Proclaiming the End of Postmodernism in Architecture Valéry Didelon

To cite this version:

Valéry Didelon. Proclaiming the End of Postmodernism in Architecture. Investigating and writing architectural history : papers from the Third EAHN International Meeting, 2014. ￿halshs-01622818￿

HAL Id: halshs-01622818 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01622818 Submitted on 8 May 2019

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY A K architecturalproduction. eses withaviewtohistoricisingcontemporary postmodernism was announced prematurely, outlining a number of hypoth logical issues, the paper will go on to consider the that possibility the end of up? was time ism’s of the its for What were autopsy? in arguments developed, example, the columns the and more how this notice differed between the further architectural cultures of noting architecture, in given was notice death postmodernism’s criticism. and theory to open declared been has architecture contemporary of eld f the onwards, time that From investigations. their commenced have historians which into past recent most the the to in corresponds that period – a mid-1990s, died or – ended have to postmodernism considered architecture, commonly is of architecture in history the in moments earlier and lier to ear to back undertake put regularly is commonly emergence its of date most the Whereas it. people study that past the of part nitively f de is movement cultural a when is it Indeed, expired. it when stating by starting most with architecture, in postmodernism of subject the to attention their turning been have researchers of numbers greater ever years, recent In A d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais,France École NationaleSupérieure V A in theEndofPostmodernism 3.2.1 Proclaiming 378 AL rchitecture, postmodernism, style,history, postmodernism, criticism rchitecture, BSTRACT r EYWORDS chitecture É R Y A DI merican journal U DELON nited T S his paper will carefully examine the conditions under which under conditions the examine carefully will paper his tates. Which historians, critics and architects conducted architects and critics historians, Which tates. C learly Architecture distinguishing stylistic questions and anthropo and questions stylistic distinguishing in 2011 to say that post-postmodern that say to 2011 in E urope - - - - -

been reached, yet there is still much to come.’ to much still is there yet reached, been postmodernism.” of “end the of nouncement an the to leads necessarily – present the in stay still and styles historical the ‘ stating: MI by published architecture postmodern of history his of edition the concluded movement, the to companion historian a been the had who period, Klotz, same this In fashion’. architectural of wave ‘next the of advent the and postmodernism’ of ‘death the about speculated Maxwell, New Criterion New & Garden era. Indeed, the critic Modern of who hold that the Parsons Princeton at respectively held debate, a and symposium lutiu edr wr oecm b doubt. by overcome were elders illustrious was under discussion here? discussion under was Times the of columns the In past. the to belonged that something as ism postmodern of speak to began historians and critics architects, students, A d’Italia in d’Italia B T present the that paper willattempttoenlighten. ways in critics and historians of aims the and methods the question into puts moment founding and terminal this end, the In ture. architec contemporary by succeeded movement today,a interpreted as is postmodernism that end announced this from frequently is it Indeed, ward. the on commentators infuential these to consideration serious give should we least very the at wrong, or right them proves future the Whether ments? W end? moment? that at on going was What substance.’ in than morefashion ‘in comeback,albeit a somethingofenjoying was ism modern while old-fashioned, and institutional both now was postmodernism t eyond the failures of such notable icons of postmodernism as the Piazza the as postmodernism of icons notable such of failures the eyond HE the end of the 1980s, in the in 1980s, the of end the A

FIASCO merican , the critic Paul critic the , ere the critics writing history in real time or just making hasty judg hasty making just or time real in history writing critics the ere T S A , claimed,withahintofirony, thatnow‘Postmodernismis N he result of such daring adventures – tr – adventures daring such of result he chool nthony A 1 ew

r A OF t during the summer of 1988 marked the beginning of a new beginningmarkeda1988the summerofduringof the t ,

architectural scene and examine the arguments they put for put they arguments the examine and scene architectural 2 few months later,months few in O

