AR8602 – HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE UNIT 2

UNIT II AFTER MODERNISM I 9

Outline of changes in society after the 1960s characterised as condition of postmodernity, to
include the realms of economics, technology, culture, society and environment. Critique of
modernist cities by Jane Jacobs. Theories and works of Christopher Alexander. Aldo Rossi’s ideas
on the city. Neorationalism. Semiology and Postmodernism. Writings of Venturi. Works of Venturi
Scott Brown, Graves and Moore.

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POST MODERNISM IN ARCHITECTURE

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• Post modernists looked into past architecture in order to learn from it.
• Classical designs such as pillars, arches, and domes used in new, almost humorous ways, just to
send a message to the modernist people.
• It favoured personal preferences and variety over objective truths and principles!
• sensitivity to the building’s context, history and the client’s requirements
• physical characteristics- the use of sculptural forms, ornaments and anthropomorphism
• conceptual characteristics - pluralism, double coding, high ceilings, irony, paradox & contextualism

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ALDO ROSSI
STYLE – ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
• Each of Rossi's designs, whether an office complex, hotel, cemetery, a floating theatre, an exquisite coffee pot, or even toys,
captures the essence of purpose.
• Rossi has been able to follow the lessons of classical architecture without copying them; his buildings carry echoes from the
past in their use of forms that have a universal, haunting quality.
• His work is at once bold and ordinary, original without being novel, refreshingly simple in appearance but extremely complex
in content and meaning.
• In a period of diverse styles and influences, Aldo Rossi has conceived the fashionable and popular to create an architecture
singularly his own.
• Prefers to design and build, fascinated by the possibility of building in different places and countries.
• It is as if all the cultures of these diverse countries make up architecture and come together to form a whole.
• A unity that has the capacity to recompose the fragments of those things that were originally lost.

BOOK REVIEW
• His book, Architecture and the City,(architecture Della citta) published in 1966, is a text of significance in the study of urban
design and thinking.
• Rossi, whose early writings identified the city as the true theatre of architecture.
• Rossi’s works remained identified for years with a single enigmatic monument at Segrate.
• Cast in rough cement and composed of the parts of an ancient coffin, its roof-shaped lid having slid off and come to rest on a
stump of a column

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• Rossi articulated both the monument's pristine volumes—cube, cylinder, and prism—and a public arena for their elemental
identities as tower, column, and fountain.
• He has no use for period ornament, no interest in cut-rate imitation; what he intimates, instead, is the possibility of an order
• Spurning the then fashionable debates on style, Aldo Rossi instead criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current
architectural practice.
• Aldo Rossi argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban
artifacts that withstand the passage of time.
• Aldo Rossi held that the city remembers its past and uses that memory through monuments; that is, monuments give structure
to the city.
• This understanding of the city and its elements, its monuments, and its permanences, informed Aldo Rossi 's own designs for
public buildings.
• Aldo Rossi refers to his theory as "repetition and fixation."

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SEMIOLOGY AND POSTMODERNISM

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SEMIOTICS AND HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY

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INFLUENCES
• Graves continues to turn to architecture itself for his inspiration.
• He has a deep interest in existing architecture :- ancient, neo- classical, modern - & derives pleasure from
reinterpreting it’s forms & compositions.
• He gives credence to the basic tenet that there is no such thing as an original idea but that everything
original is based on the reworking of what already exists.
• One very strong influence on the work of graves is the interest in & appreciation of; the simple domestic
rituals of life that one enjoys or ought to be able to enjoy, despite the speed at which technology is hurtling
us into the cyber space.

PHILOSOPHY
• Grave’s language of architecture operates on a number of levels. It is meant to be legible & a part of everyday
life.
• Secondly, & certainly no less important, although admittedly more understandable to the trained eye, is a
passionate & sometimes playful interest in reworking the commonly accepted language of architecture into a
uniquely personal expression of what it might become, without losing it’s identity. The reworking of what exists
into what is unknown but still recognizable is the goal.
• Grave’s practice is practice in the literal sense of the word. He is constantly practicing the rules & principles of
architecture.
• He desires to create a pleasant, comfortable enviornment for the people in his building.

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His continually evolving experimentation with architectural form & language at the level of abstraction &
figuration, scale & colour, size & structural system is such that, there is emergence of new ideas without
denying existence of traditions.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• Graves has been an architect who is not
simply concerned with formal manipulation of
a self- referential language but is equally
occupied with a building’s significance with
time & place.

