The most misunderstood of movements in Architecture, Mannerism, has a modern-day counterpart. lt is not Post-Modernism, but rather, A NEW MANNERISM, which like Mannerism, is elusive and seen as a CRISIS. Is it? oy William Mark Pimlott IHJ!iom Mori( Pimlott (s a Jtudent architect working in the \.fontreal office of Peter Rose.
CRISIS. 1lie are led ;:o believe, tn this was an atti;ude which addresses any of these specific resuJ;s 11.ilen normally orderea attemptea to 'diStort' or change the categories, rather, it addresses the lnso:itutaons and activi~ies rules a! Renaissance archltecture. It nebulous concept of 'Post-Modernism'. A to define a become helplessly out of controL lt is only :oo evident, in light of It is thus necessary begms "Grith a quaet rum!>le, but .such discussions of contemporary common ground within which thrusts rumblings tend to be L'lfectuous and architecture. that current practitioners of the cntlcal sword may be parried. anvaraably, grow to be of epic:emic of the art argue for similar change as The particular difficulty lies In the proportions or tnfluence. well. fact that Post-Modernists, if one may pardon the expression, are reluctant to Archltec tural historians tell us of Judgmg by the widespread attention admit that such a common ground The various camps seem so numerable crases, the most notorious given to these arguments by various exists. beit\g, perhaps, the Mannerist cr1sis. jCllJtTlaiS of architecture, lecture series rigadly defined and so diametrically Architec:s were supposedly ard panel discussaons, :hetr acceptance opposed, that such ground appears to self ·Indulgent, blissfully ignorant of has reached 'epidemic' proportions. be shaky. However, I share the Renausance dogmae whtch they were However. there remain many voices opanion that all of this work a 'blasphe:nmg'. ~ might say that who cry 'crisis'. Their greate~t represents a Mannerism of sorts · ~rism was a 'popular' activity, an concern is a perceived rejection of 'New Mannerism'. A brief outline of animal borne of popular culture. Such serious architecture and its the characteristics of Mannerism (via beasts are traditionally destined for replacement by popular architecture or illummations from Frederic Hartt and derision, probably because, in worse, Post-Modern Architecture. John Shearman), as well as an attempt hind sigh c. tf1ey are seen to be at a comparative parallel with current contradictory or detrimental to 'Post-Modernism', as such, does not movements, should begin to breach the society's more senous culture. For eX!St at all. except in the minds of gaps. years, lanneris: architecture has been devout lodernists, Neo-Ratlonalists Briefly, Mannerists seemed to seek and spoken of with dtsfavour because of and a few outspoken individuals. lt achieve: 1ts 'pop culture' leanings. ln !act, the has been a convenient umbrella phrase a. varieta (the human pleasure derived maJority o! ,..ork caJied '\lannerist' which throws all architectural from variety) as a rejection of was extremely good. It has been the movements into one rather murky Renaissance invarieta Oogic, order and selected removal of excellent broth. Consequently, those placed in the Platonic absolutes) architects from that clusification, and that group voice their dissatisfaction b. a mannered re-interpretation of their placement elsewhere (Late whenever Post-Modernism is what had preceeded - Renaissance or Renaissance, etcetera), that has let mentioned. They certainly do not otherwise • in architectural or artistic Mannerism wallow so long in the wish to be associated with anything so expression (achieved through what amab of popular culture. amorphous, and many find difficulty many call distortion and a few with populism. Seeing very few describe as the 'humanising' of As voe saw ( ~annensm, The Fifth similantles to each other, they have Renaissance composition, detail and ~ Column, vol.!, no.ll), Mannerists placed themselves, or have been colour) i concerned themselves with a search placed mto many categories, few of c . an architecture whtch was vastly fi for pleasure through variety: of form, which are particularly meaningful. more personal, yet more public expression, space and colour. Included Cra tlcism of Post-Modernism never oriented, than ever before (a popular ~ t: ~ ======~j THE~==~======FIFTH COLUMN, FaH 1981 20 John f-IE.jduk , Bye House; Robert Venturi, Bront-Johnson House; Alon Greenberg, ·N.ount Vemon! architecture for 'a more cultured age'). Corbusier, particularly the early methode, Venturi, Charles '1-ioore, Ensuing from this were unusual period. This enclave began in the late Robert A.• \.