Post Modernism 1

Article : 1962 Aldo van Eyk - Team 10 Primer

Discussing about the early movement of post modernism in architecture, it has to be one of the early act taken which was the reforming of team 10 or team X, with it's core group started meeting withing the context of CIAM, the international platform of modern architects founded in 1928.

In writing of Team 10 Primer, edited by Alison Smithson as a whole, had documented articles, essays and diagrams which Team 10 regards as the main central to their individual positions. In a way, it is a history of the people involved have grown changed as a result of contact with the others. The first part of the original Primer, the 'Role of the architect' is concerned with the attitudes which is subsequent material speaks about in another way. The material has been roughly grouped into three sections which are 'Urban infra-structure', 'Grouping of dwellings', and 'Doorstep'. Every sections were related and focusing on designing a bigger picture than a house, a city itself. It started off with the circulation/road system, how it affects urban planning and the city itself, to laying out the connection error between dwellers of a place caused by 'Grouping of dwellings', which people were being separated and categorized, and the symbolic idea of a door, being a transition device that created two different 'world', totally a different sense of place,from a house to a street and vice versa. All of these, were to counter-back the idea carried by modernist to urbanization, which to the team 10 concern was way off their initial purpose.

At the end of the article, Aldo van Eyk wrote to his conclusion, "whatever a space and time mean, a place and occasion mean more. For space in the image of man is place, and time in image of man is occasion", shortly explained how he sees human nature needs and ways perceiving a place, is the reason itself on how a space can turn into a place. Hence that is how a space should be designed. He even stressed it out again saying, "man still breathes both in and out. When is architecture is going to do the same?".

Article : 1966 Aldo Rossi - Architecture of The Cities

Four years later, Aldo Rossi came out with an article, Architecture of The Cities, talking about the connection of buildings and the city and its typology, still in urban context which very much related to team 10 context. This article pointed out the significance of historical values in a city, not only view as an image of a city and the sum of architectures, but also construction of a city over time. This is to remain an understanding towards an architecture of a place/city and it is essential that it can relate to its urban artifacts which also commonly called as monument. Aldo then moved to topological questions, defining the concept of type as something permanent and complex, which explaining how an urban artifacts or monument should share common principles that would easily be identified as a monument. Later on he rejects any artifacts to be known by their function as a non-exist monument in the 'Critique of naive functionalism'. Where he stands that a function of a building is changeable and not permanent. Hence it cannot be an urban artifact. Though Aldo reminds in 'The monuments and theory of permanence', that the different between past and future, from the point of view in theory of knowledge, in large measure reflects the facts that the past is partly experienced now, and this may be the meaning of permanence, they are a past that we still experiencing, and the most meaningful permanences are those provided by the street and plan.

Article : 1972 Robert Venturi - Learning form Las Vegas

In Learning from Las Vegas, architecture appears as “decorated shed” or “duck”. The former relies on imagery and signage to convey its program. The latter expresses its program and meaning in its form. If much of the then-dominant “late Modernism” eschewed ornament, prior architectures acted

more as “ducks”. With the publication of the book, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour helped usher in a return to ornament and symbolism in architecture, as well as a new focus on the architecture of the everyday. In the article they listed out contradiction in its two main manifestations:

1. Where the architectural systems of space, structure and program submerged and distorted by an overall symbolic form. This kind of building-becoming-sculpture we call the 'duck' in honor of the duck-shaped drive-in, 'The Long Island Duckling', illustrated in God's Own junkyard by Peter Blake.

2. Where systems of space and structure are directly at the service of program and ornament is applied independently of them. This we call the decorated shed.

Article : 1975 Charles Jenks - The Rise of Post Modern Architecture

The Rise of Post Modern Architecture article was Charles's very first article discussing about post modernism. He was adamantly stated out his dislike on how 'post-modernism' sounded negative by its prefix 'post' being used in it, when he described it similar to describe women as 'non-men', which is rude and didn't portrayed its true meaning.

He went on to his exact definition of post-modernism as architects who were a modernist, for maybe 10 years ago that still have sensibility in modernism, yet their theory had gone beyond modern and their practice beyond and quite haven't gone beyond. So post-modernism is a hybrid word, where it carries half post and half modern. Not entirely a new architectural style to replace modern.

Charles sees modern as a monster and the only way to kill off a monster is to have a substitute beast to take it place, referring back to post modern, though Charles wasn't convinced that post-modern can do the job. Maybe then what we really need is a new way of thinking which lead to the new paradigm of architecture. In which to its nature of the case that such thing takes a long time, perhaps another 20 years. (1975)

In the Pluralist City, Charles said that there are many historical movements countering the trend toward an abstract and supposedly universal architecture. Each one is relatively minor, but taken as a whole, they amount to a strong movement, which awaits to the formulation as a new paradigm. In a way, this movements countering needs to keep on going until we had enough or at least we can come to a point where we can agree that we've reach to the new paradigm of architecture. Anyway, he thought it would be premature to name this paradigm.

Charles Jencks said in final, if they were trained anthropologist, to understand various codes use by different groups, then they could at least design buildings that communicated as they intended. Beyond this, they might get closer to their actual clients and building in specifics way.

Overview

I could clearly relate every joints of event, from the sparks of post-modern during Team 10 movement on urbanization context scales down back to the purpose of architecture in a lot of perspectives which had largely dismissed in modern, questioning the real intentions of architecture and how architects should react on it in Learning from Las Vegas, and I rather say start again at Charles Jencks writing on his definitions of post modernism and his views on why it is on the rise.

Modern without doubt is a significant turning point in architecture history. The changes in people and its values shaped us to what we are now, after more than 20 years, if according to Charles, we have reach if not once, twice of the new paradigm of architecture. Perhaps we already did figured some things out.