Art Deco has been seen as the popular, and therefore democratic, as opposed to intellectual approach, to the development from Victorian Gothic to Bauhaus simplicity, from Pugin's House of Lords throne to Mies' cantilever chair.

The first influence is obvious, though Art Deco has been seen both as a continuation of Art Nouveau and as a reaction against it. Both Art Nouveau and Art Deco have curvilinear and geometrical forms. Curvilinear Art Nouveau was seen as decadent by the end of the nineteenth century, but later examples like Mackintosh's Derngate house and the work of Hoffman are geometrical, and directly influenced Art Deco designers.

Significantly this house in Northampton was designed, or rather refurbished in 1916, as it was an existing terraced house, for Basset-Lowke. He was an industrialist for whom Peter Behrens later designed a new house, thus making a link with the Bauhaus.

In Art Deco this geometric stylisation of natural forms led to more and more angular shapes, although later streamlining led back to curved shapes.

Art Deco is also seen as accomplishing what Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement wanted but failed to achieve. Although Pugin and machine production had revolutionized public taste at all levels the production of furnishings at affordable prices could only be achieved by mass production, which came in during the 1920s, at the heart of Art Deco, and when following the depression there was the need for cheaper affordable goods.

Two European influences were de Stijl and the Expressionism of the Amsterdam school's brickwork and odd shaped windows. But Dudok's plain brick buildings were blocky like the forms taken by de Stijl's primary coloured buildings.