The Legacy of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Abstract

Other| December 01 2016 The Legacy of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture Patricia A. Morton Patricia A. Morton Editor, JSAH and JSAH Online Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2016) 75 (4): 401–402. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.401 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Patricia A. Morton; The Legacy of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 December 2016; 75 (4): 401–402. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.401 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, by Robert Venturi.1 Often identified as the first postmodern manifesto—although Venturi has disavowed this attribution—Complexity and Contradiction had a significant impact on architecture culture as much for what it did not do as for what it did. As a “gentle manifesto,” it eschewed the polemics and vehemence of earlier modernist manifestoes and took a more personal tone. Statements beginning “I like …” or “I find …” shifted Venturi's treatise from a polemic to what he called an “apologia—an explanation, indirectly, of my work” (18). Far from the fervent proclamations of early twentieth-century manifestoes, the mildness of Venturi's tone concealed the radical nature of his program to dismantle “orthodox Modern architecture.” Venturi decoupled architecture and “other things,” the social, technological, and political issues that had informed modernism: The shift to a realistic approach... You do not currently have access to this content.