New Indies Style Dutch East Indies. The 1920s and 1930s saw the advent of Modernism in the Dutch East Indies. Typical features included flat roofs and cubic forms, with minimal consideration of the tropics. Art Deco ornamentation was sometimes incorporated into the design. Albert Frederik Aalbers was one of the representatives of the Modern movement in Indonesia before the Second World War. His work is characterized by its clean-cut, functionalist elevations, which often feature curved lines, and the absence of external ornamentation and other purely decorative devices. In the same period, Nationalism manifested in the quest for a new style of architecture —
Napoleon III style not an admirer of the Empire, as "the opulent bastard child of all the styles.". The best example was the Opéra Garnier, begun in 1862 but not finished until 1875. The architect was Charles Garnier (1825-1898), who won the competition for the design when he was only thirty-seven. When asked by the Empress Eugénie what the style of the building was called, he replied simply, "Napoleon III." At the time, it was at the time the largest theater in the world, but much of the interior space was devoted to purely decorative spaces: grand stairways, huge foyers for promenading, and