“Less is a bore,” quipped American architect Robert Venturi in answer to Mies van der Rohe’s famous epigram. Venturi’s pronouncement is also the subtitle of a new book from Phaidon, Postmodern Architecture, a collection of more than 200 postmodern buildings the world over that wield color, ornament, and form in disarming, delightful ways. Below, we serve up our favorite examples that champion maximalism.

I am for richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning; for the implicit function as well as the explicit function. I prefer “both—and” to “either—or,” black and white, and sometimes gray, to black or white. A valid architecture evokes many levels of meaning and combinations of focus; its space and its elements become readable and workable in several ways at once.
—Robert Venturi

Our processes of conception must go beyond those of architecture and design, into the city, where the objects we may swipe are Rome, Las Vegas, Lagos, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
—Denise Scott Brown

Superficiality has depth if understood and accepted as the profound difficulty of human life.
—Alessandro Mendini

Related Reading: 15 Colorful Must-Haves for the Memphis Design Lover

Appears In

8 Postmodern Buildings That Proclaim “Less Is a Bore”