A paradigmatic approach to Architectural history : postmodernism

Abstract

The study proposes an approach to (architectural) history derived from an understanding of Thomas Kuhn's term 'paradigm'. A paradigm is defined as a shared temporal intellectual model which directs and limits the normal activities of a community and after a crisis period can undergo change thereby giving rise to a new paradigm. A paradigmatic approach involves the identification of episodes of crisis, the identification and interpretation of the unique artefacts (criteria are given to which these should comply), and the synergising of understanding to a representative paradigm which provides a context for the historical period and whereby further facts and artefacts can be investigated. Postmodernism is taken as a testing case. It is characterised as the period of change, and the crisis period of the Modern revealed. The associated contemporaneous artefacts are identified from the fields of architecture, painting, literature and music, and interpreted. A meaning is given to the whole Modern period through articulating the dimensions of reality of the discipline of architecture within the Newtonian paradigm.