Book Review Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

[@sarolin165]

The most expressive sentence "wtf supposed to mean"😂😂😂😂

[@WGreen-Author]

It might be best to accept that the International Style was never a template for all architectural projects and that Venturi's "complexity and contradiction" was not a style. It was a commentary and complaint with little practical application. He made his point.

[@rr7firefly]

This is a really off-base analysis. The book was not an imprimatur for "bad architecture" so much as a presentation of the argument for a more complex order. Yes, there are some real abominations under the banner of Postmodernism (and I would be among the first to cite particularly awful ones) but they are the stylings of architects who sought the limelight by making cartoon versions of classic architecture, reducing their output to a recognizable brand. Order is not simple geometry, as natural forms would clearly indicate. The orthogonal underlying structure of most Modern architecture, its compatibility with x-y-z CAD monkeying is a total construct, an imposition of an intellectual order on habitable space(s). Its most recognizable manifestation is in the street grids of many major cities. But those formal demarcations are actually conveniences for capitalist exploitation and the governing bodies that derive revenue from them in various forms, including assessing taxes. The simple order predominates in the construction business, even in the standardization of plywood sheets, which become for untalented architects the grid base upon which the most banal constructions arise. There is bad architecture but the world in which we live is worse: it is mediocrity that numbs the senses and is often alleviated by escapist "cultural" entertainment.

[@dominicanthony2684]

This, is absolutely beautifully captured. Especially the aspect of zombie "architecture", i.e. architecture that is largely dependent on the creativity of component manufacturers for it's final sophistication or non-sophistication. I agree.

[@KevinJames345]

7:10 AHAHHAAHAHHAHAHA