DeconstructivismFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the architectural style or movement known as deconstructivism. For the philosophical idea,

see deconstruction. For other uses, see deconstruction (disambiguation).

Libeskind's Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. A prime example of deconstructivist architecture comprising three

fragmented, intersecting curved volumes which symbolise the destruction of war.

Deconstructivism is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is

characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin, non-

rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure

and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit the many deconstructivist "styles" is

characterized by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.

Important events in the history of the deconstructivist movement include the 1982 Parc de la

Villette architectural design competition (especially the entry from Jacques Derrida and Peter

Eisenman [1]  and Bernard Tschumi's winning entry), the Museum of Modern Art’s 1988Deconstructivist

Architecture exhibition in New York, organized by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, and the 1989 opening of

the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, designed by Peter Eisenman. The New York exhibition featured

works by Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au,

and Bernard Tschumi. Since the exhibition, many of the architects who were associated with Deconstructivism

have distanced themselves from the term. Nonetheless, the term has stuck and has now, in fact, come to

embrace a general trend within contemporary architecture.

Originally, some of the architects known as Deconstructivists were influenced by the ideas of the French

philosopher Jacques Derrida. Eisenman developed a personal relationship with Derrida, but even so his

approach to architectural design was developed long before he became a Deconstructivist. For him

Deconstructivism should be considered an extension of his interest in radical formalism. Some practitioners of

deconstructivism were also influenced by the formal experimentation and geometric imbalances of

Russian constructivism. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century movements:

the modernism/postmodernism interplay, expressionism, cubism,minimalism and contemporary art. The

attempt in deconstructivism throughout is to move architecture away from what its practitioners see as the

constricting 'rules' of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."

Contents

  [hide]

1 History, context and influences

o 1.1 Modernism and postmodernism

o 1.2 Deconstructivist philosophy

o 1.3 Constructivism and Russian Futurism

o 1.4 Contemporary art

o 1.5 1988 MoMA exhibition

o 1.6 Computer-aided design

2 Critical responses

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

[edit]History, context and influences

[edit]Modernism and postmodernism

Seattle Central Library by Rem Koolhaas and OMA

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 (published 1973–

84), 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.[2] 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 addition to Oppositions, another text that separated deconstructivism from the fray of modernism and

postmodernism was the publication of Robert Venturi'sComplexity and Contradiction in architecture (1966). A

defining point for both postmodernism and for deconstructivism, Complexity and Contradiction argues against

the purity, clarity and simplicity of modernism. With its publication, functionalism and rationalism, the two main

branches of modernism, were overturned as paradigms according to differing postmodernist and

deconstructivist readings. The postmodern reading of Venturi (who was himself a postmodernist) was that

ornament and historical allusion added a richness to architecture that modernism had foregone. Some

Postmodern architects endeavored to reapply ornaments even to economical and minimal buildings, an effort

best illustrated by Venturi's concept of "the decorated shed." Rationalism of design was dismissed but the

functionalism of the building was still somewhat intact. This is close to the thesis of Venturi's next major work,

[3] that signs and ornament can be applied to a pragmatic architecture, and instill the philosophic complexities

of semiology.

Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry,Weil am Rhein

The deconstructivist reading of Complexity and Contradiction is quite different. The basic building was the

subject of problematics and intricacies in deconstructivism, with no detachment for ornament. Rather than

separating ornament and function, like postmodernists such as Venturi, the functional aspects of buildings were

called into question. Geometry was to deconstructivists what ornament was to postmodernists, the subject of

complication, 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. Another example of the deconstructivist reading

of Complexity and Contradiction is Peter Eisenman's Wexner Center for the Arts. The Wexner Center takes the

archetypal form of the castle, which it then imbues with complexity in a series of cuts and fragmentations. A

three-dimensional grid, runs somewhat arbitrarily through the building. The grid, as a reference to modernism,

of which it is an accoutrement, collides with the medieval antiquity of a castle. Some of the grid's columns

intentionally don't reach the ground, hovering over stairways creating a sense of neurotic unease and

contradicting the structural purpose of the column. The Wexner Center deconstructs the archetype of the castle

and renders its spaces and structure with conflict and difference.