R of POSTMODERN rleans, which fell into disrepair a few years after its inau its after years few a disrepair into fell which rleans, Deconstructivist Architecture oger Kimball expounded on how even the discipline’stheevenKimball ogerexpoundedhow on most V D idler esign C G harles oldberger assured readers that for thir for that readers assured oldberger , Peter , in A N G nd what does it actually mean to proclaim its proclaim to mean actually it does what nd

andee, in his review of the exhibition for ew ARCHITECTURE E U isenman, nited Y J ork une 1988, une E S C xactly what kind of postmodernism of kind what xactly tates ity R , during which architects which during , ober H T exhibition held at the Museum ws n at repor fact in was e and in and nal stage seems to have to seems stage fnal he 3 in an article published in the in published article an in

t A ying to reach identityreachwithtoying fnally,nd manyare there V enturi and many others many and enturi N ew U Y niversity and the and niversity ork in ork tysomethings, T New York particular, Press by ig n a on ting passé H R E einrich House 379 nglish ober .’ 4 t ------

3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY 3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY postmodernism was thus directly associated with the ‘new corporate style’, Mar D irrelevant universal – vocabulary that of parvenue largelyirrelevant universal vocabulary heroicof industrialism, another largely Post-modernists‘the supplantingModernistsin thesubstitutedhave the for or new a of advent the against railed had he time, some For ments. heroes. its as ered consid wrongly or rightly architects of number a by within from undermined modernism’shegemonic status.view,pointthisFromof movementthewas T ment awashwithreferencesto of an invitation to bury postmodernism and place their hopes in a new move earlier.years twenty enough was this critics, and architects left-leaning For been had modernism as manner same the in devalued was result a as and from parody to pastiche, ects. For many commentators, by going from camp to kitsch, that is to say proj the of most of nature critical the than rather frmative af the concerns T structions ratherthanpostmoderndiscoursethatarebeing condemned. examples. as him years before for forms. architectural to meaning giving of promise its implement to postmodernism of inability the the historical associations of its artistic form.’ artistic its of associations historical the and building the of purpose the between connection of lack the is building ‘ frms: large and developers by made architecture of language classical the c in the columns of columns the in specifc more guration, matic as the style it intended to supplant.’ to intended it style the as matic sche and formalist as just be to out turned has modernism, late repetitive and rigid of rejection populist a as ago decades two began which ernism, postmod that acknowledged widely now is ‘it that avers Filler Martin critic ciality of most of its realized projects. In the f arti and fciality super the on focuses 1990s the of turn the at movement designed tionary. reac say to not if nostalgic, as considered be to came so and power ary T 380 he third frequently invoked argument concerns what had once been post been once had what concerns argument invoked frequently third he he second argument put for put argument second he isney he problem that we encounter in the typical postmodern typical the in encounter we that problem he y Mc H T 5 L eadquar his is evidenced by many projects, such as those Michael those as such projects, many by evidenced is his rst, often repeated argument that is used to condemn the condemn to used is that argument repeated often frst, the for eod D shows how, in the late 1980s, far from its grassroots origins isney B ters (1990) – or – (1990) ters ank of L R et us note here that hencefor that here note us et – the – ober T A 8 he skyscrapers designed by Philip by designed skyscrapers he postmodernism lost its subversive and revolution t merica, S V wan enturi came out with a series of scathing com scathing of series a with out came enturi ward to explain the burnout of the movement the of burnout the explain to ward R Assemblage ussian constructivism. and A T R & ober D T , PP olphin t 6

S G New York Review of Books T , highlighting the casual use of use casual the highlighting , tern’ , etc., could easily have ser he historian he 7 H

H otels C e goes on to demonstrate to on goes e s lassicism …’. th it is postmodern con postmodern is it th C asting (1990) and the Walt the and (1990) A lan A C J merican of merican enter (1989). enter ohnson in the in ohnson C 10 olquhoun is olquhoun

