COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE

Contradictory Levels:

The Phenomenon of "Both-And" in Architecture

ANIRUDH KUMAR RAMPURIA

3A

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Enrollment Number- 15000514

AUTHOR - Robert Charles Venturi Jr.

Critical of the modernistic concepts, Robert Venturi argued for a diverse form of architecture and
tried to mould the fundamental thinking of designers, planners and architects through his books in
the twentieth century. He wanted to include historical references , not as a repository of forms, but
of abstract compositional rules that formed the basis of a change in the expansion of architecture.

The fourth chapter in the book talks about Contradictory Levels:-The Phenomenon of "Both-And" in
Architecture.

Contradiction can be defined as a combination of statements, ideas, or features which are opposed
to one another.i In architecture, the conjuctive word “yet” is used for indicating a contradiction at
varying levels of program and structure.

For example, LeCorbusier's Shodhan House ( 11 ) is closed yet open-a cube,precisely closed by its
corners, yet randomly opened on its surfaces
 In the Giesel library , buildings arches, in combination with the design of the individual floors, are
made to look like hands holding up a stack of books.Thus ,there is a strong sense of rigidity , yet
some movement at the same time

In the chapter , Cleanth Brooks , an American literary critic ,who helped to formulate formalist
criticism refers to- Donne's art as "having it both ways" but, he says, "most of us in this latter
day,cannot. With this statement , he throws light on the comaprision between “either –or” , and
“both – and “and feels it is due to the lack of ability to think and understand quickly., that we resort
to both-and. He feels both-and has a basis of hierarchy within it , which might lead to multiple
contrasts, layers of meanings , assumptions and thus contradictions. However “either or is used for
characterizing orthodox modern architecture such as the idea of outside versus inside or window
from wall creates levels of importance.

He feels what makes architecture more vivd for the observer is perception and layers of levels,
Architecture becomes more valid when the words epitomize the difficulty of inclusion of all aspecsts
, as opposed to any exlusion of even the simplest of factors .Based on Kahn’s remarks , he feels
architecture will have good or bad spaces , but it is eventually the small components that make up a
unified whole which in turn justify the rationality of it.

To explain the same , he makes uses of the following examples (from text)

 Hawksmoor's St. George-in-the-East .

Both the pictures represent the aisle windows.

On the left is a zoomed in view of the keystone , which makes it look huge in relation to its span. The
same keystone when viewed on a contextual scale, doesn’t look odd.

 Sullivan’s Farmers’ and Merchants’ Union Bank in Columbus, Wisconsin

The plan is a reflection of the separation of space inside, which is used by the public and the clerks.

As is shown in the picture, the shaft seperates the duality of the window and the door. The
shaft is further divided into three panels, and the arch on top loks like its being sprung from
the dominant central panel. All these pieces together make up the façade, look like its one
whole.

 In Piazza del Popolo . the tw0 domes , give a complete and the appearance of a
whole. However , the individual towers on each of them , when looked at in isolation
, become inflective

 In Villa Aldobrandini, the unique diagonals of the fragmentary pediments tend to

point inwards, thereby emphasising on a dominating façade.
 Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has a central dome on the square bay . A central type
ofChurch is implied by the pendentives , but the half-domes with their two apses
create the idea of alongitudinal axis as was done traditionally in the directional
basilica.
REPRESENTATION OF “BOTH – AND “ IN OTHER EXAMPLES -

The above are pictures of Flying Roller Coaster Staircase by Heike Mutter + Ulrich Genth at
Duisburg, Germany. The curved flight of stairs inscribes like a signature on the landscape and recruits
the nimbus of the classical roller coaster. Having a closer look, the public is disappointed in a
disarming way. The visitor climbs on foot via differently steep steps the roller-coaster-sculpture. So
the sculpture subtly and ironically plays with the dialectic of promise and disappointment, mobility
and standstill.ii

The tower on the left, with antenna spire, was 1 WTC. The tower on the right was 2 WTC. The two
towers , when looked together , make it a complete whoe. However, the spire on the first one ,
makes it inflective
The disunity that exists from the point of view of architecture also shows some form of contradiction
. This can be seen in the facades of the Development Alternatives building , which has four different
facades. Each of these respond to the idea of sustainability in some manner , hence the difference .
But the building in totality , still comes across as a unified whole.

The context of the site also a major role while disussing the both – and concept. For examples The
geographical context of Los Angeles played a major role in Richard Meir’s Getty Center. The idea of
falling waters would have been incomplete without the surrounding context.

The two pictures shown above are of IIM Ahemdabad campus . These two are linked by an
underground bridge. Both these built forms are strikingly contrasting and different in appearance .
However , on visiting and viewing both of them together, they hold on to giving the user the vibe of
one campus, and make it stand as a whole.
REPRESENTATION IN PAINTINGS -

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, sought a new kind of representation in painting and sculpture in
which objects were shown simultaneously from many points of view, interpenetrating one another
in a complex, fluidly structured continuum.

Thus ,Architecture according to him can be called valid if “ An architecture which includes varying
levels of meaning breeds, ambiguity and tension”.

i
contradiction. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House,
Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/contradiction (accessed: February 17, 2018).
ii
https://www.archdaily.com/186373/tiger-turtle-magic-mountain-heike-mutter-ulrich-genth