Sanitarium Architecture

Modernism is an architectural style based on Swiss sanitariums for traumatized war veterans, who found blank walls and empty spaces restful. It triumphed in architectural practice because simple geometrical models were more persuasive in convincing clients to build things than the 2D facade drawings of Beaux Arts that previously prevailed. It gelled with the 'out with the old' ideology of post-war building and pseudo-technocratic rationalism. And it triumphed financially because it was cheap to construct - concrete form work rather than carved stone.

When Robert Venturi's Post-Modernism arrived, and people were given an option, they took it.