Writing in The Spectator, Jonathan Meades explores the subject of The Twentieth Century Society’s conference on 21 May 2016.
Meades notes : ‘It will, no doubt, soon be the turn of postmodern buildings to feel the rough buss of the wrecker’s ball.’
He touches on the style’s relationship with brutalism and the reception of architects’ use of the new guise. Andrew Derbyshire, for example, after his work at York University, was seen as a turncoat for adopting postmodernism for the Hillingdon Civic Centre. The leaders in the field, Jeremy Dixon, Terry Farrell and Piers Gough of the partnership CZWG, are highlighted. Meades also touches on the components of the style citing ‘randomly applied lumps of pediment; upside-down Diocletian windows; cod classical orders; asymmetry wherever possible.’
Dixon’s houses in St Mark’s Road in Notting Dale, Farrell’s MI6 building in Lambeth and Charing Cross station, Gough’s public lavatory, in Westbourne Grove are among those which Meades names in his piece.