• He designs building in a near- populist

attitude, so that non architects can recognize
distinct architectural elements within their compositions &
relate them in scale to their own bodies. Denver Central Library, 1990-1996
http//:archdaily.com
• His early projects reveal distinct references to the
environment that the buildings are a part of:-
• A curve referring to the clouds above.
• A yellow rail referring to the sun.
• A terracotta base suggesting grounding in the earth.
• A mural expanding the perspective of a room.

Graves style in 1980

1. Graves strategy has been “to internalize the events of the
building”, identifying particular components of the program
that can be given formal emphasis. The result is that these large
complexes become cities into themselves, self-contained by
somewhat inward looking.
2. Whether the emphasis of the building is primarily horizontal
or vertical, a hierarchial route is established through the
repetitive spaces.
3. Relationship b/w indoors and outdoors by “pushing the wall
as far out as it can get to make a bay window that grabs the
light” e.g. Humana building or by carving something out of the
face of the building so people can literally go outside, e.g.
Tazima building.

ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS
1). BUILT FORM
• INFLUENCED BY THE ROMAN STYLE, GRAVES TRIED TO CREATE GRAND INTERIOR SPACES BUT
BROKEN DOWN TO HUMAN SCALE.
• CUBICAL FACADES TREATED IN THE CLASSICAL THREE PART DIVISION OR TRIPARTITE FORM WITH
THE BASE, SHAFT & CORNICE.
• IN LATER PROJECTS, THE STRICT FORM OF THE CUBE IS BROKEN.

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2). WINDOWS
IT FORMS THE BASIC ELEMENT AS SURFACE TEXTURE, DUE TO THEIR PROPORTION & REPETITION.




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• PLACE : LOUISVILLE,KENTUCKY,HUMANA
• DESIGN STARTED :1982
• DESIGN COMPLETED:1985
• STRUCTURE MATERIAL USED: STEEL FRAME & GRANITE
• NO. OF STORIES : 26

• Humana building is the

headquarters of a well-known
American company specializing in
health care.
• The modern buildings surrounding
the site are set back from the
street on plazas, eroding the
historical urban street wall
pattern.
• In contrast, the Humana building
occupies its entire site and re-
establishes the street edge as an
essential urban form.
• The 525,000 square foot building
includes two parking levels, retail
shops on the first floor, and
offices and conference center
above.



• The building’s formal organisation reflects its division into these significant parts
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• The lower portion, six stories high, is devoted to public space and to humana’s executive offices.
• General offices are located in the body of the building.
• The conference center occupies the 25th floor, with access to a large outdoor porch overlooking the
city and the river beyond .

WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN & SWAN HOTEL



• LOCATION : WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT,

FLORIDA
• DESIGN STARTED : 1987
• DESIGN COMPLETED : 1990
• AREA : 2- MILLION SQ. FEET
• STRUCTURE : REINFORCED CONCRETE & STEEL
SUPERSTRUCTURE
• MATERIAL : EXTERIOR INSULATION & FINISH
SYSTEM WITH PAINTED MURALS.

• THE 1,500 ROOM WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

DOLPHIN FACES ITS COMPOSITION PROJECT,THE
758-ROOM WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT SWAN
HOTEL, ACROSS A LARGE CRESCENT SHAPED
ARTIFICIAL LAKE.
• BOTH HOTELS CONTAIN EXTENSIVE CONVENTION
FACILITIES, RESTAURANTS, AND RETAIL SHOPS.

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 THE COLORS AND DECORATION OF THE TWO HOTELS

SUGGEST THE CHARACTER OF FLORIDA RESORTS AND
PROVIDE A THEMATIC CONTEXT CONSISTENT WITH
DISNEY’S PROGRAM FOR “ENTERTAINMENT
ARCHITECTURE”
 GIGANTIC STATUES OF DOLPHINS AND SWANS MARK
THE ENDS OF THE HOTEL ROOFS, MAKING THE
HOTELS VISIBLE AND RECOGNIZABLE FROM A GREAT
DISTANCE.
 WITHIN BOTH HOTELS, THE LOBBIES, BALLROOMS,
GUESTROOM CORRIDORS, RESTAURANTS, AND THE
OTHER AREAS EXPERIENCED BY HOTEL VISITORS ARE
EMBELLISHED BY A WIDE VARIETY OF PATTERNED
MATERIALS AND CUSTOM-DESIGNED LIGHT FIXTURES
AND FURNITURE,DELIGHTING THE VISITOR WITH THE
UNEXPETED.