[edit]Deconstructivist philosophy

The main channel from deconstructivist philosophy to architectural theory was through the philosopher Jacques

Derrida's influence with Peter Eisenman. Eisenman drew some philosophical bases from the literary

movement Deconstruction, and collaborated directly with Derrida on projects including an entry for the Parc de

la Villette competition, documented in Chora l Works. Both Derrida and Eisenman, as well as Daniel

Libeskind [4]  were concerned with the "metaphysics of presence," and this is the main subject of deconstructivist

philosophy in architecture theory. The presupposition is that architecture is a language capable of

communicating meaning and of receiving treatments by methods of linguistic philosophy.[5] The dialectic of

presence and absence, or solid and void occurs in much of Eisenman's projects, both built and unbuilt. Both

Derrida and Eisenman believe that the locus, or place of presence, is architecture, and the same dialectic of

presence and absence is found in construction and deconstructivism.[6]

According to Derrida, readings of texts are best carried out when working with classical narrative structures.

Any architectural deconstructivism requires the existence of a particular archetypalconstruction, a strongly-

established conventional expectation to play flexibly against.[7] The design of Frank Gehry’s own Santa

Monica residence, (from 1978), has been cited as a prototypical deconstructivist building. His starting point was

a prototypical suburban house embodied with a typical set of intended social meanings. Gehry altered its

massing, spatial envelopes, planes and other expectations in a playful subversion, an act of "de"construction"[8]

In addition to Derrida's concepts of the metaphysics of presence and deconstructivism, his notions of trace and

erasure, embodied in his philosophy of writing and arche-writing[9] found their way into

deconstructivist memorials. Daniel Libeskind envisioned many of his early projects as a form of writing or

discourse on writing and often works with a form of concrete poetry. He made architectural sculptures out of

books and often coated the models in texts, openly making his architecture refer to writing. The notions of trace

and erasure were taken up by Libeskind in essays and in his project for the Jewish Museum Berlin. The

museum is conceived as a trace of the erasure of the Holocaust, intended to make its subject legible and

poignant. Memorials such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the

Murdered Jews of Europe are also said to reflect themes of trace and erasure.

Computer-aided design

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry, in Bilbao, Spain.

Computer aided design is now an essential tool in most aspects of contemporary architecture, but the

particular nature of deconstrucivism makes the use of computers especially pertinent. Three-dimensional

modelling and animation (virtual and physical) assists in the conception of very complicated spaces, while

the ability to link computer models to manufacturing jigs (CAM - Computer-aided manufacturing) allows

the mass production of subtly different modular elements to be achieved at affordable costs. In retrospect

many early deconstructivist works appear to have been conceived with the aid of a computer, but were

not; Zaha Hadid's sketches for instance. Also, Gehry is noted for producing many physical models as well

as computer models as part of his design process. Though the computer has made the designing of

complex shapes much easier, not everything that looks odd is "deconstructivist."

[edit]Critical responses

Since the publication of Kenneth Frampton's Modern Architecture: A Critical History (first edition 1980)

there has been a keen consciousness of the role of criticism within architectural theory. Whilst referencing

Derrida as a philosophical influence, deconstructivism can also be seen as having as much a basis

in critical theory as the other major offshoot of postmodernism, critical regionalism. The two aspects of

critical theory, urgency and analysis, are found in deconstructivism. There is a tendency to re-examine

and critique other works or precedents in deconstructivism, and also a tendency to set aesthetic issues in

the foreground. An example of this is the Wexner Center. Critical Theory, however, had at its core a

critique of capitalism and its excess, and from that respect many of the works of the Deconstructivists

would fail in that regard if only they are made for an elite and are, as objects, highly expensive, despite

whatever critique they may claim to impart on the conventions of design.

The difference between criticality in deconstructivism and criticality in critical regionalism, is that critical

regionalism reduces the overall level of complexity involved and maintains a clearer analysis while

attempting to reconcile modernist architecture with local differences. In effect, this leads to a modernist

"vernacular." Critical regionalism displays a lack of self-criticism and a utopianism of place.

