YE GNIVERSEY PRESS. | HRW HAVE AND LONDON PETER EISEMMAH WRITTEN INTO mEVOID 1990-200,SELECTED WRITINGS with an introduction by JEFFREY KIPWISCopyright 2007 by Pee sen, A ight esr This book may nt be repr, whale or pt, ining ston, ny Cnn (yond tht oping perited by Sexton 17 ad 108 ofthe U.S. Copight Laan except by revewes forthe public pes). wthot wtenpermision rm the publisher Designed by ean Wieox ‘Set in Sa, Sela Sans and Soles ype by Any Stor Printed in China through Wend Psat Libary of Congress Cataloging o-Pueaton Dat senman, Pte, 1932- \Weten into the od sect writings, 1990-2004) Peter Fenman; with an ination by Fetes Kips pam, Inches bibliographical references and index. ISBN: o78-030e-0-8 ale gape) 1 Blsenman, Pete 1932—Aesthtc. 2. Architect. Lie, ara. Bsax5. 2007 proton soaGosi001 -Acatlogue soon for hs bok is aveabe Bom the Bh Library ‘The paper a this bak mes the gudelines for pemanence snd darby of he Comite om Production Guidelines fr Bok Longer of the Coun an ibrar Revoures 1098765432 SEN EGE BRE Se even ee ne Inet: et by ete Kis Pl ads: A Rept aces Deda ‘Th to’ le: Pasion the Moment of Actes Ufaing Eves: Fant Resta the Psst ofa New Uhm The tect of iguaty Folding nine: The Singularity of ebstock ‘los Ufling: ritecure inthe Age of econ dla Presenness ante Belg Ony-Oice of Acer Process of then: Mates Zara Poes ie fhe acini Separate ks ten it the Vid Diagram: Angina Scene of Writing Atanas and he Wi tothe cal ‘Mes andthe Fring of see sued Zones orc tsata Ati he onge Terai andthe le fatal et Digital scramber:Fo Index to oer ‘The Wks rte Append Ltr ram agus Dea FterEisenan ‘lected tography tings of Peter seaman, 1980 souees Inder conesHis eto inteduce this scone volume of writing by Peter Bien se Estee that mast who have come to tare Frew aid forearm, Hom the ther ha, ou have picked ita fet introduction to Eisenman thou fear no pean an prea you for wht you ate abo to encounter: To wade theo Eisen writing i a esta struggle, ad hose essay include some of his mst viscous, hs, to those his junetvee ‘sho do not alteady know where they ae about to go, my advice st set thie volume aside For the ment, Start with Die Out the Rest volume of writings, which contains the ae tec’s mote fluent texts. Thos, to, have ther dificult, but, writen with prodigious confidence, their arguments ae crisper, the propositions mone vivid The essays inthis book constitute Fisenaans second act, i which the protagonist takes step Bat wil surely seal is fate, which in his ase means his place im history. We must wat fra later acto laru whether Esenman’s choice ends in comedy of tragedy, but ‘his act surely ewals his twening point. In synopsis this drama concerns an architect whose pilesophical disposition borders on compulsion lke Raskalnikow,Pangloss, and other characters who tink too much. n the first act,a young, arrogant architect proposes to trans: fort architecture fiom an artistic into an intelleeml discipline. Though he muses on Tneger cultural questions, he focuses his philosophical urge outward, onto his effort to dis- cover ow to design crcl architecture. His thought deepens from reflections on slid oid shi and shear to deep structure, to absence and presence, to decentering, to such exotic rotons as tac ad catchresis, yet at each step he produces an immediate demonstration of his latest thinking in a design. And no matter how difficult the design concept he wrestles ‘with, by the time he as finished, he always declares his undertaking accomplished. Inacttwo, for reasons that are no lea, other than the dark doubts that tan too much ‘ime in though, his mood changes, he turns inward and hogins to think less about hw to doa ert azchitectre than why The change is marked in his language, where obscure, evistntial concepts such 38 prone, inririy, and third aura replace the proliferating INTRODUCTION acttwo Jefe ints conceptual design instruments that plot the fist act (One thing is clear: no ouside agent, no colleague, citi, or client forces this change. ‘Though he had convinced few, by the beginning ofthe second act, his scholarly command ofthe history and literature of the discipline combined with the originality of his eanly work to-eam him broad respect. Noone asked of hin a deeper validation of his projet than he had already offered. The change ws of his own volition even if he really had no choice in ‘he matter Bu then, such isthe ease for most protagonists of modern drama These essays brood: a certain strdence unseat the confidence ofthe earlier writings Under cover of measuted reflection, he plunges again and agin into eves more mystijing ruminations beset with inconsistency, selFcontradiction, recondte jargon, and dubious reasoning that occasionally ventures to the perilous brink of nonsense, A careful reader «annot help but come to wonder not just “of what” Eisenman speaks, but to whom? (OF couse, there are approachable writings inthis volume, and as always with Eisenman stunning apersus puncuste challenging passages of expert testimony to harass main stream atchitecutal thought, particulinly when itclaims a natural or slEevient legitimacy.Nor do these essays merely reprise the memorable thennes the ely ting, bt comin ivan thee into new terior, eve aller forty yas In ewe, he, the ie il nthe ot tens fo ope upthe quo of henge of the Fr fo formate i tag cng nag the eta ee fever changing rant cee 0) ‘Write four decades after tumors of isenmans strange analysis of Termgn’'s archi tecture first gan to reverberate through the halls of architectural academia, this state tes the two speculations which together distinguish Eisenman’ architectural Uhinking: (that architecture isa langage, and (a) that when architecture becomes an intellectually and historically selFconscous discipline, iis no longer just a language, hu a ode writing. The architec’ fst act, dhe ealy essays, fnfares thse two ideas and com. rmences his dogged pursuit oftheir consequences. T follow that story, we, like the author his F must ponder these propositions again and agin However ke the terninolgy of semicogy tef—which, among othe istation,lewes out the Phenomena, the physical, and theafectine dimensions of sgne—my ue ofthe em et so as both postin and negative impiations. If the afirmation of architecture's texuaity tht begins the passage proclaims his ‘pera’ ie ie, then the selfritcsm whispered in sis counter theme sets the mood for the second act, 8 it introduces the three passions that in this set of essays begin to price the architet—the phenomena, the physical and the fective “Toglimpe how his eat though might stand the test ofthese pasion, Fisenman brings the passage to a close with areffain ofthe haunting insight that ever Burns his Teragni analysis nto the payee of audiences the aria ofthe window, the story ofthe single pane of ‘lass inthe Casa del asco different from all others The 300+ page of the architet's Giuseppe Teragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Criqus stand as one ofthe most incsine formal analyses in allo moder architecture, but the essence of ides i perfec disiled in ty brie acount of one wind Suh ante ainda by, for exp, the movernent fone window he proeting window onthe ear fia of the Cass dl Fascia, which cam be see a a leecosm af cia ex Tis window, ‘whch hinge open ina plane pal 1 he vertical fice ofthe bung, Fanctlonally a vewly ce Ieee both a etal notation and a an ndeaton af the sient of euch a cancept ta pulling interpretations sigacance accesible only partly hough analysis of| the drevings inthe conte fs linguistic reading, and only partial though a visual and somatic reali Without an analysis ofthe drawings, this window cn only brad 2 "Ul compos eve Meee... then the seating of the ravings compared to the vial nd somatic expe ences omate reaing at were, of the bling aol ean er. plan the Cas el ani ces to fea uae, aml thei aa peice cf the Mg i aque owe sama fe acl drawn dress of he pla reves tht the se Fes ate lightly ‘exe tha teint and eat fale And en cone win despot ove gly the one window ope an exter fs ples open tard nn the rea fae he ning ects east cones densa square, Thi abe representa ina aera sense rae pa or ection. Ha he experienc f th go wide Ht uss Buln tobe an acl uae conn be nn fon is seat on pape ore The window xp wm ck he dis f ts chai, he pay ait ae whe ate depend ma esr ve epi ed] Invtetrospect forty years later the insignificant metal hinge that vegulats the opening ofthat one window now ries to challenge the demateialived conceptuaity of Eisenmaris original argument. tn effect, it becomes Terris Brushstroke, the inescapable materia gesture: necessary forthe ati ta render his idea, With its physically cones the phenomenal the rivulet of fies air that laws around the glass barrier into its nique gap—and the alfecive—the vague flings tht well For a moment when that one open window is seen ‘nlf consciously by passersby on the street." Senotcs