Streamline Moderne is an international style ofArt Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired byaerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design, it was used in railroad locomotives, telephones, buses, appliances, and other devices to give the impression of sleekness and modernity.[1]
In France, it was called thestyle paquebot, or "ocean liner style", and was influenced by the design of the luxury ocean linerSSNormandie, launched in 1932.
As theGreat Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new architectural style emerge asindustrial designers strippedArt Deco of its ornament in favor of an aerodynamically-inspired pure-line concept. The newstreamlined look that emerged conveyed simplicity, motion, and speed, much derived from—and influencing—advanced forms of modern transportation.
It had various roots. Its cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing may have been influenced by theNew Objectivity artists—a movement connected to the GermanWerkbund—and byFuturist architecture of the early 20th century. Examples of this style include the 1923Mossehaus, the reconstruction of the corner of a Berlin office building in 1923 byErich Mendelsohn andRichard Neutra. The Streamline Moderne was sometimes a reflection of theaustere economic times; sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves, and ornament was replaced with smoothconcrete andglass.
The style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of theSSNormandie, fitted out 1933–1935, twelve tall pillars ofLalique glass, and 38 columns lit from within illuminated the room. TheStrand Palace Hotel foyer (1930), preserved from demolition by theVictoria and Albert Museum during 1969, was one of the first uses of internally lit architectural glass, and coincidentally was the first Moderne interior preserved in amuseum.
Streamline Moderne appeared most overtly in buildings related to transportation and movement, such as bus and train stations, airport terminals, roadside cafes, and port buildings.[2] It had characteristics common withmodern architecture, including a horizontal orientation, rounded corners, the use of glass brick walls or porthole windows, flat roofs, chrome-plated hardware, and horizontal grooves or lines in the walls. Structures were frequently white or in subdued pastel colors.
An example of this style is the Aquatic Park Bathhouse in theAquatic Park Historic District, in San Francisco. Built beginning in 1936 by theWorks Progress Administration, it features the distinctive horizontal lines, classic rounded corners railing and windows of the style, resembling the elements of ship. The interior preserves much of the original decoration and detail, including murals by artist and color theoreticianHilaire Hiler. The architects were William Mooser Jr. and William Mooser III. It is now the administrative center of Aquatic Park Historic District.[3]
Another example isHollywood, California'sJulian Medical Building, which has been described as a "landmark",[4] "an architectural masterpiece",[5] and "one of the crowning achievements of Streamline Moderne."[6] The building's distinctive features include a roundedModerne corner, windswept tower, and pylon-separated horizontally-reinforced windows.[4][7]
In France, the style was calledPaquebot, meaningocean liner. The French version was inspired by the launch of the premiertransatlantic linerNormandie in 1935, which featured an Art Deco dining room with columns ofLalique crystal. Buildings using variants of the style appeared in Belgium and in Paris, notably in a building at 3 boulevard Victor in the15th arrondissement, by the architectPierre Patout. He was one of the founders of the Art Deco style. He designed the entrance to the Pavilion of a Collector at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, the birthplace of the style. He was also the designer of the interiors of three ocean liners, theIle-de-France (1926), theL'Atlantique (1930), and theNormandie (1935).[8] Patout's building on Avenue Victor lacked the curving lines of the American version of the style, but it had a narrow "bow" at one end, where the site was narrow, long balconies like the decks of a ship, and a row of projections like smokestacks on the roof. Another 1935 Paris apartment building at 1 Avenue Paul Doumer in the16th arrondissement had a series of terraces modelled after the decks of an ocean liner.[9]
TheFlagey Building was built on thePlace Eugène Flagey inIxelles (Brussels), Belgium, in 1938, in thepaquebot style,[10] and has been nicknamed "Packet Boat"[11] or "paquebot".[12] It was designed byJoseph Diongre [fr], and selected as the winning design in an architectural competition[13] to create a building to house the former headquarters of the Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting (INR/NIR).[14] The building was extensively renovated, and in 2002, it reopened as acultural centre known as Le Flagey.[13][15]
Main dining room of the ocean linerS.S.Normandie by Pierre Patout (1935)
Paquebot building at 3 boulevard Victor, 15th arrondissement, Paris by Patout (1935)
The defining event for streamline moderne design in the United States was the 1933–34Chicago World's Fair, which introduced the style to the general public. The new automobiles adapted the smooth lines of ocean liners and airships, giving the impression of efficiency, dynamism, and speed. The grills and windshields tilted backwards, cars sat lower and wider, and featured smooth curves and horizontal speed lines. Examples include the 1934Chrysler Airflow and the 1934Studebaker Land Cruiser. The cars also featured new materials, includingbakelite plastic,formica, Vitrolight opaque glass,stainless steel, andenamel, which gave the appearance of newness and sleekness.[16]
Other later examples include the 1950Nash Ambassador "Airflyte" sedan with its distinctive low fender lines, as well asHudson's postwar cars, such as theCommodore,[17] that "were distinctive streamliners—ponderous, massive automobiles with a style all their own".[18]
This sectionneeds expansion with: detail on what Streamline Moderne industrial design was, not what Functionalist design in Europe was. You can help byadding to it.(June 2025)
Streamline styleindustrial design can be contrasted withfunctionalism, which represent a contrasting modernistic school. A leading design style in Europe at the same time, functionalism sought simple designs to lower the production costs, making them affordable to the large European working class.[19]
.jpg)
.jpg)
_interior.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=icon}
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg)
.JPG)
