Why Everything from 1983 Looks Awful
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2023
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Let's look back to 1983, a pivotal year in design and architecture. We'll discover the influence of the Memphis Group, the rebels of the design world, and how they reshaped the aesthetics of the '80s. From the iconic Thompson Center to the rebellious designs of the Memphis Group, we'll uncover the essence of the decade's design ethos. Plus, get an exclusive look at a renovated house that perfectly encapsulates the '80s spirit. Featuring insights from Jonathan Solomon, Meg Gustafson, and a deep dive into the world of 80s-deco.
_CREDITS_
Video co-produced and edited by Evan Montgomery.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
Follow Meg's Instagram: 80s-deco: / 80s_deco
Check out Hammy Wammy Gallery: / hammy_wammy_official
Starship Chicago Documentary: vimeo.com/241413433
Preservation Futures: preservationfutures.com/
#1980sDesign #MemphisGroup #ThompsonCenter #Architecture #DesignTrends
1980s, Memphis Group, Thompson Center, Design Trends, Architecture, 80s Aesthetics, Jonathan Solomon, Meg Gustafson, 80s-deco, Hammy Wammy Gallery, Starship Chicago, Post-modernist design, MTV, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Frank Lloyd Wright, Michael Graves, Ettore Sottsass, Dieter Rams, Mies van der Rohe, Formica, Robert Venturi, Hans Hollein, Preservation Chicago, Beetlejuice House.
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_About the Channel_
Architecture with Stewart is a UA-cam journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
_About Me_
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
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He's a historic preservationist and she owns a 1980s design gallery. Their budget is 2 million in Chicago. Next up on House Hunters.
Horrible
This man is where all the lost media goes when it gets lost-
Two million on the thomson center would probably reglaze like 10% of the leaking windows.
Horrible
Horrible
My house has a sunken living room space that was renovated before we moved in to have tile floors and no railings and it was used as the dining location but I always found it redundant since there’s a built in dining area in the kitchen. After years of living here, I decided to change the way the house has been used for the past 20-30 years and put the couches back into the sunken area. My goodness, it completely made the house make sense again. Although it feels tighter in that spot, you can see beyond it so the house feels more open and long. The living room is now cozy and inviting and the kitchen feels connected to the home again since it comes off the edge of the living room now. I’d been looking to find a new home, but now I feel like I’m in a brand new one with real character and intention in the design
I love those. The sunken area is actually called a "conversation pit"
It's my dream to one day live in a home with a conversation pit.
@@GarethStack I literally do dream that I'm either overseeing the builders creating my conversation pit or that I'm thinking the pit was a huge mistake and I want it gone. I flit back an forth on the concept. Going with the theory that houses, in our dreams, are our own psyches - I'm not sure what my love/hate relationship with conversation pits is about! (Sometimes, as well, I have a built in kidney shaped bar teehee!)
I like embracing the character of a house when I update them. I have a couple homes from the 60s with the same analog doorbell, thermostats, etc. that it's always had. All I did was paint over them to help them blend in with the new white and grey aesthetic, but there's no mistake that it's 60s styling. It has that "Alien (1979)" look to it, so it's retro, but with modern colors.
Conversation pit style came into being in the 60's/70's. That's where those "80's preservationist" bozos get wrong with their house. Most interior design elements people remember aren't even from that era. Almost no one does a complete rehaul of their interior every decade on the dot. No, it's all left over fragments of the previous decade(s).
If you want pure 80's style, you have to pay attention to what mid to late 80's premiered TV shows had. Look at early 80's movies if you want to know some of the real vogue stuff direct from that era. "My Two Dads" if you want a better glimpse of what a more fashion facing look for a living space. The other end of the spectrum, which everyone loves to forget, is the cold stone/marble and column look from Scarface or the bland white nothing of American Psycho. Miami Vice showed a ton of facets of what "80's" style was "supposed" to be (but wasn't in reality)
If you want to really do 80's style right, you have to admit that almost no one was 'in era' when decorating their house. Even 80's built houses didn't cop to any of those styles: the stuff you see is just from posers. If you take a look at just about early 80's built house, it was already pretty bland with navajo white, solid formica, and likely painted (not stained, until late 80s) cabinets.You have to incorporate elements leftover from 60's and 70's. That's really what people remember.
Early 80's? Family Ties gives a good glimpse. The fashions aren't what people prefer to remember, but they were the real embarrassing stuff people actually wore. Later 80s, well I already mentioned My Two Dads, but a more suburban look is Growing Pains.
I'm no architect or anything, but I absolutely love the playful and colorful designs of early 80's stuff. When I was a kid everything was so bright and fun. My kids get to grow up in a place where everything is beige, black, and boring, meanwhile I'm reminiscing about how cool the frickin' Taco Bell used to be.
I agree. Early 90s had the same look. I do a hybrid approach for my residence, where the inside has the white and grey "meta", but there's colorful stuff all over, pictures, posters, banners, stained glass thingies, etc. Has a kind of neo-medieval vibe to it, makes it feel like a palace instead of an office building.
One of myearly first loves was a girl from East Germany. When I asked her about the first time they got to visit the West (late 80s) her simple reply was colour. Everything was bright and super colourful. But on a surface level. They could still see clearly the underlying bullshit.
