Bauhaus architects rejected bourgeois' details such as cornices, eaves and decorative details in the same way that their designers rejected the use of serif type fonts and favored a cleaner, simpler sans serifs type.
Visual unity in design in both architecture and typography were achieved by asymmetrical organization of design elements within a mathematically constructed, horizontal and vertical, grid. This provided an overall orderly and unified structure.
Like the New International Typography, the architecture were smooth and untextured and showed purism with and emphasis on straight edges and slim forms.
New International Style architecture buildings came across with a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction. As did the New International Typography Style by being clear in message and emphatic in form.
In Swiss Design typography had internal organization (ordered content) as well as external organization (the typographic material properly related) in the same way that architecture had an internal organization (the steel, grid-based skeleton), with the external smooth glass-curtain wall surrounding and enveloping the building in perfect harmony.
Both styles were functional. Logical floor plans and simple, unornamented walls of glass or concrete were emphasized in the architecture and in Swiss design clarity, objectivity and legibility were sought after.
Neither the New International Typography or Architecture style, were based on personal expression or eccentric solutions, but a more universal and scientific approach was embraced.
International Typography sought after international legibility and International Architecture sought after universal living space.
Both styles strived to rebuild the face of modern design and form a new social order.
Although these characteristics sound utopian-like, they had some major problems when it came to their actual execution.
