This document provides an overview of Postmodern architecture. It discusses key characteristics such as complexity and contradiction, fragmentation, asymmetrical forms, use of color and ornamentation, humor, and contextualism. Notable Postmodern architects and some of their works are listed. Theories of Postmodernism emphasizing eclecticism and the return of ornament are presented. Regional styles from around the world that moved beyond Modernism are also briefly described, along with related movements like Deconstructivism, Expressive Rationalism, and eco-architecture.

1. POST MODERNISM
“I speak of a complex and
contradictory architecture based
on the richness and ambiguity of
modern experience, including that
experience which is inherent in
art. … I welcome the problems
and exploit the uncertainties. … I
like elements which are hybrid
rather than "pure", compromising
rather than "clean", …
accommodating rather than
excluding. … I am for messy
vitality over obvious unity. … I
prefer "both-and" to "either-or",
black and white, and sometimes
gray, to black or white. … An
architecture of complexity and
contradiction must embody the
difficult unity of inclusion rather
than the easy unity of exclusion.”

2. Sydney Opera House, Sydney by Jorn Utzon (1957-1973)

3. 550 Madison Avenue,
Manhattan-Philip Johnson,
(1982)

4. Glass house Pavilion for the
Glass House in Connecticut-
Philip Johnson (1995)

5. Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and
Technology in Cracow, Poland, by Arata
Isozaki and Krzysztof Ingarden (1994)

6. Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia by Robert Venturi (1964)

7. Portland Building , Oregon,
Michael Graves-1982

8. Beverly Hills Civic Center, California by Charles Moore (1990)

9. Norton Beach House,
Venice, California by
Frank Gehry (1983)

10. History Faculty Library,
Cambridge-James Stirling
(1968)

11. Bonnefantenmuseum,
Netherlands-Aldo Rossi-1995

12. About
• Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a
reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture,
particularly in the international style.
• The style flourished from the 1980s through the 1990s, particularly in the work of
Venturi, Philip Johnson, Charles Moore and Michael Graves. In the late 1990s it
divided into a multitude of new tendencies, including high-tech architecture, neo-
classicism and deconstructivism.
• Postmodern architecture emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the perceived
shortcomings of modern architecture, particularly its rigid doctrines, its uniformity,
its lack of ornament, and its habit of ignoring the history and culture of the cities
where it appeared. The architect and architectural historian Robert Venturi led the
attack in 1966 in his book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.
• Created out of a wholesale rethink of core modernist values,
Postmodern architecture came as part of a philosophical shift that was just as all-
encompassing as the Modernism it sought to replace; aiming to revive historical or
traditional ideas and bring a more contextual approach to design.

13. Characteristics-Complexity and Contradiction
• In place of the modernist doctrines of simplicity as expressed by Mies in his
famous "less is more;" and functionality, "form follows function" and the doctrine
of Le Corbusier that "a house is a machine to live in," postmodernism, in the
words Robert Venturi, offered complexity and contradiction.
• Postmodern buildings had curved forms, decorative elements, asymmetry, bright
colors, and features often borrowed from earlier periods. Colors and textures
unrelated to the structure of function of the building. It called 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 Viennese secession, the British arts and crafts movement, the
German Jugendstil.
• James Stirling the architect of the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany
(1984), described the style as "representation and abstraction, monumental and
informal, traditional and high-tech."

14. The Neue Staatsgalerie by James Stirling in Stuttgart,
Germany (1977-84)

16. Characteristics-Fragmentation
• Postmodern architecture often breaks large buildings into several different
structures and forms, sometimes representing different functions of those parts
of the building. With the use of different materials and styles, a single building
can appear like a small town or village. An example is the Staditsches Museum by
Hans Hollein in Munich (1972–74).

