HomeAbout John LobellMy PublicationsArt & ArchitecturePratt InstituteInterestsRecommended Links Contact

"Both-And"

A New Architectural Concept

 

By John Lobell

 

Arts Magazine

February 1968

In Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture the first in a series published by the Museum of Modern Art, Robert Venturi adds to the controversies which surround him. Already hostile to many aspects of his work, the architectural establishment is now expressing hostility to his theories. While, on the surface, a theory which calls for complexity, contradiction, and perversity in architecture may seem arbitrary and capricious, a serious reading of his book will reveal an approach to art and architecture which is more valid than any suggested by Venturi's critics.

One of the criticisms against Venturi is that his concern with specific problems of activities and experience at small scales (such as that of the residence) ignores the magnitude of contemporary urban problems which require technical and political solutions. While it is true that the coming problems of architecture will require reformation of the architectural profession and of building industries, the basic questions of qualities of experience remain, and new solutions will not be satisfactory if they do not consider these experiential questions.

Fundamentally the difference between Venturi and the "orthodox" modern architects may be expressed in one question:" Should a work of architecture, as a work of art, fulfill the expectations which it arouses or not fulfill the expectations which I arouses? The orthodox answer is that it should; Venturi's answer is that it should not.

The orthodox approach to modern architecture can be understood in terms of Kenneth Burke's "theory of classical form" which states that art arouses and then fulfills expectations. (Burke's theory is developed for theater, but is expand to include the other arts and human motivation in general.) In the Tulane Drama Review for the summer of 1966, Burke writes that "classical form" can be reduced to three principles: progressive, repetitive, and conventional.

"Progressive form was said to involve the use of situations which led the audience to anticipate or desire certain developments. 'Repetitive' form involves the ways in which a work embodies a fixed character or identity, the ways in which a work, however disjunct, manifests some kinds of internal self-consistency. 'Conventional' form (or 'categorical expectancy') involves the kinds of expectation which an audience brings to the theater as an established institution." (p. 54.)

It is not difficult to imagine how these categories could be applied to a series of examples of orthodox modern architecture in defense of a theory of "simplicity and consistency" in architecture. However, it is also apparent that these categories could be listed with the provision that each of the different kinds of anticipation should not be fulfilled. In Man's Rage for Chaos , Morse Peckham gives a similar list of categories with the provision that the anticipation should not be fulfilled and calls them "discontinuities". In Peckham's theory "discontinuities" are a defining characteristic of art.

Art can be satisfactorily described only when it is understood not to fulfill the expectations which it arouses. Since Venturi must ultimately be understood in terms of the nature of art, it is necessary to establish a theoretical foundation before further analyzing complexity and contradiction in architecture.

Architecture cannot be understood as art until art has been understood in general. A major problem in theories of art has been a supposedly necessary relationship between the work of art and the experience of art. From the resolution of this problem a theory of art can be developed.

There is no "ideal world" in which a class of "art objects" can exist. Any attempt to identify art as a class of objects exhibiting some ideal characteristics is bound to failure, both by inner inconsistencies and by an inability to explain basic characteristics of art. Barring a definition of art in terms of objects, it will be defined as a "perceptual field in which one has the art experience." (Morse Peckham). The definition of art will be given meaning by the definition of the art experience.

Our experience is created out of a "dialogue" between ourselves and a world dependent on our subjectivity. In this dialogue our subjectivity is decisive in determining our reality. Since our subjectivity is determined by our perception, and our perception is variable (due to culture, technology, and other factors) reality varies with perception. However, as human beings we are not comfortable with this prospect of change; we develop numerous devices to maintain a static existence in the illusion of an unchanging reality and to hide the existence of the dialogue from ourselves.

While it may seem that people can get along believing that their reality is absolute, universal and unchanging, ultimately they cannot. Sooner or later the reality believed in will prove inadequate to comprehend daily situations. An awareness that a particular situation is in actuality a creation of the dialogue can lead to a more profound understanding of that situation. An awareness that reality in general is a product of the dialogue can lead to an existence which avoids the distortions and impasses which would otherwise eventually come about. With this awareness experience is freed to become a source of meaning.

