Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day
architecture.
Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the
International Style of modernism. As with many cultural movements, some of Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. The
functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the
modernist style are replaced by diverse
aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered past architectural ornament and forms which had been abstracted by the Modernist architects.