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Postmodern architecture
The phrase Less is a bore was not merely a witty retort but a declaration of war against the prevailing architectural orthodoxy of the mid-twentieth century. In 1966, Robert Venturi published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, a text that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of building design by rejecting the sterile, boxy uniformity of the International Style. This movement emerged as a direct reaction to the austerity championed by figures like Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, who had defined the post-war era with glass towers and steel frames that ignored the history and culture of the cities they inhabited. Venturi argued that architecture should embrace the messy vitality of real life rather than the clean, exclusionary unity of modernism. He welcomed problems, exploited uncertainties, and preferred the hybrid over the pure. This was a call to stop treating buildings as machines to live in and start treating them as complex, contradictory spaces that accommodated the richness of human experience. The movement was formally introduced by Venturi and his wife, Denise Scott Brown, who co-authored Learning from Las Vegas in 1972. Their work urged architects to celebrate existing architecture and vernacular styles rather than imposing visionary utopias from their own fantasies. This shift marked the beginning of a style that would flourish from the 1980s through the 1990s, bringing ornament, color, and historical allusion back to the forefront of design.
The Architects of Irony
Robert Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown were the intellectual architects of this new era, but they were joined by a diverse group of practitioners who turned the architectural world upside down. Michael Graves, once a member of the New York Five, a group of pure modernists, pivoted in 1982 to design the Portland Building, one of the first major structures in the postmodern style. This building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, featured obtruding triangular forms that existed for aesthetic purposes rather than structural necessity. Charles Moore took this theatricality to new heights with the Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans, completed in 1978. This public square was an exuberant collection of pieces from famous Italian Renaissance architecture, yet it was covered in steel, creating an ironic twist on the original materials. Philip Johnson, who had previously designed the Glass House and the Seagrams Building as icons of modernism, dramatically shifted course with the AT&T Building, now 550 Madison Avenue, completed between 1978 and 1982. Its most prominent feature was a purely decorative top modeled after Chippendale furniture, making it the best-known of all postmodern buildings. Johnson followed this with PPG Place in Pittsburgh, a complex of six glass buildings featuring 231 neo-gothic spires. These architects did not merely build; they communicated meaning through ambiguity, humor, and a deliberate rejection of the black-and-white worldview of their predecessors.
When did postmodern architecture emerge and who published the key text?
Postmodern architecture emerged in 1966 when Robert Venturi published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. This text fundamentally altered the trajectory of building design by rejecting the sterile uniformity of the International Style.
Who designed the Portland Building and when was it completed?
Michael Graves designed the Portland Building in 1982 as one of the first major structures in the postmodern style. The building features obtruding triangular forms that exist for aesthetic purposes rather than structural necessity.
What is the significance of the AT&T Building completed between 1978 and 1982?
The AT&T Building, now 550 Madison Avenue, is the best-known of all postmodern buildings due to its purely decorative top modeled after Chippendale furniture. Philip Johnson designed this structure to dramatically shift course from his previous modernist icons like the Glass House.
Which international architects contributed to postmodern architecture in Europe and Japan?
International contributors include Aldo Rossi in Italy, Christian de Portzamparc in France, Ricardo Bofill in Spain, Helmut Jahn in Germany, James Stirling in the UK, and Tadao Ando and Arata Isozaki in Japan. These architects demonstrated that the movement was a diverse set of responses to the limitations of modernism.
What educational programs were developed to support the rise of postmodern architecture?
The Advanced Masters-Level Course in the History and Theory of Architecture was offered by Dalibor Vesely and Joseph Rykwert at the University of Essex in England between 1968 and 1978. This was the first of its kind, followed by PhD programs at MIT and Cornell in the mid-1970s and later at Columbia, Berkeley, and Princeton.
While postmodernism is often viewed as an American phenomenon, it sparked a similar revolt across the globe, particularly in Europe and Japan. In Italy, architect Aldo Rossi criticized the rebuilding of cities destroyed during the war in the modernist style, insisting that cities be rebuilt in ways that preserved their historical fabric and local traditions. His work, such as the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, completed in 1995, combined rigorous forms with evocative elements from classical architecture. In France, Christian de Portzamparc and in Spain, Ricardo Bofill, joined the call for a postmodern style. Bofill designed a residential complex in Calp in 1973 that resembled a castle with red walls, and later created the social housing complex Les Espaces d'Abraxas in 1983. The German-born architect Helmut Jahn constructed the Messeturm skyscraper in Frankfurt, adorned with the pointed spire of a medieval tower. James Stirling, a first critic of modernist architecture, designed colorful public housing projects and the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, which he described as a mix of representation and abstraction, monumental and informal. In Japan, Tadao Ando and Arata Isozaki introduced postmodern ideas, with Ando using raw concrete and wide openings to bring in light, and Isozaki designing the Art Tower in Mito, which featured a titanium and stainless steel tower that rotated upon its own axis. These international examples demonstrated that the movement was not a single style but a diverse set of responses to the limitations of modernism.
The Return of Ornament and Color
Postmodern architecture brought back the elements that modernism had stripped away: ornament, color, and decoration. The movement rejected the puritanism of modernism, calling for a return to ornament and an accumulation of citations and collages borrowed from past styles. It borrowed freely from classical architecture, rococo, neoclassical architecture, the Vienna Secession, the British Arts and Crafts movement, and the German Jugendstil. Color became an important element, used to give facades variety and personality. The buildings of Mexican architect Luis Barragán offered bright sunlight color that gave life to the forms. Humor and camp were particular features, particularly in the United States. The Binoculars Building in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry in collaboration with the sculptor Claes Oldenburg, featured a gateway in the form of an enormous pair of binoculars. Camp humor was popular during the postmodern period, an ironic humor based on the premise that something could appear so bad that it was good. Postmodern buildings often combined astonishing new forms with seemingly contradictory elements of classicism. The Portland Building featured two obtruding triangular forms that were largely ornamental. The Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi, illustrated the postmodernist aim of communicating meaning through symbolism, with a facade that looked back to the 18th century. These buildings were not just functional structures; they were expressions of wit, ornament, and reference, designed to communicate with the public in a humorous or witty way.
The Fragmented City and the Leaning Church
The rise of postmodern architecture was paralleled by a profound shift in architectural education. Critics of the reductionism of modernism often noted the abandonment of the teaching of architectural history as a causal factor. The fact that a number of the major players in the shift away from modernism were trained at Princeton University's School of Architecture, where recourse to history continued to be a part of design training in the 1940s and 1950s, was significant. The increasing rise of interest in history had a profound impact on architectural education. History courses became more typical and regularized. With the demand for professors knowledgeable in the history of architecture, programs were developed including the Advanced Masters-Level Course in the History and Theory of Architecture offered by Dalibor Vesely and Joseph Rykwert at the University of Essex in England between 1968 and 1978. It was the first of its kind. Other programs followed suit, including several PhD programs in schools of architecture that arose to differentiate themselves from art history PhD programs. In the US, MIT and Cornell were the first, created in the mid-1970s, followed by Columbia, Berkeley, and Princeton. Among the founders of new architectural history programs were Bruno Zevi at the Institute for the History of Architecture in Venice, Stanford Anderson and Henry Millon at MIT, Alexander Tzonis at the Architectural Association, Anthony Vidler at Princeton, Manfredo Tafuri at the University of Venice, Kenneth Frampton at Columbia University, and Werner Oechslin and Kurt Forster at ETH Zürich. This pedagogical revolution ensured that the next generation of architects would be
The Pedagogical Revolution
equipped to understand and build upon the diverse traditions of the past, rather than adhering to the rigid doctrines of the modernist era.