The Language of Post-Modern Architecture and the Complexity Paradigm Charles Jencks “These excerpts from Jencks’s statements on Post-Modernism start with the now famous metaphor of the death of Modern Architecture: the blowing tp of Minoru Yamasaki Pruitt-Igoe scheme in St Louis, Missouri, in 1972. Modern Architecture, Jencks explains, is characterised by univalence: ‘an architecture created around one (ora few) simplified values’ and using only 8 “few materials and a single, right-angled geometry’ an architecture that paid little respect to the codes of the inhabitants. Countering thisis a multivalent architecture often based on multiple metaphors. These have been used to recode Modern Architecture with other languages. He claims: “the more ‘the metaphors, the greater the drama, and the more they are slightly suggestive, the greater the mystery’ Following the importance of language and multiple codes in architecture, Jencks concludes in the third part of his text, thatthe basis of this new post-modern complexity paradigm is the ‘new \way of constructing architecture and conceiving cities’. Drawing upon his ‘evolutionary charts, Jencks explains how the new paradigm grew out of the 1960s counterculture to eventually embrace the pluralism of global cultures. Charles Jencks (1939-) is an American-born architectural critic and landscape architect, particularly known for his books on the history of ‘Modern, Late- and Post-Modern architecture, LCS The Death of Modernism Happily, we can date the death of Modern Architecture to a precise moment in time. Unlike the legal death of a person, whichis becoming a complex affair of brain waves, versus heartbeats, Modem Architecture went out with a bang. That many people didn’t notice, and ne ene was seen to mourn, does not make the sudden extinction any ess oF 2 fact, and that many designers are stil trying to administer the Kis of life does not mean that ft has been miraculously resurrected. No, It expired Finally and completely in 1972, after having been flogged to death remorselessy for 10 years by cities such as Jane Jacobs; and the fact that many so-called Macern architects stil go around practising @ trade as if it were alive can be taken as one of the great curlosities oF our age (ike the Bish monarciy giving ife-prolonging drugs to the Royal Company of Archers or the Extra Women of the Bedchamben). Modern Architecture died in St Louis, Missouri on 1S July 1972 at 3.32 pm (or thereabouts) when the infamous Pruit-Igoe scheme, o rather several of its slab biocks, were given the final coup de grace by dynamite, Previously it had been vandalised, 162. The Pood Reader mmatilated and defaced by its black inhabitants, end although millions of dollars were pumped back, trying to keep It alive (fixing the broken elevators, repalring smashed windows, repainting), it was finally put out ofits misery. Boom, boom, boom. Without doubt, the ruins should be kept, the remains should have @ preservation order slapped on them, so that we keep a live memory of this failure in planning and architecture, Like the folly or artifical ruin ~ constructed on the estate of an 18th century English eccentric to provide him with instructive reminders of former vanities and slots ~ we should leam to value and protect our former disasters. As Oscar Wilde said, ‘experience Is the name we give to our mistakes, and there is a certain health in leaving ‘them judiciously scattered eround the landscape as continual lessons Pruitt-igoe was constructed according to the most progressive ideals of CIAM (the Congress of International Modern Architects) and it won an award from the American Institute of Architects when it was designed in 1951, Why? Because it cared out the major doctrines of modern city planning. It consisted of elegant slab blocks 14 storeys high with rational ‘streets in the al’ (which were safe from cars, but as it turned out, not safe from crime); ‘sun, space and oreenery’, which Le Corbusier called the ‘thee essential Joys of urbanisn Instead of conventional streets, gardens and semiprivate space, which he banished). It had a separation of pedestrian and vehicular trafic, the provision of play space and local amenities such as launeries, eréches and gossip centres all rational substitutes for traditional patterns, Moreover, its Purst style, its clean, salubrfous hospital ‘metaphor, was meant to instil, by good example, corresponding virtues inthe inhabitants. 