You are on page 1of 70

POSTMODERNISM

Part II

LECTURE 10

Image Source: http://www.statelykitsch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MH-sketch.jpg [Online]

History of Architecture-II (AP-313)

History of Architecture - II (AP-313)


Postmodernism
Nipesh
P Narayanan

HOW IS ARCHITECTURE PERCEIVED?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

THE MODES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNICATION

~CHARLES JENCKS

Metaphor
Culture based common symbols
Appropriation of symbols

Words
Architectural elements doors, windows, columns

Syntax
Grammar (System)

Semantics
Appropriate usage of symbols/words (Meaning)
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: The Language of Post-Modern Architecture ~Charles Jencks [pg 48-49]

METAPHOR

Ronchamp Chapel, France, Le Corbusier, 1955

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: The Language of Post-Modern Architecture ~Charles Jencks [pg 48-49]

METAPHOR

Ronchamp Chapel, France, Le Corbusier, 1955

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://spectralhues.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/India-Gate.jpg

WORDS AND SYNTAX

India Gate, New Delhi

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg [Online]

SEMANTICS

Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, Robert Venturi, 1959-64

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

(Ar. Minoru Yamasaki)

Modern Architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri on July


15, 1972 at 3:32 PM (or thereabouts) when the infamous Pruitt-Igoe scheme, or rather several of its slab
blocks, were given the final coup de grce by dynamite.
~ Charles Jencks (1987)

Image Source: http://www.pruitt-igoe.com/press/print/3000px_IconicImplosion_PruittIgoeMyth_Credit-STL-Post-Dispatch.jpg [Online]

DEATH OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE!

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

1954 -THE SEVEN CRUTCHES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE ~Philip Johnson

1. History
2. Pretty Drawings
3. Utility (Usefulness)
They say a building is good architecture if it works. Of course,
this is poppy-cock. All buildings work..merely that a building
works is not sufficient. You expect that it works.But when its
used as a crutch it impedes. It lulls you into thinking that that is
architecture

4.
5.
6.
7.

Comfort
Cheapness
Serving the Client
Structure

Why not realize that architecture is the sum of inescapable


artistic decisions that YOU have to make
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

[Johnsons] first, tentative break with Mies was the Synagogue.


outside a startling simplification recalling of those of Ledoux, on the
inside memories of the Soane Museum. These historical quotes are
located within a black picture-frame of Meiesian steel.. ~ C Jencks

Image Source: http://blog.tobiaspartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Kneses-Tifereth-Israel-Synagogue-PortChester-NY-1956.jpg [ONLINE]

1956 -THE SYNAGOGUES IN PORT CHESTER ~Philip Johnson

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://observatory.designobserver.com/media/images/IMG_4913_2_525_525.jpg [ONLINE]

1956 -THE SYNAGOGUES IN PORT CHESTER ~Philip Johnson

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-ScottBrown-North-Penn-Visiting-Nurses-Association-1963_800.jpg [ONLINE]

THE MOULDINGS AND TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS

Robert Venturi, Headquarter Building, North


History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism
Penn Visiting Nurses Association, 1960

WHY THE MOULDINGS AND TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-ScottBrown-North-Penn-Visiting-Nurses-Association-1963_800.jpg [ONLINE]

WHERE IS THE ENTRANCE?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/VillaSavoye.jpg [ONLINE]

WHERE IS THE ENTRANCE?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Less is More

~ Mies Van Der Rohe


Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Barcelona_Pavilion,_Barcelona,_2010.jpg [ONLINE]

Barcelona, 1929

THE ORNAMENT DISCUSSION

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Mies is such a genius! But I grew old! And bored! My direction


is clear; eclectic tradition. This is not academic revivalism.
There are no Classic orders or Gothic finials. I try to pick up
what I like throughout history. We cannot not know history
~ Philip Johnson (1965)

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Barcelona_Pavilion,_Barcelona,_2010.jpg [ONLINE]

AT&T Building, NY, 1984

THE ORNAMENT DISCUSSION

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Duck
Meaning Conveyed by
Architectural Symbols

Decorated Shell
Meaning conveyed by
Signage

1966

Image Source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EEGFY1QRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg [Online]

DUCK AND DECORATED SHELL!

