The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture: Dissertation 1963, Facsimile

by Peter Eisenman, Princeton Architectural Press, Lars Mueller Publishers (Manufactured by)

In 1963 at the University of Cambridge, Peter Eisenman — world famous for his Holocaust Memorial in Berlin (2005) and respected and feared by his colleagues for his intellectual acuity and quick-wittedness — wrote a dissertation on the formal basis of modern architecture. In it, the architect confronts historicism with theory and the analysis of form, whose distinguishing features he regards as the foundation of architectural composition. Eisenman illustrates his observations with numerous, extremely precise hand drawings. This striking document, with its idiosyncratic photographs, fully deserves to be published here, for the first time, in a faithful reproduction of the original. In an afterword, Peter Eisenman discusses this remarkable starting point of his practical and theoretical work.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction

528 pages, Hardcover

First published July 20, 2006

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

[Leandro Llorente · Rating 5 out of 5]

The foreword alone made me fall in love with this book to delay history and insert theory.

[Matias Infeld Caballier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very down-to-earth analysis of critical thinking and design process in architecture. Enjoyable edition with Eisenman’s drawings and notes.

[fito · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting but not essential reading for an eisenman-head

[Sandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its awkwardly big size (thus it was always a challenge to carry this book in my day to day activities) I appreciate the way they keep the original typewritten text and layout. The book gives very thorough analyses of some essential projects from Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Giuseppe Terragni that showcase the grammar of modern architecture. Eisenman acts like a surgeon taking things apart from the ‘bodies’ and examine them delicately and with much clarity.