Week 13 - Contextualising an example of post modern design

INTRODUCTION

As a response to all the characteristics the modernist period judged to not be varied, the postmodernist artists promote an varied and ordinary architecture full of signs, details, elements, messages (Ghisleni Camilla, 2021). Postmodernism architecture can be then, considered as a vernacular architecture as the buildings from this period are distinguished from the other that surround them. That's how, in response to a modern architect who said "Less is more" (Mies Van Der Rohe, 1929), Robert Venturi attested that "Less is bore" (Robert Venturi, 1977) Being an interesting period with a lot of things to say, I'm going to focus on an example of postmodernism building in this blog by analysing it and discussing the context of the design and the historical context of it.

Miami Museum Garage

Image 1 - WorkAc, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, K/R and Mayer J. H. - Miami Museum Garage, 2014

• The museum garage is a parking structure but also a contemporary museum that distinguish itself from the other buildings by its colourful and creative façade. The design of the building is the result of a juxtaposition of different design ideas from different artist that used a surrealist game called "Le Cadavre Exquis" (Fernanda Castro, 2018)
  

• The concept of the game is to gather different images or drawings of different person and each person has no idea of the previous design/drawing. Then, this create a unique and playful composition (Fernanda Castro, 2018)
  

• It is an amusing and colourful building with a vibrant mix of geometrical and curvy shapes with colourful stripes on it, of textures and patterns. In different facades, we can see figures that relates to Japanese animations, car bodies, interlinking pieces of puzzle. (Archello, n.d)
  

• The whole structure is made of cast concrete but the different designs on the facades are made of laser-cut metal, fibre resin plastic, fiberglass. (Fernanda Castro, 2018)

The architect: WORKac

• WORKac is an architecture firm that was co-founded by Amal Andraos and Dan Wood who are respectively professor and adjunct associate. (WorkAc, n.d).
  

• Born in Lebanos, Amal took her passion for architecture from her father who was an architect. She has lived in a lot of different countries and had her Bachelor in Architecture from Mc Gill University in Canada and obtained her master degree from the School of Design at Harvard university. (Syracuse Architecture, n.d)
  

• After several years, she became professor and dean at the Columbia University Graduate school Bernstein Fred A., 2018)
  

• Dan Wood was studying film and photography in college at the University of Pensylvania, but after a trip to Tokyo which change his perception of architecture, he applied to study architecture and urbanism at the University of Columbia. He then had a Bachelor degree in Arts at the University of Penssylvania and his Master degree at the University of Columbia. (Everybodywiki, 2020)
  

• After all these years, he became an licensed architect in the state of New York and also became LEED certified. Then, he became an Adjunct Associate Professor in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP. (Columbia GSAPP, n.d)
  

• WORKac is a firm that strongly interested in sustainable design and sometimes faces some problems with it as it is an ethical problem. That's the reason why sometimes, they have to limit themselves for making innovative things. (Dan Wood, 2021)
  

• They have several famous buildings such as The Edible Schoolyards in Brooklyn and Harlem (see image 2), Kew Garden Hills' public library (see image 3), The Students Success Centre at Rhode Island School of Design (see image 4). (WorkAc, n.d).

Image 2 - WORKac (2010), Edible Schoolyard NYC

Image 3 - WORKac (2017), Kew Garden Hill's Library

Image 4 - WORKac (2019), RISD Student Success Center

The movement: Surrealism

The Miami Museum garage is part of the surrealism period, a period that affected architecture.

• The surrealism was at first, a French literary movement that emerge from the dadaism, which have the same characteristics as the surrealism (Park West Galleries, n.d)
  

• It is an art movement about the liberation of dreams and all the ideas that come into our unconscious mind, even if they seem to be crazy, absurd, illogical or unrealistic.
  

• "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision." (Salvador Dali, 1929)
  

• The characteristics of this art movement are the expression of the subconscious, the distortion of reality, the randomness of associations, absurd themes and strange juxtapositions. (Stella Karageorgie, n.d)

General movement: Postmodernism

• The postmodernism period is a movement about the rejection of modernism and his serious aspect to replace it by a mix of ideas.
  

