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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
sustainable (environment-friendly) design gaining ground.
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POSTMODERNISM:
AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF HISTORY
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
now, love their apartments."
From Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
by Robert Venturi, © 1966
Venturi designs this building for his mother. The design of the building embodies several “complexities and
contradictions”: it is both complex and simple, open and closed, big and little; some of its elements are good on one level and bad
on another; its order accommodates the generic elements of the house in general, and the circumstantial elements of a house in
particular. It achieves the difficult unity of a medium number of diverse parts rather than the easy unity of few or many motival parts.
Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, PA, 1964, Robert Venturi
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The inside spaces, as represented in plan and section, are complex and distorted in their shapes and interrelationships. They
correspond to the complexities inherent in the domestic program as well as to some whimsies not inappropriate to an individual
house. On the other hand, the outside form—as represented by the parapeted wall and the gable roof which enclose these
complexities and distortion—is simple and consistent: it represents this house's public scale. The front, in its conventional
combinations of door, windows, chimney and gable, creates an almost symbolic image of a house.
The contradiction between inside and outside, however, is not total: inside, the plan as a whole reflects the symmetrical
consistency of the outside; outside, the perforations in the elevations reflect the circumstantial distortions within.
Concerning the inside, the plan is originally symmetrical with a central vertical core from which radiate two almost
symmetrical diagonal walls that separate two end spaces in front from a major central space in back. This almost Palladian
rigidity and symmetry is distorted, however, to accommodate to the particular needs of the spaces: the kitchen on the right,
for instance, varies from the bedroom on the left.
A more violent kind of
accommodation occurs
within the central core
itself. Two vertical
elements — the fireplace-
chimney and the stair —
compete, as it were, for
central position. And each
of these elements, one
essentially solid, the other
essentially void,
compromises in its shape
and position — that is,
inflects toward the other to
make a unity of the duality
of the central core they
constitute. On one side the
fireplace distorts in shape
and moves over a little, as
does its chimney; on the
other side the stair
suddenly constricts its
width and distorts its path
because of the chimney..
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13
The architectural complexities and distortions inside are reflected on the outside. The varying locations and sizes and shapes of the
windows and perforations on the outside walls, as well as the off-center location of the chimney, contradict the overall symmetry of
the outside form: the windows are balanced on each side of the dominating entrance opening and chimney-clerestory element in the
front, and the lunette window in the back, but they are asymmetrical. The protrusions above and beyond the rigid outside walls also
reflect the complexity inside. The walls in front and back are parapeted to emphasize their role as screens behind which these inner
intricacies can protrude. Indentations of the windows and porch on the sides at all but one of the corners, increase the screen like
quality of the front and back wails in the same way as the parapets do at their tops.
National Gallery London Sainsbury Wing,
Robert Venturi,1991
Built on the last open space on Trafalgar
Square, the Sainsbury Wing houses one of the
world‘s greatest and most visited collections of
early Italian and Northern Renaissance
paintings. Stylistically, the Wing is designed to
connect to and reflect William Wilkins‘ 1838
National Gallery building while maintaining
its own identity as a work of contemporary
architecture. It’s constructed of the same
Portland limestone and observes the
cornice height of the original. Elements
from the Wilkins facade are replicated on
the new building, but used in innovative and
unexpected ways alongside contrasting
elements -- for example, large square-cut
openings and small metal columns -- to
create new rhythms and harmonies.
The Sainsbury Wing contains a new and more
generous entry that provides grade access to
the entire National Gallery. This ground-level
entrance is not only accessible to all people
but, in contrast to the original structure,
appears accessible -- an important
consideration as museums reach out to ever
more diverse audiences.
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National Gallery London Sainsbury Wing,
Robert Venturi,1991
Site Plan of National Gallery London and Sainsbury Wing,
Robert Venturi,1991
VSBA placed first in an international invited
competition for design of the Sainsbury
Wing after a previous design was
abandoned at the urging of the Prince of
Wales. As prime architect, VSBA provided
architectural design, programming, interior
design, and construction documents in
metric.
