Post Modern Architecture Essay

The Starchitect of Post-Modern Architecture Architecture was the first style to push beyond modernist values and shift to post-modern values. Modern architecture followed a uniform style that appears in the de Stijl movement; which preferred order, horizontal/vertical lines, simplicity, sameness, universal form, and purism; meanwhile, the Bauhaus movement used industrial materials and simple geometric forms. The international style or what can be termed as present-day architecture followed the modernist values of architecture; simple geometric forms such as rectangular prisms or as people of today call them “Skyscrapers”. Those three phases incorporated geometric forms over and over, but nothing extreme like the post-modern architecture. Post-modern
The Bilbao effect is an event that occurred in port town, Bilbao, Spain in 1997, which led four million tourists, within three years, to visit the Guggenheim museum. Bilbao before the event had a poor economy, until the opening of the Guggenheim, which brought in huge financial gain. “Bilbao suddenly became not only a new tourist attraction, but also an example of urban entrepreneurialism…” (Plaza). Gehry’s design reflected the land around the museum. His design resembles a ship, which the city sits along the Nervion River, and the steel panels are reflective of fish scales. Gehry was fascinated with the idea of building with the illusion of movement with static materials (Gehry). The Bilbao effect caught the attention of the architect world and led many architects to replicate the Bilbao effect. The modernist architect would have never made such a design due to their strong values of form following function, flat surfaces, and simplicity. The design of the Guggenheim museum was so complex that Gehry had to rely on a 3D program, CAITA (Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application), just to create a model for reference; his sketches were not clear when putting his ideas together. The Guggenheim museum is an interesting architectural form to look upon unlike “skyscrapers”, which are everywhere in the West and have become mundane overtime. Gehry challenged modern architects