U N I T 4 CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Almost every contemporary architect has been influenced by the Modernist movement, but today many of them are following personal and individual paths combining details, context, site, theory and new experiments. This Unit is about the trends of the last 40 years and the most famous and representative architects of the beginning of 21st century. A. FROM THE 1970 S TO THE PRESENT Since the 1970s, architectural styles have become more fractured and among architects who could be defined contemporary there are post-modernists, neo-modernists, deconstructivists, contextualists, expressionists and others. The rise of postmodernism was attributed to dissatisfaction with modern architecture. By the 1980s, postmodern architecture appeared to have triumphed over modernism and many architects deliberately moved away from rectilinear designs towards more eclectic styles. The term Contemporary Architects suggests the use of new materials and technologies, forms and architectural languages that are not generally rooted in past traditions. There are five main ideas that contemporary architects deal with: 1) The re-use of old buildings to make something new; 2) Organic architecture that tries to blend in with the environment around it by being curvier and sometimes incorporating plants into the structural design; 3) Deconstructivism, which uses non-rectilinear shapes to distort the form of the structure. The finished visual result looks chaotic and unpredictable, but takes into consideration extra space in ways not previously thought of; 4) Using computers to aid in the design process; 5) High Tech, which emerged in the 1970s and includes elements of high-tech industry and technology into building design. In the last decade, the word Starchitect a neologism describing the phenomenon of architects achieving a sort of celebrity status has been applied to those architects considered icons of contemporary architecture, whose spectacular designs have brought them fame, fortune and glory. Among these, the most remarkable are Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhass, Daniel Libeskind, Santiago Calatrava and Tadao Ando. Santiago Calatrava Art and Science City (Valencia, Spain). 142