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The Classical Unconscious: A Critique of the Paradoxical Design Projects of Peter Eisenman

Aviv, Lee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367943654

Abstract Details

2013, MSARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
This thesis is a study of the design trajectories of architect Peter Eisenman from 1963 to the present. The point of departure for the study is his seminal essay "The End of the Classical: The End of the Beginning, The End of the End," which he published in 1984. It will be shown in this thesis that although one might understand the essay as Eisenman's anti-Renaissance design manifesto that will guide the production of contemporary architectural practices, the objective of the essay was not necessarily to completely eliminate Renaissance design knowledge from contemporary practices. Eisenman declared in the essay that the practices and study of architecture from the fifteenth century to the present were founded on three fictions: (1) the fiction of representation, (2) the fiction of reason, and (3) the fiction of history. After unveiling these fictions, Eisenman set for himself the mission of researching, writing, and practicing architecture in a manner that would present new methodologies for building research and production that would not include the three fictions by interrogating what he saw as codified belief systems in architectural practices and education. In order to explore how Eisenman set out to dispel the "fictions" he observed in Western architectural practices and how that observation has guided his design over the years, this study adopted the following steps: Firstly, it examined Eisenman's designs for his early house projects (1967-1975); his "cities of artificial excavation" projects (1978-1988); and his Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio (1988-1996). Secondly, this research analyzed the discourse surrounding Eisenman's design projects in the 1980s in order to learn whether his change in design methodology at this time moved away from the institutionalization of precepts " –the fiction of reason–"he believed were derived from the classical tradition. Thirdly, it analyzed Eisenman’s select writings in the 1990s as well as his competition entry for the Rebstock Master Plan in Frankfurt Germany (1990-1992), and the design for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in World War II, in Berlin, Germany (1997-2005), to determine how his design projects eliminated or confirmed "the fiction of history" which he believes were derived from the classical tradition of architectural practices. It is observed that certain ideological design consistencies that were invested in making Renaissance design traditions available to contemporary architectural practices without representing the ideas in the visual forms favored by that tradition emerged in Eisenman's writings over the years. However, when he applied his ideological rhetoric into the design of structures, the outcomes of the designs were unconsciously paradoxical because they recouped the three fictions–representation, reason, and history–which he wanted to eliminate from Western architectural studies and practices. Based on these findings, this thesis proposes that the more Eisenman attempted–either in writing or in design–to move away from what he saw as the fictions of the classical tradition in modern architectural practices and studies, the more he unconsciously and paradoxically confirmed the role of the classical traditions in his own contemporary architectural designs. It is argued that only through reinterpretations of classical architectural elements is Eisenman able to avoid reproducing an architecture that repeats the links to that tradition.
Nnamdi Elleh, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
George Bible, M.C.E. (Committee Member)
152 p.
Architecture
Peter Eisenman; Renaissance Architecture; Cities of Artificial Excavation; Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Aviv, L. (2013). The Classical Unconscious: A Critique of the Paradoxical Design Projects of Peter Eisenman [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367943654

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Aviv, Lee. The Classical Unconscious: A Critique of the Paradoxical Design Projects of Peter Eisenman. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367943654.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Aviv, Lee. "The Classical Unconscious: A Critique of the Paradoxical Design Projects of Peter Eisenman." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367943654

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.