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61-557: Founded in 1963 by Jacques Cartier, the company performed in a former supermarket until it moved to its current home at the 489-seat John W. Huntington Theatre, designed by Robert Venturi , in 1968. Jacques Cartier (1963–1968), Paul Weidner (1968–1980), Mark Lamos (1981–1998), Michael Wilson (1998–2011), Darko Tresnjak (2011–2019), and Melia Bensussen (2019–present) have served as the Stage's artistic directors. Hartford Stage has produced over 80 world and North American premieres, including

122-494: A "return to Nature." Reaction against the dominance of neoclassical architecture came to the fore in the 1820s with Augustus Pugin providing a moral and theoretical basis for Gothic Revival architecture , and in the 1840s John Ruskin developed this ethos. The American sculptor Horatio Greenough published the essay "'American Architecture" in August 1843, in which he rejected the imitation of old styles of buildings and outlined

183-453: A language which can be invented and re-invented every time it is used. This theory influenced the so-called deconstructivist architecture. In contrast, network society innovators, especially Silicon Valley software developers, have embraced Christopher Alexander 's emphasis on The Timeless Way of Building (1979) based on pattern languages that are optimized on-site as construction unfolds. Since 2000, architectural theory has also had to face

244-434: A mix of wit and humanity that continues to transcend labels and time". Venturi's notable students include Amy Weinstein and Peter Corrigan . Architectural theory Architectural theory is the act of thinking, discussing, and writing about architecture . Architectural theory is taught in all architecture schools and is practiced by the world's leading architects . Some forms that architecture theory takes are

305-524: A profound influence on architects of the Renaissance , adding archaeological underpinnings to the rise of the Renaissance style , which was already under way. Renaissance architects such as Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti found in De architectura their rationale for raising their branch of knowledge to a scientific discipline. Vastu shastra (vāstu śāstra - literally "science of architecture" are texts on

366-463: Is also a notable phenomenologist (especially in Heidegger studies). Others, like Beatriz Colomina and Mary McLeod, expand historical understandings of architecture to include lesser or minor discourses that have influenced the development of architectural ideas over time. Studies in feminism in architecture, and in sexuality and gender as potent cultural expressions, are also considered an integral part of

427-662: Is both decorative and abstract, drawing from vernacular and historic architecture while still being modern. Venturi's work arguably provided a key influence at important times in the careers of architects Robert A. M. Stern , Rem Koolhaas , Philip Johnson , Michael Graves , Graham Gund and James Stirling , among others. Venturi was a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome , the American Institute of Architects , The American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Honorary Fellow of

488-584: Is more". Venturi lived in Philadelphia with Denise Scott Brown. He is the father of James Venturi, founder and principal of ReThink Studio. Venturi was born in Philadelphia to Robert Venturi Sr. and Vanna (née Luizi) Venturi, and was raised as a Quaker . Venturi attended school at the Episcopal Academy in Merion , Pennsylvania . He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1947 where he

549-511: Is often cited anachronistically today as a vehicle for the criticism of the Modern Movement . Also on the topic of artistic notions with regard to urbanism was Louis Sullivan 's The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered of 1896. In this essay, Sullivan penned his famous alliterative adage "form ever follows function"; a phrase that was to be later adopted as a central tenet of Modern architectural theory. While later architects adopted

610-418: Is plural and multicolored. There are different dominant schools of architectural theory which are based on linguistic analysis, philosophy, post-structuralism, or cultural theory. For instance, there is emerging interest in the re-discovery of the post-modernist project Sam Jacob, in the definition of new radical tendencies of architecture and its implication in the development of cities (Pier Vittorio Aureli), in

671-622: Is usually seen in the context of the Jugendstil , his demand for "the elimination of ornament" joined the slogan " form follows function " as a principle of the architectural so-called Modern Movement that came to dominate the mid-20th century. Walter Gropius , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier provided the theoretical basis for the International Style with aims of using industrialised architecture to reshape society. Frank Lloyd Wright , while modern in rejecting historic revivalism,

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732-404: Is why university courses on architecture theory may often spend just as much time discussing philosophy and cultural studies as buildings, and why advanced postgraduate research and doctoral dissertations focus on philosophical topics in connection with architectural humanities. Some architectural theorists aim at discussing philosophical themes, or engage in direct dialogues with philosophers, as in

