The Openness of Work and Metaphor in Postmodern Architecture

Abstract

This article contains the results of research on the theory of foreign architecture of the 20th century in connection with the radical changes in professional thinking that took place because of the change of paradigms. The problematic of the "open work" in terms of the Italian philosopher and semiotics specialist U. Eco is considered in relation to architecture. The article reveals the specificity of the architect's creative activity in the epoch of postmodernity when the understanding of architecture as a text open for free interpretation by the users to whom it is addressed has become the norm. The author considers the factors of co­creativity with the addressee, dynamism of architectural text, text addressing, a plurality of codes, and invariants of reading. The article is also focused on the metaphor as one of the main tools of postmodern architect, as a way of thinking in a new eclecticism mode. The study touches upon the problems of postmodernism as a style opening up the possibility of liberation from any forms of rationing, social programming, and political conditioning. The article presents the direction of the new hermeneutics, which involves working with the endless chain of metaphors while working with the intertext of cultures, united between each other in the open society of the late 20th and early 21st century.