Table Of ContentA Critical History of
Contemporary Architecture
1960–2010
Edited by
Elie G. Haddad and David Rifkind
A CritiCAl History of ContemporAry ArCHiteCture
This page has been left blank intentionally
A Critical History of
Contemporary Architecture
1960–2010
edited by
elie G. Haddad and David rifkind
© elie G. Haddad and David rifkind 2014
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
elie G. Haddad and David rifkind have asserted their rights under the Copyright,
Designs and patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
Ashgate publishing limited Ashgate publishing Company
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union road suite 3-1
farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
surrey, Gu9 7pt usA
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A critical history of contemporary architecture : 1960-2010 / [edited] by elie G. Haddad
and David rifkind.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4724-2937-7 (hardback) -- isBn 978-1-4094-3981-3 (pbk.) -- isBn 978-
1-4724-2938-4 (ebook) -- isBn (invalid) 978-1-4724-2939-1 (epub) 1. Architecture,
modern--20th century. 2. Architecture, modern--21st century. i. Haddad, elie, editor
of compilation. ii. rifkind, David, 1968- editor of compilation. iii. laurence, peter l.,
1936- modern (or Contemporary) Architecture circa 1959.
nA680.C745 2014
724’.6--dc23
2013033625
isBn: 978-1-4724-2937-7 (hbk)
978-1-4094-3981-3 (pbk)
978-1-4724-2938-4 (ebk – pDf)
978-1-4724-2939-1 (ebk – epuB)
III
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction: Modernism and Beyond: The Plurality of Contemporary
Architectures 1
Elie G. Haddad and David Rifkind
PART I MAjoR DeveloPMenTs AfTeR MoDeRnIsM
1 Modern (or Contemporary) Architecture circa 1959 9
Peter L. Laurence
2 Post-Modernism: Critique and Reaction 31
David Rifkind
3 High-Tech: Modernism Redux 51
Sarah Deyong
4 Deconstruction: The Project of Radical self-Criticism 69
Elie G. Haddad
5 Greening Architecture: The Impact of sustainability 91
Phillip Tabb
6 Postcolonial Theories in Architecture 115
Esra Akcan
PART II ARCHITeCTuRAl DeveloPMenTs ARounD THe WoRlD
7 Architecture in north America since 1960 139
Brendan Moran
8 Architectural Developments in latin America: 1960–2010 163
Zeuler R.M. de A. Lima
vi A CRITICAl HIsToRy of ConTeMPoRAR y ARCHITeCTuRe
9 The Place of Commonplace: The ordinary as Alternative
Architectural lens in Western europe 189
Tom Avermaete
10 Dutch Modern Architecture: from an Architecture of Consensus to
the Culture of Congestion 207
Frances Hsu
11 Metaphorical Peripheries: Architecture in spain and Portugal 225
Xavier Costa
12 Architecture in switzerland: A natural History 239
Laurent Stalder
13 Architecture in eastern europe and the former soviet union since
1960 255
Kimberly Elman Zarecor
14 finland: Architecture and Cultural Identity 275
Taisto H. Mäkelä
15 Architecture in Africa: situated Modern and the Production of
locality 291
Iain Low
16 Global Conflict and Global Glitter: Architecture of West Asia
(1960–2010) 311
Esra Akcan
17 old sites, new frontiers: Modern and Contemporary Architecture in
Iran 339
Pamela Karimi
18 Beyond Tropical Regionalism: The Architecture of southeast Asia 359
Kelly Shannon
19 Internationalism and Architecture in India after nehru 379
Amit Srivastava and Peter Scriver
20 Architecture in China in the Reform era: 1978–2010 401
Tao Zhu
21 Architecture in Post-World War II japan 419
Ken Tadashi Oshima
ConTenTs vii
22 edge of Centre: Architecture in Australia and new Zealand after 1965 437
Philip Goad
Index 461
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List of Illustrations
1 Modern (or Contemporary) Architecture circa 1959
1.1 “The Death of CIAM” at the last CIAM meeting, Otterlo, Holland, 1959. Peter Smithson,
Alison Smithson, John Voelcker, Jacob Bakema, Sandy van Ginkel; Aldo van Eyck and
Blanche Lemco, below. Image courtesy of Adam Voelcker
1.2 The demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis was not “the death of
modern architecture,” as some claimed, but a testament to the accuracy of urban design
critiques made decades earlier. Image courtesy of Getty Images
1.3 According to some of the Generation of ’56, Le Corbusier’s Chapelle Nôtre-Dame-du-
Haut at Ronchamp (1950–55) represented a “crisis of rationalism” for modern architecture.
Image courtesy of Peik Li Pang
1.4 In contrast with Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp, Mies van der Rohe’s post-war work, such as
Carr Chapel at Illinois Institute of Technology (1949–52), represented a static, and obsolete,
definition of functionalism. Image courtesy of Mike Schwartz
1.5 and 1.6 The popularization of modern architecture in the 1950s in works such as
Gordon Bunshaft/Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s Lever House (1950–52), above, and
Morris Lapidus’s Fontainebleau Hotel (1952–54), below, exacerbated the post-war crisis of
modernism architecture by conflating it with the International Style. Images courtesy of
Getty Images and Library of Congress, respectively
1.7 The last CIAM meeting in Otterlo, Holland, 1959. José Antonio Coderch, standing behind
Aldo van Eyck and Giancarlo De Carlo (seated at the center), speaks into the microphone.
Among the group are Ernesto Rogers, seated far left; Peter Smithson, standing third from left;
Jacob Bakema (obscured) and Alison Smithson, both seated. On the far right, John Voelcker
stands behind Kenzo Tange. The meeting’s organizing committee included Bakema (as chair),
John Voelcker, Rogers, Alfred Roth, and André Wogenscky. Image courtesy of NAi
1.8 Selected projects from CIAM ’59 in Otterlo represented the diversity of approaches
that emerged at CIAM’s end. Aldo van Eyck’s Children’s Home (1955–60); detail of Kenzo
Tange’s Kagawa Prefectural Office (1955–58); Kiyonori Kikutake’s Tokyo Bay project (1959);
passive cooling strategies for Jerzy Soltan’s Polish Exhibition Pavilion (Damascus, 1956).
Images courtesy of Oscar Newman, CIAM ’59 in Otterlo (Stuttgart: Karl Krämer Verlag, 1961)
