POST MODERN ARCHITECTURE

POSTMODERN ARCHITECTURE BEGAN 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
THE
FUNCTIONALSTYLE
AND FORMALIZED
SHAPES AND SPACES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL
OF MODERNISM.
MODERNIST STYLE ARE REPLACED BY DIVERSE AESTHETICS:

ROBERT VENTURI
ROBERT CHARLES VENTURI, JR. (BORN JUNE 25, 1925) IS
AN AMERICAN ARCHITECT, FOUNDING PRINCIPAL OF THE FIRM
VENTURI, SCOTT BROWN AND ASSOCIATES, AND ONE OF THE
MAJOR ARCHITECTURAL FIGURES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
TOGETHER WITH HIS WIFE AND PARTNER, DENISE SCOTT
BROWN, HE HELPED TO SHAPE THE WAY THAT ARCHITECTS,
PLANNERS AND STUDENTS EXPERIENCE AND THINK ABOUT
ARCHITECTURE AND THE AMERICAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT.
THEIR BUILDINGS, PLANNING, THEORETICAL WRITINGS, AND
ALSO TYPICALLY
CONTRIBUTED
TO THE EXPANSION OF
TEACHING
VENTURI'S HAVE
BUILDINGS
JUXTAPOSE
DISCOURSE
ABOUT
ARCHITECTURE.
ARCHITECTURAL
SYSTEMS,
ELEMENTS AND AIMS, TO
ACKNOWLEDGE THE CONFLICTS OFTEN INHERENT IN A
PROJECT OR SITE. THIS "INCLUSIVE" APPROACH
CONTRASTED WITH THE TYPICAL MODERNIST EFFORT TO
RESOLVE AND UNIFY ALL FACTORS IN A COMPLETE AND
RIGIDLY STRUCTUREDAND POSSIBLY LESS FUNCTIONAL
AND MORE SIMPLISTICWORK OF ART.
THE DIVERSE RANGE OF BUILDINGS OF VENTURI'S EARLY
CAREER OFFERED SURPRISING ALTERNATIVES TO THEN
CURRENT ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE, WITH "IMPURE"
FORMS (SUCH AS THE NORTH PENN VISITING NURSES

 VENTURI'S ARCHITECTURE HAS HAD WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE,

BEGINNING IN THE LATE 1960S WITH THE DISSEMINATION OF THE
BROKEN-GABLE ROOF OF THE VANNA VENTURI HOUSE AND THE
SEGMENTALLY ARCHED WINDOW AND INTERRUPTED STRING
COURSES OF GUILD HOUSE.
THE PLAYFUL VARIATIONS ON VERNACULAR HOUSE TYPES SEEN IN
THE TRUBECK AND WISLOCKI HOUSES OFFERED A NEW WAY TO
EMBRACE, BUT TRANSFORM, FAMILIAR FORMS. THE FACADE
PATTERNING OF THE OBERLIN ART MUSEUM AND THE LABORATORY
BUILDINGS DEMONSTRATED A TREATMENT OF THE VERTICAL
SURFACES OF BUILDINGS THAT IS BOTH DECORATIVE AND
ABSTRACT, DRAWING FROM VERNACULAR AND HISTORIC
ARCHITECTURE WHILE STILL BEING MODERN.
VENTURI'S WORK ARGUABLY PROVIDED A KEY INFLUENCE AT
IMPORTANT TIMES IN THE CAREERS OF ARCHITECTS ROBERT A. M.
STERN, PHILIP JOHNSON, MICHAEL GRAVES, GRAHAM GUND AND
JAMES STIRLING, AMONG OTHERS.
VENTURI IS A FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME, THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
ARTS AND LETTERS AND AN HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Peeking into Habitat 67 in Montreal

