DECONSTRUCTIVISM

Rosenzweig, “History of Western Architecture”

1. 1988 Deconstructivist Architecture. MOMA. Philip Johnson

Included: Gehry, Libeskind, Koolhaus, Eisenman, Hadid, Tschumi, Coop Himmelblau

2. Some groups:

1970’s: New York Five: Meier, Hejduk, Stern, Gwathmy, Eisenman)

Office of Metropolitan Architecture (Koolhaus; 1978 Delirious New York)
Morphosis and SCI-Arc (Calfornia: Gehry; Rotondi, Mayne, Moss)

3. Typical structures:

Concert halls, cultural centers, museums

Transportation, communication, hi-rises, temporary structures

4. Genesis:

French theorists, Derrida et al. Philosophy, literature, not architecture

5. Descriptions:

No apparent visual logic; installation art; visually chaotic; mimic universe;

impenetrable theory; language of anger, including destabilization, tearing apart, focusing,
dangers; “martial art of intellectual doubt”; architecture without architects; rise of
computers, computer animation, virtual reality; dissolving solidity of world; extreme
lightness; sculptural environment; lack of coherent form; “palpable sense of unease”;
inconsistent; fragmentation; frozen motion; twisted volumes.

6. Also:

Deconstructivist architecture “does not constitute an avant-garde Rather it exposes the

unfamiliar hidden within the tradition. It is the shock of the old.”

“One design is as good as another because standards had no meaning in a world by

definition irrational”

7. Impact on architects:

Fewer entry level drafting jobs. Architect not necessarily needed; need good
engineering and construction firms, able to read computer diagrams.