26.01.2012
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In contrast with the rich ornamentation of the main building, the
galleries in the Sainsbury Wing are pared-down and intimate, to suit
the smaller scale of many of the paintings. The main inspirations for
these rooms are Sir John Soane's toplit galleries for the Dulwich
Picture Gallery and the church interiors of Filippo Brunelleschi (the
stone dressing is in pietra serena, the grey stone local to Florence).
HISTORICAL REFERENCE 1:
the church interiors of Filippo Brunelleschi
Galleries of National Gallery London
Sainsbury Wing,
Robert Venturi, 1991
HISTORICAL REFERENCE 2:
Sir John Soane's toplit galleries for the Dulwich
Picture Gallery
The northernmost galleries align with Barry's central axis, so that there is a single vista down the whole length of
the Gallery. This axis is exaggerated by the use of false perspective, as the columns flanking each opening
gradually diminish in size until the visitor reaches the focal point of (as of 2009), an altarpiece by Cima of The
Incredulity of St Thomas. Venturi's postmodernist approach to architecture is in full evidence at the Sainsbury Wing,
with its stylistic quotations from buildings as disparate as the clubhouses on Pall Mall, the Scala Regia in the
Vatican, Victorian warehouses and Ancient Egyptian temples.
Plan of National Gallery
London ,Sainsbury Wing,
Robert Venturi, 1991
The Incredulity of St
Thomas by Cima
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Seattle Art Museum,
Seattle, Washington,
Robert Venturi,1991
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington,
Robert Venturi,1991
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The unique columns and capitals,
Seattle Art Museum,
Seattle, Washington,
Robert Venturi,1991
Base of wall of granite,
sandstone and bluestone: Like
other "Pop"-influenced buildings
of Venturis, this museum uses
colorful decorative elements to
enliven the facade.
Terra cotta framed arches:
The use of polychrome framing
elements is contextual, reminding
the viewer that buildings in
Seattle's historic district had terra
cotta elements.
Inside, a wide stone stair mimicking the
outdoor terracing also connects the First
and Second Avenue entrances. Rising
gradually, with sculpture on each landing,
the stair is a many-leveled room and cafe
as well as a route to the galleries.
The main lobby is located at the First Avenue
entrance, and the ground level includes
information and orientation functions,
classrooms, the museum shop, an auditorium,
and an enclosed loading area. At the stair‘s
midlevel, a broad landing opens onto a
mezzanine restaurant and the terrace
outdoors; for banquets and receptions, the
dining area can be extended onto the landing
and outside. The second-floor level holds the
lobby and admission desk for the Second
Avenue entrance, as well as a large flexible
gallery for traveling exhibitions. The third and
fourth floors contain varied and flexible
permanent galleries. Visitor circulation is
defined by a progression of columns and large
windows at each end of the building
connecting viewers to the outside world. Each
floor also contains classrooms placed near
relevant art exhibitions. The fifth floor holds
administrative offices, a conservation
laboratory, and a library.
Wide indoor staircase
Like the south wall of the exterior,
this interior south wall echoes it
with a processional staircase. The
staircase leads from the entrance
lobby to the second floor galleries.
Sculptures of Chinese military
figures and animals decorate it at
intervals. Above the wide staircase,
polychromed decorative arches
enliven the way.
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Interior of Seattle Art Museum, Seattle,
Washington, Robert Venturi,1991
The "Art Ladder": the main staircase of the 1991
Venturi building, now integrated into the
expanded SAM as a free public space.
view of entrance lobby
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These are sketches for a series of imaginary houses, with a program
for a minimal vacation bungalow, livingdining, bedroom, and bath.
