...as idioms of design. Strictly speaking, the words can have the same meaning, depending on the context but when referring to architecture and design, they can take on other connotations. Modernism really refers to a period of design that began with the Arts & Crafts Movement of 1875 and evolved through several eras until it ended with Post-Modernism of the early 1980's.

Contemporary means, "of the same period, or at the present time" and is, by definition always evolving and changing rather than being fixed to a specific set of aesthetic characteristics or values. What is contemporary today will be history in the future, but modernism refers to the minimal functionalism of the 20th Century.

Modernist Design movements occurred sequentially over the 20th Century. Each was a reaction to or a rejection of the aesthetic, political and lifestyle characteristics that preceded it. Here is a brief outline of some of the important and better-known design movements of Modernism.