Love the neon look of the 80s and early 90s
apparently we're supposed to think its "awful"? I don't understand this video
I think one of the most counterculture thing about 80s design is how utterly unoptimised and inefficient it is. When the establishment tried using it, they had to face this inefficiency themselves, so it kind of still works? lol
80s design has good stuff, but you're using semantics and bending logic to make it win this imaginary battle that doesn't make any sense
@@P.AetherBro seething at common modernist L
I've been seeing that here in the comments, people're not really absorbing the video and just spouting out that function comes first in design. There should be a baseline function for things meant to be used, yes, but that was demonstrated in this video. The chair is a chair, the buildings are interesting, stable, and traversible, they have their baseline function met.
I'm not the biggest fan of every design of the 80s but it has such a strong voice that I have to respect it, the drab minimalist modern designs and functional beige corridors I've been subjected to all my life just alienates me from places of work and home and like that couple shown in the video said it's extremely hard to maintain the "cleaner" designs. Function is good and there is a beauty to something being designed to do exactly what it does in its environment and do it well, but to go that step further and say that everything should be functional and *optimized* perpetually sounds like the most boring place to live. More cogs in a machine than people in a city.
We gotta add spiritual function to the calculation, contrast, diversity, and harmony of form all in one space and environment. Btw you can have a dystopia vibe with classical architecture as well. Just see the plans of [bad guy from ww2] - the copy paste of the dominant columns and massive domes can be as soulless as modern works of architecture. I say that the style is not the problem, but the quality of materials, skill, and knowledge of the architect and people that endorse the buildings
At least it isn't brutalism.
The Memphis design makes me think of the aesthetic of "Pee-wee's Playhouse." This unique style has me thinking of a playful and eccentric elements, blending both kitschy and innovative designs to create a memorable visual experience.
I loved Memphis design and loved Pee Wee's Playhouse, which came on in 1986. Pee Wee's Playhouse won a couple of Emmy's for Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design - Gary Panter, Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr., Nancy Deren, Wayne White, and Ric Heitzman. For reference, I was in my 30's during the Memphis era. If you like Memphis, check out the art of Keith Herring.
That's what I like about it!
The Memphis style is what we think of when we think of the “style” of the 80s. It permeated every aspect of growing up in the 80s. I remember loving my Memphis inspired Trapper Keeper🙂
I think the game Deathloop is inspired by 80's design.
Later there would be Yikes! Pencils. Those were my favorite as a kid. I remember the erasers being top notch.
I think about Patrick Nagel women and primary color lasers
@@brodriguez1100060's and 70's "Mod" design.
The game also takes cues from 70's "Blaxploitation" films.
@@jonndaforgot about these! I had a yikes pencil sharpener that made me the coolest in class
I was 13 in 1981 so my whole teenage period fell in that decade. Fashion and Interior design were both loud and gaudy but I've never stopped loving it. David Bowie's Memphis Style house, the bike reflectors on Corey Feldman's shoulders in Dream a Little Dream. The period strongly resembled the loud Modern period of the 1950s and certain traits from 1920s Art Deco. Post modern also rolled over into the 90s a bit in show sets like Babylon 5. Most indoor Movie theaters still look like the 80s. It's really hard not to love it.
I was 11. I didn’t really love the fashion. The 90s were my jam. It was cool to wear flannel again.
Sorry hun it is by far the ugliest decade. It tried to hard. And wast good at it.
Ruthless People didn’t set any records or find a lasting audience, but the house that Danny DeVito and Bette Midler’s characters occupy was entirely furnished with Memphis Group pieces, to comic effect. The filmmakers chose to reflect the vileness of their characters in the brashness of the Memphis Group designs. And it worked. Seeing Danny DeVito trying to extricate himself from one of those overstuffed chairs was a nice bit of physical comedy.
Perfectly described!
I was in architecture school in the 80s and this aesthetic was a significant influence on my work in school much to the perturbation of some of my teachers. I remember the feeling I had when I walked in the Illinois Center when it first opened. The work I now do looks nothing like this but I think in some way it is one of my influences. This video was a delight mostly because of my connection to the 80s emotionally.
It's funny, I was an art student in the 80s and _didn't_ go along with the crowd, much to the perturbation of some of my professors! I think what's important is that you and I both did our own thing, and didn't mindlessly let our elders dictate our aesthetic values to us.
Same, started in 1987. I remember the virtues of 80's postmodernism being hotly debated within its own time period.
I was in architecture school in the late 80's. There were a couple teachers perhaps who still liked the 80's aesthetic, but for the most part we students held it in unmitigated disdain. We were all about Eisenman or Leibeskin. We would take our crappy designs and then put corrugated steel or chain link fence on it and think we were Gehry. We were young then and pretty stupid, but I still don't care for the 1983 look.
@@brokenrecord3095 Eisenman visited our college in 1988 or so. I recall him stating that a client heard that he was the world's most deconstructivist architect, and asked him to design the world's "most deconstructivist house". It was like his other house designs around the time of House X, resulting from the shifting and rotation of cubes. He admitted that in the resulting house there would be areas of the floor that would be so steep you couldn't even stand, etc. I know this was around 1988-89, and according to the Internet, this was supposedly years after he gave up such theoretical and self-gratifying works - but that is all I remember him presenting to us. I remember being thoroughly entertained by him, but learning nothing I could put to use. Not one of the hundreds of attendees asked a question at the end of the lecture, and he said he wasn't surprised at that.
