Charles Jencks expressed in his work, "The Emergent Rules," that the most prevalent aspect of postmodernism is its double-coding, use of irony, ambiguity and contradiction. He defines double-coding as meanings that could be seen as conveying messages referring to both the future and past. He explains that it "allows us to read the present in the past as much as the past in the present" as if time is essentially nothing. Jencks reflection on double-coding and time is consistent with De Saussures idea of intertextuality. In class we learned that intertextuality means that you cannot truly understand or read something without relying on your knowledge of past experiences. 

In this specific reading, Jencks focuses on architecture. I spent the first 20 years of my life growing up in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2014 it placed first in Forbes list of America's most educated small towns. I lived in a brick house in your typical North East suburban neighborhood. This summer my Dad picked up a new job. He had been unemployed for two years so this was seemingly exciting news. The catch? My family is now going to be moving to Las Vegas. I couldn't think of a place that contrasted more than Bethesda than "sin city".

How does this relate to Jencks idea of double-coding? To be honest I don't know if it truly does. But the idea of blogging is to get our ideas out right? In searching for a new home we found that 99.9% of houses for sale were ostentatious, unappealing, tacky, and everything BUT what we were looking for. We finally caught our eye on something she liked. The house we recently purchased was a one story home in a gated community described as an "old French country style" home. When my mom went to see it in person she said that the home "stands out in the community." When reading Jencks idea of double-coding I began how our new home too conveys many meanings simultaneously. For one its a home in a newly developed neighborhood in Las Vegas. As if Las Vegas itself isn't double-coding, our house goes against the typical Las Vegas modern flamboyant home, bringing in a sort of European feel in the community. I see the home itself referring to the future, bringing a chance in architecture to the city of sin, as well as a unique historic French feel to the community.