University of Khartoum Faculty of Architecture M.Sc. of Architectural Design Batch 01 History and Theory of Architecture
DECONSTRUCTIVISM: Origins and Purpose
Derrida...asked me why architects should be interested in his work, since, he observed, "deconstruction is anti-form, anti-hierarchy, and anti-structure-the opposite of all that architecture stands for." "Precisely for this reason," was my response. -Bernard Tschumi
Maha Bani 12/09/2013 U. of K.
Abstract
The history of design can be seen as a series of influential styles or movements which shift the thinking of designers along new lines and which result in changes in the internal and external appearance of buildings. Every design choice is based to some extent on what has been done before. To clearly understand why these forms look the way they do and why they came into existence is a matter of history. [1] This paper deals with the subject of ‘Deconstructivism’ as it is applied in
architecture. This is one of the ranges of styles which have arisen in the diversification of architecture which has taken place since the 1970s.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Modern Movement
History of architecture seems to vary according to the number of styles which are available for use at any given time. While there are always a number of styles available at any time, in some periods there is a single dominant style used for most of the buildings built during that specific time. At the end of the 19th century for instance, there were several equally-valid styles, including many variations on Classicism such as NeoBaroque, Neo-Renaissance, NeoGreek, and so on. However, by the 1930s, this diversity of stylistic possibilities had all but been reduced to a single dominant style: Modern Architecture.
After the Second World War this style became known as the International Style for the simple reason that it was, by then, considered to be the only appropriate or even legitimate style that could be used for any building type and for any society. It had become present everywhere but at the moment of its greatest success; the style was subject to a fire of social and architectural criticism for its numerous perceived failings. This reaction against Modern Architecture and Design began in the 1970s. The Modern Movement style therefore had succeeded in producing some of the most hostile environments ever deliberately designed by Man. By the 1970s, Modern functionalist design concepts were obviously no longer enough and
designers had begun to experiment with other approaches. 1.2 The Postmodern Diversity
There had to be something more complex and interesting to say about design other than the Standard International Modern of colorless, textureless, over-simplified images and environments which made the Modern movement seem truly alien Postmodernity in architecture is generally thought to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist movement are replaced by colliding styles, form adoption for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. The result of these replacements in style was the splitting up of the Modern design into a number of substyles - each looking at a different way to handle complexity in design. Each trying in its own way to reveal the richness of environmental experiences that Modernism had tried to suppress. Each of these newly emergent styles could be considered to represent one of the repressed aspects of Modernism.
1.3Postmodern [2] fragments
styles-
recovered
Historicism (History/tradition)
Neo-Modern (The promise of
the Modern)
Pop-Design
(popular/familiar
elements)
Hi-Tech
(The
promise
of
technology)
Regionalism (cultural identity)
Deconstructivism (complexity)
Eclectic (Rich mix of elements)
2.0
Deconstructivism
2.1Origins (Psychology)
The real origins of Deconstructivism lie in the work of the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (c.1890). Before he revolutionized psychology in the 19th century, mental illness was assumed to be the product of some inbuilt defect in the patient or even of demonic possession. Freud, in working with mentally ill patients realized that in many cases their illness was the product of events in their childhood, their background and their past experiences. The patients had changed their behavior from its normal course of development in
order to cope with the pain of these
elegant
events.
arguments put forward by other
He also noted that in order to deal with these painful memories the patients REPRESSED them; pushed them out of their conscious mind tried to forget them. Freud’s view was that if he could get the patients to reveal these traumatic events to themselves, they would in a sense cure themselves. By noting the way they avoided certain subjects and the
and
philosophers.
well-constructed Also
because he believed that no theory could
pretend
to
absolutely
a self-contained and whole system. If it did, it could only do so by hiding or repressing something which did not fit its view of things.
2.3.1 Characteristics
psychologist could target those areas
be
consistent, logical or present itself as
they
the
Explodes architectural form into
for analysis. In other words Freud set
loose
out to 'deconstruct' the speech of his
fragments (Fragmentation)
patients
in
order
to
find
the
repressed source of their anxiety which, once identified and opened up
the
analyzing the way they wrote them
2.3Design
used,
find
inconsistencies in their ideas by
phrases and figures of speech that continually
to
collections
of
related
An interest in manipulating a structure's surface or skin
Non-rectilinear shapes
for discussion would resolve the
appear
problem.
dislocate elements
to
which
distort
and of
architecture, such as structure
2.2Philosophy
and envelope.
In the 1960s the French philosopher,
Destroys the dominance of the
Jacques Derrida who had studied the
right angle and the cube by using
work of Freud, developed and began
the diagonal line and the `slice' of
to
space.
apply
technique
this to
deconstructive the
study
of
Uses ideas and images from
philosophical texts. He wanted to
Russian
reveal the repressed ideas which
architecture
underlay the apparently smooth,
“Russian
Revolutionary and
design
–
Constructivism
(Constructivist
architecture
emerged
the
from
constructivist
art
which
out
grew
Futurism.
