'A period of rigorously correct architecture is often followed by one in which the buildings deviate from accepted canons', wrote Steen Eiler Rasmussen giving as example two distinct periods of history: Renaissance and Baroque. Another example would be how Postmodern architecture replaced Modernism in the 1970/80s. Both examples reflect that 'when once we have become familiar with the rules' - here the Renaissance and Modernism respectively, 'the buildings that comply with them become tiresome' (Ibid). New ideas, then, emerge that propose new forms or combinations of forms heralding a new movement or era. However, the two examples also show how the boredom threshold is getting lower among both architects and the general public: The Baroque period lasted around a hundred years whereas Modernism only about half of that. And Post-Modernism, arguably, was over by the 1990s which suggests a higher turnover of "styles" still. In other words, designers are increasingly engaged in employing mannerisms, that is, creating purely visual effects to impress and surprise the spectator, as exemplified in contemporary design by Gehry (Guggenheim Museum Blibao), Hadid (Heydar Aliyev Centre) and Greyson Perry (A House for Essex).
*Rasmussen (1964). Experiencing Architecture. MIT Press.
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