In Architecture, the idea of post modernism began as a response to the perceived flatness and failed utopianism of the modern movement. Definitive postmodern architecture rejects the notion of a pure form or perfect architectonic detail, instead evidently drawing from all methods, materials, forms and colors available to architects. Robert Robert Venturi and Charles Moore led the philosophical foundation of Post-Modernism. Disillusioned with the modernist dogma that the present is always the best, architects and the public they serve rediscovered the value and beauty of the past. They started restoring old buildings, whereas modern architecture is abstract, postmodern architecture is referential.

1. Mohammad Syedur Rahman
120116
3rd Year, Term II
POSTMODERNISM

2. Emergence of Post Modernism
The Modernist Architectural aesthetic was based on the principle of “Form
follows Function.” Instead of designing a structure around some pre-existing
meaning or form, the function of the building should have priority.
For instance, as those who worshiped in traditional (cross-shaped) churches
were always reminded, worship is a matter of being gathered into his cross.
The modernist approach to church design would first ascertain the practical
functions the building needed to fulfil – accommodate a certain number of
worshippers, classrooms for Sunday school, etc.
So, postmodernism can be defined as a challenge to (or rejection of) modern
truth claims about language, culture, history and identity, even truth itself;
tolerance of contradictions; loss of faith in conventional stories that try to
explain origins, morality, meaning or density.
In Architecture, the idea of post modernism began as a response to the
perceived flatness and failed utopianism of the modern movement. Definitive
postmodern architecture rejects the notion of a pure form or perfect
architectonic detail, instead evidently drawing from all methods, materials,
forms and colors available to architects. Robert Venturi and Charles Moore led
the philosophical foundation of Post-Modernism.
Disillusioned with the modernist dogma that the present is always the best,
architects and the public they serve rediscovered the value and beauty of the
past. They started restoring old buildings, whereas modern architecture is
abstract, postmodern architecture is referential.

3. Modern buildings look typically drab in their concrete and steel. Postmodern
high-rises often boast bright colors and rich decorative details. The
ornamentation is deliberately nonfunctional and often draws from past styles.
A contemporary building may include Art Deco touches from the 1920s or
updated classical columns or simplified Victorian Ornaments.
Here is a Table of comparison regarding the matter of emphasis of Modernism
to Post Modernism -

4. Characteristics of Post Modernism
Diverse aesthetic
Diversity of expression defines the core philosophy of
postmodern ideals. Buildings are designed not only
to deliver conventional function but also combined
with characteristics of meaning such as pluralism,
irony, paradox, and contextualism. For example,
postmodern skyscrapers are adorned with non-
conventional ledges or classical columns, something
unusual for a skyscraper to have. Such as the Sony
Tower.
The Sony Tower, formerly the AT&T Building, New York, 1982
Neo-eclecticism
Neo-eclectic architecture combines a wide
array of decorative techniques taken from
an assortment of different house styles. It is a
response to the clean
unadorned modernist styles, such as
the Mid-Century modern and Ranch-style
house that dominated North American
residential design and construction in the first
decades after the Second World War. It is an
outgrowth of postmodern architecture. It
differs from postmodernism in that it is not
creatively experimental.
Ranch-style house, North America
Allusionism
Stirling’s Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany
contains a host of historical allusions, and
responds to its site in a fashion somewhere
between the search for a genus loci, or
peculiar character of the place, and literal
deconstruction
Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart,
Germany, James Stirling

5. Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany Team Disney Building, Arato Isozaki, 1990
Colors of postmodern architecture do not necessarily follow the “color wheel
law” but there is a certain harmony that exudes from it. Often, colors are
irregular, though following a theme. An example for this is the Team Disney
Buildings designed by Michael Graves in 1991. Snow White’s Seven Dwarves
are the main attraction of the building’s entrance. The “dwarves” were
colored light brown, away from the colorful character’s people used to watch.
Contextualism
Contextualism refers to connections between the building and its setting as
Post-Modernist architects attempt 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.
National Nederlander, “Fred and Ginger”, Praque (1997), Frank Gehry

6. Ornamentalism
New ornamentalism comes in many forms, however. Some architects still can’t
stomach pattern-making for its own sake. Instead, they shuffle the windows
around, use bright colors, work with artists, or do all three simultaneously, as
another younger firm – Haworth Tompkins – have done with the Coin Street
neighborhood center in London’s Waterloo. On the Other Hand, The Piazza
d’Italia in New Orleans (1975-79) consists of a flamboyant, wildly Ne0-Classical,
neon-outlined, scenographic 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.
Piazza d’ Italia, 1979, Charles MooreCoin Street neighborhood center in
London’s Waterloo