Tuesday 23 April 2013

Post Modern Buildings


The Sick the Bad and the Ugly

Sick Building Syndrome


Sick building Syndrome was a problem that occurred in postmodern architecture, starting in the early 1970s when the architecture style changed dramatically. People who worked or inhabited these ‘sick buildings’, usually came down with symptoms. These included: non-specific hyposensitivity reactions, irritated eyes, nose, throat and neurotoxic health problems.

Sick building syndrome was only diagnosed to a building under the circumstance of abnormal numbers of occupants becoming sick in a short period of time (usually just days and weeks).

After examination of accused sick buildings the most common cause of sick building syndrome found is bad ventilation and air quality. Because of this bad ventilation there was no extraction of pollutions from office by-products, mould and industrial chemicals.

This was a major problem for architectures in post-modern times and now buildings built in the 1960s-70s come with the risk of being badly ventilated and designed.

In early 1980s onwards, there was a mass clear up done in these buildings and mould, algae and Gloeocapsa Magma was all extracted. Ventilation systems were revised and refitted and air quality was checked.

Examples

Above: A building from 1960-70 that has been refurbished and used by the H & M franchise.


The Bradford and Bingley Bank was a famous 'architectural disaster' and was even shunned by Prince Charles who said it was a “a monstrous carbuncle”. It has now been closed down and is still standing in the town of Bingley.

The postmodernism architectural style went through an ugly, impractical period before things got better.

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Manifesto

The word ‘post’ in postmodernism suggests that it comes after modernism, however both postmodernism and modernism both exist together at the same time. Modernism seeks to give meaning and solid definitions to what things are while postmodernism denies the rules laid by modernism.
Postmodernism denies the existance of scientifc, philosophical or religious truths to explain everything for everybody, while modernism seeks to give meaning and solid definitions to what things are while postmodernism denies the rules laid by modernism. It allows for personal interpretation, with personal experience being placed above abstract principles which paradoxically means that postmodernism can not truly be defined.
Postmodernism spans various different disciplines including art, culture, architecture, literature, entertainment, technology ect, and focuses on de-structered humanity meaning that disorder and fragmentation are acceptable represention of reality for postmodernists. Modernists viewed this view of fragmented humanity as bad while postmodernists seems to celebrate this, accepting ambiguity.
There are no final truths or definitions in postmodernism, it is an attempt to give new meanings and interpretations to everything.
Throughout the coming weeks we are going to explore how postmodernism is evident in various different aspects in our society in an attempt to better understand what postmodernism is and how it affects our lives. We will be looking at examples of postmodernism in pop-culture and entertainment, feminism, architecture, and art and design movements.