793-538: The Las Vegas Strip , perhaps the least likely subject for a serious research project imaginable. In 1972, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour published the folio, A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas . It was revised using the student work as a foil for new theory, and reissued in 1977 as Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form . This second manifesto

854-550: The Royal Institute of British Architects . Venturi died on September 18, 2018, in Philadelphia from complications of Alzheimer's disease . He was 93. In the wake of Venturi's death, Michael Kimmelman , the current architecture critic for The New York Times , tweeted..."RIP the great, inspiring Robert Venturi who opened millions of eyes and whole new ways of thinking about the richness of our architectural environment, and whose diverse work with Denise Scott Brown contains

915-665: The UK , exemplified by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh , and influenced the Vienna Secession . On the Continent, the theories of Viollet-le-Duc and Gottfried Semper provided the springboard for enormous vitality of thought dedicated to architectural innovation and the renovation of the notion of style. Semper in particular developed an international following, in Germany , England , Switzerland , Austria , Bohemia , France , Italy and

976-494: The United States . The generation born during the middle-third of the 19th century was largely enthralled with the opportunities presented by Semper's combination of a breathtaking historical scope and a methodological granularity. In contrast to more recent, and thus "modern", thematically self-organized theoretical activities, this generation did not coalesce into a "movement." They did, however, seem to converge on Semper's use of

1037-706: The Yale School of Architecture and was a visiting lecturer with Scott Brown in 2003 at Harvard University 's Graduate School of Design . A controversial critic of what he saw as the blithely functionalist and symbolically vacuous architecture of corporate modernism during the 1950s, Venturi was one of the first architects to question some of the premises of the Modern Movement. He published his "gentle manifesto", Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966; in its introduction, Vincent Scully called it "probably

1098-438: The lecture or dialogue, the treatise or book, and the paper project or competition entry . Architectural theory is often didactic, and theorists tend to stay close to or work from within schools. It has existed in some form since antiquity , and as publishing became more common, architectural theory gained an increased richness. Books, magazines, and journals published an unprecedented number of works by architects and critics in

1159-522: The 20th century. As a result, styles and movements formed and dissolved much more quickly than the relatively enduring modes in earlier history. It is to be expected that the use of the internet will further the discourse on architecture in the 21st century. There is little information or evidence about major architectural theory in antiquity, until the 1st century BC, with the work of Vitruvius . This does not mean, however, that such works did not exist, given that many works never survived antiquity. Vitruvius

1220-514: The Architecture Firm Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1985. The practice's recent work includes many commissions from academic institutions, including campus planning and university buildings, and civic buildings in London, Toulouse , and Japan. Venturi's architecture has had worldwide influence, beginning in the late 1960s with the dissemination of the broken-gable roof of

1281-460: The Enlightenment include Julien-David Le Roy , Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier , Giovanni Battista Piranesi , Robert Adam , James Stuart, Georg Friedrich Hegel and Nicholas Revett . A vibrant strain of Neoclassicism , inherited from Marc-Antoine Laugier 's seminal Essai, provided the foundation for two generations of international activity around the core themes of classicism, primitivism and

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1342-616: The Enlightenment witnessed considerable development in architectural theory on the European continent. New archaeological discoveries (such as those of Pompeii and Herculaneum ) drove new interest in Classical art and architecture. Thus, the term neoclassicism , exemplified by the writings of Prussian art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann , arose to designate 18th-century architecture, which looked to these new classical precedents for inspiration in building design. Major architectural theorists of

1403-707: The North Penn Visiting Nurses Headquarters), apparently casual asymmetries (as at the Vanna Venturi House), and pop-style supergraphics and geometries (for instance, the Lieb House). Venturi created the firm Venturi and Short with William Short in 1960. In his architectural design Venturi was influenced by early masters such as Michelangelo and Palladio , and modern masters including Le Corbusier , Alvar Aalto , Louis Kahn and Eero Saarinen . After John Rauch replaced Short as partner in 1964,

1464-460: The Stage reemphasized modern American classics from Tennessee Williams and Amiri Baraka . Tresnjak deepened the Stage's commitment to Shakespeare and new American theatre and successfully launched musical theatre as a new programming priority. Bensussen was hired to enhance the Stage's community engagement and education initiatives and diversify its repertoire. Robert Venturi Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018)

