Avant-garde architecture


Avant-garde architecture is architecture which is innovative and radical. There have been a variety of architects and movements whose work has been characterised in this way, especially Modernism. Other examples include Constructivism, Neoplasticism and Expressionism.

Concept

Avant-garde architecture has been described as progressive in terms of aesthetics. However, it is noted for covering a broad range of aesthetic and political spectrum. It is associated with the liberal left but also cited as apolitical, right-wing, and conservative in its politics and aesthetics. It is also considered a stream within modernism that is anti-elitist and open to the contamination of mass culture.
Critics note that avant-garde architecture contradicts the very definition of architecture because its position is contrary to its most specific characteristics. Its importance is said to be exaggerated since it is always marginal to any decisive change.

Architects