Post Modernism in Architecture Hanna Venturi House

2. “Most people who have heard of post
modernism have no clear idea of what it
means … they can be forgiven for this
condition because post modernists do not
always know and even when they do … they
often find themselves disagreeing “
- Charles Jencks , ‘what is post modernism?’

3. Charles Jencks
coined “Post
modernism “ in
Architecture in 1970
• It was later picked in other fields such as
philosophy , art , literature , sciences
• Acoording to Jencks –
“People disagree on what it means
because often it means so many different
things “
post modernism

4. REACTION
To modernism in Architecture
Architectural tendencies that sprang
up in the 1960s in opposition to
the dictates of modernism .
post modernism

5. Modernism
Rationality
Functionalism
Minimalism Innovation
Technology
Universality
Singular theme

6. PHASE I Robert Venturi
PHASE II CLASSICAL REVIVALISM
Charles Moore and Michael Graves
PHASE III POST STRUCTURALIST POST MODERNISM
DECONSTRUCTIVISM
Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Richard
Meier, Zaha Hadid, BernardTschumi and Gehry.
post modernism
MODERNISM
VICTIM OF ITS
OWN SUCCESS
?

7. In the 50s and 60’s modern architecture remained the dominant style worldwide
Housing Demand rose emphatically during that period
Local authorities desperately needed housing for 1000’s of citizens
EMERGENCE OF COPY CAT MODERNISM : NO INNOVATION , ABSENCE OF NEW IDEAS

8. DEATH OF MODERNISM ?
post modernism
According to Jencks the Precise Date of 15th July
1972
The housing project which belonged to the Le
corbusier Tradition was Demolished after years of
abandonments and vandalism
It left a feeling of FAILING AMONG MODERN
ARCHITECTS
Demolision of Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in inner city
St Louis

9. PLURALIST /DIVERSE SOCIETY &
TASTES
CONTRADICTION
UNIVERSALITY
IDENTITY
TECHNOLOGY AND
INNOVATION
Modernism
Post modernism

10. A DOMINANT THEME
NO DOMINANT THEME
HETEROGENOUS
COMPLEXITY IN MEANING
MIX OF IMAGES AND SYMBOLS
IMAGE DETERMINING FORM
REINTERPRETING TRADITION
RATIONAL
PUREIST
PURE ABSOLUTE FORMS
UNIVERSAL LAW -
PRINCIPLES
Modernism
POST modernism

11. PHASE I Robert Venturi
PHASE II CLASSICAL REVIVALISM
Charles Moore and Michael Graves
PHASE III POST STRUCTURALIST POST MODERNISM
DECONSTRUCTIVISM
Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Richard
Meier, Zaha Hadid, BernardTschumi and Gehry.
post modernism

12. ROBERT VENTURI
post modernism
Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding
principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and
one of the major architectural figures in the twentieth century
Born: June 25, 1925 in Philadelphia, PA
Education:
1947: A.B., summa cum laude, Princeton University, New
Jersey
1950: MFA, Princeton University
1954-1956: Rome Prize Fellow, American Academy in Rome,
Italy
BOOKS
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
In this groundbreaking book, published in 1966, Robert
Venturi challenged modernism and celebrated the mix of
historic styles in great cities like Rome.
Learning from Las Vegas
Subtitled The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form this
postmodernist classic called the "vulgar billboards" of the
Vegas Strip emblems for a new architecture. Published in
1972, the book was written by Robert Venturi, Steven
Izenour, and Denise Scott Brown.

13. “less is a bore…”

15. Story BEHIND THE HOUSE
• Robert Venturi’s fater dies in 1959 , after which his mother decides to move
out of their family house and build a new one at Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
• Asks her son to come up with a design in an attempt to ‘give him a chance to
build his career’.
• Venturi , 34 at this point is teaching at University of Pennsylvania
• He is working as teaching assistant to LOUIS KAHN
VANNA
VENTURI
HOUSE

16. Story BEHIND THE HOUSE
“it took 6 yers making a
kind of odyssey by
designing his mothers
house . The students used
to laugh at him “Bob
Venturi , there he is
designing his mothers
house again”-
Denise Scott
VANNA
VENTURI
HOUSE 12
12

18. VANNA
VENTURI
HOUSE
The interior is centered around the fireplace, the hearth of the home, but still
Venturi's design is a "generic" house with unusual twists. The plan contains only
five functional rooms, and on the outside it relates to public scale, seeming much
larger than it actually is. The "generic" fireplace is actually placed next to a stair
that competes with the fireplace to be the core of the house. The fireplace is
void, the stair is solid and both vertical elements contort in shape to make room
for the other.