1525-573: The Vanna Venturi House and the segmentally arched window and interrupted string courses of Guild House. The playful variations on vernacular house types seen in the Trubeck and Wislocki Houses offered a new way to embrace, but transform, familiar forms. The facade patterning of the Oberlin Art Museum and the laboratory buildings demonstrated a treatment of the vertical surfaces of buildings that

1586-489: The abbreviated phrase "form follows function" as a polemic in service of functionalist doctrine, Sullivan wrote of function with regard to biological functions of the natural order. Another influential planning theorist of this time was Ebenezer Howard , who founded the garden city movement . This movement aimed to form communities with architecture in the Arts and Crafts style at Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City and popularised

1647-688: The attempt to develop a new formal language. Another trend is the exploration of those computational techniques that are influenced by algorithms relevant to biological processes and sometimes referred to as Digital morphogenesis . Trying to utilize Computational creativity in architecture, Genetic algorithms developed in computer science are used to evolve designs on a computer, and some of these are proposed and built as actual structures. Since these new architectural tendencies emerged, many theorists and architects have been working on these issues, developing theories and ideas such as Patrick Schumacher's Parametricism. Contemporary architecture's theoretical world

1708-549: The case of Peter Eisenman 's and Bernard Tschumi 's interest in Derrida 's thought, or Anthony Vidler 's interest in the works of Freud and Lacan , in addition to an interest in Gaston Bachelard 's Poetics of Space or texts by Gilles Deleuze . This has also been the case with educators in academia like Dalibor Vesely or Alberto-Perez Gomez , and in more recent years this philosophical orientation has been reinforced through

1769-453: The classical orders of architecture . It also proposes the three fundamental laws that architecture must obey, in order to be so considered: firmitas, utilitas, venustas , translated in the 17th century by Sir Henry Wotton into the English slogan firmness, commodity, and delight (meaning structural adequacy, functional adequacy, and beauty). The rediscovery of Vitruvius' work in 1414 had

1830-521: The concept of Realismus , and they are thus labelled proponents of architectural realism. Among the most active Architectural Realists were: Georg Heuser, Rudolf Redtenbacher, Constantin Lipsius , Hans Auer , Paul Sédille , Lawrence Harvey (architect)|Lawrence Harvey, Otto Wagner and Richard Streiter. In 1889 Camillo Sitte published Der Städtebau nach seinem künstlerischen Grundsätzen (translated as City Planning According to Artistic Principles ) which

1891-411: The conflicts often inherent in a project or site. This "inclusive" approach contrasted with the typical modernist effort to resolve and unify all factors in a complete and rigidly structured—and possibly less functional and more simplistic—work of art. The diverse range of buildings of Venturi's early career offered surprising alternatives to then current architectural practice, with "impure" forms (such as

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1952-433: The creative artist as unique genius. This limited the relevance of his theoretical propositions. Towards the end of the century postmodern architecture reacted against the austerity of High Modern (International Style) principles, viewed as narrowly normative and doctrinaire. In contemporary architectural discourse theory has become more concerned with its position within culture generally, and thought in particular. This

2013-525: The embrace of the idea of discipline and in a new formalist approach to architecture through the appropriation of concepts from the Object Oriented philosophy. It is too early, however, to say whether any of these explorations will have widespread or lasting impact on architecture. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, there is the emergence of architectural theory based on the frameworks of social reproduction theory and care ethics. This approach

2074-565: The end of the century, but these two have so far proved to be the most influential. The architecture of Robert Venturi, although perhaps not as familiar today as his books, helped redirect American architecture away from a widely practiced modernism in the 1960s to a more exploratory design approach that openly drew lessons from architectural history and responded to the everyday context of the American city. Venturi's buildings typically juxtapose architectural systems, elements and aims, to acknowledge

2135-509: The firm's name changed to Venturi and Rauch. Venturi married Denise Scott Brown on July 23, 1967, in Santa Monica, California , and in 1969, Scott Brown joined the firm as partner in charge of planning. In 1980, The firm's name became Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown, and after Rauch's resignation in 1989, Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates. The firm, based in Manayunk, Philadelphia , was awarded

2196-427: The functional relationship between architecture and decoration. These theories anticipated the development of Functionalism in modern architecture . Towards the end of the century, there occurred a blossoming of theoretical activity. In England, Ruskin's ideals underpinned the emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement exemplified by the writings of William Morris . This in turn formed the basis for Art Nouveau in