insensitivity tothe particular physicaliy of architecture Wiggers much of the dramatic conflict in these essays, as, for example, inthe exchange between Eisenman and Derrida. Ye, the central visi coalesesina darker more exotic space where mind sis into metaphysics. A secreted poral leads therefrom slmost every essay, and once we find ourselves in if we encounter strange menagerie of concept and frulations Presumably, the architect conjuses these intelectual concoctions to safeguard architectute from some threat or demon, but, then, on the other hand, whence come these demons in the first place? What at they, why do they haunt architecture, specifically? OF cours, inthe demystified sobriety of contemporary discourse, demons ony refer to one thing: ner demons that plague 2 mind. That abit of familiar Freudian psycho- snalyis—no mote than has alteady proved instrumental to moder interpretations of Hanlet—might bear on thes essays i aleady suggested by a striking curisityconceening ‘he essay guiding us thus far. “Tenragni and the Idea of Critical Tex was written as an ep Jog forthe publication of Fisenenaa’s landmark stud ofthe Htalian modernist, relent Tess exerci in formal analjsis that al but erases Giuseppe Teeagni asthe agent of his own archtectre, not to mention 28a oncetving being. As noted, four decades separate the ‘completion of the orginal analysis and its eventual publication, a dlay that would have awed even the hesitant Dane, Until the belated publication ofthe Terragni study, the con tent ofthe work circulated from student to student not as txt but as gossip and rumor— an od fate for an opus implicated in architecture's accession tothe rank of writing, And bythe time the architect fnally readied the manuscript Fo publication he, ike Hamlet, could net but join qualms toi For the architect who more than any other has Foregrounded intellectual agency to hve gained fothold through an agaravated assault on agency itself is an intsguing but all ‘oo familiar plot. Thus, Eisenman'scalelated assassination of pater Terran cannot be the‘cnt tii of thi second ack tha xine mctely establishes the eae Haw af the po agonist Theis arses, at, roma slew davening wherein the anlar, looking ina mito, bes to wonder he may have unconsciously poison his beloved architecture, wath writing ‘Aunt here were a contest nde hd to compet nearing the shadows with he psn: ws ‘ad never ene oto the ve, while is sight wa tl weak, and before his eyes a bore ely wo eno be ridiculous? Men woul ayo in tht up he went and down he ae wt tis js and tht it was tr no eve o think oF ascending, om, eee 2 Eisenman's pursuit of architecture as writing was part and parcel ofthe development ofthe “Linguistic” school by Rosi, Venturi, Jencks an Baird, Graves, and ethers. Concerned ‘wth architectural meaning, these theorist drew upon the model of language to elaborate the discipline into comprehensive scheme of semantic elements, syntactic formal relationships, and thetorial devices, patterns, and idioms. The basic idea is easly grasped in Fisenman's ofezepeated assertion that for architecture a column isnot structural element. but aig niying device, It is a foregone conchsion that a structural system must sucessfully sup porta building, whether with classical columns, feames, or plots. And tobe sure, the archi tect must gasp the basis ofthe stractural problem to begin to work, much asa composer must grasp the basis ofthe sound production of any instrament for which he weles usc ‘xt solving the structural problem ie not the work ofthe architect, which is rather to caplrethe other effects that structural system inevitably produces once the load question is setded. Thus, while fom an engineering point of view both plo and classical coluran are load-bearing elements fom the point of view of architecture as cultral discourse, the classical column and the pl are forever joined in a moral debate: while the former cee brates the distinction between ground and sky—withall the metaphysical, theological, and feudal consequences that entalls—the latter eradicats it For most ofits adherents, the language model served architectural discourse by roe: porting intensic attributes characteristic of eer linguistic comunity such a8 continuity, tradition, custom, memory, and locaiy, values that were percelved to have been tnd rel gated by modernism’ stylistic ceed. Eisenman, keen to secure a role for modernism's legacy of intlection and design