Postmodernism is a trend of art, social culture and philosophy that occurred in Europe and America in the 1960s and became popular in the West in the 1970s and 1980s. Its purpose is to abandon the basic premise of modernity and its normative content. In postmodernist art, this abandonment is manifested in the rejection of modernist art as an independent value that has divided the cultural field, and rejection of modernist principles of formal limitation and partisanship. Its essence is a kind of intellectual anti-rationalism, moral cynicism and perceptual hedonism.
　　The origin and development of postmodernism
　　 In 1977, the American architectural critic Charles Jencks published a book titled "Postmodernist Architecture Language". In this book, Jenks declared that "modernist architecture is dead". He has a nose and eyes:
"Modern architecture died at 3:32 pm on July 15, 1972 in St. Louis, Missouri... Fortunately, we can accurately determine the period of death of modernist architecture. It died after a violent blow. Many No one has noticed this incident, and no one was mourned for it, but this does not mean that the claim of its sudden death is false."

　　 Jenks’ yin and yang words refer to the fact that the high-rise apartment in St. Louis City that was designed by Yamasaki in the early years was systematically blown up on that day. Those apartment buildings were cleared as unsafe houses due to frequent violent incidents. This was originally a matter of social security, but Jenks attributed it to the mistake of modernist architecture. The fact is that in 1951, the design of those apartments was praised by the American Institute of Architects.
　　 Even so, for a while, the death of modernist architecture became a rage. In the same year that Jenks published his bookPostmodernism A6 PU Notebook, Blake, another American, published a book that claimed to be an "indictment" against modernist architecture. The book was titled "Form Follows Fiasco: Why Modernism Doesn't Work".
　　 In 979, the American "Time" magazine also blended in. In the January 9th issue, there was a special article saying, "The 70s was the age of the death of modern architecture. Its base is in the United States. In this hospitable land, the dreams of modern art and modern architecture pioneers are quietly buried. Up."
Before this, people have noticed that there has been an architectural tendency different from modernist architecture in the field of world architecture. Some people call it "non-modernist architecture", "anti-modernist architecture", etc., but there is no consistent name. After Zhan's book was published, the name "postmodernist architecture" became a common term.
　　 But the understanding of postmodern architecture is very different. The American architectural critic Hextebur said in his lecture on "Modern Architecture in Hesitation" (1980): "Under the banner of postmodernism, people from different factions (not without friction) gather. These include formalists who turn all buildings into signs or symbols, and compatibilityists who messily accept all historical and rural elements. These different schools can unite only because they all think modernism is outdated... …
The Italian architectural theorist Sevi said: "Postmodernism is actually a hodgepodge. I think there are two opposite trends. One is the'new academic school', which copied classicism, but this school does not revive the real Classical spirit, nothing more than fiddling... Another trend is to avoid all laws, advocate'do what you love', and mix contradictory things together."
　　 Both of the above critics objected to saying that modernism is dead. Hextebur said: "I think it is still alive and well alive." Sai Wei also said: "Modernist architecture is not dead...it is because Americans want to get rid of the influence of European culture."
　　 Jenks later admitted that his modern architecture "died in 1972" was to "add a little drama", but he insisted on "dead". By 1983, he finally admitted that the death of modernist architecture was not true.
　　Of course, the modernist architecture formed in the early 20th century will not change. Sixty or seventy years have passed, and all aspects of the world have undergone major changes, and architecture will naturally change with the times. However, the so-called post-modernist architecture as a creative trend, regardless of the first-class school, is mainly concerned with architectural image and architectural artistic style, and basically does not involve architectural functions, technology, and economic issues.
From a historical point of view, the so-called postmodernism should actually be regarded as an extension, a modification, a variant, or one of the schools of modernist architecture in terms of aesthetics and form, that is, "postmodernism". school". However, for the sake of simplicity, we still use the name postmodernist architecture.