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Schwartz described the house as "both straightforward and idiosyncratic". "If there is one single picture associated with Robert Venturi's work and Postmodern architecture, it is the front of his mother's house," wrote architect and author Frederic Schwartz in 1992.
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There is also an arch that serves no purpose.
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There is also no matching gable at the back – the element is purely decorative.Ī square opening creates a sheltered doorway in the centre of the facade, yet the door itself stands to one side. Firstly, the gable has a vertical opening in its centre, and is located on the long rather than the short side of the building, completely distorting its scale. However, these traditional elements were applied in unconventional ways. "I like to think this is so." A square opening creates a sheltered doorway in the centre of the facade – photograph courtesy of the architects "Some have said my mother's house looks like a child's drawing of a house – representing the fundamental aspects of shelter – gable roof, chimney, door and windows," wrote Venturi in Architectural Record in 1982.
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The house was completed in 1964, over a decade before Postmodernism got into full swing. It is perhaps best known for its facade – a monumental gable with an oversized chimney in its centre and an assortment of mismatched windows. "If you look at the first five of his designs, you'll see that Bob is the Kahn groupie," she explained. "And suddenly, the sixth one, it changes." The house features a pitched roof topped by an oversized chimney – photograph courtesy of the architects The early versions were heavily influenced by Kahn, who was also building a house on the same street – the Esherick House of 1961. But by the final design, Venturi and Scott Brown were working together on the project and it took on a much more radical form. Many different designs emerged over the course of six years. "Vanna wanted to help Bob's career," Scott Brown told Dezeen. "He took years making a kind of odyssey by designing his mother's house. The students used to laugh at him: 'Bob Venturi, there he is, designing his mother's house again!'" View of the house from the south – photograph by Smallbones Related story Postmodern architecture: San Cataldo Cemetery by Aldo Rossi Italian architect Aldo Rossi credited the building with having "liberated architecture in America and elsewhere", while fellow American architect Peter Eisenman described it as "the first American building to propose an ideological break with Modern abstraction at the same time that it is rooted in this tradition."
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Vanna Venturi House from the south-west, 2010 – photograph by Smallbonesīy reintroducing elements traditionally associated with houses – from a gabled roof to an arch-framed entrance – but stripping them of their original functions, he laid the foundations for the entire Postmodern movement. It incorporates many of the devices used by Modernist architects like Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, from horizontal ribbon windows, to a simplistic rendered facade. But Venturi chose to also include ornament in the design – something his Modernist peers had shunned. The Vanna Venturi House, referred to by the architect as "my mother's house", took more than six years to design and marked the beginning of his break with the Modernist movement. The facade of the Vanna Venturi House, 2011 – photograph by Smallbones