Deconstructivism, meanwhile, maintains a level of self-criticism, as well as external criticism and tends

towards maintaining a level of complexity. Some architects identified with the movement, notablyFrank

Gehry, have actively rejected the classification of their work as deconstructivist.[11]

Critics of deconstructivism see it as a purely formal exercise with little social significance. Kenneth

Frampton finds it "elitist and detached."[12] Nikos Salingaros calls deconstructivism a "viral expression" that

invades design thinking in order to build destroyed forms; while curiously similar to both Derrida's and

Philip Johnson's descriptions, this is meant as a harsh condemnation of the entire movement.[13] Other

criticisms are similar to those of deconstructivist philosophy—that since the act of deconstructivism is not

an empirical process, it can result in whatever an architect wishes, and it thus suffers from a lack of

consistency. Today there is a sense that the philosophical underpinnings of the beginning of the

movement have been lost, and all that is left is the aesthetic of deconstructivism.[14] Other criticisms reject

the premise that architecture is a language capable of being the subject of linguistic philosophy, or, if it

was a language in the past, critics claim it is no longer.[5] Others question the wisdom and impact on

future generations of an architecture that rejects the past and presents no clear values as replacements

and which often pursues strategies that are intentionally aggressive to human senses.[5]

Frank GehryFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Owen Gehry

Frank Gehry in 2006

Born February 28, 1929 (age 82)

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nationality Canadian-American

Awards AIA Gold Medal

National Medal of Arts

Order of Canada

Pritzker Prize

Work

Practice Gehry Partners, LLP

Buildings Guggenheim Museum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Gehry

Residence,Weisman Art Museum, Dancing House, Art

Gallery of Ontario,EMP/SFM, Cinémathèque française, 8

Spruce Street

Frank Owen Gehry, CC (born Frank[1] Owen Goldberg; February 28, 1929) is a Canadian American Pritzker

Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.

His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions. His works are cited as being

among the most important works ofcontemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which

led Vanity Fair to label him as "the most important architect of our age".[2]

Gehry's best-known works include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; MIT Stata

Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Experience Music

Project in Seattle; Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; theVitra Design

Museum and MARTa Museum in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque

française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street inNew York City. But it was his private residence in Santa Monica,

California, which jump-started his career, lifting it from the status of "paper architecture" – a phenomenon that

many famous architects have experienced in their formative decades through experimentation almost

exclusively on paper before receiving their first major commission in later years. Gehry is also the designer of

the future Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial.[3]

Contents

  [hide]

1 Personal life

2 Architectural style

3 Other notable aspects of career

o 3.1 Awards

o 3.2 Academia

o 3.3 Budgets

o 3.4 Celebrity status

o 3.5 Documentary

o 3.6 Fish and furniture

4 Software development

5 Works

6 Awards

7 Honorary doctorates

8 See also

9 Notes

10 References

11 External links

[edit]Personal life

Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg[1] on February 28, 1929, in Toronto, Ontario. His parents were Polish

Jews.[4] A creative child, he was encouraged by his grandmother, Mrs. Caplan, with whom he would build little

cities out of scraps of wood.[5] His use of corrugated steel, chain link fencing, unpainted plywood and other

utilitarian or "everyday" materials was partly inspired by spending Saturday mornings at his grandfather's

hardware store. He would spend time drawing with his father and his mother introduced him to the world of art.

"So the creative genes were there," Gehry says. "But my father thought I was a dreamer, I wasn't gonna

amount to anything. It was my mother who thought I was just reticent to do things. She would push me."[6]

He was given the Hebrew name "Ephraim" by his grandfather but only used it at his bar mitzvah.[1]

In 1947 Gehry moved to California, got a job driving a delivery truck, and studied at Los Angeles City College,

eventually to graduate from the University of Southern California's School of Architecture. According to Gehry:

“I was a truck driver in L.A., going to City College, and I tried radio announcing, which I wasn't very good at. I

tried chemical engineering, which I wasn't very good at and didn't like, and then I remembered. You know,

somehow I just started racking my brain about, "What do I like?" Where was I? What made me excited? And I

remembered art, that I loved going to museums and I loved looking at paintings, loved listening to music. Those

things came from my mother, who took me to concerts and museums. I remembered Grandma and the blocks,

and just on a hunch, I tried some architecture classes.” [7] After graduation from USC in 1954, he spent time

away from the field of architecture in numerous other jobs, including service in the United States Army. He

studied city planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a year, leaving before completing the

program. In 1952, still known as Frank Goldberg, he married Anita Snyder, who he claims was the one who told

him to change his name, which he did, to Frank Gehry. In 1966 he and Snyder divorced. In 1975 he married

Panamanian, Berta Isabel Aguilera, his current wife. He has two daughters from his first marriage, and two

sons from his second marriage.

