MALMÖ – Potatisåkern, a conspicuous postmodern residential complex

[Nightsky]

Potatisåkern ("potatoe field") is an up scale residental area, designed in postmodern style by the firm of the famous American architect Charles Moore (who designed New Orleans famous Piazza d’Italia, also postmodern). It is located right next to Ribersborg beach, between central Malmö and Limhamn. It was built in 1995. In 2007, there was a huge fire that destroyed parts of some buildings, but is has now been refurbished.





The colors are very untypical for Sweden.


The entrance to Potatisåkern.




The strong colors of Potatisåkern look almost Disneyland like. No need for HDR here (but I couldn’t resist .






Tall unnamed sculpture at Potatisåkern.


Turning Torso seen from Potatisåkern.


The parking lot.

[LMich]

I like most of the design elements, but the choice color for quite a bit of new housing constructions all around the world is a bit too much, at times. This looks like Candyland; even dulling down some of the existing colors would have done this some good.

[RLS_rls]

I use to love buildings like this, but these days I'm not too sure. They just look kind of goofy, and for some reason I can't picture post-modernism fitting in anywhere in an architectural timeline. Some of the design elements are just so whacky - and the way everything is put together - it's kind of an insult to classical styles. Really though I don't mind this, I just have a hard time looking at it as a legit style. It's so...pop.

Oh yeah and that sculpture looks like a serrated knife or a mechanical spine lol it doesn't really fit in a residential area.

Edit: Holy crap I didn't realise Ford built those kind of Focuses in Europe.

[Jasoncw]

... and for some reason I can't picture post-modernism fitting in anywhere in an architectural timeline.

This is intentional. Modernists believed in linear, forward moving history, where each time period was special and unique. The essence of a time period is called zeitgeist. The postmodernists believed (well, still believe) that "history" as we know it is a construct, and that it formulated and propagated by the oppressing class and the elites.

A postmodernist would question who it is that gets to decide what is historic and what isn't historic, and what the zeitgeist of each time is (who's history is the definitive history? They would say wealthy white males, etc.). They would also question someone like Mies van der Rohe, who defined his current time's zeitgeist, and then convinced enough people of it and his architecture based on it, leading to fame and commissions.

... it's kind of an insult to classical styles. Really though I don't mind this, I just have a hard time looking at it as a legit style. It's so...pop.

This is along the same lines. The point of that is to undermine those styles. The same thing goes for deconstructivism (a branch of postmodernism) which questions on a deeper level the concept of "building" and its assumptions, and archetypes. Who is to say what is legitimate and what is not?


I think that postmodernism was and is so successful because of the following reasons:

Academia: The truth is that most people would find creating and writing about modernism to be boring (the fundamental ideas are simple and straightforward). Postmodernism brings in wit and irony and playfulness... academics can make fun, edgy projects. There's also a lot of convoluted theory to expand on, and lots of old theory just waiting for "new interpretations" to be written. And since there's so much active theory-making going on, there are a lot of different camps and sub-movements, which allows for the cliquey social component. To sum it up, however good or bad modernism is, most people find it too boring to actually be a part of it.

Practice (architecture firms): Practice likes it because clients (the general public) likes it. Although most "postmodern" buildings built don't really have much to do with the theory itself.



(I should add though, that there are different sub-movements within postmodernism, and that not all of them are the same)


I think that Europe is fortunate to have very little postmodernism.

[Nightsky]

Yes, the colours are bit too much and in some way it is tasteless, but I like the shapes. And it is cool with something that stands out in a country like Sweden.

Btw, Focus is one of the most popular cars in most European cities.