The Complexity of the Venturi Contradiction

The purpose of this review is to explore Venturi’s approach to architecture as based on new insights into two of his books, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture and Learning from Las Vegas, coupled with critiques from Peter Blake and Louis Huxtable and one of Venturi’s last interviews. Modern architects often confuse orderliness with order, which creates works that Venturi would describe as without meaning in the world. Even though many modern architects would argue that Venturi’s ideas and works are contradictory, Venturi would respond that contradiction accommodates order. Venturi wanted modern architects to realize only one thing—perfection in the architectural world can and should include imperfection, in all its forms.