Untimely Meditations: Decomposition and Timelessness in Select Writings of Peter Eisenman

Abstract

This paper investigates one aspect in the work of architect, educator and theorist Peter Eisenman (b 1932) through the filter of select writings from the mid 1980s. It does this by examining two texts published in 1984, a period characterised as one of rupture if not emphatically in crisis. The writings considered are “The Futility of Objects: Decomposition and the Processes of Difference” and “The End of the Classical: the End of the Beginning, the End of the End”. Secondary authors referenced include Robin Evans, Kenneth Frampton and Raphael Moneo. The paper conjectures that certain approaches such as Eisenman’s to materials and phenomena from architecture’s past can open new conditions of possibility for architecture today. A number of questions are asked: By what means and in what forms are Eisenman’s thinking about architecture in a moment of crisis revealed in these essays? Which architectural qualities and form generation devices does Eisenman discern in the past? How might the processes for interrogating architecture’s past as displayed in the two essays inform an approach to architecture today? The paper adds to scholarship on Eisenman, examining a little studied facet of his work in a period marked by swerves in his thinking. In a conference that seeks to identify a spectrum of disciplinary positions, the paper contributes to discussions around conference thematic sub-stream Design Practice and Education in its consideration of one stance vis-à-vis architecture’s past.