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PoMo to travel for
Guilty as charged, I have travelled for mysterious works of post-modern architecture around the world. It attracts as well as repulses me on occasion, and the buildings are usually so spectacular (in the true definition of spectacle), that experiencing them in person is irresistible. It’s a great way to see different parts of the world, by making a dedicated journey and then uncovering the surrounding area.

Hotel Il Palazzo — Fukuoka, Japan, Aldo Rossi, 1989 -- Fukuoka is a great town to explore in Western Japan, and a perfect beginning to a trip around Kyushu. Hotel Il Palazzo brings a stoic yet playful monumental language of the Italian palazzo to Fukuoka. Its imposing windowless façade of red travertine, patinated copper and cylindrical columns, creates something that feels ancient, futuristic, and foreboding. Opened in 1989, it was conceived as Japan’s first design hotel, with interiors by Shigeru Uchida and bars designed by Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce, Shiro Kuramata and Rossi himself. If a stay feels too much, enjoy a martini in the bar as I did, or come for the all-inclusive buffet dinner-drinks and immerse yourself in the colourful, bold interiors. Failing the buffet, enjoy the Hakata ramen the town is famous for, or its yatai street food, before making your way around the crafts towns of Kyushu.


Groninger Museum — Groningen, Netherlands, Alessandro Mendini + Philippe Starck + Michele de Lucchi + Coop Himmelb(l)au, 1994
A theatrical statement of European postmodernism, the Groninger Museum created a literal pastiche of the architectural style. Rather than commissioning a single architect, museum director Frans Haks asked several designers to create different parts. The result is an eccentric collection of pavilions on an island in the canal including a golden tower by Mendini, colourful tile from Starck, silver surfaces by de Lucchi, and a deconstructivist pavilion by Coop Himmelb(l)au. A living exquisite corpse, it is part museum, part sculpture and part architectural manifesto. This pilgrimage is easily combined with John Hejduk’s nearby Wall House #2 (1973/2001).



Elephant Building — Bangkok, Thailand, Sumet Jumsai, 1997 Officially the Chang Building, its two towers and connecting horizontal block form an enormous abstract elephant, complete with circular eye, protruding tusk-like elements and a long central “trunk”. Designed by Thai architect Sumet Jumsai, it is an exuberant example of architecture becoming graphic image — the building's identity is immediately legible from across the city. It is wonderfully playful and slightly absurd, which is precisely the point.


Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, Paris, Ricardo Bofill, 1978-83 -- Known for scenes filmed in the dystopian film Brazil, 1985, Les Espaces d’Abraxas embodies 3 structures arranged around a theatrical central plaza. The scale is almost incomprehensible – mirroring much of the scale we see from Versailles or ancient Rome. Pre-fabbed monumental columns, arches and colonnades create an almost oppressive feeling, a collision between classic and modern. Designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, it stands as a defining example of Postmodernism in France.