New Formalism (architecture)


New Formalism is an architectural style that emerged in the United States during the mid-1950s and flowered between the 1960s and 1980s. Buildings designed in that style exhibited many Classical elements including "strict symmetrical elevations" building proportion and scale, Classical columns, highly stylized entablatures and colonnades. The style was used primarily for high-profile cultural, high tech, institutional and civic buildings. Edward Durrell Stone's Embassy of [the United States, New Delhi|New Delhi American Embassy], which blended the architecture of the east with modern western concepts, is considered to be the symbolic start of New Formalism architecture.

Origins and principles

Common features of the New Formalism style include:
Born as a rejection of the rigidity of architectural modernism, New Formalism attempted to wed Classical architectural with concrete's ability to take on fluid, expressive forms to create new shapes such as umbrella shells, waffle slabs and folded plates. Early innovators of this style, such as Edward Durell Stone, believed that International Style's focus on function was not enough and that buildings must put a greater or equal value on aesthetic beauty. In 1958, Stone famously called for a re-examination of classical and ancient artistic traditions in a Time magazine interview in which he stated: "What we need is to put pure beauty into our buildings".
Stone's rejection of the glass facades in favor of arabesque grilles are clear to see in the Embassy of the [United States, New Delhi|U.S. Embassy] in New Delhi, India, opened in 1959. In addition to grilles or screens instead of glass and exterior walls made of exotic material, New Formalist structures have a carefully organized hierarchy of space, and an emphasis is placed on the structural grid of the building.

Notable architects

Notable examples