International Motifs

These particular architectural motifs are incorporated into the design of many homes, government and institutional buildings, and cultural centers; they function as privacy screens, load-bearing façades, ventilation devices, security barriers, and staircase guardrails. One of the reasons these designs spread so ubiquitously may have been the U.S. State Department policy during the 1950′s and 1960′s, which suggested that “American embassies visibly reflect the cultural climate of their particular setting,” with the result that, “the clean efficiency of modern American buildings was fused with traditional motifs in such disparate sites as Athens and Karachi”. This hybridization eventually returned to America and spread throughout many different regions of the world. Although these motifs have become common design currency, in certain countries they remain physical markers of a past filled with ideology, naiveté, economic progress and oppression, modernization, and political change. 2005-2007

*Langsner, Jules. The Quest for Ornament in American Architecture, Zodiac 4, pg. 68-72