International Style vs Metabolism
Metabolism evolved from International Style — grew out of and against postwar international modernism, extending its technological ambition toward adaptable systems.
International Style
The austere, functional modernism of glass curtain walls and unornamented volumes — 'form follows function' built in steel and glass.
- Rectilinear, volumetric forms with flat roofs
- Glass curtain walls and ribbon windows
- No applied ornament — 'form follows function'
- Exposed structural grid; steel and reinforced concrete
- Open, flexible floor plans raised on pilotis in some works
Metabolism
A postwar Japanese avant-garde envisioning cities and buildings as living, growing organisms — assembled from replaceable prefabricated units that could adapt and regenerate over time.
- City and building conceived as a growing organism
- Permanent megastructural cores plus replaceable units
- Prefabricated modular capsules bolted on
- Brutalist concrete with technological, space-age detailing
- Adaptability, impermanence, and regeneration as principles
At a glance
| International Style | Metabolism | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1920s–1970s | 1959–1980 |
| Discipline | Architecture | Architecture |
| Region | Germany, Worldwide | Japan, Tokyo, East Asia |
| Family | Modernism | Modernism |
| Formal traits | geometric, minimal, functional, unornamented | modular, capsule, megastructure, prefabricated |
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