Deconstructivism

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 Deconstructivism
Period: late 1960s
History:
 In 1968 (when the social sciences reigned supreme) a
generation of politicized architectural student stumbled across
the concept of deconstruction
 The book by Jacques Derridas (1967) Of Grammatology ( used
words: discontinuous, dislocated, dismantled, disjointed,
disordered, dissociated, deconstructed…) the negation of
architecture
 Philip Johnson (with Mark Wigley) organized a show on
entitled “Deconsructivist Architecture” at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, in 1988

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 Deconstructivism
Philosophy
 There is no fixed accessible truth, only chaos and
multiple interpretations
 Fragmented discontinuous forms represented the
uncertainty of contemporary life after the downfall of
the Soviet Union, Berlin Wall and 1987 stock market.
 The designs create non-sensual sculptures for an
irrational world. “Making things fit doesn’t make
sense anymore,” (Tschumi)
 “Tough times demand tough architecture,” Himmelblau
 My best work is without purpose—who cares bout the
function?” Peter Eisenman
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 Deconstructivism
Characteristics
 Credo: “form follows fantasy”
 Battered walls, sloping floors and windows, off-
kilter pillars , leaning columns that make the head
spin, slanted and disjointed façade wall
 Tangential and diagonal lines
 Blocks arranged with pseudo random manner
 Taking apart
 Overindulgence in overhang and cantilever
 Experiment with a host of structural devices
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 Deconstructivism
 Notable architects: Loop Himmelb(l)au, Peter Eisenman,
Frank O. Gehry, Zeha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daneil
Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi

Notable/Popular works
 Jewish Museum in Berlin (Daniel Libeskinds)
 London Aquatic Center
 Cable car station in Innsbruck (Zaha Hadid)
 Dancing House (Gehry)

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 Daniel Libeskind
In 1989, the Berlin government
announced an anonymous
competition for the new museum’s
design. A year later, Daniel
Libeskind's design was chosen for
the commission for what was then
planned as a “Jewish Department” for
the Berlin Museum. While other
entrants proposed cool, neutral
spaces, Libeskind offered a radical,
zigzag design, which earned the
nickname "Blitz."

MUSICON BREMEN,1993,
Daniel Libeskind

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 Zaha Hadid
At the age of eleven in her
native Iraq, Zaha Hadid bedroom, interior, Zaha Hadid
decided to be an architect.
During her training in
London, she became
obsessed with the
unfulfilled potential of
Russian Constructivists,
pioneers of Modernism in
the 1910s and ’20s.

Pavillion design by Hadid

Installation designed for 8

Louvre Museum by Hadid
 Rem Koolhaas
the Chrysler Building and the
Empire State Building snuggled
together in bed

• The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas believes architecture should be a dangerous,

risk-taking enterprise. His vision of dynamic between an architect and the
megalopolis(heavy populated city) informs his work. Koolhaas’s book Delirious
New York (1978), praised the chaotic energy of the city. Congestion and excess,
he speculated are the glory of urban life. He wants architecture to capture this
exhilarating sense of being out of control, an almost erotic joy.
• His small body of built work comprises Neo-modernist residences, à la Corbusier.
His surreal 1992 Kunsthalin Rotterdam did have exhibitionistic twisting geometry,
• Koolhaas’s hallmark is the inventive use of inexpensive industrial materials like
plywood and plastic. He seeks to preserve the immediacy of improvised sketching
in his inventive designs. An urbanistand thinker as well as builder.
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Peter Eisenman: the high priest of deconstructivism

Ciudad de la Cultura de Galicia, Peter Eisenman,

Competition
Intensely cerebral (careful reasoning), Eisenman was an
eminent provocateur in the 1980s, the high priest of
Deconstructivism. At the end of the 1990s, Eisenman
entered a new phase. Enthusiastic about the capacity
of computer-assisted design to generate
expressionistic forms, he leapt on the bandwagon of
sculptural form. To explain why he dumped Decon,
Eisenman said, “There will always be four walls in
architecture.” he hoped to create a “fluid architecture”
with a “gelatinous quality” evoked by computer
morphing – i.e. thick and jelly shape 10
Frank Gehry
Dancing House,
Ginger and Fred,
Prag, by Gehry, 1996
The site of Gehry's
Dancing House was
originally occupied by
a house in the Neo-
renaissance style from
the end of the 19th
century. That house
was destroyed during
bombing in 1945, its
remains finally
removed in 1960.

The building is an
example of
deconstructivist
architecture, with an
unusual shape. It
reflects a woman and
man (Ginger Rogers
and Fred Astair)
dancing together 11
The Dancing House & its Surrounding
Architecture

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 Frank Gehry

Guggenheim-Bilbao (Spain) Art

museum,Frank Gehry 1997
Structure covered in titanium steel
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 High Tech Architecture & Minimalism
Precursor
 The glass and iron Crystal Palace for London Great
Exhibition in 1851 (Joseph Paxton)
 Eiffel Tower (Paris) (Gustav Eiffel 1889)
 Chicago School: after the city was devastated by
great fire architects Le Baron Jenny and Louis
Sullivan erected forest of skyscrapers with
reinforced steel and flat roofs (known as cast iron
buildings)
 By 1875-1905 the Chicago School produced a kind
of construction mostly with steel and glass
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 High Tech Architecture & Minimalism
 In 1978 Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin (american
Journalists wrote “ High-Tech: The industrial style
and source book of the home”
 take-over of the space and the uptake of new
technologies (TV-Hi-Fi, IT, Multi media) the High-
Tech architecture proclaimed its technological
credentials

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 High Tech Architecture & Minimalism
Characteristics
 A symphony of pipes, of nuts and bolts;
 Load bearing, steel superstructures
 External wall of glass floating or suspended
 Exposed plumbing and circuitry (electricity, water
and ventilation)
 Vertical elements of circulation (stairways,
travelators, elevator, escalator) placed on the
exterior surface
 All together singing a hymn to scientific
advancement
 Not afraid of exposing its “innards” 16
 High Tech Architecture & Minimalism
Popular works:
 Lloyds Building (London) by Richard Rogers (1984)
 Centre Pompidou (Paris) by Renzo Piano &
Richard Rogers (1977)
 Renault Factory in Boulogne-Billancourt by Claude
Vasconi (1984)
 The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank head quarters
in Hong Kong by Norman Foster

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High-Tech Precursor: The Crystal Palace

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The Eiffel Tower – Paris
Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel Tower, 1889

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Centre Pompidou (Paris) by Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers

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Centre Pompidou - details

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The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank head quarters
By Norman Foster

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 Minimalism
Prelude: “the self declared simplicity of modernism, the
ragbag of post-modernity, the polemic literality of high-tech
are soon to be succeeded by (or rather overlap with)
minimalism” (De Bure)
Minimalism is a trend in design and architecture where in
the subject is reduced to its necessary elements.
Precursors
 Cistercians and the monastery
 Shakers in the 19th century America
 Mies van der Rohe “ Less is more”
 Japanese traditional design and architecture
 De Stijl expressed ideas by using basic elements such as
lines and planes organized in very particular manners. 23
 Minimalism
Philosophy
 “No allusion no illusion “ Donald Judd
 “What you see is what you see”
 “My idea was not to produce an object, but to give
form to space” Robert Morris
 Seeking timelessness and asceticism
 Obsession: Evanescence (lasting only for a short
time, then disappearing and forgotten) ,
 the disappearance, the dematerialization of
architecture
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 Minimalism
Characteristics
 Adherence to environment rather than obstructing
the environment
 Primary, elementary structures, with clean lines,
pared-down geometries, on entire paradigm
based on the perception of structure and its
relationship to the space
 Raw but sumptuous (showing luxury and richness)
buildings
 Allow the eye to look straight through them and
the mind to read them in every direction 25
 Minimalism
Characteristics (contd.)
 Dealing in mass, configuration, density, energy
change, in dematerialization and derealization
 On the one hand elegance, sobriety and reserve;
on the other the economy of means,
temporariness and humor
 The large windows and the use of neutral colors on most
of the finishes adds light to the atmosphere

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Minimalist architecture

The
collection of
“City House”

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• Eating less food is called a diet. When you're on diet,
you restrict yourself to small amounts of food for
medical reasons or to lose or maintain weight. When
architecture is on diet, it's called minimalism.
• Minimalist architecture is restricted to fewer
elements to achieve the most. Here, 'the most' is as
important as health.
• Minimalist architects value empty space, formal
cleanliness, and simplicity.
• They eliminate everything that does not work with
the program, and use a few spare essential elements
to maximum effect.

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Characteristics of modern minimalist house design include:
• Simplicity in form and function
• Uncomplicated cladding & wall finishes
• Clean, open, light-filled spaces
• Simple detailing devoid of decoration
• Strategic use of materials for visual interest, texture,
and personality

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 highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and
architecture

zen concept : idea of freedom and essence of living.

Simplicity is not only aesthetic, it has
moral conception
Japanese aesthetics Ma: refers to empty or open space
(remove all unnecessary internal wall and
open up the space).
Japanese aesthetics Wabi sabi : value the quality of
simple and plane object and appreciate
the absence of unnecessary features.

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