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POSTMODERN, 253s '12
POSTMODERN, 253s '12
The show did produce a stinging rebuke in the May 1973 issue of Architectural Forum,
a group of essays called "Five on Five", written by architects Romaldo Giurgola, Allan
Greenberg, Charles Moore, Jaquelin T. Robertson, and Robert A. M. Stern.
These five, known as the "Grays", attacked the "Whites" on the grounds that this
pursuit of the pure modernist aesthetic resulted in unworkable buildings that were
indifferent to site, indifferent to users, and divorced from daily life. These "Grays"
were aligned with Philadelphia architect Robert Venturi and the emerging interest in
vernacular architecture and early postmodernism.
VENTURI
Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1964)
Robert Venturi's home for his mother is considered by many to be the first
postmodern building. With its green hue, unusually tall chimney, stairs
leading to nowhere and oversize fireplace with stairs squeezed around it, the
house is what the architect called his "manifesto against Modernism."
Although Venturi has designed many
buildings, his theories have created
more impact.
Based on the philosophy of 'complexity
and contradiction', he has re-assessed
architecture to stress the importance of
multiple meanings in appreciating
design.
Although Venturi considers himself a architect of Western classical tradition, he claims that
architectural rules have changed. He rejects a populist label, but in Learning from Las Vegas he
shifted from an intellectual critique of Modernism in terms of complexity to an ironic acceptance
of the "kitsch of high capitalism" as a form of vernacular. His theories have generated the
populist aesthetic of the recent Post-Modernism.
Vanna Venturi House / Robert Venturi
A manifesto for Postmodern architecture, the Vanna Venturi house is a
composition of rectangular, curvilinear, and diagonal elements coming
together (or sometimes juxtaposing each other) in a way that inarguably
creates complexity and contradiction.
Tucker House · Mount Kisco, New York
Gordon Wu Hall
Trafalgar Square: National Gallery
Hôtel du Département de la Haute-Garonne
ROBERT VENTURI,
PROJECT FOR A BEACH HOUSE,
1959
CHARLES MOORE
Moore believed that architecture must elicit responses from all the senses, not only the visual.
He felt that architecture should be based on client preference and on a symbolic reference to
the site. He purposefully creates architecture that engages history, myth and creativity. Instead
of using architecture to moralize an ideal, he uses it to generate an environment that
stimulates the user.
Sea Ranch Condominium · Sea Ranch,
California
Piazza d Italia de Charles Moore, un des
premiers exemples d architecture post
moderne (1978). Le pb c est que cette
fontaine est entouree de grilles (on peut
y acceder par deux portes) et situee sur
un parking en plein milieu du CBD. Aucun
passage dans le coin, malgré l
amenagement d une promenade et la
présence de bancs, c est plutot un
echec...
The Piazza d'Italia is an urban public plaza located at Lafayette and
Commerce Streets in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.
Piazza d'Italia at night,
May 2010
Michael Graves
Michael Graves
Humana
Building,
Louisville,
Michael
Graves,1985
The Humana Building, also known as the Humana Tower, is a skyscraper in
downtown Louisville, Kentucky,. The 27-story structure is headquarters of
the Humana Corporation and known for its postmodern architecture. It
was designed by Michael Graves. Construction began in October 1982 and
was completed in May 1985.
Portland
Public
Services
Building,
Michael
Graves, 1979
Portland Building
Walt Disney World Dolphin
HALL OF CHAMPIONS-
INJDIANAPOLIS
MICHAEL GRAVES
STEIGENBERGER HOTEL- EL GOUNA-EGIPT
Charles Gwathmey
Gwathmey house and studio
East Hampton - 1965
'It has a modernist body standing on
classical feet and sports a large and
variously defined ornament as a head.
There is at once a referential
anthropomorphism and a bond with the
grand New York skyscraper architecture,
exemplified by the Empire State and
Chrysler buildings, which flourished
before the nihilism of the Miesian box
took over.
by mumu
STUTTGART - Kunstmuseum
architects Hascher and Jehle
Aldo Rossi
aldo rossi designed the
‘teatro del mondo’
orginally for the
venice biennale in 1979
Monument to the Resistance from 1962
Pritzker Prize in 1990, with
the jury’s citation stating:
Mönchengladbach | Germany
Type: museums/cultural buildings
Client: Stadt Mönchengladbach
Planning: 1972 - 1973 Completion: 1982
Situated at the border
between 3rd and
11th district of
Vienna, the area
marks the beginning
of an essential urban
development zone.
It can be considered
as a signal element
for the “Gasometer-
City”.
Gate 2 - Vectigal
The question has to be asked since, as well as being an original and internationally admired
talent, who is sometimes said to be the Francis Bacon of British architecture, he also
designed some of the most notoriously malfunctioning buildings of modern times.
Worse, two of these buildings were in the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge,
wherein opinion formers spent their formative years.
1982
Casa Muzicii