• Postmodernist period is also a current linked to the expansion of capitalism due to the fact that is was the end of the World War 2 and also because the huge production of basic goods have been replaced by flexibility. (Ellen Meiksins Wood, 1997) Everything was about money and it was the subject that gave the meaning of a lot of objects.
  

• Also, there were a lot of fast transformations in this era in the economic, social and cultural aspects. (Ellen Meiksins Wood, 1997)

Conclusion

To summarise, we can note that the post modernism period is an art movement against the ideas of the modernists artists and is linked to money through the capitalism. Different art works of this periods belong to movements that are within this postmodernism period and they all have their specific characteristics that result to different types of architecture.

Image list

Image 1 - WorkAc, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, K/R and Mayer J. H. - Miami Museum Garage, 2014

Image 2 - WORKac (2010), Edible Schoolyard NYC

Image 3 - WORKac (2017), Kew Garden Hill's Library

Image 4 - WORKac (2019), RISD Student Success Center

Reference list

1. Ghisleni C. (2021). What is Postmodernism [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.archdaily.com/964625/what-is-postmodernism#:~:text=As%20a%20reaction%20against%20the,that%20can%20communicate%20cultural%20values. [Accessed 5 February 2024]

2. Lubbe T. V. D. (2020). Less is more: What organizations can learn from Mies Van Der Rohe. Retrieved from: https://www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/mies-van-der-rohe [Accessed 28 January 2024]

3. Venturi R. (1977) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. London: Architectural Press.

4. Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, Workac, K/R and Mayer J. H. (2014) Miami Museum Garage. [Building]. Retrieved from: https://www.archdaily.com/897283/miami-museum-garage-workac-plus-nicolas-buffe-plus-clavel-arquitectos-plus-k-r-and-j-mayer-h [Accessed 5 February 2024]

5. Castro F. (2018). Miami Museum Garage. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.archdaily.com/897283/miami-museum-garage-workac-plus-nicolas-buffe-plus-clavel-arquitectos-plus-k-r-and-j-mayer-h [Accessed 5 February 2024]

6. Archello. (n.d). Museum Garage. [Online] Retrieved from: https://archello.com/project/museum-garage#stories [Accessed 5 February 2024]

7. WorkAc. (n.d). About. [Online] REtrieved from: https://work.ac/about/ [Accessed 5 Februray 2024]

8. Syracuse Architecture (n.d) Amale Andraos. [Online] Retrieved from: https://soa.syr.edu/live/profiles/332-amale-andraos [Accessed 5 February 2024]

9. Berstein F. A.(2018) How Lebanese-born Amale Andraos made US history. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/amale-andraos-lebanese-born-architect-columbia-made-us-history [Accessed 5 February 2024]

10. Everybodywiki (2020). Dan Wood. [Online] Retrieved from: https://en.everybodywiki.com/Dan_Wood [Accessed 5 February 2024]

11. Columbia GSAPP. (n.d) Dan Wood. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/faculty/352-dan-wood [Accessed 5 February 2024]

12. The Architectural League NY. (n.d) WORKac. [Online] Retrieved from: https://archleague.org/article/i-would-prefer-not-to-workac/ [Accessed 5 February 2024]

13. WorkAc. (n.d). About. [Online] Retrieved from: https://work.ac/about/ [Accessed 5 Februray 2024]

14. WORKac (2010), Edible Schoolyard NYC [Garden] New York, USA

15. WORKac (2017), Kew Garden Hill's Library [Library] Queens, USA

16. WORKac (2019), RISD Student Success Centre [Student Hall] Providence, USA

17. Park West Galleries (n.d). What is Surrealism? How art illustrates the unconscious. Retrieved from: https://www.parkwestgallery.com/what-is-surrealism-art/# [Accessed 6 February 2024]

18. Kulkarni M. (n.d). Surrealism in architecture. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-fresh-perspectives/a1380-surrealism-in-architecture/ [Accessed 6 February 2024]

19. Stella Karageorgi (n.d) Surrealism Art Movement: History, Characteristics and Artwork. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.artlex.com/art-movements/surrealism/ [Accessed 6 Feruary 2024]

20. Ellen Meiksins Wood (1997) Modernity, postmodernity or capitalism?, Review of International Political Economy, 4:3, 539-560, DOI: 10.1080/096922997347742 [Article]