PORTLAND MUNICIPAL SERVICES

BUILDING
Built : 1980- 1982
Type : Government offices
Cost : US$29 million
Floor : 15
Location : Portland, Multnomah County,
Oregon, USA
Height : 71.6 m

BUILDING CHARACTERISTIC
 Its distinctive block-like design and square.
 Use of sculptural forms, ornaments.
WINDOW
 Cubical facades treated in the classical three part division or tripartite form with the base , shaft
and cornice Anthropomorphism.
FACADE
 Uses column as a surface treatment and defining the cornice or the head of the building and
entrance.
 Façade are symmetry and linearity broken by adding vertical band of color and window
SCULPTURAL ELEMENT
 These form are sculptural and somewhat playful
 These forms are not reduced to an absolute minimum; they are built and shaped for their own
sake.
 The building units all fit together in a very organic way which enhances the effect of the form.
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 It has a typical symmetrical façade which was at the time prevalent throughout postmodern
building

DENVER CENTRAL LIBRARY

LOCATION : DENVER, COLORADO

DESIGN STARTED : 1990
DESIGN COMPLETED :1996
TOTAL FLOOR AREA : 133,000 SQ. FEET (RENOVATION) & 405,000 SQ. FEET (NEW CONSTRUCTION)
STRUCTURE : STRUCTURAL CONCRETE WAFFLE SLABS ON CONCRETE COLUMNS
MATERIAL: CAST STONE, NATURAL STONE, TIMBER & COPPER ROOFING

SITE & GROUND FLOOR PLAN

 Michael Graves was http//:www.michaelgraves.com
commissioned in 1990 to
renovate and design an extension
to the Denver Central Library.
 Sitting adjacent to Denver Art
Museum, the Denver Central
Library stands as the 8th largest
library in the United States.
 The 405,000 s.ft. addition to the
existing library allows for the
original building designed by
Burnham Hoyt in 1956 to
maintain its own identity.
 So much so that Graves’ addition
and the original library are two
parts in a larger composition that
are connected by a three story
atrium.
 The expansive atrium serves as a
new main entrance that becomes
the main focal point for visitor

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orientation and circulation to either wing of the
library.
 The scale and coloration of the addition, as well
as the individualized massing of its various
components, allow the original library to maintain
its own identity as one element of larger
composition.
 Two major public entrances establish an east-
west axis through the great hall, a three story
public room of urban scale which is the focal point
for visitor orientation and circulation.
 The south-facing rotunda contains special such as
the reference room, the periodicals center and,
on the top floor, the western history reading
room.
 The latter room, which contains special functions
of local materials, is centered on a timber derrick
like structure that figuratively recalls the nation’s
westward expansion.

 For a post-modern building, the interior of the library is

fairly conservative when it comes to the decorative
aesthetics.
 Most of the spaces appear as traditional library spaces
composed of natural wood evoking a sense of grandeur and
extravagance.
 Only in the reading rooms is there any trace of the post-
modern aesthetic.
 One begins to understand the abstracted colonnades,
vaulting, and colorful painting creating more of a fun
learning environment rather than a stark, serious library
space.
 The Denver Central Library may be one of the first library’s
to function more than just a library.
 In addition to the extensive literary collections, the library
functions as a community gathering space consisting of
multipurpose rooms, meeting facilities, shops, a café, and a
special “museum-like” collection on the American West.
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 The Denver Central Library sits affixed in Downtown Denver as not only an academic institution, but
as part of a larger cultural epicenter.

CHARLES MOORE
AMERICAN POSTMODERN ARCHITECT AND EDUCATOR
CHARLES WILLARD MOORE IS NOTED FOR HIS ECLECTIC
RANGE OF HISTORICIST BUILDINGS, EACH OF WHICH
REPRESENTS A UNIQUE RESPONSE TO THE CONTEXT OF
ITS SITE AND CULTURE.

LIFE OF CHARLES MOORE

Charles Willard Moore was an American architect born in
31 October 1925 and died in 16 December 1993. He was
a educator, writer, fellow of the A merican institute of
architects, and winner of the AIA gold medal in 1991.

EDUCATION AND CAREER

Moore graduated from the university of Michigan in 1947 and earned both a master's and a Ph.D. at
Princeton university in 1957, where he remained for an additional year as a post-doctoral fellow. During
this fellowship, Moore served as a teaching assistant for Louis Kahn. In 1959, began teaching at the
university of California, Berkeley. Moore went on to become dean of the Yale school of architecture from
1965 to 1970. In 1975, he moved to the university of California, Los Angels where he continued teaching.

