Moderism, Post-Modernism and

Deconstructivism
Movements in Architecture
 Modernism
• Post Industrial Revolution in the turn of 20th C
• Philosophy in the ability of man to make
changes without inputs from the society and
world at large
• Sense of individualism
• Reaction to classical architecture of Vitruvian
ideals
• Rejection of Classism
Edward
Munch,
The Scream,
1893
• Jazz in Music
• Quantum Physics and genetics in Science
• Assembly line in industry- the Ford Model T
• Abstraction in painting
• Charlie Chaplin in movies
• Purism in material
• Exposure of structure
• Glass and steel
• Free flowing spaces
 Criticizm
• Led to a process of social and cultural
homogenisation
• ‘Loss of soul’
• Could not cater to the dynamics of family and
society
• By 70s, many modernist buildings were pulled
down (Pruitt Igoe, Le Corbusier, Missourie)
• Jencks calls March 16, 1972, the day Modernism
died.
• Universal, elitist, lacked meaning
Mies Van Der Rohe,
IBM Plaza, Chicago.

Insudtrial steel and

plate glass
Strong rectilinearity
Absence of
ornmentation
Exposure of structure
Functionalist aesthetic
 Post Modernism
• Bored with the box (Phillip Johnson)1950s
• Recycling of past styles and themes in modern
context ( out of context), ignoring their
original use in the previous era
• Breaking of the barrier between High and Fine
art and Low and Popular art
• A rejection of modernism
• To startle, surprise and even amuse
Dunchamp
,
Fountaine
1917
Mother’s House, 1951. Robert
Ventuari
 Decon- a Post Modernist concern
• Jaques Derrida in Literature a a textual
analysis method
• involves recognizing and spelling out the
different, yet similar interpretations of the
meaning of a given text and the problematic
implications of binary oppositions within the
meaning of a text
• Peter Eisennmann and Derrida in Architecture
• Derrida moved on since 1980s
 MOMA, 1988
• “The hallmark of deconstructivist architecture
is its apparent instability. Though structurally
sound, the projects seem to be in states of
explosion or collapse....Deconstructivist
architecture, however, is not an architecture of
decay or demolition. On the contrary, it gains
all of its force by challenging the very values of
harmony, unity, and stability, proposing
instead that flaws are intrinsic to the
structure.”
 Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Muzeum,
Berlin. 2001.
• Daniel Libeskind’s design was based on three
insights: it is impossible to understand the
history of Berlin without understanding the
enormous contributions made by its Jewish
citizens; the meaning of the Holocaust must be
integrated into the consciousness and memory of
the city of Berlin; and, finally, for its future, the
City of Berlin and the country of Germany must
acknowledge the erasure of Jewish life in its
history