speculation within the Hinguisti scheme, deviates from his colleaguos on three fronts, Today, the best known ofthese, ofcourse, stands evident in ‘he eccentric work that emanates For his practice, The other two are found in his writ ing: 1) he reads the history of architecture asa record of heresy (by certain architects and scholars} retold as onthodony, and (a) he theorizes architecture not ust asa language, but 25 writing, While we consider the ater two without reerence tothe design work, the these scepartand patel. Thus, many of thes essays bogin witha critique of one of architectute’s ‘conventions or tations, then fllow with a project by the architect intended to explore the heterodox implications of chat eritgue bisenman is never so vv in a grate seminars when presenting pivotal moment in architecture not jst a a ereative Kap, but as an act of heresy, fem Alberts spies of sacred temple front with the profane tinmphant arch to Tony Garner's apocryphal exp: jon from the Fcole des Beau Artes far ientionally niplacing a column. Meve the term heres is exiellyinende is essential and distinguishing the horizons of orthodoxy and avows in principle ts higher purpose, but challenging one it occurs with of ts dogs, ear the perspective of Catholicism, for example, neither an aborgine, nor 4 Jew nor an atheists bert; they are hewhen or infidel. Nor is a Catholic heretic who sandons the faith or convert o another, but rather apetate, To bes heretic, ne must be 4 bprized Catholic who alizms and practices Catholicism, but in such @ way 2 to dely ‘ficial church dogma. Heresy. thecelore, is not merely a synonym for sin laxity, or mis prision, Rather in ts essence it is a purposeful and precise theoretical acto resistance that «an only be perpetrated by a well schooled predicant. Prominent Catholicheresieshave ele. vated Mary to the tats of Goddess and variously disputed the divinity of Chris, the inal libikty ofthe pope, andthe doctrine of transubstaniation. Ia 1835, Pope Pius X declared *snadernisna’—then defined a dhe lve of ll things modern above all things ancent—as the mest insidious heresy then facing the church, In those toms, Eisenman is Architect's consummate heretic a high priest bent on challenging one dogma after another, but newer so far a to deny the faith. Though he does not use the concept of heresy pet se, its rtiocinations suse his txts, informing such key concepts as cricality and inesorty Often, the heretical imperative is associated withthe art critic Rosalind Kreus, a recurting figure in the architects essays. His conviction that, forthodony in architecture cannot help but serve entrenched power finds a kindred spirit in Krauss insistence thatthe vial arts mount vanguard resistance othe insidious effets of latecapitalisn’s force of commodification Writing AX ist, Eisenan pursued the linguistic model by sdestepping the semantic tactics favored ly his colleagues, to explore the “deep structure” of architects grammar, following Noam Chornsky’s theories of generative-transformative grammars, That efor gave vse to the architec’ disposition toward process-based design and tothe experiments With arc tectural syntax launched in his easly houses, traits that persist in the work of his studio to this day Very soon, however, he shifted his attention from grammar to writing, When one recills thatthe anthtopological concept of “prehistory” refers to the period before writing, ‘hen the reasons that Eisenman so stresses the concept of writing fo architecture become more apparent, All anguages, writen or not, produce continuity tradition, and custom, boat only the sustained, detailed record specific to writing gives rise to history, scholarship, intellection,speewaton, ciclsm, and debate, the elements of discourse. For Eisenman, a body of written discourse about architecture is 2 necessary but not suficient condition, Such a body of writing in at history, afterall, engendered the slitic- periods model of architectural history thatthe linguistic model sought radically to revise, IFnolo eplace, To establish the bon ides of an inelectaly based speculative projet within the Hinge scheme athiectaral desig est be shawn abe kind of writing x lo writing, he vitae toward Aste archi! bins to sit his oes fom lng Ahe tex of Desi, the name stonyions wih the rst ail yet compelling reflection on ‘writing offered by contemporary philosophy. Inevlably, Ded’ ideas inet tsenman's tanh, Noting that the steuctes and processes that senso had identified as dhe basi fal signification were prociely the same as those associated with phonetic writing’ es tion lo speech, Derrida generalizes the concept of writing into “arhi-wrting.” This pro vides the architect withthe intellectual framework within which to theorie architect as wring. Concomitantly, the philosopher demonstrates that writing, now the very possibility of meaning, ls always destabilizes meaning. Hence, the meaning oF any texts intsnsically instable, or as Derrida terme it, “uandecidable.” He shows that, without exception, supple ‘mental assumptions are always necessary to stabilize the meaning of any particular text “Meaning, therefore, can ony be achicved atthe expense of writing’ intrinsically destabi lizing nature. Appealing to the inexorable logic of archi-writing, Derrida argues thatthe assumptions necessary to stabilize a text are themselves intsinsially nstable teats requiing their own supplementation ad infinitum All texts, therefore, form promiscuous chains of signifations that cm never terminate in any final, transcendent assumption with the power to stabilize the meaning of the resulting tapestry of chains —a situation expressed in his frmous aphorism, “There is nothing outside the text” “This work underscored the significance of Esenmas distinction beewoen architecture as language and srcitechre ae writing, and girded the architects suspicions tha the orthodony of architectural discourse unjustifialy suppressed architectural experimentation, He had long argued that architecture was the language most vested in producing stability as meaning, fom the stability of a building's structure to the stability ofthe patterns of everyday life tothe stability of familial soca, and politcal order and hierarchy. In his lew, ‘the omhodory of architecture served above alo prop up architectures ability o engender pre isaly those meanings. Such was the implication of his idea that an architectural column is nota vertical support bu sign of vertical suppor; we should now say... sign ofthe sa: bility of that support. With Dersida's work, his criticisms ofthat orthodeny deepened Finally, Derrida broaches a crucial question: how then does the meaning of text—the ‘meaning of philosophical ac, a novel, conversation, a building, a scene in a movie— seam immediatly stable, apparently immune oa dependency on contingent supplemen tation? How, far example, docs speech seem immediately to mean to speaker what 2 speaker intends to say? The answer he oflers isto posit an irepressible “metaphysics oF presence” wherein every teat is always already supplemented by indefensible assumptions ‘hat escape critical scrutiny. This metaphysics of presence, then, is at insidious mechs: ‘ism through which special interests —intellectal, polit, historical or psychological — covetly operate to instill unjustifiable confidence in the meaningfulness of a text. At its Hint, the controversial consequence ofthe metaphysis of presence i that meaning as such {in any form, discipline, or medium, though always presen, nevertheless always arises strc in the clandestine service ofa special interest. Deconstruction names the inflamma: tory process of eretng ot an crtging the operations ofthis confidence: ame in every discipline and insiation with a vested fetes in the meaning ofa ext—fe paycho analysis philosophy, lterate, and etic to science, history, an kw For a tine, Dervdas thought on archi-wting so apprached Eisenman on architecture as wing tha the two seem almost inkstnguishable. Yet inthe essays af he fat at the plilosopiterofdeconstrcin remains at distance, disembodied authority whose message is transmitted more often thn not by oblique reference. As we bein the seond at, more corporeal Deva has approached, bu in an extraordinary ac of dramaturgy, the becoming, Aes of Jacques Dereida—the meeting of the two men, thelr yearlong collaboration on the (Chora |, Work’ garden for Berard Thums Parc de La Viet, the flowering of friendship, an he eruption ofa bre but poignantcash ina public xchange of letters —occurs enact With "Post Cand..." the epening essay of act, Jacques Derrida has come and gone ‘et in that climactic lacuna a fundamental change occured. From then on, Derida, ance authori then ma, becomes an appastion,a specter of mised who haunts the architec. 'isenman never agsin invokes his friend to reinforce his own position; rather, he now scripts the philosopher's arguments through a cunning ventilaquy? so a to swerve aay fiom them, slowly withdrawing architecute fom archiwrting. Architecture remains wet: ing, but gradually becomes writing unlike any othe, n its physicality be sue, but more in its mystecies, a secot writing, avaiable only to a select cognoscenti: those inside archi- tecture, Toward he end of this book, for eample, one finds the author narrating a wizards ‘contest staged inthe fRcenth century berween Luciano Laurana's Ducal Palace in Urbino and Donato Bramante's Santa Maria Dela Pacoin Rome’ fan elect, one can see tw0 archi ‘ecs conjure spac, geometry, concept, mate, and being into alternative metaphysical spells: fn, one wil see only the dall corners of two courtyards, tei differences wifing it perceptible a all. But then, as Eisenman fequently reminds us, architects love to clak ‘eis powers behind the insignifiance of carers ‘The metamorphosis of Eisenman thought i well advanced by the publication of such abstruse tents ag “Presentness and the Being Only-Once of Architect," “Writing inside,” nd “Written inte the Void” In them, the criss ofthe second ac, which ist say, the criss ofachitecture as writing, reaches a feverous pitch Jacques Dersida and Rosalind Krauss ‘modulate From kindred scholars to character fis weed ocicumscribe the predicament of architecture that now compels the author's thought, If Derrida embodies a conceptual pro: jec of writing that should entail architecture but cannot cope with architecture's material passions, then Krauss embodies a project of vigilant intellectual resistance in the visual ats ‘that alo should entail architecture but cannot, or atleast doesnot, cope with architecture's ‘on history of es ln he book The Oe! Uncmsous,Roilind Krauss dscsses a Jackson Pollock pining ne ‘onshipt is pst i pe, She contend hat wen a Pollak punting paced ina horizontal postion... ite “swage werk” But the moment the cans ken of of the oor std moved o 2 vert positon on dhe wa, Krousscomtaues, It Becomes “naturalized” renstiutonalzed and ens the dscourse of pining‘of diss with an wnchaeseritic nace abo the pee he Hao the wal thichangs in peep snes onc things pane dow of aon without iy acsion of wy the eltionship ftw lor a wal tht stereo the oor ‘or the wal and the pining oul cass this oop... Moat of thease of acitectar sssune that citar conventions haw a thoughts natrales with espe osc hing 8 was an oor. vt hen et (95) ven for those a astute as Rosilnd Krauss oor and wall ae just floor and wal (Cthoughtto-be") natural places to throw rugs and hang pictues. Where, then, the pos: sibility ofa savage architecture, when architec is at place tha innately tames the savage? To address that question, Eisenman must retain the rtclty that auchitectare as writing enables, but can no longer isk Dersdsarchiwriting, because its lack of dsp threatens to evaporate architecture into thin ai [Ashe begins o reformulate his approach to architecture as Writing, Eisenman revisits srchtecute's power to domestcate that he nots in Krauss's book. Having long eiiqued srchitectte'sorthodony fr its urge to reinforce that eet, he now considers that perbaps the power itself constitutes the discipline's singularity. Meanvhile, he defers another {trig question, for who are those inside architetue, or should we ask whereare they? For the moment, let us simply note in passing thatthe two provocations are issued inthe same breath: “Most of #owe outside of architecture assume that architectural conventions Ihave a thought naturalness with respect to such things a walls and foots.” However affecting his break with Dereida might have been, on a personal level it was ‘but a waning of briefly shared interests. On the other hand, a palpable disappointment tints Eisenman's choice of Rosalind Krauss to represent “those outside of achitecture”"The two ‘nt only share long personal friendship and instintionalhistory—Kraus's seminal journal (tober began under the auspices of the Institte for Architecture and Urban Studies founded by Eisenman—but the architect identifies his project in architecture wih hers in the visual at, “Thus, however mild Eisenman's rebuke of Krauss may scm to most readers, it shoud senda shudder through supporters of her work, fr it unsetles a core premise of The Optical, Unconscious. In that study, Krauss, much ke Eisenman, attempts to fend off he effort by at orthodoxy to embrace belatedly the heretical transgressions of such works 35 Pollock's