Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document in architectural literature. As Venturi's "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author's ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA's Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

Foreword by Arthur Drexler.
Introduction by Vincent Scully. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Robert Venturi is a partner in the firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., Philadelphia. He has taught at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was a Fellow and later Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. His writing, teaching, and architectural work have had a decisive influence on the younger generation of architects throughout the world. Venturi is also the author of Iconography and Electronics Upon a Generic Architecture and, with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 2nd edition (November 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810960230
• ISBN-13: 978-0810960237
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,344,251 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gateway towards looking at architecture, June 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Paperback)

I had to read this book for a class specifically regarding Robert Venturi and the postmodernism movement that he became a leading proponent of. However, this book is NOT a manifesto for a postmodern vacabulary- rather, this book looks at all architecture from the Parthenon to the common family home. Let me say that I have read many architectural theory books, but nothing that really inspired me to look at a building and really see what the architect intended like Complexity and Contradiction. This book really focused my attention on the possibilities for great architecture on any level- from museum to treehouse. I feel that anyone with an interest in appreciating architecture should certainly read this book. Because of my studies of Robert Venturi and his contemporaries, I have pursued a degree in architecture and certainly plan to incorperate his ideas and philosophies into my work.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still Relevant..., January 30, 2005

By	d - b (SanFro, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Paperback)

Now that the bottom of postmodernism has actually fallen out and is being dragged along the street by the chains of American capitalism, it's "alright" for students of architecture to return to that misjudged canonical textbook of post-modernism, C+C by Venturi. While not as engaging as his other main work "Learning from Las Vegas", this book still leads the reader into a meticulous analysis of the physical composition of major pieces of architecture, and the composition of the thoughts that made them. After reading it, I found myself unconciously applying it's main dichtomy of complexity and contradiction to much of the architecture around me, if that is any testament to its power.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still essential, December 17, 2007

By	curt dilger (phila usa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Paperback)

"I like complexity and contradiction in architecture." That's how Robert Venturi starts this superb book. No great proclamation. It was an age tired of great proclamations. Instead, Venturi takes us through an impressively learned tour of his favorite things, a grand overview of great architecture, with acute formal analysis of facade and plan composition, sectional variety, and an accumulating realization that complexity is an inevitable force in the tumult of human, urban life.
Postmodernism has come and gone, but modernism looks as it does today because of this book.