ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN THEORY BHAKTI SHET B - 44 ELECTIVES – II 2020-2021

.

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to discuss the design theory of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. It addresses architecture as the only place where redundant and simple construction, in thinking and in material reality, takes shape. All other art forms indulge and promote complexity in their art form.

The main objective is to understand the importance of inner complexity in terms of planning and contradiction in architectural elements over simplified architecture which is intrinsically boring and to understand the limitations of modern orthodox architecture and city planning.

The methodology of research is by doing literature reviews and case studies. The 3 structures are chosen in such a way that they vary in building type and also in terms of site areas, which helps us understand more better. Then comparative study of the buildings is done which helps analyze his design approach. After concluding the study, further proposals of implementation in our design are made.

Keywords:      

Architectural ambiguity Vestigial elements Orthodox modernism Urban planning Form Program

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

2

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 4 AIM ................................................................................................................................................... 6 OBJECTIVE ......................................................................................................................................... 6 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 7 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................................... 8 CASE STUDY ..................................................................................................................................... 14 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STUDY / EVALUATION / ANALYSIS .......................................................... 25 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 30 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 32 DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................................... 33

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

3

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

INTRODUCTION

Robert Venturi’s design theory is all about architecture and modernism. Venturi's key points generally outlined in non-straight forward architecture: A general manifesto. Venturi also touches on the concept that richness can contrast with clarity and urges architects to leave the tenets of traditional modernism behind in pursuit of "truth in its totality", a sort of organic messiness that he perceives as more real and useful than overly planned hyper logical modernist constructions.

"Complexity and contradiction versus simplification or picturesqueness" criticizes "orthodox modern architects" and their treatment of complexity eventually feels that diversity in architecture represents a type of sophistication. Simplicity doesn't always work because it often results in an architectural "blandness”, "less is bore".

"Both-and" architecture promotes hierarchy within it, which leads to contrast layers and levels of meanings. Venturi encourages architects you consider how they can use principles of standardization in a nonstandard way. Finally, we reached the obligation towards the difficult whole. Venturi believes that variety in the cityscape and individual buildings creates certain type of tension that not only promotes many levels of interpretation but also forms a sophisticated unity.

Ambiguity and tension are easily found in complex and contradictory architecture.

Architecture is a form and substance - abstract and concrete its meaning is from the interior characteristics and its popular context. An architectural element is perceived as form and structure, texture and material. These oscillating relationships, complete and contradictory are the source of the ambiguity and tension characteristic to the medium of architecture.

It seems that many of Venturi's principles work effectively in a graphic design contest: variety, inclusion and tensions are all key components to compelling works. We can also think about our design work as individual entities as also as well as parts of a whole by considering how they fit in with both contemporary and historical examples of graphic design. Certainly, his ideas of proposing historical / traditional elements also applies to graphic design postmodernism would not exist without this concept.

In 1962, Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture under a grant from the Graham Foundation. It was re-published by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) in 2002 as part of a series of occasional papers on the theoretical background of modern architecture. The re-publication of the book was not to accompany a museum exhibition, rather its purpose was to recognise the importance of Complexity and Contradiction as a critical and historical expression of a turning point in modern architectural history.

The book is a about architecture beyond modernism. By the middle of the twentieth century, some began to see modernism as a languishing system. Its simplicity, modularity and internationalism were becoming stale, and functional flaws were starting to show.

Modernism’s fall from grace led architects in America and across Europe to reconsider the programmes and systems they employed. One such architect was Robert Venturi.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

4

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

In 1962, Venturi wrote Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture under a grant from the Graham Foundation. It was re-published by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) in 2002 as part of a series of occasional papers on the theoretical background of modern architecture. The re-publication of the book was not to accompany a museum exhibition, rather its purpose was to recognise the importance of Complexity and Contradiction as a critical and historical expression of a turning point in modern architectural history.

The book targets the limitations of modern orthodox architecture and city planning, as well as architects who Venturi considers to be “platitudinous”. He criticises the idealisation of the primitive and elementary, in addition to the favouring of simplicity over diversity. Venturi advocates instead an approach to architecture in which truth is derived from paradoxes and complexity, damning the maxim “less is more” and claiming that forced simplicity results in oversimplification. Venturi believes that simplification is intrinsically boring. He argues that true simplicity — i.e. one which is not from being economical with materials or using repeated modular forms, but from cognitive satisfaction — is achieved through an inner complexity. The example of the Doric temple is Venturi’s justification for this claim, suggesting that through distorted geometry and internal tension (complexities and contradictions) the temple as a whole evokes harmonious simplicity.

Venturi's buildings typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and aims, to acknowledge the conflicts often inherent in a project or site. This "inclusive" approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured—and possibly less functional and more simplistic—work of art.

Venturi's architecture has had worldwide influence, beginning in the late 1960s with the dissemination of the broken-gable roof of the Vanna Venturi House and the segmentally arched window and interrupted string courses of Guild House. The playful variations on vernacular house types offered a new way to embrace, but transform, familiar forms.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

5

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

AIM To understand the importance of applying inner complexity and contraction in architecture to create more sophisticated, diverse architecture over over-simplified architecture.

OBJECTIVE 1. To understand the limitations of modern orthodox architecture and city planning.

2. To recognize the importance of complexity & contradiction as a critical and historical explanation of a turning point in modern architectural history.

