Vernacular Architecture ~ Robert Venturi
In my haphazard stumble through the world of architects and architecture, I came across Robert Venturi. Whilst not perhaps directly appreciating his work when seen on the page in print (his emergency service building for Disney World in Florida is a Fire Department HQ straight out of a Mickey Mouse cartoon), I do appreciate and agree with his concept of “vernacular” architecture. In simplistic terms it entails taking the building and design trends of a country or locality and using them as an architectural guide.
In his 1972 work “Learning from Las Vegas” he highlighted the common architectural features of neon lights, advertising hoardings and false shop fronts found in LA and advocated them as an alternative to sometimes stilted architectural rationalism.
As can be seen from Mickeys fire-station there is a degree of irony, humour and a powerful sense of appropriateness in his work - all of which appeal to me.
The tying of architecture to the reality of a place, rather than some idealised or fictional notion is what appeals to me. There is a view of how agricultural buildings should be converted to dwellings that is sometimes at odds with my own sensibilities. Rendered walls with stone dressing, gravel drives and varnished window frames present a disneyfied view of the countryside and don’t represent the true beauty and sense of place that I seek. Venturi’s vernacular architecture recognises this and presents an alternative approach.
If you enjoyed that post, then read these...
Le Corbusier ~ The function of a house on November 18th, 2007
The functions of a house, setting aside all other 'romantic cobwebs' are to provide:
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1.
Seven Lamps of Architecture on June 20th, 2007
I was recently wandering around the web rooting through building and design related sites and came across a reference to John Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture intrigued by the title, I decided to do some more digging and came across one of the foundations of architecture over the last 150 years.
Organic Architecture ~ Frank Lloyd Wright on December 30th, 2007
A Frank Lloyd Wright quotation:
Organic architecture more or less means organic society.
Posted in Architecture |
January 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Very interesting.I myself have always agreed that architecture is only complete with some cultural inputs.Like how in the older days every civilization could be differentiated by their building and structures , there needs to be something in the building design which reflects the culture of the place the building is situated in.