Postmodern architecture emerged in the late 20th century as a rejection of the rigid formalism and functionalism of Modernism. It is characterized by three main things: the return of ornament and reference to historical styles; a mixing of styles and forms rather than pure aesthetics; and a preference for complexity and contradiction over obvious unity. Key Postmodern architects like Robert Venturi, Philip Johnson, Charles Moore, and Michael Graves experimented with symbolic ornament, historical references, and unexpected juxtapositions of forms. Their buildings conveyed meaning through signs and allusions to other times and philosophies. Later architects like Frank Gehry took Postmodernism in new directions through experimental deconstructed forms and unusual materials like metal alloys.

1. Late 20th and 21st Century
Architecture

2. Post-Modernism
“ Architects can no longer afford to be
intimidated by the puritanically moral
language of orthodox Modern architecture.”
– Robert Venturi

3. Outline
Postmodernism in architecture is said to be heralded by
the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to
architecture in response to the formalism of the
International Style of Modernism.
The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the
Modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics:
styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and
new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound.
Postmodern architects rediscovered past architectural
ornament and forms which had been abstracted by the
Modernist architects.
“Less is a bore.”

4. Breaking the Box of Modernism
The monolith of
Modernism began to
show hairline cracks
after WWII.
Architects surveyed the
field and found the
zeal, conviction and
utopian vision of the
pioneering Modernists
waning.The Seagram Building
Mies Van Der Rohe, 1958

5. The Reaction to
Modernism, 1950s-1970s
Postmodern architecture
began as an international
style whose first examples
are generally cited as being
from the 1950s, but did not
become a movement until
the late 1970s and
continues to influence
present-day architecture.
1000 de La Gauchetière, Montréal, Lemay
& Associates architects, 1992

6. The Emergence of Post-Modernism
• 1960s - the emergence of Post-Modernism, a way
of thinking of architecture that is quite different
from the approach of International Style
designers.
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture,
Robert Venturi, 1966 made the case for non-
straightforward architecture and glorified
Baroque architecture.
Mies Van de Rohe “Less is more “
Robert Venturi “Less is a bore”

7. Robert Venturi’s Vision
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. I include the non
sequitor and proclaim the duality.

8. The Duck and the Decorated Shed
The terms “duck” and “decorated shed” were
codified in the 1972 book Learning from Las
Vegas by Robert Venturi, his wife Denise Scott
Brown, and their friend Steven Izenour. The
book argues that there are two distinctly
different types of buildings and that all
buildings can be classified as one or the other.
Duck-shaped roadside building, Eastern Long
Island, used to sell ducks and eggs.

12. ‘Wit, ornament and reference’
Postmodernism in architecture is marked by the
return of "wit, ornament and reference" to
architecture, in opposition to the rigid formalism
of the International Style.
Signs and symbols imbue Postmodern
architecture with meaning, referencing other
times and philosophies and conveying an
attitude.

13. Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House, Pennsylvania, 1962
In this modest dwelling, Venturi combined simplicity of external form with
complexity of interior layout, and conventional symbols and elements with
contradictory arrangements. The house was constructed with intentional
formal architectural, historical and aesthetic contradictions.

14. City Hall, Mississauga, Canada , 1987
The functional and formalized shapes and
spaces of the modernist movement are
replaced by unapologetically diverse
aesthetics:
•styles collide
•form is adopted for its own sake
•new ways of viewing familiar styles and
space abound.
Postmodern architects rediscovered the
expressive and symbolic value of
architectural elements and forms that had
evolved through centuries of building—
often maintaining meaning in literature,
poetry and art—but which had been
abandoned by the modern movement.

15. Modernism vs. Post Modernism
• Modernist architects may regard
postmodern buildings as vulgar,
associated with a populist ethic, and
sharing the cluttered design elements
of shopping malls
• This contrast was exemplified in the
juxtaposition of the "whites" against
the "grays," in which the "whites"
were seeking to continue (or revive)
the modernist tradition of purism
and clarity, ...
• The divergence in opinions comes
down to a difference in goals:
modernism is rooted in minimal and
true use of material as well as
absence of ornament...
• ...while Postmodern architects may
regard many modern buildings as
soulless and bland, overly simplistic
and abstract.
• ...while the "grays" were embracing a
more multifaceted cultural vision,
seen in Robert Venturi's statement
rejecting the "black or white" world
view of modernism in favor of "black
and white and sometimes gray."
• ... While postmodernism is a
rejection of strict rules set by the
early modernists and seeks meaning
and expression in the use of building
techniques, forms, and stylistic
references.

16. The ‘Post-Modern’ Architects
• Robert Venturi
• Philip Johnson
• Charles Moore
• Michael Graves
• Robert A.M. Stern
• James Stirling
• Frank Gehry

17. Philip Johnson
1906 -2005
Left: Pazzi Chapel, Brunelleschi, Florence, 1441
No 20th century architect has
received more attention for
his historicism than Philip
Johnson, nor has any
architect practiced or indeed
lived longer than he has.
In 1984, Johnson brought
focus to the Postmodernist
age, with his AT&T
Headquarters in New York
City.
At its base is a giant
Palladian window, which has
been compared by some to
the facade of Brunelleschi’s
Pazzi Chapel, and at its
crown a broken pediment,
which has been compared to
a grandfather’s clock or 18th
century highboy.

18. AT&T Building, New York
1984
With this building and its references to
architectural styles of the past,
Philip Johnson broke completely
with the Miesian tradition. In fact,
his client had said emphatically
that the company did not want
another glass box. Philip Johnson and John Burgee, American Telephone
and Telegraph Headquarters, New York, 1984.
The Miesian
Tradition

19. The Bank of America Center,
Houston, 1984 (Philip
Johnson and John Burgee),
combines architecture
elements of pre-WWII Art
Deco skyscrapers with
elements of modern
aesthetics.

20. Charles Moore
1925-1993
The Piazza d’Italia in
New Orleans (1975-79)
consists of a
flamboyant, wildly Neo-
Classical, neon-
outlined, set-like
backdrop for a contour
map of Italy set in a
pool of water that is
demarcated by
concentric rings of
marble paving. It is
much spectacle as
architecture.

21. Piazza d’ Italia, 1979
Moore brought to Post-
Modernism a gentle but studied
playfulness that made his
buildings immediately accessible
to the public and professionals
alike. Moore took pleasure in
historical allusions, but with
large doses of whimsy and irony.
Irony: making a point
by expressing the
opposite point-of-
view in an
exaggerated manner.
Sarcasm: Irony
employed in the
service of mocking or
attacking someone

22. Michael Graves
1934-2015
Graves describes his work as
‘figurative’, with the figural
elements traceable to
‘classical and
anthropomorphic sources’.
The Portland Building in
Portland, Oregon (1980) is
replete with quotations from
the classical language: the
giant keystone beneath the
roof, the pair of fluted
pilasters of indeterminate
order, and the tiered
stylobate (stepped platform
that a Greek temple rests
upon) at street level.
The Portland Building in Portland, Oregon
(1980)

23. The Portland Building, Oregon,
1984
Graves was also a force in reintroducing color
into 20th c architecture, as here with the green
base, the terracotta-colored columns, and the
tan flanking walls punctured by square
windows.

24. Swan and Dolphin Hotel
Michael Graves
Walt Disney World,
Orlando, Florida, 1987
(Inspired by the designs of
Étienne-Louis Boullée)

25. Michael Graves Projects, 1980s
A Private Residence
Celebration Florida Fire Station

26. Saint Coletta School, Washington D.C., 2006

27. Team Disney Burbank, California, 1991.
Michael Graves designed the building, which features large figures of the dwarves
from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on its facade acting as caryatids.

28. Various home appliance products for commercial outlets
Michael Graves

29. Robert A.M. Stern (b 1939)
The Newport Bay Club Hotel (1992) is a hotel situated at the Disneyland Resort
Paris, designed by Robert A.M. Stern. A symbolic gateway to the resort, it
harkens back to a New England archetype, with its white clapboard exterior,
porches, woodwork and nautical memorabilia. Its name was derived from the
town of Newport, Rhode Island.