I've been interested in architecture, particularly historic architecture, since I was a kid. I'm now in my mid 60s, but when I was a kid Victorian architecture was being rediscovered, and the brownstones in my Manhattan neighborhood suddenly became hot property. I appreciate the idea that buildings, once considered passé or even vulgar, can be rediscovered and appreciated in a new light. For that reason, I try to keep an open mind on the 80s design aesthetic, recognizing my own biased view. But honestly, there were several times in your video I was strongly reminded of Pee Wee's Playhouse. I guess I fall within that 40-year-appreciation gap you talk about, and there's no getting away from that.
As an aside, I think that appreciation gap has gotten a lot shorter than it used to be. The NYC brownstones just being rediscovered in the late 60s were over 100 years old at the time. The medieval buildings of Europe were just being rediscovered in the early 19th century, and most of them were between 600 and 1,000 years old. Maybe this speeding up of the cycle is due to changes in media and information technology.
Yes! For instance in fashion, the cycle is absurdly short. 00s fashions are back for instance.
Plus, the perverse incentives of the underlying economic system.
I think we also saw what happened to buildings built in the 70s, 80s and 90s in the coming decades as far as how it has aged physically. Like is it still structurally sound?
@@szurketaltos2693 I know very little about fashion, but I have friends who know quite a bit about both historic fashion and the current state of the industry. One thing they all point out is the problem of "fast fashion," that is, clothing deliberately designed to last only a few wearings. It's a variation of the idea of planned obsolescence. Two hundred years ago, the idea would have seemed absurd. Clothing was expensive, and people wanted them to last, except maybe for some fashionistas at the very top of the social pecking order.
@@teubks I take your point, but having studied a large number of historic buildings I know this has been a problem for a very long time, especially in speculative buildings built in urban areas. Take the brownstones of my old neighborhood. Brownstone is a horrible building material. It weathers quickly and delaminates easily from the freeze/thaw cycles. To make matters worse, most builders in the 19th century laid up the stone vertically in thin sheets to save money on materials, and behind the stone veneer the construction is poor-quality brick masonry, with floor and roofs joists underengineered even by the standards of the time. Sloppy construction is nothing new.
It's interesting to think about 40-year-old things being outdated, because I've generally observed styles seeming to have a 30-year cycle. It felt like the '80s incorporated elements of '20s and '50s style, the '90s brought back the '60s, the '00s brought back the '70s, etc. But the previous decade is always the most out-of-fashion… so then it would make sense that 40-year-old styles would also be very "out." And I think with architecture you have the added impact of weathering and deterioration… like how discolored those panels on the outside of the Thompson Center are. So it does probably make sense that 40-year-old architecture would be the most unappealing. (And a lot of it isn't allowed to survive to 70.)
Things do not have a 30-year cycle... people do. 30 years is roughly the generation time for humans to grow up and become relevant enough in the cultural discourse... bringing back what was popular when they were young and forming their ideas of the world around them, as opposed to what their parents enjoyed.
@@isabellacavaliere3501 40 years, 30 years, just picking a round number and forcing the facts to fit into it. It does seem on yt posts, though, that the majority of people love as adults what impacted them the most favorably in their youth. But we never get anywhere that way. We are stuck. Nothing groundbreakingly new has come about since the late 1800s through the early 1900s. "We've had a river of liver and an ocean of fish. We want something else! We want something else!" (MASH) Instead, we get revivals and variations on a theme and reactions to the variations..., ad infinitum. I am beginning to lose hope of living long enough to see anything truly innovative.
Just think, Happy Days was from the 70's/80s but was set in the 1950s, so fits nothing in the 40-year cycle, as do so many other TV shows. These days everything is in style, but many times just in small groups of people or movements. Time evolves on a much quicker pace than in decades prior.
How can we stop Jury Trials from being phased out?
Nicely put.
As someone who worked in the Thompson Center, its problem is that it just makes for a bad office building and inefficient use of prime real estate. Preservationists rarely talk about how too much preservation can make it harder to actually make meaningful improvements, or about who bears the costs of preservation.
The land value conversation makes it a no-brainer that the building needs to be rethought entirely. Controversial design should never come at the cost of functionality and economic sustainability.
Hot take: I’m glad it was torn down, it’s ugly AF. Like most Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.
Then try harder.
@@JohnDoe-my5ipI think you are replying to the wrong comment.
@@JohnFromAccountingis that not the point of the 80s design to not fit ALL specifications of “standard way”
It has always puzzled me that when an old structure is threatened, the historical preservationists want nothing to do with it if it has any modifications after the decade in which it was built. In my home town there was a house that was one of only a few that had survived since before the American revolution. A developer wanted to tear it down and the local historical society deemed that it was not historic. Fortunately another builder, using his own money, had the building moved to another site. History is messy and eras overlap. One of the clips shown from the 80s had a Checker taxi in it, a car that had the same body style from the mid fifties until production ended in 1982
Yeah old buildings that are continously occupied will contain things frim different eras like the rings of a tree. And that's awesome
I was out on a run and came across a postmodern underpass that I couldn't help but admire. Its design was so playful, it was clearly supposed to impart a joy that is completely missing from the earlier generation of sharp concrete and blank tiles.