3. To prove how design simplicity is intrinsically boring.

4. To prove that true simplicity is one which is not from being economical with materials or using repeated modular forms, but from cognitive satisfaction is achieved through and inner complexity.

5. To understand how complexity and contradiction in architecture can be achieved.

6. To understand how the buildings can be complex and simple at the same time.

7. To change the perspective of architects in terms of planning.

SIGNIFICANCE / NEED 1. In today’s world architects are lagging creativity in architecture.

2. The perspective that sorted and simple planning leads to good architecture is completely wrong. Instead simplicity leads to boring type.

3. The more the complex the building is, the more contradictory elements are put together, the more it becomes interesting. Both complex and simple can be achieved at the same time.

4. Such building types are lacking in today’s period.

5. The perspective of architect in terms of complexity and contradiction in architecture needs to change.

6. Architecture should be integrated into a wide-ranging and, in the end contemporary as a whole.

7. The buildings need to considered as solitary objects without regard for their settings, a building derives meaning from its context, and different contexts require different forms of architectural expression.

8. The architectural elements need to be combined in unexpected way to make it interesting and contradictory.

9. Complexity and contradiction Vs Simplification and picturesqueness: Forced simplicity results in oversimplification.

10. Contradiction juxtaposed directions creates rhythmic complexity and contradiction contains opposites within a whole. The juxtaposition of diagonals and perpendicular also create contradictory directions, such should be adopted.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

6

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

METHODOLOGY

METHODOLOGY IN ORDER TO PROVE OUR VIEWS AND OBJECTIVES

TO STUDY TOPIC RELATED ARTICLES, RESEARCH PAPERS AND BOOKS AND WRITE LITERATURE REVIEW

TO STUDY SOME COMPLEX BUILDINGS AND TO DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS FUNCTIONALLY THEY FACE

PROVE THE CONCEPT BY COMPARING ARCHITECTURAL AND ARTWORKS AND OLD HISTORICAL EXAMPLES ON BASIS OF SHARED CONCEPTS

STUDYING STRUCTURES AND COMPARING COMPLEXITY AND CONTRACTION VERSUS SIMPLICITY TO STUDY THE CONTRADICTORY LEVEL AND ITS BENEFITS

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

7

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

LITERATURE REVIEW

Article 1 Robert Venturi made architecture less rigid yet more clubby.

He advocated for new styles but not new voices.

Author: Christopher Hawthorne Date Issued: September 29, 2018

Review: Complexity, contradiction and ambiguity are known as words in daily language having negative meanings and should be converted to positive. The tension around these concepts may be much more disturbing in architectural design than in the everyday life. If there is a complexity, it should be simplified, if there is a contradiction, it should be eliminated and the ambiguity should be moved to certainty. Generally speaking, contrary to the negative meanings which are given to them, the concepts like complexity and contradiction1 have taken place in the literature as concepts explaining the nature of architecture after Venturi.

The most common phrase "less is a bore" is used. Venturi meant an architecture that could pursue multiple, even seemingly opposed strategies at the same time that could be playful and deeply ambitious and new. It welcomed the ambiguity in architecture and embraced what he called "the difficult whole" Venturi wanted to awaken architects from "prim dreams of pure order".

The idea of "both-and" live comfortable in the small house. Venturi designed for his mother for the site in Philadelphia, 1964. The architect began with the platonic image of a house as drawn by any first grader: gabled roof, chimney pointing skyward. Then he began to tweak and subvert those familiar spaces, cutting a deep notch in the gable and then hiding the front door behind a simple square opening punched through the facade. These gestures knocked the whole composition thrillingly off balance suggesting the ionic directions architecture would take it moved in the 1970s toward post modernism.

Venturi wrote "The architect's over diminishing power and his growing ineffectualness in shaping the whole environment can perhaps be reserved ironically by narrowing his concerns and concentrating on his own job. Also, architecture as a profession field to go with and reflect the culture, complexity and contradiction was part of the larger wave of cultural upheaval.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

8

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Article 2 Complexity and contradiction in architecture turns 50 Author: Charles Jenks Date issued: May 1, 2016

Review: This article was issued after the completion of 50 years on the book publication. Probably no other track in American architecture had ever had such a powerful send-off. The book was well-aimed manifesto that was an orthodox to the modern architecture. Venturi pushed for complexity in architecture instead of modernism's generic and simple solutions.

Venturi pointed out that unity is found in multiplicity where all the diverse elements of architecture establish a sense of relationship complexity and contradiction emphasized the visual and formal aspects of architecture. The book closely looks at the individual aspect of architecture such as window, doorways etc. Yet it failed to apply the same to whole building.

Venturi railed against the generic modernism of simple methods and universal solutions.

Venturi's preface to his book showed a commitment to modernist literature. Venturi's book is basically a formal analysis that doesn't deal with sociological truths and the scientific ideas that bolstered complexity theory in other disciplines.

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture is a conceptualizing source primarily for architectural design. With the thinking of its potential should be revealed, the writing processes of complexity and contradiction in architecture have been investigated and compared in this study. Venturi first of all created the skeleton of the theory of complexity and contradiction.

