat Villa, Brno, Czech Republic
1930
Design: Mies van der Rohe Architect

picture from architects
Modern Architecture : Tugendhat Villa Brno

Unité d’Habitation building, Berlin, Germany
1959
Design: Le Corbusier Architect

photo © Isabelle Lomholt
Modern Berlin Housing – Modernist design emanating from France

Villa Savoie, Poissy, France
1929
Design: Le Corbusier Architect

building image © Rebecca Breun
Villa Savoie by Le Corbusier – famous Modernist architecture