TO REMEMBER POSTMODERNISM

Extra Curricular - Manchester School Of Architecture, 01/2018

Postmodern architecture is coming of age. With The other book published later in December
many of the buildings built over this period at 2017 is conceived as a guide to raise awareness
risk of demolition, new means for understanding about the movement. Revisiting Postmodernism
the relevance of this eclectic style are needed and aims to define the way Postmodernism influen-
some architects and architecture historians are ces architectural practices today and to renovate
trying today to give this movement a new life, interest and participation. It is written by two ar-
to defend its reputation and to find its merits. chitects, Terry Farrell (born in 1938) on one side,
Many postmodern buildings in Britain are final- a pioneer in postmodern architecture in Britain,
ly reaching 30 years old, meaning that they can and Adam Nathaniel Furman (born in 1982) on
be considered for listing by Historic England, the other, which analyses the movement afresh,
the public body that looks after England’s histo- through the lens of the twenty-first century.
ric environment. In the US also, the future of ‘No other British architect is more closely asso-
postmodern landmarks hangs in the balance, from ciated with the movement’s rise and fall than Sir
Helmut Jahn’s Thompson Center in Chicago to Terry Farrell’ says Wainwright (2017). He played
Philip Johnson’s AT&T building in New York. a key role in the early days of a movement that has
sliced architectural discourse down the middle.
TWO NEW PERSPECTIVES ON Adam Nathaniel Furman, the younger co-author,
POSTMODERNISM represents one of the most interesting legacies of
Two books have been published very recently on the movement today. He created The Postmodern
British Postmodernism. Post-Modern Buildings in Society on Facebook a couple of years ago and his
Britain by Geraint Franklin and Elain Harwood is projects are deeply influenced by the postmodern
reassessing Pomo’s merits, tracing its history and principles of pluralist eclectic references and,
celebrating some of its best examples – from civic most of all, fun and color.
and commercial buildings and housing estates to
landscape design (Tucker, 2017). Franklin and THE DEFINITION OF POSTMODERNISM IN
Harwood (2017) state that ‘the built works of ARCHITECTURE
British Postmodernism, always in the minority, ‘But what exactly is the Postmodern? Is it possible
are today fast disappearing – hence this book. But to give a single definition to such a paradoxical
the post-modern movement’s guiding principles and irritating word? I feel that it is indeed pos-
and strategies – chief among them pluralism, con- sible’ (Portoghesi, 1983). For Paolo Portoghesi
text, narrative and subversion – have never been the strength contained in that word lies in the
more relevant to contemporary architecture’ fact that it defines a period more than a style. Or,
(p.20). This book focuses on building a heritage of more concisely, an ensemble of styles arisen as the
postmodern architecture born in Britain and it’s strongest reaction to the modern movement, so
written by two architecture historians: Harwood heterogeneously formed at the beginning of the
is a specialist in post-war architecture at Historic 19th century.
England who has been tasked with researching One of the most important traits of Postmo-
‘this most slippery and divisive of styles for a dernism is its unrivalled plurality. Every object,
forthcoming raft of listings to be announced next every building that originated in that period had
year’ (Wainwright, 2017). to express a certain singularity, characterized by

