Peter Eisenman Speaks On Deconstruction And Architecture At The Deutsches Haus
By Ian Hartz
Tuesday evening, a sizable crowd gathered at the Deutsches Haus to hear Peter Eisenman, famed architect of monuments such as the Holocaust Memorial, speak with Peter Engelmann in a talk entitled Architecture and Deconstructionism, a segment of the Passagen Series.
Engelmann, renowned philosopher and critic as well as founder of the German publishing house Passagen Verlag, hosts the series to discuss concepts of deconstructionism and postmodernism with experts from different fields. Having both been friends of Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher who developed the theory of deconstruction, the duo commenced by attempting to define what Deconstructivism is and how Derrida influenced the architectural movement.
Quoting Derrida, Eisenman said that “architecture is a locus of the metaphysics of presence.” Then providing a more tangible explanation, he explained that Deconstructivist architecture seeks to remove all rules and systems from architecture, stripping it of all the codified methods of the past. Citing the Holocaust Memorial, he says that his intention was to make the experience of walking through the monument void of any meaning. Being present within the structure gives you no sense of understanding. It is a free-floating signifier. In designing the monument, he sought to reduce the meaning of the experience, similar to how Jews felt in the concentration camps.
Attempting to further demystify the complex and intellectual philosophy, he walked the audience through another example: by using two columns to support the weight of a structure that only requires one, one of them is rendered superfluous. It serves no purpose, creating a paradox between the column and its purpose, making it a signifier. These paradoxes are central to the role of deconstruction, which calls into question contradictions and hierarchies. According to Eisenman, when you can sense the incompleteness of a finished structure, it is a paradoxical experience. If the parts that make up the whole are in conflict, the sensation of the incomplete contests the fact that the structure is, in fact, a finished and fully enclosed space.
Though the discourse was dense and difficult — due in no small part to Eisenman’s brilliance — in the end, we walked away feeling as though we could understand the paradoxes emphasized within deconstruction. Stripping something of all meaning in order to see what experience is still present, one can truly experience the main concerns of metaphysics. Deconstructivist architecture provides a physical and spacial experience that instills within us the tangible implications of Derrida’s deconstruction. It is the column, alongside its twin, that bears none of the weight, a physical paradox.
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