Crisis of the Object: The Architecture of Theatricality

by Hartoonian; Gevork

• ISBN13: 9780415385466
• ISBN10: 0415385466
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-11-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Crisis of the object discusses the theoretical issues pertinent to the historicization of contemporary architectural praxis. Providing a critical analysis of three important contemporary architects; Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Bernard Tschumi, it demonstrates the complexities involved in architecture's adaptation to media technologies and the ways the aesthetic of theatricality plays a critical role when architecture has to rethink themes such as roofing and wrapping. The text historicizes contemporary architecture in the light of the ongoing secularization of myths surrounding the traditions of nineteenth-century architecture, in general, and Gottfried Semper's discourse on the tectonic, in particular. The main chapters of the book present a thorough analysis of the well-known buildings of Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Bernard Tschumi and explore the traces of modernism in their work: formalism in Eisenman, 'objectivity' in Tschumi, and regionalism in the early work of Gehry. The final chapter extends the discussion to cover the work of many other contemporary architects including Steven Holl and Renzo Piano. This book is an important contribution to current debates surrounding architectural theory and raises important questions concerning the state of architecture in the new millennium. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Gevork Hartoonian is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Canberra

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Foreword	xiii
Kenneth Frampton
Acknowledgements	xvii
The crisis of the object	1	(30)
Theatricality: the structure of tectonic	31	(14)
Peter Eisenman: in search of degree zero architecture	45	(27)
Bernard Tschumi: return of the object	72	(32)
Frank Gehry: roofing, wrapping and wrapping the roof	104	(29)
Surface: the atectonic of roofing and wrapping	133	(24)
Notes	157	(36)
Index	193