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in England, did not feel bound by the aristocratic canons of taste, and they experimented in idiosyncratic ways. There has been no consensus since, despite a concerted attempt to promote an internationally unified style for modern architecture through the CIAM (Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne) guided by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier in the mid-20th century starting in 1928. He enthused about the poetic qualities of machines, ships, and grain silos, which were held up as models for the new architecture. While the architecture of the Modern Movement (also known as the International Style) dominated the architectural journals, it was rarely adopted by (for example) builders of housing aimed at a popular market, where versions of vernacular architecture, mock-Tudor, and notional Regency styles predominated. CIAM’s consensus was maintained by excluding voices with alternative views about what modern architecture should be like, and it broke down altogether in 1959, since when contemporary architecture has been very varied (Figures 18, 19, 24, 25).

The terminology used to label the architecture of the last few decades has tended to shift its meaning as new buildings have appeared that seem to need new labels. The term ‘postmodern’ was used to describe some of Le Corbusier’s late buildings, such as the pilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp, which has pronounced sculptural qualities and had clearly moved on from the ‘machine aesthetic’ that he had previously been promoting. The term however did not catch on with a wide architectural public until later, when Charles Jencks published The Language of Postmodern Architecture (1977). He associated postmodernism with a concern for the meaning of buildings. However a less exact usage of the word is in circulation, as a name for the fashion for making use of noticeably historical forms in modern buildings, especially when they were used in ways that undermined their original effect, for example by being made of lightweight materials, being enlarged to gigantic size, or being brightly coloured. Commercial buildings of this type dating from the 1980s are to be seen in many cities around the world (Figure 1). There have been other rallying cries and manifestos in the architecture-world since then, but they have not as yet been given names that have made a lasting impression on a wide public. Frank Gehry’s art museum in Bilbao might conceivably be presented as an example of Deconstructivism (Figure 24), but an explanation of what that term means certainly lies beyond the scope of a very short introduction to architecture.

1. AT&T Building, New York (1978–80); architect: Philip Johnson (born 1906). Philip Johnson had been involved in a hugely successful exhibition ‘The International Style’, that introduced modernist architecture to the USA in 1932. He worked with Mies van der Rohe on the authoritatively modern Seagram Building (Figure 18) and his writings had on the whole been persuasive in the modernist cause, though they made some mischief along the way. His design for the AT&T building, making use of classical motifs such as the broken pediment against the skyline, was seen as profoundly shocking at the time. It caused a furore and the architect was pictured on the cover of Time magazine. The building was correctly described as marking a turning point in attitudes to architecture, and in the following years there were many more colourful and flamboyant designs, which make the AT&T Building (now owned by Sony) look restrained and sober.

The text that follows

In the chapters that follow, the text is organized in a fairly conversational way, moving between views of different aspects of the buildings that are used as examples. I have tried wherever possible to refer points back to the buildings that are illustrated, which may give an exaggerated impression of a building’s importance, when it is used to make different points at different places in the text. The buildings are not discussed in the order that they were built, but they are all located on the timeline at the