A t the end thodoxy: G raves , the fce ved 9 ------

cism’. by gether to bunched hitherto designers and projects differentiates retrospectively it Firstly,style? that a becoming postmodernism the of make to one is What ernism: the new classicism in and art architecture cks and whom, of pair a propagandists, its with point this on concurred International the ceeded suc that style classical or historicist a to postmodernism assimilating about A T T been, butratherasetof‘formal similarities’. describes the latter as ‘not a new style’ in the same way as modernism had Moreover,deconstructivism. of that Philip like fashion, replaced another by be to destined fashion a was style classical the commentators, which century. post-industrial the case this in – appeared they which in context social and economic technical, the of dent of series ideology. betrayed the promise of pluralism and eclecticism it held to in the place of an otoens ws vci o is ucs, n fr ay obser many for and success, its of victim a was postmodernism of a decade during which it had been omnipresent in specialized publications, perience peculiar to their day.’their to peculiar perience ex human of quality the intuited successfully most have who artists those of a prevailing, dominant or authentically contemporar that is to say is not a style in the manner this notion is understood by modern architects, one. new a even meaning, particular a on More fundamentally, it was the very notion of style that on this occasion took lostsomeofitsrichness. certainly movement traditionalist versely, considered postmodernist, considered hroughthevarious arguments theydeveloped, mostcommentators theon merican architectural scene were cer HE

END 12 we identify one architect over another.over architect one identify we Frank A R A

a- llan ober t a push, style can in this sense be considered as a signature by signature a as considered be sense this in can style push, a t OF C historical and a-geographic formal features, completely indepen completely features, formal a-geographic and historical and n nt, u is rtcl miin wr rdcd n it and reduced were ambitions critical its but unity, in gained harles , as the historian and critic Peter

akrud, ee o ctgrzd s postmodernist. as categorized now were backgrounds, G STYLE t G reenberg, Quinlan reenberg, S ehry, tern, successively published two canonical works: J

encks AND R em Koolhaas and Peter and Koolhaas em

S THE tyle. Moreover tyle. under the welcoming banner of ‘radical eclecti ‘radical of banner welcoming the under but for a time became deconstructivists. became time a for but

13 RISE Instead, the style in question referred to a to referred question in style the Instead, T erry and erry

A OF merican

tainly in consensus by the late 1980s STYLIN , the detractors of postmodernismdetractorsof the , T J he classicist or historicist style historicist or classicist he 14 ohn A C oit o te ae twentieth late the of society G

s ollins puts it, ‘the expression E understood by late 1980s late by understood isenman can no longer be longer no can isenman and and B latteau, who came from came who latteau, y view of the world by Modern Classicism C harles Post-mod es had vers J ohnson 381 C J T on en he . 11 ------

3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY 3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY In this respect, historical forms, symbolic images and signed architectures signed and images symbolic forms, historical respect, this In economy. competitive a in differentiation product for demand growing the meets postmodernism that is thing important most the instrumental; are style of questions architecture, of example the out single who academics characterized by a new form of the fexible accumulation of capital. For those démodé critic the movement, the for H laboratory a as served time long a for had ing ‘signs of fatigue’. show was and momentum’ its lost ‘has postmodernism arts, visual in that Writingin architecture? in postmodernism of end so-called this on shed period same the in plines disci other and professions other pervading discourse the can light What T deconstructivism. with occurs that rupture, the is style and would deploy itself in countless forms of individual expression. par any to irreducible be would on then from which postmodernism, A the in style postmodern of death the of announcement the sense, this In when he interprets the announced demise of the movement as a sign of renewal, preciselybecauseoftherevivedpluralismthatitheralded. sign a as movement the of demise announced the interprets he when gues in an issue of issue an in gues L philosopher the of work the in refection epistemological ly postmodernism broadened throughout the 1980s. From a subject of strict In the humanities and social sciences, in contrast, the meaning attributed to ver to survive not destined and decline in be to seemed therefore postmodernism tions, criticism.’ and theory academic with infested and institutionalized ‘increasingly been ed S late Fredric to cording political and social context as a whole for many neo-Marxist intellectuals. 382 yotard, loan commented that ‘postmodernism that commented loan merican architecture world might indicate paradoxically the true coming of HE l otr aetd ht tetd s fsin psmdrim became postmodernism fashion, a as ‘treated that lamented Foster al what Mc what S

capitalism’, tates is now in its fnal phase of decadence.’ Its misfor LIVIN ’. 20 18 19 postmodernism became paradigm that illuminated the economic, G The New YorkNew The Times

