The Black The White The Grey

In the previous class of History to Architecture, we have started to explore the colors of architecture, not in the sense of ornamentation or decorating, but the color of style in post-modernism architecture. We have seen how the changes were slowly made and style were pulled away from modernism, which could be linked back to the previous posts on how Jacques Tati were explaining how the form of the international style was confusing itself with everything else that was being building according to the manifestos. With the lectures combined with readings from Complexity and Contradictions in Architecture by Robert Venturi, another big viewpoint have been opened in my understanding of architecture.

"Both-and" over "Either-or"
"Grey over Black and White"
"Less is not more" but "Less is a bore"
"Function follows From" rather than "Form follow Function"

These simple, yet strong phrases from the book is changing the phase of design. When looking at these words put side by side, it seems like post-modernist architects are a lot more optimistic than the ones have once conquered the world of design. These post-modernists are not limiting themselves to anything specific, but it seems like they are opening the eyes of people to something that was always existing, but unnoticed, which is "space and time". I would say this seems like enlightenment from a long meditation where you start to notice your breathing even though you do it all the time. (maybe a too direct analysis), but for this era, post-modernism IS the new and more practical way of looking at design. Robert Venturi, Peter Eisenmen and other new wave of architects are setting up a new writing or script for this new era. What I like most about this upcoming style is the fact that the manifesto states something like how architecture should not be created upon a limit to a certain boundary, but should have a process to it so that it creates its own way of writing according to, again, "space and time". Not a direct quotes but a phrase to this sort. This makes me better understand the history of architecture to this day of how architecture is a form of writing. The abstraction of nature in Egypt, abstraction of human form in Rome, abstraction of machine in Modernism, and now the abstraction of process in Post-Modernism. This also makes me understand the hard-work that we have to put through in studio class to make all these diagramatic analysis. This is all to create a new form of writing. A new form of character. In this new style, if function follows form, then the remake of Playtime would be people dressed up as Lady Gaga walking around post-modernist buildings.