ARH 456

EXAM

Post-Modernism

The greys were playful, ironic, and referenced history before modernism. The whites were neo-rationalist and inspired by modernism

Post-modernism examples

Vanna Venturi House, ATT building, Piazza d’italia

New Urbanism

Ideas inspired by Jane Jacobs writing. Critiqued the car centered cities. Nostalgia for pre-car and suburb times.

Technofantasy

Response to the city’s war, decay, and overpopulation. A form of survival through technology.

Techno fantasy examples

Walking city, Plug-in city

Japanese metabolist

Organic, modular, flexible architecture using the latest technologies. Aims to help societal issues.

Japanese metabolist examples

Space city project, Nagakin capsule tower

Power architecture

Expression of power, economy, money through tall buildings. Attempting to attract tourism.

Power architecture examples

Burj Khalifa, World trade center

High-tech

Fascination with technology in architecture. Aims to create flexibility inside.

High-tech examples

Centre pompidou, Lloyds building, Shanghai bank

Critical regionalism

Modernism ideas but using local tradition

Examples of critical regionalism

New Bariz, Torre Velazca

Deconstructivism

It takes things apart, tries to understand how they are out together, and then approaches how they can be improved

Deconstructivism

Zaha Hadid, Maya Lin memorial

Blobitecture/CAD design

Biomorphic desing, connected elements, blurring boundaries of things as we know them

Starchitecture

Attempt of economic growth through architecture. Architects were celebrities and their work was a trophy

Starchitecture examples

Zaha hadid buildings, frank ghery, bilbao effect

Cubist modernism

Based on the belief that simple things don’t age and minimum is the ultimate ornament.

Cubist modernism examples

Tadao Ando, Herzgod and de Mueron

Environmentalism/green architecture/eco tech

stewardship, social justice, environmental considerations. If you get the environment right, everything falls into place. Rooted in the hippie movement.

Eco-tech examples

Nanjing tower, earthship biotechture

Historic Preservation

Nostalgia, artificiality, creating culture

Historic preservation examples

South street

Junkspace

Critiques capitalism and the junk that modernization has left behind.

1960s Counterculture. Discuss the relationship(s) between countercultural or anti-establishmentarian critiques during the 1960s and the rise of what later came to be called “postmodernism. Make reference in your response to specific individuals, designs, events, institutions, and/or publications as appropriate.

1968 liberation and exploration, Jurgen Frankfut School “modernism critiques are arrogant and inhumane”, Drop city, piazza d’italia, Venturi Learning from las vegas, psychedelia, beatlemania

Architecture beyond form. In her 1989 article “Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era,” critic and historian Mary McLeod wrote: “by precluding issues of gender, race, ecology, and poverty, postmodernism and deconstructivism have also forsaken the development of a more vital and sustained heterogeneity. The formal and the social costs are too high when the focus is so exclusively on form.” Discuss this quote within the context of her larger critique. In your opinion, did postmodernism and/or deconstructivism make positive contributions to architecture that McLeod did not acknowledge or anticipate?

Maya Lin memorial, sympathy and reality

Architecture as spectacle. Photos of dramatic and distinctive buildings by star architects fill the pages of architectural publications and appear frequently in popular media. A sizeable audience responds to this imagery with interest and enthusiasm and visits to relevant sites. Recognizing this, cities and patrons around the world have sought to capitalize on the so-called “Bilbao Effect.” Meanwhile, some, including Terry Smith (The Architecture of Aftermath) and critic/historian Kenneth Frampton, have spoken with concern, disdain, or despair even, over “our current susceptibility to spectacular imagery” (Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 5th ed., 2020). Discuss arguments for and against the “spectacularizing” of architecture and explain why you regard it as a relatively more positive or negative phenomenon.

Positive arguments say that it helps with city growth, inspires the world, revolutionizes how people interact with buildings. Negative arguments say that it is like fast fashion, permanent structures dont make sense in an unstable world, critiques of context response

Leaving the city behind. Both the “back to the land movement” of the 1960s and 70s and the mass expansion of suburbia after WW II (still ongoing in much of the world) involved people leaving densely populated, traditionally composed cities for a fresh start on previously undeveloped lands. Comparatively discuss the environmental implications and/or architectural outcomes of each movement.

Drop city, communes, sprawl, environmental impacts

The networked city. William Mitchell and Shannon Mattern both write about the city in relation to computers and networks, the former at the dawn of the internet era (1995), the latter more recently (2017). Comparatively analyze their points of view and their major concerns. Thinking historically, how would you explain their differing points of view?

Mitchell talks about cyberspace, mattern talks about the city not being able to perform like a computer

The canon. Imagine that you are writing an introductory survey of world architecture covering ancient to present times. Space limitations allow you only 5-6 buildings, sites, or projects to cover the period since 1960. What examples will you include and why? Identify your selections and explain the reasons for their inclusion in your text. In preparing your response to this question, think about major themes and historical tendencies, those that architects, critics, and historians have emphasized, and those you want to stress.

Stone henge in england, acropolis in athens, Versailles palace, LeCorbusier Villa Savoye, Zaha Hadid Heydar Center, Nanjing Tower

New Babylon

A chaotic concept where buildings are constantly under construction