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Postmodernity or postmodern architecture is a period, whose first examples are generally cited as being from the 1950's, which runs through the present.
Postmodernity in architecture is generally thought 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, one of postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. The functional, and formalized, shapes and spaces of the modernist movement are replaced by unapologetically diverse aesthetics; styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound.
Brief Discussion
Classic examples of modern architecture are the Empire State building or the Chrysler building in commercial space, and the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright or the Bauhaus movement in private or communal spaces. A transitional example of postmodern architecture is the ATT building in New York, which, like modernist architecture, is a skyscraper relying on steel beams and with lots of windows, but, unlike modern architecture, it borrows elements from classical Greek style as well. A prime example of postmodern art through an architectural medium lies along the Las Vegas Strip. The buildings along this strip of road reflect innumerable art periods as well as cultural references all in a very playful collage.
Postmodern architecture has also been described as "neo-eclectic", where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles as, for example, in this building from Boston Massachusetts (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/postmoderncom/bldg4.JPG). This electicism is often combined with the use of non-orthagonal angles and unusual surfaces, most famously in the Stuttgart State Gallery and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Modernist architects regard post-modern buildings as vulgar and loaded with "gee-gaws". Post-modern architects often regard modern spaces as soulless and bland. The basic aesthetic differences reach down to the level of the tectonicity of architecture, with Modernism rooted in the desire to reduce the amount of material and cost of a structure, and standardize its construction. Post-modernism has no such imperative, and seeks exuberance in the use of building techniques, angles, references.
Postmodern architects include: Philip Johnson (later works), John Burgee, Robert Venturi, Ricardo Boffil, James Stirling and Frank Gehry.
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