(((built sound)))

A Disorderly Ode to Architecture That Engages

By Robert Venturi
Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates
September 2001
from Metropolis Magazine

A Disorderly Ode to Architecture That Engages

Mannerism – rather than Modernism

Mannerism – rather than Expressionism
Mannerism – rather than Minimalism
Or modernism that is mannerism
Iconography – rather than Expressionism
Iconography – rather than scenography
Iconographic Meaning – rather than Abstract Expression
Architecture as Communication – rather than as Space
For the Information Age – rather than the Industrial Age
Viva Electronic Technology – rather than Industrial Technology!
Details engaging dynamic Electronic Pixels ornamenting surfaces – rather than static Shades and Shadows articulating forms
The façade that Emits light – rather than Reflects light
That engages Symbol – rather than Abstraction
That engages Meaning – rather than Expression
Information – rather than Expression
Decorative Informational Signage – rather than Decorative Industrial Rocaille including decorative sagging guywires
Digital pixels as a medium of information – rather than ornamental rivets – as symbols of exotic teats?
Identity via dynamic electronic technology rather than via static dramatical form
Inspiration deriving from Commercial vernacular of now – rather than from Industrial vernacular of then
Real Modern – rather than Baroque Modern
Vital – rather than Visionary
Good – rather than Original
Contextual – rather than Universal
Electronic Sparkle – rather than Electric Glow
Discovering the Familiar – rather than Stalking the Exotic
Ordinary as Extraordinary – rather than Extraordinary as Ordinary
Incidental Originality – rather than Overt Originality
Real Avant Garde – rather than Rear Avant Garde
Try to Solve – rather than try to Impress
Architecture as the Subject of Theory – rather than Architecture as the Victim of Theory
Architecture – rather than Arconcepture
Dissonant – rather than Crazy
Frozen Music – rather than Frenzied Music
Frozen Music – rather than Frozen Theory
Messy Vitality – rather than Prissy Urbanism
“Decorate Construction” – rather than “Construct Decoration” – as Pugin put it
Multiple Taste Cultures – rather than Universal Good Taste
Vitality – rather than Taste
Flexible Loft – rather than Unique Masterpiece
Realism – as well as Idealism
Exceptions that Prove the Rule – rather than Abolish the Rule
Generic – rather than Signature
Generic loft – rather than articulated form
Generic shelter – rather than articulated sculpture
The Decorated Shed – rather than the Long Island Duck
Richness – rather than purity
Convention – as well as Invention
Accommodate function — rather than follow function – the building as mitten rather than as glove
Flexible generic architecture – rather than coercive signature architecture
“Ugly and Ordinary” – as well as Heroic and Original
Programmatic accommodation – rather than ideological imposition
Pragmatism as method – rather than pragmatism as ideology
Mass culture – as well as high culture
Incidental originality – rather than overt originality
Master planning – rather than landscape prettification
Mess is more – rather than less is more
Authentic complexity and contradiction – rather than expressive complexity and contradiction
Second glance architecture – as well as Wow!
Joyous – as well as Serious
Architecture – rather than ideology
Architecture as craft – rather than as abstraction
Circumstance – as well as order
Dissonance – as well as harmony
Rich ambiguity – rather than esoteric complexity
Realism – rather than minimalism
Urban design – rather than urban prettification
Elemental shelter – rather than arty sculpture
Viva social/economic dimensions – as well as aesthetic dramatic dimensions
Architecture as electronic digital glitter – rather than as electric glowing cubes
Façade as a computer screen – rather than as a Mondrian
Valid-Modernism – rather than Neo-Modernism
Pragmatic – rather than ideological
Electronic Iconography as a new technology for an old tradition in architecture
Interaction spaces that are incidental – rather than dramatique – rather than atria
Viva evolution as well as revolution
Viva chaotic vitality – over ideological unity
Viva Times Square as the Piazza San Marco of the Electronic Age
Viva the hype sensibility of our time
Viva buildings that look like buildings – that are naughty rather than nutty – mannerist rather than expressionist
And finally, perhaps for our new Age of Terrorism, architecture as electronic-generic shelter more than architecture as formal-sculptural monument