Deconstructive Architecture

A long time ago an art teacher told me that to “make something new, you have to break something old”. I was shocked because to me design was purely about making and not breaking. Its hard to break something especially when it looks good, but only then can we really see its guts and understand its essence.

To break tradition, convention and existing concepts is not wrong, its pure discovery and design,

Deconstructivism in Architecture is probably the earliest and boldest example of this design philosophy. Deconstructive Architecture is reactionary and often divisory, to some creative genius, to others only a superficial expressionistic eyesore.

Architects that have designed decontstructive works include Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard Tschumi.

The Wikipedia entry on Deconstructivism says:

“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 Constructivist architecture. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century movements: the Modernism – Postmodernism interplay, Expressionist architecture, 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, Purism, and Truth to materials”.

Some examples of deconstructive buildings and Architects which have inspired me over the years are as follows:-

Coop Himmelb(l)au.

The Musee des Confluences in Lyon.