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    The Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi for his mother between 1962-1964, was the first example of Postmodern architecture. Located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, Venturi experimented with complexity and contradiction in his design, going against the modernist principles of consistency. He designed an exterior with symbolic classical elements like a pedimented gable and exaggerated chimney. The interior centered around an off-centered fireplace, with unusual elements like a "nowhere stair." Venturi used scale contradictions, like an oversized fireplace, and layering screens to further challenge architectural norms. The house brought together different shapes and elements in a complex, contradictory composition and became a manifesto for Postmodern

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    Kisuna

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    The Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi for his mother between 1962-1964, was the first example of Postmodern architecture. Located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, Venturi experimented with complexity and contradiction in his design, going against the modernist principles of consistency. He designed an exterior with symbolic classical elements like a pedimented gable and exaggerated chimney. The interior centered around an off-centered fireplace, with unusual elements like a "nowhere stair." Venturi used scale contradictions, like an oversized fireplace, and layering screens to further challenge architectural norms. The house brought together different shapes and elements in a complex, contradictory composition and became a manifesto for Postmodern

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    The Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi for his mother between 1962-1964, was the first example of Postmodern architecture. Located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, Venturi experimented with complexity and contradiction in his design, going against the modernist principles of consistency. He designed an exterior with symbolic classical elements like a pedimented gable and exaggerated chimney. The interior centered around an off-centered fireplace, with unusual elements like a "nowhere stair." Venturi used scale contradictions, like an oversized fireplace, and layering screens to further challenge architectural norms. The house brought together different shapes and elements in a complex, contradictory composition and became a manifesto for Postmodern

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    61 views2 pages

    Kisuna

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    leaves_pebbles
    The Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi for his mother between 1962-1964, was the first example of Postmodern architecture. Located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, Venturi experimented with complexity and contradiction in his design, going against the modernist principles of consistency. He designed an exterior with symbolic classical elements like a pedimented gable and exaggerated chimney. The interior centered around an off-centered fireplace, with unusual elements like a "nowhere stair." Venturi used scale contradictions, like an oversized fireplace, and layering screens to further challenge architectural norms. The house brought together different shapes and elements in a complex, contradictory composition and became a manifesto for Postmodern

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    Most critics usually regard consistency in architecture an important aspect of the design.

    However in the Vanna Venturi House Robert Venturi took the road less travelled and tested
    complexity and contradiction in architecture, going against the norm. Located in Chestnut
    Hill,Pennsylvania on a flat site isolated by surrounding trees, Venturi designed and built the
    house for his mother between 1962 and 1964. In testing his beliefts on complexity and
    contradition (for which he also wrote the book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture),
    Venturi went through six fully worked-out versions of the house which slowly became known as
    the first example of Postmodern architecture.
    More on the Vanna Venturi House after the break.
    Approaching the Vanna Venturi house, one can detect the symbolic imagery of shelter through
    its exterior with its wide symmetrical gable like a classical pediment, which in this case is
    split, and the chimney poking out in an exaggerated manner from the back. The main entrance
    is in the center, creating a sense of symmetry that both is and is not there due to the
    placement of the windows. These windows are located based on function in the interior. For
    instance, there is a Modernist ribbon window for the kitchen and square windows serving the
    bedroom and bathroom on the other side of the front facade.
    The interior is centered around the fireplace, the hearth of the home, but still Venturis 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.
    Upon entering there is the main living space. Also located on the first floor due to a request
    from Venturis mother are the kitchen and the bedroom. The second 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.
    Upon entering there is the main living space. Also located on the first floor due to a request
    from Venturis mother are the kitchen and the bedroom. The second 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.
    In order to create more contradiction and complexity, Venturi experimented with scale. Inside
    the house certain elements are too big, such as the size of the fireplace and the height of the
    mantel compared to the size of the room. Doors are wide and low in height, especially in
    contrast to the grandness of the entrance space. In the rear elevation of the house is an
    oversized lunette window, which follows the main elements of the exterior that are
    exaggerated in size. Venturi also minimized circulation space in the design of the house, so
    that it consisted of large distinct rooms with minimum subdivisions between them.

    Venturi referred to the exterior as a layering system. The effect intended was to make the
    exterior walls both walls and screens. For example, the east glass wall is recessed in order to
    form a covered yard screened by the back wall. This same idea is used on a smaller scale for
    the bedroom on the other side of the house.
    A manifesto for Postmodern architecture, the Vanna Venturi house is a composition of
    rectangular, curvilinear, and diagonal elements coming together (or sometimes juxtaposing
    each other) in a way that inarguably creates complexity and contradiction.

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