Postmodernism

Classical quotations, colour and irony – a revolt against the strict boxes of modernism.

From the late 1960s more and more people grew tired of modernism’s monotony. The postmodernists wanted buildings to mean something again: they borrowed pediments, columns and arches from history, often enlarged, flattened or playfully wrong. “Less is a bore,” Robert Venturi replied to Mies van der Rohe.

In the 1960s criticism of modernism began to grow: the suburbs felt desolate, and old neighbourhoods were being demolished. Jane Jacobs defended the lively street, and Robert Venturi and Charles Jencks gave architects a new vocabulary. Postmodernism wanted buildings to communicate with ordinary people. It peaked in the 1980s and was then often ridiculed, but it has enjoyed a revival in recent years.

Ricardo Bofill’s Bågen (The Arch) by Fatbursparken and the blocks around it, Gert Wingårdh’s early buildings and several 1980s developments in city centres represent Swedish postmodernism.