Robert Venturi : Instigator of Post-Modernism
“Less is bore” As an idea of shattering the modernist status quo, by affixing decoration and imposing opposite rule on modern objects, the world can be free from modernist oppression. The manifesto that is recognized as Robert Venturi’s could probably go somewhere to the tune of this statement. In the era after Pruitt-Igoe, another of Minoru Yamasaki’s ill-fated structures, Venturi took his chance to voice himself as a counterrevolutionary. Responsible for several doctrines and manifesto’s, Venturi played a massive role as a spokesman of the early post-modern movement. By shattering the confines of modernism and refreshing approaches to design, he did not necessarily need to be a good designer, he just had to shatter the principles of those who came before him. William A Clark
Books, Ducks, and Decorated Sheds.
Of the first influential writings under the command of Venturi,was his foray into trying to explain his own work. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was welcomed as an influential book and tied Venturi’s name to radical thought and theory. The book also set him up to become a professor at Yale and to connect with the likes of Vincent Sully. Later, as a professor, he led his students into Las Vegas to document the Americana that surrounds the city. Terms such as the ‘duck’ and ‘decorated shed’ were coined as a result of the student work in the folio.
The ‘Duck’, or a building whose form is expressive of the program and meaning of the structure. The icon ‘duck’ was tied to a building of the same form that was documented by the Las Vegas studio.
William A Clark
The Decorated Shed. When choosing a direction to follow architecturally, Venturi found himself to prefer the idea of a ‘decorated shed’. This shed light into the fashion in which he designed much of his work. By focusing on decorating a simple object, he could formally reference the purpose of the construction. There was no convolution in a small store with a massive donut or hat on it.
Decorated Shed William A Clark
Almost Victorian excess in a Venturi interior.
William A Clark
The Furniture of Venturi Venturi was first and foremost an architectural theorist and critic. After this distinction he was an architectural professor before finally being known for his actual architecture. The importance that he played in the industry was not due to specific designs, the way that they were crafted, nor the availability of them to the consumer market. Rather, Venturi’s designs were meant more to be a cinder block thrown through a modernist’s window. Nearly every creation was made as a rejection of an existing paradigm. The mission goals in a venturi chair were not that of comfort or of desire, rather the more insidious goals of simply being everything that modernist furniture was not. Of his most famous furniture is the collection of chairs; each one a satire on a particular movement.
As exemplified by the above mentioned ‘Queen Anne’ chair, Venturi invokes an icon from the original movement and then covers the object in a tawdry floral print. The formation of the chair is comprised of bent plywood much as is seen in the chair that made the Eames’ so powerful. There is nothing about this chair that is new, avant-garde, or desirable. Without any context as to who the designer is and what he stands for, the chair is seen as an example of childish rubbish that is barely worth the fuel that will carry this doomed design to the garbage heap. The only redeeming factor that brings the tacky chair into any amount of worth is the existence it leads as a political statement. A manifesto that may provide seating as well as call attention to its inclusion within a room. With the conversation that this chair invokes, it suddenly becomes successful. Because I hate it with such a passion, I am suddenly aware of the conversation it beckons me to explore.
Venturi and Knoll Where Herman-Miller had the Eames’ designs, Knoll was coming up short. Having classically enlisted the help of designers from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe all the way to Bruer Knoll was carrying the torch of modernist furniture design. However, with the demise of the Modern movement in America, Knoll was facing a crisis. When Knoll came around for Venturi, the arguable father of the post-modern movement, they found the designs needed to revive the knoll image and bring about a change in the product line and offerings of the institution. The bent plywood chairs of Venturi could compete with the similar method employed by the Eames’ in their famous bent plywood chairs. Not a lounge, but a studio chair, or dining chair.
William A Clark
INTD 414 Final
Venturi’s Effect on My Design I do not believe Robert Venturi is a great designer. He is a man who inspired one of the most radical movements yet seen in the field of architecture, but as of the architecture he himself is responsible for, very little is compelling. That being said, venturi as effected my design direction is quite the startling fashion. Before immersing myself with Venturi, my design was much like a pattern seen inhabiting one of Venturi’s chairs; radical, an eyesore, and having no connection to anything whatsoever. When he says ‘less is bore’ I can understand where he comes from. The sterility of architecture that is seen in many of Richard Meier’s, John Nouvelle’s, Peter Eisenmann is beyond color choice and intent. It is in rampant ideology where the basics of design are forgotten in lieu of ‘meaning’ of a building. Going back to basic form can be exciting because design should have one goal paramount in all that is has to accomplish. Pleasure. On a primal level humans are connected to contrast and to warm and rich colors. Because of the time I spent with Venturi, I was driven to edit down the grand chair that I had imagined. Rather than diving into synthetic materials, ultra-modularity, and other excess, I was able to focus on the shapes, materials and desired feelings of the end product. Without dancing with Venturi’s ideals, I would not have been reminded of the one simple rule I have. Less is more meaningful.
William A Clark