Contemporary – Belonging to the same period of time; of about the same age; current; modern.

Modern – Of or relating to recent times or the present; characteristic or expressive of recent times or the present; contemporary or up-to-date.

I took these from: The Free Dictionary www.thefreedictionary.com and are terms that have always confused me and my clients. Looking at the meanings they seem almost the same however we always get asked by clients what is the difference between the two. Allocating a particular style to design or architecture has always been a contentious issue for me as it raises many questions about the state of architecture in South Africa however for the layman it is useful to able to categorise different styles even if you may not always agree with this way of thinking.

For now we will not argue about the pros and cons of categorisation but rather try to distinguish the difference, if any, between Contemporary and Modern and sometimes the amalgamation of the two. The term Modern Architecture as referred to by students, educators and professionals in the trade, is the period where Architects like Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright broke free of the constraints of classical type styles and created spaces that were functional rather than aesthetically pretty to look at. The saying “form follows function” (the triple F factor) was an important part of the Modern design philosophy which resulted in an architecture which had never been seen before. It was not Georgian, Victorian or French Colonial. It was exactly what the terminology above states. It relates to the times namely the 1920’s. A time where transportation had been revolutionised by the car after centuries of dependence on the horse drawn cart and people could now venture wherever they wanted to go, whenever they wanted to go there at breakneck speeds. Along with this and the rate at which technology had grown since the start of the industrial revolution it was only a matter of time that a new, modern architecture would arrive.

Academics will agree that anything after this time was referred to as Post-Modern Architecture so where does the term Contemporary fit in. Like the word Modern, the word Contemporary also refers to something that is recent or up-to -date. The difference lies in the way the words are used in Architecture and Design specifically rather than looking at them in isolation. The term Modern Architecture has such an important place in the history of the discipline it is in fact referring to a design ideal that is over 90 years old. Architecture has come a long way since then and it would be incorrect to refer to any designs done today as just Modern. This is where we see the use of the word Contemporary used and in fact it would be correct to use this term for designs that are current and up-to-date. This opens a whole new can of worms about fashion, trends and lifestyles but that’s an issue for another time.