This is a theoretical exercise on the idea of the decorated front and
the ordinary or ―Mary-Anne‖ behind. Style and function are juxtaposed
rather than distorted; the styles are applied to the front while plan,
section, and the other three elevations remain constant.
ECLECTIC HOUSE PROJECT
Architects: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.
Completion: 1977 (design sketches)
PHILIP JOHNSONAmerican architect, critic and collector. The son of a
well-to-do lawyer, he early displayed a keen natural
intelligence that was diligently cultivated by his mother.
He enrolled as an undergraduate at Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, in 1923. A restless nature
drew him successively to disciplines as diverse as
music, the classics and philosophy, while emotional
turmoil led to several breakdowns that delayed his
graduation until 1930. By then, however, he had
developed a close friendship with the young art
historian Alfred H. Barr Jr., who in 1929 assumed the
directorship of the new Museum of Modern Art in New
York. At about the same time Johnson met another art
historian, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, whose article on J.
J. P. Oud (‗The Architectural Work of J. J. P. Oud‘, The
Arts, xiii/2 (Feb 1928), pp. 97–103) had suddenly
focused Johnson‘s scattered mental energies on
architecture and, more specifically, on modern
European architecture of the 1920s.
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In 1930 Johnson and Hitchcock toured
Europe, studying the work of the
architectural avant-garde. On his return
Johnson, appointed by Barr and assisted
by both Barr and Hitchcock, organized the
epoch-making Modern Architecture:
International Exhibition, which opened at
MOMA in 1932. The show effectively
introduced to the American public the
work of Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier,
Mies van der Rohe and Oud, together with
that of other selected architects from
around the world. The name International
Style, which became associated with the
exhibited work, can be traced to several
independent sources, but its place in the
contemporary vocabulary is traceable
chiefly to the title of a book, The
International Style by Johnson and
Hitchcock, that accompanied the MOMA
exhibition. Both exhibition and book
advanced the concept that early modern
architecture, especially in Europe in the
1920s, had qualities in common that
suggested a style global in its reach.
Johnson and Hitchcock emphasized the
formal and aesthetic value of these
qualities, while ignoring the social and
political dimensions of the architecture in
which they were embodied.
It is no wonder Philip Johnson’s favorite quote
comes from Heraclitus: “Everything floats and
nothing abides; everything gives way and
nothing stays fixed.” his own identity as an
architect has been protean for sixty-five years.
At the center of the major movement in
architecture since he burst on the scene
championing the International Style in 1932,
Philip Johnson (b.1906) morphed from a
Modernist to a Post-Modernist to a Decon
dilettante and, most recently, a member of the
architecture-as-sculpture school.
―You know I‘m a whore,‖ this expert self-promoter has repeatedly
acknowledged, adding, ―I‘d work for the devil himself‖ in a 1973 interview. ―I
do not believe in principles, in case you haven‘t noticed,‖ he said at a 1982
conference. Often hired as a ―signature‖ architect to give a cachet of
prestige to his commercial commissions, Johnson has no true signature
other than his allegiance to trendiness.
At first he was a passionate disciple of Mies van der Rohe,
even joking his name was Mies van der Johnson. Working as
his idol’s assistant, Johnson designed interiors for the
milestone Seagram Building. In his Glass House, Johnson
created the ultimate sleek Modernist box, achieving Mies’s
goal of “almost nothing.”
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The Glass House or
Johnson house, built in
1949 in New Canaan,
Connecticut, was designed
by Philip Johnson as his own
residence and is a
masterpiece in the use of
glass. It was an important
and influential project for
Johnson and his associate
Richard Foster, and for
modern architecture. The
building is an essay in
minimal structure, geometry,
proportion, and the effects of
transparency and reflection.
The estate includes other
buildings designed by
Johnson that span his
career.
