The International Style emerged largely as a result of four factors that confronted architects at the beginning of the 20th century: (1) Increasing dissatisfaction with building designs that incorporated a mixture of decorative features from different architectural periods, especially where the resulting design bore little or no relation to the function of the building; (2) The need to build large numbers of commercial and civic buildings that served a rapidly industrializing society; (3) The successful development of new construction techniques involving the use of steel, reinforced concrete, and glass; and (4) A strong desire to create a "modern" style of architecture for "modern man". This underlined the need for a neutral, functional style, without any of the decorative features of (say) Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance architecture, all of which were old-fashioned, if not obsolete