Postmodern architecture in the context of "High-tech architecture"

Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction (particularly the use of glass, steel, and concrete); the principle of functionalism (i.e. that form should follow function); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.

According to Le Corbusier, the roots of the movement were to be found in the works of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, while Mies van der Rohe was heavily inspired by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The movement emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after World War II until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.

Sir Terence Farrell CBE FRIBA FRSA FCSD (12 May 1938 – 28 September 2025) was a British architect and urban designer.

In 1980, after working for 15 years in partnership with Nicholas Grimshaw, Farrell founded his own firm, Farrells. He established his reputation with three completed projects in London in the late 1980s: Embankment Place, 125 London Wall and the SIS Building. He created contextual urban design schemes, as well as works of postmodernism such as the MI6 Building. In 1991, his practice opened an office in Hong Kong. In Asia his firm designed KK100 in Shenzhen and Guangzhou South railway station in Guangzhou.

125 London Wall, also known as Alban Gate, is a postmodernist building on London Wall in the City of London. Along with Embankment Place and Vauxhall Cross (the SIS Building), it has been described as one of the three projects that established designer Sir Terry Farrell's reputation in the late 1980s-to-early 1990s period. In 2004, writer Deyan Sudjic described it as "postmodernism at its most exuberant", placing it at number 5 in a list of Ten Triumphs of recent UK architecture.

Al-Janoub Stadium (Arabic: استاد الجنوب, romanized: Istād al-Janūb, lit. 'Stadium of the South'), formerly known as Al-Wakrah Stadium (Arabic: استاد الوكرة), is a retractable-roof football stadium in al-Wakrah, Qatar that was inaugurated on 16 May 2019. This was the second of the eight stadiums inaugurated for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, after the renovation of Khalifa International Stadium. It was designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid (1950–2016) together with the firms AECOM and Jain & Partners of Dubai.

The stadium features a curvilinear postmodernist and neo-futurist design. The appearance of the roof was inspired by the sails of traditional dhows used by pearl divers from the region, weaving through currents of the Persian Gulf.

Palazzo style refers to an architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries based upon the palazzi (palaces) built by wealthy families of the Italian Renaissance. The term refers to the general shape, proportion and a cluster of characteristics, rather than a specific design; hence it is applied to buildings spanning a period of nearly two hundred years, regardless of date, provided they are a symmetrical, corniced, basemented and with neat rows of windows. "Palazzo style" buildings of the 19th century are sometimes referred to as being of Italianate architecture, but this term is also applied to a much more ornate style, particularly of residences and public buildings.

While early Palazzo style buildings followed the forms and scale of the Italian originals closely, by the late 19th century the style was more loosely adapted and applied to commercial buildings many times larger than the originals. The architects of these buildings sometimes drew their details from sources other than the Italian Renaissance, such as Romanesque and occasionally Gothic architecture. In the 20th century, the style was superficially applied, like the Gothic Revival style, to multi-storey buildings. In the late 20th and 21st century some Postmodern architects have again drawn on the Palazzo style for city buildings.

Contemporary architecture is the architecture of the 21st century. No single style is dominant. Contemporary architects work in several different styles, from postmodernism, high-tech architecture and new references and interpretations of traditional architecture like New Classical architecture to highly conceptual forms and designs, resembling sculpture on an enormous scale. Some of these styles and approaches make use of very advanced technology and modern building materials, such as tube structures which allow construction of buildings that are taller, lighter and stronger than those in the 20th century, while others prioritize the use of natural and ecological materials like stone, wood and lime. One technology that is common to all forms of contemporary architecture is the use of new techniques of computer-aided design, which allow buildings to be designed and modeled on computers in three dimensions, and constructed with more precision and speed.

Contemporary buildings and styles vary greatly. Some feature concrete structures wrapped in glass or aluminium screens, very asymmetric facades, and cantilevered sections which hang over the street. Skyscrapers twist, or break into crystal-like facets. Facades are designed to shimmer or change color at different times of day.

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in New York City, designed for AT&T; 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago; IDS Tower in downtown Minneapolis; the Sculpture Garden of New York City's Museum of Modern Art; and the Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks. His January 2005 obituary in The New York Times described his works as being "widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century".

In 1930, Johnson became the first director of the architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There he arranged for visits by Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier and negotiated the first American commission for Mies van der Rohe, after he fled Nazi Germany. In 1932, he organized with Henry-Russell Hitchcock the first exhibition dedicated to modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, which gave name to the subsequent movement known as International Style. In 1934, Johnson resigned his position at the museum.

Learning from Las Vegas is a 1972 book by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Translated into 18 languages, the book helped foster the development of postmodern architecture.