A model of the Glass House
on display at MOMA in NYC
Derived from Mies van der Rohe‘s Farnsworth House (1946–51) at Plano, IL, but more classical in plan, the Glass
House attests to Johnson‘s naturally critical turn of mind and his preoccupation with history. In an article written in
1950 for the Architectural Review, he listed the influences behind the Glass House, which included not only Mies
van der Rohe but also Le Corbusier, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Kazimir Malevich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the De
Stijl movement.
Interior view: Mies van der Rohe had designed the couch for Philip Johnson‘s New York apartment back in the
early 1930s, and the chairs for German Pavillion at the Barcelona International Exhibition of 1929.
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In the early 1950s Johnson‘s work veered sharply
away from the manner of Mies van der Rohe. His
own work of the 1950s and 1960s was marked by
a dizzying, eclectic variety of styles underpinned by
a steadfast commitment to a formalist aesthetic. A
notable completed building from the period is the
monumentally classicist New York State Theater
(1964; with Richard Foster) within the Lincoln
Center, New York.
Interior, as seen from the stage,
Lincoln Center, New York
The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center
The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln
Center, seen from the Lincoln Center Plaza.
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Promenade
Johnson is best known for his Post-Modern structures,
like AT&T (now Sony) building. This granite clad
skyscraper sounded the death knell for minimalist
glass boxes. With its Classical loggia at the base and
Chippendale top, it certified the marketibility of Post-
Modernism.
It borrows elements and references from the past
and reintroduces symbolism to architecture.
Philip Johnson's Sony Building (originally AT&T
Building) in New York City, 1984.
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The AT&T Building in Manhattan,
now the Sony Building, was
completed in 1984 and was
immediately controversial for its
neo-Georgian pediment
(Chippendale top). At the time, it
was seen as provocation on a
grand scale: crowning a
Manhattan skyscraper with a
shape echoing a historical
wardrobe top defied every
precept of the modernist
aesthetic: historical pattern had
been effectively outlawed among
architects for years. In retrospect
other critics have seen the AT&T
Building as the first
Postmodernist statement,
necessary in the context of
modernism's aesthetic cul-de-
sac.
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JAMES STIRLING
James Stirling (1926-1992) began as a Brutalist and
High-Tech exponent. Without loosing his techno flair,
Stirling dallied with Po-Mo design, juicing up his
buildings from the 1970s onward with a range of
historic references. Enlivened by bright colors and
undulating walls, Stirling‘s work is both monumental
and casual.
Called ―Big Jim‖ for his physical girth as well as
his prominence in architecture of the 1980s,
Stirling never wanted to be a pigeonholed. ―I,
for one, welcome the passing of the
revolutionary phase of Modern Movement,‖ he
said. ―Architects have always looked back in
order to move forward.‖ Diverse elements, like
bright green mullions on windows and a
blatantly Post-Modern arcade behind classical
statues, hold ―an architectural conversation.‖
The resulting mix expresses the conflicting
facades of contemporary urban life.
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No 1 Poultry, 1986, London1 Poultry is an office
and retail building in
London. It was
designed by Stirling
and was completed
after his death by his
architectural partner
Michael Wilford. The
building is one of the
leading postmodern
buildings in London
with use of bold but
perhaps unsubtle forms
and colours.
Staatsgalerie, rear view, James Stirling, Stuttgart,1977
Staatsgalerie, terrace, James Stirling, Stuttgart,1977-8
Stirling‘s masterpiece is his addition to a Stuttgart
museum called Neue Staatsgalerie, a hodgepodge
of High-Tech and Po-Mo. Stripes of polished gold
sandstone and brown travertine and sweeping
ramps unify the vast whole, punctuated by pipe
railings in electric blue and fuchsia. Green framed
windows weave in and out like Borromini‘s Baroque
walls. Stirling called it ―a collage of old and new
elements.”
Stirling believed that architecture could employ
passion. In his buildings, innovative forms and
psychedelic colors convey his intensity yet still relate
to their context.
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Neue Staatsgalerie, ariel view, James Stirling
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