Modern and Post-Modernism Architecture

There is often some confusion when people start talking about the post-modernism and modernism in architecture in terms of their philosophical terminology differences. Modern architecture is known for its minimalism (Linder, 2004); buildings were functional and economical rather than comfortable and beautifully decorated. The post-modernism architecture, however, is called a “neo-eclectic, significantly assuming the role of a regeneration of period styles for designing houses, and a never-ending variety of forms and characteristics, asymmetrical designs for commercial buildings” (Fullerton Heritage, 2008). An example of these two polar opposites, “Less is more” made by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 (Blake, 1976) and "Less is a bore" made by Robert Venturi (1966), are at the heart of these two different movements. The first one appeared at the end of the World War II as a centre of the modernist international style movement and describing his aesthetic for extreme simplicity in the modern architecture movement. The second statement , on the other hand, being the crisis of modernism in the 1960's. Therefore, if you look at these two school work you can notice a clear difference. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the differences between post-modernism and modern architecture in terms of their philosophical terminology and style and finally giving an example of both style.

Post-modernism is a new way of thinking includes new architectural issues and more sophisticated than modern architecture. Moreover, post-modernism architecture has tended to avoid designs problems and designs difficulties. Furthermore, post-modernist architects have also tended towards an attempt to humanise design ideas. In other words, they inte...

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Works Cited

Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias. Postmodern architecture. [online]. Available from: http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/484074. [Accessed 3 May 2010].

Blake, P. (1976) The Master Builder. New York: W.W. Norton.

Chan, L. (1997) The Genesis of Architectural Details. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Papers in Design and Development.

Frampton, K. (2000) Modern Architecture A Critical History. Third Edition. Singapore: C. S. Graphics.

Fullerton Heritage. (2008) Post-Modernism. [online]. Available from: http://www.fullertonheritage.org/Resources/archstyles/postmod.htm. [Accessed 3 May 2010].

Linder, M. (2004) Nothing less than literal: architecture after minimalism. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Venturi, R. (1966) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art.