Having grown up in Canada, Gehry is a huge fan of ice hockey. He began a hockey league in his office, FOG

(which stands for Frank Owen Gehry), though he no longer plays with them.[citation needed]In 2004, he designed the

trophy for the World Cup of Hockey.[citation needed] Gehry holds dual citizenship in Canada and the United States.

He lives in Santa Monica, California, and continues to practice out of Los Angeles.

[edit]Architectural style

The tower at 8 Spruce Street in lower Manhattan which was completed in February 2011 has a titanium and glass exterior

and is 76 stories high.

Much of Gehry's work falls within the style of Deconstructivism, which is often referred to as post-structuralist in

nature for its ability to go beyond current modalities of structural definition. In architecture, its application tends

to depart from modernism in its inherent criticism of culturally inherited givens such as societal goals and

functional necessity. Because of this, unlike early modernist structures, Deconstructivist structures are not

required to reflect specific social or universal ideas, such as speed or universality of form, and they do not

reflect a belief that form follows function. Gehry's own Santa Monica residence is a commonly cited example of

deconstructivist architecture, as it was so drastically divorced from its original context, and in such a manner as

to subvert its original spatial intention.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain

Gehry is sometimes associated with what is known as the "Los Angeles School," or the "Santa Monica School"

of architecture. The appropriateness of this designation and the existence of such a school, however, remains

controversial due to the lack of a unifying philosophy or theory. This designation stems from the Los Angeles

area's producing a group of the most influential postmodern architects, including such notable Gehry

contemporaries as Eric Owen Moss and Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis, as well as the

famous schools of architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture(co-founded by

Mayne), UCLA, and USC where Gehry is a member of the Board of Directors.

Gehry’s style at times seems unfinished or even crude, but his work is consistent with the California ‘funk’ art

movement in the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured the use of inexpensive found objects and non-

traditional media such as clay to make serious art[citation needed]. Gehry has been called "the apostle of chain-link

fencing and corrugated metal siding".[8] However, a retrospective exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum in

1988 revealed that he is also a sophisticated classical artist, who knows European art history and

contemporary sculpture and painting[citation needed].

Reception of Gehry's work is not always positive. Art historian Hal Foster reads Gehry's architecture as,

primarily, in the service of corporate branding.[9]Criticism of his work includes complaints that the buildings

waste structural resources by creating functionless forms, do not seem to belong in their surroundings and are

apparently designed without accounting for the local climate.[10]

The Experience Music Project in Seattle

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Dancing House in Prague

Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto

Peter B. Lewis building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.

Fish sculpture located in front of the Port Olímpic, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

[edit]Other notable aspects of career

[edit]Awards

Gehry was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1974, and he has

received many national, regional, and local AIA awards, including AIA Los Angeles Chapter Gold Medal. He

presently serves on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Gehry was awarded

the Pritzker Architecture Prize at the Tōdai-ji Buddhist Temple in 1989. The Pritzker Prize serves to honor a

living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and

commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment

through the art of architecture. In 1999, he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal "in recognition of a significant

body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." He accepted the 2007 The Henry

C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from theNational Building Museum on behalf of

Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies.

[edit]Academia

Gehry is a Distinguished Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and teaches advanced design

studios at the Yale School of Architecture. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from Occidental

College, Whittier College, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the University of Toronto,

theCalifornia College of Arts and Crafts, the Technical University of Nova Scotia, the Rhode Island School of

Design, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Otis Art Institute at the Parsons School of Design. In 1982

and 1989, he held the Charlotte Davenport Professorship in Architecture at Yale University. In 1984, he held

the Eliot Noyes Chair at Harvard University. In January 2011, he joined the University of Southern

California (USC) faculty, as the Judge WidneyProfessor of Architecture.[11]

[edit]Budgets

Gehry has gained a reputation for taking the budgets of his clients seriously, in an industry where complex and

innovative designs like Gehry's typically go over budget. Sydney Opera House, which has been compared with

the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in terms of architectural innovation, had a cost overrun of 1,400 percent. It

was therefore duly noted when the Guggenheim Bilbao was constructed on time and budget. In an interview

in Harvard Design Magazine [12] Gehry explained how he did it. First, he ensured that what he calls the

"organization of the artist" prevailed during construction, in order to prevent political and business interests from

interfering with the design. Second, he made sure he had a detailed and realistic cost estimate before

proceeding. Third, he usedCATIA (computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) and close

collaboration with the individual building trades to control costs during construction.