Complexity II, can be the second wave of postmodern architecture college directly from ventures ideas but seeks a more continuous micro complexity made buildable by computer software. They concluded that the desire for the holistic architecture of depth and pluralism remains same even if the styles and methods of complexity II may have changed.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

9

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Article 3 Robert Venturi: The bad-test architect who do sledgehammer to modernism Author: Diver Wainwright Date Issued: August, 2017

Review: With the maxim "less is a bore" the larger than life architect who brought history and hilarity to the staid world of monochrome tastefulness. Venturi was one of the most influential figures in 20th CE architecture taking an erudite sledgehammer to the dogmas of modernism and arguing for the world that embraced history, diversity and humor.

He was a catholic big tent that is rejected the "either/or" attitude of purity and order, arguing for the plural richness of "both/and". It was an inclusive folk-art approach to architecture that found joy in every day. "Less is more", was the pro-faced maxim of modernist maestro Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to which century gleefully retorted less is a bore.

Unexpectedly, the influence of Venturi would persist. A year later, the first essay I was set when I arrived at university was on his mother’s house, which he built in Philadelphia in 1964. It was the first time I learned how to read a plan and section, what to look for in a facade, how architecture could be representational: that meanings could be translated into physical space.

“It is both complex and simple, open and closed, big and little,” wrote Venturi. “Some of its elements are good on one level and bad on another.” In typically perverse fashion, Venturi wrote that the staircase considered on its own, tucked into a residual space, is bad. But, considered as part of the complex and contradictory whole, it is good. It performs a curious dance with the chimney, and splays at the bottom to provide a place to sit. The facade, meanwhile, acts like a Vegas sign, a thin screen that shouts “house”, through which the building’s inner complexities occasionally protrude, setting the symmetrical form offbalance.

Venturi is often referred to as the father of postmodernism, but he was so much more than that. As the historian Robert Miller wrote, it is “a charge comparable to calling Thomas Edison the father of disco”. Like Edison, Venturi shone a bright light into the often-gloomy world of architectural discourse, illuminating a colorful spectrum of possibility, embracing the messy vitality of the “ugly ordinary”, and expanding the very idea of what architecture could be.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

10

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Research Paper - 1

A CONCEPT RESOURCE FOR ARCHITECTURALDESIGN: THE BOOK OF ROBERT VENTURI “COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE” Author: Nazmiye OZTURK Keywords: Complexity and Contradiction, Robert Venturi, Architecture, Design, Concepts Review: Mostly, the book of Robert Venturi ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’, known as the book of history of architecture, is essentially a book blending design with history. This article follows the traces of the thinking that iconography of this book serves the focus of design concepts. With this aim, the differences between the first typed manuscript of the book in 1963 and its last printing in 1992 have been investigated. The comparison of 1963 and 1992 texts demonstrate that the connections of this book with architectural design are stronger than assumed.

Accordingto such comparison, Venturi established his book on the key words and concepts and this concepthierarchies vary and points out to the concepts powerful enough to change the architectural design, as well as the ways of implementation. When reread with such perspective, it can be clearly understood that ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’ comprises concepts which are very different from the basic design principles such as proportion, symmetry, harmony, balance which remain insufficient in the face of today’s reality. In this article, hybrid concepts such as No straightforward, Super adjacency, Contradiction Adapted, Contradiction Juxtaposed can be called as non-basic design concepts.

Complexity, contradiction and ambiguity are known as words in daily language having negative meanings and should be converted to positive. The tension around these concepts may be much more disturbing in architectural design than in the everyday life. If there is a complexity, it should be simplified, if there is a contradiction, it should be eliminated and the ambiguity should be moved to certainty. Generally speaking, contrary to the negative meanings which are given to them, the concepts like complexity and contradiction have taken place in the literature as concepts explaining the nature of architecture after Venturi.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

11

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Research Paper - 2 The influence of Robert Venturi on Lewis Kahn Author

:

Sam Rondell

Date

:

May 2008

Location

:

Washington State University school of architecture

Review: This study considered the question of how Louis Kahn's development as an architect was shaped by the influences of Robert Venturi. Venturi admires British architecture Michelangelo's contributions. One of the very first artists to benefit from Venturi appears to be Kahn.

Venturi influenced Kahn in significant ways. The impact of that influence is neither simple nor obvious. Kahn is seen by most as an absolute opposite of Venturi as in many ways. But each incorporated the influence of the other advancing their own interpretations of these influences. Kahn like any great architect applied what his life experience and his accumulated knowledge and understanding is of design incorporating its own architectural vocabulary.

Characteristics of Kahn's which followed venturi's work in some or other way. Kahn's architectural vocabulary was universal, it promoted form, its mass eschewed ornament and the explanation of Kahn's forms as mass was heroic and original, the element of big scale, the exclusion of shelter, structural and geometric rhetoric theory prominent basis, hierarchical space, holes in walls, layers breaking the order and Kahn's use of historical references.

Venturi configured the theory of complexity and contradiction firstly on the basis of concept and deployed and reproduced new concepts. Such concepts (which cannot be explained with Basic Design Principles) arisen from the attempt of understanding and explaining the dynamics of his time. Architecture encountered the thinking that modernist approach where pre-determined entireties are in the center is not an absolute true after Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.

Just as the modernist design approach corresponds to an historical period, the values which are valid today can be qualified as the temporary truths of an historical period.

Therefore, instead of making design under the shadow of professional truths, following the variable nature of concepts can pave the way for progressing the contemporary architecture.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

12

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

BOOK REVIEW Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture Author: Robert Venturi Published in: 1966 Robert Venturi's book has enduring significance in a complex and contradictory age.

Complexity and contradiction changed how you look at, think and talk about architecture.

