Complexity and Contradiction at fifty: Studies toward an Ongoing Debate

A two-volume boxset facsimile of the first printing of Complexity and Contradiction paired with a compendium of new scholarship on and around Robert Venturi’s seminal treatise.

First published in 1966, this remarkable book by Robert Venturi has become an essential document in architectural literature. This two-volume boxed set presents a facsimile of the first printing of Complexity and Contradiction paired with a compendium of new scholarship on and around Venturi’s seminal treatise. Ten essays and a selection of original papers – introduced at a three-day international conference co-organized by MoMA to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the book – address diverse issues, such as the book’s relationship to Venturi’s own built oeuvre and its significance in the contemporary landscape. Together, these volumes expand the horizons of Venturi’s original ideas on creating and experiencing architecture.