House in New Castle County
Delaware, U.S. Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown (architects). 1978-1983 C.E. Wood frame and stucco
While the Vanna Venturi house is widely considered to be the first postmodern building, Robert Venturi insists he wasn't trying to create a new movement. With his Vanna Venturi house widely considered to be the first postmodern building design Robert Venturi showed us that sometimes, rules are meant to be broken.
Content:
A white house with many glass windows. There are also white columns and a beautiful green lawn of grass.
Context:
The wife who lived in this house was a musician. There is a music room that has two pianos, an organ, and a harpsichord. The husband who lived in this house was a bird watcher and thus, there is a large window that is facing the woods.
Form:
Approximately symmetrical balance
Style:
Postmodern architecture
Function:
This house was created for a family with three members
Meaning:
This house is a post modern mix of historical style.
- POST MODERN ARCHITECTURE:
- developed in the late 70s - early 1980s
- a reaction against the International Style
- "emphasized ornamentation, traditional architectural expressions, and references to past styles in a modern context"
- made to grasp a viewer's attention
- HOUSE IN NEW CASTLE COUNTY:
- a house designed for a family of three (in rural northern Delaware)
- surrounded by rolling hills & a forest
- wife = musician = the house has an elaborate, well-stocked music room (this is pictured in the upper right image at the top of this page)
- husband = bird watcher = large windows looking out at the trees
- a post-modern mix of historical styles -- makes use of many geometrical shapes
- the front facade = "incorporates a floating arched screen" -> used to identify the structure as a residence (also as a blind to camouflage the large windows behind it)
- the rear facade = "dominated by a prominent arched screen" (this one is framed by the roof), has doric colonnades (but flat, non-supportive ones!) -> "grand & whimsical"
- interior = "simple & comfortable" -- lots of wood decoration and many painted, jagged arches, quirky chandeliers
- "a pluralistic view of architecture & design"
- Jefferson, Monticello
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- LeCorbusier, Villa Savoye