Venturi's gentle manifesto has often been held as a symptom of prices in architecture.

The book is introduced by Vincent sally, suggest that architecture should welcome the complexity and contradictions of urban experience. Complexity and contraction excel at deploying historical knowledge to expand our understanding. Venturi believes that simplification is intrinsically boring true simplicity i.e. which is not from being economical with materials or using repeated modular forms, but from cognitive satisfaction is achieved through inner complexity. Architects shouldn't be guided by habit but rather a conscious sense of the past with full consideration of architectural precedent.

The composition of 20th CE buildings and historical examples provides the fundamental body of evidence within the book complexity and contradiction is illustrated via images, sketches, plans & elevations. These illustrations to quickly switch between period and type, juxtaposition and comparing architecture and artworks.

Robert Venturi, the author of the book ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’, indicates that these concepts are included in architecture since the time of Vitruvius. Validity, one of the most frequently used words in ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’, is a concept pointing out to the evolution of architecture, of admirations and simplicity in meaning.

According to Venturi, architecture applicable for that time is established on the plurality of meanings. ‘A valid architecture evokes many levels of meaning and combinations of focus: its space and its elements become readable and workable in several ways at once. It can be asserted that the concepts and their variances open to interpretation lead to plurality of meaning. For instance, according to Venturi, the entry door of a structure may be ‘the Dominant binder’ or ‘Super adjacency’ can refer to the piling or juxtaposing different components, depending on the direction. The book is a valuable expression of important moment in architectural history and is a persuasive case for architecture beyond modernism.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

13

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

CASE STUDY SELECTION

Robert Venturi architectural works:

1.

Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia

2.

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

3.

Guild House, Philadelphia

4.

Fire Station No. 4, Columbus, USA

5.

Sainsbury wing, London

6.

Gordon Wu Hall

7.

Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC

8.

Chapel at The Episcopal Academy

9.

Trabant Student Centre, University of Delaware

10.

Children's Museum of Houston, USA

11.

Hartford Stage, Hartford

12.

Frist Campus Centre, Princeton

13.

Brant House; Greenwich, Connecticut (1972)

14.

Dixwell Fire Station, New Haven, CT (1974)

15.

Allen Memorial Art Museum modern addition, Oberlin College; Oberlin, Ohio (1976)

16.

BASCO Showroom; Philadelphia (1976)

17.

Franklin Court; Philadelphia (1976)

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

14

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

CASE STUDY 1 - VANNA VENTURI HOUSE

Location

: Suburban neighborhood of chestnut bill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Construction : 1960 to 1964 Type

: Private Residence House

Introduction The Vanna Venturi House, one of the first prominent works of the postmodern architecture movement, is located in the neighbourhood of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect Robert Venturi for his mother, Vanna Venturi, and constructed between 1962 and 1964.

The five-room house stands only about 30 feet (9 m) tall, but has a monumental front facade, an effect achieved by intentionally manipulating the architectural elements that indicate a building's scale. Elements such as a non-structural applique arch and "hole in the wall" windows were an open challenge to Modernist orthodoxy, as described in Venturi's 1966 book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Architectural historian Vincent Scully called it "the biggest small building of the second half of the twentieth century."

Concept In this work embodies his theories Venturi Complexity and Contradiction, using modern resources toward purely as collage, quotation, and even irony, e.g. diverted from the chimney shaft, quotes a Greek pediment on the façade, and so on.

During the same time when this work was constructed Venturi worked on one of his best known “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture”.

The house has a uniform appearance, even simple and symmetrical. However, between that appearance and compositional center sets a series of changes, geometric changes and unexpected routes. His unit concept is not, after all, an instrument of historicism, but, as he said, understanding of the silhouette as a whole.

It represents in simplified form the image of home that we have in memory. Robert Venturi used to say: “The House… is Home”.

The same urban rescues Popular Culture, because the volume of the house, playing a popularly accepted model home.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

15

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Spaces Small, yet large scale, its spaces are very complex, both in form and in their relations.

Access is difficult to identify, i.e. it shows a typical porch, but no access, which is located on the sides of it.

The ground floor contains entrance hall, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathroom.

Top floor has a study, a small health centre and two storage areas.

Outwardly the house shows its function. There are resources that challenge laid consistency of the modern movement, complex and contradictory as access, staircase and fireplace, the arrangement of the bedroom doors, etc. Besides we can see the appeal of the citation and collage (the window is quoted verbatim from Rossi, the long window typical of Le Corbusier in the modern movement and the chimney of Frank Lloyd Wright) and how these elements from different backgrounds, live in the same work, one can speak of collage.

At the bottom the ladder is extended to facilitate the function of seat, but in his latest installment follows a wayward course to nowhere, as it does not reach any point of arrival, losing any functional relationship to become an element made extravagant and lacking more than practical help to clean some windows and store objects in the tank.

Structure Brick Masonry plasters, both exterior and interior, covered with veneer and wood mezzanines of lathing.

Design

View from the rear of the house (south)

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

16

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Venturi designed the Vanna Venturi House at the same time that he wrote his antiModernist polemic Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in which he outlined his own architectural ideas. During the writing he redesigned the house at least five times in fully worked-out versions. A description of the house is included in the book and the house is viewed as an embodiment of the ideas in the book.