It
modern
wider
movement, of
was
a
Russian form
architecture
of that
flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and
engineering
avowedly
with
Communist
an social
purpose. Constructivist art had attempted to apply a threedimensional wholly
cubist
abstract
'constructions' element)
vision
to
non-objective
with
a
kinetic
[3]
Searches
for
spatial
more
Dynamic
possibilities
and
experiences
not
explored
forbidden)
by
the
(or
Modern
Movement.
Provokes
shock,
uncertainty,
unease, disquiet, disruption, and distortion by challenging familiar
2.3.2 Goals
and
Methods
of
Deconstructivism
The main goal was to dissolve the fixed and determined forms of the Modern and reveal the dynamic formal possibilities that lay within the program offered by the institution and its context. At the same time there was a denial that architects could
produce
authentic
some
perfectly
representation
of
the
program and its context which by the nature
of
things
were
always
unstable and in flux. It was a final rejection
of
the
Functionalist
tradition that had driven the Modern from its beginnings. In a sense the relationship between the program and
its
resulting
form
were
coincidental: a chance meeting of the interacting
activities
of
the
institution, always in flux, with the state of the architectural language and technology at the time.
ideas about space, order and
There was an equally obsessive
regularity in the environment.
attempt to destroy the predominance
Rejects the idea of the `perfect
of the right angle in architecture
form' for a particular activity and
which was a sign of rationalist order
rejects the familiar relationship
and of the predetermined. To reveal
between
those
certain
certain activities.
forms
and
forms,
possibilities
and
approaches that Modern Architecture had repressed in order to become
'perfect', they deconstructed the
Derrida to collaborate with New York
forms of Modern Architecture by
architect Peter Eisenman on a garden
creating apparently illogical clashes of
for La Villette. Derrida was working
grids, spaces and volumes which
on Plato's Timaeus, and it entered
were breaking open the form of
the project (Timaeus is the first Greek
buildings. They used diagonal lines to
account of the creation of the natural
destroy
world
the
perfect
geometries
of
Movement,
and
right-angled
the
by
a
purposeful,
divine
Modern
craftsman-Creator. But Plato has a
beams
problem. He maintains that every
projecting, unfinished, incomplete,
object has both an idea/form - a
walls broken and slanted, windows
purely intelligible, perfect and eternal
turned at angles, rough materials,
model - and a changing sensible copy.
exposed construction methods and
The copy must have some place in
so on. All this to reveal what the
which
Modern Movement had tried to
conjures one: a receptacle or Chora).
left
suppress in the name of order: that buildings
were
complex
sometimes
contradictory.
wanted
move
to
and They
beyond
the
3.0
it
can
be
created.
Deconstruction
Plato
on
the
move 3.1The Parc La Villette
traditional categories of architectural
The Park was an official French
thought.
government
2.3.3 Collaborations:
Philosophy
and Architecture
projects
of
project. the
Like 80s
other
it
was
aesthetically,
politically
and
economically
controversial.
The
Ideas such as these were arrived at
Presidential committee allocated a
by some European and American
125-acre site and $200m budget.
architects who were familiar with the
The site was a former slaughterhouse
American architects Bernard Tschumi
and market, Baron Haussmann's 1867
and Peter Eisenman.
scheme for modern, "efficient" meat-
Derrida's
work
particularly
processing in the north east corner of In
1983,
Tschumi
the invited
architect the
Bernard
philosopher
metropolitan
Paris.
Bordered
by
canals, railways and the Boulevard
Macdonald, it's at the heart of a
Tschumi proposed “an architecture of
working-class
large
disjunction”;
which
upsets
Largely
architectural
assumptions
about
immigrant
area
with
a
population.
completed by 1992, the Park is not so
systems. The Park has systems: of
much
natural
points, surfaces and lines. But they're
urban
superimposed so that they mutually
a
recreation
landscape
as
a
of
1km-long
entertainment-leisure complex. [3]
distort and sometimes clash with
The Parc consists of 35 red follies, sport
and
recreation
playgrounds,
a
areas,
science
and
technology museum, and a music center. Tschumi was in charge of
each other. Paths intersect buildings, ramps and steps are cut off, etc. The systems avoid synthesis. There's no single coherent outcome; it can be called a contaminated architecture”.
planning, in addition to the design of
Tschumi encouraged the architectural
the follies, and superimposed three
to
ordering systems: the points of the
ideas, elements, forms, etc, from
follies, the lines of the paths, and the
cinema, literature and other cultural
planes of the sport areas. This
fields. "It encourages conflict over
network questions the order that is
synthesis, fragmentation over unity,
inherent
madness
to
architecture
with
a
collide
with
and
non-architectural
play
superimposition that attempts to
management,
bring
sounds functional...”
together
three
non-related
systems. The process and arbitrary result ignore the basic tenets of architecture
throughout
history-
composition, hierarchy and order. Each folly is based on a cube and deconstructed, according to rules of transformation
(repetition,
distortion, interruption without considerations.
superimposition, and
fragmentation),
any
functional
Eisenman
and
had
over this
been
careful scarcely
working
deconstructively since the late 1970s, questioning architectural oppositions: interior/exterior, structure/decoration, etc. He came up with a polychoral design, citing three texts: • His own earlier housing project for
Cannaregio, Venice.
• Derrida's text on the chora, and his
The exhibition included drawings,
drawing,
models, and site-plans for projects
• Tschumi's plan for the Park, quoted
in miniature.
by:
Coop Himmelblau
Peter Eisenman
Frank Gehry,
Zaha M. Hadid
deployed his "quarrying" strategy:
Rem Koolhaas
expose the foundations of a site, its
Daniel Libeskind
history, and include them in the
Bernard Tschumi
"Choral Work" has an inclined steel ground plane with acid-etched lines tracing Tschumi's systems. Eisenman
work. If they're not there, build them.
They
So
“deconstructivist
"Choral
Work"
includes
became
known
as
architects ”
and
constructed fragments of the old
their work marked the emergence of
Paris city walls, in white marble; and
a new sensibility in architecture. The
underground, the 1867 abattoirs.
architects
3.2Deconstructivist
imperfectability of the modern world
recognized
the
and seeked to address the "pleasures
Architecture exhibition
of unease. “ Obsessed with diagonals,
In the 1970s a group of American
arcs,
architects including Peter Eisenman
intentionally violated the cubes and
started to emphasize and distort the
right angles of modernism. Their
grids and frameworks of his buildings.
projects
This was a process which became
experimentation
more dramatic and insistent over
initiated
time
Constructivists,
up
Eisenman’s
to
the
1980s
buildings
when
and
warped
planes,
continued
they
the
with
structure
the
Russian
by but
the
goal
of
became
perfection of the 1920s is subverted.
recognizably 'Deconstructivist'. His
The traditional virtues of harmony,
work and writings and his discussions
unity and clarity are displaced by
with Jacque Derrida on the process of
disharmony, fracturing and mystery.
deconstruction in architecture form the
intellectual
movement.
base
of
this
4.0
Deconstructivist
The results of this were, in
Design
general, that many buildings in
Conclusion
Modern Architecture had not
the 1950s and early 1960s looked
allowed
faceless and boring. They were
the
expression
of
unable
contradictions. That is, conflicts
organized;
A
and
Whole
and sensory needs had been
Perfect
repressed in favor of scientific rationality. Form, after all, in the
Deconstructivist
approach
Modern sense was merely an
these
effect of function. It had no other
contradictions - to bring them
emotional or sensory purpose of
into the open; to make them
its own.
sought
to
reveal
happen (even if they did not exist).
If
you
look
at
a
Part
of
philosophy
the was
Deconstructivist therefore
to
Deconstructivist building you will
detach
see different spaces intersecting
'function' as such and to allow a
one another in irregular ways.
'free play' of design. In a sense to
This is an attempt to reveal the
make architecture/design a 'pure'
character of each and every
art. It might solve some of the
space and the occasional conflict
functional problems but that was
and
not its main purpose.
coincidence
in
the
relationship between them.
joy,
shown. These human expressions
well
Machine. The
the
which earlier architectures had
spaces. Everything had to look smooth
express
sensuality, tactility or pleasure
of function between different unified,
to
Another part of the Modern philosophy was that architecture and buildings were serious issues. Every part of the building had to be based on a functional problem and solution. This was a kind of 'scientific' approach to design.
architecture
from
5.0References
Claflen, G.L., Borrowing Architectural Theory : Fissures In The Simulation Of
Coherence. , pp.1 –9.
Cruickshank, L. & Cruickshank, L., No Title. , pp.1 –8.
Europe, I., 1996. Copyright 1995-1996 by Jack M. Balkin. All Rights Reserved.
Hadid, M. et al., 1996. Reflections on Deconstructive Architecture. , pp.4 –9.
Johnson, P. et al., 1988. The Museum of Modern Art. , (29).
Lee, V., 2012. Jacques Derrida , “Why Peter Eisenman Writes Such Good Books,” in in. , (December), pp.1–33.
National, T. & Art, C., 2012. The Gehry T owers Over Eisenhower The National Civic Art Society Report on Frank Gehry ‘ s Eisenhower Memorial.
Staten, H., 1985. On Deconstruction. , 100(4), p.871.
Stocker, B., 2006. Derrida on Deconstruction. Available at: http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.
