Proclaiming the End of Postmodernism in Architecture

Valéry Didelon (1, 2)

1 ACS - Architecture, Culture, Société XIXe-XXIe s
2 ENSAPM - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Malaquais

In recent years, ever greater numbers of researchers have been turning their attention to the subject of postmodernism in architecture, with most starting by stating when it expired. Indeed, it is when a cultural movement is definitively part of the past that people most commonly undertake to study it. Whereas the date of its emergence is regularly put back to earlier and earlier moments in the history of architecture, postmodernism in architecture is commonly considered to have ended – or died – in the mid-1990s, a period that corresponds to the most recent past into which historians have commenced their investigations. From that time onwards, the field of contemporary architecture has been declared open to theory and criticism. This paper will carefully examine the conditions under which postmodernism's death notice was given in architecture, noting furthermore how this notice differed between the architectural cultures of Europe and the United States. Which historians, critics and architects conducted its autopsy? What arguments were developed, for example, in the columns of the American journal Architecture in 2011 to say that post-postmodern-ism's time was up? Clearly distinguishing stylistic questions and anthropo-logical issues, the paper will go on to consider the possibility that the end of postmodernism was announced prematurely, outlining a number of hypotheses with a view to historicising contemporary architectural production.

Mots clés: Architecture; postmodernism; style; history; criticism

Domaines: Architecture, aménagement de l'espace; Art et histoire de l'art

Valéry Didelon. Proclaiming the End of Postmodernism in Architecture. Investigating and writing architectural history : papers from the Third EAHN International Meeting, 2014. ⟨halshs-01622818⟩