26.01.2012 1 CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Postmodernism, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi Philippe Johnson Hans Hollein James Stirling Week 14 • Modernist architecture –when the cube was king- didn‘t age well. 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. In scaling up from the margins to the mainstream, Modernism went awry. Buildings heralded as avant-garde in the 1930s lost their edge when mass-produced in the postwar building boom. The glass box, built cheaply and without distinguishing nuances, became an emblem of corporate capitalism and conformity. • What shook up the architectural world and broke the stranglehold of slick, geometric forms was a book by Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction (1966). ―Architecture,‖ the Philadelphia architect declared, ―is evolutionary as well as revolutionary.‖ Venturi challenged architects to create buildings reflecting historical and local styles rather than anonymous, austere facades that scorned the past. The book unleashed what architect Rem Koolhaas called ―an enormous rebirth of detailing.‖ • During the 1970s and ‘80s, buildings termed Postmodern were decorated not only with color – but with a pastiche of cutesy Classical elements like slightly out-of-whack columns. Architects liberally tacked on miscellaneous borrowings from all periods of history. Sleek was gone. ―Anything goes‖ was booming. • By the 1990s, picturesque Po-Mo had been so overdone, plastered on every suburban strip mall facade, it was declared passé. The next thing was Deconstructivism, a cerebral style of spiky angles and fractured forms. Decon practitioners claimed the style reflected cultural chaos at the end of the millennium. • Since 1960s, the mainstream has split into multiple branches. Diversity reigns, with a push for sustainable (environment-friendly) design gaining ground.
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26.01.2012
1
CONTEMPORARY
ARCHITECTURE
Postmodernism, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi
Philippe Johnson
Hans Hollein
James Stirling
Week 14
• Modernist architecture –when the cube was king- didn‘t age well. 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. In scaling up from the margins to the mainstream, Modernism went awry. Buildings heralded as
avant-garde in the 1930s lost their edge when mass-produced in the postwar building boom. The glass
box, built cheaply and without distinguishing nuances, became an emblem of corporate capitalism and
conformity.
• What shook up the architectural world and broke the stranglehold of slick, geometric forms was a book
by Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction (1966). ―Architecture,‖ the Philadelphia architect
declared, ―is evolutionary as well as revolutionary.‖ Venturi challenged architects to create buildings
reflecting historical and local styles rather than anonymous, austere facades that scorned the past. The
book unleashed what architect Rem Koolhaas called ―an enormous rebirth of detailing.‖
• During the 1970s and ‘80s, buildings termed Postmodern were decorated not only with color – but with a
pastiche of cutesy Classical elements like slightly out-of-whack columns. Architects liberally tacked on
miscellaneous borrowings from all periods of history. Sleek was gone. ―Anything goes‖ was booming.
• By the 1990s, picturesque Po-Mo had been so overdone, plastered on every suburban strip mall facade,
it was declared passé. The next thing was Deconstructivism, a cerebral style of spiky angles and
fractured forms. Decon practitioners claimed the style reflected cultural chaos at the end of the
millennium.
• Since 1960s, the mainstream has split into multiple branches. Diversity reigns, with a push for
After the big disconnect of Modernism when the past was flung on the rubbish heap of history, Post-
Modern architects reconnected with the styles of yesteryear in a big way. But how could one connect in
a multicultural world? When ethnic groups refused to blend into a melting pot but remain stubbornly distinct,
the only valid style is collage. A strategy of juxtaposition replaced forced harmony and unity. Although
historical motifs like faux-Palladian windows were everywhere, ornamentation was pluralist. Strict imitation of
the past was uncool. Po-Mo is eclecticism with a wing.
Theorists call it double-coding. Which basically means Po-Mo architects used past elements self-
consciously—transformed, distorted, pumped up in scale, and drenched with ambiguity and irony. There is
always a subtext of ―Sure, I am using an arch, but it is MY arch, so it is hip, not history.‖
Leading Post-modern architects like Venturi, Charles Moore, Michael Graves, Hans Hollein,
Philip Johnson and Ricardo Bofill encrusted their buildings with historical or vernacular allusions→
architectural ornament returned with a vengeance.
Po-Mo architecture connects directly with the public, a major aim. Instead of faceless, bland
Modernism (considered prissy ―either/or‖ absolutism, according to Venturi), Post-Modernism embraces the
multiplicity of ―both/and.‖ It is an exclusive, accessible style communicating readily with a public turned off by
sterile Modernism.
Probably because it proved popular and easily commercialized, Po-Mo elicited huffy putdowns from
critics, Hilton Kramer termed it ―ersatz contrivance,‖ a style of architectural one-liners‖ without subtlety or
depth. It has been called ―bimbo‖ architecture, obsessed with gimmicks of surface decoration, a packed
version of history that appeals to a sensation- hungry public.
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MOORE AND MORE
• For Charles Moore (1925-1993), an archetypal Post-Modernist who heaped on multiple allusions, more was never enough. An outspoken opponent of anonymous bedroom suburbs and interchangeable cities, Moore wanted architecture to recapture a lost ―sense of place.‖ each commission was an opportunity to highlight what the ancients called ―genius loci,‖ or special attributes of a site. 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 wings. Slanted woods both deflect wind and collect sun light.
Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull & Whitaker, Sea Ranch, CA, 1966
Piazza d'Italia, Charles Moore, New Orleans, Louisiana
Most of Moore‘s buildings have a theatrical flair.
