The Language of Metamodern Architecture is a compact polemic by Lisbon architect Paulo Martins Barata, proposing that a new architectural sensibility has quietly taken shape in Europe—one that no longer fits either side of the modern/post-modern argument.
About This Book
Its title knowingly echoes Charles Jencks's famous account of post-modern architecture, and Martins Barata takes up the challenge that implies: to name and describe what has come after. Drawing on metamodern cultural theory, which sees contemporary culture oscillating between sincerity and irony, enthusiasm and doubt, he sets out nine points through which this sensibility can be read in the work of emerging practices. The result is a short, pointed essay that gives a name to tendencies many readers will already recognise in recent buildings, exhibitions and competition entries.
Key Features
- A concise theoretical argument for metamodernism as a framework for contemporary architecture
- Nine themes—humour, media, collage, ornament, bricolage, technology, form, ecology and ethics—used to read current work
- Positions recent European practice against the long-running modern versus post-modern debate
- Written by a practising architect and critic with a long record in architectural theory
- English edition from Porto publisher Circo de Ideias
What You'll Discover
- Why the modern/post-modern opposition may no longer describe how architects work
- How irony and sincerity can coexist in a single building or project
- The renewed roles of ornament, collage and bricolage in contemporary design
- How ecology and ethics are reshaping architecture's sense of purpose
- A vocabulary for discussing the work of a younger generation of practices
About the Author
Paulo Martins Barata is an architect and a founding partner of PROMONTORIO in Lisbon. He studied at the University of Lisbon, Edinburgh and ETH Zurich, and was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University. He is the author of a study of Álvaro Siza's early work, has written widely on architectural theory and criticism for journals including Arquitectura Viva, Lotus International and Daidalos, and contributes regularly on architecture to the Portuguese newspaper Público.
Specifications
- Format:
- Dimensions: 135 × 200 mm
- Pages: 112
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789893673621
- Publisher: Circo de Ideias
Perfect For: architects, students and critics interested in architectural theory and the direction of contemporary practice after post-modernism.