Robert Venturi

Architecture is a profession about wood, bricks, stones, steel and glass. It is also an art form based on words, ideas and conceptual frameworks. Few 20th century architects have managed to combine both aspects of the profession, and none more successfully than Robert Venturi.

He has expanded and redefined the boundaries of the art of architecture in this century as perhaps no one else has done through his theories and built works. These theories are embodied in his slim but powerful book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, published in 1966, which is generally known for having diverted mainstream architecture away from modernism.

The extent of the influence this treatise has had on all those who practice or teach architecture is impossible to measure, but evident. In this landmark book, Venturi took a fresh look at America's architectural landscape and described the honesty and beauty inherent in ordinary buildings. From this simple observation, he wove a manifesto that challenged the prevailing thinking on American functionalist architecture and the minimalism of the International School.

Not content with theory, Venturi began to put his convictions into practice. His early buildings were pioneering in illustrating his ideas on a real scale. His first houses, including one for his mother in 1961, shaped his beliefs, confounding critics and infuriating many of his peers. During the intervening years, he methodically forged a career that established him not only as a theoretician of exceptional insight, but also as a master of the arts.

His understanding of the urban context of architecture, complemented by his talented partner, Denise Scott Brown, with whom he has collaborated on both further writings and built works, has resulted in changing the course of architecture in this century, allowing architects and consumers the freedom to accept inconsistencies in form and pattern, enjoying popular taste.

As an architect, planner, scholar, author and teacher, Robert Venturi has distinguished himself as an architect of vision and purpose. His vision and purpose are consistent with the principles of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, qualifying him to take his place among those who make significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture.