Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 672 Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna, interior detail of doorway (1906) © Howard Davis/GreatBuildings.com Downloaded by [Central Uni Library Bucharest] at 03:22 26 September 2013 modernism and advocated the reintroduction of communicative symbols to produce a richer architecture of multiple meanings, articulations, and intentions. Charles Jencks labeled Venturi’s ideas and recommended style as “Postmodern,” legitimizing a return to the incorporation of conventional architectural elements, to stylistic references, and to a renewed respect for historical urban context and specific places. Entries A–Z 673 The expansion of architectural ideas and vocabularies in Postmodernism spurred a new pluralism in architecture, reflecting the compound nature and diversification of contemporary conditions and thinking and the perception of architecture as both a cultural product and a cultural symbol. This pluralistic attitude rejects the belief in universal narratives and global solutions and shifts the focus of the designer from the generic to the specific, realized in a conscious attempt to understand the nature of each task and to respond to the needs, problems, and circumstances of the particular client and location. Some of the forms produced within this environment are outgrowths of modernism, seen in the work of High-Tech architects such as Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, who continue to venerate structural and technological innovation, and in the motifs and early modern aesthetic prominent in the work of Richard Meier. Another outgrowth of modernism is the abstraction and simplicity inherent in the International Style brought to a level of elegance and sublimity in the late 20th-century designs of Tadao Ando, Antoine Predock, and the late Luis Barragán. The most symbolic architecture at the end of the century, however, derives from the fields of philosophy and semiology. Deconstructivism and poststructuralism often use elements from 1920s Constructivism twisted and contorted to signify the end of meaning (absolute knowledge) and the realization of a world pushing technology beyond the limits of human comprehension and control. The fractured, distorted, and dynamic forms suggesting confusion and instability produced by Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eisenman, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and others represent linguistic, archeological, and deconstructive concepts from the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Other architects, however, present a totally different worldview and aesthetic, demonstrated in works associated with Neoclassicism, New Expressionism, and an appreciation of vernacular constructions. Although this wide- ranging inclusiveness might suggest indeterminate architectural chaos, the variety of buildings produced can be understood as symbols of the divergent values and theories of their creators as well as significations of the complexity, multiculturalism, and diversity of contemporary culture. CAROL A.HRVOL FLORES See also AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin; Ando, Tadao (Japan); Art Nouveau (Jugendstil); Arts and Crafts Movement; Barragán, Luis (Mexico); Behrens, Peter (Germany); Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, France; Coop Himmelb(l) au (Austria); Cret, Paul Philippe (United States); Deconstructivism; Eisenman, Peter (United States); Foster, Norman (England); Gaudí, Antoni (Spain); Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor (United States); Hoffmann, Josef (Austria); Hitchcock, Henry- Russell (United States); Horta, Victor (Belgium); International Style; Mackintosh, Charles Rennie (Scotland); Meier, Richard (United States); Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna; Postmodernism; Poststructuralism; Predock, Antoine (United Downloaded by [Central Uni Library Bucharest] at 03:22 26 September 2013 States); Rogers, Richard (England); van de Velde, Henri (Belgium) Further Reading The following readings concentrate on the later half of the 20th-century with writings Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 674 particularly reinterpreting the modern movement and addressing the theoretical positions and architecture of Postmodernism and poststructuralism. The anthologies by Easthope and McGowan, Fernie, and Nesbitt are of significance because they introduce the ideas and perspectives of several writers on each topic and direct the reader to the larger body of work by each author. In addition, Fernie contains an informative glossary of concepts and bibliographic entries. Easthope, Anthony and Kate McGowan (editors), A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, and Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992 Fernie, Eric (editor), Art History and Its Methods: A Critical Anthology, London: