Post Modernism + Complexity & Contradiction
After World War II, revolutions struct most of the western world in practically all aspects, including Architecture. What architects had tried to do decades prior to this time, all the 'functionality' based concepts and 'non-presentational' architecture, had shifted to what we call Post Modern. Post Modernism revolves around the idea that nothing is original, it is all representational. Robert Venturi, the writer of Complexity & Contradiction, had even mentioned that modernism itself was a representation, a representation of functions.
Post Modernism is multivalent and semiotic. Robert Venturi has his own way of perceiving architecture, seeing values in complexity and richness of meaning in the building, from the visuals to the process. Unlike Mies, Venturi believes in "More is NOT less" and that architecture should possess "both-and" qualities rather than the popular "either-or" in modernism. Venturi introduces ambiguity as one of the elements that is crucial in the architecture of complexity and contradiction, relating it to the richness of both form and meaning within the architecture.
By giving importance to complexity, this does not mean Post Modernism is turning time to the styles prior Modernism. It is simply appreciating both history and function; both pure forms and ornamentation on its surface to enhance building, something Modernism advocated tried to avoid.
Venturi's theories could be seen in his own mother's house, the Vanna Venturi House, designed by Venturi himself.
The design seems deceptively simple. This house has a sense of symmetry, yet the symmetry has been distorted, ie. the facade has five windows on each side of the house, but the arrangement of the windows is completely different. He had also used the arch on the facade, a classical element, as an ornamentation rather than for functions, showing that even a distinct structural piece could be used for non-structual purposes. It is referencing to the past, with a new purpose.
This practice of referencing the past could be seen often in Thailand as well. It is quite common (and important), I believe, for Thai architects to always incorporate traditional Thai architectural elements such as the Thai wood ornamentation and the gable-end on the roofs. Many buildings possess both the traditional variables and the more contemporary aspects within a single building, merging the past into the present.
