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Until recently conventional histories of architecture treated the 19th century as an unfortunate period in which historicist architects needlessly obstructed the path to a new architecture based on technology and engineering. The importance of the 20th century, according to this view, consisted in the establishment of the Modernist movement as the final victory of Functionalism—in which buildings are designed so as to avoid all historical reference and are even constructed of “new” materials. Today, however, a new interpretation has arisen, for two reasons: first, the growth of serious study of the historical architecture of the 19th century led to its ...(100 of 75935 words)