The Industrial Revolution, which began in England around 1760, led to radical changes at every aspect in architecture. The growth of heavy industry brought a flood of new building materials such as cast iron, steel, and glass with which architects and builders devised structures undreamed of in size, form, and function.
New types of buildings such as rail road stations, warehouses, exchanges, shopping malls, exhibition halls were required in the rapidly growing economy. However, most of these buildings had no architectural precedents and so the architects were required to come up with new architectural solutions. They responded by returning to the Renaissance and borrowing from the principles of Classical Architecture, Gothic Revival, and Eclecticism. Hence, they were unable to break the bonds of the architectural influences of the past. The break through of the Industrial Revolution made a new definition for the machine age. With the fast production of new material that improved construction and spawned a movement toward lean architecture, styles such as Postmodernism, International, and the Bauhaus were born.
The Bauhaus Movement (1918-1933) was based on a German revival of a purer, honest design representation in architecture, art, and product design. Its philosophy celebrated an intense functionalism with little or no ornamentation. It encouraged the use of industrial materials and interdisciplinary methods and techniques. The Bauhaus aesthetic and beliefs were influenced by techniques and materials employed especially in industrial fabrication and manufacture.
This was a true revolution because prior to its time, the built environment had bloated in motivations, caused by an excess of decor and ornamentation. As early as 1908, the Austrian architect Adolf Loos had said that architectural ornamentation was criminal, and his statement would become fundamental to Modernism and eventually trigger the careers of Le