Write a conclusion for the following essay:

The advent of postmodernist architecture in the 1970s and 1980s marked a significant departure from previously existing notions of form and function in the realm of architectural design. Whereas designs from Modernist and Brutalist schools of thought followed prescribed styles, modernist designers valued eclecticism, playfulness, and intentional artificiality. Unlike Modernism, which held cultural progress and hierarchy in high regard, Postmodernism eschewed these constraints and worked to dismantle the boundaries between “high” and “low” culture that previously dominated architecture and visual design. With this shift in values came a general rejection of Louis Sullivan’s maxim: “form follows function” among Postmodernists, which ultimately led to architecture serving as a means of communication and artistic expression rather than a means to establish an “ideal” urban sphere.
	A radical contrast between the forms of Modernist and Postmodernist design is exemplified when comparing the design choices of Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair (1926) and Peter Shire’s Bel Air Chair (1982). Marcel Breuer, a Bauhaus student, was a prolific Modernist designer whose artistic style centered around developing machine-like instruments for home living. The form of the Wassily Chair closely mirrored its function, and it did not attempt to make an artistic statement beyond exemplifying refinement. Shire, by contrast, developed the Bel Air chair for Memphis Milano, a prolific Postmodernist design group. Its design incorporates a wide range of colors and shapes in a way that almost pokes fun at Bauhaus functionalism. This contrast in design is mirrored in Postmodern architecture. However, it’s worth noting that the forms of Postmodern buildings do, in fact, have functional implications of communication and artistic expression.
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour explain how forms are used to communicate a building’s function in their book, Learning from Las Vegas (1977). Notably, Venturi et al. claim that function is secondary to form, which can almost be interpreted as “function follows form.” An example of this was illustrated by the design choices made for the Las Vegas hotel, Motel Monticello, whose “sign…is visible on the highway before the motel itself” (Venturi et al. 8). Unlike Modernist architectural works, which were generally designed with the building’s practical function as the primary concern, Las Vegas architecture served as a means by which a building’s function was communicated. Venturi and Scott Brown emphasized this distinction in their 1967 design proposal for the National Football Hall of Fame. The building space was very rudimentary, simply consisting of a rectangular box and dome. The entrance, however, would be dominated by a massive neon sign depicting a football field. This design trend became known as the “decorated shed;” its primary purpose was displaying advertisements that could be seen from an automobile.
According to architectural historian Charles Jencks, the “death” of Modernist architecture in America was marked by the destruction of Pruitt Igoe in 1972. Pruitt Igoe was an urban housing project in St. Louis, MO that was originally designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who was heavily influenced by Le Corbusier, in 1955. Though initially designed to supply affordable housing, Pruitt Igoe was immediately plagued by degradation and was predominantly leased to African-Americans. Consequently, the living conditions strayed far from the “utopian” designs envisioned by modernist architects; Pruitt Igoe instead became a symbol of social disparity. This drove Postmodern architects of the 1970s and 1980s “to express the meanings a culture finds significant, as well as to elucidate certain ideas and feelings that haven’t previously reached expression” (Jencks 315). In other words, postmodern architects viewed architecture as a means to enact social change and eliminate the boundaries between social classes.
To eliminate boundaries between the sophisticated and vernacular, Postmodern architects began using building forms as a means of artistic expression. Unlike previous architectural movements, such as Art Nouveau and Gesamtkunstwerk, Postmodernism incorporated contrasting forms into one structure. Early examples of Postmodernist architecture include Charles Moore’s Piazza d’Italia in New Orleans (1979) and James Stirling’s Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart (1983-4). Both Moore and Stirling drew upon Greco-Roman styles, but instead of creating a functional building, they collaged these visual elements together to make structures intended to serve as works of art. Notably, these structures incorporated contrasting forms and lacked a unifying visual theme, which stood in stark contrast to the Modernist style.
Perhaps an even more radical approach to Postmodernist design was Deconstructivism. A portmanteau of “Deconstruction” and “Constructivism,” Deconstructivism “[challenges] the very values of harmony, unity, and stability, and proposes instead a very different view of structure: the view that flaws are intrinsic to the structure” (Wigley 11). Deconstructivist architecture, such as the Gehry Residence in Santa Monica, CA (Frank Gehry, 1990) and Peter Eisenman’s House VI (1975), deliberately challenged Modernist coherence. According to Deconstructivist Mark Wigley, “form has become contaminated” by the notion that there is a fixed and stable relationship between form and meaning (i.e. that “form follows function”) (Wigley 10). Deconstructivism furthered the Postmodernist tendency to design buildings as works of art often without regard to their intended functions.
As computers became powerful enough to render 3D graphics in the late 1990s - early 2000s, they have become an essential tool for architectural design, engineering, and communication. Through their proliferation, Parametricism has emerged as a new style of architectural design. Unlike previous Postmodern styles, Parametricism typically aims to create a coherent form, albeit with intentional or intrinsic non-uniformity. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2000) is generally regarded as the world’s first “Parametric” building, as it was designed entirely within the CATIA 3D modeling program. While the exterior of the building is uniformly covered in titanium plates, the overall structure lacks symmetry and, to an extent, looks like a collage of differently-shaped metal blocks.
In addition to serving as a new architectural style, Parametricism has replaced Modernism as the predominant method for urban planning. “Parametricist urbanism aims to construct new field logics that operate via the mutually accentuating correlation of multiple urban systems,” thus abandoning the Modernist view that order may only form from straight lines, right angles, and directional consistency (Schumacher 19). To achieve this goal, computers render simulated cities, then architects can introduce variables like traffic patterns and travel times. Iterations of rendering are repeated to design an ordered, yet visually heterogeneous cityscape.
A key goal of Postmodern architecture is the democratization of knowledge and urban design. Since modern architectural works are designed primarily on digital platforms, building models can be shared nearly instantaneously over the Internet. At the same time, the computer infrastructure needed to render these models is often extensive and alienates the building users from building designers. For instance, when architect David Adjaye shared his designs for his Idea Stores, he found that “the infrastructure was in place and the software was available, but the hardware was a hindrance” to open access to his designs (Adjaye 183). The Idea Stores are a series of modernized public libraries constructed in 2004-5 in low-income areas of London, which aimed to make knowledge more accessible for nearby residents. Due to a lack of computers in many households in the surrounding areas, open access to these designs, and thus community feedback, was severely limited. Even so, this statement by Adjaye indicates that Postmodern architects are now concerned with the public’s perception of their works. This contrasts with the Modernist desire to establish social order through architecture.