Peter Eisenman: Diagram Diaries

by Peter Eisenman

It has been said that Peter Eisenman considers architecture a form of shock therapy; whatever his intent, Peter Eisenman has indeed created one of the most controversial bodies of work of any contemporary American architect. Eisenman's architecture, along with the complex, genre-straddling theories upon which it is built, is active and polemical, and his buildings--whether executed or not--are ingenious essays on the way humans and inert materials occupy and control space. Eisenman combines a theoretical background and a remarkable academic pedigree with a bold, uncompromising design sensibility that places him along the country's most revered architects. Diagram Diaries is an unprecedented illustrated chronicle that showcases Eisenman's work to date from his earliest house designs to the heralded Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, through current commissions such as the Memorial for the Victims of the Holocaust in Vienna. This volume is more than a straightforward survey of the architect's work, however; it is by its very nature an engaging exploration of the process of design. Essays and detailed descriptions are built along a central axis tracing Eisenman's career. Project profiles are organized according to their generating the inside of architecture, or projects generated by the internal forces of shapes and forms; and the outside of architecture, projects governed by external forces such as site and scientific process. Through Eisenman's own essays and through extensive illustration, readers come to understand Eisenman's diagram-based approach to design whereby sites and structures can be manipulated in diagram form. Diagram Diaries offers readers a succinct, totally up-to-date exposition of Peter Eisenman's design philosophy and a meticulously illustrated presentation of this architect's groundbreaking contributions to twentieth-century American design.

Genres: Architecture

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1999

About the author

Peter Eisenman is an American architect. Eisenman's professional work is often referred to as formalist, deconstructive, late avant-garde, late or high modernist, etc. A certain fragmenting of forms visible in some of Eisenman's projects has been identified as characteristic of an eclectic group of architects that were (self-)labeled as deconstructivists, and who were featured in an exhibition by the same name at the Museum of Modern Art. The heading also refers to the storied relationship and collaborations between Peter Eisenman and post-structuralist thinker Jacques Derrida.

Reviews

[Volha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Eisenman book, a lot of reference to his earlier PhD work, text tend to be repetitious. at the end if used "Tracing Eisenman: Peter Eisenman Complete Work" for my references.

[Leandro Llorente · Rating 2 out of 5]

not the best Peter Eisenman book. The text can be confusing and and addition of illustrations could help.