Deconstruction: The Project of Radical Self-Criticism

Abstract

Academy Editions later published a series of reviews, in addition to a concise introduction to Deconstruction, featuring two essays by Christopher Norris and Andrew Benjamin, the former an expert on Jacques Derrida, the philosopher who rst coined the term “Deconstruction”.1 While Norris’s essay attempted to give an overview of Derrida’s thought within the context of philosophical developments from Plato to Heidegger, it was left to Benjamin to attempt an early translation of this philosophical approach into architecture. Benjamin actually saw signs of deconstruction in the work of several architects who confronted some of the established practices in architecture, especially those founded on the concept of “centrality of dwelling.”2 His interpretation of Deconstruction was illustrated by several works, from Hiromi Fuji’s Ushimado Art Center and Frank Gehry’s Winton House, to Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette and Daniel Libeskind’s City Edge project for Berlin. While the work of Eisenman was also given its due share, it was not clear why the others were included under this rubric, except as manifestations of a rather unconventional approach to design. Most of these works never had the presumption of inscribing themselves into that philosophical movement, nor of attempting to translate it architecturally. This reading by Benjamin was also disputed by others, like Mark Wigley, whose denition of “Deconstructivism” referred it back to the Russian Constructivists, intentionally severing its connection to Derrida.