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 a peculiar narrative, in constant relation to its between solids and voids, Rowe promulgates a
context. city that claims to be in its ability to collide pacifi-
In 1980 Venice hosted the first architectural cally, to create contrasts by admitting a continuity
exhibition of the Biennale, called The Presence of that is based on both events and history. A city
the Past and curated by Portoghesi. He laid out that not only grows continuously with itself but
the Arsenale’s historic rope works as the Strada also accepts an image of itself in fragments, rather
Novissima, a concourse in which 20 architects than in full.
(none of whom were British) designed façades
that demonstrated the richness and variety of “I think the PoMo label has been too rigidly
new ideas emerging under the general heading of seen as a style”, says Farrell. “I never adhered to
post-modernism. The Strada Novissima followed that. My work was more freestyle and eclectic”.
the success of another three-dimensional exhibit, For him the most enduring legacy of the era is
when in November 1979 Aldo Rossi had floated a urbanistic rather than stylistic. He recalls the lack
temporary theatre on a barge, Il Teatro del Mondo of identity found in modernist buildings, where
(The Theatre of the World), around the Venice there isn’t a sense of context to how places are
archipelago. planned (Wainwright 2017).
It was clear by that time the importance of the Farrell talks about choice: the reaction to the cer-
‘plurality of propositions’ expressed by the cur- tainty celebrated by Modernism, that allowed it
rent architectural approach, not a single unified to persist despite its obvious failings, is a celebra-
style as the one modernists adhered to (Szacka, tion of uncertainty and plurality as well.
2011). That’s why it really seemed difficult at that In ‘Revisiting Postmodernism’ he gives us a per-
time to put all the architectures built from 1960s sonal perspective on many of the events happened
to 1990s, full of different historic architectural after the Second World War: major changes in cul-
references and meanings, together under the ture and in politics in the world, the development
same label. of a common global culture influenced by techno-
logy and new means of production and living. He
The postmodern way of thinking is reflected in was used to observe and live in the consequences
urbanism too; Stuart Cohen and Colin Rowe de- of the war: the reactions to it are the symbols that
scribed architecture and urban design as a collage he remembers the most, often translated in huge
of shapes and ideas, and in Collage City, an article cultural swings, as the coexistence of different
that led in 1978 to an eponymous book with Fred -isms before their respective decline: communi-
Koetter, the English-born Rowe argued for urban sm, fascism, socialism. He’s living in a period of
design based on fragmentation, ‘bricolage’ and a passage, and this is reflected in every aspect of
variety of meanings to secure this diversity. society.
Like A. Rossi in L’Architettura della Città, Colin It’s when Farrell begins to design a house with
Rowe tries to elaborate a city theory between Charles Jencks that he starts to be aware that ‘the
the extremes of the traditional city (the historic broad cultural influences were beginning to be
town) and modern architecture cities. claimed or driven or made into a style to whi-
Adopting the figure ground as a tool to read ch there was a whole new set of rules’ (Farrell,
the urban structure, to analyze the relationships 2017). Again for him the essence of Postmoderni-

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sm was a way of seeing and thinking and was not prominent figure in the period and his referencing
a new style, but rather the maturation of an old Greek temples and Roman domestic architecture.
one. While in Italy Postmodernism directly derives
from Italian modernism, and therefore consists
‘Post-modern architecture can be defined by in ‘seeking not to add to modernism but to strip
its relationship with modernism’ (Franklin & classicism back to its essence’, in Austria there
Harwood, 2017). With the simple use of a hyphen was a strong connection to America thanks to
between the words ‘post’ and ‘modern’ throu- Hans Hollein, that in his early works combined
ghout Post-modern Buildings in Britain, Franklin irony, symbolism and a sensuous materiality
& Harwood emphasize the nature of reaction to (Franklin & Harwood, 2017).
Modernism that had in fact spread in all the arts,
not just in architecture. A key in the developing of a strong Postmoder-
In this book, it is clearly stated the fact that Post- nism in Britain is played by the Architectural
modernism had different results in every country, Association (AA) in London, that from 1971 to
highlighting the situation in the United States, in 1990 is directed by Alvin Boyarsky who aimed
Italy, in Switzerland, in Austria, in Japan and then at an international focus, and also coincides with
of course in Britain. upheavals in architectural publishing: Architectu-
The two architecture historians say that the most ral Design, directed by the publisher Andreas
distinctive strand originated right in the United Papadakis from 1975, was often based around
States where Louis Kahn provided an important postmodernism; the Architectural Review; the
bridge between modernists and postmodernists. Architects’ Journal, that led the discourse around
Kahn’s design choices on the separated position of British buildings; Blueprint in 1983, with links
service areas informed the tech movement and his to furniture and product design; and also Archi-
adoption of bold geometric shapes and monu- tecture Today, launched in 1989. Britain embraces
mentality fused modern and ancient traditions. both tradititions of Postmodernism, the emphasis
Moreover, in the United States in 1966 Kahn’s placed on ornament and image in the United
assistant at the University of Philadelphia, Robert States and the inheritance of the city, particularly
Venturi, published Complexity and Contradiction important in Europe.
in Architecture. The book demonstrated, through As summarised by Franklin & Hardwood (2017):
countless examples, an approach to understan- ‘British post-modernism remained more con-
ding architectural composition and complexity, textual than that of other countries, strong in
and the resulting richness and interest. He made its references not only to classicism but also to
a case for ‘the difficult whole’ rather than the Dutch brick traditions, Art Deco, the English Arts
diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and in- and Crafts Movement and the Vienna Secession’
cluded examples of his own work to demonstrate (p.16).
the possible application of the techniques illustra-
ted within. POSTMODERN HOUSING
The constant relation that we find between the
We then follow the development of the postmo- way of living and architecture itself seems to me
dern movement with Charles Moore, another the most interesting example to analyse when