Give me late ’80s postmodernist architecture over Brutalism any day of the week. (The Brutalists somehow failed to acknowledge that their architectural commentary on the soul-crushing nature of modernity is also a building people have to live and work in.)
I adore Memphis Group design, it's inspired me to design art and furniture pieces. I appreciate the sensibilities of Meg and Jonathan as well, they seem to have a mindset similar to mine. It's not about nostalgia for me either, there's just something whimsical and fun about this style of design that gives pedestrian objects a sense of occasion in an approachable way. The eclectic nature of Memphis Group and 80s design lends permission to blend different eras and styles normally kept as separate cohesive collections - think Google/MCM, mixed with some antiques, 80s kitch, and some modern touches, all coexisting to a a visually interesting and inviting space. it's a feast for the senses!
I was in my twenties when I visited Chicago (my birthplace) and decided, on impulse, to take the all-day architectural tour. It was life changing in three ways:
1) an appreciation of trading footprint for elevation and the amazing effect it has on a city and it’s residents
2) Chicago’s lust for embracing the new left the city with an amazing array of building styles & trends spanning over s century. It was on that tour that I understood the meaning of ‘eclectic’ and why a city like Chicago with it’s wide array of building designs works because the skyline embraces this so well. It is a dangerous thing to obliterate buildings due to design trends - something Toronto, Ontario (a city where I grew up) and Halifax, Nova Scotia (a city I now call home) both suffer from these bad decisions resulting in regretable demolitions. That doesn’t mean I think cities should be frozen and act like museums. But there should be some reminders of the past.
Since my tour of the Windy city the most important thing I learned #3) Architecturally: the only way correctly to replace history is to make history.
Love this channel. Keep going!
All you need is Grace Jones, and you're all set.
The QUEEN!👸🏿
Grace Jones and Phillippe Starck.
The Starck club was the best. Starck’s three legged chairs were part of the design. No telling how much they are worth now.
@@unlikeavirgin $1000+ for sure.
@@Matityahu755 ua-cam.com/video/OPxJISpCAb0/v-deo.htmlsi=sgn8FZYmmIOuUIiZ
Damn, I miss those days.
One thing that is always impressive with UA-cam channels like Stewart Hicks is the top quality production standards in his content, True 4K as well
Even the ad was interesting.
I get that the playfulness of the 80s definitely has its own charm but I still prefer design that has its roots in functionalism. I think that design practices, where the interaction between user and object is in focus, play a bigger role in longevity. Even though I like the deconstructive aspect of redefining the usual object, I still think that popularizing radical experiments seems to produce short lived trends, rather than pushing meaningful and innovative designs that usually always come after such a period.
agreed. the memphis design movement to me is emblematic of wasteful consumerism. its as cheap as possible and sells itself on looks rather than utility. not to say that this was the original intent of the memphis designers just the larger movement that it caused.
I agree, "form over function" often leads to art pieces moreso than useful objects
@@jamesrees8070 True, but we need the experimentation otherwise nothing grows.
You still need though points of interest that intimately build around the existing landscape and a few good art pieces here and there.
Aesthetically there's also an option of going way back into older trends and selecting some good examples to combine into the latest monstrosity.
@@jamesrees8070what’s wrong with art pieces?
The proliferation of vaporwave online and the asthetic wiki makes me wonder if gen z will be open to a broad range of asthetics and styles, I love verner pantons living tower and his arcitecture projects are stunning and very Memphis. If you can manage to fit him in a video, I think a lot of people would enjoy it as well.
Yes, as soon as I saw Meg's photo studio, I immediately understood why it would be so popular: it's a vaporwave house! Vaporwave isn't just a 80s aesthetic, it's a very specific kind of 80s aesthetic, and it's so perfectly tailored to that trend that she had to have arranged those rooms like that on purpose. If so, it's a genius strategy.
I think riding the waves of nostalgia might be a good way for 40+ year old art and structures to survive into the future.
When I watch Kane Pixels’ Backrooms videos, I’m astonished at how much he *GETS* the ’80s, despite the fact he wasn’t born until a quarter century after it ended. It shows how the aesthetic gestalt of an era is something we recognize, even as we can’t always intellectually pinpoint it.
I own several pieces designed by Ettore Sottsass founder of the Memphis Group. They add a bit of whimsey to my life.
The few post modern buildings to survive the 40-year trap will become beloved icons.
Or they will stay beloved icons to a very specific crowd.
I’m not sure postmodern design will ever grow more popular. I think people are getting sick of postmodernism and it’s passed its peak ages ago.
I was a teen in the 80s. I can't overstate my loathing for the decor of the featured house.
I was 15 in 1983 ... but I''ve never seen the "style of 1983" as shown here in real life, neither in my home country nor in Europe. If shown these photos we would consider then 1975 or even earlier, something utterly dated by 1983. At any rate, these would be one-off designer experiments, like the Luigi Colani cybertrucks. Good for front pages, never seen on the road.
Come on, doesn't everyone dream of one day having their own pee wee's playhouse?
I really hope the Thompson Center is preserved. Its beautiful and represents the original vision of the shopping mall.
I love how the slo-mo shot of you walking into another room makes a house tour feel epic 👍🏼👍🏼
This video made me appreciate the Thompson Center more, which I never really liked. That's how you know you made a great video! Bravo!
I’m not necessarily a fan of much of the spiky 80s design but if I could I’d live in an 80s Golden Girls Miami fever dream.
Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles never looked ugly. They were always beautiful.
But how is Art Deco 80s??
I've attended a school where half the buildings were hideous Art Deco. It's the only time I've seen Art Deco look ugly. It made my skin crawl.
@@johnduquette7023 I guess it's possible to build something ugly regardless of the style.
@@johnduquette7023art deco that is not maintained can be quite hideous. I've had that experience at Bellas Artes in Mexico City. It's kinda icky and gross inside, though beautiful on the outside. The lighting is not good. similarly, the lobby of the Chrysler building gives me a depressing feel.
I loved this so much when it came out. This decade was the last time the avante garde was influential and the culture looked forward instead of backward. It was so excited and suggested so many possibilities.
Yes, although I didn't care for most of the aesthetic at the time, what you say is true. It was optimistic and playful by nature.
Ok, ai bot 🤨
i think the most inteligent form that postmodernism took was when it looked back to a pre-Modern era. it was an atempt to re learn all of the things modernists erased purposefully from education.
I grew up in Miami during the 80's. That building reminds me of a lot Arquitectonica's work of that time.
My first thought about the Thompson Center is that I wouldn't want to be the one footing the bill for the HVAC with that massive atrium.
"How we can appreciate stuff from 1983 when it looks like this?" [pauses on one of the most beautiful chairs of all time] bro, I'm gonna stop you right there. that chair absolutely slaps.
You might be in the minority with that opinion lol
@@mewwww17 I'm comfortable with this, heh
I’m with @error.418 on this one
I agree! That chair is iconic 80’s. Wild colors, contrasting shapes, bold, asymmetric design. All it needs is some similarly bold pillows to make it more comfortable to sit in.
And I LOVE the blue “hands” couch in their photography studio!
All of the Memphis design aesthetics remind me of a classmate in my high school in the late 70’s. She used to wear eye popping colors that I found obnoxious at 7am during orchestra rehearsals. Now I recognize that she was just ahead of her time, in a punk rock, counterculture aesthetic that we would all come to see as the very definition of the 1980’s.
@@mewwww17Memphis group furniture is very popular among people who care about design. They are pretty much the only people who even know it exists. It’s not widely popular, but it’s not widely hated either.
The key word with Memphis furniture is 'FUN'. You take one look and it makes you smile. Very young children love it. A single piece of Memphis furniture in a room acts like a bouquet bright of flowers. It is instant joy. It reminds us that the best things in life need not be either precious or prestigious or have more value than watching a kitten play with piece of string.
great subject matter
80s architecture and deco looked fun!
I think, I remember the Thompson Center from the movie "Running Scared" with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines back in 1986. No matter what the architectural style when you have be interior spaces like that, Hollywood will find them irresistible. Remember the fun they had with the Embarcadero atrium in San Francisco from the movie "High Anxiety" with Mel Brooks in 1977? But speaking of interior spaces, I wonder how well the Sphere in Las Vegas will age? It's opening night with U2 was pretty spectacular. The stage seems to disappear.
The Las Vegas sphere could very well be the coolest thing built in America in the 21st Century. Although you’re right, if those video screens start malfunctioning and it becomes to costly to repair, it could become a gigantic white elephant.
This colourful, asymmetrical style for me always reminds me of children's furniture and playgrounds. I assume the style fits that purpose well because kids don't appreciate subtlety as often as adults, and it's more fun to climb on.
Durability, subtlety doesn't seem to weather the travesties of time as well.
The stylings in the eighties seemed designed to inspire playfulness, obstinance, freedom, everything that was liberal as opposed to the staunch govt. rule of the Reagan years. I was in my twenties then and witnessed it all unfold and while not a fan myself, with the exception of the liberalism trend, I can see why many are nostalgic about it. The music scene played a huge part in the eighties atmosphere and big, bold, bright repped a big, brand new attitude.
This is so important. Preserving design continuity is so undervalued. It reminds me of the box over the buttresses on the Allstate Arena.
2:30 do love a bit of formica, as a real estate photographer I shoot over 1,000 properties per year and over the last few years i've seen formica make a big comeback, makes me wish my late grandmother didn't randomly throw out her blue formica dropleaf table from the 40's, i'd love to have it in my house!
I rescued my great-grandmother’s formica kitchen table and I mostly put a tablecloth on it but I know it’s there and it fills me with glee.
Randomly? She went through the house and told people to, what?, haul away whatever she pointed at while blindfolded?
There was a whole outdoor mall in San Diego called Horton Plaza that was all about this era's design aesthetic. It was a very strange experience to walk around it because it was not linear the way it was built and had strange cross bridges to different levels. It had pastel colors and odd geometric features. The city tore it down some time in the last year or two which I thought was a shame even though it had become an unpopular mall.
8981 Sunset Blvd on the Sunset Strip, with its original color scheme of seafoam green and bubblegum pink that I believe was intended to look sunbleached upon construction, was one of those things that just makes me smile. The fact it’s been given a more generic, “tasteful” makeover makes me think the renovators simply didn’t get the appeal of the orginal.
The Thompson Building renovation exemplifies what Mr. Solomon said: "the preservation of a ...space has to incorporate the past ... the present and any possible changes in the future." The planned future changes are attempting to correct the building's severe design flaws. If a building is aesthetically pleasing, but impossible to use, is it a design success or failure? (I'm thinking of so many FLW houses with water leaks. I postulate that those designs need correction, not pure preservation.) Purists decry the planned, bland modernization of the Thompson building but ignore the fact that its fundamental design flaws must be corrected in order for the building to survive.
