Word: ornament
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...makes a daring and largely successful attempt to draw stark materials into a tumultuous play of form and light. The skeins of trusswork, the rippling stairways and the wafflepatterned underside of the terraces combine in an optical tangle compounded by a riot of reflecting surfaces. Without resorting to molded ornament, the atrium reaches toward a rococo extravagance. Says Jahn: "Elements that break the norm --romance, fantasy, surprise--are what put architecture beyond engineering...
...Good design" used to mean "modern" design: simple form derived from a direct accommodation of function. Never mind that this style tended to frustrate the human craving for ornament and historical continuity, or that it often clashed with its surroundings. Orthodoxy decreed that modern, $ functional form was the only valid expression of our time...
...soft-colored blobs and a bright red bar. Chicago's Tigerman, known for his theatrical home designs, created "Sunshine," in which bold colors interplay with a cartoon-cute pink angel. The elegant and evocative "Majestic," by Stern, a professor of architecture at Columbia University, combines art deco gilt ornament with a ruby-red rim. Meier's "Professor" barware employs etched lattices that suggest both Louis Tiffany and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; the motif is echoed on a dramatic silver bowl mysteriously titled "King Richard...
...conquering style in the arts, however, is safe from a return of the vanquished, often dressed as an avantgarde. Today spartan modernism has been surprised in its sleep by a postmodern taste for ornament and the revival of moribund styles. Partly as a result, some artists are garnishing the edge again. Trompe l'oeil frames, tutti-frutti borders and jigsaw-cut silhouettes are multiplying in galleries that not long ago featured only trim metal runners...
...buildings, with their web of walkways, courts, terraces, stairs and walls, all highlighted with sculptures and other objects by the outstanding artists Saarinen attracted to Cranbrook, probably represent this century's most successful integration of architecture, landscape design and works of art. Every brick, shrub, fountain, gate and ornament contributes to the delight of the whole...