1986

1986 was a significant year in late-twentieth-century architecture, characterized by the consolidating influence of postmodernism, the rise of high-tech architecture, and growing debates around the cultural and historical responsibilities of design in an increasingly globalized world. The decade’s fascination with historical reference, irony, and ornament was beginning to coexist with a countervailing interest in the expressive use of structure and industrial materials championed by architects such as Norman Foster and Richard Rogers. Within the broader story of 20th-century architecture, 1986 sits at a crossroads between the pluralism of postmodernism and the technological ambition that would increasingly define the discipline’s direction into the 1990s.