Many of the basic elements of the house are a reaction against standard Modernist architectural elements: the pitched roof rather than flat roof, the emphasis on the central hearth and chimney, a closed ground floor "set firmly on the ground" rather than the Modernist columns and glass walls which open up the ground floor. On the front elevation the broken pediment or gable and a purely ornamental applique arch reflect a return to Mannerist architecture and a rejection of Modernism. Thus, the house is a direct break from Modern architecture, designed in order to disrupt and contradict formal Modernist aesthetics. More simply, Venturi demonstrated his intentions by figuratively giving the finger to the Modernist establishment

View from the side (south-east)

The site of the house is flat, with a long driveway connecting it to the street. Venturi placed the parallel walls of the house perpendicular to the main axis of the site, defined by the driveway, rather than the usual placement along the axis. Unusually, the gable is placed on the long side of the rectangle formed by the house, and there is no matching gable at the rear. The chimney is emphasized by the centrally placed room on the second floor, but the actual chimney is small and off-centre. The effect is to magnify the scale of the small house and make the facade appear to be monumental. The scale magnifying effects are not carried over to the sides and rear of the house, thus making the house appear to be both large and small from different angles.

The central chimney and staircase dominate the interior of the house. Two vertical elements — the fireplace-chimney and the stair — compete, as it were, for central position.

And each of these elements, one essentially solid, the other essentially void, compromises in its shape and position — that is, inflects toward the other to make a unity of the duality of BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

17

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

the central core they constitute. On one side the fireplace distorts in shape and moves over a little, as does its chimney; on the other side the stair suddenly constricts its width and distorts its path because of the chimney.

The themes of scale, contradiction, and "whimsy" – "not inappropriate to an individual house," can be seen at the top of the stair, that seems to go from the second floor to a nonexistent third floor. On one level, it goes nowhere and is whimsical; at another level, it is like a ladder against a wall from which to wash the high window and paint the clerestory. The change in scale of the stair on this floor further contrasts with that change of scale in the other direction at the bottom.

The house was constructed with intentional formal architectural, historical and aesthetic contradictions. Venturi has compared the iconic front facade to "a child's drawing of a house." Yet he has also written, "This building recognizes complexities and contradictions: it is both complex and simple, open and closed, big and little; some of its elements are good on one level and bad on another its order accommodates the generic elements and of the house in general, and the circumstantial elements of a house in particular."

Neighbourhood Chestnut Hill is a residential neighbourhood in the north western part of Philadelphia. It was settled in the early eighteenth century and still has many stone buildings from that period. In the second half of the nineteenth century many Victorian mansions were built in the area.

Several residences within a few blocks of the Vanna Venturi House were designed by wellknown architects. The entire neighbourhood is part of the Chestnut Hill Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Houston-Sauveur House, built in 1885 by architects G. W. & W. D. Hewitt, is one of many Victorian mansions in the immediate neighbourhood. Nearby modern architecture includes Louis Kahn's Esherick House and a house in the International Style designed by Kenneth Day. A bit further away is Cherokee Village, a 104-unit apartment complex designed by Oscar Stonorov in the 1950s. Venturi worked on this project as a draftsman.

Two other houses designed by Stonorov, and the house of Venturi's long-time partner, John Rauch, are near the apartment complex.

The Esherick and Vanna Venturi Houses invite comparison, having been built within two years and one block of each other by Philadelphia's best-known 20th century architects. In Kahn's building, proportion and symmetry bind the building together; in Venturi's the building's elements appear as fragments of the whole. The Esherick House seems devoid of ornament, while the Venturi House has a large, purely ornamental arch on its facade.

The Esherick House is essentially symmetric, but the Venturi House contradicts its basic symmetry with asymmetric windows.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

18

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE



Houston-Sauveur House (1885).



Kahn's Esherick House.



House designed by Kenneth Day.



Cherokee Village.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

19

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

CASE STUDY 2 - EPISCOPAL ACADEMY CHAPEL

Project Name

:

Episcopal Academy Chapel

Construction Year

:

2008

Architect

:

Venturi Scott And Associates

Project Category

:

Chapel

Location

:

Newton Square, Pennsylvania, USA

Client: Episcopal Academy Area: 15,000 sf Construction Cost: $8,500,000 Distinctions: Design Award of Honor, Pennsylvania Council Society of American Registered Architects, 2009 Introduction: The Episcopal Academy was founded in Philadelphia in 1795 and subsequently established campuses outside the city in Devon and Merion. In 2001, they acquired land to relocate both campuses to a single parcel in Newtown Square -- 123 acres of woods, wetlands, and former farmland. The new campus is to consist of seven new structures and three renovated buildings arranged around a central green common.

The focus of this “school village” will be a new Chapel, which VSBA was selected to design.

(Curiously enough, as the subject of his 1950 Master’s Thesis at Princeton, Robert Venturi designed a chapel for the Episcopal Academy’s Merion campus.) VSBA designed the Chapel to be an iconic campus landmark -- immediately identifiable and symbolic of the new campus, yet also a well-used and highly-functional school facility. Its distinctive form is composed of many layers -- of masonry walls and soaring clerestories.

The spaces between these layers allow circulation and light. The impressive and gently monumental scale of the building is softened by striped patterns at pedestrian-level. Inside, the Chapel’s fan-shaped plan allows worshipers to face each other as well as the altar, nurturing a sense of togetherness and community. This was a configuration endorsed by the chaplain at the beginning of the design process -- and as we like to say, we get our best ideas from our clients.

