This class will explore the architecture of Postmodernism as architecture’s allergic response to the ahistorical, acontextual, self-referential language that modernism had become by the mid-20th century. By pushing aside history, context, and social concerns, modernism of that period exhausted itself of its potential, and restless architects began to explore new forms of architectural creativity that incorporated figuration. precedent, color, and representation as they sought to make the discipline more responsive to the wider expanses of 20th century culture. Such exploration is particularly timely in the architectural climate of today, where a “default” of non-ideological modernism tends to operate unquestioned and history is suppressed as a tool to inform design. The fine print of this course is the belief that through relying on celebrating abstract narratives of virtue or sustainability over the aesthetics of built form the field has once-again lost its power in the cultural imagination of the public. By studying how the Postmodern movement reclaimed agency and the interest of the public, the course seeks to inform and empower students to do the same in their own creative ways in the future.
Two aspects of Postmodernism were critical to its early and nearly viral success- its flirtations with historic classicism, and its emphasis on humor and wit through challenging, bending, and breaking the rules of that same classicism. Accordingly, students will be taught the language of classical architecture using an abbreviated version of the system taught at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts for centuries (a system through which the course professor was educated). With this newfound knowledge and skills, students will themselves design new versions of some of postmodernism’s most iconic projects that will exhibit fresh takes on architectural humor, irony, and wit. These will include several projects that numerous postmodernist architects designed simultaneously, allowing for “apples to apples” comparisons, including the iconic “tea piazza” sets for Alessi, miniature façades for the 1980 Venice Biennale’s famous “Strada Novissima,” and an “extremely late entry” for the Chicago Tribune Tower competition held in 1922 and again in 1986.
These design projects will be seen as a re-imagining for today of what, often Yale-affiliated, architects such as Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, James Sterling, Leon Krier, Robert A.M. Stern, Michael Graves, Terry Farrell, Kengo Kuma, Charles Moore and others attempted to do nearly fifty years ago. Students will research the work of these architects, and also discover a number of architects who have been overlooked and deserve new consideration. This course was originally taught at Yale by former Dean Robert A.M. Stern, who was a key player in architectural postmodernism, and as-such the course will rely not only on readings but also first-hand accounts of the architects and architecture that, as noted by theorist Sylvia Lavin, came to become the world’s first truly global architectural movement.