Finally, in 1985, he became the O'Neil ford centennial professor of architecture at the university of Texas at
Austin. Moore opened his firm named urban innovation group, in collaboration with other architect
namely Lyndon, T urnbull, Whitaker His doctoral dissertation, "water in architecture," represented the role
of fountain in public spaces. He wrote or co-authored eleven books, in which he emphasized his opinion
that buildings should reflect the particular circumstances of place and use.

After 1974 Moore worked mostly in Los Angeles with the urban innovations group 1991 Moore received
the gold medal of the American institute of architects (AIA) for his "outstanding contributions to the
profession,". His goal was to work within the existing content and to enhance its essential character. His
works was called playful of drama and surprise. He had the amazing ability to transform historical
architecture into work relevant to the modern world.

ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES
If we are to devote our lives to making buildings, we have to believe that they are worth it, that they live
and speak (of themselves, and the people who made them and thus inhabit them).
Buildings must be inhabitable by the bodies, minds and memories of humankind.
The spaces we feel, the shapes we see, and the ways we move in buildings should assist the human
memory in reconstructing connections through space and time.

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS
THE INFLUENTIAL SEA RANCH PLANNED COMMUNITY IN CALIFORNIA - 1963
THE FACULTY CLUB AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA- 1968
THE BEVERLY HILLS CIVIC CENTER -1992
THE CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS (1993)
THE HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY -1995

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THE EXUBERANT, POSTMODERN ARCHETYPE PIAZZA D'ITALIA ,AN URBAN PUBLIC PLAZA IN NEW ORLEANS ,
LOUISIANA-1978
ORINDA HOUSING , CALIFORNIA.

CHARLES MOORE’S HOUSE (ORINDA, CALIFORNIA)

Budget of the project was 11,000 dollars. The site is a slope

covered with live oak tree. It is a open square floor plan of 30
square meter. Walls were used on the four sides except the
corners and to separate the cooking and machine areas and the
water closet (toilet). The corners of the house have glass sliding
doors which allow light into the house as well as opens up to
the oak woods.
Inside there are eight wooden columns from an old factory

that form two aedicule's (a small shrine) of

different sizes which are both covered with a
roof. The big space was used as living room
and the smaller one consisted the solar bath
tub along with a shower, which formed one of
the main attraction of the house . Book shelves
were used to separate spaces for bedroom
areas . A multiple truss connect the two
aedicule's.
On top of it all is the main roof, which was a
traditional vernacular roof with a flat top,
which has a skylight . A bed by the bath tub
replicates the idea of sitting in the beach and
looking towards the ocean.

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Moore designed it in conjunction with New Orleans based

Perez Architects. This project is known as one of Moore’s
best-known and influential works. The plaza was
commissioned to recognize the contributions of Italian
culture in New Orleans. This piazza is set in a mixed area of
New Orleans. It is located behind the Italian American
Cultural Centre.
It is a public fountain in the shape of the Italian peninsula,
surrounded by multiple hemi cyclical colonnades, a clock
tower, and a campanile (bell tower) and Roman temple -
the latter two expressed in abstract, minimalist, space
frame fashion. The central fountain, located in the middle
of a city block, was accessed in two directions: via a
tapering, keyhole-shaped passage extending from Poydras
Street, or through an arched opening in the clock tower
sited where Commerce Street terminates at Lafayette
Street.

The fountain and its surrounding colonnades

playfully appropriated classical forms and
orders, executing them in modern materials
(e.g., stainless steel, neon) or kinetically (e.g.,
suggesting the acanthus leaves of traditional
Corinthian capitals through the use of water
jets). The Piazza and its centrepiece, St.
Joseph's Foundation, form an ensemble of
unqualified pleasure and delight, the perfect
expression of the Gloria di vita that is
characteristically Italian.
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Although the plaza has undergone restoration, the
deleterious effects of water and humidity remain
evident in the fountain’s broken stones and corroded
metal. The original design showed the circular, midblock
piazza surrounded by culturally related commerce: a
trattoria (an Italian-style eating establishment) , a
pizzeria, and imported food and clothing shops. Instead,
Piazza D’Italia now stands mostly surrounded by parking
lots, adjacent to a 21-story hotel that turns its back on
the space, with one small gift shop that remains mostly
closed.

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