Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid (Architext)

Set against a social and political urban landscape of segregation and forced removals, Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid unpacks postmodernism in the 1970s and 1980s as it unfolds in South Africa during the final brutal decade of apartheid.Architecture and apartheid are central subjects of the book - the ways they came to interact simultaneously to both buttress and undermine a country rapidly disintegrating.With battles waged in defence of white minority rule, architects’ turn to postmodernism reflected their disintegrating consciences and commitments in operating in uncertain times. They shared with architects globally a postmodernism steeped in anxiety and despondency, summoning forth classical forms and colonial symbols detached from their surroundings.For some of these architects having studied abroad at the University of Pennsylvania, the route to postmodernism was through their mentor Louis Kahn’s bid to begin architecture anew in transforming ancient ruins