Architecturally Speaking, Where Do We Go?

A necessity to identify and define our post-postmodern times

While modern architecture took a functionality-centric approach to their designs, the postmodern architects wanted their work to make people question and think. While the modernists' straightforward geometry and orderliness were synonymous with beauty, the postmodernists went out of their way to rebel against their predecessors' reason-conforming designs by paying homage to irrationality and chaos. While for the modernists less is more, the postmodernists' revolt took radical shapes and forms to claim that less is a bore. The postmodernist movement, in short, was a reaction to the rigid principles of modernity that seemed to cower behind the veil of minimalism resulting in the former’s skepticism of reason and conformity.

By distinguishing these two eras, architecturally at least, we can come to an understanding that their differences are not solely based on the characteristics of their designs but are firmly grounded in the philosophies that drive them. With this idea in mind, let us take on the task of identifying the present-day architectural era we lurk in to get a better understanding of the driving force of our times.

The iconic skyscrapers that define our architecture stand tall as nothing more than monuments; the spaces inside them are mostly vacant. The McDonald’s, the KFCs, the Burger Kings, and Wendy’s are prominent features of our global landscape, and like wolves in sheep's clothing, these buildings are the real estate companies disguised as restaurants. Shopping malls and IT parks, two of many such examples, are growing redundant with most of the shopping done online and with work culture moving towards remote work. So do these buildings bear the functionality of modernity? Or do they display the absurdity of post-modernity?

With computer-based designs being backed by scientific and technological reasoning we still seem to be flirting with sentiments of modernity, but is that enough to say we have not gotten past the functionality-centric ideology? Neo-modernity is a term used to describe our era, but would we be wrong in identifying the excessiveness and absurdity of postmodernism in our designs?

We cannot turn a blind eye to us hitting new highs with our ever-evolving technical knowledge, but somehow even with the polished, glass-cladded, aerodynamic aesthetics we flaunt, we are not able to rid ourselves of the robotic stiffness of industrial designs and the loud colours of vulgar consumerism that shape an aggressively soulless environment for our future.

Our population is rapidly losing touch with the colors and forms that have shaped us throughout our eons of evolution. And along with this loss, there is a loss of fundamental logic and reasoning, where our designs just like everything else are driven by frenzied greed that fuels the economy and manhandles the environment. And the more soulless our cities grow, the more mindless chaos they seem to unconsciously inspire. This crisis calls for a revolution not only in our design elements but also in the philosophy that drives them. There seems to be an unheard need to reintroduce ourselves to the harmonious rigidity and the chaotic fluidity of organic forms that our species grew up with, a need to incorporate flora into our designs and relearn to live with green and serene color pallets. There is a need to replace traditional building materials with recycled materials and recyclables. These designs need to be driven by an objective necessity rather than be treated as opportunities for successful business ventures that aid in recycling capital.

The oscillating pendulum of time has swung from one era to the next, and it is swinging back again. Of course, the way to move forward would be a synthesis of the lost values and forgotten intents of both the modernist and postmodernist movements, but more importantly, it needs to be a synthesis that simultaneously moves away from its predecessors' failures. Regardless of the terminology that the new wave shall be awarded, our rapidly changing times are leading us into a brand-new landscape, and the sooner we identify and accept this the easier our welcome into the future will be.

Kahan J Sudev