The defining characteristic of the art experience is that in it one is aware of the dialogue. There are situations in which people feel sufficiently protected to open themselves to "discontinuities," experiences in high expectations are aroused and not fulfilled. Through training we tend to b able to have such experiences in libraries, concert halls, galleries, etc. Such an experience functions both to maintain an awareness in the individual that his reality is not absolute, and to educate him toward a more appropriate reality during time of cultural change.

Thus when we encounter a particular perceptual field we bring to it our personal and cultural anticipations. Thee anticipations will have been formed in the past, partially during previous encounters with similar perceptual fields. The person who arranges a particular perceptual field may become aware that changes in the culture have made a new and more contemporary experience of the perceptual field possible. He arranges it in such a way as to extend the limits of an individual's experience of it to fit the possibilities created by the changes in the culture. We approach this product with outmoded perceptual anticipation and find that these anticipations are not fulfilled. We experience a discontinuity. We then must alter our anticipations and reconstruct our reality. In so doing we are aware of the dialogue, and we advance our experience towards one which is more responsive to the contemporary situation. When we have such an experience, the perceptual field in which we have it is a work of art. The person who arranges it is an artist.

Architecture, in its function as an art, creates discontinuities in a broad range of activities. It should not always fulfill the expectations which it arouses, and is by its nature complex and contradictory.

Complex and contradictory architecture does not imply arbitrary or picturesque architecture. Discontinuities will only be recognized in a context where anticipations are usually fulfilled and those that are not fulfilled are meaningful. There must be a consistency among the discontinuities which an artist creates, and they must work towards a unified concept of the structure of reality.

Venturi's book is primarily an approach for understanding discontinuities in architecture. His classifications include contradiction juxtaposed, ambiguity, "both-and," and inflection. The function of discontinuity and its creation out of ambiguity, is evident throughout Venturi's classification of complexity and contradiction. Meanings are derived from conventional elements through their use in conventional ways. Venturi writes:

The architect's main work is the organization of a unique whole through conventional parts and the judicious introduction of new parts when the old won't do. Gestalt psychology maintains that context contributes meaning to a part and change in context causes change in meaning. The architect thereby, through the organization of parts, creates meaningful context for them within the whole. Through unconventional organization of conventional parts he is able to create new meanings within the whole. (pp. 49-50.)

Representative of Venturi's categories in his concept of "both-and". He writes:

I prefer 'both-and' to 'either-or,' black and white, and sometimes gray, to black or white. A valid architecture evokes many levels of meaning and combinations of focus; its space and its elements become readable and workable in several ways at once. (p. 23.)

He sees "orthodox modern architecture" as characterized by "either-or," where, for example, a support is seldom an enclosure. The examples that he presents of both-and in architecture include the ceilings of Sir John Soane's secular chambers which are "both rectangular and curvilinear, and domed and vaulted." (p. 36.) Also referred to is pre-cast concrete construction which can be continuous yet fragmentary, flowing in profile yet surfaced with joints." (pp. 36-37.)

After analyzing hundreds of examples by fragmentation, Venturi deals with the problem of the whole, thus completing an original contribution to architectural theory.

Architecture is now becoming involved with large and comprehensive projects. If these projects are approached with no theoretical considerations, or with considerations based on technology alone, they will not create a more tolerable environment, no matter how inclusive their scale. Venturi's writing suggests an approach founded in the nature of experience. From such an approach can come a vision of the context of man as clear and meaningful for our time as the Uffizi was for its time. Without such an approach an arbitrary and hostile environment will be perpetuated.

Robert Venturi , author of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Museum of Modern Art, 1966) is an important architect of the Philadelphia school and Professor of Architecture at Yale. While he has completed only a few commissions, his ideas have been extremely influential and his projects widely published.