Two very famous quotes from the book, in response to
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's
Less is more, are
More is not less and
Less is a bore. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Citing
vernacular as well as high-style sources, Venturi drew new lessons from the buildings of architects familiar (
Michelangelo,
Alvar Aalto) and, at the time, forgotten (
Frank Furness,
Edwin Lutyens). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples —both built and unrealized— of his own work to demonstrate the possible application of such techniques. Most of the book was written in 1962 under a grant from the Graham Foundation, and is seen as a
postmodern response to the purism of
modernism. The book consists of 11 chapters: • Nonstraightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto • Complexity and Contradiction vs. Simplification or Picturesqueness • Ambiguity • Contradictory Levels: The Phenomenon of "Both-And" in Architecture • Contradictory Levels Continued: The Double-Functioning Element • Accommodation and the Limitations of Order: The Conventional Element • Contradiction Adapted • Contradiction Juxtaposed • The Inside and the Outside • The Obligation Toward the Difficult Whole • Works == Awards ==