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/9kfkmTgtXWo/TtmCPtKqsvI/AAAAAAAACZg/3TuGFYBa000/s1600/tailopup.jpg [Online]

DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://travelphotobase.com/i/USNV/NVV2703.JPG [Online]

DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/05/nesher-memorial-auditorium-and-gallery-by-soarchitecture/ [Online]

DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg [Online]

DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

~ R Venturi (1966)

Visual preferences in opposition to modernism

Complexity and contradiction VS


Simplification

Ambiguity and tension rather than


straightforwardness

both-and rather than either-or

Hybrid rather than pure elements

Messy vitality rather than obvious unity


History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg [Online]

FRANKLIN COURT

Philadelphia, Robert Venturi, 1972-76

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.uwishunu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BF-Museum-BF-Itinerary680uw.jpg [Online]

FRANKLIN COURT

Philadelphia, Robert Venturi, 1972-76

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

JENCKS AND THE READING OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Straight Revivalism

Neo-Vernacular

Metaphor and Metaphysics

Radical Eclecticism

Post-Modern Classicism

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gurna_Mosque_R01.jpg [Online]

STRAIGHT REVIVALISM

Mosque, Luxor, Egypt, Hassan Fathy (1948)

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.architectureguide.nl/media/large/d5/B08PR.jpg [Online]

NEO VERNACULAR

Amsterdam Zwolle Housing, Aldo Van Eyck and Theo Bosch, 1975-77

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: AUTHOR

METAPHOR & METAPHYSICS

Amdavad ni Gufa, B V Doshi, 1992-95

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

AT&T Building, Philip Johnson, NY, 1984

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sony_Building_by_David_Shankbone_crop.jpg [Online]

RADICAL ECLECTICISM

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiazzaDItalia1990.jpg [Online]

POST-MODERN CLASSICISM

Piazza DItalia, New Orleans, 1978

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

JENCKS AND THE READING OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Straight Revivalism
Neo-Vernacular
------------------------------------Critical Regionalism
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

POST-MODERN SPACE
Post-Modern space is historically specific, rooted in
conventions, unlimited or ambiguous in zoning and irrational
or transformational in its relation of parts to whole.

skew or distorted spaces, created by sharp angles which


exaggerate perspective.

always keep a mental coordinate system no matter how


free-form and baroque they become. The reference plane is
always an implied frontality, and the route through the
building or the curvilinear elements then relate to this
conceptual cage
~ Charles Jencks (1987)
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, Robert Venturi, 1959-64


Image Source: http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-ScottBrown-Vanna-Venturi-House-(interior)-1964_800.jpg [Online]

POST-MODERN SPACE

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://house6.s-trefois.be/data/textes/eisenman/images/eisenman/HouseIII4.jpg


[Online]

POST-MODERN SPACE

House 3, Minnesota , Peter Eisenman, 1971

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Westchester House , NY, Robert Stern, 1974-76

Image Source: http://www.abbeville.com/images-catalog/full-size/0789208180.interior01.jpg [Online]

POST-MODERN SPACE

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Faculty Club, California, Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

Image Source: http://www.arthistory.ucr.edu/people/faculty/morton/images/FacultyClub.jpg [Online]

POST-MODERN SPACE

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Pennsylvania, 2007

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pittsburgh-pennsylvania-ppg-place-2007.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT PHILIP JOHNSON - PPG PLACE

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johnson_building_bpl.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT PHILIP JOHNSON - THE JOHNSON BUILDING

Massachusetts, 2008

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clore_Gallery_London_Dec07.JPG [Online]

ARCHITECT JAMES STIRLING- CLORE GALLERY

London, 1980-87

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1_Poultry.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT JAMES STIRLING- NO 1 POULTRY

London, 1997

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiazzaDItalia1990.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT CHARLES MOORE - PIAZZA D'ITALIA

Piazza DItalia, New Orleans, 1978

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgibin/gbi.cgi/UCSB_Faculty_Club.html/cid_20060410_kmm_img_2627.html [Online]

ARCHITECT CHARLES MOORE FACULTY CLUB

California, Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgibin/gbi.cgi/UCSB_Faculty_Club.html/cid_20060410_kmm_img_2638.html [Online]

ARCHITECT CHARLES MOORE FACULTY CLUB

California, Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Le Grand Louvre, Paris , 1988

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_Museum_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT I M PEI LE GRAND LOUVRE

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://www.shumei.org/spirituality/tour/images/tower.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT I M PEI BELL TOWER

Kyoto, Japan , 1997

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

SF, 1995
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Museum_of_Modern_Art_in_2011.jpg
[Online]

