CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

Contemporary architecture is, in broad terms, the architecture

of the present day.
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 1970s and 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. 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 the expressive
and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved
through centuries of building which had been abandoned by the modern
style


POSTMODERN ARCHITECTURE
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

Modernist architects may regard postmodern buildings
as vulgar, associated with a populist ethic, and sharing the design elements
of shopping malls, cluttered with "gew-gaws

Postmodern architects may regard many modern
buildings as soulless and bland, overly simplistic and abstract

The divergence in opinions comes down to a difference
in goals: modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of material as well as
absence of ornament, while postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set
by the early modernists and seeks meaning and expression in the use of
building techniques, forms, and stylistic references
The Postmodernist movement is often seen
(especially in the USA) as an American movement, starting in America
around the 1960s1970s and then spreading to Europe and the rest of the
world, to remain right through to the present

Double coding meant the buildings convey many
meanings simultaneously. The Sony Building in New York does this very
well. The building is a tall skyscraper which brings with it connotations of
very modern technology. Yet, the top contradicts this. The top section
conveys elements of classical antiquity. This double coding is a prevalent
trait of Postmodernism

The characteristics of Postmodernism were rather
unified given their diverse appearances. The most notable among their
characteristics is their playfully extravagant forms and the humour of the
meanings the buildings conveyed


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
Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in
1991; the prize was awarded to him alone despite a request to include his
equal partner Denise Scott Brown
Robert is also known for coining the maxim "Less is a bore"
a postmodern antidote to Mies van der Rohe's famous modernist dictum
"Less is more"





VANNA VENTURI HOUSE


The design of "Mother's House", as architect Robert Venturi
frequently calls the house, was affected by Vanna (ne Luizi) Venturi as
both the client whose needs had to be met, and also as the mother who
helped develop the architect's talent and personality.

The five room house stands only about 30 feet (9 m) tall at
the top of the chimney, but has a monumental front facade, an effect
achieved by intentionally manipulating the architectural elements that
indicate a building's scale.

A non-structural applique arch and "hole in the
wall" windows, among other elements, together with Venturi's
book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture were an open challenge
to Modernist orthodoxy. Architectural historian Vincent Scully called it "the
biggest small building of the second half of the twentieth century.

The designs for the house by Robert, Jr. evolved over four
years, but the architect noted only two indications of disagreement from his
client. When the work was about three-fourths complete, she looked at the
traditional 19th-century house next door and remarked "Oh, isn't that a nice
house."
Front facade (view from north-east)
View from the rear of the house (south)
View from the side (south-east)
ARCHIGRAM




Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group
formed in the 1960s - based at the Architectural Association, London -
that was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration
from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely
expressed through hypothetical projects. The main members of the
group were Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton,
Michael Webb and David Greene. Designer Theo Crosby was the
"hidden hand" behind the group
Their works offered a seductive vision of a glamorous
future machine age; however, social and environmental issues were left
unaddressed
Unlike ephemeralisation from Buckminster Fuller
which assumes more must be done with less material (because
material is finite), Archigram relies on a future of interminable resources
The avant-garde (from French, "advance guard" or
"vanguard", literally "fore-guard") are people or works that are
experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture,
and politics.
The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is
accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm.
The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of
modernism, as distinct from postmodernism
PLUG-IN-CITY, PETER COOK, 1964
Plug-in-City is a mega-structure with no buildings, just a
massive framework into which dwellings in the form of cells or
standardised components could be slotted. The machine had taken over
and people were the raw material being processed, the difference being
that people are meant to enjoy the experience.

THE WALKING CITY, RON HERRON, 1964
The Walking City is constituted by intelligent buildings or
robots that are in the form of giant, self-contained living pods that could
roam the cities. The form derived from a combination of insect and
machine and was a literal interpretation of Corbusier's aphorism of a
house as a machine for living in. The pods were independent, yet parasitic
as they could 'plug into' way stations to exchange occupants or replenish
resources. The citizen is therefore a serviced nomad not totally dissimilar
from today's executive cars. The context was perceived as a future ruined
world in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
INSTANT CITY
Instant City is a mobile technological event that drifts
into underdeveloped, drab towns via air (balloons) with provisional
structures (performance spaces) in tow. The effect is a deliberate
overstimulation to produce mass culture, with an embrace of advertising
aesthetics. The whole endeavor is intended to eventually move on
leaving behind advanced technology hook-ups.

OTHER PROJECTS
Tuned City, in which Archigram's infrastructural and
spatial additions attach themselves to an existing town at a percentage
that leaves evidence of the previous development, rather than subsuming
the whole.
THE NEW YORK FIVE






The New York Five refers to a group of five New
York City architects (Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey,
John Hejduk and Richard Meier) whose photographed work was the
subject of a CASE (Committee of Architects for the Study of the
Environment) meeting at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by Arthur
Drexler and Colin Rowe in 1969, and featured in the subsequent book Five
Architects, published by Wittenborn in 1972, then more famously by Oxford
Press in 1975
These five had a common allegiance to a pure form
of architectural modernism, harkening back to the work of Le Corbusier in
the 1920s and 1930s, although on closer examination their work was far
more individual. The grouping may have had more to do with social and
academic allegiances, particularly the mentoring role of Philip Johnson
MICHAEL GRAVES




Michael Graves (born July 9, 1934) is an American
architect. Identified as one of The New York Five, Graves was known first for
his contemporary building designs and some prominent public commissions.
Since designing domestic products sold at Target stores in the United States,
he has become more widely known.