2257-478: The laborious nature of transcription, few examples of architectural theory were penned during this time. Most written works during this period were theological, and were transcriptions of the Bible. Since the architectural theories were on structures, fewer of them were transcribed. The Abbot Suger 's Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis was an architectural document that emerged with Gothic architecture . Another

2318-401: The latter 20th-century theoretical discourse, and are associated with such persons as Dolores Hayden, Catherine Ingraham, Jennifer Bloomer and Sylvia Lavin. The notion that theory entails critique also stemmed from post-structural literary studies in the work of many other theorists and architects, such as Mark Wigley and Diana Agrest, among others. In their theories, architecture is compared to

2379-586: The modern ages. From Alberti, good architecture is validated through the Vitruvian triad , which defines its purpose. This triplet conserved all its validity until the 19th century. A major transition into the 17th century and ultimately to the Age of Enlightenment was secured through the advanced mathematical and optical research of the celebrated architect and geometer Girard Desargues , with an emphasis on his studies on conics, perspective and projective geometry. The Age of

2440-535: The most important issue was not the architectural shape or form of a building but the quality of the urban spaces that buildings collectively enclose, the whole being more than the sum of its parts. The Modern Movement rejected these thoughts and Le Corbusier energetically dismissed the work. Nevertheless, Sitte's work was revisited by post-modern architects and theorists from the 1970s, especially following its republication in 1986 by Rizzoli, in an edition edited by Collins and Collins (now published by Dover ). The book

2501-522: The most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier 's Vers Une Architecture of 1923." The work was derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venturi received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and

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2562-525: The new musical Anastasia , which enjoyed a two-year run on Broadway ; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder , winner of four 2014 Tony Awards , including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical; and Water by the Spoonful , winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama . Kevin Bacon starred in the Stage's adaptation of Rear Window . Hartford Stage gained national recognition under Lamos, who shook up

2623-488: The past decade, there has been the emergence of the so-called "Digital" Architecture. Several currents and design methodologies are being developed simultaneously, some of which reinforce each other, whereas others work in opposition. One of these trends is Biomimicry , which is the process of examining nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements, to emulate or take inspiration from them in order to solve human problems. Architects also design organic-looking buildings in

2684-421: The possible application of such techniques. The book has been published in 18 languages to date. Immediately hailed as a theorist and designer with radical ideas, Venturi went to teach a series of studios at the Yale School of Architecture in the mid-1960s. The most famous of these was a studio in 1968 in which Venturi and Scott Brown, together with Steven Izenour , led a team of students to document and analyze

2745-447: The rapid rise of urbanism and globalization . By developing a new understanding of the city, many theorists developed new understandings of the urban conditions of our planet (E.G. Rem Koolhaas 's Bigness ). Interests in fragmentation and architecture as transient objects further affected such thinking (e.g. the concern for employing high technology), but also related to general concerns such as ecology , mass media , and economism. In

2806-427: The research of a new generation of theorists (E.G. Jeffrey Kipnis or Sanford Kwinter ). Similarly, we can refer to contemporary architects who are interested in philosophy and cultural studies. Some are interested in phenomenology and neuroaesthetics , like Sarah Williams Goldhagen , Sarah Robinson, and Christian Norberg-Schulz , or specialize as philosophers and historians of science, such as Nader El-Bizri who

2867-480: 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

2928-476: The style as domestic architecture. In Vienna , the idea of a radically new modern architecture had many theorists and proponents. An early use of the term modern architecture in print occurred in the title of a book by Otto Wagner , who gave examples of his own work representative of the Vienna Secession with Art Nouveau illustrations, and didactic teachings to his students. Soon thereafter, Adolf Loos wrote Ornament and Crime , and while his own style

2989-680: The textual part of Vastu Vidya - the broader knowledge about architecture and design theories from ancient India. Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita dated to about the sixth century CE is among the earliest known Indian texts with dedicated chapters with principles of architecture. For example, Chapter 53 of the Brihat Samhita is titled "On architecture", and there and elsewhere it discusses elements of vastu sastra such as "planning cities and buildings" and "house structures, orientation, storeys, building balconies" along with other topics. Other ancient Vastu shastra works includes Manasara etc. Following

