POST

MODERN
ARCHITECTUR
E
 Introduction
• Postmodernism is a term originating in
architecture, literally 'after the modern',
denoting a style that is more ornamental than
modernism, and which borrows from previous
architectural styles, often in a playful or ironic
fashion.
• Originating in 1950, Postmodernity in architecture
is generally thought to be heralded by the return
of “ornament and reference” to architecture in
response to the formalism, rationalism and
functionalism of the International Style of
modernism.
• The movement of Postmodernism began
with architecture, as a response to the
perceived blandness, hostility, and Utopianism of
the Modern movement.
• Modern Architecture, as established and
developed by people such as Walter Gropius, Le
Corbusier, and Philip Johnson, was focused on
the pursuit of a perceived ideal perfection,
and attempted harmony of form and function.
• Definitive postmodern architecture such as the
work of Michael Graves and Robert Venturi reject
the notion of a 'pure' form or 'perfect'
architectonic detail, instead conspicuously
drawing from all methods, materials, forms and
colours available.

• Modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is associated

with the phrase "less is more"; in contrast
Venturi famously said, "Less is a bore."
 Origins
• Postmodern architecture began as an international
style the first examples of which are generally cited as
being from the 1950s, but did not become a
movement until the late 1970s and continues to
influence present-day architecture.
• Began in America and then it spread to Europe and
the rest of the world, to remain right through to the
present.
• The aims of Postmodernism or Late-modernism begin
with its reaction to Modernism; it tries to address
the limitations of its predecessor.
• It is characterised by diverse aesthetics: styles collide,
form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of
viewing familiar styles and space abound.
• Postmodernism has its origins in the perceived
failure of Modern Architecture. Its preoccupation
with functionalism and economical building
meant that ornaments were done away with and
the buildings were cloaked in a stark rational
appearance.
• Many felt the buildings failed to meet the human
need for comfort both for body and for the
eye, that modernism did not account for the
desire for beauty.
• In response, post modernism sought to
reintroduce ornament, colour, decoration and
human scale to buildings. Form was no longer
to be defined solely by its functional
requirements or minimal appearance.
• Modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of
material as well as absence of ornament, while
postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set
by the early modernists and seeks meaning
and expression in the use of building
techniques, forms, and stylistic references.

• Influential early large-scale examples of

postmodern architecture are Michael
Graves' Portland Building in Portland, Oregon
and Philip Johnson's Sony Building (originally AT&T
Building) in New York City, which borrows elements
and references from the past and reintroduces
colour and symbolism.
• The Portland Building, in Portland, Oregon, 1982
• Sony Building New
York,1984
• Postmodern architecture has also been described as
"neo-eclectic", where reference and ornament have
returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively
unornamented modern styles.

• This eclecticism is often combined with the use of

non-orthogonal angles and unusual surfaces, most
famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart (New wing
of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) by James Stirling and
the Piazza d'Italia by Charles Moore.

• The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh have

also been cited as being of postmodern vogue.
• Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans, 1978
• The Canongate Wall at the Scottish Parliament Building.
Constructed by Sora Smithson.
• the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh
 Relationship to previous
styles
• New trends became evident as some architects
started to turn away from
modern Functionalism which they viewed as boring,
and which some of the public considered
unwelcoming and even unpleasant. These
architects turned towards the past, quoting past
aspects of various buildings and melding them
together (even sometimes in an inharmonious
manner) to create a new means of designing buildings.
• A vivid example of this new approach was
that Postmodernism saw the comeback of columns
and other elements of pre-modern designs, sometimes
adapting classical Greek and Roman examples (but
not simply recreating them, as was done
in neoclassical architecture).
• Another return was that of the “wit, ornament
and reference” seen in older buildings in terra
cotta decorative façades and bronze or stainless
steel embellishments
• Contextualism, influences the ideologies of the
postmodern movement in general. Contextualism
is centred on the belief that all knowledge is
“context-sensitive”. While noteworthy examples
of modern architecture responded both subtly
and directly to their physical context, postmodern
architecture often addressed the context in terms
of the materials, forms and details of the
buildings around it—the cultural context.
 Characteristics
• The characteristics of postmodernism allow its
aim to be expressed in diverse ways. These
characteristics include the use of sculptural
forms, ornaments, anthropomorphism and
materials which perform trompe l'oeil.
• These physical characteristics are combined
with conceptual characteristics of meaning.
• These characteristics of meaning include
pluralism, double coding, flying buttresses and
high ceilings, irony and paradox,
and contextualism.
• SCULPTURAL FORMS
• The sculptural forms, not necessarily organic,
were created with much ardour. These can be
seen in Hans Hollein’s Abteiberg Museum (1972–
1982). The building is made up of several building
units, all very different. Each building’s forms are
nothing like the conforming rigid ones
of Modernism. These forms are sculptural and are
somewhat playful. These forms are not reduced
to an absolute minimum; they are built and
shaped for their own sake. The building units all
fit together in a very organic way, which
enhances the effect of the forms.
• Museum Abteiberg
• ORNAMENTATION
• After many years of neglect, ornament returned.
• Frank Gehry’s Venice Beach house, built in 1986,
is littered with small ornamental details that
would have been considered excessive and
needless in Modernism. The Venice Beach House
has an assembly of circular logs which exist
mostly for decoration. The logs on top do have a
minor purpose of holding up the window covers.
However, the mere fact that they could have
been replaced with a practically invisible nail,
makes their exaggerated existence largely
ornamental.
• Photo, exterior ·
Venice Beach
House · Venice,
California
• The ornament
in Michael
Graves' Portland
Municipal Services
Building ("Portland
Building")(1980) is
even more prominent.
The two obtruding
triangular forms are
largely ornamental.
They exist for aesthetic
or their own purpose.
• CONTEXTUALISM

• Postmodernism, with its sensitivity to the

building’s context, did not exclude the needs of
humans from the building. Carlo Scarpa's Brion
Cemetery (1970–72) exemplifies this. The human
requirements of a cemetery is that it possesses a
solemn nature, yet it must not cause the visitor to
become depressed. Scarpa’s cemetery achieves
the solemn mood with the dull gray colors of the
walls and neatly defined forms, but the bright
green grass prevents this from being too
overwhelming.
• The cemetery includes many design features. The
perimeter walls are the same height as the
surrounding corn, which deemphasizes the
cemetery. It also includes an island which the
visitor cannot access (arguably a metaphor for the
afterlife).
• water element · Brion-Vega Cemetery
• sculptured concrete walls · Brion-Vega Cemetery
• TROMPE L'OEIL
• Postmodern buildings
sometimes
utilize trompe l'oeil,
creating the illusion of
space or depths where
none actually exist, as
has been done by
painters since
the Romans. The
Portland Building (1980)
has pillars represented
on the side of the
building that to some
extent appear to be
real, yet they are not.
• SYMBOLISM
• Robert Venturi’s Vanna Venturi House illustrates
the Postmodernist aim of communicating a
meaning and the characteristic of symbolism. The
façade is, according to Venturi, a symbolic picture
of a house, looking back to the 18th century. This
is partly achieved through the use of symmetry
and the arch over the entrance.
• Front facade of the Vanna Venturi house, one of
the first major works of post modern architecture,
known especially for the facade and its split gable
• Vanna Venturi House · Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
• Front Elevation, Vanna Venturi House
• Plans and elevations are built on a rigid axial, even
Palladian, symmetry, which becomes monumental in
the street faced but looser at the extremities and rear
of the house, in keeping with the domestic program.
• The architect stresses that 'The house is big as well as
little, by which I mean that it this a little house with
big scale. ...Outside, the manifestations of big scale
are the main elements, which are big and few in
number and central or symmetrical in position, as well
as the simplicity and consistency of the form and
silhouette of the whole....The main reason for the
large scale is to counterbalance the complexity.
• IRONY & PARADOX
• Perhaps the best example of irony in Postmodern
buildings is Charles Moore’s Piazza d'Italia (1978).
Moore quotes (architecturally) elements of Italian
renaissance and Roman Antiquity. However, he
does so with a twist. The irony comes when it is
noted that the pillars are covered with steel. It is
also paradoxical in the way he quotes Italian
antiquity far away from the original in New
Orleans.
• DOUBLE CODING
• meant the buildings convey many meanings
simultaneously. The Sony Building in New York
does this very well. The building is a tall
skyscraper which brings with it connotations of
very modern technology. Yet, the top contradicts
this. The top section conveys elements
of classical antiquity.
 Other examples
• Michael Graves – Crooks House, Fort
Wayne Indiana
• While privacy is accomplished by isolation in
the surrounding tract houses, the Crooks House
derives its privacy by treating the formal
gestures as fragments of a larger organization,
thereby setting up a dependence of object and
landscape. Rather than a single center, a
succession of centers is produced both in the
building and in the landscape. These centers
are linked and can be understood as a spatial
continuum.
• Crook’s House Site plan
• Arata Isozaki - Team Disney Building · near Orlando, Florida
• 1990
• Mario Botta
• SFMOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art, 1995 -Platonic masses.
• exterior, center of the front elevation
Photo, exterior overview · SFMOMA · San Francisco,
California
• Robert Venturi
– Tucker
House1975
• Although its form
is bold, it is
recessive in its
color and in its
shingle-texture.
The house was
designed to look
ordinary at first
glance, but to be
extraordinary at
second glance
and over time.
Basic here is the
sense of this
building as an
object, tall and
wooden, sitting
among the trees
in its lush semi-
rural site.