Robert Venturi (1925-25-06 - 2018-19-09) forever entered the history of architecture as one of the founders of postmodernism, the author of the key works "Complexities and Contradictions in Architecture" (1966) and "Lessons from Las Vegas" (1972; this book was written by him in co-authored with his wife and bureau partner Denise Scott Brown and Stephen Eisenour), the Van Venturi house in Philadelphia (1962-1964), an equally important challenge to the rigid schemes of modernism, and a witty response to the maxim of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “less is more”-“less is bore”.
Venturi played an important role in the emancipation of the architecture of the second half of the 20th century, the fruits of which we still reap. This is how the themes of play, appeal to history, frivolity, and at the same time, more attention to a person - not to a social and functional phenomenon, but to a living being who wants an interesting and rich environment, often to the detriment of good taste (which was demonstrated by the objects of Venturi research).
However, the 21st century, having adopted his ideas, is not too interested in the rest of Robert Venturi's legacy. Architectural postmodernism remained in the last century, and even its best examples are rarely in demand today. In 2010, the Benjamin Franklin Memorial in Philadelphia (1976), where Venturi and Scott Brown reconstructed the lost buildings in the form of white silhouettes on a 1: 1 scale, was, despite their protests, rebuilt in 2011-2013 in the spirit of the times. The Leeb couple's small house in New Jersey (1969) was saved from demolition in 2010 at the last moment, and then at the cost of moving to a new location. Vanna Venturi House, awarded with the 25th Anniversary of the American Institute of Architects (awarded for the enduring relevance of a building), underwent a change of ownership in 2016, which also made the concerned public worry.
Right now, there is a struggle to keep the San Diego Museum of Modern Art intact by Venturi and Scott Brown (1996), which is planned to be completely rebuilt in a "minimalist" spirit (which has already happened to the Museum of Art in Seattle, their 1991 work, rebuilt in 2007). At the same time, the Abrams house in Pittsburgh (1979) was under threat of demolition: the new owner bought it just for the sake of destruction, in order to complement his Giovanitti villa designed by Richard Mayer (1981-1983), located on a neighboring site, with a more spacious garden. Style preferences in all three cases are pretty obvious.
Postmodernism is losing on all fronts, at least in the United States: in Britain, for example, exhibitions and books are dedicated to it, its samples are included in the state list of monuments - despite their sometimes 1990s "years of birth." Obviously, Mo aesthetics, which once seemed like a breath of freedom after the dictatorship of modernism, is much more difficult to revive in architecture than in fashion or cinema, where the “renaissances” of the 1970s and 1980s constantly occur.