The interior is lit by means of 2 levels of clerestory windows and from the interstices between over-lapping layers of walls, which allow indirect light to create aura.

The Chapel will serve as an important facet of life at Episcopal Academy. Upper and middle school students attend Chapel three days a week, lower school students attend once a week.

While the service celebrates the Episcopalian heritage, it serves and welcomes students of all faiths.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

20

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

CASE STUDY 3 - GUILD HOUSE Architect

:

Robert Venturi, John Raunch, Cope and Lippincott

Built in

:

1960-1963

Location

:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Type

:

Low budget public housing project apartment

Introduction: Guild House is a residential building in Philadelphia which is an important and influential work of 20th-century architecture and was the first major work by Robert Venturi. Along with the Vanna Venturi House it is considered to be one of the earliest expressions of Postmodern architecture, and helped establish Venturi as one of the leading architects of the 20th century.

The building, which houses apartments for low-income senior citizens, was commissioned by a local Quaker organization, Friends Rehabilitation Program, Inc. and completed in 1963. Employing a combination of nondescript commercial architecture and ironic historical references, Guild House represented a conscious rejection of Modernist ideals and was widely cited in the subsequent development of the Postmodern movement.

HISTORY Guild House was commissioned by the (Quaker) Friends Neighborhood Guild, a subsidiary of Friends Rehabilitation Program, Inc., as low-income housing for the elderly and built in 1960–63. It was designed by Venturi and Rauch in collaboration with Cope and Lippincott, another Philadelphia firm. In 2004, the building was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places despite being barely 40 years old at the time.

Location The House Guild was designed not as a construction Le Corbusier in a park, but along a street to the sidewalk, in an ordinary urban environment such as a building opening for windows in the walls, brick instead of concrete, with a bow-shaped opening and a dual composition at its input, with a column in the center instead of a minimalist column. It also contains a nearly commercial sign in his capacity.

It was built on 711 Spring Garden Street, bordering the north central city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, and commissioned by the Quaker organization Friends Gremials del Barrio (Friends Neighborhood Guild).

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

21

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Concept This apartment building for seniors with low incomes was one of the first important works of Robert Venturi and then mate, John Rauch. The building has become an emblem of an architectural philosophy that tries to embrace both conventional classical tradition and “ugly and ordinary” cheaper and social construction.

FRONT ELEVATION The front facade respects the line of the street as the urban layout of the city, although the building is retracted on the sides. Like the ordinary structures in this neighbourhood, its facade offers an economic aspect of red bricks with conventional metal window sash. In many ways it is an “ordinary” building, for many people even “ugly”. In contrast construction fits the context, without highlighting between the architecture of the neighbourhood.

The building housing apartments for seniors with low incomes, was commissioned by Quaker organization and was completed in 1963. Together with the Vanna Venturi House is considered an important and influential works of twentieth-century architecture and one of the first expressions of postmodern architecture. Guild House represents a conscious rejection of modernist ideals and was widely cited in the further development of the postmodern movement.

Venturi later explained the architecture of the Guild House in the context of his philosophy of “decorated shed”: In the House of Guild symbolic ornamental elements are loosely applied literally. The symbolism of the decoration becomes ugly and ordinary, with a hint of irony original heroic and rightly shed is ugly and ordinary, but its bricks and windows are also symbolic.

The building’s architecture combines the historical forms with the “banal” mercantilism of the twentieth century, hiding behind its apparent vulgarity an astute intellectual agenda.

Venturi wrote about it: the economy delivered the advanced architectural elements, but conventional. We do not resist to it.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

22

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

FACADE

The facade facing the street is anchored by a thick column of black polished granite and crowned with a large arched window opening in the upstairs common area of the building.

The rear facade is flat.

This 6-storey building with a symmetrical facade, shown in a white base coating plant, where the entrance is located and on which 4 pairs of balconies flanked by square windows open, ending in a large arched window in the top floor for the lounge. The retraction of both ends generates a staggering allows more windows sunny exposures.

Like the facades screen in some medieval cathedrals, this front deceived as to what is behind, as an example about the masonry slots, at the top, which reveal that the building is interrupted in this sector. 

Access

The entrance to the ground floor is highlighted with a coating of white bricks that also cover the balcony of the first-floor balconies and a string ending on the fifth floor. In the center of the entrance a massive column of black polished granite highlights the access to the building. According Venturi, the combination of these elements provides a new and larger scale of the three juxtaposed to the other floors six plants smaller window marked by scale.

Covering the front of the balcony of the segued plant, and over access, large letters indicate the name of the building. Originally the facade was crowned with a large television antenna as abstract sculptural element representing the main pastime of its inhabitants.

INSIDE

The interior spaces are defined by intricate mazes of walls that fit the complex and varied program of an apartment building and the irregular frame allowed by flat slab construction.

There is a maximum internal volume and minimum aisle space, which are irregular and varied residual space, instead of the usual tunnel.

The building has 91 apartments, mostly with windows that let in outside light and street views.

The top floor contains the living room, indicated by a big lunette window.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

23

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Structure

The structure of the Guild House was built mainly with dark bricks and flat slabs.The stepped facade organization allows most units on southwest or southeast facing windows, giving way to sunshine and views of the street below. The open interior corridors were designed to create intimate and informal spaces.

The large round column exposed at the entrance on the street facade, accommodates and emphasizes the large opening on the ground floor, contrasting with the white brick area coating extends to the second floor.

