Editing Robert Venturi (section)

==Career==
[[File:Denise Scott Brown 1978 © Lynn Gilbert.jpg|thumb|Venturi's wife and business partner Denise Scott Brown, 1978]]
A controversial critic of what he saw as the blithely [[Functionalism (architecture)|functionalist]] and symbolically vacuous architecture of corporate modernism during the 1950s, Venturi was one of the first architects to question some of the premises of the Modern Movement. He published his "gentle manifesto", ''[[Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture]]'' in 1966; in its introduction, [[Vincent Scully]] called it "probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since [[Le Corbusier]]'s [[Towards a New Architecture|''Vers Une Architecture'']] of 1923." The work was derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venturi received a grant from the [[Graham Foundation]] in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Citing [[vernacular]] as well as high-style sources, Venturi drew new lessons from the buildings of architects familiar ([[Michelangelo]], [[Alvar Aalto]]) and, at the time, forgotten ([[Frank Furness]], [[Edwin Lutyens]]). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples — both built and unrealized — of his work to demonstrate the possible application of such techniques. The book has been published in 18 languages to date.<ref>''[https://modernism101.com/products-page/architecture/venturi-robert-complexity-and-contradiction-in-architecture-new-york-museum-of-modern-art-1966-moma-papers-on-architecture-no-1/ Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture - Robert Venturi].'' modernism101.com. Retrieved 04/12/2024.</ref>

Immediately hailed as a theorist and designer with radical ideas, Venturi went to teach a series of studios at the [[Yale School of Architecture]] in the mid-1960s. The most famous of these was a studio in 1968 in which Venturi and Scott Brown, together with [[Steven Izenour]], led a team of students to document and analyze the [[Las Vegas Strip]], perhaps the least likely subject for a serious research project imaginable.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/lessons-from-las-vegas/|title=Lessons from Las Vegas - 99% Invisible|work=99% Invisible|access-date=April 26, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1972, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour published the folio, ''A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or [[Learning from Las Vegas]].'' It was revised using the student work as a foil for new theory, and reissued in 1977 as ''Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form''. This second manifesto was an even more stinging rebuke to orthodox modernism and elite architectural tastes.  The book coined the terms "Duck" and "Decorated Shed", descriptions of the two predominant ways of embodying iconography in buildings. The work of Venturi, Scott Brown, and [[John Rauch (architect)|John Rauch]]<ref>{{Cite web |author=Sandra L. Tatman |title=Rauch, John K., Jr. (b. 1930)|publisher=Philadelphia Architects and Buildings |access-date=November 17, 2020 |url=https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/23464}}</ref>
adopted the latter strategy, producing formally simple "decorated sheds" with rich, complex, and often shocking ornamental flourishes. Venturi and his wife co-wrote several more books at the end of the century, but these two have so far proved to be the most influential.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Mark Alan Hewitt |title=Venturi, Robert |work=Grove Art Online |publisher=Oxford Art Online |date=November 28, 2011 |url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2086166}}</ref>