Postmodern architecture debates are aesthetic mystification masking socioeconomic causes

Evidence

It is hardly surprising that in these circumstances the nature of the built environment should itself become a political issue, although often this has involved a considerable degree of mystification: thus advocates of a Classical revival such as Prince Charles displace attention from the real, socio-economic causes of mass inner-city poverty to the undeniable disasters wreaked by postwar slumclearances and the translation of working-class city dwellers into high-rise blocks. The wretched consequences of these attempts by urban planners and Modernist architects during the long boom to re-fashion the city have been used to justify pursuing the most reactionary themes - from the idea that certain styles are divinely ordained to the revaluation of Nazi architecture. But whether Postmodern architectural styles represent a genuine cultural break is open to question. Indeed it is arguable that such buildings as Michael Graves’s Portland Building, a cause célèbre largely because of its collage-like facade, represent the increasing irrelevance of aesthetic considerations to major construction projects. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 583

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for a piece: how architectural style controversies (Classical revival, postmodern collage) function as displaced class politics — the Portland Building as aesthetic distraction from material inequality.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader Marxist-architecture critiques: Harvey’s use-value/exchange-value tension in the built environment, Kamin’s Chicago architectural criticism. — connects to: Postmodern architecture’s surface fascination masks underlying conflicts between place-rootedness and cosmopolitan style. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 548; Postmodern architectural disputes are inseparable from capitalist spatial reorganization — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 577; Postmodern urban imagery erases class relations and production from its aestheticized surface — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1998 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Postmodern architectural disputes are inseparable from capitalist spatial reorganization #corroborates (0.90) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 577
• Postmodern architecture’s surface fascination masks underlying conflicts between place-rootedness and cosmopolitan style. #corroborates (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 548
• Postmodern urban imagery erases class relations and production from its aestheticized surface #corroborates (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1998
• Postmodern architecture of spectacle displaced austere modernism for urban redevelopment. #expands (0.80) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 563
• Postmodern architecture’s celebration of spectator freedom masks shared social meaning #corroborates (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 587