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Nikos A. Salingaros
ANTI-ARCHITECTURE AND DECONSTRUCTION

Paperback, 210 Seiten, 16,5 x 23,5 cm, english
ISBN 3-937954-01-5
EUR 19,- (inkl. Versand)



Table of contents
with Annotations by Michael Blowhard

Foreword by James Stevens Curl

“Some Thoughts on Culpability” by James Kalb

Introduction by Michael Blowhard

Part 1 The Danger of Deconstructivism

What is the relationship between intellect and emotion in art and architecture? Here Salingaros establishes the primacy of emotional experience in architecture. In his discussion, he also demonstrates something fundamental: that the exploration of emotional experience does not itself have to become a histrionic scene, but can in fact be a rational, civilized exercise.

Part 2 Charles Jencks & The New Paradigm in Architecture

Charles Jencks is a perceptive phrase maker and style tracker. In this review of some recent Jencks writing and thinking, Salingaros takes note of Jencks’ use of scientific concepts to justify his contention that Deconstructivist architecture is an exciting and significant development. A man of science himself, Salingaros gently hints that Jencks’ understanding of these concepts is, to be kind, superficial. In fact, Deconstructivist architecture represents no deep engagement at all with these ideas. Here it is simply fashion, a “look” that has been glamorized by clouds of fancy rhetoric.

Part 3 Deconstructing the Decons (with Michael Mehaffy)

In this short essay, Salingaros lets himself begin to ask the question: what might Deconstructivism really represent? He doesn’t hesitate, however modestly, to introduce a positive alternative to it, one that truly is based in the new science.

Part 4 Death, Life, and Libeskind (with Brian Hanson)

Salingaros turns his attention to a single, prominent Decon project, Daniel Libeskind’s proposal for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. How to interpret this proposal? For one thing, how does it feel? Once again, a return to our basic emotional experience. What Salingaros shows convincingly is that for all the rhetoric surrounding this style the emotional experience and creative process itself of Decon is a negative one. We aren’t set free; instead, we’re brought down. We’re led down gloomy and deterministic hallways. A humane man of the world, Salingaros asks not just if this morgue-like feeling is appropriate but also, can it be said to represent any unfolding of the human spirit at all?

Postscript: A Fate worse than Death?

Postscript II: A Letter from Hillel Schocken

Part 5 Warped Space

In this deceptively casual review of a book about Deconstructivism’s treatment of space, Salingaros employs one of his most enjoyable strategies, which is to simply take them directly at their word, even to draw them out. We’re left wondering: “What is this all about?” and “Who are those people talking to?” (Unstated but perfectly obvious answer: they’re talking to each other, of course.)

Part 6 Anti-Architecture and Religion

Part of the strength and daring of the people in the alternative tradition I describe in my Introduction to this book lies in their willingness not just to raise some of the questions that art has dodged for over a hundred years now, but also to tackle these questions very directly. Perhaps the deepest of these questions is the relationship between art and religion. I can’t begin to summarize Nikos’ thinking here. But let me say that passages in this essay convey as much gravity and substance as any art criticism that I’m aware of. He writes at one point, “This indicates the transference of values from traditional symbols and rules (which could express religion) to an abstract ideal (which therefore competes with religion)” — that’s saying an amazing lot.

Part 7 Twentieth-Century Architecture as a Cult

We have encountered Decon; we have opened our thinking to it. The time has come to tackle, as straightforwardly as possible, the question of what Deconstructivism as an architectural movement is, and what it represents. Some may find Salingaros’ thesis shocking or facile; having had my own encounters with the Decon set I find it entirely convincing. A question stays with us after we’ve finished this essay: the leaders and stars of this movement — What are they getting out of it? And how is it serving them?

Part 8 The Derrida Virus

It has to be admitted that Decon has a unique kind of power: the ability to consume and destroy perfectly good brains. It goes that even one better, because it also fills that brain with feverish excitement, a kind of exhilaration at the spectacle of its own self-destruction. Here, Salingaros gives us an almost admiring appreciation of the distinctive power of Decon.

Part 9 Background Material for “The Derrida Virus”
(Includes sections co-authored with Terry M. Mikiten)

Now that the elements of Salingaros’ perceptions and arguments have been established, the view broadens. Stepping back, we take in the overall structure. Here we begin to see how the deconstruction of Deconstructivism can become an act of creation.

Part 10 The New Acropolis Museum

What a test case: Decon in the person of Bernard Tschumi is invited to make his mark on the foundations of Western civilization — Athens, Greece. The generative past meets a destructive present.

Part 11 Architectural Theory & the Work of Bernard Tschumi

What is meant by Theory anyway? While addressing this question in a sober, substantial way — one based in history and science — Salingaros displays his sly side as well. Numerous unasked (but perfectly apparent) questions float up as we read this essay; numerous unstated (but perfectly apparent) answers arise too. What are these people really up to? If they aren’t trying to accomplish something worthwhile, what are they doing? Their version of architectural theory couldn’t be; well, a cosmetic smokescreen for an anti-civilizational enterprise, could it? Are we to sacrifice our own well-being so their stars might burn brighter?

Part 12 Christopher Alexander & The New Architecture
(includes an Interview with Christopher Alexander)

In arriving at the end, having made our way through thorny thickets, having dug them up by the roots, we arrive at the field’s true starting gate. With this review of Christopher Alexander’s magnum opus “The Nature of Order”, and with a discussion with Alexander himself, we’re given a substantial taste of the positive thing that architecture (as well as architectural theory) can be. Our wrestle with Decon leads us back to the thought that Decon is devoted to obscuring: that building and urbanism can be activities that contribute to human well-being.

Endnote by Lucien Steil

References