Home Styles: Why Postmodernism Still Matters

Architectural styles tend to do one of two things: look forward or look backward. The former camp includes Modernism, Deconstructivism, and the plethora of contemporary buildings that can be described as pluralist. In the latter camp are many of the "neo-" styles of the 19th century (neo-Classicism, neo-Gothic, etc.), and most recently Postmodernism, a direct reaction to Modernism (yet also an extension of it, as the name implies) in the 1970s and '80s.

First articulated in architectural terms by Charles Jencks in the 1977 book The Language of Postmodern Architecture, the movement traces its impetus to Robert Venturi's 1966 treatise, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. The title indicates two traits that Postmodern architecture embodies: complex forms and surfaces over Modernism's abstraction, and a mixture of irony and ambiguity that embraces borrowing and reappropriating historical elements: A column becomes a handrail, a gable is "broken" to reveal it is a trope, etc.

For a little while in the '80s the movement was popular, leading to a number of large-scale buildings like the Portland Municipal Services Building by Michael Graves and the AT&T Building (now Sony) by Philip Johnson. But it was also a style reviled by architecture critics. Many practitioners segued into more historicist styles (notably Robert A.M. Stern), but Postmodernism paved the way for a loosening of architectural form that, combined with Deconstructivism, helped create today's iconic buildings that capture headlines.

These days the movement is being critically reexamined by historians and curators, notably in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the conference "Reconsidering Postmodernism" in New York City. Next is a sampling of Postmodern residential architecture that I hope will aid people in understanding this brief but important style and movement.