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 taking into account Postmodernism as a reaction and Oscar Palacio, built in 1978-81. The project
to Modernism. ‘Modern architecture died in was initially characterized by a modernist inspi-
St Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972, at 3.32pm red cladding made of asbestos cement panels,
(or thereabouts).’ These are the words of Char- but then it was redesigned with brick walls and
les Jencks referring to the Pruitt-Igoe housing pitched roofs by the same architects after a vote
development, an idealistic post-war housing by the London Borough of Camden in 1976. The-
project demolished after less than 20 years after re was a huge development of public housing in
its completion. Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s, parti-
Both private and public housing have been one of cularly in London, and housing associations grew
the most debated arguments against the modern rapidly as well, thanks to the support brought by
movement, when habitations seemed limited to the Housing Corporation under the Housing Act
be ‘grey tower blocks trembling in windswept of 1974.
solitude’. Modernist public housing derives from
a period where the notion of living tends to be St Mark’s Road Housing, Kensington (1977-
characterized and ruled to satisfy the high de- 79) by Jeremy and Fenella Dixon is depicted as
mand of construction subsequent to the war and ‘the model for new rented housing’ (Franklin &
to the increase of population. Harwood, 2017). The whole project is a reinter-
pretation of the suburban London terraced house
‘I experienced first-hand the difference between but divided vertically, informed by the postmo-
factory-made (Modernist, Fordist) and hand-ma- dern idea of irony and reference. But it’s not
de (traditional, vernacular) houses’ (Farrell, overtly Postmodern according to Terry Farrell in
2017). With his family, he lived in a steel-framed Revisiting Postmodernism, as it is more historicist
prefabricated house lightweight and highly effi- and contextual: ‘they gave back dignity to social
cient, as well as in a traditional-style brick house. housing’ (Farrell, 2017: p35).
There’s a huge difference between these two Many housing buildings were born in this period
examples, one being well planned but ‘stigmatised in London and began to acquire those characteri-
as a temporary pre-fab’ and the other one bearing stics that make Postmodernism in Britain a style
old traditions but missing efficiency and lightness. of its own: most of these derived from typical
‘Post-modern Buildings in Britain’ provides a models of British vernacular architecture such as
detailed study on housing in Britain, and the way early Victorian villas, but were joined by external
it was fundamental at that time of reconstruction references that ranged from famous artists’ work
(after the II World War), when even utopian-like such as Mondrian to absolute shapes resembling
towns were developed and built in Britain. childhood toys.
As Franklin & Harwood say (2017): ‘nowhere was
modernism deemed to have failed so comple- Outside London this housing redevelopment
tely in Britain as in the realm of public housing’ came later. James Gowan is one of the few archi-
(p.24). tects that built public housing in the late 1970s
outside London. Glasgow born, he has been in a
The firs example of postmodern public housing seven-year partnership with James Stirling that
in Britain is Highgate New Town by Bill Forrest led to the design and completion of the Engine-

