Beach House Project (Scale model, 1/4" = 1')

Robert Venturi

c. 1959

A quarter‑inch‑to‑the‑foot scale study in cardboard and wooden dowels by Robert Venturi that tests how intersecting rooflines, punched openings, and a dramatic central chimney organize a small beach house.

You'd first be struck by the raw brown cardboard planes folded into an angular, low‑slung massing—windows and cutouts read like deliberate notches while a tall, columnlike chimney gives the model a sculptural, slightly theatrical presence.

An early articulation of Venturi's interest in complexity and contradiction, this model gestures away from Modernist purity toward a vernacular, context‑rich approach that helped open the path to postmodern architecture.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural model Architecture Model Prototype Postmodernism Built environment Design

Exhibitions

Architectural Models from the Collection

1974

Modern Rooms of the Last Fifty Years

1946

Built in USA: Post-War Architecture

1953

Modern Architecture: International Exhibition

1932