The central window on the top floor reflects the special room inside the common spatial configuration and is related to the entry below, increasing the scale and the building on the street. Its arched shape allows a large opening in the wall while being “a hole” instead of “empty” of a frame. The presence, in the original building, TV antenna on top of the shaft and beyond the finish line of the structure, strengthen the scale of the facade in the central and expresses a kind of monumentality.

Materials Sash windows recall the formal language of public housing, thus being “ordinary” by. At the same time, some of these windows are “normal”, some unusually large, depending on their relationship to the street. Both the main facade and rear windows were placed primarily in symmetrical patterns. A column of black polished granite in the middle of the entrance portal contrasts with the white ceramic glaze coating. This element and the scale label “Guild House” placed on the first-floor balcony clearly mark the entrance.

The architects used red clay bricks and sash windows to recall the existing public housing projects and express what they were inelegant neighbouring urban structures. The balcony railings are perforated steel plates, on the first floor painted white instead of black to create a continuity of the surface in this area despite the change in the material, since the coating on the first floor has made in white glazed brick. TV antenna that crowned the building at the time of its completion was gold anodized aluminium.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

24

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

25

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STUDY / EVALUATION / ANALYSIS

COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES IN TERMS OF

VANNA VENTURI HOUSE

EPISCOPAL ACADEMY CHAPEL

GUILD HOUSE

Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Newton Square, Pennsylvania, USA

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Project Type

Private Residence House

Chapel

Low budget public housing project apartment

Built Year

1960 - 1964

2008

1960 - 1963

Built Area

1,800 sq. ft.

Built Material

The outside of the VANNA VENTURI HOUSE is painted and the floor finishing MATERIALS are used and Concrete Huge Forms are placed asymmetrical.

Construction Cost

$43,000

Design Concept

1.The house was constructed with intentional formal architectural, historical and aesthetic contradictions.

2.Venturi has compared the iconic front facade to "a child's drawing of a house.

3."This building recognizes complexities and contradictions: it is both complex and simple, open and closed, big and little; some of its elements are good on one level and bad on another its order accommodates the generic elements and of the house in general, and the circumstantial elements of a house in particular."

15,000 sq. ft.

Ashlar Stone bases and glass and concrete

$8,500,000

66,00 sq. ft.

Stark commercial, humble, ordinary MATERIALS: red brick, white brick course, double-hung windows, and chain-link fence. A massive, polished granite column in the middle OF the entry portal contrasts with the white ceramic tile cladding. $52,000

1.Venturi designed the Chapel to be an iconic campus landmark - immediately identifiable and symbolic of the new campus, yet also a wellused and highly-functional school facility.

1.The building's architecture combines historical forms with "banal" 20th-century commercialism, hiding a "slyly intellectual agenda" behind its "apparent ordinariness".

2.Its distinctive form is composed of many layers - of masonry walls and soaring clerestories.

2.Guild House is a sixstory building with a symmetrical facade that steps outward to a monumental, classically ordered entrance pavilion.

3.The spaces between these layers allow circulation and light.

The impressive and gently monumental scale of the building is softened by striped patterns at pedestrian-level.

3.Concept built for seniors with low incomes the building has become an emblem of an architectural philosophy that tries to embrace both conventional classical tradition and ugly and cheaper and ordinary social construction.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

Architectural Planning and design elements

1.Pitched roof rather than flat roof.

2.Emphasis on Central hearth and chimney.

3.Closed ground floor set family on ground rather than modernist columns and glass walls which open up the ground floor.

4.On the front elevations the broken pediment (gable) and a purely ornamental applique arch reflect return to mannerist architecture and a rejection of modernism.

5.House is a composition of rectangular curvilinear and diagonal elements coming together (sometimes juxtaposing each other) in a way that inarguably creates complexity and contradiction.

6.Experiment with scale Inside the house certain elements are too big such as the size of the fireplace and the height of the mantle compared to the size of the room.

7.Doors are wide and low in height especially in contrast to the grandness of the entrance space.

8.Venturi also minimized central and circular space in the design of the house so that it consisted of large distinct rooms with minimum subdivisions between them.

1.Inside the 15000 square feet chapels fan shaped plan allows worshippers to face each other as well as the altar.

2.Presence of spaces between these layers of masonry walls allows circulation and light.

3.The Chapel is design to be an iconic campus landmark immediately identifiable and symbolic of the new campus, yet also a well-used and highly functional school facility its distinctive form is composed of many layers of masonry walls and soaring clerestories which allows circulation and light.

Interior: 1.The interior is lit by means of two level of clerestory windows.

2.Overlapping layers of walls which allows indirect light to create aura.

3.Inside, the Chapel’s fanshaped plan allows worshipers to face each other as well as the altar, nurturing a sense of togetherness and community.

This was a configuration endorsed by the chaplain at the beginning of the design process.

|

26

1.Square sash windows 2.column of polished granite in the middle of the entrance contrasts with the white ceramic coating that highlights the main entrance.

3.The front facade respects the line of the street as the urban layout of the city on the building is retracted on the sides.

4.Its facade offers an economic aspect of red brick with conventional metal window sash like the other neighbouring building.

5.Guild house represents a conscious rejection of modernist ideas and was widely cited in as post-modern movement.

6.Philosophy of decorated shade in the House simple economy and elements are usually applied literally the symbolism of the decoration becomes ugly and order ordinary with a hint of irony original heroine same shed. but bricks and windows are symbolic.

