Mélange Modernism: Case Studies of Alternative Architectural Practices at the Crossroads Between Modernism and Postmodernism
Mélange Modernism: Case Studies of Alternative Architectural Practices at the Crossroads Between Modernism and Postmodernism

Summary/Abstract: This article is part of a broader research, in which I aim at discovering the specific place on the global architectural scene of several underexamined architectural creations of the 1980s in Romania. To this effect, I consider some points of reference. On the one hand, I propose utopian thought as a tool of analysis, as it is redefined and reconceptualized by Nathaniel Coleman in Utopias and Architecture and, on the other hand, I seek to understand the influence of the postmodern spirit, through the influential writings and philosophies that have left their mark on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The key concepts which I will expose in this article are the invention of exemplary architectures through competition proposals and critically infused creations that distance themselves from the official state-run practice, the stylistic mélange which appears through the collision of currents - the friction between escapist postmodern experimentalism and pedagogical Modernism. The school diploma projects, the speculative competition proposals and the experimental built projects which will further be presented are illustrations and examples of these concepts.

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