\. Stem and many others, containments and proportional 1960's as 'The New York Five': all peddle this notion in varying inversions (Laurentian Library, Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, directions and degrees of intensity. Michelangelo); humourous distortions John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman and Their position has caused a tremendous and manipulations of architectural Michael Graves. When the monograph st1r - both in North America and detail, and 'fantasy' spaces (Palazzo "Five Architects" was released, there abroad. lt has borne most of the del Te, Guilio Romano); fragile was a definite distortion of Corb's vituperous commentary from layer-on-layer classicism (Palladio); white work. In Gwathmey's case, Modernists, the Whites and some, like and a few extreme distortions - with Corb was filled out more, becoming Stanley Tigerman, who draw abuse mixed results (Casmo dello Zuccheri, more volumetric - rigid external forms from those who are just a shade of Frederico Zuccheri). were more or less maintained. Meier y:ey apart from him. The Rationalists modeled his efforts on Corb's earliest in Europe say even worse things. This Mannerism was that creature borne of work (Villa Savoy), but has produced exchange is known as Rationalist vs. some muscle flexing following a long caricatures of it in a bitterly Realist: where Maurice Culot calls period of order and restraint; antiseptic series of projects. Hejduk Charles Moore "Mickey Mouse". flux within a period ot trans1t1on. has expanded on Corb's sculptured However, past all the abuse and Many have cried 'crisis' with respect volumes within the grid through mudslinging from within and without, to it, and there are those who stilJ multiplications (the curvy rooms there remains one common thread do. In "Mannerism" (The Fifth increase in number Like rabbits), by rOnning t'lrough the work of the Column, vol.l, no.4) I forwarded the taking these volumes out of the Realists - it 1s American (and objecting notion that the Mannerist context of the grid and letting them Americans like fun). The Europeans Crisis was not a crisis at all. The hang in space as independents. howl alot about this. conclusion was based upon the fact Eisenman's work bears little that Mannerist architecture did not resemblance to Le Corbusier's and can iii. The Classicists reject the principles of a 'Good only be described as an abstraction of Architecture'. That its expressions, some notions that he is preoccupied These are simply the architects who derived from the creative, personal with (rotation and translation). lt is presently carry on a classical tradition instincts of each artist did not harm an mtensely personal exerc1se, meant in archne<:ture and urban plannmg. the art, but, rather, enhanced it for no-one but himself. lt seemed, ~ this group are Alan Greenberg, through the liberation of ideas. too, that before \1ichael Graves \1ichael Graves, QumJan Terry, Leon developed into a classicist of sorts, a Krier and ~1aurice Culot. Sometimes The new Architecture makes similar fixation with both early and later included is Robert Venturi, and many gestures. Its na.ture of multiplicity of Corb existed, utterly concluded by the would wish to posthumously include Sir thought makes the perception of its Snydermann House, which appears to Edwin Lutyens. They seek variety in purpose so difficult, and conversely, be rather a lot like the blob in the architecture in the sense perhaps allows criticism of it based on its gilded cage. closest to the Mannerists - through capnc1ousness so easy. A category, simple pleasures to be denved from which represents a group of ideas, i1. The Greys details, colour, proportion and planning makes multiplicity coherent. The new gestures. Architecture, defined in the context of Robert Venturi pioneered the Greys' \1annensm can therefore begm to search for varieta, when he forwarded B. MANNERED RE.INTF.RPRET ATION become so. the statements "I like complexity and contradiction in architecture" and i. The Wh1tes a. VARIETA "Less is a bore". Without "Complexity and Contradiction" there would be no lt almost goes unsaid that each There is indeed a new varieta although broohaha, no fighting between Whites headstand that is done in order to it is seen in many different ways by and Greys nor amongst Greys; for achieve that variety we have spol 21 THE FIFTH COLUMN, Fall 1981 VITRUVIUS : FIRMITAS , UTI LITAS , VfNUSTAS result tn work that is weU received \VHAT IS GOOD ARCHITECTURE? and enjoyed. And, if the expression is U. The Greys related to a signilicant segment of the A list of criteria which has always historical continuum, then its appeal q.Jalified the above query is that given 1: is from the interpretation of will acqurre a stature of permanence, to us by Vitruvius: UTILITAS, hlstortcal forms that the Greys have and 1ts 'personal and private' nature FIRMITAS and VE:'IIUSTAS, or rece:ved such wide attention and at will become Insignificant. Commodity, Firmness and Delight. the same :ime, provoked such abundant criticism. No Pertod has 'POST-MODERNISM IS MANNERISM' - Modem architects say that thetr work been Ieh untouched by those 11.-ho have Omer~in fullills all of the above requirements Dee1 called 'Post-Modem'. Yet, within and make a pledge to society that a this camp, there is a feeling that It seems that at the very least that better world will result from their what is being done is right - for the our contemporary condition is a work. New-Mannerist architects say peoples' enjoyment. Others believe descendent of Mannerism, and that in exactly the same thing. that it is a free ticket to magazine certain instances is quite identical to pUblicity. it. Longing to replace that If we can ascertain just who does meaningless term (Post-Modernism) actually fulfil! the very important iii. The Classicists. v.