Design and Postmodernism Reading – B.A. Robert Venturi Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbolism of architectural form. 1972.
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Design and Postmodernism
Reading – B.A.
Robert Venturi
Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbolism of architectural
form.
1972
CCS Tutorials
• 10.00am• 11.00am• First Year Studio• This week:• Groups 3 and 4• Marks correlate directly with
seminar attendance
Design:Raizman, D. A history of modern design. Graphics and products since the industrial revolution. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd; 2004, pp353-62. (See also: Chapter 14)
Woodham, J. M. Twentieth Century Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1997, pp183-203.
Fine Art:Honour H, Fleming J. A World History of Art. 7th ed. London: Laurence King Publishing; Edition, 2005. N.B. Search Index on Postmodernism and ‘Modernism and Postmodernism’.
Website:Robert Venturi biography on the Pritzkerprize website
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/venturi.htm
VideoCulture Fix: Postmodernism (videocassette). London: BBC; 2001.
All books, videos…on Stage 1 CCS Bibliographies, are on the
Academic Reserve
• Look up title in online Library Catalogue: iLink
• Write down Shelf Number (eg 709 HON) and take this to Staff at one-stop desk on entry floor of Library
• On receipt of book etc, make sure you check the deadline for return. Fines are expensive !
Postmodernism in Design...• rejects what were viewed as the Modernist dictates of the design
establishment• built on 60s rejection of the values inherent in the Modern
Movement• Acknowledges consumer culture; earliest manifestations in 60s
and 70s Pop and Italian Radical Design• foregrounds the consumer and emphasises the idea of design as
communication• stresses the importance of signs and symbols as a means of
reviving communication through design• argues that the richness of historic and contemporary cultural
tradition must be acknowledged once more• finds its signs and symbols in the international visual language of
history but equally in vernacular design and popular culture • values irony and wit and often requires or assumes recognition of
its quotations to achieve this – communication through a universal language
• is indebted to mid-century semiotic theory• is indebted to 1970’s architectural theory
What is Postmodernism?• it is an academic term applied within a wide
range of fields – philosophy, cultural studies, linguistics, literature, art and design history.........
• it identifies a new phase of social and cultural development, citing as key factors; the dominance of visual and mass media; the development of digital technology and an information society; the importance of consumption and the consumer
To begin
In its simplest form postmodernism is most clearly
understood in terms of its rejection of the values, forms and theories associated with Modernism or Modernity
Modernism in design and architecture
• rejected the forms and values of a previous age – particularly the revival of historic styles, ornamentation and decoration
• offered a democratic and utopian solution to the problems of mass production – good design for all
• argued that aesthetic beauty would naturally arise out of reason and “truth” – embodied in ideas such as form follows function, truth to materials
• evolved a simple, pure and unifying aesthetic reflected in Mies Van Der Rohe’s dictum, “less is more”
From design as solution to
design as communication
60’s and 70’s• Pop and Radical Design• Semiotic theory• Complexity and Contradiction in
Architecture. Robert Venturi. 1966• Learning from Las Vegas. Robert Venturi,
Denise Scott Brown..., 1972• The Language of Postmodern Architecture,
1973, Charles Jencks
Semiotics
Roland Barthes‘Mythologies’1957 French1972 English
"Every object in the world can pass from a closed, silent existence to an oral state"
Barthes, R., Mythologies, New York, Hill and Wang, 1998, p.109
"We shall therefore take language, discourse, speech etc., to mean any significant unit or
synthesis, whether verbal or visual: a photograph will be a kind of speech for us in the same way as a
newspaper article; even objects will become speech"
Ibid., p.109
Architectural theory
Robert Venturi
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. 1966
Learning from Las Vegas. 1972
“Blatant simplification means bland architecture. Less is a
bore”
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. 1966
“Architecture can no longer afford to be intimidated by the puritanically moral language of orthodox Modern architecture. I like elements which are hybrid rather
than pure, compromising rather than clean, distorted rather than straightforward, ambiguous rather than
articulated, perverse as well as impersonal, boring as well as interesting, conventional rather than designed, accommodating rather than excluding, redundant rather
than simple, vestigial as well as innovating, inconsistent and equivocal rather than direct and clear. I am for
messy vitality over obvious unity”
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. 1966
“there are didactic images more important than the images of recreation for us to take
home to New Jersey or Iowa: one is the Avis with the Venus: another Jack Benny under a
classical pediment with Shell Oil beside him...These show the vitality that may be
achieved by an architecture of inclusion, or, by contrast the deadness that results from
too great a preoccupation with tastefulness and total design
Learning from Las Vegas. 1972
Robert Venturi. Architect and theorist
Charles Jencks. Architect and theoristColosseum Chair and Stool. 1984
Memphis. Established late 1980Group portrait. 1982
Memphis• makes extensive use of plastic laminates –
formerly a metaphor for “bad taste”• references popular culture and vernacular design
extensively• adopts an anti-modernist use of colour, decoration
and surface design• makes repeated ironic reference to modernism and
functionalism• blurs the boundaries between art and design• chaotic, riotous mixing of materials and forms –
anti-unity, maximum creativity
“Memphis. The new Made in Italy, which draws from global culture, from real time, from computers and television by
satellite. Thus, Sottsass and his associates have shown us the way
out of the cul-de-sac of the Bauhaus”
Ettore Sottsass. Memphis MilanoCarlton Bookshelf. 1981
Ettore Sottsass. Memphis Casablanca Buffet. 1981
Nathalie Du Pasquier. MemphisArizona carpet. 1983
Javier Mariscal. MemphisHilton Trolley. 1981
Memphis furniture. 1983
Culture Fix: Postmodernism.(videocassette) BBC. 2001
Video to be placed on Academic Reserve
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