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ARCHITECTURE

 CRITIQUES
DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
PHILOSOPHY
INTRODUCTION

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INDEX

INTRODUCTION - What?

It is an architectural movement that began in the early 1980s.

It is influenced by the theory of "Deconstruction".

It is characterized by fragmentation, and interest in manipulating a structure's surface or

skin through transform the basic Volumes of architecture (Cube, Cuboid, Pyramid & sphere)
in order to recombine it in a new hybrid shapes.
Fragmentation

Basic Shape

INTRODUCTION

PHILOSOPHY

Recombining

Transformation

HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND

CHARACTERISTICS

CRITIQUES

INTRODUCTION - Why?

Deconstructivism rejected the postmodern acceptance of the historical

references, as well as the idea of ornament as an after-thought or decoration.

Postmodern

Modern

Deconstruction

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Deconstructivism came to public notice with the 1982 Parc de la Villette

architectural design competition.

(especially the entry from Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman and Bernard
Tschumi's winning entry).

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The New York exhibition featured works by Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem
Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard
Tschumi.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Since the exhibition, some architects associated with Deconstructivism have

distanced themselves from it.

Nonetheless, the term has stuck and has come to embrace a general trend within
contemporary architecture.

PHILOSOPHY

Deconstruction is a literary
theory and philosophy of
language derived principally
from Jacques Derrida's 1967
work Of Grammatology.

PHILOSOPHY

the clearest explanation on Derridas thinking, which I also found to

be notoriously difficult. its fundamental to Derridas extraordinary
view of the world that nothing has much meaning anyway.

Thats why he struggles so hard not to communicate with us; he

actually intends it to be difficult for us to find out what he says, if
he has anything to say at all!

Many attempts to explain or to analyze Deconstruction have been

violently rebutted on the grounds that such approaches violate the
very nature of Deconstruction.

Its proponents insist that "it cannot be described and stated as

other positions can" because it is a new form of logic that has
superseded the old traditional logic in which such analyses are
couched.

INTRODUCTION

PHILOSOPHY

HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND

CHARACTERISTICS

CRITIQUES

Analyze
Describe

PHILOSOPHY

Derrida tends to work not so much by initiating ideas as by reacting, forcibly, to what
others have written already.

In each case Derrida aims to refute thinkers with arguments derived from the authors
own writings, to demonstrate -successfully in many cases- that the very premises on
which the authors base their cases will, if pursued to their logical conclusions, defeat the
original arguments.

Deconstruction, after all, is literally concerned -as Derrida insists- with written texts. His
attacks are especially focused on subjects such as:

PHILOSOPHY

Metaphysics is the age-old search for truth and the

essence of being that has been the center of
occidental Philosophy.
Derrida despises this search through the centuries
for the ultimate truth, for the reason of our existence
& the idea that there should be some kind of
"absolute knowledge", "prime mover" or "God".

1. Metaphysics

PHILOSOPHY

This is relevant to architecture in that, for Derrida, there is no

"one best way", no "International Style", no roots from which
all architecture has grown. So there are no received truths Classical, Modernist or other.

Absolute
knowledge

Absolutes
in
Architecture

PHILOSOPHY

To "deconstruct" at all -program,

form or structure- is to
demonstrate one's view that there
are no absolutes in architecture,
that attempts, such as
Heidegger's (in philosophy) or
Le Corbusiers, Wrights and
others (in architecture) to find
such absolutes are doomed to
failure.

Church of the year 2000, Rome by Eisenman.

(Deconstruction itself rejects the existence
of God)

PHILOSOPHY

Clarity in Structuralist predecessors is to write

simply, directly, clearly and unambiguously,
Derrida is part of the Post-Structurlist movement
that strongly reacted against the clarity.

2. Clarity

PHILOSOPHY

It is my evident desire to insinuate my thoughts

into your brain, and thus colonize your mind! That
is why they write deliberately in such an unclear,
diffuse, incoherent and ambiguous way that will
get you so angry that, in your struggle to
understand, you will be forced into having your own
thoughts. -Broadbent-.
Deconstructivist architecture is ambiguous as a
Deconstructivist text, whereas clarity is what we see
when analyzing Modern architecture, simplicity in
its structure, coherence in its programme.

Diffuse
incoherent
Ambiguous

Struggle to
Understand

Give up

Accept as it
is

PHILOSOPHY

Logocentrism: analyzing the structure of our

language -in believe that language is what allows us
to think- to unveil the structure of our thoughts and
thus arrive at those "ultimate truths".

3. Logocentrism

PHILOSOPHY

Derrida despises Logocentrism and even rejects any relationship

between a word and its meaning. That is why he uses words in any
way he pleases, and makes it so difficult for us to understand him.
He wants words (and presumably buildings) to literally have no
single meaning.

Word /
Building

Single
Meaning

PHILOSOPHY
According to Derrida, our aim
should not have been to find
another "only absolute" view
but to seek a diversity of
views. This is a view clearly
contrary to that of Modernism.

PHILOSOPHY

Meaning: Syntagmatic / Associative ,Signifier /

Signified Saussure, like many others before him,
tended to think in pairs, or "binary oppositions".

4. Meaning

PHILOSOPHY
The denial of meaning from Derrida was taken by Deconstructivist
architects and translated as an architecture of pure "syntax" without
any "semantic" meaning.

Eisenman's aim when designing

most of his early buildings was this,
he used extremely pure, geometric
"syntaxes" with no semantic
references of the kind we loosely
call "meaning".

Semantic architecture

PHILOSOPHY

Peter Eisenman says: "People have been concerned with

relating themselves to their physical environment as a
source of security. I believe that if the physical
environment makes them anxious they might turn inward
and the true source of security is internal. The physical
environment can never provide that, it can provide
physical comfort, shelter, but it can never provide
psychological shelter."

5. Feelings

PHILOSOPHY
When it comes to Eisenman buildings, he creates a really disturbing
spacing completely dislocated and every time you don't know
where you are, or at what level you are, you never know.

For Heinrich Klotz, Deconstruction

is "an indication of how we perceive
our lives today and a good part of it
is the uncertainty we feel".

Eisenman is concerned in causing an

uncertainty in people

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS - Common

No

physically pure basic volume.

Fragmented Mass.
New Material (Metals, Glass, Concrete).
Complicated Structure, and thus advanced structural systems.
Relatively high Void percentage.
Open Plan.
Distinguishing from Context.