However, not all of Gehry's projects have gone smoothly. The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los

Angeles resulted in over 10,000 RFIs (requests for information) and was $174 million over budget.

Furthermore, there was a dispute which ended with a $17.8 million settlement.[13]

[edit]Celebrity status

Gehry is considered a modern architectural icon and celebrity, a major "Starchitect" — a neologism describing

the phenomenon of architects attaining a sort of celebrity status. Although Gehry has been a vocal opponent of

the term, it usually refers to architects known for dramatic, influential designs that often achieve fame and

notoriety through their spectacular effect. Other notable celebrity architects include Jean Nouvel, Zaha

Hadid, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl,Rem Koolhaas, and Norman Foster. Gehry came to the attention of the public

in 1972 with his "Easy Edges" cardboard furniture. He has appeared in Apple'sblack and white "Think Different"

pictorial ad campaign that associates offbeat but revered figures with Apple's design philosophy. He even once

appeared as himself in The Simpsons in the episode "The Seven-Beer Snitch", where he parodied himself by

intimating that his ideas are derived by looking at a crumpled paper ball. He also voiced himself on the TV

show Arthur, where he helped Arthur and his friends design a new treehouse. Steve Sample, President of the

University of Southern California, told Gehry that "...After George Lucas, you are our most prominent graduate."

In 2009, Gehry designed a hat for pop starLady Gaga, reportedly by using his iPhone.[14]

[edit]Documentary

In 2005, veteran film director Sydney Pollack, a friend of Gehry's, made the documentary Sketches of Frank

Gehry with appreciative comments by Philip Johnson, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, and Dennis Hopper, and

critical ones by Hal Foster supplementing dialogue between Gehry and Pollack about their work in two

collaborative art forms with considerable commercial constraints and photography of some buildings Gehry

designed. It was released on DVD bySony Pictures Home Entertainment on August 22, 2006, together with an

interview of Sydney Pollack by fellow director Alexander Payne and some audience questions following the

premiere of the film.

[edit]Fish and furniture

Gehry is very much inspired by fish. Not only do they appear in his buildings, he created a line of jewelry,

household items, and sculptures based on thismotif. "It was by accident I got into the fish image", claimed

Gehry. One thing that sparked his interest in fish was the fact that his colleagues are recreating Greek temples.

He said, "Three hundred million years before man was fish....if you gotta go back, and you're insecure about

going forward...go back three hundred million years ago. Why are you stopping at the Greeks? So I started

drawing fish in my sketchbook, and then I started to realize that there was something in it."[15]

Standing Glass Fish is just one of many works featuring fish which Gehry has created. The gigantic fish is

made of glass plates and silicone, with the internal supporting structure of wood and steel clearly visible. It

soars above a reflecting pool in a glass building built especially for it, in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Another huge Gehry fish sculpture, built in 1992, is located in front of the Port Olímpic, in Barcelona, and

another one dominates a public garden in front of the Fishdance Restaurant in Kobe, Japan.

In addition to architecture, Gehry has made a line of furniture, jewelry for Tiffany & Co., various household

items, sculptures, and even a glass bottle forWyborowa Vodka. His first line of furniture, produced from 1969–

1973, was called "Easy Edges", constructed out of cardboard. Another line of furniture released in the spring of

1992 is "Bentwood Furniture". Each piece is named after a different hockey term. He was first introduced to

making furniture in 1954 while serving in the U.S. Army, where he designed furniture for the enlisted soldiers.

Gehry claims that making furniture is his "quick fix".[16]

[edit]Software development

Gehry's firm was responsible for innovation in architectural software. His firm spun off another firm called Gehry

Technologies which developed Digital Project.

Daniel LibeskindFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind in front of his extension to theDenver Art Museum.

Born May 12, 1946 (age 65)

Łódź, Poland

Nationality American

Work

Practice Studio Daniel Libeskind

Buildings Jewish Museum Berlin

Imperial War Museum North

Contemporary Jewish Museum

Royal Ontario Museum(expansion)

Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12, 1946 in Lodz, Poland) is an American architect, artist, and set

designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and

is its principal design architect.[1] His buildings include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the extension to

the Denver Art Museum in the United States, the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, the Imperial War Museum

North in Salford Quays, England, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto,

Canada, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, Germany, the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen,

Denmark, and the Wohl Centre at the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel.[2] His portfolio also includes

several residential projects. Libeskind's work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the

world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Bauhaus Archives, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre

Pompidou.[3] On February 27, 2003, Libeskind won the competition to be the master plan architect for the

reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan.[4]

Contents

  [hide]

1 Personal life

2 Career

3 Work

o 3.1 Completed

o 3.2 Under construction

o 3.3 Proposed/In Design

o 3.4 Unbuilt

4 Recognition

5 Bibliography

6 References

7 External links

[edit]Personal life

Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (2007).

