THE LANGUAGE OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE

1. THE LANGUAGE OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE MERVE CUSTAN

2. Charles Jencks • Was born in Baltimore in 1939 • Architecture critic and historian • Married Maggie Keswick, the co-author of the book “The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture” • Studied under the modern architectural historians Siegfried Geidon and ReynerBanham at Harvard and the Architectural Association in London. • His books are famous for questioning modern architecture and defining successive movements

3. Pruitt-Igoe • Collapse of modernism/modern architecture (1972)

4. PRUITT-IGOE : An Architectural Failure • Public Housing and urban redevelopment in St. Louis, Missouri, completed in 1954 • Aim was the clearance of slums and protection of the inner circle of city center • Had 33 identical eleven-story buildings • Had a separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, provisions of play space and facilities such as laundries, creches, gossip centers.. • Was constructed according to the most progressive ideals of CIAM (the Congress of International Modern Architects) • According to Corbusier (1951), it included ‘three essential joys of urbanism: sun, space and greenery’(p.432). • Won an award from the American Institute of Architects when it was designed in 1951 (?) • Two segregated sections (Pruitt for blacks and Igoe for whites) • At the beginning of 1960s, problems started to appear and made people leave Pruitt-Igoe • Ongoing problems were: vandalism, violence, and fiscal instability.

5. After the war, white middle class (which consisted most of the population) started to move out of the cities and poor segment took their place. This created an increase in central city slums. • Slums were located around the central business area and were racially segregated • Blacks were more likely to live in the north, while whites were more likely to live in the south • Post-war brought about the shift of black population from the north to the south and boosted the black ghetto. • The increase in slums around central business area worried city officials and local business community that this would cause a depreciation in the city center.

6. They came up with the solution to redesign the downtown business area and to clear the large area of the slums so that they could sell them at a reduced price to private developers • The housing projects intended to accommodate especially middle-income population and to bring them back to the central city while improving commerce • Their goal was to supply many low-rent units to the poor, prevent the expansion of ghetto and to accommodate households displaced by redevelopment • Pruitt-Igoe was one of these public housing projects

7. Project included a 57-acre site and was one of several areas chosen for slum clearance under the postwar redevelopment plan . • 2700-unit project aimed to house 15,000 tenants, a population higher than the original slums • This created a hope among the officials that the projects would also become the future public housing

8. COLLAPSE OF MODERNISM/MODERN ARCHITECTURE (1972) According to Jencks (1977) “Modern architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972 at 3.32 pm when the infamous Pruitt Igoe scheme, or rather several of its slab blocks, were given the final coup de grace by dynamite.” (p.432). “A symbol of all that went wrong in modern urbanism, was demolished.”

9. REASONS BEHIND THE COLLAPSE • Strict economy and efficiency drive • Intense political attitude towards the public housing • Pressure to keep the costs low, neglect of the repairs and mechanical breakdowns (Elevators not working) • elimination of facilities (children’s play areas, landscaping, and ground-floor bathrooms) and thus deterioration of the relationship of the tenants and living units. • A project increasingly inhabited by the poorest and most demoralized segment of the population • Fiscal instability, vandalism, violence accompanied by violent crimes • Rising costs of the tenants and decrease in habitation because of bad living conditions • Trials of physical repairs (fixing broken elevators, repairing smashed windows, repainting) and social programs were provided but had little effect • The buildings were demolished with explosives in the 1970s,and the project has become an icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure. (p.356)

10. Other Critics… • Social and economic factors • flaws in the overall approach or design philosophy - galleries which made it harder for people to reach their homes and thus facilitated gang attacks. People were also often attacked in the elevators. • Drawbacks were not just related to physical design: • Inadequate maintenance and the increasing poverty of tenants • Unawareness to the needs of lower class

11. Pruitt-Igoe attracted attention in the architectural and the national press: Architectural forum, AIA Journal, Architecture Plus, and The Architect’s Journal all published articles about the unsuccessful design properties. • Life, Time, The Washington Post, and The National Observer, among others, reported on the demolition experiment and recognized it as a contribution to architecture.

12. Minoru Yamasaki • bornin December 1, 1912, Seattle, Washington • American architect whose buildings, often associated with post-World War II modern architecture. • Graduated from the University of Washington • Architect of Pruitt-Igoe, World Trade Center, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

13. REFERENCES • Eggener, K. (2004). American architectural history: A contemporary reader. London: Routledge. • Jencks, C. (1977). The language of post-modern architecture. New York: Rizzoli. • Minoru Yamasaki | American architect. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2016, from http://global.britannica.com/biography/Minoru-Yamasaki