Graves was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended
Broad Ripple High School, receiving his diploma in 1952. He earned a
bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati where he also became a
member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He earned a master's degree in
architecture from Harvard University

Michael Graves has also become well known in the
internet meme community for creating a tea kettle that supposedly resembles
Hitler

Graves kettle,
1984
THE PORTLAND BUILDING


The Portland Building, alternatively referenced as the
Portland Municipal Services Building, is a 15-story municipal office building
located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon. Built at a
cost of US$29 million, it opened in 1982 and was considered
architecturally groundbreaking at the time. The building houses offices of
the City of Portland and is located adjacent to Portland City Hall. It was
added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011

The distinctive look of Michael Graves' Portland Building,
with its use of a variety of surface materials and colors, small windows,
and inclusion of prominent decorative flourishes, was in stark contrast to
the architectural style most commonly used for large office buildings at the
time,[7] and made the building an icon of postmodern architecture. It is the
first major postmodern building, opening before Philip Johnson's AT&T
Building, and its design has been described as a rejection of the Modernist
principles established in the early 20th century
In May 1983, the building won an American Institute of
Architects honor award

Paul Goldberger said:
For better or for worse, the Portland Building
overshadows other things. It is more significant for what it did than how
well it does it. It had a profound effect on American architecture and
brought a return to classicism that brought us better buildings.

Pietro Belluschi said:
"I think it's totally wrong. It's not architecture, it's
packaging. I said at the time that there were only two good things
about it: 'It will put Portland on the map, architecturally, and it will never
be repeated.

Travel + Leisure magazine called the Portland Building
"one of the most hated buildings in America"
ST. COLETTA SCHOOL


2001 - 2006
Washington, DC, United States

The nonprofit charter school St. Coletta serves
individuals with cognitive disabilities, autism, and physical disabilities.
Guided by the schools philosophy that all children are special, MGA
addressed formal, functional, social and ecological concerns in the
design, and created a facility with such success that it is promoted as a
national model. The 99,000-SF buildings largest elements -- the
entrance and common facilities -- are located along Independence
Avenue and expressed as geometric pavilions clad in colorful glazed
tile. Instructional suites for 50-70 students are articulated as a series of
houses with private gardens and relate to the scale of the adjacent
residential neighborhood along 19th St. Internally, the houses front onto
a double-height common space called the village green.
The interior of each house is painted a
different color, which becomes a way-finding device and also helps the
students identify with their community, a vital part of the schools
teaching philosophy.
CHARLES MOORE

Charles Willard Moore (October 31, 1925 December
16, 1993) was an American architect, educator, writer, Fellow of the
American Institute of Architects, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991

Moore preferred conspicuous design features,
including loud color combinations, supergraphics, stylistic collisions, the
re-use of esoteric historical-design solutions, and the use of non-
traditional materials such as plastic, (aluminized) PET film, platinum tiles,
and neon signs, As a result, his work provokes arousal, demands
attention, and sometimes tips over into kitsch. His mid-1960s New Haven
residence, published in Playboy, featured an open, freestanding shower in
the middle of the room, its water nozzled through a giant sunflower.

Such design features (historical detail, ornament,
fictional treatments, ironic significations) made Moore one of the chief
innovators of postmodern architecture, along with Robert Venturi and
Michael Graves, among others. Moore's Piazza d'Italia (1978), an urban
public plaza in New Orleans, made prolific use of his exuberant design
vocabulary and is frequently cited as the archetypal postmodern project
In addition to his influential work as an architect and
university educator, Moore was a prolific author, publishing a dozen
books. Many other books, monographs, and articles document his
designs.

-The Place of Houses (with Gerald Allen and Donlyn Lyndon)
-Dimensions (with Gerald Allen)
-Body, Memory and Architecture (with Kent Bloomer)
-The Poetics of Gardens
-The City Observed: Los Angeles (with Peter Becker and Regula
Campbell)
-Water and Architecture
-Chambers for a Memory Palace (with Donlyn Lyndon)

"Body, Memory, and Architecture," written with Kent
Bloomer during the Yale years, is a plea for architects to design
structures for three-dimensional user experience instead of two-
dimensional visual appearance. "The City Observed: Los Angeles"
remains an excellent guide to Los Angeles' significant architecture
PIAZZA D'ITALIA