Born in Łódź, Poland on May 12, 1946, Libeskind was the second child of Dora and Nachman Libeskind, both

Polish Jews and Holocaust survivors.

As a young child, Libeskind learned to play the accordion and quickly became a virtuoso, performing on

Polish television in 1953. He won a prestigiousAmerica Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship in 1959 and

played alongside a young Itzhak Perlman.[5] That summer, the Libeskinds moved to New York City on one of

the last immigrant boats to the United States.

In New York, Libeskind lived in the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative in the northwest Bronx, a union-

sponsored, middle-income cooperative development. He attended the Bronx High School of Science.

The print shop where his father worked was on Stone Street in lower Manhattan, and Libeskind watched the

original World Trade Center being built in the 1960s.[6]

Libeskind became a United States citizen in 1965.[7] In 1970, he received his professional architectural

degree from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art; he received a postgraduate degree in

History and Theory of Architecture at the School of Comparative Studies at Essex University in 1972.

In 1968, Libeskind briefly worked as an apprentice to architect Richard Meier. In 1972, he was hired to work

at Peter Eisenman's New York Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, but he quit almost immediately.[8]

Daniel Libeskind met Nina Lewis, his future wife and business partner, at the Bundist-run Camp

Hemshekh in upstate New York in 1966. They married a few years later and, instead of a

traditional honeymoon, traveled across the United States visiting Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on a Cooper

Union fellowship.[9]

Since then, Libeskind has lived, among other places, in New York, Toronto, Michigan, Italy, Germany, and Los

Angeles,[9] and has taught at numerous universities across the world, including the University of Kentucky, Yale

University, and the University of Pennsylvania.[7] Since 2007, Libeskind is visiting professor at the Leuphana

University Lueneburg, Germany. He is both a U.S. and Israeli citizen.[10]

Nina and Daniel Libeskind have three children, Lev, Noam and Rachel.[11]

[edit]Career

Though he had been an architectural theorist and professor for many years, Libeskind completed his first

building at the age of 52, with the opening of the Felix Nussbaum Haus in 1998.[12] Prior to this, critics had

dismissed his designs as "unbuildable or unduly assertive."[13] The first design competition that Libeskind won

was in 1987 for housing in West Berlin, but soon thereafter the Berlin Wall fell and the project was canceled.

Libeskind won the first four projects he entered into competition for.

The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge

The Jewish Museum Berlin, completed in 1999, was Libeskind's first major international success and was one

of the first buildings designed afterreunification. Libeskind has also designed cultural and commercial

institutions, museums, concert halls, convention centers, universities, residences, hotels, and shopping

centers. Critics often describe Libeskind's work as deconstructivist.[14]

Libeskind is perhaps most famous for being selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to

oversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He

titled his concept for the site Memory Foundations.

Studio Daniel Libeskind, headquartered two blocks south of the World Trade Center site in New York, is

currently working on over 40 projects across the world. The studio's most recent completed projects include

the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California, The Ascent at Roebling's

Bridgein Covington, Kentucky, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario.

In addition to his architectural projects, Libeskind also designs opera sets for productions such as

the Norwegian National Theatre's The Architect in 1998 and Saarländisches Staatstheater's Tristan und

Isolde in 2001. He also designed the sets and costumes for Intolleranza by Luigi Nono and for a production

ofMessiaen's Saint Francis of Assisi by Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has also written free verse prose, included in

his book Fishing from the Pavement.[15]

[edit]Work

The following projects are listed on the Studio Daniel Libeskind website. The first date is the competition,

commission, or first presentation date. The second is the completion date or the estimated date of completion.