'Lood form vas to lead to good content, rat least goad conduct; the intelligent planning of abstract space was to promote healthy behaviour, Alas, such simplistic ideas, taken over from the philosophies of Rationalism, Behaviourism and Pragmatism proved a rationals the philosophies themselves. Modern Architecture, asthe son of the Enlightenment, was an hei to its congenital nalvetes, too ‘great and awe-inspiring ts warant refutation in a book on mere building, Univalence/Multivatence Forthe general aspect of an architecture created around one (ora fen) simplified values, | wil use the term univalence. No doubs in terms of expression the architecture of Mies vvan der Rohe and his followers i one of the most univalent formal systems, because it makes use of few materials and a single, ight-angled geometry. Minimalism was the style he preferred, after 1925, and the slogans of an architecture were ‘less is moze! and the bulding is ‘almost nothing’. Although it can be relevant in some contexts this reduced style was justified as generally ational (when it was often uneconomic), and Universal (witen it fitted only a few functions). As a result of his persuasive arguments, and example, the glass-and:-stee! box has become the single most used type in Modern Achitecture, and i signifies throughout the word ‘office building’ Yet in the hands oF Mies and his disciples this system has also become fetishsed to the point where it dominates all other concems, just as the leather boot dominates the shoe 163. The Language of Fs: Moder Artur andthe Congest PragLoe 64 The Post arn Render 165 The Language of Pos Modem rctitcture andthe Complesty Paracigmfetishist and distracts him from more relevant pats of the body. The architectural fetshist is typically obsesced by materials, ora consistent geometry, and sulimates Further sues to this tral concern. Are beams and plate glass appropriate to the home? That isa question Mies would clsmiss as ielevant, or atleast secondary to visual consistency. Surprisingly, hs fist, classicuse ofthe curtain wall was on housing, not for an office, andi interested in perfecting certain formal problems. In this case, on he concentrated on the proportion ofthe -beam tothe infill panels, the setbacks, glass are, supporting column and articulating fines He kept full-scale deta ofthese members ose to his draughting board so he would never lose sight ofthe elements he loved, A larger question thus did not arse: what iF husing looked Ike offices, or what if the two functions were incstingulshable? Cleary the result would diminish and compromise both functions by equating them: working and living would become interchangeable on the most banal level, and the particular virtue of each would be obscured. The psychic tones to these two very different acthities would remain unexplored or accidental Another masterpiece ofthe Modern Movement, the Chicago Civic Center designed by a follower of Mies, shows similar confusions ia communicating the diversity of ts content ‘The long horizontal spans and dark corten steel express ‘office building’, ‘power, ‘purty hile the variations in surface express ‘mechanical equipment’. allthis is as intended, as far as It. goes, but the primitive (and occasionally mistaken) meanings do net express anything deep or complex about working in the city. On 2 literal level the building does ‘ot communicate is important chic functions, nor the social and psychological meanings, of this significant building task (a meeting place forthe citizens of Chicago). How could an architect justify such inarticulate building? The answer les in an ideology that celebrates process, which symbolises only the changes in technology and building materlal. The Modern Movernent revered the means of production, the Machine Aesthetic and metaphors such as Le Corbusier’: ‘the house Is a machine for living’ In ‘one of those cryptic aphorisms, too delvous to overlook, Mies gave expression to this fetish see in industriliation the central problem of bulling in aur time. IF we succeed as used becausehe was In carying out this industialization, the social, economic, technical and also artistic problems willbe readily solved 1924) Double-Coding Such contradictions between statement and result have reached impressive proportions in ‘Modem Architecture and one can speak ofa credibility gap thet parallels the loss of trust in politicians. One cause ofthis, | believe, stems from the kind of language architecture i. As something roated in peoples’ childhood experience of crawling around on Fat floors and perceiving such normal elements as vertical