3050-412: The theatre's traditional repertoire with bolder contemporary dramas and spectacular productions of Shakespeare and classics such as Peer Gynt and The Greeks , a cycle of ancient Greek dramas. Productions that ended up on Broadway included Marvin's Room , Our Country's Good , Tiny Alice , Tea at Five , The Carpetbagger's Children , and Enchanted April . Under artistic director Wilson,

3111-546: The tradition of Vastu shastra , several scholars wrote architectural texts during medieval times which includes Manushyalaya Chandrika , dealing with domestic architecture authored by Thirumangalath Neelakanthan Musath, Samrangana Sutradhara written by Bhoja of Dhar , a poetic treatise on classical Indian architecture among others. Throughout the Middle Ages, architectural knowledge was passed by transcription, word of mouth and technically in master builders' lodges. Due to

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3172-406: The traditional Indian system of architecture. These texts describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, space arrangement, and spatial geometry. The designs aim to integrate architecture with nature, the relative functions of various parts of the structure, and ancient beliefs utilising geometric patterns ( yantra ), symmetry, and directional alignments. Vastu Shastra are

3233-477: Was Villard de Honnecourt 's portfolio of drawings from about the 1230s. In Song dynasty China, Li Jie published the Yingzao Fashi in 1103, which was an architectural treatise that codified elements of Chinese architecture . The first great work of architectural theory of this period belongs to sabona, De re aedificatoria , which placed Vitruvius at the core of the most profound theoretical tradition of

3294-757: Was a Roman writer , architect , and engineer active in the 1st century BC. He was the most prominent architectural theorist in the Roman Empire known today, having written De architectura (known today as The Ten Books of Architecture ), a treatise written in Latin and Greek on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. Probably written between 27 and 23 BC, it is the only major contemporary source on classical architecture to have survived. Divided into ten sections or "books", it covers almost every aspect of Roman architecture, from town planning, materials, decorations, temples, water supplies, etc. It rigorously defines

3355-782: Was a member-elect of Phi Beta Kappa and won the D'Amato Prize in Architecture. He received his M.F.A. from Princeton in 1950. The educational program at Princeton under Professor Jean Labatut, who offered provocative design studios within a Beaux-Arts pedagogical framework, was a key factor in Venturi's development of an approach to architectural theory and design that drew from architectural history and commercial architecture in analytical, as opposed to stylistic, terms. In 1951 he briefly worked under Eero Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan , and later for Louis Kahn in Philadelphia. He

3416-428: Was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Together with his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown , he helped shape the way that architects, planners and students experience and think about architecture and the built environment. Their buildings, planning, theoretical writings, and teaching have also contributed to the expansion of discourse about architecture. Venturi

3477-461: Was an even more stinging rebuke to orthodox modernism and elite architectural tastes. The book coined the terms "Duck" and "Decorated Shed", descriptions of the two predominant ways of embodying iconography in buildings. The work of Venturi, Scott Brown, and John Rauch adopted the latter strategy, producing formally simple "decorated sheds" with rich, complex, and often shocking ornamental flourishes. Venturi and his wife co-wrote several more books at

3538-543: Was awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 1991; the prize was awarded to him alone, despite a request to include his equal partner, Scott Brown. Subsequently, a group of women architects attempted to get her name added retroactively to the prize, but the Pritzker Prize jury declined to do so. Venturi coined the maxim "Less is a bore", a postmodern antidote to Mies van der Rohe's famous modernist dictum "Less

3599-559: Was awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 1954, where he studied and toured Europe for two years. From 1959 to 1967, Venturi held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania , where he served as Kahn's teaching assistant, an instructor, and later, as associate professor. It was there, in 1960, that he met fellow faculty member, architect and planner Denise Scott Brown . Venturi taught later at

3660-462: Was idiosyncratic in his theory, which he conveyed in copious writing. Wright did not subscribe to the tenets of the International Style, but evolved what he hoped would be an American, in contrast to a European, progressive course. Wright's style, however, was highly personal, involving his particular views of man and nature. Wright was more poetic and firmly maintained the 19th-century view of

3721-520: Was not exactly a criticism of architectural form but an aesthetic criticism (inspired by medieval and Baroque town planning) of 19th-century urbanism. Mainly a theoretical work, it had an immediate impact on architecture, as the two disciplines of architecture and planning intertwined. Demand for it was so high that five editions appeared in German between 1889 and 1922 and a French translation came out in 1902. (No English edition came out until 1945.) For Sitte,

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