As someone who used to use the food court and train station on a daily basis, I find the Thompson Center such a mish-mash of good and bad. I hardly even hear people comment on the removal of the exterior elements that interestingly extended the facade design all the way to the corner of the plaza. They were maybe removed 15-20 years ago? I'm having a hard time even finding a photo showing them in place.
This shows them in place. assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ibohPh1XDTiU/v1/1200x811.jpg
Stewart should be wearing a Members Only jacket.
I like memphis style specifically because it has a simplicity and playfulness you dont see in a lot of postmodern design.
A lot of postmodern design is extremely pretentious, and overdesigned for the sake of being overdesigned. or for having "deep" meanings etc.
Yet here's a style that is simply about having fun. bright primary colors, geometric shapes, there's a fair bit of repetition and symmetry in design, as well as often especially when memphis got into the 90's, much more appropriation of things that many postmodernists might intrinsically hate, such as classical design. How many malls were full memphis, but had roman columns.
it lends itself to that sort of pastiche in a way that other examples dont. it's what postmodernism ought to be. *fun*
It's about time for this style of buildings to come back. I was born in 1991 but that Memphis style was seen a lot in my life throughout the 90s that's why a lot of people mistaken the Memphis style for 90s even though it was an 80s thing. I would love to see these style of structures to come back over the stupid boring white and silver sterile buildings we have today. If we can modernize Art Deco and to some sense Brutalism (Which is my all time favorite architecture style) We can bring back this Memphis style. it's about time to bring unique wacky and colorful buildings back to our cities.
Immediately fell in love with the Carlton room divider. It’s exactly what my room need.
As a kid watching the Humana Building by Michael Graves in KY being built I, we were amazed at how, or even, why some company would pay for gold V cuts into granite facade could make a building 'pretty'. We had fun sitting on the slabs after they were delivered still making fun of it. ~40 years later, It's actually effin' cool
this video was wonderful and I love the lengths you went to produce it
I love Memphis Group. They took me from an innocent kid who liked Shaker to BAM!!!!!! They had the same impact on me as Deep Purple when they released Smoke on the Water. Puff the Magic Dragon was tossed out for Rock-N-Roll.
My local museum has a huge collection of Memphis furniture. I love it!
I actually think the 80s memphis style is having a bit of a resurgence with the 'avant basic' style thats popular in gen z and younger millenials. It's a bit of a reimagining but the post modern and vibrant elements are still there. It's like a softened version of memphis with more organic shapes and a softer color palette. I think the trend cycles are getitng quicker haha
Googling “avant basic”, it seems very much an aesthetic for young single women. I can understand it having currency on TikTok channels by and for such women, but can’t see it having much durability beyond that, since it would almost certainly go out the window once she marries and raises a family. Something I’ve become cognizant of recently is how good interior design fuses elements that appeal to both men and women in a way that seems natural for both.
Great video Stewart. I remember seeing and being thrilled by the Memphis design furniture. Of course I couldn’t afford it and now that I can I’m not sure where I would put it (my ex-wife said that if left to my own devices the house would look like an airport waiting room). So in watching this I visually go back to the Pompidou center which, maybe was a precursor (built from 71-77) to some of the 80s design.
The Googie's Coffee Shop logo looks more ’80s than anything else that’s called “Googie” looks like the Googie's Coffee Shop logo,
8:20 where did he get that column?? i would love that to be in my life.
These videos just keep getting better! Love your work Stewart!!
I have a 1985 shed contemporary. Never thought I would own one because I've always beeen more into the 1920's Arts and Crafts bungalows. But growing up in the 1970's and 1980's, it has a comfort and familiarity to it. As I update the house, I try to be sensitive to it's era. I don't want to live in a museum, but at the same time any changes need to feel like they have always been there. No shiplap and "modern farmhouse" ever!
Right behind you. I live in a medeival English market town & bought a 'carbunkle' 15 years ago; a 1964 modernist town house. Only now do people appreciate the space & open plan design
I actually think a lot of these scenes look really cool when everything is coordinated together. Its just that each piece is so bold that it could never fit nicely in a typical home.
The memphis style is like walking into a dr suess book. (btw if you like that style play wobble dogs)
I was a designer for theme parks in the 80s. Heavy on the spheres, cylinders and cubes in Miami Vice pastels, stacked in impossible configurations. I don't think I was even consciously thinking of being trendy. It was just the style that was in every shopping mall and retail design. Now that I think about it - how ununique I was.
Love this look back. One thing to note - the outbuilding at Prince’s Paisley Park that you feature at 3:23, while definitely part of this aesthetic and harkening back to Prince’s rise on MTV right around 1983, was actually built in the early 2000s, meant to match the more 80s aesthetic of the rest of his complex. He clearly believed in the timelessness of that era’s aesthetic.
I was surprised when- just a few years ago- I saw that Paisley Park basically looked like a ’80s office building one might not give a second glance to. Completely visible from the road, no less! I’m sure there are people who drive past it every day who have no idea it’s Paisley Park.
really loved this video, their apartment (and the studio space) are absolutely beautiful, thanks stewart
Thank you so much for sharing another great video. Very interesting. Some of that furniture is a little to bizarre for me. I'm glad that the Thompson Center didn't get torn down.