Phaidon, 1995 Jameson, Fredric, Postmodernism; or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, and London: Verso, 1991 Lagueux, Maurice, “Nelson and Goodman and Architecture,” Assemblage 35 (April 1998) Nesbitt, Kate (editor), Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory, 1965–1995, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996 Rose, Margaret, The Post-modern and the Post-industrial, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991 Wigley, Mark, The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida’s Haunt, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1993 SYNAGOGUE At the turn of the 20th century, the spirit of integration lay behind much of new synagogue construction in Europe and America. Some examples of the distinctive Moorish-style building continued to be erected, such as the Jerusalem Street Synagogue in Prague (Wilhelm Stiassny and Alois Richter, 1906). Other historic styles such as Romanesque and Gothic (Szeged, Hungary, 1900–03) continued late 19th-century traditions. A few distinctive synagogue designs broke with tradition such as Hector Guimard’s striking Art Nouveau Rue Pavée Synagogue in Paris (1911–13), or adapted new traditions, such as the synagogue in Subotica, Yugoslavia (Komor and Jakab, 1901), combining Balkan, Hungarian, and Jewish folk and architectural traditions. A strong trend toward classicism, however, especially in America, resulted in the notable Congregation Beth El, Detroit (Albert Kahn, 1903), Beth Ahabah, Richmond (Noland and Baskerville, 1904) Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia (William Tachau and Lewis Pilcher, 1909), Temple Society of Concord, Syracuse (Arnold Brunner, 1910), and scores Downloaded by [Central Uni Library Bucharest] at 03:22 26 September 2013 of similar buildings. Brunner’s designs for Syracuse and the Henry S.Frank Memorial Synagogue in Philadelphia (1901) were the first synagogues built to directly refer to archaeological finds of ancient synagogues in Palestine. This form of classical Revivalism, which in most cases resulted in synagogues hardly distinguishable from banks, libraries, and government and university buildings evolved into the more distinctive Byzantine-Revival style, particularly popular after World War I. Here, following the earlier lead of Brunner, patrons and architects justified their designs Entries A–Z 675 by likening them to new archaeological finds from Palestine, but they also reinvented the distinctive exoticism that had characterized the Jewish Moorish style begun by Gottfried Semper at Dresden (1838–40) and continued so effectively for more than half a century. Unlike the Moorish style, however, the new Byzantine design emphasized plan and massing over decoration. Free standing buildings were often ingeniously sited in new urban parklike settings, and they often featured open plans that linked main sanctuaries to auxiliary administrative, educational, and social spaces—an innovation already hinted at in Kahn’s Classical Beth El of 1903 and that would be more fully developed in the new suburban synagogues and community centers built after World War II. The central dome over the sanctuary space became especially common—it was given many meanings: the cosmos, community, and tradition. A frequent urban variation of this style—especially where synagogues still occupied traditional urban sites, emphasized a single giant facade portal, as at B’nai Jeshurun, New York (Schneider and Herts, 1918) and Temple Emanu- El, New York (Kahn Butler and Stein, 1930). Emanu-El’s interior, with its enormous rows of arches, recalls contemporary modern architecture in Italy in its austerity and gigantism. In Europe, similar simpler architectural forms prevalent in the nascent modern movement were easily adapted for syn agogue design. The synagogue of Zilina, Slovakia (Peter Behrens, 1928–30) was, in many ways, a stripped-down version of the Byzantine domed synagogue popular in Hungary and the Balkans. Behrens’s design set a half dome on a rectangular block. Within, the dome rises on slender concrete piers from a square set within the rectangular mass. Outside, the ground floor is faced in stone, and the rest of the structure is of reinforced concrete. Despite the use of concrete, the building looks traditional due to its massing and the monumental stairway that leads to the main entrance. Nothing about the building’s architecture identifies it as a synagogue. Applied Stars of David set on each exterior corner served this purpose. Like Zelina, the monumental Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv, Israel (c. 1930) combined traditional elements such as arched windows and a large central dome with the plain smooth wall surfaces and combined massing of blocklike forms typical in early European modernism. The Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem (Friedmann, Rubin, and Stolzer, 1934–5) eschewed