Postmodernism

Postmodernism in architecture rose in the late 20th century as a reaction against modernism’s austerity and universal claims. It embraced ornament, irony, eclectic references, and contextual play. It challenged the idea of one truth in form, opening space for plurality, contradiction, even kitsch. But it also slid into spectacle, sometimes losing critical edge and sinking into surface games. Its legacy is mixed: liberation for some, confusion for others. For landscape architects, postmodernism meant freedom from strict functionalism—pastiche plazas, symbolic gestures, layered narratives. Today it reads as both provocation and warning: design can embrace multiplicity, but risks hollowing into style without substance.

/ Alexandre Champagne

Today, the possibility arises to define a new design approach to address issues of environmental and social justice in the urban context. Based on an integrated understanding of the interdependencies involving human and environmental relations, the applied-philosophy approach for landscape architectural practices induces a paradigm shift in spatial design. Rather than applying downstream solutions to […]

/ Zaš Brezar

Gary Hilderbrand has been teaching at Harvard Graduate School of Design since 1990 and is currently the Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. He is also the founding principal of Reed Hilderbrand, a leading landscape architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The firm was established in the […]

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