19. VANNA
VENTURI
HOUSE
floor contains another bedroom, storage space, and a terrace. A
"nowhere stair" on the second floor also integrates itself into the core
space. It rises up at an awkward angle, and its function on one level is
completely useless due to its steep slope, while on the other level it
serves as a ladder to clean the high window on the second level.

20. I like complexity and contradiction in architecture…I like elements
which are hybrid rather than “pure,” compromising rather than
“clean,” distorted rather than “straightforward,” ambiguous rather than
“articulated,” perverse as well as impersonal, boring as well as
“interesting,” conventional rather than “designed,” inconsistent and
equivocal rather than direct and clear. I am for messy vitality over
obvious unity.”6
• His design for the Vanna Venturi house, which is at once
ordered and unordered, classical and modern, designed
and coincidental, is the epitome of an actualization of his
vision of a postmodern architecture.

21. Learning from Las Vegas
• OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES BASED ON
LAS VEGAS STRIP
• HOW ARCHITECTURE / ADVERTISING
WORK ON THE STRECH
• SIGNAGES
• ARCHITECTURE BECOMING
ADVERTiseMENT
• THE DESIGN OF THE SRETCH , AND
PLACEMENT OF SIGNS AND BUILDINGS ,
DONE FOR THE DRIVING CARS
• HIDDEN ORDER WITHIN CHAOS
• TREMENDOUS DIVERSITY
LEARNING FROM LAS

23. • CONTEMPOARY URBANSCAPES WERE NO
LONGER ABLE TO BE ANALYSED WITH
TRADITIONAL MORPHOLOGICAL NALYSIS
• CAPTURING SIGNAGE AND DENSITY OF
INFORMATION IS IMPOSSIBLE IN TRADITION
MODELS
LEARNING FROM LAS

24. SEMIOTICS
STUDY OF SIGNS AND
SYMBOLS AND HOW THEY
CREATE MEANING
THROUGH SYSTEMS
VENTURI AND DENISE SOUGHT TO EXTEND THIS
METHOD OF NALYISS TO ARCHITECTURE AND
URBANISM
THEY OFFERED A METHOD TO ANALYSE URBAN
LANDSCAPE BASED ON SIGNS AND MEANINGS RATHER
THAN PHYSICAL MAKE UP THE URBAN AREA
ARCHITECTURE IS PERCEIVED
AND REPRESENTED AS WHAT IT
MEANS RATHER THAN WHAT IT
IS
LEARNING FROM LAS

25. BUILDINGS REPRESENT
MEANINGSIN
DIFFERENT WAYS
THEY FORMULATED TWO
CATEGORIES:
LEARNING FROM LAS

26. THE DUCK IS A BUILDING
THAT IS A SIGN
MEANING AND
MORPHOLOGY ARE ONE
THE SIGN AND THE
BUILDING ARE NOT
SEPERATE BUT THE
BUILDING ITSELF
REPRESENTS ITS MEANING
POULTRY SHOP IN SHAPE
OF DUCK
LEARNING FROM LAS

27. BUILDINGS REPRESENT
MEANINGSIN
DIFFERENT WAYS
THEY FORMULATED TWO
CATEGORIES:
LEARNING FROM LAS

28. THE DECORATED SHED
IS A BUILDING WHERE SIGN
IS SEPERATED AND THE
MEANING IS APPLIED VIA
SIGN
MEANING IS CONTAINED IN
THE SIGN AND THE
ARCHITECTURE ITSELF
BCEOMES UNIMPORTANT
THE SAME BUILDING CAN
BE CHURCH OR A CASINO IT
DEPENDS ONLY ON THE
SIGN
LEARNING FROM LAS

29. LEARNING FROM LAS

30. HOW MEANING IS CREATED IN EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENT . THEY
LOOKED AT HOW EVERYDAY ARCHITECTURE CONTAINED SIGNS
THAT POINT TO MEANINGS
DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM
OF LAS VEGAS WAS THE TRUE
ESSENCE OF AMERICAN TRADITION
LEARNING FROM LAS