The designs of its urban buildings have a characteristic appearance, reminiscent of drawings or paintings, both due to the use of colors and the location of the windows and other elements on the facades. Venturi aims to give a cheerful air to buildings located in a generally monotonous urban environment. On the other hand, he is very respectful of the environment when he designs buildings located in nature, such as the vacation homes he has created in various places in the United States.
In his “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture” from 1966 he defends a position contrary to modern architecture, against its claim to seek only difference and novelty. It wants to show the complexity of the architectural form that cannot be reduced to a single logical and aesthetic system (as the moderns defended). He argues that this architecture is not suitable for a period of change such as the 1960s, making this desire for change his objective and then separating himself from them, calling himself postmodern. Postmodernism means the overcoming of the modern movement. Accepting the complications of the common man instead of ignoring them and considering starting from scratch as his predecessors did.
In 1972 he published the book "Learning from Las Vegas" written with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour. The first part expands on the results of the seminar organized in 1968 at Yale University; with photos, maps and diagrams demonstrating how typical Las Vegas architecture works. In the center of the second part we talk about two emblematic figures: "the duck" and "the decorated box." The duck becomes a sculpture; the symbolic form completely appropriates the architecture, playing an excessive role. The functional box is decorated according to its function, with an advertising sign on the roof or on the ground.
Some of the most important are his admiration for Kahn with whom he studied at Yale University. From him he rescues having established a connection with the past and having given architecture an autonomous development. Furthermore, the trip he made to Rome is vital in which he can study the Baroque, a period that fascinates him for its ability to articulate the elements, subordinating them to a global geometric unity and developing all kinds of ambiguities. Finally, we must highlight his contemporaneity with pop art, whose values, admiration for commercial vernacular and consumer objects are reflected in his work.
The fundamental sources for Venturi will be the eclectic and classicist traditions (Baroque, Mannerism, Rococo) and popular architecture. He is also an admirer of Le Corbusier, Aalto, Van Eyck (for his defense of primitive cultures and their knowledge). In reference to Mies, it is highlighted that despite the erroneous belief that his staunch critic was, reality shows the opposite "Of everything I have written and said in my life, which has been a lot, there is nothing that I regret or that I want to take back, except perhaps the phrase “Less is Boring”. That was a rebellion against the dull simplicity of what I would call late modern architecture. It was a rhetorical phrase. From our current perspective, I have no doubt that Mies is one of the great masters of this century in architecture and all architects should kiss the feet of Mies van der Rohe for all his achievements and what we can learn from him.”[12].
All this complexity must be resolved by committing to the whole. This unit maintains control over the conflicting elements that make it up as a whole. It values the tradition that considers artists to have complete meaning insofar as they are valued in relation to their predecessors.
In his book he proclaimed the duality, the richness of meaning, which he opposed to a boring architecture, sensing that meeting only the functional requirements would not fulfill the architectural mission, but rather would lead to the desolation and exhaustion of the inhabitant.
His work is based on quintessential American consumer culture. These emerging characteristics of a disordered society, difficult for citizens to understand, are not compatible with rationalism. It is necessary to express these contradictions and uncertainties also on the artistic level.
He concludes that the architect must know how to interpret with new criteria of taste and composition the elements of the modern metropolis and the elements of bad reputation, such as urban equipment. It refers to pop art with whom it shares a taste for the vulgar elements of urban culture, which combine to show variety and vitality. In this sense, Venturi's proposal is a reflection of North American society in the 50s and 60s.
What stands out most about the buildings he analyzes in his book (more than 200 works) is exploring themes such as contradictions in compositions as well as the power to express several meanings simultaneously, or have a functional duality. It reduces architecture to a perceptual phenomenon, to a play of forms that transmit messages to our senses. His expressive capacity then stands out.
Several previous projects and models are previously carried out. Considers the building substantially classical in its plan and form and its ornamentation and elevation. However, it specifies that despite being classical it is not pure, it adheres more to mannerist characteristics that admit contradiction with the idea of order. Venturi considers that to appreciate this one must be aware of the contradiction in classical architecture, such as in the works of Palladio, whom he considers his guide. From his Villa Master") is that he takes the sloping façade. In this house we see expressed several of the elements of contradiction and complexity explained in the book:
The symmetry evident at the beginning is then modified by small exceptions.
It is worth noting that, although it partly criticizes Wright, the interior of this house is articulated around the fireplace, a wood stove and a staircase, similar to the English houses of the 19th century. XVII. It was surprising at the time that the windows actually looked like windows, and were not simply hollow as the Modern Movement had promulgated.
It is also important to say that a recovery of ornamentation is seen, ending the work of his teacher Kahn in the break with all modern ideals. Its applied decoration of a classical nature is unusual for the time (mid-century).
There is an arch on the façade that is made up of the same moldings and is applied to enrich the opening. This combined with the lintel makes the scale of the building appear even larger. In addition, you can see decoration on the surrounding walls, almost similar to a drawing.
There are decorative elements that are not classic, such as the industrial “band” or the kitchen window. But this is part of the mannerist desire for contradiction. Finally, it refers to a symbolist historicism of the style that seeks the essence of the style.
"Some have said that my mother's house looks like a children's drawing -representing the basic elements of shelter- (...). I like to think that it is something that reaches another essence, that of the kind that it is a house and is elemental."
"My mother's house was designed when she was already an elderly widow, with her bedroom on the ground floor, no garage because she did not drive, and with rooms for a maid and the possibility of having a nurse - in addition to also being suitable for her beautiful furniture with which I had grown up. Otherwise, she made no other demands of the architect, her son, related to the program or its aesthetics - she was wonderfully trusting."
In his book “Learning from Las Vegas” he proposes two ways for a building to be communicative. That in its form it expresses a function or that it is a functional building with a giant sign. The second option is the one considered most contemporary. This implies an independence of the façade as an autonomous fact from the functional content.
An example of an advertisement building is the “National College Hall of Fame”, a building with a gallery-like shape that is completely independent of the façade, this being a giant advertisement with an electronic screen.
Thus he opposes Loos by considering the building as a functional machine on the inside and a singular work on the outside. What will characterize his work will be a sample of the possibility of adaptability and prevalence of architecture based on the use of conventional elements. He then places himself at the opposite pole of his teacher Kahn.
What began as a search for maximum effect with minimum means (as in the Guild House in which mass production elements are used to reduce economic costs) ends up transforming into a fall into triviality and decorativeness. Taking Morris' wallpapers as a model, he will apply designs to objects and spaces, treating them epidermally. It will be considered that what characterizes each building is the clothing, the ornamentation, the treatment, the interior structure that constitutes it is then merely a constructive and functional fact.