The main difference from 1968 was about a generation
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There is no architecture without event, behavior and function
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Complex and contradictory architecture does not mean aestheticism or subjective expressionism
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Advocating brevity may be a new formalism divorced from life experience
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We often pay too much attention to the form and function, which is more important, and who decides which is a strong thinking
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On the basis of the teaching notes of the course, the first draft of the book was completed in 1963 and published after several revisions in the following three years
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Less is more
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The ostentatious complexity divorced from life experience is false complexity and formalism
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Modernist architecture has become vulgarized since it came to the United States
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Venturi opposes this kind of confusion and low level, and he insists on using means to realize a kind of unity with the principle of law of contradiction, He is not for the sake of many, but to make use of many to create unity
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The book attempts to explain it with the help of the indeterminacy of poetry, literature and painting
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From 1957 to 1965, venturi taught in the Department of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale
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At this time, simplification is a way to form a complex process
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Admitting the complexity of architecture does not deny Kang’s “desire to pursue simplicity”
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In the early 1960s, one of the earliest courses that venturi taught in theory was centered on an architectural project in the United States
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School of architecture, and even built a “Miesian crownhall”, which proposed that less is more
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If architecture develops with this kind of elitist and autocratic extreme modernism, modernism architecture will surely die out
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If architects want to solve any problem with high selectivity, which is the characteristic of the 20th century, if they reject important problems, they will take the risk of building away from life experience and social needs
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And the death of Gropius and Mies (the last two Masters) in 1969 also indicates the demise of modernism
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For example, we often have our own understanding when commenting or appreciating a work of art, as well as in an architecture This problem, there are often a lot of things there is an uncertain relationship
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Any change will change the political, social, functional and aesthetic factors that affect the spatial division
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Venturi’s opposition to the simple unity of modernism is deeply justified
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In his opinion, modernism is for the sake of “less”, and “less” does have a kind of innate identity, but it is only the same in style, and “less” in style can only be used as one of the means (not all means) of leading and purpose
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In his book, venturi jokingly responded that “less is more”
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Complex and contradictory architecture has a special responsibility for the Totality: its true meaning must be in the totality or have the meaning of totality
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” Whether from the perspective of city or architecture, facing the complex requirements and changing context, we should face up to the complexity
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In this system, irrational aesthetic thinking is adopted.
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A whole generation of people in Europe, the United States and even Japan are being agitated by the wave of anti orthodoxy, anti mainstream culture and anti industrialism
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The brevity obtained by reduction is false brevity, and the real brevity is formed by the internal contradiction and confrontation of its constituent elements
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Complexity does not deny effective simplification, but simplification is a method in the analysis process of forming complex art, which can not be mistaken as an end
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More is not less
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Finally, the problem comes down to the method and goal of architecture
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However, just as Qiaofu Fangcao’s “space following behavior” and the strategy of lavilet park’s point line surface system, the 30 in the park are called fo The large-scale architecture of Lio has become a unique space, a place for experiment
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The simplicity advocated comes from its own internal complexity
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But venturi thought that the architect’s duty should be to decide how to solve the problem, not to decide what problem he wants to solve
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Unfortunately, one year after taking office, he was disintegrated by Hitler’s Nazism in World War II, fled to the United States, established the i.i.t
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It is its inherent complexity and contradiction that works
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Just like the social and political crises in 1968, such as the trust crisis between the United States and South Korea, the gold crisis, the student movement, the Vietnam War and so on, although there are not enough examples and signs to explain the “crisis” phenomenon in the field of architecture, in the face of this year’s noise and fury, the great ambitions of modern architects have not been spared
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“The understanding of the essence of space and time and the resulting special definition of space and time in architecture are developed from the needs of knowledge, belief, technology and special culture
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Why do we say that modern architecture is dead? Postmodernism directly points out that modernist architecture is dead, mainly because it opposes those extreme modernist architecture
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In architecture, this is a watershed that will challenge the ideological platform of extreme modernism
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Modern architecture has such an important position
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I like the complexity and contradiction of architecture, I like the hybrid of component elements rather than purity, I prefer compromise rather than clarity, I prefer distortion rather than directness, I prefer ambiguity rather than unity and clarity, I prefer indulgence and objectivity, I prefer degradation but innovation, I prefer vulgarity Instead of design, I prefer accommodation to exclusion, I prefer redundancy to simplicity, I prefer inconsistency and uncertainty to clarity and directness, I prefer disorder and vigor to replace clarity and integration, I accept no inference, I like duality, I like richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning, I like implicit but clear functions, I prefer take all rather than choice 1、 I like to be black and white, but a little gray is good
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This uncertainty may come from the audience’s cognition, or the complexity, separation and contradiction of the content itself
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This indeterminacy may come from some form
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In the United States, the viewpoint of “less than more” has been absorbed by professionals indiscriminately, the tension from Mies’ works has been eliminated completely, and the modernist principles have been vulgarized, just for quick and effective implementation To build some functional and realistic buildings
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“As a rebel, venturi was the first to be recognized.” – “Introduction to architectural theory — from 1968 to now” and “complexity and contradiction of architecture” were written in 1966
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Today, we are in a different position
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As the third (and last) principal of Bauhaus, Mies made the biggest change, that is, he turned Bauhaus into an architecture school, and architecture became the center
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The second type of complexity and contradiction in architecture is related to form and content
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In the interpretation of Qu Mi’s “event space” theory, we have a deep understanding that “event space” has some uncertainty in a certain sense
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Meanwhile, flashy complexity can not really reflect complex design requirements
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Today, architectural education and architectural aesthetics are still following many basic principles of modernist architecture
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The real complexity can be realized through effective simplification
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We must create a relaxed urban space according to the changing needs and design environment of contemporary society
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It must embody the unity of compatible difficulties rather than excluding other easy ones
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Architecture can be seen as a mixture of space, event and movement
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“Problems are piled up, complex and difficult, and change faster than in the past.” this reminds me of some viewpoints of Zhen Wenyan, one of the representatives of metabolism
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