Seems like the Memphis group style is coming back. I’m seeing all sorts of funky post modern stuff trending on tik tok. There seems to be huge trend with oversized items, such as a corn cob table or donut stool. Or massive toothbrush shaped towel racks.
I wonder if an inter-generational apprehension that we’ve all taken a disastrous wrong turn has fed into nostalgia for an age Zoomers weren’t even alive to experience. If there were a referendum that we all just pick up at 1987 and start over again, I imagine it would be pretty popular.
a quick paint job is all it needs
Yeah like that Ames laminated teak chair in one scene needed it's coat of black paint.
Dear Stewart Hicks, I think one of the biggest challenges is the visual distortion of cities that have become very similar, even with the geographical, cultural and architectural diversity of cities. People no longer feel the pleasure of moving from one city to another due to the similarity in the new urban construction in glass towers or concrete buildings, with great disregard for the distinctive urban style. for these cities
The Saudi government noticed lately that it had destroyed much of the architectural diversity and diversity in Saudi cities with the oil revolution, the excessive construction of cement buildings, and the destruction of many old buildings that symbolize the urban style of those cities.
Currently, the Saudi government has begun to think about preserving the urban style of what remains in Saudi cities, especially with the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism. Therefore, in its new projects, the Central Jeddah Project paid attention to the Hejazi style in architecture and did not want it to be a copy of another Dubai. Likewise, the Diriyah project paid attention to the Najdi style. In the architecture that symbolizes the Najd region,
Al-Souda Company’s projects focused on the urban pattern of the Asir region
This beautiful diversity in architecture is what makes residents integrate and immerse themselves in their cultural architecture, which distinguishes them from others, and symbolizes the place in which they live and not the modern urban revolution in architecture, which can end at any moment And they lose their cultural, civilizational and artistic luster.
00:04 1983 marked the rise of a new aesthetic influenced by the Memphis group.
01:52 The Memphis group revolutionized 80s design by boldly breaking established rules.
03:39 The Memphis group's architecture challenged preconceptions and found beauty in unfamiliar configurations.
05:32 The building's design embraces mundane materials and unconventional order.
07:07 Preservation of postmodern buildings and celebration of 80s design
09:15 Preservation is the process of restoring a property to its valuable period.
11:15 The Thompson Center and the Memphis group celebrate the overlooked and challenge the status quo.
13:04 Henson shaving razors offer a smooth shave with tight tolerances and clever engineering features.
Formica is GREAT! It is truly the miracle material. No maintenance. Held up well (although sometimes the glue might unstick. You just never had to worry about it as long as you didn't cut food on it or set something tooooo hot on it. It wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world, but it functioned well and it wasn't ugly.
I wonder if there was any correlation between Memphis group designs and Andy Warhol paintings.
For sure!
0:17 “Right around when buildings turn 40, they seem to be as ugly and detestable as they will ever be.”
Me, age 41: I didn’t expect to be personally attacked.
coming from atlanta, and getting interested in architecture 20yrs ago in my last couple years of high school and subsequently learning about the tallest skyscrapers in my city (almost all of which are postmodern 1987-1993) i've always had a soft spot for the style, even if the examples here are pretty conservative compared to what i think defines postmodern. (we do have one graves building here - ten peachtree pl) i'm kind of excited to see what this revival of the style brings, if we end up having one.
Sottsass was one of the greatest designers of the twentieth century. Fight me.
Absolutely! Although it is a bit of a shame he was also a fascist.
Great video 😁
I love the Thompson center. I work across the street from it! Can’t wait to see what Google does with it, but hopefully they preserve its character.
Looking at the history of their logo, most likely they will.
I graduated from college in 1980. You just hurt my feelings all over again...
If every remnant of 80’s architecture met its demise, I would not lose one second of sleep over it.
I’m sorry but far from wanting to preserve those designs I’m happy we are moving past them and leaving them in the dustbin of history. The modern obsession to be original and shocking and avant- grade has foisted so much dreadful design on the poor public
Loved this one! Watched it with a smile.....finished school in 1983....Todays architecture has lost some of this fun and colour.
pomo is my favorite design
I can't take the preservationists mission seriously when their own 100 year old home has been transformed into 1980s chic instead of it's original design and decorations.
My city has a neighbourhood with a lot of very old houses. Residents of that neighbourhood are fighting desperately to try and "save" them for their historical significance.
Problem is, those houses were cheap, poorly made small houses meant for the workers of the nearby factory. They were ugly and rundown then, and they're even uglier and in worse condition now. They're historical, sure. But I'm not convinced that they need to be saved or preserved. The city is in desperate need of new affordable housing and every time a project comes up, people fight tooth and nail to shoot it down because it would mean demolishing a rat-infested shit pile of moldy, rotten wood where nobody lives.
At some point I believe we should accept that the past is the past and not necessarily worth saving simply because it's old.
If it was a run-down ghetto for the poor 200 years ago, can we please take it down and build something new and livable today?
Hopefully these NIMBYs can accept that the times are changing and only the facade of acceptable quality be kept, making way for nice mixed-use buildings that encourage people living in a walk-able place.
