The Vanna Venturi house is located in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The house was commissioned by Robert Venturi for his elderly mother Vanna Venturi. Under the influence of his parents’, Robert Venturi chooses to take the architecture path because starting at a young age, his parents had given him construction games that lead him to love architecture. After Robert’s father died in 1959, Vanna decided to move to Chestnut Hill and have his son design a house for her because she wanted the house to be what Robert needed for his career. (1)The Vanna Venturi House was Robert’s first project. At the time, Robert was studying under Louis Khan, so when he began designing for his mother’s house, his first five ideas showed a trace of Khan’s styles. However, his sixth design, the final design lead a total different style from Khan’s, he pour in his emotions and love for architecture into the design and he played with light and scale. (2)
The front façade of the Venturi House could be described as a house easily drawn by children because it shows the ordinary square windows with the traditional chimney. However, Robert’s design is more than ordinary; all windows were created for the function of the interior. For example, the Modernist ribbon window is for the kitchen, while the square windows were for the bathroom and bedrooms. (3) The front façade also tricks one into thinking that the house is very symmetrical, however it is everything but that because what one sees at the front is not found at the back. This idea is inspired by Michelangelo’s Porta Pia in Rome, another structure where the back and front are not at all related. (2)
Robert
Venturi brings in his love of Roman architecture into the interior design of
the Vanna Venturi house because the interior is planned out like a small roman
city where a road circulation path goes through the building and meeting with
the vertical circulation of the market square where one usually finds a church
but in this case is replaced with the chimney. He also purposely uses marble
flooring for the dining room to resemble the market square.(3) Other reference
are clear to spot in Robert’s design such as the low pitch roof of the Low
House in Bristol, the Porta Pia in the entrance etc. Robert Venturi’s design
for the Venturi house changed architecture of the time. His design marked the
beginning of Postmodernism and continues to inspired many new architects who
visit today.
Works Cited
1.
Perez, Adelyn. "AD Classics:
Vanna Venturi House / Robert Venturi." ArchDaily. N.p., 2010. Web.
05 Dec. 2016.
2.
Davies, Colin. Key houses of the twentieth
century. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006. Print.
3.
Frearson,
Amy. "Postmodernism: Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi." Dezeen.
N.p., 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
4.
Guadalupe, Cristina, G. "The
First Postmodern Anything." Uncube Magazine. N.p., 02 Sept. 2015.
Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
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