·i th one that has the quality of requirements of a 'Good Architecture', having definite characteristics, then we may determine if there is a Like the Mannerists, the Cla.ssicists '='e" THE FIFTH COLUMN, Fall 1981 22 'FIRMNESS, COMMODITY AND DELIGHT' ARE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A GOOD ARCHITECTURE. THE NEW-MANNERISTS Greys' cause and allows them to centuries. Gravity goes downwards: attempt the 'saving' of the modern walls bear on walls, walls bear on A. COMMODITY city. columns and beams and columns bear i. Function on walls or the earth. As all have Implicit in their efforts are the always done. Does New-Mannerist Architecture mclusion of man in the scheme of work? Certainly, one cannot answer their architecture; in terms of his C. DEUGHT this direcJy without making unsound compatibility with it, his traditions of generalizations. However, in the spirit experience, and finally his enjoyment lt has been said that beauty lies in of 'good architecture', shown are three of it. Thus, the 'frivolous the eyes of the beholder, and this plans for houses representative of architecture' that is Charles \1\oore's adage, although hackneyed, must be varied methods: Piazza d'ltalia is no longer frivolous at taken quite seriously by the architect, all, but a serious exercise in social whose art indeed must be the most a rchitecture which seems to work accessible of all to the public at extraordinarily well. large. The Grey architects and the All of these houses work, by virtue of Neo-Rationalists in Europe (adamantly the fact that their planns are derived Non-Mannerist) seem to think that from traditional bases of relationships. accessibility is attained through They are not particularly complex, but balanced composition, a reintroduction rather, straightforward and 'easy'. of the principles of symmetry, and Perhaps the most significant thing archetypal reference. In other words, about them is that anyone could walk beauty can be achieved through into these houses and know where to reference to experiences we have go to get to each important part. known. There is a logic inherent in these plans which has to do with the sequence of rooms and spaces. ii. Contextu alism and Social Duty The logic behind the resurrection ot these principles is simple. If man has A major premise of the lived happily in the past with certam New-Mannerists' work, particularly the constants, why has Modernism, from Greys, has been contextua.llsm. The its birth, openly rejected them? intervention of new buildings into any context should, they Insist, reinforce B. FlR.MNESS the existing fabric, rather than be at odds with it. And in the circumstance There is no pretentious rhetoric about The Greys believe that ornamentation of a deteriorated fabric, the new structure being wielded by is a part of our tradition of building should attempt to re-establish New-Mannersits. The buildings are expenence. They see this issue as the those qualities that have been lost. built in accordance with methods that original Mannerists might have. Th1s position is truly essential to the have been used in the past for Decoration or ornamentation is 23 THE FIFTH COLUMN, Fall 1981 som~thing 'l." hich may beautify with no~ in 1t but a solid onyx Yet, it somehow became the model architecture through its rendering of: wall. Luxury in Poverty. for the Modem City. Its message still :ne pla.stidry of a surface, the play of sits verv well voith .Modern architects light. and its introduction of v-cri~ty. Project: City for 6,000,000 inhabitants. and cities all over the world have wh eh presumably encourages a Le Corbusier (changed his name to suffered greatly because of it. Not rt-action of pleasure. lt is the seem more like the 'answer'). A only does Corb's scheme ignore the allowance of ornament which !Jermlts proposal that •was so radical that it notion of existing city fabric; it architecture to become eelectic. could not possibly be taken seriously. obliterates it. "We must throw out all personal and lovingly flawed: or to that has gone before, because it is become expressive of some hierarchy, meaningless''. pladng us at a suitable distanc:e. Modernism has been the only artistic The Neo-RJ!tionalists reject ornament movement which has actually had the in favour of European urban audacity to proclaim such nonsense archetypes, which dlifer accoramg •o and to assure us that their artists, local vernacular plaru, propor-tions. rrusicians and architects could fill the profiles and materials, 'll.'hich retain a 'gap'. so to speak, and more. All of nature of public accessibility. these sa·1iours of culture, of course, numbered no more than a few score The Modernists, a!:ema;ively, reject individuals, who all knew of each both ornament and arc:hetypology. and other very well. They met at parties instead. mtroduce an exclusive vi.SUaJ and conferences and the like, and if language which, when at its best. there ever was an academic elite speab to but a few aesthet~. ls the pounding out the dogmae of public or populist architecture of the architectural thought, the Modernists Ne11,. Mannerists, as the Modernists were that elite. lt was so extreme 1115in, obscene? that to them, 1t stmply was not good enough to be sympathetic to their THE MODERNISTS righteous causes, one had to follow their method precisely. Through the For all of :he vast promises made by discretion the Modernists developed in the Modernists from 1910 to the selecting just who would or would not present, their success in both social be among them, they began to see reform, and the architecture which themselves and their work, as they claimed ~ould induce it, has been rigourous, honest, no-nonsense and abyssmally limited. They cfid succeed flnctional. This then, was what really in instituung an architecture void of Groves, garlands on Portland; counted. lt was Utilitas. colour, the expression of material and Loos. Steiner House, American that could be related to by no-one but tnemselves.. lt became the element of Bar: Curling up with Mies Le Corbusier and 6 million debate solely in avantegarde circles. 