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A - eod DEAD S s for the literary world, the situation was no different. different. no was situation the world, literary the for s y longthemodernismithadcontested. e fo te on o ve o is aiu clua manifesta cultural various its of view of point the from een 21 suggests when she emphasizes the continuity,the emphasizes she when than suggests rather and, in the view of

POSTMODERNISM J Architectural Design Architectural ameson, postmodernism refers to ‘the cultural logic of logic cultural ‘the to refers postmodernism ameson, 17 In the criticism art and journal theory , the critic the , D avid entitled “Post-Modernism on “Post-Modernism entitled as a literary movement in the in movement literary a as H A ar ndy vey, to a ‘historical condition’ 15 G runberg in 1990 af 1990 in runberg It is also what also is It tune was to have October J ean-François J encks ar encks 16 D , which frmed ticular e T U T V rial” A nit his illo c 22 ------

chronic angle? chronic view? of point diachronic a from analysed be still architecture contemporary can present, perpetual a contemporary architecture can be written today. T architecture. of denial it includes and how it obscures our understanding of contemporary researchers, par past, and not an active principle in the present. the of style a remained essentially therefore postmodernism architecture, of felds professional and academic the In historicism. and cism T hi buildings. their market to approach design a as deconstruction using are frms chitectural gues in this spirit that ‘just as with the historic roots of Postmodernism, ar play a crucial role in the real estate market. for aestheticcapitalastheyhavewithotherapproachestosty various trendsinmattersofformandsignifcation. to adapted merely been has it which from 1990s, early the in scene tural the entailed postmodernism that – stasis a – present bringing about the ‘end of histor ideological evolution’, as well as ‘fnal form of human government’, therefore had triumphed over rival ideologies and was thus the ‘end point of mankind’s end of history. of end in 1989 surrounding the dissemination of Francis Fukuyama’s thesis on the sparked debate the of light the in postmodernism consider also could one A seems less ailing than humming with great vitality, a vitality mirroring that of When thus placed in a broader context in the early 1990s, postmodernism ‘you don’t need a coroner to fnd out if postmodernist architecture is dead.’ been postmodern, and in his editorial, the critic against himself defended page. the turn to again was objective stated A 2001,In decade. next the through all rians D P hat said, many questions arise concerning the way in which the histor the which in way the concerning arise questions many said, hat hroughout merican capitalism as boosted by boosted as capitalism merican merican Institute of Institute merican ead, but not really, postmodernism haunted architects, critics and histo and critics architects, haunted really,postmodernism not but ead, OSTPOSTMODERNISM h ise a a eae ale, h dbt ws bu classi about was debate the earlier, decade a as issue, the 24 O B

ne of the issues at stake is in fact to know whether histo whether know to fact in is stake at issues the of ne ticularly historians, now must probe to see what elements T sns itrss ae hs prpitd deconstruction appropriated thus have interests usiness he A A ? merican philosopher argued that liberal democracy liberal that argued philosopher merican rchitects published a special feature whose clearly whose feature special a published rchitects an invisible prosecutor,invisible an never had he that arguing O r is it better to approach it from a strictly syn strictly a from it approach to better it is r y’. In the very same way, it is into a perpetual R eaganomics. From this point of view of point this From eaganomics. T Architecture he R O T sociologist ichard Ingersoll stated that B te rn cover front the n his is a view of reality that ecause A the journal of the of journal the merican architec merican it is suspended in J ames le.’ 23 A , Mayo ar

merican V 383 enturi y of y 25 , ------

3. QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY