Published in 1972 Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour analyzes the architecture of the commercial strip in Las Vegas as an object of communication and persuasion. The architecture along the strip acts as sign rather than space with the intentions of creating an architectural object capable of seducing and luring the spectator at mid glance. Venturi translated the Las Vegas strip as a form of architecture that relied solely on iconicity as advertisement, which further engages with the signs, symbols, and icons of popular culture. Two types of building categories were analyzed by Venturi, the duck and the decorated shed. The duck Venturi argues is a type of building that is a symbol, a sculptural symbolic
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Following World War II gambling began to be widely accepted as an activity of leisure that was socially beneficial to the working class, it was an activity that allowed one to decompress from a daily routine. It was no longer an activity associated with crime and absence of morals. “From a functionalists perspective, it began to be investigated both as instrumental activity directed to an economic end and as an expressive social activity enjoyed as an end in itself.”( McMillen 15) Sociologist Erving Goffman, who disassociated gambling from its previous connotation provided a new platform for researchers, which further developed a new perspective of viewing gambling. Goffman analyzed that gambling allowed those who participated in the activity to demonstrate character valued by society for instance, risk taking and courage. Additionally he noted that it was alternate form of reality that provides a distraction from the challenges in society, a form of relaxation. Gambling in American society has become a giant socio-economic power that has profound effects on the institutions of culture. Commercial gambling in America became “a profitable and legitimate business which has an intimate and compatible relationship with American society and core institutions”(McMillen 18) This would have never been possible without the rejection of …show more content…
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour document this occurrence and how it plays out in the physical environment in the publication Learning from Las Vegas. Venturi and his partners argue that the architecture of Las Vegas is “an architecture of persuasion” and suggest it is popular architecture that responds to the gambling culture. It is contradictory to modernist ideals of open space, simplicity, structural honesty and functionality. During Venturi, Brown and Izenour’s visit to Las Vegas, they recollect their casino experience stating; “The combination of darkness and enclosure of the gambling room and its subspaces makes for privacy, protection, concentration and control”(Venturi Brown Izenour 49) They further describe the casino floor as a space that makes visitors confused with time and space. The architecture becomes instrumental in shaping gambling activity through the use of unconventional design principles. Conventional architecture design is traditionally concerned with open space, light and circulation. When designing casinos these conventional methods are no longer applicable as casino architecture is concerned with consumer experience and interested in sculpting the environment to define behavior. In essence the main goal of a designer is to lure visitors to gambling machines or
Following World War II gambling began to be widely accepted as an activity of leisure that was socially beneficial to the working class, it was an activity that allowed one to decompress from a daily routine. It was no longer an activity associated with crime and absence of morals. “From a functionalists perspective, it began to be investigated both as instrumental activity directed to an economic end and as an expressive social activity enjoyed as an end in itself.”( McMillen 15) Sociologist Erving Goffman, who disassociated gambling from its previous connotation provided a new platform for researchers, which further developed a new perspective of viewing gambling. Goffman analyzed that gambling allowed those who participated in the activity to demonstrate character valued by society for instance, risk taking and courage. Additionally he noted that it was alternate form of reality that provides a distraction from the challenges in society, a form of relaxation. Gambling in American society has become a giant socio-economic power that has profound effects on the institutions of culture. Commercial gambling in America became “a profitable and legitimate business which has an intimate and compatible relationship with American society and core institutions”(McMillen 18) This would have never been possible without the rejection of …show more content…
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour document this occurrence and how it plays out in the physical environment in the publication Learning from Las Vegas. Venturi and his partners argue that the architecture of Las Vegas is “an architecture of persuasion” and suggest it is popular architecture that responds to the gambling culture. It is contradictory to modernist ideals of open space, simplicity, structural honesty and functionality. During Venturi, Brown and Izenour’s visit to Las Vegas, they recollect their casino experience stating; “The combination of darkness and enclosure of the gambling room and its subspaces makes for privacy, protection, concentration and control”(Venturi Brown Izenour 49) They further describe the casino floor as a space that makes visitors confused with time and space. The architecture becomes instrumental in shaping gambling activity through the use of unconventional design principles. Conventional architecture design is traditionally concerned with open space, light and circulation. When designing casinos these conventional methods are no longer applicable as casino architecture is concerned with consumer experience and interested in sculpting the environment to define behavior. In essence the main goal of a designer is to lure visitors to gambling machines or