Vanna Venturi House

Vanna Venturi House
The front facade from the northeast side of the house
General information
Type	Residence
Architectural style	Postmodern
Town or city	Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Country	United States
Coordinates	40°04′15″N 75°12′29″W / 40.0707°N 75.2081°W / 40.0707; -75.2081
Construction started	1959 (design)
Completed	1964
Cost	$43,000
Client	Vanna Venturi
Technical details
Structural system	light wood frame
Floor count	2, plus basement
Floor area	1,800 sq ft (170 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Robert Venturi
Architecture firm	Venturi and Rauch
Awards and prizes	AIA Twenty-five Year Award 2012 AIA Philadelphia Landmark Building Award
Website
Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, Inc.

The Vanna Venturi House, one of the first prominent works of the postmodern architecture movement, is located in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect Robert Venturi for his mother, Vanna Venturi, and built between 1962 and 1964.^[1]

The five-room house stands only about 30 feet (9 m) tall, but has a monumental front facade, an effect achieved by intentionally manipulating the architectural elements that indicate a building's scale.^[2] Elements such as a non-structural applique arch and "hole in the wall" windows were an open challenge to Modernist orthodoxy, as described in Venturi's 1966 book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture . Architectural historian Vincent Scully called it "the biggest small building of the second half of the twentieth century."^[3]