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ering Building at the University of Leicester in housing as another manifesto, following the much
1963, considered the first postmodernist building controversially acclaimed Vanna Venturi house,
in Britain. ‘It represented a violent shift away designed by Robert Venturi over the course of six
from the prevailing functionalist doctrines of the years. It’s around the same time it took to desi-
postwar era, instead celebrating dynamic structu- gn and build the Thematic House, a polemic on
ral feats and forceful geometries, in what became symbolic architecture and a true representation of
known as the engineering style’ (Wainwright, British Postmodernism.
2015). The house marked Terry Farrell’s experience of
The housing complex that Gowan designed is Postmodernism as a style. Farrell speaks about
located at East Hanningfield. It is a project full the art of the possible, as this project was for him
of character but also came out in a more for- an evolving cultural experience: first, because its
mal style than the architectures from the same design was filled with so much experimentation
period: every unit is characterized by mono-pitch that it became unclear for them what the eventual
tiled roofs with round windows on the front, in product might be; second, because Charles Jencks
some way returning to the geometric forms of wanted to use it as an example for his own wri-
architects such as Kahn and Wright. The project tings and publications. The process of the design
was also influenced by Dutch design: Franklin & was in fact aided by Jencks, who constantly put
Harwood (2017) claim that it ‘turned up by clas- his narrative onto it and, in some cases, was part
sical proportions and a nod to Palladio’s Villa Val- of a direct collaboration (Farrell, 2017).
marana, where round windows serve as capitals in
the implied order of the simple façade’ (p.28). WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM NOW?
Another building built in 1982 by James Gowan In 2011 at the Victoria and Albert Museum takes
is the Greenbank House at Chester for Chaim place one of the first in-depth survey of art, desi-
Schreiber, that resembles a traditional suburban gn and architecture of the 1970s and 1980s: ‘Post-
chalet, as it was requested to have the function modernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990’.
of pied-à-terre suitable for meetings too. The Postmodernism, an era that defies definition, is
structure plays an important role in the design depicted in the exhibition as a multifaceted style
of the building, as the roof is set on pilotis and a that ranged from pop architecture to bold design,
steel frame, directly referencing a modern type from the cheapest decoration to the most expen-
of construction. However, the round window sive furniture. In fact, when we talk about post-
on the gable that sits on the steel frame makes it modernism we can’t always talk about style. The
dramatic and poetic at the same time, making it a movement destroyed every established idea about
‘Palladian country house in miniature’ (Franklin style and it brought freedom to art and design,
% Harwood, 2017: p36). for the aim of replacing a homogenous idiom with
a plurality of competing ideas and styles.
The private house is really one of the greatest Adam Nathaniel Furman in Revisiting Postmo-
opportunities for individual architectural expres- dernism addresses the birth of Postmodernism as
sion. The Thematic House designed by Charles a desperate reaction to a narrow and prescriptive
Jencks with Terry Farrell is another example of orthodoxy. Architects at the time were given a
that. It stands into the panorama of postmodern driving mission, and some of them just rebelled

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 to it, because they ‘were looking to explore a Bernini already did what architects were doing
richer architectural language’ (Furman, 2017: in the postwar years. They distorted Classicism,
p123). made it completely new and irreverent, they used
In fact, the most important characteristic of the historical references and exaggerated classical ele-
various strands that constituted International ments in what is called Baroque. There’s a strong
Style was a rejection of the past, and even more connection between Postmodernism and Baro-
important, of a contextual approach to design. que. I would say that the only notable difference
Orthodox Modernism is seen like an edifice that that exist between them is the clients.
was progressively broke down by figures that
‘questioned its rejection of the past, attacked its Are we still dealing with a postmodern way of
blindness towards tradition, context and local cul- living, and therefore designing?
tures’ in the aim of returning to a more complex
kind of design, defined by diversity and plurality. Adam Nathaniel Furman writes (Furman, 2017):
Thanks to Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Giancarlo de ‘The stylistic, symbolic and aesthetic richness
Carlo and Ralph Erskine, there has been a new which was implied in the pluralism of the approa-
consideration of regional identities. History and ch’s first decades has been lost, with the incorpo-
tradition would now be considered along with ration of history only ever involving a set of very
technology, and soon there would be a return to constrained referents’ (p:191).
the individual, the arbitrary, the eclectic.
Perhaps the legacy of Postmodernism lays in the
Furman takes Italy as an example. He sees in its present. In the recent years there has already been
modernity a continuous and progressive change a revivalism around Postmodernism. We don’t see
to postmodernity. Before the Second World War it just in product and furniture design, but also in
the architectural scene was extremely vibrant architecture. Surely it has to do with technology
there, thanks to the Rationalists rooted in Italian and communication, as in the past it was just be-
tradition and Classicists with the development of ginning to take over the world. We recognize pop
new expressions of historical forms. in the windows of many stores, we see revivals
The dialogue between the two led to a mixing everywhere nowadays. We live in a society that
of styles, creating hybrids that contained an has been driven by communication and diversity
outstanding modernity paired with the rhythm over the past 50 years or so, and we can no longer
and aesthetic of Classicism. An example of that know which style we are adhering to. It is a world
is without doubts the Palazzo dei Congressi in of individualism and plurality.
Rome by Adalberto Libera, that brought back to Today’s postmodernism, if we can still call it like
architecture the political means and intention of this, derives from the notion of Postmodernism as
the past under Fascism (Furman, 2017). a new approach to Modernism: no longer a direct
opposition, but a juxtaposition of technology,
There’s still, in Italy, a way of thinking that direct- form and function.
ly the derives from Mannerism. Borromini and

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