30. Post-Modernism defined by Robert Stern:
contextualism, allusionism, and ornamentalism.
Contextualism refers to
connections between
the building and its
setting, as Post-
Modernist architects
attempted to link their
buildings to established
patterns, geometries,
and possibilities for
future growth, rather
than conceiving each
design as an isolated
object in the landscape,
as many would argue
that Modernists did.
Residence in Edgartown.

31. Post-Modernism defined by Robert Stern:
contextualism, allusionism, and ornamentalism.
Allusionism in Post-
Modernism is an
emphasis on earlier
works or styles of
architecture, allowing
the designer to
express a desire to
revive the ideologies
of earlier works.
Ornamentalism is a
revival of architectural
ornament marking a
reaction against the
machine aesthetic of
Modernism.
Residence in Edgartown.
Residence in North York.

32. Robert Stern Projects
One of the entrances to the Walt Disney World Casting Center, across the road from Downtown Disney. The
architectural design is by Robert Stern, with its castle-like influences and Mickey Mouse shapes.
Stern has written at length about classicism, calling it the “fulcrum about which architectural discourse
balances” and has built in a variety of traditional styles.
Walt Disney World Casting Center.Nesbitt House.

34. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany 1984
Stirling’s Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany contains a host of historical allusions; he
alludes to classical architecture with his Greek or Roman pediments, Egyptian
cornices, and his Mannerist stonework. Sterling said he was “sick and tired of the
boring, meaningless, non-committed, faceless flexibility and open-endedness of the
present architecture.” The rotunda of the Staatsgalerie (above, left) resembles an
excavated classical site.
James Stirling
(1926-1992)

35. Deconstructivism
“ Deconstruction… always depends for its meaning on that
which is previously constructed. It always posits an
orthodoxy which it ‘subverts,’ a norm which it breaks, an
assumption and ideology which it undermines.”
-Charles Jencks, American architectural theorist and critic

36. Frank Gehry born 2929
Frank Gehry’s residence in Santa Monica, California (1977-78), is a confused
composition of a variety of materials poring forth from an early 20th century
bungalow, and resembles an active construction site, rather than an occupied
structure.

37. Gehry’s work shares
a kinship with early
20th century Russian
Constructivism

38. Team Disneyland Administration Building,
Anaheim,California, 1995
Seen from the freeway, its
flat, quilted metal facade
appears to be quite
conventional, its regularity
broken only by slight offsets
in the stacking of windows
and the mottled color-
scheme.
To the rear however, the buildings massing
becomes curvilinear, warped, even delusional,
as canary-yellow walls bend, lean forward, and
lean back, their canopies equally disfigured, as
if a result of a recent seismic event.

39. Nationale Nederlanden Building, “Fred and Ginger”, Prague (1997)
Here, within a historic context, Gehry took motion as his theme for a corner
building that twists and projects in space with an energy expressive of the
opening up of Eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

40. The entrance tower of concrete columns bundled in glass seem to sway as if part of an
urban choreography in step with the surrounding buildings and space, hence the “Fred
and Ginger” nickname. The result, is surprisingly contextual, acknowledging the adjacent
medieval towers and Baroque facades and domes.

41. This museum has aroused a kind of popular and critical interest equalled by few other 20th
century buildings. Gehry’s exhilarating structure replaced dock facilities on a site adjacent to
the Nervión river in an industrial city. The museum’s form radiates out of a four-story mass,
as “pleated petals” of titanium attached to a steel skeleton. The building acts as a mirror,
reflecting both the surrounding city and portions of itself. Metallic and luminescent, it
hovers and shimmers at the edge of a hard-edged urban vista.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (1997)

42. Gehry explodes his buildings, breaking them up into discrete volumes in a
way that, to some, reflects the fragmentation of modern society.

45. The play of light on the facets of the
metal causes the character of the
building to change dramatically with
the changing position of the sun and
changing atmospheric conditions.