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Streamline Moderne

Late type of the Art Deco architecture and design

  • 10 min read
  • 7 chapters

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In France, it was called the style paquebot, or "ocean liner style", and was influenced by the design of the luxury ocean liner SS Normandie, launched in 1932.

Influences and origins

As the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new architectural style emerge as industrial designers stripped Art Deco of its ornament in favor of an aerodynamically-inspired pure-line concept. Some argue that the origin can be traced back to the "Century of Progress" Chicago World's fair in 1933–1934. The new streamlined look that emerged conveyed simplicity, motion, and speed, much derived from—and influencing—advanced forms of modern transportation.

It had various roots. Its cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing may have been influenced by the New Objectivity artists—a movement connected to the German Werkbund—and by Futurist architecture of the early 20th century. Examples of this style include the 1923 Mossehaus, the reconstruction of the corner of a Berlin office building in 1923 by Erich Mendelsohn and Richard Neutra. The Streamline Moderne was sometimes a reflection of the austere economic times; sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves, and ornament was replaced with smooth concrete and glass.

The style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933–1935, twelve tall pillars of Lalique glass, and 38 columns lit from within illuminated the room. The Strand Palace Hotel foyer (1930), preserved from demolition by the Victoria and Albert Museum during 1969, was one of the first uses of internally lit architectural glass, and coincidentally was the first Moderne interior preserved in a museum.

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