Post Class Week of 2/2

One piece of Doctor Casey’s presentation I thoroughly enjoyed and thought helped to explain much of the postmodern architecture we experience today was his articulation of the progression of architecture over time and the various time periods that helped contribute to the sights of contemporary times. Starting from the Classical period which focused on symmetry and can be exemplified by The Parathion, we move to the period of Neoclassical, nearly 1000 years later, in which symmetry continued to be the underlying foundation and called on stately, square, and geometric themes. However, taking a sharp turn from the previous mainstream, the period of “art nuvo,” which personally intrigued me the most, was best explained by its gaudy textures and flowery, curved structures. I think the examples Casey showed us demonstrating this era were most appealing, and ran rampant in such cities as Barcelona, Spain. I like the enormous creativity that this era warranted and the endless room it left for the artists to make choices and stray from the obvious. Similar to “art nuvo,”“art deco” attempted to control this emphasis on curves by once again reinstating columns, borrowing much from the past in an instance that Casey called the notion of “quoting”. It seems as if this notion is also much evident in the postmodern architecture we see today, in which themes from the past are recognized, borrowed from, and added onto to create something new while holding onto a sense of nostalgia. South Beach, according to the professor, epitomized “art deco,” a setting that I have visited on numerous occasions and thoroughly enjoyed bearing witness to. Other significant architectural eras we discussed was that of the “Bauhaus” which squared up “art deco” and focused on a strict, regimented style, as well as the era of “organics” which could be seen in work of Frank Lloyd Wright where homes were naturalized into their outdoor environment. This was perhaps one of the most interesting themes we looked at, and something I had never before seen or even heard of. The final stage before postmodern architecture was the “modern” style, a theme we as a class have become acquainted with, which emphasized (emphasizes?) functionality, symmetry, and purpose. All in all, it was clear after this presentation that the postmodern era is a collection of all of these varied eras, stealing what it likes from some and seeing what can be improved on from others. A style that is both new and not fully developed, it is intriguing to see what the postmodern era has the possibility of creating and how it will make a name for itself in the overall history of architectural design.