Deconstruct

  

Studio Project: 

• this design 3 studio project form derived from small pieces of packaging foam. The foam pieces were collected from the garbage, selected based on interesting spatial and formal qualities, and digitalized. Once in a digital form, the base geometry was multiplied and manipulated by digital means targeting to create interesting spaces at various scales. 
• the project was designed to be a new Community Center in Redhook, New York. The formal qualities break away from the neighborhood's conventional architecture but it resonates and exaggerates the neighborhood's quick-changing context.

Deconstructivist Architecture - MOMA Catalog - Summary

Preface - Philip Johnson:

• Modernist architecture was a new style to take over the discipline in the 20th century. Deconstructivism is, however, not a new style. If anything it is the reinvention and regeneration of Russian Constructivism. There is a high contrast between modernism and deconstructivism. Modernism represents clarity and perfection and simplicity while deconstructivism is chaotic, dislocated, disquieting. 

Deconstructivist Architecture - Mark Wigley

• (pp10-11) Architects traditionally aim to create and mimic pure geometric forms like cubes, cylinders, pyramids, etc. The nature of the base geometries is used to guarantee a sense of structural stability. By deviating from this approach, one may go against the values of harmony and unity. Deconstructivism doesn't mean demolishing but rather the creation of deconstructive qualities within the traditional form. However, these qualities are also structural rather than just aesthetical. 
• (pp12-15) Russian Constructivism was breaking away from traditional by breaking away with compositions of elements, and by distorting, dislocating pure geometrical forms. This movement lived through high arts rather than reality, however. When it came to constructing the designs of Russian constructivists, their formal and compositional conflicts were gradually resolved to avoid structural instability. "in the transition from early sketch to the final design changed from dangerous fantasy to safe reality. 
• (pp16-17) Deconstructivist architecture uses Russian Constructivism to some extent to create conflict and dilemma but also deviates from it by hiding this conflict behind the skin of modern architecture. However, the disturbance created is not threatened by fragmentation or fracture but the damage that serves to create a decorative effect. Furthermore, the distortions aren't alien to the overall form, rather they are growths or parasites within the host. "It displaces the structure, instead of destroying it."
• (pp18-20) The moves of deconstructivism don't just limit the structure itself but show dislocation, defamiliarization within their context. Despite all the unconventional methods, deconstructivism does not constitute an avant-garde. Yet, it is not easy to assimilate and it requires deep intimate knowledge to achieve. Deconstructivism is designed to be built, and not just as a fantasy on paper. Deconstructivist buildings are highly structural and functional with the major differences where the structural organization becomes unfamiliar and rather frightening while also being sound. And "function follow deformation" rather than " form follows function" The exhibited works from seven architects are not to portray a new style but to exhibit their articulations of "hidden potentials of modernism."

Frank Gehry:

• (pp22-33) The exhibition showcases two models: the 'Gehry House' and the 'Familian House'. The Gehry House was a 3 stage renovation on his residency. The stages involved cubic geometries to break from within the overall house and sit disoriented while materials used were inspired by the house's structure and immediate context. They were used in unconventional ways to defamiliarize themselves. 

Daniel Libeskind:

• 'The City Edge' project was designed as a repurposing effort of two city blocks in Berlin after the II. World War. While the Berlin wall was still in existence, the proposed structure spanning the full length of the two city blocks was aimed to abstract the Berlin wall slicing through the city. However, the bar-shaped structure lifts several stories into the air on one end, creating a free passage underneath it, creating an opposing rationale and message to that of the Berlin wall. 

Rem Koolhaas:

• (pp46-55) The 'Apartment Building and Observation Tower' is a mixed-use complex with facilities at the ground, residential middle, and a commercial top. The whole complex consists of 5 towers with slight tilts varying shapes all pinned together by a thick roof slab at the top, creating the illusion that it is the only structural piece holding the complex together. 

Peter Eisenman:

• (56-67) The 'Biocenter for the University of Frankfurt' is an addition to an existing college campus. Four geometrically sound shapes sit on a central spine. The spine is cutting through the pieces as it both connects and distorts them. The spine itself is following the broken line of an underground service core to engage the context. 

Zaha Hadid:

• (pp68-79) 'The Peak' was a club building designed on the high hills of Honk Kong. The project consists of four rectilinear beams, imitating a skyscraper laid horizontally on the ground. The four geometries intersect and overlap while each has a slightly different orientation from the other, creating a conflict within the form and space. 

Coop Himmelblau:

• (pp80-91) Three of Himmelblau's projects are exhibited. Two apartment buildings from Austria and one from Germany. All his three designs share the common dislocation and distortion, however, they also observe the emphasis on exposed structure with beams, columns, and floor slabs showing from behind the ripped open facades. 

Bernard Tschumi:

• (pp92-101) The Parc de La Villette is a public park consisting of multiple installations and structures. For the designer to maintain the same language, he chose to derive all elements from points, lines, and surfaces. The elements created would then deform or dislocate at the intersections of geometries. Eventually, some of the forms broke back down into their primitive points, lines, and surfaces to create new conflicting systems. 

Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas - Summary

• Manifesto: "Manhattan is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone." This manifesto is not of Rem Koolhaas. He is the ghostwriter of Manhattan's which had no previous manifestation but the experimentation and innovation of a laboratory, where the whole island of Manhattan is a part of the study. Koolhaas defines this phenomenon as an "unformulated theory, Manhattanism."
• Ecstasy: Koolhaas points out that this unformulated theory; once identified; should resemble ambitions and popularity whereas the constant excitement resulted and has worked as a blind to the performance and implications of the city. 
• Density: 'Manhattanism' works to normalize and encourage density to achieve an urbanistic ideal, "without losing faith" in its guide despite any negative consequences. "Manhattan's architecture is a paradigm for the exploitation of congestion." Koolhaas also argues that the past experiences will validate and strengthen this normalizing force for increased density which will also be the guide for contemporary architecture. 
• Blueprint: "A blueprint does not predict the cracks that will develop in the future." He talks about the compromises and faults that can be examined in different periods of Manhattans history. And only a "speculative reconstruction" can define readable successes and failures. 
• Block: As a preview for the book, Koolhaas has investigated the progression and evolution of 'Manhattanism' in four different area case studies which he refers to as blocks. These blocks should be the visible example of Manhattanism, which is the cause of the city's break away from nature and humanity. 
• Ghostwriter: As pointed out at the beginning of this summary, Koolhaas considers himself to be the representative ghostwriter of New York City. And he is designated to determine the Manifesto of Manhattan, rather than his own. 

Lebbeus Woods - Manifesto - Summary

• "I am one of the millions who do not fit in." Woods declares war on traditional and conventional architecture because of their disconnect from humanity. He considers himself to be a part of society that is no longer represented by architecture. He instigates a change in architecture for the future. 

Suburban Life And Public Space - Margaret Crawford - Summary

• (pp21-22) 3 major narratives provide a general description of shopping malls. The narratives refer to a rigid building typology, antiurban by the promotion of sprawl, and lastly the powerful commerce pushing social and communal activities aside. Crawford proposes to offer a broader perspective on these narratives by deconstructing them and looking at the mall and its functions as a great space for adaptation and progress. She goes on debunking some of the mentioned narratives by looking at them from a different angle. Like the commodification by commerce that could be seen as "partial, temporal, and even reversible. As a next step, the author starts to offer some historic context for a deeper understanding of malls. 
• (pp23-24) The paper is continuing with the analysis that can be drawn from the historical context. Before World War II., planners used shopping centers as a tool to "decentralize" and promote sprawl and suburban development as a response to "overcrowding of urban downtowns. After the war, the shopping malls started to appear on a larger scale, addressing the rising population and economic prosperity. One of the leading theorists and architects to promote newer and larger shopping malls was Victor Gruen. Gruen proposed the inclusion of social and communal places mixed in with commerce to a cleaner and more controlled copy of a typical downtown environment.
• (25-26) After Gruen's initial achievement, the sizes of malls kept increasing throughout the following decades. The change in scale and the continuing inclusion of social programs helped the modern mall become a commercial hub where people could gather. Parallel to the changes inside the complexes, the mall also became regional nodes. That encouraging commercial development in their proximity (hotels, offices). During the 1970s the successful operation of malls could no longer be taken for granted. Due to economical and market changes in the consumer landscape, the malls needed to adapt to their landscape by specializing to meet the needs of the consumers. Specialization may have meant the difference in programming, change in locations, and new specialties like entertainment (movie theaters).
• (28-29) Almost inevitably, the social hub strategy worked to get the consumers into malls but also created the illusion of a public place which led to conflicts between mall owners and mall-goers. The author provides 'The Mall of America' as an example of such an incident. This debate of private versus public moved the newer malls towards progression once again. The 'One Colorado' and 'The Beverly Connection' in California both intentionally built adjacent to existing urban blocks and buildings, hiding their stereotypical mall setup, diminishing the illusion of indoor public spaces, providing exterior plazas and wider sidewalks as an alternative for public use. 
• (29-30) Referencing back to the beginning of the summary, the author praised the adaptability and flexibility of malls despite the conventional narratives that argue the opposite. Crawford expands on her view that this adaptability was visible throughout the entire evolution of the mall, and how at the end of its lifetime, the spaces have the potential to turn into something else. For example: "The Shermin Oaks Galleria' was turned into an office building. The constant changes in economic and social environments also evolved malls into a condominium-like multi-owner setup, which can result in a more downtown retail experience. "Americans now shop in malls that look like cities and in cities that look like malls."

Questions&Answers

• Is Deconstructivist architecture relationship to Russian Constructivism?
  -Deconstructivist architecture uses some of the methods observed in Russian Constructivism. One of the examples is recomposition by the dislocation and distortion of pure geometries. The diagonal trapezoid is something that can be observed often in both. 
  
  
• In Deconstructivist architecture does “form follows function”?
  -Deconstructivist architecture view it as "function follows deformation" taking a 180 degrees turn from the modernist approach.
  
  
• Is this type of architecture a purely formal exercise with little social significance and ambiguous meaning?
  Depends on the receiver. Deconstructivist architecture requires deeper observation to gain a basic understanding of the intents. The goal of the movement is to consider and incorporate context besides the messages portrayed through the structure. 
  
  
• Does deconstructivist architect successfully comment on unbridled consumer culture and Suburban and Public Space?
  It is debatable. The adaptability of the mall showed its potential that it can be of a different program and a working social hub for communities but it may not involve the initial commerce part, as online commerce and pandemic restrictions pushing in-person shopping out of favor. 
  
  
• Think back to your reading of Derrida ’ (theory I) is the ‘metaphysics of presence’ expressed in this architecture?
  -(no idea)