Modern and contemporary
Unlike Modern, which names a historic movement with a date and founders, Contemporary simply describes architecture being produced right now, anywhere in the world. It has no founding moment or single manifesto: it's an umbrella label whose content shifts with each generation, today folding in concerns such as sustainability, building technology and mixed materials.
By definition, Contemporary has no fixed birth date or founder — the term is used by critics, magazines and architects to describe present-day, constantly updating production. It inherits vocabulary from 20th-century Modernism (open plan, absence of superfluous ornament) and from Mid-Century Modern (indoor-outdoor integration), but freely folds in other references, with no allegiance to a historic manifesto.
It's recognized by combined geometric volumes, a deliberate mix of materials (concrete, wood, glass, metal), large glazed openings, roofs ranging from flat to gently pitched, and no allegiance to a single historic period — a house may quote Modernism on one façade and use handcrafted wood on another.
Contemporary interiors tend toward neutral palettes with accent colors, furniture mixing designer pieces with more understated ones, technical lighting integrated into the architecture, and an appreciation for natural textures (wood, stone, linen) alongside smooth, industrial surfaces.
Because Contemporary follows no single manifesto, coherence between façade and interior is defined project by project, from that specific house's concept — there is no fixed rule of material or proportion that one Contemporary board automatically guarantees in the other.
Contemporary's core concept is precisely the absence of dogma: freedom to combine historic references and current technology, prioritizing environmental performance, comfort and response to the specific context of the site and client, rather than following fixed aesthetic rules.
Applying Contemporary means, in practice, designing bespoke: defining massing, materials and openings from the site, climate, budget and the residents' own references, with no obligation to repeat a specific historic vocabulary — while keeping internal coherence among the choices made.
No. Modern is a dated historic movement (1920s–1960s, with founders like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe). Contemporary is current architectural production, with no origin date or single manifesto.
Yes: they are regional, editorial cuts of today's contemporary architecture — applications of the contemporary vocabulary to mountain or Pacific coastal contexts — not movements with their own founder or date.
FROM INSPIRATION TO PROJECT
This is a development approach. The scope of each stage is defined in the contracted proposal.
Understand routines, preferences, the site and the planned investment.
Define the concept and relationship between architecture and interiors.
Adapt siting, spaces, materials and openings to local conditions.
Develop and detail the project according to the contracted scope.
Supplies part of the formal vocabulary that Contemporary freely reinterprets.
Explore this styleA contemporary cut applied to mountain contexts.
Explore this styleA contemporary cut applied to the climate and landscape of the Pacific coast.
Explore this style