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