doors, It is by necessity partly tradition and slow changing, But also itis partly rooted in a fast-changing soclety, with its new functional tasks, new materials, new technologies and ideologies. On the one hand, architecture is as conservative as spoken language (we can still understand Renalssance English); and, on the other, as revolutionary and esoteric as modem art and science. The 166. The Festiadrn Renee 2. Miss van lr Raho, Seam Biting comers and Hears New snorymas ote wae tuned ioe sn of booing to Eproduaton Became the ser oe Mo 1968 The lie tyrone ast ‘srloes. © Chie asc, 167 Tha Language of Post-Modern Architecture andthe Conley Paraigmresult Is that architecture is cadlally schizophrenic, and ths fact leads dlrecly to the Post-nadem strategy of double-coding. As we will se, PMs design buildings with mixed languages that recognise the basi dualty.(..) Arata Isozak! designed 2 country dub in Japan, with @ Roman barrel vault that ends in a Pallacian motif and ound green dot. The ensemble forms a giant question mack, posing the metaphysical (and sociel) question; ‘why do the Japanese play gol? Indeed, why? Implied answer: “because, lke the classical quotes, they help settle deals with the West? Quotation and irony, the ability to send two opposite meanings at once, became the PM approach. Umberto Eco argued that this generic double-coding stemmed from the concltion of ving in an age of lost innacence, when everything had already been sai, He explains our plight with an amusing exemple: | think ofthe postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated ‘woman and knows he cannot say to her,‘ love you madly, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Stil there isa solution, He can say, ‘As Barbara Cartiand would put it, | love you madly’ At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it sno longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her; but he loves her in an age of lost innacence.? 'n other words, to labour the point, if architects are going to use past conventions, as they must doin order to communicate tien they have to signal the already said. This signalling ives thelr forms end ornament a subversive meaning counter to the revivalists, that i, ft subverts tradition from within it ‘Metaphor and Code People invariably see one building in terms of another, or in terms of a similar object in short as a metaphor. The more unfamiliar a modem building is, the more they will ‘compare it metaphorically to wnat they know. This matching of one experience to another 'saproperty ofall though, particularly that which fs creative. Thus, when precast concrete grilles were first used on buildings inthe late 1950s, they were seen as ‘cheese-qraters, beehives’, ‘chain-link fences, while 10 year later, whien these forms became a norm ina cettan building type, they were seen in functional terms; this looks lke a parking garage.’ From metaphor to cliché, from neologism through constant usage to architectural sign, thisis the continual route traveled by new and successful forms and technics, ‘Typical negative metaphors used by the public and by cites such as Lewis Mumford toccondemn Modem Architecture were ‘cardboard box, shoe-box,egg-crate, filing cabinet, sd-paper. These comparisons were sought not only far ther pejorative, mechanistic overtones, but also because they were strongly coded ina culture that had becomesenstsed to the spectre of 1984, Ths obvious paint has some curious implications, as we shall se. 168 The Postodern Reader Kho farokzw, Nagin CapeieBuaing, Toby, 19 ke sugar cases, or ics wat he CGropis, butte ary ater meas Pest mace produosd bono lacked hot of inurl boing for Modems ccs Wala, \fapendingcnloel codes, © Chala Jes 169. The Language of Pst Medern Arcicture andthe Comply Parag4. The Dusk Rabin i fist road by wnocacicus codes, but oe can ak it ip back thd firth tye ready on aeoond snc are hen oven fore tite an oth posse ‘meanings Unconsous a couscous codes guide perospon snd mca © Charles an. One implication became apparent when | was vsting Japan and the architec Kisho Kurokawa in 1972. We went to see his new apartment tower in Tokyo, made from stacked shipping containers, which had a most unusual overall shape. They loaked like stacked suger cubes, or even more, ke superimposed washing machines, because the white ‘cubes all had round windows in their centre. When | sai this metaphor had unfortunate ‘overtones for living, Kurokawa evinced surprise, “They aren’t washing machines, they’ bird cages. You