The Value Of Architecture During The Vietnam War

Architecture is a history full with contradictions. Fresh ideas essentially raised with the waning of old ideology. Throughout the entire modernism period, most architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were seeking for a kind of scientific certainty- they hoped their buildings to be “universal”, they wanted to find an “elixir” for all the buildings around the world, and they liked to build the same building all over the place. However, during the 1960s, this idea was widely challenged by the social spilt caused by Vietnam War. Architects started to rethink the value of architecture to society. Thus, a certain rule that apply to all kinds of architecture started to losing its credibility. Meanwhile, a new genre called post-modernism started

“The ornamental line created by a row of white bricks contradictorily intersects the row of upper windows, but it terminates the otherwise plain façade. With the area of white glazed bricks on the front below, it also sets up a new and larger scale of three stories, juxtaposed on the other smaller scale of six stories demarked by the layers of windows.” (Venturi, 1966) It’s tricky for a six-stories building to appear as only has three-stories. By adding three balconies and white lines to front, Venturi made the seemingly dull street façade became much more eye-catching and

People wouldn’t call a designer of old people house as an architect because architecture was innately linked with some sort of superiority. In Venturi and Scott Brown’s well known book “Learning from Les Vages”, they discussed the role of architecture in modern society and believed that the good architecture should represent the taste of majority- pop culture. In other words, the architecture should be inclusive and accessible to public. The responsibility of architects is to design buildings that people can appreciate rather than the “Duck” that no one can understand. Back to Venturi’s building guild house. It’s hard to imagine that Venturi, one of the most well-known and influential architects, would spend almost three years to build a shelter for low-income old people. By designing guild house, he wanted to show that his ideas and buildings served for normal people’s interests and represented their