[1] Oud was one of a number of Dutch architects who attempted to reconcile strict, rational, 'scientific' cost-effective construction technique against the psychological needs and aesthetic expectations of the users.

[1] In America Oud is perhaps best known for being lauded and adopted by the mainstream modernist movement, then summarily kicked out on stylistic grounds.

As of 1932, he was considered one of the four greatest modern architects (along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier), and was prominently featured in Philip Johnson's International Style exhibition.

Johnson maintained a correspondence with Oud, tried to help him get work, commissioned a house for his mother (never built), and sent him socks and bicycle tires.

[2] In 1945, after the end of World War II allowed photographs of Oud's 1941 Shell Headquarters building in The Hague to be published in America, the architectural press sarcastically condemned his use of ornament ("embroidery") as contrary to the spirit of modernism.