[edit]Completed

Jewish Museum Berlin, 1999

Imperial War Museum North, 2001

Westside interior, 2008

London Metropolitan University, London

Military History Museum - Dresden, 2010

Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 2011

1989–1999 Jewish Museum Berlin - Berlin, Germany

1995–1998 Felix Nussbaum Haus - Osnabrück, Germany

1997–2001 Imperial War Museum North - Greater Manchester, England

1998–2008 Contemporary Jewish Museum - San Francisco, California, United States

2000–2003 Studio Weil - Majorca, Spain

2000–2006 Extension to the Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building - Denver, Colorado,

United States

2000–2006 Denver Art Museum Residences - Denver, Colorado, United States

2000–2008 Westside Shopping and Leisure Centre - Bern, Switzerland

2001–2003 Danish Jewish Museum - Copenhagen, Denmark

2001–2004 London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre - London, England

2001–2005 The Wohl Centre - Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

2002–2007 Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, extension to Royal Ontario Museum and renovation of ten of its

existing galleries - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2003–2005 Tangent, Facade for Hyundai Development Corporation Headquarters - Seoul, South Korea

2004–2005 Memoria e Luce, 9/11 Memorial - Padua, Italy

2004–2007 Glass Courtyard addition to the Jewish Museum Berlin - Berlin, Germany

2004–2008 The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, residential condominium building - Covington, Kentucky,

United States

2005–2009 MGM Mirage's CityCenter, retail and public space on the Las Vegas Strip - Las

Vegas, Nevada

2004–2010 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Theatre and Commercial Development - Dublin, Republic

of Ireland

2010 Wheel of Conscience monument, M.S. St. Louis Memorial, Pier 21 - Halifax, Canada

2001–2011 Military History Museum - Dresden, Germany

2002–2011 Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre - Hong Kong

[edit]Under construction

2003–2012 One World Trade Center - New York City, New York

2005–2012 Złota 44, apartment tower - Warsaw, Poland

2005–2011 L Tower and Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Redevelopment - Toronto, Canada

2006–2011 Reflections at Keppel Bay, high-rise and low-rise villa apartment blocks - Keppel

Bay, Singapore

2009–2014 Kö-Bogen, Königsallee, Düsseldorf, Germany

[edit]Proposed/In Design

2004–2010 New Center for Arts and Culture - Boston, Massachusetts, United States

2004–2014 CityLife (Milan) - Milan, Italy

2005–? Edwards Condominiums, urban infill residential and commercial spaces - Edwards, Colorado,

United States

2006–? Ørestad Downtown Master Plan, urban development - just south of Copenhagen, Denmark

2006–? Rejuvenation, Forest Heights Boys and Girls Club - Gulfport, Mississippi, United States

2006–2011 Haeundae Udong Hyundai I'Park, five waterfront towers - Busan, South Korea

2006–2013 New Songdo City, shopping mall, department store, cinema, ice rink, food court in Riverstone

complex - Incheon, South Korea

2004–2010 Editoriale Bresciana Tower, 23-story office and luxury apartment building - Brescia, Italy

2007–2009 18.36.54, residence - Connecticut, United States

2010–2013 Tampere Central Arena - Tampere, Finland

2011–2015 Beth Shalom, liberal Synagogue - Munich, Germany

2011–2015 Convention Center of Mons, Belgium

CityLife (Milan)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Coordinates:  45°28′32″N   9°09′11″E

"The Straight"

Italian: Il Dritto

General information

Status Under construction

Type Office

Architectural style Modern

Location Fiera Zone, Milan, Italy

Construction started 2011

Opening 2014

Height

Roof 220 m (720 ft)

Technical details

Floor count 50

Design and construction

Architect Arata Isozaki & Associates

CityLife current project

"Crooks"

Italian: Lo Storto

General information

Status Proposed

Type Office

Architectural style designed to resemble rotini pasta

Location Fiera Zone, Milan, Italy

Opening 2013

Height

Roof 190 m (623 ft)

Technical details

Floor count 40

Design and construction

Architect Zaha Hadid

"The Curve"

Italian: Il Curvo

General information

Status Proposed

Type Office

Architectural style designed to resemblemacaroni pasta

Location Fiera Zone, Milan, Italy

Opening 2013

Height

Roof 170 m (558 ft)

Technical details

Floor count 34

Design and construction

Architect Studio Daniel Libeskind

CityLife is a residential and business district under construction in Milan, Italy.

Construction works are carried out by a group of companies (Generali SpA, RAS SpA, Immobiliare Lombarda

SpA, Lamaro Contracts SpA, Grupo Lar Desarrollos Residentiales), that won the international tender for the

redevelopment of the historic neighborhood of Fiera Milano with an offer of €523 million. The winning project

was designed by architects Arata Isozaki, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, and Pier Paolo Maggiora.

