postmodern
Architecture after 1970 which plays creatively with ornamentation or massing derived retroactively from historical styles.
Pictured: MesseTurm
Postmodern architecture is a counter-reaction to the orthodox modernism of the mid-20th century. It reintroduces elements from historical building styles, often at a reduced level of detail, playing with the elements or rearranging them to form new and sometimes irrational forms.
Common features of postmodernism include columns, pyramids, arches, obelisks, unusual or attention-getting shapes and rooflines, and combinations of stone and glass on the facade.
In the 1980s, as postmodernism became more mainstream, it evolved into a more literal and conservative kind of neo-traditionalism using elements from classical and historic styles to simulate traditional architecture.
Approximate Dates: 1970 to the present
