Ambiguity and complexity between drawing and space

For Venturi (Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966) the search for complexity in architecture is achieved through the use of contradictory elements, able to act simultaneously on different perceptive fronts. In Vanna Venturi House (1962), it is possible to observe the theories defined by the American architect, such as the ability of the surfaces making up this piece of architecture to show a double significance. In this and other projects by Venturi, we can also observe, ambiguous references to human features, in line with an ancient tradition. Some of the most significant episodes were framed in the seventeenth century, and also involve the scale of the territory, as is shown by the anamorphic landscape by Athanius Kircher (1646). Still in Venturi’s work, it is possible to find similar ambiguities in the scale of the landscape, in which collective experience is an important element in addition to the perception of the images. Following the influence of his wife, the urban planner Denise Scott Brown, Venturi’s message is projected onto the urbanistic scale (Learning from Las Vegas, 1972), which systematically welcomes symbolic interpretations and new ways of representations.