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Postmodernism

British Embassy, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin Christopher Hope-Fitch / RIBA Collections

Postmodernism

The reaction to Modernism and the Modern Movement

Postmodernism in architecture

Postmodernism is an eclectic, colourful style of architecture and the decorative arts that appeared from the late 1970s and continues in some form today.

It emerged as a reaction to Modernism and the Modern Movement and the dogmas associated with it. By the 1970s Modernism had begun to seem elitist and exclusive, despite its democratic intentions. The failure of building methods and materials (shown in the collapse of Ronan Point, a tower block in east London in 1968) and alienating housing estates was a focus for architects and critics in the early 1970s.

 

Explore images of postmodernist architecture

Search and discover photos and images from the RIBA Collections in our image library. Images are available to download, purchase or license.

A book published in 1966 by the American architect Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, was a key influence on the development of Postmodernism. Venturi extolled the ambiguities, inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of the Mannerist and Baroque architecture of Rome, but also celebrated popular culture and the ordinary architecture of the American Main Street.

A later work, Learning from Las Vegas (1972), deconstructed the signs and symbols of the Las Vegas strip and divided buildings into ‘ducks’, the sculptural buildings that embodied their message within the structure, and the ‘decorated shed’, which used signs to communicate its message. In practice, it meant the rediscovery of the various meanings contained within the mainly classical architecture of the past and applying them to modern structures. The result was an architecture that embodied historical allusion and dashes of whimsy.

Features of postmodernist architecture

Ottakringerstrasse 151, Vienna Keith Collie / RIBA Collections

Bright Colours

Chiat Day Offices, Venice, Los Angeles, Oliver Perrott / RIBA Collections

Playfulness

Espaces d'Abraxas housing, Marne-la-Vallee Emmanuel Thirard / RIBA Collections

Classical Motifs

Variety of materials and shapes

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