17. Museum Abteiberg, Germany by Hans Hollein (1972–82)

18. Wexner Center of Arts, Ohio by Peter Eisenman (1989)

19. Characteristics-Asymmetrical and Oblique
Forms
• Asymmetrical forms are one of the trademarks of postmodernism. In 1968 the
French architect Claude Parent and philosopher Paul Virilio designed a church,
Saint-Bernadette-du-Banlay in Nevers, France, in the form of a massive block of
concrete leaning to one side.
• Describing the form, they wrote: "a diagonal line on a white page can be a hill, or
a mountain, or slope, an ascent, or a descent." Parent's buildings were inspired in
part by concrete German blockhouses he discovered on the French coast which
had slid down the cliffs, but were perfectly intact, with leaning walls and sloping
floors. Postmodernist compositions are rarely symmetrical, balanced and orderly.
Oblique buildings which tilt, lean, and seem about to fall over are common

20. The Church of Banlay-Sainte-
Bernadette in Nevers, France, by
Claude Parent (1968)

22. Characteristics-Colour
• Colour is an important element in many postmodern buildings, to give the
facades variety and personality sometimes colored glass is used, or ceramic tiles,
or stone. The buildings of Mexican architect Luis Barragan offer bright sunlight
colors that give life to the forms.

23. Interior of
Cambridge Judge
Business School in
Cambridge, UK by
John Outram
(1995)

24. Characteristics-Humour and Camp
• Humour is a particular feature of many postmodern buildings, particularly in the
United States. An example is the Binoculars Building in the Venice neighborhood
of Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry in collaboration with the sculptor Claes
Oldenberg (1991–2001).
• The gateway of the building is in the form of an enormous pair of binoculars; cars
enter the garage passing under the binoculars. "Camp" humour was popular
during the postmodern period; it was an ironic humor based on the premise that
something could appear so bad (such as a building that appeared about to
collapse) that it was good.
• The American critic Susan Sontag in 1964 defined camp as a style which put its
accent on the texture, the surface, and style to the detriment of the content,
which adored exaggeration, and things which were not what they seemed.
Postmodern architecture sometimes used the same sense of theatricality, sense
of the absurd and exaggeration of forms

25. Humor. Binoculars Building, Los Angeles by Frank Gehry
and sculptor Claes Oldenberg (1991-2001)

27. Theories
• The characteristics of postmodernism allow its aim to be expressed in diverse
ways. These characteristics include the use of sculptural forms, ornaments,
anthropomorphism. These physical characteristics are combined with conceptual
characteristics of meaning. These characteristics of meaning include pluralism,
flying buttresses and high ceilings, irony and paradox, and contextualism.
• Postmodern architecture as an international style – the first examples of which
are generally cited as being from the 1950s – but did not become a movement
until the late 1970sand continues to influence present-day architecture.
• Postmodernity 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. As with many cultural movements, some of
Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture.

28. Theories
• 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. Perhaps most
obviously, architects rediscovered past architectural ornament and forms which
had been abstracted by the Modernist architects.
• Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic, where
reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively
unornamented modern styles.
• This eclecticism is often combined with the use of non-orthogonal angles and
unusual surfaces, most famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling
and the Piazza d'Italia by Charles Moore. The Scottish Parliament Building in
Edinburgh has also been cited as being of postmodern vogue.

29. Some Postmodern Architects
Charles Correa
Peter Eisenman
Frank Gehry
Michael Graves
Philip Johnson
Charles Moore
César Pelli
Kevin Roche
Aldo Rossi
James Stirling
Robert Venturi

30. AROUND THE GLOBE-BEYOND MODERNISM
REGIONALISM

31. Luis Barragan- Casa Barragan, Mexico City, New Mexico
1947
MOOD

32. Oscar Neimeyer, Plaza of the Three Towers, Brasilia, Brazil
1958
INVENTIVE FORMS

33. Glenn Murcutt, Ball-Eastaway House, New Soth Wales,
Australia (1980-1983)
CLIMATE

34. Geoffrey Bawa, Parliament Building, Colombo, Sri Lanka
1980-83
IDENTITY

35. Raj Rewal, Asian Games Housing, New Delhi, India
1980-82
LOCAL TYPOLOGIES

36. DECONSTRUCTIVISM

37. Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum, Berlin (1989-96)
METAPHOR

39. Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, opened 1997
FRAGMENTATION

40. National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome, Opened 2010
FLOWING CURVES

41. ECO-ARCHITECTURE

42. Toyo Ito, Kaohsiung National Stadium, Taiwan,
completed 2009
FLOWING CURVES

43. Edward Cullinan Architects, Download
Gridshell, Weald and Download Museum,
Sussex, England 1996-2007
TRADITIONAL MATERIALS

44. EXPRESSIVE RATIONALISM

45. Herzog and De Meuron, National Stadium,
Beijing, 2003-2008
COMPLEXITY

46. OMA, Seattle Central Library 1999-2004
BIGNESS