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Lateness
A provocative case for historical ambiguity in architecture by one of the field's leading theorists
Conceptions of modernity in architecture are often expressed in the idea of the zeitgeist, or "spirit of the age," an attitude toward architectural form that is embedded in a belief in progressive time. Lateness explores how architecture can work against these linear currents in startling and compelling ways. In this incisive book, internationally renowned architect Peter Eisenman, with Elisa Iturbe, proposes a different perspective on form and time in architecture, one that circumvents the temporal constraints on style that require it to be "of the times"--lateness. He focuses on three twentieth-century architects who exhibited the qualities of lateness in their Adolf Loos, Aldo Rossi, and John Hejduk. Drawing on the critical theory of Theodor Adorno and his study of Beethoven's final works, Eisenman shows how the architecture of these canonical figures was temporally out of sync with conventions and expectations, and how lateness can serve as a form of release from the restraints of the moment.
Bringing together architecture, music, and philosophy, and drawing on illuminating examples from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, Lateness demonstrates how today's architecture can use the concept of lateness to break free of stylistic limitations, expand architecture's critical capacity, and provide a new mode of analysis.
Conceptions of modernity in architecture are often expressed in the idea of the zeitgeist, or "spirit of the age," an attitude toward architectural form that is embedded in a belief in progressive time. Lateness explores how architecture can work against these linear currents in startling and compelling ways. In this incisive book, internationally renowned architect Peter Eisenman, with Elisa Iturbe, proposes a different perspective on form and time in architecture, one that circumvents the temporal constraints on style that require it to be "of the times"--lateness. He focuses on three twentieth-century architects who exhibited the qualities of lateness in their Adolf Loos, Aldo Rossi, and John Hejduk. Drawing on the critical theory of Theodor Adorno and his study of Beethoven's final works, Eisenman shows how the architecture of these canonical figures was temporally out of sync with conventions and expectations, and how lateness can serve as a form of release from the restraints of the moment.
Bringing together architecture, music, and philosophy, and drawing on illuminating examples from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, Lateness demonstrates how today's architecture can use the concept of lateness to break free of stylistic limitations, expand architecture's critical capacity, and provide a new mode of analysis.
- GenresArchitecture
121 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2020
About the author
Peter Eisenman
94 books50 followersPeter 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.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
June 5, 2025
“This outer façade, is like a mask with openings at an urban scale that do not correspond to individual rooms inside and that obscure the domestic scale behind it. This “frees” the façade from the logic of function, which differs from the modern free façade that “freed” itself from the logic of structure.”
“the houses do not contest the logic of the modern, but rather use this disposition of the square column to engage in dialectical contrasts, questioning the language of modernism without denying it or transcending it.”
“as with the square column, Hejduk works within the vocabulary of the modern in order to explore the limit of its logic. Furthermore, the house is characterized by a dialectical tension between the plan and the pinwheel. The house does not introduce a new syntax, but it finds the potential for tension within a modern syntax.”
“the wall bifurcates a composition of figures perpendicular to the picture plane that maintain a certain level of autonomy from each other, but the wall does not act as a frame for these figures or as a perimeter within which they sit.
As such, what would have otherwise been an interior room can instead be perceived as conceptually existing already in an “exterior” condition.”
“As architectural theorist Jeffrey Kipnis has written regarding architecture that embodies Jacques Derrida’s notion of dissemination “it is neither inherently meaningful nor meaningless; it enters into affiliations with many reading frames while subverting each and confirming none.” In this way, through the undecidability between known forms, is the Wall Houses of John Hejduk defy a set reading or a defined temporality.”
“In Beethoven’s case, this was accomplished through the opposition between convention and invention, where anachronisms proved not to be regressive, but rather a means to slip out of time—something that pure subjective invention could not achieve.”
“the houses do not contest the logic of the modern, but rather use this disposition of the square column to engage in dialectical contrasts, questioning the language of modernism without denying it or transcending it.”
“as with the square column, Hejduk works within the vocabulary of the modern in order to explore the limit of its logic. Furthermore, the house is characterized by a dialectical tension between the plan and the pinwheel. The house does not introduce a new syntax, but it finds the potential for tension within a modern syntax.”
“the wall bifurcates a composition of figures perpendicular to the picture plane that maintain a certain level of autonomy from each other, but the wall does not act as a frame for these figures or as a perimeter within which they sit.
As such, what would have otherwise been an interior room can instead be perceived as conceptually existing already in an “exterior” condition.”
“As architectural theorist Jeffrey Kipnis has written regarding architecture that embodies Jacques Derrida’s notion of dissemination “it is neither inherently meaningful nor meaningless; it enters into affiliations with many reading frames while subverting each and confirming none.” In this way, through the undecidability between known forms, is the Wall Houses of John Hejduk defy a set reading or a defined temporality.”
“In Beethoven’s case, this was accomplished through the opposition between convention and invention, where anachronisms proved not to be regressive, but rather a means to slip out of time—something that pure subjective invention could not achieve.”
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review