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Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988

Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988

Cities of Artificial Excavation: The

Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988

New York, Rizzoli International, 1994
Between the houses projects of the 1970s, which established Peter Eisenman as a leading
architectural theorist, and his most recent, computer-aided explorations of complex geometries
lies a destinct phase in his work, a series of theoretical projects competition submissions, and
public commissions called theCities of Artificial Excavation. This book is the first publication to
document this important stage in Eisenmans career, when he not only turned his attention to the
relationship between architecture and site but also reassessed, through the technique of scaling,
the very idea of composition in architecture.
Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1978-1988presents four of the most
representative and best documented of the artificial excavation projects: an urban design scheme
for Cannaregio West in Venice (1978); a housing project near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin (19801981, partially realized 1982-1986); a design for the University Art Museum at California State
University, Long Beach (1986); and a garden for the Parc de La Villette in Paris designed in
collaboration with Jacques Derrida. Each project is presented through the architects drawings
and models, over 200 images in all, more than 150 of them in color, most from the collections of
the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Each project sequence begins with a theoretical text by
Eisenman, then goes on to a project history describing the site and explaining Eisenmans design
strategy. The unprecedented publication of complete series of conceptual drawings not only
illustrates Eisenmans design process in detail, but also traces the transformation, through
drawing and model making, of his architectural discourse.
The catalogue includes a prefatory note by Phyllis Lambert, director of the Canadian Centre for
Architecture; an extensive introductory essay by curator Jean-Francois Bedard, placing the
artificial excavation projects in the context of Eisenmans oeuvre; and essays by Kurt W. Forster on

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Harvard Graduate School of Design - Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 1...

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the idea of artificial excavation, by Frederic Jameson on Eisenman as a modernist and

postmodernist, and by Yve-Alain Bois on Eisenmans changing drawing techniques. Other essays
discuss each project in depth: K. Michael Hays applies the theories of Benjamin, Barthes, and
Freud to an analysis of the Cannaregio and Berlin projects; Alan Balfour uses the Long Beach
project to trace Eisenmans design methods; and Jean-Louis Cohen examines the philosophica
aspirations of the La Villette garden. In an interview with the contributors Eisenman discusses the
complexities and paradoxes of his authorial stance and its influence on his design strategies. A
postscript by Arata Isozaki brings a personal, non-Western perspective to this phase of
Eisenmans career. The book concludes with a chronology and a selected bibliography of the Cities
of Artificial Excavation.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter
Eisenman, 1978-1988 shown at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal from March 2 to
May 29, 1994.

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/

14/07/2015