152. House in New Castle County

                

 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"

Cross-Cultural Comparisons: Homes

1. Jefferson, Monticello
2. Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
3. LeCorbusier, Villa Savoye