Charles Jencks, Introduction to Post-Modern Classicism

Following the 1980 Biennale, Jencks published his observations on the direction taken by Post-Modern architecture in a guest-edited issue of Architectural Design (AD) entitled Post-Modern Classicism. It was one of a series of guest-edited issues in which AD invited prominent architectural critics to reflect on contemporary developments in architecture. In the introductory essay Jencks wrote of the various streams and styles within the pluralist landscape of Post-Modern architecture converging toward a Post-Modern Classicism – a shared sensibility, rather than a singular style, that drew on past idealism and revived classical visual languages albeit ‘without a shared metaphysics or a belief in a single cosmic symbolism’. The issue explores the shift towards classicism on the example of 39 case studies by architects including, among others, Arata Isozaki, Also Rossi, Mario Botta, Leon Krier, Michael Graves, Ricardo Bofill, Hans Hollein, James Stirling and Venturi & Rauch.