7.The entrance to the ground floor is highlighted with a coating of white bricks that also cover the balcony of the firstfloor balconies and a string ending on the fifth floor.

8.In the center of the entrance a massive column of black polished granite highlights the access to the building.

9.According Venturi, the combination of these elements provides a new and larger scale of the three juxtaposed to the other floors six plants smaller window marked by scale.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

FLOOR PLANS

EXTERIOR VIEWS

INTERIOR VIEWS

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

27

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

IMPLEMENTAION: Following design strategies can be implemented in design:

1. Architectural style: Post modern

2. Placement: Buildings should be close to ground floor set firmly on ground rather than modernist columns and glass walls which open up the ground floor.

3. Window placement: Smart window placing, asymmetrical in terms of elevation, should be placed depending upon function, light and ventilation, outside view, elevational effect but at the same time serves functional purpose.

4. Building materials:  Playing with building materials and giving a theme / patterns in terms of elevation. Ex-polished granite, red bricks and white bricks, combination checkboard patterns by pink granite and sandstone.  Use of different colored granite and different colored bricks - red and white used combination of different colored same material. Locally available material can be used.

5. Planning:  The internal planning should be uncommon, unique, irregular and simple and complex both at the same time.  Some uniqueness should be achieved in every planning by different placement of windows, staircase position, central core emphasis. less circulation space and large rooms to minimize circulation space and give complexity.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

28

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

6. Elevational view:  Casual asymmetrical, symmetry should be broken through some or other things windows mismatched, distorted view, irregularly shaped spaces.  Composition of rectangular, curvilinear and diagonal elements coming together so contrasting elements are placed.  Priority to functional needs of occupants. Design structure which reflects their function in a playful and harmonious way.  Emphasis on: Central hearth

7. Interior:  Contradiction in position of beams, supports, walls, windows and doors.  Should be placed such that they serve the functions.  Interior should be lit directly or indirectly to create the Aura.

8. Decorated features: 

Host of ornamental details to give it, its modern age like the monumental garbled wall at the front and an arch that serves no purpose.



Decorated sheds with rich, complex and often shocking and contrasting ornamental flourishes



Decorated and ornamental features like decorated sheds and ducks, ironic columns, ornamental and classical arches can be used.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

29

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

30

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

31

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

Principals for Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, By Robert Venturi that needs to be implemented:

1. Non-Straightforward Architecture: A good architecture needs its space and elements to be complex and work at several ways at once.

Today, a single building needs to have program structure, etc. so it can do the same as orthodox modern architecture.

2. Double functioning element: A particular use of a structure being multifunctioning space.

3. Ambiguity: Complexity usually results in ambiguity. Ambiguity is based on the confusion that the user feels, due to the program.

4. Both-And: Irrational parts which result in rational whole.

Both simple and complex at the same time.

Should show varying levels of programs and structure.

5. Complexity and Contradiction Vs. Simplification or Picturesque Simple is boring. Shouldn’t be oversimplified.

To promote complexity in planning and other elements and reject simplification.

6. Against Orthodox Modern Architects Ignore ambiguity and complication, solving problems and making it more simple

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

32

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

CONCLUSION

 Distinctive form  Reflect functional value of structure.  Uniqueness in planning  Uniqueness in placing of windows, walls, corridors, staircase columns etc.  Elevational features contradict each other in some or other manner.  Buildings that typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and that aims to acknowledge the conflicts often inherent in a project or site.  This inclusive approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured and possibly less functional and more simplistic work of art.  Designing diverse range of buildings with impure forms apparently casual asymmetries and pop style super graphics and geometries.  All the projects should uniquely suit the special needs of the clients.

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

33

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

|

REFERENCES

https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/books/complexity-and-contradiction-changed-how-welook-at-think-and-talk-about-architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Venturi https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37c4/8708d12be26686b7317a7cc2e944b9a149d7.pdf https://www.moma.org/d/pdfs/W1siZiIsIjIwMTkvMDcvMDEvOHI4MnI1aW1qcV9XZWJTYW1wbGVfQ29tcGxle Gl0eV9Wb2xfMWFuZDIucGRmIl1d/WebSample_Complexity_Vol_1and2.pdf?sha=de7bd6b30f97ab4e https://www.academia.edu/5196369/Venturi_Complexity_and_Contradiction_in_Architecture https://www.slideshare.net/SivaRaman1/complexity-and-contradiction-in-architecture-by-robert-venturi https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230274739_Contradictions_and_Complexities_Jane_Jacobs's_and_ Robert_Venturi's_Complexity_Theories https://www.dezeen.com/2018/09/21/opinion-robert-venturi-architecture-career-charles-holland/ https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Complexity_and_Contradiction_in_Architec.html?id=dyPusXZQ6YIC&r edir_esc=y https://www.britannica.com/topic/Complexity-and-Contradiction-in-Architecture

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

34

ROBERT VENTURI COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

DATA COLLECTION

PRIMARY SOURCE

DATA FINDINGS ONLINE

UNDERSTANDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS

SECONDARY SOURCE

PUBLICATIONS, DOCUMENTS AND BOOKS

LITERATURE REVIEWS OF RESEARCH PAPERS

STUDY CASE STUDIES ONLINE OR BOOK

COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS

BHAKTI SHET B-44 | INDIRA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | FOURTH YEAR B. Arch. | 2018-19

|

35