Complexity And Contradiction In Architecture By Robert Venturi

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"Complexity and Contradiction" in Architecture by Robert venturi addresses architecture as the only place where redundant and simple construction, in thinking and in material reality takes shape.The objective of the series was to explore and promote ideas that were too complex or involved for exhibit, and were therefore written on museum exbhition.

Though Venturi's utilizes many photographic examples to support his arguments, the points he makes in "Complexity and Contradiction" are probably too involved and discursive to explain in a museum or gallery context. Even so, his are generally outlined in "Nonstraightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto." This opening comment advocates embracing "contradiction and complexity" in order to create …show more content…

This rule also applies on a larger scale when considering neighborhoods, even cities. In this way, the "complexities and contradictions" at the heart of this book should manifest themselves in the architectural program as a reflection of those complexities and contradictions inherent in daily living. Several ideologies of architects are compared and contrasted within this chapter: Mies: "create order out of the desperate confusion of our time;" Kahn: "by order I do not mean orderliness," and Le Corbusier, "There is no work of art without a system." Though Venturi's opinions seem to be more in line with Kahn's statement, he credits the idea of order in some ways, suggesting that "order must exist before it can be broken." In order to create the "anomalies and uncertainties" that "give validity to architecture," the architecture must be reacting against something. So while "there are no fixed laws," architecture benefits from some sense of order or a system so that it can react. Because systems cannot accommodate every circumstance, architecture should strive to defy order or create a new order. The altering or breaking of order enhances the deeper meanings of the

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