see, In Japan we bulld concrete-box bird nests with round holes and place ‘them inthe trees. Ive built these bird nests for itinerant businessmen who visit Tokyo, for bachelors who flyin every so often with their birds’ A witty answer, perhaps made up on the spot, but one which underscored very nicely a difference in our visual codes “The basic point that codes of perception underlie the way we see architecture and value it A well-known visual ilusion brings this out: the famous ‘duck-rabbit figure’, \hich wil be seen frst one way then the other. Since we all have well-leamed visual codes for both animals, and even probably now a code forthe hyiid monster with two heads, Wwe can seeit three ways. One view may predominate, according to either the strength of the code or according to the direction from which we see the figure a fist. To get further readings (bellows’ or “keyhole et) is harder because these codes are less strong for this figure, they map less well than the primary ones — at least in our culture, The general Point is that code restrictions, based on personal learning and background culture, guide a reading of architecture, In global civilisation there are multiple codes, some of which ‘may be in conflict and this presents the basi starting point forthe post-modem architect: how to deal with this plurality? How to balance confiting meaning, which codes to prefer, which to suppress? 170: The Feat Mera Render In-very general terms, there are two large subcultures: ane with the contemporary code based on the training and ideology of Modern architects, and another with the traditional or local cade based on everyone's experience of normalised architectural elements. As | have already mentioned, there are compelling reasons why these codes may be at odds and architecture may be radially schizophreni both in Its creation and interpretation. Since some buildings incorporate various codes, they can become mixed metaphors with ‘opposing meanings: eg ‘te pure volume of the Modem architect becomes the ‘shoe box’ or “ling cabinet’ to the public. ‘One ullding just on the cusp between Modernism and Past-Modemism, the Sydney Opera House, provoked an abundance of metaphorieal response, beth In the popular and professional press. The reasons are, again, that the forms are both unfa architecture and reminiscent of other visual objects, Most ofthe metaphors are organic: ‘thus the architect, Jorn Utzon, showed how the shells of the building related tothe surface of a sphere (ike ‘orange segments’) and the wings of a bird inflight. They also relate, obviously, to white seashells, and Its this metaphar, plus the comparisan to the white sails bobbing around in Sydney Harbour, that have become journalistic clichés. This raises another obvious point with unexpected implications: the interpretation of architectural metaphor is more elastic and dapendent on local codes than the interpretation of metaphor in spoken or written language. Local context guides the reading, limits the ‘metaphors to travel along certain routes, although vey wide ones. Inany case, the Sydney Opera House does pose essential questions that have become particularly relevant to postmodernism, especialy in its complexity phase today. While ‘the organic metaphors are suitable analogues fora culture centre, they ae not reinforced by conventional sign that spring from the Australian vernacular, and therefore their initial ‘meaning is erratic and Surtealist. Like a Magritte painting — the apple that expands to fill ‘awhole room — their reference is stiking but enigmatic, evasive but suggestive, Clearly by pling on evocative connotations our emotions are being heightened but there is no ‘exact goal towards which all the overtones ~ shells, sails, nun’s cows, orange peels, etc = converge. They float around in our mind to pick up connections wire they can, like @ hoxuriant dream following too much cheese and wine. ‘They do however prove a general point about communication: the more the metaphors, the greater the drama, and the more they are slightly suggestve, the greater ‘the mystery, A mixed metaphor is strong, as every student of Shakespeare knows, but a suggested and mixed one fs powerful... Here [with Eero Saarinen’s TWA Building] the imaginative meanings add up in an ‘aparopriate and calculated way, pointing tawards a commen metaphor of flight — the ‘mutual interaction of these meanings produces a multivalent work of architecture, a true symbolic architecture an¢ one of the fist post-modern buildings. The