1t is only in these cird~ that the van der Rohe, circa 1927: neighbours. preposterous statements and 5Chemes ltlat 'llie know so well could have even been tolerated. "'rnament is a cnme" - Adolf Loos. Oh, !t. Loos, you hypoctlte. Your Amencan Bar Is stmply too 'pretty' to allow you to say somethbtg like this. "Less IS more" - Ludwtg Mies van der Rohe. This ts where we are asked to throw away all of our worldly possessions to Jive In a glass room THE FIFTH COLUMN, Fall 1981 24 Beouty·or beasts? Soarinen, Mies,Pei and our own WZMH. As for Firmitas, the Moderns have search for beauty that runs through It is my contention that the question maintained a commitment to structure Modern Architecture, a beauty that as of a crisis in Architectl.lre may be a separate entity, born when yearns to appeal to all Mankind. This, Architecture turned a round. By that timeless gave birth to Engineering for the Modernist of today, has its as a profession common ground of j'udgernent, the unto itself. Their roots in Cubism, which has to do with Vitruvian subsequent principles, the New partnership was based upon an impress ion of r eality, and Mannerism a faith in the possibilities is a Good Architectl.lre. of the New importantly, one that is distorted or The debates waged Age - a by the New 'Renaissance' which would abst ract. Although Architecture is an Mannerists are expand knowledge those which foster the and expose truth for Art, it, unlike its 'free' companions, is growth of values the good of all men. and morals. This responsible to legibilit y and intimately leads me to believe that we should linked to the world of reality. not worry However, about a New Mannerist t ime has shown that the Therefore, archit ecture's sculptural Crisis. efforts of the partnership However, perhaps we should have not abstract ion intended to merely evoke seriously "question been innocent of deception, the authority of and the some emotive response, is Sculpture, those who contend motivations towards the 'honesty' of that Architecture's and is ignorant (with few exceptions) 'New Deal' is formal and futile. structure have occas1onally become of its legibility, and importantly, its obscure. ' Excitement' attained through role, imposed upon it by its the abnormal disposition of structure, membership in a g r eater urban From beginnings in all the backwaters of to often becomes one-line context. The manifests are objects of academia, the Moderrusts architecture developed an - a commercial gimmick 'rumb' beauty - acontextual, egocentric attitude that would destroy our cities, which is not very honest at all. and aggressive. However, what seems try to forget our place, and attempt the most regrettable, is that the to es tablish our faith in the most As an aside, it should be noted that notion of 'architectural beauty' has temporal entity - our time itself. I the Moderns who were really good, lost significance (save the work of would forward that their 'parti' was, never went out on any structurally Aalto, Kahn, Mies and Scarpa). In a and remains to be, one monstrous unsound limbs, and never became lost city, where there must be mistake. Their rejection of the in what Modernism was supposed to Architecture, and where there are only rejuvenated spirit mean. of 'good These architects did indeed weak practitioners of a soulless architecture' as manifested produce buildings in New which remain Modernism, this loss has been Mannerism severely darkens the original, at times exciting, and when catastrophic. proverbial 'light at isolated, the end of the beautiful. These works tuMel' for unfortunately Architectl.lre, and leads me remain few. CRISIS? •••WHAT CRISIS? to believe that the 'crisis' ultimately lies with the legacy and accolytes of And Venustas? There is a constant If we are asked to assess the state of the Modern Movement. 0 architecture, are we urged to say that there is a crisis? Have things gone out of control? Certainly, there is confusion, borne of the multiplicity of ideas and means, but its intent and the ends are clear. These ends have finite parameters, so the future of architecture and of our cities becomes a known rather than an unknown. If there was any time to reaffirm faith ln the 'basics' of a Good Architecture, now is that time. There is an awareness about the good and evil of intervention and a conscious attempt to work with what is proven to be good, not what is hoped to be so. Finally, Architecture is being allowed to be public, popular, fun and meaningful - to everyone, not just a select few. 25 THE FIFTH COLUMN, Fall 19&1