Postmodernism

“Less is a bore.”
-Robert Venturi, 1977

Prep. By Habtom H.
Postmodern architecture

• Leading architects
– Charles Moore
– Robert Venturi
– Philippe Johnson
– Hans Hollein
– James Sterling
– Aldo Rossi
– Hans Kollhoff
– César Pelli
Pruitt–Igoe a large housing project in in the U.S. city of
St. Louis, Missouri (1954)
Postmodernism
• The term postmodernism is challenging to define. It is by
its very nature, undefinable.
• Originally it developed within the discipline of
architecture.
• Technically, Postmodernism with upper case “P” will refer
to this architectural style.
• Postmodern architecture challenges modernism and its
concept of less is more.
• It welcomes decoration, eclecticism, and
appropriation.
Postmodernism

• Postmodernism at its very core, is a question

of the NATURE OF TRUTH itself.
• Modernism, as we have inherited it, has been a
constant renegotiation of the relationship between
the nature of truth and visual representation.
• Any attempt to define or apply standards to
Postmodernism is against its critical nature.
• Equally unfavorable is the attempt to identify the
location or moment of its inception.
Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. (b. 1925)

• He is considered a counter-revolutionary because of his

objection to the strictness of modern architecture
defined by Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.
• Venturi’s objections to modern design were a launching
pad for Postmodernism. Some consider him as the
father of Postmodern architecture
• 1966 Venturi published his “gentle manifesto,” titled
Complexity and Contradiction in
Architecture.
• It is considered the most important writing on
architecture since Le Corbusier’s “Vers Une
Architecture,” /Towards a new architecture/ (1923)
• The 1980’s brought a “decisive shift in the nature of
society from ‘modernity’ to ‘post modernity”.
• This led to distorted nature of many concepts and
ideas used by modern theorists to become
increasingly apparent
• postmodernist vocabulary and discourse started to be
adopted and developed.
• Post- a new direction from the previous one
• Post modernity: product or effect of the development of
modernity itself
the return of “wit , ornament and reference"
to architecture in response to the formalism of
the International Style of modernism.
• As time passed, grime streaked flat, concrete walls, like
wrinkles carved into a smooth face.
• Glass-paned skyscrapers lost their shine.
• Stripped of ornament, abstract forms that once seemed
ultramodern appeared just plain blank by the 1970s
• According to Venturi ‘Architecture is evolutionary
as well as revolutionary.’
• During the 1970s and ‘80s, buildings termed
Postmodern were decorated not only with color –but
with a Classical elements like slightly out-of-whack
columns
• Architects liberally attached on miscellaneous
borrowings from all periods of history
• The search for diversity
• Postmodern works require that viewers add their
own interpretations for the work to be meaningful.
• Rather than assert absolutes, postmodern works of
art evoke individual interpretations.
Characterstics
• The use of sculptural forms,
ornaments, anthropomorphism and materials
• These physical characteristics are combined with
conceptual characteristics of meaning, including
pluralism, double coding, flying buttresses and high
ceilings, irony and paradox, and contextualism.
• The sculptural forms, not necessarily organic, were
created with much ardour.
• Each building’s forms are nothing like the conforming
rigid ones of Modernism.
• Sculptural and playful extravagant forms and humour
of meanings.
• Use of sculptural forms, ornaments and materials
which create the illusion of space or depths where
none actually exist.
• Buildings are made up of several
building units, all very different
Charles Moore

• For Charles Moore (1925-1993), an archetypal Post-

Modernist who heaped on multiple allusions, more
was never enough.
• Moore wanted architecture to recapture a lost ―
sense of place.
• Each commission was an opportunity to highlight
what the ancients called ―genius loci
(Spirit of a place)
• Moore‘s Sea Ranch housing (1965-72) on the California
coast was an extreme example of ecological architecture.
• The houses modeled on local barns, are nestled into the
site, sheltered from the prevailing winds. Slanted woods
both deflect wind and collect sun
Charles Moore
• Piazza d’Italia (1975-1978) ,New Orleans
– Here Moore stressed the need for “joy” in architecture
– A MIX of historical forms, in his relation to high and low
culture
– Capitals consist of water jets shaping Corinthian leaves.
– Stainless-steel Ionic volutes and streams of water
flowing down columns to suggest fluting are a naughty
takeoff on Classical style
– In a high-camp parody, medallions shaped like Moore‘s
head spout water.
Michael Graves (born1934)
• He originally wished to be a painter,
• He color-codes his buildings to create what he calls
―metaphorical landscapes.
• His shades are derived from nature, such as blue as
an analogy for sky, green and earth tones for
landscape
• It is as if he is carving his own mount, at the same
time adorned with his personal interpretation of
Classical motifs.
• He wants his architecture to be capable of being
read by anybody.
Portland Building, at
Portland, Oregon, 1982
Humana Building Louisville, Kentucky 1985
Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
CASTALIA Ministry of Health
Denver Central Library
Robert Venturi & Dennis Scott Brown

• Known for coining the term "Less is a bore" as

antidote to Mies van der Rohe's famous modernist
dictum “Less is more”
• He insists to perform a more humanist architecture
that belongs to American traditions.
Robert Venturi Guild House
• The Symbolism Of The Ordinary
• The pretensions of the giant order on the front,
• Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, 1964
– He designs this building for his mother.
– The design of the building embodies several
“complexities and contradictions”
– It is both complex and simple, open and closed, big and
little; some of its elements are good on one level and
bad on another.
– It achieves the difficult unity of a medium number of
diverse parts rather than the easy unity of few or many
motived parts.
The plan is originally symmetrical with a central vertical core
from which radiate two almost symmetrical diagonal walls
that separate two end spaces in front from a major central
space in back.

First Floor

Ground Floor
This almost Palladian rigidity and symmetry is distorted,
however, to accommodate to the particular needs of the
spaces; the kitchen on the right, for instance, varies from the
bedroom on the left
The contradiction between inside
and outside, however, is not total:
inside, the plan as a whole reflects
the symmetrical consistency of the
outside; outside, the perforations
in the elevations reflect the
circumstantial distortions within.
Philip Johnson

• American architect, critic and collector

• Best known for his Post-Modern structures,
like AT&T (now Sony) building
Glass House or Johnson house, in New Canaan, Connecticut
• Derived from Mies van der Rohe‘s Farnsworth House
• but more classical in plan
• the Glass House attests to Johnson‘s naturally critical turn of
mind and his preoccupation with history.
AT&T (Sony) building
• This granite clad skyscraper sounded the
death knell for minimalist glass boxes.
• With its Classical loggia at the base and
Chippendale top, it certified the marketability
of Post- Modernism.
AT&T (now Sony) building
James Sterling(1926-1992)

• Began as a Brutalist and High-Tech exponent.

• Without loosing his techno flair, Sterling dallied with
Postmodern design juicing up his buildings from the
1970s onward with a range of historic references
• Enlivened by bright colors and undulating walls,
Sterling's work is both monumental and casual.
New Staatsgalerie (New State Gallery), 1977–1984
• He combined classical forms with bright green, pink, and blue
painted elements and seemingly imbalanced lines meeting at
awkward and unpredictable angles.
• Difference (Inharmonious) as an Aesthetic Strategy:
Additional examples
Ricardo Legorreta
San Antonio Public
Library,Texas,1995
Arata Isozaki
Team Disney Building Florida, 1989
Ornamental sundial is built into central
cylinder.
M2 Tokyo, Kengo Kuma
MI6 head quarter
No. 1 Poultry, London
James Sterling
 Modern Architecture
• Late 19th- early 20th century
• Based on modernised society's
attachment to rapid
technological advancement
• Form follows function
• Less is more
• Functional and formalized
shapes and spaces
• Minimalist
Postmodern architecture
• Late 20th -21st century
• Based on attachment to
historical references and
attachment of ornamentation
• pluralism, double coding, flying
buttresses and high
ceilings, irony and paradox,
and contextualism.
• Less is bore
• diverse aesthetics
• Complex
 Movies to watch
• Midnight in Paris
• Suicide Room
• Inception
• Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind
• American beauty
• Fight club
• Blade runner
 Assignment
• Take one postmodern architect and prepare a
detailed research on his/her works and
identify through pictorial analysis the
characters which gives his works postmodern
style.
• The presentation medium will be in A-3 soft
copy
• Submission date will be on May 30 2020