Hardcover. Taschen, 1st, 2006, Book: N, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. This volume revisits the early 1980s, a time of Postmodernism. Italian design groups Alchimia and Memphis, led by Alessandro Mendini, Andrea Branzi, Michele de Lucchi, and Ettore Sottsass, questioned radically and provocatively the ostensible functionality of design objects. Everyday items were reinterpreted, full of relish and fantasy. Ironic redesigns of historic design classics put their role and contemporary use into question. Within the field of architecture, these new ideas found a counterpart in buildings by Hans Hollein, Michael Graves, Studio Nizzoli, and the offices of Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown. At the same time, the first deconstructivist tendencies were recognizable in the designs of Zaha Hadid. In publisher's shrink wrap.//// Postmodernism in the early 1980s. Everyday items were reinterpreted while questioning the functionality of design objects. In publisher's shrink wrap.