Seven Modernist Details

Architecture is about giving form to values. But, more often than not, the process of form-making is defined by more than the desires of the architect. Today, legal regulations, contemporary construction methods, and the market of building products limit and define how form can be made. In order to explore this idea—that there are players other than the architects involved in the process of making architecture, we embarked on a research process that begins at the level of the architectural detail to understand the aesthetic effect of legal, practical and market circumscriptions on architectural design. Starting from seven construction details from seven well-known modernist buildings, we redesigned them to comply with today’s codes and standards. The result is a pithy visual description of the effects of these codes and standards on range of forms available for architects to design.