Postmodernism Style In Architecture And Design
Postmodernism is an erratic blend of emotion and theory. It ranges from silly to extravagant – a visibly exciting multifaceted style with absolute and the relative. The key characteristics of postmodern condition are – Sceptical attitude towards Grand Narratives, The death of the author, small stories and micro narratives, neoliberalist economy. Distrust towards grand narratives in the postmodern period shows lack of historical or cultural context. The neoliberalism has been embraced not in principle but rather by practice, putting style over substance and flashy feel good moments over the truth of opposing design misuse. The Postmodern does not dismiss metanarratives or target reality on a basic level. It gets a handle on the the metanarrative of its own centrality to changing the course of history, yet when it winds up at the point of convergence of the chronicled enhancement, by then history is dealt with like an ethereal, indistinct mass that no one can understand. It just occurs, and no choices are potentially accessible that can shape it.
Mass consumption and mass production, surface reflection and lack of substance. The key principles also include contradiction and complexity. If Modernism proposed ideal world, advancement and machine-like flawlessness, the Postmodern articles appeared to originate from a tragic and a long way from-immaculate future. Postmodern style rescued and distressed materials to deliver a tasteful urban end to the world.
Postmodernism includes building and utilizing weapons of mass destruction empowering a boundless measure of commercialization and consumerism thus, cultivation of a wasteful throwaway society at the sacrifice of the earth’s resources and environment while not even serving the reasonable and fair socioeconomic needs of the people.
Post modernism was an extreme development and soon became the dominant style of the design decade. As the 'design decade' wore on and the world economy impacted, Postmodernism transformed into the favoured style of industrialism and corporate culture. Ultimately this was the undoing of the movement. Postmodernism crumbled under the enormity of its own prosperity, alongside the respect that it had. However, in the 21st century we are yet feeling its affect. It gave us another strategy for looking at the world that holds today, and a style that is resurgent.
Postmodernism manifested in contemporary public spaces by abandoning adherence to sharp edges of geometry and re-established streaming designs that brought back expound frivolity of exteriors.
The skyline of super structures and centres of the cities began to incorporate buildings with triangular and peaked multi levelled roofs. More and more ornamentation on the exteriors of the buildings became common along with them having a deconstructionist and explosive adaptable rectangular shape. Postmodernism permitted chaotic multimodal structure, playful and ironic collage of styles, spectacular centres and way of life divisions, high level of social polarization and gatherings being recognized by their cultural patterns.
Example - Piccadilly circus, located at a junction of five busy streets in Central London, landmark shines with huge constantly moving displays, which serve as a colourful backdrop to a bronze fountain topped by a figure of an archer. It is not a contemporary public space but its contemporized. It lacks Substance.
The space is constantly moving, changing and has a boundless measure of commercialisation via flashy adverts. People walking fast, vehicles moving, displays changing, altering variable sounds and the regular hustle bustle is what contemporises the space. The non-uniformity in this place shows lack of cultural and local context, diffused substance and hence depict the postmodern condition.
An example of a contemporary public space in London would be shopping centres like the Westfield malls. Westfield Stratford City and Westfield White city being the largest malls in the UK, they adhere to the concept of ‘Less is a Bore’ by Robert Venturi. It’s the biggest downtown area shopping advancement. Retail units, a cinema, cafes and eateries, transport interchange, workspaces, banks, library and flats, have been cautiously incorporated into this urban setting. This contemporary public space is directly affected by the complex socio-economic and political context of the region.
The essentials of the shopping centre are:
It creates seamless easy connections for the general public by having a transport network so easy, close and functional. It has more than 250 brands and shops ranging from Primark to Prada. It has more than 50 restaurants varying from McDonalds to Wagamama to Cabana. It has major anchors like Waitrose, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer’s. It also has 5000 car parking space.
These are a few features of the shopping centre, Westfield that makes it one of a kind postmodern manifested building – It’s a giant commercial & retail palace, which is warm, dry, clean, well designed glass-vaulted space.
It has an open-air feel which is due to the asymmetrical wavy roof pattern that tracks the movement of the sun and uses natural daylight. It has decorative elements both inside and on the exterior of the buildings. The quirky chandeliers, lights, chic installations add vibrancy. Its bright and well lit, asymmetrical with curved forms and has colours and textures unrelated to the structure or function of the building. The centre atrium may also seem like a junk space to a few people as quoted by Rem Koolhaas in the ‘Junk space’.
Ornamentation is a key aspect of this shopping centre. Varied mix media and materials depicts how there is a lack of grand narrative and depicts these aspects as a micro story. There are non-traditional and rare designs in the shopping centre. The roof creates an illusion of 3 dimension and makes the space look even larger. It shows how abstraction of fantasy and desire have been done. Apart from being satisfying to the eye of a watcher it utilizes great quality materials, and are completely practical, functional and liveable. In postmodern condition appearances are not disregarded. The tree-like structures in the mall are a visual treat, they stun amazement, enjoyment, and they seem like they have something to say. It shows how postmodernism uses sculptural forms in those structures for support which also act as appealing design centric decorations.
Postmodern architecture is a style in which not just the functionality of the building is important. It gives equal regard to the look and feel of the building and tends to have a visually appealing and satisfying practical experience for the users.
In contrast with the plain, straight line drab modern buildings. These structures have colours, hues, beautification and ornamentation, vibrancy and dynamic quality. The colour wheel law isn't followed here, and unusual combinations and mixes are used.
Additionally, giving a world-class shopping experience, Westfield London is a recreation and social and leisure destination for Londoners, tourists and sightseers with the UK's first Kidzania, the Atrium events space, a flagship gym, a 17-screen best in class state of art Vue cinema theatre and a variety of eateries and bars. All these have been integrated to centralise the development. The mall appears like a huge luxurious village, it shows contradiction and how manifest image is different from scientific image. It appears that soon in the future everything starts getting incorporated inside those shopping centres and even we, the humans start living in there. Or maybe we have personal transportation inside those shopping centres like we could start to use bicycles, hoverboards, scooters or bikes in there. There could be another option of having a private transportation inside the mall that only connects all shops and helps people to move easily without getting tired. Or we could get aids from machines or robots to carry our stuff while we shop for more and more.
Though this master piece giant concrete post modern contemporary public space provides everything, it has lost the cultural context and does not portray the immense heritage of London. These contemporary public spaces are now far from conventional city streets, a blend of historic architecture, secured markets, high street markets, flea markets, autonomous shops and a feeling of ordinary, regular daily existence - birdsong, dogs walking, passing traffic, sun, showers, and snow. Since truth is relative, and truth is up to everyone to determine for himself. The postmodern contemporary public spaces are empirical.
