Postmodernism

What is postmodernism in architecture?

Postmodernism in architecture is a movement that questioned the rational certainty of modernism and brought ornament, colour and historical references back into buildings. Tate describes the wider term as associated with scepticism, irony and critiques of universal truths and objective reality. It says modernism was based on idealism and reason, while postmodernism was born of scepticism and a suspicion of reason. The Tate entry does not mention architecture. The architectural meaning below comes from the other sources on this page.

The Slovak term is postmodernizmus. The English term covers both the style and the wider cultural movement.

When did postmodern architecture start?

Tate says the term was first used around 1970 and that postmodernism may be said to begin with pop art in the 1960s. The table gives the dates that the sources on this page support. It is a sketch and not a full history.

Date	Event	Source
1960s	Pop art, where Tate says postmodernism may begin	Tate
Around 1970	The term postmodernism is first used	Tate
1974 to 1983	Construction of the ČKD building at Můstek in Prague	Prague City Tourism
1978 to 1984	Implementation of the Ružinov shopping centre in Bratislava	Register of modern architecture
1979	Michael Graves wins the Portland competition	M+
1980 to 1984	Implementation of the bank branch in Čadca	Register of modern architecture
1982	The Portland Building is completed	M+

Which buildings are postmodern?

The M+ museum in Hong Kong records that Michael Graves won a city-sponsored competition in 1979. The competition was for a municipal services building in Portland, Oregon. The building opened in 1982. M+ calls it the first major realised example of architectural postmodernism. That is the museum's judgement, and this page quotes it as such.

Prague City Tourism calls the ČKD building at Můstek, designed by Jan Šrámek and Alena Šrámková, Prague's first postmodern building. Jan Šrámek began the design in 1972. Alena Šrámková took over much of the completion after he fell ill. The page gives 1974 to 1983 as the construction years.

What did postmodernism look like in Slovakia?

The Register of modern architecture in Slovakia is run by the Department of Architecture at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. It gives two early cases. Its Mihálik profile says that in the 1980s Ľubomír Mihálik worked with Ján Bahna on the first works of postmodern architecture in Slovakia.

The Ružinov shopping centre at Tomášikova 14 in Bratislava is the first. The register says the building was the first in Slovakia to show signs of postmodernism, in its entrance hall with pseudo-historical portals. It lists the architects Ľubomír Mihálik, Ján Bahna, Peter Minarovič, František Kalesný and Pavol Čížek. The potter Richard Langer worked on the entrance hall. The register gives the project years as 1975 to 1978, the implementation years as 1978 to 1984 and an extension in 1998. Its own period tag reads 1980 to 1989, so the tag does not match the dates in the same entry. Use the dates.

The second is the bank branch at Fraňa Kráľa 1504 in Čadca. The register gives the project years as 1978 to 1981 and the implementation years as 1980 to 1984. It credits Ferdinand Čapka and Severín Duriš with the building and Ján Bahna and Ľubomír Mihálik with the interiors. It calls the interiors the most outstanding examples of Slovak post-modernism. The Mihálik profile lists only Čapka and Bahna as his collaborators on this building, so the two pages differ on who worked on it.

Building	Place	Architects	Dates	Source
Shopping centre Ružinov	Bratislava	Mihálik, Bahna, Minarovič, Kalesný, Čížek	Project 1975 to 1978, built 1978 to 1984, extension 1998	Register of modern architecture
Bank branch	Čadca	Čapka, Duriš (building), Bahna, Mihálik (interiors)	Project 1978 to 1981, built 1980 to 1984	Register of modern architecture
ČKD building	Prague, Můstek	Jan Šrámek, Alena Šrámková	Design from 1972, built 1974 to 1983	Prague City Tourism
Portland Building	Portland, Oregon	Michael Graves	Competition 1979, completed 1982	M+

The register files the Ružinov centre under post-war modernism. See postwar modernism for that category. We found no source that surveys other Bratislava postmodern buildings, so this page lists no more.

How did postmodernism reach Czech architecture?

A 2023 diploma thesis at Charles University by Zdislava Pilařová cites the historian Pavel Kratochvíl. The thesis says the ČKD building brought the debate about postmodernism into the Czech setting. The debate concerned the exhaustion of modern architecture and the need for a new source of inspiration. The thesis adds that Czech architects did not treat postmodernism as a new style. They treated it as a way of thinking and of dealing with tradition and history. Interwar functionalism served as the historical starting point, extended with a more humane context. The thesis cites the critic Radomíra Sedláková, who named the result new functionalism. See neofunctionalism. The thesis is student work and a secondary source.

What does postmodernism mean for a renovation today?

A postmodern building from the 1980s can be an ordinary building or a protected one. The Register of modern architecture is a research database, so an entry does not itself protect a building. Under § 15 ods. 1 of the heritage act (49/2002 Z. z.) the Pamiatkový úrad declares a movable or immovable thing with monument value to be a cultural monument. Before you plan changes, ask the regional heritage office (krajský pamiatkový úrad). Ask whether the building is a monument or lies in a monument zone or protective zone.

The act sets the rules for each case in § 32. In a monument zone the owner submits the preparatory and project documentation, and the regional office issues a binding opinion (§ 32 ods. 10). A building may not be a monument but may lie in a protective zone. Its owner must then request a binding opinion before the change (§ 32 ods. 11). Outside these cases, the style label has no legal effect and the question is the condition of the building. Read the original drawings first. The Ružinov entry shows that even a recent building can be extended, as this one was in 1998.