Art Deco was an artistic style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally in the interwar period. It was a reaction against the organic forms of Art Nouveau and embraced geometric shapes, machine aesthetics, and new materials. Art Deco emphasized symmetry, straight lines and sharp angles rather than the flowing asymmetry of Art Nouveau. It featured motifs like chevrons, zigzags and sunbursts and was characterized by bold colors and lavish ornamentation representing luxury and modernity. The 1925 Paris Exposition helped establish Art Deco as a global style that influenced architecture, design and the visual arts.

1. ART DECO
Chapter 3 ｜ History of Modern Architecture | Year III Part II

2. Study of Architectural Theories Evolving Out of
Art Deco
Chapter 3 ｜ History of Modern Architecture | Year III Part II
Department of Architecture
Pokhara Engineering College
Phirke, Pokhara
Kiran KC
ART DECO

3. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS

4. Art Deco is an eclectic artistic and design
style that began in Paris in the 1920s
and flourished internationally
throughout the 1930s and into the
World War II era.
The style influenced all areas of design,
including architecture and interior
design, industrial design, fashion and
jewelry, as well as the visual arts such as
painting, graphic arts and film.
ART DECO

5. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
By the end of the 19th century in France, many of the notable
artists, architects, and designers who had played important roles
in the development of the Art Nouveau style recognized that it
was becoming increasingly passé.
At the close of a century that saw the Industrial Revolution take
hold, contemporary life became very different from a few
decades earlier. It was time for something new, something that
represent "20th Century“.
www.theartstory.org

6. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
From this desire to move into the new century in step with
innovation rather than being held back by nostalgia, a group of
French artistic innovators formed an organization called the
Societé des Artistes Décorateurs (The Society of Decorative
Artists).
The group was comprised of both well-known figures such as the
Art Nouveau-style designer and printmaker Eugene Grasset, and
the Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, along with emerging
decorative artists and designers such as Pierre Chareau and
Francis Jourdain. The French state supported and fostered this
direction of artistic activity.
www.theartstory.org

7. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
One of the major goals of the new group was to :
challenge the hierarchical structure of the visual arts
that relegated decorative artists to a lesser status than
the more classical painting and sculpting media.
www.theartstory.org

8. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
The style is often characterized by rich
colors, bold geometric shapes, and lavish
ornamentation. Art Deco represented
luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in
social and technological progress.
www.theartstory.org

9. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS

10. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
The style reached its apex in 1925, when the French
government sponsored the Exposition Internationale des
Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.
The design fair’s only real requirement was that all work
had to be “thoroughly modern.”
Over 15,000 artists, architects, and designers displayed
their work at the exposition. During the seven months of
the exhibition, over 16 million people toured the many
individual exhibits.
This exhibition was the catalyst for the beginning of the
movement.

11. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
DEFINITION| ORIGIN| CHARACTERISTICS
Arts Décoratifs
Widely visited, the expo established
the movement on the world stage and
prompted the official title of “Art
Deco”
(a shortened version of “Arts Décoratifs”).

12. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau
Art Deco was a direct response aesthetically and
philosophically to the Art Nouveau style.
Art Nouveau began to fall out of fashion during
WWI as many critics felt the elaborate detail,
delicate designs, often expensive materials and
production methods of the style were ill-suited to
a challenging, unsettled, and increasingly more
mechanized modern world.

13. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau
While the Art Nouveau movement derived its
intricate, stylized forms from nature and extolled
the virtues of the hand-crafted, the Art Deco
aesthetic emphasized machine-age streamlining
and sleek geometry.

14. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau

15. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau

16. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau

17. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau

18. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau

19. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau
Both emerged as a reaction to major world events: Industrialisation (Art Nouveau) and World War I
(Art Deco).
Both disappeared at the advent of a war: World War I (Art Nouveau) and World War II (Art Deco).

20. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco vs art nouveau
Art Nouveau is flowing and about curves. It looks to
nature and organic elements for much of its inspiration.
Flora is widely represented and also animals and insects,
both real and imagined, decorate many pieces with bats,
dragons, birds and dragonflies as popular motifs. Art
nouveau is much more decorative, flowing, and floral.
Art Deco is sharp and based on straight lines and corners.
It’s about perfect forms, circles and angles. Geometry
plays a big part in Art Deco works made during the 1920’s
and 1930’s. It was minimalistic and became even more so
as the movement progressed through the years. It is
considered the first genuinely industrialised style and is
characterised by its pure geometric shapes.

21. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
influences
Art Deco used Machine Age and streamline
technologies such as modern aviation, electric
lighting, radio, ocean liners and skyscrapers for
inspiration.
The structure of Art Deco is based on
mathematical geometric shapes.
Other popular themes of Art Deco were
trapezoidal, zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled
shapes, which can be seen in many early works.

22. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
influences
Adopted for buildings, the Art Deco architecture
included flat roofs, flowing forms, geometric
patterns. It employed glass, steel, and concrete.
At its best, art deco represented elegance,
glamour, functionality and modernity.
Art decos linear symmetry was a distinct
departure from the flowing asymmetrical
organic curves of its predecessor style art
nouveau.

23. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
influences
It embraced influences from many different
styles of the early twentieth century, including
neoclassical, constructivism, cubism,
modernism and futurism and drew inspiration
from ancient Egyptian and Aztec forms.•

24. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

25. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
Employing new building materials that were manipulated into stepped, radiating styles that
contrasted sharply with the fluid motifs of Art Nouveau, Art Deco architecture represented
scientific progress, and the consequent rise of commerce, technology, and speed.

26. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
Modern, opulent style, made Art Deco designs especially
suitable for the interiors of cinemas, ocean liners such as
the Queen Mary, and the architecture of train stations
across the United States.

27. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
It endured throughout the Depression due to the practicality and
simplicity of its design, and its suggestion of better times ahead.

28. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
The structure of Art Deco is founded on mathematical geometric shapes which drew equally on :
Greco-Roman Classicism, the faceted architectural forms of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt, and Aztec
Mexico - notably their ziggurats, pyramids and other monumental structures - and Machine Age
streamline designs from aviation, the radio, and the skyscraper.

29. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
Art Deco designs are characterized by trapezoidal, zigzagged, and triangular shapes, chevron patterns,
stepped forms, sweeping curves and sunburst motifs - the latter being visible in a number of separate
applications, including: shoes, car radiator grilles, and the spire of the William van Alen Chrysler
Building (1928-30) in New York.

30. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
New materials were also much in use, such as aluminum, stainless steel, plastics, lacquer and inlaid
wood. And while continuing the use of high quality Art Nouveau materials, such as moulded glass, horn,
and ivory, Art Deco also introduced exotic items like shark-skin, and zebra-skin.

31. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Flattened and stylized geometric motifs like fans and flowers; abstract patterns like chevron and
sunbursts; jagged lines(a precursor to the Brutalist styles on the horizon).
Artdeco
motifs

32. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco motifs

33. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
motifs
Flattened and stylized geometric motifs like fans and flowers; abstract
patterns like chevron and sunbursts; jagged lines.

34. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art Deco designs are characterized by trapezoidal, zigzagged, and triangular shapes, chevron patterns,
stepped forms, sweeping curves and sunburst motifs - the latter being visible in a number of separate
applications, including: shoes, car radiator grilles, and the spire of the William van Alen Chrysler
Building (1928-30) in New York.
Artdeco
motifs

35. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Artdeco
colour
Lots of high contrast combinations, bold, moody, and deep colors, balanced by softer
shades. Black & Gold

36. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

37. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features
Mostly smooth wall surface.
Sharp edged, linear appearance.
Stylized decorative elements using geometrical forms, zigzags, chevrons.
Low relief decorative panels.
Stepped or set back front façade.
Strips of windows with decorative spandrels.
Reeding and fluting around doors and windows.

38. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

39. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

40. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

41. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

42. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

43. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

44. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

45. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Common Building Types
Theaters
Commercial buildings
Offices
Government headquarters
Apartments
Industrial complexes

46. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

47. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

48. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
features

49. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

50. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

51. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture
Art deco
Elements & properties
Modern, opulent style, made Art Deco designs especially
suitable for the interiors of cinemas, ocean liners such as
the Queen Mary, and the architecture of train stations
across the United States.

52. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

53. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

54. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

55. Year III – Sem VI History of Modern Architecture

56. Study of Architectural Theories
Evolving Out of Various Artistic Movements
Chapter 3 ｜ History of Modern Architecture | Year III Part II
Assignment
Study of History of Modern Architecture is not only learning of
Facts and figures; and master architects and iconic buildings but
also thinking of the architectural theories critically and applying
them in design problems.
The following assignment is given to you as a simple exercise in
façade design based on the theories we have studied so far:
Chicago School of Architecture
Bauhaus
Art Nouveau
Art Deco
You are given a blank façade (elevation) of a 40’ x 100’ of a
building. You are required to design the façade of this building
based on the philosophical ideas, style and trends of above
mentioned four architectural movements, keeping in mind the
motifs, decorative patterns, principals of composition, etc.
Requirements:
1. Four elevation design / treatments
2. Must be hand drawn
3. Consideration of scale and proportion
4. A4 paper or in any other format
Submission deadline:
December 14, Monday
40’
100’