@@DeepSeaLugia it was a ghetto 200 years ago and it's a ghetto now. People are afraid of gentrification and erasing its local history, which is actually pretty freaking interesting. But at some point we have to consider the quality of life of the humans living here TODAY.
Well said! Historic bad design or bad construction remain bad, regardless of historicity (I'm looking at you, Frank Lloyd Wright). Functionality must remain a key in designing housing.
Like many other historic designs, it looks bad in excess, but remains appealing when toned down a bit. A good example of this is the Thomson Centre.
Also, one should look to Italy and France. There, people ride out the distaste for a period and let it come around again. Paris is full of 1970s contemporary design that looked tired and unappealing in the 80s and 90s, and is now desirable. The same is true in Milan.
Some of the color combinations are reminiscent of clothing I wore in high school in the late 60’s. I’ve always loved those mixes
Interesting. Whilst some of the stuff of the 80's and in particular, inspired by the Memphis Group, is pretty cool, and much like Brutalist Architecture, which very few people like, I, like you, think it should be preserved. It is part of our contemporary history, and should not be completely erased like th Frank Lloyd Wright building that was taken down because the air conditioning system was too hard to upgrade - wow, that's a shocker. Anyway, thanks for an interesting video - something that you didn't mention is that as far as I am aware, the Memphis Group was established in response to, and to counter, the Bauhaus movement in Germany.
I love the fun playful nature of everything from the 80's. Its the 70's that i think were a design dark age in every sense from fashion to buildings.
Another banger of a video, you're the best man
Let us not forget Dubuffet’s Standing Beast sculpture outside. It’s “melted tooth” appearance has aged about as well as the building.
Not often I watch a shaving promo but you made it so technical that I had to watch it 😂
I keep forgetting how ugly the 80's could be but since I grew up with it I kinda like it.
That building should be celebrated like Le Centre Pompidou. Solar heat inset, and biospherical designs are now unfortunately integral to the survival of the species. Hate on the building is science denial. Thank you for keeping it funky! ❤
Preservation ftw! Also, i love that 80s Deco girl's taste. The memphis aesthetic is about as close to minimalism as i ever want to be
I wish when you put objects or buildings on screen, you indicate who and when designed it. It'd be highly useful.
please tell me why im always in love with these overshadowed aesthetics form these eras? theyre always my favorite. i LOVE memphis based design so much.
Don't touch it. The Christchurch Town Hall is one of the best buildings world wide (not just for its performance acoustics). Built 1972, thankfully the city council never got around to modernising this brutalist masterpiece and even fought to save it post quake (along with all of us). Now reopened and restored to its former glory, every NZIA event I've been to always has speakers remark on what an incredible asset it is to the NZ architectural landscape. It could have easily been remodelled in the 90s.
We need to allow architecture time to attain heritage status or risk losing a generation's work.
I worked for Peter Shire and have seen the Bel Air Chair in person watching this is so cool I had no idea at the time
Reminds me of the "grunge" trend that happened in graphic design - it comes in cycles. The 80's look really fit in. Also the pastel colors.
I don't necessarily love the style, I'm more about traditional revival, but I feel like it's important not to recklessly throw things away, because that's how our built environment got so unfortunate in the first place. Don't discard the past. Keep it around to inform and enrich the present.
I have been building a game collection with a lot of stuff from the 80s to early 90s and I haven't been wanting to go so accurate. Like I'll still get furniture from that period but I don't have anything as wild as that couple's house. I still like the old Chicago aesthetic. Warm wood with some greens and floor lamps
There are a lot of 40 year old office buildings here in Houston, and I tried to think of whether any of them seem passe or ugly now. But I really couldn't come up with an example. Gerald Hines was the developer of many of them, perhaps his taste was what kept them from looking jarring now.
To me, many late ‘80s Postmodern buildings are “dated, but in a good way,” as opposed to many Bauhaus / International Style buildings, which are “dated, but in a bad way”.
This gen X 80s teen LOVES the Thompson Center. Still. Always.
In the kitchen ( at 2:40) the two items that pop for me are the pitcher and the loaf of bread. They have authenticity that makes the other items appear superficial.
White box architect reminds me that Mies liked martinis. Both seem to be naturally adversive but can become an acquired taste.
There are old designs like the Yale Center for British Art or the Studebaker Avanti that still seem fresh. There are new designs that are too often EW, as you put it. Things only exist now, we can't experience them in any other time. In this sense they're all contemporary. Maybe the designs that seem old after their novelty has worn off were just weak designs and those that still look alive are good designs.
A thought experiment, imagine a show of Po Mo furniture at the Yale Center. Which would really hold your attention, make you want to come back, the building or the display?
[As for the Larkin bldg I think its implied top down, male dominated, Edwardian social structure doomed it. The male bosses peering down from their aeries at the female staff in their secretarial pool sitting at uncomfortable, akward metal desks, that didn't originally have modesty panels, EW.]
The part about a government building being made of common materials reminds me of Brisbane with its brutalist public buildings for the art galleries, museums, government houses etc. Very different style, but similar concept in that it was apparently supposed to be more "common" than the fancy marble stuff
It’s funny you mention that since the “ brutalist” style is now going through its own preservationist movement. Some want them torn down fur being ugly , others want to preserve it.
Great compilation!
Thanks Stewart, as fascinating as always. Do you think that in forty years people will be passionate about preserving the bland corporate architecture that predominates today?