"Deconstructing is to deform a rationally
structured space so that the elements within that space are forced into
new relationships" (Samara 122). It features a lot of chopping up,
layering, and fragmenting. Initially, the Deconstructivist architects
were influenced by the philosophy and ideas of French philosopher
Jacques Derrida. The theory of deconstruction from Derrida's work argues
that deconstruction "is not a style or 'attitude' but rather a mode of
questioning through and about the technologies, formal devices, social
institutions, and founding metaphors of representation" (Typotheque). It
is very much history as well as theory. Derrida introduces us to this
idea of deconstruction in his book, Of Grammatology. In his theory, we
question the idea of how representation dwells in reality. For Derrida,
Deconstructivism was an extension of his interest in radical formalism.
In the 1970s, architects that embraced Deconstructivism saw it as a
means to assess the supposedly unifying and idealistic ways of the
Modern movement, and sought to break apart the concept of classical
order and space. In architecture, Deconstruction attempted to shift away
from the restricting "rules" of modernism that involved ideas of
"purity of form" and "form follows function". "Purity of form" refers to
"purism" which is actually a form of Cubism, another art movement that
was brought upon by the French painter Amedee Ozenfant. Artists under
purism were precise in their use of geometric form and interested in
proportion that was pure. The principle of "form follows function" is
exactly as its name implies: its idea is that the form or shape of the
building or architecture that is being made should be largely based on
its intended function. Deconstructivism essentially opposed the ordered
rationality of Modernism.
