As a group we analyzed Venturi and his guiding principles in which he created his revolutionary post modernist structures. He outlined his ideals and projects in his manifesto Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was written by Robert Venturi as a criticism of modern architecture and an explanation of his views on the postmodernist movement.
Modern architects like Le Corbusier and Robert Venturi were critical of the social and urban effects of these designs, which is why they decided to critique it and to search for an architectural language that might overcome Modernism.
Taking into consideration the complexity achieved in past architectural designs, Venturi believed that the modernist movement in its attempt to break from tradition and start fresh, failed to maintain the intricacy in architecture. Therefore, in Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture he expounds on the reasons why the postmodernist movement revives this complexity in design.
Venturi demonstrates, through various designs, why he advocates the post modernist movement which attempts to include various requirements and their juxtapositions rather than the modernist approach of exclusion and separation.
We will highlight a selection of these buildings from Venturi’s book in an attempt to display his argument. These buildings include the (both-and) concept. This means that they embody contradiction and complexity in several ways, like the juxtaposition of a complex interior and a simple exterior, or the contrast between symmetry and asymmetry in one structure. These paradoxes result in a duality in plan, but create a unified space within the frame of contradiction.
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All three houses which Venturi highlights in his book share the elements of complexity and contradiction that he looks for in Postmodern designs. He criticizes the modernist movement and its failure to provoke the eye. The houses he highlights bring forward alternative and new elements used in a complex context which breaks free of the restrictions of modern architecture.