ABSTRACT
Late modern architecture is pragmatic or technocratic in its social ideology and, from about 1960, takes many of the stylistic ideas and values of Modernism to an extreme in order to resuscitate a dull (or clichéd) language. Late Modern architecture, also facing the popular rejection of the “dumb box,” developed after 1965 in a sculptural direction – the articulated box – and towards an elaboration of structure, services and joints: High Tech. — Charles Jencks
Jencks seems to be referring to the early work of Renzo Piano, Richard Rodgers, and others that have been labeled “high-tech” (see Archispeak p. 96). The Centre George Pompidou (1977) is the poster child for late modern, high-tech architecture, as described by Jencks (Figure 74). As an apologist for the post-modern style in architecture, Jencks appears to reject technology as a desirable or appropriate inspiration for the aesthetic expression of a building. This view is consistent with the brief era of late-twentieth-century semiotic post-modern architecture deemphasizing technology, in favor of a fragmented classical narrative.