The project involves the construction of three skyscrapers: Il Dritto (The Straight One), Lo Storto (The Twisted

One) and Il Curvo (The Curved One). In addition, more than 50% of the available area, 143,000 m2 (1,540,000

sq ft), will be devoted to a park characterized by waterways that evoke the canals of Lombardy. A Museum of

Design is also part of the project. The residential area will cover about 148,000 m2 (1,590,000 sq ft), with 1,300

apartments (housing about 4,500 people) in high-rise buildings up to 20 stories. Finally, there will be parking for

9,400 vehicles located in underground facilities.

Work on the project, started in 2007, is planned to be completed by 2014.

Deconstructivism in Architecture – Metamorphoses of Reality

by Mykola Stepanyuk

December 6th, 2010

Design

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Uniqueness has always been appreciated, amazing, attractive and, in some sort, awkward for the eyes of the

passersby. People could gaze at such creations with widely opened eyes, visitors would come from far away at least

once in their lifetime just to see such strange and, at the same time, great masterpieces, and those, who love art,

would always adore it. The complicated, strange yet distinctive pieces of architecture combined into one big creation

would attract a lot of people of different age, profession or education level.

JVC Entertainment Centre by Coop Himmelblau

There were so many different architecture styles throughout the history, that, probably, it would be difficult to put the

history of all of them into a single article. All of them have their own features, which attract people for many ages.

Some architecture would amaze the environment by its beauty and originality; however, others, like deconstructivism,

would rather “scare” by their own strange appearance. It might seem strange to us, regular people, but not for those,

who live with it.

In comparison to other architecture styles deconstructivism would not be an old branch in the world of art

architecture. The beginning of it goes back to late 1980s, the time that many of us would probably still remember. 

There were two sources that gave start to deconstructivism. There is a thought that it was started by the group of

people called deconstructivists, who were attracted by the theories of French PhilosopherJacques Derrida. According

to his philosophy, architecture is nothing but one of many ways of communication. Furthermore, another source

reveals to us the idea that deconstructivism had a touch of Russian constructivism movement that took place at

the same time in the history.

Looking at the type of deconstructivism architecture it seems like different parts are glued together in order to form

some bigger structure. Moreover, for an architect of the last century it would seem illogical since it contradicts with the

rules of structure they knew. It changes all our knowledge we had before about architecture by creating new way of

thinking and design in this field of art. Destructivists saw the architecture in the lenses of new century,

where everything takes new shapes and new appearance. Even though this style might seem different or strange

to many humans, it does not mean that it is not attractive to the eyes of art-loving people.

Michael Lee – Chin Crystal by Daniel Libeskind

Dresden Ufa Cinema Center by Coop Himmelblau

Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Many of us might know at least a bit of other styles in architecture, where artists love to put ornaments in order to

make the decoration of the structure look beautiful.  Furthermore, geometry, harmony and stability play a significant

role in this field of work as well. On the other hand, deconstructivism would be completely opposite to it. Decoration

and geometry is not necessary anymore in this branch of architecture. Deconstructivism is the wave of absolutely

new style, which believes in irregular shapes of its own creation.

There are many famous artists, whose works are marked as deconstructivistic. Among them we can find Coop

Himmelblau, Daniel Libeskind,Eisenman, Gehry, Hadid, Koolhaas   and a lot more. Their creations can be quite easy

to recognize by their own irregular or awkward appearance. The examples of destructive creations would be seen in

modern architecture, such as Michael Lee-Chin Crystal built in Toronto, Canada, Akron Art Museum in

Ohio, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Dancing Building in Prague, Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi, and a

lot more of strange and wonderful creations of modern architects.

The Architecture of Continuity by Lars Spuybroek

Dancing Building as an Example of Architectural School of Thought by Frank Gehry

Everything what is strange to the human eye usually keeps our attention. Whatever is not the way we know, or the

way our logic and thinking work, amazes us more than those usual and traditional features we usually see in our life.

Deconstructivism is exactly this style of architecture thatcreates works, equally amazing and attractive to the

humanity. It keeps interest of the person by its originality and uniqueness. The awkward appearance of this type of

architecture is its own secret to keep our attention.

Performing Art Centre by Zaha Hadid

Project for Istanbul by Zaha Hadid

Regium Waterfront by Zaha Hadid

Fishdance by Gehry