(born 1925) Architect, theorist and forerunner of postmodernism. Venturi broke the spell of modernism with his controversial book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966) and later Learning from Las Vegas (1972). Winner of the Rome Prize in Architecture (1954), Venturi looked to history and the vernacular in his designs, as exemplified in his Vanna Venturi House (1963). He also designed the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London (1986), and the Seattle Art Museum (1991). Venturi, based in Philadelphia in partnership with architect and wife Denise Scott Brown, has expanded his designs with a series of furniture.