most effective use of suggested metaphor that | can think of in Modem ‘Architecture is Le Corbusiers chapel at Ronchamp in northeastern Frence. This, because of its suggestiveness, is @ good candidate forthe fist PM building, tbhas been compared to all 1171 TheLanpuogeofFostodern tect andthe Complexity Parag> ee sorts of things, varying from the white houses of Mykonos to Swiss cheese Part of is panier is this suggestveness — to mean many different things at once, to set the mind off on a wild goose chase where it actually catches the goose, among other animals, For instance 3 duck (once again this famous character of Modem Architecture) is vaguely suggested inthe south elevation (se ilustration 6), But 0 tsa ship and, appropriately, preying hands. The visual codes, which here take in both ltst and popular meanings, are working mostly on ‘an unconscious level, unlike the hot dag stand. We read the metaphors immediately without bothering to name or draw them (as is dane here) and clearly the skll of the architect is dependent on his ability to callup our rich storehouse of vsualimages without ourbeing aware of it, Perhaps its also a somewhat unconscious proces fr the designer. Le Corbusier only admitted to two metaphos, bath of which are esaterc: the ‘visual acoustic’ ofthe curving walls wich shape the four horizons asf they were ‘Sounds (responding in antiphony), and the ‘crab shel form ofthe roo. But the building conveys many move metaphors than two? so many, in fact, that i fs overcadad, saturated with possible interpretations. This overcoding explains why Brtsh critics such 2s Nikolaus Pevsner and James Sting have found the building so upsetting, but also why others have found itso enigmatic It seems to suggest precise ritualistic meanings it looks lke the temple of some ve ‘complicated sect which reached a high degree of metaphysical sophistication; whereas we know its simply 2 pilgrimage chapel created by someane wha believed in a natural religion, apantheism, Put another way, the Roncham Chapel has all the fascination ofthe lscovery of a new archaic language, We stumble upon this Rosetta stone, this fragment ‘ofa fost cilsation, and every attempt to decode its surface yields yet another coherent ‘meaning which we know does not refer to any precise social practice, as it appears to do Le Corbusier has so overcoded his building with metaphor, and so precisely related partto par, that the meanings seem asf they had been fixed by countless generations engaged in ritual: something as rich as the delicate patterns of Islam, the exact iconography of Shinto, is suggested. How frustrating, how enjoyable it isto experience this game of signification, which we know rests mostly on Imaginative brilliance. Frank Gehry has Used the same enigmatic overcoding ... with his Disney Hall in Los Angeles and this type of symbolic buliding has become the standard way 2 post-modernist handles the ‘monument in a pluralist culture. tt suggests, and heightens, perception allowing diferent taste-cultures to read thelr oun meanings. Overtime this multivalence provokes yet more Interpretation, keeps the bulldng alive, turns into a cassie, Thus Ronchamp has become the fist open-ended, enigmatic signifier of our time. ‘The New Paradigm [My argument is that we are at the beginning of a new way af constructing architecture ane! conceiving cities, thatithas grown out of the past-madern movement inthe sciences and elsewhere, but that it has not yet grown Up [..] 5. Sjrinoy Opera House cartoon by artiteciral ender an he cecasin of be Quoen's ase couea nites ada se ea tek ey eee ee oe eee Lu] in the sciences and in architecture Itself @ new way of thinking has indeed {ile as © Chars Jensen started. It stresses self-organising systems rather than mechanistic ones, I favours Fractal 112 The Potsdam Rader 173. Theangunge of Post-Modern rca andthe Compe Pram6 Le Corser Roschamp Chapa 1055, one the st Post Modern bangs hs wos Conasive an emule mets, oul he ren in several ‘ow praying bands, amitber enbacb tar kien te Soro tos vl onde Were Undersea by tho poe apd pu, bu thay cea provoked a reason om cocina ‘madara Whe prevalene econo lng, years ne. ts bans e corancus tron, © Charla fens, 74 The Post ade Reade forms, self-similar ones, over those that are endlessly repeated. It looks to the notions of emergence, complexity and chaos science more than to the linea, predictable and ‘mechanistic sclences In more technical terms its based on nonlinear éynamics, and 3 new ‘worldview coming from