Apr 22, 2009 by Grace

HABITAT 67 HOLDS MUCH ALLURE FOR ARCHITECTURAL, HISTORY, AND

VINTAGE . BUILT FOR THE 67 EXPO AND DESIGNED BY MCGILL
UNIVERSITYS MOSHE SADIE, HABITAT 67 WAS A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT,
ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION, AND ART EXPRESSION ROLLED INTO ONE.
COMPRISED OF 354 CUBES, NEARLY 150 HOMES ARE TUCKED BETWEEN
THE MAJESTIC RIVER, CITY LIGHTS, NATURE, AND THE SKY. WHILE THERE
ARE AN ABUNDANCE OF PHOTOS OF THE EXTERIOR OF HABITAT 67, IT IS
HARD TO FIND INTERIOR PHOTOS OF THIS REVOLUTIONARY
ARCHITECTURAL STATEMENTUNTIL TODAY!

CHRLES JENCKS
CHARLES ALEXANDER JENCKS (BORN JUNE 21, 1939)
IS AN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE THEORIST AND CRITIC,
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER. HIS BOOKS ON
THE HISTORY AND CRITICISM OF MODERNISM AND
POSTMODERNISM ARE WIDELY READ IN ARCHITECTURAL
CIRCLES. HE STUDIED UNDER THE INFLUENTIAL
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS SIGFRIE GIEDIO AND REYN
BANH. JENCKS NOW LIVES IN SCOTLAND WHERE HE
DESIGNS LANDSCAPE SCULPTURE.

POSTMODERN THEORY CONCLUSION

THE IMPACT OF POSTMODERN THEORY IS CLEARLY SEEN IN
CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS REGARDING TRUTH AND MORALITY.
ACCORDING TO GEORGE BARNA, 72% OF AMERICANS AGREE,
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH; TWO PEOPLE
COULD DEFINE TRUTH IN TOTALLY CONFLICTING WAYS, BUT BOTH
COULD STILL BE CORRECT."1 71% OF AMERICANS AGREE, "THERE
ARE NO ABSOLUTE STANDARDS THAT APPLY TO EVERYBODY IN
ALL SITUATIONS."2 53% OF THOSE WHO CLAIM THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH IDENTIFY THEMSELVES AS
BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIANS.3 42% OF THOSE WHO IDENTIFY
THEMSELVES AS EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS AGREE, "THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH; TWO PEOPLE COULD DEFINE
TRUTH IN TOTALLY CONFLICTING WAYS BUT BOTH COULD STILL
BE CORRECT."4 INDEED, POSTMODERN THEORY HAS SATURATED
THE MAINSTREAM AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE OF THE 21ST
CENTURY

have sublated the Modern sciences of simplicity. Now chaos, fractals, epigenetics, cosmology and another thirty or so non-linear sciences (illuminated by the compute
by the confused labels of Modernism and Post-Modernism, but the streams of concerns to which these labels used to refer are continuing. That is apparent in archite

Stylistic Terminology. 1
Impressionism (not even Impressions are painted), attacks were turned by the defenders into compliments and banners.

n. But it didnt catch on. Post-Impressionism did in the 1880s, and Post-Industrial by the 1910s. Two or three uses of Post-Modern in the 1930s and 1940s remai
manism and the Modern Movement of the Bauhaus, technology, and humanism. That is to say two Post-Modernisms resulted, the ultra-modernism or Late-Modern

character, the most interesting thing

about Jencks Portrack garden is the
way it carries forward the ancient
project of making gardens which
imitate (mimesis) the Nature of
nature. Jencks seeks to understand
the nature of the world, through
science, and to embody the nature of
the world in a garden design. The
pharaohs, Plato, the emperors of
China, Alberti, Capability Brown,
William Robinson and Charles Prince
of Wales had the same intention. The
results differ because their
understandings of nature differ.
One criticism I have heard of Jencks
Portrack Garden is that he is too
literal in his imitations of physical
and chemical laws, principles and
formulae. While not seeing this as a
fault, I agree with the observation.
The alternative would be to use the
revelations of science as Jencks
renaissance predecessors used optics
and mechanics to produce