ARCHITECT MARIO BOTTA SF-MOMA

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1977


Image Source: http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/website/versions/uploads/new_images/postmodernismblog-garagia_small_610x915.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT CHARLES JENCKS GARAGIA ROTUNDA

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://liberalirionist.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/garagia-rotunda.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT CHARLES JENCKS GARAGIA ROTUNDA

Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1977

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portland_Building_1982.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT MICHAEL GRAVES PORTLAND BUILDING

Portland, 1982

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://zakuski.utsa.edu/krier/BUILDINGS/poundburystreet.350.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT LON KRIER NEW TOWN OF POUNDBURY

New Urbanism, England, 1980s

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

RATIONALISM

Modena, Italy, 1984

Image Source: http://www.archdaily.com/95400/ad-classics-san-cataldo-cemetery-aldo-rossi/sancat1/


[Online]

ARCHITECT ALDO ROSSI SAN CATALDO CEMETERY NEO

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

RATIONALISM

Modena, Italy, 1984

Image Source: http://www.archdaily.com/95400/ad-classics-san-cataldo-cemetery-aldo-rossi/sancat2/


[Online]

ARCHITECT ALDO ROSSI SAN CATALDO CEMETERY NEO

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

Image Source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2476304044_0377c0033c.jpg?v=0 [Online]

ARCHITECT ROB KRIER RITTERSTRASSE APARTMENTS

Berlin, 1978

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

CHAPEL

Pennsylvania, 2010
Image Source: http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-ScottBrown-Episcopal-Academy-Chapel-2008_800.jpg [Online]

ARCHITECT ROBERT VENTURI + DENISE SCOTT BROWN

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

ARCHITECT ROBERT VENTURI + DENISE SCOTT BROWN

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Espicopal_Acad_int.JPG [Online]

CHAPEL

Pennsylvania, 2010

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

POST-MODERN ARCHITECTS AND THE URBAN CONCERNS

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

POST-MODERN ARCHITECTS AND THE URBAN CONCERNS

Social Modernity and Modernism


The unrealised dream

Post-Modern response to the Public


Expression, Ornament, Wit

Urban Outburst and the fall of Modernisms


promise
Complexity as opposed to modernisms standardization

Urban as the new Laboratory


Rem Koolhaas in Lagos
Rob Krier - Town Spaces. Contemporary Interpretations
in Traditional Urbanism
Aldo Rossi - The architecture
of the city
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

1. Multivalence is preferred to univalence,


imagination to fancy.
2. Complexity and Contraction over
Minimalism
3. Chaos Theory explain nature than liner
dynamics.
4. Memory and History are inevitable

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

5. All architecture is invented and perceived


through codes, hence the languages of
architecture and symbolic architecture, hence
the double-coding of architecture within the
codes of both the professional and populace.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

6. All codes are influenced by a semiotic


community and various taste cultures, hence the
need in pluralist culture for a design based
on Radical Eclecticism.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

7. Architecture is a public language, hence the


need for a Post-Modern Classicism which is partly
based on architectural universals and changing
technology.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

8. Architecture necessitates ornament (or


patterns) which should be symbolic and
symphonic, hence relevance of information
theory.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

9. Architecture necessitates metaphor and this


should relate us to natural and cultural concerns,
hence the explosion of zoomorphic imagery, face
houses and scientific iconography instead of
machine for living.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

10. Architecture must form the city ,


hence Contexualism, collage City, Neo
Rationalism, small-block planning, and
mixed uses and ages of buildings.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

11. Architecture must crystallise social reality


and in global city today, the Heteropolis, the very
much means the pluralism of ethnic groups;
hence participatory design and adhocism.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

12. Architecture must confront the ecological


reality and that means sustainable
development, Green architecture and cosmic
symbolism.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS

13. We live in a surprising, creative, self-organising


universe which still gets locked-into various
solutions; hence the need for a cosmogenic
architecture which celebrates criticism,
process and humour.

1996

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

A work can become modern only if it is first


postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not
modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this
state is constant
~ Jean Franois (1979), The Postmodern Condition
History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

REFERENCE

Charles Jencks. 1977. The Language of Post-Modern


Architecture. Academy Editions. ISBN 0856709336
Robert Venturi. 1966. Complexity and Contradiction in
Architecture. "The Museum of Modern Art, New York"; 2nd
edition (July 2, 2002). ISBN 0870702823

History of Architecture - II (AP-313) Postmodernism

You might also like