Book Review: A View from the Campidoglio
A View from the Campidoglio: Selected Essay 1953-1984, by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, published by HarperCollins, 1984. (Amazon)
A friend once said the following in reference to Aldo Rossi: "He may be a genius, but I don't like his buildings." The same quote can be used to sum up my feelings towards Robert Venturi and his domestic and professional partner Denise Scott Brown. But after attending a lecture by Venturi a few weeks ago, I decided to finally break open their collection of essays that spans their most influential and popular period and see if it could sway my opinion of their work. Needless to say it didn't, even though Venturi and his wife have a solid theoretical foundation for their practice and some valid criticisms of architecture and practice.
The collection starts with Venturi's master's thesis at Princeton then picks up fifteen years later around the time of Complexity and Contradiction, Venturi's highly influential criticism of Modernism. This book, and the duo's later Learning from Las Vegas, expound the ideas that have preoccupied them to this day: symbolism, iconography, the "decorated shed", ornamentation and its segregation from function. They correctly critique the supposed functional determinism of Modernism, an ideal often times secondary to the industrial aesthetic of function. They propose that architecture should be a loft or shed that fulfills the building's function. In front or surrounding this container is sign and symbolism that conveys meaning. Unfortunately, in their hands, the results are often unappealing or downright ugly. And while these essays help the reader to understand their motives behind certain architectural and aesthetic choices, they don't convince that the outcomes are the best solutions for their theories.
A friend once said the following in reference to Aldo Rossi: "He may be a genius, but I don't like his buildings." The same quote can be used to sum up my feelings towards Robert Venturi and his domestic and professional partner Denise Scott Brown. But after attending a lecture by Venturi a few weeks ago, I decided to finally break open their collection of essays that spans their most influential and popular period and see if it could sway my opinion of their work. Needless to say it didn't, even though Venturi and his wife have a solid theoretical foundation for their practice and some valid criticisms of architecture and practice.
The collection starts with Venturi's master's thesis at Princeton then picks up fifteen years later around the time of Complexity and Contradiction, Venturi's highly influential criticism of Modernism. This book, and the duo's later Learning from Las Vegas, expound the ideas that have preoccupied them to this day: symbolism, iconography, the "decorated shed", ornamentation and its segregation from function. They correctly critique the supposed functional determinism of Modernism, an ideal often times secondary to the industrial aesthetic of function. They propose that architecture should be a loft or shed that fulfills the building's function. In front or surrounding this container is sign and symbolism that conveys meaning. Unfortunately, in their hands, the results are often unappealing or downright ugly. And while these essays help the reader to understand their motives behind certain architectural and aesthetic choices, they don't convince that the outcomes are the best solutions for their theories.
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