Deconstructivism in contemporary architecture stands in opposition to
the ordered rationality of Modernism. Its relationship with
Postmodernism is also decidedly contrary. Though postmodernist and
nascent deconstructivist architects published theories alongside each
other in the journal Oppositions, that journal's contents mark the beginning of a decisive break between the two movements.
Deconstructivism took a confrontational stance toward much of architecture and architectural history, wanting to disjoin and disassemble architecture. While postmodernism returned to embrace, often slyly or ironically, the historical references that modernism had shunned, deconstructivism rejects the postmodern acceptance of such references. It also rejects the idea of ornament as an after-thought or decoration.
In Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction of Architecture, geometry is to deconstructivists (Figure 1) what ornament is to postmodernists, and this complication of geometry was in turn applied to the functional, structural, and spatial aspects of deconstructivist buildings. One example of deconstructivist complexity is Frank Gehry's Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein, which takes the typical unadorned white cube of modernist art galleries and deconstructs it, using geometries reminiscent of cubism and abstract expressionism. This subverts the functional aspects of modernist simplicity while taking modernism, particularly the international style, of which its white stucco skin is reminiscent, as a starting point.
Deconstructivism took a confrontational stance toward much of architecture and architectural history, wanting to disjoin and disassemble architecture. While postmodernism returned to embrace, often slyly or ironically, the historical references that modernism had shunned, deconstructivism rejects the postmodern acceptance of such references. It also rejects the idea of ornament as an after-thought or decoration.
In Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction of Architecture, geometry is to deconstructivists (Figure 1) what ornament is to postmodernists, and this complication of geometry was in turn applied to the functional, structural, and spatial aspects of deconstructivist buildings. One example of deconstructivist complexity is Frank Gehry's Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein, which takes the typical unadorned white cube of modernist art galleries and deconstructs it, using geometries reminiscent of cubism and abstract expressionism. This subverts the functional aspects of modernist simplicity while taking modernism, particularly the international style, of which its white stucco skin is reminiscent, as a starting point.
