“I like complexity and contradiction in architecture. I do not like the incoherence or arbitrariness of incompetent architecture nor the precious intricacies of picturesqueness or expressionism.”

— Robert Venturi , book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

1. Nonstraightfoward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)

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Robert Venturi 12

American architect 1925–2018

John Zachman (1934) American computer scientist

Source: A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, 1987, p. 281 as cited in: San Murugesan, Yogesh Deshpande (2001) Web Engineering: Managing Diversity and Complexity of Web. p, 126

“Nor does complexity deny the valid simplification which is part of the process of analysis, and even a method of achieving complex architecture itself.”

Robert Venturi book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

2. Complexity and Contradiction vs. Simplification or Picturesqueness
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)

“A classic,' suggested Anthony, 'is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it's safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It's acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it's a really stupid thing to want to do.”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

This has commonly been paraphrased "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." More info at "Alan P. Scott : Talking about music..." http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm Also, Costello has denied http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/ having coined this, in an interview in Q magazine, tentatively attributing the quote instead to Martin Mull.
Misattributed

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”

Martin Mull (1943) American actor

(on or before 1979), attributed in print in the magazine Time Barrier Express in the September-October 1979 issue in an article by Gary Sperrazza. Writing About Music is Like Dancing About Architecture: Laurie Anderson? Steve Martin? Frank Zappa? Martin Mull? Elvis Costello? Thelonius Monk?, Quote Investigator (blog), November 9, 2010 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/,
Attributed

“My work is about structure. It has never been a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. I saw the Abstract Expressionists for the first time in 1954. My line of influence has been the 'structure' of the things I liked: French Romanesque architecture, Byzantine, Egyptian and Oriental art, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Klee, Picasso, Beckman..”

Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) American painter, sculptor, and printmaker

Source: 1969 - 1980, In: "Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper," 1987, p. unknown : 'Notes from 1969'

“The bottom line for mathematicians is that the architecture has to be right. In all the mathematics that I did, the essential point was to find the right architecture. It's like building a bridge. Once the main lines of the structure are right, then the details miraculously fit. The problem is the overall design.”

Freeman Dyson (1923) theoretical physicist and mathematician

"Freeman Dyson: Mathematician, Physicist, and Writer". Interview with Donald J. Albers, The College Mathematics Journal, vol 25, no. 1, (January 1994)

“So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

An Organic Architecture (1939)

“I like complexity and contradiction in architecture. I do not like the incoherence or arbitrariness of incompetent architecture nor the precious intricacies of picturesqueness or expressionism.”

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Robert Venturi 12

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