They are whimsical playful —impish as Moore
himself. The structure that best shows this
flamboyance is the Piazza d‘Italia (1975-1978) in
New Orleans. Brightly colored superficial as a
Hollywood stage set, the composition of arcades,
fountains, and mosaics has all the exuberance of
this carnival city, where ―Laissez les bons temps
rouler‖ (let the good times roll) is the motto.
Moore stressed the need for “joy” in
architecture. An omnivorous usurper of
historical forms, he considered himself
somewhere between “litmus paper and a
piranha fish" in his relation to high and
low culture.
Piazza d’Italia (1975-1978) ,
New Orleans,
By Charles Moore.
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Moore‘s structures were often
made of ephemeral materials—
plywood and stucco— because
they were cheaper and lighter.
Some, like Piazza d‘Italia, have
suffered from the passage of
time. For Moore, permanence
was not attainable. He lamented
the ―presence of absence‖ —
the loss of identity in our
increasingly homogenized
culture, which he tried to rectify.
At his memorial service, a New
Orleans jazz band played to
honor the architect who brought
honor and humanism to design
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Moore alluded to historical motifs
only to spoof them. His capitals
consist of water jets shaping Corinthian
―leaves.‖ Stainless-steel Ionic volutes
and streams of water flowing down
columns to suggest fluting are a
mischievous takeoff on Classical style.
In a high-camp parody, medallions
shaped like Moore‘s head spout water.
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GRAVES:
METAPHOR MAN
Michael Graves (b.1934), who
originally wished to be a painter,
color-codes his building 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, albeit
adorned with his personal
interpretation of Classical motifs. He
wants his architecture to be ―capable
of being read by anybody.‖
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Portland Building, Michael Graves,1982
Michael Graves (b.1934) designed the first major
postmodern building, the Portland Public Services
Building (1979-82).He has said that he designs as if
he were a child, and the building looks like a toy
block colored with crayon. Classical elements were
vastly overscaled, like seven-storey pilasters
topped by huge brackets and a three-storey key
stone. In a Post-Modern touch, the fluting in the
pilasters and ―joints‖ of the keystone are really
bands of ribbon windows. Applied ornament
consists of abstracted swags and garlands, also
inflated enormously.
Portland Building, Michael Graves,1982
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Portland Building, Michael Graves,1982
Hu
man
a B
uild
ing
, Lo
uisv
ille,
Mic
hael
Gra
ves,
198
5
Each side of the building has slightly different designs.
The form of the upper few floors are designed as a sloping
pyramid. The building is famous because of the flat pink
granite that covered the exterior façade.
The loggia on the building‘s north facade is respectful to
the older downtown architecture, and in a way continues
the storefront line of the original street fabric.
The large, curved portion towards the top of the building is actually an open-air observation deck. The outermost point of the circle
has space for a few people at a time to be surrounded by glass, allowing for a spectacular view of the Ohio River and down Main Street.
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Swan & Dolphin Hotel, Orlando Florida, Michael Graves, 1990
ROBERT VENTURI & DENNIS SCOTT BROWN
Robert Venturi might be
considered as one of the
fathers of Postmodern
architecture. He is a pivotal
figure for the postwar
American Architecture. He
is also known for coining
the maxim "Less is a bore"
as antidote to Mies van der
Rohe's famous modernist
dictum "Less is more".
Together with his wife,
Dennis Scoot Brown,
Venturis are running an
architectural office and their
designs forced the
American architects and
planners to reconsider the
Modernist sway of
architectural practice, and
to perform a more humanist
architecture that belongs to
American traditions.
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Guild House – THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ORDINARY: As Robert Venturi stated ―The pretensions of the ‗giant order‘ on the front,
the symmetrical, palazzo-like composition with its three monumental stories (as well as its six real stories), topped by a piece of
sculpture—or almost sculpture—suggest something of the heroic and original. It is true that in this case the heroic and original
facade is somewhat ironical, but it is this juxtaposition of contrasting symbols—the appliqué of one order of symbols on
another—that constitutes for us the decorated shed. This is what makes Guild House an architect’s decorated shed—not
architecture without architects. — Robert Venturi. from Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas. p70.
―The purest decorated shed would be some form of conventional systems-building shelter that corresponds closely to
the space, structure, and program requirements of the architecture, and upon which is laid a contrasting—and if in the
nature of the circumstances, contradictory—decoration. In Guild House the ornamental-symbolic elements are more or
less appliqué: The planes and stripes of white brick are appliqué; the street facade through its disengagement at the top
corners implies its separation from the bulk of the shed at the front. (This quality also implies continuity, and therefore
unity, with the street line of facades of the other older, non-freestanding buildings on each side.) The symbolism of the
decoration happens to be ugly and ordinary with a dash of ironic heroic and original, and the shed is straight
ugly and ordinary, though in its brick and windows it is symbolic too.…”— Robert Venturi. from Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas. p70.
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In the world of
architecture, Guild
House is one of the
most famous
buildings of the 20th
century. As John
Farnham, Ph.D., of
the Historical
Commission noted in
his outstanding
nomination essay,
Guild House is not
just an important
example of a style
of architecture, it
defined the
architectural style
of the late 20th
century known as
Post Modernism.
Robert Venturi said, "I had fun doing 'wrong' things with this building. While everyone
else was putting up Corbusian slabs, I wanted this to fit into the existing neighborhood.
I put in an arch, a column, a sign for heaven's sake, and said I know I'm going to
architectural hell. But the client was completely supportive, and the residents, then and