| What is postmodernism? Are the postmodern | | | | characterized by a lack of depth; a flatness. |
| characteristics still apparent in contemporary | | | | Individuals are no longer anomic, because there is |
| architectural design? According to scholars, | | | | nothing from which one can sever ties. The liberation |
| "Postmodernism, by definition resists definition". If | | | | from the anxiety which characterized anomie may |
| postmodernism is then difficult to be defined, on | | | | also mean liberation from every other kind of feeling |
| what principles can one judge if postmodernism in | | | | as well. This is not to say that the cultural products |
| architecture is in still emerging? Postmodernism in its | | | | of the postmodern era are utterly devoid of feeling, |
| regional/vernacular forms reflects neighborhood | | | | but rather that such feelings are now free-floating |
| culture. Some argue that postmodernism is a reaction | | | | and impersonal. Also distinctive of the late capitalist |
| to the forces of "creative destruction." But it can be | | | | age is postmodernism's focus on commodification and |
| a tool for those powers as well. The end of the | | | | the recycling of old images and commodities. |
| assembly line, created by the instant flexibility of | | | | In architecture, postmodernism, in its regional or |
| computer technology, means that in this post-Fordist | | | | vernacular forms, reflects neighborhood culture. In |
| world people can all have a unique, neighborhood | | | | this way, it can function as a tool in class struggle |
| specific thing, as well as having the same reference. | | | | and can probably be used by any player in the |
| Evaluating and categorizing architects according to | | | | struggle. Thus, postmodernism when examined as a |
| styles, periods, theoretical backgrounds, and | | | | resistive force is closely linked to the historic |
| philosophical ideas, from Itkinos and Brunelleschi, to | | | | preservationists. In trying to maintain the collective |
| Borromini and Le Corbusier, is a very challenging | | | | memory of a place the postmodernist agenda can be |
| process that requires a deep understanding of the | | | | used in a way that is antithetical to the forces. Public |
| key elements that influence the architects' design. | | | | or private partnerships that wipe out neighborhoods |
| What appears though to be a constant value in this | | | | can use the postmodern vocabulary in their new |
| type of analysis, is that the evolution of architecture, | | | | ventures. Neighborhoods can hope to have at best |
| from the period of the Greek civilization (Parthenon in | | | | just a mere palimpsest of a memory of what they |
| Athens 447-433 BC), to the present day's Santiago | | | | were in the past. |
| Calatrava's projects, signifies that the architect's | | | | One day perhaps, neuroscience will explain why some |
| pursuit for the myriad idea of beauty is actually a | | | | infrastructures seem to reach far beyond their |
| leitmotif of his/her past influences. | | | | physicaldimensions. But one does not need to wait |
| Postmodernism is differentiated from other cultural | | | | for that explanation in order to experience their |
| forms by its emphasis on fragmentation which | | | | postmodern orpost-postmodern effect. It turns out |
| replaces the alienation of the subject that | | | | that bodies, buildings, streets and cities are still useful |
| characterized modernism. Postmodernism is | | | | for certain things inthe global age of digital |
| concerned with all surface, no substance. There is a | | | | information. People are only beginning to uncover |
| loss of the center. Postmodernist works are often | | | | how they work. |