contemporary cosmology. From this perspectiveit sees our place in 2 universe that Is continuously emerging, as @ single creative unfolding event. (..] What are the characteristics of the new architecture? itis committed to pluralism, the heterogeneity of our cities and global culture, and it acknowledges the variety of taste- cultures and visual codes of the users, From participatory architecture te close consultation Cllent isthe route travelled. It insists on the wider ecological and urban tissue In which buildings are placed even if it cannot do much about these lage issues on a global scale. Is fractal in form and closer to nature and the nature of perception than highly repetitive architecture, It may employ non-Euclidean geometries ~ curves, blobs, folds, crinkles, twists or scattered patterns. It sends complex messages, ones that often cary ionic, dissenting or citical meanings, those that challenge the status quo. It may be explicitly based on complexity theory, and emerge as a surprise to the designer from the belly of a computer. Need I say that no single building fits this compound definition. There has never been an architect wivo was totally Gothic, Baroque or Modern. A virtue of the new thinking is that i rtiques tatasatios, it allows statistical and fuzzy categories, ones of more or less, and its obvious that the architects I willbe following sometimes are past-maciem, and other times not, Let me therefore clarify some terms, Post-Modemism is a broad category that includes a diverse set of architects shown in the evolutionary chart on page 176. It is a historical formation that grows out of the 1960s counterculture; not only Jane Jacobs, Robert Venturi and their complexity theories, but Rachel Carson, the student movement, post-industrial society, the electronic revolution, contextualism, adhocism, metabolism and more sms’ than one cares to remember, It fs thus a rainbow coalition that resists the excesses of modernism ~ 2 entice, ot anti-mademism, Let us make na mistake. As | wll point out many times, some of the best PMs are former modernists critical of thelr ‘own traction, To clarify ths idea let me give as an example an architect wham everyone perceives asthe Madernist, Norman Foster, ‘An incredible irony of tis book is that the post-modernism it describes was started In the early 1970s, when Minoru Yamasaki housing in St Louis was dynamited by the authortes, and it comes to an end after his twin towers were blown up by teroiss. The problem of architectural symbalism still remains the one I painted out above, of univalent content, What can an architect symbolise in 2 commercial era that devotes its extra money not to publicly credible functions but to monopolies, big business, world firs, treat engineering feats and shopping? Some major changes have occurred in the West since that question was asked in 1977. Ecological Issues have become more pressing, the global market has deregulated somewhat, shopping has become in Koolhaas’s phrase ‘the 128. The Language of Post-Modern Aehtecure ad the Compe Paradigm19601965 oe) el ee ee re ~ the tine At, sdence an cut centres aa fa preferbe asc expressions of pide —— é =e and democracy than the corporate monument tothe global market. The tin towers of the World Tade Center were not only arrogant, 2s Goldberger wrote, but confused as symbols Their aetiolated Gothic neither had the confidence of the Woolworth skyscraper, the Cathedral to Commerce of 1914, nor the strength of a Modern Purist tower, such as Eero Saarinen’s CBS (New York City) oF 1961. Its confusion partly stemmed from the very ambivalence of ts content. How can a skyscraper express world trade without becoming 8 triumphalist assertion of American dominance? ¥ did not face the ambiguities and complexities of this task, a supremely architectural one. Since Cee usw 2 Unbsro Bao, Poster to th Name otha Rose, Harcost Brace Jovan Toren) re Ren (low Yoreanet Charles Joncks, "The Language of Post-Modern Architecture and the Complexity Paradigm’ originally appeared in The New Paradigm in Architecture, Yale University Pross (New Haven and liondor), 2008 (the seventh revised edition of The Language of Post-Modern Architacturo, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1991, published by Academy Editions). © Charles Jencks. 1. ost Mtodern Eveuionary Tee, 1000-200, Puram of competing tac ithe Pest tedem movement ui tase ak cberent sre stow some lhe arson Some of af 16 ‘The Fostedem Reser 171 The Language of Fs Mader rier andthe Comet Pragn