Robert Venturis Vanna Venturi House and Its Relation to Post Modernism - Term Paper Example

Name: Student number: Name of Lecturer: Subject: ROBERT VENTURI’S VANNA VENTURI HOUSE AND ITS RELATION TO POST MODERNISM Robert Venturi was an architecture who was born in 1925; his first work was to design his mother’s house between 1961 and 1964; the Vanna Venturi house. In his writings, he stresses that the house he was building was big at the same time little; implying that the house was small in look but rich in scale and context. The basis of Venturi architectural design was based on the weakness of modernist architects, as they did not consider culture of people around or their cultural differences. In his book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)1, sends a shocking wave in the field of architecture and changes the theory of architecture as a whole, taking the modernist back to the drawing board and setting a platform for the movement of post-modernism. Out of his work, post modernism amounted more pressure on modernist as they increase in number and changes the architectural methods/style of the late twentieth century (Robert, 1972). Denise and Steven (1972) as cited by Fielding (2009) enriched Venturi’s theory and writings. This helped in cementing the radical changes which took place in the field of architecture which included social aspect and context in designing of houses. The aspiration of the modernist architectural designs was to solve social problems associated with culture and this precisely coincided with the approach developed by Viollet-le-Ducs method of design discussed in the work of Robert et al. (1984). This demonstrated the modernist architecture as practicing formalism and tends to ignore the actual physical context through which it was built on and hence lacking cultural references it was to be associated with. Robert et al. state that Violet-le-Duc’s main aim has never been interested in either cultural aspect of the designs or the purpose of the designs of the buildings. Hence the spirit of modernist lost the meaning and mission of the architecture (Venturi and Scott1984) In order to decorate the architectural designs with cultural meaning, Robert (1972) suggests that the designs should go past direct rationality. To comprehend this, first is to appreciate the shortcomings in rational designs methodology like that one of blithe assumption in as argued by Robert (1972) is only one straight way of building designs which all designers will have to follow faithfully so that the problems faced by functional programs will be solved. The major contribution of Robert Venturi’s in Vanna Venturi’s house was to explore the lack of cultural meaning within the modernist architecture and point out its significance in the historical design styles. Such belief was with Scott et al. saying that even the smallest of the non-modernist common architecture has the ability to demonstrate cultural meaning which is considered as the most crucial aspect of any building environment. It is also clear that even the most lucrative formal modern designs do not try to remove the cultural meaning and also does not compensate to the fullest, functional requirements and lack of cultural meanings (Mueller, 1997). Venturi’s work also addresses the weakness of modern architectural designs which starts with functional programs instead of cultural functions of the said projects hence giving it a place in the post modern architectural design. This first critique of Venturi on modernist brought unintended rivals in which the cultural norms and tendencies of which rules were formed was never followed. He based his arguments on the historical buildings and data in which he also validated his criticism on the modern buildings and the structures of the twentieth century. His main focus was to bring the boring rules and the unrelenting orderliness which were followed by most modernist while ignoring the actual problem facing the architectural sector and the cultural expressions. By the fact that Venturi relied majorly on the historical data and examples in his work and designing Vanna Venturi house inspired his readers who were post modernist and also by quoting specific historical designs gave his followers more hope to believe in the post modernist architectural designs. The tendency of Venturi and his followers relying on historical facts is justification of his school of thoughts. His arguments impacted immediately on the resumption of most of the pre-modernist understanding in which they believed that for any development in the field of architecture then it is important to consider the past history. Contrary to the arguments of the modernist that past is gone and obsolete, that is now irrelevant in any future development. This gave Venturi a good platform for justifying his theoretical speculations to start historising the movement of post modernism giving him the title father of post modernism in architecture. Vanna Venturi house perhaps was one of the most known architectural designs he ever designed, the main aim of designing this building was nothing else but to construct a building which could not only be a functional but also be in a position of creating artistic tension sense among architectures and in the society. He succeeded in doing this by mixing contradictory architectural features whereby in the exterior design was simple and easy to understand meanwhile the interior was quite complex and not systematical in any way. With unbalance windows and chimney which was off-center. In the fig. 1.0 below shows the sketch of the exterior design Section drawing Fig, 1.0 The actual impact of Vanna Venturi house and Robert Venturi’s work was supported by the strong citation of historical references because they themselves did expressively conveyed the intended meaning without Robert Venturi (Eisenhardt, 1989). In doing so, it directly assisted so much in creating and restoring the cultural sense belonging which was long gone in the modern architectural designs. The old designs like that of Franklin court were long lost; Venturi and Scott (1984) argue that meaning of culture was actually lost in modern designs and there is need to rejuvenate the lost glory in the industry. This led to Venturi developing a habit of making use of illusion in the most buildings he designed Vanna Venturi house being one of such. The figure below show a complete front few of Vanna Venturi house. Fig. 1.1 Front picture of Vanna Venturi house From fig. 1.1, it can be noted that post-modernism made use of incongruity for them to be more creative and witty; which is charmingly Vulgar. Both qualities had not been previously rejected by most artist but all were quite undeniably characterised of common contemporary culture. This acceptance of sophisticated designs among post modernist actually broke away from the traditional norms of the western culture of architectural designs of rules and procedures. The contribution of Venturi in the field of architecture more so in the post modernist is felt when he actually came up with Vanna’s house. Most rules were not followed in designing the building but a lot of cultural aspect was incorporated and this was later appreciated other scholars (Weick, 1989). His theory played a very important role even in other areas like road construction and in building industry as a whole. Robert Venturi work is widely recognised more so by post modernist who recognise him as the father and founder of post modern movement in architecture. The construction of his mother’s house and the books he wrote is still fresh in the minds of architectures though he is no longer present and active in this field. Reference Lists Eisenhardt, K. M. 1989, ‘Building theories fromcase study research’, Academy of Management Review, vol 14, pp. 535-50. Fielding, N. (2009). Going out on a limb: Postmodernism and multiple method research. Current Sociology, 57, 427-447. Mueller, Ralph O. 1997, ‘Structural Equation Modelling: Back to Basics’, Structural Equation Modelling Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 353 – 69. Robert, V., Scott. M., John, R. and Scott B. (1987): Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli, New York. Robert, V. (1972), Learning from Las Vegas - Revised Edition: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form Venturi, D. and Scott, B. (1984). View from the Campidoglio: Selected Essays 1953-1984, Harper & Row, New York. Weick, K. E. 1989, ‘Theory construction as disciplined imagination’, Academy of Management Review, vol 14, pp. 516-531. Read More