Architecture is the designing and constructing process of buildings to provide an

appropriate shelter for human beings (Wikipedia). There is No doubt that each age has its own
architectural movement which reflects social and cultural needs in urban societies. Around the
mid 20
th
century there were modern and postmodern architecture, two different movements and
styles which are still active nowadays. This article will be about the main difference and
similarities between modern and postmodern architecture in terms of definition, design concept,
space, forms, materials and structures.
Modernism and postmodernism in architecture are interpreted as two unlike movements.
Modernism is the innovative design of buildings that are made in the modern age as a step to
move away from classical architecture and using the new technology that was invented after the
industrial revolution in the late 18
th
century. Posmodernism, also known as late modernism, is
another style of architecture which was invented as opposed to the last prevailing style in modern
architecture, which was International style, by using classical and modern language toghether. In
postmodernism, architect are free in using any architectural syle and element in their design
Modernism first emerged in the early twentieth century, and by the 1920s, the prominent
figures of the movement Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - had
established their reputations
The phrase form follows function is often used when discussing the principles of
modernism. It asserts that forms should be simplified architectural designs should bear no more
ornament than is necessary to function. Modernists believe that ornament should follow the
structure and purpose of the building. Family life and social interaction was at the centre of the
modernist dream for a planned environment.
These principles can be found in many of the key realisations of the modernist dream Le
Corbusiers famous Villa Savoye, Mies van der Rohe Tugendhat Villa, Frank Lloyd Wrights
Fallingwater house . It shows no reference to historic architectural design. The form clearly
follows the intended functions of the residential building, bearing no unnecessary ornament, and
the open space surrounding the structure as well as the open plan interior lends itself to the ideals
of social living and communication
Another aspect is that the idea of architectural space is used in a dissimilar way among
architects. For example Mies van der Rohe in the Barcelona pavilion used space in a manner and
technique thath created a unique feeling that had the objects and rooms flexible through free-
flowing space, the very idea that the American modernist architect Frank L. Wright incorporated
in the inconic Falling Water House.
Le Corbusier noted the positive force technology had played in peoples lives with
revolutionary inventions such as the car and the telephone, and declared the house should be a
machine for living in. They utilised glass, steel and concrete in their designs, which allowed
them the opportunity to create buildings of radical design, such as the skyscraper, which would
not have been plausible were it not for these materials.
The new construction materials such as steel, reinforced concrete and development of
technology have mainly affected the facades and structures of modern and postmodern
architecture. Both movements are similar in using these materials yet are different in their
facades, In the design of the Seagram building, which is an office building, Mies for the first
time in the USA used glass and steel frame skyscraper. He preferred that the steel structure in a
building should be visible from outdoors
There are many differences between modernism and postmodernism in terms of design
concepts. It is a fact that the ways of thinking in both movements have an opposite
direction.Most modernists focused on function rather than form and they used simple forms. In
fact, an American modernist architect Luiis Sullivan has a famous statement that Form follows
function. The dictum explains that many modern architecs, started to think about function rather
than form using the designing process and they preferred simple form like a box, where one form
can serve multiple functions. For exemple the Lake Shore Drive apartment followed the same
scheme which consists of two glass boxes. On the other hand, F. L. Wright disagreed with that
principle by saying both function and form are of equal value. In fact Wright moved towards
function and form similar to postmodernism. Thes idea is clear in the Falling Water function, the
arranging of horizontal and vertical planes like cantivelers to achive the unique form.
Significantly, modernism is functionality rather than formality.
Nevertheless, in late modern architecture both function and form have their own value .
In postmodernism, form is an integration of both conventional elements and modernism with
new ideas, while the function stil has its own importance as the form. Yet, not all postmodern
style buildings have adequate function, for instance, the Portland building os often criticized that
it is not working well because there are structural defects like cracks and gloomy spaces inside
the building. In general in postmodernism form is adopted for its own sake and function has a
strong combination with artistic form.

In conclusion, although the modernism phenomen began over one hundred years ago to spread
new ideologies in terms of space, new design, functionality and faade, it could no provide the
aesthetics for viewers because of repetitive design features which led it being dismissed by most
people. As a result, postmodernism replaced it because each movement in architecture brings
new ideas and covers the flaws of the former movements


.