The Critique of
the Modernist Project
The Birth of Post-Modernism
Chestnut Hill, Vanna Venturi House, 1963, Robert Venturi
L. Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.”
Robert Venturi: “Less is a bore.”
Post-Modernism introduced a challenge to an architecture or a
design culture of minimalism and abstraction, an architecture
dominated by the taste of its architects.
Venturi argued that great architecture is not characterized by
unity and simplicity.
In his book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, first
published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1966, Venturi made
a case for creating architecture that has the same characteristics
as great poetry in which words and phrases often have multiple
meanings, layers of interpretation, and irony as enriching factors.
Referring to the literary criticism of T. S. Eliot, Venturi argued
that great architecture should be “complex and contradictory.”
Philadelphia, Guild House, 1961-3, Robert Venturi
Guild House introduced the notion that the taste of the client is
more important than the taste of the architect. Especially in this
kind of urban context, new buildings should not threaten older
buildings; nor should they make the belongings of the
inhabitants seem out of place.
In other words, context is as important as content or intention.
The concept of context began to have an impact on many
architects. While Venturi considered the design of Guild House
in the context of its urban setting and the lives of its intended
occupants, other architects began to consider such things as
history, vernacular tradition, and an inherited sense of place as
contextual. Context offered a matrix for creating complex,
contradictory, layered, and multi-valent architecture.
Charles Moore, Searanch Condominiums, Sonoma County,
California, 1964-66
Charles Moore, Faculty Club, University of California,
Santa Barbara, 1968
Michael Graves, Benecerraf House addition, Princeton, NJ, 1969
First trained as a painter, Michael Graves never left his interest in
color behind. While the Benecerraf addition employed an abstract
white structural frame, it also introduced color and playful shapes
as contrasting elements against the white frame.
More important, Graves soon developed an interest in the idea of
reintroducing classical elements into his work. These appeared in
a number of smaller designs, especially for the Sunar showrooms
in Chicago and Houston in the 1970s. Hardly defensible on the
basis of physical context, Graves simply argued that these
elements had inherent value as architectural elements expressing
entry or portal, passage, protection or covering, order, and
structure.
Michael Graves, Sunar Showroom, Chicago, 1970s
“House for an academical couple” by Robert A. M. Stern, 1974-76