An exploration of notions of 'order' present in Bernard Tschumi's deconstructive architecture of the late 70's - Dissertation Example

From the mid-1970s, small pockets of resistance began to form as architects in advanced, post-industrial cultures began to adopt a system of defamiliarization from the established norms. The new mediated world reflected and reinforced dismantled reality. Architecture incorporated such dismantling and fragmentation, through “celebrating the culture of differences, by accelerating and intensifying the loss of certainty, of centre, of history”4. Deconstruction as a style of architecture has become increasingly influential among architects, educators, policy makers, and developers of prestige projects.

Numerous recent projects are based on the deconstructive style. Besides visual fashion, this type of architecture is conceived around form, function and aesthetics. The main characteristics of deconstructive architecture are a “lack of human-scale details, jagged and convoluted figures, disjointed masses and planes, glittering glass and polished metal surfaces”5. Deconstructive architecture is rooted in a branch of philosophy whose chief proponent was the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

To create order in an architectural composition, form, space and other principles play an important part. Order does not refer only to geometric regularity, but to a “condition in which each part of a whole is properly disposed with reference to other parts and to its purpose”6, towards producing a harmonious arrangement. A natural diversity and complexity is present in the program requirements for buildings. The forms and spaces of any building should acknowledge the hierarchy that is fundamental to the functions they facilitate, the users they serve,.

The importance of a theoretical framework in architecture, for increasing the aesthetic and functional value of the built environment has been underscored. Bernard Tschumi’s work which introduces the urban setting into the Parc de la Villette has a distinctive characteristic emphasizing contemporary deconstructive trends. A theoretical framework elucidates the reasons why some buildings affect human beings in specific ways. Nikos Salingros, a colleague and adversary of Tschumi who promotes traditional aesthetics in architecture, also supports this view .

He adds that one of the essential requirements of architectural theory is to integrate and organise scattered and seemingly unrelated observations of the ways in which human beings interact with built form. Another significant element of theory is to formalize those observations into an easily applicable framework usable for design. Architecture’s recent embarking on a formulation of its theoretical basis has been long overdue. Until now architecture has been based on personal notions and fashion, rather than on theoretical support.