Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document of architectural literature. A "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author's ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA's Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

Robert Venturi is a partner in the firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., Philadelphia. He has taught at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was a Fellow and later Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. His writing, teaching, and architectural work have had a decisive influence on the younger generation of architects throughout the world. Venturi is also the author of Iconography and Electronics Upon a Generic Architecture and, with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas.