Biography , Philosophy and Works of Peter Eisenman

1. BIOGRAPHY , PHILOSOPHY AND
WORKS
Peter Eisenman

2. INTRODUCTION
 Peter Eisenman (born 1932) is
an American architect.
 Considered one of the New York
Five, Eisenman is known for
architecture journalism, along with
his designs.
 His designs are termed as high
modernist or deconstructive.
 He currently teaches theory
seminars and advanced design
studios at the Yale School of
Architecture.

3.  Peter Eisenman was born to Jewish parents on August 11, 1932,
in Newark, New Jersey.
 As a child, he attended Columbia High School located in Maplewood,
New Jersey.
 He transferred in to the architecture school as an undergraduate
at Cornell University.
 He received Master of Architecture degree from Columbia
University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation.
 M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge.
 He received an honorary degree from Syracuse University School of
Architecture in 2007.
BIOGRAPHY

4.  Prior to establishing a full-time architectural practice in 1980, Mr.
Eisenman worked as an independent architect, educator, and theorist.
 In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies
(IAUS)
 In 2001 he received the Medal of Honour from the New York Chapter of
the American Institute of Architects, and the Smithsonian Institution’s
2001 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.
 Popular Science magazine named Mr. Eisenman one of the top five
innovators of 2006 for the University of Phoenix Stadium for the
Arizona Cardinals.
 He established a firm known as EISENMAN ARCHITECTS.
 The office’s current projects include a one-million-square-foot, six-
building cultural complex in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (a library
and an archive, a performing arts center, two museums, and a central
services building
BIOGRAPHY

5. PHILOSOPHY - DECONSTRUCTIVISM
 Deconstructivism is a movement of postmodern
architecture which appeared in the 1980s.
 It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the
constructed building.
 It is characterized by an absence of harmony,
continuity, or symmetry.
 Deconstructivism often manipulates the structure's
surface skin and creates non-rectilinear shapes which
appear to distorted and dislocate elements of
architecture.
 The finished visual appearance is characterized by
unpredictability and controlled chaos.

6. “The real architecture only exists in
drawings, the real building exists outside
the drawings”
-Peter Eisenman

7. CONCEPTS OF
VARIOUS BUILDINGS

8.  Deconstructivism attempts to move away from the
supposedly constricting 'rules' of modernism such as:
 Form follows Function
 Purity of Form
 Truth to materials
Domino house , Le Corbusier

9. MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS
• The Memorial to the Murdered Jews
of Europe also known as
the Holocaust Memorial , is a
memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims
of the Holocaust.
• It consists of a 19,000 m2 (4.7-acre) site
covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or
"stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a
sloping field.
• The stelae are 2.38 m (7 ft 10 in) long,
0.95 m (3 ft 1 in) wide and vary in height
from 0.2 to 4.7 m (7.9 in to 15 ft 5.0 in).
• They are organized in rows, 54 of them
going north–south, and 87 heading east–
west at right angles but set slightly askew.

10. VIEW FROM SOUTH TO THE MEMORIAL
Architect
Peter
Eisenman
Engineer
Buro Happold
Built in
2003-2005
Land Area
19,000 m2
Built-up
Area
19.000m

11. SITE PLAN
SECTION

12. THE CONCEPT
• This is a large courtyard formed by cement blocks, as a
cemetery, between a dense fabric that visitors can walk
in solitude.
• There is no plaque, inscription or statues to suggest to
people who think or feel.
• The intention was to create a “sea” of cement in which
there is no main entrance, and not a point of departure
or arrival.
• From a distance, the site seems dark and dense, like a
large mass.
• The interior is irregular, with the sloping
ground, trying to recall the disorientation
of the Holocaust victims.
• All items are ordered in this composition
and geometrically predisposed.

13. • The patio is made up of blocks of varying heights, from 20 centimetres to
4.70 meters.
• The blocks are arranged in a line at a distance of 95 centimetres from
each other, so that to only let one person at a time.
• Each block has a size of 2.38 x 0.95 meters.
• While from the outside the blocks seem perfectly aligned, entering is
discovered that are slightly slanted, both vertically and horizontally.
• The floor consists of a series of stone tiles and recessed lights.
• The underground area of the monument houses the space devoted to
historical documents on the Holocaust, as articulated journey into four
rooms, where visitors can obtain information on the site.

14. 0 – Introduction
1- Room of Dimensions
2- Room of Families
3- Room of Names
4- Room of Sites
5- Information Portal
6- Yad Vashem Portal
7- Video Archive
8- Information / Cloak Room/ Audio Tour
9- Bookshop
10- Lift
11- Toilets
• The underground area of the monument houses the spaces dedicated to the
historical documentation.
• When descending stairs an accessing hall functions as an anteroom in which texts
and photographs that explain the historical background is presented.
• In the first room, the “Room Dimensions”, the walls are a light gray, with glass
panels placed on the floor so that reflect the pattern of contrails Monument is
above.
• The following 3 rooms, the “Room of Family”, the “Room of Names” and “Room of
Sites” refer to families, names, places and situations related to the Holocaust.

15. • The monument is a field covered with
trapezoidal shaped concrete blocks of
different heights and countless shades of
gray that lean in different directions on a
hilly terrain.
• The 2,711 concrete blocks are used with an
anti-graffiti treatment.
• Each slab has been lifted on their own foundations and can be tilted up to 2 in
different directions. The first floor is tilted in one direction and then another.
• Light is another element that effectively involved in the perception of the place.
• When a visitor is at the center of the monument he can feel a sense of confinement,
especially when other visitor apparently blocks the view of the distant perimeter.
• This feeling becomes deeper when the sky is overcast and the concrete slabs show a
rough and dull appearance.

16. STAIRCASE TO
INFORMATION CENTRE
AERIAL VIEW OF THE MEMORIAL

17.  The firm of Peter Eisenman and
Richard Trott won the design
competition for Wexner Center of
Arts.
 It was Peter Eisenman’s first
large public commission and one
of the first large scale
constructions of Deconstructivist
Architecture.
 The building is tucked in between
the Mershon Auditorium and
Weigel Hall both of which are
home to programs that were to be
consolidated into the Wexner
Center.
Architect Peter Eisenman
Location
Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio
Building Type University arts center
Construction
System
Steel, concrete, glass
Style
Deconstructivist
Modern
WEXNER INSTITUTE OF ARTS

18.  Eisenman wanted to leave the place’s
history reflected integrating large brick
structures, inspired by the old armoury
building burned in the late nineteenth
century and were completely
demolished in 1959.
 Linking past through present with
unconventional means.
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN PROCESS

19.  This project is governed by a system of orthogonal grid, but some of the
columns do not touch the ground, contradicting the role to be performed. It
is the way for the architect to play with the classic symbol of the column.
 One more way to show deconstructivism is take some recognizable element
of the old building and deform it.
 The design includes a large white metal grid suggesting scaffolding and
gives the building a sense of unfinished
Regular Façade Distorted Façade Incomplete column Metal Grid
DECONSTRUCTIVISM IN BUILDING

20. FLOOR PLAN
Axonometric View
SITE PLAN

21. VIEWS

22. HOUSE VI , CORNWALL
• House VI, or the Frank Residence
was completed in 1975.
• It has become famous for both its
revolutionary definition of a house as
much as for the physical problems of
design and difficulty of use.
• Rather than form following
function or an aesthetic design,
the design emerged from
conceptual process, and remains
pinned to that conceptual frame.
• The purely conceptual design meant
that the architecture is strictly plastic,
bearing no relationship to
construction techniques or purely
ornamental form.

23. • Situated on a flat site in Cornwall, Connecticut House VI stands its own ground as
a sculpture in its surroundings.
• The design emerged from a conceptual process that began with a grid. Eisenman
manipulated the grid in a way so that the house was divided into four sections and
when completed the building itself could be a "record of the design process."
• Thus, the house became a study between the
actual structure and architectural theory.
• The house was efficiently constructed using a
simple post and beam system.
• In other spaces, beams meet but do not
intersect, creating a cluster of supports.
• However some columns or beams play no
structural role and are incorporated to
enhance the conceptual design.
• Another quirky thing was the column hanging
over the dinner table that separates diners

24. • He made it difficult for the users so that they
would have to grow accustom to the
architecture and constantly be aware of it.
• In the bedroom there is a glass slot in the
center of the wall continuing through the
floor that divides the room in half, forcing
there to be separate beds on either side of
the room so that the couple was forced to
sleep apart from each other.
Another curious aspect is an upside down
staircase, the element which portrays the
axis of the house and is painted red to draw
attention.

25. FLOOR PLANS

27. HOUSE II – VERMONT HOUSE
 Peter Eisenman's House II, constructed in 1969, was
one of the earliest expressions of deconstructivism
in architecture.
 Eisenman concerned himself with the sign systems
of architecture and tried to create a building that
was engaged as an object rather than as a building
 House II is situated on a 100-acre hilltop with broad
panoramic views extending for twenty miles in three
directions.
 The design attempts to simulate the presence of
trees, which are nonexistent on the barren hilltop,
through the use of a sequence of columns and walls.
 The columns and walls frame the view at the same
time as they provide a transition from the
extroverted life of summer to the introverted
security of the winter fireplace
Location: Hardwick, Vermont
Year: 1969 - 1970
Client:
Mr. and Mrs. Richard
Falk
Program:
Residential

28.  It began with 3grids; one
structural and the other two
non-structural.
 The structure was
incorporated into grid to
convey the module that
created interior spaces with
series of load bearing
columns, walls and free
standing walls.
 Each grids were shifted by
3’6”. And the structural grid
held the building with 9
columns.
 The free standing walls
merely separated the rooms
and made House II
functional.
Form Development
CONCEPT AND DEVELOPMENT

31. Inferences
 Though he showed the world what inhabitable architecture would be,
but architecture make life of people easier. Almost all of his houses
were reconstructed in 6 years or so
 His works were more of a piece of art to show his love towards
Deconstructivism.
 His buildings portrayed the crude truth e.g. Holocaust memorial.

32. THANKYOU!
PRESENTED BY-
MAANSI SOOD(15BAR1080)
PRIYADARSHINI JAIN (15BAR1069)