Post-postmodern architecture?

2005's "Best New Skyscraper for Design and Functionality" (an award by Emporis) goes to the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden, an extraordinary looking building by Santiago Calatrava (whose designs include the BCE Place concourse). The Turning Torso comprises nine five-storey cubes supported by an outer skeleton, each cube positioned at a different angle from the one below it so that the building makes a complete 90 degree turn from the bottom to the top.

Previous award winners include Taipei 101 in Taiwan (currently the tallest building in the world), and Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of my favourite examples of contemporary high rise architecture.

Looking at these and other late 20th and 21st century designs, I am reminded of a friend's recent comment that we're in a postmodern stage of fashion in which anything goes - any kind of hairdo, style of jeans or other dress sense is acceptable, and there is nothing that is "uncool" or passé. The same seems to apply to a lot of the current high profile architecture, including the work of icons like Calatrava and Frank Gehry, but with the added functionality (including efficient energy use), "clean-ness" and minimalism that was characteristic of modern architecture. In this way, the current trend is different from earlier architectural postmodernism like that found on the Las Vegas strip (which sadly is still apparent in new developments like those in Dubai or Shanghai).