SSAA History Class

1. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
History of Architecture-II (AP-313)
POSTMODERNISM
Part II
LECTURE 10
Nipesh P Narayanan
ImageSource:http://www.statelykitsch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MH-sketch.jpg[Online]

2. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
HOW IS ARCHITECTURE PERCEIVED?

3. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
• Metaphor
– Culture based common symbols
– Appropriation of symbols
• Words
– Architectural elements – doors, windows, columns
• Syntax
– Grammar (System)
• Semantics
– Appropriate usage of symbols/words (Meaning)
THE MODES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNICATION ~CHARLES JENCKS

4. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
METAPHOR
ImageSource:TheLanguageofPost-ModernArchitecture~CharlesJencks[pg48-49]
Ronchamp Chapel, France , Le Corbusier, 1955

5. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
METAPHOR
ImageSource:TheLanguageofPost-ModernArchitecture~CharlesJencks[pg48-49]
Ronchamp Chapel, France , Le Corbusier, 1955

6. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
WORDS AND SYNTAX
India Gate, New Delhi
ImageSource:http://spectralhues.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/India-Gate.jpg

7. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
SEMANTICS
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg[Online]
Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia , Robert Venturi, 1959-64

8. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
“Modern Architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972 at
3:32 PM (or thereabouts) when the in-famous Pruitt-Igoe scheme, or
rather several of its slab blocks, were given the final coup de gráce by
dynamite.”
~ Charles Jencks (1987)
DEATH OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE! (Ar. Minoru Yamasaki)
ImageSource:http://www.pruitt-igoe.com/press/print/3000px_IconicImplosion_Pruitt-IgoeMyth_Credit-STL-Post-
Dispatch.jpg[Online]

9. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
1. History
2. Pretty Drawings
3. Utility (Usefulness)
“They say a building is good architecture if it works. Of course, this is poppy-
cock. All buildings work…..merely that a building works is not sufficient. You
expect that it works….But when it’s used as a crutch it impedes. It lulls you
into thinking that that is architecture”
4. Comfort
5. Cheapness
6. Serving the Client
7. Structure
“Why not realize that architecture is the sum of inescapable artistic
decisions that YOU have to make”
1954 -THE SEVEN CRUTCHES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE ~Philip Johnson

10. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
“*Johnson’s+ first, tentative break with Mies was the Synagogue….
outside a startling simplification recalling of those of Ledoux, on the
inside memories of the Soane Museum. These historical quotes are
located within a black picture-frame of Meiesian steel..” ~ C Jencks
1956 -THE SYNAGOGUES IN PORT CHESTER ~Philip Johnson
ImageSource:http://blog.tobiaspartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Kneses-Tifereth-Israel-Synagogue-Port-Chester-NY-1956.jpg
[ONLINE]

11. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
1956 -THE SYNAGOGUES IN PORT CHESTER ~Philip Johnson
ImageSource:http://observatory.designobserver.com/media/images/IMG_4913_2_525_525.jpg[ONLINE]

12. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
THE MOULDINGS AND TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS
ImageSource:http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-Scott-Brown-North-Penn-Visiting-
Nurses-Association-1963_800.jpg[ONLINE]
Robert Venturi, Headquarter Building, North Penn Visiting
Nurses Association, 1960

13. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
WHY THE MOULDINGS AND TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS?

14. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
WHERE IS THE ENTRANCE?
ImageSource:http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-Scott-Brown-North-Penn-Visiting-
Nurses-Association-1963_800.jpg[ONLINE]

15. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
WHERE IS THE ENTRANCE?
ImageSource:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/VillaSavoye.jpg[ONLINE]

16. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
THE ORNAMENT DISCUSSION
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Barcelona_Pavilion,_Barcelona,_2010.jpg[ONLINE]
Barcelona,1929
“Less is More”
~ Mies Van Der Rohe

17. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
THE ORNAMENT DISCUSSION
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Barcelona_Pavilion,_Barcelona,_2010.jpg[ONLINE]
AT&TBuilding,NY,1984
“Mies is such a genius! But I grew old! And bored! My direction is
clear; eclectic tradition. This is not academic revivalism. There are no
Classic orders or Gothic finials. I try to pick up what I like throughout
history. We cannot not know history”
~ Philip Johnson (1965)

18. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
• Duck
– Meaning Conveyed by
Architectural Symbols
• Decorated Shell
– Meaning conveyed by Signage
DUCK AND DECORATED SHELL!
ImageSource:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EEGFY1QRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg[Online]
1966

19. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?
ImageSource:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9kfkmTgtXWo/TtmCPtKqsvI/AAAAAAAACZg/3TuGFYBa000/s1600/tailopup.jpg
[Online]

20. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?
ImageSource:http://travelphotobase.com/i/USNV/NVV2703.JPG[Online]

21. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?
ImageSource:http://www.dezeen.com/2013/11/05/nesher-memorial-auditorium-and-gallery-by-so-architecture/[Online]

22. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
DUCK OR DECORATED SHELL?
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg[Online]

23. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE ~ R Venturi (1966)
Visual preferences in opposition to modernism
• Complexity and contradiction VS Simplification
• Ambiguity and tension rather than straightforwardness
• ‘both-and’ rather than ‘either-or’
• Hybrid rather than pure elements
• Messy vitality rather than obvious unity

24. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
FRANKLIN COURT
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VVenturi_House_Highsmith.jpeg[Online]
Philadelphia , Robert Venturi, 1972-76

25. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
FRANKLIN COURT
ImageSource:http://www.uwishunu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BF-Museum-BF-Itinerary-680uw.jpg[Online]
Philadelphia , Robert Venturi, 1972-76

26. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
JENCKS AND THE READING OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE
• Straight Revivalism
• Neo-Vernacular
• Metaphor and Metaphysics
• Radical Eclecticism
• Post-Modern Classicism

27. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
STRAIGHT REVIVALISM
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gurna_Mosque_R01.jpg[Online]
Mosque, Luxor, Egypt, Hassan Fathy (1948)

28. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
NEO VERNACULAR
ImageSource:http://www.architectureguide.nl/media/large/d5/B08PR.jpg[Online]
Amsterdam Zwolle Housing , Aldo Van Eyck and Theo Bosch, 1975-77

29. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
METAPHOR & METAPHYSICS
Amdavad ni Gufa , B V Doshi, 1992-95
ImageSource:AUTHOR

30. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
RADICAL ECLECTICISM
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sony_Building_by_David_Shankbone_crop.jpg[Online]
AT&T Building, Philip Johnson, NY, 1984

31. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN CLASSICISM
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiazzaDItalia1990.jpg[Online]
Piazza D’Italia, New Orleans, 1978

32. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
JENCKS AND THE READING OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Straight Revivalism
Neo-Vernacular
--------------------------------------
Critical Regionalism

33. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN SPACE
“Post-Modern space is historically specific, rooted in
conventions, unlimited or ambiguous in zoning and irrational or
transformational in its relation of parts to whole…….
…skew or distorted spaces, created by sharp angles which
exaggerate perspective….
…always keep a mental coordinate system no matter how free-
form and baroque they become. The reference plane is always
an implied frontality, and the route through the building or the
curvilinear elements then relate to this conceptual cage”
~ Charles Jencks (1987)

34. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN SPACE
ImageSource:http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-Scott-Brown-Vanna-Venturi-
House-(interior)-1964_800.jpg[Online]
Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia , Robert Venturi, 1959-64

35. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN SPACE
ImageSource:http://house6.s-trefois.be/data/textes/eisenman/images/eisenman/HouseIII4.jpg[Online]
House 3, Minnesota , Peter Eisenman, 1971

36. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN SPACE
ImageSource:http://www.abbeville.com/images-catalog/full-size/0789208180.interior01.jpg[Online]
Westchester House , NY, Robert Stern, 1974-76

37. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN SPACE
ImageSource:http://www.arthistory.ucr.edu/people/faculty/morton/images/FacultyClub.jpg[Online]
Faculty Club, California , Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

38. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pittsburgh-pennsylvania-ppg-place-2007.jpg[Online]
Pennsylvania, 2007
ARCHITECT – PHILIP JOHNSON - PPG PLACE

39. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johnson_building_bpl.jpg[Online]
Massachusetts, 2008
ARCHITECT – PHILIP JOHNSON - THE JOHNSON BUILDING

40. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clore_Gallery_London_Dec07.JPG[Online]
London, 1980-87
ARCHITECT – JAMES STIRLING- CLORE GALLERY

41. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1_Poultry.jpg[Online]
London, 1997
ARCHITECT – JAMES STIRLING- NO 1 POULTRY

42. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – CHARLES MOORE - PIAZZA D'ITALIA
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiazzaDItalia1990.jpg[Online]
Piazza D’Italia, New Orleans, 1978

43. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – CHARLES MOORE – FACULTY CLUB
ImageSource:http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/UCSB_Faculty_Club.html/cid_20060410_kmm_img_2627.html
[Online]
California , Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

44. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – CHARLES MOORE – FACULTY CLUB
ImageSource:http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/UCSB_Faculty_Club.html/cid_20060410_kmm_img_2638.html
[Online]
California , Charles Moore & William Turnbill, 1969

45. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – I M PEI – LE GRAND LOUVRE
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_Museum_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg[Online]
Le Grand Louvre, Paris , 1988

46. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – I M PEI – BELL TOWER
ImageSource:http://www.shumei.org/spirituality/tour/images/tower.jpg[Online]
Kyoto, Japan , 1997

47. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – MARIO BOTTA – SF-MOMA
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Museum_of_Modern_Art_in_2011.jpg[Online]
SF, 1995

48. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – CHARLES JENCKS – GARAGIA ROTUNDA
ImageSource:http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/website/versions/uploads/new_images/postmodernism-blog-
garagia_small_610x915.jpg[Online]
Wellfleet, Massachusetts , 1977

49. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – CHARLES JENCKS – GARAGIA ROTUNDA
ImageSource:http://liberalirionist.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/garagia-rotunda.jpg[Online]
Wellfleet, Massachusetts , 1977

50. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – MICHAEL GRAVES – PORTLAND BUILDING
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portland_Building_1982.jpg[Online]
Portland, 1982

51. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – LÉON KRIER – NEW TOWN OF POUNDBURY
ImageSource:http://zakuski.utsa.edu/krier/BUILDINGS/poundburystreet.350.jpg[Online]
New Urbanism, England, 1980s

52. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – ALDO ROSSI – SAN CATALDO CEMETERY – NEO RATIONALISM
ImageSource:http://www.archdaily.com/95400/ad-classics-san-cataldo-cemetery-aldo-rossi/sancat1/[Online]
Modena, Italy, 1984

53. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ImageSource:http://www.archdaily.com/95400/ad-classics-san-cataldo-cemetery-aldo-rossi/sancat2/[Online]
Modena, Italy, 1984
ARCHITECT – ALDO ROSSI – SAN CATALDO CEMETERY – NEO RATIONALISM

54. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – ROB KRIER – RITTERSTRASSE APARTMENTS
ImageSource:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2476304044_0377c0033c.jpg?v=0[Online]
Berlin, 1978

55. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – ROBERT VENTURI + DENISE SCOTT BROWN – CHAPEL
ImageSource:http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/1/63512/942422/Museo-Magazine-Venturi-Scott-Brown-Episcopal-
Academy-Chapel-2008_800.jpg[Online]
Pennsylvania, 2010

56. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
ARCHITECT – ROBERT VENTURI + DENISE SCOTT BROWN – CHAPEL
ImageSource:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Espicopal_Acad_int.JPG[Online]
Pennsylvania, 2010

57. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
POST-MODERN ARCHITECTS AND THE URBAN CONCERNS

58. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
• Social Modernity and Modernism
– The unrealised dream
• Post-Modern response to the “Public”
– Expression, Ornament, Wit
• Urban Outburst and the fall of Modernism’s promise
– Complexity as opposed to modernism’s standardization
• Urban as the new Laboratory
– Rem Koolhaas in Lagos
– Rob Krier - Town Spaces. Contemporary Interpretations in
Traditional Urbanism
– Aldo Rossi - The architecture of the city
POST-MODERN ARCHITECTS AND THE URBAN CONCERNS

59. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
1. Multivalence is preferred to univalence, imagination to
fancy.
2. ‘Complexity and Contraction’ over ‘Minimalism’
3. Chaos Theory explain nature than liner dynamics.
4. Memory and History are inevitable
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

60. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
5. All architecture is invented and perceived through
codes, hence the languages of architecture and symbolic
architecture, hence the double-coding of architecture within
the codes of both the professional and populace.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

61. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
6. All codes are influenced by a semiotic community and various
taste cultures, hence the need in pluralist culture for a
design based on Radical Eclecticism.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

62. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
7. Architecture is a public language, hence the need for a Post-
Modern Classicism which is partly based on architectural
universals and changing technology.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

63. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
8. Architecture necessitates ornament (or patterns) which
should be symbolic and symphonic, hence relevance of
information theory.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

64. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
9. Architecture necessitates metaphor and this should relate us
to natural and cultural concerns, hence the explosion of
zoomorphic imagery, face houses and scientific iconography
instead of ‘machine for living’.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

65. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
10. Architecture must form the city , hence
Contexualism, collage City, Neo Rationalism, small-
block planning, and mixed uses and ages of
buildings.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

66. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
11. Architecture must crystallise social reality and in global city
today, the Heteropolis, the very much means the pluralism of
ethnic groups; hence participatory design and adhocism.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

67. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
12. Architecture must confront the ecological reality and that
means sustainable development, Green architecture and
cosmic symbolism.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

68. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
13. We live in a surprising, creative, self-organising universe
which still gets locked-into various solutions; hence the need
for a cosmogenic architecture which celebrates
criticism, process and humour.
13 PROPOSITIONS OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE, JENCKS
1996

69. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
“A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern.
Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the
nascent state, and this state is constant”
~ Jean François (1979), ‘The Postmodern Condition’

70. History of Architecture - II (AP-313) – Postmodernism
REFERENCE
Charles Jencks. 1977. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. Academy
Editions. ISBN 0856709336
Robert Venturi . 1966. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. "The
Museum of Modern Art, New York"; 2nd edition (July 2, 2002). ISBN
0870702823