Robert Venturi, The Venturi House

The restrictiveness of modernist architecture and the impersonality and sterility of many modernist structures eventually led to a rejection of modernism’s authority in architecture. But the question faced by architects dissatisfied with the modernist mode was what to put in its place. The answer was the diversity of solutions that architectural historians use the generic term postmodernism to describe. Postmodernist architecture is not a unified style. It is a widespread cultural phenomenon far more encompassing and accepting than the more rigid confines of modernist practice, which, critics believed, failed to respond to the unique character of the cities and neighborhoods in which modernist architects erected their buildings. In contrast to modernist architecture, which features simple shapes and little ornamentation, postmodern architecture is complex and eclectic. Whereas the modernist program was reductive, the postmodern vocabulary is expansive and inclusive. Among the first to explore this new direction in architecture were Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) and Robert Venturi (b. 1925).  Jacobs and Venturi argue that the uniformity and anonymity of modernist architecture (in particular, corporate skyscrapers, such as the Seagram Building and the Sears Tower that then dominated many urban skylines) were unsuited to human social interaction. Jacobs and Venturi further maintained that diversity is the great advantage of urban life.

Postmodern architects accepted, indeed embraced, the messy and chaotic nature of big-city life. When designing these varied buildings, many postmodern architects consciously selected past architectural elements or references and juxtaposed them with contemporary elements or fashioned them of high-tech materials, thereby creating a dialogue between past and present, as Charles Moore did in Piazza d’Italia. Postmodern architecture incorporates references not only to traditional architecture but also to mass culture and popular imagery. This was precisely the “complexity and contradiction” Venturi referred to in the title of his book and that he explored further in Learning from Las Vegas (1972), co-authored with Denise Scott Brown (b. 1931) and Steven Izenour (1940–2001).

An early example of Venturi’s work is the house he designed in 1962 for his mother. A fundamental axiom of modernism is that a building’s form must arise directly and logically from its function and structure. Against this rule, Venturi asserted that form should be separate from function and structure. Thus the Vanna Venturi House has an oversized gable roof that recalls classical temple design more than domestic architecture. However, the gable has a missing central section, which reveals the house’s “chimney” (a penthouse suite). Moreover, Venturi inserted an arch motif over the doorway’s lintel, and the placement of the windows violates the symmetry of both classical and modernist design.^[1]