The Piazza d'Italia is an urban public plaza
located at Lafayette and Commerce Streets in downtown New
Orleans, Louisiana. It is controlled by the Piazza d'Italia Development
Corporation, a subdivision of New Orleans city government.
Completed in 1978 according to a design by noted post-modernist
Charles Moore and Perez Architects of New Orleans, the Piazza
d'Italia debuted to widespread acclaim on the part of artists and
architects. Deemed an architectural masterpiece even prior to its
completion, the Piazza in fact began to rapidly deteriorate as the
development surrounding it was never realized.
By the turn of the new millennium, the Piazza
d'Italia was largely unfrequented by and unknown to New Orleanians,
and was sometimes referred to as the first "postmodern ruin". The
conversion of the adjacent Lykes Center to the Loews Hotel, New
Orleans, completed in 2003, was accompanied by the full restoration
of the Piazza d'Italia (accomplished by 2004).
In design, the Piazza dItalia and Charles
Moore are firmly associated with Postmodernism. At least into the
1950s, the Modern movement was the dominant theory in design.
Architects such as Robert Venturi and Charles Moore pushed against
Modernism, feeling that it defined what design should be and excluding
everything that did not fall within that definition. Postmodernism
rejected absolute distinctions, strict definitions, and restrictive rules.
Moore in particular was concerned about what was excluded by
Modernism. He preferred to consider what could be included by
design, not excluded. In this light, Postmodernism embraced the
ornament and historical architecture that had been explicitly rejected by
Modernism
The Piazza dItalia was both acclaimed
and reviled by critics. Ten years later, Charles Moore
acknowledged both his supporters and detractors, feeling that
both the amount and ferocity of the debate indicated the
importance of the subject. This is the essence of the paradigm
shift initiated by Postmodernism. With its use of historical
elements and ornament in a distorted or playful way,
Postmodernism resembles a Mannerist style more than a defined
movement. Its exaggerated approach demands response and
invites discussion. This shift has had an enduring impact in
architecture.
CHARLES JENCKS












Charles Alexander Jencks (born 21 June 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 Sigfried Giedion and Reyner Banham.
Jencks now lives in Scotland where he designs landscape sculpture
In The Story of Post-Modernism, Charles Jencks, the
authority on Post-Modern architecture and culture, provides the defining
account of Post-Modern architecture from its earliest roots in the early
60s to the present day. By breaking the narrative into seven distinct
chapters, which are both chronological and overlapping, Jencks charts
the ebb and flow of the movement, the peaks and troughs of different
ideas and themes
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation at
Portrack House, near Dumfries, Scotland
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, designed in
part by Jencks and begun in 1988, was dedicated to Jencks' late wife
Maggie Keswick Jencks. Jencks, his wife, scientists, and their friends
designed the garden based on natural and scientific processes. Jencks'
goal was to celebrate nature, but he also incorporated elements from the
modern sciences into the design.
The garden contains species of plants that are
pleasurable to the eye, as well as edible. Preserving paths and the
traditional beauty of the garden is still his concern, but Jencks enhances
the cosmic landscape using new tools and artificial materials. Just as
Japanese Zen gardens, Persian paradise gardens, and the English and
French Renaissance gardens were analogies for the universe, the design
represents the cosmic and cultural evolution of the contemporary world.
The garden is a microcosm - as one walks through the gardens they
experience the universe in miniature. According to Jencks, gardens are
also autobiographical because they reveal the happiest moments, the
tragedies, and the truths of the owner and family
Jencks is synonymous with his writings on
postmodernism in architecture. He discusses his theories of postmodern
architecture in his best-selling book The Language of Post-Modern
Architecture (1977). Jencks discusses the paradigm shift from modern to
postmodern architecture. Modern architecture concentrates on univalent
forms such as right angles and square buildings often resembling office
buildings. However, postmodern architecture focuses on forms derived
from the mind, body, city context, and nature.

His book The Iconic Building examines trend
setting and celebrity culture. He writes that the reason that our culture
seeks the "iconic building" is because it has the possibility of reversing the
economic trend of a flagging conurbation. An iconic building is created to
make a splash, to generate money, and the normal criteria of valuation do
not apply. He says that enigmatic signifiers can be used in an effective
way to support the deeper meaning of the building
'Life Mounds' by Charles
Jencks at Jupiter Artland, West
Lothian, Scotland
THE GARDEN OF COSMIC SPECULATION, DUMFRIES







Forty major areas, gardens, bridges,
landforms, sculptures, terraces, fences and architectural works.
Covering thirty acres in the Borders area of Scotland, the garden uses
nature to celebrate nature, both intellectually and through the senses,
including the sense of humor. A water cascade of steps recounts the
story of the universe, a terrace shows the distortion of space and time
caused by a black hole, a "Quark Walk" takes the visitor on a journey to
the smallest building blocks of matter, and a series of landforms and
lakes recall fractal geometry.
WU CHI, OLYMPIC FOREST PARK, BEIJING, CHINA








A rotating black hole using real gravity to pull
you into the centre. A large oval space is tilted by a river. Visitors spill
into either side towards a central rotating black hole where a turntable,
with a visual illusion of a sucking vortex, provides a further sensation of
gravity.
Thank you