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behind the scenes

multiple vision
unity in [con]text

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...Guarini's Church of the Immaculate Conception in Turin is a duality in plan and yet a unity...
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), p. 30.

Vanbrugh's end bays in the central pavilion of the entrance facade of Blenheim Palace are incorrect because they are bisected by a pilaster: this fragmentation produces a duality which decreases their unity. Their very incompleteness, however, reinforces by contrast the center bay and increases the overall unity of this complex composition. The pavilions which flanked the chateau at Marly contained a similar paradox. The compositional duality of their two-bay facades lacks unity, but reinforces the unity of the whole complex. Their own incompleteness implied the dominance of the chateau itself and the completeness of the whole.
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), p. 32.

Later I shall analyze some organized contradictions between front and back. But here I shall mention the Karlskirche in Vienna, whose exterior contains elements both of the basilica in its facade and of the central-type church in its body. A convex form in the back was required by the interior program; the urban space required a larger scale and a straight facade in front. The disunity that exists from the point of view of the building itself is contradicted when the building is seen in relation to the scale and the space of the neighborhood.
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), p. 37.

4041d

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