DECONSTRUCTIVISM

DECONSTRUCTIVISM

The term ‘Deconstruction’ was first coined and developed by French philosopher, Jacques Derrida. It was first meant as a method of interpretation and analysis of a text or a speech. Derrida explained that deconstructing a text or a speech, is to draw out conflicting logics of sense and implication. In other words, the text never exactly means what it says or says what it means. This concept of deconstructing a text has been applied successfully to the visual arts and architecture. According to Derrida, readings of texts are best carried out when working with classical narrative structures. Similarly, any architectural deconstruction requires the existence of a particular established traditional construction, to play against. The ideas of Derrida’s deconstruction influenced many architects, and trom the 1970s onwards, architectural projects were developed and designed by architects who brought the uncanny and the mysterious into their building projects. The buildings were characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating a structure’s surface or skin and amorphous shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings is characterized by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.
Deconstruction architects seem to have been inspired in their efforts to incite discomfort and unease…their buildings try to transfer feelings of disorientation and displacement to the public’s expectations. The lack of harmony and unity is seen as being fragmentated and disintegrated…spectators often feel disquieted or threatened by the building’s lack of physical integrity. Deconstructionist buildings may seem to have no visual logic due to their dismantled basic architectural elements. Although they satisfy their intended functions, they present an unprecedented challenge to traditional architectural conventions. One of the important buildings that expressed the ideas and philosophy of deconstruction is Frank Gehry’s, California residence. Gehry’s starting point was a prototypical suburban house, which expressed an implied a set of social meanings. Gehry rebelled against the traditional form of the house and altered the plans and masses of the building in a creative deconstructive way. The house is enveloped by scavenged trash materials that created structure similar to any other deconstructive buildings. What this means is that when Gehry creates, he is not guided with any culturally or socially inherited motives, he is not directed by any universalities of his field or the materials he uses and he denies a premise so frequent in architecture, that form should follow function.
The most influential event of this genre was the Museum of Modern Art’s in 1988 ‘Deconstructivist Architecture’ exhibition in New York, organized by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley. The exhibition featured distinctive works by number of architects including, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelblau, and Bernard Tschumi. These architects seemed to be placing buildings and bits of buildings at odd angles so that they overlaid, penetrated and even clashed with each other. The Jewish Museum, Libeskind’s deconstructionist building can therefore be read as an expression of this phenomenon, in which the whole world took part, an experience that, according to the architect, should not be forgotten by present and future generations. Essential to the Jewish Museum is the void, a large and empty space that visitors have to cross by means of bridges in order to get to the other side of the museum. The first room the visitors enter when accessing the museum is part of that void, which partly extends underground…with its references to tombs and crypts. From that void at the museum’s entrance, three paths depart. The first path leads up to the exposition halls. The second path leads the visitors to the Holocaust void, where the cruelty of the Holocaust is expressed by the materialization of emptiness. The third path symbolizes the Jews’ exile and emigration from Germany.


Deconstructivism in architecture, also called deconstruction, is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin, non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit the many deconstructivist "styles" is characterised by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.
Important events in the history of the deconstructivist movement include the 1982 Parc de la Villette architectural design competition (especially the entry from Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi's winning entry), the Museum of Modern Art’s 1988 Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition in New York, organized by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, and the 1989 opening of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, designed by Peter Eisenman. The New York exhibition featured works by Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard Tschumi. Since the exhibition, many of the architects who were associated with Deconstructivism have distanced themselves from the term. Nonetheless, the term has stuck and has now, in fact, come to embrace a general trend within contemporary architecture.
Originally, some of the architects known as Deconstructivists were influenced by the ideas of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Eisenman developed a personal relationship with Derrida, but even so his approach to architectural design was developed long before he became a Deconstructivist. For him Deconstructivism should be considered an extension of his interest in radical formalism. Some practitioners of deconstructivism were also influenced by the formal experimentation and geometric imbalances of Russian constructivism. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century movements: the modernism/postmodernism interplay, expressionism, cubism, minimalism and contemporary art. The attempt in deconstructivism throughout is to move architecture away from what its practitioners see as the constricting 'rules' of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."

Contemporary art
Two strains of modern art, minimalism and cubism, have had an influence on deconstructivism. Analytical cubism had a sure effect on deconstructivism, as forms and content are dissected and viewed from different perspectives simultaneously. A synchronicity of disjoined space is evident in many of the works of Frank Gehry and Bernard Tschumi. Synthetic cubism, with its application of found art, is not as great an influence on deconstructivism as Analytical cubism, but is still found in the earlier and more vernacular works of Frank Gehry. Deconstructivism also shares with minimalism a disconnection from cultural references. It also often shares with minimalism notions of conceptual art.
With its tendency toward deformation and dislocation, there is also an aspect of expressionism and expressionist architecture associated with deconstructivism. At times deconstructivism mirrors varieties of expressionism, neo-expressionism, and abstract expressionism as well. The angular forms of the Ufa Cinema Center by Coop Himmelb(l)au recall the abstract geometries of the numbered paintings of Franz Kline, in their unadorned masses. The UFA Cinema Center also would make a likely setting for the angular figures depicted in urban German street scenes by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The work of Wassily Kandinsky also bears similarities to deconstructivist architecture. His movement into abstract expressionism and away from figurative work, is in the same spirit as the deconstructivist rejection of ornament for geometries.
Several artists in the 1980s and 1990s contributed work that influenced or took part in deconstructivism. Maya Lin and Rachel Whiteread are two examples. Lin's 1982 project for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with its granite slabs severing the ground plane, is one. Its shard-like form and reduction of content to a minimalist text influenced deconstructivism, with its sense of fragmentation and emphasis on reading the monument. Lin also contributed work for Eisenman's Wexner Center. Rachel Whiteread's cast architectural spaces are another instance where contemporary art is confluent with architecture. Ghost (1990), an entire living space cast in plaster, solidifying the void, alludes to Derrida's notion of architectural presence. Gordon Matta-Clark's Building cuts were deconstructed sections of buildings exhibited in art galleries.

Computer-aided design

CAD is now an essential tool in most aspects of contemporary architecture, but the particular nature of deconstructivism makes the use of computers especially pertinent. 3D modeling and animation (virtual and physical) assists in the conception of very complicated spaces, while the ability to link computer models to manufacturing jigs (CAM) allows the mass production of subtly different modular elements to be achieved at affordable costs. In retrospect many early deconstructivist appear to have been conceived with the aid of a computer, but where not; Zaha Hadid’s sketches for instance. Also, Gehry is noted for producing many physical models as well as computer models as part of his design process. Through the computer has made the designing of complex shapes much easier, not everything that looks odd is “deconstructivist”.

Some architects who are associated with deconstructivist approach:

-Frank Gehry

-Daniel Libeskind

-Rem Koolhaas

-Peter Eisenman

-Zaha Hadid

-Coop Himmelb(l)au

-Bernard Tschumi