Ain Shams University, Faculty of Engineering 39 From Modernism to Postmodernism : Philosophical Schools of Thought as Basis for Architectural Movements Nelly Shafik Ramzy 1 1 Faculty of Engineering Sciences. Sinai University. ARTICLE HISTORY Received: 00/00/2009 Accepted: 00/00/2009 ABSTRACT In a former research a study had been introduced to highlight the role of philosophical thoughts and academia-architecture in the revolutionary development that produced Modern Architecture. In this research a further trial is made to prove that this rule continued afterwards, guiding architects to further revolutionary steps like Postmodernism and Deconstructivism. It also aims to prove that it is essential for the architects to develop not only a knowledge of philosophical trends in other parts of the world, but also to collaborate with other intellectuals to produce a philosophical basis that copes with their own societies and could grant architecture the values that it needs Keywords Modernism- Postmodernism- Deconstructivism. INTRODUCTION Already since the 1900s, a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions in which new technological possibilities could be integrated. Notable among these is the Deutscher Werkbund and, following their lead, the Bauhaus. The philosophical approaches that dominated this era were mainly related to utilitarianism, which originated also Functionalism and Chicago School. The other face of the former -and strongly associated with it- was the Formalism. Logical positivism of Vienna Circle and Berlin Circle, together with continental – or analytic- philosophy originated also: Phenomenology, Existentialism, Hermeneutics, Structuralism, the Critical Theory of Frankfurt School … etc, all had important contributions in the fields of architectural theory and criticism. It was Nietzsche's views of Nihilism that brought about Abstraction, which is the most important feature in Modernism, and -later- Deconstruction. Postmodernism came as a reaction to all the tendencies of modernism and Deconstruction was sort of a further development of postmodernism. It was about to get architects to think in a completely new way, bringing up decisively different forms and solutions. Based on this, the hypothesis of this paper is that philosophical and intellectual development plays a leading role in developing pioneering architecture that is not less essential than that of the technological development. The paper aims principally to prove that in order to take further steps in the path of architectural development, it is essential to develop philosophical and intellectual basis for Ain Shams Journal of Architectural Engineering (ASJAE) Vol. 2, Nov, 2010, pp. 39-51