Arrival of the International Style
The best early example of International Style architecture in Malaysia is Federal House, an eight-storey administrative building situated to the south of Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square) in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1932, a young American architect called Philip Johnson, together with historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock, organized a seminal show of architectural designs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition, entitled 'International Style', served to define the architectural movement emerging at that time. Although few buildings were erected during the war years in Malaysia, particularly during the Japanese Occupation, there are some buildings falling within this period which illustrate this transition from the quasi-classicism of Art Deco to true Modernism.
- Information in the full article includes
- International origins
- Early Modernism in Malaysia
- Air-conditioned future